Issue #31 (June 2018)
Written by Tobias Christopher Featuring: Juston
Machine Teen
The Rawhide Kid
Ms. Marvel
Icarus
Sophie Von Doom
Vincent Von Doom
Cannonball
Franklin Richards
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"Quest for Franklin Richards - Prologue"Latveria
"Okay, we're here," Adam said as he landed the silver and purple cloaked jet near the castle. In the passenger seat sat Juston, with Ms. Marvel and Rawhide Kid in the back. "I still say this jet looks a little familiar," Juston said as he undid his seatbelt. "It should, it's made from the remaining parts of your wrecked Sentinel," Adam said. "WHAT?" Juston asked flatly. "Well, we couldn't rebuild it and the parts were just going to waste," Adam told him as Juston looked like he was about to cry. His lip was trembling as if he were about to break down right there. "What's a Sentinel?" Rawhide Kid asked as Ms. Marvel undid his seatbelt. The newer hero's hands were bound as Ms. Marvel helped him up. "And why am I still tied up? I thought you guys were starting to trust me." "We'd trust you more if you told us your name and why you're wielding guns in our city," Adam said. "The name's Rawhide Kid." "No, your real name." "That is my real name, it's the name the rodeo gave to me when they took me in," "Okay, back up," Ms. Marvel said. "Rodeo?" "Rescue now, backstory later," Juston told him, still trying to keep his voice from breaking with sadness as he looked at Adam. "We're going to talk about this later." Castle Von Doom Cannonball felt his lip bleeding, something that rarely ever happened to him as he was almost always on the winning end of a fight. This time he was fighting Malefactor, the son of Dr. Doom pulled from an alternate universe. While Sam didn't mind fighting with his hands, he'd love to have enough space to get his powers going to really put Doom's son in his place. Unfortunately, Malefactor was using magic from a distance to toss him around the room through levitation. "You talk a big game, but you take away the magic and the flashy effects, and you're just a little runt," Cannonball told him as he spit blood onto the floor. "You afraid to fight like a man?" "I am the most powerful being on this planet," Malefactor told him. "Soon my magic will rival even that of your most powerful sorcerers. Doom himself will gravel at my feet once he sees how great my powers are!" "Put your dick away, son, this ain't a measuring contest," Cannonball said. "At the end of the day, you're still just a little bitch." "You want to fight one on one?" Malefactor asked. "Very well, I'll fight you without the use of my magic, after this one last spell." Malefactor started chanting in Latin as a large purple blade extended from his hand. "A magic sword? Are you kidding me?" "You want to fight me, man to man?" Malefactor asked. "Strike me if you can, farmboy, if you da--" Cannonball's fist plowed into Malefactor's jaw, feeling like he'd just been slapped with a brick wall. Adam, Juston, Ms. Marvel and the Rawhide Kid had snuck into the castle after having taken out the Doombots that were standing watch. "We need to split up to find the others," Adam said. "Okay, but who gets stuck babysitting?" Ms. Marvel asked, seeing Juston and Adam had already placed their fingers on their noses. "Real mature, you two." "Alright, let's go bring our buddies home," Adam said as the group separated. Icarus was still struggling with his restraints, barely able to move with both his arms, legs and wings restrained. The hooks in his wings keeping them unable to move was the worst of the pain, it felt like his nerve endings were being stabbed with shards of broken glass. Even though his physical body could withstand huge amounts of pain, his wings could only stand so much before the pain became unbearable. It was the worst pain imaginable for the young mutant. Juston was wandering past and saw Icarus hanging there, noticing his friend was in intense pain. Juston quickly rushed in and pulled the tape off of his mouth. "Don't worry, buddy," Juston told him. "We're getting you out of here, just gotta unlock these chains." "My wings," Icarus pleaded. "Get the hooks out of them, the pain is killing me." "Sure," Juston said as he went around to the back and tried to pull the hooks out, but Icarus started screaming in pain as if he were being stabbed. "Never realized your wings were this sensitive. Don't worry, I'll try to get them out without hurting you anymore." That's when Sopie Von Doom grabbed Juston by his hair and pulled his neck back. With her other hand, Juston saw a maroon glow from her charging it with magic. "You've got a spine, don't you?" Doomsday asked. "Let me fix that," With her glowing hand, Doomsday broke the skin and bones in Juston's back, grabbing his spine in her hand as he screamed in pain. "Such a sensitive part of the human anatomy. Oops." Squeezing her hand, Doomsday crushed the piece of spine in her hand, crumbling it into dust and listening to the young man's bloodied scream before letting Juston fall helpless to the floor. He tried to start crawling away as Doomsday just laughed, putting her spiked boot onto his back, pushing him to the floor. "We're not done yet, honey," Doomsday taunted as she let the dust of his spinal cord fall to the ground. "In fact, you've just earned a front row seat to watch me saw the wings off of your friend, then I'll start pulling pieces off of you." Ms. Marvel and Rawhide Kid found Cannonball beating the ever-loving crap out of Malefactor, this time not giving his older opponent the time to get a move in. Everytime Malefactor tried to say a spell or summon his magic, Cannonball's fists were right on top of him, pummeling him without pause. "That dude is pissed," Rawhide Kid said. "Should we step in?" "Nah, let the kid have his fun, we have better things to do," Ms. Marvel said as she looked through the large hole in the wall, seeing the rest of the team in containment chambers. "Like freeing my team." Adam was wandering the halls when he noticed something strange while walking past an open chamber door. Adam saw Franklin laying in a glass casket, seemingly dead to the world. "There you are," Adam said. "Nice threads, Frankie. But this is no time to play dress-up, we gotta bring you home." Looking around for something to break the glass, Adam spotted the Franklin voodoo doll on Sophie's bed. "Yeah, this isn't creepy in the slightest. Josh would probably like it, though." "All of your friend's rescue attempts have failed," Doomsday said as she picked up a rusty saw and walked behind Icarus, who was seething with anger now after having seen one of his friends hurt. "No can save you from my wrath, mutant. Not your crippled friend here, not your precious big brother, and especially not Franklin. He's mine, and mine alone. Only I will know what his skin feels like, how it feels to kiss his lips. How it feels to hear him say 'I love you'. You will never get these things, you freak. You will never be worthy of Franklin's love. What do you have to say to that?" "That you didn't re tape my mouth, and you're not wearing ear protection," Icarus said bitterly as he started singing, hitting the highest note he could. Doomsday's ears started bleeding as glass started shattering around the room. Icarus screamed in pain as he moved his wings, ripping them free from the hooks that were binding them. "No!" Doomsday shouted Icarus flapped his wings as hard as he could, sending a gust of wind that sent Doomsday flying through the wall. "GIve me strength," Icarus said with a mighty scream as he ripped his chains from the wall. As Doomsday started picking herself up from the floor moments later, she was greeted by the sight of Icarus carrying Juston out of the room. Before she could do anything, the winged mutant started singing to hypnotize her. "Go lock yourself in the dungeon for two weeks." Without protection to filter Icarus's hypnotic singing voice, Doomsday stood up and did exactly as he commanded. "Enough, please!" Malefactor shouted after having hit the ground. Cannonball's hands were bloodied and bruised, but it was worth it. What the villain didn't know was that Sam Guthrie had been brawling since he was ten-years-old and has been kicking ass and taking names since, even before he got his powers. "I yield!" "Then tell me where my brother is," Cannonball told him. "And no tricks, or you'll get it even worse." "He's right through that door behind you," Malefactor said as Cannonball turned, giving the villain the chance to stab him through the chest with his sword. Cannonball fell to his knees as the sword was yanked out, although there was no blood pouring from the wound, just a thick purple liquid. "Fool, you should have surrendered to me when you had the chance. Now you get to die a slow and very painful death. This sword has poisoned your body, a poison that will slowly over the course of the next seven days kill you. And only I know the cure." A gun click was heard as a six-shooter sat not even an inch away from Malefactor's head. "Then I reckon you'd best be giving it to him," Rawhide Kid said. "'Cause I'm taking vengeance on someone today." "I don't have the cure, the terms of the spell that produced the poison state that only the blood of the youngest in the victim's lineage can save his life, spilled in the spot of Cannonball's greatest failure." Rawhide Kid hit him in the back of the head with his six-shooter, knocking him out as Adam and Icarus walked up, carrying Franklin and Juston. "SAM!" Josh shouted as he rushed over, handing Juston to Rawhide Kid. He quickly put his arm around his brother to help him up. "Don't die, Sammy, please. We can get you help." "What has happened to my castle!?" Dr. Doom asked as he looked around while standing at the door. "Why are there teenagers everywhere!? Doombots, destroy them!" "Yeah, that's not happening," Valeria said with a yawn as she stood with the rest of the team. "The second Ms. Marvel woke me up, I patched into their programming since I knew we'd have an army to get through to get out of here. They're all in the basement re-enacting 'Fight Club', beating each other to pieces." "Then I will destroy you myself," Doom said as the group banded together and got ready to attack. "Flame on!" Johnny shouted as Icarus spread his wings to the maximum width. Ms. Marvel's fists grew larger and Spider-Girl got her web-shooters ready. Alpha's hands started to glow with plasma energy while Cannonball stood at the front of the group. "When it comes to teams, mine's bigger than yours is," Cannonball smirked weakly as Icarus kept an arm around him. "You have two minutes to vacate my castle," Doom told them. "Before I unleash the full fury of Doom onto all of you." "You heard him, team, let's roll," Johnny said as the group headed for the door. "Why are you letting them leave?" Vincent asked as he started to get up. "We can easily take them apart and kill them here!" "Because the failure to destroy them lies with you, my son," Doom said as he walked past. "Let their victory today be a painful reminder of your ineptitude at destroying your enemy." "You've never destroyed Reed Richards," Vincent smirked. "Ah, but I already have," Doom said as he kept walking. "His defeat is playing out as we speak." New York Some Time Later "How's Juston?" Ms. Marvel asked as she entered the meeting room. "No word from Adam at the hospital," Johnny told her. "We'll know something soon, I hope." "And Franklin?" "Still comatose, but at least he's home safe," Spider-Girl told her. "He's at the Baxter Building for safe keeping since he obviously wasn't safe here. Tomorrow morning we're jumping through the portal to bring him home." "In the meantime, maybe we should call your family in Kentucky," Johnny said as he looked at Cannonball, who was sitting shirtless on a table as H.E.R.B.I.E. was patching up his wound. "We'll get your youngest sibling out here and fix you right up." "My baby sister isn't the youngest Guthrie," Cannonball told them. "A cousin, then?" Alpha asked. "Ain't got no cousins," Cannonball said. "Then who's the youngest Guthrie?" "It's... my son," Cannonball told the group. "And we're not dragging him into this, so we better start the funeral arrangements." The Baxter Building Franklin was on a table in his father's lab, with wires attached to both his bare chest and forehead to monitor his heart rate and brainwaves, which were both weakening. "The more time Franklin's aura is spent separated from his body, the weaker he becomes," Valeria said as she looked at Josh, who stood by Franklin's bedside, holding his hand. "Unless we bring him back within the next seventy-two hours, his body will die." "Then we'll bring him home," Josh said, his gaze still focused on Franklin. "You still think he'll wake up and you'll have a fairy tale ending, don't you?" "No, I've given up on happy endings, I just want him to wake up," Josh said. "I just want my best friend back. And if he does want something more, we'll talk about it," Josh gently squeezed Franklin's hand as he watched Valeria leave, having other more important projects to take of. "Never thought she'd leave. Look, Franklin, I care for you. More than I probably should, given that we only kissed once a long time ago. I don't want to get my hopes up for a relationship, though, I've already been burned in that department back home. You're the first guy I've ever thought about in that way. And even if you don't love me like that... I just want you to wake up," Josh told him. "I'll take your friendship however I can get it. Sam made me realize that... even though I care for you, and us being... together would be the greatest thing in the world for me, I can't base my entire life hoping for something that I might not get. We both have to want this, Franklin. And if you don't want me, then... I'll survive. It'll hurt, but I'll survive. At least we got a little time together, and I'm grateful for that. You make me want to be a better person and hero. And when you wake up, you're going to find me stronger than before you took your trip." Josh leaned down and gently kissed Franklin's lips, hoping it would be enough to wake him up. After a lingering kiss, Josh pulled away and letting out a little laugh. "Nothing, huh?" Josh asked with a sniffle. "Can't blame a guy for trying, right? Who knows, maybe you felt that kiss where ever you are and it'll lead you home. Just come back to your friends, Franklin. We all need you." Alternate Earth Franklin walked into the room, where a blind and wingless Icarus was just listening to the noises coming from outside. Not knowing what to say, Franklin slowly approached when something caused him to stumble, like a far off force from another world was hitting him with a powerful emotion that he couldn't quite figure out. "You okay?" Alex Power asked as he looked into the room. "Yeah," Franklin said as he held his forehead. "Better than alright. I remember, Alex. I remember... everything." TO BE CONTINUED... |