FANTASTIC FOUR

448 - March, Y4 - MV1

The Fantastic Four created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

REMEMBER BALUUR

written by Mark Bousquet

"Um, what did you say his name was?"

"Blsssstr."

"What? Come on, speak up."

"Blastaar, I said, but don’t talk so loud. Geez-us he’s a big one."

Two cops. Two cops in a broken down, abandoned ex-automotive factory. Two ordinary cops in a city that used to be important but no longer was. Two cops, both with wives, kids, thoughts of saving up for swimming pools and vacations to Disneyland.

Two cops out of their league because of one large man-beast.

One refugee from the Negative Zone with a nasty temperment.

"You think he hears us?" once cop asks another.

"I think he’s sleeping," the second responds.

"Standing up?"

"Hey, he’s some alien or something. Maybe that’s how they sleep?"

"How do you know that?"

"Saw it on SCN* the other night. Some special on the Fantastic Four or something."

"That stuff’ll rot your brain. Junk food for folks in New York City and LA. None of that stuff happens here." He pauses, contemplating his words, looking at the back of Blastaar. "I think we should go back to the cruiser."

"Heck, he hasn’t even moved since we pulled up."

Blastaar decided it was time to turn around. He had but one thought for the two cops.

"Tell me why you shouldn’t die where you stand."

"Now, Blue, place your part of the project next to Chang’s. Very good. Amanda? Right. On the other side. Now Xeban, connect your project to Patria’s. Excellent."

Reed looked around at his class of six students, smiling with satsifaction. Blue Wilson, Amanda Alltran, Chang Xu, Xeban, Patria Juarez and Cade Rowton dutifully assembled their separate projects that Reed had given them to work on.* These were the five top scientific minds at the university, plus Cade Rowton, a Literature/History double-major who Reed had included to keep a "real world" view of science. Reed noted that Cade looked at the device uneasily, while Chang looked on completely bored.

"What is it?" Amanda asked, looking at the assembled device. The device was two feet long and one foot high, held together by cables and wires. It had an oval shape to it, with several read-out displays on the surface, and, Amanda knew because it was hers, an IV tube.

"Gotta be messed up," Xeban cut in, always looking for a chance to follow Amanda.

"I don’t know what we could possibly create together," Patria said in her soft, Spanish-accented English, looking around at the room.

Blue ticked their majors off out loud, "I’m marine biology, Amanda’s a biologist, too, though she’s more into the whole land thing." Amanda wrinkled her nose at Blue, smiling, causing Xeban’s face to involuntarily frown. Blue, seeing the look on his best friend’s face, moved on quickly, "Chang’s a chemical engineer, Xeban’s a computer scientist, Patria’s a botany major and Cade, well, Cade’s not scientific at all. What did you make, Cade? I don’t recall you placing anything on the device."

Cade coughed and pulled seven copies of a report out of a manilla folder. He handed them around to everyone in the room, including Reed, instructing them not to open past the blank cover page.

"Cade wrote a report on the device you’ve just built," Reed explained.

"Well? Xeban asked, "What is it, dude?"

Cade, the tallest and broadest member of the group, ran his right hand over his shaved head and looked at the device as he answered Xeban’s question. "Short answer … it’s a bomb."

Ben Grimm, Susan Richards and Johnny Storm sat around the kitchen table, eating breakfast. None of them bothered to say, "Isn’t this nice?" because they didn’t have to. With everything that had happened to them recently, from Alicia’s pregnancy to the birth of Marcia, to the Veda Ree, to the revelation about A’kimba’s arranged marriage to Greykan, to Dan Dampen and Maggie Magnify, to Nathaniel Richards and Fantastopolis, to Franklin, Marcia and Kristoff Vernard having Nathaniel as a tutor and living in Fantastopolis with him, becoming some kind of Future Four, to Alicia and Ben’s seperation, they hadn’t had time to sit down and just relax in each other’s company for weeks, if not months.

There were three subjects they didn’t want to address: how Sue was feeling about Franklin being gone, how Johnny was feeling about A’kimba’s arrangment to Greykan and how Ben was feeling about being seperated from Alicia. So they talked about something they were all willing to discuss.

Manticore.

"He’s a strange one," Ben shook his head, gulping coffee. "Nathaniel mentioned that he was a Continuum Child, a Destroyer, destroying for the sake of destruction,* but he had a purpose here, to kill this world’s version of himself."**

Johnny thought, Well, who says we can trust Nathaniel? But because of Sue’s presence, he said, "What about the girl? The actress, Isadora Krachev?"

"She disappeared along with the real Manticore," Ben shrugged. "Who knows what she was doing."

"We were told," Sue added, breaking off a piece of a bagel, "that she was a new discovery, straight from Russia, and that this was her big debut."

"Think she’s one of these Continuum Children, Suzie?" Ben asked.

Sue shook her head, "I don’t know. At this point we have to gather as much information as we can and try to keep an open mind."

Ben and Johnny exchanged a glance.

"What?" Sue asked, the bagel piece pausing at her mouth as she caught the look.

"Nothing," Ben shook his head, playing innocent.

Johnny laughed, "You sound like Reed. I think-"

A HERBIE robot entered the kitchen, then, it’s eyes flashing red. "There is a situation that you need to be aware of," the bot droned in a cold, mechanical voice. Without waiting for confirmation, HERBIE-82 - they could now see the serial number on his left arm - played an audio track through his vocal speakers.

"—krrkbody help us!" a voice yelled across the radio waves. "Oh god, they’re killing us! They’re killing aaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh! My leg! My aaaaaarrrrkk!"

"That is the entirety of the message," HERBIE-82 broke back in. "It is most predictable that the man died."

"Ya think?" Johnny asked, mumbling under his breath.

"I have pin-pointed the location of the message to be Fannett, Michigan," HERBIE-82 continued.

"Michigan?" Sue asked. "Shouldn’t this be a matter for the local authorities? I don’t think there’s a big super-"

HERBIE-82 did not wait for Sue to finish, playing a second audio tape, "You will all die here today, Earthlings! Remember Baluur! Remember Baluur!"

Sue, Johnny and Ben were already on their feet. Johnny spoke the words, "That sounded like-"

"Blastaar," HERBIE-82 cut in, then turned and silently left the room.

Johnny paused, "Do we have to have those stupid robots floating around?"

"Aw, save if Matchstick," Ben shot across the room. "Yer just mad HERBIE made the cartoon and you didn’t."

"What do you mean its a bomb?" Patria asked, scared and angry. "I thought I was making an imaging aparatus for a computer assisted plant identification system."

"You were," Reed answered, looking at the various confused faces. "And Blue put together a deep sea pulse device for the tracking of marine movementthat would work until the creature it was attached to stopped beating its heart. Amanda created a device to feed animals intraveneously. Xeban created the communications system and Chang assembled a device that would, well," Reed smiled, looked to Cade, "in laymen’s terms, blow-up."

"Professor Richards!" Patria exclaimed, "I think it highly inappropriate of you to have us assemble a … a … bomb in the school!"

Reed let his face fall serious, "Cade, explain to them how it works."

"Simple, really," the British student began. "Blue’s device is attached to a fish, its instruments set to shut down if there was no beating of a heart for a set period of time. Xeban’s device would allow us to follow and monitor the, let’s say a shark, the shark’s movements. The shark, which would be chosen because of its swimming patterns in a certain area, though through Xeban’s device we could alter, somewhat, the shark’s path, would do its thing. Patria’s device would sit atop the contraption, scanning in its view for a certain plant or plant formation. When it found such a formation, it would trigger Amanda’s IV rigging, which would then feed the shark a poison, killing it. No alive shark means no heartbeat means no operating for Blue’s device. When his shut down, that would trigger Chang’s device which would, to use the laymen’s term, blow-up."

The students, even Chang, looked at Reed with varyind degrees of hurt and confusion. "But why?" Amanda asked in her Aussie accent.

"To show you what it’s like in the real world," Reed answered honestly. "You will, in all likelihood, be going to work for major corporations or governments. You may do your own research, but you may also be given tasks to be completed. You might think, like you did here, that your work was going for something beneficial, but for every device that’s created for the human good, somehow that same device can be used for less than honorable reasons. You mihgt never know exactly what your device is going to be used for, or what it’s going to become a part of. It’s import-"

BEEP! BEEP!

The students looked at each other sharply - cell phones were strictly prohibited inside the classrooms, but they found, to their surprise, that it was Dr. Richards who served as the source of the interruption.

"What is it?" he asked to a viewscreen on his right forearm.

"Blastaar," his wife answered. "In Michigan. We’re swinging by to get you."

"I’ll meet you on the roof of the science building," Reed answered, his left arm already reaching across the roof to pick up his briefcase. He turned to his students, leaving his head in place as his body started moving towards the door, "For next time, I want you to take your formal proposals for your individual research projects and create a budget. Then list ten organizations where you might expect to get funding for such a project. See you then."

His head followed his body, leaving the students in the room alone with a bomb.

Before anyone could say anything, Reed’s head and hand returned. "Just so no one worries, it’s not a real bomb, of course. There are failsafes built into the design that would prevent it from ever working, but I think I’ll take it with me, just to be safe."

He vanished again, leaving the students alone. They looked at each other with blank faces.

"Right," Cade finally sighed deeply, "who wants to go get a coffee?"

The Fantastic Four moved quickly across the country in a newly Stark-designed and built Quadjet.

"That Stark," Ben grumbled, "real funny guy, giving us a Quadjet and keeping the Quinjet’s for the Avengers."

"Now, now, Ben," Reed replied, "I can assure you that the joke is in name only. The Quadjet is every bit the craft that the Quinjet is, though modified for certain qualifications."

"Such as?" Ben asked, wondering when Reed was going to tell him what those changes were. Ben was only the pilot, after all.

"The Quadjet don’t have the full speed capabilities that the Quinjet has, but it has better handling, better-"

"Wow."

At Johnny’s words they looked out the Quadjet’s windows and down to the ground below. They saw a large factory surrounded by at least fifty cop cars, all with their lights flashing red and blue. Explosions came pouring out of the factory here and there, sometimes followed or preceeded by a hurtling human body.

"Let’s do it," Johnny announced.

They entered the building at different locations. Johnny flew in through a hole in the rusty, metallic roof and was immediately confronted with two Baluurians; they fired pulse blasts at him, but the Human Torch was able to dodge their assaults.

"Where’s Blastaar?" he asked them, but they answered only with more fire. Johnny glanced around the room and saw that he had plenty of room to fly in. This was the factory’s top floor and it was a wide open area of small, square floors connected by catwalks. There was more open air where the floor should be than there was a floor.

The pulse blasts followed the tail of Johnny’s flame around the ceiling as he swirled over, under and around anything he came across, or simply made maneauvers in the open air. He sent two harmless blasts of flame at the two Baluurians, who took his attack head on and continued firing.

"Wish I had more time to play, boys!" Johnny called to them, firing a more directed line of fire at the Baluurian guns, melting them. The Baluurians roared in response.

Sue entered at mid-level, using her powers to create a staircase to allow her to ascend into an open window. Once inside she moved through rooms with various machines. She ignored them, looking for Blastaar. Through a crack in the floor, she saw Ben going toe-to-toe with two Baluurians. She could feeel their blows hammering off of each other.

Reed came through the back, moving quickly around the walls of the factory to get the cops to remove themselves. The cops were only too happy to let the Fantastic Four handle things.

As Reed’s elastic body moved rapidly through the building, his thoughts went to the explosion of Baluur,* a mad scheme of Thanos to test Franklin’s ability to-

His heart skipped a beat at the thought of his son. What was he doing? Was Nathaniel treating him and the rest of the Future Four well? Was Franklin-

Focus, he scolded himself. People could be dying here. They’d escaped Baluur, but most of the inhabitants didn’t. An entire planet was gone, but not all Baluurians were dead. It was only natural they’d be upset, but what were they doing here, in Fannett, Michigan of all places?

Once Reed had removed all of the cops he could find, he moved to the center of the open factory floor to find the remaining members of the Fantastic Four battling what looked like fifteen Baluurian soldiers. Were these all the Baluurians that were left, he wondered as he joined the fray.

The Human Torch stayed above the battle, drawing a Baluurian or two away from the rest of their group and disarming them. His flame was effective, but they were not afraid of what it could do. One of the two Baluurians he was battling had his fur catch fire, but he didn’t scream. Quickly, efficiently, he dropped to the ground and rolled the flames out, then jumped back to his feet, scarred but unhurt and continued the attack on the Human Torch.

Sue was surrounded by five Baluurians, but they could get no closer than ten feet from her. As one would approach, Sue would put a roadblock in his way, tripping him at the feet or at the head. When the Baluurian fell, Sue used a force blast to knock him backwards, into another Baluurian.

The Thing cared not for Sue’s subtlety, attacking any Baluurian who crossed his path. It felt good, after the episode with Manticore to haul off and hit someone as hard as he could and feel the dull thud of the blow connect. A soldier lost his balance and Ben grabbed and tossed him across the room, into a solid piece of steel machinery.

The battle was fully engaged, four against fifteen, but there was no real hope for victory for the Baluurians and they seemed to know it. They fought hard, but ragged, Reed thought. They looked tired, not at full force.

"Enough!" a deep voice roared and everyone looked to the door.

Blastaar had arrived. "Cease this fighting!"

"I’ll fall for that one when Aunt Petunia joins the circus!" Ben roared and charged Blastaar, who, though he had just called for a cease to the fighting wasn’t about to let a battle go by. He let the Thing come to him and blasted energy out of his fingertips at the rocky hero. The blasts stunned Ben, slowing his appraoch and knocking him off-balance enough for Blastaar to deliver a shot that would have killed any of the other members of the Fantastic Four. Ben rolled with the punch, countering with a jab. The two large men slugged at each other furiously. Blow followed blow, every inch given was immediately taken back.

Neither spoke as they hammered away at the other, the other combatants stopped their fighting to watch the battle between the Thing and Blastaar. Ben got a right hand free and cold-cocked Blastaar in the nose, sending the Baluurian backwards. Ben jumped forward but Blastaar responded with his finger-tip blasts, knocking Ben back off his feet.

Up instantly, Ben was surprised to find himself facing thirty of Michigan’s finest men in blue pointing their guns at him.

"Huh?" he asked, as Blastaar smiled to the side.

"You are on private property," Blastaar spoke down to Ben and the Fantastic Four. "Leave or I shall have you jailed."

"What’s the meaning of this?" Reed asked, extending his body to stand beside his friend.

"What Mr. Blastaar is saying," a slick lawyer announced, coming forward, "is that you are on his property and he would like you to leave."

"Is this a joke?" Johnny asked.

"It is not," the lawyer answered. "Twenty minutes ago Blastaar purchased this abandoned auto factory from the city of Fannett, to use as a refuge for himself and his people. As you are aware," the lawyer coughed, making Reed wonder if he believed what he was about to say, ‘the planet Baluur no longer exists. They need a home. We have sold one to them."

"You don’t know what you’re doing," Johnny scoffed.

"Surely you’re not saying we should discriminate against them?" the lawyer asked. "That would not be legal."

"Blastaar is a known criminal," Sue stated, coming up to stand next to Reed.

"Known criminal, maybe," the lawyer conceded, "but not a wanted one. "We have checked with all relevant authorites and he is in the clear. You may not approve of what we’ve done," the man’s voice changed somber, "but Fannett has become a ghost city since the automotive companies pulled out. We have twenty abandoned factories scattered across the city, seven here, and the money that Blastaar has given us for these seven factores will go a long way to helping us get back on our feet."

The Fantastic Four looked doubtful as Blastaar added, "We have no home. We have travelled far across the Negative Zone, across your galaxy, looking for fellow survivors. We are tired, hungry, needing rest but there is nowhere for us to rest. Our families and friends are gone. Taken away from us by Thanos. You know this. You were there."

The words were accusatory, but the FF didn’t rise to the bait. "So yer gonna live here and be a happy little family?" the Thing asked.

Blastaar continued, "No. We are going to regroup, search for other Baluurians-"

"And then?" the Human Torch asked.

Blastaar spoke evenly, his voice calm and powerful, "Then we will leave your planet, hunt Thanos down and torture him slowly. Painfully. Endlessly. He will scream like a babe, will the Mad Titan, for the rest of time. Of this, you can be certain. Baluur is gone, but it will never be forgotten."

END FF 448

FANTASTIC FORUM

comments c/o biscuit022@go.com

-- Mark Bousquet …

NORTHERN BEAR PRODUCTIONS

2 December 2000