FANTASTIC FOUR # 418

by Mark Bousquet

(Windrunners created by M. Bousquet and Rolando Duarte)

 

"The Long and Winding Road Home"



The Silver Surfer and the Fantastic Four zoom through the air over the Gulf of Mexico. Reed, Sue and Franklin sit in the front, while Ben, Alicia and Johnny sit in the back. They are headed to Costa Rica, where the Surfer wants to check out the reappearance of the Hulk.

"I didn't know you cared, Surfer," teases the Human Torch.

"Care, Johnny Storm? No ... I do not. I merely wish to see if he is ... in need of my aid. We ... talked recently and he was not himself." (Didja read Silver Surfer # 125? You should have. - Recommending Back Issue Mark)

"What, you mean he had a pleasant personality and didn't smell like Man-Thing's underwear?" Johnny laughs.

"The Man-Thing does not wear underwear." The Surfer adds dryly.

"Err, right. Let's move on, shall we?" Sue prompts, eyeing Franklin. She is a bit uncomfortable with the way the Silver Surfer keeps looking towards Franklin. And the way Franklin looks at the Surfer, too.

In the back, Ben and Alicia sit in silence. Ben is uncomfortable with her and the Surfer in each other's presence. Alicia, for her part, is looking for an opening to start a conversation, but Ben isn't allowing one to occur.

"What do you mean, he doesn't wear underwear?" Johnny asks, egging the Surfer on.

"Johnny, please," pleads Sue, turning around to eye her brother unhappily.

"It's okay, mom. He doesn't wear underwear." Franklin adds innocently.

"Franklin! How ... Why do you know that?" Sue asks dumbfounded.

"He's my friend. He took care of me after the bad stuff happened to Banshee and everyone. (*Generation X # 25 again - Reminding Mark) I hung out with him and Artie and Leech and Tana and Howard the Duck-"

"You were in the protective care of Howard the Duck?!?" Ben asks incredulously. "What kind of nonsense is that? Where was Granddaddy Nathan? Off pollinating the time-stream again?"

"Ben, please. I'm sure my father--" Reed tries to explain.

"I'm sure your father has some excuse, Stretch! Doesn't mean I'm going to believe that his excuse is more important than protecting Franklin. Not everyone," he says, his eyes sneaking a peak at Alicia, "has a guardian angel to protect them."

"Ben, I'm sure Howard did his best-" Alicia tries to reason, before Ben cuts her off.

"That's awfully sweet of you, Alicia, standing up for the Duck and all, but it ignores the fact that Franklin should never have been with him in the first place!"

"Please, Ben," Alicia asks, "you're making me feel uncomfortable."

Ben starts to answer, but the Surfer speaks first. "If you're uncomfortable, Alicia, I would be more than willing to carry you."

"Sweet. Aunt. Petunia." Ben grumbles under his breath.

They travel in silence for a few minutes, Franklin and the Surfer again looking at each other, in seemingly appreciative awe.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, and to stop Franklin and the Surfer from staring at each other, Reed asks, "Surfer, did you have any trouble getting the Fantasti-Car from Four Freedoms?"

"That would be impossible, Reed Richards. There isn't one there."

"There isn't?"

"No, I borrowed this one from Ka-Zar."

Reed and Sue look at each other I surprise. (They must not have read Ka-Zar # 5! --Back Issue Hunting Mark) "Ka-Zar?!? I don't think I want to know," Reed groans.

"Yeah, dad, um, I wanted to mention that but I, um, forgot, kinda." Franklin hangs his head. "See, um, as much as I want to go home, we, um, can't. See, the, well, the Thunderbolts live there now."

"The WHO?!?" the Fantastic Four ask in unison.




INTERLUDE 1:

In the same dark room as the end of FF # 417, the same mysterious figure sits on a throne and ponders some more. All that is visible in the dark room is that he wears small armored gauntlets on his hands. Grey armored gauntlets.

On the screen before him there plays an assorted group of super-villains: the Super-Adaptoid, Taskmaster, Titania, the Absorbing Man, Abomination and Terrax.

"Yes," he mentions to the empty room, "you'll do nicely. Very nicely indeed."

END INTERLUDE 1.




The Silver Surfer and the Fantastic Four have reached the beautiful country of Costa Rica. Ben wonders how they'll find the Hulk amongst the dense forests.

"I know exactly where he is, Ben Grimm," assure the Surfer.

"Right. Stupid me," Ben mumbles.

"That's not how he meant it, Ben," Alicia offers, placing her hands on Ben's arms. How many times, she wonders, has she imagined running her hands along Ben's rocky hide since he vanished? How many times has she had to stop sculpting her statue of him because she couldn't bear the thought of never seeing him again? She wonders what happened in that other world they were in to make him seem so angry at her presence.

Then, the Surfer announces that the Hulk is below them and they descend. Ben looks down to see miles of devastated country-side, "Heck, even I coulda told you that." Around the wild, savage Hulk lies a destroyed village. Scared villagers run from him. Those to scared to run hide behind trees or simply stand in place, unable to move.

The Surfer swoops ahead and blasts the rampaging Hulk in the back. The Hulk, big and green, is flung across the village, crashing into thick foliage. The Fantastic Four hit the ground and help bring the villagers to safety.

Hulk has regained his bearing and screams, "HULK SMASH!" at the Surfer, who floats nearby, staring him down. He lunges at the Surfer who bats him aside.

"Please, Hulk, you are no match for one who wields the Power Cosmic." The Hulk is too far gone in his rage and lunges again at the Surfer, who, again, knocks him aside. The FF have cleared all the villagers safely away and they stand with Alicia a good distance from the Surfer and the Hulk. They watch as the Silver Surfer repeatedly offers to help, and the Hulk repeatedly yells, "HULK SMASH!" and attacks the Surfer. He never gets close.

Reed is worried for Bruce Banner. He finds that he still feels a strong kinship with him, after their time together in the Franklinverse as Atomic Knights of the Round Table. He wonders at the agony that Bruce must be going through, now that he has been fully reunited with the Hulk that was left behind. Johnny flies above the tree lines to check for more villagers who might need their aid.

"Hey, Reed," Johnny asks, disturbing Reed's line of thought, "Does it snow in Costa Rica?"

"Well, Johnny, while there are--"

"Just get up here Reed because it's snowing over there!" Reed stretches above the clouds and has no scientific explanation for what he sees. There is no snow falling from the sky, but rather what looks like a whirlpool made of snow circling in place.

Reed decides they should check it out immediately, but Sue disagrees. She feels the best thing to do is to stay with the villagers until the problem with the Hulk is over.

"But Sue, what if there's someone in trouble over there?"

"Reed, there are people in trouble right here."

The group waits as an uneasy silence falls, Franklin in particular is disturbed by the momentary unease between his parents. A villager overhears them and tells the FF that area, translated into English, is known as the `Forest of Wind', but that the snow is a new occurrence. "They live there," she mentions, "the Runners of Wind." The group doesn't quite know how to take her comment.

Ben breaks the silence by offering to stay behind, the Surfer isn't having any trouble with the Hulk as it is. He can protect Franklin and the villagers while they go check out the disturbance. Besides, he thinks to himself, there's no way I'm letting Alicia and the Silver Surfer be alone.




INTERLUDE 2:

In the undersea fortress called Satori, Phillip Masters lives among scientists and philosophers in peace. In his time as the Puppet Master, Phillip would use his radioactive clay to sculpt heroes - often members of the Fantastic Four - and then control their actions against their will through the clay.

It is a time Phillip is glad to have behind him.

It is a time his new benefactor, a man named Dr. Ganger, is eager to see return. Though his ultimate goal with Phillip goes beyond anything the Puppet Master has ever attempted to accomplish, Ganger needs the Puppet Master's unique abilities.

But, he tells himself as he watches Phillip from behind the sanctity of a monitor, the sculptor's loyalty needs to be put to a test. In his hands he holds news photos of Quicksilver and the Knights of Wundagore.

END INTERLUDE 2.




Johnny, Reed and Sue approach the twister of snow. Large enough to cover a football field, they can not see inside the swirling, thick snow. Johnny attempts to melt a hole through the twister, but more snow just takes it's place. He looks to Reed for advice on what to do next and he sees his sister cringe just slightly. Uh oh, he thinks, Reed and Sue still aren't back to acting and thinking like a single unit.

Reed tells Johnny to wait, he doesn't know what's causing the occurrence, so they don't know what harm it will do to counter it's effects. That's why Sue can't use her powers to part a whole in the storm, either. He says this looking at Sue, hoping for a nod in agreement from her, but she says nothing and just stares at the storm. He wonders if it's because she would rather Johnny try to melt the entire storm or because she's just being stubborn.

"Sis?" Johnny asks, "You agree with that?"

She thinks for another second, then agrees with Reed's decision. Reed looks to Sue to see if she'll say anything else, but then the storm starts to stutter. The twister begins to lose it's shape and snow starts to fall out of it's air-stream. They glimpse a peek inside and can see a large group of people standing in a large circle, all looking towards the middle.

"Who are they, Reed? I never - oh no," Johnny gasps, and under the flames that surround him, his face turns white.

"What is it, Johnny? What did you see?" Sue asks. Her and Red try to peek inside, but the storm has picked up it's intensity again. "Johnny, what was it about those people?"

Johnny isn't listening, however, he's too busy pouring flame into the again raging twister of snow and ice. "No!" he screams at the twister, "No! No! No! Let her go!"

Sue stares and screams at her brother to stop, she can see he is close to losing control. "Stop, Johnny!" Then Reed, who had been looking into the storm, sees what Johnny saw.

"No, Johnny, don't stop. Keep it up!" Sue turns, upset, but Reed is ready for her, "Look, Darling, look." The storm sputter some more and Sue sees what's causing the storm.

"My God it's Crystal!"




The Silver Surfer is still swatting aside an increasingly torqued off Hulk. The Hulk is noticeably larger in appearance, standing a good 8 feet tall. He's not even yelling, "HULK SMASH!" anymore, he's just screaming in total, incomprehensible rage.

Norrin tries to reason with him, but even he realizes it's not going to do any good.

In the distance, Ben and Alicia stand side-by-side, with Franklin hovering near-by. Alicia asks him question after question, trying to draw him out, but Ben refuses to give her more than a one word answer. For her part, she doesn't know what she's done to upset him.

The Surfer prepares to swat aside the Hulk for the 100th time when he is overcome in pain. The Hulk finally reaches his target and lays into the Surfer, sending him flying towards Ben and Alicia. The Hulk bounds towards them.

"Uh-oh," Ben whispers, "Looks like it's up to me. Alicia, stay here with Franklin."

The Thing jumps towards the green goliath and they connect in mid-air! The Hulk, stronger and with more force behind him, knocks Ben aside and lands at the prone body of the Silver Surfer. The Surfer is still screaming in agony. Alicia has ignored Ben's order and stands by the Surfer, asking him what's wrong.

Recovering quickly, the Thing jumps on Hulk's back before the angered giant can land another blow on the Surfer. Thing and Hulk tangle until the Hulk tosses Ben aside again.

Alicia is trying to comfort the Surfer, but his body is hot to the touch. And then, stopping a quickly as it started, the Silver Surfer stops screaming. He looks up at the Hulk and blasts him with an incredible burst of the Power Cosmic. There is no emotion on the face of the Surfer as he continues to blast away. The Hulk falls to his knees, and a part of Banner slowly makes it's way to the surface, "Stop p-please "

Hearing that, the Silver Surfer stops his assault and turns towards Alicia.

>From across the ruined village, where he last landed, all Ben sees is the Silver Surfer saying something to Alicia, who bows her head. The Surfer puts his hand to her face and she wraps her arms around him in an embrace. Ben's heart sinks at the sight, but when the Silver Surfer bends his head and kisses Alicia on the forehead, his heart shatters.

He buries his head in the grass. When he looks up the Silver Surfer is gone.




The Silver Surfer steps away from Alicia and turns to Franklin. "You have become very important, young Franklin. You know that, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do, Mr. Surfer."

"The cosmos itself will soon learn of you and that will bring repercussions in your future. Take care of yourself."

Without another word or gesture, the Silver Surfer heads for space.




The Human Torch pours flame and fire into the maelstrom. It is weakening, but not fast enough for Johnny, who continues to increase his power. Sue watches and fears for her brother. He was always rash, impulsive, hot-headed, but it was always because he was out-of-control. As she looks at him now, she knows full well that he knows exactly what he's doing.

Finally, Crystal's twister of snow gives out and the now uncontrolled snow flies off in all directions. The mass of people, Reed guesses their number to be 100, all turn to look at the Human Torch, but he doesn't notice.

For at the center of the group's circle, Crystal lies unconscious. He flies in, letting his flames swirl around him to keep the group of people away from him and Crystal.

Reed watches as the people - who it's easy to deduce are the `Runners of Wind' or the Windrunners the villager was talking about - start to blur. Though standing still they begin to rapidly shake back and forth. Sue wonders what's wrong but Reed has no answer, he can only tell her that the Windrunner's brown attire bears Incan designs upon them. He watches them move away from Johnny, and he thinks he sees panic on their faces, but their blurring too fast now. Especially those closest to the Torch's flames.

Johnny is howling in rage, cursing the people, sending flames of hatred crackling above their head.

Then Reed understands. "Stop, Johnny!" The Torch is too far gone in his rage to hear Reed. He lashes out with all the anger and heart-ache and pain he has been through. He protects Crystal's body, but it could be any of his past lovers' bodies. "Sue, stop him, please."

Sue hesitates for a second to take action against her brother, but even she realizes the truth that Johnny is dangerously close to the edge. Using her powers, she creates a bubble around his body, cutting off his oxygen supply. In seconds he has spent all the oxygen inside the bubble and reverts to human form.




Ben has lost it, too and decides to take his aggressions out on the Hulk. He runs towards the still kneeling figure and knocks him aside. The Hulk is no longer savage, but more the misunderstood creature of old. He asks, "Why Rock-man hurt Hulk?" which knocks Ben out of his rage.

In that second of confusion, the Hulk attacks back and the two powerhouses begin to clobber at each other. As they fight, the Hulk changes from Misunderstood Green to Fix-It Grey to Banner Dominant Green, but they don't stop fighting. Thing realizes that the Hulk is getting weaker. Some of his own blows are now staggering the goliath.

Ben knocks the Hulk to one knee and Ben presses his assault, hammering the Hulk repeatedly with his fists. "No," the Hulk moans, but Ben hammers on. With each blow, the Hulk decreases in size, until finally, an uppercut by the Thing knocks the Hulk backwards, where he slams into a tree. As Ben slowly approaches, the Hulk phases slowly back into the form of Dr. Bruce Banner.

"Ben? Are you okay? What happened?" asks Alicia carefully.

"I won." Ben looks to the villagers to tell them that it's going to be alright now, but their faces have turned ashen white.




Reed and Sue have reached the platform where Johnny sits by Crystal. The Windrunners have stepped aside and allowed them unhindered passage. Crystal is fighting to save conscious. She explains to them that somehow she landed here, with the Hulk. These people - she points to the blurry mass around them - saw her using her powers and asked for her help.

Reed looks at them and three approach him in a triangular pattern. Johnny thinks they are going to attack, but Crystal tells him they are non-violent. The three Windrunners stand around them. To Reed's question, Crys explains that they are moving out-of-sync with the world. They are descendants of the Incan Empire, specifically those who were used as couriers to run between places delivering messages. Something happened to them and over time they found they couldn't stop moving. They were banished from the Incan Empire and relocated here.

Somehow, Crystal explains, when she surrounds them in cold, their metabolism slows down enough for them to come closer in tune with the rest of the world. Reed looks to the three Windrunners around them. Though they stand ten feet apart, they come close to touching at the triangle's points. They speak at once, "Hhhhhheeeeeeeeellllpppp uuuuuuuus." It sounds to Sue like the Wind itself is talking.

"I will," Reed offers. "I will."

"And then we'll take you wherever you want to go, Crys," Johnny offers. She says she wants to go home. "To Attilan, Crys?"

"No, Johnny, to wherever my husband and daughter are."



EPILOGUE


Across the galaxy there rests a planet called Ak'yen'ja. It is the size of the Earth's moon. It is a tropical paradise where various tribes and cultures reside.

It is a planet of relative peace in the middle of an Empire in chaos, for Ak'yen'ja resides within the Shi'ar Empire. They do not follow the Empire by choice, but they do not openly oppose it, either, so it has been allowed to live in it's obscurity for the time being.

Soon, it will be a lot less peaceful.

Soon, it will be a lost less obscure.

Soon.

END

 



NEXT ISSUE:

FANTASTIC FOUR # 419 - It's a family-themed issue as the FF reunite Crystal with Pietro and Luna! Which relative isn't to happy with everyone else's happiness? You guessed it - the Puppet Master! He wants to make sure Alicia and Ben stay apart and he's using the Knights of Wundagore to do his dirty work!