The Mighty Floyd Presents:

Stan Lee's Original Fantastic Four

In:

Origin of the Fantastic Four

Note: I'm just going to preface this by stating that almost everything I know about science I learned from comic books, and, frankly, I don't even pay much attention to that. So, if anything is vague, misleading, or completely inaccurate, that would be the reason. Frankly, I don't have the time or willingness to do enough research to get any of my facts straight. If you still don't like it, just pretend that this series takes place in an alternate dimension where the rules of physics are significantly different than those of our own.

Additional note: This is the first story of any significant length I've written for this site in years. It takes place in the same universe as my Stan Lee's Original X-Men story, which will hopefully have a new chapter soon. Don't expect that story's chapters to be anywhere near the length of this ones', though. The action moves differently in the two. Besides, this is the longest single chapter I've ever written for this site in any of my incarnations.

Yet another note: The update schedule will probably be wonky for this story, since, frankly, I don't have the time to write faster and I want the chapters to be a good length before I post. If enough people ask me to, I may consider setting up an area on my website where you can view chapters in progress, but don't expect them to look anything like their final versions. I wrote this chapter over three sessions, and I made changes in each one in addition to adding to it.

Story word count: 3358

Chapter One: Introducing the Players

I am the Watcher. For millennia, I have watched the people of Earth. I have seen them grow, struggle to survive, overcome all challengers, and eventually subjugate their world. From savages armed with wood and bone to modern man with the power of the atom at his command, I have seen their societies grow and evolve. But now, something comes to change all that. In the blink of an eye, humanity will change forever. Whether this is good or bad, only time will be able to tell. In the meantime, all I can do is watch. Watch with me, now, a storm that travels to the Earth, sent from an unknown place, by an unknown entity, for an unknown reason. Watch as it travels, growing ever nearer, to fulfill its purpose. Watch as it changes the lives of four people, and all of humanity.

Watch…

Monday, May 19, 2008

Deep Space

The storm had been traveling for centuries. It followed its course, following the program in its core, so deep within it that even the most brilliant human mind would not be able to create a device to detect it. Human is the operative word, as this storm was not natural, but artificial, created by an unknown being and given one overriding command: to search out life, and to change it. If it had a mind, it may wonder why; as it was, it had only enough awareness to alter its course as it passed by entire civilizations, heedless of the chaos that followed in its wake as world after world proved unworthy of its gift, destroying themselves with cataclysmic fury until only empty, lifeless husks remained.

The storm detected a new world, one that matched the criteria given it by its creator. It began to adjust course for the first time. It would continue to do so as it approached, until finally, in time, it would match the path of the planet upon which it moved, changing its people as it had changed so many before. At billions of miles a second it approached, growing ever closer…

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Richards Research Platform,

27,000 miles above the surface of Earth

Dr. Reed Richards studied the readings on his screen. The storm heading toward Earth looked as though it would pass without reaching the surface of the planet if it maintained its current speed and trajectory, but it could not be trusted to do so. It had already changed direction two times in the last month without any sort of warning or explanation. With another month until it reached his home planet, Reed was justly worried that further changes could set it on a collision course with the Earth. He did not know what would happen if it did; the cosmic radiation powering the unique storm was too large an unknown to accurately predict its effects. It may cause no harm whatsoever, or it may kill the entire planet. Without study, there was no way to be sure.

Tall and slim, Reed Richards was almost a stereotypical scientist. Thick glasses perched precariously on his nose, covering his deep blue eyes, constantly alight with the spark of the amazing intellect resting behind them. His dark brown hair was cut short and, while still thick and full, was beginning a slow climb up his forehead; his temples held a hint of grey, those and the slight lines forming on his face the only sign of his advancing age. At forty-two years of age, Reed had held numerous doctorates in several sciences, physical and theoretical from a young age. Hard work combined with a brilliant mind had helped him rise to the top of his chosen fields, causing jealousy among his older and more experienced colleagues. He tried not to let it bother him; in all truth, it wasn't difficult. Used to taunts from a young age due to his genius in academics, he had swiftly advanced through school, graduating at the age of fourteen from an undergraduate program in New York City. He sometimes worried that his swift rise academically had retarded his development socially, but he was still sought after in both the public and private sectors even without appearing publicly. Almost a recluse, he shut himself away from all but a few close friends, a concept which still surprised him even now.

Reed sighed, and removed his glasses so that he would be able to rub his tired eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger as he stood, eyes closed, listening to the soft beeps coming from the monitoring equipment that surrounded him. He was proud of his private research station, the first to be allowed by the United States government, and then only because of his work for NASA and his promise to share all his research gained from the platform. It had been launched only a year before, and already had helped him to unlock several of the mysteries that existed beyond the atmosphere of the planet to which he was born.

He sighed, opened his eyes, and returned his thick-rimmed glasses to their accustomed spot balancing on his nose, looking as though their weight would force them down and off his face at any moment, belying their strong attachment to the contours of his nose and the hooks that looped securely around his ears. He looked around him to the room where he was currently stationed. He couldn't help but marvel at the vast amount of equipment contained in such a small room, equipment which he had designed and built for just such a purpose, which had the engineers at NASA held in a combination of professional jealousy and personal excitement. Miniaturized to an almost fantastic degree, the machines surrounding him at that moment had more calculating power than any other computer currently on or around Earth, though this was changing, as the scientists and engineers on the planet below him worked to reverse engineer his work.

Reed looked at the monitor as an urgent beeping began to sound, changing in timbre and pitch from its previous slow, steady pace. He typed several commands, but the readouts he was suddenly receiving did not change. The storm had changed its path once more. It was now on a direct collision course with the Earth. He quickly typed in an alarm command, and prepared to alert his support crew on the planet below, which would in turn alert the Space Research Institute, and so on through channels until the news of this new threat reached the white House.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Baxter Building

New York City, New York

Susan Storm was both brilliant and beautiful. There was no other way of putting it. The twenty-six-year-old was of average height, but so slender as to appear much taller than she truly was. Her shoulder length blonde hair curled gently inward at the bottom, and her mischievous light blue eyes did nothing to dispel the sheer mind power resting behind them. While her peers had been studying Dick and Jane, she had been studying Einstein and von Braun. Her parents, both in the military, had worked out a deal with her schools to let her study in an advanced program while attending classes and interacting with the other children her age. She was well liked through her school years, as her beauty and joyful personality attracted friends to her side. She also had a mischievous streak a mile wide, planning and carrying out pranks on her parents, teachers, friends, and her favorite target, her younger brother, Johnny.

Johnny Storm would have been lauded as the physical ideal to which all men should aspire in 1930's Germany. Tall, with thick blonde hair and blue eyes, the nineteen-year-old kept himself in top shape through an exercise and diet regimen that he had developed at the age of six. Although not at the level of his older sister, he was intelligent in his own right, and had breezed through school, although he resisted all attempts to accelerate his studies. He preferred partying to studying, and was considered something of a wild child through high school and now into college. He loved to show off, driving his motorcycle around as though it were an extension of his own body, his long hair flapping in the wind. He was often seen with one or town girls clinging to his back as he zoomed through the streets, inspiring a certain level of jealousy among the male population of the city.

The two siblings were as close as they could be, considering their personalities and circumstances. Orphaned several years before by an accident during a routine exercise, Sue had been forced to care for her teenaged brother, who only seemed to grow more reckless as he aged. She alternated between worry and fury for him, as his antics drove her to the point of distraction. He did not really mean to make her feel that way, but what could he do? This was just the way he was.

Currently, the two were arguing yet again. Sue had discovered that her brother had been planning a weeklong trip to the mountains to do some skiing, blowing off his classes in the meantime.

"You can't just leave like this in the middle of the semester!" she shouted. "What about your professors? What about your grades? I know for a fact that there are several of them who will fail you instantly if you miss another class without any sort of reasonable excuse!"

"This is reasonable!" exclaimed Johnny. "I reasonably want to go skiing! Mikaela, Sharon, ad Kris are all going to be there, and this might be my only chance with them!" Here he was exaggerating, as the three cousins in question, respectively a brunette, blonde, and redhead had very definitely shown interest in him. Unfortunately, his sister didn't quite see it that way.

"You're doing this to get girls?!" she glared. Even with years of conditioning to her, he still slid back a little at the ferocity of her gaze. She continued her rant, "Doctor Heisenagle already wants to suspend you for the semester! If you do this, it will happen. You will fail, and the grants we get won't cover you out of college. It's all I could do to let them in with your grades in the first place!"

"That and my test scores!" retorted the younger sibling. Although he had started slacking off in classes after the deaths of their parents, his scores on tests through his high school years had revealed that he had the mind, if not the effort, to do well at anything he wanted. The trouble was, he never seemed to want to do anything but goof off and pick up girls.

"It doesn't matter how well you can do on a test if you aren't there to take it!" his sister fumed. She was about to continue, but a ringing noise interrupted her rant. She fixed her brother with a glare, and said, "Don't even think about moving." She whirled, and stomped over to the offending device, a telephone, and picked it up to speak into it.

"Storm."

"Susan," came a familiar voice from the headset, "I was hoping you would be in."

Dr. John Grant had been Sue's advisor during several of her doctoral studies, and had helped her with one of her physics theses. He had retired from the university shortly after she received her most recent degree, and now did freelance contracting to the federal government. This was the first time she had spoken to him in over a month; he had been out of contact while working on a highly classified project. Receiving a call from him now left her with a mix of excitement, to hear from him again, and worry, as he was supposed to still be out of contact for another three months.

"What's the matter?" she asked, drawing the most obvious conclusion from his call.

He chuckled. "It's nice to see you're still quick on the uptake," he said. "We've run into a small problem here, and I suggested we see if you were able to help out a little."

Sue's excitement grew. Working on a project like this, even one which she would be unable to divulge the details of, would add tremendously to her resume and possibly, depending on the outcome and the amount of participation she was allowed, even secure her government contracts in the future.

"What would I be doing?" she asked. Her excitement must have shown in her voice, because Grant chuckled again before turning serious.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you anything specific over the phone," he told her, "but I can tell you that you will be working with a small team of scientists with backgrounds similar to your own." This did not narrow it down a great deal, but considering that Grant's own field of expertise was astrophysics, it did not take a rocket scientist (of which she knew several) to figure out that whatever the project was, it involved space in at least a peripheral area, if not its main focus. "You will also be working closely with Dr. Reed Richards."

She was hooked. She knew of Richards professionally; there were few in their community who did not. One of the few people to hold even more degrees than she herself did, he was considered the scientist's scientist. She had peers who might literally kill for the chance to work with him; to turn down an opportunity like this would be insane.

Unfortunately, there was a catch.

"You'll need to join the team here, which means you can't contact anyone until the project is completed."

"Dr. Grant, what about my brother. I can't just leave him here on his own. You know what he's like."

He paused. He did know what Johnny Storm was like. He had met the young man many times while working with his older sister, and while he quite liked him, he knew that the unfocused young man could get up to any amount of trouble if left to his own devices.

"I would have to talk it over with the project leaders," he said cautiously after pausing a moment to think through the problem, "but it may be possible to bring him with you if he agrees to intern to you or one of the other scientists on the project. He would be able to claim it as field experience, and, so long as his professors agree, may be able to finish the semester without any penalties once the project is done. But this'll all depend on what the project leaders say about it," he cautioned.

"If they agree, then that will be fantastic," Sue quickly agreed. "I can be available at any time."

"Why don't you come up here on Tuesday," he paused to give her the address, "and we should know by then."

"I'll see you then," she agreed. They exchanged goodbyes, and Sue hung up. She turned to Johnny, who was still in place. Her face and voice showed no trace of their previous argument as she said, "I have a proposal for you…"

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Richards Research Platform, aboard RR-16 Shuttle

27,000 miles above the surface of Earth

Benjamin Grimm was bored. No, not just bored. It was a special depth of bored, a bored unheard of before in human history. This was a level of bored that would equalize watching paint dry to watching the planet explode, the stars to die in the night sky, even time and space itself ceasing to exist, and this amount of sheer boredom seemed to accomplish just that. He had been waiting for over an hour.

Ben was well over six feet tall, with a thick, stocky frame that screamed former football star. From New York City, the brunet, blue-eyed Ben had been a military pilot before a car accident had severely damaged his legs. He had recovered, but been discharged from service due to lingering stiffness. He had occasionally filled in as a freelance pilot, substituting on cargo flights, until an old friend from high school, Reed Richards, had shown up one day seemingly out of nowhere, offering him a position with his tech company as a pilot.

He had gone through a specialized training course developed by Reed, and learned the controls for the special shuttle used to ferry his old friend back and forth to his research platform. While complicated, the Ben's almost intuitive grasp of the mechanics of flight craft allowed him to quickly learn his way around the small shuttle, which was decades ahead of anything produced by anyone not named Reed Richards.

Ben chuckled to himself as he thought about his friend. The two had met way back in Ben's senior year of high school. The older boy had come across this scrawny kid trying to find his way around. He had assumed that one of the middle-schoolers had gotten mixed around trying to find his wing, but a short talk with the young genius had revealed that Reed was actually starting at the school as a junior, after being home-schooled for several years before. The kid quickly endeared himself to the good-natured lineman, and he looked out for the younger boy for the rest of that year. By the end of the year, Reed had finished both of his remaining two years of high school material, and graduated alongside his new friend. Afterward, the two had kept in touch, as Ben went into the Air Force and Reed went on to his myriad doctorates.

Ben was grateful to his old friend for taking him on after his recovery. He assumed there must have been more qualified pilots, but Reed's loyalty to his first real friend had led to his choice. Ben did not regret signing on, either. After all, he got to go into space on a regular basis as the shuttle pilot, and how many people could say that? Still, there were times when the glamour began to wear a little thin, and now was definitely one of those times.

He was sitting in the pilot's seat, waiting for Reed to finish his adjustments before the two could head back down to Earth to meet with the new members of the scientist's team. Apparently, from what Ben understood, this Dr. Storm guy was supposed to be almost as smart as Reed himself. The forty-eight year old Grimm was looking forward to the two meeting, just so he could see if they got into an argument, as Reed so often did with several of the other scientists attached to the project. It was hilarious to watch as he spewed long words out into complex formations, wrapping his ideas around his attempted detractors until they were not even sure if they had their own names right, let alone their ideas and theories. If this Storm was even half as smart as he was supposed to be, a verbal match like that should be entertaining as hell.

"Ben," Reed's voice crackled suddenly from one of the speakers in front and to the side of him, "I'm just about finished here. Go ahead and prepare the RR-16 for departure."

"Copy that, short stuff," Ben grinned as he thumbed the transmitter button. He knew the fairly tall Reed hated the moniker, which was why he used whenever he felt like getting a rise out of the slightly shorter man.

"Don't call me that," snapped Reed, right on cue. He chuckled to himself as he began to start the shuttle's final sequences, preparing it to detach from the Platform once the scientist boarded. As he entered the final commands, he heard the door slide open and then shut behind him, right on cue. He locked in the launch command as Reed sat down in the co-pilot's seat beside his and strapped himself in.

"All systems are go. Preparing to separate," Ben radioed the support base below as the shuttle began to move

"Acknowledged," crackled the reply. "See you when you get down here."

"Here we go," said Ben, as a muffled thump signaled that they were free of the dock on the Platform. "Next stop, New York."

Next time, in Origin of the Fantastic Four: The four meet for the first time, as sparks fly. Meanwhile, a dark figure watches as they prepare to meet the storm. As it draws closer, will they be able to deflect it, or will the planet tear itself apart in the wake of this mysterious entity. Find out in Chapter 2: Event Horizon.

Additional Note: Thanks to aragonite, Reed and Ben's ages have been moved up quite a bit. Also, for those of you who are confused, this story is "original" in the sense that it won't immediately throw the team into battle with Doom, unlike the Ultimate comic or the first movie. This tendency to Doom the team's stories makes me a little nuts, and I will be avoiding the not-very-good Doctor for as long as I can get away with. Hope that clears that up.