#msthing

The Future Foundation made a daring rescue attempt for two of their students today, after they were flung into the Negative Zone by the mad titan Thanos. Students K'eel and Luke were helping the heroes in the battle against Doom's ill-gotten allies when their fervour for doing the right thing saw them take a wrong turn of the worst kind. Reportedly, they were charging at Thanos - Luke riding on the back of the Skrull shapeshifted as a great Wyrm - to try to shove the titan into the portal, when their intentions became their own fate. Naturally, Dr. Reed Richards and his loving wife Susan Storm-Richards, along with the starlets Miss Thing and the Human Torch, mounted a rescue attempt as soon as humanly possible!

Above: Ambush! Bug monsters surround the rescue team.

When K'eel managed to get a signal through to Reed, the man traced the location of the lost boys and made haste through the portal. Fresh recruit Nathan insisted on joining them, determined to help save his friends. As soon as the team crossed over, however, they were set upon by fiendish militant insectoids!

Above: Susan at the eye of the storm, keeping the bugs at bay!

From what they could gather, the insect soldiers were geared up for an invasion fleet that left without them. When the students came their way they saw an opportunity to exploit. However a strange traveller had also discovered the students and was protecting them from the bugs.

Above: Reed reaches for the 'eye-pod' - the shapeshifted Skrull.

Joining forces, the FF and the stranger battled the bugs. Hotshot Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, flung fire in all directions, while Miss Thing dished out some classic one-two crushing combos.

Above: Infestation - Burning bugs cling to the portal.

The Invisible Woman formed all manner of forcefields to swat, crush and shove the creepy crawlies, sending several of them spinning off into the void, but the ones on the portal held together strong, like a bridge of ants. A larger soldier, clearly their Captain, presented himself and took possession of the two students - still taking cover within the organic pod K'eel had become. But when the Captain made contact with them, Luke glimpsed a piece of his cunning plan - to demand a ransom of passage to Earth, or blow the portal and lock them all in the Negative Zone!

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Above: Mister Fantastic stretches himself into giant sling-shot...

... And propels Miss Thing at the Captain, for a Fastball Clobber!

K'eel took advantage of the bug Captain's hubris, forming an arm to grab and hold the bug's ankle, giving Reed and Miss Thing plenty of time to combine their powers. With a mighty punch, the Captain was knocked out, reeling through the void. When his troops attempted to aid him, young Nathan blasted them with telekinetic power, scattering them far and wide.

Above: Reunited and grateful, the FF students hug Miss Thing.

When all seemed quiet... the burnt, crushed bugs on the portal started beeping, readying to detonate and trap the FF in the Negative Zone! Quick-thinking siblings were on the case, with Susan forming a force-spatula and prying the stubborn bugs from their hold, flipping them in the air like pancakes for her brother Johnny to blast them with a heat-wave that carried the vile things far away, where they exploded harmlessly.

Above: The strange space traveller, an unlikely Samaritan.

Returning to the Baxter Building with the strange space traveller, the grateful FF offered to help him process his SWORD application, before returning to the important task at hand - brainstorming solutions to the Doom dilemma and his terrible new allies.