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| Issue #9 July 2009 |
"Moving Right Along" Written By David Golightly |
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PREVIOUSLY IN FANTASTIC FOUR:
After dealing with an uprising by the long-thought defeated Terminus, the Fantastic Four has cleared the name of Aaron Stack, the Machine Man. Since mulling over his recent love life, the Human Torch has called an old flame, namely Frankie Rayes, Nova, back to Earth. With juvenile enthusiasm, Johnny has just proposed marriage!
“Johnny Storm, I cannot believe you.”
The sleek, golden form of Nova sat atop one of New York City’s tallest skyscrapers. The sun reflected cleanly off of her skin, and one might even mistake her for an angel. Angels, however, are not prone to cry.
A small tear dribbled down her cheek, overwhelmed by the light reflecting off her own face, otherwise it might have refracted a shard or two itself.
“That’s not a no,” the Human Torch replied.
“Did you really expect me to say yes?” Nova replied. “Johnny, I’ll always love you. But, seriously. You never think things through.”
“No, I have thought this through!” he exclaimed. “Listen. I’m tired of living this life the way I am. I need more. I can’t always be the one that people expect to act goofy. I’m more than a punchline for Ben.”
Nova placed a hand gently on Johnny’s face. “I know that, Johnny.”
“I’m not having a midlife crisis or anything,” he continued, “but I don’t want to fall in love with every hot alien that comes my way.”
He took her hand in his and met her gaze expectantly. “I just want one literal hotty. That’s you.”
“Johnny, please don’t make me your last hope for a normal life.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes, it is. You’re special, Johnny. You’re impetuous, youthful, invigorating, and just plain fun. That’s who you are. This,” she motioned to his posture of being on one knee, “is not you. I’ll be happy to—”
The stylized number four on his chest began to glow. A soft chirp accompanied each brightening.
Johnny sighed, ignoring the summons.
“Shouldn’t you answer that?” Nova said.
“I won’t if you don’t want me to.”
“It could be important.”
Regretfully, the Human Torch pressed stylized number four, activating the comlink hidden there in his costume. “What?” he said gruffly.
“Matchstick!” the Thing’s voice said through the connection. “The Baxter Building’s long-range sensors picked up something blasting through the stratosphere. It landed in Queens.”
“So?”
“So?! It ain’t after my Aunt Petunia’s casserole recipe!”
“I’m a little busy here—”
“And I was about to wrap up monitorin’ duty to go meet up with Alicia,” the Thing’s gravelly voice replied. “Tough noogies. Get movin’!”
---- 4 ----
“Do you see anything that might indicate traces of the Terminus virus?”
Reed Richards released the talk button on the console microphone, allowing the man at the other end of the connection to reply. His brow was tensed in concentration as the camera feed coming back to his display screen was rife with wires, conduits, and circuitry.
The inner workings of Aaron Stack, the Machine Man, were quite complicated.
“Nothing so far,” Ant-Man replied.
It was because of Scott Lang that the Fantastic Four were able to clear Machine Man’s name.* Reed knew that Scott had much preferred to spend more time with his daughter, Cassie, than anything else. Especially since Scott had recently returned from deep space and an exile that had lasted months. But Reed had felt obligated to at least offer Scott the chance to look inside Machine Man with him, seeing as how Scott had been so critical. Surprisingly, Scott had jumped at the chance to shrink down and wander through Machine Man’s circuits.
* (Check out last issue – D)
“I am fairly sure that you are able to give me a clean bill of health, Dr. Richards,” Machine Man said. As opposed to the last time they performed this procedure, Aaron Stack was able to remained switched on now. “I was released from the Vault and pardoned thanks to your actions. Terminus is no longer an issue.”
“Not for you personally,” Reed said, “although we have reason to believe that there are still remnants of Terminus technology left in the world, hiding and waiting.”
“I’ve swept the areas we suspected of contamination,” Ant-Man said through the comlink. “I think we got the last of it. I’m coming out.”
“I will continue to monitor my power structure,” Machine Man said. “I have installed alert programs that will contact you should anything seem amiss. I would hate to be locked away again.”
Before Reed could comment on the android’s concerns, he saw a tiny black speck jump from the end of Machine Man’s hand onto the floor. A soft, white bubble of energy surrounded the speck and began to enlarge, growing bigger and bigger by the second.
Inside the cocoon was the growing form of Scott Lang, garbed in his black and red costume. The amazing technology that Hank Pym had perfected was utilized perfectly by Scott to literally become an ant-sized man.
They all stood in the center of Reed’s lab, surrounded by stacks of equipment that had been of great importance at one time or another.
Scott removed his silver helmet and stretched before saying, “You sure keep a cramped body.”
“My designer was of the opinion of using as much space as available,” Machine Man replied.
“That reminds me,” Reed said, “I recently retrieved information from the late Abel Stack’s files. The government released them to me after I persuaded them that it would be in their best interests.”
“What kind of information?” Machine Man inquired.
“I believe it relates to your counterparts; the other fifty versions that preceded your inception.”
Reed glanced across the expansive lab, spotting where he had set the package that had arrived the previous day from SHIELD. “I’m sorry to say that it’s hard-cop only,” he said as he lifted his arm toward the package.
Since that fateful day when he and three others had journeyed into space and been bombarded by cosmic rays, Reed Richards had been transformed into Mr. Fantastic. He had gained a certain amount of control over the space between his molecules, allowing for extraordinary elasticity. Stretching his arm to reach across the room was like child’s play to him.
Except that when he casually told his arm to do so, nothing happened.
He stared blankly at his arm, wondering why his powers had faltered. “Hmm,” he murmured.
Machine Man’s own arm telescoped out, as the tensile columns of his forearm reached across the room to grab hold of the package that Mr. Fantastic had indicated. “This one?” he asked.
“Precisely,” Reed replied, although his eyes did not waver from his own arm.
As Machine Man retracted his robotic arm, bringing the package with it, Reed began to wonder. He concentrated, focusing his mental alignment, and his arm began to elongate. He grasped a glass of water from the console twenty feet away, pulled it to him, and took a sip.
Neither Ant-Man nor Machine Man had noticed the moment of ineptitude. It had passed quickly, as the picking up of the water had proved. Still, Reed’s analytical mind was reeling.
For some reason, he recalled something about his wife, Sue.
“Hey, Stretch!” the intercom on the console said.
“What is it, Ben?”
“Matchstick got himself cornered in Queens! Hit the roof and hop in the Fantasticar!”
---- 4 ----
Thrusting through the clouds over New York City, the signature vehicle of the Fantastic Four rocketed toward the team’s destination. In the seat typically occupied by the Human Torch, Scott Lang had taken up residence. Having been present at the time of the distress call, he felt obligated to accompany them.
“We appreciate you coming along,” Sue said.
“Since coming back to Earth, it’s nice to be able to actually be more proactive in a situation,” Ant-Man replied. “Onboard the Infinity, I mostly hid from our captors until I could find a moment to get involved.”*
* (A slightly skewed version of what went down, but check out the series for yourself anyway and see what he’s referring to. – D)
“We’re coming around now,” Ben said from his place at the front of the Fantasticar. “Mind taking point there, X-51?”
Machine Man kept pace in the air alongside the Fantasticar by using the anti-gravity discs built into the soles of his feet. The afternoon sun reflected nicely off his purple body armor, adding a touch of grace to his masculine form. Like Ant-Man, he also had felt compelled to join the team in their time of need.
“Not at all, Benjamin,” Machine Man replied. “I shall see if young Johnny needs aid.”
“His beacon pinpoints him on the far side of the block,” Reed stated as he concentrated on the instruments in his quadrant of the Fantasticar. “We’ll investigate ground zero, where our sensors say something touched down.”
Machine Man nodded and sped off in a veered direction. The Fantasticar, under the superb direction of Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, carefully descended through the skies and toward the ground where a sight strange to all but them sat waiting for them.
The spacecraft hovered ten feet off the street, its sleek and silver hull not even signed upon entry into their atmosphere. The rear of the craft was rounded, with one single engine duct poking out the back. The front was honed to a point like a fine dagger, and no visible viewports could be seen.
“Similar to Aldarian design,” Sue mentioned casually. She had seen numerous amounts of space traveling ships in her career as a superhero. “Think there was a survivor we missed last year?”
“Doubtful,” Reed said as Ben swung their own ship around for him to get a better look. “The Aldarians were wiped out by bacteria that destroyed both them and their technology. If I recall, we scanned the planet thoroughly before Annihulus forced us to retreat. Besides, this design is only similar. The signature markings of the Aldarians are missing. It’s possible this is from a race they had trade dealings with.”
“But what is it doing in Queens?” Scott asked. “And where’s Johnny?”
“If the pilot o’ that heap was anything to look at,” the Thing said, “he’s probably at a club, smooth talkin’ his way into a nice diplomatic position.”
“Ben!” Sue scolded.
Before he could expand on his comment, a blinding flash of light drew their attention. Several more followed it with resounding explosions to accompany. After the last burst, the purple-clad body of X-51 came hurtling through the sky toward them.
Reed reached out with his entire body, stretching his proportions out at odd angles. His chest went flat as it stretched thin, creating a large and pliable surface area for Machine Man’s body to fall into.
X-51 bounced off of Reed and fell into the waiting arms of the Thing. “Gotchya!” Ben exclaimed as he set the Fantasticar down with his free hand.
“Imminent danger,” Machine Man warned. Sparks poured out of his neck as he spoke. “It would seem that the lifeform aboard that vessel is irritated at something.”
“Where’s Johnny?” Sue asked.
“He’s over there!” a blazing figure overheard screamed as it passed. “We have to save him!”
“I recognize those cosmic curves anywhere!” Ben said. “That’s Frankie up there! What’s she doing?”
“Taking on the guy that just smacked X-51 around,” Ant-Man said. “Let’s move!”
The Invisible Woman crafted a translucent disk in the air, upon which all of them jumped. Machine Man regained his footing and stood alongside the rest of them. Ben was in front of the pack, eager to get to the bottom of whatever adversary had been able to knock out his friend.
As they moved back to the far side of the block, to where Machine Man had indicated, they saw Nova, in all her feminine glory, trading energy blasts with a ten-foot tall, green and silver behemoth. His eyes were covered by a visor with red lenses, and his fists were balled up with the four fingers he possessed on each hand.
Lancing beams of energy raced out of his visor, barely missing the lithe form of Nova. She barrel-rolled in the air, forming her own blasts in her hands as she spun, and releasing them at the appropriate moment. Her aim was better than the ten-foot alien, but the blasts seemed to have little effect. The energy just washed over the brute harmlessly.
“Susie Q!” Ben said as they approached. “Gimme a helping hand, will ya?”
Sue nodded and mentally formed an invisible hand behind the Thing. Concentrating, she scooped Ben up in the hand and catapulted him across the block directly at the brute.
The Thing cried out, “It’s clobberin’ time!” just as his fist struck the brute on the chin. Ben landed at the alien’s feet as it toppled back a few steps.
“Impressive, rock-man,” the alien said as he rubbed his chin. “But it will take more than that to stop Granix!”
“Granix, huh?” Ben replied. “So what’s your story? You like to just show up and pick a fight?”
Granix cocked back his fist and pounded Ben faster than his large stature would make one assume he was able. The Thing, unprepared for the brunt attack, barely raised his forearms in the way of the smashing fist, and shunted off most of the momentum. The blow was still powerful enough to knock him to his knees, however, and daze him slightly.
“Ask the harbinger of death,” Granix said. “She knows.”
“Harbinger?” Machine Man said as he dove through the air, unleashing a torrent of plasma fire from the nozzles under his fingertips.
“He means me,” Nova stated as she tossed another volley of power cosmic at Granix. “He’s after me! And pour Johnny tried to stop him!”
Ant-Man shrunk down to barely an inch in height in order to avoid being noticed by Granix and hoping that he would be able to use that to his advantage. To the left, just behind the towering alien, he spotted the prone body of the Human Torch, slouched against a wall. His flames were doused and he looked to be unconscious.
“I’ve got him!” Scott said into his helmet, which relayed the message to the others’ comlinks. “I’ll get him to safety.”
Scott hopped off the Fantasticar and rushed to Johnny’s side. The fastest way there was to run directly underneath Granix, and he was able to nimbly dodge the titan’s feet as he and the Thing traded blows once more.
Once he reached Johnny, he grew back to his normal height and kneeled down beside the bruised hero. “Torch!” he said. “You okay?”
He gently patted the side of Johnny’s face, which elicited soft groans from him. “What…Frankie!”
The Torch tried to sit up, but still reeling from the hit that Granix had dealt him, fell back down immediately. Ant-Man caught him and said, “Easy, killer. What happened?”
“Scott?” Johnny said upon recognizing him. He shook his head and realigned his thoughts. “God, Scott. He’ll kill her. We have to stop him!”
“What’s he after Nova for?”
“He’s from one of the world’s that Galactus destroyed,” Johnny said, the tension in his voice growing considerably. “One of the worlds that Nova led Galactus to. Get it?”
“I see,” Scott said in understanding. “So he tracked her here.”
“He’s out to kill all cosmically powered people. He told us he would start with Nova and then destroy all the others, all out of revenge.”
“We’ll see about that. Can you fly?”
Johnny nodded. “I’ll be okay. Just help Nova!”
Mr. Fantastic was doing his best to contain Granix’s feet by wrapping himself around and around his legs. While the alien brute was stunted in his movements, Reed’s pliable body was not up to the task of completely immobilizing him.
“Sue?” he said, almost casually. There was a hint of urgency in his voice. “Darling, I wonder if you wouldn’t mind cutting off the amount of oxygen Granix is taking in.”
With but a wave of her hand and a slight mental nudge, the light particles around Genix’s head solidified into a bubble. The invisible dome cut off all outside air completely from the brute’s mouth. He relented from bashing in Ben in order to feel the construct around his face.
“Interesting,” Granix said. “My sensors aboard my ship did not indicate cosmically powered beings in this area. Perhaps I will need to squash you as well!”
Granix placed both of his four-fingered hands against the dome around his head and pushed. The massive muscles in his green arms bulged as he pressed against Sue’s mental determination, pitting his shear strength against her fortitude.
Sweat began to bead on her forehead. “Reed!” she called out, but it was too late. The bubble snapped and she stumbled back, caught by Machine Man.
“Alright,” Nova said. “You want my power cosmic? Here! Take it! Take all of it!”
Nova swooped in front of him, both her hands overflowing with packed cosmic energy. She took advantage of the distraction that Sue had provided, angling herself level with Granix’s head. His mouth already open in a roar defiance, she unloaded the blasts of energy she had been building.
Yellow and white torrents of pure cosmic power poured into Granix’s mouth. Streams of energy that could rip mountains apart, originally supplied by the Destroyer of Worlds himself, bathed the alien brute.
Granix momentarily paused in his vocal retaliation, taken by surprise by Nova’s direct attack. He choked down the energy cascade, swallowing her power whole.
After the blinding display ended, Nova hung in the air, exhausted. Granix stared back at her, a smile forming on his facial features.
“Do you think me so foolish as to not be prepared for your opposition?” he said. “My visor allows me to expel the power cosmic I have collected. Now…feel your own power used against you!”
Granix’s visor burst open, revealing the stolen power. The single beam struck Nova in the chest, catapulting her head over heels away from the brute. Her own power was being used against her, compounded by the other energies he had already absorbed from her during the battle.
“Die, harbinger, just as you allowed my people to die!”
Granix turned his head, sweeping his gazing beam of energy toward the others. The Thing pushed Machine Man and the Invisible Woman out of the way, taking the blast himself even as he saved them. Chunks of his orange hide split off from his body as the overwhelming destructive power cut into him.
Deep laughter emitted from the throat of Granix. He continued his assault, never giving yield to common mercy.
“Ben!” Reed called out as he began to untwine himself from Granix’s legs. He hoped to reach his friend quickly, before the energy backlash killed him.
The beam suddenly flickered and died, leaving the ten-foot alien stunned. He gripped at his visor, but it lifted off of his face and hovered in the air in front of him.
“What is this?” he demanded.
Clutching to Machine Man’s mechanical arms, Sue gingerly waved her fingers as she manipulated hard light particles to lift the visor off of Granix’s face. “Expel this, creep,” she said.
Granix grabbed for the visor, but a small form leapt off of his shoulder and reached them before he did. Ant-Man, shrunken down to a mere four inches, wrapped his arms around the visor and leapt down to the ground. Reed extended an arm and pulled Ant-Man away just before Granix’s foot smashed down on top of him.
“Too slow!” Scott said as Reed pulled him to safety.
“Hey, ugly!” someone said from behind Granix. “Remember me?”
Granix spun to see the Human Torch hovering behind him. “I dispatched you,” the alien murmured.
“Never count a guy down,” the Torch replied, “especially when you’re messing with his fiancé!”
The Torch unleashed a focused beam of blinding fire directly at Granix’s eyes. Without the visor to either absorb or protect him, the flames melted into his eyes with intense brutality.
Granix gripped his face in pain, screaming in anguish. He swung his free arm lazily, hoping to obstruct Johnny’s attack. The Thing stepped into his path, however, blocking the haphazard punch.
“What he said!” Ben shouted as he laid a right haymaker on Granix’s face.
The brute sprawled out on the ground, disoriented by the hit. He tried to pick his head up, but the fight had been burned out of him. Granix’s head fell back to the broken pavement.
“Wait,” Ben said as he turned to Johnny, “what was that about a fiancé?”
“Frankie!” Johnny said as he rushed off to make sure that Nova was okay.
“Am I missing something?” Ben asked the others.
Machine Man, the Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, and Ant-Man gathered around Granix. “I doubt that any of us are entirely in the loop right now,” Reed commented as he looked over the unconscious Granix. “We’ll need to place a call to SHIELD to get this contained.”
Johnny quickly returned with Nova in his arms. “Thankfully, the Mrs. is okay,” he said as he set her down on her own two feet, joining their circle.
“Johnny Storm, I swear…” she began to say.
Ben opened his mouth to offer a quick quip, but his speech left him. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. The others looked at him, confused. Reed likewise opened his mouth to ask a question, but no sound came out either.
The group looked curiously at both of them. Before any assumption could be made, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben all began to fade away.
“Oh, my God,” Ant-Man said. He looked at Sue, wondering if she was creating invisibility fields. When he saw the look of panic on her face, he knew that she wasn’t the cause of the problem. “Something’s wrong.”
In the blink of an eye, the Fantastic Four vanished.
Machine Man, Nova, and Ant-Man stood around the body of Granix, stunned.
---- 4 ----
NEXT ISSUE: Where the heck did the FF just go?!? Does it have anything to do with their powers going wonky? Ant-Man, Nova, and Machine Man are going to try and find out…unless an unexpected visitor has anything to say about it!
