#75 by Jason Bruss & Tobias Christopher
February 2018
February 2018
"All 4 One"
The Richard's resident housekeeper, Yoshi, wasted no time in retrieving the smelling salts from the first-aid kit and rushing back to Sue Richards, who had passed out in the hallway upon seeing the human form of Ben Grimm, who up until now had been dead.
"Wha- how?" Sue asked nervously as Reed helped her up.
"Easy, Suzie," Ben said as he carefully approached her. "Stretch here built a contraption that let him go back in time to pull me into the timestream just before I died. I guess something must have got mucked up because now," Ben concentrated as he returned to rocky form. "I can go back and forth to human as I please. I can be handsome Ben again!"
"I'm so sorry for being so secretive these past few months," Reed said. "Ignoring you and the kids. But Ben's death was my fault. It tore a hole in our hearts that science couldn't fix... until now. Unfortunately, the device was a one-shot deal so I won't be able to use it again, but it was worth it."
Seeing the tension building in Sue's face, Yoshi took Ben by the arm. "Come along, I'll fix you some tea. You have a lot to catch up on now that you're back."
As soon as they were gone, a powerful force field blast threw Reed against the wall.
"You stupid, irresponsible bastard!" Sue shouted as she held Reed there. "Do you have ANY idea what you've done?"
"I saved our family," Reed said. "I had to alter a timeline to do it, but--"
"You messed with time!" Sue shouted. "Do you realize that now another timeline has formed? There are consequences, Reed! This could affect us, even worse than losing Ben!"
"But I saved him," Reed reiterated.
"By messing with the natural order," Sue told him. "Karma's going to come back on us hard for this, it always does."
Sue kissed him passionately as she pulled away and started walking toward the kitchen. "I just hope we can handle whatever happens next."
# # # # #
Memorial Hospital
Sharon Ventura was sitting in the doctor's office, staring across at the man who held her entire future in his hands.
"We're at a plateau with your treatments," the handsome Dr. Beemer said as he saw the look on her face. "But don't give up hope, Sharon. This battle is far from over and you are definitely a fighter. If you'll excuse me, I need to go get a file. I'll be right back."
As he left, Sharon opened a locket and stared down into it before breaking down into tears.
# # # # #
The Baxter Building
Johnny and Valeria came running into the kitchen* as Johnny grabbed Sue by the shoulders.
(*Fresh from New Warriors #19-#20)
"Before I say what I'm about to say, promise you won't use your invisible field to explode my head," Johnny said as he looked up and saw Ben standing there with a cup of tea. He let go of Sue and screamed like a frightened little girl.
"Missed you too, Matchstick," Ben said.
"I'm gonna go get some plastic containers, I want to collect what's left of Uncle Johnny for scientific research," Valeria said.
"Johnny, what's going on?" Sue asked. "And where's Franklin? We should tell him how your father's insanely stupid idea brought Ben back."
"Franklin, well... he's kind of... comatose," Johnny said meekly. "And it's kind of possibly, maybe... sort of... my fault."
"Jonathan Storm, what did you do to my baby!?" Sue asked angrily as she lifted him up with a force field.
Before Johnny could say a word, Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny disappeared from the kitchen in a flash of light, leaving Yoshi standing there. She just shrugged her shoulders and returned to making dinner.
# # # # #
The Four appeared on an asteroid that was floating in the vast void of the Negative Zone. Reed quickly started putting his brain to work, knowing that someone very powerful was behind their kidnapping. Ben's human form started transforming into the Thing as Johnny flamed on. In another flash, the team was in their blue and while costumes.
"I feel like I've just been violated," Sue said.
"Nonsense," a voice said above them. "All of you have been invited to a very special party that's being held in your honor."
The Four looked up to see Doom and Malice, standing arm in arm on a platform above them.
"Doom, I should have known," Reed said. "What's your game?"
"You mean the world's most famous scientist has no clue what's going on? I am SHOCKED," Doom said in a sarcastic tone. "I see that Benjamin is back among the living. Not that it matters, none of you will be going home."
"With our combined powers, nothing can stop our union," Malice said as she waved her hand, filling the sky above them with blood colored lightning. "My love has been teaching the finer points on the dark arts."
As the lightning struck, another Fantastic 4 appeared not too far from them, wearing grey and green versions of their costumes.
"Doom, you have to put a stop to this!" Reed asked.
"Put a stop to it?" Doom laughed. "I relish seeing you squirm, Richards. With the five of you out of the way, nothing will stand in conquest of everything I want."
"Five?" Sue asked.
"You didn't think that Franklin's little trip was an accident, did you?" Doom asked as he looked at Johnny. "I needed to remove the most powerful weapon you had, and thanks to this fool, I was able to remove Franklin and his immense power from this battle."
"Is Franklin alive?" Sue asked.
"Perhaps, but you'll never see him again," Doom told her. "He is forever lost in space and time, unless I personally choose to retrieve him."
"Doom, it's always been me that you wanted," Sue told him. "If you let my family go and bring Franklin back... I'll go with you."
Malice just laughed. "Why would he want you when he has the perfect version right here, willing to give him whatever he desires and more?"
"I've had enough of this!" Evil Reed shouted. "Return us to our reality! We just finished killing the Avengers! We're on the verge of total victory!"
"And so you shall, once you destroy these versions of yourselves!" Doom ordered. "Tear them apart!"
"I call dibs on the handsome one!" Evil Johnny shouted as he flamed on and flew toward Good Johnny. The collided before taking to the sky, trading punches and fireballs.
"How can you be evil?" Johnny asked as avoided the blasts of his evil counterpart. "We're both so good looking? I don't know about you, but I'm thinking about proposing to Lyja!"
"Commitment? Loser," Evil Johnny told him. "We can have anyone we want. I have had everyone I want."
"I don't want just anyone," Johnny said. "I want Lyja."
"Then I'll make it a point to slit her throat when I get to your world," Evil Johnny smirked. The good Johnny got an enraged look on his face as he started going supernova while flying at his evil counterpart.
Ben was trading blows with the Evil Thing, finding themselves evenly matched.
"Ya got the power, but you don't know how to use it to win!" Evil Thing shouted as he caught Ben's fist before uppercutting him. "You gotta play to win!"
"Play to win, eh?" Ben asked. "You mean like, murdering your enemies?"
"It's called survival, moron!" Evil Thing shouted. "It's a lesson I learned a long time ago before I even got these powers!"
"Yeah, well, these powers are what taught me that sometimes you gotta search for answers that don't require usin' your fists!" Ben shouted as the Evil Thing wasn't watching where he was going and fell off into a small chasm. "LIke not tellin' your clone to watch his step!"
"Still the devoted wife?" Evil Sue asked as she blasted an invisible field at Sue, causing her to duck out of the way. "I'd be more than happy to step into your shoes once your dead. It might be good to see the children again. My Franklin and Valeria were fed to zombies when they became too much of a burden."
"You murdered your own children?" Sue asked in shock.
"Valeria was getting to become annoying with her know-it-all attitude, and Franklin? Well, he was always a disappointment. I really do wish I'd taken Reed's advice and had him aborted. But seeing him ripped apart and devoured by zombies more than made up for it."
"You sick, twisted--" Sue said as she rallied all of her strength and knocked the evil Sue into a stone wall, knocking her unconscious, just as Evil Johnny fell right next to her.
"Can you believe this jerk?" Johnny asked as he landed. "Basically burned every romance I ever had and then some. I'll never be able to look at Iceman the same way again after what this said he did to him."
"Let's go find Reed," Sue said. "We need to stop Doom before he does whatever he's planning."
Reed and his evil counterpart were stretched out as far as they could possibly go, their bodies entangled with each other as they fought each other to a standstill.
"You should be using their intellect for good!" Reed shouted. "Exploring new worlds and finding new ways to improve the one you live on!"
"Why explore new worlds when I can easily conquer them?" Evil Reed shouted. "Then simply strip them of their resources to improve my own life. There's only one thing that matters in life, Richards, and that's me and how I can make my own life better."
"There's more to life than power," Reed said. "There's the love of your family, and having good friends."
"I wouldn't trust Johnny or Ben to not stab me in the back," Evil Reed said. "And as for family? Sue's a cheating whore, I only keep her around because I need her as an allie. I looked into our children's future, Reed, I suggest you do the same."
"My children will grow up to good, decent people," Reed told him. "And even if they did stray from that path, I would still love them, no matter what!"
"Valeria ends up becoming a more despised dictator than Doom!" Evil Reed shouted. "And Franklin? He would have ended up marrying some winged mutant freak named Josh. So I arranged for them to become zombie food before any of that could happen."
"You murdered Franklin and Valeria?" Reed asked.
"Better a dead son than a gay one," Evil Reed smirked. Reed's anger started to quickly build as heard those words. He loved both of his children with all of his heart, and knew that they both had good hearts. There's nothing in the multi-verse that would ever make Reed turn his back on either of his children, including who they chose to love. "Maybe I'll do you a favor and after you're dead, I'll dismember your Franklin just to be sa--"
Reed's hand stretched out, pushing into Evil Reed's mouth as more and more of the Good Reed pushed his elastic body down the evil counterpart's throat, until both arms were in there, filling and more of the Evil Reed's lungs and windpipe to the point where he couldn't breathe.
"REED!" Sue shouted. "What are you doing? STOP!"
Reed kept going until the evil version of himself had stopped moving, at which point Reed pulled his arms out, letting the evil Reed fall to the ground, both eyes wide open.
"It was an accident, I just wanted to make him pass out," Reed said, his voice shaking. "Then he started talking about how he was going to murder our children and-- I just couldn't stop."
"Well, now there ain't nothin' holding us back," Evil Ben said. "I was tired of that douche's talkin' down to us anyway."
"Where are Doom and Malice?" Johnny asked as he looked around. "And how are we going to get home?"
"They thought all of you would kill each other here," Vincent Von Doom said as he appeared in front of them. "But I can get you home, I suppose."
Before anyone could say anything, the seven players were returned back to their rightful dimensions. The Fantastic 4 returned to the living room in their apartment, startling Yoshi from her nap.
"Dinner will be ready shortly," Yoshi told them as Valeria walked out of her bedroom. Reed pulled both of them close.
"I'm so sorry," Reed told them. "You were right, Sue, we are a family and I shouldn't make all of the decisions, especially out of emotion. And Valeria? I'll support you, no matter what career path you choose."
"Thank you?" Valeria asked.
"Maybe you should keep this lesson in mind for next time," Sue said as she took Valeria's hand. "There's more than just you here, Reed. Any decisions you make have an impact on all of, and now the karma from your little time trip may have cost us our son. I'm going to see Franklin and hope he comes back to us."
As Sue and Valeria left, Johnny put a hand on Reed's shoulder. "Give her some time. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call up Bobby and apologize for something he doesn't know happened to his other universe counterpart."
"Aw, I didn't even get any KFC when I came back to life," Ben said in a disappointed tone. "Doom's got some lousy timing."
"You know what's weird?" Johnny asked. "Why would Doom's kid help us after all this?"
"I don't know, but we can't worry about that right now," Reed told him. "We need to worry about what this is going to do to reality, and more importantly, if whatever happened to Franklin is the result of Ben's returning. And what's going to happen to our counterparts with no Reed to lead them?"
"Ah, you're pushing yourself too hard again," Johnny told him. "It can't be all that bad. What's the worst that can happen without your big brain to guide them?"
# # # # #
New Warriors Headquarters
Sue was holding Franklin's hand as he lay in a bed, his aura having been sent far away by Doom's magic.
"It'll be okay, baby," Sue promised as she ran her hand across his forehead to brush the hair out of his eyes. "We'll fix this, I promise."
"Wha- how?" Sue asked nervously as Reed helped her up.
"Easy, Suzie," Ben said as he carefully approached her. "Stretch here built a contraption that let him go back in time to pull me into the timestream just before I died. I guess something must have got mucked up because now," Ben concentrated as he returned to rocky form. "I can go back and forth to human as I please. I can be handsome Ben again!"
"I'm so sorry for being so secretive these past few months," Reed said. "Ignoring you and the kids. But Ben's death was my fault. It tore a hole in our hearts that science couldn't fix... until now. Unfortunately, the device was a one-shot deal so I won't be able to use it again, but it was worth it."
Seeing the tension building in Sue's face, Yoshi took Ben by the arm. "Come along, I'll fix you some tea. You have a lot to catch up on now that you're back."
As soon as they were gone, a powerful force field blast threw Reed against the wall.
"You stupid, irresponsible bastard!" Sue shouted as she held Reed there. "Do you have ANY idea what you've done?"
"I saved our family," Reed said. "I had to alter a timeline to do it, but--"
"You messed with time!" Sue shouted. "Do you realize that now another timeline has formed? There are consequences, Reed! This could affect us, even worse than losing Ben!"
"But I saved him," Reed reiterated.
"By messing with the natural order," Sue told him. "Karma's going to come back on us hard for this, it always does."
Sue kissed him passionately as she pulled away and started walking toward the kitchen. "I just hope we can handle whatever happens next."
# # # # #
Memorial Hospital
Sharon Ventura was sitting in the doctor's office, staring across at the man who held her entire future in his hands.
"We're at a plateau with your treatments," the handsome Dr. Beemer said as he saw the look on her face. "But don't give up hope, Sharon. This battle is far from over and you are definitely a fighter. If you'll excuse me, I need to go get a file. I'll be right back."
As he left, Sharon opened a locket and stared down into it before breaking down into tears.
# # # # #
The Baxter Building
Johnny and Valeria came running into the kitchen* as Johnny grabbed Sue by the shoulders.
(*Fresh from New Warriors #19-#20)
"Before I say what I'm about to say, promise you won't use your invisible field to explode my head," Johnny said as he looked up and saw Ben standing there with a cup of tea. He let go of Sue and screamed like a frightened little girl.
"Missed you too, Matchstick," Ben said.
"I'm gonna go get some plastic containers, I want to collect what's left of Uncle Johnny for scientific research," Valeria said.
"Johnny, what's going on?" Sue asked. "And where's Franklin? We should tell him how your father's insanely stupid idea brought Ben back."
"Franklin, well... he's kind of... comatose," Johnny said meekly. "And it's kind of possibly, maybe... sort of... my fault."
"Jonathan Storm, what did you do to my baby!?" Sue asked angrily as she lifted him up with a force field.
Before Johnny could say a word, Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny disappeared from the kitchen in a flash of light, leaving Yoshi standing there. She just shrugged her shoulders and returned to making dinner.
# # # # #
The Four appeared on an asteroid that was floating in the vast void of the Negative Zone. Reed quickly started putting his brain to work, knowing that someone very powerful was behind their kidnapping. Ben's human form started transforming into the Thing as Johnny flamed on. In another flash, the team was in their blue and while costumes.
"I feel like I've just been violated," Sue said.
"Nonsense," a voice said above them. "All of you have been invited to a very special party that's being held in your honor."
The Four looked up to see Doom and Malice, standing arm in arm on a platform above them.
"Doom, I should have known," Reed said. "What's your game?"
"You mean the world's most famous scientist has no clue what's going on? I am SHOCKED," Doom said in a sarcastic tone. "I see that Benjamin is back among the living. Not that it matters, none of you will be going home."
"With our combined powers, nothing can stop our union," Malice said as she waved her hand, filling the sky above them with blood colored lightning. "My love has been teaching the finer points on the dark arts."
As the lightning struck, another Fantastic 4 appeared not too far from them, wearing grey and green versions of their costumes.
"Doom, you have to put a stop to this!" Reed asked.
"Put a stop to it?" Doom laughed. "I relish seeing you squirm, Richards. With the five of you out of the way, nothing will stand in conquest of everything I want."
"Five?" Sue asked.
"You didn't think that Franklin's little trip was an accident, did you?" Doom asked as he looked at Johnny. "I needed to remove the most powerful weapon you had, and thanks to this fool, I was able to remove Franklin and his immense power from this battle."
"Is Franklin alive?" Sue asked.
"Perhaps, but you'll never see him again," Doom told her. "He is forever lost in space and time, unless I personally choose to retrieve him."
"Doom, it's always been me that you wanted," Sue told him. "If you let my family go and bring Franklin back... I'll go with you."
Malice just laughed. "Why would he want you when he has the perfect version right here, willing to give him whatever he desires and more?"
"I've had enough of this!" Evil Reed shouted. "Return us to our reality! We just finished killing the Avengers! We're on the verge of total victory!"
"And so you shall, once you destroy these versions of yourselves!" Doom ordered. "Tear them apart!"
"I call dibs on the handsome one!" Evil Johnny shouted as he flamed on and flew toward Good Johnny. The collided before taking to the sky, trading punches and fireballs.
"How can you be evil?" Johnny asked as avoided the blasts of his evil counterpart. "We're both so good looking? I don't know about you, but I'm thinking about proposing to Lyja!"
"Commitment? Loser," Evil Johnny told him. "We can have anyone we want. I have had everyone I want."
"I don't want just anyone," Johnny said. "I want Lyja."
"Then I'll make it a point to slit her throat when I get to your world," Evil Johnny smirked. The good Johnny got an enraged look on his face as he started going supernova while flying at his evil counterpart.
Ben was trading blows with the Evil Thing, finding themselves evenly matched.
"Ya got the power, but you don't know how to use it to win!" Evil Thing shouted as he caught Ben's fist before uppercutting him. "You gotta play to win!"
"Play to win, eh?" Ben asked. "You mean like, murdering your enemies?"
"It's called survival, moron!" Evil Thing shouted. "It's a lesson I learned a long time ago before I even got these powers!"
"Yeah, well, these powers are what taught me that sometimes you gotta search for answers that don't require usin' your fists!" Ben shouted as the Evil Thing wasn't watching where he was going and fell off into a small chasm. "LIke not tellin' your clone to watch his step!"
"Still the devoted wife?" Evil Sue asked as she blasted an invisible field at Sue, causing her to duck out of the way. "I'd be more than happy to step into your shoes once your dead. It might be good to see the children again. My Franklin and Valeria were fed to zombies when they became too much of a burden."
"You murdered your own children?" Sue asked in shock.
"Valeria was getting to become annoying with her know-it-all attitude, and Franklin? Well, he was always a disappointment. I really do wish I'd taken Reed's advice and had him aborted. But seeing him ripped apart and devoured by zombies more than made up for it."
"You sick, twisted--" Sue said as she rallied all of her strength and knocked the evil Sue into a stone wall, knocking her unconscious, just as Evil Johnny fell right next to her.
"Can you believe this jerk?" Johnny asked as he landed. "Basically burned every romance I ever had and then some. I'll never be able to look at Iceman the same way again after what this said he did to him."
"Let's go find Reed," Sue said. "We need to stop Doom before he does whatever he's planning."
Reed and his evil counterpart were stretched out as far as they could possibly go, their bodies entangled with each other as they fought each other to a standstill.
"You should be using their intellect for good!" Reed shouted. "Exploring new worlds and finding new ways to improve the one you live on!"
"Why explore new worlds when I can easily conquer them?" Evil Reed shouted. "Then simply strip them of their resources to improve my own life. There's only one thing that matters in life, Richards, and that's me and how I can make my own life better."
"There's more to life than power," Reed said. "There's the love of your family, and having good friends."
"I wouldn't trust Johnny or Ben to not stab me in the back," Evil Reed said. "And as for family? Sue's a cheating whore, I only keep her around because I need her as an allie. I looked into our children's future, Reed, I suggest you do the same."
"My children will grow up to good, decent people," Reed told him. "And even if they did stray from that path, I would still love them, no matter what!"
"Valeria ends up becoming a more despised dictator than Doom!" Evil Reed shouted. "And Franklin? He would have ended up marrying some winged mutant freak named Josh. So I arranged for them to become zombie food before any of that could happen."
"You murdered Franklin and Valeria?" Reed asked.
"Better a dead son than a gay one," Evil Reed smirked. Reed's anger started to quickly build as heard those words. He loved both of his children with all of his heart, and knew that they both had good hearts. There's nothing in the multi-verse that would ever make Reed turn his back on either of his children, including who they chose to love. "Maybe I'll do you a favor and after you're dead, I'll dismember your Franklin just to be sa--"
Reed's hand stretched out, pushing into Evil Reed's mouth as more and more of the Good Reed pushed his elastic body down the evil counterpart's throat, until both arms were in there, filling and more of the Evil Reed's lungs and windpipe to the point where he couldn't breathe.
"REED!" Sue shouted. "What are you doing? STOP!"
Reed kept going until the evil version of himself had stopped moving, at which point Reed pulled his arms out, letting the evil Reed fall to the ground, both eyes wide open.
"It was an accident, I just wanted to make him pass out," Reed said, his voice shaking. "Then he started talking about how he was going to murder our children and-- I just couldn't stop."
"Well, now there ain't nothin' holding us back," Evil Ben said. "I was tired of that douche's talkin' down to us anyway."
"Where are Doom and Malice?" Johnny asked as he looked around. "And how are we going to get home?"
"They thought all of you would kill each other here," Vincent Von Doom said as he appeared in front of them. "But I can get you home, I suppose."
Before anyone could say anything, the seven players were returned back to their rightful dimensions. The Fantastic 4 returned to the living room in their apartment, startling Yoshi from her nap.
"Dinner will be ready shortly," Yoshi told them as Valeria walked out of her bedroom. Reed pulled both of them close.
"I'm so sorry," Reed told them. "You were right, Sue, we are a family and I shouldn't make all of the decisions, especially out of emotion. And Valeria? I'll support you, no matter what career path you choose."
"Thank you?" Valeria asked.
"Maybe you should keep this lesson in mind for next time," Sue said as she took Valeria's hand. "There's more than just you here, Reed. Any decisions you make have an impact on all of, and now the karma from your little time trip may have cost us our son. I'm going to see Franklin and hope he comes back to us."
As Sue and Valeria left, Johnny put a hand on Reed's shoulder. "Give her some time. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call up Bobby and apologize for something he doesn't know happened to his other universe counterpart."
"Aw, I didn't even get any KFC when I came back to life," Ben said in a disappointed tone. "Doom's got some lousy timing."
"You know what's weird?" Johnny asked. "Why would Doom's kid help us after all this?"
"I don't know, but we can't worry about that right now," Reed told him. "We need to worry about what this is going to do to reality, and more importantly, if whatever happened to Franklin is the result of Ben's returning. And what's going to happen to our counterparts with no Reed to lead them?"
"Ah, you're pushing yourself too hard again," Johnny told him. "It can't be all that bad. What's the worst that can happen without your big brain to guide them?"
# # # # #
New Warriors Headquarters
Sue was holding Franklin's hand as he lay in a bed, his aura having been sent far away by Doom's magic.
"It'll be okay, baby," Sue promised as she ran her hand across his forehead to brush the hair out of his eyes. "We'll fix this, I promise."