Franklin found himself floating in an empty black void. There was nothing but empty space as he looked at his hands.
"This is it. I'm dead. I'll never see my family again."
"You're not dead yet, but it's happening," a voice told him. Franklin saw a young man in his mid-teens who looked a lot like Johnny Storm. "This is the final stop, though before you go either Heaven or Hell."
"And who are you?"
"Oh, that's right, we haven't met yet, Grandpa," Kodi Richards told him. "I'm your great-great-great-, well let's just skip the greats, there are a lot of them, grandson."
"This is it. I'm dead. I'll never see my family again."
"You're not dead yet, but it's happening," a voice told him. Franklin saw a young man in his mid-teens who looked a lot like Johnny Storm. "This is the final stop, though before you go either Heaven or Hell."
"And who are you?"
"Oh, that's right, we haven't met yet, Grandpa," Kodi Richards told him. "I'm your great-great-great-, well let's just skip the greats, there are a lot of them, grandson."
Issue #34 (October 2018)
Written by Tobias Christopher Featuring: |
"Quest for Franklin Richards - Worlds Without End"The Baxter Building
Hours Earlier "Okay, T'Challa and his crew have entered safely, now it's your turn," Reed said as he looked at Cannonball and his group of Ms. Marvel, Alpha and Adam. All four had donned the specially crafted interstellar suits designed to let them breathe in any atmosphere. "Be careful." "We will," Cannonball said as he put a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. "You're in charge while I'm gone. I'll bring him home, Josh." "Just be sure you're with him," Josh said as he hugged Sam tightly. "I can't lose my big brother, too." Cannonball took a deep breath as he led the team through the portal. "Okay, we're tracing Franklin's energy signature," Adam said as he read the scanner. "I still don't see why we couldn't use the device that thing the alternate version of Franklin gave to Icarus." "Because I let Sue have it," Cannonball replied. "As much as Josh loves him, I think a mother's love would give it twice as much power to track him down. We can make do with the regular scanner that track's Franklin's aura." "An aura that's fading," Adam told him. "He's got a few hours left, at best. The weaker his aura gets, the weaker the signal. What if we don't find him in time?" "Then I have to tell my kid brother that I failed," Cannonball said as he faced forward. "That ain't happening, so let's find Franklin and get those crazy kids together." The first portal opened as the heroes stepped out into a brightly colored world that was covered in pastels. It looked like a more colorful version of New York. "This place looks familiar," Alpha said as he looked up into the sky, where the sun had a baby's face in it, laughing at everyone below. "Oh, shit. We gotta get out of here NOW!" "Alpha, breathe," Adam said as he patted his friends back. "But Andy's right. We should go before--" A circus theme started playing as clowns started filtering out onto the street while juggling, tumbling and doing various tricks to get the attention of the newcomers. "Clowns?" Cannonball asked. "Clowns?" Ms. Marvel asked as well. "... CLOWNS!!" Alpha screamed as he started to hyperventilate. He looked over at the park and saw a clown under a tree holding a sharp knife, making a throat-slitting motion at the hero. "Come on, Andy, they're only harmless clowns," Cannonball said as a pie hit him in the face. "Okay, these bastards are toast." "Sam, we don't have the time for this," Ms. Marvel said as she extended her arm before enlarging it and swatting the clowns out of their path. "Is Franklin here or not?" "No," Adam told them. "He was, though. That's kind of the problem." "Great, what's the problem?" Cannonball asked. "Okay, think of this search as one of those Family Circus strips, the ones where Billy leaves that dotted trail. Franklin's aura is Billy and it's leaving a dotted trail all over the mutli-verse. A trail that we have to follow to get to him." "And how many worlds are in this dotted trail?" "It could be anywhere from a dozen to a million. Franklin's been bouncing around the multi-verse for months, Sam. There's no telling how many worlds he's passed through." "Franklin has hours left at best, we can't search a million worlds in that amount of time." Cannonball told him. "And I'm not going home without him, so we're going to search every world we can find a better option. I'm not letting my little brother down before I die." Alpha was plasma blasting away clowns further up the street when the clown with knife appeared in the alley behind him. "Hey, kid," the clown said in a creepy tone while still holding the knife. "Want to see a magic trick? Come closer, I promise I won't stab you." "Oh, no, I've fallen for that one before," Alpha said as he prepared a large plasma blast, then stopped as he recognized the clown before getting an enraged look in his eyes. "It's you." "Come on, Andy, it's time to go," Adam said as Alpha turned his head. When he turned back, the clown was gone. "NO! He got away! We have to find him!" Alpha shouted angrily. "I'll destroy this whole planet to find him!" "Whoa, calm down," Adam said as he put a hand on Alpha's shoulder. "I thought you couldn't get away from this place fast enough." "I saw him," Alpha said as a tear fell down his face. "I saw the guy who--" "You guys coming?" Ms. Marvel asked as the portal opened. "Franklin's not here, and we're running out of time." Alpha looked back at the alley, then at Adam. "I'm coming back here with a tank and a nuke." As the New Warriors entered the portal, the clown started laughing as he ran toward the portal. "Time to finish what I started." The Baxter Building Earth "Alright, I found him," Alex said as he brought Sam's old friend Jesse into the lab. "Now let's get this started." Icarus was sitting in a chair, holding the doll of Franklin's likeness that Adam had found in Doom's castle. It looked so much like Franklin that if it were larger, the doll could pass for the real dea.. "I filled him in, but I still don't think he's convinced." Alex said as he headed to the control panel. "This nearly killed me the last time I tried it," Jesse said. "And that was just opening a portal for five seconds. You're wanting it open for how long?" "Long enough to find my Grandpa and nephew," Icarus told him. "If they're even still alive." "The good news is that you only have to open it, then I can use Dr. Richard's equipment to stabilize it and keep it open for Josh to do what he needs to," Alex told them. "Hopefully they won't be too hard to locate." "Grandpa would be about 96 years old now, but he won't have slowed down for anything," Icarus told him. "Josiah is probably struggling to keep up with him." "Just hurry," Alex told him. "You need to find them and be back before the others get back with Franklin. There's no telling how mad Dr. Richards will be with me for using this equipment." "About as mad as Sam will be when I bring his son home," Icarus said. "But both Sam and Franklin will get to live, so I'm willing to risk pissing a few people off. Let's do this." "Alright, this is the fifth world we've been through in the last fifteen minutes," Cannonball said. "Please tell me this is where he landed." "No dice," Adam said as he looked at the scanner. "He's not here, either." "I don't think anything's here," Ms. Marvel told them. "It looks like a wasteland." "This was Kittania's original homeworld before the Trio wiped it out," Alpha said as he looked around the decimated planet. "The survivors found a new homeworld to colonize." "I wonder how many worlds those genocidal dicks tore through before you guys stopped him," Cannonball wondered. "Or what they'd do if they ever got their powers back." "They won't," Adam promised. "Franklin turned them into puppies." "And my puppy is the sweetest little doggie ever, he doesn't have an evil bone in his body now," Alpha stated. "I could never fight him, even if he was evil." "Well, I guess its off to the next world," Cannonball said. "How are we doing on time?" "Not much time left," Adam told him. "The signal's getting weaker. What if we don't make it? What if Franklin just... fades away?" "I made a promise, dammit, and I intend to keep it," Cannonball said. "We need to pick up the pace. Next world, just a quick 'yes' or 'no' then we'll jump to the next one. I'm not going home without that kid." "You really don't want to disappoint Josh, do you?" Ms. Marvel asked. "I'm going to die soon," Cannonball told her. "I'm the one Josh looks up to the most. The least I can do is bring his true love home so he won't be as sad when I'm gone. Maybe if he has Franklin to hold every night, he won't miss me as bad." "You're his idol, of course he's going to miss you, no matter what," Ms. Marvel told him. "What if this kid of yours is healed in that little world he's in? What if he's able to come back without harming him?" "Then he gets to come back to a father who abandoned him," Cannonball said as he faced her. "For no other reason than because I had family here who needed me. Siblings who are old enough to take care of themselves now. I had no idea how strong Josh was until I joined this team. He's going to do great things without me around. Meanwhile, my little boy probably cries himself to sleep every night wondering where his father is. And if he comes back and I have to look into that four-year-old's eyes and tell him why I left him to grow up in a world without his father's love... that'll be a worse death than this poison running through my body." "Portal's ready," Adam said as he looked at the scanner. It had stopped tracking Franklin's location two worlds ago, but he didn't have the heart to tell Sam that it was over. "Let's check out the next world." New York "Where do you think you're going?" Spider-Girl asked as she followed Rawhide Kid out of the New Warriors HQ. "You're supposed to stay put!" "I'm not a part of this team," the young vigilante told her. "Ya'll are keeping me against my will. I have a murderer to bring to justice, and I aim to do just that." "New York's full of murderers, care to narrow it down?" "The one who ordered the death of my family," Rawhide Kid said as he turned to face her. "The only family I've ever known was gunned down in cold blood. Now it's payback time. My family's going to be avenged, no matter what." "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," Spider-Girl told him. "What if I helped you find your family's killer and then we let the law decide his fate?" "Why? So he can be let off with a slap on the wrist?" "That won't happen, I know heroes who know people in the legal system, they won't get away," Spider-Girl assured him. "At least try it my way for now, because I'm not letting anymore blood be spilled. Just one chance to prove that my way will work." "Fine," Rawhide Kid told her. "One chance, and that's it. Who are you calling?" "Help," Spider-Girl said. "The team left a few of us behind, and Icarus won't be of any help until Franklin comes back. That leaves--" Johnny was passionately making out with Lyja, waiting for just the right time to propose when his phone rang. "This better be good." "An entire world made of cotton candy? We could have lived there forever," Alpha said as he had his arm wrapped in blue and pink cotton candy as they stepped out of the portal into the next world, which was an endless mass of water. The four heroes stood on the lone small island in the place. "Whoa, I do not swim." "He's dead," Cannonball whispered as he sat down and stared out over the water. "It's been three hours. Frankin's dead and and now I have to tell Josh that the love of his life is gone." "We don't know that," Ms. Marvel told him. "Maybe the Richards or T'Challa got to him in time." "They'd have contacted us by now," Cannonball said. "I let Josh down. I let Franklin down. I let my little boy down. The three of you should just go back to Earth and let me stay here until I die. There's no point in me going back now." Alpha just sighed as he grabbed Cannonball by the collar and lifted him in the air singlehandedly. "I have had enough of this!" Alpha shouted. "Look you big, muscular son of a bitch, so you've had a run of bad luck? Big fucking deal! There are people out there with way worse problems. The Richards have to bury their son! Juston's in a hospital, possibly paralyzed for life! My parents abandoned me, and to date haven't even made a single attempt to see if I'm okay! Adam's walking around with that silly haircut from the early 90's!" "Not cool, bro." Adam said as he brushed his bangs back. "We've all got problems, dude," Alpha said as he looked at Cannonball. "You couldn't save Franklin, but you can still save yourself and you won't because you're afraid of what a four-year-old kid thinks of you? What about the rest of us who've grown to somewhat like you? Don't our opinions matter? I guess not because you're willing to throw your life away because of a stupid fucking 'what if' scenario. You want to stay here and feel sorry for yourself? Fine, but Icarus needs a buddy right now who has to tell him his big brother's nothing but a giant pussy." Alpha tossed Cannonball into the sand as he started walking toward the portal. "Let's go home and say our goodbyes to Franklin." "Wow, didn't know Andy had that in him," Adam said as he followed. "I'll leave the portal open for a few minutes, Sam, in case you want to, you know, not be a pussy." As he walked through the portal with Ms. Marvel, Adam brushed his bangs back again. "You think my hair is cool, right?" Earth In the alley next to the Baxter Building, a portal opened as Throatslash the Clown stepped out, giggling harshly. "Don't worry, Andy, we're going to have playtime very soon." TO BE CONTINUED... |