FANTASTIC FOUR

445 - December, Y3 - MV1

The Fantastic Four created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

FOUR FOR TOMORROW

written by Mark Bousquet

The Thames ran red.

The Old City, as she was now called, burned and bled like a great beast impaled by a thousand arrows. Destruction was everywhere, landmarks left standing in ruin because they were powerful symbols. Big Ben atomized was quickly forgotten, but a damaged Big Ben, one left smoldering and hollow … that could crush a populace every single day.

The cause of this destruction was one man.

His name was Manticore.

He stood by himself for none would stand near him. Upon his young face a grin played out that sent chills through London because they recognized in this twenty-five year old man their conqueror. His features were fair and innocent and he looked, Thor Odinson would once think, like a younger version of Fandrall the Fair. Even his costume, a regal looking outfit of green and gold, was reminiscent of the heroic Asgardian.

Unlike Fandrall, however, there was no kindness in Manticore’s heart. How could there be? How could a child abandoned by mother and father alike ever grow a heart to show kindness, compassion, love?

It could not. Manticore chose his name himself, for if his parents ever blessed him with one, he did not know it. He was raised in the wilds of time, his body drawn to the timestream like a moth to flame.

That was a gift from his father.

He chose the name from mythology - a manticore was a creature with the head of a man, the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion - and though he did not look the word, he believed he embodied its spirit: intelligence, regality, strength, quick-striking viciousness, power.

He had no want for conquering. His want was only for destruction. He cared nothing for the history books that he knew his hated father craved to fill with his own image. Manticore wanted not the ink-filled tributes of historians, but the whispered remembrances of mothers telling scare stories to their children to get them to behave. ‘Be on the watch, child, for if you do not clean your room, you leave it susceptible to Manticore!’ That was power. The power of destruction.

"There a point to this peep show?" Ben Grimm asked Nathaniel Richards. They stood, along with Reed, Sue, Johnny and Alicia Masters inside a large viewing room somewhere deep inside Castle Richards, Fantastopolis.

On a large, two story screen before them, Manticore strolled casually through the streets of some future London, seemingly unaffected by the destruction that rained down on him from above.

"This is a man who will come to be the greatest enemy of the Fantastic Four in some futures," Nathaniel answered, his face and manner full of a life that was missing just hours ago.*

"Do I fight him?" Johnny asked, his anger still boiling just beneath the surface at being told by Nathaniel that a new Fantastic Four was ready to supplant the old.

"No," Nathaniel answered.

"Then he doesn’t fight the Fantastic Four. He just fights some, some … Future Four."

Nathaniel shrugged, smiling at the Human Torch, "If that pleases you, Johnny, then I will submit to your wishes. He will become one of the great enemies of the Future Four."

"That’s better," Johnny retorted, feeling foolish at taking a measure of pride in his small victory.

Alicia Masters stood slightly apart from the Fantastic Four. Her world was spinning more and more out of control: the Veda Ree, Marcia, the kidnappings, Franklin, Marcia and Kristoff Vernard being three-fourths of some impish Fantastic Four …

Not to mention what this was doing to her friends. She could hear the pain in Reed’s voice as he spoke to his father, the anger in Sue, the agony in Ben and the depression that filled Johnny.

What was happening to the Fantastic Four? she wondered.

On the screen, a mob of angry, broken citizens rushed Manticore and he laughed as they came to him, laughed as he easily and with deadly skill disabled all of them in moments using nothing but his body as a weapon.

That was a gift from his mother.

"He is a Continuum Child," Nathaniel explained. "Jumping through the timestream and leaving destruction in his wake. He has no want to rule a conquered land, he just wants to destroy. There are several so-called villains like him in the future, I’m afraid few possess the skill or drive of one like Kang or Apocalypse. But like those two greater threats, Manticore is not inclined to villainy for villainy’s sake. He takes just as much pleasure in destroying a corrupt, tyrannical kingdom as he does a free land."

"How nice," Ben scoffed, covering for Reed and Sue who were, he knew, hurting too much by Franklin’s perceived betrayal to say much.

"In ten minutes, the Future," he snarled the word, looking at Johnny as he said it, "Four will arrive and battle Manticore, eventually driving him from London. Franklin leads the team and, in this instance, he is twenty-six years old. Would you like to see it?"

"No," Reed answered, his voice shaking. "We’re not interested in the Franklin of tomorrow. We’re interested in the Franklin of right now. What have you done to him?"

"I have shown him his future," Nathaniel answered, swiping his hand at the large screen. "Thousands of futures, some that include him, some that do not. Do you know why," he asked, "so many possible futures are violent, desolated, grim visages?"

"Why?" Reed asked, not really caring.

"Because that’s what will come to pass," Nathaniel answered. "We can sense it, deep down in our primal cores, that humanity will ultimately end in destruction. As evolution ever thrusts us forward, our weapons become more and more powerful. Where once we used our hands and then sticks, rocks, bones, we moved to gunfire, cannonballs, warships of destruction to sail the seas, planes to patrol the skies and bombs, beautiful, powerful powder kegs of atomic and nuclear energy. Then, when we had evolved our weaponry, nature evolved us. Mutants, children born with incredible powers. We became the weapon and we are evolving along the same arch as our man-made weaponry of stick-to-nuclear bomb. Have you not noticed? Surely you remember the silly, snowman version of Iceman back in the early days of the Xavier’s foolish school? As the years have passed, however, he has learned to control his powers to a deadly precision. Look to his fellow X-Men and how aggressively they show themselves to the world, how their powers are now seemingly created for violence and destruction.

"Look to where evolution has taken the mutant. Look to the one pitifully called the X-Man, Nathan Grey, the most powerful telepath the world has ever known. Look to your son, Franklin, who can create realities with a concentrated thought.

"Would you like to see something startling about Franklin?" he asked.

"No," Sue answered. "Not unless it’s Franklin himself."

"Too bad, Susan," Nathaniel replied angrily. "You and my son hide behind your heroic morality and think lessons you learned as children can apply to Franklin. I am here to tell you that they can not. He is not human. He may not even be a mutant. What he is, and make no mistake about this, what he is, is a god. The first god that man has created from its own genetics and not from its imagination. Look at the screen, Susan. Look at it and tell me you can handle what you see."

Sue held her father-in-law’s gaze for several moments, but as she heard first Ben, then Johnny, gasp in horror, and Reed’s hands tighten on her shoulder, she knew she had to look to the screen. Slowly, not wanting Nathaniel to see her out of control, Sue looked.

Her eyes opened slowly. Her mouth dropped. She was sure her heart stopped beating as it sank to depths she hadn’t felt since ... that day. The worst day of her life. A thought tried to become a word, but it could not find in Sue’s language the words to express itself. Sue knew that whatever she said would be inadequate.

They all saw together and, in each of them, the first stirrings of Nathaniel’s words - You are not fit to raise Franklin - ringing true crept into their souls.

They saw a brown horse being eaten alive by a large spider, twice it’s size.

They saw a cow with no head and six legs eating fruit through the mouth that opened from its back.

They saw a man with nineteen arms unable to stand, crying in agony.

A snake with four legs tried to walk, but couldn’t because the legs were too far apart.

A small animal that looked like a cartoon rabbit, with eyes too large for its head and feet too large for its soft and fluffy body wailed in agony as a bright red bird with a razor sharp beak poked at its face.

They saw creatures their minds could not comprehend committing acts they refused to comprehend.

"This is the idle wonderings of the mind of Franklin Richards," Nathaniel’s voice came to them gently. "These are the things he creates when he simply wonders ‘what if?’ What if my crayon creature came to life? What if a spider was big enough to eat a horse? What if Bugs Bunny got in a fight with the Keebler Elves? What if the Three Investigators were called in to discover the awful truth of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde? What if I grew up and married Ms. Marvel? What if …?"

Alicia crept closer to Ben, not knowing to see the images to feel them. The sounds, the awful blighting, crying, screeching sounds told her everything.

Reed couldn’t tear his eyes away, "Has … has Franklin seen this?"

"What do you take me for?" his father asked, genuinely hurt. "Of course not. He doesn’t know he does this. He just does. And these creatures live out their existence even after Franklin has long forgotten about them. Think of your time in the so-called Franklinverse, his first, but certainly not last, epic creation. Do you think Franklin thought of every single person there every single hour of the day? Of course not. He creates and the world deals with it as best it can.

"I know you do not want to hear this," he continued, his voice becoming calm and gentle, "but he needs teaching that you can not give him. He must start to learn before he does something that can not be contained. Let him stay here, with me, and he shall receive the best schooling he could ever receive."

Reed and Sue looked to each other - Nathaniel couldn’t be right, could he?

Franklin Richards stood looking out a window at the unending, swirling fog that was Limbo. His white costume with a blue ‘4’ upon the chest felt good to him. This whole scenario felt right to him. He was nervous, more nervous than he’d ever been about anything, but-

"What are you thinking about, Franklin?" the voice of Marcia Masters came to him.

He turned, seeing a mirror of his uniform on her. "Mom and dad," he answered. His voice had a measure of experience to it that Marcia had not heard days ago. Or was that just because he was in a uniform now and not a t-shirt and jeans? He looked older, too, she thought, no longer a child of five, but maybe one of seven, or even eight? She started to ask herself how that was possible and then remembered that two weeks ago she wasn’t even born and today she was at least six.

"You don’t want to leave them?" she asked, taking a seat at a large, square marble table that Nathaniel had told them would be their center of team operations.

Franklin turned away from Marcia, ignoring her question. "I wonder who the fourth member of the FF will be? I hope it has something to do with Unca Jo- I mean, Uncle Johnny. I mean, you, me and Kristoff are all connected to the Fantastic Four; me with my mom and dad, and you with Ben and ‘Lici- I mean, Alicia, and Kristoff with Doctor Doom, so it’d be nice if Uncle Johnny had some connection to us."

"I’ve wondered that, too," Marcia answered thoughtfully. "In all the videos Nathaniel has shown us, we’ve never seen the ‘fourth’, as he calls them. Kristoff thinks Nathaniel doesn’t even know who the Fourth is. Says there’s probably no consensus amongst the other realities about the fourth member so he’s not sure who we’re supposed to invite to join us."

"Where is Kristoff?" Franklin asked.

"Fine tuning his armor. Says there’s too much about it he doesn’t know," Marcia rolled her eyes. "He can tell it’s based on a Doom armor, but it’s got some things he hasn’t seen and he won’t feel comfortable until he knows everything it can do." Marcia sighed, "I don’t know, he’s kinda weird. Are you going to answer my question or not? I could just read your mind, you know, I am telepathic."

Franklin chuckled, "Yeah, you probably could." He turned and walked to sit with Marcia at the table. He ran his hands over it’s smooth marble surface, then asked Marcia a question, "What about you? You’re leaving Alicia behind."

Marcia frowned deeply, turning her head away. "You know what Nathaniel said. She’s not really my mother. Not really. She was just the host, he said. Whatever that means."

Franklin looked at her, feeling bad for bringing the subject up. "Yeah, I was thinking about mom and dad," he said, answering her question. "I don’t want to leave them, but Nathaniel said it’d be just like going away to school and I was gonna hafta do that anyway. He said this would be just like Harry Potter going away to school, even though Harry didn’t have a mom and dad." Franklin shrugged, "Might as well go to school here. Especially with you and Kris here with me."

Marcia smiled, turning her had, "Think we’ll get a lot of homework?"

Franklin grinned, "Knowing Nathaniel, oh yeah, we’ll get plenty of homework. Plenty."

"We’ll need a few more people to play Quidditch," Marcia laughed and Franklin laughed with her, easy and free.

"I dunno, Matchstick, whaddya think?"

"I say we just take Franklin and Marcia and get the heck out of here."

Ben and Johnny walked down a long corridor. Reed, Sue and Marcia had gone off with Nathaniel to talk more about Franklin and Marcia staying in Fantastopolis and while no one told Ben and Johnny to leave, they were feeling the need to get away from Nathaniel.

"I dunno," Ben shrugged. "Maybe this is for the best. Let’s them get some teaching they’re not getting from us. I mean, we ain’t like Xavier’s School, are we? They really do make a point to train. We just-"

"What?" Johnny asked, shocked. "Are you serious? You’re going to trust the old man? Do you remember that whole incident in Latveria?"*

"Yeah, I remember it," Ben answered as they exited the plain corridor out into a small garden courtyard. As far as Ben could tell, it was the only area of greenery anywhere in Fantastopolis. "But Reed and Susie were going to go to Titan, remember? Don’t see how this is different."

"Oh, stop," Johnny waved his hands at Ben in disgust. "You’re just trying to get Alicia away from Marcia. You’re not fooling me."

The blood boiled quickly inside Ben, "What? Kid, you’ve said some dumb things in yer life, but that’s about the dumbest thing ever."

"Please," Johnny shot back. "What, you expect me to believe you want to be a daddy figure? Don’t make me laugh, Ben. You’ve loved Alicia for how long? She’s known it for how long? But you still pout and mope around her like ‘woe is me, how can a pretty girl like that ever love a monster like me?’. God, go get some therapy and grow up!"

Ben stood there dumbfounded. Johnny didn’t really say- but he did.

"Go ahead, Ben, stand there and play Mr. Misunderstood Monster. Go ahead! Marcia being around gives you a reason to not ask Alicia to marry you, but you want to. After all this time you’ve finally decided to do just that, but Marcia being around just complicates things. So if you can ship her off to here, you can go play happy husband with Alic-"

Ben had had enough. Swinging angrily, but not with full force, he punched Johnny in the stomach, sending him sprawling backwards.

He was pretty sure he held his punch back enough to not break any ribs, but maybe he got lucky.

"Ooof!" Johnny exhaled, landing on his backside. "That’s how you want it? Fine with me!" The flames poured quickly out and around Johnny and without a further word he sent flames hurtling towards Ben.

Ben stood his ground, the flame causing him no real danger. Not yet, at least. "I dunno what stick you’ve been sitting on, kid, but you’re one to talk about relationships!" Ben strode into the flame, right towards Johnny, daring him to grow hotter. "How many women have you left behind you? How many women with broken hearts still sit and weep for the Human Torch?"

"Shut your mouth, Ben!" Johnny raged and he did, indeed, let his flames grow hotter as his anger grew unchecked. The last few days worth of bad news was exploding in him. To hell with A’kimba’s father for arranging his daughter to be married. To hell with the Grey Lion for coming into his life. Hell, his rage could no longer be contained, "TO HELL WITH A’KIMBA!"

Ben stopped in his tracks. "What?" he asked. "To hell with A’kimba? I thought you wuz sweet on that girl?"

Johnny’s face dropped with the escaped words. He hadn’t meant that, had he? Had he?

"Hey, kid, what’s going on?" Ben asked gently, all thoughts of grinding Johnny into dust gone from his mind.

Johnny looked at Ben through mist-filled eyes. Tell him, he said to himself, tell him about all the pain and hurt you’re feeling. If anyone can understand pain and hurt, it’s Ben. But what he said was, "Help me …"

The Human Torch collapsed.

Reed, Sue and Alicia sat in seats where, Nathaniel explained to them, students would soon be sitting. The room was large, as seemingly was everything in Castle Richards. Castle Richards, Reed let the words roll around his head, unnerved by his father’s blatant pomposity. Castle Richards, Fantastopolis … where did it end? Did it end? And why hadn’t Nathaniel told them who the fourth member of the Future Four was? Did he even know? There were too many questions surrounding all of this.

Nathaniel stood in the lecturer’s spot, and the rows of seats spread in front of him, arcing out, back and up like a Greek theatre.

"This is all very impressive," Sue admitted, "but, I will be honest with you Nathaniel, I do not like the idea of being away from Franklin."

"What mother does?" Nathaniel admitted. "What you’re going through, Susan, and I don’t mean to belittle you with psychology, is what every mom goes through when they entrust another with the welfare of their child. Surely every mom who puts there child on a bus to go to school for the first time is nervous? Surely every mom hates that child’s teacher a little the first time the child comes home and tells her how wonderful that teacher is?"

"But this wouldn’t be sending Franklin down to the neighborhood school, Nathaniel," Sue pushed her point. "This is sending him to Limbo, where we wouldn’t have any contact with him."

Nathaniel snorted, "Oh, come, Susan. Do you think I mean to take Franklin away from you and not let you see him until the Holiday break? Surely you must have noticed that I have my ways of traveling in Limbo. Here," he reached into his pocket and tossed Sue a small device, which she caught. "It is, in essence, a doorway device. Press it and you shall open a doorway that will bring you right into Fantastopolis, wherever in Limbo it resides. Any kind of video transmission is, of course, out of the question, but you will have all the access to Franklin that you want."

Sue looked at the small, grey device as if it held answers to her unspoken thoughts.

"What about me, Nathaniel?" Alicia spoke out suddenly. "Can I visit Marcia?"

Nathaniel’s face turned grim, "I need to apologize to you, Alicia Masters, for my levity at your situation.* You are owed an explanation. Marcia, as I alluded to, is not your daughter. Not as you perceive children, at the least." He sighed as Alicia’s face showed her shock.

Reed extended an arm to place on her shoulder for comfort.

"There is no easy way to say this, Alicia," Nathaniel continued, "so I hope you forgive me for just coming out and saying it. The Veda Ree, as you know, as highly tuned to telepathy. They are but one small part of an alien section of species that are also, in our jargon, beyond humanity. What these species have in common is an advanced degree of telepathic abilities. They see on the psychic plain with almost as much ease as they see on the physical plain. There are beings on the psychic plain, ghosts, if you will, some of restless dead men who have somehow not gotten to their respective Heaven or Hell, and astral ghosts whose spirit wanders without a body."

"What does this have to do with Marcia?" Reed snapped.

"Marcia is such a disembodied astral spirit," Nathaniel cut to the chase. "The Veda Ree were attuned to her state and used Alicia to bring her back into life. Marcia - though, as you can be sure, that is not her real name - was trapped in … trapped on the psychic plain, looking for a way back to Earth, which is where she was from. She wanted back so desperately, wanted to escape her prison with such determination that she was to the Veda Ree what the a lighthouse is to a ship in a storm. They were drawn to her and they helped use Alicia to bring her into this world."

"But, but …" Alicia fumbled for words.

"Marcia is your physical daughter," Nathaniel said as gently, but firmly, as he could, "but she is not you soul daughter. You were, and I apologize for the cruelty with which this will sound, nothing but a host that Marcia and the Veda Ree conspired, together, to give Marcia’s spirit a body."

"You lie!" Alicia snapped. "Marcia doesn’t - Marcia wouldn’t do such a thing!"

"As she is now," Nathaniel admitted, "she would not. But the real Marcia, the woman who Marcia does not know she is, that woman would do such a thing, and did."

"But why me?" Alicia asked desperately as Reed and Sue looked on with concern.

Nathaniel shrugged, "If I had to guess, I would imagine it is because of your relationship to the Fantastic Four, though any superhero group would likely have done. You are not a hero yourself, but you are as closely tied to the Fantastic Four as any peripheral player can be."

"Father," Reed started, but Nathaniel cut him off.

"If you want to look at the data-"

"You know I do."

"Then come with me."

"Not now."

Nathaniel let out a deep breath slowly. "Reed, Susan, you need to make a decision. Go talk with Franklin and decide. Though this may sound like an odd thing to say here in Limbo, time is of the essence. I needn’t remind you of Franklin’s menagerie of horrors."

But by saying that, of course, that was exactly what he did.

A father, mother and son. And one big decision.

They didn’t know quite what to say to each other, so they stood awkwardly, waiting for another to speak first. Reed made himself busy absently looking at the machines in the room. When he’d get back to Pier 4, he’d realize he didn’t remember a single thing he looked at. Sue sat at the table, running her hands over the marble surface. When she’d get back to Pier 4, she’d realize she couldn’t even tell you the table was blue and white.

Franklin looked out the window, looked at his dad (who tried hard to look like he wasn’t looking at him), looked at his mom (who made no secret of the fact she was looking at him), looked at the table, looked to the doorway, looked back out the window, back to mom, back to dad and finally decided to speak.

"I want to stay."

A part of Reed and Sue broke. "Franklin," Sue said, trying to keep her emotions in check, "if you do this …"

There was nothing to say.

Reed and Sue looked at each other. Words passed between them without needing to be vocalized. As Sue bowed her head, tears now starting to come, Reed extended his arms out to enwrap Franklin and his wife and pulled them together.

They said nothing as they held each other, emotions running freely from them.

Franklin was growing up.

END FF 445

FANTASTIC FORUM

comments c/o biscuit022@go.com

Also this cyber-month, the conclusion to the WORLD WITHOUT storyline featuring Dr. Doom over in West Coast Avengers # 112. Check it out at the Avengers Branch and be on the lookout for Doom’s return to the pages of the FF in the coming months.

-- Mark Bousquet …

NORTHERN BEAR PRODUCTIONS

9 October 2000