Fantastic Four: The redemption of the Silver Surfer [158-011-2.0]

By: Michael Jan Friedman

Synopsis:

THE NEW NOVEL STARRING MARVEL'S MOST ENDURING HEROES!

From the best-selling Michael Jan Friedman comes a new novel starring
Marvel's flagship heroes and the sky rider of the space ways

REDEMPTION OF

hree members of the Fantastic Four--Mr.  Fantastic, the Human Torch,
and the Thing--have been lured into the deadly Negative Zone by the
evil Blastaar.  The Invisible Woman must enlist the aid of the Silver
Surfer to help her find and rescue her teammates--but it isn't Blastaar
they need to be rescued from!

Blastaar has brought the Fantastic Four to his home to ask for their
help against a threat to the Negative Zone: Prodigion, a destroyer of
worlds akin to Galactus, the planet devourer to whom the Silver Surfer
was once Herald.

Seeing a chance to atone for his past actions in Galactus's service,
the Surfer joins the Fantastic Four in their attempt to stop
Prodigion--but is Prodigion really a Negative Zone version of Galactus,
or is the truth far more deadly than even the world's greatest heroes
can imagine?

An all-new cosmic adventure from the Hew York Times best-selling author
of Reunion, Crossover, and Kahlessi

A Boulevard/ Putnam Book

Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons

Publishers Since 1858

a member of

Penguin Putnam Inc.

200 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc.

24 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10010

Special thanks to Ginjer Buchanan, Lucia Raatma, Michelle La Marca

Steve Roman, Seth Savarick, Mike Thomas, Steve Behling, and Stacy
Gittelman

Copyright 1997 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Edited by Keith R. A. DeCandido

Cover design by Claude Goodwin

Interior design by Michael Mendelsohn of MM Design 2000, Inc.

All rights reserved.  This book, or parts thereof,

may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Requests for such permissions should be addressed to:

Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc.

24 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Friedman, Michael Jan.

Fantastic Four : redemption of the Silver Surfer / Michael Jan
Friedman.

poem.

ISBN 0-399-14269-X ,

1. Fantastic four (Comic strip)--Adaptations.  I. Title.

PS3556.R529F36 1997

813'.54dc21

9%10851 CIP

Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

For my mom and dad,

who actually thought reading comics was a good thing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Where do I start?  Who do I thank first?

How about the talented people who first created sequential art (comic
strips and books to the uninitiated).., and then came up with the wacky
idea of people with super-powers?  Yeah, that'd be as good a place as
any.

Thanks, guys, for opening my eyesmboth directly and through your worthy
disciples---to the possibilities.  Because, at its best, that's what
comics are ma literature of possibilities.

Thanks, also, to a guy named Stan Lee, who took the concept of super
heroism a dramatic step further by giving his characters real-life
problems and personalities.  And to Jack Kirby, whose art was so
powerful, so textured and immediate, you felt as if you could reach out
and touch it.  After all, it was Stan and Jack who created the
Fantastic Four.  Without them and their creations, this book would
never have gotten a chance to exist.  So, yeah, a really big thank-you
to those guys.

On a more human scale, I'd like to express my gratitude to my wife and
kids, who endured yet another Deadline with Dad.  We're thinking of
making it into a sitcom where the father figure doesn't say anything
for weeks on end; he just pounds on his keyboard and growls.

Also, thanks a bunch to editor Keith R. A. DeCandido (Keith R.A. to his
friends), who cajoled and convinced me to do the book in the first
place.  He said the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

danged thing would be fun, and whaddaya know?  It

W(S.

Then there are the guys at Marvel Creative Services, who rode shotgun
with nary a whimper as we rumbled hell-bent for leather through the
Negative Zone, holding on to the reins of Marvel continuity as tightly
as we possibly could.

And George Perez, artist extraordinaire, who lent vi brant life to each
character he touched, demonstrating at every turn that he somehow knew
my story better than I did.  I tell ya, George, it gave me the
shivers.

Finally, a tip of the hat to Ron Marz, everybody's favorite cosmic
comic writer, who got me involved with the Silver Surfer to begin with.
For those of you who've been wondering, yeah, Ron does soar through the
cosmos on a surfboard--except on Wednesdays.  That night, he plays
volleyball.

Adios, amigos.  Enjoy.

m he Silver Surfer had seen the proud, red star from a

long way off.  He drank in its beauty for an entire millisecond.  Then
he pierced its ardent heart like a silver arrow and emerged on the
other side, leaving a glowing trail of heavy elements in his wake.

Once, when he was new at this, he would have made his passage through
the star more slowly.  He would have taken the time to explore the
miracle of fusion and bask in its primal light.

Back then, he had taken the time to explore many things.  Despite all
his newfound power, the yawning chasm of a black hole or the blinding
grandeur of a supernova had routinely taken his breath away
(metaphorically speaking).

It still had that effect on rare occasions, the Surfer noted inwardly.
But not as often as it used to--and certainly, not as often as he would
have liked.

He found himself hungering for more and more these days, seeking out
the next celestial curiosity and then the one after that with
increasing yearning.  But no one thing seemed to satisfy his capacity
for wonder anymore--only to whet his appetite for something bigger and
more sublime.

An observer might have likened the Surfer to a hunter and the objects
and events of the void to his prey.  That's how eager he was to know
every spectacle the universe had to offer.

But a truly astute observer would have noticed he was not only
pursuing--he was also being pursued.  And if the things dogging his
trail were not of the visible variety if they were more memory than
substance, that didn't make the pursuit any less real.

The Surfer hastened to leave the red giant behind.  In that haste, he
almost failed to notice the tiny object falling through space between
the fifth and sixth planets in the system.  A vessel, he thought.

Certainly, there was much to be said for the births and deaths of suns,
the frigid majesty of a comet as it sundered the blackness of space, or
the staggering vastness of a far-flung nebula.  But in all existence,
there was nothing quite so curious and compelling as the collection of
biological processes called life.

And where there was a vessel, there would be sentient life.  Or at the
very least, some of its more intriguing artifacts.

Effortlessly, the Surfer willed his silver surfboard into a tight
U-turnmthe centrifugal force of which would have torn apart the
strongest starship imagin able.  As he approached the vessel, he
slowed.

Of course, there was no friction in space, no sense of deceleration.
Only a perception that the shiny blurred streaks around him were
shortening, becoming the pinpricks of distant suns..

And then there he was, right in front of the vessel, hovering
motionless on his board.  His eyes---flawless silver orbs without a
sign of iris or pupil--narrowed thoughtfully as he considered it.

On one side, a portion of the hull had been blackened and caved inmthe
only sign of external damage.

But inside, there was damage as well.  And because of it, the ship's
power source was slowly dying, taking with it all the vehicle's major
systems.

One of the survivors was the vessel's weapons array.  But it was modest
enough that if it suddenly unleashed its fury on the Surfer, he would
be able to handle it.

Of more concern to him was the mystery of how this ship had been
damaged.  He folded his arms across his silver chest as he pondered the
question.

Had it been the victim of another vessel, another band of sentients who
had seen fit to use their weapons on it?  Or had it been victimized by
one of the universe's unseen forces--forces about which he himself had
learned much to his detriment and chagrin?

There was no way of knowing without penetrating the thing, without
going inside it to learn more.  His curiosity getting the better of
him, the Surfer left his board behind.  Melting through the ship's hull
like a ghost, he used his mastery over molecular structure to emerge
whole on the other side.

The Surfer had expected to find himself in some corridor, or perhaps in
a storage area.  It was his experience that storage areas and corridors
took up most of the volume of space going craft.

However, his search was rewarded immediately.  He had inadvertently
placed himself in what appeared to be the vessel's control cent erma
squat, cylindrical chamber with a transparent deck and an equally
transparent ceiling, each of them giving him a view of the ship's inner
workings.

Nor was he alone.  There were two beings within, basically humanoid,
ensconced side by side in elaborate, mechanical chairs that seemed to
grow organically from the equipment surrounding them.  Except for
subtle differences in their stature, the two beings seemed identical to
each other.

They were tall and pale and hairless, with blotches of purple around
their tiny, black eyes and clusters of tiny, fleshy bulbs protruding
from beneath long, sharp jawbones.  Their digits, three to a hand, were
slender, purple-veined tendrils.

Two sets of these tendrils intertwined on a studded console located
between the humanoids.  The Surfer couldn't help but think this was a
gesture of mutual affection, a sign that these two enjoyed each other's
company.

Or had, until their recent deaths.

For, upright and composed as they might be, these beings had breathed
their last almost two days ago, as Zenn-Lavians counted time.  That
wasn't merely a guess on the Surfer's part; it was a scientific
conclusion based on the lack of viable atmosphere left in the chamber
and the degree of decay in the beings' cells.

More curious than ever, he tried to activate the vessel's computer
systemmto gain some insight into the disaster that had befallen its
occupants.  However, the system was damaged beyond the Surfer's ability
to repair itmnot merely lacking a viable power source, but fused in
places and still sparking in others.

Again, he turned to regard the corpses in their mechanical thrones. 
Did they know they were dying?  he wondered  The Suffer shook his head,
wishing he could discern the answer.  Unfortunately, even a being as
powerful as he had no way of determining that.  He couldn't read the
minds of the living, much less the dead.

Still, he could imagine, and he chose to imagine that they had known.
That they had anticipated their fate, if only by a few seconds--and in
those few seconds they had reached for each other's hands, seeking
comfort and support in the idea that neither of them was alone.

Perhaps, if they were lucky, that single gesture had provided a sense
of closure.  A hint that their lives had been worth something, if only
because they had shared them, each with the other.

The idea haunted him.  To share a life... He had done that, once upon a
time.  He had been a mere humanoid, confined like others of his kind to
a single world but his mind, at least, had soared, and it had not
soared alone.

Shana Bal.  Even now, her name brought an ineffable stirring from
within him, a fire that could never be quenched by time or distance.
She returned to him in snatches of memory--each one precious in its own
way, each one laden with meaning for him.

He recalled the glow of what seemed like perpetual amusement in her
eyes.  The softness of her skin as she slept, his finger working out a
scientific formula on her shoulder.  The heavy, fragrant fullness of
her hair as it brushed his face, distracting him from his work.

The Suffer remembered those things and more.  He remembered one
perfect morning, and how still it was as they walked in the park and
spoke of their future together.

He remembered how much he had loved Shana Bal--with all his heart and
all his soul.  And how she had loved him in return.

Not him.  Not the Silver Surfer.

It was Norrin Radd she had loved.  Norrin Radd, fiery intellectual, one
of Zenn-La's foremost scholars despite his youth.  Norrin Radd, who had
never been able to accept the apathy and sloth that characterized his
fellow ZennLavians.

For a while, it had seemed to him it was his destiny to restore
Zenn-La's greatness.  He had dreamed of the stars, of soaring among
them like his star-spanning ancestors.  But it had only been a dream.

Then Galactus came and changed everything.  His gargantuan vessel had
appeared in the heavens above Zenn-La one day, effortlessly piercing
the defense network established ages earlier.  The citizens' alarm had
called for the populace to prepare for invasion.

But how might they have prepared, when Zenn-La had no space fleet--no
weapons?  And even if they had such things, who among them romembered
how to fight?  No one, not a single soul.  Zenn-La had not encountered
a threat from space in ages.

Norrin Radd had not known how to fight, either.  But he had resolved to
try to learn.  He retrieved a space going ship from a museum and flew
straight to the heart of the mighty vessel in the sky.  Before he knew
it, he was drawn inside.

It was then that he met Galactus, a being mightier and more majestic
than any he had ever imagined.  Galactus, who asked nothing more from
Zenn-La than everything she had to give.  Galactus, the planet
destroyer

Legend had it that he drained planets of their energies to obtain the
nourishment he needed to survive.  And as Norrin Radd stood before him,
Galactus confirmed that the legends were true.

There was no way out for Zenn-La.  No possibility of escape. 
Certainly, Galactus would have taken an unpopulated planet before a
populated one. But he had no time to seek out a world that was both
brimming with energy and devoid of sentient life.

If he had a Herald, he said, many was the world he might have spared.
Many were the unique species he may have bypassed.  But alas, Galactus
said, he had no such Herald... At the time, Norrin Radd had been too
frightened, too devastated by the impending death of his race to
understand what Galactus was doingmto realize how the great annihilator
was manipulating him.  But even if he had understood, it wouldn't have
changed anything.  He would still have struck the same mind-boggling
bargain.

One life in exchange for millions.  The future of one man in exchange
for a world's.  There had never been a choice--not really.

Had he elected to remain Norrin Radd, his world

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

would have been forfeit, and all those who populated it.  And he and
Shana Bal would have died along with all the others.

This way, at least, Shana lived.  Zenn-La, its people, and its
civilization lived.  Only Norrin Radd perished that day, yielding to a
transformation no being before him had ever known.

He remembered the crackle of energy that at first seemed to surround
him and then became a part of him.  He recalled the heat that seemed to
sear the flesh from his bones.."  the cold fire within that severed
molecule from molecule and atom from atom.."  the flash and focus of
titanic forces beyond his meager under standing.

And then it was done.

Where once there had been a creature of flesh and blood, there stood a
being impervious to heat and cold, capable of withstanding the terrible
extremes of airless space.  Where once there had been a man, there was
something new.  Something more and, sadly, something less.

And the horror and glory of it were that this construct this personage
of almost limitless power, was him was Norrin Radd.

To obtain his Herald, Galactus.kad agreed to spare Zenn-La.  But his
hunger was great, and there was no time to waste.  Norrin Radd--or
rather, what he had be come could perform only one last duty before he
took to the heavens.  That was Galactus's concession to him.  He could
say good-bye to Shana Bal.

He sailed down from orbit on the gleaming silver board that henceforth
would carry him across the sky ways.  The board took him to her balcony
in less time than it took to think about it.  At first, she didn't even
realize he was there.  Then softly, ever so softly, he called her
namemand she turned at the sound of it.

On seeing him, her eyes went wide with terrorD and perhaps with
loathing as well, he thought.  But when she realized it was her lover
she was looking at under that silver veneer, her gaze softened.

He told her what had happened.  He described the deal he had made with
Galactus.  She accepted all that.

But when he said he had to leave her to keep his bar gain, Shana saw
enough ofNorrin Radd in him to shake her head.  To want him to stay.

Shana wanted to go with him.  She wanted to share his fate, good or
bad.  What was left of Norrin Radd ached for her in that moment, ached
for what might have been.

But he knew, in truth, he was already gone.  Quashing her hope quickly,
for it was more merciful that way, he rose into the blood-red sunset
sky and put Shana Bal behind him.

Or so he had believed.  But for a long time to come, she was never far
from his thoughts.  No matter what marvels he witnessed as Galactus's
scout, no matter what strange places he visited, Shana Bal's face was
always be fore him, a reminder of what he had sacrificed.

Still, with the passing of time, the pain of his loss be came easier to
bear.  His loneliness lost its edge.  And he became the Silver Surfer
Galactus had intended, re moved from trivialities like love and
companionship.

At least, they had come to seem like trivialities.  When one had raced
light waves and bathed in the awful majesty of the infinite, it was
easy to forget the value of simple emotions.

But fortunately, the Surfer had been reminded of it.  And now, as he
gazed at the two humanoids in the control center of the crippled
vessel, he was reminded of it again.

Surely, he thought, it was sad they had perished.  But it would have
been sadder still if they had not forged a bond that had outlived
themmor if he had not been here to marvel at it.

Abruptly, the Surfer became aware of something else on the
vesselmanother life-form, but not a sentient one.  It wasn't in this
chamber, but somewhere aft of it.  Leaving the two corpses in peace, he
moved to the back of the control center and found a door.  It slid
aside at his approach, revealing a sparsely lit corridor beyond.

He followed the corridor, seeking out the life-form he had sensed.  And
then, as if it had sensed his presence as well, he heard it emit a
high-pitched whine.  A complaint, he thought, of loneliness.

Coming to the door from which the whine had is sued, he waited a moment
for it to open.  It didn't.  Either it was malfunctioning or it had
been locked.  No matter, the Surfer thought, and walked through it,

After all, the door was only another configuration of molecules to him.
And the Power Cosmic, ceded to him by great Galactus, gave him mastery
over all forms of matter.

On the other side of the door, he found what he was looking forma
rust-colored mass of tentacles and tendrils and cilia that was nearly
as big as he.  Its head was an agglomeration of protuberances, its only
recognizable feature a pair of small yellow eyes.

As it caught sight of him, the creature whimpered.  Clearly, it was
somewhat the worse for wear: hungry, afraid, and it may have been
affected by whatever had damaged the vessel.  Nonetheless, there was
still atmosphere in this compartment, so it still lived.

Kneeling before it, the Surfer saw the mistrust in its eyes--the fear.
Never in its life could it have seen any thing like him.  But of
course, he intended it no harm.  Quite the opposite.

He reached out to make physical contact with the creature.  It started
to growl in whatever it had that passed for a throat, but the
gentleness of his touch stilled its anxiety.  Then, seeking out the
nature of its in juries and deficiencies, he applied his healing
power.

It was another of Galactus's gifts--the power to mend living things.
The ability to see what was wrong with them and fix it.

In seconds, he could see the difference.  The animal's ruddy flesh
began to shine with new luster.  Its eyes grew brighter, more alert.
And several of its tendrils curled with contentment.

Perhaps it sensed his desire to help it.  Perhaps it was an attempt to
bridge its loneliness man emotion the Surfer understood only too well.
In any case, the creature opened its maw and flicked a forked tongue at
him, making contact with his dry and poreless skin.  And it did so over
and over again as he watched.

With the computer files destroyed, he had no idea where its home
planet might be.  And if he left it here, the creature was clearly
doomed to a slow, torturous death.  He couldn't allow that.

As Galactus's Herald, the Surfer had aided in the doom of too many
worlds to count.  At the time, his conscience had been dulled by his
master, who believed he was doing the former Norrin Radd a favor.  But
it had still been the Surfer's fault these worlds were drained of their
life energy, and he would carry that guilt for ever.

Only one good had come of the experience--the Surfer's heartfelt belief
that life was precious.  All of it, in its every guise and variation.
There was no way he could make up for all the death and destruction he
had caused.  There was no possibility of atonement.  But he had sworn
never to pass up an opportunity to try.

Taking the creature up in his arms, he created an aura about itmone
that would keep it warm in the cold of space and supply it with air in
the midst of airlessness.  After all, it would be journeying with him
where few living things had ventured before.

There was only one thing left to determine--where to take the creature.
Somewhere close, he decided, to maximize its chances of survival.
S.gmewhere he could be sure there were those who would care for it.

It didn't take him long to figure out where such a place might be.
Without another thought, the Surfer melted his way out through the hull
and into the void, where his surfboard was waiting obediently for
him.

Then he stepped aboard it and headed for Earth.

*] ohnny Storm was bored.  Mega-bored.  Mondo-bored.

He closed his tired eyes and settled a little deeper into his chair in
the Negative Zone watch station.  Then, opening them again, he glared
at the oversized video monitor across the room.

Using the armrest controls designed by his egghead brother-in-law, he
began switching from one view of the starry void to another.  And
another.  And another, just as he'd done for the last half hour or
so.

Unfortunately, the Zone didn't have either of the items that intrigued
Johnny most in the world.

One of those items was cars---jalopies, Lamborghinis, and everything in
between.  As long as it had four wheels, a windshield, and a souped-up
engine, he was in heaven.

The other item was women--though there, he was a little more
particular.  No--make that a lot more particular.

Ironically, if Johnny had been like any normal young man on this sultry
late-spring afternoon, he might have been milling around at the
just-opened New York Auto

Show, admiring the sight of curve after beautiful curve.  Both kinds.

After all, every ravishing new model at the Auto Show had.."  well, a
ravishing new model to point out its unique design features.  In fact,
as a teenager, he'd always found it tough to decide what to study
first--the car or the tantalizing beauty standing beside it.

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

But of course, Johnny wasn't like other young men.  Not since he'd
taken part in an ill-fated and unauthorized mission to the stars, which
had endowed him and his three companions with strange and even
monstrous powers.

In his case, the powers of a human torch.  The ability to burst into
flame at the drop of a battle cry, toss missiles of fire at
unsuspecting bad guys, and capitalize on the principles of
thermodynamics to soar through the sky like a bird.

Shortly after their transformation, he and his companions had dubbed
themselves the Fantastic Four, never imagining they'd become de facto
protectors of the Earth within a few short months.

Back then, that kind of title had sounded pretty good to Johnny.
Protectors of the Earth.  And what was that other name the TV news
jocks hung on them?  Oh, yeah.  The world's greatest super team

Pretty weird.  But pretty cool, too.

Still, as someone once said, with great power came great
responsibility.  No, he thought--make that responsibilities plural. 
And one of the worst responsibilities Johnny had was taking his turn
here at the watch station, making sure none of the Zone's myriad
threats reared its head near his brother-in-Jaw's remote sensor
network.

Not that he expected there to be any trouble.  The Zone had been quiet
lately.  And even if it hadn't been, there were scores of automatic
backup systems that made it redundant for him to be here.

Except Reed, the brother-in-law in question, always reminded them that
mechanical devices could misfire.  And if they did, and someone like
Annihilus decided to come waltzing by, where would they be then?

Johnny ran his fingers through his thick, blond hair and sighed.  On
Four Freedoms Plaza, outside the FF's headquarters, there had to be
dozens of beautiful women who'd have given their eyeteeth for a lunch
date with a super hero.  And here he was, wasting all that goodwill in
some Suddenly he checked himself.  Something was wrong here.  As a
trickle of ice water made its way down Johnny's spine, he leaned
forward and adjusted his brother-in-law's controls.

The image on the video monitor changed and magnified, giving him a
closer look at the last view of the Zone that had flitted by--one that
displayed a section of the debris orbiting Negative Earth.

It was a scene straight out of hell.  Maybe ahundred chunks of rock,
different sizes and different shapesm and each one had a living being
bound to it, chained to spikes driven deep into its surface.

The prisoners were of a half dozen different races.  Some were slender
and dark as pitch, some pale and squat with blue markings like tattoos,
some green and angular with beaklike faces and feathery crests the
color of straw.  And there were Baluurians as well--the only ones
Johnny could identify.

Each prisoner struggled with his bondsmto no avail.  Each one cried out
against his fate, eyes wide with pain and fear.

They weren't human, these people, but they were humanoidmclose enough
for Johnny's heart to go out to them.  Sure, they could breathe,
because space was different in the Zone.  But they were still in deadly
danger

After all, there was something about Negative Earthma barren sphere
roughly the size of Johnny's home planet--that made the debris above it
explode when it came near enough.  And the occupied chunks of rock were
coming nearer with each passing moment.

Johnny didn't know why these people were being subjected to this.  He
had never seen them before in his life.  But as he made another
adjustment in the sensor view, he could see that more of them were
being chained to the rocks all the time.  And if he didn't recognize
the victims, he recognized the ones doing the chaining all too well.

They worked for Blastaara Baluurian himself, a sadist and a dangerous
character if ever there was one.  Blastaar had a hunger for conquest,
which he always managed to satisfy in the bloodiest ways possible.  His
subjects once got so sick of his tyranny, they rebelled and imprisoned
him in an adhesion suit, then set him adrift in the void.

He'd lived to tell about it, though much to the chagrin of every living
thing in.  the Negative Zone.  Using his ability to generate powerful
neutron blasts, he'd freed himself from his suit.

And then, in one of those cosmic coincidences that seemed to follow the
Fantastic Four everywhere, Blasmar had caught sight of Reedwho was in
the Zone at the time as well.  Following the human back to the portal
linking Earth with the Zone, he'd caught a glimpse of a new universe to
conquer.

Since that time, Blastaar had tried over and over again to seize the
Fantastic Four's homeworldmthough, in between, he'd found time to
conquer half the worlds in his own dimension.  A busy boy, that
Blastaar.

But what was this all about--this slow torture, right under the noses
of Reed's remote sensor network?  Johnny shook his head, confused.
Frowning, he punched the squarish button that would send a call for
help through Fantastic Four headquarters.  Maybe he couldn't figure
this out, but he was reasonably certain i- his brother-in-law could.

That was the value of having a Grade A certified genius on the
premises.

Ben Grimm reached down and took hold of the smooth titanium bar.

It fit perfectly in his four-fingered hands--no surprise, since it had
been custom-made for him.  On either side of the bar sat a round
five-ton weight, also composed of titanium.

Under normal circumstances, it would've taken some serious machinery to
lift a load that heavy.  Certainly no living thing on God's green earth
had been designed to do that kind of work.

No living thing but him.

And as for the design part.."  that was a subject for scientists and
philosophers, not Ben Grimm.  He hadn't asked for his lot in life, not
by a long shot.  But he wasn't going to waste his time trying to figure
out how and why things had happened this way.

They just had, he told himself a hundred times a day.  All he could do
was deal with it and move on.

Bending his knees, Ben set his jaw, took a couple of quick breaths, and
jerked the ten-ton weight off the floor.  The strain on his back and
shoulders was incredible, but he fought his way through it.

Then, just as the bar came up around his chest, he inched fol-ward and
made his way underneath itmthe way he might have approached a limbo
stick as a teenager.  Except he wasn't a teenager anymore, and a limbo
stick wasn't heavier than a fleet of Volkswagens.

As gravity resumed its claim on the twin weights, the bar bowed
slightly, pressing down on him with crushing force.  But Ben stubbornly
held his ground, resting the length of titanium in the craggy niche
between his biceps and his massive shoulders.

Another couple of breaths, even more urgent than the first.  If he was
going to do this, he had to be quick about it.  He had to finish before
his muscles realized what he was asking of them.

Giving it everything he had left, Ben tried to lift the bar.  For a
moment, it didn't even budge.  Then, by sheer force of will, he forced
it up off' is shoulders with a groan.

And pushed it higher, and higher still, his arms and legs trembling
mightily with the effort.  Pain shot through every muscle in his body.
But little by little, he shoved the bar up over his head until he could
lock his elbows into place and hold it there.

It didn't have to be for long, either.  Ben counted silently to three,
the limit of his endurance.  Then he heaved the weights off him and
watched them crash to the floor, where they bounced a couple of times
with a sound like thunder before finally coming to rest.

Fortunately, Reed had thought to reinforce their headquarters, or a
weight like that could have gone through the offices beneath them like
a bullet through wet tissue paper.  But then, there wasn't a lot that
got by Ben's old friend and college roommate.

For instance, the lack of mirrors here in the gym, and pretty much
throughout their four-story head quarters.  Mirrors only served to
remind Ben of what he'd become.  Over the years, he'd come to hate
them.  And not just mirrors.  Crowds too.

He recalled that first time he'd gone out in public, shortly after his
transformation.  He'd tried walking around in a vastly oversized trench
coat with specially made shoes and pants and a hat pulled down low over
his face.  But his size had still made him an object of curiosity.

Then the people around him had taken a closer look.  Their eyes had
narrowed.  And in a fit of rage and frustration, he'd ripped off his
coat to show them what he really looked like.

He could still feel the stares of fright and revulsion.  Still see the
pointing fingers and hear the mutters of disbelief.

FRNTASTIC FOUR

Sure, it had gotten better over time.  A lot of people had gotten used
to him.  Especially here in New York, where they appreciated all he'd
done for them since the Fantastic Four moved into town--and where
strange looking people had become a dime a dozen.

But there were still the tourists, eager for a peek at a super
hero--even one who looked like a walking pile of orange bricks, with
four stubby fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot.  His only
surviving human features were his baby blue eyes, and even those looked
grotesque peering out from under a jutting ridge of a brow.

Under the circumstances, he couldn't even blame them for staring at
him.  If the tables were reversed, he would've stared too.  Long and
hard.  Hell, he wasn't just a monster.  He wasn't just a freak.

He was the only one of his kind.

That's why he liked to stay off the streets.  He preferred to hang out
here, in the solitude and sanctuary of Fantastic Four headquarters.
Where he could forget, at least for a few minutes at a time, the great
big joke fate had played on him.  Where Suddenly a familiar voice
intruded on his reverie, only slightly fuzzed by the intercom
technology that carried it.  'ohnny to Reed and Ben.  I need you guys
up here at the watch station."  "

Ben frowned.  The pipsqueak wasn't one to panic at the drop of a hat.
In fact, he was a lot tougher than he looked.

So if he was calling for help, this was something serious  Having
already dropped what he was doing, Ben

REOEt'IPTION OF THE SII.VER SURFER

Grimm--also known as the Thing--made his way across

Truth be told, he was glad there was something that needed his
attention.  The idea of facing some super powered nutcase wasn't half
as scary as being alone with his private miseries.

Most of the time, Reed Richards used the elevators and stairways to get
around Fantastic Four headquarters, the same as Sue, Ben, or Johnny.
But when he was in a hurry, he resorted to an elaborate network of
inch-wide tubes that ran from one end of the facility to the other.

At that particular moment, the man called Mr.  Fantastic was in a
hurry, all right.  A big one, he thought, as he slithered along through
the narrow confines of his tube.

Bad enough Johnny's summons concerned the Negative Zone, which was
always one of Reed's major security concerns.  On top of that, he had
been working on a hypersensitive subatomic test when the call came in.
It had taken him a couple of minutes to shut down the experiment before
he could even think about leaving his lab.

Unfortunately, the network of tubes didn't go every where.  With
security such a concern at the Negative Zone watch station, they
brought Reed only halfway down the requisite corridor.  As he emerged
from a hole in the wall, craning his head on his elastic neck, he
caught sight of a big, orange form lumbering in the same direction.

Again, because he was in a hurry, he didn't stop to

FFINTRSTIC FOUR

say hello to Ben.  He just surged by him, his body elongated to the
length of a good-sized garden hose and hardly any stouter.

"Vouldja cut that out already?"  Ben rumbled at him from behind.  "iF i
wanted ta see rubber bands flyin' past me, I'd go back ta Mrs.
Durante's seventh-grade Algebra!"

Reed recognized the Thing's annoyance for what it was--an almost
childlike playfulness that belied his monstrous appearance.  He'd known
Ben long enough to tell the difference between anger and just sounding
off.

The door to the watch station slid aside at his approach, revealing
Johnny at the main control console.  One glance at the massive video
screen told Reed why his brother-in-law had called.

Wincing in sympathy for the victims, he was reminded of a place called
Execution Rock off Long Island.  Hundreds of years ago, men had been
chained there at low tide and left to drown by degrees.

This was no better.

"W-hat do we know about this?"  Reed asked.  Johnny shrugged. "Nothing,
really.  Just what you see on the screenua bunch of Negative Zone-types
about to be blasted to bits.  And those thugs chaining them to the
rocksm"

"Are Blastaar's minions," Reed finished for him.  "I noticed."

"Did someone say Blastaar?"  Ben growled.  A moment later, he swung his
bulk into the room.  His massive body barely fit through the doorway,
even though it was twice the size of a normal door frame.

"I'm afraid so," Reed confirmed.

The Thing glanced at the video monitor.  "VVotta creep," he rasped,
making no effort to conceal his contempt.  "Torturin' innocent people
like that.  Somebody oughtta tie him ta one a' those rocks."

Johnny glanced at Ben, a question in his eyes.  "But don't you think
it's funny he'd do it right in front of us?  I mean, Blastaar knows we
keep an eye on that area.  It's almost as if-"

"--he were setting a trap," Reed concluded.

He could feel every thud as Blastaar's soldiers drove their spikes into
the rocks.  He could feel the tautness of the victims' throats as they
gazed wide-eyed at the prospect of death.

"Make no mistake," he said.  "The danger to these people is real.  But
if all Blastaar wanted to do was execute them, he could certainly have
found a more expeditious way to accomplish that."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ben stroke his craggy, orange
chin.  "In other words, he's layin' out a big, neighborly welcome mat
for us, hopin' we'll make like the Red Cross."

Reed nodded.  "That's exactly right.  What's more, we're going to
accept his invitation.  No matter what this is about, no matter what
we're walking into, we can't stand here and watch the deaths of
innocent people."

Ben made a sound of resignation deep in his throat. 'know, I had a
feeling you were gonna say that.  I guess I've been watchin' that
Psychic Pals show too long."

On his other flank, Johnny nodded.  "I'm with you, Reed.  Let's crash
Blastaar's party."

Reed didn't answer.  He just crossed the room to the supply closet,
touched a stud on the gray, heavy-duty metal panel, and watched it
slide aside.  Then he reached inside and took out one of the antimatter
harnesses he'd invented.

The harness would allow him to propel himself through the Zonema
necessary capability if he was to avoid becoming a victim of the
exploding rocks himself.  He'd come close to that possibility once
before, and he didn't want to repeat the performance.

"I'll take one of those," said Ben, his voice more gravelly than usual.
It always got that way when he was buckling down for a life-or-death
struggle, which was al most certainly what Blastaar had in mind for
them.

"Me, too," Johnny chimed in.  "Can't let two of my favorite teammates
put their bacon on the line all alone."

The teenager needed a harness just as much as his teammates did. 
Though the Zone had an atmosphere all its own, it didn't extend to the
area near Negative Earth.

'hat about Suzie?"  asked Ben.  "She's gonna be awful sore when she
comes back and sees we bolted on her."

"Maybe so," said Reed.  He thought for a moment.  "But there's no time
to wait for her.  The best we can do is leave a message behind, so
she'll be prepared in case we don't--"

"Don't say it," Ben admonished him.  "Don't even thnk it.

Reed had to smile a little at Ben's unswerving optimism.  "All right,
old friend.  Whatever you say."

Activating a mechanism in the control console, he recorded a message
for his wife while Ben and Johnny donned their harnesses.  It was brief
and to the point like all his messages.  After all, a scientist was
nothing if not precise, and Reed was one of the foremost scientists of
his day.

Unfortunately, that same precision made him seem distant and cold to
people who didn't know him.  But he couldn't change for those
people--and frankly, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Pulling on his own harness, Reed headed for the portal sunk into the
floor at the far end of the room.  It was a good couple of meters in
diameter and made of the strongest alloys known.  It had to be, to keep
the denizens of the Zone from gaining access to Earth.

Pausing by the control console on the wall nearby,

Reed electronically unfastened the force field locks that held the
portal hatch in place.  But even without the locks, it was devilishly
heavy.

Reed was about to activate built-in hydraulic mechanisms to open the
thing--but Ben beat him to it.  Bending over, legs wide, the orange
behemoth applied his massive strength to the task.

A moment later, there was a loud creak and a grat ing of metal on
metal.  And in the grotesque, faceted hands of the Thing, the hatch
swung open--revealing the chaotic light show beyond.

Reed had long ago dubbed it the Distortion Area, being more of a
scientist than a poet.  But then, he was the same person who had called
himself Mr.  Fantastic, when there had been any number of more stirring
options.

In any case, the Distortion Area had its purpose.  As the connecting
point between the two universes, it converted the matter of Reed's
frame of reference to the antimatter that characterized the Zone--and
when necessary, vice versa.

Without this convenience, a traveler between the two dimensions would
explode on contact with the first thing he or she touched.  Clearly,
Reed mused, an inconvenience of significant proportions.

Standing on the brink of the portal, dazzled by the confusion of light
and color at his feet, he shifted his harness until it sat more
comfortably on his shoulders.

Then he looked into the eyes of his teammates.  "Ready?"  he asked
them.

They nodded.  There wasn't the faintest hint of hesitation in either
one of them.  Of course, they had done this sort of thing before.

"Then let's go," he said, and leaped out over the portal.

For a moment, he seemed to hover there, as Earth's gravity fought with
the forces beyond with Reed himself as the prize.  Then the forces
beyond the portal won and he was sucked down into chaos.

l he Surfer descended through the layers of Earth's atmosphere using a
force field to shield his alien charge from the friction heat that
turned the air around him a dull red.

Down below, the irregular line of North America's eastern coast was
hidden behind dense, white clouds.  Still, the Surfer hardly needed
sight to navigate; using his cosmic senses, he steered unerringly
toward the city of New York.

Briefly, he passed through the clouds, his force field misting over
with their contents.  Then he dropped down low enough to discern the
spires of what humans called skyscrapers.

They were designed to be impressive-he knew that from experience.  But
the Surfer, who had seen the Fire Cliffs of Nalidian and the Ice
Fountains of Arctur, measured impressive with a different yardstick.

In any case, he was interested in only one skyscraper.  Adjusting the
angle of his descent, he sought the familiar metal-and-glass facade of
Four Freedoms Plaza.

A moment later, he spotted it.  Slowing down to a glide, he saw the
giant numeral made of white marble that graced the side of the building
he was facing.  In fact, it graced all four sides.

And not just any numeral.  It was the simple four that had become the
Fantastic Four's symbol and calling card.

Of course, the team hadn't always been headquar

FAIITASTIC FOUR

tered here.  When the Surfer had first encountered them, they made
their home in a place called the Baxter Building--an older, more modest
structure that was later destroyed by one of their enemies.

It was just as well, the Surfer thought.  The older building hadn't
been designed with security or even privacy in mind.  The top floors of
Four Freedoms Plaza, where the Fantastic Four resided, were a heavily
armored fortress protected by the most advanced systems Earth had to
offer.

As he descended, he noticed the pedestrians milling about in the plaza
and the surrounding streets.  A few pointed to him.  Others followed
their gesture, and be fore long most everyone was pointing at him.

It was understandable.  Even in this city that had be come such a nexus
for superhumans, an alien on a surf board was still an unusual sight.

Still, there were those so jaded they only glanced at him and went
about their business.  Such a thing would never have happened on
Zenn-La, where work and ambition were relics of a distant past.  Only
Norrin Radd might have been driven enough to abandon a public spectacle
for the rigors of his studies.

He had that in common with the Earthers.  But only that.

Several years ago, the Surfer had turned against Galactus, making a
stand alongside the Fantastic Four to save their world.  As punishment,
he was exiled here on Earth.  And in the course of that exile, he had
come to know the creatures of this planet all too well.

Certainly, a great many of them were cut from the same noble cloth as
the Fantastic Four themselves--but these individuals were clearly in
the minority.  No matter what part of Earth he visited, he found
mistrust, fear, and hostility.  He had never seen a planet more blessed
with natural beauty, more abundant with life in its infinite variety."
or more sick to its heart with the sort of poisons only its inhabitants
could inflict on it.

In order to preserve his sense of right and wrong, the Surfer had kept
to himself as much as possible, sequestering himself in the more
isolated regions of Earth.  He had avoided humanity.

Just as he avoided it now, alighting on the roof of Four Freedoms
Plaza, where the only prying eyes to which he was subject were in the
other skyscrapers around him.  After a few moments, he thought, the
Fantastic Four's surveillance devices would be sure to pick up his
presence there.  Then one of his friends would invite him inside.

At least, that seemed like a reasonable assumption.  But as the minutes
passed, no one responded.  The Suffer began to grow impatient--though
not half as impatient as the creature in his arms, which began to
tremble at the approach of the inevitable news helicopters.

The creature's discomfort made up his mind.  Though the Suffer knew it
was rude to enter someone's home without an invitation, he felt he had
waited as long as he could.

Concentrating on the necessary adjustments in his molecular structure,
he melted his way through several feet of protective titanium and
entered the Fantastic

FRNTASTIC FOUR

Four's living quarters, still cradling the alien creature.  His board
followed closely behind.

Unfortunately, the Surfer didn't find anyone inside.  It seemed he was
destined to wait, no matter what.  But at least he had made it possible
for the creature to stop trembling.

Susan Richards had no sooner pulled out some money to pay her cabdriver
than she knew something was up.

Four Freedoms Plaza was abuzz.  People were pointing to the top of the
office tower as if something significant had happened there.

Also, there were a couple of news helicopters.  Not a good sign, she
thought, feeling an adrenaline rush of concern for her teammates.

Suddenly, she was no longer the celebrity chairperson of New York
Cares, a charity benefiting the homeless and the needy in the city's
five boroughs.  She was a member of the Fantastic Four, who benefited
New Yorkers in a very different way.

Susan activated her powers, rendering herself invisiblemone of many
abilities that earned her the name the Invisible Woman.  She could hear
the driver of her taxi yelp with surprise: "Fer cryin' out loud .. ."
He whirled and craned his neck to get a look at his seemingly empty
backseat.

Susan didn't stop to hear his further exclamations as she left a $20
bill---enough to cover both fare and a generous tip---opened the door,
and slid outside.  This was nothing new to her.  She'd been astonishing
people for years.  And as long as she remained the least ostentatious
member of the Fantastic Four, she would no doubt astonish them for many
years to come.

After all, one could hardly miss Ben in a crowd.  Reed, being their
spokesman, was also widely known.  And her brother, Johnny, hardly went
out of his way to avoid the limelight.  So when the eleven-o'clock news
rolled around, the three of them tended to be more visible than the
Invisible Woman.

She could make herself and whatever she was wearing undetectable to
those around her.  Hell, even to herself.  It was a handy talent to
have at times.

Now, for instance.

Weaving her way through the crowd, she was able to make it across the
plaza in under a minute.  Only a few bystanders realized something had
even brushed past them, and they probably figured it was just a
breeze.

Still invisible, Susan made her way through the revolving door into the
lobby, drawing only a stare or two from people who had seen the door
start up by itself.  Then she found the restricted-access elevator that
served only the top four floors of the building.

A pencil-thin beam shot out seemingly from nothing, but in fact from
her belt buckle.  Only Susan and her three teammates had access to this
elevator via these special "key" laser beams.

Seconds later, the door slid aside and let her in.  And seconds after
that, she was soaring past forty-five floors of corporate offices
toward Fantastic Four headquarters.

En route, she whipped out a small device Reed had given her.  Though it
looked like a cellular phone, it had

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

a tiny, built-in video screen and more sophisticated electronics than a
NORAD mainframe.  Activating it, she saw the flashing red light that
indicated an intruder alert.

Whoevermor whatevermit was, the intruder was still inside: on the
second of the team's four floors, two from the roof, on the west side
of the building.  As far as she could tell, it was lingering in one
place.

But there was no evidence of anyone else in the building.  Neither Reed
nor Ben nor Johnny, they had all been there when she left earlier in
the day.  Biting her lip, Susan braced herself.

The next step was to get some idea of what she was up against.  She
called for a video image, as captured by the nearest hidden
surveillance camera.  Less than a second later, the camera showed her
the identity of the intruder.

She saw a masculine form, with what looked like a surfboard hovering in
the air next to it.  And both were metallic-looking.  Silver, in fact,
and polished to such a high gloss she could make out Reed's instrument
pan els reflected in their surfaces.

Susan could feel herself relax a couple of notches.  The Silver Surfer
was a friend.  If he was there, things were under control at least for
now.

But she still didn't know wha had happened to the others.  Maybe the
Surfer would have a line on what was going on--she certainly hoped so.
As many times as they'd faced impossible odds together, it was never a
comfortable feeling to know her friends her family were in some kind of
danger.

REOEPIPTIO.N OF THE SILVER SURFER

As Susan thought that, the elevator stopped on the first floor of
Fantastic Four headquarters.  But accord hag to her device, the Surfer
was another floor up.  Tap ping the appropriate button, she felt the
elevator car rise another story.  Then she opened the doors and got
out.

The Surfer stood right in front of her, waiting.  Apparently he had
sensed her approach--or maybe even tapped into the surveillance system.
Though she had known him for years, neither she nor anyone else
understood the full range of his powers.

"I am glad to see you," the Surfer told her.  His voice, soft and
expansive, always seemed to have a calming in fluence on her.  "There
doesn't seem to be anyone else around.  That came as a surprise to
me."

"You and me both," she replied.  "Come on.  We're going to find out
what happened to the others right here and now."

The Surfer nodded.  "Good.  And after that, perhaps--" he tilted his
head to indicate something down the hall "--we can find a home for the
creature I brought with me."

Following his gesture, Susan saw something on the floor.  It was big
and lumpy looking, with gnarled limbs and a central mass that seemed to
be its head.  Its eyes-if that's what they were--looked at her without
blinking while a forked tongue slithered in and out of the thing's
maw.

"I rescued it from a derelict spacecraft," the Surfer explained, his
silver orbs seemingly devoid of emotion. "I'm sure we can find a place
for it," she told him.  Then her thoughts returned to her teammates. 
"But first things first."

From his first encounter with the Negative Zone years.  ago, Reed had
been fascinated with the Distortion Area.  With good reason--the place
was aptly named, for everything was distorted here.  Not just his
perceptions, but the laws of nature themselves.  Though there weren't
any winds or obstacles he could feel, and the propulsion device in his
harness was powerful for its size, his progress was full of jolts and
un expected swerves.  It felt as if he were riding a roller coaster
through a major earthquake.

Lights pulsed around him in every color he could imaginemand some he
had never imagined.  The effect could be hypnotic if one wasn't
careful.  He knew from experience to ignore the light flashes.

Instead, he focused his mind on the place beyond the Distortion Area,
where the lights grew dimmer and farther apart.  Where, if one
concentrated, one might see a dense field of debrismthe rocks they had
seen floating in orbit around Negative Earth.

Only once did he look to his right and then his left to make sure Ben
and Johnny ye, re still with him.  Fortunately they were.  But then,
they were no strangers to the Distortion Area either.

As they bumped and jerked their way through the ever-twisting maze of
lights, Reed was glad he'd taken the time to check their harnesses
periodically.  He would have hated the idea of getting lost here.

In the meantime, the peculiar dynamics of the area were transforming
them into antimatter.  When they entered the Negative Zone, they would
fit right in.

The other good thing about the Distortion Area was that it never lasted
as long as one estimated it would.  Before Reed knew it, he had reached
the limits of the region--the place where its lights were mere
will-o'the-wisps, sparking here and there, barely discernible with the
naked eye.

And a moment later, they were gone altogether.  Taking a breath of
Negative Zone air, which had no harmful effects according to his
research, the man called Mr.  Fantastic took stock of his position.

Perhaps predictably, his teammates weren't nearly as close as they had
appeared.  The Thing was a good fifty meters away and Johnny was nearly
twice that distance back.

However, as they emerged from the distortion belt, they sighted their
leader and used their propulsion capabilities to converge on him.  Reed
could hear Ben grumbling.

"I forgot how much I hate that place," he said.  "I'm gonna be seem'
spots for a week."

Johnny chuckled dryly.  "Think of how the spots must feel.  They've got
to look back."

The Thing scowled at him.  "You're a regular Henny Youngman in knee
pants, y'know that?"

Reed tuned out the banter, as he generally did.  He knew it was just
his teammates' way of gearing up for the battle ahead.  Certainly,
there were times when the

T '

orch s ribbing rubbed the Thing the wrong way.  But

FRHTASTIC FOUR

at a time like this, the give-and-take just helped reduce the
tension.

As one, the three of them shot toward the debris field.  Somewhere in
there, in the lower tiers, they would find the rocks to which
Blastaar's minions were chaining their captives.

Of course, it wasn't easy to get through the field.  As usual, the
rocks were packed in pretty tight--sometimes too tight for someone
Ben's size to negotiate.  And he didn't dare start using his strength
to pulverize them, for fear he would start a chain reaction.

Characteristically, Reed found a bright side to the situation.  It was
good, he told the others, that weren't encountering their adversaries
right off the bat.  "It means we can weave our way through the field
and sneak up on Blastaar's men."

"Gotta love that element of surprise," Ben mum bled.

"I do," said Johnny, with a little more enthusiasm.  "I like it a
lot--especially when that's all we may have going for us."

Unfortunately, for reasons Reed still hadn't figured out, the Torch was
unable to flame on in this area.  Everywhere else in the Negative Zone,
Johnny was able to soar through the void like a,shooting star and pull
out every trick in his fiery arsenal.  Here, in orbit around Negative
Earth, he was just another man in a propulsion harness.

Not that Johnny wouldn't be of use to them.  He was still a seasoned
hand-to-hand fighter.  It just meant he had to pick his fights
carefully.

Slithering past rock after rock, Reed and his companions began to hear
something in the distance.  Ben turned to him.

"Explosions," he said.

Reed nodded.  "The rocks that've crossed the planet's proximity
threshold.  Let's just hope they're unoccuple eah, Johnny chimed in.
"Let's hope."

Here as elsewhere in the Negative Zone, physical laws were a mystery to
Reedmand therefore a source of great fascination.  As long as he could
remember, even as aboy, it had always intrigued him when he encountered
something he didn't understand.  In the universe he came from, rocks
didn't explode when they approached Earth.  But here, they exploded
with regularity.

What made that happen, when both the debris and the energy fields
surrounding the planet seemed perfectly unremarkable?  And why hadn'
the seen anything like this phenomenon elsewhere in the Negative Zone?
Or, for that matter, anywhere in his own universe?

And where did the rocks come from?  There always seemed to be a
multitude of them.  But if they were always descending and always
exploding, how was the supply replenished?

What was different about this place?

He shook his head.  To grasp the forces that ruled here, one might have
to devote a lifetime to empirical research.  And as tempting as that
sounded, Reed's responsibilities as Mr.  Fantastic had to come first.

He wasn't just a scientist anymore.  He was what the newspapers called
him--a super hero, one of those em

FANTASTIC FOUR

powered by chance or design to stand between humanity and its
enemies.

He was still thinking this when he negotiated a ticularly big rock and
spotted the first of Blastaar's soldiers  Like Blastaar, he was a
Baluurian, big and mean and gray-maned.  And like Reed, Ben, and
Johnny, he wore a harness that allowed him to maneuver in Negative Zone
space.  Gesturing at his teammates, Reed made sure they saw the soldier
too.

"Looks to me like clobberin' time," the Thing rasped as softly as he
could.  He tapped his harness affectionately  "Here's where we put
these babies through their paces."

Reed shook his head.  "No.  Not yet.  Even at top speed, there's a
chance he'll see us coming in time to fire."

"You've got a better idea?"  asked Johnny.  Reed looked at him.  "As a
matter of fact, I do."

Ben elbowed Johnny.  "Didn'cha just know he was gonna say that?"

As his friends watched, Mr.  Fantastic reached through the debris
field, his arm growing longer by the moment.  It took a while, because
he wanted to keep his hand hidden from the guard as much as possible.

Finally, there was nothing but open space between his hand and the
Baluurian.  Reed extended himself a little farther!  land tapped the
guard on the shoulder.  Crying out, the Baluurian whirled.  And met
with the whiplash force of Reed's fist.

Momentarily stunned, the guard let go of his weapon.  Seeing his
chance, Reed grabbed it and flipped it around one-handed.  Then he
found the trigger and fired.

A flash of green energy jolted the Baluurian, sending him pinwheeling
into a rock.  In the aftermath, he went limp.

Reed reeled the weapon in, then turned it over to Johnny.  "We've got
to move quickly now," he said.  "I'here may be a perimeter check every
so often, and our friend there isn't going to answer when he's
called."

Reaching for his harness controls, he propelled him self deeper into
the debris field, right past the unconscious Baluurian.  Ben and Johnny
were right on his heels.

But they didn't get very far before they caught sight of other
guardsmthree of them this time, gathered in a knot.  As Reed stopped to
consider them, Ben caught up to him.

"Is it clobberin' time now?"  he asked.

Mr.  Fantastic sighed.  "So it would appear."

He glanced at Johnny to make sure he was ready too.  His brother-in-law
nodded and cradled his weapon a little more securely.

That was all the communication they needed.  Reed and his partners had
been together too long, fought too many formidable enemies as a team,
to require any thing more detailed.

Reaching for his harness controls, Mr.  Fantastic went into action,
accelerating to the greatest speed he could muster.  After all, he was
their leader.  And if he' learned anything since becoming a being
elasticity, it was that leaders/ed.

Taking their cue from him, Ben and Johnny era ted as well.  They plowed
through the debris field a straight line, hoping Blastaar's men
wouldn't catch glimpse of them and turn around.

As it happened, the Baluurians never knew what hit l them.  Reed and
his comrades plowed into them with bone-crushing force, sending their
weapons flying out of their hands.

Before the guards could recover, Ben grabbed a couple of them and
smashed their heads together.  And Johnny nailed the third one with a
quick burst from his weapon.

Reed looked around, to see if anyone had taken note of the skirmish. 
As far as he could tell, no one had.  But if they had a reason to move
quickly before, that reason had become a mandate.

There were weapons available for all of them now.  But the Thing
declined, saying it wasn't his style.  Reed felt the same
waymespecially since their hand-to-hand approaches were less apt to
draw attention.

Together, the three of them kept on, heading in the direction of
Negative Earth with due haste.  As before, they kept a sharp eye out
for their next encounter.  It came sooner than they expected.

And this time, they hit the jackpot.  Not just a gaggle of Blastaar's
guards, but a stretch of perhaps a dozen rocks with a dozen innocents
chained to them.  As they watched, yet another was added to the line.

Not too far away, closer to Negative Earth, other rocks exploded.
Reminders of what Blastaar had had in mind for these prisoners.

Reed felt the muscles in his jaw go tight.  It was one thing to witness
such cruelty on a remote sensor screen in another universe.  It was
another to see it up close, in person.

"Set those people free," he told the Thing.  ']ohnny and I will run
interference for you."

Ben nodded his big, craggy head.  "It'll be my pleasure.

"I'll circle left, "Johnny suggested.

"And I'll circle right," Mr.  Fantastic told him.

With a burst of speed, he got out to the left of the guards and set his
sights on the nearest of them.  Then, flinging his arms out like
cables, he grabbed hold of a couple of rocksmone on either side of the
Baluurian.

Suddenly, Reed picked up the slack in his armsm and shot himself
forward like a rock in a slingshot.  He hit the guard in the face feet
first, snapping the Baluurian's head back.  Not hard enough to maim
him, but certainly hard enough to keep him out of action for a while.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another guard taking aim at him.
And firing.  There was no time for him to drag his whole body out of
the way.

But Mr.  Fantastic's muscle control was so fine, he was able to move
just the section of torso that would've taken the brunt of the blast.
Making a dovetail shape, he avoided the blast.

Then he tied up the Baluurian's weapon with one

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

hand and socked him with the other.  While the was blinking, trying to
regroup, Reed tore the we: free and belted him with it.

By then, Johnny had come around from the side and was spraying the
guards with their own em fire.  The Baluurians shot back at him, but
the teen; was too quick, too agile for them.

More accustomed to flying than the soldiers twisted and swerved and
corkscrewed his way amon adversaries.  And when that wasn't enough, he
used occupied rocks for cover, frustrating them time again.

And all the while, the Thing was launching his sault on the prison
rocks, pulling up spikes and snapping chains to free Blastaar's
victims.  And when the' opportunity presented itself, he took part in
the fray as well.  At least once, Reed saw Ben snare a guard by the
ankle with a length of chainmthen whirl him about and send him flying
like a hammer thrower.

At last, all the prisoners were free.  Tying one chain to another, the
Thing made a lifeline for them to hang on to.  Then he used the power
in his harness to pull them far from the fightingmand the explosions
that were getting closer and closer as the rocks spiraled:
downward..,

By that time, Reed and Johnny had the battle well in hand.  Snaking
around a chunk of rock, Reed walloped a guard with a borrowed energy
weapon.  A moment later, his brother-in-law leveled a blast at the two
remaining Baluurians, knocking them senseless.

And it was over.

One way or another, every one of the guards had taken care of.  The
only sound they could hear was that of debris exploding below them.

"So far, so good," Johnny noted.

"But we've still got a long way to go," Reed reminded him.

"can say that again," Ben chimed in, approaching them with a spurt of
propulsion power from his harness.

The words were barely out of his mouth when Reed heard Baluurian
voices.  A great many Baluurian voices.  And they were getting louder
all the time.

Johnny glanced at the rocks above them.  As yet, there was nothing to
see.  But there was plenty for him to hear.

"Reinforcements," he muttered.

"Let 'em come," Ben rumbled menacingly, curling his thick orange
fingers into pile driver fists.

"We may not have a choice," Reed replied.  Indeed, the voices were
descending on them from what seemed like every point in the rock field.
Every point except from below, of course, and that way lay certain
death.

Then Reed saw the source of the voices.  An army of Baluurians,
descending on them with what seemed like the utmost care.  And though
they bristled with weapons and more than half had clear shots, not a
single one of them was firing.

Johnny raised his blaster.  "I've still got plenty of charge left," he
said.  "If you and Ben grab a couple, maybe we canto"

Reed shook his head.  "Not just yet, Johnny."  But it wasn't just the
Baluurians' aggregate might that him from battling them.  It was
something else.

The feeling that there was something to be learned here.  A mystery to
be uncovered.  And all they had to do was wait.

The Baluurians surrounded the humans, then halted their descent.  They,
too, seemed to be waiting for something.

Finally, that something arrived--in the savage, thickly muscled,
lion-maned form of Blastaar.

Blastaar the Warrior.  Blastaar the Conqueror.  Blastaar, Emperor of
all he surveyed--though that had never been enough for him.

The being who had drawn them here with his brutality.  The spider who
had constructed a web from which they could not escape.  And now he had
closed his trap on them, as he must have planned to do all along.

The Living Bomb-Burst eyed his longtime adversaries with tiny, bestial
eyes.  While his minions wore a variation of the blue-and-silver armor
he had favored of late, Blastaar himself had gone back to the maroon
and silver he had sported when he first invaded the Fantastic Four's
headquarters.

"gou came," he grated, in a.,voice that could have sanded the paint off
a battleship.  "You did not disappoint me."

"Zeah," said the Thing, glowering at Blastaar.  "Our mamas taught us
better manners than that.  flyer itchin' for a fight, here we are."

"Cornered," Blastaar observed.  "Helpless."

Johnny grinned.  "A cornered animal fights twice as

'/laat are we waitin' for?"  asked Ben, no doubt irritated by all the
talk.  "Let's rumble, fer cryin' out loud!"  In response' Johnny
shifted his weapon in his arms.  Blastaar didn't accept the
challenge.

Instead, he held up his big, gray hand--as if he were calling for
peace.

'vVhile I look forward to renewing our hostilities," he said, showing
his short, sharp teeth, "combat is not what I had in mind."

"Whaddaya talkin' about?"  asked the Thing warily.  His hands were
still clenched into fists the size of fire hydrants.  "Don't tell me ya
brought us out here for tea and crumpets."

"What I'm talking about," snarled Blastaar, meeting Ben's skepticism
head-on, "is a temporary truce--while I explain why I lured you into
the Negative Zone."

Reed eyed the dark, imposing figure of their longtime enemy.  He had
suspected as much.  "A truce?  That's a first."

'es," the Baluurian admitted, "it is.  And I wouldn't even have
considered it if there had been another way.  But there isn't."

The Torch hovered closer to his brother-in-law.  "Don't listen to him,
Reed.  He's got something up his

"

lee ve

Mr.  Fantastic considered the likelihood that Johnny was right.
Blastaar had never shown himself to be the least bit trustworthy in the
past.  But as far as he could tell, the Baluurian wasn't achieving any
real tactical ad vantage by stopping the battle this waymand also,
terfuge wasn't his style.  Besides, Reed wanted answers.  And from the
look things, Blastaar seemed only too willing to them.

'"very well, Blastaar," he replied, "We'll listen you have to say.  But
if we see the least hint this truce will be null and void, agreed?"

Blastaar's lip curled.  Clearly, it wasn't easy for to accept an
ultimatum---especially from the likes old enemy.  Nonetheless, accept
it he did.  And made Reed even more curious about Blastaar's

"Very well," said the Living Bomb-Burst.  "I acce your terms."

"I don't believe it," Ben rumbled.  'Ve're stand here and talk with
this jerk?"

Reed nodded, never taking his eyes off Blastaar, ' -I'hat's exactly
what we're going to domuntil we find out what this is all about."

"But, Reedm'Johnny began.

"But nothing," he told the younger man.

Ben absorbed the remark, his eyes full of disbelief and indignation.
Still, the scientist knew his old friend would fall into line.

It was Johnny that Reed was worried about.  His brother-in-law had
always been the hothead in the group in temperament as well as
fact--and Reed had never seen him hotter than he was now.

For a moment, he thought the Torch might carry on the battle all by
himself.  Then Johnny's rage subsided and he just hovered there,
shaking his head.

"I still don believe this," he muttered.  "But it's your party, Reed.
Ours is but to do or die."

"Dissension in the ranks?"  Blastaar suggested, more than a little
amused by the idea.

Ben snarled at him and shot folward in his harness.  "I'll give ya
dissension between the ears, ya longhaired maggot!"

"Not now, old friend," Reed insisted, wrapping his arms around his
teammate and hauling him back--and interrupting what would no doubt
have been inspired deprecation.  The Thing glared at him but fell
silent.

Releasing his friend, the leader of the Fantastic Four turned to the
Baluurian.  "I believe you had something to tell us, Blastaar."

The tyrant nodded his great leonine head.  "Indeed I do," he grated.
"But not here.  If you'll follow me, we'll continue this in my
flagship."

And with that, he used his personal harness to ascend through the
asteroid belt.  His soldiers began to ascend along with him.  All of
themmleaving the humans unguarded.

"Arait," Reed shouted after Blastaar.  'hat about your prisoners? 
We're not talking until they're freed."

The Baluurian looked down at him.  "Done," he roared, and continued his
ascent.  But with a gesture, he sent some of his men off toward other
points in the debris field.

Reed looked at Johnny, then at Ben.  They didn't seem ready to trust
Blastaar in the least.  But neither could they conceal their surprise
at having been let off the hook. "I don't get it, "Johnny confessed. 
"He had us rig where he wanted us."  His brow crinkled beneath shock of
blond hair.  "Didn't he?"

The Thing scowled.  "Maybe kinin' us wasn't salz fyin' enough by
itself.  He's gonna show us his horn movies first."

Reed didn't know what Blastaar had in mind.  But there was a chance to
find out, he was going to pursue it.  With the help of his harness, he
propelled himself] after the Baluurians..

A moment later, his comrades came after him.

he Surfer had never seen the Negative Zone watch station.  But had he
known what it offered, he might have asked to see it a long time ago.

Though he had traveled the length and breadth of the universe, he had
never been granted a look at an-0theruniverse.  Yet as he watched the
monitor that dominated one side of the room, he was treated to
perspective after perspective, each one showing him something alien and
apart from his experience.

Yes, he thought, stroking the tentacled creature in his arms so it
wouldn't tremble, it is fascinating indeed.

Susan Richards was at the console beneath the monitor working a set of
controls.  "All right," she said at last, standing back from the
monitor.  "Let's see where every one went."

A moment later, the image on the monitor was re placed with the visage
of Reed Richards.  The Surfer could see Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm in
the back ground as well.  Both of them were wearing elaborate metal
harnesses.

"Sue," said Reed, "we've detected an emergency in the Negative Zone.
I'd have preferred to wait for you to tackle it at full strength, but
there just wasn't time."

He went on to explain why.  He spoke of the people he'd seen being
chained to rocks near something called Negative Earth.  And he
mentioned his suspicion that SOmeone named Blastaar was behind it
all.

Reed also said he thought it was a trap---but that they couldn't let
that stop them.  And he left the dinates where he believed the
executions were taking place.

As the message progressed, the Surfer watcht Susan's reaction.  For the
most part, she was calm attentive.  But her eyes were full of
emotion.

He saw disgust there for what Blastaar had done perhaps some small
measure of resentment that had been left out of the team's mission. 
But most of he saw concern.

Finally, Reed's message was over.  He expressed for his wife and told
her he would come back as as he could.  Then his image vanished, to be
re by another view of the Negative Zone.

The Invisible Woman took a breath, let it out.  lips were pressed into
a thin, hard line.

"Susan?"  he said.  "Are you all right?"

She turned to him and nodded.  'es.  I'm fine.  Then she leaned over
the viewer controls again.  "It'l take a little while to find the
debris field," she

"And then a little longer to locate the section we want.  "I
understand," the Surfer replied.

In a matter of moments, Susan brought up an age of a debris field, just
as she had said she Chunks of rock in various shapes and sizes slowly
through space, half in sunlight and half out, closely packed he could
barely see the stars them.

Then a second view of the debris field took over screen.  And this
time, the Surfer could see chains ed to the rocks.  But there was no
sign of the innocentS to which Reed Richards had referred.  Nor, for
that matter, was there any sign of Reed and his team mates, or the
forces against which they had pitted them selves.

By that evidence, he judged Susan hadn't obtained the view she wanted
yet.  But when he glanced at her, her brow was creased with
consternation.  She seemed dissatisfied.  No, more than that--shaken.

"I don't get it," she said, her voice hollow with an odd mixture of
dread and anger.  "They're gone.  All of them."

The Surfer approached her.  Tentatively, he placed hand on Susan's
shoulder, hoping to offer her some ,dicum of comfort.  "Are you sure
this is the proper perspective?"  he asked.

She shrugged.  "I'these are the coordinates Reed left me.  And the
chains he described are there."  She shook her head.  "It doesn't make
sense.  Blastaar's powerful, and he's got a great many soldiers.  But
we've held our own against him before."

Susan swallowedmhard.  She had to be considering the implications, none
of them good.  "Nhat could have ended the fight so quickly?"  she
wondered.

The Surfer grunted softly.  "A natural phenomenon of some kind?  One
that drove off the innocents as well as the combatants?"

But as soon as he suggested it, he knew he didn't believe it--and
neither would Susan.  True, he was unfamiliar with this Negative Zone.
But if it behaved anything like his own universe, natural phenomena
dom appeared without warning.  There was gradual buildup of forces,
easily discernible if one to look closely.

No doubt there was a more plausible explanatio However, to discover
what it might be, to track down answer, one would have to enter the
Zone itself.  He advised his companion of this.

"If you like," he said, "I will search for them.

all, your teammates have shown me kindness when ers of your race have
shunned me."

"No," Susan replied.  She turned from the and looked at him.  "I mean,
yes--I'd be grateful your help.  But you're not going into the Zone I'm
going with you."

The Surfer met her gaze.  He was about to ask her it was wise for her
to come, when they didn't know what fate had claimed the others.  The
last thing wanted was to place Susan in deadly danger.

Then he remembered with whom he was dealin The Invisible Woman would
not be gainsaid when put her mind to something.  Despite her gentle
pearance, she was perhaps the strongest of all the tastic Four, both in
breadth of abilities and in stren of will.

'cry well," he replied.  "We will search for teammates together."

That established, Susan led him to an area down the hall, where they
found a suitable compartment for the Surfer's creature, then returned
to the watch station,

Susan found a propulsion harness in a utility compartment and put it
on, though the Surfer was more than capable of providing propulsion for
both of them.

']Just in case," she explained.

No further explanation was required.  The Surfer was well aware of the
value humans placed on self reliance  And few humans were more
self-reliant than Susan Richards.

As he approached the heavy hatch door that separated Earth from the
Negative Zone, she temporarily de activated the force fields holding it
in place.  Then, with a gesture, he flipped it open and glimpsed the
maelstrom of color on the other side.

Susan took a last look at the watch station.  "I don't like leaving
this place unattended," she said.  "If some one should try to escape
from the Zone while we're away..."  Her voice trailed off ominously.

Then she looked at the Surfer.  "On the other hand,

we can't just stay here and do nothing."

He agreed.

Her resolve strengthened, Susan approached the portal.  As she leapt
out over it, she seemed to hang in midair for a fraction of a second.
Then she was drawn down into the maelstrom.

The Surfer and his board came after her.

For the first time in recent memory, he felt himself tingling with
anticipation.  After all, he told himself, this is a different plane of
existence, a different reality, one might say.

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

And given the circumstances, neither of them kn exactly what they would
find there.

Aggas Ag stood by the side of his tribe's watering ho lei outside the
ring of their old wooden huts, and shade his eyes against the flat,
yellow sunset.  Squinting, scanned the distant horizon, shimmering in
what left of the day's heat.

There were no cloudsmnot even a hint of them.  Worse, he couldn't feel
any wind that might bring any.:

Aggas Ag chittered sadly and looked down at wilted growth that grew by
the side of the watering Once, in his father's time, there had been
more than few sprouts here.  There had been grasses and brush and
towering trees with great, green fronds.

But in those days, rain had been plentiful.  The boundaries of the
watering hole had been great indeed."I Animals had come from far and
wide to drink, droppings to fertilize the ground and making easy gets
for the hunters ofAggas Ag's tribe.

As a result, there had been no shortage of food.  Males had grown tall
and females had smiled.  bies had been so plentiful as to rival the
numbers adults.

That time seemed like a dream now, and a beautiful dream at that.  Over
the years, the rains had grown few and far between.  And even when they
came, they brought less and less of their life-giving water with
them.

Gradually, the animals had stopped coming to the watering hole quite so
often.  These days, it was unusual to see more than one in a fortnight.
Nor were they the robust beasts of Aggas Ag's youth, able to supply the
tribe with meat for weeks afterward.  With their own food source
depleted, the animals were as scrawny and malnourished as the tribes
people themselves.

Aggas Ag had not visited any of the other tribes on the land--his
nest-mother's, for instance, which lay far to the east.  But the youths
of his tribe had wandered far and wide, and come back with stories of
hardships be yond imagining.  In one case, where they had expected to
find a tribe, they had found only a collection of broken, old
carcasses.

The sun dropped out of sight.  The stars came out, bright and insistent
against the soft, dark blue of the sky.  By degrees, the land became
shadow and the world cooled.

Something was happening.  Aggas Ag would have been a fool not to see
it.  Something was happening to the land that had been good to them
since the beginning of time.

He wished he knew why.  If they had somehow of fended the gods, they
had also done their utmost to make up for it.  Even in these difficult
times, they had sacrificed what plants and beasts they could.  They had
fasted and danced and spent entire nights with their foreheads pressed
to the ground.

But nothing changed.  Either the gods were so angry they couldn't be
placated, or they had abandoned Aggas Ag and his people to their fate,
finding other lands on which to bestow their bounty.  Either way, the
tribe was doomed.  Another few generations tion and they too would
wind up skeletons bleaching the sun.

He had barely completed the thought when he something strange--a star
moving across the night

Aggas Ag nodded.  He had once or twice seen a star from the heavens and
learned later that it was a sting chunk of rock.  No doubt, he thought,
this was a rock.

But as he watched, transfixed, the star stopped ing.  Aggas Ag rubbed
his eyes, thinking perhaps there was something wrong with them.  Once a
began to fall, it didn't stop.  At least, he had never he " of such a
thing, nor had anyone else he knew.

i .

Then the star did something else that see me strange.  It began to
grow, slowly but surely, until dwarfed the other stars.  And still it
grew, until it larger than the three moons that had just started enter
the sky.

A great, silver object, it filled the heavens with glory.  Aggas Ag's
heart pounded in his ears.

was the work of the gods.  But what did it mean?

The air began to tremble--to vibrate, as if it were of newborn.  But it
was night, and the newborn were safely in their sleeping-holes by th
hen  Then Aggas Ag alized that the object caused the trembling of the
and he began to tremble too.

Were the gods so angry with his people they had decided to end the
world tonight, rather than wait for them to perish of starvation? Could
the universe be so

: cruel after all?

Or was something else afoot?  A portent of hope?  suddenly, Aggas Ag
became aware that he was not alone.  Others of his tribe had emerged
from their huts, stirred by the unusual vibration in the air.  Their
eyes were wide with trepidation as they stared at the great silver
thing in the sky.

Males cursed, females murmured in wonder, and children moaned their
misgivings.  They had no idea what was happening, but they knew in
their soft places it was the biggest event in the history of the
world.

Then something else happened.  Without warning, long silver shapes
dropped from the object in the sky and buried themselves in the land.
The ground shivered with the impact.

"What is it?"  whispered a female.

"What is it doing?"  asked another.

Aggas Ag turned to them, but he didn't answer.  No one did--at least at
first.  Then Mor Maddas, the eldest man among them, spoke up.

"I once heard a tale," he said, the skin around his eyes twitching as
he stared at the celestial object, his wrinkled, brown digits kneading
one another like two lizards locked in a death-struggle.

"A tale?"  Aggas Ag repeated, because males that old often needed
prompting.

Mor Maddas nodded.  "A tale of a god.  One who roams the cosmos in
search of lands to feed his huge and appalling hunger."  He took a
long, tremulous breath and let it out.  "This could be him."

Aggas Ag turned again to the thing in the sky.  It didn't look like a
god to him, or at least what he had al

FRNTOSTIC FOUR

ways supposed a god might look like.  More likely,

was the god's hut, the place where he lived.

Before he could say this out loud, a light burst forth from the bottom
of the object.  And the midst of that light, something emerged.  Aggas
gasped.

Not something, he realized.  Someone.

Slowly, the figure began to descend, still bathed the reddish-gold
light.  But the farther it got from the less blinding the light became,
and Aggas Ag to make out details.

The figure was massivemperhaps ten times as as a tribesman and twice as
broad across, covered some sort of armor.  On its head, it wore an
headdress that concealed the upper portion of its

But itwasn'tjust its size that made the figure strange to him.  Its
posture, its skeletal structure, its portions--none of them were
anythin

And it had no tail.  He gasped at the idea.  How it balance itself?.
How did it walk?

Aggas Ag could hear a rustling behind him.

looked back at his people again.  They had themselves in the presence
of the god, hoping to the lash of his wrath.  Or if he had come for
another pose, a benevolent purpose, to ow him in what they held him.

Aggas Ag fell to his knees as well.  It was easy,

side ring how weak they had become.  With great cerity, great longing
for salvation, and great fear of annihilation, he placed his forehead
on the ground.

And waited.

we

 In all his travels, the Surfer had never seen anything like the
Distortion Area of the Negative Zone.

As he and Susan Richards descended into its stormy turbulence and wild
random flashes of light, his

: surfboard tucked under his arm, his first instinct was to create a
protective force field around them.

'

But as it began to form, his companion turned to him with a look of
urgency.  "Don't," she said, her voice echoing strangely.

"Don't?"  he repeated innocently.

"That's right," Susan confirmed.  "The Distortion

Area converts matter to antimatter and vice versa.  It'll enable us to
enter the Zone without exploding on contact with its antimatter.  But
if something insulates us from the dynamics of the Distortion
Area--your force field, for instance--we're going to be in serious
trouble

The Surfer understood.  "In that we will remain beings of matter in an
antimatter environment."

His companion nodded.  "Exactly.  So..."

"I will drop the force field."  He caused what he'd made of it--which
wasn't muchmto vanish.

Then he willed his board to achieve a horizontal attitude despite the
forces breaking against it, and gathered Susan onto it.  Finally, he
took up a position himself on the front of it.

The board wouldn't make it any easier to negotiate the Distortion Area.
The Surfer just felt more comfort able on it than off it.  Discerning
a place where flashes of light seemed to thin out, he slashed his
through the tumult to get there.

It took less than a second.  But to a being who sailed a universe at
faster-than-light speeds, even and seemed like a long time.  Clearly,
the Disl

Area had earned its name.  :

"The Antimatter Zone is just ahead," Susan told She pointed to a
distant accumulation of rock and bris.  "Right there."

He closed the gap in the space of a human hear beat, so quickly it must
have seemed to his that they'd tele ported  Then he slowed down and'
his way among the rocks.

Farther down, closer to the sphere of Ne Earth, the lowermost rings of
rock were exploding contact with an energy field.  But for all the su[
of his senses, the Surfer couldn't identify the source the energy.

The last tiny remnant of Norrin Radd was drawn the mystery.  It was a
puzzle; on Zenn-La, he had for such puzzles.  But the rest of him, the
cosmic who had pledged to help find his friends, held on other
priorities.

They made their way deeper.  and deeper into the debris field, alert
for any evidence at all that Reed, Ben, and Johnny had come this way.
Debris continued to explode below them, a constant reminder of how
treacherous this region was.  Finally, they caught sight of an oblong
rock with a set of empty chains attached to it.

Then another.  And another.  On close inspection,

could tell from the savaged links that the chains had been torn
apart.

"Ben's work, probably.  But no sign of the team,"

Susan observed ruefully.

The Surfer turned to her.  "That is not altogether

She looked at him.  'vVhat do you mean?"

It was often difficult for him to interact effectively with lesser
beings.  It was too easy to forget how limited they were in their
perceptions.

'our teammates have left a molecular emanation trail," he explained.
']Just as you and I are leaving one.  I believe any organism from our
universe would do the same in this frame of reference."

"So you can track them through the Negative Zone?"  Susan asked.

"Indeed," the Surfer replied.

"Even though we've been transformed into anti matter?"

"We may be antimatter," he said, "but we are a particularly alien
variety of antimatter.  Hence, the emanation trail."

His companion didn't ask for a more detailed analysis.  She seemed glad
to accept the situation, no matter how it had come about.

"Then let's get cracking," she insisted.  "Unfortunately," the Suffer
told her, "the trail is a relatively faint one.  I will not be able to
follow it at my customary rate of speed."

Susan patted him on the shoulder.  "Do your best," she said.  "That's
always been good enough."



FONTOSTIC FOUR

Pleased with the vote of confidence, he pursued humans' emanations.
Partway through the debris He they parted into three separate trails
and he had to low one at the expense of the others.

The Surfer was glad to see them come to again a little while later. 
And even gladder when ascended, leaving the deadly explosions around
planet in the opposite direction.

Every now and then, he glanced at Susan's face.  would have been
difficult to miss the shadows of cern there.  The pain of not knowing
what had pened to her loved ones.

The Surfer sighed.  It seemed like an eternity he'd had a loved one ma
being who could elicit in him.

Once again, he was reminded of Shana Bal and way he had said good-bye
to her, wrapped up in need to leave his old life behind.  Little had he
kn, as he followed Galactus out into the cosmos, he would be.  How very
lonely.

Perhaps it was better that he hadn't known.

have made his sacrifice that much more meaningful.

and it had been miserable enough to begin with.

Fortunately, he told himself, he had allies he could depend, beings
with wlaom he had established certain bonds since leaving Galactus's
service.  And those allies made him feel he wasn't entirely alone.
Sometimes.

But he couldn't call any of them his friends.  In fact, of all the
sentient life-forms he had encountered, the tastic Four were among the
very few who even came close to being his friends.

And the truth was, he didn't know them all that well.

Blastaar's flagship hovered just above the asteroid belt.  As they
approached it, Reed saw Blastaar and several of his soldiers vanish
into a hatch.  Warily, he and his teammates followed.

They found themselves in a stark, functional corridor full of alien
circuitry.  Reed would have loved to examine it, but a Baluurian
indicated the way they should go with a jerk of his head.  Following
the gesture, the human saw Blastaar disappear into a compartment at the
end of the corridor.

' -The Ritz-Carlton it ain't," Ben grumbled.

"Luxury doesn't seem to be a Baluurian concern," Reed noted.

Johnny wrinkled his nose.  "Neither does personal hygiene."

He had a point, Mr.  Fantastic conceded.  The place seemed to smell of
animal musk and perspiration.  But then, the Baluurians were an alien
species.  They were bound to give off an unfamiliar and
perhapsmsubjectively speaking, of course--unpleasant odor.

Ignoring the stench, he made his way down the corridor.  Then he
entered the room the tyrant had entered before him.

Blastaar was waiting for them inside, staring out a large observation
port with his back to them.  To Reed's surprise, he was alone.  No
guards, no soldiersmthough

FANTRSTIC FOUR

overconfidence in his ability to deal with the

Four, Reed could not tell.

Beyond him, the stars of the Negative Zone and glittered in all their
glory.  Reed recognized so of the constellations from previous tri[
they hadn't come here to stargaze.

'Veil," he said, 'we're in your flagship.  The is why."

Blastaar turned to look at them, his fierce black reflecting the
artificial light.  "I did what I did," grated, "to enlist your
assistance--against a threat only to me and my empire, but to every
living in the Negative Zone."

Ben grunted.  "Wou're just full of human kindm ain'tcha?"

"A regular Mother Teresa," Johnny muttered,

ing his arms across the numeral on his chest.

Reed silenced them with a glance.  They were nh going to accomplish
anything by antagonizing the urian--especially when they were in a
place where held all the trump cards.

"Go on," he told Blastaar.

The tyrant scowled through the dense tangle beard, his eyes darting
from one of his listeners to the next.  Clearly, Blastaar wasn't used
to having to anyone of anything.  But then, that was always the case
with those who ruled supremely.

"There is a ship," he began.  "A ship as big as urian moon.  It
appeared recently on the fringes of my empire."

 Blastaar turned again to face the observation port.  was no doubt
more comfortable in the company of the cold, distant stars than in that
of the Fantastic Four.  "My people," he went on, "have told tales of
such a vessel since our most primitive beginnings.  In it, they say, is
a godlike entity.  A creature of immense size and power."

The short hairs on Reed's neck prickled.  Something about this story
was starting to sound a bit too familiar.

And then, just in case he had any doubts, Blastaar put them to rest. 
"A being," said the tyrant, "who wanders the universe.  His purpose? 
To find worlds on which to gorge his terrible hunger."

Reed felt as if he'd been dealt a physical blow.  He looked at his
teammates.  Johnny had paled a couple of shades.  And Ben probably
would have as well, if he'd been capable of it.

"Hunger?"  the Thing repeated.

The Baluurian nodded his shaggy head.  He was still facing away from
them, or he would have noticed their consternation.

'"yes.  And the same myth, or some variation on it, seems to manifest
itself in every Negative Zone culture I know of.  Obviously, it is
based on a seed of truth.  So,

naturally, when this ship made its presence know nm '"you feared the
worst," Reed observed.

The Baluurian looked back over his shoulder, his vis age fierce and
terrible.  "I fear nothing, humanmnot even a god, if that is what lurks
in the moon-ship."

"All right," Reed conceded.  "You were concerned."  Blastaar began to
pace.  "Concerned," he allowed.

FRNTASTIC FOUR

'(es.  Now, I could have allowed this entity to begin c ting his swath
of destruction--to nibble away at my h ings, as it were--in order to
gauge his power be for opposed him with my own."

His thick, gnarled fingers clenched into fists.

that is not my way.  Throughout my lifetime, whi/ have perceived a
threat, I have met it head-on--and is how I intend to meet this one."

"So you're going to stop him before he can g started," Reed suggested.
"But not alone.  Because... The Baluurian looked as if he'd just taken
a mouthful of rancid meat.  "Because even the mighty BlasI has his
limitations.  If the myths are true, even all legions may not be enough
to turn him back.  with the Fantastic Four on my side, I would be unbea
able."

"You mean we would be unbeatable," Johnn amended.

The tyrant's eyes narrowed.  "That is what I said."  paused.  "I know
we have never fought on the same side," said Blastaar.  "But as they
say, there is a first timbal for everything."

"They also say look before you leap," Ben 1:

out.  "Especially when yer leapin' with the Livin'

Burst "

Ignoring the remark, the Baluurian turned to and raised his thickly
bearded chin.  'What will it Will you join me, to fight this threat
side by side?  you run--and in your cowardice, abandon the Zone"

The three members of the Fantastic Four looked at another.  Finally, it
was Johnny who spoke up.  "What do you think?"  he asked.  "I mean,
could it really be him?"

Blastaar eyed him warily from beneath wild, gray brows.  "W-hat?  You
know this intruder?"

Reed sighed.  "We have encountered someone who sounds a lot like him.
But that was in our own universe.  And to my knowledge, Galactus has
never visited the Negative Zone."

"But we don't know that for a fact," Johnny reminded him.  "Who's to
say the Negative Zone doesn't meet our universe at some point?  Or that
Galactus can't just--I don't know, make the jump somehow?"

Who indeed?  Not Reed, certainly.  For all his knowledge, he was the
merest babe in the woods compared to the cosmic intellect of
Galactusmand even that comparison was undoubtedly a kind one.

"Actually," he said, "it doesn't matter if this is Galactus or not. 
All that matters is whether he operates the same way.  Because if he
does, there's no overestimating the magnitude of the danger he presents
to the native populations here.  And their welfare, after all, is what
brought us to the Zone in the first place."

"I could not have put it better myself," Blastaar said with a twisted
smile.

"On the other hand," Ben noted, "he could be nothin' more than a
rumor."  He eyed the Baluurian suspiciously.  "Or like I said before,
o1' Blastaar here could be pullin' the wool over our eyes."

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

The tyrant shook his head.  "This is no dece

"Sez you," the Thing countered.

Blasmar took a step toward him.  "If I didn't need'

to--"

Ben got to his feet.  "Don't let that stop ya."  Again, Reed had to
insert himself between "For the time being," he decided, "we're going
to to take Blastaar's word for what's happening considered the
Baluurian.  "But I think even he admit we don't have all the
information we'd like.  as far as I can see, there's only one way to
get it.

to---"

"--check out our mystery guest--" the Thing gested.

"--examine the intruder--"

"--up close and personal," Ben finished.

"--with our own eyes," said Reed.

The Thing chuckled dryly.  '/a work with a guy long, ya start ta think
like him."

"Tell me about it," said the Torch.

Blastaar regarded them.  "Then you'll join me struggle?"

"That remains to be seen," Reed told him.  "We'll along with you--but
for now, just as observers.  Then it turns out the intruder is the
threat you think he we'll lend a hand."

The tyrant's lip curled and an an knot where his brows met.  After all,
he was to compromises as he was to asking for help.  Still, managed to
restrain himself.

"C-Very well, then.  I'll make arrangements for you to the enemy."
Blastaar glared at them.  "Just don't t too long to join the battle."
or you may find you are late."

Reed didn't like the Baluurian's tone.  But he had to concede, there
was a certain wisdom in what he said, and an ominous wisdom at that.

If this was Galactus they were going to confront, or i someone even
vaguely like Galactus, even an alliance with the mighty Blastaar might
not be enough to turn him away.

s a being who could expand the spaces between his molecules and make
his body stretch to remarkable lengths, Reed Richards's reach was
considerable.  But one thing he seldom reached for was the controls of
a space going vessel.

After all, Ben had served as a test pilot for years before becoming the
Thing.  Indeed, it was Ben who had piloted the rocket ship containing
himself, Reed, Johnny, and Sue that fateful day when cosmic rays
changed them into the Fantastic Four.  Ben was the one with the
experience and the know-how to keep them on course.

That's why the Thing was at the helm as they sailed through the
Negative Zone in the small starship Blastaar had loaned them,
surrounded by other vessels just like it.  In fact, almost every vessel
in the tyrant's fleet was just like it.

And though they were strictly observers at this point and not
combatants, their vessel like all the others-boasted force shields and
armaments and other tactical systems.  While he had the opportunity,
Reed was subjecting those systems to close scrutiny.

After all, he knew if both they and Blastaar survived this adventure,
they would be at odds again someday.  And the more he knew about the
technology that went into Baluurian ships, the better the Fantastic
Four would fare against them.

"I still don't get it," Ben grumbled, his remark seem

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

ing to come out of nowhere.  "The idea that

" be worried about some innocent species

' stomped on."  He shook his head.  "It's ridiculous."

Reed sighed and turned away from the exposed cuitry he'd been poring
over.  He was getting ated, and Mr.  Fantastic wasn't normally an
exasperate.

"For the third time," he told his friend, "I'm crediting Blastaar with
charity, or even concern for i'.  ers.  Clearly, whatever he's doing is
in his own

However, it seems that, for once, our interests an i,."  taar's may be
on a similar course."

,".

The Thing made a sound of disgust.  "A

'i' course?  And what does that say about us?"

"Nothing good," said Johnny, sticking his head of the vessel's rear
cargo compartment, where been conducting some experiments of his own.
Hi.,

, finger, which he'd been using to test the heat " of the ship's inner
hull, was still aflame.

Reed cast a look of disapproval at him.  H,

, to defend himself when the young man spoke " On the other hand, I've
been thinking about ii.

Blastaar told us.  And if there is a Galactus-type running roughshod
over the Negative Zone, we've to do whatever's necessary to slop
him--including ing up alongside Blastaar.  For now, at least."

The Thing grimaced at him.  'a lay down with

Squirt, ya get fleas.  Period, end of story.  And an,

thing He stopped himself and made some adj control panel.  Then he
turned to look back over his

"Nell, whaddaya know.  It looks like we've reached final destination.
Stow yer tray tables and bring yer seat backs forward, and thanks a
bunch fer flyin' Air Blastface."

Reed stretched his head forward on his neck to get a look at Ben's
control console.  It didn't take long to see what he was talking about.
There was something on his sensor screen, all right.

And it was big.  As big as a small moon, in fact.

But it wasn't a moon.  It wasn't anything created by nature.

In his entire life, Mr.  Fantastic had seen only one artificial object
of that size and complexitymthe Worldship.  occupied by Galactus when
he came to Earth.  Suddenly, Blastaar's claims seemed a good deal more
real, a good deal more tangible.

'6qaat's all the fuss about?"  asked Johnny.

Moving forward, he peered over the Thing's other shoulder.  Then he saw
the sensor screen and he whistled.

"Galactus Alert," he said softly.

Throughout Blastaar's fleet, Baluurians would be eyeing the same image
and remarking on the size of what they saw.  But it didn't seem to
daunt them in the least.  None of the vessels around Reed's ship even
slowed down.

"This is Blastaar," a familiar voice said over their Communications
link.  'Ve've finally caught up with our enemy.  If you've got half a
brain among you, you'll the fight."

Reed pressed a rectangular button, allowing tyrant to hear what he had
to say.  "For the moment,"] replied, 've still prefer to observe.  But
we'll be in case we change our minds."

He could hear a disgruntled growling on the end of the comm link.  'You
still doubt me?"  roared.

"We see a ship," Reed explained.  "But we don't the intentions of its
owners.  And until we do, we consider taking part in any conflict."

The Baluurian muttered a curse.  "Suit then," he told them, and severed
the link.

By then, they were closer to the artificial obje They could see how
immense it was--how badly dwarfed the vessels in Blastaar's vanguard,
them almost inconsequential by comparison.

The tyrant's flagship was bigger and more outfitted than any of the
other attackers.  But under circumstances, it looked like a flea
attacking the est of elephants.

Gradually, the flagship forged ahead of the vessels, spearheading the
assault.  And as Reed and comrades peeled off from the formation, the
rest armada followed Blastaar in.

They went for the heart of the immense st ran each vessel opening fire
as it got within rang then veering off in one direction or another lest
it lide with its target.  The barrage splashed off the force shields,
however, causing it no harm.

Doesn't look like they accomplished much," the remarked from the safety
of their observation

"Not yet," Reed agreed.  "But if they keep it up, they may batter down
those shields.  Then they'll start inflicting some damage."

"Whoa," Johnny said.  '"-hat' st hat

He pointed to one of the other monitors on the console--where a series
of red blips had appeared on a pale green field.  Reed studied the
blips, which were growing larger and more numerous by the moment.

Suddenly, he knew.  "Reinforcements," he said out loud.

The Thing looked at him.  "For Blastaar?"

Mr.  Fantastic shook his head on his elongated neck.  "No, Ben.  For
the object."

His conclusion turned out to be right on the money.  As the newcomers
got closer and closer, becoming visible to the naked eye as sleek,
black needles, it grew increasingly apparent that they were going after
Blastaar's armada.

They weren't as numerous as the tyrant's ships, but they were faster
and more maneuverable, and they began wreaking havoc right off the bat.
Wherever an at tacker vessel was alone and cut off from the fleet, one
of the newcomers seemed to find it and pick it off.

There were explosions, fiery red blossoms opening here and there
against the backdrop of Negative Zone space.  Before Reed's eyes and
those of his teammates, the newcomers scored hit after hit, kill after
kill.

Before long, the armada was in disarray, pressed just to defend
itself--much less to mount any kind of:

on the object.  And it was still losing ship after while the newcomers
in their ebon vessels went,

unscathed.

The Thing grunted.  "Blastaar's takin' a be haven't seen such a
one-sided tussle since I left Street."

His tone was casual.  But his eyes were hard as s with the sight of all
that death.

"It's tough to sympathize with the " Johnny said, his face as drawn and
as grim as Reed ever seen it.  "But still..."

Then, even as they were commiserating with taar's forces, that misery
found some them.  One of the black needles came about and in on the
observation vessel.

"For the luv va Pete!"  Ben blurted--and spun out of the way of a
blue-white energy blast.

Reed latched on to the bulkhead on either side him and craned his neck
to study He didn't like what he saw there.

"It's coming back for another pass!"  he warned Thing.

']Just tell them we're observers!"  Johnny snapped.  Ben glanced at
him.  "Zeah, that'll work."  Then and lmtlated poked some control pads
" " " evasive vers.

But the Torch wasn't giving up.  "It couldn't hurt try!"  he
yelled--just as the black needle unleashed other blinding volley at
them.

The Thing cursed and pulled them hard to star'

Somehow, he slipped past the volley and acti their weapons systems.

Instantly, Reed put a hand on his friend's shoulder.  weapons are
lethal," he said.

"So are theirs," the Thing insisted.

'We came here to save lives," Mr.  Fantastic reminded him, "not to take
them.  There'll be no killing, Ben."

The Thing hesitated, but Reed knew Ben would come around, once he got
his temper under control.  "Awright, aw right came the Thing's
response.  "Ya got anything against me shakin' 'em up a little?  I
mean, I wouldn't wanna offend yer delicate sensibilities or nothin'."

"Shaking up is good," Reed assured him.

"Very good, "Johnny added.

With his friends' support, Ben fired off a few blasts just to keep
their adversary honest.  Then he made a bee line for the thick of the
battle.

Reed understood the strategy.  What's more, he ap proved of it.  On
their own, they were an easy target.  In the midst of chaos there was a
danger of colliding with another vessel, but it would be harder for
their pursuer to draw a bead on them.

Bursts from the black needle sizzling all around them, the Thing
dropped them into the mess that was the remainder of Blastaar's armada.
Suddenly, ships were careening every which way, firing packets of
lethal energy as they wentmor exploding as the enemy tagged them with a
charge of its own.

It seemed impossible to Reed they'd make it through the clutter and
confusion.  But Ben wove a

FRNTOSTIC FOUR

her ky-jerky path for them, taking them up and and swerving to one side
then the other, crackup after crackup and in the process, vessel's
inertial compensators as they'd been tested before.

Their adversary didn't give up on them,

The black needle stayed on their trail, twisting ing right along with
them.

At last, the Thing pulled them out of the melee the other sidemright
near the immense object which the battle was being fought.  And as he
did so swung them around in the tightest of turns.

The bulkheads shrieked and the deckplates de red but the little ship
held togethermand self face-to-face with the black needle, which Ben
had been aiming for all along.  As the enemy zagged to avoid a
collision, he got it in his sights fired.

Reed checked the rearview monitor and saw his friend had been true to
his word.  The black had been hit in one of its narrow, curved win was
still smoldering with the remains and was rolling through space
unceremoniously.

"She's crippled!"  Johnny cried.  He slapped Thing on his craggy,
orange shoulder.  "You did it, big gorilla!"

"What did ya expect?"  Ben retorted.  "Ya think playin' with kids here
or something'?"

That's when Reed felt the jolt of an energy strike their ship's
hindquarters, knocking him to got himself up, the taste of blood in his
mouth, he the problem was.

Another black needle.  And this one was on their tail, firing away as
if they were the only target in town.

They were walloped a second time.  And a third.  Their craft went
spinning wildly out of control.

"Ben!"  Reed yelled, holding on as best he could.  Pull us out, do you
hear?  Pull us out!"

Bent over his console, clinging to his seat with all his strength, the
Thing shook his massive head.  "The helm ain't respondin'.  Not even
Houdini could get us out of here!"

Then Reed caught a glimpse of his friend's eyes.  He saw the frenzy in
them, the mounting panic.  And that alarmed him more than anything.

They had to do something.  Otherwise they were sit ring ducks,
pinwheeling helplessly through space until the black needle delivered
the coup de grdce.

Reed's mind was racing, desperately seeking a way out, when he saw
Johnny go hurtling into the rear compartment  At first, he thought the
Torch had been flung there by centrifugal force.  Then he realized that
hadn't been the case at all.

Johnny had meant to tumble in there.  After all, that's where the hatch
was--the way out.  Reed reached for him, hoping to restrain
him--believing their best chance still lay in Ben's regaining control
of the ship.

But Johnny was too fast for him.  A moment later the hatch flew open
and Mr.  Fantastic heard the rush of

F INT STIC FOU ]

Negative Zone space past their hull--followed by a vent and familiar
battle cry.  Flame on!"

Then Reed caught sight of a fiery figure, his flaJ feeding on the
bizarre atmosphere of the Nega Zone as easily as if it had been the
oxygen-nitrogen riety back on Earth.  Spinning free of their vessel,
the creaure described a tight loop and flung itself at the

"Blasted idjit!"  Ben roared.  What's he tryin' tad get himself
killed?"

The enemy ship didn't fall off even a millimeter as Torch loomed before
it.  Its pilot either couldn't r, in time or wasn't concerned about
what he might d

Johnny showed him that was a mistake.  After he'd had years of practice
controlling his flame.  could make it gentle enough to fry an egg or
turn it i a conflagration of near-nuclear force.

As Reed looked on through the observation pot his crippled craft, the
Torch glowed white-hot.  Thel shot past the black needle and released a
series of [ pink fireballs.

The first one stopped a meter from the enemy s and remained there,
caught in the fabric of the vess shield.  But the next two pen rated
the shield struck the hull.

Instantly, the super hot flames turned the need side to slag.  A moment
later, there vas a hole in craft, still burning at the edges.

And the Torch wasn't done.  Trailing white through the void, he went
after the enemy ship as it came about.  Having drawn blood, he was
naturally eager for more.

But one skirmish didn't a battle make.  Reed knew that.  Had he been
out there, he might've drummed some caution into Johnny's head.

Unfortunately, he wasn't anywhere near the Torch.  He was still
hurtling end over end in their borrowed ship, watching Johnny and his
adversary diminish with distance as Ben struggled to get a response
from his con trois

Even if they'd been able to get free of the craft, their propulsion
harnesses wouldn't have been a match for the Torch's speed---or, for
that matter, that of the black needle.  They'd have been left hanging
in space, just as useless as they were now.

Pressing his face against the transparent surface of the observation
port, Reed saw Johnny generate an other series of fireballs.  And
another, as his flame trail carved itself into the heavens.  And each
time, the enemy's hull flared in response.

Against all odds, the Torch was coming out on top.  By dint of courage
and skill, the lad was winninga struggle in which he hadn't stood a
chance.

Then, before Reed's horrified eyes, the black needle pulled a maneuver
he wouldn't have thought possible.  For all intents and purposes, it
slammed on its brakes in the middle of space--and Johnny, who'd been
worrying its flank like a hungry predator, went sailing by it.  Right
into its weapon sights.  Before the Torch could recover, the ship
skewered him with a beam of white force.  By the time the barrage was
over,.  flame had been extinguished.

"Is he... ?"  the Thing wondered, unable even voice his fear.

He had given up on his control panel and was bering across the cabin in
Reed's direction, digging fingers into the bulkheads to keep from being
about.

The leader of the Fantastic Four could barely out the Torch against the
colorless background space.  It seemed to him Johnny was moving as
driftedmnot dead but merely stunned.

"I think he's still alive," Reed said, hopefully.  He'd barely gotten
the words out when the needle started to move forward again.  Behind
him, Thing pounded on a bulkhead, frustrated capacity to contain
himself.

A hatch opened in the vessel's side and taken in.  Then, rather than
reenter the fray, the needle approached the mysterious structure that
been Blastaar's objective from the beginning.

A slot opened in the object and the ship through it.  Then the slot
disappeared again.  And Torch, battered to a degree his brother-in-law
didn!i want to think about, was a prisoner of whatever--had built the
thing.

But first, he had done what he had set out to do.  had saved his
teammates, whose vessel was slower and slower now as the atmosphere of
the negative Zone hindered its progress.

"I'he bastards," Ben rumbled.

The other black needles began withdrawing from the battle as
well--though it was hardly as a result of the Torch's efforts.  They
had simply battered Blastaar's fleet to the point where it was no
longer a threat.  The few Baluurian vessels left intact were hanging
back, leery about suffering the same fate as their comrades.

As the enemy ships got closer to the alien structure, other slots
opened in its flanks.  Like their sister vessel before them, they
slipped inside.  And as before, the slots disappeared.

Then, with a vibration Reed could feel even at a considerable distance,
the object activated its propulsion system--and moved away from the
field of battle at a speed the human wouldn't have thought possible.

With Johnny somewhere inside it.

or some time, the Suffer cut a swath across the un familiar cosmos of
the Negative Zone, absorbed in its wonders and its curiosities.

But he didn't let his sight-seeing slow him down.  Part of his
mind--all that he needed--was firmly focused on following the trail of
Susan Richards's team mates.

Besides, if he had faltered even a little bit, he was certain Susan
herself would have let him know it.  She stood right behind him, her
hand on his shoulder, clearly in tent on only one thing as the Negative
Zone unfolded before them--and that was the recovery of Reed, Ben, and
Johnny.

Such were his thoughts as he noticed something up ahead, in the
distance--something more curious than anything he had seen in the
Negative Zone to that point.  It was a golden glow no bigger than his
fist.  And right in his path.

The odds of anything being right in his path in a place like the
Negative Zone were astronomically un likely.  But that wasn't all he
found unusual.  As he approached the glow, unswervingly maintaining his
course, he saw that it was getting bigger.

"Suffer?"  said Susan Richards.  By then, she must have noticed his
scrutiny of something far beyond her powers of perception.  "Is
something wrong?"

"That is difficult to say," he answered.

Slowing his surfboard, he came to a stop in front of

1fin

FANTASTIC FOUR

the glow.  It was the size of a man by that time.

was still growing.

"I don't suppose you have encountered such a nome non before?"  the
Surfer inquired of his ion.

"I'm afraid not," Susan told him, her face bathed golden light.  "But I
think I'll put up a force field in case."

He waved off the suggestion.  "If necessary, I

fend us.  For now, you would do better to conserve energy.

The glow continued to expand until it was more than twice the Surfer's
height.  Then something darken the center of it.  As he watched, the
darkness seemed take shape, to solidify.

Finally, a bizarre figure emerged from the

Surfer caught sight of huge, green wings like Terran bat, and a green
mask, flanked by spiked, shoulder plates.  The rest of the figure's
attire was purplish hue, except for a golden cylinder its neck.

Though the Surfer couldn't see the face be mask--a curious circumstance
in itself--the thing's sectoid features only appeared to echo the
visage neath it.  Also, there was someing vaguely about the newcomer's
posture.

Susan's hands clenched instinctively into fists.  nihil us she
breathed, brow puckering, eyes alert.

It was not the warmest of greetings.  The turned to her.  "You know
this one."  It wasn't a question,

Susan nodded anyway.  "We've run into him

Zone before.  That cylinder hanging from his neck is called a Cosmic
Control Rod.  It's made him one of the most dangerous antagonists we've
ever fought."

The Surfer absorbed the information.  Considering that the Fantastic
Four had battled Galactus, legions of the Skrull Empire, and invasions
from Prince Namor's Atlantis in their careers as Earth's champions,
Susan's description of the interloper was sobering indeed.

Fortunately, the Surfer was confident in his own power as well.  He
didn't know what a Cosmic Control Rod could do, but he was wasn't ready
to believe it could eclipse the Power Cosmic.

"If you are wise," Annihilus chittered savagely, ignoring Susan's
description of him, "you will speak only in answer to my questions.
Tell me quickly, then--what is your business here, Susan Richards? 
What need is so dire, it would compel you to trespass and incur my
wrath?" He indicated the Surfer with an arrogant tilt of his head. 
"And who is this?  An ally?"

The Surfer eyed him.  "My name is no secret.  I am called the Silver
Surfer.  As for our business here.."  it is just that.  Our
business."

The chin of the mask lifted in indignation.  The golden glow around
Annihilus shimmered and flashed, as if with anger.

'gou dare speak that way to me?"  he rasped.  "To one who can rend you
atom from atom and quark from quark?"

The Surfer didn't so much as flinch.  "If you are as mighty as you
claim," he replied evenly, 'you know I am at least your equal in terms
of raw power.  Still, it is al

FAI TASTIC FOUR

ways preferable to avoid violence.  I can only assure that we have been
drawn here by circumstances opaque and mysterious to us, and that we
will depart soon as the mystery has been solved."

For the span of an uncomfortable few seconds, nihil us seemed to mull
over the Surfer's words.  he uttered his conclusion.

'You lie, Silver Surfer.  You know more than you And for your
mendacity, I will see you destroyed."

But not immediately, the Surfer observed, Annihilus made no move
against them.  Instead, bat-winged figure withdrew slowly into the
golden finally vanishing altogether.  Then, by degrees, the itself
diminished.  Within moments, there was no evidence of either it or its
maker had ever existed in the place.

Susan grunted.  "How about that?  I was certain nihil us was going to
let us have it with both barrels."  glanced at the Surfer.  "I guess
you really are a match him."

"At least in his estimate," the Surfer res "And for now, that is all
that matters."

The Invisible Woman smiled at him.  "I'm glad didn't tell Annihilus
about my teammates' ance--or Blastaar's part in it.  I mean, he hates
as much as anyone, but not enough to help us out."

The Surfer nodded.  "I suspected as much."  He regarded his companion.
"Perhaps there was a

I was naive enough to trust blindlymas I trusted Doom, shortly after my
rebellion

Surfer had encountered Doom--the Fantastic greatest enemy, though he
did not know that at the time--during his exile, and Doom had
temporarily stolen the Power Cosmic from the Surfer.  "But," he
continued "I am no longer that being."

Susan's smile deepened.  "No," she agreed, "I guess you're not.  I'm
sorry if I implied otherwise."  Then she turned again to the open void.
"Come on, let's get back on the trail.  We've still got our work cut
out for us."

The Surfer didn't answer.  He merely rode forward on his gleaming
surfboard, following the molecular emanations of Reed, Ben, and Johnny
across a vast and wondrous cosmos.

Johnny Storm was dreaming.  What's more, he knew he was dreaming.  But
it was such a good dream, he didn't want to wake up from it.

In the dream, he was lying on a beach towel some where, a tropical sun
warm on his skin, a gentle breeze stirring his hair.  A glittering,
azure sea lapped at the sandy shore.  In other words, paradise.

No Fantastic Four flare in the sky, calling him to bat He with the Mole
Man, the Sub-Mariner, Dr.  Doom, or anyone else.  No one calling him at
all.  Just the sighing of the palm trees off to his right, as they
swayed like dancers under the influence of the trade winds.

He watched them for a while, smiling to himself.  Then he turned to his
left, expecting to see more of the same.

Instead, what he saw was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met, lying
there beside him on the towel.  Her eyes were a piercing, star ding
green, her lips full and

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

pouting, her hair a jet black shot through with of gold.  And she had a
scent about her like sweet, gent wildflowers.

She grinned at him.  "He's waking up."

A little confused, Johnny looked at her.  Then looked around.  Then he
grinned back.  "He?  Don't mean youmas in you're waking up?"

The woman stroked his forehead with her c( slender fingers.  Ve still
have a significant number tests to perform.  Reinforce his sedation."

Again, Johnny couldn't help but wonder what , was talking about.  "You
know," he said, not dispel the tropical magic of the moment, "it sounds
as if you're talking to someone else.  An, it's none of my business,
but what are these tests talking about?"

The woman didn't reply.  She just continued smile.  It set his mind at
ease.  For a moment,

Then he remembered that other word she'd Sedation.  It was a funny
word, one that seemed pletely out of place.

Why sedate someone who was already about as laxed as he could get?  And
why on a beach, with the warming his skin and the scent of wildflowers
in nostrils and the whirring of rntchinery in the ground?

Abruptly, he stopped himself and retraced the ste of his thought.  The
sound of... machinery ?  he mused,

That isn't good, he told himself.  That isn't good at He closed his
eyes and made the effort he wanted to make before.

Like a swimmer ascending through a dark depth of water, he made his way
up to the surface with long, increasingly urgent strokes.  And when he
reached it, he opened his eyes again.

The woman was still there.  Her hair was still a wave of jet.  Her lips
were still full and pouting, and her eyes were still the green of
chiseled emeralds.  But that was where the resemblance ended.

Her eyes were too slanted to be human, her brows too arched.  And her
skin was too golden--as golden as the highlights in her hair, maybe
more so.  To top it off, she wasn't wearing a swimsuit.  She was
wearing a form fitting black jumpsuit with a green insignia over the
left breast.

Taking stock of his surroundings' Johnny saw that he was strapped with
metal bands to a large, metal table, in a large, high-tech chamber full
of gizmos and gadgets that he couldn't begin to understand--and that
might even present Reed with a challenge.  Every square inch of wall
space was filled with monitors and gauges and readouts of one kind or
another, and they were all generating data a mile a minute.

Besides the woman at his side, there were a half dozen others in the
same kind of slinky, black outfit.  They were clearly of different
races, most likely even from different planets, but they were all
basically humanoid.  Each one, in her own way, was attractive to
Johnny's sensibilities.

What's more, he had a strange feeling he'd seen them before.  Then he
realized that he had.  These were the pilots of the black needle ships.
The

FONTOSTIC FOUR

pilots who had run circles around Blastaar's sels, lashed out at the
three human observers, and mately taken Johnny hostage.  Which went a
long toward explaining where he was and how he'd there.

Except now, the pilots were acting as some Researchers, Johnny thought,
analyzing him with a array of arcane scientific equipment--the kind
would have drooled over.

A thought came to him unbidden: Cat Venus.  It was an old
science-fiction movie he'd a kid, curled up under his covers, too
scared to and yet too fascinated to go to sleep.

He had only a vague recollection of the who had encountered the cat
women, and even of what the story was about.  But the cat women them
selves .. . these he remembered very well.  He membered how snugly
their costumes fit.  And remembered also their
not-altogether-scientific riosity about the astronauts.

Just then, he saw one of the women with what looked like a slim, silver
aerosol can.  she told the brunette.  "This ought to hold him while."

Neither of them looked at, him  Neither of seemed inclined to
acknowledge his presence, than as a slab of meat.  And he bet that even
if he nicely, neither of them was going to free him

Under other circumstances, Johnny wouldn't minded being pored over by a
flock of alien women, of them intensely interested in his body.  It
kind to him.  In fact, it was right up there with the on the beach.

But these circumstances included being trussed up like a Christmas
turkey and being put under sedation so they could do who-knew-what to
him.  Not to mention that they worked for a guy accused of
Galactus-like destruction

Then,just in case he had any doubts about what to do next, Johnny heard
the whirr of machinery change in volume, and a wicked-looking
conglomeration of mechanical arms and probes and needles descended to
ward him from the ceiling all at once.  At the same time, the woman
with the golden skin moved to press her aerosol thingie against his
shoulder.

"Oh no, you don't!"  he told her.  "Flame on!"

As Johnny said it, he could feel his biochemistry igniting him, turning
him into a creature of intense heat and raging flame: the Human
Torch.

The woman with the golden skin backed off, raising her arm
instinctively to shield her from the sudden blast of heat.  But it was
nothing compared to what Johnny was capable of when he set his mind to
it.

Setting his jaw, he willed himself to blaze hotter and hotter, until
even the metal alloy of his bonds melted and sizzled away like water on
a breakfast skillet.

And just for good measure, he directed a few fire spirals at the
nightmarish mechanism descending toward him.  Its probes and needles
softened and bubbled and hissed away into nothingness--which was, as
far as Johnny was concerned, where they belonged.

Free now, he leapt off the slab he'd been lying on and turned to face
his personal "cat women."  But were ready for him.

Before he knew it, one of them leveled a looking firearm his way and
tapped the trigger its barrel.  Blinding the Torch in quick succession,
sending him flying over heels---until he smacked into the bulkhead hind
him.

As he got to his feet, dazed and bruised, he saw the others had armed
themselves as well--thou had no idea where they'd gotten the weapons.
without their ships, it seemed, these women were tough.  But that was
all right.  The Torch figured he tougher.

Looking around, he expected to find least vaguely resembling an exit ma
door, a hatch,

a fair-sized vent.  There wasn't any.  At least, none could locate at a
glance.

And a glance was all the opportunity the women" gave him.  Aiming their
weapons again,

The Torch shot up to the ceiling, trailing just in time to see the
blue-white energy bursts harmlessly below him.  Where they struck the
they splattered.

Johnny watched his captors' eyes as they took aim  third time.  When
they fired, he darted to his right.  women missed.  And he kept going,
hoping to get hind them.

Unfortunately, they were quicker than he'd

They dropped and roiled onto their backs, lighting walls with a
devastating barrage.  The closed quarmade it seem even more
devastating.

Still, Johnny managed to stay one step ahead of the en and even sling a
few fireballs at themmnot to hurt them, just to melt their weapons. 
One his missiles went astray, but each of the others con d with an
energy gun, forcing its owner to drop it a hot potato.

Outracing another couple of energy bursts, he disd two more women.  And
then two more.  That left i only onemthe one with the golden skin, of
course.  She seemed to be the most capable one in the group, the one
the others looked to for guidance.

If he could take her out, he'd have the time he needed to find an
escape route.  And now that he only had one weapon to worry about, his
goal seemed well in sight.

Avoiding an energy blast, the Torch tossed off three fireballs in quick
succession.  Overkill, maybe.  But he was eager to finish this.

As it turned out, the woman avoided all three of his missiles, then
squeezed off a few shots of her own.  Surprised Johnny was barely able
to twist out of the way.  Remembering how much those energy bursts
could hurt, he did the thing he thought his adversary would least
expect.

The Torch came straight at her.  It was exactly the right move.  Before
the woman could fire again, he took her weapon barrel in his hands and
turned it into slag.  As she dropped it, he saw her glare at him.

No, he thought.  Not at him.  Past him.  At something

FONTOSTIC FOUR

she saw over his shoulder.  He whirled to see what:

But he was too late--by a fraction of a se Johnny felt a series of
energy bursts slam into skull-pounding impact after the other.

There was no letup, either.  Not until he was on the floor, his flame
all but extinguished, takin gasps to replace the wind that had been
knocked him.

Looking up, he saw the exit--the one he'd searching for--and the half
dozen reinforcements black jumpsuits who had come through it.  weapons
were still trained on him.

WV hat took you so long?"  someone askedmthe skinned woman, he thought.
And then: "Put under."

Before Johnny could figure out what that m, felt a pressure against his
arm.  A moment later, he himself drifting off.  Spiraling downward into
an

He seemed to fall for a long, long time.

11.]

ell?"  Ben asked.

He was sitting with his back against an un marred bulkheadmone of the
few left in the Blastaar had given them.  His mood was a black one it
grew blacker by the minute.

Just a few feet away, Reed withdrew his head from the maze of circuitry
inside the open control console.  "It's shot in there," he replied.
"But I think I can repair it.  It'll just take a while."

The Thing grunted, dissatisfied.  "The squirt may not have a while."

Reed nodded.  "I know.  But it's the best I can do."  "The best you
coulda done," the Thing rejoined, feeling a surge of anger, 'voulda
been to keep the kid inside the ship in the first place."

His friend's expression hardened.  "I could hardly have pulled him back
with a command, Ben.  He's the Human Torch, not Rin Tin Tin."

Ben pointed a thick, blunt finger at Reed.  "And you're our leader, fer
cryin' out loud!  People are sup posed to listen to you, right?"

His friend looked at him askance.  "So it's my fault Johnny took off?.
Is that what you're saying?"  He paused.  "Or is it yourself you're mad
at?"

Suddenly, the Thing was on his feet, eyes blazing.  "Me?  What would
anyone be mad at me for?"

Reed didn't answer right away.  And when he did, it was with a voice
full of kindness and understanding. "That's exactly my point, Ben. 
You didn't do thing anyone could get mad at.  Not this time--and that
other time."

The Thing glowered at him.  "What in blue ya talkin' about?"  he
growled--even though he actly what his friend was talking about.

"I saw the look on your face," Reed said softly.  fear.  The panic.  It
was the same look you had the we changed."

There.  It was out in the open.  Finally, Ben admit it.  In the midst
of the battle, as he fought trol of their vessel, he had found himself
with a memory.  And it came back to him again now as fierce and just as
frightening.

It had been an attempt to break free of Earth's ity in the smallest,
lightest ship yet.  A ship that revolutionize humanity's struggle to
reach the or so Reed had said.

Ben had reluctantly volunteered to be his pilot, though he was leery of
the cosmic rays they encounter.  And encounter them they had, high the
Earth, in wave after brain-seating wave.

Each of them was affected differently by the Ben's case, he felt as if
his body had become an enormous weight.  As he sank to.0ac deck, his
arms too to work the controls, he had lost control of their The four of
them had been tossed about, helpless.

By then, Johnny had begun to smoke as if he on fire.  Ben remembered
that vividly.  He hadn't able to see Reed or Sue very well, because his
head too heavy to raise off the deck.  But he had seen he had thought,
Oh my God, what's happening to the

What's happening to all of us ?

"I-Ie knew now.  They had been bathed in the cosmic he'd feared all
along.  But they hadn't died.  They'd become monsters.  A human torch.
An invisible

A man whose body stretched like elastic.  And worst of all, a hideous,
lumbering thing.  A walk nightmare with the strength of a whole blasted
pla a freak for whom Mother Nature couldn't be held sible.

His losing control of the spacecraft hadn't killed

After all, the autopilot had taken over and landed safely on Earth. 
But if the autopilot hadn't cut in, could have been killed.

And what an irony that would have been.  The four champions the Earth
had ever known... in a crack-up before they even realized how they
were.  All because of him.

"It wasn't your fault," Reed told him, bringing him out of his reverie.
"Not what happened that night, and not what happened to Johnny just
now.  Not your fault, you hear me?"

"I was the pilot," Ben insisted.

"And you did your best, Ben.  That's all you can ever do.  And it's a
lot better than anyone else's best."

The Thing heaved a sigh.  " "Cept when it comes time to dole out blame.
Seems whenever I feel guilty, I Start heapin' it on you."

Just as he had that fateful night.  He'd blamed Reed for what had
happened, when they'd all known the risks.  Hell, he'd tried to take
his friend's head a tree trunk.

Reed smiled a weary smile.  "Good thing I'm then.  Otherwise, you might
try to heap it on who can't take it."

For a moment, they just looked at each other.  real brother had died
when Ben was a teen somehow, years later, he'd found another one.  A
who would take any risk, absorb any abuse, if he it would lessen his
friend's pain.

']eez," Ben said.  "I guess we're whatchamacallit'i bonding."

Reed made a face.  'es, it's a real Kodak

Too bad we still have a considerable amount of do."

The Thing felt a rush of surprise.  "Hey,

made a funny."

His friend dismissed the idea with a wave

"Reed Richards doesn't joke," he pointed

' -there," said Ben, pointing at him.  "Za did

Reed rolled his eyes and reached for a tool.  ducked inside the control
console again.

Just as well, the Thing thought.  He was a better at clobbering things
than laying his soul

Sue Richards had long ago stopped looking house reflection in the
muscular contours of Surfer's silver back.  She didn't like the woman
she in that reflection.

It was a long-faced woman.  A worried woman.

looked like she'd lost something more precious life itself.

That's not me, Sue kept telling herself.  That's someone The someone I
used to be before the cosmic rays turned me what I am--and more
importantly, who I am.  Besides, she hadn't lost anything--at least,
not yet.  long as her teammates were still ahead of her some in the
great beyond of the Negative Zone, still a beyond their grasp, she
could embrace the hope r were alive and intact.

And so could the woman reflected in the Surfer's g hide.

Suddenly, Sue saw the reflection writhe, taking on a different shape as
the Suffer changed his stance.  His head tilted ever so slightly to one
side.  "What is it?"  she asked.  "Something up ahead," he replied.

"My teammates?"  she suggested.  Her heart began to pound in her chest.
After all, possibility was about to become reality.  And it might not
be the reality she'd desired.

As if sensing her trepidation, the Surfer reached back and brought her
forward until she stood alongside him on his surfboard.  Then he
pointed into the star flecked darkness.

"I'he trails lead to a vessel," he told her.  "It is small.  And
damaged.  And it is near a collection of other small, damaged vessels.
If I were to venture a guess, I would say they had all been in
conflict."

Sue peered into the distance.  She didn't see any thing at first. 
Only the passage of distant stars on side of them.

Then she did see something.  And a few later, at the speed they were
going, they were top of it.  As the Surfer slowed them down, she
herself dwarfed by a vast armada.

As he had said, its ships were damaged--den to charred as if with enemy
fire.  Still, they banged up that she couldn't make out Blastaar' sign
ia on their hulls.

"These are Blastaar's ships," she told the my teammates are in one of
them, they're

She turned to him.  '%qaich one did their trails le: He pointed.  "That
one."

Following his gesture, Sue saw a vessel much the others, but well apart
from the pack.  Its aft had been caved in pretty badly, but it looked
intact.  anyway, it wouldn't have mattered if there had breach.  Here
in the Negative Zone, the outside the ships was the same as the atm
within.

The Surfer grunted softly.  "That is strange."  turned his head slowly,
his eyes alive as if thread she couldn't see.

"What is it?"  she asked.

"Only two sets of emanations lead to the ship.  third leads..."  His
nostrils flared as he tried to it.  "Elsewhere."

Sue swallowed.  Which one of them was missing?  didn't want to know.
Not yet.  She still had work to go inside," she said.  "But watch out
for Blas "S troops."

"I will do that," the Surfer assured her.

They approached the ship in question and melted its hull.  Even before
they were inside, Sue an invisible force field around them and also
both of them invisiblemsomething even the could not do.  It turned out
not to be necessary.  There were only people in the vessel.  One was
Ben.  The other was ;d.

In her happiness at seeing them, she dropped the and the invisibility.
Both men did a double take as saw Sue and the Surfer fade into view.

"Fer cryin' out loud!"  the Thing growled.  '%Vhadtryin' tado, gimme a
heart attack?"

Her husband didn't say anything.  Not at first, any He just dropped the
tool in his hand, reached the cabin with his elongated arms, and folded
her his embrace.  "Reed," she said, basking in his nearness.

"Susan," he responded just as tenderly.  Then he held her away to look
at her.  "You're all right?"

She nodded.  "Thanks to the Surfer."

Reed glanced at the silver being standing on his surfboard, hovering
just inches above the deck.  "It's good to see you again," he said
sincerely.

"The feeling is mutual," the Surfer assured him, his Voice sounding
even bigger and softer than usual in these confined quarters.

FAI TASTIC FOUR

'eah," Ben chimed in.  "Rca/mutual.  The way are goin', we can use a
joker with some moxie glanced at the Invisible Woman.  "Wou too,
Suzie..

Suddenly, she remembered what the Surfe said.  "Where'sJohnny?"  she
asked, though she drei the answer

Reed sighed.  "We were caught up in a battl tween Blastaar and some
mysterious entity.  Johnn trying to save us when he was seized by the
entity's!| please."  He gripped Sue's arms a little tighter "I'he saw
him, he seemed unconscious."

Or dead, she thought.  But she didn't say it out The Surfer turned to
Ben.  "Then you commandeeredee red this vessel for its
propulsioncapabflmes."  " " took in the control console.  "Though its
helm doeSl seem to be responding."

q'rue enough," Reed told him.  "But we didn't man deer it.  It was
given to us, believe it or not."  paused.  "By Blastaar."

Sue looked at him.  "He gave it to you?"

The Thing shrugged.  "I wouldn'ta believed it eifl Suze.  In fact, I
wouldn'ta believed any of this."

Reed was the one who finally provided the ex nation.  He told his wife
and the Surfer about their tr with Blastaar and the reason for it.

"By the time the battle reached its peak," Reed on, "we still didn't
have enough information to t sides.  But we were in one of Blastaar's
ships, so the tity's agents chose a side for us."

The Surfer thought for a moment.  To my kn{ edge, Galactus has never
entered any galaxy but,

do not believe the entity has anything to do with

-which doesn't mean it's not a threat," Reed re them.

?e've got to go after Johnny," Sue insisted.  "And the Suffer here, we
won't need a ship to do it."  Ben scowled.  "But how're we gonna find
the squirt?"

way the Suffer found us," Reed said.  "By a trail we make when we enter
the NegaZone."  He eyed their silvery ally.  "Something like

The Suffer nodded.  "Zes."

"Then what're we waiting for?"  asked the Thing.

Blasfface ain't gonna be too thrilled with us fer back during the
battle--especially when he con the result."  "Ben's right," Reed said.
"We should--"

Suddenly, their vessel was rocked by a powerful out force--something
that filled the portals with blind Before Sue could create a force
field to protect them, she felt something soft surround her and cush
her collision with a bulkhead.

It was Reed, of course.  As he uncoiled, freeing her, he grimaced and
reached for his shoulder.  Unfortunately being pliable wasn't the same
as being invulnerable.

"It's okay," Ben grumbled, extricating himself from Under the control
console.  "Don't bother cushionin' me, Stretch.  I'll just bounce
around down here for a while."

The Suffer, of course, had needed no one's protec

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

tion.  He had remained perfectly upright, unaffected i the jolt.

Curious as to what had happened, Susan peered an observation port.  Her
husband craned his neck look over her shoulder.  Neither of them had to
lo, very long to find an answer.

"Speak of the devil," Reed muttered.

A vessel ten times the size of their own hung in void.  Susan didn't
have to see Blastaar's face to know was his flagship.

Reed turned to the Surfer.  "Our shields held under his first attack,
but they may not survive one.  As I began to say earlier, we should
extricate selves and begin our search while we still can."

The Surfer nodded.  "As you wish."  He indicated silver board at his
feet.  "Please.  Join me."

Susan was the first to step aboard.  Reed and came next.  Then the
Surfer melted them all the battered bulkhead and brought them out into
posative Zone space zone

--just as Blastaar unleashed another blinding rage.

Before their eyes, their vessel caved in on a pop can in the hands of a
body builder, unable to stand the massive force of the assault. 
Nothing the ship would have lived throug it.  They had just in time.

The Surfer hesitated a second or two, as by Blastaar's vessel.  What's
more, Susan unde Having heard about the so-called Living from Reed, he
had to be a little curious.

But not so curious that he would endanger the lives of his friends.  As
the vessel's weapons turrets swiveled in their direction, Susan could
feel them start to glide through the void.

Before she could draw another breath, Blastaar's ship--and the rest of
his armada--was only a distant speck.  Apparently, they no longer
needed to concern themselves with what was behind them.

Only with what was ahead.

Standing in front of the oversized monitor that dominated his bridge,
Blastaar ground his teeth and cursed.  The humans and their strange,
silvery ally were speeding off into space.

This was not what he'd had in mind when he decided to lure the
Fantastic Four into the Negative Zone.  Not even close.

They were supposed to have seen the threat the planet-eater posed to
both their galaxies.  They were supposed to have added their power to
Blastaar's, without stint or reservation.  And together, they were
supposed to have driven the upstart into the ground.  Somehow, it
hadn't turned out that way.

The humans had undermined Blastaar's efforts with their reluctance to
fight.  They had betrayed him.  And in the end, he had failed miserably
because of it.

They owed him their pain for that.  Their suffering, their humiliation.
But now, the fates were trying to deny him even that much.  They were
trying to place the humans out of his reach..

The fates be damned, he thought.  I'm Blastaar.  I take what I want. 
And what he wanted at this moment, than anything else in either galaxy,
was revenge Fantastic Four.

"Pilot," he growled.  "Follow them.

speed."

"SZes, Emperor," came the reply.  Blastaar glanced over his shoulder at
his cations technician.  "Contact the remainder of the: he spat.  "I
want them with us when we catch up humans."

After all, the silvery being had shown con speed and endurance.  It
might take more than i ship to bring him down.

'/es, your excellency.  The fleet is falling in

US.

Blastaar turned back to the monitor.  It was matter of time, he told
himself.  Then feel his wrath.

Their strange ally, too--whoever he was.

Johnny Storm woke up.  And this time, he knew wasn't dreaming.

There was no tropical sun hanging over him, no grant breeze caressing
his skin.  There was only chamber of techno-horrors he'd woken to fused
here and there with fireballs or scarred blaster bursts.  And as
before, no sign of an exit.

Of course, the jumpsuit brigade was in evidence well.  There had to be
more than a dozen of them tered around him, each more attractive than
the half of them were still armed and ready for ac.

The woman with the golden skin and the raven hair standing closest to
Johnny.  "How do you feel?"  she

He looked down at himself.  He wasn't bound by re anymore  Obviously,
his captors had seen how it was to tie him down.  Experimentally, he
sat up his high-tech slab.

"Pretty good," he replied appraisingly, "considering of the shots I
took."  He had a sudden flash of in'In fact, a little too good.  I'll
bet you injected me a painkiller or something."

The woman nodded.  "We anesthetized you, yes.  But only where it was
necessary.  We wanted you alert so we could speak with you."  Her
expression changed, became apologetic.  "So we could come to an
understanding.  You see, it wasn't our intention to alarm you in any
way--only to learn more about your unusual cellular structure."

"And to do that, "Johnny interpreted, 'you were willing to make a
pincushion out of me."

The apologetic expression disappeared.  "You must remember," the woman
said flatly, 'h/You and your fleet attacked our vessel--not the other
way around.  All we did was try to learn more about our attackers."

Johnny shook his head.  "The fleet may have attacked, but didn  I was
in an observer vessel.  I only came out when you started shooting at
us."

The woman's eyes narrowed.  "In that case," she replied at last, "I
regret the incident.  our intentions are often misinterpreted by those
don't know us.  When we see a fleet tend to react reflexively."  She
paused, her softening again.  "In any case, be assured we mean: no
harm."

'q'hat's good to hear," he told her.  It was no On the other hand," she
said, "We can't to damage our instruments with your flame you agree to
refrain from acts of violence, we will the same.  And of course, we
will forgo any further ; ses.

Johnny considered her.  It seemed the woman!  sincere.  But then, he
had always been a of character.  The one thing he knew was that he to
buy some time--figure out what was going here.

"Okay," he said at last.  "It's a deal.  I'll take it easy the
furnishings."  Swinging his legs around, he sli off the bed and held
his hand out.  ']ohnny Storm."

It took the woman a moment or two to hend.  Then she clasped his hand
in her own.  Her was even firmer than he had expected.

"My name is Tjellina," she told him.  "I am among the Outriders."  She
il,dicated her darkly comrades with a sweep of her arm.  "These are ers
as well."

Johnny looked at them.  "Uh-huh.  And if you mind my asking, exactly
what does an Outrider

"We work for Prodigion," she said, "the master ship.  Our job is to
scout ahead for planets worthy gifts--and when we find one, to bring it
to his at ention."

Johnny hadn't ever heard of Prodigion.  But the kind service the
Outriders performed for him sounded exactly like what the Surfer had
done for Galactus.  In effect, these women were Prodigion's
"heralds"--and they didn't seem the least bit ashamed of it.

Geez, he thought.  Maybe Blastaar wasn't so far off the mark with his
ravings about a planet-eater.  Hell, Prodigion could just be a name
Galactus uses when he goes slumming in the Negative Zone.

Johnny swallowed.  This could be big, he realized.  And bad.  Very
bad.

"So," he responded with a casualness he didn't feel, "if your job is to
scout for planets, why aren't you off scouting nowminstead of running
tests on me?"

"There's no pressing need to scout right now," Tjellina explained.  "We
had just discovered a suitable planet and were returning to inform
Prodigion when we detected your fleet.  In fact, our vessel is headed
for that planet even as we speak."

Johnny remembered what it was like when Galactus came to Earth.  The
terrible pit he'd felt in his belly as he--along with the rest of
humanitymwaited for the axe to fall.

And now Prodigion, whoever he was, was going to do the same thing to
some unsuspecting world.  Some innocent civilization.

No, Johnny told himself.  I can 't allow that kind of death and
destruction--not on Earth or anywhere else.  I'm stop it.

I don't know how, he added.  But one way going to put a great big
monkey wrench in Prodigion 's

Just then, a panel in the wall slid away and Outrider came in.  She had
some kind of gizmo handmprobably some kind of report for Johnny didn't
really care what it was.  His only was in the exit that had suddenly
presented itself.

"I hope we can put our hostilities aside.

saying.  "I imagine there's a lot we can learn another."

Johnny looked her in the eye.  "Don't bet on told her.

Then he made a dash for the opening in the activating his power en
route without his custom.  the cry.  Sometimes there just wasn't time
for now was one of those times.

Johnny could hear Tjellina's cry of protest straight-armed the Outrider
who'd entered and headlong through the exit, already crackling low
flames.  Too late, his captors sent a barrage of ergy bursts after him.
An abrupt midair turn took out of harm's way, and the blasts struck the
instead.

A moment later, he was speeding down the as only he could, his ruddy
brilliance reflecting surface in sight.  The Outriders' shouts quickly
with distance.

The Torch had no idea where he was going or was going to do when he got
there.  But he wasn't to worry about that just yet.  He was simply
going scour the corridors of Prodigion's mother ship until found
something that looked like an opportunity.  And when he found it, he
was going to jump on it both flaming feet.

lastaar brought his fist down on the end of his vessel's navigation
console, crushing the delicate circuitry within and eliciting a
white-hot geyser of

Caught in the blinding spray, his navigator fell back clutching his
face and groaning with pain.  The ell of his blackened flesh filled the
bridge, drawing uneasy attention of the other Baluurians.  Especially
that of his pilot, who had given Blastaar bad news in the first
place.

"What do you mean you can no longer follow them?"  tyrant bellowed,
making the bulkheads shake with fury.

His pilot couldn't look at him directly.  Swallowing hard, he kept his
gaze fixed on his controls.  "The humans are too fast for us, Emperor.
They've disappeared from our sensor grid."

Blastaar turned to the monitor, which showed only a splash of streaking
stars.  No sign of the cursed Fantastic Four or their ally.  Despite
his thirst for revenge,

they had eluded him.

Eluded him!

He raised his fist to strike the console again, then stopped himself.
For what seemed like a long time, he fought the fury burning inside
him--fought his blind,

Unreasoning hatred for the humans.

In the end, he won.

It was a good thing, too.  It would only hurt him to

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

destroy his flagship or, for that matter, any other of equipment.  He
still needed it to fight the eater, who was every bit as much a threat
now as

Lowering his fist, Blastaar glanced at his pilot

"It is not your fault they escaped," he declared.  'You did what you
could."

The Baluurian regarded him, a glint of hope in eyes.  "That is true,
Emperor.  I did what I could."

Blastaar eyed his fallen navigator, who was being moved from the
bridge, still moaning and his face.  "And my anger has already caused
much feringmhas it not?"

The pilot hesitated.  Obviously, he didn't want push his luck.

But Blastaar wasn't satisfied.  "I asked you a question.  Has my anger
not already caused much ing?"

The pilot grimaced.  "I would have to say.."  it caused some suffering,
my emperor."

"But not an excessive amount?"  Blastaar pressed.

The pilot licked his lips.  "No," he ventured.  cessive."

']Just the right amount?"

'es, my lord.  The right amount."

Blastaar glowered at him, his mouth full of bile.  disagree," he said
in a low, dangerous voice.

Then he grabbed his pilot by the throat, cutting the Baluurian's air
supply, and lifted him out of seat.  And kept lifting him, higher and
higher, until pilot's thrashing feet cleared the deck.

The Baluurian struggled to pry his emperor's fingers loose--to no
avail.  He kicked at Blastaar's knees and belly and groin--also to no
avail.  And the more he struggled, the darker and more swollen his face
became.

Finally, the pilot began to black out, to succumb to the loss of air.
Blastaar didn't like that.  He loosened his grip just enough to revive
his victim, to keep him alive and alert.

Then, with a deft and economical flick of his powerful wrist, he
snapped the pilot's neck.

Equipment was in short supply, he mused.  But there was no shortage of
Baluurians--especially those who could tolerate defeat.

Allowing the pilot's body to hit the deck with a thud, he eyed the rest
of his bridge contingent.  They were clearly shaken by what they'd
seen, as much as they tried to conceal it.

"No one fails Blastaar, you hear me?"  His eyes raked each and every
one of them as the place echoed with his thunder.  "No one!"

"Hail Blastaar!"  they chorused in return.

But he didn't care about their homage.  He didn't need it.  What he
needed was another fleet, he told himself--before his empire was rent
asunder.

The first time Reed had seen the entity's ship, he was awed by it.
After all, he had witnessed something of that magnitude and complexity
only once beforemand it had been blotting out the sky over Manhattan,
an emblem of humanity's imminent extinction.

Now, as the Surfer began to catch up with the en

FAI TASTIC FOUR

tity's vessel, bringing it closer and closer with each ing heartbeat,
Reed found he'd gotten over his was simply intrigued, as he would have
been he didn't entirely understand.

But he would understand it, he promised that.  He would get to know it
well enough to free his

brother-in-law And then, one way or another,

find out the purpose of its mysterious owner.

Though the vessel was traveling at a formidable i of speed, judging by
the urgency with which the the Negative Zone whipped by, the Surfer
seemingly without effort.  Then, matching its and velocity, he turned
to Reed.

"There is no evidence of the force shields of'

you spoke," the Surfer observed with just a hint of prise

Reed studied the vessel's outer hull.  "Maybe only go up when its
sensors register an attack.

,. the prospect of one."

The Thing grunted.  "Obviously, those know us too well.  I say we stop
flappin' our gums start clobberin' our way in."

'

"Hang on a minute," Reed cautioned him.

shields may only be part of the ship's security array.

don't know what we'll run into.igwe try to barge in.

Sue glanced at the Surfer.  "Can't we just through the hull," she
asked, "the way we through the hull of Blastaar's ship?"

The Surfer frowned.  "Perhaps But if this" like Galactus's ship, there
will be undetectable the structure of the hull itself---some of them
thal, even to me.  Likewise, any force we bring to bear only be met
with greater force."

Ben threw his arms up.  "So we just camp out in front Maybe tell some
ghost stories and roast marsh while we're at it?"

"Now that you mention it," Sue said, "that may be the best option we've
got."  She bit her lip, obviously trying to keep a level head despite
her concern for Johnny.  "I mean, what if we were to just wait on the
doorstep and see what happens?"

"What'll happen is we'll get pounded," the Thing predicted.

"Or ignored," Reed suggested, "which may be worse."  He stroked his
chin for a moment.  "On the other hand, the entity must already know
we're here.  We're not going to lose anything by demonstrating some
patience."

Ben made a sound of disgust.  "I still say we clobber our way in."

But he was outvoted.  So, despite his periodic protests, they hovered
in front of the vessel and made no demands.  In fact, they did nothing
at all.

Time passed slowly.  Long seconds turned into longer minutes.  Reed
imagined their image on a thou sand monitors throughout the ship--and a
single, brooding presence trying to decide what to do with them.

After what must have been a good half hour, nothing had happened.  No
tactical response, no attempt to COmmunicate, nothing. Ben swore under
his breath.  'What a revol velopment this is."

"Hang in there," Susan counseled.  "Give it a] more time."

"But this isn't getting' us anywhere," the sis ted  He folded his arms
across his rocky mean, if I had even the slightest suspicion we gonna
get the welcome mat rolled out."

Suddenly, two sections of the hull lifted and aside, revealing what
looked a great deal like an air lock.  Sue turned to Ben.

"You were saying?"  she gibed.

The Thing glowered at her.  "So I was wrong.  So me."

'6re should enter while we can," the them.  "The entity's patience may
not be as ours."

"Of course," Reed noted, "it could be a trap.  side ring the
circumstances, I suppose we can cross bridge when we come to it."

"Amen ta that," Ben rumbled.

"Let's go," Sue said.

Reed nodded to the Surfer.  Slowly, cautiously, slid into the air lock.
A moment later, the hull slid back into place, sealing them in.

en he Torch had known Prodigion's ship was bigmhe just hadn t realized
how big.  But he was learning fast.

Each corridor seemed to stretch for miles, lined with exposed circuitry
and conduits and equipmentmthe purpose of which he couldn't begin to
decipher.  When a corridor ended and he had to turn right or left, he
found another one just like it.

There was no sign of the Outriders.  No sign of Prodigion, either.  In
fact, there was no sign of anyone, just the Torch's flaming reflection
in the deck, the ceiling, and the bulkheads as he hurtled by.

The longer his trek went on, the less optimistic he became about
succeeding in his mission.  After all, the Outriders would have warned
Prodigion about his escape as soon as it happened.  And, alerted to the
danger, their boss would have set up, his defenses.

Sure, he thought.  That's what anyone would do when they had a threat
running around loose on their ship.  They would do their best to get
rid of it.  To eradicate it.  But what if Prodigion didn't see him as a
threat?  What if he considered the Torch nothing more than a
gadfly--someone he could swat at his leisure?

He pondered the possibility as he turned and rocketed the length of yet
another corridor.  If this were Galactus's vessel, he probably wouldn't
have done a thing about the news of his prisoner's escape.  He would

FA#TASTIC FOUR

just have waited until the Torch confronted him blown him away.

Was that what Prodigion had in mind?  Was he meaning to blow him away
when the time came?

The Torch pressed his lips together.  Let him Maybe he thought he had
just another helpless on his hands.  If so, he was in for a surprise.
Storm's little boy didn't go down without a fight.

Hell, Johnny mused, if he had a nickel for madman and megalomaniac who
had underesl him in a clinch, he'd have been able to buy Tony a hundred
times over.  And Prodigion wasn't be anym

He stopped himself in mid thought as he sight of something far down the
corridor.  he realized.  And only one of them looked female, couldn't
be the Outriders.

In fact, as Johnny got closer to them, he saw of the figures didn't
even look humanoid.  He was broad, too craggy-looking, loom orange?

Suddenly, the Torch realized whom he was

It was Ben.  And the two figures with him were Reed

Sue.  He could barely believe his eyes.  It was them.  It was really
then3.  "Reed!"  he yelled.  "Sue!  Ben!"

His brother-in-law pointed to him as the echoes the Torch's voice
filled the corridor.  ']ohnny!"  sister.

Refusing to wait a moment longer to be with them, the Torch accelerated
his flight.

him, the corridor sizzled with the speed of his passage.

This was good, he thought.  This was very good.

His teammates were here on the ship.  Together, they would do what he'd
been unable to do on his own-find Prodigion and stop him from
destroying that world.

Then Johnny realized that his teammates weren't alone.  There was
someone with themmsomeone casting a shadow from a perpendicular
corridor.

An Outrider?

Johnny's hands clenched into fists as he bore down harder than ever.
Reed, Sue, Ben... they didn't know what those women were like.  He had
to get to them before it was too late.

Then the figure emerged into the Torch's line of sightmand his heart
leapt.  It was the Suffer, he told himself---the Silver Surfer!  The
same alien who had confronted Galactus in the skies over New York and
fought his boss to a standstill.

Of all the reinforcements Johnny could possibly have hoped for, the
dude with the surfboard was tops on his list.  In fact, he was the
list.

Suddenly, the situation had turned completely around.  The good guys
weren't on the run anymore.  Now they were in charge.  If Prodigion had
had a problem with the Human Torch, his problem had just multiplied
dramatically.

Putting on the brakes so he didn't rocket right by his friends, Johnny
alighted on the deck in front of them and flamed off.  Before he could
say anything, his sister ran forward and took him in her arms.

FANTRSTIC FOUR

"Oh, Johnny," she said, hugging him hard.

are you going to learn not to be such a hero?"

"Uh, I don't know."  He chuckled.  "Never?"

Still hugging him, she gave his head a swat.  "I'm no us she
insisted.

"Hey," he responded, "take it easy.  I'm okay, And I've got some news
about the character who this rig."

"What kind of news?"  Reed asked.

Johnny turned to him.  "His name's Prodi

Blastaar was pretty much on the money about him.  guy's a threat to the
Zone all right, the tus is a threat in our universe.  In fact, this
ship is for a nice, juicy planet right now, so o1' Prodigion suck it
dry."

"How do you know this?"  the Surfer inq strange, soft voice of his. 
The mention of Galactus gotten him good and interested.

"Teah, how?"  Ben rumbled, casting Johnny a tic al glance.  "And don't
tell me ya saw it on the Discovery Channel."

"Actually," the teenager told them, "I heard fromm"

His explanation was cut short by the scrape against metalmas slots
opened in the ceiling in and in back of them and a dozen Outriders
pelted like rain.

Each one carried a blaster in her arms.  Judging the looks on their
faces, they hadn't come to lay out the welcome mat.

"---them, "Johnny finished.

"They don't seem very forthcoming now," his sister remarked, looking
from one squad of Outriders to the other.

"We didn't part on the best of terms, "Johnny noted.  Then he burst
into flame again.  After all, the Out riders' blasts had knocked him
for a loop as the Torch.  He didn't want to have to face them without
his flame power for protection.

Suddenly, the Surfer made Johnny's concerns academic.  Turning to the
Outriders in front of them, he sent their weapons flying down the
corridor with a back handed flip of his wrist.  Then he did the same
for the weapons of the Outriders behind them.

"If what Johnny Storm says is true," the Surfer told them, "you are
murderers in the service of an even greater murderer.  And I have sworn
never to countenance such evil."

The Torch had never heard such outrage, such hostility in the Surfer's
voice.  Not for the Outriders them selves, he thought, as much as for
the crimes they had committed.

The Surfer held out his hands to the women in front of them.  "Stop,"
he urged them.  "Consider the depravity of your deedsmthe lives you
tear asunder, the civilizations you destroy.  Surely, if you weigh
these precious commodities against your master's needs, you'll see how
wrong it is to oblige him."

One of the Outriders stepped forward--a woman with long, auburn hair
and pure white skin, which stood in contrast to the black of her
jumpsuit.  When she spoke, it was with a trill in her voice.



FANTASTIC FOUR

"You misunderstand us," she told the Suffer.

of what your friend told you is truenbut also, not.  You are clearly an
enlightened being--one i do wed with compassion as well as intellect.
Before pass any kind of judgment on us, we would like learn more of our
ways.  And, of course, of our m. ways as well."

"It's a con job," the Torch argued.  "You saw the, blasters they
brought along.  What else do you need know about them?"

"Johnny's got a point," his sister agreed.  Reed stroked his chin.
"Except we've got lose by listening to them.  If they think we're makin
take, why not give them a chance to convince us ofi

The Torch muttered a curse.  "Reed, you these Outriders the way I do.
When I woke up were poking and prodding me like I was a lab rat
something."

His brother-in-law frowned.  "If our positions were versed, I'd have
been tempted to do the same

Susan didn't say anything.  Neither did Ben.  But Torch had the feeling
they were on Reed's side, usual.

He turned to the Suffer.  "These people are gerous.  You can see that,
can't yu?"

Facial muscles moved beneath that silver skin.  have only your word in
that regard, Johnny Storm."

The Torch couldn't believe this.  'What about blasters you took away
from them?  Doesn't that you wonder about them even a little--like
maybe don't have our best interests at heart?"

]47

The Suffer considered that for a moment.  "This is their ship," he said
at last.  "It may be they were only defending it."

Johnny stared at his friends.  "Gimme a break here.  You're really
going to buy this line of bull?"

The Thing grunted.  "We hobnobbed with Blastaar, didn't we?  I guess we
can hang with a buncha Amazons in jumpsuits

"For a time," the Suffer added.  ']Just long enough to discern the
truth of what they say.  And if their testimonies ring false"---he put
his hand on the Torch's shoulder, undaunted by the snapping flames
there-"then our hosts will rue the moment they met us.  I promise you
that with all my heart."

Johnny looked at the Suffer and saw the alien's confidence.  His
self-assurance.  It calmed him down.

"Okay," he said, turning to the auburn-haired Outrider.  "We're
listening.  You can start talking."

The Outrider shook her head.  "I'm not the one who speaks for the
Outriders.  That's Tjellina'sjob."  "Who?"  asked Ben.

"Their leader," the Torch replied.  He turned to the Suffer.  "You're
going to love Tjellina.  She's lots of fun."

The silver being didn't say anything.  He just gazed at the teenager.

Johnny hoped the Suffer hadn't taken the remark literally.  Sometimes,
it was hard to tell with him.

The Suffer had to confess his fascination with the Outriders, if only
to himself.  They didn't seem like unreaSonable beings.  And yet, if
they were guilty of the crimes of which Johnny Storm had accused them,
hideous creatures indeed.

But no less hideous than the creature he been while serving as the
Herald of Galactus.  of destruction they accommodated could not have
worse than the acts he had accommodated.

And that was what fascinated him.

For if Prodigion was another Galactus, and males his Heralds, the
Surfer had a chance to for his misdeeds in some small measure.  He had;
port unity to relieve the burden of guilt he carried' him always, if
only by the weight of a single stone.

If he could stop Prodigion's cadre of advance make them see the error
of their ways, he could off the destruction of millions of precious
lives.  he could stop Prodigion himself.."  would that a long way
toward balancing the scales?

Would it not redeem him in some way?  Make whole again?  Or, if not
quite that, at least represent i beginning of his redemption?

Of course, this all presupposed that Johnny was right, and that
Prodigion was as awful a force Galactus.  There was still a possibility
that the claims were true.

In any case, he had agreed, to reserve judgment, keep an open mind. And
that was what he would until the truth became apparent to him.

Such were the Surfer's thoughts as the guided him and the Fantastic
Four through the of Prodigion's vessel.  They fell upward through bing
antigravity arteries, sped along on spiraled down through wells of
shimmering

Finally, they reached their destination ma wellointed chamber, in which
abstract form and subtle olors worked together to create a most
admirable harmony.  And in the center of the chamber, between two
elegant fountains, stood a woman with raven hair and flawless, golden
skin.

She approached her visitors--the Surfer first of all.  "My name is
Tjellina," she told him.  "Primary among the Outriders."

Her voice was soft, melodious.  Yet a thread of strength ran through
it, a vitality for which he had not been prepared.  He found the
combination quite pleasant--but no more so than the lustrous blackness
of her eyes.

"I am called the Silver Surfer," he replied.

Tjellina looked into his eyes, unable to hide her curiosity.  "You are
a remarkable being, Silver Surfer."  "All beings are remarkable," he
said.

Her eyes crinkled slightly at the corners.  "Most remarkable indeed."
She turned to the Fantastic Four.  "Please, make yourselves
comfortable.  It may take a while to answer your questions."

"Unless you answer them directly, "Johnny Storm interjected.  "Then it
won't take long at all."

Tjellina regarded the Torch.  "I attempted to be direct with you
earlier.  Perhaps this time, I'll find a way to make my meaning more
clear."

Johnny Storm inclined his head.  The Surfer recognized it as a
traditional Terran gesture of respect, though he suspected it was
rendered "

case.

"All right," the Torch said, his flame hotter.  "Make this clear,
Tjellina.  Tell me how live with yourself knowing the things you've
Prodigion."

The woman lifted her chin.  "I've done no wrong in serving Prodigion.
In fact, I revel in the l edge of all I've done right."

She scanned each face in turnmfirst the then Reed's, Susan's, Ben's,
and Johnny's.  "Con what you seem to think, the Outriders' mo pure.
Just as Prodigion's are pure."

"Pure devastation," the Torch persisted.  Tjellina shook her head. "Not
at all.  doesn't bring death to a planet's inhabitants.  it."  She
smiled reverently.  "What he brings friends, is life."

eve

lastaar walked up the steps of his Council Building in a very bad
mood.

He felt the clammy heat of the Baluurian night.

He drank in the sweet scent of twice-blooming fire thorns and listened
to the cannibal worms chirp in their sticky web-sacs.

Normally, these things had a calming effect on him.  Normally, they
eased his neees.  But not this night.

The only thing that would subdue his anxiety now was a plan for
rebuilding his mighty armada.  Which was, after all, why he had roused
his council from slumber  If the twelve wisest men on Baluur couldn't
come up with a scheme for him, who could?  That was why he let them
continue to live, after all.

Coming to the top of the steps, he flung open the heavy wooden doors of
the Council Building.  Inside, a single rectangular chamber took up the
entire edifice, illuminated by huge, standing torches.

Its walls and vaulted ceiling, made of rare northern shell stone
reflected the firelight in shimmering iridescences  Its blood marble
floor was bisected by a path of volcanic black facet which ended in a
massive, raised throne also carved from blood marble

On either side of the black facet path stood a semi circle of more
modest stone chairs, arranged to face the throne.  And before each
chair stood an aged, bleary eyed Baluurian, dressed in the plain gray
robes of a Councillor. "All hail Blastaar!"  they cried as one.

Making his way along the line of black facet tyrant ascended the
several steps that led to his Then he turned and sat and eyed his
ministers with, temptmthe same way he eyed all his

"Here is the problem," he rasped.

Then he went on to describe his defeat at the of the world-destroyer
and his need for another No, he amended, not just another fleet ma
spanning force whose power was many times that of first.  A juggernaut
against which even the 1: couldn't prevail.

'7hat I want to know," he said, leaning his throne, "is where I'm
likely to obtain such a

For a moment, there was only silence.  Then the eldest of his
councillors, spoke up.

"Before we respond," he said, "we need some ance that you will not
blast us."

Blastaar looked at him.  ,ssurance.  he spates my liege.  As you'll
recall, the last time you a question of this magnitude to the council,
you like the answer you got.  As a result, you blasted councillors into
bits and piecesmwhich is how we to sit in their places."

The tyrant scowled.  "So you want me to [ won't destroy you with a
neutron blast?"

Haggan nodded.  "Yes, my lord.  Or strangle us beat us to death, or
cause others to."

Blastaar ground his teeth together.  "I should you now, for your
impudence."

The councillor paled noticeably.  '(You could," he

:eded, his voice a bit more shaky than before.  "But t would not have
had the benefit of our wisdom.

And you would have to comb Baluur for suitable reo plhcements, as.  you
did the last time."

With an effort, the tyrant swallowed back his fury.  Haggan had a point
there.  He needed answers---and quickly.  This was the wrong time to
cut himself off from the likeliest source of them.

"All right," he said at last.  "You have my word... I won't blast you."
And he couldn't go back on his word, lest his pact with his people fall
apart.  His eyes narrowed.  "Now what can I do about my problem?"  ,

The councillor sighed.  "Precious little, I'm afraid.  As you must
know, none of the other powers in known space will agree to ally
themselves with you, no matter the magnitude of the threat.  To put it
simply, they don't trust you.  They believe you'll turn on them, as you
have on other occasions."

Another councillor, a portly specimen named Gruuth, found the courage
to speak.  "Pinda of Toraxis would be an example, my lord.  As would
Uroq of Esanaia.  As you'll recall, both monarchs have had cause to rue
their dealings with you."

"Under different circumstances," said a councillor called Norux,
"conquest would be an option.  In other words, my liege, the
assimilation of smaller forces into our own.  Unfortunately, we no
longer have a big enough fleet to accomplish that." 'i'rue," Haggan
agreed.  "No battle would sided enough to serve our purpose.  We would
in a prolonged conflict, spending the last strength for no real
gain."

Blastaar shook his head.  "What are

I should give up?  Allow the planet-destroyer to assume my empire
mmaybe Baluur itself?."

The councillors didn't like the sound of that.  evident in the way they
kneaded their hands changed glances.

"Actually," Gruuth ventured, "our astron now questioning their original
conclusions.  It the world-eater may not cut through the heart empire
after all.  At worst, he may claim a dozen tary planets."

The tyrant could feel his fingers curling into "And what if he decides
to change course?  What astronomers say about that?"

More kneading of hands.  More nervous

"I don't know," Gruuth admitted, in a smaller voice than before.

we sit here and

Blastaar glowered at him.  "Do as all we've built comes crashing down
around we applaud politely as the world-eater tears apart
civilization?"

Haggan held his hands out, frighten his ability to conceal it.  "But
what else can we do, liege?"

The tyrant was on his feet before he knew it, pelled by white-hot rage.
His hands opened and eager for a windpipe to crush."

That's what I came here to ask you!"  he bellowed, the chamber shake
with his fury.

Then another councillor, the youngest of them, a tremulous voice.  His
name wasJonat.  "My lord," said uncertainly, as if the idea were still
forming in mind, "I think I may have a suggestion."

"And what is that?"  Blastaar roared, still caught up the blistering
heat of his wrath.  Jonat swallowed hard.  "The Bolovite Union," he
d.

And the councillor went on to explain the opportunity he saw there. 
The chance for the tyrant to achieve what he needed to achieve, and
quickly enough for it to make a difference.

Blastaar considered the optionJonat had presented.  He turned it over
in his mind, seeking a flaw.  And he could find only onemthe
possibility that his strength wouldn't be sufficient to the task.

But if that was the only variable, he mused, the Bolovite Union was as
good as his.  And with something like that under his belt, combined
with the threat of the world-eater, he could easily force others to
join his cause.

The tyrant consideredJonat.  "I believe we have formulated a plan," he
announced.  "But how is it you know so much about the Bolovites,
Comacillor?"

Jonat shrugged.  "My cousin's cousin has traded with a freighter
captain who knows them.  I've been regaled with tales about the
Bolovites for years."

Blastaar winced.  "If I were you, I would hope my Cousin's cousin and
his friend the captain were sober

I'ItNTllSTIC FOUR

when they passed these tales along.  Because if formation is
unreliable, we will all live to regret most of all, Councillor."

Jonat's eyes went wide.  "Yes, my lord."

The tyrant turned to Haggan.  "As for you..

knew you would be useless to me when you my pledge not to blast you."

"Or to strangle us or beat us to death,"

minded him.  "Or to cause others to."

"Yes," Blastaar spat.  "All that.  You knew you have no answers for me,
yet you demanded my anyway."

"The truth," Haggan admitted, "was we it because we had no answers." 
He smiled.  "But seems to have done the impossible, providing an answer
after all.  We should all be pleased."

The tyrant regardedJonat.  "Come here," he

Jonat paled.  '(es, my lord."  Trundling forward in'.  gray robes, he
made his way up the blood marble to stand before his master.

Blastaar looked past him at the other seems to me your wisdom has
abandoned "in more ways than one.  Otherwise, extracted from me a
promise not to redecorate."

And before any of them could figure talking about, the tyrant pointed
to the vault Then he seared the air with a mighty blast of electrons.

The shell stone cracked under Blastaar's and came away in huge chunks.
And as they came

ICQ

smashed whatever was below themmwhether it was the floor or some flesh
and blood that happened to be in the way.

Seeing the fate that had been decreed for them, the councillors
screamed, but they were too old to get out of the way.  And before
their screams had stopped echoing ten of them had been crushed to
death.

Other than Jonat, only Haggan still livedmthough in Haggan's case, the
lower half of his body was little more than a stain amid the rubble. 
He groaned in his pain and pleaded for his liege lord's mercy.

"A quick death is all I ask," he whispered, stretching a bloody hand
toward Blastaar's throne.

"Sorry," the tyrant told him.  "I've promised not to blast you or
strangle you or beat you to death or..."  He thought for a moment.  "Oh
yes, not to cause others to.  And I always keep my promises."

As Haggan continued to plead and claw at the floor beneath him,
Blastaar turned to a stricken Jonat.  "Gather eleven of your wisest
friends," the tyrant told him.  "And be quick about it.  I'll need a
new council as soon as the ceiling is repaired."

Jonat nodded.  '(es, my lord."

Blastaar started down the blood marble steps.  "If any one asks," he
threw back over his shoulder, "I'm on my way to Bolov Prime."

The Surfer considered the raven-haired Outrider.  "Life?"  he repeated,
taken aback by the claim.

"What's correct," Tjellina said. "SZa mean your boss doesn't go around
sucking planets dry?  Depletin' 'em of their energy?"  the Thin gI

bled.

"He does nothing of the sort," the woman.

firmed.

"Vrait a minute," Johnny interjected.  "You he goes from planet to
planet and 'bestows his upon them."  "

"Again, correct," said Tjellina.

NV ell the Torch went on, "We know someone I

in our universe who does the same thing.  His

Galactus.  And believe me, no one wants the gifts he's giving."

The Outrider tilted her head slightly as she him.  "I see," she said
finally.  "You believed our to Prodigion's 'gifts' to be a euphemism
for sinister.  I assure you, nothing could be truth."

"Then what is the truth?"  Reed inquired.

this Prodigion, and what, specifically, does he these worlds you find
for him?"

The Outrider turned to him.  "No one knows

Prodigion came from or when his life be gion himself claims not to
know.  However, for as as he can remember, he has ben a mysterious nent
of the universal balancemone who force of life on planet after planet
throughout galaxy."

She gestured to indicate the bulkheads that rose around them.  "That is
why Prodigion built this ship.  As you must know, planets are few and
far be en, and worlds capable of sustaining life even farther

"Of course," she went on, "there are always those who rise to oppose
Prodigion, failing to understand fail aim---or motivated by
self-interest to stifle his life-giving impulses.  However, Prodigion
does what he must, al ways and invariably, despite their opposition."

Johnny grunted.  "Uh-huh.  And speaking of motivations, what's in it
for him?  A nice card at Christmastime?"

Obviously, Tjellina didn't understand the reference.  But she must have
gotten the gist of it, because she smiled tautly.

"Prodigion doesn't act out of need or desire," she explained  "He
simply does what he must.  That's his role in the universe.  It's his
destiny."

Right, "Johnny replied.  "And I suppose it's our des tiny to snap this
up hook, line, and sinker."

"You may believe what you wish," Tjellina told him.  "All I can do is
give you what you asked forM the truth."

There was something about the intelligence with which she spoke, the
utter confidence with which she carried herself, that made it difficult
to mistrust the Outrider.

Nor was it only trust Tjellina evoked in the Surfer.  There was
something else, he realized.  And it surprised him that it should be
so.

After a moment, he realized he was staring at her.  What's more, she
was returning his scrutiny.  Had he been capable of blushing,

that.

"The problem with the truth," he noted, "is its.  ties different things
to different people.  It more convincing if you could provide proof of
claims."

Tjellina seemed to ponder his suggestion.  well," she responded at
last.  "I'll make accessible proof you require.  But it will be up to
you to find Reed looked at her.  "What do you mean?"

The woman shrugged.  "I will open this vessel to in its entiretymwith
the exception, of course, gion's private compartments.  You may
examinel equipment, pore through our data banks, " operating
logsmwhatever you wish.  And you will Outrider escorts to explain what
you do not stand."

"To make sure we see what you want us to Johnny countered.

Tjellina sighed.  'you may take advantage of corts or not.  It is
completely up to you."

The Surfer glanced at his companions.  Reed eager to take the Outrider
up on her offer.  Susan nor the Thing appeared ready to object.  Johnny
seemed outwardly skettical, but even he expressing his doubts out
loud.

"We accept your offer," Reed told the Outrider.  She nodded.  "Good. It
would displease his guests misinterpreted his motives."  Her ened. "And
to be honest, it would displease me as

She looked directly at the Surfer as she said was inclined to blush,
though perhaps a bit less so before.

Norrin Radd would not have felt so awkward in the ;sence of this
Outrider.  Norrin Radd would have taken her scrutiny in stride.  But
then, in so many ways, he was no longer Norrin Radd.

he amphitheater that surrounded Blastaar and his opponent was ancient
and bone white, with walls that climbed a thousand feet into a dense,
ocher storm front.  Clouds trundled across the sky like shaggY, brown
beasts crowding to get a better look in side.

The arena boasted fully half a million seats, and every one of them was
occupied by the slick, scaly carcass of a hulking, blue-skinned
Bolovite.  In the streets that radiated from the arena like the spokes
of a wheel, the government had set up remote viewscreens, so that
several million additional Bolovites could witness the event as it
unfolded.

And unfold it would, Blastaar told himself.  Just as his adversary's
intestines would unfold when he freed them from their lair in his
adversary's stomach cavity.

His lip curled as he caressed the edge of his Bolovite ceremonial blade
with a blunt, powerful finger.  Across the barren stretch of land that
made up their battlefield, the gigantic Krona of Bolov Prime did the
same, muscles rippling sinuously beneath his scarred serpentine hide,
ruby-red eyes slitted with barely contained fury.  His long, forked
tongue darted in and out of his mouth in anticipation.

Krona wasn't just the most powerful being on his world, he was the most
powerful being in the entire Bolovite Union, which included six planets
full of

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

Bolovites, several dozen outposts, and some subject populations
stretching over seven star

However, what interested Blastaar most Krona's holdings was the fleet
he had used to seize secure them.  It was nearly twice the size of B1
ownmeven before Prodigion decimated the armada.

The Living Bomb-Burst didn't like losing.  termined not to lose
againmnot to Prodigion or else.

Which was where Krona came inmand the mat ion Councillor Jonat had
provided about him.  : cording to Bolovite custom, anyone could
challenge the reigning monarch at any time, even an Of course, such
challenges were few and far these days, considering the size and
strength and ness of Krona--a one-warrior army who had taken throne
from the previous monarch, his late and men ted father.

But Blastaar wanted the Bolovite fleet.  And if it meant clawing the
crown away from Krona, so be

There was only one catch.  Blastaar was restricted the conventional use
of his arms and legs and teeth.  application of his natural ability to
generate and deadly neutron blasts or his vie, tory wouldn't no matter
how decisive.  He would then have to con the Bolovite Union world by
world if he wanted of its fleet, and he wasn't equipped for that kind
strategy at the moment.

So he would rely on his other talents to carry the day, No doubt Krona
thought he would have a chance in such a circumstance.  Blastaar would
have to show him the error of his ways.

Abruptly, a rasping, grating cheer went up in the seatS all about him,
wave upon wave like the crash of a titanic surf on a rocky shore.  It
drowned out even the mumbling thunder.

The Baluurian turned and saw the reason for it.  The aged official who
would oversee the contest, draped in flawless white robes, had emerged
from the single arch that let out onto the battlefield.  His head
bobbed on his spindly neck with each uncertain step.

Clearly, he had done this before.  But never when the challenge had
been posed by a Baluurian, who could annihilate him with a single
gestureqand would, if sufficiently provoked.

The official made his way to the center of the area.  Up above, threads
of lightning as white as his robes, as white as the amphitheater
itself, began to stitch the clouds.  Thunder droned, audible now as the
crowd noises abated.

"This is the challenge," the official said, his voice thin and
reedymyet amplified to resounding proportions by some technology
Blastaar neither knew nor cared about.  "The challenger is Blastaar of
Baluur.  The challenged is our monarch, Krona of Bolov Prime.  This is
the challenge."  His old eyes slitted with the seriousness of his
announcementmthough why he had to say xt twice was another thing
Blastaar neither knew nor cared about.

"Get on with it," Blastaar spat, his every word a weapon.

FAtITASTIC FOUR

But the Bolovite didn't move.  At least, not raised his eyes to the
crowds in front of him.

"If the mighty Krona is defeated, he yields lands and possessions to
the challenger.  And is defeated, he yields all his lands and
possessions 1 mighty Krona."

'"What?"  the Baluurian bellowed, the arena with his fury.  "I never
agreed to that!"

The official turned to him, his eyes wide wi He swallowed hard, a lump
crawling up and length of his scrawny throat.

"It... it is our tradition," he murmured.  Blastaar thought about it
for a moment.  If he which he had no intention of doing--what did he
who ruled Baluur?  His subjects had exiled him i space once before.
They deserved whatever

On the other hand, he didn't like the fact one had informed him of this
particular tradition now.  But he could deal with such matters after
Bolovites were added to his empire.

"Leave," he told the official.  '%Vhile you still The robed one didn't
have to be told twice.  backed off as quickly as he could, headed for
some less form of ritual suicide if he knew what was him.  A couple of
seconds laterche disapl the arch.

That left Blastaar and Krona staring at each across a span of a hundred
meters.  The Bolovite his axe above his head, screamed his war cry, and
hurtling at his opponent.

Blastaar's nostrils flared with anticipation.  A

across his face.  He hadn't undertaken this ex pleasurembut a pleasure
it would be.  He had forgottten how good a fight to the death could
make him

Then he charged, too.  The ground trembled with force of it.

He could hear a sharp intake ofbreathmthat of half a million
Bolovitesmas he raised his axe and closed with Krona.  They converged
in the middle of the field like two unstoppable forces of nature, the
Bolovite trying to cut Blastaar in half from the top down.

For the moment, all the Baluurian wanted to do was ward off his enemy's
attack.  He almost didn't even accomplish that.  For as he brought up
the haft of his weapon to catch Krona's stroke, the cursed thing
splintered under the impact.  If Blastaar hadn't been quick enough to
sidestep the blow, it would have likely been the end of him.

As he tossed the remains of the axe away, he wondered at his own
stupidity.  Clearly, it had been designed to fall apart in his hands.

Why should he have expected the Bolovites to give him an even chance?
This was their civilization he was after.  The last thing they wanted
was to be ruled by an alien--particularly one with a reputation like
his.

Grinning at the prospect of facing an unarmed adversary Krona lifted
his axe again and charged a second time.  Blastaar crouched on the
balls of his feet, hands moving in front of him like a wrestler's,
waiting for the right moment.

Then he saw Krona shift the axe in his hands and realized where the
stroke would be coming fling to his left and ducking, the Baluurian let
head graze his right shouldermjust to get and mad.  Then he lashed out
with his righting it into Krona's side with enough force to boulder.

As it was, it only fractured a rib or two.  But it effect of driving
the Bolovite off coursemand all the opening Blastaar needed.

Before his enemy could recover from the lowered his head and bowled
Krona over.  Th, half the distance to the stands and went down in of
arms and legs.  In the process, Blastaar grab his adversary's wrist the
one that held the

Somehow, Krona came out on top--but only moment.  With his free hand,
Blastaar smash, across the face---once, twice, a third time.  By had
loosened the Bolovite's grip on him, though clung fiercely to his axe.
Krona's nose and running yellow with blood, and there was a dazedi
creeping into his eyes.

Above them, lightning danced and thunder lowed, resounding in the
amphitheater.  But the million people in the seats around them were
still.  How appropriate, thoughtlastaar.

Reaching back, the Living Bomb-Burst put strength into the next blow.
It caught Krona under jaw with a mighty crack and sent him soaring

He landed on his back a good fifty feet away, then bled a few times
before he came to a halt.  A cloud rose around him where the dirt had
been disrd.

Blastaar got to his feet slowly, as if he didn't have a in the world,
and dusted himself off.  Fifty paces his opponent gathered himself as
well.  Krona even more slowly than Blastaar, though not for same
reason.  From the way he held his head, it wasn't that Blastaar had
broken Krona's jaw in several places.

But that didn't stop the Bolovite from spreading his feet in a
warrior's stance and hefting his axe as if he meant business.  The
challenger grinned.  And why not?  His favorite part was coming up.

Closing the gap, he watched Krona's eyes.  They had narrowed with a
mixture of anger and apprehension.  Without a doubt, he knew that this
was his last chance.  If he got lucky and gutted the Baluurian, he
would out live his injuries and remain on his throne.

If not.."  well, no one was meant to live forever.  Or so it was said.
Blastaar himself had other ideas.

Lightning zagged.  Thunder rumbled long and loud.  The wind swirled in
the arena, bringing the first fat drops of rain.  The challenger was
all but oblivious to it.  His world had narrowed to the task at hand.

With a cry of rage and pain, Krona flung himself at Blastaar.  This
time, he swung his axe from the hip, hoping to.  spill the Baluurian's
guts.  But Blastaar had seen the axe head drop in plenty of time.
Timing his maneuver perfectly, he leapt into the air and let the blade
pass harmlessly beneath him. A second time, Krona swung his axe.  And
Blastaar took to the air to avoid it.  But when down the second time,
his adversary still around, Blastaar launched into an attack.

In his battered state, the Bolovite was not

enough nor strong enough to ward off the onslaught.  Blastaar drove his
shoulder into damaged ribs, eliciting a howl of agony.  Then ered a
blow with the heel of his hand that point of Krona's chin.

It snapped the Bolovite's mouth closed, his snipping off the end of his
long, forked tonguei fragment fell in the dirt between them as gered
backward, still hanging on desperately weapon.  But Blastaar was far
from done with

Pressing his advantage, he struck again,

the Bolovite spinning like a top.  And again.  And; each blow echoing
within the confines of phi theater until Krona was more bloody pulping
being.

But the supreme ruler of the Bolovite Union not fall.  He stood there,
legs trembling, axe on the ground as the rain pelted harder and but he
refused to give Blastaar the satisfaction of lapsing at his feet..,

In someone else, that might have spurred a ing sort of respect.  But
not in Blastaar.  He didn't how his enemies died, as long as they were
no around to plague him.

Grabbing Krona by his thick, scaly throat, he

Bolovite off his feet.  Krona sputtered and choked, tried to claw
Blastaar's hand away.  But it was no use.

expended the last of his strength.

Lightning blazed, turning them white with its fury.

Thunder crashed as if in protest of what was about to place.  After
all, it was Bolovite thunder, wasn't it?  The challenger reached down
and pulled the axe handle free from Krona s hand.  Then he looked into
the Bolovite's eyesmor rather, the part of them that hadn't swelled
shut yet.  Rainwater ran in rivulets along the contours of Krona's
face.

"When you arrive in your Bolovite hell," Blastaar told him, "remember
who put you there."

Before Krona could attempt a response with the mangled ruin that had
been his mouth, Blastaar let go of his throat.  Then, before he could
fall very far, the Baluurian brought back Krona's axe and swung it with
all the force of his right hand.

There was a slitch, and Krona crumpled to the ground, a geyser of
yellow-green blood where his head used to be.  As for his head itself,
it sailed high in the air, end over end, trailing gore and shreds of
scaly flesh.  It seemed like a long time before it came down, and even
longer before it landed in the lap of a surprised and horrified
Bolovite in the tenth row.

Lightning lashed the dark, sullen heavens.  Thunder groaned, as if in
mourning.  And the rain came down in earnest, sizzling around Blastaar
and Krona's fallen form like a swarm of nightmarish insects.

For emphasis, Blastaar raised his foot and put it down on Krona's
massive chest.  The rain his face and matted his great, gray mane
head.

Mission accomplished, he thought.  I have my least the beginnings of
it.  And soon enough, I'll have venge on the Fantastic Four.

From his position on the catwalk in story-high bio generation chamber,
Reed re rows upon rows of milky, rectangular 1: chamber from top to
bottom.

He scrutinized the shimmering silver writhing in the chamber's immense
containm And he considered the apparatus on the floor vessel.

Finally, he inspected the control console beside I bringing up screen
after screen of complete and detailed schematics.  He hadn't yet
finisher he heard the soft hiss of a door sliding aside and in
response.

Sue, Ben' Johnny and the Silver Surfer the Surfer's board.  Stopping
before him, sc ended to the catwalk.

'-hat did you see?"  Reed asked.

"

The Thing looked a ound;, A place a lot like one," he replied.  "Milk
pillows coverin' the walls, lightbulb in the middle, the whole nine
yards.  didn't have the slightest idea what it was for."

Johnny shrugged.  "I didn't get a whole lot out either, to tell you the
truth."

 Reed looked at Sue, and then the Surfer.  "And you visited chambers
like this one as well?"

"I did," his wife said.

The Surfer shook his head.  "I was encouraged to examine the underside
of the ship, where I discovered perhaps a hundred apertures--each a
meter or so in diameter.  However, there was no sign of the mighty
collection conduits built into Galactus's Worldship."

Reed absorbed the information.  It all seemed to fit.

"So?"  the Thing prodded.  "Don't keep us in suspense, Mr.  Wizard.
Tell us what it all means."

Reed stretched out his arm to indicate the energy cells on the wall
behind him.  "These milk pillows, as Ben calls them, are storage
batteries--except they're not charged with electricity.  They hold
several different kinds of raw energy, none of which I've ever seen
before."

The Thing grunted.  "Something you haven't seen before?  That alone is
worth the price of admission."

Retracting his arm and tilting his head toward the containment vessel,
Reed went on, undaunted.  "When the time comes, the energy from the
cells is injected into what Ben calls the lightbulb actually, an
incredibly durable force-container where the various energy components
are mixed and refined."

"And then introduced into a planet's biosphere," the Surfer added.
"Hence, the apparatus under the containment vessel and the apertures I
found on the ship's hull."

"That's my guess, too," Reed responded.  "The en FR iTRSTIC FOUR

ergy mixture would descend to earth in el ver globules and sink into
the ground.  And after a probably not very long at all, the biosphere
is rated--instilled with new energy and new life."  : "Then Tjellina
was telling us the truth," Sue Reed was reluctant to say for sure.  "It
see way, yes.  Still, I'd like to see more of the ship.  the equipment
a little more thoroughly, conduct tests..."

"But for the time being," the Surfer obse "Prodigion seems innocent of
the crimes we to him.  In fact, unless Reed's analysis is the mark,
Prodigion is more than innocent.  He creature of unparalleled
benevolence."

'/eah," Ben said.  "And Blastaar was lying teeth.  Playing us for
fools, just as I thought."

"Or maybe," Susan suggested, "he was just guided.  Too quick to judge,
relying on rumor and end."

"AfTer givin' him too much credit," the Thing "Once a scum bucket
always a scum bucket

"Either way," the Surfer declared, taking in Ben, and Johnny with a
glance, "it appears you fighting on the wrong side."

"Hey," the Thing pointed ut, "it wasn't our Those Outriders came after
us, remember?"

Johnny made a T sign with his hands.  "Hold second.  Didn't anybody
hear what Reed said?  seems Tjellina's telling the truth.  It seems
Prodigion's heck of a guy.  But we all know appearances can be
ceiving."  He looked around at his comrades.  "And don't trust
Prodigion any farther than I can throw

"I would not expect you to trust him," the Surfer and.  "Tour
experiences with the Outriders were not after all."

"That's got nothing to do with it, "Johnny insisted.  I've just got a
feeling we're getting suckered here nand not by Blastaar."

"Let's simmer down," Reed advised.  "We don't have to make a judgment
right now, anyway.  As long as we've got the run of the ship, let's
take advantage of itmfind out whatever we can."

He looked at Johnny.  "And if we find out Prodigion's the salt of the
earth, we'll wish him good luck and be on our way.  Agreed?"

The Torch frowned.  "Agreed," he said reluctantly.

Aggas Ag stood at his tribe's watering hole and smiled.  He was living
in miraculous times.

All around him, everywhere he looked, there were grasses and brush and
towering treesmjust as in his father's day.  The watering hole itself
was filled to its ancient limits and beyond.  And if the dark blue
storm clouds on the horizon were any indication, the hole's boundaries
would soon swell even more.

On the other side, where the trees hadn't yet grown quite so tall or so
broad, a wind stippled the surface of the water.  There were animals
there, a greater number than Aggas Ag had ever imagined possible.

They were fat, satisfied animals, taking their time as they drank.  But
he didn't go back to his hut for his hunting implements.  He and the
other tribe hunted enough.  Their bellies and their full.  To hunt any
more would have been

Instead, the tribesmen were spending their building their
village--knocking down their shackle huts and putting up new ones.
growing everywhere, wood was plentiful.  And people's bellies sated, so
was the tribe's mol

Besides, with the rainstorms that seemed to'l through every few hours,
they really needed a roof over their heads.  Otherwise, he laughed they
might find rainwater mixed with their stew.

And it was the same at all the other villages, as-!  he could tell.  It
rained everywhere and flowers, and vegetables grew--even things they
had in their lifetime sand the tribes were prosperin cordingly.

There would be other generations, a them stretching from this moment to
the end And they would be tall, not hunched over, and hard parts would
shine with sublime iridescence.

Looking about, sniffing the green scents on wind, it was difficult for
Aggas Ag it had been.  It was hard to remember the the despair he had
felt only afew w short days ago.

But it was not hard to remember the night had changed.  He would never
forget the star he seen traversing the heavens or the way the air had
bled or the long, silver shapes that had earth.

Or the majesty with which the god had descended to their midst.

Nor was he a destroyer, as Aggas Ag had feared.  As learned almost from
the start, the god was a being great benevolence.  A traveler, as Mor
Maddas had but one who was kind and generous and brought life to lands
like their own.

Now he was gone, in search of other places needful of his bounty.  As
the god had told the tribesmen, he would never see them again.  But as
long as his storms slaked the land's thirst and his trees nudged the
heavens, the name of Prodigion would be worshiped here.

 lastaar stood on the bridge of his flagship and surveyed the graphic
on the oversized monitor before him.  His armada, made up of Bolovites,
K'choqtoc,

Esanaians, and Toraxisi, as well as the remnants of his own Baluurian
fleet, now boasted more than a thousand vessels.

What's more, his tacticians had had a chance to mull over the enemy's
capabilities.  Unlike the last time, the tyrant was going to war
knowing what to expect--and how to deal with it.

When the black needles appeared, they would be destroyed Then the
armada would peel back the planet eater's ship like the skin of a skull
fruit and destroy him as well.  And Blastaar would once again be
undisputed ruler of all he surveyed.

Chuckling, the Baluurian made a mental note to re ward CouncillorJonat.
For his invaluable assistance in obtaining the Bolovite fleet, which
had in turn enabled

Blastaar to seize the other fleets in the sector, Jonat would receive a
hero's medal.  It would look good on his gravestone.

After all, a wise man could be as dangerous as a planet-eater
sometimes.  AndJonat had proven himself to be a wise man indeed.

"Tour excellency?"

Blastaar turned to his new pilot.  "Zes?"

"We have arrived at the site of our earlier battle, my lord." A moment
later, the monitor showed him the of his earlier armada--a hundred or
so vessels too burned and battered to be of any further use They hung
there in space just where he'd left filled with their dead, silent
testimony to the eater's potential for destruction.

And to Blastaar's potential for failure.

In fact, this floating graveyard was one of the sons he had come here.
"Neapons of these hulks.  Relay the order that I want dozen ships to do
the same."

"As you wish, Lord," the weapons officer re Blastaar allowed a minute
for the command passed along and positions established.  Then his
bearded chin.

"Maximum power," he rasped.  "Fire!"  Thirteen lurid energy blasts
emerged different weapons banks--and thirteen scattered their atoms
across the void.  But the wasn't done yet.

"Target again," he ordered.  And a second

Thirteen beams lanced through space.  ships exploded into nothingness.
Blastaar was beginning to feel better.

It took nine vicious, dazzling barrages to all traces of his defeat,
all evidence of his then did he turn away from the monitor and re
navigatormwho, like the pilot, was new to the flagship.

'%7e11?"  he demanded.

"I've picked up a free-electron trail, my lord.  It ap pears to have
been produced by the planet-eater's propulsion system."

Blastaar nodded his shaggy, gray head, pleased.  This was the other
reason he had visited the site: to obtain a clue as to the entity's
heading or destination.  And it seemed he had found what he was looking
for.

He turned to his pilot.  "Follow the destroyer's trail, maximum speed.
I'm impatient to feel his throat constrict in my grasp."

For emphasis, Blastaar closed his fingers into a fist in front of the
pilot's eyes.  The Baluurian nodded a bit too quickly.

"As you wish, my liege."

Before he had taken another breath, the tyrant felt his ship surge
beneath him.  He didn't have to consult a monitor to know the rest of
his armada was doing the same thing--leaping through the cosmos with a
single mission, a single goal.

To avenge their master's defeat and put an end to the planet-eater.

And when that was done, Blastaar would scour the Negative Zone for the
cursed Fantastic Four.  For he owed them a debt as well, and Blastaar
always paid what he owed.

Reed sat at the control station that dominated one of Prodigion's
tactical centers, Sue, Ben, and Johnny clustered behind him.  He was
surrounded by perhaps two dozen monitors of various shapes and sizes.
Some of them were freestanding, some on the bulkheads.  Some were
one-sided and sided, some curved and some flat.  Some showed of
Negative Zone space and some showed in

And then there was the one right in front with its image of the bio
generation chamber visited days earlier.  Since that time, he'd had a
to visit a great many facilities on Prodigion's we had his teammates.

'.i

Just as Tjellina had said it would,

out.  Everything supported the thesis a giver of life, not a taker ma
nurturer, not a

But there was one thing they hadn't seen, one of the puzzle Reed hadn't
had an opportunity amine.  And he couldn't give Prodigion's clean bill
of health until he accessed that piece

In other words, until he saw Prodigion.

For all he knew, there was no such being.  The riders' master could
have been created from cloth, based on the legend that seemed to have
from planet to planet.  Reed didn't actually believe i but he had no
evidence to the contrary.

At least, not yet.

Out in the corridor, their auburn-haired i.!"  escort peeked in on them
peri.gdically to see

: were doing.  Or as Johnny had suggested,

' doing.  But the Outrider, whose name was didn't impede them or try to
regulate their just maintained her position at the door in with
Tjellina's orders.

Reed wasn't sure the Outrider would have of what he was doing.  After
all, Tjellina had declared Prodigion's private chambers physically
offlimits to them.  But she hadn't said anything about the security
footage that pertained to those chambers.  "Here goes nothing," he
said.

The image on his monitor changed.  No longer was he looking at an empty
bio generation chamber.  Suddenly, he was gazing at a being of
tremendous magnitude and majesty, whose every gesture seemed full of
portent as he moved from one bank of equipment to another in a chamber
that dwarfed the one Reed now occupied.

In his entire life, Reed had seen only one other personage of such size
and bearingmand that had been Galactus.  But where Galactus displayed
stony indifference, there seemed to be a spark of humanity in
Prodigion, a hint of compassion.

It was difficult to know for sure without meeting their host in person.
But at least on the face of it, it seemed this piece fit the puzzle as
well.

"Hey, Stretch," the Thing growled behind him.  Reed was too intent on
the monitor to do more than grunt.  Still, he knew his friend would
understand.  It wasn't the first time Ben had seen his teammate
absorbed in study.

"Stretcherooney," the Thing pressed.  "I think you oughtta see this."

The man called Mr.  Fantastic sighed and turned around.  "What is it,
Ben?"

The Thing jerked a big, orange thumb over his shoulder.  "It's this,"
he replied simply.

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

Reed followed the gesture.."  and groaned.  monitor in back of Ben
showed an image as well--the same one, in fact, that graced Re screen.
The monitor beside it displayed the well.  And so did the monitor
beside that.

In fact, Prodigion's likeness was manifest or screen in the place. 
And, for all Reed knew, monitor on the ship.  Clearly, he had, as say,
goofed big time.

'You see the problem?"  Sue asked.

"It would be difficult not to," he sighed.  "I activated one datalink
too many."

Johnny wasn't the least bit embarrassed.  In seemed amused by the whole
thing.  "I guess the i riders are going to know you hacked into
security records."

"I guess so," Ben rumbled.

Reed glanced at Amalyn, who was frowning took in the sight of Prodigion
on all those monitors.  couldn't have been too happy about it, but she
ders not to interrupt.

"Anyway," Sue noted, "I think we've all the information we were looking
for.  It still looks like Tjellina was telling the truth."

Reed turned to his screen again and region  He leaned back in his
chair.  "It looks that doesn' tit?"

Johnny folded his arms across his chest.  "I still we're making a
mistake.  There's something fishy in bowl."

"But we haven't found it," the Thing reminded him.

odds are, the Negative Zone's got nothin' ta fear from Prodigion.  An'
Prodigion can obviously take care o' himself, judgin' from the way the
Outriders kicked Blastaar's tail.  All in all, a nice neat package that
doesn't need us meddlin' in it.  Ergo and to witmit's time to blow this
pop stand."

Sue looked at him.  You mean go home."

"I mean go directly home," Ben answered.  "Do not pass 'go," do not
collect two hundred dollars.  Just get the heck outta here."  He
glanced at Reed.  "Unless Einstein here wants to caress a few more
fancy circuit boards.  I mean, that's my idea of a good time."

Still staring at the image of Prodigion, Reed shook his head.  "No, I
think you're right, old friend.  It's time we made tracks."  But he
couldn't help continuing to stare at the monitor.

Sue put her hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. 
"Something's still bothering you, isn't it?"

She would know that, of course.  She was his wife.  "Only that we
haven't met Prodigion in person," he explained.  "I know it's not very
likely that someone would create these records just so I could hack
into them, but..."

"But you're not gonna split this haystack till we meet the Big Cheese,"
the Thing translated.

Reed glanced at him.  "Something like that."

Ben heaved a sigh.  "So what're we waitin' form Guy Fawkes Day?  Let's
go request us an audience with the great an' powerful Oz." And before
Reed or the others could

Thing went out into the corridor and voiced quest.  Sue chuckled.

"Ben'll be all right once he gets over his commented.

Reed grasped her hand and smiled.  And their request wasn't denied out
of hand.

The Surfer entered the chamber on his precisely the time to which he
had agreed.

It was not unlike many of the other eh.  Prodigion's ship, which he had
explored at by then.  It was the same generous size, the tan gular
shape.  And each of its bulkheads the same ribs of raised circuitry.

Yes, very much the same as any other eh the ship--except for one thing.
Tjellina was in this,

She stood at the far side of it, working at a console.  Though her back
was to him and he sound, his board hovering an inch or so above the the
Outrider nonetheless seemed to sense his

Glancing back over her shoulder at the Surfer.  indicated a spot in the
center of the room.  "Please," said.  "I was delayed on the hangar
deck, but I'll be you in just a moment."

Descending from his board, he whisked it to a by one of the bulkheads.
After all, it was the Suffer self in which Tjellina had expressed
interest, not his coutrements.

A few seconds later, the Outrider turned to finished with her
adjustments.  "Thank you told him, her tone noticeably more
businesslike before.  "I'm certain your friend the Torch warned against
it."

"That's true," the Surfer responded.  "But I told him

I didn't expect my experience to be anything like his.  Besides,
knowledge is always a worthwhile goal.  And while you are learning
about me, who knows?  Perhaps I may learn something about myself."

Tjellina's head tilted slightly to one side.  "You speak like a
scholar."

"As it happens," he told her, "I was a scholar once.  In fact, I was
one of the few such on my planet.i'

The Outrider seemed surprised.  "If there were so few, you must have
been held in great esteem."

The Surfer shook his head.  "My people didn't care much for those who
would expand our stores of knowledge.  They were too absorbed in
shallow pursuits and trivial pleasures."

"You speak of them in the past tense," Tjellina said.  "Did something
happen to them?"

The Surfer hesitated.  "More to the point," he finally said, "something
happened to me."  And in broad strokes, leaving out the details he
thought she would find uninteresting, he described the circumstances
that had made him the Silver Surfer.

"Remarkable," the Outrider murmured.  "Then you are unique.  There is
no one like you on Zenn-La or any where else in your galaxy."

"Galactus has created other Heralds," the Surfer pointed out.  "But it
is correct to say none of them is exactly like me." Tjellina grunted
softly.  "All the more reason to about you.  To understand what makes
you so

With that, she tapped a stud on her console.  A section of bulkhead
slid aside and revealed a storage full of equipment.  Removing some of
it, the approached the Surfer.

"These are energy sensors," she said, separatin from the others.

The Surfer saw a dark plastic oval mounted metal stand.  The oval had a
single narrow al

"They're designed to measure and identify in routine safety checks."
Tjellina began to sel around him.  "However, they will also measure
tify the output you generate."

Finally, when she was done positioning the sen the Outrider handed the
Surfer an object.  He it over in his hands.  It was roughly the size
and of a flashlight, with a few small protuberances at where the bulb
would be.

'vVhat is it?"  he asked.

"Nothing of any importance," Tjellina replied.

a tool we used to recalibrate our navigational equipment.  We have
since developed more efficient tools accomplish the same objective."

"I see," he said.  "And what would yg,u have me with it?"

"Several things," Tjellina told him.

She retreated to her console and pushed some tons.  Tiny lights in the
sensors lit up, indicating that system was active.

"First," the Outrider said, "I'd like you to put hand through the re
calibrator  That is, if it doesn't cause you any discomfort."

"None," the Surfer assured her.  Then he did as she had asked, using
his mastery over molecular physics to melt one hand through the
instrument as he held it in his other.

Tjellina consulted her console, her face bathed in the green light of
its monitors.  "Very interesting.  You seem to impart a certain amount
of energy to the object through which you're passing.  Did you know
that?"

He told her that he did.  He was acutely aware of every interaction
between his power and the world of matter.

"Now," she requested, '%rithdraw your hand and create a force field
around the re calibrator

Again, the Surfer did as the woman asked.  When he was done, a faint,
shimmering aura surrounded the ohject-an aura that would have withstood
a burst from the Outriders' hand weapons.

Tjellina studied the sensor results, then looked up.

"I'd like to test the strength of it," she said.

The Surfer shrugged.  "Go ahead."

Opening another panel on the bulkhead near her console, she exposed a
second storage compartment.  Removing a palm-sized device, the Outrider
brought it to him.  He took it, examined it.

"It appears to be a weapon," the Surfer observed.  Tjellina nodded.
"It's a miniature version of the blasters we use for security purposes.
Just as powerful, but it holds a smaller charge.  Would it be a problem
for you if I fired it at the re calibrator "Not at all," he replied.

He waited until she had withdrawn to her then fired the blaster at the
re calibrator--or, curately, at the force field he had erected re
calibrator  The beam of destructive energy off, leaving the instrument
completely

At her console, her face cast in emerald Outrider nodded. 
"Interesting. Your force field tributes the force of the assault over
its entire She turned to him.  "Are you doing that

The Surfer shrugged.  "I am aware that it ising but I do not wish it to
happen.  It simp ll

Tjellina regarded him.  "You wield such " power."

The comment seemed to come out of

"yes," he said finally.  "It's considerable, I know.  make every effort
not to abuse it."

"yes," the Outrider replied.  "I can see that."  stared at him a moment
longer.  Then she '%Vould it be all right if I used a full-sized
blaster you?"

As before, the Surfer shook his head.  "Do as wish.  I won't be harmed,
I assure you."

Going back to the storage compartment, extracted a weapon of the sort
he had seeja the riders carry.  Then she trained it on him.

"you're certain?"  she inquired, just to be sure.  "Certain," the
Surfer confirmed.

A moment later, she speared him with a focused beam of pure energy.  He
could see how would have had a nasty effect on the Torch.

But to the Silver Surfer, it was less a threat than an ice.  With a
simple application of will he fashioned a shield of cosmic force,
stopping the beam in midair.

"Amazing," the Outrider remarked, her blaster at her side as she
studied the monitors on her console.  "Absolutely amazing."

Truly, the Surfer had come to take his powers for granted.  But seeing
Tjellina's fascination with them reminded him that others did not.

She conducted other tests, gauging his response times, his accuracy,
even his ability to direct the actions of his board.  And she recorded
everything she could about the Power Cosmic--its wavelengths, its
polarities, its every measurable dynamic.

In fact, the Outrider's research went on much longer than the Surfer
had expected.  At first, he believed it was attributable to her zeal.
Then he wondered if it didn't have a basis in something else.

He couldn't escape the feeling that Tjellina was prolonging their time
together.  Stretching it out longer than was necessary.  But why would
she do that?

And why did he not find it tedious?  Why did he welcome her curiosity
to the point of encouraging it?  Was it because it reminded him of
another who had displayed great curiosity?

A being called Shana Bal?

He remembered arguing metaphysics with Shana long into the evening,
while the luminous strips in his study automatically compensated for
the dying light.  He remembered her wit, her willingness to try new
things, her delight when they stumbled onto some of knowledge
together.

Tjellina looked at him, as if she had no change in his expression.
"What are you about?"  she asked casually.

"I was thinking of Shana Bal," he replied.  She hesitated for a moment.
"Who's that?"  The Surfer told her.  He spoke plainly and Shana Bal had
shared--and of how his marion had pulled them apart.  As he did thi, Tj
ellina' sbrow wrinkle.

"I'm sorry," she said.  "I didn't mean to pry."  'you were not prying,"
he assured her.  "Nor

I have answered if I had not wished to do so."  Tjellina paused.  For
the first time since he her, she seemed awkward to himmas if she were
turing into unfamiliar territory.

"Have you ever thought of returning to she asked.  "And of trying to
resume your with Shana Bal?"

The Surfer frowned ever so slightly.  "I have to Zenn-La several rimes.
But resuming m) with Shana Bal is no longer a possibility.  Both I have
changed too much for us merely to we left off."-,

Tjellina didn't comment on his remark.  She regarded him for a moment,
her expression able--though the Surfer sensed emotions under the
surface.  Then she turned back to her

"You know much about me," the Surfer noted,

REI)EHPTION OF THE SILVER SURFER

himself with the remark.  "But I know so little

She looked at him.  "What would you like to know?"  "Everything," he
told her.  "For instance, where you come from.  What it was like there,
what your life was like.  And how you came to serve as one of
Prodigion's Outriders."

Tjellina shrugged, as if it weren't a matter of very great importance
to her anymore.  "I come from a world called Bathandia," she told him.
"A world of great thinkers and philosophers, scientists and inventors.
Un fortunately, no one ever actually did anything on Bathandia.  They
only talked about it."

"But you said there were scientists," the Surfer re minded her.  "And
inventors.  Surely these did more than talk."

The Outrider sighed.  "Their inventions were impractical.  And our
scientists dealt only in theory, never sullying their hands with
experimentation."

He absorbed what Tjellina had said.  "Then your world and mine had a
lot in common.  Their maladies were different, but the symptoms were
the sam em a stagnation of society.  A perpetuation of the status
quo."

"And worse.  We had never learned to synthesize what we needed, only to
take what nature made avail able to us.  In our foolishness, we
depleted our resources slowly but inexorablymmade wastelands of our
wildernesses and prisons of our cities."

The Surfer nodded.  "Foolishness indeed." "But I was different,"
Tjellina noted.  "I wanted something with my life.  I wanted to make to
create.  Unfortunately, there was no venue ciety where I could satisfy
these urges.  That is Outrider landed her vessel outside our

He thought about that.  "I didn't know it custom to make contact with
the cultures ing."

"Normally," she told him, "it's not.  But aren't immortal.  We die in
accidents or at the those who would oppose us, like Blastaar.  Or,
cases, we succumb to advanced age."

"I see," the Surfer said, sobered by the

then the Outrider was looking to replenish

To recruit new Outriders."

"Exactly," Tjellina responded.  "She sent out those who would like to
dedicate themselves to gion--and all he represented.  But even if no
one forth, she said, he would make our world a again."  .... "Were you
the only one who answered the wondered.

"The only one," she confirmed.  "Out lion people.  And much to my
surprise and--yes, it, my fright--I was accepted.  I le, pounds with
the Outrider pursue a new life among the stars."

The Surfer shook his head.  'our recruitment, was a bit different from
mine.  Your world ing in the balance."

"No," she agreed.  "It wasn't.  And I have been ever since."  She
turned back to her controls.  're almost done now."  He found himself
saddened by the prospect--saded more than an experimental subject had a
right to be.  Perhaps, he told himself, there was a way in which he
could make this not an ending, but a beginning.

Sue turned to Reed as she and her teammates followed Amalyn down the
corridor.  "W-hat do you think Tjellina will tell us?"

Her husband shrugged.  "Hard to say, not knowing how zealously
Prodigion guards his privacy."

"If she wanted us to meet Prodigion," Johnny insisted, "she would've
introduced us already.  There's something about him she doesn't want us
to see."

Ben rolled his eyes.  "Give it a rest already, will ya, squirt?  We
know ya don't like the guy.  Ya don't have to remind us every chance ya
get."

"Stuff it," Johnny told him.  "Someone's got to open your eyes."

By then, Amalyn had stopped outside a set of doors.  As the Fantastic
Four approached, the doors slid open.  A burst of light came through
them.

'hat's going on in there?"  Johnny wondered out loud.

Sue grabbed her brother by the arm.  "Easy," she told him.  "It's
probably nothing, Johnny."

But the teenager wouldn't be restrained.  "Flame on!"  he snapped.  His
body bursting into flame, he went flying down the corridor and made a
sharp left turn into As he sizzled past her, Amalyn cried out a though
Sue couldn't be sure whom she was protect.

There was another flash of light, followe,

and an even brighter flash.  As Sue skidded to the threshold, Reed and
Ben just behind her first glimpse of the situation.

The Surfer was standing amid a circle of s vices, his hand extended
toward the lying on the floor near the doorway, still in state but
looking a little dazed.

"My apologies," the Surfer said, walking circle to help Johnny to his
feet.  "I saw you lina and I simply reacted.  I hope I did not shake
too badly."

The Torch shook his head.  "I don't get pointed to Tjellina, who was
standing on the of the room with a blaster in her hands.  "She at
you."

The Surfer nodded.  '(es, but with my was part of a test."

Amalyn had what looked like a weapon in her Seeing there was little
chance of further violence.  put it away.

Obviously," Tjellina noted, "there has been a understanding."  She
addressed the Torch.  I mean that sincerely."

Johnny frowned.  "Whatever you say."

"We came here to make a request," Reed Tjellina, circumventing the
Torch's error and

pn'z

:'s reaction.  "Thanks to your kindness and hospiwe've seen all we need
to see here--and we be you've told us about Prodigion."

"I'm glad," Tjellina replied.

"Since you don't seem to require any assistance turnback the likes of
Blastaar, we'd like to go home,"

went on.  "However, we wouldn't feel right doing until we've thanked
our real host."

"In other words," Amalyn interpreted unnecessarily,

, would like an audience with Prodigion."  Tjellina considered the
request for a moment.  Then shrugged.  "I don't see why not.  Of
course, it may a little while, but I'm sure Prodigion can find the to
meet with you before you depart."  Johnny seemed surprised.  "He
can?"

The Outrider nodded.  "I will make him aware of desire and arrange a
meeting as soon as possible."

turned to the Surfer.  "No doubt you would like to meet Prodigion as
well.  Before you go, I mean."

Sue saw something in Tjellina's gaze.  A twinge of regret, perhaps.  An
expression of sorrow, of loss.  It was fleeting, but unmistakable
nevertheless.

'/es," the Surfer replied, his eyes fixed on the raven haired Outrider.
"I would like very much to meet Prodigion.  However, I will not be
departing with the Fantastic Four."

Ben's jaw dropped.  "Huh?"

%Vanna run that by us again?"  the Torch asked.

The Surfer didn't turn as he answered them.  "I Would like to remain
here," he said.  with Tjellina."

The Outrider stared at him, as incredulous as any of her guests.  "Do
you know what you're asked.

For the first time, Sue saw a hint of a smile sky rider face.  "Yes,"
he said.  "I know saying."  He paused.  "Would I be welcome here,

think?"

Tjellina flushed a little.  "Wery welcome."

Reed shook his head.  "I don't understand."

He wouldn't, Sue mused with an indulg then, he was a man.  And for all
his scientific not a very perceptive man sometimes.

The Surfer regarded the Fantastic Four.  "FAR

given me an opportunity," he explained.  "A eh rid myself of the burden
of guilt I carry.  You see,

former master destroyed life, Prodigion nurtures assisting him in some
small way, perhaps I can make amends for the crimes I committed as
Galactus's H

ald."

"What would you do here?"  Reed asked.  "Prodigi already has all the
help he seems to need."

"I was a scientist once," the Surfer reminded him know there will be a
great deal for me to learn,

! maybe I can do some of Prodigion's work someday."

'

Even a being of his power can use a respite now then."

There was more to it than that, Sue observed.  It clear to her the
Surfer was smitten with Tjelli

Though even if he weren't, the chance to redeem himself would no doubt
be motivation enough.

Still, that didn't mean it was the right choice.  T

Suffer tended to be impulsive, to act sometimes wi thinking.  And he
had been through enough sufenough turmoil in his life.

"Surfer," she said, "are you sure about this?  I mean really sure?"

He nodded.  "I know, Susan Richards.  I swore once never to serve
another master as long as I lived."  He remembered the vow, made in the
heat of shame and guilt after he learned how he'd served Galactus. 
"But to my mind, this is not srvitude.  It is a labor of love.  Of
redemption."

Johnny frowned.  But even with his suspicion of Prodigion intact, he
didn't try to talk the Surfer out of it.

And the Thing was actually encouraging.  "You tell 'em, Surf.  Ya see
the brass ring, ya gotta go for it."

There was a wistfulness in his gravelly voice that Sue understood.
After all, Ben had had his share of heart aches and disappointments. 
It was not easy for one so grotesque to find love and contentment.  No
easier than for someone like the Surfer, who had been an accessory to
the murder of entire planets.  In a way, they were very much alike, the
Surfer and Ben.

"Indeed," the sky rider assured the Thing, "I will go for the brass
ring."  Then he glanced at Tjellina, with her raven hair and her golden
eyes.  "And I will not easily relinquish it."

"Well, then," Reed declared, "the Surfer seems taken care of.  But it
leaves the rest of us with a problem."

Johnny snapped his fingers.  "That's right.  We've got no way of
getting back to Earth."  Tjellina spoke up.  "Perhaps I can be of some
help in that regard.  You see, we have more de fen

than we really need."  "Vgon't Prodigion mind?"  Reed asked.  The
Outrider smiled a subtle smile.  magnanimous being.  He will have no
fact--"

Suddenly, the chamber filled with the sirens.  Alarmed, Sue looked
around.  'laat is asked.

Tjellina turned to her console and cursed "We're under attack," she
told the others.

"Attack?"  the Surfer echoed.  "But whom?  .... The Outrider looked up
at him, her eyes hard grim.  "It's Blastaar.  And he's got twice the
fleet he before."

Fou een

The Surfer watch Tjellina sto, y her blaster and head |for the doors.
I 11 be back, she told him, with a |glance over her shoulder.

"Wait," he insisted.  "I can help."

Tjellina turned to him and shook her head.  "It won't be necessary.
I'll meet)'you back here when we're done."

Then she hurried off through the doorway without another word.  A
moment later, Amalyn vanished in her wake.

The Surfer looked at the Fantastic Four.  "Twice the fleet he had
before.  That's what she said."

Reed returned his gaze.  "Obviously, Tjellina believes they can handle
it."

The Surfer felt a jolt through the deckplates.  And another.  And then
a third, even more immediate than the first two.

He turned in the direction of their attackers.  "We shouldn't have felt
those assault beams.  The shields should have protected us."

The Thing grunted.  "You'd think so, wouldn'cha?"  Reed stroked his
chin.  "It may be that Blastaar's combined forces are simply too much
for the shields.  Or maybe it's more than that.  But in any case, that
should change when the Outriders are placed in the mix."

It didn't.  Not after a minute or even two.  After a
particularl),jarring impact, the Surfer shook his head.

FARTRSTIC FOUR

"Something's wrong," he decided.  "And not the shields."

Ben looked at his teammates.  "Surf's right.  time, the Outriders took
Blastaar apart he's still blastin' away at us, they musta run into
ble."

"So what do we do?  "Johnny asked.  "Go to bat guy we're still not a
hundred percent sure about?

"A guy you're not a hundred percent sure about," i Thing corrected.

"Yhen it came to Blastaar, we hung back and served," Reed noted.

"Prodigion's not Blastaar," Ben reminded him.  we're not with the
attacker now.  We're with the tackee."

The Surfer frowned.  "Debate if you wish.  I what I will do."

Summoning his board, he mounted it and to use his power to pass himself
through one of the heads.  But before he could get there, he heard one
call his name.  Turning, he saw that it had been Invisible Woman.

"Hang on," she told him.  Ve're coming with you.

"Teah," the Thing added.  "We can't letcha go there by yerself.  Ya
might catch yer death o' cold."

The Surfer regarded his friends.  "I appreciate, concern.  Come,
then--we will go together."

"Fire!"  cried the Living Bomb-Burst.

A hundred ships approached the planet-eater's massive vessel.  A
hundred energy beams burst from a him dred different weapons banks,
splattering against the ship's force shields.

"Again!"  Blastaar snarled.

Another hundred ships unleashed a deadly barrage.

Like the first one, it hit the shields and splashed away.  "And again!"
he roared.

Another hundred ships speared the void with their fury.  And this time,
some of the beams got through.  The huge vessel shuddered visibly with
impact after impact.

There, thought the tyrant.  I've thrown down the gaunt let.  Now it's
time for the cursed planet-eater to respond.

Right on cue, a series of slots opened in the vessel's flanks--and its
black needle fighters shot out like a swarm of dark, deadly insects.
Its pilots came right at the armada, just as they had the first time.

And why not?  Blastaar's forces were more numerous than before, but not
much more intimidating.  The Bolovite ships and the other new additions
were superficially different from those crewed by Baluurians, but in no
way superior to them.

All in all, it must have seemed like target practice for the black
needles.  But Blastaar knew better.

As one of the needles bore down on the flagship, the tyrant turned to
his weapons officer.  "Shield frequencies?"

"The same, my lord.  Weapons are programmed accordingly

"And their speed?"

There was only a split second's worth of hesitation.  "Tracking and
extrapolating," the officer assured him.

Blastaar smiled.  "Fire when ready." He watched the smaller monitor in
his where the black needle was represented as a re with a yellow
overlay of shifting geometric shz corner of the monitor, a ten-digit
numeral faster than his mind could follow, displaying tions and
predictions.

Suddenly, the black needle was speared with ergy beam.  Then another.
And another.  And all it could get off a shot of its own.

What's more, the energy blasts had gotten only partially blocked by the
narrow, black ship was smoking from a trio of wounds in its hull.

Blastaar grinned.  He knew it would be time.

His Baluurians had had time to analyze tactical systems.  With his
propulsion recorded and measured, the enemy's speed longer such an
advantage.  And with their quencies laid bare, the needles might as
well have no shields at all.

Of course, the needles' pilots would eventually just their frequencies
and restore their defenses.  wise, their mother ship.  But by then, the
it might be too late for them.

As he watched, the needle in front of him tried retreat.  But
Blastaar's weapons officer wouldn to.  He hammered the vessel with
blast after blast, poking hole after hole in it.

Finally, unable to endure any more torture, the dle's shields gave way
altogether--and the ship exploded in a flash of parting atoms.  It was
gone as if it had never existed.

The tyrant rubbed his hands together, eager to see the other needles
fall victim to the same fate.  He had expected his revenge to be sweet,
but he was only be ginning to appreciate how sweet.

With the Fantastic Four gathered behind him, the Surfer melted through
the hull of Prodigion's ship.

There was no resistance, as there would have been if he'd tried this
with Galactus's vessel.  No hidden defenses to circumvent.  The four of
them simply slid through on his board until the great void of the
Negative Zone opened up to them.

At the moment, that void was filled with ships striving to destroy one
another.  And those taking the decidedly greater beating were the
vessels piloted by the Outriders.

The Surfer didn't know what had swung the battle in Blastaar's
favor--nor did he have time to find out.  All he could do was try to
turn the tide the other way and hope his efforts amounted to
something.

He turned to Reed Richards.  "We will do better if we split up."

"You got that right, "Johnny answered.

As the Torch soared off on his own, leaving a trail of yellow flame,
the leader of the group clapped the Surfer on the shoulder.  "You're
right," he said.  "Good luck."

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

And then the other three members of the Four shot off into space,
propelled by their Free to act on his own, the sky rider set his sights
nearest dogfight.

A couple of Blastaar's assault ships were the slender black form of an
Outrider vessel.  The i rider was clearly faster than the other two,
but seemed to be able to hit her almost at will--and shot was taking
its savage toll.

Surging forward on his board, the Surfer his own power to bear--the
Power Cosmic him by Galactus.  It shot out from his fingertips purest
silver light--but when it hit one of the attackers, it did so with
titanic force, crippling sel instantly and sending it flying end over
end.

As the first attacker rolled away, the second note of him and wheeled
in his direction.  A moment later, it released a searing burst of
energy.

Had the Surfer been almost any other being, the blast would have torn
him atom from atom.  As he merely met it with a blast of its own, the
two charges hungrily canceling each other out.

Then he unleashed an ever-greater fury,

the craft off course and ripping up its engine relays the process. 
Like the other attacker, it spun lessly, no longer a factor in the
conflict.

And more important, the Outrider was free.  The Surfer would have
advised her to return Prodigion's vessel if he'd thought it would do
Unfortunately, he knew it wouldn't.  He watched she executed a tight
loop and leapt to the aid of a sister ship.

Then he sought out another target.

The Torch still had conflicting thoughts about defending Prodigion
against anyone.  But the fact that he was going up against Blastaar
made the task much easier to swallow.

Targeting one of the larger ships, a flagship maybe, he noted that it
wasn't Baluurian.  More than likely, then, it belonged to some race the
tyrant had taken over.  Peeking through a portal, Johnny confirmed
it.

They looked like lobsters, not big gray guys with lion manes.  That
made him a little less eager to pound on them, though for all he knew
they might've been even fiercer than Blastaar's people.

The first step was to dazzle their external sensorsn if he could find
them.  Coming up alongside the ship, matching its speed, the Torch
noticed a series of circular grids positioned all around the hull---and
they didn't look anything like weapons clusters.

As an experiment, he launched a succession of big, blinding fireballs
at the grids.  For a moment, they didn't seem to have any effect.  Then
the ship slowed down to a crawl, its pilots having to rely on what they
could see through their portals.

Of course, having a couple of big, bloodshot eyes on flexible stalks
might have helped a little.  But not enough.  The vessel's occupants
would have to recalibrate their sensors to get them working again. In
the meantime, the Torch mused, he had target for step two.  Finding the
ship's which wasn't difficult at all, he fired blast after blast at
them.  And after a while, they began to

Seeing what he was up to, the lobster people to target manually and
fire back at him, him away.  But it was a mistake.  Johnny had slagged
all the weapon barrels on that side of sel.

The energy stream got so far and no farther without a release point, it
was forced to turn back, source.  Like electrical feedback, the Torch
thing, cept a thousand times more vicious.

The result?  An explosion in the craft's aft with a big boom and lots
of fireworks.  By the lobster people got the fire under control, their
would be a wreck.

Unfortunately, Johnny didn't have time to around and watch.  He had a
lot more work to do.

The Thing applied the afterburners on his harness went after the belly
of a Baluurian ship.

It wasn't an easy target, however.  The vessel down, sped up, and
changed direction as it fired way and that, Twisting his body as well
as controls, Ben tried to adjust a'cordingly--but it like diving out of
a plane and trying to hit a penny the ground.

Finally, he caught up with it.  Reaching out, he his powerful fingers
into the hull and hung i gut-wrenching turn.  But as soon as it was
over, he got revenge on the thing, drawing his fist back and driving it
into the ship's tough metal hide.

There was a loud crunch.  And suddenly he was through, his powerful
fingers positioned just where he wanted them.

If he'd calculated correctly, and he was right below the helm controls,
he'd be able to grab a fistful of energy linkages and make the vessel
impossible to steer.  If not .. . well, no one ever said being a super
hero didn't have its share of risks.

The Thing probed and probed some more--and finally found a bundle of
stuff that felt like what he was looking for.  Tugging down as hard as
he could, he ripped it out of place.

Suddenly, the craft went out of control, bucking like the bronco to end
all broncos.  Ben could likely have held on, but there didn't seem to
be any point.  So he released the crippled vehicle.

And watched it slam into another of Blastaar's ships, where it did a
bunch of damage.  A moment later, the second vessel was spinning like
an out-of-control top as well.

Two for the price of one, the Thing observed.  He'd take that kind of
bargain any day.

The Invisible Woman didn't bother to live up to her tlallle.

It wouldn't have done her any good anyway.  Even if she had turned
transparent, the sensors in Blastaar's

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

ships would have detected her by virtue of her she forgot about turning
invisible and put her ents to use instead.

The ability to create invisible force fields, stance.  Approaching a
Baluurian fighter with harness power, Sue saw it turn its blaster
turrets direction.  But before they could fire, she erected visible
barrier around the turretsmone condenser and smoother than her usual
creations.

So when the Baluurians did fire, their bounced off her shield and
reflected back at them.  fortunately, the beams missed the weapons but
managed to poke a few holes in the cockpit.

That gave Sue a chance to wedge her super-barrier into the blaster
barrels.  He more than slivers, really--but she was would do the job.

Then she held her hand to her head and effects of having been stunned.
After all, the were a proud, male-dominated race.  They'd trouble
believing some of their beams had through to her, "frail" female that
she was.

Sue could almost see them leering at her as placed her in their sights.
She could imagine the vengeful glee with which their captain gave the
c

This time, she didn't need a shield.  Because the energy beams tried to
emerge from the gun the tiny wedges she'd driven into them did their
Instead of skewering their target, the beams were fleeted.

They sliced through the void, striking and maiming vessels unfortunate
enough to be in the vicin In a couple of cases, the beams split open
the blaster spraying energy even more haphazardly.

But thanks to Sue's impeccable concentration, a talent she'd honed over
the years, the invisible wedges survived--and not a single burst
reached her.  In fact, none of them even came close.

All of which must have irked the Baluurians no end.  Then, as the
barrage stopped, Sue executed a graceful coup degree.  Driving her
slivers deeper into the gun barrels, she reached into the energy
sources that drove them and wrought havoc with them as well.

In a burst of light and heat, the weapons overloaded, sending spikes of
unfettered power throughout the vessel.  Before its crew could do
anything about it, their ship shut downwevery system at once.

Sue smiled a lethal smile.  That would teach them to underestimate the
likes of the Invisible Woman.

Itwas easier for Mr.  Fantastic to latch on to one of Blastaar's ships
than it was for any of his teammates.

Even with the Torch's speed, he couldn't reach out over a vast distance
and grab on to a projection on a vessel's hull--then, using the
handhold as an anchor, reel himself in until he was sprawled over a
section of the hull.

Not knowing whether the occupants of the ship had noticed his arrival,
Reed acted quickly.  Lowering himself into position over the forward
observation portm the space going equivalent of a windshieldmhe swung

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

his leg out and down and kicked a hole in the parent surface.

With shards flying in the faces of the vessel's Mr.  Fantastic flowed
in through the jagged hole.  quickly as he would've liked, of course,
because to be careful not to cut himself on the edges.  But enough to
catch his adversaries by surprise.

As he'd expected after seeing the ship's these weren't Baluurians
against whom he'd pitted self.  They were beings he'd never run into
and powerful looking with blue, serpentine scales: angry eyes the color
of rubies.

With unexpected speed, they reached for the they carried at their
sides.  But Reed beat them drawing their weapons first and tossing them
hole he'd created.  Then he grabbed the pair and knocked their scaly
heads together.

As they slumped to the deck, he took a look controls.  But he didn't
concentrate on them that he forgot about the rest of the vesselmor the
sibility there might be a crew hiding in the aft partment.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another sary edge out of hiding
and take aim.  As the cockpit bisected by a scarlet beam, Mr. 
Fantastic flung his section out of harm's waymand watched the stream
sizzle through a bulkhead instead.

As the pistol wielder tried to take aim a sec Reed gathered himself
into a ball and b off a bulkhead, then the ceiling, the deck, and the
posite bulkhead.  All over the ship, in fact.

Each time he struck something, he gathered speed, making it harder for
his adversary to follow his progress.  Finally, when the fellow looked
as if he'd watched one tennis match too many, Mr.  Fantastic bowled him
over.

Restoring himself to his original form, Reed disarmed the unconscious
alien, then checked to make sure no one else was aboard and sat down at
the controls.  With a few quick strokes, he isolated the energy core
that powered the engines and ejected it into space.

Turning to one of the unconscious pilots, he said, "Sorry, friend---but
this vessel isn't going anywhere."

His work there successfully completed, Mr.  Fantastic slithered out the
hole in the observation port and climbed up onto the roof of the
spacecraft.  Then he took hold of a couple of weapons ports, drew
himself back as far as he could, and selected another of Blastaar's
ships.

Reed waited patiently for just the right moment.  When it came, he
slingshot ted himself across the void and caught hold of the vessel.

And began his sabotage all over again.

Having dispatched another of Blastaar's ships to the junk heap, the
Surfer scanned the battle zone for his next objective.  But as he did
so, he was impressed again with the enormity of his task.

He didn't have the luxury of disabling the enemy's craft one at a
time--or watching his allies do the same.  The armada was simply too
big, its component parts too numerous.  And with Prodigion's ship
under fire, was a rare and precious commodity.

So he chose another tactic, one he would dream of using in his own
universe, but sound in the Negative Zone with its odd, bearing space.
Using just a fraction of the which he traveled from star to star, the
Surfer in on one of the tyrant's vessels.  Before the ship fire at him
or get out of the way, he ripped board and all.

Despite his haste, he had been careful not to any lives--only to sever
some of the links that the vessel to operate.  The lack of explosive
press ion simplified that task.  Of course, he would know the exact
extent of the damage, because he already rocketing through the next
vehicle.  And the next.  And the one after that.  And on and on,
wreaking havoc with his slashing through circuit after circuit and
power piing after power coupling.  The Surfer didn't count the critical
systems he had destroyed; he punched his way through them.

And hoped that when he was done, it would enough.

Blastaar couldn't believe it.  As he eyed the his flagship, he saw ship
after ship whirl out or suffer some crippling explosion or simply die
in tracks.

He had expected to see such chaos when he here.  He had expected a
spectacle of pain and destrtaction.  What he hadn't expected was that
his ships would be on the receiving end of it.  It wasn't the planet
eater fleet that was reeling in disarray--it was his.

What's more, it wasn't the black needles that had proved the tyrant's
undoing.  When he'd had them alone to face, the confrontation had gone
all his way.  No, his troubles were the work of the cursed Fantastic
Four.

Almost immediately, they'd tipped the balance in the planet-eater's
favor.  And the longer they continued to fight, the farther it
tipped.

Worst of all, there was nothing Blastaar could do about it.  His blood
burned to confront his enemies one on one--but if he yielded to that
impulse, his armada would be left without a leader.  There would be no
one to coordinate their actions, no one to maintain discipline.

Either way, it seemed, he was bound to lose again, bound to taste the
bitter brew of defeat.  A wise man, he knew, would pull back his forces
while he still had them.  A wise man would withdraw and fight another
day.

The Baluurian didn't fancy himself the wisest of men.  But he wasn't
stupid either.  His mouth twisting in disgust as he spoke the words, he
called for a general retreat.

"Pull back!"  he snarled.  "Get out while you still can!"  His forces
seemed surprised but eager to comply.  After all, to them, the
planet-eater was only a threat in the abstract.  The planet-eater's
champions, on other hand, were punishing them here and ow,

Then, as Blastaar endured the humiliation ofwa ing his ships abandon
the field, he saw a familiar stretch from a crippled vessel to another
that was intact.  His lips pulled back in a wolfish grin.  "Richards,"
he said out loud.

No doubt the human hadn't realized a retreat I under way.  He was still
working his way from one to another, wreaking as much havoc as he
could.

The tyrant signaled his weapons master.  "I'her something I want to do
before we go," he growled,:i "Yes, my lord," the officer responded.

Blastaar pointed to the vessel Mr.  Fantastic had entered.  'you see
that ship?  The Bolovite?"  "Indeed, your excellency."

"Destroy it," the tyrant commanded.

He sensed that the weapons officer was looking him.  Still, the man had
the intelligence not to questi Blastaar's order.

A moment later, a tightly focused beam of eneJ lanced through space and
struck the vessel in questi As the tyrant's smile grew wider, the
ship's engine ploded, creating an inferno of expanding plasma.

It didn't destroy the vessel cemapletely, however.  for good measure,
the weapons master fired a coulumn of beams through the cockpit,
creating a second a somewhat smaller display of fireworks.  Then the st
dropped out of sight as a wave of retreating Esanai cut in front of
it.

But Blastaar was satisfied that Richards had perished  It was almost
worth all the ships he'd lost to accomplish that.

Sue Richards watched Blastaar's ships wheel one by one and head for
open space.  Was it possible they'd turned the tyrant back?  That
they'd won?

She'd expected to have to do a lot more fighting.  After all, Blastaar
was a savage being, a creature driven by pride and anger.  And more
than anything else, he hated to lose.

Before this, however, Sue had mostly seen him battling on his own, not
at the head of an armada.  She conceded she may have underestimated his
strategic skills.  It was also possible the Baluurian had something
else up his sleeve--something she couldn't even begin to imagine.

No matter what, they'd won a respite.  Scanning the void, Sue searched
for her teammates.  She spotted her brother first.  And at what seemed
like the same moment, the Torch spotted her.

He looped around and came blazing in her direction.  There was
something about his posture that communicated a sense of urgency.  And
by that sign, she knew something was amiss.

'7hat is it?"  she asked as Johnny pulled up in front of her.

"It's Reed," he told her.  "He's been hurt, Sue.  I saw one of the
Outriders scoop him up and take him into Prodigion's ship."

FIINTIISTIC FOUR

Sue didn't have to ask how badly Reed had jured.  She could tell from
the pained look in eyes.  "Take me to him," she said, her heart against
her ribs.

The Torch didn't hesitate.  Knowing Sue could protect herself from his
flames with a force field, her up in his arms and cut a fiery swath
void.  In Prodigion's vessel up ahead, slots were beginning to open for
the Outriders' ships, which had a terrible beating.

Halfway there, Sue and her brother were accepted by the Surfer and Ben,
both of them Surfer's board.  Ben called to back, and soon the four of
them were Prodigion's vessel together, sharing a common and a common
fear.

Unlike the Outrider ships, the Surfer didn't use one of the slots that
had opened in Prodigion's vessel.  He simply melted his way back in,
following Reed's molecular-emanation trail as he had before, taking
Susan, Ben, and Johnny along with him.

They came out in one of the myriad corridors that circumnavigated the
core of the ship.  Reed's trail was stronger here, more focused, more
recent.  The Surfer could hardly have missed it.

Speeding down the corridors on his board, negotiating bend after bend,
he moved so quickly the bulk heads on either side of him became a blur.
Susan, Ben, and Johnny clutched at one another for support.

But they didn't ask him to slow down.  After all, they were in as much
of a hurry as he was.

Abruptly, the corridor widened and the ceiling slanted away from them,
as if attempting to accommodate a being much larger than they were.  Up
ahead, the Surfer spotted a mammoth set of doors he hadn't seen before
in his travels.  They were at least a hundred feet high and five times
as thick as any other door on the ship.

But that didn't mean anything to one who wielded the Power Cosmic. 
With barely a thought, he passed his molecules and those of his friends
through the metal alloy surface, bringing them safely to the other
side.

Then and only then did the Surfer slow down--and finally stop--because
it was clear to him they'd reached their destination.  Like ants at
the feet of a human looked up.

And saw the entity called Prodigion.

He towered over them just as Galactus had, with same nobility, the same
mountainous grandeur.  he was a being apart, a force of nature as much
as a creature of flesh and blood.

And Reed lay in the palm of his hand--a and broken Reed, his flesh
blackened and the his clothing soaked with blood.  He wasn't in
there.

Slowly, but without the least hint of clun Prodigion's head turned and
his eyes took in the of them.  As black as ebony, they had silver
seemed to pierce the Surfer to his soul.

Susan gasped at the sight of her husband clutched her brother for
support.  "My God," she

Johnny shook his head, as if in denial.  "Reed?"

"eah," said the Thing, his voice little more whisper.  "It's him, all
right."

Susan turned to the Surfer.  "Can you're?"  "Help him?"  he finished.

He floated upward on his silver board, leaving comrades behind.  At
first, he feared in his heart Reed was deadmthat they had re, turned to
ship moments too late to save him.

Then he saw the human's eyelids flutter and him groan softly in pain,
and by those signs he knew friend was still alive.  He held his hands
out to the gigantic entity called Prodigion.

"Let me have him," he said.  "I can heal him."

But Prodigion shook his massive head.  "It is not necessary," he said,
and the chamber, large as it was, resounded with the power of his
voice.  "The healing has already begun."

As the Surfer looked more closely, peering beyond Reed's appearance to
his molecular reality, he could see that Prodigion was right.  The
human's body was repairing itself at a great rate, feeding on an energy
that was at once similar to the Power Cosmic and quite different.

An energy that came directly from Prodigion.  "Hey," Ben grunted.
"Reed's getting' better."  Indeed, the restoration being carried out
within the body of Mr.  Fantastic was making itself known even on the
outside now.  His bones mended, his wounds closed, his blackened flesh
turned pink before their eyes.

And little by little, Reed regained consciousness, became aware of his
awesome surroundings.  He stared up at Prodigion with wonder in his
eyesmfor above all, even in the throes of his re-creation, he was still
a seeker after knowledge.

"Thank God," Susan sighed.  She approached Prodigion.  Looking up at
him, she said, "And thank you."

The colossal figure's eyes moved to take note of her.  At first, he
seemed impassive, hardly even curious.  Then he spoke.

"No," Prodigion replied.  "It is I who should be grateful.  You risked
your lives for mehthough truth be told, you need not have
intervened."

"We couldn't just sit and watch," Susan explained.  '(our Outriders
were taking a beating." By then, Reed's recovery had reached its fin
all He sat up in Prodigion's hand, rotating his arms sockets and
kneading his shoulder muscles, as undergone nothing worse than a
demandir

"I have other lines of defense

Prodigion explained to Susan.  "Once I had Blastaar's forces, I would
have brought these to bear."

As he said this, he gently lowered Reed ground.  Susan ran to meet him.
As soon as the of the Fantastic Four descended from Prodigion's he met
his wife's loving embrace man embrace turned with gratitude and
wonder.

The Surfer eyed Prodigion, humbled by the last remark.  "Surely, our
efforts were of some you."

Prodigion fashioned a benign smile.  "Pr,

de," he replied.

The Thing snorted.  "Sheesh.  Now he tells us."  "Nonetheless,"
Prodigion went on, "I am for your concern and your allegiance.  And I
would to demonstrate my gratitude."

"No problem there," the Torch responded.  now, his brother-in-law
healed, there was still a no!  cynicism in his voice.  ']Just len us
one of those needles so we can get home."

Prodigion considered him.  "Black needles?"  "One of our ships,"
Tjellina explained.  The giant absorbed the information.  nately," he
said, 'we have but one space worthy and we require it to locate our
next destination.  If we were to give it up, my life-energy would be
wasted."  He lifted his chin.  "I could not tolerate that."

Tjellina turned to Reed.  "If you don't mind waiting awhile," she
suggested, "until some of our other vessels can be repaired..."

In that moment, the Surfer made a decision.  "That will not be
necessary," he interjected.

All eyes turned to him.  "And why is that?"  Prodigion inquired.

He lifted his chin.  "Because I can guide you to an appropriate planet
myself.  In fact, I have some experience performing such a service."

As before, the Surfer saw Susan Richards shoot him a questioning
look--a look that reminded him of his vow never to take another master.
But as before, he told himself his vow didn't apply here.

How could it be wrong to act as Prodigion's scout?  To seek out places
where life was faltering or had faltered and invigorate them?  Indeed,
in what nobler cause could he invest his time and energy?

"In that case," Prodigion announced, "I see no reason to retain the
Outrider vessel."  He gazed benevolently at Reed.  "It is yours, to do
with as you see fit.  You will find it on our hangar deck."

Mr.  Fantastic inclined his head to his mammoth benefactor.  "Thank
you--from all four of us.  And if there's a way to get it back to you,
perhaps via some homing device... ?"

"It already has such a device," Tjellina promised him.  "Wherever you
leave the vessel, we will find it."

FAI TASTIC FOUR

Reed nodded.  "Good."  He turned to his wife, his other two teammates.
"Then it's all settled."

He regarded the Suffer and extended his mi liar with human customs, the
sky rider took it.  "I hope you're happy here," Mr.  Fantastic told "I
will try to be," the Suffer replied.  Again, at Tjellina.  "Though I
trust I won't have to hard at it."

Susan took his hand next.  "Don't be a st ran right?  You know where
our remote sensors are Negative Zone.  You can always contact us--if,
hello."

"I will do that," the Suffer assured her.

The Thing rolled his eyes.  "Awright aw ready we the idea.  Hug hug,
kiss kiss, don't ferget ta write.  let's haul our keesters outta here
before someone bawlin'."

Man, "Johnny declared, ']You'rejust the timent, aren't you?"

"You want sentiment," the Thing grumbled, "go to a soap opera.  Me, I'm
outta here."  With that, he his broad, rocky back on them and headed
for the

Johnny turned to the Suffer.  "Like it or not, I I'm out of here too,"
he said.  "Good luck, he glanced at Tjellina.  "I hope you don't need
it."

"I'm sure he won't," Susan commented, taking brother's arm.  Then she,
Reed, and Johnny the Thing out into the corridor.

In the silence that followed their departure, Suffer felt as if he had
lost something valuable.

might never again find friends as loyal and true as the Fantastic
Four.

But as he regarded Tjellina, he knew he had gained something just as
valuable.  New friends, for instance, and a mentor, if all went well
and Prodigion consented to share his knowledge with the Surfer.

And most important of all, a chance to make up for the evil he had done
as Galactus's Herald.  For that alone, he would have sacrificed
anything and every thing.

he Thing sat alongside Johnny at the controls of the borrowed Outrider
ship, daydreaming about the home cooking he'd consume when he finally
got home.

"A couple o' dozen burgers," he said.  "Nice an' rare an' smothered
with onions, just the way I like 'em.  And a plate full o' those
crinkly little french fries."

His teammate glanced at him.  "How can you think about food at a time
like this?  We may have just let the biggest monster in the Negative
Zone off the proverbial hook."

The Thing scowled.  "Listen, Junior, all that stuff is behind us.  We
made our decision, so get over it.  Move on."

Abruptly, he saw a familiar head float past him on an elongated neck.
Ben sighed.  As if it ain't cramped enough in the cockpit already, he
thought.

"W-hatcha doin'?"  Ben asked.  "Checkin' ta see if I'm goofin' off?."

"Nothing of the sort," Reed replied.  "You never goof off.  You're one
of the most dependable people I know."  But as he said it, he was
scanning the vessel's control panel.

"When what is it?"  the Thing prodded, craning his neck to try to look
his friend in the eye.  "Ya get tired of sittin' in the aft compartment
and playin' footsie with Suzie?"

"Actually," said the Invisible Woman, joining the rest of them in the
cockpit, 're were just waitin we had put enough distance between
ourselvei Prodigion."

Reed nodded.  "And according to my which are admittedly a little rough,
we should about"--he pointed an elasticized finger at the
monitorm'there."

The Thing looked at him.  "No offense,

but what in blue blazes are you two yammerin'

"Here you go," said Reed, fiddling with the navigation controls.  A set
of coordinates came up on jacent monitor.

Ben glanced at the monitor, then at his friend,.  at the monitor again.
"Here I go what?"

Reed smiled.  "It's a course change, Ben.  One take us to a planet
known as Nicanthus Prime gion's stellar cartography files.  Mind you,
I'm who gave it that name or even who originally the sector in
question, but--"

The Thing held up a huge orange paw.  Stretcho.  I don't give a rat's
fat patootie about gion's computers or who mapped what.  I just know
what's so important we gotta make a it."

"Because," Reed said, despite, all the evidence contrary--despite the
impulse to oppose Blastaar led me to risk my life for Prodigion
earlier--I help feeling there was something eerie about gion's
operation."

"I had the same feeling," Sue remarked.  "So was helping Reed complete
his analysis of Prodigion's equipment, we lifted the name and
coordinates of the last planet he visited in his travels.  We wanted to
see for ourselves that he's as benevolent as he claims."

"We'll check out the results of his labors there," Reed explained. 
"And if we're satisfied Prodigion is as good as his word, we'll turn
around and head for home."

"How about that?"  said Johnny, no doubt feeling vindicated by this
turn of events.  He grinned.  "I guess I'm not the only oddball who got
a creepy feeling from o1' Prodigion."

Ben glared at Reed.  "So you and Suzie had this plan all along and you
never mentioned it to yours truly?  How come I'm always the last to
know these things?  And while we're on the subject, what else are ya
keepin' a secret?  Maybe there's a party on the way home ya for got to
invite me to?"

Sue patted him on the shoulder.  "It's my fault, Ben.  Reed suggested
that we alert you and Johnny, but we didn't want to get into a debate
on Prodigion's premises.  We didn't know what kind of security devices
he might have planted around his ship."

The Thing glanced at the course change represented on the monitor. 
"But what's the point?  I mean, even if he was keepin' something from
us---even if he turns out to be another Galactusmwhat're we gonna do
about it?"

"If it's something serious," said Reed, "we do what we did with
Galactus.  We show him the error of his ways.  And even if it's
something not so serious, it to the Surfer to establish the truth. 
After all, him we wouldn't have a home to go back to."

"Hey," said Ben, "don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to that oversized
hood ornament as just think we're being' a lot more suspicious than we
need ta be."

Sue shrugged.  "So we go to Nicanthus Prime find out Prodigion's a
prince after all.  No foul, no And we can feel good about leaving the
Surfer Negative Zone."

The Thing frowned.  "It's still a waste of time ask me.  But as usual,
nobody's asking'."  map on the monitor a moment longer, he turned
navigational controls and made the requisite arrangements.  "And here I
was hopin' to get back in Oprah.  "

Reducing power to the engines, he brought around.  Starlight glinted
off the starboard sembly.  It was a smooth maneuver, if he said so Not
a single bump or jostle.

Inwardly, Ben patted himself on the back.  What ya thinkin ', ya big
lug?  Ya still got it in happened a few years back, yer still the best
pilot in the business.  In fact, if ya didn't look like a pile o'
orange life' be pc, feet

That's when a ruby red energy blast came out nowhere and sent them
pinballing through space.  bulkheads shrieked under the impact.  Ben
wrenched free of his seat but managed to hold on to control console by
digging his fingers into its

For a single, terrifying moment, as he saw the others thrown around by
forces beyond their control, Ben had that hideous sense of deja  vu
again.  He felt as if he were reliving the fateful flight that had
given the Fantastic Four their powers.

For that moment, he was afraid there was nothing he could do about it.
As on that most bizarre of nights, he felt as if he was up against
something too big for one man to beat.

Then the moment passed and he wasn't Ben Grimm anymore.  He was the
ever-lovin' Thing.  And the Thing could beat anything.

With renewed determination, he dragged himself back into his pilot's
seat.  He eyed his monitors.  And he did his best to locate the source
of the energy blast that had blindsided them.

The Thing's monitors didn't let him down.  But when he realized where
the attack had come from, his baby blues opened wide.  Avoiding another
blast might not be as easy as he'd hoped.

This isn't good," he muttered.  "This isn't good at all."

"Ben," gasped Reed.  He slithered back into his seat like a rush of
water running upstream.  "What is it?  Who's after us?"

"See for yourself," the Thing suggested.

He watched his friend crane his neck around to peer into the monitor.
Reed's eyes narrowed with concern.  "Blastaar," he said.

"Correctamundo," Ben confirmed.  "And he's got his whole fleet with
him--or what's left of it." It didn't really matter that Blastaar's
been knocked down a peg.  Even in its condition, it was still plenty
big enough and enough to destroy a single Outrider vessel.  On the
other hand, the Thing reminded this wasn't just any Outrider vessel. 
This one toughest man-monster in the galaxy at the he wasn't giving up
without one helluva fight.

"Hang on!"  he growled.  "I'hey ain't seen yet!"

And with that, he gunned the engines, elude pursuit by virtue of speed
alone.  It ( seconds for Ben to realize that wasn't going Blastaar's
opening blast seemed to have knocked some of the vessel's power
couplingsmso could still go fast, they couldn't go fast enough.

On the other hand, speed wasn't the only card could play.  The Outrider
ship could still turn on'.  All Ben had to do was work his way into the
Blastaar's fleet and he could tie them up all day.  they'd be scared to
fire for fear of hitting buddies.

Anyway, that was the theory.  In practice, it out a little
differently.

For one thing, the possibilit of hitting their buddies didn't seem to
deter Blastaar's weapons in the least.  In fact, if Ben didn't know
better would've sworn they enjoyed it.

For another thing, Blastaar was smarter than Thing had given him credit
for.  Just as he wove into the Baluurian's ranks, the armada began to
tptO scatter.  Before Ben knew it, he was out in the open again.

Exactly where he didn't want to be.

He gritted his teeth.  It was a setback; that was all.  He was still
the Thing.  He still had the strength and the skill to win, he told
himself, if he just kept plugging away at it.

Because of that strength and that skill, it was a long time before he
took a second energy blast and then a third.  And by that time he'd
scored half a dozen choice shots of his own.

Funny, he told himself.  He'd expected those energy beams to knock them
around a little harder.  Then he caught a glimpse of Sue's face and he
realized she was shielding them with a force barrier.

A sheen of perspiration on her brow, she managed a smile.  "Keep going,
Ben.  I'm with you all the way."

For a while, that was enough.  The Thing wrenched them through maneuver
after gut-twisting maneuver and the Invisible Woman kept them from
buckling when Blastaar's minions got in a hit.

But they couldn't keep it up forever.  They all knew that.  The
handwriting was on the wall.

Itwas Reed, naturally, who volunteered to read it out loud.  "That's
enough, Ben.  You've done your best, but we can't beat them at this
game.  There are just too many of them."

"So what do I do?"  the Thing growled back at him.  "Pull over onto the
flippin' shoulder?  This ain't exactly 1-95, y'know--and Blastaar ain't
gonna be content givin' us a speedin' ticket!"

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

"Nonetheless," his friend insisted, "it's our chance."

Ben didn't like the idea of baring their throats Living Bomb-Burst.  He
had a feeling they were postponing the inevitable.

On the other hand, Reed didn't make calls.  If he thought discretion
was the better valor in this case, the Thing couldn't just " Scowling,
he cut their speed to nothing.

And prayed the gods who ruled the Negative had a soft spot for rock
piles named Ben.

With Tjellina standing before him, protected from vagaries of the void
by a cocoon of cosmic

!

Surfer glided through the Negative Zone at a speed

Outrider could only have dreamed of.

"I was wrong," Tjellina said.

The Surfer looked at her, unable to see much face past the sweep of her
hair.  "Trong?  About he asked.

She turned to look at him.  "Back on ship, when I was running those
tests on you, I

your abilities amazing.  But they're more than great deal more."  She
glanced at the stars that by them.  'You can do things evenrodigion
can't.

ii as far as I knew, he was the most powerful being in universe.

"What Prodigion does is more amazing to me,"

Surfer replied.  "And more important as well.  With help, I can find a
place where his labors might fruitful.  But the miracle of life he
brings forth.."  that is something I can only admire."

For a time, they sped among the stars in silence.  Then Tjellina spoke
again.  "There is something else I was wrong about."

"And that is?"  he inquired.

As he waited for an answer, her hand slipped into his and drew his arm
around her.  The Surfer didn't resist in the least.  In fact, he
reveled in the nearness of her.

"I thought my work was enough," she explained at last.  "I thought I
was fulfilled.  But the moment I saw you, I knew there was an emptiness
that had never been filled.  Nor could it be, except by you."

Tjellina turned in the Surfer's arms and gazed into his eyes.  Her
fingers touched his chest lightly, like rain drops.

"I wouldn't have asked you to stay," she told him.  "With you on one
course and myself on another, it wouldn't have been fair of me to make
such a request.  But when you offered to remain with us, to scout out
worlds where Prodigion could sow his seeds..."

Tjellina never finished her sentence.  Raising herself on her tiptoes,
she leaned closer to the Surfer and brushed her mouth against his.  And
like a man who had thirsted all his life, he quenched his thirst.

When he was done, he leaned his lips against her golden forehead and
stroked her raven hair.  It was soft to his touch, so soft.

"I love you," Tjellina whispered.

It had been a long time since the Suffer had known

/

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

the love of a woman.  Or, for that matter, woman he might love.  But
the Outrider dred him emotions he had felt only once since his days
Shana Balmwith Nova, another of Galactus's H, Emotions that, since
Nova's death, he had never .... pected to feel again.

Perhaps part of it was the empathy he felt for since she performed a
function similar to the one had performed for Galactus.  Perhaps part
of it was admiration for her courage and her selflessness.  But not
all, the Surfer told himself.  Not all.  "I love you," he said in
return.

The Surfer had never expected to find ship or fulfillment again as long
as he lived.  And it seemed, in a stroke of great good fortune, he
found both.

"We have work to do," Tjellina reminded him.  '%Vork," he echoed, as if
he'd never heard the before.  Gradually, he released her.  "It pains me
to go of you."

Tjellina chuckled.  "A romantic.  Is there about you that is not
perfect, Norrin Radd?"

"I am far from perfect," the Surfer assured her.  with your helpmand
Prodigion's--perhaps I can proach that state."

She turned away from him then, to better focus the job ahead.  He tried
to do the same, but it easy.  He couldn't help thinking how bright the
suddenly looked for him.

He had found a like mind in a previously empty lonely universe.  He
knew how rare a gift that was.  How precious.

The Surfer didn't know what kind of relationship he would have with
Tjellina.  He didn't know if they would complement each other the way
he and a young Shana Bal had complemented each other.  But more and
more, he was eager to find out.

In time, their search was rewarded.  They found a star system with
several planets, at least one of which was parched enough to satisfy
Prodigion's criteria.  Their mission accomplished, they turned around
and sped back to make their report.

The Surfer trusted it would be the first of many such missions.  For
there was much he could accomplish in this fashionmand each life he
saved was like a balm to his soul.

s Ben cut their engines and they drifted through the void, and
Blastaar's forces surrounded them like hungry jackals, Reed wondered if
he'd made the right decision after all.

Then again, there hadn't been a great many options open to them.  Not
the kind they would survive, at least.

Of course, they could have used their harnesses to slip out of the ship
and work their way through the fleet.  With the help of Sue's force
fields, they might even have made it in one piece.

However, that would only have delayed the in evitable.  They were a
long way from the portal back to Earth--and given that much time,
Blastaar's minions eventually would have landed a knockout blow.

The Torch, with his ability to soar at high speeds, was the only one
with a legitimate shot at escape.  But Reed didn't believe the boy
would've left his teammates be hind.

Besides, Reed told himself, it's too late now to have second thoughts.
Blastaar's flagship was already nudging its way into the first ring of
vessels, looking every bit as belligerent as before.

"We're cooked now," Johnny breathed.

"The hell we are," Ben rumbled.

Reed just frowned.  By then, Blastaar's flagship and its bristling
armaments had come almost nose to nose with the Outrider vessel.  But
it just hung there in space, as if waiting for something. "He's not
going to fire," Sue told him.  Her brother looked at her. "He's not?" 
"That's right," Reed agreed, smiling at Sue's ceptiveness. "If he was
going to fire, he would maintained his distance.  At this range, the re
from an energy blast would damage his ship almost badly as it would
damage ours."

"No one ever said Blastaar had all his marbles," Thing commented.

But Ben had been a fighter pilot.  He, too, must suspected the
Baluurian had something else in

Suddenly, Blastaar's gray, bestial face filled the fines of their
monitor and his voice grated at the vessel's speakers.

"Why?"  he demanded, spittle flying from his mouth.  "Why did you see
fit to betray me?"  '

The question was almost humorous, considerin source.  But the Fantastic
Four weren't in the laugh.

"We didn't betray you," Reed responded.  "All did is prevent you from
destroying the one you call 'planet-eater."  "

"And is that not the same thin" the tyrant Reed shook his head.  "It's
not the operating under the assumption that Prodigion was threat, as
the legends said.  But we had a chance to meet him--to inspect his ship
and his data logs.  And thing we learned about him refutes that
assumption."

Blastaar's tiny, black eyes narrowed warily.  "Prodigion, you call
him?"

"That's his name, yes."

"And what is he, if not a destroyer?"

Reed met the Baluurian's anger as calmly as possible.  "As far as we
could tell, he's just the opposite.  He appears to bring nourishment to
parched, shriveled ecosystemsmestablishing life where the natives have
nothing to look forward to but death."

The Baluurian grimaced.  "And you believe this drivel?"

Mr.  Fantastic felt something stiffen in him.  "I'm a scientist," he
said.  "That means I'm skeptical by nature.  But I couldn't let you
destroy Prodigion until I'd seen his results with my own eyes."

"And where can one see such marvelous results?"  Blastaar snarled.

"On a planet Prodigion visited recently," Reed replied.  "A place
called Nicanthus Prime."

The Baluurian shook his shaggy head at what he obviously considered the
Fantastic Four's stupidity.  Turning away from the monitor, he barked
an order at one of his functionaries.

A moment later, Reed felt their ship lurch beneath them.  He exchanged
glances with Sue.

"Tractor beam," she concluded.

Mr.  Fantastic nodded.  Then he turned back to Blastaar, who was
glaring at him again.  "Where are you taking us?"  he asked.

The tyrant leered.  "You wanted to see Nicanthus Prime, Reed Richards?
 Then see it you shall.  In provide an escort."

With that, Blastaar's image vanished from itor.  Then his flagship came
about with the vessel in tow and made its way through the ranks
armada.

Reed couldn't conceal his surprise.  Judging teammates' expressions,
they'd been caught off as well.

"You see?"  the Thing said.  "All we had to do nicely.  The guy's got a
heart as big as the whole positive Zone."

Johnny grunted.  "If he does, it's someone And knowing Blastaar, it's
on a stick."  Clearing the armada with the Fantastic dragging behind,
the Baluurian's ship the immensity of space.  One way or the other,
served, it seemed they would see Nicanthus have a chance to inspect
Prodigion's handiwork.

And in doing so, obtain the answers they

As the Surfer glided through the cosmos of the negative Zone, his arm
around Tjellina, he knew had never been so happy.

Not even when he was NorrirI Radd, winding through the sunny,
perpetually blooming Zenn-La with a beautiful companion like Shana his
arm.  Not even then.

For he had been young in those nocent.  He had never imagined the
tortures Fate in store for him.  He had yet to know guilt or
selfloathing or the stark gray emptiness of despair.

Norrin Radd hadn't dreamt how far a man could sink.  Indeed, he'd had
no reason to explore such territory.

But the Silver Surfer had lived a waking nightmare, without respite or
quarter.  Year after year, he had searched the galaxy for hope, for
absolution.  And he'd found it in the last place he would have
expected.

The Surfer was older than Norrin Radd, older and a great deal wiser.
Having again found happiness, he knew how precious it was, how utterly
rare.  And he would never again let go of it.

Up ahead, he saw Prodigion's ship.  "We're almost home," he told
Tjellina.

She looked at him.  "I don't see a thing."

'You will," the Surfer assured her.

And in time, she did.  Tjellina smiled at the sight.  "Your eyesight is
amazing," she told him.  And then: "You see?  Even with all the tests I
performed, you're still capable of surprising me."

The Surfer smiled as well.  Looping his way around Prodigion's ship in
a sort of victory lap, he melted Tjellina and himself through the
molecular structure of the hull and into a corridor.

Then, his knowledge of the vessel having improved since he first
entered it, he made his way directly to Prodigion's chambers.  The
giant was intent on one of his monitors, but he turned to acknowledge
their approach. "Surfer," Prodigion said, his voice boomin the
high-ceilinged space. "And Tjellina."

"We're back," the Outrider confirmed, ste the Surfer's board.  "And
we've located what In fact, no Outrider has ever found a better her
own."

The giant nodded his massive head.  "That to hear," he remarked.  He
eyed the Surfer in particular.  "I am indebted to you."

"No," the Surfer told him, descending board as well.  "It is I who
stand in debt.  By this responsibility on me, by making me your you've
given me something more valuable repay--even if I served you for all
eternity."

Prodigion considered him.  "Then I am pleased."  He turned to Tjellina.
"I will need the coordinates.  The urge to sow my life seeds is upon
"Of course," the Outrider replied.

Striding across the room to a smaller console programmed the data into
Prodigion's system.  she returned to the Surfer's side.

"The star drive has been given a destination,"

said.  "All you need to do is activate it."

"Thank you," Prodigion told her.

He reached out with his mighty ha net and a square shape in his
console.  A moment later, Surfer could feel a vibration in the
deckplates that him they'd changed course--and perhaps as well.

Tjellina turned to the Suffer.  "Would you do thing for me?"

"Anything," he told her.

"Would you take me outside again?"  she asked, her eyes dancing with
anticipation.  "So we can soar beside the ship?"

He regarded her.  "Was that your practice as an Outrider?"

Tjellina shook her head.  "No.  But I would like to make it a practice
from now on.  After all, I enjoyed our journey as I've enjoyed little
else."

The Surfer shrugged.  "As you wish."

Together, they mounted his board and left Prodigion to his labors. 
Then they melted through the hull of Prodigion's vessel and regained
the star-studded immensity of space.

Later, there would be time for quiet moments and intimacies.  For now,
the Surfer was content to shepherd the great ship as it negotiated
Negative Zone space, seeking the destination he'd provided.

And to bask in the knowledge that Tjellina was at his side.

On the monitor in front of Reed, a series of green and red graphics
told him they were approaching Nicanthus Prime.  "We're getting close,"
he notified his teammates.

"Which one are you," the Thing grunted, "Huntley or Brinkley?"

Again Blastaar's savage, lion-maned visage leered at the Fantastic Four
from every monitor on their control board.

"We have arrived at our destination," the tyrant announced with a
snarl.

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

"Teah, yeah, we heard," Ben grumbled.

He tried to adjust the controls, to free them he and his partners could
see what was going on.  wasn't working.

"Nuts!"  he growled.  "That beady-eyed Baluurian is on every flippin'
station we got--even PBS!"

Ignoring his comrade's remark, Reed stretched arm around him and ran a
diagnostic program.  matter of seconds, he got the results.

"Looks like Blastaar's slaved our comm system to own," he announced.

"But why?"  Sue asked.

Blastaar chuckled grimly.  "You wanted a look Nicanthus Prime, did you
not?  Well, have a

A moment later, the Baluurian's face to be replaced by a host of other
images.  And each them, it seemed to Mr.  Fantastic, was a view of
planet's surface.

A view of something horrible.

"leeza ," said the Thing, the green glare of the tors reflected in his
narrowing eyes.

Johnny's face screwed up in sympathy as he at a screen over his
friend's shoulder.  "You can again."

These weren't the sort of scenes teir stay w gion had led them to
expect.  They weren't idyllic ages of life aborning, but life
overgrowing.  They were glimpses of something ghastly--a nightmare of
boggling proportions to which Reed could to bear witness.

Where Galactus would have starved a planet giving energy, Prodigion had
gorged Nicanthus Prime with too much life.  Like crops over infested
with weeds, eventually the planet's native life would choke and wither
and die.

Sue turned to him, her eyes full of anguish.  "Isn't there anything we
can do?"  she asked.

Reed shook his head sadly.  "Not for these people.  It's too far along
for them."  The muscles in his jaw fluttered.  "But we can make sure it
doesn't happen elsewhere."

Abruptly, the scenes from the planet's surface disappeared--to be
replaced by the image of Blastaar they'd seen earlier.  The tyrant
looked intolerably smug.  "I take it you've seen enough," he said.

"Quite enough," Reed confirmed.  "And I don't imagine you towed us all
the way here just to make a point.  You still want our help."

The tyrant shook his shaggy head.  "No," he said, "I don't want your
help.  But unfortunately, even with all the firepower I've accumulated,
I may yet need it."

The leader of the Fantastic Four looked to his teammates.  "Once again,
we and Blastaar appear to have a common purpose.  Except this time, we
needn't be observers.  We've seen all we need to see."

Johnny grunted.  "If you're asking what I think we should do, I think
we should take Prodigion down.  But then, I've been saying that all
along."

The Thing sighed noisily.  "I'm with ya, Stretch."  He tilted his head
to indicate the image of Blastaar on the monitor beside him.  "Much as
I hate the idea of teamin' up with Maggot Face, I'll make an
exception." Reed glanced at his wife.  "Sue"

She looked steely eyed, resolute.  "It's she replied.

Mr.  Fantastic turned to Blastaar--or anyway, the many Blastaars he saw
peering at him from the trol console.  "Looks like you've got yourself
some .. he told the Baluurian.

Blastaar scowled.  "It's about time," he said.  And I his image was
gone, replaced by a different each monitor.

"He's released us from his communications Sue observed.

Ben worked his controls, "From his tractor lock Suzie.  We're free to
go anywhere we want.."  as long!  it's where he wants us to go."  He
turned to Reed.  "H

Stretch.  Just promise me one thing, all right?"  ' "What's that, old
friend?"

"That this is the last time we'll be changin' sides i this donnybrook.
My head's startin' to hurt."

Reed glanced out an observation port, where the too-lush, blue-green
sweep of Nicanthus Prime was starting ing to drop away.  Then he looked
at the Thing agair

hortly before Prodigion's vessel was scheduled to reach the system
they had located, Tjellina turned to the Surfer.

"I'd like to return to the ship now," she told him.  Her eyes suddenly
grew vulnerable.  "It's time you and I spent some time alone.  I wish
to"--she smiled--celebrate our success."

The Surfer nodded, pleased at the prospect.  Veering toward Prodigion's
vessel, he used the Power Cosmic to penetrate the hull.

They came out in one of the myriad research chambers on the ship.  A
single monitor was working.  The image on it was that of a thriving
cityscape, blessed with waterfalls and a cornucopia of thick, rich
foliage.

As the Surfer watched, the image changed.  The monitor showed a park
like scene, in which individual beings could be seen interacting.  The
beings, a slender, dark-eyed people, seemed happy, healthy, and
thoroughly amused by the antics of their young.

The Surfer didn't know these people well enough to say their situation
was an idyllic one.  But that was the obvious conclusion based on the
evidence he had at hand.

Suddenly, Tjellina interposed herself between the Surfer and the
monitor.  She held out her hand.

"Come," she said.  "There's no reason for us to re main here.  Not when
the solitude of my chamber awaits

US."

FARTASTIC FOUR

The Suffer smiled.  "I look forward to that just do.  But those people
on the monitor have curiosity.  Tell me," he said, craning his neck to
see her, "what planet might they inhabit?"

Tjellina didn't turn to look at the monitor.  came forward and embraced
him.  Kissed him on lips.

"Please," she told him.  "We have done all that expected of us.  It's
our time.  Time for us to other's company."

"Of course," the Suffer assured her.  "But

As he caught sight of the monitor, he saw that scene had changed again.
It showed him a planet ing in space, illuminated on one side by its
sun, its side in darkness.

It was a green world, not unlike Earth.  A world.  As he looked on, it
loomed larger, closer, were their destination.

The Suffer knew that world.  He had seen it afar, but he remembered it.
It was the third the system they had located--the system they pro
aching so Prodigion could sow his seeds.

But it wasn't the world they were supposed to heading for--the world
that needed them.  That the sixth.

"Something's wrong," he said, feeling his tighten.  "That planet.."
it's green already.  It's full life."

The energy Prodigion bestowed on a planet was signed to spur a
proliferation of flora and explosion of fecundity that would otherwise
take lennia.  But on a planet already full of life, that proliferation
would leave no room for existing species.

They would be overrun.  Trampled in the rush of new species.

The Surfer turned to Tjellina, horrified.  "There's been a mistake.
We've got to do something."

"There's no mistake," the Outrider told him, her tone strangely flat
and distant.  "Prodigion's function is to plant the seeds of new life
where they're most likely to survive."

The Surfer shook his head, perplexed by her answer.  "But what about
the life that exists there already?"  he asked, indicating their target
with a gesture.  "Won't it be destroyed by so much unfettered
growth?"

Tjellina shrugged, strangely untroubled.  "That's irrelevant, I'm
afraid.  Prodigion's mission is to create life.  What existed there
before is of no importancemeither to him or to us."

He stared at her.  "You can't be serious," he whispered.

The Outrider returned his stare.  Her eyes were no longer warm and full
of humor, as he had known them, but cold as space itself.

"Can't I?"  she replied.

The Surfer wanted desperately not to believe what he was hearing.
However, one look at Tjellina's expression told him it was the truth.

She meant to doom the sentients on that world and every other life-form
on the planet as well.  What's more, she meant to do it without a
second thought, like the dutiful Herald she was. And what of
Prodigion?  If Tjellina was inte: murder, he had to be equally guilty,
equally to Certainly, his methods were vastly different from of
Galactus.  But the results seemed much the fear and misery, death and
destruction.

Worst of all, the Surfer had been a part of it.  own volition, he had
mapped out a path to this for Prodigion.  Intentionally or otherwise,
he had himself a pawn in a civilization's doom.

After he had sworn never again to serve such a ter, or to hurt another
living soul.  How could he been so blind?  So trusting?  How could he
have this to happen?

No matter, he told himself.  There was still make amends for his
gullibility.  That world he had.  could still be saved.

Turning away from Tjellina and her treach called his board to him and
tucked it under his Then he headed for the bulkhead.  His intention was
melt through it, as he had on other occasions.

But before he could get within a meter of smooth, metal surface, he
felt himself ensconced field of naked, pulsating energy.  Surrounded by
it all sides.  He reached out to touch it and white-hot plasma sparks
sizzled beneath his silver

Tjellina spoke to him from across the room, she stood beside a control
console.  "You will find useless for you to try to free yourself.  Even
the floor charged with the energy barrier, although it's a of
millimeters below your feet."

She paused, her face a mask.  It was as if she were someone other than
the woman he'd known.

"Remember the experiments we conducted?  The tests I put you through?
The data went to good use."

The Surfer needed no further explanation.  '(You de signed this force
field with me in mind."

The Outrider nodded.  "It was my objective from the beginning to
harness your power on Prodigion's be half.  However," and here her
voice softened and the mask fell--"matters didn't proceed exactly as
I'd planned.  I hadn't expected to fall in love with you."

He lifted his chin.  "More lies, Tjellina?  For what purpose?  You've
gotten everything you wanted."

"No," she told him, approaching his energy prison, her eyes suddenly as
soft as he'd ever seen them.  "Not everything, Norrin Radd.  Not
you."

The Surfer frowned, knowing exactly what she meant.  '(You did have
memwhen I was your dupe.  But no longer."

Tjellina reached for him, her outstretched fingers falling just short
of the energy barrier.  There was longing in her face, naked and
unmistakable.  "My affection was real," she insisted.  "It still is."

He didn't answer.  He just turned away and touched another spot on his
prison.  There, too, a sizzling of plasma grew under his hand.

"Was it so wrong," she asked, "to want to share my mission with you? 
To bestow life on planet after planet?  Despite your misgivings, it's a
noble mission.  A necessary mission.  There's a balance, Norrin Radd.
Without Prodigion, without the seeds he spreads, that would be
lost."

It was the same with Galactus, he reflected.  But didn't mean he had to
be a party to it.  Death, too part of the balance--but that didn't
compel him to come a murderer.

Tjellina circumnavigated the force field until was standing in front of
him again.  "We could still Prodigion's needs," she said.  'You and
I--we good together.  After all, we're so much alike."

The Surfer looked at her.  "No," he replied '(You and I are not at all
alike."

"We're powerful," she argued, "each in his or own way."

"That is where the resemblance ends," he back.  "You are clever,
conniving, and I've allowing myself to be deceived by you as I was once
deceived by Galactus.  Because of lapse, that lack of judgment, I've
doomed an planetary population to a horrible competition for vival." 
He grimaced with disgust--mostly for "Far from reducing my burden of
guilt, I've it."

Hurt and disappointed, the Surfer focused on forces surrounding him.
There didn't sgem to be a in them he could capitalize on, but he had to
try.  shaling his pain, his humiliation, he pointed at and unleashed
the most powerful blast he

It bounded back at the Surfer with stunning sending him flying backward
into the opposite the barrier.  As he got to his feet and recovered
board, he saw his effort hadn't made a dent.  As Tjellina had warned
him, the field was too strong for him.

Thanks to the naivete he had thought was behind him, the Surfer was
powerless to stop Prodigion from wreaking havoc on an innocent planet.
In fact, he was powerless even to leave this room.

Tjellina regarded him.  "I wish you could see things as I do.  I wish
you could see the virtue, the glory."

"There's no virtue in taking advantage of the weak and powerless.  In
that," he said, "there's only villainy.  And madness."

The Outrider looked at him, her eyes bright and liquid.  "I'm sorry you
think so," she told him.  "I'm truly sorry."

Then she left him to contemplate his fate.

So much for Baluur's astronomers, Blastaar thought, trying his best to
control his seething anger.  If--when he got home, he would flay them
alive and then personally roll them in salt.

They'd told his councillors that Prodigion wouldn't come anywhere near
his holdings.  That his empire would be safe.

Yet his flagship's monitor showed otherwise.  In the solar system up
ahead--a system known as Sorenion, which he had claimed years
ago--Prodigion hades tablished orbit around the third planet out.

For all the tyrant knew, the planet-eater was already working his
infernal magic on it, planting the seeds of destruction.  If he wasn't
stopped here and now, the Baluurian worlds would surely be next.

His officers turned to him expectantly.  "Orderl asked his pilot.

The tyrant leaned forward in his chair.  Consul a secondary monitor, he
made sure the Fantastic Foil hadn't abandoned him again.

With some satisfaction, he saw their vessel was kee ing pace with the
rest of his armada.  He turned back his pilot.

"Attack," he grated.

"Yes, my lord," came the response--and not from the pilot alone, but
from a dozen different throats of Blastaar's bridge.

The enemy would soon be engaged.  The battle was on.  And its results
would be felt throughout the Negative Zone, perhaps for eons to come.

T hey're coming," Ama, lyn called out.

| Tjellina nodded.  I see them."

| Indeed, as she pivoted in her seat in the tactical center, surrounded
by her fellow Outriders, she saw the entirety of Blastaar's attack
force on her various monitors.  But neither she nor her colleagues
could ride out into space to oppose them.

After all, their ships were still in various states of disrepair it
would have been foolhardy to risk flying them in combat.  Ironically,
the only Outrider vessel that had been battle-ready was coming at them
as an enemy.  By that sign, she imagined the Fantastic Four had
discovered the truth about Prodigion's agenda.

Still, it wouldn't do them any good.  Just as it wouldn't do Blastaar
any good to throw the remnants of his armada against them.  As
Prodigion had told the Surfer and his friends, his ship boasted many
more defenses than his Outriders could provide.

Working her controls with all the speed and dexterity she could muster,
Tjellina activated some of those defenses.  At least, the ones she
could deploy on short notice.

First, a force shield so powerful it wouldn't matter if Blastaar
divined its frequency.  Unfortunately, it would draw too much power to
leave it up for long.  But it would protect them from the enemy's
initial attack, when they needed it most.

Next, she brought the disrupters online.  According to the Outriders'
scouting reports, neither the urians nor their allies had ever faced
such a though like the shield, the disrupters would great deal of power
and had to be used

Neither the enhanced shield nor the di would've been effective against
Blastaar's earliel He would simply have worn them out over time.  then,
the Baluurian's fleet had been depleted in size and strength.  "Ten
thousand meters and closing," snapped.

"Tjellina," another of her colleagues cried "They've entered optimum
weapons range."

She smiled grimly.  "Hold your fire for a

Let them think they've caught us unawares."

The Outriders, as disciplined a group as the entire Negative Zone, did
exactly as they were Finally, when their attackers were practically on
them, Tjellina barked a command.

"Fire!"

As the Suffer watched the monitor in the room from energy prison, he
saw Prodigion's barrage the whole first rank of Blastaar's ships.  ing
left of them, not even molecuPar debris.  They simply been wiped from
existence.

He grated his teeth.  The Baluurians were but no one deserved to die
that way.  If he had been there, he might have prevented it.

Instead, the Surfer was imprisoned in Prodi vessel, contained like a
lab animal within the fe

Tjellina had devised for him.  He laid his palm against it as he had
before.  Plasma sparks crackled furiously be neath his silver flesh.

The blast of raw power he'd applied before had only backfired on him.
Perhaps, the Surfer thought, If I try a different tack, I'll have
better luck.

Toward that end, he pressed against the rage of sparks.  Harder and
harder he pushed, despite the searing pain that he felt against his
palm, despite the rigidity of the field.  It was resisting him as he
hadn't imagined anything could, save for the constructs of Galactus.

And still the Surfer pushed, applying all of his strength, all of his
pent-up fury and frustration.  But the field wouldn't budge.  With a
cry of disgust, he pulled his hand away.  He'd failed again.  He turned
back to the monitor, where another wave of Blastaar's ships flung
itself against Prodigion's fortress.  They, too, were annihilated

Somehow, the Surfer thought, he would find a way to stop the bloodshed.
Or he would die trying.

Reed shook his head.  Blastaar's forces were taking a terrible beating.
And every energy assault they made was turned back by an invisible
barriermone the tyrant obviously couldn't solve.

"Where's the Surfer?"  the Thing wondered.  "He'd crack that force
shield like a piece o' cheap plastic."

The Torch nodded.  "Good question, Ben.  You would think he'd be out
here, wouldn't you?  That is, if he still believed in Prodigion's
cause." Sue frowned.  "Maybe he discovered the abandoned Prodigion."

"Or tried to," Reed added.

His wife turned to him.  '(You think Pro, could've stopped him?  Maybe
imprisoned him?"

"Anything's possible," Reed reminded her.  way," he said, pointing to
Prodigion's vessel, to get inside that ship and take out its defenses.
wise, our collective goose is cooked."

"Then we'll do it," Sue resolved.  "You got that right, "Johnny chipped
in.  "I

are the Fantastic Four, aren't we?"

The Thing grunted.  "No matter what, it'll be than sittin' in this here
tin can and waitin' ta meet maker.  Let's get 'em, Stretch."

The Torch was the first one out of their,

ing on as he released himself into the void, a tight loop and went
hurtling toward fortress.

Sue came next, approaching their target a more slowly under harness
power.  Her husband lowed, and Ben brought up the rear.

This was it, Reed thought.  Blastaar had enlis them for just such a
moment, counting on their ers and resourcefulness.  Now they would see
if he made the right choice.

The Torch slashed his way through Negative space, closing with the
foreboding gray surface gion's ship.

Somewhere in front of him, there was an barrier.  He was intensely
aware of that.  He didn't know exactly where it was, but he had a way
to find out.  Creating a sizable fireball in his palm, he reached back
and flung it at the vessel.

Less than thirty feet from the hull, the fireball smashed into a dozen
flaming streamers.  There was no energy feedback, just the high-tech
equivalent of a brick wall.

The Torch was reminded of a line from Robert Frost: "Something there is
that doesn't love a wall."  Well, he thought, he wasn't too fond of
them either-and being a card-carrying member of the Fantastic Four, he
had the power to do something about them.

The other day, when he'd encountered the Outriders for the first time,
Johnny had managed to pierce their shields with a souped-up fireball.
He figured the tactic was worth a shot here too.

Except he'd use something a bit bigger than a fire ball to penetrate
Prodigion's defenses.

Looping around in a big circle to gain momentum, the Torch concentrated
on burning hotter.  And hotter.  And hotter still, until his flame had
been fanned to white-hot intensity and he himself had become a raging
supernova.

He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.  But then, if all
went well, he wouldn't have to.

Plunging down toward Prodigion's ship, Johnny tried to remember where
his fireball had splattered.  He tried to picture it in his mind.  And
when he approached that point, he increased his velocity even more.
Impact, he thought.  A split second later, the Torch smashed into
gion's invisible barrier, hitting it as hard as he'd anything in his
life.  There was a flare of min force that obliterated all sight and
sound.

Then he found himself drifting, his flame spent.  Turning it up again,
he looked around he wasn't far from Prodigion's hull.  But was he or
outside the force shield?

Creating a tiny fireball, the Torch tossed it ship's direction.  It
didn't get very farmonl)

before it flew apart on impact with the barrier.  He was outside.

Swallowing his disappointment, the Torch around for his teammates. 
They were only now ing the barrier, at a point perhaps two hundred down
the line.

Skimming the surface of the barrier, he went to them.  After all, he
hadn't been able to accomplish thing by himself.  Maybe they would do
better as a

Sue had seen her brother's effort to penetrate the rier.  Johnny's nova
flame had proven to be an mensely powerful tool in the Human Torch's
and to see it fail so miserably proved disappointing

But the Invisible Woman was no slouch she neared the force shield, she
tried to estimate cation based on her brother's efforts.  Then she an
invisible construct of her own.

First, she used it to more firmly establish the rier's location.  Then
she probed it for weaknesses.

fortunately, she couldn't find any.  The shield seemed uniformly
impregnable.

Sue swallowed, conscious that if she remained in one spot long enough,
one of Prodigion's weapons stations might open fire on her.  Even with
Blastaar throwing everything he had at the vessel, her presence in the
area of the force shield might be considered a higher priority.

Still, she was far from ready to give up.  As a member of the Fantastic
Four, she'd faced lots of seemingly impossible situations.  To her,
this was just business as usual.

"Hang on, Suzie!"  bellowed a gravelly voice.

Turning, she saw Ben approaching the barrier in his harness, with Reed
right behind him.

Then she remembered one aspect of her power that she rarely had the
need to use.  While she could render visible things invisible, the
power also worked in reverse--she could make the invisible visible.

She concentrated for a moment, and then the crack ling energy of
Prodigion's force shield could be seen by one and all.  That should
give Blastaar's fleet something to aim at.

Then she looked over at the Thing, who was pulling his right fist back.
Sue smiled.  And something for Ben to aim at, too.

"It's clobberin' time!"  he growled--and walloped Prodigion's force
shield with enough power to split a fair-sized mountain. 
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough power to split a fair-sized force
shield.

And because every action has an equal and opposite reaction, Ben went
bounding in the direction come from.  It took Reed a moment to reel
him

"Fer Pete's sake," the Thing groaned.  "What super hero or a blasted
Ping-Pong ball?"  :;

Nonetheless, Sue noted, his punch had had an feet.  And a very
interesting effect, at that.

She wouldn't have known it if she hadn't field visible, but the energy
pattern had changed in the spot that Ben had hit, briefly Prodigion's
vessel to once again be seen behind barrier.

"Ben," Sue said, "do that again."

He looked at her.  'a mean hit it?"

"Zes," Reed confirmed.  He had obviously too.  "Hit it, just as Sue
instructed.  As hard as you bly can."

The Thing shrugged his rocky shoulders.

you say.  But if it didn't work the first time..."

He pounded on the shield a second time.  again, the barrier weakened,
the temporary hole bigger this time.  Once again, Ben went flying And
once again, Reed snared his friend before he go very far.

"Are we havin' fun yet?"  the Thing asked

"I wouldn't call it fun," Sue restonded.  "But I we're getting
somewhere, which may be better."  turned to Reed.  "If we up the ante,
I might be able drive a force field wedge into one of those holes opens
up."

Her husband's eyes lit up.  "And we can slip thing tiny through the
barrier.  Say, a man who can make himself the size of a straw."

"That's the objective," Sue replied.

Just then, the Torch arrived, his flame crackling around him.  "No
luck?"  he asked sympathetically.

"Maybe a lot of luck," his sister told him.  And she explained what she
meant.  "So if Ben hammers at the barrier--and you attack it as
well--Reed may have a shot."

Johnny eyed his teammates.  "Then let's do it."  The Thing nodded.  "On
yer mark..."  "Get set..."  Reed continued.

"Go!"  the Invisible Woman cried out.

Hovering in front of the barrier, the Torch blasted away with one gout
of flame after the other.  At the same time, Ben pummeled the shield
with both fists--while Reed made a seat belt of himself and held his
friend in place.

The power they brought to bear was staggering.  As Sue had anticipated,
it didn't put a permanent dent in the shield.  But it did create
several soft spots.

Fashioning as narrow a wedge as she couldl the In visible Woman drove
it into one of the holes opened by Ben and Johnny's barrages, and
pushed for all she was worth.  To her delight, the barrier yielded, and
the wedge stayed.

It was not yet wide enough for Reed to squeeze in side.  But now she
had a foothold--enough to spur her to an even greater exertion.

Clenching her jaw, Sue redoubled her efforts.  It wasn't easy in any
sense.  It made her head ache and her

FANTASTIC FOUR

muscles burn, as if with an oxygen deficit.  It fingers tighten into
hard, cramped fists.

But by dint of sweat and willpower, she did, she'd set out to do.  She
forced open a tiny access in the barrier.

"Now!"  Sue moaned.

Reed didn't need any more of an announo than that.  Like a feather less
shaft, he shot opening.

But partway through, it began to close on Reed's head, still narrow and
elongated, turned the shield.  His eyes reflected the agony he was as
his torso was pinched to almost nothing.

At times, it seemed Reed could assume any wanted.  However, even he had
his limits.  And at moment, the forces working to close the barrier
squeezing the life out of him.

"No!"  the Invisible Woman grated.

She wouldn't let it happen.  She wouldn't let perish that way.

Pouring every ounce of strength she had into struggle, she pried the
hole open again.  Wider fighting the darkness that impinged on the
edges vision, battling the vertigo that threatened to her.."  until her
husband squirted, through

Then she yielded to the inevitable and felt the ness overwhelm her.

'm in, Reed thought.

But at what price?  He turned back to look at Sue, who floated limply
on the other side of the force shield--which had once again turned
invisible.  She looked pale and spent, as the Torch flamed off and
gathered her in his arms.

']ohnny!"  he called.  "Is she all right?"

But his brother-in-law didn't seem to hear him.  Reed cursed inwardly.
Of course.  If the barrier was designed to keep out energy assaults, it
would keep out all energy-sound waves included.

Instead of speaking again, he waved to Johnny.  The teenager didn't see
him at first.  He was too intent on his sister's condition.  But the
Thing saw Reed gesturing and tapped the Torch on the shoulder.

As soon as Johnny acknowledged him, Reed pointed to Sue.  The boy gave
him the thumbs-up.  Sue was going to be all right, as far as he could
tell.  She had just exhausted herself.

Nodding, Reed jerked a finger over his shoulder.  He was going to
proceed to the ship now, to try to get in side.

The Torch made a circle of his thumb and forefinger  Okay, he was
saying.  Go do what you have to.  Afler all, Sue knocked herself out to
gve you a chance--now take ad vantage of it.

Reed didn't need any more encouragement than that.  Deactivating his
harness's propulsion system to save energy, he kicked off from the
barrier and himself in the direction of the ship.

Halfway there, he saw a piece of metal he could,

as a handhold and latched on to it, then pulled the rest of the way. 
As the soles of his boots hit the face of the hull, he experienced a
brief thrill of faction.

The hard part was behind him.  Or was it?  As looked around, he saw
there wasn't any obvious to the interior of the vessel.  And unlike the
Surfer, couldn't just adjust his molecular structure and melt way
inside.

He compressed his lips.  There had to be a way Unlike space going craft
in his own universe, Ne Zone vehicles didn't have to be airtight.  In
this there was no vacuum to worry about.

And someone like Mr.  Fantastic didn't need of an opening.  The tiniest
of spaces would do

Then he remembered something.  In his throughout Prodigion's ship,
hadn't he come across I system for venting noxious gases--the kind that
built when certain energy-storage technologies were in

As Reed recalled, the system was a complex one, lizing a great many
narrow, twisting tubes instead eral large ones.  A questionable
des't'gn strategy, he thought at the time, given the incredible size of
sel and the availability of space.

However, it wasn't Reed's intent now to criticize.  Especially when
there was a chance someone of his could use that vent network to great
advantage.

Snaking his way along the hull of the ship, he searched for one of the
vent endings in the flash of exploding assault vessels.  It took
several long, tense minutes but he finally sighted one.

So.far so good, Mr.  Fantastic thought, as he propelled himself toward
it with his elastic arms and legs.  He knew he had a way to go before
he reached his goal.

As he reached the opening, he saw how minuscule it was--but then, not
much more minuscule than the one he had just come through to get past
the barrier-or, indeed, than the access channels he had woven through
the team's headquarters in Four Freedoms Plaza.  If he could get
through those apertures, he could probably get through this one as
well.

Inserting himself into the hole, Reed insinuated himself along its
length like some exotic variety of eel.  When he came to a bend in the
road, he followed it.  When he saw another bend, he followed that
too.

And on and on, each turning rendering him a little more disoriented
than the last.  He tried to keep in mind the direction in which he
wished to proceed.  However, it wasn't easy, especially when one was
operating in total darkness and time was so much of the essence.

At one point, Reed felt a strange sort of resistance, an obstruction
that wasn't part of the winding tunnel itself.  Then it vanished,
leaving him wondering if it had ever been there in the first place.

It was only a few seconds later that he glimpsed a light--or rather its
reflection in the smooth walls of the vent.  Encouraged, he followed it
to its source--and found the end of his passageway. Coming up on it
with caution, Reed poked his out and looked around. What he saw made
his gated heart beat faster against the constraints of flexible ribs.

There was the Suffer, standing at the opposite of a large,
high-ceilinged chamber.  And he was rounded by a field of raw,
throbbing energy--a that clearly served as a prison cell.

He was watching a monitor--the only live one in room.  It showed the
battle raging outside.  As far Reed could tell, Blastaar's armada
wasn't faring ter.

All in all, it seemed the Surfer had run afoul i Prodigion.  In some
ways, Reed was grateful.  He ways considered the Suffer a valuable ally
as well friend--he would hate to have Galactus's former ald as an
enemy.

But obviously, Reed thought, the silver sky rider caught on.  He had
realized the all he was cracked up to bemthat, far from being a for, he
was a genocidal maniac.

That meant the Suffer would be ready to hand.  Lucky for them, thought
Reed.  The way the bat was going outside the ship, he might be their
hope.

In fact, this was the single luckiest thing that have happened to the
leader of the Fantastic Four.  and that was why he didn't trust it for
a nanosecond.  was simply too much of a coincidence for him to invaded
a ship this size and shown up here.

If he hadn't been so concerned about his mates, he would have
approached the situation with more caution.  He would have backtracked,
investigated, tested one hypothesis after another until he got to the
truth.

But that wasn't an option.  They needed help in a big way and they
needed it now.  So, ignoring the possibility of a trap and the
certainty of a surveillance system in the room, Reed stretched out his
torso until his face was only inches from the Surfer's energy field.

Though he hadn't seemed to notice the human's approach the Surfer
showed no surprise when he turned to gaze in Reed's direction.  His
expression was strictly one of pain and sorrow.

"Are you all right?"  the human asked.

The Surfer's voice was as soft and lucid as ever.  "I am physically
uninjured, if that is what you mean."

But his psyche was a mess.  That much was obvious even to Reed, who'd
been accused of excessive introspection in the past.

"What happened?"  he asked.  "Who did this to you?"  The Surfer sighed.
"Tjellina.  I found out we were wrong about Prodigion--I, most of all.
And when I tried to undo what I had done, she imprisoned me here."

Swiveling his head on his neck, Mr.  Fantastic scanned the place for a
moment.  He found what looked like a control console along the bulkhead
to his left.  Since it was the only such console in the room, it had to
have something to do with the Surfer's prison.

' es," the Surfer confirmed, almost as if he could read his ally's
thoughts.  "That is the mechanism with which Tjellina created my energy
prison.  However, not having seen her do it, I regret I cannot
describe the cedure to you."

Reed nodded.  Directing the upper half of his to the console, he took
hold of it and allowed his half to squirt out of its hiding place.
Then, a vaguely humanoid shape, he studied the controls and their
accompanying monitors.

It wasn't the most confusing array he'd ever but it was pretty close.
Reed tried to think of it in of the other panels he'd seen around the
ship.

He was just starting to understand the logic when he heard a shrill
clash of metal on Whirling, he saw that he'd been right about a lance
system in the room.

Otherwise, the bulkhead opposite him have opened along a razor-thin
joint he earlier.  And it wouldn't be releasing a pack
monstrosities--vicious-looking, four-legg long necks and elongated
heads, blood-red eyes, pincerlike jaws.

Reed's impulse was to try to elude the robots.  fortunately, he needed
to stand his ground.  The sole was the key to everything.  If he could
use the Surfer, his team had a fighting chance.  If couldn't, his team
didn't.  It was that simple.

Under the circumstances, his personal safety comparatively irrelevant.
Doing his best to ignore the robots' gnashing teeth and the deadly
grace with which they surrounded him, he turned his attention back the
controls.

Reed ruled out half a dozen monitors and gauges in quick succession,
all of them pertaining to some aspect of the ship's operation.  Only
two of them didn't fit neatly into one category or another.

"Watch out!"  cried the Surfer.

A quick glance showed Reed what his friend was warning him about.  One
of the robot predators leapt at him, jaws open and ready to snap, metal
skin glinting in the light from the energy prison.

Just in time, Reed moved his neck and shoulders out of the way, but
left his head in place to resume his studies  Baffled by the resulting
zigzag shape of its target, the robot closed its jaws on empty air and
went hurtling past him, only to scrape to a halt on the deck and whirl
about.

By then, a second robot was flying through the air at him.  Out of the
corner of his eye, Reed could see the Surfer throw a barrage of his own
energy in the robot's direction--but it hit the wall of his prison and
splashed back at him.  Fortunately, Reed was quick enough to pull
another zigzag maneuver.  And as before, he kept his head in place.

The third attack elicited the same result.  So did the fourth and the
fifth, though the robots were coming a bit closer each time.  Finally,
whether it was coincidence, a programmed response, or some kind of
actual intelligence two of the metallic monsters attacked Reed at
oncemfrom opposite sides and at opposite heights.

In order to elude them, he had to fling himself away from the
consolemeven though he believed he had finally figured out how it
worked.  The robots flew past each other, jaws clamping shut with
terrific force. As Reed gathered himself off the floor, he lowed.  If
he hadn't evacuated his position when he he would have been ripped to
shreds. Still, he problem, albeit one of a slightly different nature.

Having separated Reed from the control panel, pack had amassed itself
around him him, backing him into a corner.  But the farther he treated,
the farther he was getting from the console,

In the background, he could see the Surfer ing helplessly.  If his
captivity caused him discomfort fore, he was now in agony.  After all,
Reed was his life to set his friend freemand for all the Surfer'
credible power, he couldn't lift a hand to help

Mr.  Fantastic looked around.  Behind him, he see the opening through
which he'd entered the her.  It would be easy enough to slither back
inside save himself.  But then, the Surfer would remain gion's
prisonermand the battle outside would be

Reed resolved could do anything about it.  Coiling himself up, gauged
the distance he would have to travel, set teeth.."  and bounded across
the room like a long, streamer.

He was halfway past the robots before they what was happening.  By the
time-they leapt up tried to take a chunk out of him he was well past
them his hands reaching for the control console.

Quickly, even before the rest of his body landed, Reed's fingers
applied pressure to the apI pad the one in the upper right-hand corner.
At least, he believed it was the appropriate pad.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to find out.  As if they knew he'd
outsmarted them, the robots came at him in a frenzy, all long,
wicked-looking teeth and ruby red eyes.

Reed gathered himself into a ball and shot himself at the ceiling, but
that didn't deter them.  They leapt after him as he descended again,
following his bounce.  And before he could hit the floor, one of them
whacked him with a hard metal paw.

Despite his rubbery state, the impact was devastating.  It made his
head spin, made him lose his concentration.  By the time he slammed
into a bulkhead, he had re turned to human form.

And a very painful human form at that.  Reed's collision with the
bulkhead had battered him badly.  His head hurt as if he'd been struck
by a truck.

As if encouraged, the robots advanced on him again.  And this time, he
was too dazed to do anything about it.  He just lay there aching, the
taste of blood growing stronger in his mouth, as a grisly death crept
closer and closer on shiny metal limbs.

Suddenly, a stream of terrible, bright light came from the other side
of the room.  Like deer caught in a pair of headlights, the robots were
ensconced in its glow.

Reed could feel only the faintest heat on his face.  However, the
robots experienced something else-something a good deal more intense.
As the leader of the Fantastic Four watched, the metal predators began
to melt.

Their limbs sagged and went liquid.  Their snouts turned soft and ran
down their chests.  In a matter, moments, Reed's metallic antagonists
were no more than puddles on the floor.

Only one being could have been responsible something like that.  As the
light faded, Reed turned .. saw the energy prison was gone.  The ward,
his board tucked under his arm.  : He was free.

"Thank you," said the Suffer, his voice filling chamber.  "I am
indebted to you, Reed Richards."

Gone was the look of shame and despair that gripped the Suffer earlier.
In its place, Reed saw an press ion of determination.  Of resolve.

Approaching his ally, the Suffer bent beside and inspected his
injuries.  "You have a concussion," he said.  "And considerable
soft-tissue damage.  But not long."

Brushing his fingertips across Reed's face, he plied the energy within
him a second time--not as a structive force, but to heal.  And heal he
did.  the human felt whole and alert.

Reed grunted softly.  First he'd been mended Prodigion, and now by the
Silver Suffer.  After this, it would be difficult to reacclimate to
more prosaic ical practices.  But he had more than his health on his
mind.  He glanced at the monitor that showed the battle, which looked
like more of a disaster than ever.  But they still had a chance.  They
could still win this thing.

"We need your help," he told the Suffer.

Reed told him how they had discovered Prodigion's true agenda--how they
had hooked up with Blastaar again and assaulted the life giver's ship.
"But as you can see," he continued, "Prodigion still very much has the
upper hand.  That's why I snuck in--to see if I could sabotage the
ship's defenses."

The Surfer thought for a moment, his normally flawless brow furrowing
ever so slightly.  "For one of your talents, sabotage is a logical
option.  But not for one who wields the Power Cosmic."

At first, Reed didn't know what he meant by that.  Then he figured it
out.  'You're going to hit the Outriders themselves," he said.  "Right
in their tactical center."

The Surfer nodded.  Yes.  That's my intention."  "They'll be well
defended," Reed pointed out.  "They will need to be," his comrade told
him.

Reed had a feeling the Surfer was right.  "Mind if I come with you?"

The silver being shook his head.  "I do not mind at all.  In fact, I
may have need of your help."

Together, they mounted the Surfer's board and exited the chamber.
Picking up speed as they turned into the corridor, they steeled
themselves for the fight of their lives.

Then Tjellina saw the blinking light on her tactical console, she
couldn't believe it.  "He's free," she said.

It was barely a whisper, but Amalyn was sitting only a few feet away
and she had a good sense of heating.  "Free?"  she echoed, her voice
resonant with concern.  'You mean the Suffer?"

Tjellina nodded, trying to remain calm.  "The Suffer."

"He knows where to find the tactical center," Ama1yn noted.  "That
means he's headed this way.  We've got to stop him."

"We will," Tjellina assured her, her hands moving across her control
board like a swarm of insects.

The Suffer had been expecting to encounter the ship's defense systems
ever since he left the chamber where he'd been imprisoned.  It took the
vessel a long time to respond, however.  Several minutes, in fact.

That's when the ceiling opened and a series of weapon turrets dropped
downmand the corridor he and Reed Richards traveled filled with a
barrage of fear some purple energy beams.

The beams ripped up the bulkheads and filled the air with the smell of
ozone, but the Suffer was too fast for them.  With his companion
hanging on to his mid section, he swung his board left and right,
weaving his way through the deadly maze with uncanny accuracy. Then
they were past the beam projectors and corridor was clear again. But
only for a moment.

Suddenly, the place filled with clouds of corrosive red gas. 
Enveloping himself and Reed in a [ field, the Surfer cut a swath
through the billowing pors, parting them like a clean gust of wind. 
Even the clouds scattered and disappeared--only to be replaced by a
spray of white-hot' emitted by jets that had raised themselves out of
floor.  But the same protective field kept the Surfer his passenger
from injury, the plasma spattering eating its way through the bulkheads
instead.

And before long, that peril was behind them

The Surfer dropped his shield and picked up the "What's next?"  Reed
asked.

He didn't have long to wait for an answer--as a of four-legged robots
rounded a corner up ahead came bounding at them, jaws clacking.  These
bigger, faster, and more powerful-looking than guardians Reed had
eluded before.

But the Surfer smashed his way through them, capita ting one with his
board and turning several ers to slag with a gesture.  Somehow, one of
the managed to clamp its teeth onto the Surfer's leg, he crushed its
head in his hand an flung it away.

Panels in the walls slid aside and bright yellow ergy barriers
materialized.  They weren't the kind which the Suffer had been
imprisoned, because couldn't have had time to implement that tech nolo
everywhere--but they were powerful fields all

The Surfer sizzled his way through them, one after the other, barely
even slowing down.  Seconds later, he had transcended them as he had
all the other hazards thrown his way.

Based on his experiences of the past few minutes, the Surfer expected
something lethal to take the barriers' place.  Instead, the bulkheads
themselves seemed to grow closer, to approach and finally slide into
one an other like an elaborate, interlocking puzzle.

In effect, the orderly environment of the corridor had disappeared,
leaving only a confusing conglomeration of smooth, metal surfaces.  But
that didn't daunt the Surfer in the least.

His instincts kept him on course.  And his ability to manipulate matter
allowed him to pass through surface after surface, as if they were
nothing more than shadows

Both the Surfer and Reed remained unharmed.  As if it realized the
uselessness of its contortions, the corridor gradually reshaped itself,
returning to its original form.  And the two of them plunged on,
getting closer to Prodigion's tactical center with each passing
moment

Closer to Tjellina, the Surfer thought.  After all, she led the
Outriders.  It was she who would be overseeing the ship's defense.

Memories came to him unbiddenmthe softness of Tjellina's caress, the
allure in her golden eyes, the honeyed taste of her lips.  Only a few
hours ago, he had thought himself in paradise. How had things changed
so quickly?  How had gone from sharing a dream with someone to her for
the life of a planet?

Gradually, the Surfer closed the distance bel himself and the woman he
had loved.  As he along the corridor, nothing else blocked his path.

as if Tjellina had given up trying to delay him, as had embraced the
inevitable at last.

But he knew better.  She wouldn't yield.  No

She was an Outrider first and last, too devoted to gion and the cause
he represented to ever abandon

"We're almost there," Reed said, drawing on knowledge of the ship he'd
gained in the course of excursions.

"Yes," the Surfer agreed.  "It will not be longer."

He followed the curvature of the corridor,

down a long, straight hallway.."  and came to the arch that served as
the entrance to the tactical

The thick, metal doors had been closed, of course,

anticipation of their arrival.

That meant nothing to the Surfer.  Less than ing.  He extended his hand
toward them, and a energy shot from each finger.

The doors were pierced in five Blaces.  With a of his wrist, he
connected those places like a can opener, cutting a circular shape out
of the

Even before the Surfer came sailing into the tactical center, the parts
of the doors encompassed by the circle fell backward, exposing the
Outriders at their consoles within.  Eyes narrowed, senses alert, the
sky rider ventured into the midst of his enemies.

There were a dozen of them, but Tjellina was the only one on her feet.
She wasn't smiling.

"You shouldn't have come here," she said.

"I had no choice," the Surfer replied.  "The battle outside needed
ending--and not the way you would like it to end."

The Outrider shook her head.  'You shouldn't have come," she
repeated.

Suddenly, the Surfer found himself encased in a shell of crackling
energy, created by six separate projectors set into the bulkheads.
Reaching out, he touched its inner surface.  It roiled and spat under
his hand, reacting much the same way his prison wall had reacted.

"It's cruder than the enclosure I manufactured before," Tjellina noted
critically.  "Still, it should serve our purpose."  Her brow furrowed
as if in sympathy.  "Foolish Norrin.  Didn't you know I would have
something like this ready for you?  This is our tactical center, one of
the most important places on the ship.  We take our security very
seriously here."

"Not seriously enough," he replied.

Tjellina's expression changed.  As understanding dawned, she whirled
and looked around the room.  But it was too late.

No thicker than a shoelace, Reed had slithered his way along the floor
to one of the consoles.  Before Tjellina or any of her colleagues could
do anything about

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

it, he reached out with pipe cleaner fingers and poked at a few choice
studs.  '.

As quickly as it had appeared, the Surfer's energy prison vanished. 
The Outriders scrambled to override the console Reed had tampered with,
but by then the Surfer had taken aim at one of their projectors.

With the slightest concentration of willpower, he used the Power Cosmic
to shatter it.  Then he turned his attention to another one and smashed
it as well.

At the same time, the Outriders activated the remainder of the system.
But when the energy beams converged, they formed an incomplete sphere
ma prison only two-thirds what it was meant to be.

Emerging from it almost effortlessly, the Surfe: pointed to a third
projector and a fourth, destroying them as he'd destroyed the others.
And with a glance at the last two, he finished the job.

He turned his gaze on Tjellina.  "I don't fall for the same trick
twice," he told her.

"I didn't expect you would," she answered.  "That's why I took other
precautions."

Even before the words were out of her mouth, she had a weapon in her
hands.  The Surfer threw up a shield to protect himself, but it didn't
help.  The bursts of energy coming from Tjellina's barrel cut through
his construct and burned themselves into his skin.

"Anti-meson packets," she explained, as he doubled over in agony.  "The
other strategy that came out of the experiments I conducted."

The Surfer looked at Mr.  Fantastic, but the human was caught up in a
battle of his own.  Having forced him out into the open, a half-dozen
Outriders were trying to skewer him with energy beams, forcing him to
snake this way and that simply to survive.

That meant the Surfer was on his own.  Recognizing it even as he did,
Tjellina advanced on him, pelting him with her deadly bursts, each one
a hot iron searing his flesh.

"I didn't want to do this," she told him.  "But you've left me no
choice."

"No," the Surfer gasped.  "There is always a choice."  It was the very
heart of his philosophy.  Despite appearances, despite the obstacles
one encountered, one could always embrace good or evil.  Just as one
could choose to accept one's fate or strive against it.

On Zenn-La, he refused to accept his people's apathy, preferring to
quest for more knowledge.  When Galactus came, he refused to bow to the
inevitable, choosing to abandon his old life to save his home.  After
Galactus imprisoned him on Earth, he had never stopped trying to
penetrate the barrier the world devourer had placed around the planet
to keep the Surfer confined.

Always, he chose to strive.

Dredging up the strength still left in him, the molten core of his
power, the Surfer erected another shield.  Maintaining her fire,
Tjellina shook her head disdainfully.

'you tried that before," she reminded him.  "It didn't work."

He didn't reply.  He couldn't, because of the pain that ate at him like
a ravening beast.  And just as Tjel lina had implied it would, his
shield was shredded her attack.

But the Surfer didn't yield to her.  He erected an, other shield.

You're fighting a losing battle," Tjellina told her voice thick with
what sounded like pity and even regret.

Indeed, his protection was eaten away by the an meson packets.  But
this time, they didn't get to him because he'd placed another shield in
back the first.  As Tjellina destroyed the second one, he created two
more--earning himself a respite, no how slim.

It allowed the Surfer to heal his woundsmto re his composure.  And to
fight back.  As he threw another shield to replace the ones Tjellina
was ing down, he launched a bolt of pure force at the rider.

She hadn't expected it, hadn't believed him of it.  But she must have
had some protective aura own, because it didn't knock her senseless--it
only her staggering into the console in back of her.

Recovering, Tjellina fired at the Surf determination.  But he was
determined as well.  Stickin to his plan of creating shield after
shield, he gave him self a chance to strike again.  Except now that he
about the Outrider's aura, he put more fury into the bolt.

As a result, his adversary didn't just stagger under the impact.  She
slammed into the bulkhead hard enough to lose her grip on her weapon.
It clattered to the floor.  And before she could grasp it again, the
Surfer had sent it skittering out of her reach.

With a cry of rage, Tjellina went after it.  But before she could reach
it, the Surfer altered its molecular structure, turning it to dust
right in front of her eyes.

Next, he focused his attention on his friend Reed Richards, who was
obviously tiring in his efforts to elude the Outriders' energy beams.
Darting and rippling from one side of the room to the other, the human
wouldn't last much longer.

But then, the Surfer told himself, he won't have to.  One by one, he
ripped the Outriders' ordnance from their hands.  Then he transmuted
them as he'd trans muted Tjellina's weapon.

They looked at their leader.  But their leader was staring at the
Surfer, disappointment and anger mingled in her expression.

"It's not possible," Tjellina rasped.  "I checked the data over and
over again.  Those anti-meson packetsb"

"Should have been the death of me," he finished for her. 
"Unfortunately for you, your data was incomplete.  There was one thing
you failed to measure."

"The size of the Surfer's heart," Reed declared as he returned to his
normal size and shape and stood on the other side of the tactical
center.  Turning to Tjellina, he smiled grimly.

"If you'd known him as I do, you would have measured that first."

The Surfer ignored his comrade's praise.  There was still a battle
being waged out sideband a destructive force that had to be stopped.
"The disrupters," he said out loud, glancing around the chamber in
search of the appropriate controls.  must disable them."

"Done," Reed assured him.  He pointed to one of the chamber's control
panels, where a monitor showed Blastaar's ships attacking unperturbed.
"I took care of it as soon as we entered the room."

Eyes wide with urgency, Amalyn looked at Tj

"It's true.  The disrupter system is locked into a perpetual diagnostic
program.  To free it, I'll have to manu disengage."  .

"Which you will not have the opportunity to complish," the Surfer told
her.  "I will see to that."  eyed Tjellina.  "You are finished.  You
will never sow your seeds on an unsuspecting planet."

The Outrider returned his gaze, an ironic smih shaping her mouth.
"Don't be so sure of that," she him.

Ben Grimm couldn't believe his eyes.  "Hey," he "Blastaar's callin' off
the attack!"

Still hovering near Prodigion's force shield along side Johnny and Sue,
he pointed a blunt orange finger at the forward edge of the armada.  It
was peeling off;

ship by ship, as if it had found sometjing better to do.  "They must be
nuts," he grunted.

"I don't get it either," the Torch replied.  "I mean, with those de
structo-beams out of the way, they finally got to take the battle to
Prodigion..."

"And now they're pulling out," Sue observed.  She was still a little
weak from her earlier effort, but not so much so that she couldn't see
what was going on.  "Maybe they know something we don't."

Suddenly, something else caught the Thing's eye.  Turning, he saw
something bright and shiny get spit out of Prodigion's ship.

"What the heck is that?"  he asked.

A moment later, the vessel released another bright, shiny object, and
then several more all at once.  To Ben, they looked like time-release
capsules, the kind he might take for a headachewexcept they were each a
million times bigger.  And now that he thought about it and allowed for
perspective... "Oh, man," Johnny cried out, "those things are headed
for the planet!"  He blinked, then turned to his teammates.  "They must
be the seeds Prodigion uses to plant all that new growth!"

The Thing had come to the same conclusion.  So had Sue,judging from the
look of horror on her face.

As they looked at one another, wondering what they could do, the comm
links on their harnesses crackled with a familiar voice.  "Sue!  Ben!
Johnny!  Can you hear me?"

Without hesitating, Sue tapped the appropriate stud on her harness.
"Loud and clear," she responded.  "Reed, we've seen Prodigion release
his globules.  They're falling onto"

"I know all about them," her husband said.  "But you don't have to
worry.  I've sent Blastaar and his ships to knock them out before they
enter the atmosphere."

The Thing snorted.  "Shoulda known our resident genius would be on the
case." "Are you all right?"  Sue asked Reed.

"Fine," he told her.  "I found the Surfer and we took over Prodigion's
tactical center.  The force shield's down, the disrupter banks are
useless, and the Outriders are out of the picture."

"And Blastaar's on the trail of those big o1' seeds," Ben noted.  "So
we're in the clear?"

"Not exactly," Reed answered.  "Even ifBlastaar takes out all those
seeds, they're only the first wave.  Prodigion's ship will keep
releasing them unless we stop it."  We?"  the Torch echoed.

"You," his brother-in-law conceded.  "Unfortunately,

that's one system I can't shut down from here."  "Figures," the Thing
grumbled.

"Shush," Sue entreated him.  "This isn't the time, Ben."

"Now," Reed went on, "according to the external sensor grid, you're
only a thousand feet or so from the seed emitters--those apertures we
talked about when we were examining the bio regeneration chamber.  they
won't start releasing new seeds for another seven minutes."

"Waitaminnit, the Thing told him, gazing in the direction of the
emitters.  'You want us ta tear up all those apertures--like, a hundred
of'em?  Ard we got a whole seven minutes tado it?"  He scowled.  "Why
dincha give us something' hard tado?"

"You'd better get going," Reed advised him.  "Time's a-wasting."

Shaking his head, Ben activated his propulsion system and turned
himself in the right direction.  Then he put the harness into high gear
and sped toward the seed emitters.

Sue was right behind him.  Of course, the Torch was a lot faster then
they were, so he zipped on ahead, leaving a yellow flame trail in his
wake.

Still, the distance wasn't great, so Johnny didn't beat them by much.
When the Thing and the Invisible Woman arrived, the Torch had managed
to fuse only a handful of the suckers.

That left ninety or so in operating order--and ac cording to the
chronometer in Ben's harness, the next emission was in five minutes.
Not a whole lot of time even if they were the Fantastic Fourteen.

Even so, they did their best.  Johnny poured out blast after blistering
heat blast, turning one emitter after the other into a mess of molten
metal.  Sue plumbed the apertures with her force field until she found
some thing she could wreck--and then wrecked it.

And the Thing did what he did best.  He used his herculean strength to
cave in every emitter within clobbering distance.

But with two minutes left, they'd only taken out about half their
targets.  When the next wave came, too many of them would still be
functioning.  And not knowing how Blastaar had done with the first
wave, they couldn't count on him to eliminate any additional seeds.

Then Ben had an idea.  Recalling what he'd learned of the emitter
system in Prodigion's bio regeneration chamber, he ripped up a section
of the hull around one of the apertures and dug his way down.

FRIITRSTIC FOUR

"Where are you going?"  the Torch hollered,

ing above the mouth of the Thing's tunnel.

"I gotta date with an important gal," Ben tossed back at him.  "The
brains o' the operation, ya might say."

In other words, the Thing thought, the c)

node that processed the ship's sensor data and grammed the globules
accordingly--what an average.  Joe might call the targeting
mechanism.

Unfortunately, he didn't remember how far it was buried, so he didn't
know how long to reach it--or if he had enough time.  But Ben wasn'
going to worry about that.  Worrying never got anywhere.

Grabbing huge handfuls of thick metal circuitry, he burrowed deeper and
deeper.  still.  His arms felt like they were on fire and his fingers
were cramped, but he didn't pause for a second.

After all, he thought with a bitterness he had get over even after all
these years, I'm just a Thing.  Things don't stop till their parts wear
out.

Finally, he hit the mother lode.  Punching his through what turned out
to be a reinforced casing, heard the whirr of moving parts.  He tore
away all metal around him, then feasted his eyes on what been looking
for.

At least he thought it was what he'd been looking for, based on the
diagram he'd seen a couple of days earlier.  Only one way to find out,
he told him se wrenched the mechanism free of its moorings, ping data
leads and snapping power cables in the process.

Then he turned around and headed for the surface.  Halfway there, he
heard his comm link spout a bunch of static.

"Whadja say?"  the Thing growled.

A moment later, the reception improved.  It was Reed, of course, and
there was no mistaking the excitement in his voice.

"--aid you did it, old friend.  The targeting mechanism went offline
just seconds before the seeds were supposed to depart.  Thanks to you,
they're not going anywhere."

"Well, all right!"  the Torch exclaimed over the comm link  "Benjy knew
what he was doing after all!"

"Like ya had any doubt of it?"  the Thing rumbled in response.

He was still climbing, almost within reach of the exterior hull now.
But before he could pull himself up, he felt an invisible force do the
job for him.

"It was the least I could do," said a smiling Sue, lifting him out of
his tunnel.

As she deposited him gently on the hull, Ben took a look at the
half-illuminated planet they'd just saved.  It sat there without a care
in the universe, never knowing how close it had come to getting a
facelift one that would have been lethal to its inhabitants.

The Torch turned to him.  "Beautiful sight, isn't it?"  "Weah," the
Thing agreed.  "Big-time beautiful."  Something occurred to him.  "But
our work here ain't done yet."

Sue's expression changed.  "That's right.  Prodigion is still at
large." "My thoughts exactly," Reed told them over comm link  ']Just
hang on and we'll rectify the situation."

A moment later, Ben and the others found the: selves sinking through
the hull as if it weren't there.  As he descended through layer after
layer of circuitry, Thing recognized his condition as the work of the
Sil, ver Surfer.

At last, he was going to get his shot at Prodigion.

Kabris Dorain clung to her offspring at the cave m,

and watched the spectacle in the dark, moonless was at once the most
beautiful and most thing she had seen in her long, fruitful life.

The soft, shapeless younglings wouldn't even for themselves.  They
would only gaze into her faceted eyes and see the lights reflected
there from end of the heavens to the other.

Nor did Kabris blame them for hiding their

She was not a youngling--far from it--and she could hardly find the
courage to bear witness.  But thought someone should.

After all, it might be the end of the world before her.  If that was
so, it was her duty to watch it to record every detail so she could
share it with her ancestors in the afterlives..  .... It had begun
hours earlier, with a simple falling star, At least, it had seemed to
be a falling star, until it stopped and hovered and grew to monstrous
proportions.  For a time, it had shown in the sky like a baleful eye,
causing all of Kabfis's people to seek refuge in their caverns.

There were legends of such a thing.  A predator, it was said, a
predator so colossal it could swallow all existence.  Kabris had heard
that story from her mother and her mother's mother.

Then, as she was trying to recall all they had told her, the shining
eye was joined by other, smaller lights-lights that scored the heavens
with their quick and fleeting passage.  Moment by moment, they seemed
to multiply.

They were multiplying still, growing fiercer and brighter.  Kabris
sensed there was a struggle afoot, a battle between forces beyond her
understanding, and it could not bode well for mere mortals.  Certain
that death was near, not only for her and her neighbors but for all
existence, she clutched her younglings to her and waited.

She waited a long time, in fact.  But the end never came.

Instead, the lights grew fainter and fewer, then vanished altogether.
And just before dawn, the moon--the real moon--came up whole and
unperturbed.  The world was back to normal.

Kabris had the disdnct feeling she and her people had been spared
something terrible.  She was immensely relieved to know life would go
on in the universe.

But in a strange and unexpected way, she also felt as if she had missed
something.  Something momentous.

As the Surfer led the Fantastic Four through Prodigion's
ship---presumably for a confrontation with that

FAI TASTIC FOUR

massive and mysterious presence--a single withdrew from the field of
battle.  Undetected by any of the combatants since his arrival a short
while ago, he: smiled with satisfaction as they diminished gradually
with distance.

It hadn't been a difficult thing for him to conceal himself from their
sensor systems.  Not a difficult thing at all.  In fact, that was the
least of the abilities him by the slender cylinder in his hand.  i!

It had, for instance, allowed him to guide a beir remarkable plasticity
through the intricate network,

channels and passageways that existed in Prodi ship.  And when that
being encountered a field that would otherwise have stymied his a
smaller version of the great barrier he had earlier--it had been the
simplest of chores to the field.

No matter that Reed Richards never knew he being sent in a particular
direction.  No matter that would have cursed the hand that was
assisting him.  The important thing was the result.

Richards had gotten through to help the creature called the Silver
Surfer, who in turn had wrecked Prodigion's plans.  And now, with any
luck, the Surfer and the Fantastic Four would defuse the threat of
Prodigion permanently.

In doing so, they would strike a blow for Prodigion's potential
victims.  Do-gooders that they were, that was clearly their purpose.
But they would strike a blow for another as well.

For him.  For Annihilus.

After all, Prodigion had been of concern to Annihilus ever since his
gargantuan ship entered this part of the Negative Zone.  He had been an
unknown quantity-and therefore, to the winged one's thinking, a
threat.

If Annihilus had met him head-on, he would likely have beaten
Prodigion.  But it would have entailed a risk, a possibility--no matter
how slimhthat Annihilus would have been beaten instead.

Barring something terribly unforeseen, that risk would soon be rendered
unnecessary.  His smile widening, the bearer of the cosmic control rod
counted this a good day.

A very good day.

They'll be here in a moment," the Surfer announced only a portion of
his mind devoted to transporting Sue, Ben, and Johnny.

"That's good," Reed replied from the other side of the tactical center,
where he was studying the monitors on one of the control panels.  "And
our friends here are secure.  Even if the main power goes down, they'll
be contained with the help of backup systems."

Behind him, Tjellina and the other Outriders were encased in an energy
prison much like the one the Surfer had occupied.  After all, turnabout
was fair play.

The sky rider didn't look at Tjellina.  He had much to say to her, but
it would wait.  For now, he had other things on his mind.

Despite all they'd accomplished, despite their rescue of the world
below them, the threat posed by Prodigion hadn't been diminished one
iota.  He was still dangerous still powerful.

The Surfer wouldn't be content until they had in capacitated him and
cut him off from his support systems  Only then was there a chance they
might isolate the life-giver, somehow keep him from wreaking havoc on
the Negative Zone.

And what if they couldn't isolate him?  What if the only option was to
destroy Prodigion?

The Surfer didn't want to think about that.  He had sworn never to take
another life as long as he lived.  He hated the idea of breaking that
pledge, even when lions of other lives hung in the balance.

As he thought that, his friends melted through ceiling and descended to
the floor.  Reed crossed the i' room to embrace his wife.

"When I looked at you from the other side of that bar-i rier," he told
her, pushing a strand of hair off her J head, "when I saw how pale and
weak you lookedm"

"I know the feeling," Sue replied.  "But that's ancient.  history.  I'm
okay now."

The Thing looked at the Surfer.  "Somethin' he,

US?"

The sky rider shook his head.  "No.  Nothing."  Calling his board to
him, he allowed the

Four to step onto it.  Then he joined them.

"Next stop," Ben quipped, "the end o'

somebody."  .

Without further discussion, the Surfer whisked them out into the
corridor and turned in the direction Prodigion's quarters.  :

Despite the distance involved, the journey took a few minutes.  But
they were long minutes, filled with introspection and soul-searching.
After all, the Thing's gibe had been an ominous one--and rightly so.

Like Galactus, Prodigion was a force as much as a being, a phenomenon
as much as an intelligence, There was no way of gauging the extent of
his might-or of knowing whether they'd all survive this battle.

The Surfer was certain of only one thing: they would find a way to beat
Prodigion.  They had to.  The alternative was simply too horrible to
contemplate.

Before he knew it, before any of them were really ready, they reached
their destination.  As the Surfer melted them through the massive
doors, he steeled himself for what was ahead.

As he had expected, Prodigion was standing by his control console,
intent on something he saw there.  Colossal, aloof, and inscrutable, he
made no move against his adversaries as they entered his inner sanctum.
In fact, he didn't even seem to notice they'd returned.

"Lookit him," the Thing rumbled, his blue eyes naro rowing.  "The
picture o' confidence, ain't he?"

Eager to do battle, the Torch circled overhead.  "Not for long," he
vowed.  "O1' Planetsucker's about to get a lesson in table manners."

"Be careful," the Surfer warned them.  "If his power is anything like
that of Galactus, he can reduce you to stray atoms without blinking."

"The Surfer's right," Reed joined in.  "Play it smart.  Work as a
team."

Even before he'd finished his admonition, his wife had erected an
invisible barrier around Reed, Ben, and herself.  She did not include
the Torch, since the force field would impede both his flying ability
and his flame.

The Surfer, of course, wasn't in need of her protection.  Of all of
them, only he could have absorbed Galactus's fury and lived.  He didn't
imagine it would be any different with Prodigion.

"Destroyer!"  the Surfer cried, his voice nearly lost in that expanse.
"Murderer!  Turn and face your accusers!"  Prodigion turned his massive
head.  His eyes fixed on

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

the silver being who had challenged him.  He pointed to him.

"Careful," Susan rasped like her teammates, ready for anything.

'"you," Prodigion said, his voice a roll of thunder that reverberated
wildly from the bulkheads.  "The one called the Silver Surfer."  His
brow furrowed as he scanned the Fantastic Four.  "And you others.  I
saw you on my monitors."

"What of it?"  the Thing threw back at him, oblivious to the danger.

'"you have thwarted my will," Prodigion went on.  "Defeated my
Outriders.  Wrecked my defenses."

"Your will was a destructive one," the Surfer retorted.  "There was a
thriving civilization on the planet you tried to seed.  We could not
allow it to become a victim of your so-called bounty."  He straightened
up.  "No matter what drives you, no matter what hungers plague you,
what you do is evil.  It must end.  And we five have come with that
purpose in mindmto end it for all time."

"In other words," the Thing added, "go pick on someone yer own size!"

The Surfer braced himself for the storm of devastation he imagined
would followmthe indignant crackle of untamed energy, the hideous
force-of Prodigion's rage.

But moment followed momentmand nothing happened  Nothing at all.
Prodigion didn't vent his wrath on them.  He just stood there, brow
creased, staring at the insects who dared to oppose him.

"What's going on?"  Susan asked.

'eah," said the Torch.  "What's the big blowhard waiting for?"

The Thing grunted.  "Maybe we didn't insult him enough."

But the Surfer didn't think invective had anything to do with it.
Prodigion was looking at them as if seeing them for the first time.  As
if he recognized what they'd done but couldn't formulate a response to
it.

"There's something different about him," Reed concluded echoing the
Surfer's thoughts.  "He seems lost somehow."

Summoning his board, the Surfer ascended to the level of Prodigion's
eyes and hovered before him.  "Have you no response to my charges?"  he
asked the giant.  "Have you no defense?"

Prodigion seemed to consider the question.  Then, in a shockingly
childlike way, he shrugged his immense shoulders.  "I did not wish to
cause anyone harm.  That was never my purpose."

Suddenly, the Torch cut a blazing swath between the Surfer and
Prodigion.  "Don't give me that innocent act," he told the life-giver,
pointing a flaming finger at him.  "Don't tell me you didn't know what
you were doing, 'cause I'm not buying it."

"Teah!"  the Thing roared, pressing against Susan's force field and
shaking his craggy fist.  "What he said!"

"Hang on," said the Invisible Woman.  "I think Reed's right.  It looks
like all the fight's gone out of him."

Prodigion held his hands out, palms up.  The Surfer recognized it as
the universal plea for peace.

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

"I have no wish to oppose you," the titan declared, "or to dispute the
truth of what you say.  If there is an other way for me to exist, I
will be happy to do so."  His mighty head slumped as if it were too
heavy for his shoulders.  "I only want to rest.  To sleep.  To look at
the stars."

"What?"  the Thing blurted.  'a mean ya don't care that we beat up yet
ship?  Or stopped yet seeds from conquerin' that planet?"

Prodigion looked at him.  "None of that matters to me.  It was not my
doing."  He turned to the Surfer, who was still hovering in front of
him.  '%Zou believe me, don't you?  I just want it all to end."

The Surfer gazed into Prodigion's huge, pleading eyes--and found, to
his surprise, that he believed him.

Not because he felt qualified to detect deception in such a being---or
indeed in any being, after Tjellina's betrayal of him.  But because he
couldn't think of a reason for Prodigion to lie.

If the giant had wished, he could have unleashed tremendous forces
against them--forces that would have shredded Susan's invisible shields
and maybe the Surfer's as well.  He could have lashed out at the tiny
beings who'd dared to invade his sanctum.

But he hadn't done any of it.  He hadn't so much as lifted a finger
against them.  Instead, he was pleading for absolution.

It was something Galactus would never have considered  But then,
clearly, Prodigion was not Galactus.

Certainly, Prodigion towered over them as Galactus had towered over
them.  He commanded the kind of power Galactus had commanded.  But
that, apparently, was where the resemblance ended.

As the Surfer watched, the Torch came to hover be side him.  "Don't let
him psych you, Surf.  He's up to something.  It's just a question of
what."

The sky rider shook his head.  No' Johnny Storm.  He is telling the
truth.  What happened on Nicanthus Prime was not his doing."

"Then whose doing was it?"  the Torch demanded.  "My Outriders,"
Prodigion replied simply, without guile.  "They guided me via a mind
link  But the link is silent now."

"A mind link the Torch echoed.  "Teah, right."  "It's easy enough to
determine that," Mr.  Fantastic noted.  "I can cobble together some
equipment and check Prodigion's brainwaves."

The Surfer glanced at the human.  "Perhaps you should do so.  Then we
can agree on how to deal with him."

Prodigion glanced from the Surfer to the Torch and back again.  "I just
want it all to end," he repeated with childlike simplicity.

It didn't take Reed long to put a brain wave scope together  Knowing
what he did of Prodigion's vast stores of equipment, he simply modified
one of the devices Tjellina had used on the Torch.

Of course, Prodigion's brain was a little different from any Mr.
Fantastic had ever come across.  Still, there were enough similarities
for him to be confident in the results.

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

"Well?"  the Thing prodded, as they all stood there :i:':

in Prodigion's quarters, surrounding Reed and his portable monitor.

The scientist looked up at the life-giver, who hadn't ;

complained a bit when a series of leads was attached to .=

his head.  Prodigion seemed as eager as any of them to ,:.

hear what Reed had to say.

"He'sjust what he claims to be, Ben--an innocent,

whom the Outriders used as a puppet.  As powerful as he is, as driven
to seed life throughout the Negative

Zone, he's got the intellect of a three-year-old.  And not a very
bright three-year-old at that."

"In other words," Johnny commented, "pay no attention to that man
behind the curtain."

The Surfer looked at him.  "I beg your pardon."

"Nothin'," the Thing rumbled.  ']Just a line from a movie with a lotta
crazy monkeys in it."

"So what do we do with him?"  Sue asked.

Reed grunted.  "That's the sixty-four thousand-dollar question, isn't
it?  Even without his Outriders, Prodb gion's still got the urge to
seed planets with new life.

And his ship is sophisticated enough to repair itself.  In time, he'll
be back to his old tricks, albeit with a marked drop in efficiency."

"He'll go on destroying civilizations, "he Surfer observed.

Reed nodded soberly.  "The same way Galactus does."

The Torch jerked a thumb over his shoulder at

Prodigion.  "But he said he didn't want to do it any more.  He said all
he wanted to do was rest."

"He won't," Sue noted.  "It's not in his makeup."  Reed thought for a
moment.  "It could be."  His wife looked at him.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean we can get rid of Prodigion's itch.  With the same sort of
equipment I used to make this brain wave scope, I can make a brain wave
restrictor.  It would suppress the big fellow's urge."

"No more planet-seeding?"  Ben asked.

Reed looked up at the titan.  "If that's what he wants."  The Surfer
elevated himself to a point level with Prodigion's eyes.  "Do you
desire that?  To be free of your crusade?  To live out your life in
peace and contentment?"

The massive head nodded.  "More than anything," Prodigion said.

"Then it's a done deal," the Thing concluded.  "Okay for
Prodigion,"Johnny said.  "But what about the Outriders?  We can't just
leave them here on the ship.  They'll find a way to take over again."

"True," Reed acknowledged.  He turned to the Suffer, knowing how
sensitive a subject it was for the sky rider  "What do you think?"

The Surfer didn't respond right away.  "I think," he said at last,
"there is but one option."  He described it to them.

Reed had to admit the Surfer's plan made sense.  It was just.  It was
humane.  In fact, he thought, the Outriders might even like it.

The land was sparsely foliated as far as the eye could see.  In fact,
the Surfer thought as he made his descent, the whole planet was
sparsely foliated.  It would not be easy to make living things flourish
here--but if anyone could do it, the Outriders could.

It was what they were motivated to do, what their duty demanded of
them.  And here, cut off from the rest of the Negative Zone, they could
do it without harming others.

The closer the Surfer got to the ground, the easier it was to see the
force field generators set up around the Outriders' encampment.  They
would protect Tjellina's people from revenge seekers--Blastaar among
them.

After all, the point of bringing the Outriders here had been to prevent
them from resuming their activities, not to make them easy prey for
others.

As he thought this, Tjellina turned and looked up at him.  With her
raven hair and her golden skin, he had no trouble discerning her among
her colleagues.  Landing apart from the group, he stepped off his board
and waited for her to approach him.

Tjellina didn't disappoint him.  At least not this time,

and not in this respect.  Without a word or a gesture, she walked
across the space that separated them.

The Surfer didn't say anything either.  At least, not at first.  He
just watched the wind blow her hair around.  It was Tjellina who
finally marred the silence by speaking.

"I wouldn't blame you if you hated me," she said.

"I would be justified in hating you," the Surfer agreed.  "Nonetheless,
I do not."

Her brow furrowed.  "I used you.  Like a tool.  Like the re calibrator
I asked you to hold when I was gauging your power."

He nodded.  '(You used me, all right.  And in your cleverness, you
placed me here or there, depending on what you needed to hide from me.
I see that now, as I see everything else.  But you also loved me,
Tjellina."  He paused.  "Or do you deny that?"

The Outrider looked into the Surfer's eyes.  Slowly, tentatively, she
raised her fingers to his face and stroked his cheek.

"No," she said softly.  "I would never deny that."

The muscles in his jaw fluttered.  "You never met Prodigion the way you
said, did you?"

Tjellina shrugged.  "I was recruited and accepted, as I told you.  But
the rest was a fabrication.  Our world wasn't in need of anyone's help;
Prodigion's seeds were the beginning of the end for my people."

"You knew that," the Surfer observed, "and still you joined the
Outriders?"

"I put the death of my civilization behind me," she explained, "for the
sake of a greater principle.  For the sake of Life."

He shook his head.  Tjellina's thinking was so alien to him.  So
diametrically opposed to his own.  If he tried for an eternity, he
would never understand her.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.  Then the Surfer looked to the
heavens, where his friends were waiting for him.

"I must go," he said.

"I know," Tjellina responded.  "And with you goes all that's left of
me."  She swallowed.  "Everything, that is, except hope. Because I
believe the day will come when you'll return for me."

The Surfer considered her--her long, raven black hair and her painfully
intelligent eyes.  He considered the beauty and the bravery of her. 
And his heart, or what was left of it, melted.

But not to the point that he lost sight of what she was.  Or what she
had done.

"I will never return," he told Tjellina.

The Outrider's jaw dropped.  Clearly, it was not what she had wanted to
hear.  It was not what she had expected to hear.  But it was the only
thing he could honestly say to her.

As gently as he could, the Surfer removed her hand from his cheek. 
Then he summoned his board to him and tucked it under his arm.

"Good-bye," he said.

Then the Surfer left Tjellina and the earth she stood on and soared
into the sky.  As he climbed the rungs of atmosphere, the Outrider and
the suffering she had brought him fell away beneath him, until he could
barely make her out against the barren landscape.

But he felt her gaze, her longing.  And he imagined he always would.
men hree eed Richards frowned as he watched the stars of the Negative
Zone zip past him through his observation port.  He still didn't know
who or what had guided him to the Surfer on Prodigion's ship--and he
was convinced it wasn't just a coincidence.

Mr.  Fantastic hated the idea that there was a mystery he had yet to
solve.  Unfortunately, he doubted he would ever get to the bottom of
it.

"Look at him," Johnny said, leaning past Reed and pointing to the
Surfer, who was traveling well ahead of their good-as-new black needle.
"He looks so lonely.  Maybe we ought to get him in here with the rest
of us."

Sue, who was sitting behind Ben, shook her head.  "He needs to be alone
with his thoughts for a while."

"Maybe a long while the Thing chimed in from the pilot's seat.

Abruptly, a light began blinking on his control panel.  He checked it
out.  "It's Blastaar," he reported.

"Really," said Reed.  "Well, let's see what the man needs to talk
about."

Opening a communications channel, the Thing eyed his monitor with
distaste.  "Whaddaya want now?"  he demanded of the Baluurian.

Blastaar's lips pulled back in his savage face.  "Only this, Ben
Grimmmto tell you we have escorted you as far as we intend to.  And to
warn you that our alliance has come to an end.  The next time we meet,
I'll forget we fought side by side.  And I'll destroy you."

it's not like ya need our permission or nothin'."

"What's more," the Baluurian went on, a thread of spittle stretching
from his top teeth to his bottom, "it'll happen sooner than you
think."

"We'll be ready," Reed assured him.

But even he was surprised when Blastaar's flagship jettisoned a half
dozen ruddy metal globes, each a good two meters in diameter.  The
second the globes were free, they took off in pursuit of the Fantastic
Four.

Ben peered at his monitors.  "Hang on toyer hats,"

he advised.  "Those babies are loaded.  We get hit and we're space
debris."

He tapped out a command and they accelerated.  But so did the globes.
Johnny headed for the escape hatch.

"No!"  Reed barked, restraining the Torch with an extension of his arm.
"They may be heat seekers.  Eva sive maneuvers, Ben."

The Thing was about to comply when one of the globes exploded--far
short of its goal.  Then another.

And another.

Turning to one of the observation ports, Reed saw why.  It was the
Surfer, cutting and slashing his way the globes, skewering them with
devastating en among ergy blasts

Ben took out a couple of the things with a barrage of his own.  Then
the Surfer finished off the last of them.

Johnny gazed at the silver figure on his surfboard.

"I guess he didn't need to be that alone.  Lucky for us."

The Thing eyed him.  "Whaddaya sayin', squirt?  That

I couldn' t've gotten us outta here on my own?"

Sue put her hand on Ben's craggy shoulder.  "Let's just be glad you
didn't have to try."  She eyed her brother.  "Or you either, Johnny."

Something occurred to Reed.  The Thing seemed to notice it, too.

"Uh-oh," he said.  "Looks like Stretch is doin' some fancy thinkin'.  I
can see smoke comin' outta his ears."

'You know," said Reed, scratching his chin, "I think Ben could have
handled those globes.  Theyweren't designed to kill us--just to send a
message."

"A message?"  the Torch echoed.

His brother-in-law nodded.  "That's right.  So Blastaar could make a
point in front of his troops.  So he could salvage some of his
reputation for ruthlessness."

Sue grunted softly.  "Maybe you're right.  I mean, he wasn't exactly
impressive as a military strategist."

"No," Reed said, "he wasn't.  If not for us, he would've absorbed the
biggest disaster of his career."

"eah," Ben sighed.  "If not fer us.  Ya think o1' Blastface'll send us
a thank-you note?"

The leader of the Fantastic Four looked back at Blastaar's armada,
which was diminishing with distance.  He chuckled dryly.

"I think he already has."

As his friends looked on, the Surfer knelt and picked up the creature
whose life he'd saved days earlier.  It looked healthier now, stronger
for its stay in Fantastic Four headquarters.

"How about Spot?"  the Thing suggested.

Johnny rolled his eyes.  'leez, Ben, y'think?  I mean,

FRNTRSTIC FOUR

it hasn't got any spots.  It's got lumps, bumps, tentacles, and little
wriggly things.  But no---and I underline that-no spots."

The Thing shot the teenager a dirty look.  "So we should call it Lumps?
What kinda name is that?"

Reed sighed and put his hand on the Surfer's shoulder.  "No matter what
we call it--or him, or her--we'll be glad to take care of it for you.
You can rest assured of that."

The Surfer looked into the creature's eyes.  It seemed happy, he
thought.  As if it had found a home.  At least one of them had.

"Thank you," he told Reed.  He glanced at the others.  "Thank you
all."

"Thank you," Sue insisted.  "If not for your help, we might never have
survived."

The Surfer regarded her kindly.  "And vice versa."  He put the creature
down and watched it squirm.  He would see it again, he resolved, on his
next visit to

Earth--whenever that might be.

"I should go now," he said.

The Surfer's friends wished him well.  But Susan wanted to do more.
"I'll walk you up to the roof," she offered

Together, they negotiated a short-corridor, then a flight of stairs. 
As Susan opened the door at the top of them, he saw that the sky had
become a mighty conflagration of reds and purples and golds.

Soon it will be dark, he thought, and the stars will come out.

The Surfer longed to soar.  To run away.  To escape his pain and lose
himself in the vastness of the heavens.  But for Susan's sake, he
restrained himself.

"You wish to speak with me?"  he asked her.

She shrugged.  "I just wanted to make sure you're all right."

The Surfer gazed past her, at the colors blazing in the western sky.
"All right?"  he echoed.

How was he supposed to respond to that?  What words could he use to
describe his disappointment?  The terrible depth of his loss?

"I am unimpaired," he said at last.  "I will go on."  "But not as you
had hoped," she noted.  "Not in the company of someone like Tjellina,
with whom you could share your hopes and dreams."

The Surfer regarded her.  Clearly, she was trying to encourage him to
share his feelings.  For all the good it will do, he thought.

"Not in the company of anyone," he said at last.  "But then, that
appears to be my lot.  To be forever unique, forever apart."

Susan shook her head.  "No.  Not forever, my friend.  Though right now,
I know it must seem that way."

He grunted.  "You don't understand, Susan Richards.  You speak with one
who has traveled the length and breadth of many galaxies, who has seen
all manner of being and becoming.  I have been worshiped, revered, even
desired.  But since Nova's death, I had despaired of finding anyone who
could truly love me--not as a god or an idea, but simply as an
equal."

"Then you found out what Tjellina was up to," Susan replied.  "And your
sense of justice was too strong.  You couldn't let yourself remain in
love with her, knowing the evil she was perpetrating."

The irony hadn't escaped him.  "In all of existence, only one being
managed to stir the embers of my heart.  And by virtue of her ideals,
she became my mortal enemy."

The Suffer thought of Tjellina's hair, of her skin and her darkling
eyes.  And of her touch, so strong and yet so gentle.  And just as
quickly, he put the image away.

"A lousy state of affairs," Susan conceded.  "But that doesn't mean the
situation's hopeless.  Far from it.  You may not have scoured the
universe as thoroughly as you think.  And there are other galaxies,
other frames of reference."

He frowned.  "I know you wish to cheer me," he told her.  "But you see
reality through a veil of emotion."

"So do you," she told him.  "Only your emotions lean toward the
melancholy end of the spectrum."  She folded her arms across her chest.
"You may be the Sil ver Suffer.  You may wield the Power Cosmic.  But
deep down, you're not as different from us humans as you'd like to
believe."

He pondered that for a moment.  "Perhaps there's some truth in what you
say," he decided.

"There's quite a bit of truth in it," S.asan insisted.  "Now go, if you
like.  But remember you've always got friends here on Earth.  And we're
pulling for you to find another Tjellina.  A better one."

The Suffer almost smiled.  "Thank you for your good wishes.  I'll try
to be worthy of them."  She smiled back.  '(You'll be worthy, all
right.  Of everything I've known or ever will know, I'm more sure of
that than anything."

He considered her.  Despite her powers, she was still intrinsically
human.  Still optimistic beyond any reasonable expectation.

But then, perhaps that was what it took to find love in the universe. 
A certain optimism.  A certain trust.

The Surfer envied his friend--envied her as he envied the aliens he'd
found dead in their damaged starship, even before he'd heard of the
Negative Zone.  For Susan had found the partner fate intended for
her.

He wanted to do the same.  He wanted to believe it was possible.  But
it wasn't an easy dream for him to em brace.

"Good-bye," he told his companion.  "You have given me much to think
about--as always."

"Good-bye," Susan echoed.  "And don't stop hoping."

He didn't answer her.  He merely stepped aboard his surfboard and
ascended into the sky.  Higher and higher he rose, until his friend was
the size of an insect, until the entire city spiraled away beneath him
and was lost in a layer of clouds.

Ahead of him, the stars beckoned.  The galaxy un folded like a dark and
mysterious flower.

Maybe someday, he would be as fortunate as Susan Richards, he told
himself.  But for the time being, where the Surfer soared he would soar
alone.