PREVIOUSLY IN FANTASTIC FOUR:
It’s mayhem on all fronts! Sue, who has been experiencing strange dreams, comforted Reed in the lab over his depression about losing the starship Infinity. Ben held his regular poker game populated by various heroes, only for it to be ambushed by a mystery villain! Johnny and Courni had slipped away for a little alone time, but were rudely interrupted by the quirky Diablo, who threatened to turn a New York landmark into gold if he didn’t retrieve a special item from Reed’s lab!
Altered Visions Presents…
FANTASTIC FOUR
Issue #5 – “Five Card Stud: Part Two”
Written by D. Golightly
“Are you sure about this, Johnny?”
Courni, the displaced Skrull woman that had accompanied the Fantastic Four back home after their last mission, clung to Johnny Storm. He enjoyed her accompanying him, and didn’t even wish that it was under better circumstances. He liked being an adventurer, and the only thing he liked more than that was having a woman admire him as he showed off.
“Sure as I’m the Human Torch,” Johnny replied with a smile. The green-skinned alien reminded him a lot of another girl he once dated, but he pushed those thoughts aside as he focused on the task at hand. Besides, Courni was different, unlike anyone he had ever been with. She understood him and they had taken to each other faster then he would have thought.
“Bio-signature scan complete,” Herbie, the synthetic voice of the artificial intelligence that Reed had developed into the Baxter Building, said. It was still in base stages, meaning it could only follow specific commands and run basic operations. “Identity confirmed: Johnny Storm. Access granted.”
The door to Reed’s lab slid open, revealing the technological wonders that few people in the world were privy to. Johnny and Courni walked in and looked around the room but saw no one there. A few random items stuck out in Johnny’s vision, and if he had more time he would have recounted his adventures to Courni. To the left was the gateway generator used to explore the Negative Zone, and to the right he spotted a scaled down model of the new Fantasticar that Reed had been toying with.
“Reed?” Johnny called out. “Sue? Anybody in here?”
Silence.
“Huh. I thought Sue told me she was going to find the egghead in here. I guess she finally pried him away from his tinker-toys.”
“Do you know where that thing Diablo wants is?” Courni asked.
Johnny unfolded a piece of paper he had printed out from the disk that Diablo had given him along with an ultimatum. On it was a schematic for the particular device that the villain had demanded, lest he convert some landmark and all the people in it into solid gold. The Fantastic Four didn’t typically deal with ultimatums, but Johnny didn’t see any need to bring the rest of the team in on it. He could handle it. He especially didn’t want to disrupt Ben’s poker game.
“Herbie?”
At Johnny’s summons, a small white floating droid hovered down from the ceiling. The single lens that took up the majority of its body focused and refocused on the pair addressing it. “Yes, Johnny?” it asked.
“Do you know where this is?” he asked, holding out the paper.
“Yes, Johnny. Although I don’t think Reed would—”
“Could you get it for me? I just need to borrow it.”
As the Herbie droid zoomed off to the back of the lab to retrieve the device, Courni said, “Are you sure we shouldn’t get the others? I don’t want to make Dr. Richards upset.”
“Babe, as long as you’re with me, everything’s cool. ‘K?”
A pair of small putters from two Herbie drones emerged from the back of the lab. Two duplicate droids were balancing a device that matched the blueprint image on Johnny’s paper between their outstretched mechanical arms. The device, a crude facsimile of a gun, was deposited into Johnny’s waiting arms.
“Thanks, bud. Um…buddies. Whatever.”
They turned to leave and right before the door slid shut behind them Johnny tossed a quick glance over his shoulder, wondering just where Reed and Sue had run off to.
---- 4 ----
“That was almost too easy,” the somewhat forgettable-looking delivery boy muttered to himself as he removed his gas mask.
He had been snuck into the Baxter Building and sent specifically to the room where Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the ever-lovin’ Thing, had been hosting his weekly poker game. He thought it hilarious that the arrogant heroes got together to do something as mundane as play cards. He wouldn’t squander their abilities, not the bunch of people he had just gassed into unconsciousness.
Of course, he never would have gotten the drop on them in the first place if his mysterious benefactor hadn’t set him up. He had functioned within a group before and it rarely worked out to his advantage. As a matter of point, he had steered clear of working relationships for quite some time because of it.
But when he had been promised run of the Baxter Building in exchange for knocking out a few choice caped jerks, how could he refuse? It wasn’t every day that a villain like the Trapster was given such an opportunity.
The delivery boy switched off his image inducer and the visage covering him dissipated, leaving behind the purple color of his padded costume. The gas he had used would keep the heroes in a virtual coma for the next few hours, long enough for him to explore the Baxter Building and learn its secrets. He had been taken down by the Fantastic Four more times than he could remember, and the Trapster figured he was about due for some revenge.
The Trapster stretched out his arms and clasped his fingers together, cracking the knuckles loudly. “Where, oh, where to begin?”
---- 4 ----
“Trust me,” Johnny said. “You’ll love this.”
The elevator doors dinged open, letting the afternoon light spill into the transport car. Johnny and Courni stepped out into the warmth of the sun’s rays, directly in front of the Fantasticar.
“Seeing the model of the next version reminded me that I wanted to show you something on this one,” he explained as he grabbed Courni by the hand and pulled her forward.
“Shouldn’t we get back to Diablo?”
“We can be there in five minutes flat. No worries, babe. I just want you to check this one thing—”
Johnny paused as he found himself staring directly into the Trapster’s surprised expression. They held the gaze for a full second before Johnny swore and yelled, “Flame on!” and leapt into the air, passing off the device to Courni.
The Trapster swung his beveled gun around off of his backpack, adjusting the front nozzle to switch from releasing gas to spraying epoxy resin. He shot a stream of his custom chemical at the Human Torch, striking his legs, but Johnny’s flames protected him from the glue.
“Boy, did you pick the wrong place to crash, Paste Pot!”
“Don’t call me that!” the Trapster demanded as he fired another glob of epoxy, missing. Once Johnny was in the air he was nearly impossible to hit given his adeptness at being airborne.
“Johnny!” Courni called.
“So what are you doing here, huh, Petey? Come to turn yourself in and save us the trouble of tracking you down?”
“Would you be so smug if you knew what I did to the Thing and his friends?” The Trapster cackled as he ducked under a belch of flame shot by the Torch. “Once I get rid of you I’ll be able to bring the whole building down!”
“What did you do to Ben?” the Torch exclaimed. His anger grew as hot as his flame-covered skin at the mention of his closest friend being hurt. He wondered if the Trapster had gotten to Sue and Reed too.
“Johnny!” Courni repeated.
The Human Torch spiraled up into the air, leaving a vortex of flame behind him. The Trapster grew audibly irritated at his inability to actually hit the most cavalier member of the Fantastic Four, as stream after stream of epoxy splattered uselessly on the rooftop. Johnny reached the apex of his ascent and back flipped widely in the air, planning to release a pinpointed stream of flame at the tanks on the Trapster’s back.
But as he turned over in the air, he saw that the villain now had Courni in his grasp. Johnny hesitated, holding back his assault lest he burn the Skrull woman. The Trapster cackled and moved closer to the edge of the roof, dragging Courni with him.
“Ha!” he laughed. “Maybe now you’ll stand still and pay attention, huh?”
“Easy, Petey…”
“Johnny!” Courni exclaimed as she pelted the Trapster’s forearm that was wrapped around her throat. She slapped and struggled, but was unable to free herself.
The Trapster reached the edge and moved his heels slightly out so that only the front of his feet were supporting him. “Back off, flamer! Or your little leprechaun here is going over with me!”
“Seriously, dude. Do you really think I’ll let you do something like that?”
“Probably not,” the Trapster retorted with a snort, “but I’m betting that even as fast as you are in the air, you can’t catch both of us!”
With a toss of his arm, the Trapster flung Courni to one side as he ignited the rockets underneath the canisters on his back and flew to the other. Johnny dove up and over the edge after Courni, forcing the main exhaust from his heat covered body toward his feet, making him descend faster. He reached out with both arms, edging closer and closer to the Skrull woman until he finally grasped her tightly.
Pulling up quickly and touching back down on the roof, Johnny looked around but saw no trace of the Trapster. “Crap,” he muttered as he made sure that Courni was unharmed.
Satisfied that she was okay, Johnny trotted over to a console on the wall near the elevator. “What are you doing now?” Courni asked.
“Calling anybody who will answer. Hello?” he said into the intercom. “Anyone there?”
“Johnny!” Sue said from the other end. “Where are you? What’s going—”
“No time to explain. The Trapster just took off. Courni and I need to find Diablo. You and Reed crash Ben’s poker game and make sure they’re alright. I think they might need help.”
“What about you?”
“I can handle it. I’ll be back in a flash, sis. Oh, and where are you?”
“Basement. Reed’s with me.”
“Uh…okay. That’s weird.” Johnny shook his head. “You feeling okay?”
“Yes. Why?”
“No reason.” Johnny looked over his shoulder at Courni and was happy that through the ordeal she had managed to hold on to Reed’s device. “I’ve got a creep to catch. Back soon!”
---- 4 ----
“A little early, but of course, I prefer that to being late,” the colorful Diablo said with a smirk. “And I’m sure the people here appreciate that, too.”
Johnny released his grip on Courni, letting her drop the few inches to the paved sidewalk in Central Park. His arm briefly reignited before he touched down beside her and turned off his flames completely. Diablo stood before them with his arms crossed and his one foot perched atop a park bench like a feeble king.
“I still can’t believe you would actually turn Central Park and every one in it into gold,” Johnny said bluntly. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you can’t.”
“But you couldn’t risk it, could you, hero?” Diablo rubbed his hands together eagerly and took a step forward. “I’ve hidden a special transfiguration bomb nearby that I promise not to set off so long as you uphold your end of our little bargain and turn over the device.”
Courni also took a step forward and held out the device, but Johnny placed his hand up in front of her. “No,” he said casually.
“What do you mean ‘no’?” Diablo said, shocked.
“I meant just what I said. No.”
Diablo’s previous smirk turned to a grimace. “Need I remind you that—”
“You see, babe?” Johnny said to Courni. “What did I tell you? Dumb, dumb, dumb. They all think they can pull one over on the Fantastic Four. Diablo, ol’ pal…I’m taking you down and then I’ll find your little bomb, if it even exists.”
“You pathetic moron!” Diablo shouted with a laugh. “These semantics won’t buy you any more time than this. You have no way of locating the bomb, and why else would you go through my little song and dance and bring me the device if you didn’t intend on actually using it as a bargaining chip?”
“To see the look on your sorry face when I dangle it in front of you and then punch your lights out. Flame on!”
The Human Torch launched himself into the air, but was surprised to be stopped short a few feet from Diablo. He slammed into what felt like a solid brick wall and fell to the ground in a heap, extinguishing his flames. He rubbed his head and looked up, but couldn’t see the barrier he had collided with. Diablo, standing just a few feet away, was looking just as confused.
Johnny looked around to see a familiar gloved arm outstretched in his general direction. “Sue!” he screamed as he realized he had just crashed into one of her invisible force fields. “What did you do that for?”
But the Invisible Woman remained immobile with her hand out. “Sue?” Johnny said as he slowly stood up.
Before he could stand up to his full height, something spun around him and lashed his arms to his sides. He looked down and saw the blue costume of Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic himself, wrapping layers of himself around and around. “Reed!” Johnny screamed in bafflement. “What the—”
“They can’t hear you.”
Johnny angled his neck to look at who had spoken. Reed’s head popped up beside his once he had finished tying Johnny up in his own body. But instead of asking Reed to let go, the Human Torch was too curious as to why Courni had just said what she had just said.
“Say wha?” he blurted out.
“They’re under my mental control,” Courni said as she let her hand glide over the gun-like device in her arms. “All of them. Even Diablo. The Trapster I let get away with just a powerful mental suggestion, but he did what I needed him to all the same.”
“Courni? What are you saying?”
“Reed never thought Sue would capture him. To Sue I appeared in her dreams as a brooding figure. She was the first to fall to my power. Your rocky friend proved impervious to my mental manipulations for some reason,” Courni continued. “So I had that Trapster character knock him and his friends out. I snuck him into the Baxter Building while I had Diablo blackmail you into getting this for me.”
“I don’t understand. Why?”
“Johnny Storm…” Courni nearly whispered as she stroked Johnny’s chin with the tip of her green finger. The Human Torch struggled but Reed’s elastic body held him firmly in place. “You are a legend amongst my people, do you know that? Out of the foursome, you are held in higher fear then the others. I assume it is mainly because of your recklessness, but I didn’t want to simply control you like I did the others. No…I wanted to manipulate you. I wanted to humiliate you. When we first met I knew that I could toy with your emotions. You were in such a fragile state already. It was simply enough.”
“So you tricked me into getting that…whatever that is, for you.”
Courni rubbed her palm over the barrel of the device. “All Skrulls possess natural shape-changing abilities, but even we can’t get passed Mr. Fantastic’s bio-signature scan. You were a key to a locked door, Johnny. Nothing more.”
With a flick of her wrist and a push of her mental prowess, Courni commanded the Invisible Woman to walk with her and Johnny, who was forced to march from Reed. With another flick she sent Diablo away after deleting the memory of the incident from his mind. They approached a small lake in Central Park, hidden away mostly by surrounding foliage.
“Our meeting was no coincidence, I assure you,” Courni explained. “Your entire mission with my people was a facsimile, constructed to place me in your good graces. The entire purpose was to bring down the Fantastic Four and retrieve this.”
Johnny struggled against Reed’s stretchy limbs. “And that is?”
“A portable version of the gateway to the Negative Zone. It’s limited in relation to time and space, meaning that I can only open a portal in this dimension where one is already open in the Zone. That’s why we’re here specifically. Once I open a portal over the lake, my awaiting brothers and sisters will pour through and the invasion will begin. Then I will move on to the next location and open a second portal, then a third, and fourth, and so on. Soon the entire Skrull army will be on Earth, ready to strike!”
Johnny’s mouth hung open in total shock. Here was a woman he had been falling in love with, only to discover that she had been playing him all this time with the fate of the world hanging in the background. He hated himself for being to easy to manipulate. He hated the Skrulls. He hated that device.
“I am a Power Skrull, Johnny. Do you know what that means? It means I’m more than an ordinary Skrull, and more than enough to crush you.”
Diablo, now with a blank expression on his face, turned away from Johnny and began to casually leave the area. Johnny pressed his hand against the invisible barrier that contained him, infuriated that he had been taken advantage of in such a way. His emotions had been toyed with, and he had only himself to blame.
“Courni! You’ll never get away with this!” But even he wasn’t so sure about that.
Courni smirked. “While I open the portal over the pond here in Central Park, welcoming my brothers in arms to your world, I’ll allow you to die by your own family. Goodbye, Johnny.”
“Courni! Listen to me!”
The Power Skrull that Johnny had been tricked into opening his soul to left him as he began to feel the strain of Mr. Fantastic’s body contracting around him. The air left his lungs and it felt like a snake was trying to choke the life out of him.
“Reed! You’ve got to listen to me! Snap out of it, you geek! I’m sorry I messed up your experiment with Pym particles last week, okay? Reed?”
Mr. Fantastic maintained the glazed-over expression that Courni had induced, just as Sue did the same. Johnny was pushing against the flexible flesh of Reed Richards but soon he would be forced to flame on, and he wasn’t sure what that would do to Reed. He assumed that the leader could survive it, but did he really want to take the chance?
“Sue! Sis! C’mon!”
The Invisible Woman did nothing to aid the desperate Torch. On the fair side of the path, Courni had stepped into the pond and changed a few settings on the portal generator. She aimed, pulled the trigger, and a flash of black energy erupted from the end. It formed into a swirling circle over the center of the lake and Johnny had a bird’s eye view of what laid in waiting on the other side: a small army of green-skinned agents that looked ready to kill.
“Okay…okay…” Johnny muttered. “Time to do this. I have to. I’m sorry, Reed.” The Human Torch took in a deep breath, what he could manage with the constricting form of Mr. Fantastic wrapped around him, and said, “FLAME—”
“Hold that thought, kiddo!”
Johnny Storm whipped his head to the side as far as it would turn within Reed’s grasp, and let out the breath he had been holding when he saw Ben Grimm and a crew of other heroes descend on the park. The Thing, at the helm of the Fantasticar, flipped the aircraft onto autopilot and jumped down to the ground, his large orange frame a sight for Johnny’s sore eyes.
The mutant Wolverine, the energetic Speedball, the stout Captain Britain, the courageous Hawkeye, and the bounding Beast all followed his lead, spilling out of the other cockpits of the Fantasticar. They had been part of the Thing’s weekly poker game and had the misfortune of being the victims of the Trapster as well.
“I see by the confused look on your young face,” Hank McCoy, the blue-furred Beast, said, “that you are unsure of just how we managed to wrangle free of our inebriating situation. Suffice it to say that as well versed as the Trapster may be in concocting adhesives, he does not appear that adept at pontificating a potent poison!”
“The knock-out stuff he used wore off,” Wolverine added as he raced on foot to Johnny and Reed. “I woke up first, on account o’ my mutant power. Need a hand, Matchstick?”
Reed lashed out a rubbery arm, trying to sweep Wolverine away, but the animalistic mutant ducked underneath it easily. While Wolverine danced around with Reed’s whipping arm, the Thing flanked them and grabbed Reed by the stretched-out neck.
“Sorry about this, pal, but I ain’t got no choice in the matter,” the Thing said as he began to pull and unravel Mr. Fantastic.
“Whoa!” Speedball said from across the park. “I just got slammed with one of Mrs. Fantastic’s force bubbles! Neat!”
“That’s not her name, dope,” Hawkeye said as he notched an arrow. “And what’s so neat about that?”
“A little professional courtesy, will ya? I’m just a little curious about other people’s force fields in comparison to my own, okay? Sheesh. Hey, think you can shoot a gas arrow in front of her? Watch this!”
Hawkeye let fly a non-lethal gas-head arrow. It impacted at Susan Storm’s feet, engulfing her and the immediate area in a thick, pink gas that was designed to knock his targets unconscious. Speedball, using his mastery over kinetic energy, formed a thin, yellow force bubble and straddled it. He rode the bouncing ball of conjured energy up and over several invisible constructs that he wore now partially visible thanks to the pink gas, making it simpler for him to get close to the Invisible Woman.
“Guess they must be stuck on auto or something,” Speedball quipped. “Hope this works!”
Speedball bounded over top of Sue, his hands outstretched with a hollow bubble of kinetic energy held between his palms. He flipped completely upside down and slipped the bubble over top of her head like a helmet, pushing it all the way down to her shoulders. His momentum carried him by her, where he bounced yet again smacked right into a thick invisible wall that Sue had positioned when he wasn’t looking.
As soon as the kinetic helmet sealed her head off completely, though, Sue blinked and regained her composure. “What…where am I?” she asked lazily as if just waking up from a dream. “Johnny! Reed! Ben!”
“It’s okay, Suzie Q,” the Thing said as he released Reed’s neck and allowed their leader to reform his body after he finished sliding off of Johnny. “You and Stretch here are back to normal.
“Thank you, Ben,” Reed said as he rubbed his throat. “Mind filling us in on what just happened?”
“Yeah, that would be awesome,” the Human Torch added.
“We heard everything that Skrull woman said over the Fantasticar’s long-range scanner. Sorry, kiddo. Don’t feel bad about it. She fooled us all. Anyway, McCoy over there figured that with the readings we were picking up from her, she needs a direct line of sight to do her head-shrinking stuff. So, Robbie did his thing and I did mine.”
“But…you strangled me,” Reed said with a bit of confusion.
“Yeah, well…I heard her say that her powers didn’t get through my ol’ rocky dome, so I thought that if I covered your head with my stone mitts that—”
“It would provide the necessary shielding to cut off her powers. I see. That must mean her level of control must rely on her concentration as well. Interesting. Well, thank you, Ben. Even if it was a little…savage.”
“We might want to do this later,” Wolverine growled. “Hank and Brian need our help.”
Captain Britain and Beast had waylaid to the portal where they were busy fighting off the oncoming horde of Skrull soldiers. So far only a few had managed to overpower their way passed Brian Braddock, where the blue-furred Beast would then pick them off and toss them back through the portal. For now they were holding their own, but it wouldn’t be long before the portal grew too large for them to handle alone.
“It’s clobberin’ time!” Ben Grimm hollered as he and his fellow heroes rallied to aid their friends.
The Human Torch took to the air and located Courni only a little way down the path, running away from the ensuing battle. His flames flickered white when he saw her, his feelings brimming beneath his scalp. Reed followed the hot-tempered younger member of the Fantastic Four, stretching his legs out to great length in order to keep up with him.
As the pair left, the remaining pair of the Fantastic Four, Sue and Ben, made their way to the portal. “We got yer back, Cap’n!” Ben said as they approached.
“About time!” Captain Britain replied just before he landed a square hit to a Skrull’s bony jaw, sending it flying back through the ever-expanding portal.
“Indeed,” Beast added. “As enjoyable as practicing my alien invasion deterrent skills is, it would be beneficial to all if you would kindly lend assistance.”
“Just like the good ol’ days, huh, McCoy?” Hawkeye quipped. He let a set of arrows fly, aiming them around all of Beast’s limbs and catching a pair of Skrull’s unawares. “You should hang with the Avengers more often! We get to do this alien stuff all the time.”
“Quit the jawin’ and focus, Hawkeye!” Wolverine ordered. His claws slashed left and right as he picked off several more Skrulls that were spilling out of the portal.
“I had enough of these Skrulls to last a lifetime!” the brutish Thing exclaimed as he raced up behind Captain Britain.
“Get them all contained,” the Invisible Woman said, “and I’ll cap the opening until Reed figures out how to close it!”
With one massive punch the Thing clocked the closest Skrull and sent the body flying, bowling over a half dozen other invaders. “You got it, Suzie!” The Thing shared a quick glance with Brian Braddock, and the duo, as they were the two closest to the forefront, took it upon themselves to do what was needed.
Captain Britain spread his arms wide just as the Thing did the same with his. Together they left their arms swing closed, slamming shut in a powerful clap that sent a shockwave rippling through the opening of the portal. The several dozen Skrulls that had been edging their way forward all fell back, knocked down by the concussive force of the seismic strike.
“Don’t forget your distant cousins!” Speedball said as he catapulted a collection of Skrull soldiers back through the aperture with one of his kinetic energy bubbles.
As soon as all of the Skrulls had been pushed back through the portal, Susan Storm mentally installed an invisible shield over top, sealing it off. “This won’t work forever,” she said. “The portal is still growing. I can adjust the size of my shield but we need Reed back here, now!”
“Ask and you shall receive, darling.”
The heroes turned to see Reed Richards standing on the edge of the pond, the portable portal generator that he had designed back in his hands. He tapped a few keys on the side of the device and pulled the trigger. A beam lanced out and struck the portal, which quickly shrunk it down until it was nothing at all. The portal finally blipped out of existence as if nothing had happened, cutting off the doorway to the Negative Zone where the Skrull invasion army dutifully waited.
“Reed!” Sue said as she floated over, riding atop a simple invisible construct. “Where’s Johnny? And Courni?”
“Right here, sis,” Johnny Storm answered. He walked instead of flew over, as his new prisoner, the Skrull woman Courni, was bound at the wrists in front of him. “We’ll need to place a call to Fury and let him know we have a prisoner that needs transporting.”
His voice was cold, unfeeling. Courni struggled against the plasteel bonds that Reed had snatched out of a compartment on the Fantasticar, but there was no way she would be able to break them. Her mental capabilities had also been neutralized when Reed had tagged her with one of his new power transponders, again, found inside the Fantasticar. It was a temporary stopgap, but for the moment it would confine her well enough. Johnny moved her toward everyone without expressing anything but contempt.
“You alright, kid?” Wolverine asked.
“Yeah, we saved the day!” Speedball said as he clapped Hawkeye on the back, who glared at him. “Let’s party!”
“I’ll be fine.” He glanced at Courni and couldn’t help the look of resentment in his eyes. “I’ll meet you guys back at the Baxter Building.”
He left without saying another word, flying into the horizon. The Thing looked to Reed and said, “What happened back there?”
“I followed Johnny and watched him catch up with Courni. They yelled at each other but I couldn’t hear what they said. I was worried that Johnny was going to do something drastic, but instead he simply apprehended her. I got the transponder on her before she could control us and make an escape.”
“The Skrull high command will come for me!” the Skrull woman claimed.
“I very much doubt that,” Reed replied. “Coming back for you would acknowledge the fact that an invasion almost took place. I doubt that the Skrull high command would risk showing their proximity to Earth just to get one failed soldier back.”
Sue smiled. “Looks like you’ll be here all alone for a long time.”
“Diablo got away,” Ben chimed in. “Don’t suppose we should look for ‘im.”
“He wasn’t responsible for what he did any more than Sue or me,” Reed responded. “I’m sure we’ll cross paths with him again before long. In the meantime, we need to get back to the Baxter Building.”
“It figures all this happened right when I got a straight flush,” Captain Britain muttered.
“Ah, you ain’t have nothing but a pair of threes!” the Thing proclaimed with a hearty laugh. “You can’t bluff worth anything, Cap’n!”
The heroes made their back to the Fantasticar; only Sue turned to look into the sky after her brother. She had never seen the sense of boding come across her twin’s face before. It worried her. He was usually the most expressive of their bunch, but something in his eyes said that had all changed now.
Until she could figure out what to say to him, she would instead focus on the end of another long day, and hopefully get Reed to stay away from the lab for the rest of the night.
---- 4 ----
EPILOGUE
“Ms. Walters!”
Jennifer Walters pushed the door to her office open, slamming it against the wall and straining its hinges. “What’s wrong? Are you two okay?”
“We’re fine,” Cassie Lang, the daughter of the lost Ant-Man, Scott, said. “But Franklin just did something amazing!”
Jennifer Walters, attorney at law, and sometimes super-heroine She-Hulk, sighed her relief. Her law office was usually empty when she was down in the file room looking through her practices records, but every now and again Franklin and Valeria Richards would be put into her care while their parents went off to do something unsafe for kids. The sensational She-Hulk, for all intents and purposes, was their babysitter. Which was fine with her. She enjoyed having the children around, especially when Cassie came to play too.
“What is it?” Jennifer asked. “What’s so amazing?”
Franklin smiled and traded a glance with his sister while Cassie clasped her hands shut in front of her, the excitement of whatever game they were playing giving her cause to bounce in place. “He did it!” Cassie said. “Valeria didn’t think he could, but he can, and he did!”
“What? He did what, Cassie?”
“He found Daddy!”
Jennifer nearly fell over from the shock of what Cassie had just said. Her father had been aboard an intergalactic spacecraft called the Infinity along with James Rhodes and a skeleton crew of men and women. On the Infinity’s maiden voyage, it had vanished, completely disappearing from all known space. No one, not even Reed Richards, the Silver Surfer, or Tony Stark, had been able to locate it.
“My Dad is finally coming home!”
---- 4 ----
NEXT ISSUE: Franklin claims that he can do what the world’s brightest minds can’t by pinpointing the exact location of the lost starship Infinity. Meanwhile, Sue’s powers go on the blink, Ben and Alicia have an important discussion about family, and Johnny mulls recent events over. And looming on the horizon is a foe from the team’s past!