Ultimate Fantastic Four: Think Tank, Part 2
Issue: #20
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Jae Lee
Inker:
Colors: June Chung

Reed Richards awakens to find the rest of his team hooked up to wires and sedatives, and Rhona Burchill babbling at him. He asks what she`s done, and she breaks in to reply that she`s keeping his friends unconscious by guesswork, since no one knows how their metabolisms work. Reed finishes his question by asking what Rhona has done to herself. She injects him with a "liquid memory"� so he can see for himself.

The next sequence shows Rhonal`s birth, her ability to spell and create sentences at a very early age, her inability to fit in at school, her parents` attempts to get her into programs for the gifted, and finally her arrival at the Baxter Building. She`s turned down because of psychological problems, while Reed is accepted. Determined to pay Reed and everyone else back, she finds a way to remove her brother`s brain tissue and graft it onto her own.

Reawakening in the present, Reed finds that Burchill has set up an online auction for the Fantastic Four, who are eventually sold to Laveria. Burhill`s robot begins moving the team members into a transport platform, when suddenly the helicopter that had crash-landed in the last issue breaks free. Reed saves Rhona, then makes a break for freedom. Burchill has used biochemistry to convince Reed`s body that it`s eighty years old, so he can`t move far or fast, but he does switch off the monitors, preventing her from tracking him. He also pulls the sedative needles out of the others.

Ben Grimm wakes up first. Burchill`s robots jump him, and Ben proceeds to trash them. Burchill blinds him with a flash of light, then shoots a fatal dose of sedative at Reed; it bounces off a force field that Sue hastily puts up. Burchill kicks Sue as she becomes visible. Johnny begins to power up, but the robots suddenly all take on Burchill`s form and all escape.

Once order is restored, the Storm family reunites and their father tells them he`s proud of them, despite what happened in Las Vegas. Reed Richards sits down to check his answering machine, and after a couple of wrong numbers, suddenly hears the voice of someone trying to contact him and begging for his help. In the final panel we see an older version of Reed reflected in the younger Reed`s glasses.

Submitted By: Seldes Katne