Year 4 December Tim Hartin & Lonni Holland

Issue 454 "Dear Franklin"

Interlude:
Opened in 1871, home to opera and rock opera, symphonies and sumo wrestlers, Royal Albert Hall sat, like a Royal wedding cake, in South Kensington, facing London's famed Hyde Park. In 1872 it was the site of a demonstration of Morse's apparatus, by the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Commissioners, in 1968 John Lennon and the Beatles contemplated how many holes it would take to fill it.

Alicia Masters was less aware of the history of the Hall and more aware of the wonderful Schubert concert she had just attended, as she headed for the Door 4 exit that lead to Kensington Gore and her ultimate destination, the Knightsbridge Tube entrance. Today had been one of her rare days off from her art tour and she was taking full advantage of it. Earlier she had been at the Royal Museum, at a special hands-on exhibit designed for the visually handicapped. Now she was tired and wanted nothing more than to reach her hotel and quietly contemplate the day, perhaps in a hot bubble bath. The thought brought a smile to her lips as she stepped out into the coolness of the evening.

Her reverie was soon disturbed. Several crashes, some screams and muttered oaths assailed her ears. There seemed to be an underlying terror in many of the sounds. Then the crowd around her seemed to be surging forward. She was pushed and jostled and finally fell to her knees. A firm hand at her elbow helped her up and steered her to a place of relative shelter from the milling crowd. A pleasant tenor voice inquired, "Are you injured?"

Alicia responded, "No, but thank you for your help. What's happening? Everyone seems so frightened and confused."

Her rescuer, a tall, slender young man, with a violin case tucked protectively under one arm, replied, "Didn't you notice that when all of the power went out there were a number of accidents on the streets, and people just panicked. Odd, the autos all seem to have stopped as well. Forgive my rudeness, however. I have neglected to introduce myself. Socrates ffolkes-Smythe at your service."

"Alicia Masters, and I'm afraid that I didn't notice the power outages." Alicia held up her white cane with a shy smile.

"Oh dear, I do seem to have made a ruddy mess of this, don't I? Perhaps I can help with some music. It might calm some of this crowd down, as well."

He gently pushed Alicia further into the recess in the walls of the building, opened his violin case and began to play. In moments many of the people nearby stopped their milling about and listened as the gentle strains of Amazing Grace drifted out through the London night air.
Interlude ends.

Reed's conversation with Avengers* was brief. He transmitted what data he could but there just wasn't time to get to the source of the power problem. The Avengers would have to take care of that.** He had other things to deal with, and some of those things only he could do.

* he called them at the end of last issue

** and they will, starting in Avengers 447

While the power was still on he opened a portal to the Negative Zone. He grabbed Stygorr and started dragging him towards it. As he did, the Nightlord started to regain consciousness. Extending his arms and wrapping the alien as tightly as he could he remonstrated, "Unless you want to be trapped here forever you'll let me get you home." Stygorr ceased his struggles. Reed went on, "Something is draining all of our power here. If we hurry I can just keep the gateway open long enough for you to get through it." He hit the button to open the iris to the entrance.

Stygorr snarled, "I will leave now, but this isn't over, human. It won't be over until you and your teammates feel my wrath." With that, he dove through the opening and disappeared into the Negative Zone. Just moments later the power faded again, and the portal disappeared.

Reed turned back to his notes. The hospitals and emergency workers were going to need tools that they could use without power. He smiled as he recalled watching an episode of The Magic School Bus with Franklin. In it, the children had to figure out how to operate a Ferris wheel without electricity. They used wind, sun, water, gravity and muscle power to get it working. Now he had to apply the same principles to save his world. It was an interesting challenge. Bemused, he started making design notes and sketches.

It had been less than a minute since the Cyclone had stopped and Ben Grimm sat in his car, at the top of the first hill. He had to do something soon, but without his strength as the Thing he wasn't sure what he could do. Still, orange rocks or not, people were panicking and someone was going to get hurt. The lap bar that had restrained him as the Thing was far too loose for him as Ben Grimm, and he was soon able to slither out from under it. He stood, hanging tightly to the side of the car just in case it started working again. He spotted the ride's operators behind them, milling around at the start of the ride.

"Hey, you guys! Yo! Up here!" The operators turned to look at him. "Turn off the power switch. If the power comes back on while we're standin' up here someone is gonna fall and it ain't gonna be Mrs. Grimm's little boy, Benjie."

He saw that they were doing as he suggested so he turned his attention back to his fellow passengers. "Okay, folks. The power's out but it's no big deal. We've had big blackouts before. Anyone here remember the great eastern seaboard blackout of 2003?" Lots of people nodded and Ben went on. "Well, we got around that one and we can manage this one too."

That seemed to have worked. A lot of them seemed calmer. Now for the hard part. "Now, I'm gonna walk to the back of the coaster and as I go along I'm gonna try to help each of you to get unstuck from those lap bars. Then we're all going to step from car to car and then walk back down to the bottom." The other passengers didn't look as though they liked that idea much. "Aw, come on folks, it'll be easy. That's just a gradual incline and there's fence up all along the sides to hang on to. Be glad that we all picked a good ol' wooden coaster to ride today. We'd never make it on one of those blasted metal contraptions with all their fancy swirls and corkscrews. Now whadda ya say? Can we do it?" A couple of heads nodded and Ben pointed at them and started to clap. In moments everyone on the ride was applauding and cheering.

Soon they all stood on the ground, having made a virtual human chain to help each other down from the top of the Cyclone. All around people rallied and helped each other get off the other rides, coaxed on by Ben Grimm. He felt a lot like a cheerleader but it was working. He had turned a frightened mob into a team. It was just like his old football days. So who needed super powers anyway? Still, he was secretly worried about his teammates, and about the rest of his city. He had been lucky, but had everyone else?

Just before the Human Torch's powers disappeared again he had managed to quell the fire at the Gap. * He stood at the front of the store and faced the destruction. The glass windows that faced the center of the mall were streaked grey from the smoke, the aluminum clothes racks were melted and twisted, by the heat, into grotesque shapes, the heaps of sweaters and shirts, once in the latest colors of ochre and mustard, were now blackened and unrecognizable, all somber testaments to his momentary showing off. Johnny shuddered as the word lawsuit flashed before his eyes. Of course, Fantastic Four Incorporated would cover the damages, but what if someone had been injured, or killed? He vowed to himself to not be so irresponsible in the future.

* last issue

The mystery sorcerer lay senseless on the ground. * On closer inspection Sue Storm affirmed that she really didn't recognize him at all. He was slightly greying and a bit over weight. The robe he wore under his coat had markings on it that were unfamiliar to her, and she had seen enough magic users in her super hero career to recognize most of them. Still, whether she knew him or not, he had been trying to steal something from the museum. She made sure that he wasn't just pretending to be unconscious, then left to find some rope, or something, to tie him with until the police could arrive.

*last issue, again

Returning just a few minutes later, with a length of electrical cord in her hands, the Invisible Woman discovered that her prisoner was gone. On the floor, where he had lain, was a small silver dagger, inscribed with the same strange markings that had been on the robe, and a scrap of parchment with the words 'Power of the cosmos lies within, the role of the magi shall be fulfilled'. She slipped them into a pocket and headed down the hall to find her tour group. Annoying as it was to have lost him, she had better things to do right now than worry over misplaced magicians.

Reed Richards was having trouble moving around at Pier Four. Most of the converted warehouse was now cluttered with assorted inventions, just awaiting pickup. He had managed to get in touch with a few members of the local fire department and they had spread the word. Now as many emergency personnel as possible were rushing to pick up some of his alternate powered contraptions. He had weather balloons attached to makeshift baskets, with helium canisters and gas heating burners, ready to provide transportation across the expanse of the city. For the hospitals he had produced hand operated ventilators to assist those with breathing difficulties. Tubes containing chemical mixtures would provide a cold light source. Right now he was trying to locate enough room to finish assembling a wind powered pump for assisting the firefighters to get water to fires, although the water pressure would still propel water from the hydrants.

One of his concerns was drinking water. Still not knowing how long the world would be powerless he knew that the purified water wouldn't last long. Production of purification tablets was next on his seemingly endless list of things to do.

As busy as he was, part of Reed's mind was still on the others. While in his lab, buried in research, he usually worked alone, but he had also become very accustomed to working with the rest of his team. No, he corrected, with the rest of his family. Now, when they were needed most, they were scattered across the city, like the seeds of a dandelion. For just a moment he considered leaving to find Sue. She was at the Storm Museum and that wasn't that far away. The moment passed. This was an emergency and, much as he was worried about her, his work here had to come before thoughts of the love of his life. He knew that Sue would understand his reasoning, and had probably had the same thoughts herself. Soon some of the Avengers would be here (see Avengers 447 to 450) and he would have to turn his thoughts to the bigger picture of getting the world back to normal. Right now, there was still other work to be done.

Johnny Storm and fire were normally the best of friends. Since he had lost his powers as the Human Torch that wasn't the case. Still, he had been in the spandex business too long to ignore a possible threat to human life. He raced around the corner to see where the smoke was coming from.

A gang of young men were coming down the street, their arms laden with electronic equipment. Behind them, the street was littered with glass from a broken storefront window and the smoke was billowing from a trash fire in front of the store.

Johnny was torn. Part of him wanted to stop the looters, while another part told him that first, he was no longer a super powered adventurer, second, he was vastly outnumbered and third, since the fire was going out there was no threat to human life and he could likely be more useful elsewhere. He trudged onward, looking for people in danger, instead of just people with no scruples taking advantage of a bad situation. Then he heard a scream.

Looking up he saw a woman and small child, clinging to an iron fire escape that seemed on the verge of collapse. He quickly surmised that they had gone outside to escape from the heat of their apartment, when the already rickety structure had started to give way.

There was no point in trying to climb the ladder extension, it would just pull the whole thing to the ground. Just then Johnny heard a series of crashes behind him. Glancing over his shoulder he spotted the gang of looters tossing their booty aside as they started dragging boxes and other debris over to the base of the building. He quickly grasped what they were doing and rushed to help them.

Together they soon had a pile that was almost high enough, and Johnny and one of the others swarmed up it to pass down the woman and child to the waiting hands of the others.

Johnny turned to the man who had climbed with him and said, "Man, I don't get it. You guys were so anxious to get the stuff from that store, but you trashed it all just to help."

"Hey man, sometimes you just have to change your priorities, ya know?" The man grinned and offered his hand to help Johnny climb down.

"I want to go to the bathroom!"

"I want to go home!"

"I want my mommy!"

The children from the Storm Museum tour group were getting restless, and some were starting to get very frightened. Of course, so were some of the museum volunteers. Sue Richards badly needed to find a distraction to keep everyone calm. They were in no immediate danger, although she was certain that, across the city, many others were. Still, they were in her charge and she wanted to find some way to reassure them before panic set in. Suddenly she had an inspiration.

"Children! Can I have everyone gather around please." They flocked around her. "Now, hands up anyone who is a tiny bit frightened." Several hands went up. "Now, hands up anyone who isn't." One or two, then more. "Good, now it is okay to be frightened, but we are all together so we can take care of each other, right?" Nods. "But what about the people who can't? How would you like to help me take care of some other people?"

Most of them were delighted with the idea but one little girl whispered plaintively, "But we're too little, aren't we?"

Sue leaned down beside her. "I don't think so, honey. Do you have a grandmother or grandfather?" The child nodded. "And do you sometimes help them to pick things up or carry things for them." Another nod and more of the children agreed as well. "Well, that's exactly what we are going to do. There is a Seniors' Center almost right next door and I bet that some of the people there could use some help. Since their grandchildren can't get there to help them, I think we should."

That meet with a chorus of approval. Fifteen minutes later, Sue, three young museum volunteers and fourteen children were sitting in the meeting hall of the Golden Age Retirement Home, vigorously singing 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' with a group of thirty seniors. It wasn't the way the Invisible Woman was used to helping others, but it was something, at least. She just hoped that the others were doing as well.