Issue #26 by Tobias Christopher
January 2018
January 2018
"Negative - Part One"
The Baxter Building
New York
"Why did we have to come all the way here?" Adam asked as he followed Johnny, with Juston, Ms. Marvel, and Alpha not too far behind.
"Because Annihilus just kidnapped my niece, along with Cannonball, Icarus, and Spider-Girl," Johnny reminded him. "And I don't have time for you to throw together a dimensional portal to follow."
"I thought you didn't want to use Dr. Richard's lab because--"
"Well, Reed, Sue, and Ben have been gone for a while, getting things ready for the new bundle of pebbles that Alicia is expecting," Johnny told the group. "Kind of feels like that the team's been gone for months."
"Annihilus wants his cosmic control rod," Juston said. "Please tell me that you're not giving it to him."
"Oh, hell no," Johnny told them. "But if we don't hurry, he'll kill the others. They're probably scared out of their minds right now."
"My best friend is trapped in that world with a bunch of monsters?" Ms. Marvel asked. "I hope she's okay."
# # # # #
"Welcome to the Negative Zone!" Annihilus shouted as he raised his arms in victory as he stood on a platform high above the others. "You are all now my prisoners! Tremble before--"
Cannonball rocketed into the villain, knocking him off-balance. "We are so not doing that."
Spider-Girl swung through, kicking Annihilus before he could recover, which was followed by Icarus flying through and punching him backward. The three continued attacking him before Valeria whistled below.
"Let's get out of here before reinforcements show up!"
"Good idea," Cannonball said. "Let's go!"
"Guards, subdue them!" Annihilus shouted. "They must not escape!"
"A little too late, asshole, we're already gone!" Cannonball shouted as he burst through the door, with the others following behind.
# # # # #
New York
"Okay, Alpha, you're with me," Johnny told the group. "I'm going to need some major firepower to save the others. The rest of you, keep the peace here."
"So, that's it? The rest of you get to go on this huge adventure and the three of us have to sit it out?" Juston asked. "How is that fair?"
"Someone needs to keep an eye on things," Johnny reminded him. "And it wouldn't hurt if the three of you started looking into where Franklin's body went to. The sooner we find that, the sooner we can focus on the soul and put the two back together."
"Fine," Juston said. "Maybe we can rig up a DNA tracer to find him. Hopefully he's still on Earth."
Johnny started the machine as he looked at Alpha.
"You ready?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
"No,"
"Good, because I don't know what 'rhetorical' means."
Johnny grabbed Alpha by the ear and dragged him through the portal.
"So," Juston said as he looked at Adam and Ms. Marvel. "Anyone up for a bite to eat?"
# # # # #
The Negative Zone
"So, what's the plan, big brother?" Icarus asked as he flew overhead with the others running across the landscape below him.
"Right now? We lay low until someone opens up a portal to get us home," Cannonball said as he looked at Valeria. "Unless someone can throw something together."
"Subtle," Valeria said. "I'd need the right components to build something like that, stuff I doubt we'd just find lying around here. Our only hope is that Uncle Johnny has enough brain cells to go to the Baxter Building to open the way home for us."
"Or we could go back and hand that Anal.... whatever his name is, his butt and force him to take us home," Spider-Girl suggested.
"Yeah, why are we running? We had him on the ropes," Icarus said.
"Because we don't know fully what he's capable of," Cannonball told them. "And worse, I don't know what we're capable of as a team. We need strategy and tactics, not just punching whatever's in front of us. You kids are my responsibility, I'm not about to get us killed against an alien conqueror. Only a fool would take that guy head on thinking he could win."
# # # # #
Johnny was hanging upside down, bound by ropes as Annihilus smirked at him.
"Did you honestly think you could take me head on without my Cosmic Control Rod and win?"
"Well, I kind of thought I had back-up," Johnny told him. "Where is Alpha, anyway?"
# # # # #
Alpha started to open his eyes, his skin feeling cold as his vision started to come back into focus, finding his costume was gone, with Alpha having been tied to a stake.
"This can't be good," Alpha said to himself. "And my nose itches and I can't scratch it."
"It's awake," a voice said. Alpha looked over and saw a large bulky armored creature with long hair and beard holding his costume. "I've seen strange garments such as these before. On Earth."
"Duh, that's where I'm from, now can I have them back?" Alpha asked. "I'm cold and I kind of don't like exposing myself to weird creatures... again."
"Your energy, I can sense it," the creature said as he tossed the costume aside and put his large hand under Alpha's chin, raising his head to face him. "You are powerful, yes?"
"Yeah, and right now I'm powerfully afraid that I'm about to be violated. I watch Lifetime, you know," Alpha gulped as the creature started laughing. "I just want to find my friends and go home."
"Home? To Earth?" the creature asked. "Yes, Earth, I've been there. Weakling inhabitants, but capable of defending themselves. But you? With your power, I would have an ally capable of helping dominate that world. Yes, with your power added to my own, we would be unstoppable!"
"Look, I'm not really looking to conquer a planet, I just want my pants back and--"
The creature backhanded Alpha with enough force to knock an ordinary person's head off. The young hero spit out of some blood as he looked up at the creature.
"OW!" Alpha shouted. "My friends are going to kick your ass when they find me."
"Child, you no longer have any friends. You no longer have any worldly possessions. You no longer have any freedom," the creature said as he tossed Alpha's costume into the fire." You only have what I want you to have and nothing more. You now belong to Blastaar!"
"How about I just call you Bastarrd?" Alpha asked as he broke his chains and flew at the creature with full force, only for Blastaar to punch him to the ground before he could make contact, pounding Alpha into the ground repeatedly with his boot until the hero was no longer moving.
"I can see that I will have to teach you to obey me, boy," Blastaar said as he picked the unconscious young man up by his arm, lifting him up. "When I am through, you will be my willing servant, who will be honored to lay his life down for his beloved master. Together, we will conquer not only your world, but every world!"
# # # # #
Cannonball had started a fire to keep everyone warm while huddled inside of a smaller cave while Valeria was doing equations on the wall.
"Okay, if my math is correct, and let's face it, it always is," Valeria said as she kept drawing. "We've been here for about three hours, twenty-one minutes and thirteen seconds. That's enough time for Uncle Johnny to get everyone to the Baxter Building, open the portal, and because he's airheaded enough to not bring the Cosmic Control Rod, tried to take on Annihilus alone and got his butt handed to him. So he's probably being tortured right now."
"Let me guess, he didn't bring help?" Spider-Girl asked.
"He would have brought Alpha since he's technically the one you'd want to have in a firefight with a powerful dictator like Annihilus," Valeria told them. "But given that neither one of those idiots knows how the portal works, Alpha most likely got separated during the trip and is lost somewhere in the Negative Zone."
"Damn," Cannonball said in an exhausted voice. "Alright, let's go get Johnny first. I doubt Alpha's going to cause that much trouble in an endless void, so we'll track him down after."
"Are you okay?" Spider-Girl as she asked Icarus just staring blankly into the fire. "You look kind of... lost in thought. Are you scared, too?"
"No, it's just that-- Franklin kissed me for the first time when we were trapped in a cave like this on a wilderness planet," Icarus told her. "We'd been stuck for two days, with rain pouring outside with no letting up. He was still weak from having been drugged on the previous planet we'd come from, so his powers weren't working. We didn't know if we'd ever get home, and I was starting to panic and he just... went for it. That's when I kind of... knew... you know?"
"So you and Franklin are--?"
"Complicated," Icarus told her. "We're complicated."
"Alright, let's go get Johnny and Alpha, and get our butts home," Cannonball told them as he stood up. "I don't like this place, so the sooner we can get home, the better."
# # # # #
"What about the captives?" one of the guards asked as he watched Annihilus torturing Johnny as he hung upside down.
"I want security at its highest," Annihilus said. "I want them all destroyed if they even try to breach the palace. Except for the girl, I want the pleasure of killing her in front of Johnny Storm myself. If he won't bring me my Cosmic Control Rod, then I'll destroy everyone he cares about until he tells me where it is."
# # # # #
Several worlds, dimensions, and lifetimes away
Franklin Richard's aura lay in a fetal position in the middle of an empty lot, just waiting for everything to end. For what felt like an eternity, Franklin had been bounced from reality to reality, from world to world, and from timeline to timeline, one right after the other with no end to the trip in sight. After laying there for what felt like years, Franklin finally opened his eyes and looked around.
It looked like a city, but it had been devastated. The buildings were in ruin, there was no sign of life, and skies above were a dusty orange. Franklin got to his feet, trying to keep his balance after not having stood up in a very long time. Although he had managed to will himself a Fantastic Four costume that was both midnight blue and navy blue some time ago. Franklin was also starting to forget why this costume was so important to him.
"Is this... home?" Franklin asked, not sure if he even remembered what his home looked like now. He stumbled a bit as he started walking, his memories of his own life already starting to fade...
TO BE CONTINUED...
New York
"Why did we have to come all the way here?" Adam asked as he followed Johnny, with Juston, Ms. Marvel, and Alpha not too far behind.
"Because Annihilus just kidnapped my niece, along with Cannonball, Icarus, and Spider-Girl," Johnny reminded him. "And I don't have time for you to throw together a dimensional portal to follow."
"I thought you didn't want to use Dr. Richard's lab because--"
"Well, Reed, Sue, and Ben have been gone for a while, getting things ready for the new bundle of pebbles that Alicia is expecting," Johnny told the group. "Kind of feels like that the team's been gone for months."
"Annihilus wants his cosmic control rod," Juston said. "Please tell me that you're not giving it to him."
"Oh, hell no," Johnny told them. "But if we don't hurry, he'll kill the others. They're probably scared out of their minds right now."
"My best friend is trapped in that world with a bunch of monsters?" Ms. Marvel asked. "I hope she's okay."
# # # # #
"Welcome to the Negative Zone!" Annihilus shouted as he raised his arms in victory as he stood on a platform high above the others. "You are all now my prisoners! Tremble before--"
Cannonball rocketed into the villain, knocking him off-balance. "We are so not doing that."
Spider-Girl swung through, kicking Annihilus before he could recover, which was followed by Icarus flying through and punching him backward. The three continued attacking him before Valeria whistled below.
"Let's get out of here before reinforcements show up!"
"Good idea," Cannonball said. "Let's go!"
"Guards, subdue them!" Annihilus shouted. "They must not escape!"
"A little too late, asshole, we're already gone!" Cannonball shouted as he burst through the door, with the others following behind.
# # # # #
New York
"Okay, Alpha, you're with me," Johnny told the group. "I'm going to need some major firepower to save the others. The rest of you, keep the peace here."
"So, that's it? The rest of you get to go on this huge adventure and the three of us have to sit it out?" Juston asked. "How is that fair?"
"Someone needs to keep an eye on things," Johnny reminded him. "And it wouldn't hurt if the three of you started looking into where Franklin's body went to. The sooner we find that, the sooner we can focus on the soul and put the two back together."
"Fine," Juston said. "Maybe we can rig up a DNA tracer to find him. Hopefully he's still on Earth."
Johnny started the machine as he looked at Alpha.
"You ready?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
"No,"
"Good, because I don't know what 'rhetorical' means."
Johnny grabbed Alpha by the ear and dragged him through the portal.
"So," Juston said as he looked at Adam and Ms. Marvel. "Anyone up for a bite to eat?"
# # # # #
The Negative Zone
"So, what's the plan, big brother?" Icarus asked as he flew overhead with the others running across the landscape below him.
"Right now? We lay low until someone opens up a portal to get us home," Cannonball said as he looked at Valeria. "Unless someone can throw something together."
"Subtle," Valeria said. "I'd need the right components to build something like that, stuff I doubt we'd just find lying around here. Our only hope is that Uncle Johnny has enough brain cells to go to the Baxter Building to open the way home for us."
"Or we could go back and hand that Anal.... whatever his name is, his butt and force him to take us home," Spider-Girl suggested.
"Yeah, why are we running? We had him on the ropes," Icarus said.
"Because we don't know fully what he's capable of," Cannonball told them. "And worse, I don't know what we're capable of as a team. We need strategy and tactics, not just punching whatever's in front of us. You kids are my responsibility, I'm not about to get us killed against an alien conqueror. Only a fool would take that guy head on thinking he could win."
# # # # #
Johnny was hanging upside down, bound by ropes as Annihilus smirked at him.
"Did you honestly think you could take me head on without my Cosmic Control Rod and win?"
"Well, I kind of thought I had back-up," Johnny told him. "Where is Alpha, anyway?"
# # # # #
Alpha started to open his eyes, his skin feeling cold as his vision started to come back into focus, finding his costume was gone, with Alpha having been tied to a stake.
"This can't be good," Alpha said to himself. "And my nose itches and I can't scratch it."
"It's awake," a voice said. Alpha looked over and saw a large bulky armored creature with long hair and beard holding his costume. "I've seen strange garments such as these before. On Earth."
"Duh, that's where I'm from, now can I have them back?" Alpha asked. "I'm cold and I kind of don't like exposing myself to weird creatures... again."
"Your energy, I can sense it," the creature said as he tossed the costume aside and put his large hand under Alpha's chin, raising his head to face him. "You are powerful, yes?"
"Yeah, and right now I'm powerfully afraid that I'm about to be violated. I watch Lifetime, you know," Alpha gulped as the creature started laughing. "I just want to find my friends and go home."
"Home? To Earth?" the creature asked. "Yes, Earth, I've been there. Weakling inhabitants, but capable of defending themselves. But you? With your power, I would have an ally capable of helping dominate that world. Yes, with your power added to my own, we would be unstoppable!"
"Look, I'm not really looking to conquer a planet, I just want my pants back and--"
The creature backhanded Alpha with enough force to knock an ordinary person's head off. The young hero spit out of some blood as he looked up at the creature.
"OW!" Alpha shouted. "My friends are going to kick your ass when they find me."
"Child, you no longer have any friends. You no longer have any worldly possessions. You no longer have any freedom," the creature said as he tossed Alpha's costume into the fire." You only have what I want you to have and nothing more. You now belong to Blastaar!"
"How about I just call you Bastarrd?" Alpha asked as he broke his chains and flew at the creature with full force, only for Blastaar to punch him to the ground before he could make contact, pounding Alpha into the ground repeatedly with his boot until the hero was no longer moving.
"I can see that I will have to teach you to obey me, boy," Blastaar said as he picked the unconscious young man up by his arm, lifting him up. "When I am through, you will be my willing servant, who will be honored to lay his life down for his beloved master. Together, we will conquer not only your world, but every world!"
# # # # #
Cannonball had started a fire to keep everyone warm while huddled inside of a smaller cave while Valeria was doing equations on the wall.
"Okay, if my math is correct, and let's face it, it always is," Valeria said as she kept drawing. "We've been here for about three hours, twenty-one minutes and thirteen seconds. That's enough time for Uncle Johnny to get everyone to the Baxter Building, open the portal, and because he's airheaded enough to not bring the Cosmic Control Rod, tried to take on Annihilus alone and got his butt handed to him. So he's probably being tortured right now."
"Let me guess, he didn't bring help?" Spider-Girl asked.
"He would have brought Alpha since he's technically the one you'd want to have in a firefight with a powerful dictator like Annihilus," Valeria told them. "But given that neither one of those idiots knows how the portal works, Alpha most likely got separated during the trip and is lost somewhere in the Negative Zone."
"Damn," Cannonball said in an exhausted voice. "Alright, let's go get Johnny first. I doubt Alpha's going to cause that much trouble in an endless void, so we'll track him down after."
"Are you okay?" Spider-Girl as she asked Icarus just staring blankly into the fire. "You look kind of... lost in thought. Are you scared, too?"
"No, it's just that-- Franklin kissed me for the first time when we were trapped in a cave like this on a wilderness planet," Icarus told her. "We'd been stuck for two days, with rain pouring outside with no letting up. He was still weak from having been drugged on the previous planet we'd come from, so his powers weren't working. We didn't know if we'd ever get home, and I was starting to panic and he just... went for it. That's when I kind of... knew... you know?"
"So you and Franklin are--?"
"Complicated," Icarus told her. "We're complicated."
"Alright, let's go get Johnny and Alpha, and get our butts home," Cannonball told them as he stood up. "I don't like this place, so the sooner we can get home, the better."
# # # # #
"What about the captives?" one of the guards asked as he watched Annihilus torturing Johnny as he hung upside down.
"I want security at its highest," Annihilus said. "I want them all destroyed if they even try to breach the palace. Except for the girl, I want the pleasure of killing her in front of Johnny Storm myself. If he won't bring me my Cosmic Control Rod, then I'll destroy everyone he cares about until he tells me where it is."
# # # # #
Several worlds, dimensions, and lifetimes away
Franklin Richard's aura lay in a fetal position in the middle of an empty lot, just waiting for everything to end. For what felt like an eternity, Franklin had been bounced from reality to reality, from world to world, and from timeline to timeline, one right after the other with no end to the trip in sight. After laying there for what felt like years, Franklin finally opened his eyes and looked around.
It looked like a city, but it had been devastated. The buildings were in ruin, there was no sign of life, and skies above were a dusty orange. Franklin got to his feet, trying to keep his balance after not having stood up in a very long time. Although he had managed to will himself a Fantastic Four costume that was both midnight blue and navy blue some time ago. Franklin was also starting to forget why this costume was so important to him.
"Is this... home?" Franklin asked, not sure if he even remembered what his home looked like now. He stumbled a bit as he started walking, his memories of his own life already starting to fade...
TO BE CONTINUED...