Fantastic Four War Zone

Chapter 1 A green-skinned Skrull warrior showed them to their table. "Here are your menus," he said, the latex wattles upon his lower jaw wobbling somewhat as he spoke. "I'll be back to take your orders in a moment.""Thank you," Susan Richards replied. She made sure her baby daughter, Valeria, was safely tucked into her high chair, then smiled at the wide-eyed little boy seated next to her. "Isn't this fun, Franklin?"The SkrullWorld Cafe was the latest theme restaurant to hit New York, attracting families and tourists who wanted a little extraterrestrial atmosphere with their overpriced burgers and salads. Waiters and waitresses made up to resemble various alien species circulated among the seated patrons. From where she was sitting, on the ground floor of the split-level eatery, Sue spotted blue-skinned Kree soldiers, lizardlike Badoon, a feathered Shi'ar empress, and even a fairly convincing replica of a Stone Man from Saturn. Sue pitied the poor, semi-employed actor sweating inside that bulky, foam-rubber costume.Talk about paying your dues,she thought.A sparkling electric starfield, complete with glowing nebulae and supernovas, adorned the high, domed ceiling, while model spacecraft, built with varying degrees of accuracy, hung on wires above the ground floor. Life-size busts of iconic cosmic entities such as Galactus and the Watcher peered down on the patrons from opposite sides of the mezzanine. Dry-ice fog tumbled from luminous craters scattered throughout the restaurant. Sci-fi music and sound effects played in the background."Pretty cool!" Franklin enthused. The towheaded eight-year-old looked about him eagerly, craning his neck to check out the miniature space cruisers suspended overhead. "Look, there's Daddy's old rocket ship!"Glancing upward, Sue located the model her son was excitedly pointing at. Sure enough, a toy-sized duplicate of Reed's original spacecraft, complete with an old-fashioned booster rocket, hung from the ceiling above them. The stylized numeral4inscribed on the hull of the cylindrical, silver vessel was not quite historically accurate, but clearly indicated exactly what ship the model was intended to represent: Reed Richards's first experimental spaceship, the one that had changed their lives forever.A pang of bittersweet nostalgia struck Sue. It had been aboard that original rocket that Reed, Ben, Johnny, and she had all been exposed to the cosmic rays that had transformed them from a quartet of first-time astronauts into the superheroic Fantastic Four. The extraordinary abilities they had gained on that fateful flight had proved both a blessing and a curse, drawing them closer together while simultaneously propelling them into a life of never-ending danger and excitement.If not for that fragile spaceship, she reflected, I might still be plain old Sue Storm -- and not the Invisible Woman.But that was not what today was about. Right now she just wanted to spend some quality time with her children, like any other devoted wife and mother. Malevolent super-villains and insane alien conquerors could wait; it was a beautiful fall morning and she intended to make the most of it."I see, honey," she told Franklin. "We'll have to remember to tell your father about it later.""How come he couldn't come with us?" her son asked. He looked away from the model starships and started to flip through his menu."Daddy had to work in his lab this morning," she said, "but he and Uncle Johnny and Ben are all going to join us for a picnic in the park later on today. Won't that be fun?"She made a mental note to page Reed later on, just to remind him to meet them in Central Park around three-thirty. Sometimes, when he was caught up in his experiments, he could be maddeningly absentminded about such things. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy spending time with his children; he just needed a little nudge now andCox, Greg is the author of 'Fantastic Four War Zone', published 2005 under ISBN 9781416509653 and ISBN 1416509658.