Disclaimer: Fantastic Four and all names, likenesses, etc. is the property of Marvel and 20th Century Fox. I am not making any profit by writing this.
Wrath of Doom
Chapter 3-Search in Vain
In Latveria, Doom sought out Lucia von Bardas. Apparently, word had spread like wildfire that Victor had come ashore because everyone in Latveria was aware of it. Doom found Miss von Bardas in the warehouse in which Doombot construction takes place. He noticed that another two dozen Doombots had been created since he last left. Upon seeing Victor, Lucia was quickly at his side. She draped one of his arms over her shoulder, and wrapped her arms around his side to help him stay afoot as he looked to be having difficulty walking.
"My lord, are you okay?" Miss von Bardas asked concern evident in her voice and her eyes.
"Am I fine? Am I fine you ask?" Victor replied.
Lucia watched in horror as Dr. Doom sent wave after wave of electricity until all the Doombots were destroyed. He's mad! What is he thinking destroying his own creations?
"What are you doing?" Lucia inquired.
The next thing Lucia knew, Victor had shoved her roughly to the ground. As she sat on the ground with more than likely a bruised tailbone, she looked up at Victor and gazed into his cold, calculating eyes.
"What's this? Are you defying me Miss von Bardas?" Doom asked as a ball of electricity crackled in his right hand.
"No my lord," Lucia quickly answered suddenly fearful for her life.
Just as quickly as the ball of electricity had formed, it went away. Lucia saw the tension in Dr. Doom's body subside. She was relieved when the poised to attack look was no longer applicable to Victor's stance.
"Smart girl. Keep in mind Miss von Bardas that I put you in power, and I can just as easily take that power away from you. I am the ruler of Latveria not you. If you have a problem with that, then you will meet the same fate as those Doombots," Victor said pointing to the scraps of metal strewn about on the warehouse floor.
Victor offered Lucia his hand. She took it, and he helped pull her up to her feet. Lucia tried her best to mask the fear that she was feeling as a result of Dr. Doom's threat. She worried that she wasn't doing a good enough job of hiding said fear from Victor.
"These Doombots will not suffice. No, we will have to start from scratch. Changes are going to be made. Come Lucia, let's get to work," Victor commanded.
Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, the search for Johnny Storm continued. By this time, the Coast Guard, search and rescue teams, and volunteer divers all worked together trying to find the missing superhero. The Air Force survivors had already been rescued and taken to the nearest medical facility as a necessary precaution.
"I hate this waiting! Why haven't they found anything yet?" Sue asked.
"The distance that the Atlantic Ocean covers is expansive. These waters are very deep. After factoring in the changing tides, Johnny could in theory be anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean," Reed said.
"Why thank you dear. That made me feel loads better," Sue remarked sarcastically.
The Fantasticar was no longer three separate pods, but one cohesive unit. Throughout Reed and Sue's squabble, Ben's eyes were fixated on the ocean waters below him. He expected Johnny to pop up to the surface any moment now. At least that's what he hoped would happen.
"I'm just saying that the more time passes by, the less likely our chances of finding him," Reed stated.
"Tell me something I don't know!" Sue exclaimed.
The sun was starting to set, and that was of great concern for everyone involved in the search efforts. Hours had passed since Johnny had first fallen into the Atlantic Ocean. Without the sun's light, the search efforts would become considerably more difficult.
"That does it! I'm going in," Sue said.
"Sue, don't be ridiculous! You don't have the necessary equipment to conduct a proper search!" Reed countered.
"Who said I need equipment?" Sue replied.
Sue's pod separated from the rest of the Fantasticar. She lowered the pod to just above the surface of the water. The hatch to her pod opened, she climbed out of her pod, and dove into the water. Once submerged, she encased herself on all sides with a force field effectively creating a sort of bubble.
"I'd be in the waters searching for the kid too if it wasn't for my body mass index. Thanks to that, I can't swim, I sink," Ben commented.
Reed and Ben observed with great interest as the Coast Guard discovered a body. I hope it's Johnny. Please let it be Johnny. Getting a closer look, they were disappointed when they didn't see Johnny's uniform. It was one of the deceased Air Force pilots.
Meanwhile, in Latveria, thanks to the joint efforts of Victor and Lucia, nearly ten new and improved Doombots had been created. The construction of another batch of Doombots was well under way. They were at the stage of production where the machines did all the work.
"Miss von Bardas, there is something I want to show you," Victor said.
Lucia followed Victor as he led her to the back of the warehouse. Victor opened a hatch in the floor that led to an underground tunnel. It was by no means a narrow tunnel either. A seven foot tall individual could safely stand on his tiptoes and not even be able to touch the top. The underground tunnel eventually led to a room. Lucia covered her mouth with her hand after letting out a gasp. Shackled against the far wall was the Human Torch.
"Is he—" Lucia started to ask.
"Alive? Regrettably," Victor replied.
"I don't understand. You saved him?" Lucia questioned.
"I prefer to think of it as he is my prisoner of war," Victor stated.
Lucia walked over to Johnny and put two fingers to his neck. She found a very faint pulse. She took in the sight before her. Johnny was in bad shape, very bad shape. If not for him being shackled to the wall, he would no doubt be lying on the floor as there was absolutely no way he would be able to stand on his own. As it was, Johnny's body sagged forward and his head drooped. Lucia saw that the entire top half of Johnny's uniform was nonexistent. The lower half of his uniform was ripped, torn, and shredded in so many locations. There was a myriad of cuts and bruises all over Johnny's body. From the looks of it, Johnny's right leg appeared to be broken.
"He needs medical attention," Lucia said.
"On the contrary, he doesn't need anything! He's fine as is," Victor replied.
"He's just a kid Victor! I don't know the extent of his injuries, but he could die!" Lucia exclaimed.
Victor stalked over to Lucia, and backhand slapped her with such force that she went flying into one of the side walls. She fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.
"Don't you ever take that tone of voice with me Miss von Bardas! Where's your respect? If you're concerned about him, then you can stay down here with him," Victor said to the unconscious Lucia.
Victor made his way out of the underground tunnel. He closed the hatch in the floor and locked it shut. I warned you my dear. Let this be a lesson to you. This is what happens to anyone who gets in my way.
All the while, the search for Johnny was still going on. Sue had finally resurfaced after being underwater for a long period of time. She was breathing heavily and was exhausted from exerting herself so much. While Sue was submerged, a second body had been recovered, but like the first one, it too wasn't Johnny. Sue climbed into her pod, and the Fantasticar was soon one whole again.
By now, the sun had gone down completely. In its place was the moon. Seemingly billions of twinkling stars also helped to light up the night sky.
"I think we should return to the Baxter Building. We can return first thing tomorrow morning," Reed said.
"I'm not leaving my brother behind!" Sue hollered.
"Reed's right Susie. Besides, just because we're going back to the Baxter Building doesn't mean the search will stop. The Coast Guard, search and rescue teams, and volunteer divers will still be looking for Johnny," Ben piped in.
"Okay, fine. First thing tomorrow morning though, we continue our search and no later," Sue stated.
The ride back to the Baxter Building was a silent one. Reed, Sue, and Ben were all deep in their own thoughts. Nobody really knew what to say. What could you say at a time like this? All they knew was that they really missed Johnny. They came to the conclusion that they kind of took it for granted that he'd always be around. Sure, he annoyed them to no ends at times, but they much rather he be there to annoy them than he not be there at all.
After arriving on the top floor of the Baxter Building, Reed, Ben, and Sue were surprised to see Frankie was there waiting for them. The mere sight of Frankie made the blood in Sue's veins boil. Before anyone even had a chance to say anything, Sue bowled Frankie over with one of her force fields.
"Sue, stop it!" Reed yelled grabbing his wife by the waist.
Sue was kicking, squirming, and clawing the air trying to free herself from her husband's grasp. Ben helped Reed to restrain Sue. Frankie picked herself off the ground.
"You are the last person I want to see right about now! It's your fault Johnny's missing in the first place! I pray to God that my brother is okay, and if he is, you had best stay away from him or else you will have to deal with me!" Sue screamed.
"If you think for one second that I don't feel guilty about what happened to Johnny, then you are sadly mistaken. If you want to talk about blame though, then I say all three of you can take a bow! After all, if the three of you had just backed Johnny up like a good team, then none of this would have happened," Frankie responded.
In a display of uncanny strength, Sue freed herself from Reed and Ben and tackled Frankie to the ground. The two ladies rolled on the floor jockeying for position. Reed quickly went to separate them, but Ben stopped him.
"I say let them go at it. At least maybe they'll get it out of their systems. Besides, you can't say that Frankie doesn't deserve it," Ben remarked.
After great struggle both on the part of Sue and on the part of Frankie, Sue ended up on top. She pinned Frankie's shoulders to the ground. Frankie squirmed beneath Sue, but Sue wasn't letting up.
"You have some nerve showing up here and saying what you said. What are you doing here anyways?" Sue demanded.
"I'm here for two reasons. First of all, I'm here to say I'm sorry. I never meant for Johnny to go off and fight Doom on his own. Secondly, I came here to tell you that Victor has Johnny," Frankie answered.
To Be Continued…
I just wanted to say that I am completely floored by the response this story is getting. I'm used to getting maybe two to three reviews per chapter, so this is going better than I anticipated it would. I have a confession to make though—now I'm all nervous. I'm afraid that I'm going to drop the ball and suddenly people won't like it anymore (I hope I didn't just jinx myself there). I'm afraid that this story won't be able to live up to people's expectations or the promise that people have said this story has. I was going to list this under the category action only to find that action isn't one of the categories you can choose from. So, I decided to leave it under the category general because it does have elements of drama, romance, and action in it (maybe other genres) so I can't really confine it to only two categories. For all you fellow authors out there, could somebody explain to me what the Life column under Document Manager means? What, once the counter reads 0 days, I have to resubmit that chapter or something?
I'd like to thank the sims 2 rocks, impeccableblahs, SnowFox3, Spaztic Arwen, Pinkchick, Wand Maker Extraordinaire, LastWhiteRose, shadowwolf919, Jellybean16, and ElektricStorm for reviewing Chapter 2. I'd also like to thank Caitri, ElektricStorm, Jedi Master Calriel, Jellybean16, Magical Flying Blue And White Cat, Pinkchick, Raynne, Siyavash, SnowFox3, Sokorra Lewis, Spaztic Arwen, Wand Maker Extraordinaire, alexandizzie4eva, deranged black kitten of doom, dontmesswithYami, impeccableblahs, pembroker, and shadowwolf919 for putting this story on your story alert list. To anyone else I might have missed, I think you are just as awesome. A good way to let me know what you think of my story is by dropping me a review. I'm interested to hear what you thought of it. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, but I'm going to ask that you don't flame me. Thanks for taking the time to read this story.