Ten Years Ago
"So you've found the Negative Zone."
Reed Richards and Sue Storm looked up from their science textbooks. They'd been studying in the shade of a large tree on campus, discussing theory, holding hands, and even flirting a bit; they were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice spouting an even less familiar term. "The what?" Reed asked, regarding the dark-haired stranger with European features and expensive clothes. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."
"No, we have not," the young man replied, towering over them while keeping a respectable distance. His thick accent matched the general nature of his Germanic features, but Reed couldn't quite place the accent as German. "But you have no doubt heard of me ... assuming the two of you have been able to tear yourselves away from each other long enough."
Sue placed her books aside on the blanket and stood up, taking a step toward the newcomer. "You're the new student from Europe I heard about, right? Van Damme?"
The young man glowered at them both. "Viktor Von Doom."
"Oh ... okay Von Doom." She paused, unsure what to say. "So ... what was that word you said? 'Negative' what?"
"It is my name for the realm you're studying. I have been doing my own research into the phenomenon. And while your data has been published first, I can assure you that my research is more detailed and exhaustive."
Reed stood up, his interest piqued. "Would you be willing to share this information, or perhaps work with us--"
"No. Absolutely not."
Sue frowned, as visibly stung by that as Reed. "Well ... why not? It seems to me that with the three of us sharing ideas, there's no telling how much we could discover about it."
Viktor turned on his heel and began walking away. "I said no. I will make my discoveries the same way I make any other journey: alone."
"But ... why?" Reed called after him.
"The two of you would not understand. You lack even a hint of the intellectual fire necessary for this."
Sue gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "That pompous, conceited little...!"
Reed placed a hand on her shoulder. "Just let it go, Sue. He's just trying to get a rise out of us. People who view scientific endeavors with that much ego aren't going to accomplish very much. Their insight is too limited because they're only focused on themselves."
She wrapped an arm around him. "I dunno. I think he might accomplish a lot. And that's what scares me. He seems ... dangerous."
Considering this, Reed had to nod. He hadn't seen such a look of ... determination on anyone before. 'Dangerous' seemed to be the right word for him. His thoughts drifted back to Von Doom's words. The 'intellectual fire' of discovery he spoke of ... could there be something to that?
Now
Fire engulfed Johnny Storm's body, skyrocketing the temperature of the spaceship's infirmary. They hadn't been in the Negative Zone for very long, and their mission was already going to hell.
Johnny thrashed around like a drowning swimmer, and his crewmates around him kept their distance. He dropped from what was left of the med cot to the floor and started rolling, attempting to smother the flames. Commander John Jameson directed the SHIELD agents under his command to grab fire extinguishers and blanket Johhny in foam.
But the flames wouldn't extinguish. The roaring aura around him only intensified.
Realizing this, he scrambled to his feet and moved toward the doorway, preparing to escape into the narrow hallway corridor. "Gotta get away from you guys," he muttered breathlessly.
"Johnny, wait!" Sue called after her brother, helpless to stop him.
Something embedded in the back of Johnny's neck, causing his back to stiffen and his legs to give out from under him. He slumped to the floor, passing out as his his flames died down. Strangely, his skin and hair were unharmed, as if he'd never combusted in the first place. And there was a tiny dart sticking out of the back of his neck.
Shocked, Sue turned and saw Jameson holding a pistol. "Are you insane?" she shouted at him. "Are you trying to kill him or something?"
"Tranq darts," Jameson calmly explained. "I'm trying to neutralize him before he burns us alive and destroys this ship."
"We don't know what effect tranquilizer darts would have on his body," Reed protested, "now that his physiology has somehow been changed."
"Dr. Richards, this mission is now under SHIELD control," Jameson asserted. "Effective immediately."
"What?" Reed stepped forward, incredulous. "You can't be serious."
"I am, and I'm not going to apologize for it. This isn't just a scientific excursion, it's a SHIELD mission to investigate exactly what happened to Viktor Von Doom and why we've detected his life signs in this Zone. The four of you are no longer in any shape to help, so I'm confining you to this infirmary."
Sweating profusely, Reed was on the verge of hysterics. He grabbed Jameson's collar. "What do you mean, we're no longer in any...." He trailed off as he glanced down at his hands. They appeared to be melting, losing cohesion like putty. He found himself unable to keep a grip on the commander's collar. "...shape."
A horrified Sue watched as the effect traveled up Reed's arms, causing them to hang limply at his sides and stretch to the floor. "Reed!" She moved him, wrapping her arms around him to steady him.
"Quarantine the area," Jameson ordered.
"You're ... making a mistake," Reed slurred. "You don't know ... if you've been affected...."
"We were more heavily shielded during Zone entry," Jameson replied, sounding irate, "so it stands to reason that we haven't been affected as much."
Sue studied him and the other SHIELD agents closely. All of them -- Jameson included -- were sweating profusely; apparently their military training was all that stood between them and collapsing on the spot. "Nice theory," she commented, "but it's not holding up well to evidence. You should get yourselves checked out before you--"
One of the agents let out a sudden yelp as his body suddenly glowed with the intensity of a small star -- then he vanished.
"Navasota!" Jameson shouted, glancing around quickly. "What just happened here?"
One of his subordinates attracted his attention. "Commander...?" He pointed out a nearby window. Navasota was seen in the distance -- at least a kilometer away -- floating in the expanse on the Negative Zone. Judging by the struggling movements he was making, he was dying.
Then his body erupted in another flash of light, and he was gone.
"Damn it," Jameson cursed. "We've already got a man down!" Turning to his men, he ordered, "we need to run tests on ourselves and find out what's going on. We're not going to be of any use to the mission if strange things like that continue happening to us."
Sue wasn't sure, but she could've sworn she heard a primal growl in his voice that hadn't been there before.
Meanwhile
A low growl laced the reptilian creature's words as he studied the blip on the monitor screen and reported to his superior officer, <an unidentified object has just appeared thirty kilometers ahead.> He spoke not in his people's own native language, but in the official language of his empire, which after a lifetime of practice was still difficult to wrap his tongue around. <It is heading toward us.>
His superior, the captain of the warship of which they stood on the bridge, cursed softly in their native tongue. <First the massive breach spike in this sector,> he commented in the official language, <then the strange ship that emerged from it. Now this. I believe I preferred this area when it was peaceful.> He moved behind the seated officer and peered over his subordinate's shoulder at the screen. <Identify the object in question.>
<Scanning ... it is biological. Humanoid in shape. I am reading a lifesign from it.> The object's glow abruptly faded out. <It appears to have died, sir.>
<Use the data you have to find out what the organism was.>
<Cross-referencing with the database ... oh. Sir? You are not going to believe this.>
<Just tell me.>
The young officer turned and looked up at the captain, eyes widened with raw amazement. <It is a Homo sapien, sir. It is a human.>
Ten Minutes Later
The man standing in the Earth ship's infirmary no longer looked human. He had at least doubled in size, his physique covered in grotesque rocklike growths.
And the resulting pain was causing him to scream himself hoarse.
"Get him sedated," Jameson ordered, the growl in his voice becoming more evident. "We're losing too much manpower in too little time -- Grimm, want to snap out of it and give us a hand, here?"
Ben shook his head, snapping out of his daze as he watched the craggy transformation overtake the SHIELD agent Delgado. "Sorry, John," he apologized. He tried to hold Delgado still as Jameson and the two other SHIELD officers who were busy convulsing tried to shoot the stone-skinned officer with tranq darts. There turned out to be not much point in holding him, as Delgado stiffened like a statue as the rocklike armor crept over his body, so he stepped back. The SHIELD officers aimed for Delgado's legs and fired the darts before the rocky growths could cover that area as well.
And Ben watched in amazement as the growth spread over the dart, Delgado's uniform, his boots, and even the floor. It kept spreading. Then, almost impossibly, he heard a rattle from within Delgado's coccoon as the SHIELD officer breathed his last. Only then did the rocklike substance stop spreading.
Jameson swore loudly and creatively. “This is not happening. I swear to god, the next one on my watch who turns into—“
Kowalski, who had been leaning against an instrument panel, began convulsing as thin arcs of electricity leaped from the panel onto his skin. Startled, he yelped and tried to move away from the panel. “C-commander!” His skin glowed a bright blue and his uniform caught fire as the electricity increased to a massive Jacob’s Ladder effect.
The others could only watch as Kowalski -- the youngest of Jameson’s team at age 21 – merged with the electricity so completely that no one could tell where he ended and the energy began. An instant later, he was absorbed back into the instrument panel.
The lights shorted out, then silence.
“Great, that was our emergency power,” Ben lamented.
“To say nothing of that agent’s life,” Sue countered, her arms still wrapped around Reed.
“Yeah, true….”
“To be … fair,” Reed spoke up, sounding weary as his body continued to lose shape, “energy can neither be … created nor destroyed, and it seems he’s … become….”
Concerned, Ben moved toward him. “Big Brain? You okay? I mean, it seems like a stupid question, but….”
“Having a hard … time … talking….”
“You’re having a hard time staying solid, too,” Sue pointed out. “Talking requires muscle strength and coordination in order to force air in and out of your lungs, so if you’re losing that….”
“Then breathin’ can’t be too far behind,” Ben finished.
Reed’s eyes tried to focus on Sue, but not on her face. “Sue … your hand….”
Following his gaze, she glanced at her right hand … which became transparent for a moment before resuming its opacity. In that moment, she could glimpse the bones, muscles, and tendons within it.
“Not good,” Jameson muttered. “If we lose the two of you, we’re all up a creek with no way out of it.” He turned to the two remaining SHIELD agents besides himself who hadn’t exhibited such bizarre symptoms. “Kartopoulos, Baker – do either of you feel like sprouting new limbs or whatever?”
They shook their heads. “Sir, no sir,” Baker replied. “At least not yet, sir.”
“Good, let’s keep it that way for as long as possible. We’ve got to get this ship back in working order. You too, Grimm.” As he turned to Ben, he found his longtime friend staring out a nearby window. “Grimm? What’re you looking at? This isn’t the time for stargazing.”
Keeping his eyes fixed on the expanse outside, Ben replied, “I’d agree with ya … but these stars’re gettin’ closer. Real close.” He pointed at six lights that kept getting larger.
Jameson and the remaining SHIELD agents approached the window to get a better look. Sue followed, half-carrying, half-dragging Reed with her. The lower half of his body stayed put as his torso stretched like taffy.
Once at the window, they could see that the ‘stars’ were connected to dark blocky objects whose sizes were difficult to determine. "They look like starships," Kartopoulos breathed. "Warships, maybe?"
"God, I hope not," Sue breathed, peering at the vessels. "We've had enough problems already."
"At least this ... proves there is intelligent life in this dimension," Jameson observed, turning to Reed. "You were right."
"Maybe they're just a concerned fleet," Sue continued, "and they want to investigate us and help us out?" Her hope sounded hollow to all involved.
"Doubtin' it, Suzie," Ben answered. "I've seen enough warbirds in my time to recognize 'em." He glanced at Reed. "Hey, Big Brain? Wanna drop some science on us? I know it ain't often when I ask that, but...."
"On their … hulls," Reed whispered, his gaze riveted on the native ships. "Those … insignias. It can't be…."
Sue squinted at one of the designs decorating a ship, then glanced at the other vessels. "Looks familiar. Why does that look familiar...?"
"You've seen it before," Reed reminded her, his voice steadying through force of will even as his body weakened. "We both have. On the walls of a certain dorm room back at M.I.T."
Sue gasped, covering her mouth as she stepped away from the window, almost dropping Reed in the process. "Oh my god ... it's his. It's his."
Jameson glanced between the two of them. "Are you saying...?"
Reed continued to stare at the encroaching warships, his gaze refusing to waver. In fact, he didn't even seem to blink. "Yes. Those … banners are Latverian. As incredible as it sounds, those ships belong to Viktor Von Doom."
TO BE CONTINUED
Next: "Voyage, Part Three: Doom"