Return of the 4 (Fantastic Four, closed)

[bio858]

Baxter Building

The night sky was simply a blank black canvas, as the stars were unseen due to the polluted lights of the vast city. But Reed knew the beautiful sight would be spotted soon enough once you were high above the clouds. Repairs would be made once more on the fantastical space ship for one last journey. It was time to find Susan after long last. But this time, he'd take his family along for the ride.

His own son had proved himself on missions past, and would find some way to sneak onto the ship one way or another. Ben was his best friend, and would always be there for Sue, and for everyone else on the team. And Johnny, well, Johnny was her brother. And no matter what, always held out his fighting spirit that burned as brightly as his own body did, especially when it came to his family.

Hence, Reed would wait right here for all of them. They were gonna get Sue back, and they were going to do this as a team.

[Rift]

Ben Grimm ignored the stares of pedestrians as he walked towards the Baxter Building. He was used to the comments, the pointing of fingers, and the flashes of cellphone cameras. Normally it might have bothered him, gotten his temper up, and resulted in some choice words that would have had his inner Yancy Street come out. This was not a normal situation though. Reed had sent him a message. What that message was he didn't know. For a good long while he'd been flying solo, working with SHIELD or She-Hulk on occasion, but it had been a bit since the Four were together, exploring or ruining the day of some crook, somewhere. The reasons were varied and didn't really matter because when family needed help, and that's what the F4 were first and foremost, you put all the petty stuff aside and come to their aid.

Unfortunately, Ben didn't know what the heck the problem was. His communicator had seen better days. Between taking a beating during his last mission and being vandalized by the Yancy Street Gang in what the kids thought was a grand joke on Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew, the message was garbled. All he could make out was that something was wrong andit involved Sue.

"Move it will yas? Important superhero business to attend to!" he shouted at a pair of teens, faces in their phones.

Getting to the building and into the elevator, The Thing worried all the way up.

"If Matchstick is playing some sort of joke I'm tossin' his car to Jersey," he swore, hoping that was the worst of it.

Arriving on the top floor he stomped out of the elevator, shouting as he went.

"Yo Stretch! I'm 'ere. Dis stupid thingamajig is not working right courtesy of some sody pop and one very accurate sniper, so I didn't get the message. Everythin' okay with Sue? 'Cause if dis is Johnny boy's idea of funny..."

[Gordy]

Accustomed to the supernatural,
Disaster and madness

---

Reed and Ben might hear the sound of running water. Turning back to the garden would reveal that Franklin was doing some late-night tending to some of the garden flowers. Specifically, a rose bush that he had been growing for a few months now - a gift from Klara.

It had been a long time since he had seen his mother. For a while, no one told him the truth of what was going on - she was either on a trip, or visiting family, or whatever excuse others would tell him. But they were well beyond that by now. Franklin was old enough to handle the news, and he was old enough to help. He was a member of the Fantastic Four, too.

"We're going to get Mom back," he would respond to his godfather. His voice was still, confident and unshaking. "And we're going to need everyone to do it."

---

I mistake my daily life for peace

[webdevil]

Reed wheeled about with a slightly exaggerated twist of his spine and suppressed a smile at his son, Franklin. He knew biologically and mentally speaking the boy was a teenager despite only living roughly half of that in the acute time frame with he, Sue, Johnny, Ben, and even Valeria when she came along, but he could not help but both marvel and regret seeing that childhood sense of optimism and attitude that Reed would never get to see him grow out of naturally. He hoped the same can be said for Sue, wherever she was.

"You're going to need that attitude, Franklin; because even if we confirm that it was indeed the Skrulls that abducted your mother - and given she had a Skrull doppelganger I have to begrudgingly lean in that direction - we still don't have the exact location of where she is. Far enough out that the locator is useless but not so far out that we can't get her biometrics, so silver linings,"

He turned to Ben and then realized that Ben might not have known that the Sue they had been spending the past several months with - and who recently was killed - was in fact a Skrull infiltrator.

"Errr, on that note Ben, where is Johnny? I thought he'd be with you?" he said, realizing they were down a number.

He pressed the large four to his chest with his left hand til it began glowing and the comms channel opened. With his right he cupped his freshly clean shaven chin. In retrospect, he hated the beard. Less kinetic sense and familiarity, which was a small comfort when going into the unknown.

"Johnny! Where are you?" came not the concerned voice of a brother-in-law but the leader of the Fantastic Four preparing to venture forth into the unknown.

[Rift]

Ben fought back a sigh. Reed was in the zone so to speak, full on Big Brain scientist and tactician mode activated. The hyperfocus was something he was used to whether it was in school, in the lab, or as leader of the Fantastic Four. It was great for getting answers to questions nobody thought to ask, discovering new levels of quantum physics, developing advanced technology that seemed almost mystical, and fighting world threatening evils. When it came to getting concise answers in plain English or otherwise showing emotion beyond cold logic? Not so useful.

"A'int seen Matchstick in a minute. Been a wee bit busy doing some work for Uncle Sam and haven't heard much from any of ya's come to think of it. So imagine my surprise when I get a call outta the blue. I assume 'dat something big is going on considerin' yer in fearless leader mode, but all I got from the message is something about Sue. What the heck is going on pal?" he asked, ignoring his annoyance at his old friend acting like it was just business as usual.

It was at this point that Franklin (Ben was still trying to get used to his sudden age-up) spoke up.

"Get yer mom back? From where? Who? I got knuckle sammiches for days for anyone done something to Susie, but I kinda need some answers."

[Slim]

A few moments after Reed pressed the emblem and called out for Johnny, a reply came over that comms channel loud and clear. A reply that didn’t contain words, but the sound of a flushing toilet, which certainly didn’t sound great over a communicator. Shortly after that, a nearby door popped open, and Johnny Storm jogged out of it, drying his hands with a blue towel that he tossed aside as he neared his family.

”Didn’t want to have to stop on the way! Don’t blame me for staying hydrated,” he said, coming to a stop equidistant from Reed and… Ben. ”We’re gearing up to grubhub those knuckle sandwiches right to the Skrulls, bud. Because the Sue that was here, who got blown up, turned out to be one of them. Which means they’ve probably got my sister somewhere.” It was the short version of the story, but Ben Grimm was rarely the kind of guy that needed a novel or dossier. Motive and direction tended to be sufficient.

”Anything else, or are we ready to do this thing?”

[webdevil]

Reed threw Johnny a stern look. Typical Johnny. His expression softened however as he was the one who explained to Ben what had happened. If anybody had reason to worry - in his own way - it was Johnny.

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a Fantastic Four if we didn't go as a quartet," said Reed to Johnny's query. He saw Franklin open his mouth, ready to interject, but Reed held a hand up.

"Not this time, Franklin. I know you have had much more experience and your abilities have grown considerably, but given their unstable nature, in the middle of wherever we are going, that can be as much a hinderance as a help. And even if that isn't, I need somebody I can trust to cover the Baxter Building in case of further incursion or infiltration. The Negative Zone portal alone gives me pause if we leave it unguarded..." he said, putting emphasis on just how much weight he was leaving in Franklin's hands. With the FF in space and the Avengers and X-Men all busy with their own concerns over Skrull incursion, this was going to cause issues. He only held Franklin's gaze for a brief second before looking away. He didn't even last thirty seconds in his resolution about Franklin. But how could he as a father? He didn't want to tell his son that he didn't want the Skrulls to take and exploit him like they did his mother either. He worried if that made it seem like he had no faith in him. He hoped not.

He heard the sensors indicate somebody had arrived.

"Ah. There she is now," he said and made his way towards the elevator. He made it over roughly ten seconds before the turbolift would open and the person inside stepped off.

[Judi Strange]

---

---

   
The call had been rather quick, to the point but also cryptic. There were few who could arouse a curiosity strong enough to pull Jennifer from her current leave of absence to review the pros and cons of the registration act. Recent relations sort of brought a little more of that into focus. “Relations, that is a very nice way to put it counselor; very tidy and totally without any shred of complications.” She uttered under her breath as she entered the place where her heroic career had expanded beyond the score of this very universe to realms beyond.

The Fantastic Four had always been special, been different and she was delighted to be an extended member of the family of sorts. She paused, one step inside the building that has seen so much, and this wasn’t even the first one to be honest. But the less said about the whole Kristoff thing the better. Winning smile affixed she did the usual announce and took the lift adjusting a small satchel on her back.

The graceful rhythm of the elevator was the same, the reception area the same and it really brought her back to those earlier time, the Micro-verse- Time traveling, the list went on and on. She was and likely always would be an Avenger, but when family called you came- not only happily but elated to see the farther realm of possibility with Reed and Company.

The doors whisked open, and out stepped Jennifer Walter, Legal expert- but possibly today what was sought was the name by which she had come to be known; The Sensational She-Hulk. Satchel on her back she looked around “Hiya guys.” She offered in her more traditional relaxed tone she spared for those she felt truly at home with which also doubled as a tension easer. Certainly a must at least until she got the lowdown on the situation. “I got the call…” A simple opening but one that let her scan the body language and vibe of the group.

 

She-Hulk Theme song: Circus Britney Spears
Heroes: Magik |Captain Marvel| She-Hulk |
Villains: Spiral | White Rabbit 

[Rift]

Ben sighed. At least he knew what the score was now, why the emergency meeting had been called, but he was still grumpy. Reed dropped a bombshell on him, casually revealing that Sue was not in fact gone and that a Skrull had been play acting as her for who knew how long, and then expected them to get back to business as usual. Sometimes it was his big brain forgetting others had to play catch up and other times it was simply dedication to a set of actions that distracted the genius leader of the Fantastic Four from picking up on just how folks were feeling. Here it was months later, with very little contact between what he had thought were the only surviving members of the Four, and yet Reed was acting like it was just another day.

Lace up yer boots, we has aliens ta smack around. Not so much as a oh and hey how have you been? S.H.I.E.L.D work suitin' ya? By da by you see Johnny cause even though we ain't been close as of late you should be playing chaperone to the smart mouthed hot head, he thought angrily.

Even if time was of the essence he was nearly ready to make his inside thoughts audible all the way to Skrull Land, when Reed announced that Franklin was staying behind. It was good as the kid was still green and for all his immense power seeing his mom in distress was not a recipe for getting a happy outcome. Still knowing those shapeshifting creeps as he did he wasn't sure the three of them would be able to pull off an amazing rescue. That was when an old friend walked in and Ben's entire demeanor changed. Gone was the scowl and the rather unkind remarks he was ready to level at Reed and in their place was a large smile and a hearty laugh.

"Jenny? Good to know Stretch's noggin is still two steps ahead and he's bringing in the big guns! Apparently he still knows how to ring some people up. Glad ta have ya aboard!" he announced, arms outstretched for a hug. "According to Einstein here we are gonna go jailbreak Susie from those wrinkly faced, pointy eared space punks and there ain't no one I'd rather have on the team for puttin' the hurt on those yutzes."

[Slim]

Reed gave him a look, and Johnny wasn’t entirely sure which part of his entrance it was a response to. Whatever it was, Johnny was used to looks like that, so it was a glancing blow to his present attitude at-best. The Torch was more interested in Reed’s answer, a blonde eyebrow quirking upward at the word ‘quartet’. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long. Once Franklin had been given the ‘You’re staying behind because I trust you’ speech, a few sensors went off and his brother-in-law announced an arrival. Johnny turned to watch, and a grin formed on his face when the doors slid open with a quiet hiss.

”Oh, now we’re talking!” Johnny made his way toward Jen, glad to see that they’d have some extra firepower on their side for this rescue mission. Ben was great at the whole brawling thing, but four massive fists were absolutely better than two. ”Now, if we can’t track down the Skrulls in question, we’ve got a backup plan: We hit ‘em with a space subpoena.” It was not a crack at Jen’s usefulness in a fight, not at all. Just some levity, the way Johnny kept the fear and doubts at arms’ length. He greeted Jen after his rocky friend, and then looked to their fearless leader.

”Any other cards hidden up that sleeve of yours? Green or otherwise.”

[webdevil]

"Funny, Johnny," said Reed briskly before allowing Jen to re-acquaint herself with the others. Once that was done, Reed brought Jen up to speed about Sue being replaced with a Skrull and that he called her in to help the team go into space, rescue her, and very likely others captive along with her. Once he was able to draw breath, and a heartbeat pause, he motioned them all to follow him so he could walk and talk as he began locking down the Baxter Building for departure.

"Seeing as so Ben succinctly pointed out, we will be going headfirst into Skrull controlled territory and having extra options never hurt anybody, especially considering even their Super Skrulls do not like being out muscled in any contest," he said, and with that, keyed another door which slid sideways and underneath their feet to make a loading platform to take them down to the Deep Space hangar where Reed kept the bigger (and longer ranged) explorer vehicles.

"I had to reverse-engineer our biometrics scanners that are typically built into the Unstable Molecules in order to do this, but doing so gave me an excuse to build, well - -"

Reed let the reveal of the ship do the talking. Easily as big as a third of the Baxter Building itself, about twenty-four decks spliced across four quadrants, and looked built to go headfirst into a warzone, the ship looked like a cross between a flying saucer and a middle finger. In fact it would have leaned more towards the latter had it not been for the fact that when seen from the top view, it formed a gigantic "4" across its paneled sections that clearly looked capable of separation. As the lift passed a specific deck en route to the hangar floor, he stretched up and let his body elongate as he extracted from a cupboard four black balls about the size of baseballs, speaking only once his body returned to normal length and tossing one each to Jen, Ben, and Johnny.

"I haven't given her a name yet, but the ship will work in tandem with these new suits I built specifically for this tracking journey and will adjust in colour as we grow closer - or further away - from one another. It also can be used to home in on any other piece of Unstable Molecule in the known universe though I admit I had to pinch some of Bruce's notes on Gamma Spectrum tracking and had to remodulate the entire formula to compensate for the fact that - -" he realized after a moment that if he kept talking about the science, Ben was likely to try and hit him and sighed. He pulled out four customized black, navy, and silver trimmed suits that even by Fantastic Four standards looked space age. The suits seemed to ripple when touched and the fabric itself seemed to shimmer in slight changes to light or movement. Within seconds, the suit oozed across his already blue Fantastic Four uniform and completely overtook it as if he wasn't wearing any other suit before it.

"Suffice it to say, these suits will allow us to stay close and with any luck pull us towards Sue like a gigantic magnet. And they are interfaced with the ship so only people wearing these suits will be able to use it in case we get boarded by Skrulls and they found a way around the basic biometric scans like they did with the imposter as a sort of failsafe,"

They landed at the foot of the ship where a hangar entrance awaited them. Now or never, he thought, still eyeballing Franklin who had followed along looking thoroughly put out he was not going to get aboard with them.

"I also doubt Sue is the only one the Skrulls have captured and placed wherever she is, so the ship is designed to accomodate anybody else we find there. Standard quarters, self-replenishing galley, medical facilities, workstations, sonishowers, and -" (Reed made a face) "- all the weapons and more that you would expect out of a Star Trek movie, Ben..."

This last part - as always to do when it came to Reed's preference for non-violent interaction in contrast to Tony - made him uncomfortable to say. But Reed Richards was nobody's fool - he knew where he was going and he'd be damned if he didn't come armed to the teeth and prepared to use them if necessary to get his wife back.

[Judi Strange]

---

---

   
    "Oof! Heya Rocky- it's been a slice of forever, right?" She caught the hug with a warm grin, of the Fantastic Four she knew Ben the longest, ever since they met at the Diablo Reactor incident shortly after she left Los Angeles. "Hey Johnny, I missed you guys like you would not believe." She took his humor as intended, it was a breath of fresh air really, sometimes the Avengers could come off more than a little stiff- not that she would name names, but it would likely be Carol if it had one.

She shifted modes as Reed began to detail what had happened to Sue, what the plan was, and he exuded his resolute plan to get her back Jennifer felt a spectrum of emotions play through her. How horrible that this had happened to who many called the First family of heroics! They must all be on a deeper level devastated. 

Then as the plan was laid out with his usual clockwork perfection, she found herself nodding, and in agreement with how it was structured- few could match Reed for detail and contingency in these matters. "I tend to agree with you Reed, if they have one surely, they will have many more." She offered in agreement as he showcased the concept suits and was officially mind blown by the vehicle as it was presented and could not help but let out a soft whistle, Reed likely could on any given day simply re-invent and possibly revolutionize the world.

As the group began to move forward with the staging of Reeds plan, she paused to look over at Johnny as a quick aside. "Really Johnny, a subpoena?" She raised a brow, then offered a wink. "An injunction surely....c'mon hotstuff."



 

Jennifers theme song: Britney Spears- Circus
Heroes: Magik |Captain Marvel| She-Hulk | Pixie | Jean Grey | 
Villains: Spiral | Typhoid Mary | White Rabbit 

[Rift]

Whatever apprehension Grimm had felt about having to speak with the rest of the Four, it was instantly placed on the backburner. Sure, he didn't like that it took a crisis in which one of the family was in a life-or-death situation to bring them together once more, but anything that needed to be aired out could be done so after they stomped the Skrulls into paste for daring to mess with their family and friends.

Part of him wondered just how far this Skrull plot had gotten. In the months he'd been working with S.H.I.E.L.D he'd managed to break up black market technology rings, stop superpowered terrorists, and even got a chance to play spy on a cruise ship featuring AIM operatives. Good work in which he got to put to the hurt on very bad people who meant the country or world harm. The Skrulls however were another matter, the kind that threatened the entire planet and quite possibly multiple beyond their own little rock. The fact that none of the higher ups in the various alphabet soup agencies had bothered to let him, as close to an expert as they'd had on Skrulls, about the not-so-little green men replacing folks? That didn't set right with him.

Either they don't know and Stark's fancy thingamabobs in space ain't so great at picking up on alien threats as he thinks or there are Skrull agents in key positions keeping it all hush, hush. I ain't even gonna try to imagine the problems we got if they are replacing supers too.[/i[ he thought.

Perking up once he heard Reed's explanation of the arsenal they'd be bringing, he couldn't help but grin.

"Now yer talkin' Stretch! New duds, new ride for however long it takes fer Johnny to crash it, and some party favors for those wrinkly chinned space elves! You sure know how to plan a reunion. But enough jib jabbin' folks. Let's go get our girl and remind the jerks of the universe why you don't cross this family!"

[Slim]

Johnny followed reed down into the bigger vehicle hangar, and let out an impressed whistle at their ride for this rescue mission. It’s majesty was also a pretty strong reminder at how out of the loop Johnny had been recently. Such was life when you were head over heels for someone, apparently. He caught the black sphere tossed his way, and turned it over in his hands a few times as he waited for the explanation. A new suit apparently, though Reed’s more in depth explanation was already going way over his head. Even so, Johnny was grateful they had someone like Reed Richards on their side. This was too important to entrust it to anyone but the people in this room.

Johnny laughed at Jen made a little corrective suggestion to his joke, and shrugged innocently. “Cut me some slack! My only legal experience is getting released first from Jury Duty every time. I don’t think most lawyers like me,” he theorized.

He stopped short of saying much more as Ben gave his positive appraisal of the plan and equipment, and he couldn’t help but grin at the rah-rah determination and optimism of it all. The stakes were high, but they were four of the galaxy’s best heroes. They’d find a way to pull this off. Johnny gave Ben’s speech a polite little clap that was half sincere and half patronizing. “I can’t top that speech, so let’s hit the proverbial road! My only request is that Jen’s in charge of the radio.”

[webdevil]

Reed led the way into the ship and the hangar bay immediately began to close once all four were across the threshold. Reed waited for the hatch to be sealed, which took a surprising short of amount of time given the size of the hangar door, before stepping onto a platform with a rod sticking out of the end of it. It looked a lot like a large forklift but without any wheels and easily big enough to fit a large sedan onto it. On every side was a guard rail that was flickering like a kaleidoscope wherever Reed's suit was standing as if the bars emitted a light and the suit was the focus.

"You all might want to grab onto those rails at the end, this can get rather... fast," he warned and with that grabbed the strange control rod which clearly appeared to be a yoke.

"Bridge," he said and waited for the others. Once he was convinced they would be fine, he let go of the yoke and the lift shot off. Reed had already adjusted his feet to balance, but he was not kidding about the speed of the lift as it zig zagged up, across, diagonal like one of the roller coasters Franklin and Valeria enjoyed but if this didn't put those engineers on those parks (bless them) work to shame, his name was not Reed Richards. A part of him fought to suppress a grin at the reaction of his companions. But only a part.