An Emergency Forces An Injured Invisible Woman Back Into Action

The blare of the emergency signal woke Sue Storm from sleep. She rolled over and immediately winced at the pain in her injured leg and stared blearily at a flashing screen...and then her eyes caught sight of the window, and she swore.

A zeppelin in the shape of a giant pink pig floated above the streets of Manhattan. Lines of incandescent light erupted from the monstrous floating porker, stabbed down at a building. Sue could see the explosions as they impacted, the smoke that rose up. Too far away to hear the screams, but she could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles. Police helicopters were in the air, but when one drew close a yellow line licked out and struck it.

Immediately, the Invisible Woman pressed herself against the glass. It was far away, but Sue exerted herself to the utmost. An invisible hand grabbed the flaming copter and guided it safely to the ground. Sue sighed with relief as she saw the pilots, no bigger than ants, successfully exit the wrecked vehicle.

The giant pink pig, however, was on the move. Away from the Baxter Building. A ray of light shone out from the undercarriage toward the building. Something floated up...and Sue swore as she saw the tell-tale flicker of gold in the sunlight as something was sucked up into the zeppelin's hold.

The Federal Reserve Bank. Someone was robbing it.

Then Sue turned into what the emergency signal was actually saying. The mayor blubbered "...the Avengers are dealing with an intergalactic threat, Spider-Man is teaming up with the Young Avengers in the New Jersey Parallelogram, none of the X-Men will return our calls..."

"H.E.R.B.I.E.!" She shouted, as she hobbled over to where she had her costume laid out. "Prepare the Fantasticar for launch!"

The bandage on the Invisible Woman's thigh was barely visible as a slight bulge through her Fantastic Four costume. As Sue navigated the Fantasticar through the air toward the pink zeppelin, she tried to ignore the pain in her leg and focus on the situation at hand. With a thought, a forcefield covered the Fantasticar. As she drew close to the giant inflated pig-balloon, the criminals inside caught sight of Sue. Energy rays burst against the forcefield, none of them powerful enough to punch through.

Cautious against this unknown foe, Sue buzzed close. She caught sight of strange animal-men with the heads of horses and dogs, dressed like the thugs in stereotypical Hollywood movie. The Invisible Woman stared past the glare of the energy weapons, but she couldn't see any normal humans within. That meant no hostages. And the cops had evacuated the street below; it was clear of civilians.

The momentum of the Fantasticar caused it to flash past the slow-moving zeppelin. Sue banked and circled a building to come back at the zeppelin from another angle. If Ben Grimm were piloting it, they could have done a tighter turn, but Sue wasn't that good a pilot. It took her time—and the villains took advantage of that to aim their tractor beam at her.

Light enveloped the Fantasticar, and Sue grunted as she felt the pull on the forcefield. It felt weirdly like someone trying to suck her brain out of her skull. The blonde heroine grimaced as she picked up speed.

"You want to play it that way? Fine by me!" she said aloud.

Too late, the villains realized what Sue was about to do. Some of them tried to jump out. Others aimed their weapons uselessly at the Fantasticar as it moved like a giant missile. For a moment, as the nose of the Fantasticar hit the bag, Sue couldn't see. Then she was through it, and behind her, there was a crash as the great zeppelin collapsed onto the street below.

Sue circled the block and landed the Fantasticar not far from the crashed and broken vehicle. The great deflated pink pig covered the wreckage. Gold bars littered the street. Using an invisible forcefield, she lifted herself out of the Fantasticar and onto the street, favoring her right leg. She wasn't sure how many criminals there were in there, but she doubted they were dead—and she was right.

Figured crawled out from beneath the pink material of the zeppelin. The first of them was an enormous pig-man, hairy and dressed only in an oversized set of overalls. There was a bulge in his pants, and Sue assumed it was some sort of weapon, perhaps a shotgun based on the size. As she instinctively brought up an invisible forcefield like a bubble around her, their eyes met. His small, dark eyes leered, and his mouth split into a crude grin, a bit of spittle drooled down from the edges of his too-wide mouth as his nostrils flared. Then his hand dipped into his overalls and pulled something out.