Ultimate Fantastic Four: Think Tank, Part 1
Issue: #19
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Jae Lee
Inker:
Colors: June Chung

An unidentified observer watches a helicopter approach the Baxter Building. Inside the helicopter, members of the Fantastic Four discuss how much trouble they`re in after the events in Las Vegas. The pilot mentions that there`s nothing but static on all radio channels, until a voice breaks in and addresses Reed Richards. At the same time, all of the electrical systems on the helicopter shut down.

Reed sends Johnny outside to heat the air under the helicopter and create an updraft. Reed grabs the helicopter and forms his body into a parachute. Sue manages to cushion their landing with a force field. Everyone climbs out as the machine teeters on the roof`s edge.

As Reed explains how an electromagnetic pulse disabled the helicopter, Lieutenant Lumpkin finds a group of IDs lying on the roof. One of them belongs to Sue and Johnny`s father, Professor Storm. The group prepares to enter the building, over Lumpkin`s objections. A door has opened on the roof to let them in; Reed decides it`s a challenge from whoever disabled the helicopter and has taken control of the Baxter Building.

We see that the person in control of the building is a teen-age girl. She speaks in run-on sentences to a robot as she sends it to capture the Fantastic Four. Above, the party works their way through various rooms. Suddenly the girl`s face appears on a wide-screen monitor. She tells Reed that she`s sealed prisoners in a room with limited air, then she signs off. Sue identifies her as Rhona Burchill, a girl interviewed the day before Reed came to the Baxter Building. Burchill had been turned down for admittance.

The rescue party locates the door, and Johnny offers to burn through it, but Reed argues that doing so might fry the people inside. Finally Ben Grimm steps forward and rips the door out of the wall. The people in the room are strapped into wiring that keeps them sedated. Reed mentions that a student had designed the system, which included gel containing a tranquilizer. Suddenly a form leaps out and begins shooting gel at Ben, who falls down. Johnny prepares to flame on, but his flames burn too hot, and he passes out. Sue manages to save herself and Reed with a force field, but she too collapses.

The form with the gun turns out to be the robot Burchill sent; she speaks to Reed through it, telling him that Johnny`s flame used up the air in the room. She has left one terminal running and is controlling the life support. She challenges Reed to stop her. Reed dodges small mechanical drones like the ones Victor Von Doom sent in an earlier story, then races back to the screen where they first saw Burchill`s image and it`s connected to another active terminal. Burchill uses the terminal to deliver a powerful shock and knocks Reed out. She promises he`s going to hate what happens next.

Submitted By: Seldes Katne