Disclaimer: I don't own the Fantastic Four. Stan Lee and 20th Century Fox and Marvel Comics and a bunch of other people do. If you haven't read 'Oxygen', you need to read it first. Still rated for Teen readers and up. And I still want to borrow the boys if the studio is lending them out ;-)

7

Victor Von Doom had survived a childhood in the severely impoverished Latveria, the equally brutal world of Western Enterprise, and the mutation that had turned his body to gruesome metallic perfection by learning to read the changing winds of fortune and plan for any contingency it hurled into his path. It wasn't enough to adapt to circumstances, a man who could anticipate destiny rarely had to adapt to its fickle whims.

He had anticipated the possibility that Dr. Sater's program would have deficiencies. That was the reason why he'd created the portable tracking device for Johnny Storm before sending him into the field to face his former teammates. The unit delivered a crude, abbreviated variation of the post-hypnotic program, a data-burst that would put him into the state of mindless obedience that Sater had termed 'auto-pilot'…distasteful by comparison to the elegance of a reinvented personality…bringing Storm back in line and back to Latveria.

Doom would decide later how Dr. Sater would be disciplined for her failure to fully control the boy, after he finished with her other two guinea pigs, but there would indeed be repercussions. When Victor was promised that a plan was functioning perfectly, would be perfectly executed, then anything less than perfection was unacceptable.

He also accepted Reed Richards was put on this earth by Puckish fate to be a both the catalyst of Doom's creation, via his fateful theory about genetics and mutations, and the bane of Doom's existence. Therefore Doom could anticipate that Richards and his bodyguard Grimm had survived the firestorm Johnny had unleashed despite all appearances to the contrary. A lesser foe, a fool, would presume they had been incinerated when they failed to aid Susan in her last gambit against her brother. The absence of charred corpses on all news broadcasts in the aftermath of the fight told Victor otherwise. Johnny had failed to kill the Troublesome Trio. He had tried, yes, but still he had failed. Richards would have made plans in case their youngest member avoided rescue. He would have found a way to trail the boy back to Latveria, to Doom's palatial hideaway.

Which meant the Troublesome Trio would soon be on his doorstep. Victor was running short of time before this string of failures deprived him of his prize, the Holy Grail for which he'd begun this crusade. No, Doom would not allow his prize to slip away.

He had also survived by being able to improvise. So, by the time he'd walked the distance from his private chambers, in the innermost secured section of the palace, to the laboratory wing where his scientists worked, Victor had already revised his plans for Storm and the precious cargo he was about to deliver to Doom. The interference of the Troublesome Trio had always been a factor in his plans---all that had changed was the fact that they would be pestering him sooner than he'd hoped. They could confound him by forcing him to speed up his plans, but he could truly hamper their efforts to save their brother.

Buoyed by that thought, Victor entered Dr. Sater's lab, where his newest 'guests' had spent the past twelve hours undergoing a session with the doctor's behavioral modification system. Mufale's guerrillas, secured to heavy benches, were still a bit pale. Whether that was due to their session with Sater's machine or their recovery from the Human Torch's version of frostbite, Victor did not know or care, though their discomfort satisfied him greatly. What heartened him was their blank expressions and utter lack of struggle to free themselves from their bindings. They didn't so much a blink in response when Doctor Doom stroke into the laboratory, the ever-present Leonard on his heels.

However, Dr. Sater, Victor noticed with disapproval, was clearly nervous to see her benefactor. She had every reason to be.

Victor circled his prisoners like a shark, but addressed Dr. Sater: "You've implanted the commands exactly as I instructed?"

Nora backed away from the bound captives to allow Doom to stand over them. "Just one: Obey your commands without question or hesitation."

It had been a hurried job, the brainwashing of these two soldiers. Considering what Von Doom had just seen in the fight between Storm and his family, this afforded too much potential for programming glitches. He wasn't happy about the need to rush the process. On the other hand, these men were being given a considerably less elaborate 'modification' than what Sater had tried to accomplish with Storm, and, unlike the boy hero, they had an innate proclivity for the kinds of orders Victor would be giving them. Perhaps the program would be more effective working on their simple, violent minds.

"You won't be offended, Dr. Sater, if I test the stability of the post-hypnotics." It wasn't a question. "Wait outside, please, and don't go far."

Nora felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. There was something in Von Doom's tone, in his pointed dismissal of her, which alarmed her. Something was wrong, or something had gone wrong. She didn't need to ask what that 'something' was. It could only be Storm's confrontation with his family. She only needed to know how grievous and error she'd made in her employer's eyes. On unsteady legs, Nora made herself walk out of her laboratory. The door closed behind her.

Victor faced his prisoners, finding them a pathetic duo at best. The mustached one was a man in his forties, overweight---not something one encountered in a Latverian living in this province. The other was a boy in his twenties, gangly, skinny, face still scarred by acne. If this was the best Mufale had to send against Doom, then Victor was doing them a favor wiping his army off the face of the earth.

"The two of you are anachronisms, very sad specters of a Latveria that's gone and best forgotten. You just don't have the sense to fade into the sunset with Kubeka and his kind," Victor told them. They didn't respond at all. "You're nothing to me but a last bit of business to finish, an old mess to mop up…a distraction from projects that will bring Latveria into the ranks of world powers, with me leading the way. You'd be dead right now, but fortunately for you my protégé found a way to make you useful to me."

He asked the paunchy guerilla: "What's your name?"

The man answered at once: "Baraga."

"And yours?" Victor asked the young one.

"Rugel Tollen."

Victor kneeled in front of the older man. "Baraga, General Kubeka had a friend who wormed his way into the Latverian government after the fall of the dictator---someone who made damn sure Kubeka was pardoned for the atrocities he'd committed, for my father's murder. I'd like to know the name of that friend, please."

"Gorshen was called Colonel Gorceac when he served Kubeka," Baraga answered without batting an eye.

The pieces of the puzzle Victor had worked years to solve became a clear picture. It made perfect sense, and yet he still was taken by surprise. "Ambassador Gorshen? The man who wants to be the next President?"

"Yes."

Doom filled in the blanks. Gorshen certainly had the ears of the current political powers in Latveria. He could put words in the right ears to see that Kubeka and Mufale remained happily unmolested in the forestlands. "That explains how you're able to slip your weapons in and out of our country. How generous that he uses his veil of immunity to shroud your activities…or is he your personal mule when you need to trade poisons for weapons?"

"Whatever is required," Baraga answered.

"It's a very interesting ally you have. Would you or Mr. Tollen be able to arrange a face-to-face meeting with the Ambassador? Does he trust you?" Victor asked.

"Tollen is Mufale's personal messenger. Gorshen trusts him."

That was good news indeed. "And tell me are there any other names I should know? Anyone else I need to reward for their hand in the butchery?" Doom wanted to know.

The two guerrillas either didn't understand the question or had no more information to offer. Satisfied, Victor unlocked Baraga's shackles and then stood up. Despite his freedom, Baraga didn't move. Doom held out his hand to Leonard and snapped his gloved fingers, and his assistant promptly drew a pistol from his coat pocket. Holding it with his fingertips as if it were a dead rodent, Leonard passed the weapon to Doom. The laboratory door buzzed and Leonard was grateful for the excuse to look away from whatever gruesome scene Doom had planned.

Johnny Storm stood on the other side of the door, his face a mirror of Baraga and Rugel's blank faces. Still waiting outside, Nora was discreetly watching the boy, noticing his expressionless stare. Autopilot, it dawned on Sater. If Doom had used the program's failsafe to summon Storm back to Latveria, if he had resorted to putting the boy in the same automaton state as the two guerrillas, then she was right in guessing that something had gone wrong with the program while he was in the States.

She swallowed against a sudden lump of fear in her throat. Then the door closed again, shutting her outside of her laboratory.

"Johnny, welcome back." Doom took the metal box from the younger man's grasp. He opened the case to find his prizes safely tucked inside. He took one of the large, crystalline rocks from the box and held it to the light admiringly. He was almost reverent about carefully placing the stone back in its container and closing the lid. "Well done. I knew I could count on you," he said to his protégé. "Wait here, I'll be with you in a moment."

Doom returned to his prisoners. "Rugel Tollen---as Mufale and Gorhsen's 'trusted messenger', if I command you to take your knife and put it in Ambassador Gorshen's throat, will you do it?" he asked.

Rugel answered promptly: "I will."

Doom believed him. Accepting the man's word, he checked the gun to see that it had only one bullet in its chamber and gave it to Baraga, who took it in his right hand. Baraga was more than familiar with the weapon. It was the one he'd used on the villagers.

"That's yours, Mr. Baraga. I'd like you to put a bullet in your left hand right now," Victor requested.

Baraga obeyed without balking. When the bullet shattered skin and bone and splattered blood on the floor—and on Doom's metal skin---the soldier didn't scream, not even a whimper at the pain. His right hand didn't even tremble when he returned the gun to Doom. Victor was pleased with the display. "I may not have given Mufale credit. It seems he does have an eye for good soldiers," he said to his assistant. He casually dropped the pistol back into Leonard's unwilling grasp.

"Yes, sir." The site disturbed the businessman, yet Leonard had seen far worse during the past six months and maintained his composure.

"And Leonard, tell Dr. Sater her medical expertise is needed in here. Then have the computers set to scan for any incoming aircraft—and specifically for Sue Storm's energy pattern. I'm sure Mr. Storm's family isn't more than a few hours behind him. I'd like a little advanced warning before they arrive."

"Yes, sir."

The door opened almost at once, and the doctor stepped back into the laboratory. She blanched at the sight of her test subject, Baraga, sitting unmoving on the bench seemingly oblivious to his ruined, bleeding hand. Doom greeted the woman with: "I'd say the p.h.c.'s are very stable. Congratulations, Dr. Sater. Keep an eye on our new friends until I send for them. Johnny, come with me."

There was no kindness behind the praise or in his tone, she noticed. Wide-eyed, with no idea how to respond to that odd compliment, Nora fetched a first aid kit from a cabinet and set to work doing what she could for the soldier's injured hand. She did not dare look up from her work.

Doom led the way out of the laboratory, followed by Johnny and Leonard. Nora briefly considered taking this chance to flee the facility…it could be her last chance…until she heard the beep of the control panel at the door as the lock was activated and the opportunity was lost.

The leading edge of the large blizzard was just beginning to drop snow outside when Von Doom led them down the access tunnel and back to the titanium-hybrid dome and the generator room beneath it, with Johnny following robotically and Leonard a step behind the Human Torch. "You've been helpful, Johnny, more so than I'd imagined," Doom beamed. "It's a shame our association will almost certainly be coming to an end today, who knows what else you might have accomplished under my tutelage. I think I've made my reasons for asking this of you quite clear."

He stopped at the door to the generator station and keyed in the access code. Doom and Johnny entered while Leonard stepped into the safety of adjoining control room. Inside the control center, Leonard keyed up the images from the generator room's soon-to-be-melted surveillance cameras.

In the generator room, Victor set the box on the catwalk and opened the lid. "If it's any consolation, you can think of it this way: Mortal men have their accolades, their fan clubs, and trifling achievements, but you'll be revered as a hero who helped changed the world in a way no one else ever could. If you have to give up your life, that's not a bad epitaph, is it?"

Had he the luxury of time, he could have permitted the boy to infuse the meteorites with his powers one at a time. It would have improved his chances of surviving the task. However, Doom did not have that option. He could sense the approach of the Troublesome Trio even if the computers had not tracked them yet. This had to be finished before they arrived. Doom removed the tennis ball sized twin crystals and placed one in each of the Human Torch's hands. Johnny blinked at the rocks, not even blinking to show understanding of Doom's words. There was a residue of regret in Victor's tone when he added: "I need you to make good on your word now---the time's come to serve the interests of the people of Latveria. You know what to do. Good-bye, Johnny."

Von Doom ducked from the room, pausing to pick up the metal case and carry it with him when he departed to join Leonard in the control room. The door formed its seamless seal behind him. Johnny's gaze shifted to the invisible door. His jaw twitched.

"Okay, so you're going to prove I'm immortal by killing me with a big steel box?"

"Think of this room as your chrysalis, Johnny."

Doom saw the Human Torch, standing motionless and staring at the doorway, over the surveillance cameras. He thumbed the intercom. "Johnny, the crystals," he commanded. When that didn't work, he held the portable tracker/control box to the microphone and pressed its switch. A burst of static and underlying post-hypnotic commands, amplified by the speakers in the generator room, deafened Johnny. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his fists tightly around the twin meteorites, and flamed on.

Heat poured from his body. The cameras and microphones melted into useless, twisted red-hot metal. The catwalk and computers survived only because they were comprised of Doom's titanium-hybrid and could withstand the heat of the Human Torch's supernova. The crystals responded to the on-set of the nova blast by soaking in the energy like sponges…and seeking more. The hotter Johnny burned, the more heat they pulled from his body until, in the throes of painful supernova, the Human Torch began to feel cold.

Ben Grimm jerked back to consciousness so abruptly that the sudden shift of his substantial weight bent and broke the supports of the fold down bunk on which he lay. The bed gave way and he hit the floor of the Warbird with a thud that rocked the airplane. "What the---?"

From the pilot's seat, Reed smiled at him: "You may want to strengthen those supports." He was glad to see his friend moving again. The duration of Ben's hypothermia had worried him almost as much as the cause of it.

The Thing grunted in answer.

Sue rose from the co-pilot's chair and went to Ben's side. "Ben, how are you feeling?"

"Like a snow-cone." Ben rubbed his pounding head. He blinked at his surroundings, and his memory came rushing back. They were on the plane. He craned his neck, searching for the box in the cargo section. It was there---with the door open. That meant Reed and Susie hadn't lassoed the kid after Ben got taken out of the fight. "Where---?"

"We lost him," Sue said.

Lights began to blink on the plane's controls and an alarm beeped in sync with the warning flashes. When Reed checked the display, he saw that the tracking computers had detected traces of an explosion in a remote province of Latveria.

"We found him."

It was a distorted signal; it might have been an underground explosion---an underground explosion registering almost three thousand degrees and climbing to dangerous levels. They were still at least fifteen minutes from the source of that signal, Reed realized with dismay. He hoped Johnny could last that long.

The crystals absorbed the heat from the Human Torch's nova blast until his body was at its limits---and forced him beyond his limits. Every cell in his body burned with cold agony so painful that he couldn't muster the strength to scream in its grasp. He tried to force his hands to open, to release this source of pain, but his fingers would not respond to his brain's commands.

Then the pain stopped. Whether the crystals had absorbed their fill or his body simply had nothing left to give, Johnny did not know or care. He was grateful to the blackness that softened the world around him and swiftly swallowed him in its depths. The meteorites fell from his lax fingers, light steadily pulsing from them.

Satisfied, Victor returned to the generator chamber, with Leonard on his heels. Doom stepped over the fallen Human Torch and picked up the twin crystals. Doom moved to the generator's large computer control panels and set the meteorites on a scanner. "The heat of the sun inside, cool to the touch outside," he wondered at them. "No detectable heat signature. A marvel. Now to find out just what they can do."

He pulled a key from his pocket and inserted it into its slot on the computer console. A panel slid open and robotic arms emerged, lugging a titanium tube. The arms twisted the tube open to reveal a pre-constructed section for the large crystal among the wires inside. Doom placed the meteorite in its proper spot. The robotic arms twisted the tube closed. A red light on the nose of the cone began to blink.

Behind Doom, Leonard checked the Human Torch's neck, seeking a pulse. "How much heat will it emit when it explodes?"

"As much as is required---weak enough for Mufale's butchers and Gorshen to die slowly of fatal burns or the strength of a nuclear blast vaporizing them in a microsecond," Doom smiled to himself, already picturing their deaths in his mind. "We'll see what suits my mood. Afterwards, the thermal cell will remain intact to blast another day. And another. And another. It's the perfect weapon—indestructible, self-replenishing, environmentally-friendly…"

"And priceless," Leonard guessed.

Doom nodded. "We will have the most feared and sought after commodity on the world's markets, legal or otherwise. All we have to do is set the price, pick a buyer---or pick a target." He was sure that many companies and countries would pay dearly for the opportunity to use this resource while others would pay even more to ensure it was never used. He'd decide whether the innovation would be a curse or Godsend to humankind after the offers began to roll in.

Finally, Doom glanced at Leonard and the Human Torch. "Is he alive?" he asked his aide.

"Barely, but yes, sir."

Damn, the boy was strong. "Oh good. We may be able to use him again when we've mined more of the larger meteorites. Take---"

The portable tracker beeped a now-familiar warning: Susan Storm's energy pattern, cloaking something large, was moving directly toward Doom's hideaway.

"It would seem your estimate that the trio would arrive in a few hours was a bit optimistic," Leonard remarked.

Uttering a growl, Doom shoved the tubular bomb into Leonard's hands. With one hand, Von Doom effortlessly hoisted the unconscious Human Torch from the catwalk and slung him over his shoulder.

"Trust Reed Richards to show up early and spoil a perfectly good moment of triumph," he mumbled on his way out of the generator room.

The exterior walls of the old palace had been retrofitted with Doom's titanium-hybrid, making it virtually invulnerable to attack of any sort. Cameras scanned the area—sky and ground---surrounding the palace at all times, so not even a bird could pass by unnoticed. The reputation of the palace's new master discouraged all but the bravest (or most foolish) intruders. They weren't bothering to check for holes in the security of their metal fortress. So, it was safe to say that the minions in charge of guarding Doom's compound had become a bit lax in the past six months.

To their credit, after working with Doctor Doom for half a year, the guards had grown accustomed to 'weird and scary' and did not get cowed easily. So, when a living stone behemoth fell from the sky, landed on their roof, and ripped off an air-conditioning unit to gain access to the building, the guards didn't wallow in their surprised stupor for long.

Ben Grimm found himself in what looked like a banquet room from medieval days refurnished into some sort of reception area. During his plunge from the Warbird, Ben had done some quick reconnaissance. A landing pad had been built on the roof, with a small hangar big enough to hold a helicopter or small airplane. There was a massive titanium dome on the other side of the mountain. It was the source of the heat signature that Reed had identified as Johnny's. There were several more buildings that had been added on to this main palace where Reed thought Dr. Sater's laboratory might be found. Reed and Sue were going to search for Johnny and the not-so-good doctor. Ben was supposed to keep the bozo patrol busy in the meantime.

Ben was going to great pleasure in making the lives of these lackeys miserable.

"Cozy place ya got here," he taunted the guards. "Got a shabby chic meets Spanish Inquisition feel to it."

He hadn't brushed the dust off his shoulders before Doom's minions raised their weapons and opened fire on him. They might have been lacking in their knowledge of security, but they were well armed. When bullets failed to do anything but make the Thing smirk at them, the guards switched to taser weapons specially designed by Doom to mimic his own electrical powers. The bolts of energy from these guns hurt, even with Ben's sturdy hide. When two shots hit him simultaneously, full blast, it did make him stumble back a pace. First, my own teammate turned me into a Popsicle; now I'm getting barbequed. This is turning into a helluva day.

"Save the electrolysis for someone with hair, goombahs," Ben suggested. There wasn't much to work with in the room as far as potential objects to toss their way, so Ben instead stomped over to the nearest convenient guard, hoisted him into the air and pitched him at the rest of the goon squad so they toppled like pins. He spied a potted plant in a large and (he hoped) expensive vase. The plant looked alive to him, so he placed his foot on the porcelain vase and kicked it over just as one of the guards, pinned down by the heap of buddies on top of him, tried to fire his taser again. The fronds of the plant spoiled his aim while the water spilled across the floor. Ben leaped up and grabbed hold of what he hoped was a strong chandelier as the taser shot met the water and zapped Doom's minions.

One got away and, disheartened at best, fled through a mortar doorway heading towards the interior corridors of the palace. Ben swung down from the lamp, landing away from the puddle, and ran after the man. The guard pressed a button on a wall panel and a large metal wall slammed shut, barring the Thing's path. Wonder if ol' iron mug fortified the interior as good as the exterior… Ben drew back his fist and punched through the doorway just to the side of its control panel. His fist met only mortar and then the empty space of the hallway behind it. Didn't think so.

Groping blindly, he found the neck of the startled soldier on the other side of the door, took hold, and banged the guy's forehead into the metal door, knocking him out.

There was something not right about the massive dome, Reed noticed as he and Sue made their way through the access tunnel to the coordinates where the nova blast had occurred. The area was only lightly guarded. The minions whom Reed and Sue did run across were easy to dispatch. When they got closer to the dome, they found cameras still monitored the area, so Sue kept her invisibility shield around them.

From the exterior, it looked like a power plant, albeit an odd one. However, once they were inside, Reed noticed that the facility lacked the proper equipment—or even space that might be allotted for it---to generate and transmit power. There was no obvious source for power, either. It wasn't geothermal, solar, wind-powered, or hydroelectric, anyway. What was it then?

And why had Johnny supernovaed? Reed knew why he would have picked this place—the dome was the same titanium as the box where Doom had imprisoned the Human Torch. If there were a way to completely seal it or a chamber that could be sealed (and apparently there was), the dome would contain Johnny's powers adequately. Reed just didn't know the reasoning for the blast. It wasn't hard to guess that it had something to do with Johnny's robbery of Selva-Uitti, but Reed couldn't fathom the connection. He wished he'd had more time to review any studies that had been made of those meteorites, to figure out why Doom wanted them.

"This looks like a shell," he told Sue. "I don't think it's a power plant at all."

"Then what is it?"

The coordinates led them to a dead end—the exterior wall of the metal dome. "According to the computer, Johnny's nova blast was somewhere on the other side of this wall," Reed said. "There has to be a room of some kind on the other side." He didn't see a door anywhere, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. He'd learned that the last time he'd come up against one of Doom's titanium containers.

"What about Johnny?" Sue wanted to know. She examined the wall, noticing it was made of the same alloy as Doom's box. There had to be a door somewhere

Reed checked his tracker and shook his head. "There's too much residual heat from the supernova. It's interfering with the tracker. I can't tell if he's in there or not."

"Here." Sue had found a small panel that looked like door controls. She extended her shield, prepared to block the entryway against whatever was inside---heat or human---and pressed the buttons.

The doorway appeared out of the seamless wall and slid open to reveal what was left of the generator room. It was as empty as the rest of the pseudo-power plant. They had guessed as much by the lack of resistance they'd encountered getting there. But, Johnny had been there all right—besides the lingering temperature of the room, they could see that any object in the room not constructed of the same hybrid metal had been melted into shapeless scrap. The 'generator' at the center of the dome was a shell just like the rest of the plant, Reed discovered.

Why would Doom go to all the trouble of building a sham power plant? Only one answer came to mind: He needed the dome to contain Johnny's nova blast. What other purpose could it serve? So, the question became what did Doom need with Johnny's power? What did he need with Johnny's power…and meteorites?

They found the adjoining control room next. The computers in this chamber were still functioning, and it was an easy task to patch into the facility's surveillance system and use Doom's own network to search for what they wanted.

"Found them." Sue pointed to one of the multi-camera images. It showed a laboratory occupied by Doctor Doom, Nora Sater, two men in paramilitary fatigues (not Latverian army, Reed knew), and Doom's assistant Leonard. The case that Johnny had been carrying at Selva-Uitti was lying open on one of the worktables. Inside was one of the meteorites, pulsing brightly. There was an empty space for a second rock beside it in the container. Where was the other rock? Reed frowned.

What troubled them more was the sight of Johnny lying unconscious on a couch in the room. Their own concern deepened---that supernova blast had drained him badly, could have done him harm if he'd gone too hot. Still, if they moved quickly, they might stand a chance of getting him back to the plane before he regained consciousness, which would be easier on all of them. Dr. Sater was examining him, her brow furrowed in worry. About Johnny or about whatever Von Doom was up to? Sue wondered. The psychiatrist was tending to the Human Torch, but she was casting furtive glances at Doom and the other men and her eyes showed nervousness. If she's nervous now, just wait until I get my hands on her, Sue vowed.

Reed found the volume control for the camera. Doom was untying one of the bound militiamen, but it was useless trying to read the lips of a man who had no lips and wore a metal mask. "…task for you, Mr. Baraga," Doom's voice crackled over the speaker. Leonard placed a metal cylinder into 'Baraga's' waiting arms. A red light on the nose of the cone blinked.

Blinked in time with the meteorite in the case, Reed observed. "What is that?"

"This is a gift for your friends, with my compliments. I think they'll be more receptive to it if it's delivered by one of their own, don't you?" Doom's tone was casual, almost friendly, but there was genuine underlying menace in the words. "Leonard will provide you with transportation back to whatever hole you and your comrades crawled out of. Make sure they're all present and accounted for before you set this off. And thank you for your service, Mr. Baraga." Leonard escorted the older military man out of the room.

"'Set this off'?" Sue repeated. She raised an eyebrow at Reed. "As in a bomb?"

Reed pursed his lips as his mind raced. Had to be. Two spaces, but only one rock. The rock was pulsing. The light was blinking. And Doom had made Johnny supernova. None of the information about the meteorites mentioned the stones emitting light of any sort. Why were they pulsing? What had caused it?

Supernova?

Was that remotely possible?

"A thermal bomb," Reed finally voiced his hypothesis. The power plant wasn't a shell---it was meant to be powered by those crystals like that bomb Doom had just dispatched. "Doom didn't want an apprentice—he found way to steal Johnny's powers."

The mission was rapidly evolving from 'impossible' to 'unholy mess'. Not only did they have to rescue Johnny and somehow get their hands on the post-hypnotic program controlling him, now they had a deadly weapon (the mechanics of which they didn't fully understand) to intercept and defuse.

If they got to Dr. Sater's laboratory before Johnny rallied from the nova blast, they might have a chance of grabbing him and Sater's post-hypnotic program. If the supernova had injured him, then it was even more vital that they get to him quickly. However, Reed and Sue had no chance of reaching the lab before Leonard and the guerrilla named Baraga escaped with Doom's bomb. They knew it even as they ran, still hidden behind Sue's cloaking shield, through the access tunnel and made their way back to the main building of Doom's palace. They had to try. Johnny's powers could not become a murder weapon for Doom to use on whomever he pleased.

Reed thumbed his communicator. "Ben! Can you get to Dr. Sater's laboratory from where you are?"

The Thing sounded a bit put out: "I ain't done being the diversion, Reed!"

"I think they're on to us."

It was at the palace that they finally encountered resistance. Alarms began to blare while they were still in the connecting tunnel, and a titanium barrier wall began to lower itself across their path to seal off the main building. Sue split her powers and placed a second force field beneath the shrinking doorway to wedge it open so she and Reed could slip under it.

The corridor on the other side was full of Doom's guards. Worse, the guards seemed to know the Invisible Woman was there. Portable trackers clipped to their belts were beeping wildly to herald her arrival. The guards didn't wait for visible targets. When they saw the barrier wall stall on its way down and the tracker showed the Invisible Woman's energy pattern, they fired their taser-like weapons into the seemingly empty air.

Electricity charged the air. Sue fought it off, tiring from keeping the shield in place. When Reed nodded to her, she finally let go. The shield winked out, revealing the duo to their attackers. The guards prepared to fire a second volley, but Mr. Fantastic was on them too quickly. His arm whipped out and wrapped around their ankles and then he pulled it away. They spun like tops, crashing into each other and the walls. Those who avoided Mr. Fantastic were knocked from their feet by a wave of the Invisible Woman's psychic power.

With the path ahead of them now cleared, Sue and Reed continued on their way to Dr. Sater's laboratory. A second wave of guards appeared. The Invisible Woman extended her shield so it wrapped around the men and constricted, pinning their arms to their sides so that when they fired, the bullets tore into the mortar and tile floor of the palace. With her shield, she lifted the guards and shoved them through the open entryway of an old dining hall. For good measure, she used another blast of psychic force to blow out that door's control panel. The door crashed down and trapped the soldiers inside the hall.

The roar of a truck engine drew the duo to a window. They were on the second level of the palace. From the window, they saw a path winding into the surrounding hills. A jeep, only just closing its roof against the snowfall, driven by Baraga peeled away from the castle and rocketed down that road. Before the roof closed, they saw that the case with the bomb lay on the passenger's seat. Leonard stood at the palace's guard gate, watching the jeep until it disappeared into the countryside. He raised a radio to his lips and said something to whoever was at the other end.

Reed turned to the Invisible Woman. "Sue?"

"Find Johnny," was all Sue said. She knew what had to be done, despite her wish to go after her brother. Reed and Ben would take care of Johnny, but she was the only one who could take care of that bomb if it went off. Sue's shield shattered the window and she climbed up to crouch on its ledge. The disc of energy formed beneath her feet and carried her out the window and into the sky.

The crash of a window breaking above him and the raining shards of glass alerted Leonard that something was wrong. He scurried out of the path of the falling debris before daring to glance upwards. He caught a glimpse of something almost iridescent gliding through the air…and a flash of blue uniform riding that shimmering sky wave in pursuit of the jeep that had just left the palace.

Leonard wasted no time seeking out the nearest guard and grabbed the man's radio. "Sir, I believe Mr. Baraga's task may be in some jeopardy."

In Dr. Sater's laboratory, Doom cursed. No further explanation was required. He knew what was happening, who was meddling. Leonard asked, "What do you want me to do, sir?"

There was only one thing to do. Doom turned to the inert form lying on Dr. Sater's couch. "The Troublesome Trio came here to get baby brother. The boy's certainly expendable now that his powers are securely within the thermal cells I say we give him back to them."

Nora, still working to revive the young man, didn't like the sound of those words. She was still in shock from the bizarre events that had unfolded in the course of a day. She knew she didn't have the right to be appalled. Kidnapping had always been part of her bargain with Doctor Doom. The risk of the Human Torch's life had always been part of the bargain.

But, either the bargain was being altered…drastically…or, more likely, Doctor Doom had neglected to share the entire scope of his plans with Nora. She had no pity for Baraga or Mufale, but she had not anticipated Doom using the thermal cells to create weaponry in addition to the power plants promised to Latveria. Was it 'in addition', she wondered, or was it 'instead of'? She had seen the crystal in Doom's case, pulsing and active, and knew the other was in that bomb. Both meteorites were supposed to be powering up that generator by now. That was the only reason she'd made her bargain with Doom. She wanted to help, not to create a tool to enslave anyone Doom pleased…not a tool to make delivery boys for Doom's destruction. The world was full of such horrors as that thermal bomb already and too many people who were willing to use one. She had never wanted to be part of inventing new ones.

"Dr. Sater, is he strong enough to use his powers?" Doom demanded.

Nora shook her head. She knew about Johnny's physiology from the medical files Von Doom's hospitals had collected. "No. He's not fully conscious yet. Even if he was, he wouldn't be able to sustain---"

Doom pushed her out of the way. "No matter." He reached for the portable p.h.c. device. "Wake up, Mr. Storm. I have one last task for you."