FANTASTIC FOUR # 431

by Mark Bousquet

THE LATVERIAN CONNECTION, PART TWO

DESCENT DOWN THE COLD GRANITE STEPS

SPAIN - DIABLO'S CASTLE

"Wotta revoltin' development," Benjamin J. Grimm, the Thing, mutters as he faces a 25 foot tall man of rock called It, The Living Collossus.

"The look on your face is priceless!" Diablo grins.

"Stuff it, pal!" Ben shouts as he punches Diablo in the face, knocking his head off! "Huh?"

"Splendid!" Diablo shouts as Ben realizes that the Diablo standing next to him had been a robot and nothing more. "It took me quite a bit of effort to gather up the proper rocks that were It, the Living Colossus, Thing, and I'm glad to see my efforts haven't gone to waste!"

Off to one side, the She-Hulk and Sharon Ventura rain blows against one another. Sharon, her mind dulled from Diablo's constant brainwashing, is slower then Jen, but Jen is hampered by the fact that she doesn't really want to hurt Sharon. Off to the other side, Sue has regained consciousness and Reed carries her in her arms to stand next to Ben. "Howz Suzie doin', Stretch?" Ben asks.

"Not good, I need to take her back to-" Reed starts when Sue cuts him off.

"I'm fine, Reed. Groggy, but fine. I wasn't ... expecting Sharon to deck me." Sue tries to shake out the cobwebs. "I was sloppy, it's my own fault."

"Still, I think- oh ... my," Reed gasps, noticing It for the first time, "that's certainly unexpected."

It towers above the FF, but it's movements are slow, disoriented. "W-Where am ... I?" It asks.

"Let's get it quick before-" Thing starts.

"I don't think so, Thing," Diablo's voice booms over the grounds. "Not unless you want to see the Human Torch alive again!" They turn to look at the castle and see Diablo's face on a large screen.

"If you've hurt him-" Sue starts to threaten.

"Spare me your threats, Invisible Woman," Diablo sneers. "If you want to see your brother again you will walk down into my castle and descend down the cold granite steps to my Dungeon."

"And lock ourselves away forever? Forget it chump!" Ben yells.

"The Human Torch is locked somewhere in the Dungeons of my castle." The image on the large screen changes and the FF see Johnny Storm chained and unconscious against a stone wall. "And yes, there are a few booby traps here and there waiting for you - that's all part of my fun and enjoyment."

"This isn't like you at all, Diablo," Reed muses.

"No, Mr. Fantastic, it isn't. Which is precisely why I will win!" Diablo laughs. "Too many times we villains make it easy for you by giving you simple variations on our same basic schemes, but not this time! This time, Diablo will win because he will not act like Diablo! My new partner has seen to that!"

"Wonderful," Ben grumbles. "Too bad he couldn't act like a mute."

The FF and Sharon turn to see two large wooden doors on the side of the castle open. They all look to Reed. "We've got to do it. Let's go."

"But he might not even be in there," Jen says, though her feet are already walking to the doors. "Suppose that doesn't change anything, though, does it?"

"Nope," Reed, Sue and Ben say together, noting that It, the Living Colossus is following right behind them.

THE PLANET AK'YEN'JA

The man the Fantastic Four know as Dr. Doom, but who only knows himself as Victor, stands by the side of Prince Tytan. Two days have passed since Tytan's father, King Tykan, was murdered by Victor. *

* ( Last issue - Et tu, Victor? Mark )

In the time since, funeral arrangements have been made, the small planet's other six cultures have been notified (they were told that Tykan had a heart attack and died - a believable enough story given the way he had stormed out of the last Elder Council meeting) and Tytan has prepared to ascend to the throne and become King of the Unthans.

And all along, Victor has stood in the shadows behind him and told him what to do at every turn.

He stands in the back of the ceremonial hall inside the Unthan Royal Palace and watches the ceremony to make Tytan king. He is bored by it all, and his mind races again and again to a single word he had spoken two days before when he killed Tykan.

That word is ... doom.

So plain, so simple and yet so powerful. Victor feels a kinship with the word, a closeness that he can not explain, but that feels incredibly, inexoribly right to him.

The ceremony ends and a celebration begins, but Victor is even more bored by this than he was the ceremony. He exits the ceremonial hall and walks out onto a parapet to look out at the planet he will soon rip asunder. He thinks of the death and bloodshed that will inevitably follow, but it bothers him not in the least. He was born to rule, and he shall soon enough.

After a short time, he is joined outside by El'kana, the daughter of a Ba'na'ayan farmer, who is engaged to marry Tytan. It is not a marriage of love, but of politics, as Tykan had arranged for his son to marry a woman from one of the lower cultures as a sign of peace. Not that Tykan was a man of peace, of course, he just wanted everyone to think that.

"You are behind this, stranger," El'kana accuses.

"What you think is of no concern to me," Victor responds coldly, his eyes not leaving the horizon. "You should be happy, my dear, your arranged marriage is no longer binding."

"I will find a way to stop you," she states, trying with all her might to sound as convinced as she can.

At this, Victor does turn and stares into her eyes. El'kana feels a coldness grip her heart, but she doesn't avert her eyes. "You are certainly welcome to try, young lady," Victor taunts. "Your death will mean nothing to me."

"Than kill me now," she dares.

Beneath his iron mask, Victor smiles. "No, I don't think I shall."

"Coward," she spits and gets a hard slap from a cold gauntlet across her face as an answer.

"On this entre planet of cowards and crazies, of those stuck in the past and those who can't look to the future, you are the only one with any real fire inside you, El'kana," Victor says as he gloats over her. "Killing you now risks giving the opposition a martyr and I will not have them united if I can help it."

"Who is your opposition, stranger? The Eaau? The Ba'na'ayans? The Wenthorians? Who?" El'kana asks, wiping blood from her cheek.

"Silly child," Victor scoffs, turning back to look out across the land. "Everyone is my opposition."

"Everyone but Tytan, right?" she curses the name. "He's a fine lackey, isn't he?"

Victor doesn't turn when he answers, "You are so young and so naïve, El'kana. Go. Leave me to my dreams of conquest. Your presence is no longer wanted here."

El'kana starts to say something, but closes her mouth. She stares at the stranger, the man encased in armor who fell from the sky and knows she must do something to stop him.

But what can one lone person do?

She turns and leaves without a word, her mind pondering the question.

SPAIN - DIABLO'S CASTLE

The Fantastic Four and Sharon Ventura pass through a pair of large wooden doors on the side of Diablo's castle and into a cold, stone room. Looking back, they see It, the Living Colossus slam the doors shut behind them.

"Reed, peek your head through the cracks in the door and see what's going on outside," Sue commands, but Reed shakes his head.

"There are no cracks and those doors aren't wood. Not all the way through, at least," Reed explains. "There's no light pouring through them. They're solid. Probably steel with a wood covering."

Sue looks to the door and nods, Reed is probably right and she sees no reason to push the issue. Instead, she turns and looks around the room. She is more than a bit distressed to see Sharon in the room. "Why are you here?" she asks Sharon.

"I - I don't know," Sharon stutters, "I just t-thought I should be here."

"That's a likely story," She-Hulk accuses.

"Please, Jen," Reed says as he tries to keep things calm, "there's a very good chance that Sharon is here now because that is what Diablo has programmed her to do. That could mean that Diablo is on a very strict script. Our victory might depend on putting him into a situation that he hasn't accounted for."

"So that's it, is it?" Sharon asks. "Everyone keep an eye on the programmed traitor?"

"How would you have us act, Sharon?" Ben asks softly.

Sharon Ventura says nothing, slumping to the floor, tears beginning to pour from her eyes.

"We'll take care of you when this is over, Sharon," Reed says gently, stretching an arm across the small entranceway to comfort her. "But right now our top priority is to find Johnny, save him and get out of here."

Sharon looks up, her cheeks stained with salty tears, "I'm sorry, Reed, Sue, everyone. I know that it's possible Diablo has programmed me to cry, or to attack you again. I just don't know what to think, or ..."

"The cold granite steps in front of you lead down, Fantastic Four," Diablo's voice scolds in over hidden speakers. "And that's where you need to go to find your dear Human Torch."

Without a word the Fantastic Four look to each other and down the spiralling steps in front of them. Torches hang on the walls lighting the way. Ben mumbles something under his breath and becomes the first to begin the descent. Jen and Reed help Sharon to her feet and the rest of the FF follow the Thing down the steps.

They descend without incident, Sue erecting an invisible wall behind them to help defense against any sneak attack. The spiralling granite stairs end after 85 steps - Reed subconsciously counting them on the way down - and Ben leads them down a dusty corridor to a large wooden door that bars their way.

"What next, Stretch?" Ben asks.

"Why you open it, of course!" Diablo laughs from the speakers around them.

"I really, really hate that guy," Ben grumbles, pushing the doors open.

It takes a moment for the FF's collective eyes to adjust to the light that pours from the room beyond the doors, but when they do ...

"Oh wow," Sue gasps.

"I wasn't expecting this ..." Ben's voice trails off.

"If anyone starts a sentence with the word 'Toto'," Jen threatens, "I am going to stick Franklin's copy of Wizard of Oz right up your-"

"Jen!" Sue barks, silencing the green giantess, but as Sue's mind always does whenever the FF is about to embark into the unknown, her thoughts have gone to her son.

LATVERIA - CASTLE DOOM

There is another in the world besides Sue who's thoughts are occupied with Franklin Richards and that man sits on a throne inside Castle Doom, his steel boots tapping unknowingly on the cold stone floor. In front of him stands a monitor and on that monitor is an image of Franklin Richards and Alicia Masters. Intently, he listens to their conversation.

"What'cha doin' Alicia?" Franklin asks.

"Thinking, Franklin," the beautiful blind sculptress answers.

"'Bout what? Unca Ben?"

"Yes," she smiles. "That is exactly what I'm thinking about."

"What about Unca Ben?"

Alicia pauses for a moment before she answers, "The future. The future is going to be a very happy time for me and Benjamin."

"Are you going to marry him?"

"Wha- Franklin!" Alicia says, startled, before her face breaks into a smile. "I-I don't know. I'd like- that is, I want- Ben and I- um ..."

"Are you going to have kids?" Franklin asks intently.

Alicia's eyes pop open. "We really shouldn't be having this conversation," shesays under her breath. "If we were to get married, Franklin, then, uh, yes, I'd like to have kids ... if we can."

"Why couldn't you?"

Alicia turns her face towards the young boy with the power of a god. "Isn't there a cartoon on that you'd like to watch ..."

"Sure," Franklin answers, and the man the captive Kristoff Vernard called Dr. Doom moves his head a little closer to the screen, "I think Speed Buggy is on."

"Right then," Alica answers, visibly glad to be out of the conversation, "Speed Buggy it is."

But as Alicia Masters' mind slows down, the minds of Franklin Richards and "Dr. Doom" begin to quicken.

Absently, the man with the seemingly endless cameras hidden throughout the world, flips a switch and watches with no interest as a group of twenty Lava Men stand in a state of slumber in a closed, metal room.

SPAIN - DIABLO'S CASTLE

The Fantastic Four and Sharon Ventura walk into a room designed to look like a forest. There are four paths in front of them - four golden brick roads.

"This is very corny," Ben grumbles.

"Four roads, five people!" shouts a new voice into the room. "Who gets to walk with the traitor?"

"Who are you supposed to be?" Ben shouts back.

"That, my dear ever lovin' blue eyed friend is for me to know and you to find out!"

"Oh for the love of ... this is insane!" Jen complains.

"Yes it is, She-Hulk, yes it is!"

"I take it the Human Torch is at the end of one of these roads, Diablo?" Reed asks, trying to determine if Diablo is still an active player in this contest.

"Tsk tsk, Mr. Fantastically Over-Brained One," the mysterious new voice laughs. "This is my show now. You are in my funhouse!"

"Right then, let's just get this over with," Sue cuts in, her mind recounting Nightmare's prophecy that a member of the FF will soon be dead.* She tries no to think that the first part of that prophecy was that it would be because of her. "I want to get Johnny back as quickly as possible."

* ( See Fantastic Four # 429 - Sleeps With the Lights On Mark )

"It doesn't look like it matters which road we take as we can't see where they go," Reed reasons.

"I'll go left," Ben volunteers.

"I'll go to the far right," Jen offers.

"Right, then," Reed speaks, "I'll take the middle right and Sue, you can take the middle left."

The FF start to walk onto the paths when a voice breaks the silence, "What about me?"

They turn and look at Sharon, and then to each other. It is Ben who volunteers to take her with him. With a quick look between them, the FF start their individual journeies.

PATH ONE - THING AND SHARON

Ben and Sharon round a corner on their path and walk deep into the fake forest. Sharon tries to start a conversation several times, but Ben merely answers with a, "Don't worry about it.", "We'll deal with it later." or "No problem, kid."

They come to a clearing and walk slowly across it, looking and waiting for an ambush. They don't wait long.

"Die, Thing!" shouts a voice from the trees as Ben and Sharon quickly find themselves surrounded by the Silver Surfer, Firelord, Terrax and Howard the Duck.

"Howard the Duck?" Sharon asks.

"Waaaugh!" Howard cries. "I get no respect! No respect at all! I'll have you know," he shouts walking forward towards Sharon, "that I am the new Herald of Galactus!"

"You're a duck," Sharon states the obvious.

"Bite me, beautiful!" Howard shouts as he points his hands toward Sharon and unleashes powerful blasts from his fingertips that knock her across the thirty foot wide clearing, sending her crashing into the fake trees.

"That was a mistake, duck!" Ben shouts reaching for a back pedalling Howard.

"Mistake, old friend?" the Silver Surfer asks, striding towards the Thing. "You wish to speak of mistakes?"

"You're not really the Silver Surfer," Ben says, noting that Firelord and Terrax are closing in to the left and right of him.

"Am I not? It is too bad that your girlfriend Alicia Masters was not here," the Surfer smiles. "For you see, while you were dead, we became closer, her and I. Much closer."

"I wouldn't brag, pal," Ben counters, cursing himself for falling into an obvious set-up. This is clearly not the Silver Surfer - it can't be, he tells himself - but the words hurt all the same. Alicia means more to him than anyone ever has. Or, he knows, ever will. "She chose me, afterall."

"The hasty act of a guilty conscience," the Surfer smiles. "She would often use her tears to put herself to sleep when we lay together at night in her bed. Though one would think her state of exhaustion would be enough for her to find sleep."

"Pal," Ben grumbles, "you just stepped over an uncrossable line!" Ben shouts as Firelord, Terrax and Howard the Duck leap at him.

PATH TWO - MR. FANTASTIC

Reed Richards walks into clearing lined with rock walls and walks across it with the same sense of trepidation that Ben and Sharon felt before him. Like them, he gets halfway across when a voice from one of the numerous cave entrances calls to him. But not all threats are spoken with hate.

"Hello, Reed," a soft voice beckons across the way as Reed spins his head around to determine where the voice came from.

"Who is it?" he asks.

"The woman you dream about at night," comes the soft voice as Dagger exits from a cave.

"Er, Dagger, right?" Reed asks, knowing the answer but momentarily unsettled by the person who spoke the words.

"Yes, Reed, darling," Dagger says seductively as she saunters across the rock floor.

"I, er, don't dream about you, Dagger," Reed says, uncomfortable, but speaking the truth.

"Than you will tonight," she smiles. "And tomorrow night. I am afterall, blonde and beautiful ... very much like your wife." She takes another step closer. "Only younger."

"Don't listen to her, Reed," comes another soft voice from another cave. "She's nothing but a tease. Tonight you won't have to dream about me."

"The Scarlet Witch!"

"Ah reckon the great Dr. Richards could find a cure for my problem," comes a third voice, "and ah could be very thankful in the ways I repay you for your time and effort."

"Rogue?!?!" Reed looks about and sees even more women pour from the caves around him. "This obviously isn't right," he says to the growing horde of women.

"Who cares?" the White Queen asks, reaching for Reed.

PATH THREE - INVISIBLE WOMAN

With a purpose in mind, Sue Richards walks quickly through the forest, not thinking twice as she comes to a clearing with a lake in the middle.

"Hello, Sue," comes a voice from the water and Sue turns to see Namor, the Sub-Mariner risen out of the water, slowly floating across the air to her. His body sparkles, the water droplets reflecting the light off his muslces.

"Spare me, Diablo," Sue whispers, using her powers to send a pinpointed blast at Namor, piercing him in the chest. She doesn't even glance back, as Namor's body explodes, sending bits of metal and wire careening across the lake.

A ROOM INSIDE DIABLO'S CASTLE

"Well, she's no fun!" Arcade pouts maniacally to no one in particular. "At least the others are providing a bit of entertainment! We'll have to make sure not to invite the Invisible Woman back to Murderworld!!!"

PATH FOUR - SHE-HULK

She-Hulk stands in the middle of a clearing, disabled robot duplicates of Doc Samson, Rocket Raccoon and Nightcrawler at her feet.

"Well that was fun," she grins as she moves forward to the path on the other side of the clearing.

She walks for a few minutes when she comes across the body of the Human Torch. Sue stands off to the side, searching the blackness behind Johnny's body.

"Sue?" Jen asks.

"It's a fake," Sue says, unsurprised. "Just like the robots we faced on the path."

Reed enters the end of the road then. "Sue is that ...?" he starts, but Sue hands him a note. Reed reads the hand-written message, "'You didn't really think you'd find the Human Torch here, did you?"' The note is signed ... Arcade." Reed's voice turns even grimmer. "Let's get out of here. We've got Kristoff to save."

A ROOM INSIDE DIABLO'S CASTLE

Arcade watches in amusement as Reed, Sue and the She-Hulk stand by the fake Human Torch and spin their wheels in anger.

And then the walls come bursting in and he stands face to face with the Thing and Sharon Ventura. He face quickly turns to panic.

"Arcade," Ben says flatly. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Didn't like the Howard the Duck bit, huh?" Arcade asks, joking to the end.

"I'm going to kill you!" Sharon screams suddenly as she leaps at Arcade. Ben tries to stop her, but he's too late. She grabs him by the neck and hurls him against the wall. Ben moves again to stop her, but halts as he sees a spark as Arcade's head slams into the wall. He stands back and waits for Sharon to rip the Arcade robot to pieces.

SOMEWHERE OVER EUROPE

The Human Torch flies wildly across the skies of the Tyrrhenian Sea, just north of Sicily, madness overwhelming his senses. He has no thoughts but to fly as fast as he can for as long as he can. A potion from Diablo has set him on his way, but luck, or Fate, has determined his direction to be headed right toward a mountain in Greece.

NEW YORK - PIER 4

Franklin sits at one of his father's computers and studies a group of his father's files intently. Disgruntled, he uses the computer to access the Avengers' files that they've made available to the FF to use for research. He flips through the documents, pausing at certain files longer than others ... Hellcat ... Swordsman ... angered at not finding what he wants, he switches over to the X-Men's files and begins to flip through them rapidly ... Thunderbird ... Illyana Rasputin ... Changeling ...he pauses, then goes back ... Illyana ...

He doesn't even notice it when the alarms suddenly go off.

Outside, a group of twenty Lava Men begin to attack Pier 4, with no members of the Fantastic Four around to stop them.

END FF 431

FANTASTIC FORUM

got any comments? Send them to Fantastic Forum at mariner2@tiac.net

Before we get to our first letter, the title of this issue, "Descent Down the Cold Granite Steps" comes from a Phish song called "Julius" off the HOIST disc. If I did recommended CDs of the month, you could consider that this month's choice.

Mark,

I've just finished reading #429, and I'm HOOKED! I was sure that Reed &

Sue would take Franklin to Titan, but you threw me a curve (one of the

signs of a good writer)!

I'm interested in seeing who our "mystery villain" is -- and what he's

got up his sleeves. I'm also interested in seeing which of our five FF

members is going to be leaving (unless you decide to make it the

Fantastic Five).

Nice to see Nightmare used somewhere other than Dr. Strange. He's

always been under-used, in my opinion. I mean, everyone sleeps, right?

So that means everyone is a potential foe of Nightmare. Glad to see you

making use of that.

Keep up the great work. I'll be waiting for #430...

Kell

Thanks, Kell. It seems quite a few people were sure that Reed, Sue & Franklin were Titan-bound, so I hope the reasons why they didn't are satisfactory to those of you who thought that way. As Mentor said during FF 429, though, it is an open offer, so you can be sure that the temptation to go to Titan will stay in the back of Reed & Sue's mind.

We won't be renaming the book the Fantastic Five, but I'm really not of the mind that there has to be only four members of the group. Why I don't think the FF should ever swell to an Avengers roster size of 7 or 8, five members isn't something I have a problem with, as it allows for the family atmosphere to remain. I'm more comcerned with the "Fantastic" aspect of the title instead of the "Four" and as long as the books "feels" like the FF, than I'm happy. This is something that might be explored in more detail in the coming months.

Still, I do feel like I've been neglecting She-Hulk a bit, using her more for comic relief than anything else, so her days with the group just might be numbered. I don't feel it's fair to the character. One of the things I want to explore is what makes a person the right kind of person to join a close-knit group like the Fantastic Four and Jen might end up leaving to set that story off.

As for Nightmare, well, I didn't do as good a job with his appearance as I would have liked to, but I wanted someone to help set an ominous tone to sit in the back of reader's minds. Every one of his visions will come to pass unless something beyond my control occurs. And yes, that means one of the Fantastic Four will die. Honest.

That's all for this month. Thanks for reading, everyone.  And thanks for writing in.

NEXT ISSUE: FANTASTIC FOUR # 432 - THE LATVERIAN CONNECTION, PART THREE - The FF have a choice - go to Germany and stop a rampaging Super Skrull or go home and save Pier 4 from being destroyed by a bunch of rampaging Lava Men!!!! Hrm, with all that rampaging going on, you'd almost expect the Rhino to show up!!! Good ol' Vic Von Doom starts to assert his might, but will El'kana have found a way to stop him? Can one person stop Doom? Plus, see what happened to the Human Torch! And what does that have to do with Sharon Ventura??? And, uh, find out who, or what, is the Legion of Substitute 4 ...

MBQ ... 4.10.98