The statue that Victor had become had vanished after their fight. They were fairly certain that someone from VDI had made off with him, but by the time a search warrant had been obtained by the police to enter his corporate headquarters, there was no sign of him. Susan suspected Leonard Kirk had spirited Victor away to Latveria, but official inquiries made to the small European country only got vague responses and a promise to look into it. Latveria would not surrender her favorite son, after all, no matter what his condition. She and Reed had even traveled there to do some investigating of their own, but they were recognized and treated with polite disdain by the natives, who refused to help them at all.
"What...how...what is he doing?" she finally said, sinking down heavily on the couch next to Reed.
Reed studied Victor's image on the screen, barely hearing her words. "He must have found another way to reverse the radiation's effects," he said to himself. "But if he was the power source when he transformed Ben back, how did he do it to himself? Where did he get that kind of power? And how was he able to unfreeze himself? Did he do it himself, or was it an outside source? I should check satellite data for any unusual power surges in Latveria..."
Sue swatted his shoulder to make him stop talking over the TV. She leaned forward to listen as the interviewer, identified at the bottom of the screen as Doug Miller, asked Victor, "It's been a year since the incident on your space station. Would you care to tell us your version of what happened?"
"I gave more than one press conference after the incident," Victor said lightly, "but I'll go over it again. Reed Richards wanted to study the cosmic storm that was passing by the earth. NASA refused to sponsor him, so he came to me. I'll admit my motives were perhaps more concerned with profit than Reed's were, but I saw a great deal of potential in his research proposal and gave him the use of my station. But he miscalculated the speed of the storm and it struck the station before we were prepared."
"Miscalculated...how?" Miller prompted.
Victor shrugged. "I went over his calculations, but I didn't examine every single variable or double check all his results. I left that in his hands. He was, after all, top of our class at MIT. I trusted his work."
"And how do you feel about what happened now?"
With a wry smile, Victor settled back in his chair. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do. I agreed to this interview but I didn't realize it would be following that shameless attempt to slander Reed and the others. But I'll answer your question. Mistakes happen. No one is perfect. Of course I wish the mission had been successful, but as I said, Reed made a mistake in calculating the speed of the cloud, and it reached us before we were ready. It's as simple as that. Ben Grimm was regretfully still outside, but I tried to raise the shields, because saving four lives was better than losing five. It apparently wasn't effective against the radiation, however, and it altered us. All of us."
Miller nodded. "And just what did it do to you? There were all sorts of stories about being turned into a robot or some sort of cyborg..."
"I honestly don't remember much," Victor said. "I remember returning from the space station, but after that, not much else. The radiation affected my mind. It made me very unstable. And much like Ben Grimm, it transformed my body, only I became metallic instead of stone."
"Why did you attack the Fantastic Four?" the interviewer asked.
Victor shifted a little uncomfortably in his chair. "I don't know, and if I'd been in my right mind it never would have happened. It's obvious the radiation affected each of us in very different ways. It apparently made me much more aggressive, because while Reed and I were rivals in several ways, I certainly didn't wish harm on him or any of the others. I'm just glad they were able to stop me before anyone was seriously hurt."
Miller nodded again, then went for the kill. "Do you think there is a chance the same thing that happened to you could happen to them? Could their powers be turned against the people they claim to want to help?"
Victor frowned, as if he realized he had just been trapped into answering a question the exposé had asked -- were the Fantastic Four potentially dangerous? "I don't know," he said. "I should hope not. None of them are the type to --."
"Neither were you," Miller interrupted. Then he changed the subject. "So what happened after your fight with the Fantastic Four?"
"I woke up a month ago in my home country of Latveria," Victor said, clearly holding back his irritation. "Several of the top scientists with my companies had been working on a way to reverse what the radiation did to me. They were finally successful. As I said, I don't remember what happened, but I have been cooperating with authorities here to sort things out. I've been examined by several doctors to determine that I'm myself again. Your government insisted on it before allowing me back in the country, and I passed their tests."
"I'm told you also just made a substantial donation to the city of New York this morning," Miller said.
Victor nodded. "Yes, for the damages caused. It may not have been entirely my fault, but I still feel somewhat responsible."
"What are your plans now?" Miller asked.
"My companies have been operating in my absence, but I need to take a personal look at them," Victor said. "Obviously, my goal is to restore them to what they were before the incident. That's why I'm here in New York."
"Will you be meeting with the Fantastic Four?"
"I don't know," Victor admitted. "I have not contacted them yet. I meant to before this interview, but...it's a little...awkward, as I'm sure you understand."
"What about your relationship with Susan Storm?" the interviewer asked. "She and Reed Richards..."
"I'd rather not discuss my personal life," Victor said with a forced smile. "This, I believe, is a serious news program and not a tabloid show?"
Miller turned to address the camera and sent the station to commercial. The phone rang, and recognizing the number on the caller ID, Susan put it on speakerphone so both she and Reed could hear. "Hi, Ben," she said.
"Did you just see that, Susie?" came Ben's voice, its echo confirming he, too, was on speakerphone, a necessary adaptation for his mutation. Manual dexterity was not one of his strong points. "Guess who's back."
"We saw," Sue said. She glanced over to Reed and found that he had scurried over to one of his computers and was busily typing on the keyboard. "Reed's looking into it," she said. She looked out the window and saw that the VDI headquarters, several blocks away, was lit up. The building had not been completely dark over the past year so it was no surprise, but now those lights had a new meaning. "I...I think I'm going to go over there," she added.
That got Reed's attention. He looked up at her. "You can't be serious," he said. "We don't know what he's up to..."
"Exactly why I need to go see him," she said. "He seemed repentant enough on the TV, but we know how good Victor is at telling you what you want to hear."
"Fine," Ben said. "Then track down flame boy and we'll all go over there."
"He'll feel too threatened if we all show up," Sue said.
"Since when do you care what he feels?" Ben said. "He tried to kill us all, remember? Or are you buying this 'the radiation made me do it' bull?"
"I don't know," Sue admitted. "But, while Victor may not have been the nicest person in the world, he was our friend. We can't just condemn him without even talking to him. I'll go..."
"You're not going alone, Susie," Ben said firmly.
Reed managed to detach himself from the computer and came back over to the couch. "I don't like the idea of you going over there," he said quietly.
Sue arched an eyebrow, wondering if his concern came more for her safety or because he was having Victor issues again. Every once in awhile, old insecurities would pop up, no matter how many times she reassured him. "I'll be fine," she said. "It'll be the middle of the morning, and he's not going to pull anything in a building full of people. And even if he did, I can just turn invisible. I'll take Ben with me if it makes you feel better."
"Yes!" Ben said from the other end of the phone as Reed put his hand on her arm. She leaned against him, her thoughts troubled. Life had already become complicated enough these past few months. With Victor back, she knew things were going to get a lot worse. No matter what his intentions were.