FANTASTIC MYSTERY, PART THREE
MIDGARD STANDARD YEAR 2200 / OCTOBER
FANTASTIC COLONIES - DEAD MAN'S TUNNEL
Captain America and John Francis Saint stood at the entrance of Dead Man's Tunnel, their faces set in stone. They looked ahead and saw little but darkness and shadow.
"One mile to the center of the Fantastic Colonies," Saint spoke aloud. "One mile to the final resting place of Reed Richards."
Captain America said nothing. In response he did the only thing that mattered at this point, he took a step. He felt Saint involuntarily flinch beside him, the realization coming to the Security Chief that they really were going to do this. In the past month, twenty separate bodies of Reed Richards, all matching his DNA exactly, had turned up dead all over the FC. This place of science was Reed's living legacy, the everlasting tribute to one of the best men Steve Rogers had ever known.
"I knew I'd end up here at some point," Saint groused, his voice low and cautious.
Dead Man's Tunnel was wide enough for three men to walk comfortably side by side, but Saint held back a few steps behind the Cosmic Protector. He told himself he did this because it was military procedure and not because his insides felt like churning grits. The Tunnel had no lights, no signs of life. Dust covered everything and cobwebs filled the corners, playing tricks with the mind - was that a large spider that crossed the edge of Cap's vision, or just a shadow of a spider? Or maybe, not a spider at all. Maybe it was just a trick of the light that softly washed off his Nega Bands.
His mind flinched after he said it … his Nega Bands … the first time he'd thought of them as his and not Mar-Vell's. 'Don't get too comfortable,' he groused a reminder to himself, 'with this Cosmic Protector role. Part time gig, remember? Can't wait to get back to the old no-powers, no-Cosmic Awareness Cap, right? Right?'
The wall panels were not in good shape. They lay hanging off their hinges at varying angles, sometimes blocking the path that Cap and Saint walked. Wires spilled madly from every crack in the walls.
Saint really wished America would just have brought a floodlight. The way the light from the Nega Bands caused even more shadows to move wildly across his vision … it just made this seem all the more like grave robbing than it already was.
Steve looked up above at where the light fixtures were located, but saw nothing but blackness. He raised his right arm upwards to shine the light from a Nega Band on the light fixtures outer shell. The light touched the clear glass and Steve felt a chill run down his spine as unknown creatures scampered away from the light.
"Well, I just shit myself," Saint deadpanned.
Cap turned his head back to the SC, smiling, "Never let it be said you don't have a sense of humor, Saint."
"Hey, who's cracking jokes?" Saint grinned back. Whatever his problems with Captain America, Cosmic Protector were, Saint had no problems at all with Captain America, Soldier. As wrong as he truly thought this was, with every step Saint took he saw the importance of the mission.
With every step he felt the soldier inside him returning, the adrenaline rush of risking your ass to do a job you'd rather not do but had to be done.
ASGARD - THE CLUBHOUSE
Angelica Osborn walked to the Orphans hang-out slowly, unsure of whether she wanted to go in or not. She knew she was avoiding her friends, hoping to outlast any confrontations long enough for the Franklin Richards experience not to be brought back up.
But she knew, deep down, that they'd have to discuss it at some point because from that moment on, they were all waiting for her to go insane. A voice came from inside, it was K'Zan's, "We just need to be there for her when - I mean, if - the Goblin Legacy ever strikes her. The current Green Goblin down on Midgard is her mother, and she's as nutty as one of Logan's pies. I wonder if she even tries to contact her?"
Angelica shivered at the words. Her mother, the root of her problems, a woman crazy enough to do anything to anyone. She hadn't voluntarily spoken to the woman in years, but her visage hung over Angelica like a storm cloud, always out there, waiting … waiting …
FANTASTIC COLONIES - DEAD MAN'S TUNNEL
They reached the sealed door, pausing momentarily, assessing the situation at hand. They were both military men so there was no second-guessing, just assessment. There was no time for could have’s and should have’s. The sealed door was the original side boarding hatch for the Fantastic Rocket and the tunnel they were in was built, originally, in space, serving as a walkway from the Rocket to another ship, the first to join with Reed Richards.
That’s how it went, at first. Space ships would pull into the area and either dock, or be joined with another ship through a developing series of tubes. Eventually, when finances became available, they built individual segments for the station. Reed had an expansion plan all mapped out, so the construction of the Fantastic Colonies would have a logical growth blueprint to keep everything from turning out misshapen and faulty.
The plans had changed, of course, from time to time over the decades, but it was always in the spirit of Reed’s original design. Not that Reed had personally devised the system – in fact, it was to Reed’s everlasting dismay that people referred to it as "Reed’s Design" when it was the engineers on Titan who had designed it for him, years earlier when he and Sue and Franklin had moved there.
Reed Richards. Both Saint and Captain America, standing here, couldn’t help but think of what Reed meant to them and everyone. Rogers was disappointed when Reed chose not to ally against Thanos, but there was no doubting the massive amount of good done, both by Reed and by the men and women who followed him. Saint had come to think of Reed as something of a, well, a saint.
And they stood now, at his tomb, ready to breach his secrets like an explorer entering one of the Great Pyramids.
ASGARD – FOREST OF EARTH
In her mind, there was no doubting what she had to do.
She had to get away. ‘But not to run away from my problems,’ Angelica Osborn thought to herself, clutching a cloak tighter around her body in the cool Asgardian night. ‘No, I don’t run from them, I go to confront them.’
Ahead of her, lay the Swamp. And inside the Swamp, the Man-Thing waited.
Angelica had no idea that the Man-Thing had been waiting for this moment since the day she was born.
FANTASTIC COLONIES - DEAD MAN'S TUNNEL
The shield was still the shield.
When He came back to give Captain America the Nega Bands of Mar-Vell, when He made him the Cosmic Protector and imbued him with more powers than he ever dreamt of having, nothing happened to the shield. He offered, but Steve Rogers said No.
He could fly across galaxies, could jump easily into the Surf to jump light years in seconds, but the shield that was at his arm that first day was still at his arm now, the only difference being a paint job. The red, white and blue design was gone, replaced with a simple navy blue background and a small white star in the middle. The change in the shield matched the navy blue and white design of the costume. Steve hadn’t wanted to change from his familiar appearance (truth be told, he thought very little about what he looked like), but it was designed for him by Janet Van Dyne and, well, he liked it. Simple as that.
"Do it," Saint acknowledged the situation. He was going inside the tomb of Reed Richards – no doubt about it.
The Cosmic Protector unslung his shield and stepped toward the ancient seals. "You know, of course, that Reed sealed himself in here before he died, right? That two AI robots were the only things in here with him and when Reed died, it was the robots, NEW HERBIE and WANDA-10 v3.4, that took care of the body, finished off his experiments and generally cleaned up the place."
"Yeah," Saint said, trying not to be agitated. "But I don’t need the history lesson, America. I’ve read all the files in our Library section."
Cap continued patiently, "There’s a few things we left out of the public record, I’m afraid."
Saint looked at the door, "This is a hell of a time to let me know."
Cap let the comment go without reply. "NEW HERBIE and WANDA-10 never left the Rocket."
"What?" Saint said, shocked. "But I saw the newsreel footage."
"Faked. What you saw was two duplicates," Cap remembered. "We didn’t realize it for several years, either, but it’s true. They built duplicates of themselves to leave, so they could stay."
"Why? Why stay trapped in a ship for eternity? They had to know they could never leave," Saint shook his head.
"A Rocket’s a big place, Saint. Not as big as a space station, to be sure, but big enough for two people to live out their days." Cap’s face dropped, "WANDA-10 was dying. She wasn’t totally mechanic and she developed a cancer in the parts of her that were organic. NEW HERBIE knew that the only person who could save her was Reed – that’s why they moved into the Rocket in the first place. After Reed died, they stayed – WANDA-10 was very sick at this point and NEW HERBIE didn’t want her moved. So they stayed and NEW HERBIE spent the remaining days of WANDA-10’s life working from Reed’s notes, trying to find a cure. He failed. WANDA-10 died within two Midgard years."
Saint swallowed, he had no idea. The records stated that NEW HERBIE and WANDA-10 lived out their days on a small planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. "And NEW HERBIE? Is he …" Saint motioned to the door.
"Still inside? No," Cap shook his head. "He tried to continue on without WANDA-10, but he couldn’t. Fifteen months after his wife fell to cancer, NEW HERBIE … NEW HERBIE took his own life. He waited until absolutely all of Reed’s ongoing projects were completed, but …"
"Are you sure?" Saint asked, the thoughts of the last month coming back to him.
"As sure as we can be," Cap replied, moving to the door. "He sent us a video-feed of the event. It could have been faked, of course, but things got hectic. The Eternal War started to really pick up and things got forgotten about, or placed on back burners."
The Cosmic Protector raised his shield and brought it down hard on the sealant that kept the hatch shut. It was time to go inside.
NECROPOLIS
Thanos sat alone, tired of listening to the generals that made up his army. He sent them away with a wave of his hand. All but one very special General, one that would ultimately lead his troops into glorious final battle. The rest served a limited purpose. "Generals," he scoffed, "you are all but bugs before me. No different than the cattle of Deviant clones that are created solely to die. Tell me, my delicious slave, do the deaths of the my sheep keep you busy enough?"
An armored blonde woman bowed low to Thanos, "Yes, my master. The Everything runs red with their blood, the Pens fill daily with their carcasses."
"That is good," Thanos spoke, his low, gravelly voice seemingly enough to end life on it's own. He looked at the blonde woman smugly, a walking trophy of the Eternal War. She was stunning, he supposed, to an ordinary mortal, but Thanos had neither love nor lust in his heart for anyone beyond the Mistress Death herself. That didn't mean, however, he didn't have needs that were required to be satiated from time to time. He looked from his female General to a lithe young woman chained to the wall in the corner. "Unchain her and bring her before me," he ordered.
"As you wish, my lord," the female General bowed low, walking over to the screaming, malnourished slave.
"Please, don't let him-!"
SLAP! The General slapped the slave's face roughly, drawing blood. She reached to her back and drew a legendary sword, then brought in down hard to shatter the chains that held her in place. The young woman whimpered, but did not scream as she was brought before Thanos.
"Take her," Thanos ordered, his eyes gleaming. "And make it slow."
The General nodded and proceeded to spend the next three hours slowly draining the life away from the slave girl with nothing but her sword. By the time she was finished, the young woman had more than one-thousand cuts over her body. Life left her long before she drew her final breath.
THE FANTASTIC ROCKET
Captain America wrenched the door to the Fantastic Rocket open, and was greeted not by darkness and stale air, but by light and a fresh breeze that reminded him of jasmine. Cautiously, Cap and Saint stepped into the legendary ship that served as the tomb of Reed Richards, ready for any surprise that came their way.
Well, Saint would later say, almost any surprise.
"Captain America, isn't this a surprise!"
They turned to their left to see Reed Richards, alive and in the flesh, just as Cap remembered him from the "good old days" back on Earth. "Reed?" he asked, unsure of the being before him. He knew this couldn't be Reed, but at the same time, it was. Just as much Reed as the twenty dead bodies that were currently decomposing in the morgue in another section of the Fantastic Colonies.
"Yes, yes, it's Reed, all right," the man smiled, rubbing his hands through his hair. "The real Reed, the original and all that."
"We saw you die," Saint shook his head, disbelieving and believing at the same time.
"Yes, well, footage can be faked, can't it, dear Captain?" he smiled to the Cosmic Protector who didn't respond.
"Tell us about the bodies, Reed," Cap said, wanting to find out what was going on here as quickly as possible.
"Yeah," Saint said, refocusing. "Tell us- what the hell?"
Captain America was standing slightly ahead of Saint and so had a perfect view as Cap swung quickly around and slung his shield down the corridor behind them. With a questioning look upon his face, he spun around to see what Cap had thrown at. "Oh my god," he whispered.
Behind them stood, ten, maybe twelve different versions of Reed Richards, all from different ages of life. The youngest looked to be six or seven, the oldest close to a century. Cap's shield struck the man in front in the chest. It didn't hurt him - having Reed's abilities, the man's body went elastic, bringing the shield in and then shooting it back hard. Before Saint could even blink, it was back in Captain America's hand.
"You will never leave," the first Reed spoke slowly. "You should never have come here. There are things here that are beyond your understanding."
"Try me," Captain America offered, wary of the dozen Richards that walked slowly towards them, boxing them in.
"In due time," the first Reed laughed. "Take them," he motioned to the others. Cap and Saint turned to meet their opponents, who charged at them hard. In these tight quarters, Cap saw that there was little they could do for right now. The dozen Reeds had come together, creating a wall of stretched faces. Arms extended towards them, grabbing them, swallowing them into a giant ball. When the dozen were done, a ball with a large blue four rested easily in front of the first Reed. "To the labs."
DARKNESS
Captain America never lost consciousness while he was trapped inside the Elasti-Bubble and was ready when he was deposited out of the encasement and onto the cold steel floor. He rolled as he fell, landing on his feet.
He turned around quickly to find four Reed Richards standing in a dark room looking at him. There was no sign of the Reed that had ordered their capture. From left to right stood Child Reed, Young Adult Reed, Middle-Aged Reed (the "classic" Reed that everyone most remembered) and Elderly Reed. Child Reed wore a tee-shirt with a blue "4" across the front, reminding Steve instantly of Franklin. Young Adult Reed wore a Fantastic Four costume that Steve had never seen before - solid black with a white 4, large and bold dead center on the chest. Middle-Aged Reed (who Steve decided to call Classic Reed) wore the traditional blue and white FF costume. Elderly Reed, his white hair and beard long and stringy, wore an armor that Steve associated with Nathaniel Richards.
The room they were in was pitch black, save for the spotlight that each of the Reeds and himself stood in. Steve couldn't see the walls.
"You don't look like Captain America to me," Child Reed spoke innocently. "How come your dressed diff'rent?"
"I must apologize for the young one," Classic Reed chuckled. "He only knows of you from the history books. We don't let him watch any of the vid-feeds."
"Where's Saint?" Cap asked, agitated.
"Safe," Elderly Reed answered, his voice gravelly.
"He's unimportant," the twenty-something Reed said harshly. "You’re the main concern. What are you doing here?"
Steve stood up straight, relaxing his defensive posture. "We're investigating the deaths of 20 separate Reed Richards entities that have surfaced throughout the Fantastic Colonies over the past 30 days."
"They're … non-essential," Elderly Reed waved his hand. "Defects."
"They're dying from cell degeneration," Captain America countered.
"Bad clones," Classic Reed shook his head. "Unfortunate, really, but it happens. We try to keep them here, but, well," Reed shrugged, "we're a little hard to catch, you know."
"Why are they dying and yet you live?"
"Carelessness, really," Elderly Reed answered, laughing, Cap thought, like Vincent Price trying to act normal. "We're so busy here that we leave the cloning procedures to the young ones." He nodded in the direction of Child Reed.
"I told you I wuz sorry!" Child Reed stomped his foot.
"Shut it, small fry," YA Reed snapped, before turning back to the Cosmic Protector. "Let's get down to the brass tacks, Eagle Scout. You're here. You shouldn't be. You're not going to leave."
"That doesn't leave me very many options, son," Cap answered.
"I'm not interested in your op-"
"That's enough, Reed," Classic Reed admonished gently. "You see, Captain, no one knows we're here. We can't very well let you out and tell everyone that we exist."
"I don't understand," Cap said honestly. "Why are you alive? What are you doing?"
"Solving the mysteries of the universe, naturally," Classic Reed answered. "Really, Steve, all those scientists out there … they can't compare with my intellect. I know that sounds harsh and egotistical, but we have long ago come to the understanding of how gifted I really am."
"But if you stay here, working on those problems, certainly you must have some contact with the rest of the ship."
"Oh, we do," Elderly Reed grinned. "We spy on them. We got cameras cased all through this joint. We watch 'em struggle on something then solve the problems here."
"Then," YA Reed grinned, "we upload the answers into the scientists' computers. There's so many scientists up there, from so many different races, no one knows everyone. They just pull up all the latest info on whatever it is they're trying to cure and BAM! We put just enough info there to lead them to the right conclusions."
Captain America was having a hard time accepting this, "But why hide?"
"Cloning is illegal on most worlds, isn’t it?" Classic Reed asked. "What good would it do to reveal ourselves only to be thought of as outcasts? Or worse, have someone come and try to arrest us? The Shoguns are still out there, aren’t they?"
"Yes," Cap answered, thinking of the intergalactic band of, for lack of a better term, policemen. "I must admit, though, this whole idea makes me … uncomfortable. I don't intend to stay here, either" he spoke seriously, looking directly at YA Reed, "and I know you can’t stop me."
"Wanna go, old man?" YA Reed asked, letting his flexible body bulge out with muscles.
"Reed, please," Classic Reed said earnestly, "there's no need to be so hostile. We'll put it to a vote. Reed?"
"He's not the cool Captain America," Child Reed said. "Let him go. Unca Reed?"
"He stays," Young Adult Reed answered harshly. "Reed?"
"Let him leave," Elder Reed said calmly, "but only if we get certain assurances that he won’t let everyone know what's going on here. Reed?"
"I certainly think we should let him go freely," Classic Reed smiled politely. "Steve Rogers in an honorable man. That settles it then, you can leave Captain."
Steve didn’t say anything. He didn’t like how this was going, how they were, at first, so adamant to hold him and now so willing to let him go. What would they have done if there was a tie vote? "Thank you," he said politely, stalling for time, "but I will need to insist that Saint comes with me."
"But of course," Classic Reed kept smiling, a smile that Steve was beginning to like less and less. "We'll take you to him. Come with us," Reed motioned to the far doorway that was suddenly lit up.
Cap fell in behind the four Reeds as they walked through a dark hallway. He had the feeling of movement to his left and right, but try as he might his eyes could not spy the walls. "Tell me something," Steve said gently, attempting to lay a trap for the four Reeds. "What made Reed Richards clone himself? He must have, right?"
"The loss of Sue, ultimately," Elder Reed answered. "He couldn’t go on without her. And he is truly dead, no worries about that."
"But Reed was opposed to cloning," Cap countered as matter-of-factly as he could manage. "In fact, it was his famous speech on Titan that led to the intergalactic ban on cloning what you scientists call 'intelligent life'."
He noticed Classic Reed and Elder Reed shoot a quick look between them. Whatever their answer, it would most likely be a lie. He took this moment to concentrate, trying to use the Cosmic Awareness that he was given in his role as Cosmic Protector. He'd always had trouble refining his ability with Cosmic Awareness, a fact that was due mostly to the terrible danger the Everything found itself in, but also to Cap's heightened concern for all beings in danger. It's hard to focus on the big threats when you value every life equally.
"We all have moments of weakness, Captain," Classic Reed answered as Cap continued to push mentally. He had noticed that Classic Reed, the Reed that Cap would most remember with fondness, was the one that always answered the awkward questions. He was being played, pure and simple, but for what and-
"Aaaargh!" Captain America screamed as he fell to his knees. Pure pain wracked his brain wholly and completely. He felt his body tense and his brain felt like it was going through convulsions. But then, through the pain, an image came to him … a large room, no, a large laboratory with scientists working -
And without warning, the image suddenly became crystal clear. Hundreds, if not thousands of Reed Richards as far as the eye could see, all slaving over work tables. There was a hundred Reeds for every age, every month of a lifetime. At the front, watching over all of them from a perch high above the laboratory was a sight that Steve thought he should have found comical, but now only caused him to shiver. Watching over them all was the two foot tall floating robot he knew as NEW HERBIE, but instead of kindness in the robot's eye there was only cold mechanical hatred.
The Cosmic Protector passed out.
LATER, DEAD MAN'S TUNNEL
"About time you woke up," John Francis Saint remarked as Captain America regained consciousness. "I had to promise the boys in there you wouldn't go telling anyone their little secret. Oh, they figure, you being you, you'll tell King Balder, but they can live with that. Just so long as it doesn't get out into the public."
Steve Rogers nodded and pulled himself to his feet. The truth was, he didn't know what he was going to do with the information he learned today. "Let's get out of here," he said, meaning every word of it.
NEXT ISSUE:
KINGS 2200
-- MBQ …17.June.2000
No comments:
Post a Comment