"Wanna swing! Wanna swing!" he cried.
Sue was grateful because there was another adult by the swings, pushing her son already. Sue helped Franklin onto a swing and, after giving him his first gentle push, said to the woman next to her, "How old is your daughter?"
"She's four," the woman replied proudly. "And your son?"
"He'll be three this November," Sue replied.
"Wow, he handles a swing well for a two and a half year old."
"Well…we do like to think he's special," Sue said with a knowing smile. "Is she your only child?"
"No. I also have a son. He's seven, so he's in school now."
"Ah. Of course."
"Do you have any other children?"
Sue's smile faded. "No…" she said. She did not feel comfortable telling this stranger that, because of the residual cosmic radiation in her body, the delivery had almost killed her. She could not tell this woman about how Reed was more over-protective of her than ever since Franklin was born. She could not bring herself to say how jealous she was of this young mother, apparently in her late 20s, already on her second child. Sue was 37 now and felt her child-bearing years were dwindling rapidly. And, as much as she feared the risks of giving birth again, she feared more telling Reed that she wanted to try again.
New York City. Five minutes later.
"How ya think this is gonna work, squirt?" Ben asked sarcastically.
John and Ben were back in the Negative Zone portal lab. Ben felt ridiculous, holding a wind-up clock dangling on the end of a cord.
"If it does work, it's a low-tech solution to what we would normally ask Reed to figure out for us," John said. He stood by the viewing screen, adjusting dials and checking the sight. "By watching the clock as it passes into the Negative Zone, I'm hoping we can get a clue about this chronal distortion. Let it in slow, Ben."
"Yeah, yeah..." Ben said as he tossed the clock in through the Negative Zone portal.
"Not so fast, Ben!" John cried. "Tighten up on that cord."
Ben did as John ordered. He was a little creeped out by how the cord had grown taut and leapt about, as if something were tugging on the other end.
"Hold it steadier," John said.
"I ain't stickin' my hand in there just to steady your clock for ya," Ben protested grumpily.
"Hold it...I've almost got it," John said, his face almost pressed to the small viewscreen. "There!" he said after adjusting the magnification. "I can see the hands on the clock. They're moving counter-clockwise, Ben! Namor is behind us in time!"
"So what? Without Reed's sooped-up motorbike, we ain't got no way to home in on Namor."
"Oh, but you do, Ben Grimm, and she has been among you this whole time," said Agatha Harkness.
Ben and John turned to face the doorway with alarm.
"Agatha?" John asked incredulously. "How did you get in here?"
"And didn't ya get the memo?" Ben asked. "Reed and Sue let ya go as Franklin's nanny a long time ago."
"I came to see Alicia Grimm, not young Franklin," Agatha said dryly, as if oblivious to Ben's hostile tone. "And it is she who can help you most now. Her senses are as adept as anyone I have ever trained. She can tell you where Namor is."
"Huh? What'd'ya mean train? You trainin' my Alicia to be a nanny or somethin'?"
"No time, Ben -- she's right! Flame on!" and with that familiar battlecry, John Storm burst into flame, floated off the floor, and propelled himself out of the room. "I can find Alicia faster this way!" he called back to Ben. He raced through the hallways, shouting Alicia's name until he at least heard her response.
"John, what is it?" Alicia asked, coming out of Reed's old break room.
John stepped down onto the floor as the flames dwindled around him. "Agatha Harkness is here and says you can help us find Namor. Come on!"
"Agatha?" Alicia asked. She followed John, but was terrified that Agatha had told them both her secret in Alicia's absence. She imagined Ben's fearful reaction, but fought back the urge to run away. She would face whatever happened as bravely as befit a member of the Fantastic Four.
"There ya are," Ben said.
Alicia could tell from his voice that he was impatient, but no longer angry. She could sense Agatha was there too. Agatha must not have told Ben everything yet. She listened as John and Ben outlined their plan.
"I'm dialing slowly through the coordinates in the Negative Zone," John told her. "I know you can't see through the scanner, but Agatha says your ability to sense the goodness in others is stronger than we know."
"Concentrate," Agatha told Alicia. "Try to sense the goodness in Namor."
"I'll try," Alicia said. She turned away from John and the scanner and walked right up to the Negative Zone portal. She could sense the Zone like a presence. She tried to reach with her senses through it, or deeper into it. The Negative Zone felt like a sticky tar around her senses, as black and dense as the darkness she saw with her eyes.
"That was roughly the area we emerged from," John said softly. "I'll focus the portal over that area again…"
"I don't—there! I think I feel him there!" Alicia cried suddenly.
"Now we're back in business!" Ben said as he grabbed two gyro-harnesses hanging on the wall. He tossed one to John and strapped the other one on.
"Will you not be taking Alicia with you?" Agatha asked.
"This ain't a knitting circle we're walkin' in on," Ben shot angrily at Agatha. "It's way too dangerous."
"But, if she has already proven herself useful—" she tried again.
"I said no! It's just me and hotshot goin' in there until Reed gets here. Ya ready ta go, Matchhead?"
"Sure," John said, but he was not happy at all with the way Ben was acting. It was something to address when, and if, they returned. He grabbed hold of the astronavicycle as ben did. "On the count of three…"
"Three!" Ben cried as he pushed the cycle through the portal, pulling John with it.
Alicia knew they were gone, entirely outside of her world. She stared after them with unseeing eyes, while Agatha in turn watched her.
Somewhere and somewhen in the Negative Zone.
Namor had defeated the last of the last wave of monsters – a top-heavy brute with a mane and a forked tail – by snapping its neck. It was a desperate measure, unworthy of the King of Atlantis, but Namor could feel his strength draining as his body dehydrated. So far he had not found so much as a drop of water in this accursed Negative Zone to replenish his strength. With the battle over, Namor sank to one knee, breathing heavy and watching for more reinforcements to come.
It was not reinforcements that arrived, but Annihilus himself, borne on his leathery green wings and landing on his metal-shod feet on the satellite before Namor. Though Annihilus' eyes could not be seen through the lenses of his helmet, they seemed to radiate an almost visible hatred. "I tire of letting you live, man of Earth's universe," Annihilus said with a voice that sounded like it came from beyond the grave. "Nor can I afford to enjoy this sport for long, as your kind has shown too much resourcefulness in escaping me in the past. I will give you just this one chance to grovel for mercy first before your destruction."
Namor stood quickly to his feet and clenched his fists tight. "I am ready to fight you, Annihilus."
The two beings prepared to battle, watching each other intently for who would make the first move. But then, a blaze of fire erupted on a nearby satellite on which Annihilus had been hiding just a minute earlier. Annihilus turned from his foe and watched.
"That fire!" Annihilus cried. "Could your fellow Earthling, the Human Torch, have hurled that? This is the chance I have been waiting for, so that I can force him to show me the way back to Earth!"
"You will not succeed! Imperious Rex!" Namor cried as he hurled himself at Annihilus' back. The battle was joined.
"We did it!" John shouted as they reappeared in the Negative Zone. The astronavicycle coasted in for a landing on a nearby satellite orbiting the energy anomaly, with John and Ben still on either side of it.
"Now what?" Ben asked.
"No time to make sure the cycle's still working," John said. "We've got to find Namor and Annihilus! Flame—" John started to shout the battle cry he traditionally gave when he ignited with flaming plasma, but he could not do so here without melting the gryo-harness he wore. Reed had designed them to counter the overwhelming feeling of vertigo that would normally accompany anyone entering the Negative Zone.
John ran across the satelite's surface while Ben carried the astronavicycle to take it with them. They did not have to run far on the floating rock on which they stood to reach the edge and see the satellites below theirs.
"Ben, isn't that Annihilus down there?"
Sure enough, they could see Annihilus, with his back to them, squatting atop another satellite.
"That's gotta be him," Ben said. "I didn't think we'd get so luck as to take 'em out with a sneak attack. Let 'em have it, Johnny!"
John was apprehensive, remembering the power of Annihilus from their first meeting, and lacking the protection of his flaming plasma sheath. But Ben was right – taking out Annihilus hard and fast was their safest bet, even though he wouldn't be very proud of winning a fight this way. Summoning the power that was his to command, he spontaneously generated dozens of gallons of 5,000-degree burning plasma on the spot where Annihilus was. Annihilus did not even seem to notice.
"What the heck?" Ben exclaimed. "Waste 'em, John! C'mon!"
It was a disturbing suggestion, but John had to admit to himself that, under the circumstances, excessive force might be prudent. He generated burning plasma twice as hot and dumped it on Annihilus, but Annihilus simply got up and flew away without even noticing them.
"Something's not kosher here," Ben said. "C'mon, hotshot," he said, as he scooped up John under his arm and leapt down to the satellite where Annihilus had just been.
"You're right, Ben," John said. "The rock here doesn't look like it felt any heat either. How can everything in the Negative Zone be fireproof?"
"I don't know, kiddo, but – hey! What gives?" Ben's startled reaction was because, while they stood there looking at the ground, they noticed the ground turn hot and streamy beneath their feet.
"Delayed reaction? C'mon, we've got to go after Annihilus. He's our best shot at leading us to Namor."
No sooner had John said so when they both clearly heard Namor's battle cry, "Imperius Rex!"
"Found 'em already!" Ben said as they ran to the edge of the satellite and looked around to the neighboring satellites. Upon one, Namor and Annihilus were circling each other. Before John could react, Ben dug his thick fingers into the rock beneath his feet and tore out a large chunk that weighed about 500 lbs. "This ain't gonna clobber Annihilus, but maybe I can give Subby an unfair advantage," Ben explained as he took aim and hurled his missile straight at Annihilus. The rock seemed to hurtle right through Annihilus and shattered against the ground behind him. "What the--?" Ben began to ask no in particular, increasingly frustrated by this mystery.