Ben Grimm opened his eyes slowly, one at a time, when the need for sleep was over and found himself back in FF Plaza. Peach colored hands were a not-so-welcome change from his orange rocky hide. Even though when he was romantically involved with Alicia he wanted nothing more than to love her as plain ol' Ben Grimm, now all he wanted was to be the Thing again. To pound some heads. Specifically, the Thunder Gods weapons-carrying gang that caused his present predicament.

He looked around him. He was no longer on the floor of the First National Bank, nearly beaten to death by the gang and their super-powered weapons. Now, he was in a lab of some sort. He was in Reed's lab. Only his best friend, Reed Richards, could solve this mystery of how common gang members could cause this transformation.

"Reed, what happened to me? How did they--??" Ben said.

"Don't worry, my friend. I'm working on it." At the other side of the huge laboratory, Mr. Fantastic stretched his arm to help his friend up from his bed. Despite all his injuries, Ben was recovering quite well but seemed weak all the same.

"So, what's the verdict, boss-man? Ya gotta help me."

"Of course, I will, Ben, my friend. What it boils down to is this; I don't know where the Thunder Gods retrieved this brand of weaponry, maybe off the black market, but it seems to me that they acquired them from a new super-villain. AIM comes to mind. That is their stock in trade. But whatever the origin of it, it seems that the last rifle emitted cosmic rays into your system that caused a reversal of your metabolic system and put your Thing persona in remission."

"Please, in English!"

"Simply, they hit your trigger button that allows you to change into Ben Grimm, or could, before you killed your 'Ben Grimm' side."*

(* In Marvel's classic Thing #23.)

"Even my Aunt Petunia wouldn't believe that," Ben said, as he sat up straight.

Then, all of a sudden, a fiery figure and an invisible woman enter the lab. "I have something else that she won't believe either," Johnny Storm says to the assemblage. Sue becomes visible and Johnny extinguishes his flames, as Lila Storm also enters the room.

"What's going on?" Lila asks.

"Simply, I went to Willie Lumpkin's apartment to make sure that she's all right, and she was missing. I think someone kidnapped her. That 'someone' should be the man or woman responsible for all this mess."

"What happened then, Johnny?" Lila again.

"I was attacked by a mob of people like the one that Ben here got beaten up by."

"Watch it, matchstick!" Ben shouted, standing up and facing his friend, ready to fight him in his human form.

"Ben, this is hardly the time for fighting amongst ourselves." Sue sent an invisible wall between the two warring factions, separating the two from hurting one another. "We have something serious here!"

"I know, Suzie Q, but even if I'm never the Thing again, I'm not gonna let this punk kid get the better of me."

"Yeah, cool it, Thing-less," Johnny said snidely as an aside to his friend who had a short temper.

"I think the best for us is to go searching for Willie," Reed said, as leader of the team. "We need to find out what is going on. And Ben... I have something for you."

"And that is?"

"This!"

Reed uncovered a curtain and he revealed an ersatz Thing suit that Ben used previously. Ben smiled and was ready for battle.

Later, the Fantastic Four plus their new member, Lila Storm, walked through the streets of Manhattan, trying with all their might to find an answer to Ben's recent attack. They came up empty-handed. Ben was clad in his Thing suit and the rest of the team was clad in their superhero costumes. Reed gave Lila another Fantastic Four costume, once she decided to join the team. Susan set up a sitter with her son, Franklin and Lila's infant, Brake.

"This is all fine and dandy, Reed," Ben said. "But how will this find the Thunder Gods gang? This is not even near the First National Bank."

"Patience, Ben," Sue said, trying to calm him down with her soothing words. "I think Reed is doing the best he can."

"Actually, Ben, Sue, I'm getting a fix on these mob filled people that attacked you earlier. I think that once we find the mob, we'll find the Thunder Gods. This Geiger counter I'm using indicates that there is a considerable amount of radiation emitting from this area."

"And it's not from the three of you, I gather," Lila said.

"Hah. That would take the cake," Ben added. "Reed thinking the radiation comes from the mob or the gang but it's really us. Speakin' of which, I thought only Banner carried Geiger counters or those Hulkbusters from his early days. He told me several stories about that. Well, I remember-"

"You better get outta here right away, Lila,' Johnny retorted, indicating that he didn't care one note of his friend's remembrances of the past. "When Ben gets going on these flashbacks of his, he just won't stop."

"Hahahaha!" Lila laughed. She smiled a great big grin that all except the Thing, or Ben who was encased in the Thing armor, found humor in her rebuttal. "You're right, Johnny. I never thought that about him. I'll have you to keep me on my toes."

Ben raised a Thing-shaped fist at his non-fiery foe. "You better not put her up to that again, Johnny, or I'll paste ya one."

"Them's fighting words, Mr. Grimm. Flame on!" In a single burst of energy, Johnny Storm's entire body burst into his flames but his suit was spared because it was composed of Reed's unstable molecules. The Human Torch encircled Ben again, throwing flame balls all around him.

"Boys, boys, will you stop clowning around!" Sue ordered. "Flame off, Johnny. And Ben! Somebody will have to put a damper on your foul temper! Now, I'm sure Reed has something for us to do. It looks like he found something. Reed?"

Reed cleared his throat, as they all saw a mob facing them. The same kind of angry-filled mob that attacked both Ben and Johnny, respectively. *

(* Last issue.)

"It looks like the mob has come to us," Reed stated.

The Thing slammed his two gargantuan fists together. "Oho! I can feel another scrap is due for us and this time, I think there will be a different outcome, namely us!"

"Ben, we can't fight them," Sue stated. "We might hurt them. They look like zombies, like they are under the control of a powerful being. We don't even know who's behind their control. Be on your own guard, FFers! You too, Lila!"

"Easier said than done, Susan," Lila said, as she stood her ground for battle. "Here they come!"

One of the mob people acquired a low-level grenade from an army base in the southwest and hurled it at the Fantastic Four. Lila erected a TK shield to block the brunt of the blow with the help of the Invisible Woman's invisible forceshield because her TK wasn't enough to do the job.

KAROOOOM! The grenade exploded mere inches from the two women's faces. Lila's healing factor and Sue's forceshield protected them both from the blow.

"Still think we should be handling this wit' kid gloves?" Ben asked Sue but Sue had no words for him because she had turned invisible.

"I'll see if I can find out who's controlling this mob," Sue said to the four.

"Be careful, Sue," Reed said.

"Aren't I always?" Sue answered.

Susan Storm, invisible to all passersby and mob members, walked through the dark alleys of the streets of Manhattan, trying to find the cause of this madness. She was thus stymied. She couldn't figure out what was going on, what could have possessed the mob to go crazy like that, to become a mob to begin with. What were they so angry about? Surely living with super heroes, like the Fantastic Four or the Avengers, would be a healthy alternative to living without them.

"Hold, Susan Storm!" a voice called out.

Sue turned around, knowing that whoever was the source of this voice could see her even though she was invisible. So, to ease matters, she turned visible and saw a maddened reflection of herself.

It was Malice, Mistress of Hate. But that couldn't be? She was Malice, when the Hate Monger and the Psycho-man twisted her for their own evil ends. To destroy the Fantastic Four, specifically the She-hulk. *

(* In Marvel's Fantastic Four #280-281.)

Could the Hate Monger come back again? Was this his machinations that turned an entire city against them? That means that this Malice was nothing more than a robot.

"You may be me, toots," Sue said, "But that doesn't mean I'll let you take me!"

Just then, a mob member punched Sue upside the head, knocking her out. Her energy was focused on Malice so she hadn't anticipated a surprise attack.

"Good. Now I can join the others."

"Hear me, Fantastic Four! Once I was a weakling named Susan Storm who accepted her secondary role as string player for the Fantastic Four. Now I am reborn as Malice, Mistress of Hate. The leather suits my new personality, don't you think, Reed darling? Hear me, now, o people. For this is the last thing you will hear as you die by my hands!" screamed Malice at the top of her lungs as she stretched her invisibility power to its limit and beyond.

"Sue, is that really you?" Reed asked. "What are you doing back as Malice?"

"Why, to kill you, of course. Let me give you a sample of how."

Malice then proceeded to surround the Fantastic Four members in an invisible isolation chamber, lifting them several feet in the air, and then, dropped them to the ground, releasing them from the chamber. They scattered like flies. They were all knocked unconscious.

Then, the mob of angry people, shouting their mantras, tied all members to a wooden pole, and lit a fire beneath them.

They all shouted, "Death to the Fantastic Four! Let humanity prevail!!"