The Fantastic Four #3

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Fantastic Four #3
…Comes the Fantastic

Written by Aaron Martel
Edited by Daniel Dyer

The foursome of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm were staring at the sight before them in a kind of stupefied wonder.

“Uh, Reed?” Ben asked.

“Yes Ben?”

“You see a big lizard in the middle a’ the street?”

“I see a big lizard in the middle of the street,” Reed replied.

“Good, ‘cause I thought I wuz goin’ crazy,” Ben said flatly.

The creature, which actually resembled an enormous iguana, had completely crawled out of the crater it had created in the middle of midtown Manhattan, roaring at the civilians who were being forced back by the overwhelmed policemen. But as Reed looked at the monster more closely, he saw something that even he had a hard time comprehending.

“Wait,” Reed yelled. “There’s someone riding that beast!”

And the foursome looked up to see a strange looking man dressed in drab green clothes and a green cape sitting on top of the monster’s head and bellowing to all who could hear him.

“People of the surface world!” the peculiar rider proclaimed, brandishing a large wooden cane. “Your time as despots of the Earth has expired! Bow to the matchless might of the Mole Man!”

“Mole Man?” Ben said, bewildered.

“Acknowledge me as your supreme ruler or suffer the wrath of my indestructible creation!” the Mole Man declared, tapping the monster with his cane.

“What do we do?” Sue breathed, then after glancing over shouted, “Johnny, no!”

“I’ve got him!” Johnny exclaimed, running toward the bizarre spectacle. “Flame on!”

And Johnny’s body engulfed in flames as he dove into the air toward the monster. Like a rocket Johnny flew up and over the creature and into the sky, leaving a trail of flames behind him. Johnny leaned his body and banked to the left, then to the right before facing down and accelerating toward the street in a power dive. At the last possible moment he pulled up and left a flaming “U” behind him, his friends and other onlookers gasping at his daredevil antics. Johnny then slowed and hovered above the Mole Man, deftly displaying the control he had practiced in Reed’s laboratory.

“I can fly!” Johnny beamed, triumphant. “All right!”

The Mole Man was peering inquisitively at Johnny. “A flying man-of-fire.”

“That’s right, now watch this!” Johnny raised his hand and a fireball ejected towards the strange rider.

But the Mole Man ducked, and the fireball struck the beast, which roared and reared on its hind legs, sending the would-be conqueror tumbling off its head to the ground. Now without its guide, the beast stomped forward to the screams of the citizens who had lined the street to watch the excitement. At the same time the embarrassed and angered Mole Man picked himself up to his full three foot height and postured with his cane.

“Now you’ve done it! I would have been merciful had you surrendered quietly,” the furious dwarf announced. “But now you have truly forced my hand. Minions, attack!”

And out from the crater climbed a small army of humanoid creatures that appeared to be made out of dirt or clay. They made no sounds but shuffled forward like a gang of mud zombies, mindless and bent on obeying their master’s orders. The Mole Man gestured with his cane, and the mudbies began to pursue the citizens fleeing from them in widespread panic.

Reed thought quickly. “Sue, come with me! We’ve got to stop those dirt-things from harming the people! Ben-“

“I know, I know,” Ben interjected. “Godzilla’s mine.”

Ben threw aside his trench coat revealing himself to be wearing a pair of oversized blue jeans and nothing else, then raced off to help Johnny with the beast.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Sue ran to meet the mudbies’ charge, using her force field to push back a line of the shambling creatures, but as that line fell another one came right behind the first. Sue dismally feared her resistance would be futile, but at that moment her attention was diverted. Hearing a shriek just to the left of her, Sue turned to see a mudbie grabbing a young girl, lifting her into the air above its head and plainly intending to slam her down. Sue concentrated and the mudbie’s arms were sliced off as if an invisible axe had chopped through them and the girl fell to the sidewalk, rattled but unharmed.

Distracted with saving the girl, Sue was unaware of the mudbies approaching her from behind until she was seized by two of the muddy creatures. She tried to struggle but to no avail; the mudbies’ grip was tighter than she had anticipated. The fight ended abruptly when Sue was knocked unconscious, victim of a blow to the head from the Mole Man’s cane.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

For his part Reed was doing his best to halt the mudbies’ advance, finding the task as difficult as his fiancé had. Twisting his limbs and wrapping them around himself, Reed rolled himself into a human rubber ball and bowled over a host of mudbies, all the while analyzing the creatures in his mind.

They seem to consist of basic earth and rock, but how are they animate? They don’t seem to have emotions or feel pain so how can they be defeated? What kind of powers does this Mole Man truly possess? Is he a sorcerer of some sort? What-

And Reed’s thoughts were interrupted when he saw Sue being struck down by the Mole Man. Ignoring the mudbies he was engaged with, Reed bolted to Sue, stretching and adding mass into his hand until it expanded to near bulldozer size. Reed plowed into the mudbies surrounding the fallen Sue and scattered them away from her, then picked her up and carried her to safety on the sidewalk.

Reed gently patted Sue’s cheeks. “Sue. Sue darling, are you all right?”

Sue opened her eyes and grimaced. “Ow! My head! Reed? What happened?”

“You’ll be okay,” Reed said tenderly, smiling. “But you’ll have quite a bump on your head. You should rest a minute-”

But Reed stopped mid-sentence when he saw the look on Sue’s face.

“Oh, now those mud men have had it,” Sue said firmly, getting to her feet.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Ben knew he would have his hands full with the beast, but there was another more immediate problem he had to take care of. Johnny was flying around the beast’s head, distracting it and slowing its progress. But the policemen on the scene, not knowing what to do in this unprecedented situation, were trying to decide who or what exactly to fire upon. Ben lumbered up behind a police captain who was barking into a radio.

“..Hell, Janson, this town’s gone mad!” The captain barked. “On my orders, open fire on all of ’em!”

Ben poked the captain in the back. “Hey, Cap, hold on a minute. That’s my buddy up there.”

“Sir, please stand back- wha?” The captain drew his pistol and aimed at Ben. “What the hell?”

Ben put his hands up. “Hold on, I said! Lissen, we’re the good guys! We’re gonna help ya with that monster but ya can’t just go shootin’ at us! Just give us a chance, willya?”

The captain, who had seen his share of bizarre characters in New York, stared hard into Ben’s blue eyes and instinctively took a liking to the rocky thing in front of him. He hesitantly dropped his weapon.

“Okay, Mister, give it a shot,” the captain said, and added, “ But I’m not gonna wait forever until that monster destroys the city.”

“Deal,” Ben smiled.

As the orange-skinned being clambered off to join Johnny the Captain picked up his radio. “All units, stand down. Repeat, stand down until I give the order. Draw a perimeter around it and stay ready. Keep the crowds back. Looks like we’ve got some unusual help here.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Johnny was still flying around the beast, staying out of its reach but not attacking it so as not to provoke it the way he had before. The beast had stopped moving forward but it was clearly getting irritated with Johnny and let out another roar just as Ben was approaching it.

“Ben! How are we gonna stop it?” Johnny called.

“Workin’ on that, kid,” Ben replied as he decided to test the beast’s strength and his own with a bull rush. Ben slammed into the beast with the force of a piledriver; but though it was knocked back, the beast stayed on its feet and roared in pain.

Now threatened and angry the reptilian monster charged to the side and crashed into a building, bringing debris down on the street toward a group of policemen who had no chance to get out of the way. Reacting without thinking Johnny zoomed toward the cops and unleashed the flame from his hands in a powerful jet that incinerated the smaller pieces of debris and pushed the larger ones out of harm’s way. The grateful officers saluted Johnny as he flew back to the beast and sent a similar jet of fire at it, burning its hide and causing it to go into a frenzy, stomping down the street and destroying anything in its path.

“Aw nuts!” Ben ran behind the beast and managed to grab its tail, pulling back on it with his amazing strength. The beast’s advance was stalled, and its hind legs were lifted off the ground, but it lashed out with its tail and Ben was flung across the street and into another building, crashing through a solid stone wall. Ben was dazed for a moment and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

“Awright,” Ben blabbered, picking himself up and climbing out of the hole he had just made in the building’s side. “That does it! Benji’s through playin’ nice- oh.”

The beast was rampaging down the street once more, with the police and Johnny firing all the weapons at their disposal at it, hardly slowing its destructive progress.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

By now the eyes of the world were on New York City. News crews from all the major networks were carrying live satellite feeds and the broadcasts were transmitting to all corners of the globe. Shocked reporters were delivering the story of a giant lizard monster on the loose on the streets of Manhattan and the four strange beings who were apparently trying to stop it. Foreign correspondents were reporting on the battle with a mixture of awe and cynicism. Were they aliens come to our planet to fight their war? Was it a conspiracy to curry sympathy for the United States by the American government? Or was it an elaborate motion picture shoot?

Far from the events in New York sat a hooded man who stayed in the shadows and watched with interest the multiple screens set up in his private study. This was the first news to catch his attention in quite a while, and as he leaned forward to view the conflict’s participants a flash of recognition lit his eyes. He leaned back in his chair and spoke to the empty study.

“Well, well, well, I do believe this is an omen,” the hooded man intoned. “Let’s just see how this turns out. I may have found an unlikely ally after all.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Reed and Sue were battling the mudbies and trying to slow them down but the task was becoming nigh impossible. At this point the police were attempting to turn the tide but bullets and billy clubs also were not effective against the mudbies’ dirt bodies. Reed could hear the cackling laughter of the Mole Man, who was surrounded by his own squad of mudbie bodyguards and taunting the populace.

“Ha ha ha! You foolish surface dwellers! Fall before my supreme power! Nothing can stop my tireless soldiers! For too long have I waited to have my revenge on the surface world. Now it will be mine!”

Reed had determined that the Mole Man himself was a non-threat, so he would be dealt with lastly. But what to do about the army of mud men? And the beast? Reed glanced down the street and saw that Johnny and Ben were having their own difficulties with that reptilian creature. He needed to think of something quick, or the Mole Man could very well make good on his threats.

Reed witnessed one of the mudbies get shot by one of the cops’ pistols. The mudbie wasn’t halted from advancing, but an area around the hole in its chest where the bullet entered it had dried and flaked off from the heat of the bullet’s entry.

That's it!

Reed stretched over to Sue, who was pushing back more mudbie soldiers with her force field. He excitedly got her attention.

“Sue, we’ve been doing this all wrong! I think I know how we can defeat these creatures!”

“I’m all ears,” Sue said with a glimmer of hope.

Reed told her his plan.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Ben picked up an abandoned automobile and launched it at the beast. The car sailed through the air and smashed into its chest but the beast, totally enraged, shrugged off the pain and crunched down on the car with its forefeet and kept moving.

“Sheesh, better n’ the monster trucks,” Ben remarked.

Just then Ben saw Reed’s boot stretch over to him followed by the rest of Reed’s body in one enormous step. Reed was as serious as Ben had ever seen him.

“Ben, “ Reed hurriedly spoke. “I need you to go to that building there about two blocks down and go up to the roof.”

“What? That’s about eight stories-”

“I know,” Reed interrupted. “Please just do as I say. I don’t have time to explain, but you’ll know what to do when the time comes.”

“Awright, Stretcho, but I dunno what…” Ben continued to complain as he clomped his way down the street. Reed looked up at Johnny, who was now hovering above him, curious as to where Ben was going. Reed didn’t give him a chance to speak.

“Johnny, I need you to go to Sue. She’ll tell you what I have in mind,” Reed stated.

“Okay Reed!” Johnny flew off, happy to rid himself of having to stop the beast.

“Now to do my part.” Reed hustled down the street to the building Ben had entered.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Sue had isolated the mudbie army, using her force field as a barrier between herself and their advancing ranks. The psychic strain was taxing Sue to her limits, not only from the mudbies pounding on her field but also the bullets bouncing off the other side of her field from the cops’ firearms. She was relieved to see Johnny streak in above her, flame trail behind him.

“Hey sis, looks like you’ve got ‘em all corralled up,” Johnny blurted. “What do you want me to do?”

“Burn them up,” Sue gritted out.

“What?”

“FRY ’EM!” Sue snapped.

“Oh yeah!” Johnny loosed his fire in a mighty wave, vastly increasing the temperature and completely smothering the mudbies in a spectacular blaze. Sue continued to maintain her force field, protecting the cops and herself from the intense heat.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

With the beast bearing down on his position, Reed stretched his arms and wrapped them around a flagpole jutting out from two facing buildings, one on each side of the street. He then stretched his legs and wrapped each of those around a light post and widened his torso and pelvis so that he resembled a human fishing net blocking the street. As the astounded policemen looked on, the beast, mindlessly in pain from gunshot wounds and burns, plowed right into Reed and pushed his body back, stretching it like a sail receiving a gust of wind. Reed tried to hold firm but with the beast’s clawing and biting it was becoming harder to keep his shape. Reed looked to the top of the building he had sent Ben in.

Come on, Ben, Reed thought. Hurry, please.

Just as Reed thought he could hold the beast no longer, Ben appeared at the roof edge of the building, huffing and puffing.

“Stupid elevator wouldn’t work!” Ben explained.

“Ben…” Reed pleaded.

“Awright, I gotcha, Stretcho!” Ben then leaped from the building, directly at the beast’s head, rearing back his fist and shouting, “It’s clobberin’ time!”

Ben connected with the beast’s head with an ear-splitting WHAM and the beast dropped to the street with a massive thud. Ben rolled off the unconscious monster and plodded over to Reed, who had stretched back to his normal form but was obviously in pain. Reed was covered with scratches over most of his body, but he reassured his worried friend that he was all right.

“Wonder how Sue and Johnny made out,” Ben mumbled.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

By the time Johnny extinguished his flame, the entire army of mudbies were dry as a bone and incredibly brittle. With a few force field pushes Sue crumbled the once-mighty legion to powdery dust. That left the Mole Man himself, who was surrounded by his “protectors” that had become nothing more than dust statues.

“Impossible!” the Mole Man roared. “My plans ruined! My conquest! My army!” He poked one of his bodyguards with his cane and it crumbled apart. “No! How could I have survived those flames?”

“I shielded you with my force field,” a voice came from behind him. The Mole Man turned to see nothing there, and his cane was ripped from his hands as his glasses flew off his face apparently by themselves.

“My eyes! I can’t see!” The Mole Man swung his arms wildly until a serpentine creature wrapped its coils around his body and held him still.

“It’s over, Mole Man,” Reed declared, unwrapping the Mole Man from his arm and handing the raging would-be tyrant over to the authorities. Sue became visible again, holding the Mole Man’s cane and glasses, winking and smiling at Reed.

“I’ll remember you!” The Mole Man screamed as he was led to a police cruiser. “I’ll get you all! You haven’t heard the last of me!” And he was still squawking as he was driven away.

“Guess that’s the end a’ that,” Ben offered.

“Yeah, but what about that?” Johnny jerked his thumb at the beast, which was still out cold and lying in the middle of the street. The police captain on the scene was scratching his head in befuddlement.

“Leave it to me,” Ben smirked.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Ben lifted and carried the beast to the crater it had crawled out of in an awe-inspiring display of physical strength. Even Johnny was impressed with Ben as the rock-skinned hero held the beast above his head and dropped it into the crater. There was a huge FOOM followed by a rumbling sound as the crater walls collapsed from the impact, effectively burying the beast in earth and stone.

“Oops,” Ben sputtered.

“It’s for the best,” Reed soothed. “It probably survived anyway and can now live in peace down there.”

“And hey,” Johnny enthused, referring to the remains of the mudbies. “They’ve got some dirt to fill that hole in.”

“Johnny…” Sue admonished.

The foursome stood together by the crater until they heard the noise behind them. They whipped around, ready to fight , when they discovered the sound was actually applause coming from the onlookers, the news crews, even the police led by the captain Ben had talked to earlier. The four friends stood in embarrassed silence as the news cameras clicked away and the reporters began to surge towards them. A small boy, who had sifted through the elated crowd, ran up to Johnny and excitedly shook his hand.

“Mister,” the boy smiled from ear-to-ear. “You guys are fantastic!”

“Well,” Johnny smiled right back, opening his arms wide to include the others. “That’s because…we’re the Fantastic Four!”

The end.