New Warriors Vol. 4: Cry Uncle

Cry Uncle

As he slept in the glass tube after having been heavily sedated by the Jester & the Trapster, Franklin Richards was drifting between dreams and reality. Not knowing what was real and what wasn't anymore, the young hero felt like he wasn't even in his own body. The things he was seeing felt like they were real, but they couldn't possibly be.

He was seeing his Uncle Ben, alive and well at the Baxter Building; he was seeing what looked like an alternate universe version of himself, sitting on the moon and crying over the loss of a loved one. As he reached out to comfort the boy, he was gone, replaced with Deadpool heading to a bedroom while holding a plush My Little Pony. Deadpool just lifted his head and looked directly at Franklin.

"Get out of here, Franklin Richards, this is my series. Go back to 'Mr. Most Prolific Writer's' sandbox."

Franklin could soon feel himself getting pulled away from the room, roaming endlessly through time and space, when he suddenly found himself on the streets of what looked to be a devastated New York City.

"Tighty Whities?" a voice said, having seen Franklin standing on the street in his underwear thanks to his costume having been taken by his kidnappers, losing the homing device he was carrying. "You must be from a time when Mom was still buying our clothes."

Franklin turned around and saw his adult self standing there. This Franklin was over five hundred years old, wearing a black and gold costume with a full beard.

*

"How much sedative did you morons give him? He's completely zoned out, " Johnny said as he stared into the tube where his nephew was standing upright, with his head hanging low.

"Well, let's see," Trapster said as he looked at the bottle. "This stuff is strong enough to knock out the Lizard for twenty-four hours. Jester, how many doses have we given him since we kidnapped him three hours ago?"

"Fifteen,"

"Yeah, he's probably dead,"

"What was I thinking, hiring you idiots?" Johnny asked as he ran a hand through his hair. "I just wanted my powers back, I didn't want this!"

"Hey, Jester, if he's really powerless, we can take him out right here, that's half of the Fantastic 4 down."

"Then we can use the kid to lure the rest of them out and finish them for good!"

"I can hear you idiots," Johnny told them. "You think that I can't take you down, even without powers? Try it!"

The Jester backflipped, hitting Johnny in the face and sending him flying back against the wall. Trapster pulled out his glue gun and stuck Johnny's entire body to the wall, leaving only his head exposed.

"That is not how I expected that to go," Johnny said.

"That'll hold him," Trapster said. "Now let's plot the destruction of the Fantastic 2!"

# # # # # # # # # #

New Warriors Headquarters

"So, my idiot brother got himself captured?" Valeria asked as she was testing out the flame powers that Franklin had stolen from Johnny and given to her by mistake.* "I guess I should go rescue him."

(*Fantastic 4 #74)

"We don't even know where he is," Sam said as he looked at her. "And you don't even know how to use those powe--"

Valeria held out her hand and let a bird made of fire fly around the room.

"Flame on!"

Valeria's body covered itself in flames as she headed for the window.