They Hunt Porkum—But Do Not Find Him

Sensors devoted to detect dimensional incursions refocused. Artificial intelligences scoured the internet and darknet. Ben Grimm made a discreet meeting to Heroes for Hire, with a suitcase full of cash. Johnny Storm crisscrossed the skies of Manhattan, a special sensor about his neck, powered by the nova-like heat that burned from his flesh in incandescent waves of rage and loss. Reed Richards quietly made contact with his friends and allies—always discreet about the specifics, except for one.

The call he didn't want to make.

Weeks passed. There was nothing. No trace of Porkum. No trace of Sue Storm. The Invisible Woman had vanished.

It was a month after Sue Storm's tape had been delivered when Mister Fantastic swallowed what was left of his pride. Doctor Doom allowed it to ring...and finally, acknowledged the transmission.

The face that filled the screen was Reed Richards as his mortal enemy and rival had rarely seen him. Haggard, sleepless, unshaven. Eyes bloodshot, expression hurt.

"Richards," he acknowledged.

"Victor," Reed said—and then, to Doom's surprise, he dropped any pretense of formalities. "I need your help. Sue has been kidnapped. And...sexually assaulted. I need your help."

Doom stiffened slightly in his throne like chair. There was exhaustion in Richard's words. Pain. But the ache wasn't that of loss. It was the suffering he felt because a loved one was in pain. Despite the proof of her infidelity, Richards was still convinced she was a victim in this game.

Richard's words stumbled out in a rush. Begging, beseeching. Swallowing every ounce of pride, every iota of personal ambition, humbling himself before Doom and appealing to him in every way that Mister Fantastic could think of—Doom's pride in his intellect and achievements, Doom's desire to prove himself superior to Richards—and then to rare territory. Doom's honor. His sense of justice. And even Doom's relationship with Valeria.

"Victor, please," Reed said, his voice hoarse now. "She needs her mother. I—I can't do it all. I need your help. She needs your help. We need to find her—and the pig that did this to her."

Doom considered this. He had hoped to insulate his godchild from this strife. In truth, however, he knew that she would be affected. There could be no other way. Perhaps a part of Doom even hoped that, in time, she would turn to him to fill the void left by the breakup of her family.

The villain drummed his metal fingers on the wooden arm of his chair. In truth, he had hoped for a greater break between the members of the Fantastic Four. That Sue Storm's degradation would drive the wedge that would destroy Reed Richards emotionally. Yet there was no hate in Reed Richard's voice, no void where the bonds of love had been; only the ache of heartbreak and a loved one that needed him.

A cruel thought came to Doom then. His eyes narrowed. There was a way to aid Richards and destroy his family in one blow.

"Your efforts have failed because Sue Storm is no longer in this dimension," Doom began. "I have been monitoring dimensional ruptures around Manhattan since that incident in Central Park where Sue Storm was injured. I know your effort to locate the source of this incursion found nothing. Yet I have detected the source dimension—and I further recorded a second incursion, from New York to there. This is where your wife is. You have my word."

With the press of a few buttons, Doom sent Richards the coordinates. Behind his mask, his scarred lips twisted into a smile. Doom had himself provided for Porkum's escape—and knowing the pig-man as he did, Doom had no doubt that the rest of the Fantastic Four would find her in such a state as to break their hearts and spirits beyond repair.

Once again, the Thing, Mister Fantastic, and the Human Torch seated themselves within the dimensional skimmer. With Doom's coordinates locked in, Reed Richards set a course.

"You sure about this, Stretch?" Ben Grimm said. "I mean, this is Doom we're talkin' about. Could be a trap."

"He gave his word," Reed said, as the dimensional drive hummed to life. "Victor is many things, but he has never broken his word. Susan is there."

"Then let's go get her," Johnny Storm said.

There was a pop as the vehicle shifted, and fell through the bleed between dimensions. The cabin was lit with the eerie red glow of dying stars stretched thin in the void between worlds. Then, light and mass reasserted themselves, and they emerged in space above a world not unlike the Earth they had left.

"We're here, Sue," Reed Richards said, as he began to scan the planet. "We're coming to rescue you, darling."