Post by DiscipleofBob on Dec 19, 2014 3:29:20 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #3:
Groundswell
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Groundswell
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Sometimes Victor had to slump to make sure he didn't bang his head on the low-riding stone ceiling. Other times the tunnels widened into vast caverns, the limits of which couldn't be seen through the darkness. The mining lights were dim and of little help. The squat, enigmatic little Harvey Elder led the way, waddling along somehow finding his way knowing exactly where to go despite there being seemingly no reasoning to the architecture.
"Sorry 'bout the mess. I don't get many visitors down here," Harvey said, his low gravelly voice echoing through the caves.
"What exactly is it you do here, Mr. Elder? Genetic engineering?" Victor guessed after catching yet another glimpse of the strange skulking humanoids.
"You mean the Moloids? Nah, they're natural life forms. Some kind of undiscovered species, maybe some sort of missing link or alternate line of evolution." They were everywhere, coming in all sizes and shapes, though sticking to the shadows just beyond where Victor would be able to see them completely. Occasionally he would see smaller tunnels connect to theirs.
They ranged from small imps crawling in small tunnels to vaguely human shapes, and in the bigger tunnels, large hulking shadows where it seemed like the cavern walls were alive. "Are they sentient?"
"No more than your average animal. Donโt worry though, they're docile. I've been working on domestication possibilities," Harvey chuckled.
"You want them to be pets?"
"More like heavy labor. Digging, mining, excavation, construction, birthday parties, you name it."
"Right," said Victor as he watched the entire wall of one of the larger caverns shift like rocky skin. He knew his company had some 'unique' projects going on, but he'd never even heard of anything like this. He along with Reed and Hank had pushed the boundaries of science, but even this was too absurd to be anything but science-fiction. Yet all the visible equipment were clearly Doom Industries property, albeit outdated by a few decades. The thought of other such projects using his company's name and money to fund projects of this kind was horrifying. For the time being, though, he resolved to give Mr. Elder the benefit of the doubt, if for no other reason than saving his life.
"Can I ask you something personal, boss-man?" Harvey asked after a moment of silence.
"Depends on the question," Victor answered warily.
"Something I've always wondered. Why Doom Industries? Sounds like a PR nightmare.โ
Victor relaxed. It was a question he was used to answering. "Victor Von Doom is my real name, and it's my company that I built from the ground up."
"Betcha that made you real popular in middle school. Why not Smith or Johnson or literally any other name that doesn't make you sound like the next Hitler?"
Victor relaxed. It was a question he was used to answering. "How much do you know about Latveria?"
"Not much. I'm more geology than geography," Harvey admitted.
"I was born there. My mother fled with me when I was a young boy, and though I don't remember much, I remember it was a terrible place. Imagine, having to flee a country before you're old enough to walk. We had nowhere to go, and so we roamed the European countryside with other refugees."
"Funny, you don't strike me as the gypsy type," Harvey commented.
"We shared some things in common with the Romani. We even met a few caravans to help us with food and shelter. But as Latverians, our heritage always differentiated us from them. For us, our Latverian blood was a point of pride we clung to for comfort. For everyone else, being Latverian was some kind of curse, and although we often had the pity of others, rarely would we be welcome for too long, even among the Romani."
"Even gypsies think you're bad luck?" Harvey asked incredulously.
Victor nodded. "It was always an uphill battle to survive. I did eventually immigrate to the U.S., but as you can imagine, making a life here is just as difficult if not more so."
"Again, why keep the name?"
"Latveria uses English, but with some different meanings to some of its words. For example, you would hear the name Doom and think the name itself means doom to those who are called by it, like some sort of curse. But to my family, the name of Doom means that was what we brought to our enemies. You see, although our lives were wretched and miserable, our heritage was still a source of pride, even in our darkest hours. To reject my family name to appease some cultural norms would be discarding would be to reject everything that eventually made me what I am today. It's a bloodline I intend to restore to glory and continue despite fate's attempts to wipe us from the face of the earth. Does that answer your question?"
"And then some," Harvey answered, a little shaken, and eager to change the subject. "Oh, hey look, we're here."
Harvey had brought Victor just before a large chunk of debris, but Victor couldn't place exactly what it was or where it would have broken off from the station. What little tech he could make out he didn't immediately recognize, leaving him to wonder if this was one of Reed's experiments or simply an upgrade he wasn't made aware of. "What is this?" he finally asked.
"Well, I think I could guess what it might be, but I think I'd better just show you and let you draw conclusions yourself." Harvey fiddled with some controls on a console clumsily hooked up to the debris. Finally a large cylindrical panel slid open, revealing the glowing contents within.
Victor took in the sight, trying to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. "Is that...?"
"Yeah," Harvey could only respond. "I see we both thought the same thing."
This was big. Bigger than the space station. Bigger than the crashing space station. If the government knew about this they'd try to strip the entire operation if not the whole company down, not that they hadn't been trying to already. "Who else knows about this?"
"I told Boss-Lady to send the appropriate equipment to transport this someplace safe. I couldn't really say what it was because I wasn't certain myself."
"I'll see what I can do with it," Victor said as he took over the console. "I'm leaving the search and salvage operations to you. I'll look into this until we can transport this somewhere with better equipment."
"What about the other survivors?"
Victor paused. Although he wanted nothing more than for Reed, Ben, Johnny, and especially Sue to turn up safe and sound, this discovery had to take precedence. There was too much else at stake. "Do everything you can to find and treat the others. Make sure they're stabilized. I'll try to..." Victor almost said he'd go see them himself, but for what purpose? Johnny already hated him. Ben and Sue too, if they were even ever found. As for Reed...
Victor would not have believed Reed would welcome him with open arms, but out of the four he was the only one to do so. Now Sue and Ben were missing, and Doom was in this condition. He could predict a thousand different reactions from Reed, and none of them did anything but make things worse. "Never mind. Just make sure they're treated well. And whatever you do, find Sue as soon as possible."
The cold was deafening, total, and absolute. The specialized flight suit made of unstable molecules could only protect her from the elements so much. Sue could only trust, rather than know, that her legs were moving her forward. She just had no idea where to. The blizzard wind roared in her ears, and she was sure they would tip her over into the deep drifts, yet somehow she managed to press on. Having so much trouble staying awake already she knew the sleep in the snow wouldn't be one she'd wake up from.
She continued to follow the creatures were hauling parts of the crashed station, presumably back to whatever hole they crawled out of. Several times Sue was sure she was going to be spotted, but the creatures seemed to look right through her. It was almost a disappointment. If she was captured, even a prison would at least be warmer than this. Unless they decided to eat her right away.
Time was immeasurable. She couldn't tell how long she'd been unconscious, she couldn't tell if it was night or day through the blizzard, and she couldn't tell how long or how far she'd been tailing the strange creatures.
The short creature burrowed along some path only it could see and Sue made sure to follow carefully. It meandered along for some time before it stopped in front of a rock formation, hopefully a good sign that she would be warm soon. It curved for a good ways but the small creature seemed to know where it was going. Eventually the creatures ventured down into a tunnel well-hidden by the snowstorm. Sue was forced to follow into the frozen caverns, which were at least somewhat warmer.
Following the mole creatures through the winding dimly lit caverns, Sue paused when she heard echoing voices down one of the side tunnels. They were faint and distorted by the cavern walls, but they almost sounded familiar. Taking a chance, she let the other mole creatures go and ventured down one of the darker tunnels towards the voices.
"Go! Go!" Johnny yelled as they raced though the tunnels, mole creatures of various shapes and sizes quickly gaining on them.
"Hey, I'm not as fast as I used to be," Ben shouted back from the rear. In his new strange orange rock form he was wider certainly and they had to follow the larger passages to make sure he could follow. t wasn't helping the chase. Leading ahead of the others Reed was acting as look out, but he was clearly freaking out. Whenever Reed started panicking it was like everything but the science portion of his brain shut down.
"Ah, good, the stratification is narrowing. The shale is a key sign that around 3.4 mya this was a wetlands of temperate climate. There are likely several fascinating fossil samples of varying varieties but mostly in the-"
"We'll get out, man," Ben interrupted. "Chill it."
"While it is likely that escape is possible, the greater concern is the wider issue of emergence from our current happenstance-"
"And we'll find Sue," Johnny replied, barely translating Reed's babble in his head.
"Victor as well," Reed added, and Johnny hesitantly nodded in agreement.
Somewhat calmer, Reed focused on finding the way out. With no map or guarantee they were going the right way, Reed could only try to take paths leading upward and recall everything he knew in geology to find hints they were nearing an exit. They came to a three way where only one path was Ben friendly, so it was an easy call. Other tunnels seemed to lead to dead ends, or worse, moving walls that implied something much larger than their current pursuers in these tunnels. Every minute their pursuers drew closer, pouring out of other side tunnels as well.
Johnny briefly ran ahead, running on sheer adrenaline, before he smacked his face on something hard. He looked up expecting to see a hidden wall or maybe an ambushing mole creature. Instead there was nothing, and Johnny was confused as to what blocked his path. After blinking a few more times, Sue was suddenly in front of him.
"Johnny, Ben, Reed, you're alive!" Sue's voice was hoarse, her skin pale, the light fading from her eyes.
"Sis!" Johnny raced forward and grabbed her tight. Returning the embrace Susan happily held him close as well. Teen pride put aside he didn't want to let go.
"Sue! You're all right!" Reed rushed to hug her as well. Sue noticed Johnny to be almost feverishly warm, though with all the cold she couldn't complain. Reed seemed to hug tighter and tighter. "Are you okay? You look ill."
"I'll be fine. We need to get out of here first of all. I think I have this place figured out. But I can't promise how long we have."
"Then we need to move, come on'." Ben shook the man into focus. "Follow the nice lady, Reed."
"Ben?!" Sue gasped at the rock creature.
"Look, weird stuff's happening, Suzie, and we can sort it out later once we're not worm food. Let's get goin' already!"
Sude nodded. "Right. I noticed the ice formations on the outside, they always blow around exit areas and air holes," Susan explained as they rushed down the corridor, as far away from the mole creature hunting parties as they could manage. "From there I figured out the core of the shaft system. There is a plain below that is perfect for getting out of here but if I'm right it's going to take us right by some heavily populated area to get there. Took trailing a few of them to figure it out."
"Suzie, this is why we love you," Ben grinned, though the other three couldn't be positive exactly what his face was doing. "Lead on."
"You were trailing these creatures for that long and you weren't spotted?" Reed asked.
"I think I just got lucky. These creatures don't seem to have good eyesight, but somehow I managed to tail them without being found out," Sue said.
Everyone was exhausted, and even Johnny could see Sue was visibly ill from the cold, but they still needed to navigate the twisted maze of tunnels. Sue and Reed's combined expertise led the group through twists and turns as Sue struggled to recall every step and turn she took to get here in the first place. It took longer than any of them really liked but they reached a vast, open cavern. The ceiling and far walls weren't even visible in this darkness. Behemoth mole creatures the size of dinosaurs toiled furiously at the walls, paying the four no mind. Time was running short for Sue and the rest of them though.
There were mine carts and tracks and other various types of simple machinery. Sue was perplexed at the creatures that didn't seem to be any more intelligent than wild primates, yet had somehow developed a certain level of technology. Thinking about it too carefully wasn't an option as the chase was still on.
"The cart!" Reed suddenly realized. "They have some kind of mining system down here. Perhaps even if these creatures aren't sentient they serve a more intelligent force, or maybe they scavenged these from other mines and started implementing them themselves. Fantastic!"
"Gush later when we're not about to die!" Ben yelled.
"No, don't you see?" Sue added. "If one end of the tracks is here..."
"Then the other end could lead outside!" Johnny finished.
Ben shrugged. "It beats keeping up this pace on foot. Everyone pile in!"
"One problem. How do we get the cart to move if all four of us are in it? There don't seem to be any controls," Sue observed.
"I have an idea. Johnny, get behind the crate and grab onto the edge," Reed instructed.
"You're not leaving my brother behind!"
"What? Of course not! Don't be absurd," Reed assured her. "Now, Johnny, remember what I told you not to do earlier?" Johnny nodded. "Good. You're going to do that now, only this time you're going to try pushing us."
"How does that do anything but burn us all alive?" Johnny asked skeptically.
"You need to focus around your feet, but I think you might be able to propel yourself, and therefore us, like an engine. Like one of your video games."
Sue was completely lost. "What are you talking about?!"
"They're catching up!" Ben warned.
Johnny grabbed the cart, but shook his head profusely. "I... I don't think I can! I don't know how!"
"You can do this, Johnny, just think of what you did last time and find some way to trigger it. It can be a code phrase, just something that lets you communicate with your body so you can tell it when and how to work."
"Um..."
At that moment, one of the outer walls started shifting. Two rows of car-size jagged teeth separated to reveal a gaping maw as two luminous pale orbs the size of beach balls loomed in their direction, growing ever closer.
"Any time now, guys!" Ben said increasingly worried.
Reed continued to look Johnny in the eye and encourage him. "Come on, Johnny, this is all up to you. You can do this. Just concentrate."
Johnny closed his eyes in fear. Not only were the hordes drawing closer, but something larger than all of them combined was approaching from the darkness. If he didn't save the four of them, nobody would. Ben, Reed, and especially his sister were all counting on him to survive.
"FLAME ON!!!" Johnny shouted in desperation, and something lit ablaze. For a second it felt like a charge of dynamite went off, but instead of an explosion killing them all, Johnny was lit ablaze in a silhouette of fire, and just as Reed predicted, he was soaring through the air, pushing the cart with his legs-turned-jet-engines. Reed, Sue, and Ben hung on for dear life as the cart barely managed to stay on the tracks. Either they would escape out a dearly needed exit or crash into a stone wall.
They were moving much too fast to even see the boarded up dead end, much less caution Johnny to try and stop. Instead, the cart burst through the dead end and all cautionary signs warning against it.
The fresh outside air hit them all with a blast of ice to the face. The cart, with no control, only propulsion, rocketed off a cliff just outside and all four were sent hurtling through the air. A brief glance over the side of the cart would show them soaring over the frozen tundra into deciduous forests where they would certainly crash.
Reed was certain his haphazard plan had doomed them all. There was no logical way they could survive such a crash from a height like that with no protective gear. Yet their descent was somehow slowed, not so much that it was obvious, but just enough that their fall could be cushioned by the trees.
What was more unusual was how every obstacle seemed to bend and buckle before it could hit them, as if some unseen force was clearing the path for them.
Yet still when the cart hit the ground it exploded and sent all four careening in different directions. Johnny flew especially far before he grounded himself in the dirt. They were all still within visible range of one another, but the sheer exhaustion of the chase and the crash left them all too tired to move, much less remain conscious.
Wyatt Wingfoot traveled as fast as he could, a sleigh drawn by trained huskies his main transportation. The fireball from the sky had descended not long ago in the north, and while some people in his tribe would see it as a sign of the spirits, Wyatt knew the look of an aircraft crash when he saw one. For a good while now the sleigh dogs had been pulling to the east, and Wyatt knew wherever they were leading him it was important. It was a mixed feeling, he was about to find something very good or very bad. The sound of another crash made him hurry all the more, unsure of who or what he would find.
He finally reached his destination. The signs of something crashing here were evident, though exactly what wasn't obvious with only small bits of wood and metal remaining of whatever craft it was. More importantly, there were four bodies scattered around the area. A man, a woman, a child, and... a thing. Some strange rock creature that Wyatt could only assume was a mutant with a really bad condition. They were badly bruised and suffering from hypothermia, but still alive, and Wyatt was going to make sure they stayed that way.
"Four lives in one day." He remarked to his head runner as he went to grab the small traveling sleigh to transport the travelers. The dog barked happily. "Well done."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE GONE?!" Harvey Elder yelled at the creature before him which cowered in response. The squat old man paced around the room, hoping that Victor Von Doom hadn't heard the echo. "This is bad. This is very bad. If he finds out I lost them... Who knows WHAT he'll do to me."
"All right, all right, we can fix this. We just need to go out, find these guys, hopefully all four, and bring them back here. We do that, and the boss won't do... whatever he does to guys who fail him. I'm sure it's not pleasant."
Harvey Elder took his stone staff and struck it against the ground, the sound somehow resonating throughout the cavern.
"Get everyone ready," Harvey commanded. "We're not going to disappoint Victor Von Doom of all people. Not when it's taken decades just to get the damn company to notice me. We're dragging them all back whether they like it or not. They don't get to leave until Victor Von Doom says they can."
To be continued...