The Fantastic Four had flown out of the deck that contained
the fantasticar; a large flying vehicle capable of transporting the team
anywhere they needed. Flying over the city towards the park, they found the Mole
Man had not wasted time. Already the heart of the park looked like a small
volcano, where a plume of black smoke ruptured through and large malformed lava
creatures climbed their way out and lumbered towards the screaming masses.
“Bleh… Magma monsters? THAT’s original…” quipped Johnny as
they made a fly by of the park. Setting the Fantasticar to hover over the small
geo formation, Reed Richards flicked a switch were an energy bubble formed
around the area, cutting off the monsters from the rest of the park where they
beat their molten fists against the barrier to no avail.
“Okay, this should contain the area so that damage can be
mitigated.” Looking over to the others, Ben and Johnny looked ready to fight,
but Susan looked withdrawn, holding herself and whispering. “don’t loose yourself…
Don’t lose yourself.”
“Honey? Are you alright?”
Looking up to her husband, Susan was a mix of emotions
before she gave him a smile and jumped down from the vehicle to join Ben and
her brother on the ground. Seeing the lava monsters turn their attention away
from the civilians and back at the Fantastic Four, Susan raised her hands and
captured the lot in individual bubbles of solid light.
“Good job Suzie!” Smirked the Thing, punching the palm of
his hand. “You set’em up, I’ll knock’em down.” Moving the captured lava
monsters closer to Ben for him to strike, Susan gasped when the ground beneath
her feet gave way. “What the hell…” The ground suddenly opened under Susan’s
feet just wide enough that she fell through into the earth which closed up behind
her afterwards, leaving only a crack in the stonework where she once stood.
Jumping out of the Fantasticar and stretching to reach the
spot where Susan disappeared, Reed clawed at the ground, digging in a futile
effort to find his wife. “Susan, if you can hear me, we’ll get you out of
there.”
“I think we’s gots problems of our own stretch!” Said the
Thing, hoisting Mr. Fantastic back up to his feet in the nick of time before a
molten hot fist of slag and rock came down where he was crouched. Without Susan
nearby to maintain her force fields, the magma monsters were free, and were
slowly surrounding the three remaining heroes.
*
Looking out of the window over looking the city and Central
Park, Alicia was a mix of emotions. On one hand, this was the very first time she
was seeing the city overhead with her eyes; seeing the flow of traffic and the
skyscrapers in the distance, it was almost overwhelming, on the other hand she
was worried sick as she could see the fight in the park off in the distance. It
worried her for the first time realising what was going on.
“What do I do?” Holding herself more tightly and ignoring
the softness of her larger breasts press up. Alicia turned to look away from
the window when she heard the elevator in front of her ‘ding’ and open. Looking
forward she was shocked to find one of Susan’s adult sons skulk out and sniff
the hallway, instantly seeing her and growl. Slowly backing up, the male
matched her step by step. Looking around, she tried to find a weapon, anything.
Looking over to the side table of the living room, she picked up a vase and
threw it at the brute, the object shattering when it was swiped away with a
casual backhand.
Finding something else, Alicia looked over to the dining
table where she found Franklin’s math homework, grabbed the text book and threw
it. As soon as it was caught in mid air by the hissing monster, it stopped.
Fluttering its eyes and looking briefly stunned, the creature slowly regained
its senses and looked down at the grade-school text book in its clawed hand. “Hi…
Poten… Nuse… Hypotenuse… A hypotenuse is the longest side of a right-angled
triangle.” Standing straight and looking less threatening, Alicia was confused
herself. Looking back at the dining table, she picked up another book on the
table, one she didn’t recognise and gasped. Pages upon pages of information
flooded her mind, filling her to the brim until it suddenly stopped.
“Qué en el mundo
acabo de leer?" Shaking her head, Alicia looked down at the book in
her hand which read ‘4th grade Spanish’. It suddenly dawned on her,
heading over to the wall where a collection of books and novels sat, Alicia
gasped in between books she pulled out before making a small pile in her hands
and going back to the still confused creature and shoving them in its hands.
“Webster’s English dictionary, Einstein’s Papers on
Relativity, Flowers for Algernon and Ben’s sports catalogue!”
*
Struggling against the mass of rock and earth that formed a
hand wrapped around her, Susan descended deep into the earth where she was
brought forth before the drooling, smirking form of the Mole Man. With her many
senses, Susan felt like being sick in his presence, to her, he looked… Rotten.
Hunched, twisted, deformed, the Mole Man hobbled off his seat and with the aid
of a cane made his way towards the struggling woman with a crooked smile. His
eyes guarded by a slit visor that protected him from intense light and heat
making him look almost cyclopean with a mat of greasy black hair.
“Ah, my plan succeeded, I knew that if I made such an
entrance so close to your surface dwelling, I would get your attention.” Chuckling
to himself and making a slight dance on his way towards her, the Mole Man freed
her right hand so he could kiss it, the act making her feel vile and sneer back
in response.
“Once again Susan Storm I beseech you to join my hand in
marriage, abandon the Reed Richards for ME! Mole Man; the king of the
underworld.”
Pausing in her struggle to break free, Susan could only blink
in surprise. “Really? This again?”
Waving his hands out to showcase his realm, the hunched
dwarf turned and waved his hands over to a subterranean pocket that opened,
revealing geodes of precious gems and ores. “Look at the treasures my kingdom
can create, am I not more worthy than him? A beautiful woman deserves a
beautiful kingdom and I can offer you that.”
Susan practically ignored the Mole Man as he continued, showing
more and more crystalline treasures from his realm, instead all she could hear
was the whispering voice in her head, the venomous whispers that told her the
squat creature in front of her was toxically incompatible with her. ‘kill him,
unworthy, unworthy, he threatens the swarm, kill for the swarm, kill him…’ With
a hiss of effort, the earth and stone holding her tight, began to crack and yield.
Eventually the Mole Man was forced to stop when he heard the stone begin to
crack behind him. Curious he turned around and found a talon around his neck,
hoisting him up several feet up in the air by the very woman he had imprisoned.
Only now it no longer looked like Susan Storm! Her face
looked reptilian, sickly green and almost translucent. Gnarled horns curved out
from the sides of her head where her ears should have been. Her golden blonde
hair had become a slithering mass of coiling tentacles that snapped and
squirmed behind her and around her shoulders. Her slit yellow eyes stared
daggers into the small man as her lips curled back in a sneer that showed off
her rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“Wha… Where is Susan Storm, who are you?” Sputtered the man,
struggling against the talon holding him up but not finding the strength to
free himself, her grip was like steel. “What’s wrong? I thought I was the most
beautiful woman you ever laid eyes on?”
Shaking his head and squirming to get free, Susan tilted her
head with a dark smile, her eyes narrowing. “This is me Mole Man, if you loved
me as much as Reed does you’d love ALL of me, warts in all.”
“MONSTER! Let me go!” punching her hand to try and get free,
his strikes did nothing. Pinning him against a wall and gripping him with both
talons, the pudgy midget whimpered as her face never changed her predatory
sultry look. “Now, now, I think you might change your mind… After a kiss.”
“NOOOOOoooooo…”
*
Fighting for their lives, Johnny, Ben and Reed contended
with the molten elementals until something strange happened. All at once, the
elementals stopped in their tracks, the searing heat that gave them life instantly
went cold. Some went limp and fell over while others crumbled into rocks.
Looking around confused, they didn’t know what was going on until they noticed a
patch of earth on the ground bulk and break before the tell tale of Susan’s
invisible force field pushed out a way to the surface and Susan floated back up
to hover a few feet in the air and land, licking her lips and fingers clean of
something before waving them over.
“SUSAN!” Running up to his wife, Reed hugged her tightly
before letting her go. “I thought I lost you a second time, what happened?”
“Yeah, all the big rock monsters just went and died.”
“Yeah… All except THIS big lug.” Joked the Human Torch and
getting a dirty look back from the Thing for it.
Licking a few specs of blood off her lip, she smiled back at
her family and tilted her shoulder. “Oh, it was nothing, turns out the Mole Man
pulled all of this to get a kiss out of me.”
“Really?... Pff, hope it was worth it.” Smiled Reed, shaking
his head.
“Oh, don’t worry Reed, it was a killer.” Breathing in
sharply, it made her sick that she had let her worse self take control, or did
she? Every sense of her being told her to kill the Mole Man for being a threat
to her swarm, but she didn’t WANT her swarm any more, didn’t she? Returning to
the Fantasticar, the four made ready to leave before Reed hesitated and turned
to face his wife.
“By the way Susan, you had something important to tell me?”
“Well… I had some work done, that’s why I was away for so
long, what do you think?” Giving her husband a model worthy pose, she showed
off her now larger assets and younger complexion, blowing him a kiss and a
wink, something that made the man look away with a blush. “Well… You didn’t
have to Susan.”
“Oh, believe me Reed, you’re a better pick than the Mole
Man.”
Once everyone was in their seat, the Fantastic Four returned
to the Baxtor Building.