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Weekends for Franklin were often spent with the X-Men. With Blink on the team, transporting him there and back was now far less expensive. Of course, they didn’t know about Franklin’s own portal and powers. The Fantastic Four only believed Franklin Richards was just a telepath.
With Franklin gone, the Future Foundation kids were free to mess with his room. Everyone had a different prank they would play on Franklin: slathering glue in his underwear drawer, shredding his clothes, replacing his shampoo with hair dye, replacing his hair dye with another hair dye, relieved one of his stuffed animals of his or her head. Of course, the later often ended with a mysterious seizure just moments before scissors could reach for the stuffed animal. Very few people knew about how his stuffed animals were very much alive after a babysitting incident gone terribly wrong with Billy and Tommy Maximoff.
Val and Maggie were in his room, but they weren't being malicious. Really, the most malicious thing they were doing was sitting on his bed writing and writing everything that a living stuffed dog was doing. Right now, he was punching his reflection in the mirror.
“Val, didn’t your dad try to rationalize magic?” Maggie said.
“Yes,” Val said without looking at her.
“And what makes this time different than the last?”
“I’m going to succeed.”
“Val … ”
“Don’t ‘Val’ me. I’m studying a magical creature and will learn more about magic bit-by-bit. It’s an objectively better study method than fighting demons to rescue my brother. I’ve actually researched the topic thoroughly.” The dog continued to growl and punch his reflection in the mirror. Maggie only shook her head at this … unusual display of stupidity on Val’s part. Maybe there was a gas leak in the air tight labs?
“Come quick!” Bentley 23 yelled from down the hall. The girls rushed out of the room to see the young clone of Bentley Wittman, the longtime foe of the Fantastic Four, huffing.
“What’s wrong?” Val asked with heavy amounts of concern in her voice.
“It’s the Wizard… he’s --”
“Attacking the plaza? Should I get the escape tunnels? How long do we have to evacuate the building?” But Bentley shook his head at every single question.
“He’s on tv. He’s just announced the Frightful Foundation.”
“He what?”
In the primary lounge of the Baxter Building located on the twenty-eighth floor, the kids and the Fantastic Four were already gathered around the large television screen. Mr. Fantastic crossed his arms as he scowled at the face of one of his many hated enemies.
“Is this legal? I don’t think this is legal,” said Leech, “I’m sure someone’s violating someone else’s patent.” Right next to the genetic power dampener/zombi Mon Calamari was Artie who could use his telepathy to create illusions and sound to communicate because he was mute. The current symbol was a giant question mark.
“I know what we should do: we should run them out of town and off planet!” Bentley raised his teleportation disks as several of the kids cheered.
“We will do no such thing,” Susan Storm declared, “Despite how much we know that this is a spite project, the only thing they’ve done wrong is naming that Foundation.”
“Susan’s right. The name is too close to Future Foundation and therefore --”
“Too close? I wouldn’t make a motion to dispute it in court. With a name like ‘Frightful Foundation’, I’m sure the whole thing will blow over soon enough,” said Johnny Storm.
“Hothead’s right. No one in the right mind would invest in Frightful Foundation unless they were mistakin’ it for a haunted house,” chimed in the Thing.
“Alright, let’s get to class,” said Mr. Fantastic. Walking out of the room himself, Mr. Fantastic looked at the rest of the Four. “What’s Bentley’s game this time?”
“Spite; trying to destroy us for the millionth failed time,” said the Invisible Woman.
“How did he even get the money to create a state-of-the-art think tank?” Of course, Johnny Storm had some idea.
“I was thinkin’. If he’s gonna weaponize children against us, what’s the protocol for that?” Ben Grimm was right. They have fought threats from space, other dimensions, and adults from Earth, but fighting children would be a PR nightmare. Teenagers were often thought of as stupid and often times were the source of beating (just ask the Bastards of Evil), but fighting children around the age of the Future Foundation would always end in controversy. And so they slept on the issue.
Val and Maggie, now joined by Bentley, Leech, Artie, and Onome, were in Franklin’s room looking at Valeria’s tablet. She was playing footage of last year’s Future Foundation Induction Dinner, the year Onome joined.
Franklin approached the entire crew of chefs. “We’ve got a problem.” He held out a dish which was cut open to reveal the clearly undercooked meat. “Overseasoned on the raw side; greasy as hell on the cooked side. Feel it.” According to the chef who felt it, the cooked side felt more like rubbing watery glue than it did meat. “This is unacceptable.”
“Yes Mr. Richards,” said the chef.
Franklin spotted a dish leaving the kitchen. “Where’s that gnocchi going?”
“Table four.”
“You stupid cow!”
“What?”
“Celiac. Gluten-free. You might kill someone.”
The chef held up ticket. “But that’s the dish they -- oh.”
“Oh?”
“Mr. Richards, sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got another dish sent back.” He took it away from the waiter. Of course, it was bright pink and oozing.
“It’s fucking raw!”
Bentley was on the floor crying his eyes out at the sound of Franklin tossing a plate and kicking the trash can. The other kids were equally amused. Even Artie created the sound of laughter with his telepathy.
“Okay, your brother is trying way too hard to be Gordon Ramsay,” giggled Onome.
“I’m surprised he didn’t try the accent,” Maggie chuckled. She lapsed back into her natural Upper RP accent.
“Yeah, so is Franklin’s inner Gordon Ramsay coming out this year, too,” Onome said as she wiped a year away.
“Nah, Mr. Fantastic got the Masterchef Kitchen to come this year,” said Bentley, “Why have discount Gordon Ramsay when you can have the original?”
“Eh, Franklin has a lot more in common with Gordan than just swearing in the kitchen,” Maggie pointed out, “Gordon’s a lot nicer in person than on tv.”
“You’ve met him?”
“My dad has. I’ve met Tilly before.”
“You’re so full of shit that even your eyes are brown!”
“Wow, I haven’t seen anyone this angry since Kix when I told him my part of Project Acuity was delayed by a week,” Onome said.
“Shoot,” Val said, “I totally forgot about Project Acuity. Do you think the Richards-Bentley Effect is good now?”
In the old Fisk Tower, everyone in the Frightful Foundation gathered on the top floor. Honestly, Bentley Wittman didn’t even change the name of the tower since it still bore the name of the infamous gangster. That says many things about the Wizard and none of them are positive in the slightest. Bentley Wittman stood before his Frightful Foundation, his creation.
There was his Fantastic Four or Frightful Four:
Dr. Reed von Doom was a creation of Bentley using Reed Richards’ and Victor von Doom’s DNA since he couldn’t get the Maker to join his Frightful Foundation because that version of Reed believed this petty revenge scheme was “beneath him.”
Malice, Mistress of Hate was all too familiar to the actual Fantastic Four who fought a version of her multiple times. Right now, she was inhabiting the body of a Susan Storm from a universe where she never had to fight Malice and was completely off guard when dealing with a psychic parasite.
The Thing and Human Torch were from a universe where they were caught in a teleporting accident which left Dr. Doom looking like a crash test dummy. The less said about them, the better.
As for the Frightful Foundation kids, there was no shortage of deadly members in it:
Ultimate Franklin Richards comes from a possible future from Miles Morales’ home universe where the Fantastic Four took over America after the devastation Magneto wrought and turned it into a monarchy. Ever since the Incursions and the Secret Wars, denizens of the multiverse have been scattered about. He landed in this one. He is a mutant much like the current Franklin with powerful psychic abilities, but he doesn’t stand a chance against any of the X-Men because mutants of his world were created by humans mimicking experiments by the Kree to create inhumans and not the Celestials.
Susan Richards Jr. was a mental parasite, a succubus of some sorts from the Negative Zone. From her native universe, Little Suzy had drained life energy, especially life energy boasted by cosmic energy. What makes her different from the likes of Galactus is that she actively toys with her food’s minds. Being a mental parasite, the insane mind tastes better than a sane one. Despite her age, she killed the entire Fantastic Four in her universe as well as most of their enemies, including Dr. Doom. The Franklin of that universe tried to kill her by removing the matter-antimatter converter and sending her into the Negative Zone in hopes she would die. Instead, she was pulled into this reality by the Wizard.
Bentley 30 was supposedly the perfect clone of Bentley Wittman. He was devoid of genetic flaws and was driven solely on logical thought. Still, he had emotions because desperation does sometimes breed resourcefulness. Or in the case of his genetic template, foolishness, a trait the original can use to take advantage of him if Bentley 30 became too smart and rebelled against his master.
There were more kids like Benny Beckley, but these were the best of the best for the current mission: the Negative Zone Prison Complex. Still, there were more members to recruit into the Frightful Foundation, all of them in that very prison.
“This is stupid. We should be building Cerebro and convincing them to hand the portal to us or building one of our own, not planning an invasion,” said Ultimate Franklin.
“Problems with the X-Men of this reality aside, Franklin is right. An attack from here yields a great result of us walking out of this mission alive.” While Ultimate Franklin looked dismissively the the eight-year-old, he at least had an ally here.
“Her hunger takes precedence.” Bentley pointed to the massive green alien creature standing right behind him, devouring the energy right out of the life model decoys. “Now we move. Bentley 30.” He nodded and dropped one of his teleportation disks on the ground. The sensation of being teleported was akin to being sucked up a straw as you lose your identity as a solid entity.
Bentley, the Frightful Four, and several Frightful Foundation kids were standing right in front of the Fantastic Four who were glaring at them.
“Have you been standing there staring off at the wall until we arrived?” Bentley question.
“Yes,” the Four said in unison.
“Have our battles been that repetitive?”
“Yes.” The four parted and revealed a whiteboard filled with a massive calculation.
The far left side of the board had the Fantastic Four represented in emoji form as was the Wizard. The logos of the Future Foundation and Frightful Foundation were also present. A long series of factorials, square roots, exponents to exponents. Finally, f(x) <= g(x) <=h(x) and lim x-> a f(x) = lim x-> a h(x) = L and therefore, lim x->a g(x) = L.
“Now Bentley, I’m going to give you and your, bleh, Frightful Foundation some options: you can leave and keep your reputations intact or you can argue about this as you get sent to the Negative Zone,” Reed threatened.
“You see, that’s why we’re here, to retrieve more members for our Foundation. We have one in mind and she sits in the Negative Zone.” Bentley was met with a shockwave directly over his chest which sent him flying into the wall. Concrete, piping, and wood smashed protruded from the walls as the Wizard silently gave the order for Ultimate Franklin to kill them with a telepathic bolt.
Suddenly, he was tackled to the ground as by Leech and Artie. “My powers,” gasped Ultimate Franklin.
“Bentley, get us out of here.” Bentley 23 threw a teleportation disk to Leech who grabbed it. In a flash of light, the trio was gone.
“No matter,” slobbered Susan Richards Jr. “I’ll kill them myself, just like I did on my world.”
She raised her claw and curled it into a fist to strike her enemies down and feast upon their dying remains.
What grabbed the massive alien creature by the tale was a creature with an extended snout, piercing green eyes, and a Future Foundation uniform. Without a doubt in their minds, this was Maggie Braddock.
“Hi there,” she said casually as she spun and threw the succubus out the window. She then grabbed the sleeves of the suit and tore them clean off.
“We’ll take it from here.” Valeria was standing before them with her fists clenched with fiery mandalas surrounding her wrists. An inhuman screech filled the room and froze the blood of everyone present as the succubus clawed her way back into the living room.
“Come at us you overgrown xenomorph!”
It was nothing but claws and teeth from here.
“Let the kids fight. We’ll handle them,” Ben Grimm said as he eyed his counterpart on the Frightful Four.
“Do you think I need my powers to defeat the likes of you?”
It was impossible to keep up with Ultimate Franklin. He’s simply too fast. Even without his powers, that X on his chest clearly denoted that he was an X-Man from his world.
Artie hit the ground next to Leech who was on his knees. He raised his hand and motioned, This was a bad idea.
Leech raised his hand weakly, I had to. The trio was transported into the Baxter Building’s Danger Room. It was actually smart of Leech to transport them here rather than anywhere else. Here, they were isolated, so the Fantastic Four and Maggie would be isolated from his power nullification field. Two, this place was that, a danger. Someone needed to get to the control room and turn it against Franklin.
He made a punch right for Ultimate Franklin’s face. His opponent fell to the ground, but he was not covering his face. Leech began limping backwards.
What are you doing?
I’m fighting dirty.
“No wonder you don’t wear a cup. You have nothing to cover.” The alternate Franklin was red in the face with some tears running down his face. He charged right for Leech who merely crouched down and headbutted directly into his enemy’s crotch. “I was just kidding the first time, but you really are tiny. Is that typical of boys from your family?” This got him a right hook to the face. Falling to the floor and gripping his jaw, Leech muster as much of a smile as he could.
“Why are you --” The ground erupted in fire and brimstone as Dr. Doom crawled out of the crevice. Unlike his usual metallic armor, he wore one made of human leather which had several mystical runes. A blast of green fire struck him square in the chest and sent him crashing into a tree which formed right around him. All Ultimate Franklin was doing was flailing his arms and legs in a futile attempt to get out.
Nice one, Artie. Leech gestured with his free hand.
The exoskeleton of the monster cracked and the bones beneath shattered from the great molars of Maggie Braddock. Susan Richards Jr. smashed her arm against the metal walls. Maggie was forced to let go as the creature reeled back and held her arm.
“You filthy English cur,” growled the monster. Seeing an opening, Valeria had her own knuckles covered by the mandalas as she went straight for the head and punched her right in the face. A crunching filled the hallway as the head snapped back into place. Had that happen to an ordinary human, the contents of the skull would be spread out across the floor.
“All that mystic power, yet you use it to punch me.” Grabbing Val with her free arm, the succubus threw her across the hall next to Maggie.
“I’m going to take great pleasure in feasting off of you, but first … ” Strips of flesh struck at the two kids as they screamed in pain. Every car horn, every conversation, every feeling they could possibly sense was running through them. The carpet floor suddenly felt like feeling thousands of small needles.
“I have this wonderful way of showing people what pain is like. Tell you what. How about I make a pin falling a mile away so loud, it makes your eardrums burst. Or, how about I give you a pinch so painful, you die of shock.” The monster licked her lips, ready to devour the precious life energy within them, but first, she would rather toy with them. A “cooked” meal is better than a raw one.
“Maggie, I don’t think I can take much more of this,” grunted Val.
“Alright, Val, the moment she zaps me, I want you to hit me and keep hitting.”
“What?”
“I’m cutting this short.”
“But if you do that, you’ll --”
“Just do what I say,” she grunted.
A futile gesture no doubt. They’ll both end up in the same place.
Standing up and spreading her arms out, Maggie growled, “Hey ugly, is that all you got?”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, child,” said the succubus, “But it’s your funeral.” The green strips of flesh glowed bright yellow as her victim screamed.
“Do it now, Valeria!” Val instantly got up and began punching her. She didn’t even hit that hard, but even her fists were bleeding. Every strike on her friend felt more like a strike on a stack of shattered glass and concrete.
When Valeria collapsed on the floor, she saw what her friend had become. She grew a foot taller, her eyes glowed like green flames and the claws on her hands grew into fine osseous claws.
The werewolf let out a howl and charged at her on all fours. There was no time for Susan Richards Jr. to react when the claws slashed an x mark over her chest and shattering her exoskeleton.
Oh, Junior only had an x-shaped slash mark over her chest. She wasn’t dead. Instead, she was being repeatedly clawed and bitten by Maggie.
“Maggie ...” She only kicked Suzy while she was down. “Maggie … ” Again, the only thing that changed was the method of how she was hurting her. “Maggie!”
Of course, her eyes stopped flaring and Maggie shrank back to her usual self.
“Well, that was fun,” Maggie huffed, “Mind if you carry me?”
“Wait wha --” The daughter of Captain Britain collapsed into Val’s arms, huffing her lungs out. Val rolled her eyes as she began carrying her towards the living room. In there were Leech and Artie who were wrapping bandages around their legs.
“How was the blond kid?” Val grunted as she dropped Maggie.
“Eh, he was easy. I just nailed him in the crotch a million times while Artie turned the Danger Room against them,” Leech bragged.
“I went berserk and tore open a xenomorph exoskeleton,” Leech shrank as he heard Maggie said ever so casually.
“And is no one going to comment on how we beat the Frightful Four and the Wizards?” The Human Torch was currently carrying his counterpart with the intent go to the elevator and drop him off in a SHIELD transport on the roof.
Let’s just say the kids had a good laugh.