Disclaimer: I don't own The Fantastic Four, The Thing and all related characters are owned by Marvel Entertainment. Sekirei is owned by Sakurako Gokurakuin.
Chapter 1 - Monsters
"Unnhh! I feel like I've been flushed! Wha...where in the sam hill am I?! Hrrrm...last thing I remember I was dukin' it out with Chrome-face Doc Doom, then *whamo* my lights went out." Large orange rock-like hands rubbed an equally rock-like face to shake off the numbness he is feeling. "Dang-blasted...I was ready to clobber that tin turkey, but then..."
Flashback - Marvel 616 Universe, Kingdom of Latveria
"Watch it, Stretch!" The rock-skinned powerhouse known as The Thing pulls his friend, and leader of the superhero group called the Fantastic Four out of the way of a destructive concussion blast fired from one of Victor Von Doom's robots. Their teammates act quickly to back them up. Johnny Storm otherwise known as the Human Torch flew over the robots, and sends blasts of heat from his hands that melt some of Doom's robots.
Meanwhile, The Torch's older sister, and Reed Richards' wife Susan Richards uses her power to create force field constructs to make large invisible mallets that flatten more of Doom's robot army. "Nice one, Sis! Now try to keep up, I'm about to send more of Doom's toy soldiers to the scrap-heap!" The Torch starts to generate even greater heat within his body, but failed to see a robot zeroing in on him with its weapon.
"Johnny, look out!" The Invisible Woman shouts at her fiery brother in the air, with Reed and The Thing thinking quickly. "Stretcho! Give me a lift!" Mr. Fantastic nodded, and stretched his lower body into a giant spring. The Thing sat in the middle of the spring, and Mr. Fantastic launched the Thing like a rocket towards the robot. "Hey, lead lips!...Candy-Gram!" The robot turned its head, and Thing busted through the robot with his rocky fist sending robotic parts flying in every direction. Ben Grimm skids to a stop, and grins over to a smiling Human Torch.
Thing claps his rock-like hands loudly with some dust forming before falling to the ground. "Heh. Think that's the last of 'em. They sure don't make Doom-bots the way they used to!" The Thing grinned, and joined the rest of his teammates in the center of Doom's throne room.
Reed Richards rubbed his chin with a white gloved hand in thought. "No, Ben...this is too easy. Doom must know that we'd come here to neutralize the bomb he placed in Times Square. The encryption algorithm he has on the bomb changes each minute making it nearly impossible to disarm without the specific code that only Doom knows."
The other members of the Fantastic Four look at Reed worriedly. "Well, come on Reed! We've got to find him before it goes off!" The Torch states with impatience. "Flame on!" The Human Torch flies away from the others, and starts the search for Doom on his own.
"Reed! We've got to follow Johnny! What if he does find Doom...he's no match for him alone!" Sue Richards states with fear in her voice for the fate of her brother.
"I got your back on this, Suzie! Let go find the little match-stick before he gets himself in hot water!" The Invisible Woman nods, and creates a large floating invisible force field disk, and jumps on it. The Thing follows suit, and they both look to Reed Richards, who isn't moving.
"Stretch, what're you waitin' for?! Get on already!" Reed pauses for a moment, and then nods his head and stretches his limbs until he is on-board the floating disk as well.
Sue sends a mental command, and the invisible force field disk speeds off in the direction that the Torch took. The group of three didn't have to go very far when they saw Johnny Storm de-powered, and face down unconscious in a pile of debris, and rubble. The three remaining members of the Fantastic Four gasp at the sight of Doctor Doom standing triumphantly over their fallen teammate.
"Johnny!"
"Torch!
"Kid!"
"Welcome to my humble abode, Fantastic Four. As you can see, I had to discipline the hot tempered Torch. Words alone were not enough, and a show of force was necessary." Doom's dark bionic armor gleamed in the moonlight coming from a window overhead giving him a more menacing look. Doom's green cape fluttered with his sudden movement, and that puts the other Fantastic Four members on high alert.
"Now, I will ask you to leave my home, and my country. If you fail to do this within the next few minutes, I shall be forced to use more extreme measures." The group can see Doom's eyes narrow through the metallic mask that he wears, and his gauntlets glow with power.
The Thing gritted his teeth in anger, and starts lumbering toward Doom. Reed quickly stretches over to Thing, and holds his stretched out arms up in front of Ben Grimm to stop him. "Wait, Ben! Remember the bomb! We need Doom to disarm it!" Thing looks from Reed to Sue Richards using her invisible force field to float Johnny Storm to her location on a makeshift stretcher. Ben lowered, and unclenched his hands. "Yeah...gotta get the code from the rust-pot before Times Square becomes a parking lot."
Doom starts laughing, and the laughter doesn't stop until an invisible force field slams into Doom with the force of a freight train. Doom is sent flying backwards, and impacts into the stone wall near an old tapestry. Doom's own personal force field activated at the last second, and prevented him from receiving any damage. He climbed out of the hole in the wall created by the impact, and sent the Invisible Woman a look of respect.
"An admirable effort, Mrs. Richards, but not quite enough to injure me. You show passion, and spirit...two things that your husband is no doubt sorely lacking in." Doom smirked under his mask at the angered expression on Reed Richards' face.
"Enough of your games, Doom! We've come for the code to disarm the bomb, and we aren't going anywhere until we get it!" Mr. Fantastic pointed a stretched out finger at Doom in exasperation.
"Bomb? Doom knows nothing of any bomb. That was merely a small ruse to lure you here. I knew that your arrogance would force you to find a solution for my encryption algorithm. It pleases me greatly to know that the 'great' Reed Richards was unable to decipher it..." Doom was about to gloat more, but the rock hard fist of Ben Grimm silenced the Monarch of Latveria, and sent him hurtling into another stone wall.
"I know you've heard this one before Doc...IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" The Thing is swinging his large rocky fists around, and waiting for Doctor Doom to emerge from the big hole in the wall.
Doom climbs out with a look of rage in his eyes, and his bionic gauntlets glow with arcane energy until they are a dark purple in color. "You misshapen monstrosity! This will be the last time that you lay your hands upon, Doom!" Thing leaps at Doom with his arms spread out, and shouting a battle-cry. Doom quickly joins together his gauntlets, and the arcane energies are released. The mystical energy hits Ben Grimm, and he vanishes with wisps of dark smoke where he used to be.
Flashback End
"What the heck did Doom hit me with...Rrr...I feel as weak as a newborn kitten..." Ben Grimm tiredly said out-loud to himself as he took in his surroundings with blurry vision. "Am I back in New York? Kinda looks like Central Park..." Thing staggers over to a large tree, and uses it for a support. "Hrrrm...vision's gettin' a bit better. Now all I gotta do is get my legs to stop feeling like jello mold." Ben spots a park bench, and wobbles over to it and sits down wearily.
"If only Mamma Grimm could see her baby boy now...sheesh! Now what am I gonna do? I got to get back to the others before Doom makes mince meat outta them!" Ben tries to get up, but falls back into the bench making it creak loudly. "My legs still ain't cooperating. That's just peachy."
Movement in the wooded area of the park gained The Thing's attention, and he tries to play off how weak he really is at the moment. Ben Grimm's blue eyes widen when he sees a woman emerging with nothing on but a bloody labcoat. She is 5 feet six inches tall with short, light brown hair and her face has a blank, depressed expression. As she walked towards the light of the lamppost, she sees The Thing sitting down with a wide eyed look. The woman's eyes open slightly before returning to her blank stare.
Ben rubs the top of his head with a large rocky hand. "Ho-boy! Doom musta hit me harder than I thought..I'm seeing things." Ben pinched himself to see if he was still knocked out. "Eowch! Nope. This here is the real deal alright. Hey, are you okay?" Ben went to stand up, but he starts to fall over. The woman speeds over to Ben, and catches him in her arms before he can hit the ground. "What the? How did you move that fast?" Ben turns his head to protect the woman's modesty. "Not that I don't appreciate the last minute save, but you're kinda exposed to the elements here."
The woman looks down curiously, and notices that her large breasts are on full display for the strange man. "Ah...sorry." Her face doesn't reflect her emotions, so Ben couldn't tell if she was serious or not. Thing manages to stand on his own, and looks away. "Could ya button up that coat yer wearing? My heart can't take the strain, and my old Aunt Petunia always said to respect a lady's privacy." The woman blinked, and then looks down and began buttoning up the bloody lab-coat. When Ben was sure she was covered up, he turned around to talk more to the woman.
Thing glanced at the blood on the coat, and frowned. "That your blood, cause if so that's a mother of a paper-cut you've got."
"Ah...this blood isn't mine. I escaped from the lab when my adjuster tried to force himself on me." The woman answered with no emotion on her face. Ben gasped, and held the woman by her shoulders with a look of panic. "Tried means he didn't get to do nothin', right?! If he did, he better pick out a pine box for himself right now!" Thing growled out with the woman looking at his face with slight surprise.
"He did nothing like that, but he failed to adjust me properly. I am now broken, and cannot emerge." The woman looks down sadly, and she feels a large finger under her chin, gently lifting her head back up to look at him. "Listen, if you're broken then they gotta check their dictionary again for the meaning. You ain't broken. Understand me?" The woman looks uncertain, but a smile from Ben has her shoulders relaxing under his large hands.
The Thing backs up a little from her, and coughs loudly into his closed hand. *Ahem* Where are my manners? My name is Benjamin J. Grimm, also known as the Ever Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing, the idol a millions worldwide! What's your name little lady?" Ben waits patiently for her response, and after a minute or two she is ready.
"Akitsu." Ben smiled, and nodded. "Pretty name for a pretty lady. Now howzabout you tell me more about this lab, but first I gotta get you some new clothes, and I bet you're hungry too." Ben heard a slight growling noise coming from Akitsu's midsection, and laughed out loud.
"Yep, I figured that was the case. Will you come with me? I promise I'll protect ya, and that nobody's ever gonna hurt you again. Scout's honor!" Ben holds up two fingers on his hand, and gives a serious expression at Akitsu.
She looks over at Ben with some emotion now evident on her face. "You will take care of me? You won't abandon me?" The Thing is about to answer her, when he and Akitsu hear loud clapping.
They both turn around, and see a tall man with silver hair, and a young teenage boy with brown hair. The teen is wearing an all white outfit with a frilly collar, and matching sleeves. The older man is wearing black pants and a long sleeved shirt of the same color. The shirt is open in the front, stopping just a few inches below his solar plexus, with crisscrossing bands of leather forming an 'X'. He is also carrying a long sword, and has an orange scarf tied around his neck.
The teen is bouncing up and down on the heels of his shoes in excitement, and is pointing directly at Ben, and Akitsu. "Look Mutsu, look! What is it? It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen! Could it be a Sekirei experiment gone wrong in Minaka-san's lab? Whatever it is, I want it and the Scrap Number too!"
Mutsu shook his head, and sighed heavily. "You really are too greedy, Hayato." Mutsu slowly draws out his katana and narrows his eyes at the large rock creature. "My Ashikabi desires to have you both. Now...either come with us, and become his Sekirei...or be terminated." The light from the lamppost caught the metal of Mutsu's sword, and Ben shielded his eyes with a large rocky hand.
"Do you know these clowns?" Thing asked, and Akitsu shook her head in the negative.
"Good enough for me." Ben stares over at the two men, and shouts over at them. "Listen up, pretty-boy...me'n Akitsu are no one's property! So why don't you take the kid down to the beauty parlor, and you can both get your nails done!" Ben turns to Akitsu, and nods to her. "Ya ain't got nothin' ta worry about. Old Benjie will keep you safe from whack-jobs like these two!" Thing held out his large hand, and winked at Akitsu who smiled slightly and put her smaller hand in his.
"Mutsu! Did you hear what that rock skinned cretin just said?! Don't just stand there like a lump on a log! Finish those Sekirei, Now!" Hayato stomped his foot in anger, and Mutsu sighed deeply once again.
"Very well...you leave me no choice. If you will not serve my master then I will terminate you both." Mutsu crouched down, and Ben waved his arm for Akitsu to get behind him, which she did without question. Mutsu touches the edge of his sword's scabbard to the ground, and calls out his attack. "*Smashing Point!*" The ground begins to break away, like a small earthquake and large chunks of rock are soaring over to Ben and Akitsu's location.
"Heh. Watch this, Akitsu. Gentle Ben's gonna put these posers in their place." Thing charges forward, and starts punching the large rocks. "One for the money!" Ben smashes more of the boulders to powder. "Two for the show!" Mutsu is looking nervous, and Hayato is screaming at him to stop the creature. Mutsu puts more power into his attack, and a huge boulder is rolling at Ben Grimm at high speed. "Three to get ready..." Ben pulled back his left arm, and fist. He put all of his power into one of his best punches and once his fist hit the boulder it shattered into small pieces. "And four to go!" Ben grabbed Mutsu's sword, and bent it into a perfect U shape and put it around Mutsu's neck like a collar.
Mutsu turned, and ran quickly over to Hayato and draped him over his shoulder and kept running. "No, Mutsu! I order you to go back there and..." Mutsu hit a nerve cluster in the back of Hayato's neck rendering him unconscious. "Sorry, Hayato...I can't follow that order. The safety of my Ashikabi is my only concern." Mutsu kept running until they were completely out of sight.
"Heh-heh-heh! Lookit em' run! That'll teach you to mess with Benjamin J. Grimm!" The Thing has his hands on his hips, and is still chuckling at the departed pair. Ben then turns to Akitsu, and smiles. "Now where were we? Oh yeah! Time to get some grub!" Ben rubs his hands together in anticipation with him making lip smacking sounds. This made Akitsu giggle for a moment.
"You know, you've got a cute laugh. You should do it more often." Thing is fishing around in a pocket on his blue trunks. "Yeah, there it is! Never leave home on a life or death mission without a major credit card!" Ben stepped over to stand to the right side of Akitsu with an elbow extended outwards. Akitsu turned her head, and tilts it slightly in confusion before she blinks in realization and places her arm around his.
"Now Madam, let's see about getting you some nice clothes. Then, we get some food and I can tell you all about my buddies and our adventures. Ever have someone try to turn your world into a blue plate special? Well, it all started when..." Ben trailed off as he and Akitsu exited the park area to enter the city of Shinto Teito.
Thanks for reading Chapter 1 of Things Change! Let me know what you thought of the chapter in a review, and I hope to see you again in chapter 2! :D