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Once More, O Green & Pleasant Land
Hammer Bay, capital of the Indian Ocean island nation of Genosha
Once open a time, the citizens of Genosha were justly proud of both city – named because of the shape of its magnificent natural harbor – and country. They were the most technologically advanced society of Earth. Now, in a matter of a few short and brutal months, those dreams have turned to dust… as much as Hammer Bay has been blasted to rubble. Genoshans as a rule have a much simpler and more basic goal: that of survival.
Trapped in the bodies of three Genoshans, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and Thing move cautiously throughout the war-torn, devastated area. Thing asks them to stay alert and keep their heads down, as much as possible. After all they’ve been through it would be a shame to get popped by a sniper. Sue is astounded by the desolation. Ben reminds her that Genosha always considered itself a 21st century country; they got themselves a 21st century war to go with it. Johnny retorts it’s the Genoshans’ mess and hopes they let them clean it up. Right now, they’ve got troubles of their own.
Johnny’s words come out more harshly than he intended. That’s because his new body – that of an aged, plump man – is short of breath. Not only is he out of shape, he has a heart condition. Strain and exertion have produced a pain in his chest that won’t go away and brought with it the fear that his time may well be running out. It was only yesterday that Reed Richards was kidnapped by Genoshan agents. Because of the ongoing civil war, the United Nations had placed the island under an embargo. If the team wanted to rescue Reed, they’d have to do it on their own. No government would aid them. Of course, they went – with dire consequences.
They were shot down and subsequently captured by a creature called Ayesha. She was working in concert with a recent foe of theirs, who called himself Crucible. While unconscious, Ben, Sue and Johnny’s minds were switched with those of three Genoshans. This was Crucible’s way of building his own private army of metahumans.
Seeing Johnny lost in his reflections, Ben warns Sue that her kid brother doesn’t look so good. Sue admits she knows. Seeing Johnny struggling to climb on a pile of debris, a frightened Sue cries out his name. The Torch assures her it’s okay; no fooling. There’s just something he’s got to take a look at.
In his mind’s eye, Johnny can see Crucible’s lab as it was only hours ago. Crucible’s three body-jackers, the Genoshans who now inhabit the bodies of the Fantastic Four, had no idea – especially the one wearing Torch’s body – of the terrible cost about to be exacted from their victory. Johnny tried to stop the test. He begged, he pleaded, he warned of disaster. Crucible, though, didn’t listen. He urged those with courage and faith to trust him. He asked the Genoshan “Torch” to hear him and obey.
The Genoshan achieves instant ignition, uttering the trademark cry of the Torch “Flame on!” Johnny knows that the first time you’re doing this, you don’t know what you’re doing; you don’t have any effective control. Everything happens so fast, it’s so terrifying to realize you’re on fire but not actually burning up. Before you can stop yourself, you’ve generated a nova flame. Indeed, the Genoshan inhabiting Johnny’s body generated one. It is a pulse of pure incandescence, akin to the heat wave of a nuclear blast that devastated the skyscraper that housed Crucible’s base of operations.
Johnny is gazing at the demolished skyscraper, tears streaming down his cheeks. He tells Sue that the whole building’s burning like a Roman candle. Two hundred stories tall; how many people does she think died in there? Sue tries to convince him it’s not his fault. Maybe not, Johnny concurs – but it’s his responsibility. Sue assures him he did his best. It wasn’t enough, Johnny retorts. Susan argues that the way to show that is to make certain nobody else comes to harm because of this – and make equally certain Crucible and his gang are brought to justice for their crimes. When Johnny notes that she sounds like Reed, Sue admits that, when you love someone with all your heart, some of their traits can’t help but rub off; hopefully, the good ones. “I know it’s hard, Johnny,” she tells him. Johnny believes she has no idea. He keeps remembering the island…
(flashback)
The maiden flight of Reed’s experimental starship had gone terribly wrong. Cosmic rays had mutated them all. Before their shocked and disbelieving eyes, Johnny burst into flame. Just as suddenly, Sue generated an invisible wall of energy to protect them from the fire. Unfortunately, she couldn’t sustain that force field. It was left for Ben to save them, covering Reed and Sue with his monstrous, rock-like body… perhaps in the hope that inferno would end his life and the torment it had brought him. Of course, Ben survived… as did they all. The four of them vowed to use their powers for the good of humanity and in its defense. Their powers may have been stolen, but as far as they’re concerned, that pledge remains in full force.
(present)
Ben screams to Sue and Johnny to get to cover; they’ve got company! Overhead, he sees some kind of armored blimp; way too heavy to be a gasbag, he deduces. They must be using some kind of anti-grav or pressor beams to keep it airborne, instead of helium. Johnny thanks him for the lecture. Did everyone but him take Reed Richards’ “big brain” pills this morning? He wonders why they are running. Couldn’t these guys be friends? Sue argues that, until they get themselves a scorecard, so they can tell which side is which, how about they assume the worst?
As they take cover, Ben remarks that somebody’s sure got a mad-on for the blimp. He points them at some people on the ground opening fire against it with anti-aircraft cannons and missiles.  The blimp responds with a counter barrage to devastating effect. But, even as the survivors of the firefight raise the white flag of surrender… the blimp still fires at them. “Ben, those fiends! They murdered…!” a horrified Sue screams. Ben argues that those folks aren’t dead; they’re still breathing. He then urges Sue to stay down. If the blimp sees them, they’ll be nailed just the same!
Just then, from the cover of a ruined skyscraper, a high performance car roars into view. Ben recognizes the design: a variant on the flying vehicles utilized by S.H.I.E.L.D. However, before it can get airborne, it is relentlessly blasted by the armored blimp above. A voice from the blimp orders the passengers of the car to egress the vehicle unarmed with hands in the air. The voice assures the passengers they will not be harmed – they will only fire if fired upon.
“Where the blazes you think you’re going, hotshot?!” Ben snaps as he sees Johnny moving towards the car. “To check that car for survivors, if that’s all right with you,” Human Torch snaps back. Those screams he heard just before it crashed didn’t sound like soldiers. Ben assumes he can’t prevail on Sue to be sensible; to stay back under cover where it’s safe and leave this to him. “In your dreams, Benjamin,” Susan confirms his conjecture. She stresses the Fantastic Four is a team; nobody flies solo.
Sue suddenly pauses, wondering what’s happening over there, as she sees a portal opening behind some troopers. Ben realizes this is a familiar sight: a style of transmat portal he never thought he’d see again. Sue asks him if he recognizes those troopers. Ben admits he’s got his suspicions. “What’s the sitch back there, Sue?” he enquires. The Invisible Woman explains they’re busy with the survivors they stunned. Ben suggests they move then. As soon as the troopers are done with them, they’ll be coming over here to check the car!
As the troopers carry the prisoners for teleportation through the transmat portal, one of them tells his colleagues that he gets a pod-9 reading on this particular prisoner; him, they take. He tells his men to secure the perimeter. Where there’s one cadre of hostiles, there’s usually more. No carelessness means no casualties and that’s the kind of op he likes best. He then orders the scantech to update their status. Scantech informs them that among this culling, there is one pos-9 and a couple of pos-7s. The rest are low yield or outright negs. The commander tells his men that they know the drill: they are to evac the culls they can use, as per standard procedure. They’ll sanitize the rest and move on to their next objective.
Meanwhile, Sue enters the car and tells Ben the driver’s dead. She ponders that the path through the rubble was too rugged for Johnny, too winding for Ben, so her having a small frame came in handy. She feels it’s strange to be so young again. The woman she inhabits – Farisa Mansour – can’t be out of her teens. The names and features are Hindi – another thing that’ll take some getting used to. Just then, she discerns a strong smell of gas: the tanks must have ruptured. If they blow, she won’t have her force field to protect her. It’s worse than being naked. She feels so vulnerable… and suddenly, so afraid.
Seeing four children hiding in the back seat, Sue decides to save her whining for another time; these kids need her more. She tells them not to be frightened. She’s here to help. She tells Ben there is a Magistrate in the passenger seat; alive but semi-conscious. They’ll have to do this by themselves. She asks the kids who wants to go first, when she is suddenly distracted by some “popping” sounds in the distance; they sound like… “Never mind about them, Sue,” Ben advises her. They’re distractions she can’t afford. Johnny wonders: when the kids are free, where do they take them?
Magistrate Tam, now fully conscious, reveals there’s a manhole cover, about thirty meters down the avenue. She instructs them to follow the sewer line west and south and they’ll come to a safe haven. Ben decides that Sue and Johnny will take the kids and the Magistrate and get themselves clear. Sue protests that they’re not leaving him behind! Ben reminds her that this is a war. It’s like nothing they’ve ever faced as members of the Fantastic Four – and that’s a blessing. He’s been there, she hasn’t. He knows what’s called for. That’s why he is the one who has to stay. If someone doesn’t, to keep those troopers off their back, they’ll track them down for sure. And what they did to those other folks… he won’t let happen to these kids.
Sue argues he’s the bravest and most honorable man she’s ever known. Ben, in turn, believes she brings out the best in a fellow. Johnny shakes Ben’s hand and encourages him to give them heck. Ben assures him it will be his pleasure. As Sue and Johnny flee with the kids, Tam reveals that she may have a way to resolve the situation without Ben getting himself killed. Is he interested? Ben replies it’s music in his ears and asks her what she’s got in mind. A little something for them to remember us by, Tam replies and drops a gizmo to the ground. “And to balance the scales for the lives they’ve taken,” she adds as she takes cover.
One of the troopers approaches and informs his superior that he’s found the car. He suggests they bring up the scantechs; he’s reading solid life-signs. Tam mumbles that he should never trust his sensors – a smarter piece of hardware can always lie to them! Indeed, she clicks on a button she carries and the grenade explodes. “Here endeth the lesson,” she scoffs. She and Ben quickly descend to the sewers. Tam urges him to go deep down these tunnels, quick as he can, before the blimp craters this neighborhood worse than the moon! Ben applauds her: those were some good moves topside…
Suddenly, after running for a while, he comes to a standstill, as he sees his teammates in handcuffs, in the custody of some men. Tam coldly explains this is standard procedure when you place somebody under arrest and points her gun at Ben.
The citadel, headquarters of the Genoshan State Security Service: the Magistrates.
Sue, Ben and Johnny are strapped on chairs, undergoing a relentless interrogation. “All right then, let’s start again. Lights!” their inquisitors persevere. Sue insists they’ve told them the truth; the same story, time and again; why won’t they believe them?! “Is this the thanks we get for savin’ those kids?” Ben growls. He scoffs that the X-Men sure had this dump pegged right!
Hackshaw retorts that, in his book, any friend of those mutie spikes is as good as dead. “Enough, Hackshaw,” Chief Magistrate Anderson cuts him off. She turns her attention to Ben and asks him why they should believe him. According to their database, he is Jomo Kimane and his companions are Farisa Mansour and Harry Soong. For all they know, they’re impostors, sent to infiltrate government forces.
Mr. Fantastic suddenly appears on the threshold and tells Magistrate Anderson that perhaps he can help. Hackshaw retorts this is Magistrate business. Richards doesn’t belong here. “On the contrary, Hackshaw,” Reed retorts. If the story he hears is true, this is precisely where he belongs! Hackshaw impatiently asks him whether he’s ever considered they may be an assassination team, with him as their primary target. If so, it won’t be the first time, Reed glibly responds. He’s willing to take that risk.
“Reed!” Sue screams in excitement, seeing that Reed is alive and well, and leaps up from her chair, her hands still cross-tied. “Who the devil…?” Reed exclaims, unable to recognize the woman he has opposite him. Sue implores him to ignore his eyes, forget the sound of her voice and just listen to what she says. Regardless of her appearance, it’s her, Sue, his wife! They were ambushed en route to rescue him by Crucible. Somehow, they were bodyjacked…
“Oh, this is absurd!” she suddenly cries in despair. She wonders why she’s even wasting her breath. No amount of right answers will convince the Magistrates of their bonafides – especially when every technological examination refutes them. Reed wants proof of their identity, yet the only thing she has to offer is her love for her husband and his for her. “Pretty speech,” Tam mocks her and advises her to step away from Dr. Richards before it becomes her epitaph. Sue defiantly states this isn’t Tam’s decision; it’s Reed’s. She knows there’s no middle ground here. Either Reed believes them and trusts them… or he doesn’t. Reed fondles her chin for a moment… and then entwines her with his malleable body and kisses her.
Later, in Reed’s lush private chambers, Mr. Fantastic recounts the history of Genosha to his teammates. Thanks to an escalating series of terrorist attacks by a band of super-powered mutants who call themselves the Acolytes, both the government and the economy collapsed. The country quickly devolved into the most brutal kind of civil war, with a score of hostile factions at each other’s throats. Even the Magistrate Corps splintered and chose up sides. Ironically and tragically, many of the super-powered mutates whose enslavement precipitated this crisis were themselves killed in the initial engagements. The Genegineer – the geneticist, David Moreau – designed the mutates to be non-violent. When the mobs came for them, they didn’t even try to defend themselves.
“Gotta love the land, gotta love the people,” Johnny acrimoniously states. He confesses they make him sick. He wishes they could just let them all rot. Ben retorts that’s just his frustration talking. Sue wants to know why the Genoshans brought Reed into this mess. Reed explains that the war began to wind down. Government reasserted itself. The Magistrates under Chief Anderson began to restore order and justice. There was a real possibility of peace.
Then, without warning, the situation totally destabilized, far worse than before. A new and mysterious cabal was stroking the flames of racial hatred, almost as if the people were laboratory rats and the island some hideous experiment in social engineering. Crucible’s handiwork is nothing if not distinctive. Having failed in their every attempt to defeat the fiend, the Genoshan government turned to outside help. The Avengers and X-Men proved unavailable. When they came to Reed, they were desperate. They didn’t ask his help because they couldn’t afford to be refused. The joke, of course, is on them. They hoped his genius could save them. They didn’t know that, thanks to Crucible, that “genius” no longer exists.
Reed knows he should have told them. But for so long, he denied that anything was wrong. It was so easy to hide his condition, especially from himself. Anything he invented or accomplished before, he can recreate. His memory is a precise as ever, his faculties as keen. He just can’t come up with anything new. Worst of all, without those transcendent ideas and concepts demanding his attention, he found himself taking notice of the world around him. Suddenly – joyously – there was uncontested room for the family he loved with all his heart. Sue admits she sensed something was wrong but she denied it, too. She was selfish. The way Reed acted, with Franklin and her… it was like seeing in Technicolor after a lifetime of only black-and-white. She didn’t want to lose that passion. She still doesn’t.
Johnny exclaims he wants his body back. He wants the creep who took it punished. He looks at the damage the Genoshan inhabiting his body has done. He thinks of what he will do once he masters his flames. He can’t let that happen. Too many have suffered already. It’s his power and his responsibility. Even if it costs his life, he won’t allow one more person, innocent or guilty, to be harmed by his flames.
Ben advises Reed to listen to Johnny, because he’s on the right track. Is he hearing right? Is Reed saying the Fantastic Four can’t win this fight? Has Crucible got him spooked? If Reed wants a reason why they can’t walk away, he can look out the window. Better yet, he can talk to those kids they saved this morning. Thanks to Crucible, they’re orphans. And if that mook has his way, they won’t be the last. As for the rest, where is it written that just because Reed is a genius he can’t be a loving and caring father and husband in the bargain?
To Ben it sounds like a challenge; he always figured rising to challenges is what Reed does best! If Ben is wrong, if Reed can’t hack that, then he should at least be a man about it! He should shoulder that responsibility himself and not use some cheap super-villain as his excuse.
“You don’t pull any punches, old friend,” Reed sighs. “He figures you’re worth it. So do I,” Sue tells him. These past months have been a dream come true for her. But he’s Reed Richards. He needs his genius to make him whole. And that’s how his family needs him, too. She suggests he finds a way to make her dream reality and teach Crucible a lesson he’ll never forget: nobody steals from the Fantastic Four. Reed tells her that the good news is he has a plan. The bad is there’s a terrible risk. “Dear, darling husband… what else is knew?” Susan quips.
Just then, without warning, the ground shudders. The team wonders whether it’s some kind of earthquake. Mr. Fantastic urges them all to relax and let his pliable body absorb the impact. Outside, one of the guards alerts all units: “This is Defcon 1 alert! The citadel is under attack!” Farisa, Jomo and Harry, owning the bodies of Invisible Woman, Thing and Human Torch respectively, make their violent entrance. Harry clarifies to the Magistrates that they will make this offer once, on behalf of the Enclave: surrender… or die!
Magistrate Anderson hurriedly enters Mr. Fantastic’s apartments and apologizes to the Invisible Woman: she was telling the truth, after all. “Lemme guess… an’ now you want us ta stop them?” Ben scoffs. “If not us, old friend, then who?” Reed replies.
Outside, the three Genoshans revel, realizing they have the Magistrates on the run! Farisa grouches that’s not fair. She was hoping for a decent fight; this is too easy! Jomo, who owns the Thing’s body, howls this is glorious! Walls of armored steel crumple like paper in his hands. The most powerful of bullets do him no harm! Now at last, Genosha shall suffer… as he was made to suffer!
Inside Reed’s chambers, Ben is at loss. Those imposters have their powers but no real experience. How come they’re winning? We’re allowing it, Anderson explains. As everything around them begins blowing up, the Fantastic Four, together with Anderson and Team, begin moving on. Mr. Fantastic tells them they have two objectives. One is to restore Sue, Ben and Johnny to their proper bodies. The modules built into the uniforms they now wear should enable them to do so. At the same time, a way has to be found to neutralize Crucible; that’s Reed’s job.
Ben retorts that Crucible was tough enough all by his lonesome. Teamed up with Ayesha, they may be more than he can handle – especially considering his condition. Susan reminds him that Reed’s led this team from the start. She trusts his judgment. Reed thanks her. Her faith in him means more than she can possibly imagine. Sue argues that once they regain their bodies and powers, Reed won’t have to stand alone. “That’s a tall order, Suzie Q,” Ben quips. Sue reminds him they’re the Fantastic Four; they’re up to it. The party splits in two, as Reed and Anderson depart together.
While running next to him, Magistrate Anderson tells Reed that his wife is one in a million. Reed confirms that no man could wish for a finer partner – or truer friends than Johnny and Ben. Crucible may have stolen his “genius” but not his memory. Anything he’s built before, he can recreate. In this case, the transmat portal Sue and the others described.
Clicking on a button on his glove, a portal is generated before them. Reed tells her that their sensors confirmed his own suspicions: this is a device they’ve encountered before. As he’s about to jump into the portal, he sees Anderson following hot on his trail. Reed tells her he appreciates her company but… Anderson suggests he saves his breath. This is her country. She brought him here to help, not fight her battles for her. They both jump through the portal.
Nearby, the malicious Farisa has used the Invisible Woman’s powers to knock out several Genoshan guards. She wonders in disdain if this is the best they can muster, when suddenly she feels a powerful gust of wind blowing behind her. She wonders if it’s some kind of fan… until she turns around and sees it’s a wind tunnel generating typhoon velocities! As everything around is pushed towards the wind tunnel due to the huge energies it unleashes, Farisa realizes that if she can’t find a way to stop it, she’ll also be sucked into the blades! Her force field should protect her… but if it fails… Finally gathering her strength, Farisa uses her field to jam the blades and shatter them, remarking that this way is better!
Not bad for a novice, the true Susan Richards stresses as she makes her entrance. However, she notices that Farisa took too long deciding on her response. That hesitation makes her vulnerable. She suggests Farisa gives herself a break: she’s out of her league. “Return what you stole,” Sue demands. Farisa scornfully declares that if Sue wants her precious body, then she takes it – if she can! She then vanishes, as Sue cries out in surprise. Farisa snickers: what did she expect from someone the world calls the Invisible Woman?
Sue irritably contemplates that power applies to one sense; she still has four more and they all work just fine. She attempts to strike the invisible Farisa but misses her. Farisa commends Sue on her splendid form and flawless martial arts technique. “Such a shame you missed,” she sarcastically adds. She loves Sue’s body and she’s going to keep it; that means Sue will have to die. “Not today, young lady,” Sue retorts. “And certainly not at your hands!” She begins relentlessly pummeling Farisa, boasting that she was taught how to fight by the very best. She honed those skills against the likes of Dr. Doom and Galactus! Farisa retorts that those skills won’t save her. “I have the power, remember?” she scoffs. Her force field will squash Sue like a bug! “You think? Then girl, take your best shot,” Sue snarls. Grabbing Farisa, she argues they’ll see who has the last laugh, as they are both bathed in light.
Not far from there, Jomo uses the Thing’s superhuman strength to wreak havoc to the installation and terrify a number of Magistrates. He snidely reminds the Magistrates that they always claimed to serve the cause of justice. But the only cause they truly championed was that of state-sponsored prosecution! How does it feel to be on the receiving end for a change? They do well to cower, he complacently adds. But it will not save them. He asks them to make their peace with their creator: they will meet him presently.
“You want those wounded troopers, buster…. you gotta go through me!” Ben suddenly intervenes. “If you insist… it will be your funeral!” Jomo roars and lunges at him with his fist, only barely missing him. Ben defiantly states that he’s heard that line before; he wasn’t impressed way back then; he isn’t impressed by Jomo either. “You mock me?” Jomo rages. Ben happily explains that’s Johnny’s department. He’s just telling it like it is!
Suddenly, Jomo finds himself tangled into several slimy binds that Ben had been planting around him during the fight. Jomo wonders what’s happening; why can’t he move? Ben explains it’s something Reed cooked up. Basically, it’s the same adhesive used by the Trapster. Crucible may have taken away Reed’s ability to invent new stuff but he can still swipe from the best. Seems only fair, since the Trapster is always using this gunk on them. It’s layered inside the walls: the more Jomo smashes the room, the more tangled up he gets, like a dinosaur in a tar pit. “Do you truly believe this paste can hold him?” Jomo roars. However, it seems to Ben it’s doing just fine!
Jomo, however, breaks out of his binds and tells Ben he guessed wrong; nothing can hold the Thing! Ben notices it’s just like he figured; he broke loose, but not completely. The past is slowing his punch down enough for Ben to catch it. He finally used Reed’s gizmo, hoping it can finish the job. Grabbing Jomo’s hand, he tells him he’s wrong. There’s only one bashful, blue-eyed thing and he’s looking at him!
In another part of the facility, Harry is flying around in his Human Torch body, realizing he has lost contact with his comrades. He thinks of them as willful, headstrong children, determined to go their own way, regardless of the risk. They should have remained together; as a team, they are unbeatable. No matter – he shall find them and, if necessary, affect their rescue.
Watching Harry’s moves from her hand-screen, Tam asks Johnny if he’s sure this plan will work. Johnny explains that Reed designed these uniforms as a kind of body armor, able to withstand the Thing’s punches and the Human Torch’s flames. And for the psyche-reversion process to work, he has to make direct physical contact. “Suppose he’s wrong, boy? The consequences?” Tam asks him. Johnny retorts that nobody knows them better than him. However, there’s no other way.
Annoyed, he asks her what with this “boy” stuff – they’re pretty much the same age! Point taken, Tam admits. Addressing him as “Storm,” she admits that, were she in his boots, she doesn’t know if she’d have that kind of courage. Johnny stresses that his friends call him “Johnny.” Considering the circumstances, he suggests a kiss for luck. Tam unflinchingly kisses him in the mouth. She urges him to come back safe and successful… they’ll see what they can do for an encore.
Putting on Reed’s special uniform, Johnny mentally urges himself to joke all he wants; maybe then he won’t feel quite so scared. What’s really funny is, nobody will fault him for backing down. Not when the slightest mistake could mean being burned alive. But it’s his power; his responsibility. Facing it has nothing to do with being a hero. It has everything to do with being a man.
Tam clicks on the device handed to her by Mr. Fantastic, according to plan. All of sudden, strobes and some kind of siren are unleashed on Harry who realizes, in horror, that the noise and the light are more than he can stand! Johnny seizes the opportunity and enters the room where Harry is, now kneeling on the floor, weak and disoriented. Johnny tells Tam, through their radio, that he’s inside and asks her to seal the room. Studying Harry’s condition from afar, Johnny realizes that this guy’s good. Disoriented as he is, he’s still maintaining his flame. All he has to do now is reach him; easy as pie.
Seeing him approach, Harry reveals that he was hoping for this moment – and for the opportunity to put an end on Johnny Storm forever! Calling Harry by his real name, Johnny challenges him to take his best shot. Harry demands he doesn’t use that name; he is the Human Torch! Enraged, he bombards Johnny with his thermal blasts. Withstanding these thanks to his costume, Johnny presses on, reminding himself to walk slowly, as the body he inhabits has a heart condition. However, he also wants to make a point: that there’s more to him that a costume and his Human Torch powers. Outside the room, Tam is watching her device: the sensors are off her scale! She realizes the room can’t withstand much more… how can the man?
As he gets nearer Harry, Johnny realizes it’s working: Harry’s using up all the available oxygen in the room and he’s losing his fire! Johnny grabs him by the wrists and asks him if it bothers him what happened in the test; what Crucible made to him? Does he care anything about the people who died there? This power may be a gift but the right to use it has to be earned!
In her sensors, Tam can see that Johnny’s stress factors are redlining… and just then, the wall gives way! Human Torch appears before her, fully flamed on! Tam realizes the inrush of fresh air created a backdraft effect and reignited the Torch’s flames. The question is… which Torch is he? Tam points her gun at him.  The Torch pleads her not to shoot. Tam asks him to give her a reason. “Well… howzabout that encore?” a smiling Torch replies.
Meanwhile, nestled deep within the ridgeback range that effectively splits the island diagonally in two are Mr. Fantastic and Magistrate Anderson. “As I suspected!” Reed exclaims upon entering a room. Anderson asks him if he recognizes the place. Reed explains he recognizes the place, the technology, the uniforms: most call this “the Beehive.” The official title of this complex and the cabal who run it is the Enclave. It’s home to scientist who’ve perverted their brilliance for personal gain and conquest.
Seeing an army of armored guards approaching and shooting at them, Anderson assumes that, since Reed has obviously fought the Enclave before, he must have some means to deal with them. She decides he’ll leave that to Reed, while she keeps their army of rent-a-thugs from getting in Reed’s way. Whatever the Genoshans’ mistakes in the past, some of them were learning from them. Some of them were trying to make this land once more the paradise it was and a decent hope for all its people! She exclaims that they had a chance of success, they had hope – until creeps like these mercenaries showed up. They owe her country for a world of pain – here’s where that debt gets paid in full, she exclaims as she opens fire against them.
While Anderson distracts the guards, Reed advances further inside the complex. By the sound of things, he realizes Chief Anderson’s involved in a serious firefight. She’s buying him all the time he needs; he won’t allow her sacrifices to be in vain. From their previous encounters with the Enclave, he managed to establish a fairly comprehensive database of their cybernetic protocols and encryption algorithms. All that’s required is stretching his fingertips to filament size and plugging them to an I/O dataport; the uniform itself will do the rest. After all, the molecular structure of the fabric is a self-contained computer net, capable of displaying data and touchpad controls of his gauntlets.
Reed indeed gains access to their system and, as everything is revealed to him, he can’t help but exclaim “What the devil?!” Before him, he witnesses a seemingly endless array of tubes wherein helpless humans are being kept in a state of unconsciousness. Reed realizes that it was bad enough the Enclave banded together originally to create a whole new genetically-engineered lifeform from scratch – but now, they’re experimenting on human beings.
“You sound so surprised, Richards,” a voice comes from the other side of the room. It is Maris Morlak, one of the scientists of the Enclave. Morlak admits that he thought Richards of all people would surely understand. “This abomination, Morlak? Never!” Reed gnashes his teeth. Morlak wonders: what matter the sacrifice of a few for the good of all? They seek a better world and a better humanity to populate it. What is wrong with that? Grabbing Morlak, Reed replies there’s nothing with their goal. But their methods…! Morlak retorts that the ends have always justified the means. They’d reached a roadblock in their work; they needed fresh perspectives, a brilliance to match their own. It was Morlak’s idea to appropriate Reed’s.
As he begins pummeling Reed, Morlak explains that the integration of impartial muons into a charm set when establishing a Devonian matrix leads to a 23% increase in the efficiency of a trans-temporal jumpgate. Bigger ‘worms’, more stable ‘wormholes’. There’s so much to see, to learn, to comprehend! How did Reed keep track of them all?
“Curse you, Richards… why can’t I stop thinking?” Morlak growls. Every waking moment, one concept after another, idea after idea. He can’t look at anything without having an idea how to improve it! Worst of all, a single glance at the data presented to Richards by Alyssa Moy and he beholds the fate of the world and of all creation! Ever since, he’s been searching for an answer, only there’s none to be found – and it’s Reed’s fault! His brilliance which provided this revelation! He believes it is better to die in ignorance than behold the future and be helpless. Lying on the ground, Reed considers he could strike back but realizes Morlak’s unbalanced, more a danger to himself than him. He needs to try and talk him down…
“As you desire, Maris,” a voice coldly states – he believes Maris has said more than enough to their guest. He fires at Morlak with a weapon that causes his body to distintegrate within seconds. As he dissipates in pure energy and dissolves, Morlak smiles and whispers that it’s over at long last. He thanks his old friend. He is free…
Dr. Wladyslav Shinski appears, wearing an identical Crucible costume. Shinski remarks that inspired tinkerer he may have been, but in no way was Morlak fit to wear the mantle of the Crucible. He believes Morlak has been judged as their world and their race shall be. Tempered in the transcendent furnace of conflict and forged into a new and better breed, fit to claim their ultimate birthright, the cosmos itself! Morlak was not worthy of that destiny, nor to serve as consort to Ayesha.
Reed asks him whether he reserves those roles for himself. Indeed, Shinski believes himself to be the geneticist-prime of the Enclave. Ayesha is the product of his genius. Now, creator and creation will be one, as they were always meant to be. Putting the Crucible helmet on, Shinski admits that it amused him to allow Morlak his moment of glory; to wear Shinski’s armor and play Shinski’s part. But Morlak was a weakling, in flesh and spirit. He knew Morlak would ultimately fail – that was why he had to die.
Shinski explains that, even blessed with Reed’s precocity in addition to Morlak’s own, he knew Morlak could not prevent Reed from finding a way to reverse the process. Best, he thinks, that none of them possess that genius than they allow Mr. Fantastic to retrieve it. However, just to make sure, Shinski proposes that Mr. Fantastic joins Morlak… and just then opens fire against him! Reed realizes these are disruptor bolts; he can’t afford to be hit even by a graze! For all his boasting, though, Shinski’s a lousy shot. Reed stretches his arm and grabs the lever he needs, which opens a steam valve right beside Shinski. His armor should protect him from serious harm but a momentary distraction is all Reed requires!
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the vast and labyrinthine complex, Anderson still holds her ground against the Enclave’s mercenaries. She mumbles to herself that whatever Richards has in mind, he’d better make it quick. She doesn’t how much longer she can keep the opposition occupied.
Ayesha suddenly appears behind her and wonders why Anderson is causing such disruption to the order and harmony of her domicile. Anderson fires at her, telling Ayesha that she could demand the same from her about her country! Ayesha retorts they did not begin the conflict that laid waste to Anderson’s homeland. Their goal is to bring about its resolution. “By murdering us?” Anderson scoffs. By kidnapping their children and making them slaves? Ayesha retorts that it is no less than what Anderson herself has done in the past – also for the “greater good.” Anderson wonders what gives them the right to interfere.
Impervious to Anderson’s bullets against her body, the nigh-invulnerable Ayesha approaches her and socks her hard. Ayesha stresses they are the superior being. She argues it is the natural order of things that they impose their will on those who are inferior and grabs Anderson by the throat.
Simultaneously, in the Beehive’s main control center, Crucible’s operators watch a holographic projection of his three accomplices – actually, the genuine Fantastic Four posing as them – informing the operator that they are returning via the blimp, since the transmat grid appears to be inoperative. The Fantastic Four ask them to disengage the defensive shield array, so that they might land.
Elsewhere, Shinski warns Mr. Fantastic to join with them… or die! That’s his only choice! Before he elaborates on his threat, the Fantastic Four crash through their roof, still posing as Crucible’s lackeys. Invisible Woman remarks that it was rude of Crucible to start a party without them. The Thing apologizes about the roof but the MCC said the Enclave was under attack. They wanted them on-site in a hurry. Shinski points at them and tells Richards to behold the future: the first recruits in the army that Ayesha and he shall lead against the world!
The Fantastic Four, however, show their true colors, as Johnny tells Crucible to guess again! Good as they thought they were, when Shinski’s replacements went up against the real deal, they lost! Now it’s his turn, Sue warns him. A battle, perhaps, but their war is from decided, Shinski retorts and flees the scene. The Thing roars that it doesn’t matter – there’s nowhere he can run or hide from him! Reed urges him to let him go; they’ve more important work here. In these tubes are people gathered from all over the island, to provide raw material for the Enclave’s army of conquest. They’re innocent victims of Shinksi’s mad ambitions. Before they take on the Enclave, they have to evacuate them to safety.
Sue assures him that’ll be her pleasure. However, she realizes that, even though assuming her invisible force field can lift all these people to the blimp they captured, there isn’t enough space aboard to carry them. Reed assures her that’ll be his job and asks her to lay every unconscious person on his body. Ben notices that’s a heck of a lot of stretch he’s pulling; can he handle it? Reed notes that, under the circumstances, he just has to.
He stretches his extremities to Ben, standing in the blimp’s open hatch; Ben functions as his anchor. Sue worries whether he can contract his muscles enough to lift so much weight. Judging from the angle and in this position, Reed finds it doubtful. That’s where he needs her. Ben pulls Reed’s pliable body from above, while Sue lifts it from below. Sue realizes the strain is incredible – but with those lives and Reed counting on her, she mustn’t fail! Johnny tells them not to worry about the Beehive’s defensive weaponry; the Human Torch is on the job!
Meanwhile, Shinski joins Ayesha and informs her that the Fantastic Four have been restored to their rightful bodies. Ayesha, still holding Anderson by the throat, reminds him she dealt with them before; she shall do so again. Anderson argues she won’t have that chance. Ayesha mocks her: who is there to stop her – she? Absolutely, Anderson gleefully replies. She wonders: has Ayesha ever seen a black hole grenade before, up close and personal? This one Anderson carries just detonated!
“C’mon, you two!” she sneers at Crucible and Ayesha as a black hole is released from the grenade and begins sucking them in! Anderson maliciously invites them to go explore the universe together! Crucible realizes she has opened a gateway to another dimension – he can’t break free! She asks Ayesha to save them! Ayesha, however, informs him they’re within the event horizon. The attraction is too strong, even for her! Shinski howls that it can’t end like this – and then vanishes in the black hole, together with Anderson and Ayesha.
Reed realizes that the Enclave base is collapsing in upon itself – Chief Anderson must have used her grenade. Its effects are limited, but he dares not be caught within its influence… or they’ll suffer the same fate! Piloting the blimp, Tam tells them to hang on; they’re blowing this pop stand big-time! She curses the blimp, wishing it to push its engines to the max. “Climb, curse you, climb!” she snarls. Richards implores her to wait before she flies off – his wife is still down below!
Seeing the building collapsing all around her, Sue exclaims that whatever’s happening here, she really doesn’t want to be a part of it; time to go! She uses her dynamic force field to elevate herself and escape the grenade effect. Suddenly, she realizes that some kind of distortion effect coming from the Beehive is playing havoc with her power – she can’t sustain her force field! Human Torch appears and tells her not to worry herself. Whenever she starts to fall, he will always be there to catch her! Indeed, he carries her to the blimp.
Ben asks if everybody’s clear and okay. Reed, still stretching outside the blimp, suspects he’ll be sore as can be come morning, but otherwise he’s fine – as is their cargo. Johnny inquires about Crucible and is made-to-order babe. Reed believes Chief Anderson must have sacrificed herself to stop them. And by doing so, she may well have also saved her nation.
Some days later, after the Fantastic Four have been returned home by a grateful Genoshan provisional government, they’re visited by Dr. Valerie Cooper, presidential special assistant for mutant and metahuman affairs. Val wishes she had better news. When they went to Genosha, she told them that Washington couldn’t officially sanction their rescue mission. Unofficially, though, they had the White House blessing and also knew that they’d be interested in any intelligence they could provide about the country and its current situation.
Evidently, she was wrong. There may well be serious repercussions for their violation of the United Nations embargo, though she hopes they’ll stop short of outright prosecution. Johnny wonders: doesn’t it count that they actually did some good there? Val is afraid not. What’s worse is that no one seems much interested in helping. Genosha is to be left to its own fate, wholly without any outside involvement. People see Genosha and are afraid it could be all their futures, that the genetic war raging there could spread. Too many people in key positions are deluding themselves that by turning Genosha into a mutant ghetto the problem will go away. That kind of thinking has always led to the worst kind of consequences.  Johnny knows that this isn’t her fault but still, he admits it stinks. Val seconds that: “Amen to that, Mr. Storm”. As a government official, her hands are tied. As a human being – for all that they’ve done in this affair – they have her gratitude and if it means anything, her lifelong respect.
After Val leaves, Reed remarks she’s an honorable woman. Ben believes she’s caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. He asks Reed what he figures the sitch is here. Insufficient data, Reed replies – he hasn’t a clue… yet. But he means to find out. Too many wheels are turning and he’s not sure he likes the direction they’re taking the world. Whatever comes, the Fantastic Four have to be prepared to face them. Whether they’re welcome or not? Ben asks him. Precisely, Reed replies.
The Thing tells him to look on the bright side. At least, they don’t have Crucible and Ayesha to worry about anymore, since they got swallowed by that black hole. Reed retorts that if he believes that, he’ll also accept that they’ve seen the last of Doctor Doom – and everyone knows that trick never works. In the meantime, there’s a ton of work to be done, data to process, experiments to complete. Enough work to fill the day to bursting. Ben deduces Reed is heading for the lab, then.
Reed disagrees: where is it written that Reed Richards can’t be a genius and a loving, caring husband and father? He reminds Ben it’s play-off season! They’re off to see their home team, the New York Yankees, take on the world! Before he leaves together with Sue and an exhilarated Franklin, he tells Ben one final thing: when he sees Alyssa Moy, he can tell her his latest move for her in their game of phantom chess. Pawn takes rook, level two, translates to queen… checkmate.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Unnatural Selection
The magical place called Limbo
If you have the power and the knowledge, you can gaze forth from that haunted realm and behold all there is to see, and seeing, act: it is to this end that the Winding Road has brought Margali Szardos. In her wayward youth, she believed it her destiny to become the Sorceress Supreme of Earth, but that was not to be. Instead, she and her companions, Destiny and Legion – with scars on their souls to match her own and a karmic debt that must be balanced – stand as humanity’s unheralded, unsung defenders. No one knows what they do, nor will any cheers ever celebrate their victory. Considering the alternative, that’s a small price to pay.
In her throne room, Margali observes the Fantastic Four in her crystal ball, while the ghosts of Destiny and Legion linger silently beside her. “As you foretold, Destiny, regard the Fantastic Four,” Margali tells the precog. She informs her two consultants that she has set their champions on the field of battle. However, by Hoggoth, Margali wishes Destiny’s infernal prescience extended for once to reveal the outcome!
On another time and place, just then
“I hate to say this, folks… but I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” Human Torch remarks, as he and the rest of the Fantastic Four find themselves on a planet, gazing at another planet nearby. Thing replies they’re not even close. “Extraordinary!” Mister Fantastic exclaims. “To say the least,” Invisible Woman agrees. Judging from the local topography, Reed believes they’re standing on the same spot as when they disappeared. They’re still on the moon, in the blue area where there’s a breathable atmosphere. Impossible as it appears, the planet they’re gazing at is the Earth. He deduces the only logical explanation is that they’ve moved in time, either to the future or to some parallel dimension.
“Wherever, whenever, stretch,” Ben grumps. It seems to him there’ve been a lot of changes while they were gone. Reed asks him to look around himself. A moment ago, they were in the habitat of the Watcher, a structure human science can’t even comprehend, much less destroy. Yet here, it’s vanished without a trace. What force could have persuaded that celestial being to leave? Or worse, compelled him? “Maybe the same one responsible for redecorating the world, Reed?” Johnny remarks. He wonders what this thing akin to a “ring” around the other planet they’re gazing at is.
Reed explains it’s a torus, a great donut ring occupying a geosynchronous orbit at 22,600 miles above the surface, so that is rotates in perfect synch with the planet, anchored by pylons spaced at equidistant intervals around the equator. Reed admires it: it’s an utterly magnificent feat of engineering. But Heaven only knows its purpose.
Johnny asks him if he has any idea what happened to them. Reed has a theory. Somehow during their battle with Ronan the Accuser, the energies of the device he was attempting to steal, activated Reed’s experimental fold space transceptor. The transceptor was intended to allow near-instantaneous transports over planetary distances. Reed hoped it would prove an expeditious and environmentally friendly means of travel than spending days in a spacecraft and exhausting tons of propellant. Regrettably, there are few glitches in the system: it ‘folds’ space in too many directions, without a precise target lock. Ben puts it more elegantly: each time they use it is a crapshoot! They might never find their way home. Reed indeed fears so.
Suddenly, Sue points over a rise ahead. The team beholds a gigantic sculpture, a cluster of four forms: statues of Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, Thing and… Dr. Doom! Johnny assumes Alicia Masters finished that sculpture they saw her working on. Sue notices it has the look of some kind of memorial… only Dr. Doom is their oldest foe. Why is he standing amongst them? Where is she? Has it something to do with her transformation? The “mannequin” creature that Ronan infected her with didn’t simply make her his slave… it’s turning her into something alien!
Ben addresses Reed: he’s the “big brain” and the leader of the Fantastic Four; does he have an answer for his wife? He tells Sue they saw a scene from what may be this timeline, when Alicia was carving the model for this statue. Reed must have found her a cure, because she looked as fine and normal as ever. Sue wonders why that doesn’t sound like good news. Rest admits he can imagine any number of circumstances wherein they and Dr. Doom might form an alliance. But he refuses to accept the rest of what they beheld. Increasingly uneasy, Sue asks him what he’s talking about.
Human Torch reveals that the plaque of the sculpture says it all: “Erected in loving memory of these gallant saviors of humanity, who gave their lives that the universe might live…” It’s signed, Susan Storm Richards… Baroness von Doom! “That’s insane!” Sue snaps. Reed agrees; however, he confesses Ben, Johnny and he all saw her wearing Doom’s colors. Their son, Franklin, was with her, all grown-up. So was his teenage sister; Sue’s daughter. Doom’s daughter. “No!” Sue cries.
Ben urges them to snap out of it. How many wacko futures have they seen in their time? There’s no guarantee whatsoever this one’s for real. He asks them to remember Dickens: knowing what’s to come, just like Scrooge, they have the power to maybe change it. In the meanwhile, their first order of business is getting themselves home. For all they know, they’re still inside the Watcher’s house. Maybe this is one of his fancy illusions. At least, they’ve got company. Whatever happened, it looks like Iron Man got caught up in it with them.
Indeed, Ben motions them overhead. A flying Iron Man is approaching… and then, quite unexpectedly, begins blasting them! “Hey! What gives?” Ben roars. That transceptor gizmo must have made Iron Man’s systems go all haywire, same as last time! Invisible Woman admits she doesn’t care if he’s an Avenger… nobody attacks the Fantastic Four! She decides to see how well his fancy armor stands up to her invisible force field and instantly strikes him, throwing him off balance.
Puzzled, Reed wonders: is it the light here or are the colors of his armor… Suddenly, he alerts the team: the Scarlet Witch! A curiously blue-skinned Scarlet Witch lunges at them, just as Johnny realizes her hex power triggered a moonquake! Johnny grabs Sue and flies upwards. Reed pleads him to get both her and himself clear: stratagem 47! Johnny complies: as good as done, he tells him; they’re history!
Mister Fantastic’s already pliable hand stretches further and Reed urges Ben to grab it. Ben admits he’d love to oblige, but he’s kind of otherwise engaged. A blue-skinned Giant Man is about to pummel him with his gigantic fist, shouting “for the enemies of the Empire… there is but one fate!” He then slams his fist on Ben. Undeterred, Ben lifts the weight of Giant Man’s fist and mocks him. If Ben had a buck for every time he heard a variation on that theme, he’d make Bill Gates look poor!
Ben then uses his strength and manages to topple his adversary over. He then jumps on his opponent’s belly, arguing that he may have the size of Giant Man and some of his looks, but the big man’s moves, no way! He suddenly questions aloud: since when is Hank Pym’s face blue? “Ben, old friend… duck!” Reed suddenly shouts. Ben complies and manages to avoid a shield hurled at him by a blue-skinned Captain America. Cap proclaims that, despite their momentary advantage, their position is hopeless. He asks them to yield… or face the wrath of the Kree Avengers!
Ben mumbles there’s no question about it: this is the one future that they’re most definitively changing! Overhead, he sees an airship about to land. Johnny is heard from within the ship. Reed explains to Ben it’s stratagem 47: classic misdirection. He made their foes think Johnny’s running away, when in fact he was off to find them some transport. Further battle serves no purpose; what they need are answers.
Invisible Woman encases Ben and Reed in one of her force-fields, just as the Kree Iron Man realizes they’re escaping and vows to bring them down! “In your dreams, metalmouth,” Johnny scoffs at him, while piloting the ship. Sue asks Johnny whether she should block the Kree Iron Man’s blasters with her force field. Johnny suggests she concentrates on getting the others aboard. This guy’s such a lousy shot, Johnny can fly rings around him! As Ben gets aboard, he huffs: since when did Johnny become such a good pilot? Johnny admits he learned from the best: watching Ben. Ben quips he now knows the universe is upside down: the Human Torch just paid him a compliment! “Only ‘cause it makes you even more crazy,” Johnny giggles. Ben is surprised the kid’s learning subtlety; what’s next, he joins the Yancy Street Gang?
Sitting on the pilot’s chair, he asks Reed where they’re headed. “Earth,” Reed replies. Ben asks him if he figures all this happened because of that gizmo Ronan stole. Reed admits there’s insufficient data. He doesn’t figure anything as yet, beyond the obvious. He realizes, though, for the Kree to assume the identities of the Earth’s greatest heroes and for this monstrous station to be built, the entire social and political order of the planet must have been overthrown. Ben asks him if he figures that’s what the statue’s all about. Doubtful since it memorializes humanity’s saviors, Reed thinks. What truly disturbs him is the timeframe involved. They aren’t that far beyond their own era. Whatever brings about this transformation, it will happen fairly soon.
With the ship approaching this reality’s Earth, Reed notices the surface is completely different. None of the continents looks even remotely the same. Johnny points them at something else: if Reed thinks that statue and doughnut ring were impressive, he can get a load of this! What they all behold underneath them, on the ground, is a skeleton of monstrous proportions. It’s fantastic, Reed says. They’re at 200K, the same basic orbital altitude at the space shuttle and the bones of these skeleton reach even higher!
Ben surprises everyone: he knows what it is. “Will wonders never cease, since that’s generally Reed’s department,” Johnny banters. Reed shushes him and asks Ben if he cares to enlighten them. Ben explains that’s a creature the X-Men have encountered, a space-faring sentient species called the Acanti. In known space, they’ve got only one enemy, a race that enslaves them as their living starships: the Brood! Basically, the Brood are bugs. In Reed’s terms, they’re as merciless as a great white shark, as rapacious as army ants, as brilliant as they come. They find an exploitable world, they eat it alive, same as they do the Acanti. You get in their way, you pretty much die. The only folks who’ve ever stopped them are the X-Men.
“No offense, Benjy,” Johnny tells him – but how is it he’s such a font of this particular wisdom? Ben explains that he and Carol Danvers were buds. Before she was an Avenger, she hung out with the X-Men. The Brood monkeying with her genetic structure is part of what transformed her into Binary and from there, to Warbird. She doesn’t like talking about what happened. Ben figures it wasn’t very pleasant. Question is: are the Kree Avengers and that torus a last line of defense to keep the buggies out or to make sure Earth is as far as they go?
“Fools!” the Kree Iron Man suddenly roars as he propels himself towards them. He knew once they entered the planetary atmosphere, they’d slow enough for him to catch them. He wishes Pama will guide his aim and allow him to destroy these interlopers before they enter the interdiction zone! Saying this, he blasts the ship. Ben announces they’re hit. He’s losing thrusters, he’s got red lines across the board. If they take another shot like that, they’re done for!
Johnny tells Ben to leave this bargain-basement knock-off shellhead to him and opens a hatch that leads him outside the shuttle, protected inside Sue’s force bubble. As Johnny darts at his opponent, he ponders that what’s happening to Sue is so weird. He knows she’s his sister but every time he looks at her, she gives him the creeps; way worse than Ben ever did when he first became the Thing. He wonders: is it just him? Or do the others feel the same? And what happens if it gets worse? He decides they’ll deal with it, just like they’ll deal with this little problem, the Kree Iron Man.
Johnny flames on and finally faces the Kree. Kree Iron Man zaps Johnny but misses him – only barely. Johnny realizes this guy’s almost as good as the real deal. No matter which way Johnny hits him, his armor comes up with some gun or other to knock him down. The Kree Iron Man gloats: did Human Torch think he was unprepared for the likes of him? They train against the combat simulacrums of the greatest heroes in the Earth’s history. He has beaten the best his race has to offer! Johnny admits he’s suitably impressed!
On the ship, Sue tells Reed that this ‘Iron Man’ uses a far greater variety of weapons than the one they know, and they’re more powerful as well! She doesn’t know if she can deflect them all. Reed asks Ben on their status. Ben replies that if his wife has the moxie to spare, how’s about she uses her force field to hold this crate together ‘til he finds them a place to land?
Outside, the Human Torch realizes the quinjet’s is in bad shape; he has to end this now! He envelops Kree Iron Man in a globe of fire, to overload his sensor array and push his life support systems to the max. Then, he punches in with a focused blast of nova intensity flame. He doesn’t want to hurt the man himself, but this should fry every electronic circuit in his suit.
Suddenly, though, Johnny realizes he may be a little too far behind the technology curve. The Kree Iron Man is absorbing the full force of his attack! The Kree admits that the power unleashed by Human Torch matches that of a starship… but his surpasses it! He then releases a tremendous blast on Johnny. Johnny realizes this was some kind of pulse-cannon. That was his best shot; what the heck does he do now?
The Kree Iron Man’s blasts clips on the ribs of the Acanti skeleton. As the quinjet flies right through it, Ben realizes it’s coming right for them and tells Sue he needs her force-field: she has to give all she’s got or they’re goners! Sue complies and protects them with a force-field from the falling rib. Ben applauds her. However, the impact throws them into a flat spin. Ben realizes the quinjet’s too badly hurt: controls are sluggish, they don’t have the engine trust to regain flight stability. He apologizes to Sue but they’re going to need her again, to save their bacon! And Reed, too.
Ben uses Sue’s force field to blunt the impact of the crash and Reed’s elastic body to make like a cushion around the three of them, so they don’t get squished. He then spots the roof of a skyscraper under them and reckons it looks like as good a place as any to aim for. He asks everybody to hang on… this is going to be rough! Indeed, the ship crash-lands on the roof and the team emerges from its remains. Ben quips it’s just like they said in flight school: any landing you can walk away from! Sue retorts that’s easy for him to say; she can barely stand. She’s never felt so exhausted.
Watching all around him, Reed remarks this is incredible. The decomposition of the Acanti carcass has led to a whole-sale reordering of the local ecology. From the confluence of phylum and species, he gathers it must be a hothouse of hyper-accelerated evolution. Ben, on the other hand, admits he’s kind of glad to be viewing it from a distance. Some of those critters – namely, some dinosaur-like beings – strike him as pretty darn nasty. “Amen to that old friend,” Reed remarks and wonders where Johnny is… and then discerns a flash up in the stratosphere!
Ben explains that Johnny and the shellhead are slugging it out toe-to-toe; kid’s giving it all he’s got! Reed notices it isn’t enough. Ben believes there’s got to be some way they can help. “There is!” Reed argues… and then they see Johnny nose-diving to the ground as Reed uses his pliable body as a safety net and tells Johnny to relax his body as he catches him.
The Kree Iron Man propels himself downwards and admits that, when he scanned the histories of their exploits, he did not believe it. They had to be exaggerations, if not outright lies. No one could possess such courage or time and overcome apparently hopeless odds. However, he stands corrected. And he thanks the gods with all their heart and soul that he will have supreme honor of bringing their legend to its end…
Suddenly, the Kree is shot in his chest by an arrow and collapses to the ground, courtesy of two armed warriors, a man and a woman. “Amateur!” the woman pronounces with disdain. “If you want a foe dead, then kill them! Don’t waste your time with speeches!” she grunts. The man tells the team not to be alarmed; they’re here as friends. He introduces himself as Lucas and his partner as Redwing. Ben wonders: why does he feel their being here isn’t an accident? Reed replies that, whatever the reason, their arrival couldn’t have been more fortuitous.
Lucas tells Redwing that’s really them, right on schedule, right where they where predicted. Reed asks him what’s that he says; predicted by whom? They have so many questions; some explanations would be greatly appreciated. “We talk, we’re ghosts,” Redwing retorts. They’ve been static too long already. They’re on a mission. The Fantastic Four are part of it but she doesn’t much like that. She knows their reputation from history; she doesn’t know them. That means she doesn’t trust easy. Reed defies her by stating that sentiment cuts both ways. Lucas apologizes for Redwing: she has no respect. Redwing retorts that respect is like trust. It has to be earned. She then tells Lucas to move: clock’s running, window’s closing. They have one shot at success; she refuses to waste it.
As they slide on a ramp and proceed in the interior of the skyscraper, Reed admits they owe them both for saving the Human Torch. “Was it necessary to kill?” Johnny asks them. Redwing explains that those Kree pseudos consider any human walking the surface as fair game. They hunt them for sport; almost to extinction. So, they pay them back in kind. “How did this happen?” Reed wonders. Lucan can’t say for certain; all they know are stories. There was a cataclysm that changed the shape of the universe itself. It could have been a war or maybe something natural; nobody’s left from those days to tell. When it was done, the Kree ruled Earth.
That’s when the killing started. Whatever their plan, it backfired. Try as they might, they couldn’t kill them all. All the survivors got meaner, tougher, smarter. They don’t have their tech, they don’t have their powers, but they’ve learned to beat them all the same. That’s why they don’t come dirtside much anymore. Now, they hunt them.
They’d have reclaimed their world and their freedom… but then the Acanti came – carrying the bugs. “The Brood, ya mean?” Ben asks. Lucas explains they thought at first they were some new horror tossed out by the Kree but the Blues are more spooked by the bugs than they are. As for the bugs, they don’t care who they kill. Human or Kree, makes no difference. To them, they’re all meat. Thing is, they don’t kill indiscriminately. There’s a purpose to their butchery. If one has a talent or especially a super-power, one is assimilated into the genetic structure of the Queen. She then passes those abilities on to her offspring. She’s their target.
“Lucas… just ahead of you… that wall!” Reed suddenly cautions him, as they’re all walking along a corridor. The wall gives way as a number of Brood burst through it! “Intruders, my brothers!” one of them hisses in delight. “Fools on a fool’s errand, to trespass in the royal hive. Slay them!” it orders its companions. “Defensive configuration, everyone! Nobody works, solo!” Reed shouts. Their only hope is to take them as a team! Reed immediately grabs the leader with his malleable form and tells Torch to catch him on the rebound. Johnny asks him what his limits are. “Sadly, none,” Reed replies. The Brood seems incapable of restraint or mercy. Johnny asks him to say now more: he knows what he has to do and flames on the Brood.
Sue blocks the hole on the wall created by the invading Brood, but she doesn’t know how long she can sustain the barrier. Next to her, Ben pummels on the Brood, confessing that these critters are as tough as they are ugly! It takes his best Monday nitro haymaker just to get their attention! He hates to state the obvious but these sure ain’t the Brood Carol described: they’re worse!
Suddenly, they see Brood approaching in the corridor behind them! Johnny generates a wall of near-nova intensity flame to keep them back. However, like Sue, at this level of combat, his limits are pretty darn finite. Ben keeps count: they’ve hit them from a wall and from behind, so that leaves four more directions they can choose from. The longer the team stays, the better their assessment of their capabilities. Reed agrees. These attacks show the hallmarks of a fairly sophisticated strategy. He suspects, once their assessment is complete, their next attack will be overwhelming. Which means they could sure use a brilliant idea, Ben adds. “In process, old friend,” Reed promises.
Suddenly, he exclaims “There they are!” Before the attack, he managed to tag Lucas and Redwing with a scan-lock. Now, he sees they’re fifty levels beneath them. Bio-telemetry indicates they’re in a serious scrap themselves. They need to join them. Ben fiercely punches the floor and creates an escape route for the team. He wonders why they bother, since Lucas and Redwing ran out of them. Reed urges him to look past the obvious. He then informs them his scans indicate the bulk of the hive’s warriors are converging in their position, leaving these two a relatively clear path to the Queen.
Ben gripes that it’s nice of them to let them know they were being used as a diversion… “Holy Mother Macree!” he suddenly howls, as the team finally reaches the desired floor only to come face to face with the enormous Brood Queen… and the Queen swats Ben away like a fly! Johnny pants that his hottest flames aren’t even scorching her shell! Reed tells him that time is of the essence. They have to find a weakness, a way to neutralize her before her warriors rally to her defense. Johnny retorts that’s easier said than done against a creature who’s all claws and spikes!
As Reed attacks, the Queen manages to slash both his uniform and his malleable flesh. Reed didn’t think it possible. She’s actually drawn blood! Sue uses her powers on the Queen and realizes she isn’t immune in her force field. Another solid hit should knock her out… and then Sue realizes something’s falling from above! Some of the Brood warriors land on Sue, who instantaneously encases herself in her force field. Johnny tells her to put her force field around her body, as tight as she can and leave the rest to him! He generates a flashfire effect that incinerates the Brood so quickly there won’t be time for the heat to leach through Sue’s force field.
Just as suddenly, Lucas lands on top of the Queen and uses his sword to cut through one of her legs. “I told you they were good, Red,” he tells his partner. “Hooray for them,” Redwing ironically replies and also crawls on top of the Queen. Lucas tells her they bought them the opportunity they need. Redwing huffs she knows the mission; he can save the story for when they’re home! As they watch, Lucas and Redwing mount their final assault, the Fantastic Four can’t help feeling a thrill of apprehension and awe. Even though they’re only humans, fast as the Queen is, they are that much faster. When blood is shed, it is never theirs. When the final blows are struck, it is not they who die… but the Queen!
The team then pilots the quinjet and blasts its way out of the roof, leading to the building’s – and hive’s – obliteration. Redwing exclaims that the battle’s won; the war continues; there are other hives. Their wild will not be free until they all destroyed. “Heads up, troops,” Ben shouts. They’ve got company: the Kree ship approaching, looking to find their corpses among the ruins. Or worse, the living captive.
Redwing tells them they should go. She apologizes to Reed. She was wrong before about him. He has earned both her trust and respect. Without him, their mission would have failed. At her hearthfire, the Fantastic Four will always be welcome. Reed insists they’d still like to help. Redwing retorts that’s not possible… and just then the team is teleported away in a puddle of light! As he vanishes, Reed mumbles that his fold space transceptor is activating. The same force that brought them to this world is sending them away! Lucas bids them farewell: they will not be forgotten.
Back at Limbo, Margali clicks on her device, while Destiny and Legion are watching her. She explains this is not Reed’s world or his home or his fate. For him, this future must ever remain not a fact but a possibility. The Fantastic Four were summoned because there was a great and terrible need. That need fulfilled, they must be returned to their rightful place and time, to continue along the proper path of their destiny. For such is the purpose of the Defenders, to stand as the last bastion of humanity, against all the myriad forces of darkness. She asks the Fantastic Four to take care until they meet again… for the very first time.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Last Farewell
It is Puppy who first warns the Fantastic Four of the approaching storm. The dog starts whining and bouncing in circles, trying to pull them deeper into the warehouse, where he thinks they’ll all be safe. However, a glance out the windows reveals clear skies and a lovely morning, so everyone, including Franklin, Valeria and Caledonia, goes up on the roof for a better look. One moment, all is tranquility. The next, as sudden as that, absolute and all-consuming chaos.
A celestial thunder erupts around the team like a fanfare of kettledrums and, suddenly, the city changes before their eyes. They see different worlds, different realities, a cavalcade of snapshots presenting every imaginable version of this specific place and moment. With each new image comes its own unique blend of sights and sounds, creating the cumulative and terrifying impression that it is the ground beneath their feet that is undergoing these profound and continuous transformations.
Seemingly unaware of what’s just happened, the mail carrier known as Wilhelmina Lumpkin climbs the ladder that leads to the roof of Pier 4, the warehouse that houses the team. Wilhelmina greets everybody and then asks them if everything is alright.
Conspicuously shocked by what they just experienced, the team realizes that the storm is finally vanished. Johnny, however, pretends they’re fine and thanks Wilhelmina for asking. Wilhelmina admits that seeing them all up here, in uniform, at this hour of the morning makes her worry that she has walked into the middle of something. Reed insists her concern is much appreciated but groundless: they are fine.
After Wilhelmina leaves, Ben expresses his concern over the incident. Reed believes that, violent as that squall was, reality appears to have defaulted back to normal, without suffering any lasting harm. Ben, however, believes that Reed should reconsider that observation and advises him to take a look at the morning’s mail. Each of the stamps on the letters depicts an aspect that corresponds to one of the realities they just saw. Reed apologizes and admits he was wrong: the situation is far more serious than he imagined.
A while later, they are all having breakfast in the kitchen – save for Reed. When Sue asks Ben if he’s contacted the Avengers, he replies that he’s called everybody on Reed’s alert list. Apparently, they are the only ones who experienced that storm. “But why?” Sue wonders. And why was only their mail affected and nothing else? Johnny reminds her that she’s asking the wrong guy. Her husband’s the big brain.
Ben asks Franklin why he’s looking so gloomy. Franklin explains those were “dream worlds.” Franklin himself has the power to make dream worlds real and wonders if this is his fault. “No way!” Valeria assures him. She argues that, as long as she’s around, that power he is so afraid of, doesn’t exist! She reminds Franklin she’s his sister and asks him to trust her.
Johnny aggressively asks her “why should we?” After all, her last name is von Doom and Doctor Doom is the worst enemy of Fantastic Four! Annoyed, Valeria asks him what he’s saying. Johnny retorts that, even if she’s right about her powers neutralizing Franklin, who’s to say that’s automatically a good thing? He suggests that maybe it’s her zapping his powers that brought on this crisis in the first place! Johnny insists he doesn’t believe in coincidences and believe her being here is for a purpose. The question is: whose?
Valeria asks him if he’s implying she would betray the Fantastic Four and harm her own family. Johnny reminds her that her family is headed by Doctor Doom, whereas theirs by Reed Richards. What if a moment comes when she has to choose between them? Sue intervenes, telling Johnny that’s enough. Regardless of Valeria’s origins, or whatever reason brought here, she’s more than earned their respect and trust.
Reed walks into the room, telling Johnny that when the Invisible Woman uses that tone of voice, it’s best for her opponent to cut his losses and retire gracefully from the field of combat! As Johnny is about to protest, Reed assures him that his concern is commendable. However, at the moment, they have more pressing concerns.
Reed unfolds some maps on the table which represent all the data he’s accumulated on the approaching chaos storm. Reed would like them all to review the files for any information or inspiration that might prove useful in coping with it. Johnny wonders what good that would do; after all, it’s Reed who’s the resident genius. Reed retorts they’re a team. Given all they’ve experienced as a team, they all have unique perspectives and insights that might allow them to spot something that he might miss.
When Franklin asks his dad if they’re going to stop the bad storm, Reed explains this is a force of nature, like a hurricane. It may be that all they can do is try to weather the tempest and make sure nobody suffers in the process. He tells the boy that their abilities are a gift and with it comes the responsibility to use it to defend humanity against harm. Franklin urges his father to not be scared: everything will be okay.
A little bit later, Franklin goes around the house, together with Puppy, looking for the others. The boy finds nobody in the kitchen or the living room. Finally, he hears voices coming from the storage closet and heads towards it. There, he sees his nanny, Alysande Stuart, also known as Caledonia, together with his uncle, the Human Torch. Johnny rises in the air, releasing his trademark shout “Flame on!” In an instant, he generates more light than heat to get a better sense of the dimensions of the closet, the “closet” being actually more of a tesseract, a room whose interior dimensions can be expanded almost to the point of infinity.
Soon wandering around again, Franklin and Puppy find Ben Grimm, the Thing. Ben is surrounded by holographic images of various superheroes whom he’s just briefed on the current situation. Ben informs them that Reed has uplinked all his data to their personal buffers and they are now open to suggestions. Tony Stark addresses Ben, clarifying he’s an engineer, but not a theoretician. Once Reed tells him what he wants to build, it’s his. Ben thanks him. Captain America and Scarlet Witch, speaking for the Avengers, assure him that the Avengers’ resources are also theirs.
Each in turn, the greatest minds on Earth are consulted. Information and ideas are speedily exchanged and soon all the holograms vanish, as everybody gets back to work. Left alone, Ben admits to himself he hates this. As the Thing, he’s one of the strongest beings alive. Yet, in a fight like this, his muscles don’t count.
Professor Xavier’s astral form suddenly appears before Ben. Xavier apologizes for the intrusion. Since time is short, he’s taken the liberty of discerning the necessary information directly from Ben’s thoughts. Ben grumpily agrees that it’s indeed a liberty. Xavier assures him that he understands what is required of him. However, he also cautions Ben that he is no longer the telepath he once was. Moreover, for reasons that do not concern the Fantastic Four, he has disbanded the X-Men. “Ain’t that a kick inna head,” Ben comments on that. Still, he asks Charles to do his best. As Xavier departs, Ben thinks that the Professor looked even grimmer than Reed. He hopes they all understand what’s at stake here. If the storm hits, it isn’t just a question of the world surviving but the whole cosmos!
Franklin decides to go to his dad’s lab, even though he realizes he’s not supposed to disturb his dad when he’s working! Franklin stands outside the sealed entrance that leads to Reed’s lab, shouting “I’m scared” for his father to hear.
Valeria appears in the entrance, telling Franklin that she is happy to see him: it’s because she’s scared! Franklin doesn’t believe that. She can’t be scared, she’s never scared: she’s Marvel Girl! “So what?” Valeria replies. She advises him to look how everybody’s acting, like this time all their power and smarts and courage may not be enough to make a difference.
Franklin insists she’s wrong. She’s his baby sister. She hasn’t been born yet but she’s there, so that means that everything turns out alright. Valeria informs him that Reed says this storm breaks all the rules and makes up new ones in their place. Franklin reminds her that he’s her big brother and he will protect her! He asks her if dad wants her to work with him. Valeria believes she was getting on his nerves but he was too polite to say. The kids depart to play some ball.
In his lab, Reed himself watches a simulation of the coming chaos storm. He feels like he has never in his life seen any aspect of nature that was so beautiful – or so terrible. As he gazes upon it, he feels it’s like the moment before Genesis and he’s staring into a void that is formless and without content. All the insults that have been inflicted upon causality in recent months – events that transposed time and warped space – have prompted this equal and opposite reaction.
Some while back, when Earth was threatened by a race of interstellar freebooters called the Z’Nox, Charles Xavier harnessed the psychic energy of virtually every mind on Earth, focused it on a beam of coherent force and used it to drive the Z’Nox away. Reed hopes he can employ a variant of that stratagem to engulf the Earth-moon planetary system behind an unbreachable shield. If they shape its configuration, they should theoretically deflect the brunt of the chaos wave around the planet.
Suddenly, the results of the simulation become less and less hopeful. Reed sees the shield generating a backwash, with reactive sine waves of energy bouncing back towards their source. In horror, he sees the sun being hit from both sides, the primary wave front and some secondary ripples. They’re initiating a cascading chain reaction in the solar core; the sun’s exploding; it’s going super-nova! All the other planets in the solar system are instantly vaporized! Reed contemplates the two scenarios after that: if the shield holds, they’re left floating in empty space, without a star left to sustain them, until they freeze. If the shield fails, one brief millisecond of agony as they are consumed by fire! Neither outcome is acceptable.
A little later, Franklin and Valeria are playing soccer together, with Franklin applauding Valeria’s skills and some kids watching them even inviting her to play in a pick-up game around there. Sue watches them from the window, noticing how happy they look together, just like Johnny and her when they were kids. Sue goes back to business and orders the computer to update Reed’s progress and display the latest scenario. As she sees the simulation of the storm, she wonders whether they are deluding themselves to think they can defend their world against so primal a force. And regardless of their fate, what about the children?
A little bit later, on the warehouse roof, Johnny “flames on” and flies away, telling Caledonia that he won’t be away long – if he doesn’t find himself some action, he feels like he’s going to explode! Caledonia thinks she should be with him and watch his back but she can’t leave Franklin unprotected. Sue approaches her, urging her not to worry about Johnny as he will be fine; he may be occasionally hot-headed but he’s nobody’s fool. In the meantime, she could give Sue a hand with something else.
Meanwhile, Johnny vents his rage on whatever criminals gets on his way. In the Wall Street Financial District, he encounters some bank robbers in armor form. Uptown, he battles the Hydro-Man. Even more uptown, he confronts Razorback.
A little later, Ben crosses the Yancy Street, dressed in a coat. Several people are shocked and even disturbed to see him walking around in normal, “human” clothes. Ben thinks that, no matter how many times he’s saved the world, people still get spooked when he walks by.
Watching him from atop some roofs, the brats that constitute the Yancy Street Gang wish to teach Ben to not trespass on their turf and throw some water balloons against him. However, the female bounty hunter known simply as Bounty grabs the balloons before they reach the ground and “rescues” Ben. Bounty appears right before Ben who asks her what her problem is. This is his old neighborhood; does she think he doesn’t know what happens when he goes strolling down Yancy Street? With all that’s ahead, he figured he’d give them one last decent shot a him. It’s not like they can do him any real harm! There was no cause for her to interfere.
Puzzled, Bounty remarks that they meant to humiliate him; what of his pride? Ben insists that his pride can survive a few water balloons. Bounty admits she doesn’t understand him. Ben admits he feels the same about her. He tells Bounty that this will never work: him and her together. How they can learn that for certain if they never try, Bounty asks? The two of them proceed to kiss. The kids on the roof are disgusted by this sight and prepare to strike again!
Back in the warehouse, Sue packs all of Franklin’s stuff in his suitcase, which is basically a mini-version of the tesseract, otherwise all this packing would never fit. As she holds Franklin’s favorite stuffed cuddly tight on her, she starts weeping. As Valeria approaches her, Sue admits that just like Franklin can’t bear to be parted from his cuddly, she can’t bear to part with him.
Valeria insists it’ll all be okay. Reed will find the answer, as always. Valeria feels that talking to him is like talking to her dad; sometimes, they’re so alike it’s creepy! Sue admits that Reed feels the same way about Valeria and herself. As Sue offers to dry and comb Valeria’s hair, Valeria asks her if it will be like what Aunt Marigay used to do to Sue, after Sue’s mom died. Sue is puzzled as to how she could have known that. Valeria explains that Sue told her, when she was little.
A little bit later, notified by the FF signal on the sky, Ben, Bounty, Johnny and Reed – the four of them grabbing a cup of coffee together – return to Pier 4, where Sue demands from everyone to go and get themselves changed for a proper dinner. They all soon reappear, all dressed up. Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, Valeria, Franklin, Caledonia and Bounty spend together an evening of laughter and fellowship, reminiscing past adventures.
Later that night, Reed and Sue put Franklin to bed. Reed tells her that this was a wonderful thing she did for them all. Sue replies that it was just a reminder of the fact they are, first and foremost, a family. Reed asks him to trust her; things will be all right. Sue tells Reed that he’s her world but Franklin’s her life. She’ll do whatever necessary to keep him safe. Reed insists “as would I.”
Sue tells him she will hold him to that pledge. Reed insists that he has the answer, the means to protect both the Earth and the sun from the chaos wave. Sue asks him how much time there is before the wave hits. “Four days,” Reed replies. Sue asks him if he’s done everything he can. “Yes,” Reed answers. He can’t do any more right now that will make a difference. The couple then passionately embrace.
Later that night, they both wake up from the alarm. Reed exclaims it can’t be possible! His calculations were precise! He orders the computer to give him active and real-time display, sitrep on the chaos wave. Horrified, he sees that the timetable’s been accelerated at a tremendous rate; there’s a massive causal disruption on the far side of the sun. His plans and scenarios are useless! Sue admits that’s what she was most afraid of: the unexpected! As she grabs the sleepy Franklin from his bed, Reed asks her where he’s taking him. “Where he’ll be safe,” she replies. Suddenly, reality loses all meaning and solid forms become as pliable as Reed’s elastic body, each molecule of their bodies separate from one another, flowing in a steady stream through the air.
The moment passes and Sue rushes with Franklin to the hangar, with Reed following her, quite puzzled. As they enter the hangar, Reed sees a strange ship in the middle of the room and asks what the devil this is. Everybody else is already there and Ben explains that this is a special project they’ve been working on while he was locked up in his lab. Apparently, Sue didn’t tell him. Reed demands an explanation from Sue: it’s also his son they’re talking about! Johnny reports to Sue that he’s checked the ship and she’s ready to launch!
Sue tells Reed that they’re facing the fight of their lives. However, she can’t be an effective member of the team if she’s worried about her baby. She needs him to be safe. At least, with Franklin safe, they can focus all their efforts on saving all the children that are not as lucky as him. If they succeed, they bring him home. If not…
Reed asks her why she didn’t tell him. Sue replies that she thought they had time – and prayed for Reed’s usual miracle. She admits she’s sorry. Reed believes she should be: it’s also his son. He asks her where she is sending the ship. Sue asks him to trust her: she called in a marker.
The whole team bids Franklin farewell. Caledonia, Valeria and Puppy are to go with him. However, Valeria is nowhere to be found. Johnny leaves to go look for her. Franklin, Caledonia and Puppy enter the ship. Reed proclaims that the chaos wave is unstable; they have to launch the ship now or never. Valeria appears and shuts the canopy of the ship. She bids her farewells to her brother. As the ship vanishes to an unknown destination, Franklin’s voice fades away, telling everybody he loves them. Exasperated, Reed shouts to Valeria that she was supposed to be aboard; there’s just this one lifeboat! Does she realize what she’s just done?
Johnny asks them all to come join him on the roof; they won’t believe what’s coming. When they get there, Ben confides in Reed that he thinks they’ve got a problem here. Sue thinks it’s called the end of the world. What they gaze at is a giant wave rising above New York City – a wave with something as a face materializing on it.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Homecoming
Reed Richards arrives at Halo City. Or at least what’s left of it. After seeing the mass-destructions, Reed notices a little girl almost getting drowned. Luckily, Mr. Fantastic acts quickly and saves the young one. The girl wants her mother and Reed promises to find her.
Reed puts his plane at full speed and flies over the almost fully destroyed city and wishes that he could evacuate everyone of Halo City. But it seems that they have to be relocated in the Savage Land! Reed is confident that the plan will work, but hopes to himself that Sue, Johnny and Ben are all right… wherever they are!
Meanwhile in Atlantis, the influenced Johnny and Sue attack Whisper, who desperately tries to protect the unconscious Ben at the same time. Sharkan helps his new minions, but Whisper isn’t impressed by him. She attacks Attuma at full force and thereby reclaims her rightful place at the Atlantean throne! After all, it is hers by birthright and Sharkan only took it from her.
Whisper remembers how Attuma could succeed in his plan. With the diplomatic efforts of General Dagim, Atlantean and Lemurian were to sit as brother and sister side by side for the first time in centuries. If not for Whisper’s ability to ignite fire beneath the waves, it might have lasted longer than a few brief weeks.
Attuma feared that this “sorcery,” coupled with Whisper’s gender, would contradict his most sacred prophecy, so Sharkan “disposed” of Whisper, claiming a Lemurian faction against the peace process to be the culprit, thus discrediting the eyes of all Atlanteans and insuring the security of his Martian rule.
But Whisper wants to know, as Sharkan watched Dagim spirit her away, did he honestly believe that he successfully averted disaster? Whisper wants to know what made Sharkan think that would deal with her. Whisper wants Sharkan to tell her who made him.
The Thing wakes up but feels a little shaken. Whisper says that’s because of the neurotoxins, which have made him susceptible to Attuma’s commands. Johnny throws an energy shuriken at Whisper, but it just barely misses her. Johnny keeps fighting, but in himself tries to get himself free from the drugs.
Attuma smiles evilly and thinks that this proves that he is far more intelligent than Reed Richards. Attuma sends Sue and Johnny out again and orders them not to fail him. Whisper mocks Attuma how low he has fallen, that he doesn’t even dare to do his own dirty work.
While Whisper bravely keeps on fighting, the Thing tries to get a grip on himself and to get up. Whisper tries to bring Johnny back to normal, but it’s no use. She notices several Atlantean citizens standing by, and proudly introduces herself to them. The Atlanteans notice that Whisper has the powers of the Foretold One, but can she really be the One?
Ben gets up and knocks Johnny out. Attuma gets angry and wants to kill Ben for this. Suddenly, he is attacked by an invisible barrier. Sue’s responsible, and the toxins that were put into her by Attuma’s scientist have worn off. Nobody is under his influence anymore. Sue suggests Attuma that he gives up.
Johnny gets up and attacks Attuma from behind, using his flames. Ben strikes as well and punches Attuma a few times, but Whisper tells the boys to stop, because Attuma’s reign doesn’t need to end in violence. She wants to spare him. To himself, Attuma tells Whisper to enjoy the victory, confident that it will only be a short one. He will be back!
Shortly after, the team hurries back to Four Freedoms Plaza in their ship. Sue tries to contact Reed several times, but to no response. Ben gets a message on the board computer, and it’s from Reed. He takes goodbye from his family, in case something has gone wrong, and informs that he is currently on route to the Savage Land. Then the message ends.
Sue fears the worst, but Johnny is certain that Reed’s still alive…at least he hopes. Ben too but, to himself, he is still angry at Reed for putting them on the space ship which turned him into the monster he is now. And Ben wants to say that to Reed personally. Sue thinks that someone is trying to tear the Fantastic Four up again. Ben promises that, as long as he’s alive, he will never allow that!
Full speed ahead, the Fantastic Four are heading to… the Savage Land!
Meanwhile, while on his way to the Savage Land, Reed scouts the lovely weather and thinks that he will have a nice day nonetheless. But he spoke too soon, as a Manglev ship rises from the ocean! The Atlanteans get out of the boat and identifies Reed’s ship as an enemy. Reed prepares to battle and hopes that he wins, or else it will mean the end of the entire human race!
Reed opens fire, but more warships rise and Reed fears that it’s the end for him. Inside the main warship, General Dagim smiles at his victory and orders his men to fire, this time to kill. But the troops can’t, since their equipment has been jammed! Dagim panics, especially when the ship itself gets under attack! Dagim orders his troops to identify the enemy responsible, and various ships are approaching, but of Latverian origin!
Doom warns the Atlanteans to prepare for death, because he won’t let them destroy Latveria. After all, should Latveria die, there would be no reason for Doom to live! Doom contacts Richards, who is surprised to be fighting alongside his old enemy. Perhaps, Reed thinks, after all these years, there might be something good inside his former friend.
Meanwhile, Sue and the others are also attacked by Atlantean warships. But they need to identify themselves first. Sue thinks she knows a way out. She speaks in an Atlantean dialect and says that their ocular device has been bollixed. The Atlantean General is pleased to hear such an ancient dialect of their language and decides to let the team go. Sue is pleased that she has at least picked up something from her time with Namor!
After destroying the final enemy ships, Doom goes aboard Reed’s ship. Reed wants to make amends for past mistakes and start their friendship again, but Doom isn’t interested. But he does warn Reed not to go to the Savage Land, since it’s gotten worse since the last time he saw it. But Reeds wants to go there to bring the Halo City survivors there. Doom takes goodbye then, and promises that they will never see each other again.
Reed’s ship gets blasted! The damage isn’t much, but it might be soon. The board computer goes on and gives Reed a message from Attuma, who wants to kill Reed. But Johnny and Ben arrive just in time and send Attuma swimming- literally! General Dagim gets word from Whisper to retreat and come home. They do and, once back home, Whisper tells Dagim that they’ve got a lot to discuss. But first the attack on the humans must be reverted. Dagim doesn’t like it, but he does as the Majestrix order and all Atlantean warships return to where they came from.
Reed and Sue run to each other and kiss. Reed meets up with Ben and tells his old friend that it feels like old times again. Ben agrees that it’s been way too long. Ben asks Reed if he thinks the Savage Land will be big enough to handle civilization.
Actually, Reed doesn’t. He agrees that the Savage Land is vast, but believes that its resources are too limited to support them for a long time period. That’s why he is leaving Earth for Alchemax’s Ares colony… on Mars! Reed knows that the odds of making it back are slim, but he has to try.
Ben won’t allow it. Reed has just been reunited with his beautiful wife, and now he’s flying into space?! Ben wants that Reed allow someone else to play hero for a change. Ben offers to go, since he has no family and all to worry about. Reed gets upset hearing that and tells Ben that they are his family now. Reed admits that there are many mistakes he regrets making and there are too many things that Reed can do for Ben now. The future is an open book. Ben hugs Reed and knows where he is going. Ben doesn’t blame Reed for making him the man he is today. In fact, Ben owes Reed for it.
A few sleepless nights later, the team is ready to go. The spaceship is ready and Ben and the X-Nation kids are ready for take-off. They are just waiting for Father Jennifer to stop arguing with Spider-Man about letting her go along. At the back of the ship, Jennifer argues with Miguel and shuts the door in front of his face. December is thrilled to go, but Metalsmith isn’t so sure. Sue asks Ben if he’s ready to go. This trip reminds Ben of a certain first space trip he and the team took a long while back. Reed smiles and was just thinking the same thing.
Reed activates the spaceship and in a matter of seconds it’s already in outer space! But a warning signal goes off. Reed knows that something has gone wrong. The orbiting satellite isn’t registering the ship anymore! Reed tries to invert the bandwidth at the same time as he narrows it down. Reed finds the ship, but… it’s shattered into pieces! And Ben, Jenny and X-Nation are nowhere to be seen…