The Future Foundation

Chapter Two

"THOUGHTS"

XXX

True to his word, Luthor had somehow managed to have my bank accounts frozen. An associate of his from the IRS had trumped up the charge of tax evasion against me. And worse than that, Luthor had ruined my good name, destroying my credit rating with his influence. Even the United States Patent and Trademark Office were giving me a hard time over the patents I had made over a decade ago.

If I hadn't have paid off my house and if I didn't have a few friends in the IRS myself, I would have probably been on the street by then. However, I really didn't trust banks too much so I had much of my money hidden. Thus I wasn't totally broke.

As I mulled over my options for dealing with my finances which were few and far between, I received a phone call.

"Hey, Reed, this is your old pal, Ben Grimm!"

"Hello, Ben. I'm rather busy right…"

"I have a huge business proposition for you! In the jungles of South America, there are hidden treasures and artifacts worth a fortune."

"That sounds dangerous, Ben."

"It might be. You have a lot of archeological knowledge, don't you?"

"Yes, but…"

"Well, you strike me as the kind of guy who's not easily frightened and I've also heard that you can handle yourself fairly well on the street too. You're almost as tough as I am. You're a lot like that Indiana Jones character from the movies. At the same time, we really can use a scientist type like you, especially since the scientist who was going to come along with us chickened out at the last minute."

"We?" I asked.

"Yes. The other two guys are Red Ryan and Rex Mason."

I vaguely remembered Red Ryan being one of the Challengers of the Unknown. As far as Rex Mason went, I knew exactly who he was.

"Rex Mason?! Doesn't he work for Simon Stagg?!"

I didn't know if Rex Mason had been on the outs with Simon Stagg by this time or not, so I was apprehensive about him.

"Oh, yeah. we heard all about what happened with you, Stagg, and that Luthor guy. That's why I figured you could use the money we'll make on this treasure hunt. And to tell the truth, Rex Mason isn't too thrilled with Simon Stagg either. So he totally understands your dislike for the man."

"All right, Ben. When can we all get together so we can discuss this adventure?"

"We can do that right now. Me and the guys are right outside your home. We gotta get this show on the road as soon as possible. So how's about letting us in so we can talk this out?" Ben asked with a sense of urgency, I've never heard from him before.

"All right."

XXX

The conversation went off without a hitch. I didn't have too much food at my house, but Ben and the others didn't hold that against me.

Matthew "Red" Ryan was a handsome man of average height with an athletic, muscular build and medium-length, orange/reddish hair and green eyes. He walked with a gate that showed me he had the graceful agility and quick reaction times of a trained fighter.

Rex Mason was a tall, statuesque man with dark brown hair. He gave off the impression that he had a lot of experience and confidence while knowing what he was doing. He dressed and reminded me of Indiana Jones, whip, hat, and all. It was obvious that he hadn't turned into Metamorpho by this time.

After having some chips and soda, we sat around a table and got down to business.

"The artifacts and treasure we're searching for are in the Amazon Rain Forrest in the country of Bolivia," Rex Mason explained as he showed us all a map.

"I've heard there are various creatures and even man-eating giants in addition to quicksand traps of all kinds," I said as I regarded the map.

"There might be quicksand and man-made traps. But I haven't heard about man-eating giants in the area. If you're afraid, just say so."

"I'm not afraid, Rex. I simply like to know what I'm getting into. I don't care for surprises, and I've done a lot of reading about that area."

"Yeah, Reed's a smart guy. He knows what he's talking about," Ben said in my defense.

"I hope this guy isn't all brain and no brawn," Red Ryan said as he regarded me.

"Red, this guy took on Java and threw him out a sixth story window. We can rely on this guy," Ben answered.

"Did you really take on Java?" Rex asked.

"I did. But it wasn't easy. I've taken several martial arts in my lifetime, and I'm willing to take on these giants or any other creatures should they show up. However, I refuse to go off half-cocked," I explained as I gave both Rex and Red a hard look.

"All right. Whatever we get we'll split it four ways after paying all the expenses for the trip. Agreed?" Red asked as he regarded me.

"Agreed."

"Fair enough. The plane leaves tomorrow morning. Welcome aboard, Reed," Rex said as he offered his hand which I shook.

"I told you this guy was reliable!" Ben exclaimed, patting me on the back.

XXX

After a long plane ride, we got a small-sized ferry boat and made our way via a river to our destination.

The white boat was twenty-five feet long and fifteen wide. It had an inside compartment for our supplies and tools along with a windshield and covering where the steering wheel was located.

The boat moved at a steady pace until we felt a small bump. Then we felt a few more bumps.

"What was that?" Rex asked out loud.

"They're a school of Bull Sharks," I said after taking a look overboard and noticing a few bluish/gray sharks in the water around us.

"Bull sharks?! All the way out here in this shallow river water?" Red asked.

"That's correct. These sharks can be as tall as five feet or more, weighing as much as two hundred pounds. Despite the freshwater area…"

"All right! All right! What do we do about them?!" Rex screamed as a larger shark had jumped from the water to the left side of the boat, prompting him to wack its head with a paddle.

"They're boarding the ship!" Ben called out as he kicked a shark in the nose, knocking it back into the water.

At this point, we were surrounded. As a smaller shark leaped out of the water towards me, I moved out of the way. And as it practically flew by, I grabbed it by its tail and used a martial arts knife/hand strike making the creature bleed. Then I threw it in the water far behind us.

"The sharks are leaving!" Red called out after shooting a shark that had gotten too close.

"Let's keep going!" Rex ordered as he sped the boat up and got us away.

XXX

As we walked through the jungle with Red Ryan in the lead and me holding up the rear, I noticed something far up ahead moving in the shrubbery.

"Did you see that?" I asked no one in particular.

"See what? There's nothing theeeeeerrreee!" Red screamed as he went flying up into the air.

Upon looking up, we saw something above us moving with lightning speed attached to the tree branch of a giant oak appeared a giant, dark green anaconda snake whose head and mouth was large enough to swallow Red whole which it did up to his waistline. It was thirty feet long being fifteen feet in width. Before anyone else could do anything, I leaped up and struck the back of the snake's head snapping its jaws apart, forcing it to let Ryan go. And before Ryan could fall to the ground, I jumped from the snake to another tree in a bank-shot manner towards the ground and grabbed Ryan before he went splat, landing on my feet.

However, the snake wasn't done yet. At an inhuman speed, it slithered with its mouth wide open, hissing with its long flickering tongue out towards Ben who surprisingly maneuvered out the way, allowing the snake to slam into large oak, stunning itself.

"Out of the way, Ben! I got this!" Rex called out as he pulled out a large, double-sided ax and moved in on the lizard, using the ax to cut off its head. However as he struck the snake, it shrieked and recoiled backward, slithering away.

"Whew!" Rex gasped as he lowered his ax to the ground. Then he looked around, seeing to it that everybody else was OK.

"And here I thought you brought that ax for cutting down trees and shrubbery," I said as we all surrounded the dead snake.

"I never thought a snake could get that big," Ben said.

"That snake could have turned a little guy like you into a snack, Ben," Ryan said with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah? It would have made a meal out of you if not for Reed literally taking the food out of its mouth while you were paralyzed with fear!"

"I wasn't afraid! I was surprised!" Ryan snapped back.

"At any rate, we need to get going," Rex said as he cleaned his ax by rubbing it against the grass.

"Right, the mountain we're looking for is only a few miles away from here," I said as I used a pair of binoculars to see the object of our desire.

XXX

An hour later, we arrived at the mountain where we found a less than man-sized crevice which looked usable as an entrance.

"That hole in there is so small I couldn't fit through it. Now how do we get in there?" Ben asked no one in particular.

"There should have been a doorway of some kind. That's what the map says anyway," Rex said as he looked at the map.

At that point, I took out my hand-held telescope and placed it in the crevice of the cave, and looked inside.

"What do ya see Reed?" Ben asked.

"It's mostly dark inside, but I was able to notice some steps going downward. Does anybody have a flashlight of some kind?"

"Yeah, both Rex and I brought flashlights with us. What did you bring?" Red Ryan demanded.

"I brought a few sticks of dynamite with me."

"Hmm. I should have brought some dynamite with me as well," Rex commented.

"If we only have a few sticks of dynamite among us, we'll have to figure out another way to increase the opening here," I said regarding the entrance.

"What are you going to do?" Red demanded.

"Everybody stand back!"

After concentrating for a moment, I used a two-fisted, martial arts technique I learned from a Chinese kung fu master that smashed through causing the rocks and stones around the entrance to come crashing down.

"I didn't think that was possible outside of superhuman capabilities," Rex said as I began to move the rocks away from the entrance. Then the others helped moved the rocks out of the way as well.

XXX

As we walked down the stairway, I noticed how large the steps were becoming, bigger as we descended lower. The steps were so large Ben had a hard time making his way downward.

"Something wrong, Ben?" Red asked giving Ben a wry look.

"Nothing! I'm fine!" the shorter man answered.

"These steps were made for giants. I'm certain of it," I said as we descended several miles lower.

"Giants? You're crazy, Reed. Ben's simply too short," Red commented.

"It's quite possible the people in ancient history were bigger than we are now, Red," Rex said as he noticed how large the steps were becoming.

A few minutes later, we heard what sounded like moaning. Then we heard a human scream and a sickeningly moist crunch.

"What was that?"

We all stared at each other for a moment until we decided to keep going with our quest.

When the steps finally ended we saw a fourteen-foot tall doorway. Upon pushing the door open, we saw a sight to behold! A large room the size of a basketball court contained several overflowing treasure chests of gold, silver, diamonds, and other precious metals. However, in addition to that, we noticed several human skulls and skeletons on the ground picked clean of any flesh in the large forty by forty yard area. In addition to all that, there was a stench of death in the air.

"Whoa! There's enough treasure here to fund a whole country!" Ben exclaimed upon seeing the mess of riches strewn all over the place.

"This treasure has been stolen from miles away from the ancient Incas, Aztecs, and others," Rex explained as he regarded the archaic coins.

"Hmm. Now how do we carry this all this out?" I said in regards to the massive treasure.

"We'll just have to carry it out the old fashion way," Rex Mason answered.

"Then let's get to work!" Ben interjected.

"What do you think you're doing?!" an inhumanly deep baritone voice announced, chilling most of us while upsetting me a little bit.

At that point, we turned to see a twelve-and-a-half-foot giant with six digits which were composed of five fingers and a thumb on each hand. At the same time, he had six toes on each of his feet. His red eyes seemed to glow red, giving off a malevolent presence all their own. In addition to that, he had a large crop of hair on the top of its otherwise bald head.

All the giant wore was a wolf skin loincloth so it was easy to see he was fairly muscular with long hair, a large stomach, a large head, and two rows of sharp teeth. The rotund creature was a terror to behold as he stomped its way towards us.

"Well, we were just exploring the area when we came upon this treasure here. If it belongs to you, we'll just take our leave and get out of your hair," I said upon realizing that I was closest to the giant who had arrived from a previously unnoticed opening.

"AAARRGGH!" the giant screamed zooming over towards me at an uncanny speed, thus he was upon me before the others realized it. Despite my surprise, I was able to drop to the ground and utilize a martial throw, grabbing his huge gut and using my feet to propel him up and over me and the others.

"Look out!" I screamed as I barely endured the unholy stench of the creature.

The others gasped as the giant flew over them. Then they maneuvered out of its way as it got to its feet and came at me again.

"AAAAAGGGHHHH!" The giant came at me again with more speed, but this time, I was more prepared as I used his own momentum against him, grabbing him and redirecting where he was going, and slamming him into the wall of the cavern, practically embedding him into it.

"OOF!"

"Let's get out of here, Reed!" I heard Rex call out, prompting me to turn around and notice that he and the others had large bags of gold, silver, and precious metals in each of their hands. Then I grabbed a couple of bags of treasure as well, following after them as they ran out of the area.

"COME BACK HERE!" the giant screamed as I heard it remove itself from the wall and come after us as the others ran up the stairs. I halted for a moment and shut the door, placing a stick of dynamite at the door setting it up to go off as soon as the door opened. Then I took what bags of treasure I had and ran up the stairs, catching up to my comrades.

However, the giant began to gain on me, so I tossed one of the sticks of dynamite down the stairs after igniting it.

"AAARRGGHH! I'LL GET YOU FOR THAT!" the giant screamed as the stick of dynamite blew up in his face and knocked him off his feet down the stairway.

As I got closer to the entrance of the stairway, I heard Ben calling out to me.

Reed, hurry up"

"I'm on my way!" I answered as I sped things up. However, as the giant got closer to me, I lit up and tossed another ignited dynamite stick in its direction.

"AAARRGGHH!"

With a burst of speed, I ran up the steps, catching up to the others.

"I got ya!" Ben called out to me, helping up through the hole we had made earlier.

"It's about time! I thought we'd have to leave you down there," Red commented.

"I told you it was a good idea to bring Reed along!"

"Thanks, Ben. Now we need to plug up this hole."

"It's too late! I can hear the footsteps. He'll be here at any moment. We gotta run!" Rex exclaimed, prompting us to take our loot and make a break for it.

However, before we could get too much further away, we heard an explosion.

"COME BACK HERE!"

Then we heard pounding footsteps coming our way.

"He's gaining on us!" Red screamed as we kept on running.

"Let's go this way," I said as I turned to the right.

"What's over here?" Red Ryan countered.

"If we can awake that giant snake…"

"What?! Are you nuts?! That snake will have us all for breakfast!" Red screamed.

"Or maybe it will have our giant friend for breakfast if you get my drift," I said as the others followed.

"I see your game plan, Reed, but that giant is gaining on us," Rex commented.

"That's all right." As I led our group through the forest, the giant's footsteps got closer and closer. Then I saw the giant-sized snake slither from up the huge oak trees.

Then I slowed down. "Here, Ben, take these bags and make your way back to the boat. What I need to do I have to do alone."

"You sure about this, Reed?"

"I'm sure, Ben. Get the boat ready. I'll be with you all shortly."

"All right, Reed, but we'll only wait a few minutes for you," Rex said.

"Fine, Rex. That's all I'll need. Now get going."

As the others left, I ran away from the slithering snake right into the pursuing giant.

"I'LL KILL YOU. I'LL EAT YOU ALIVE, YOU THIEF!"

However, as the giant closed in on me, I grabbed his huge gut utilizing a martial throw, tossing him behind me into the open maw of the fast-moving snake just before it had gotten to me. As the snake swallowed the little behemoth, I made a break for it, going around them.

"There he is!" Ben called out as the boat began to move.

"Come on, Reed. We gotta get going!"

"Right, Ben!" I called out as I made a standing broad jump, landing on the edge of the boat.

"That wasn't bad, Reed. What happened?" Rex asked.

As the boat moved further and further away, I explained to them how the events of the day went down.

"That's amazing. It was a good idea to bring you along. And we also have all this loot," Rex exclaimed happily.

I nodded in agreement. Now I would be able to solve most of my problems and get my plans of finding alternate sources of energy started.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Be here next time when Reed takes off into outer space!