"I knew the Super Skrull couldn't be trusted," Mr. Fantastic said, as he put the Pogo Plane in a hovering position above the warehouse that the Thing was fighting his foes in. "I should have anticipated this."

"Reed, you couldn't have predicted this," Susan Storm offered a consolation to her husband. The FF found Sue when she escaped Malice's trap in an alley in the heart of New York City. Reed was glad to have back within the FF fold.

"There's no sense beating yourself over the head," Johnny said to calm his brother-in-law down. No sense getting unduly angry over this situation, he thought.

"I have to warn you people here that we're fighting three villains, instead of just one," Reed continued. "Two of which have the capacity to set our emotions against us. And the other has the combined power of our team. We have to be on our guard."

"I hear ya, Reed," Johnny said, exiting the plane and taking to flight in his fiery form. He whispered a battle cry of 'flame on'.

"It looks like my ancestor has taken to battle before listening your warning," Lila said, as she used her telekinesis to alight on the ground below. "I'll have to show him the error of his ways, before it's too late.'

Reed sighed.

"I know, how you must feel, darling," Susan said, staying in the plane for her husband to exit, also, with her. "Losing control of the team that you founded with that fateful accident in space that granted us our powers. I can understand Lila doing it, she's new, but the rest. You should be sued to it by now."

"I never does get easy, Sue," Reed said, and he offered her a ramp composed out of the stretchability of his own pliable body that Susan Storm slid down from. "It never does."

When the entire FF arrived at the entrance of the warehouse, they all saw that a major slugfest was being taken place there and that the Thing, trapped within his super powered suit, was frozen with fear. Not too far away, the Psycho-man was touching very sensitive buttons on his hate box. If he were to utilize further emotion buttons on that box to entrap the rest of the team, they would be doomed.

Mr. Fantastic clenched his hand into a fist, ready to punch the Psycho-man upside the head and remove his control over his hate box.

"Oh, that's far enough, Dr. Richards," Psycho-man said, pulling his hate box away from Mr. Fantastic's reach. "You'll not win this day with that maneuver."

Psycho-man touched a computerized stud on the box marked 'anger' and all members of the Fantastic Four, including the fear-driven Thing, were possessed of massive hate towards each other.

"We have other matters to concern us," Psycho-man said and the three villains took their leave.

"Oh, Reedy, baby," the Thing shouted at the top of his lungs, "It's clobberin' time!!" With that said, the Thing set in motion a flurry of activity that caused the rest of the FF, Lila too, to fight amongst themselves. The Thing used his superhuman strength to punch at Reed's body. Reed fought by punching him back with all the strength housed within his stretchable body. He was no match for the Thing.

The Storm siblings from the present time faced off against Lila. Lila's TK powers were no match for the combined might of the Torch's flame balls and heat blasts and the Invisible Woman's forceshields and invisible blasts. She had to use her optic blasts to retaliate.

For several minutes, the fight between all members of the team was an even stalemate and no side appeared to be winning.

Then, a third and fourth party entered the warehouse. "Freeze, police! You are all under arrest!!" a police officer, wielding a very powerful handgun shouted, as he, a slew of police officers as backup, and a mob of angry protestors walked into the room where they were fighting.

As the FF saw the approaching law enforcement officials and the mob, the Psycho-man released his hate hold on them and focused his hate box on the new arrivals.

"It was as I feared," Reed said. "The Psycho-man and the Hatemonger used their powers to make us fight amongst ourselves and now he used that power on these innocents. This is not going to going to look good on our bad press."

"Reed, you have an incredible grasp for understatement," Sue said. "So what do you think we should do? We can't fight them for fear of hurting them."

"We have to do something," the Thing said.

"Ben's right," Reed offered. "We have to do something."

"All right, enough jabbering," the head police officer shouted. "Hands above your head!" He suddenly felt that his gun that he was pointing at them was getting very hot and out of spite, he dropped it. "What the?! It's flaming hot!!"

"Johnny, how could you?" Sue asked.

"These guys weren't going to listen to reason, we have to fight our way out of this. Flame on!" With this battlecry, Johnny Storm transformed into the Human torch and flew around the police officers, melting all of their guns and weaponry.

"Johnny, no, you can't harm them," Reed shouted to his compatriot. But Johnny Storm wasn't going to listen to reason as he encircled the mob of police officers with a wall of flame about as high as their heads and shot flame balls at the mob of angry protesters. He seemed to be tired of this epidemic of hate that had been festering all throughout the city for the last couple of days and wanted a quick end to it.

"There is no sense talking to him calmly, Reed," the Thing said, as a stray mob member threw punches in his general direction. "He's not listening and neither are these yahoos. I say we try to get our way of this one by causing as minimal damage as possible. Without trying to hurt them needlessly."

"I agree with you wholeheartedly, Ben."

"Then, let's follow Johnny's example," Sue said, as she erected an invisible shield around the protesters and police officers to prevent them from attacking them. "Johnny, follow me, I know a way out of this place. And Thing, please fetch Miss Lumpkin."

The Thing complied as he was ordered from Sue Storm and once the entire Fantastic four were together in one place, she placed an invisible shield around them and shot upwards towards the roof and through it. To freedom.

Once they deposited Willie Lumpkin in a safe house in a section of Four Freedom Plaza, so that she wouldn't be kidnapped again, the FF returned to their home and headquarters to gather information.

Johnny Storm turned on the television to hear more of the hatefilled mob that was resting outside of their labs. He didn't like what he found out. It really irked him. The news reporters said that several villains, including the Super Skrull and Malice were on a rampage through the city.

"Well, ain't that nice?" the Torch asked sarcastically. "Not only do we have to battle this hate mob but some of our deadliest foes are running rampant through the city. What do we do now, Reed?"

Reed turned from his station at the lab. "I do have a plan. To stop this needless rampage of foes, we have to find the Psycho-man and Hate Monger and find out what their next plan is."

style="mso-spacerun: yes"> "And do you expect we do that?" Johnny asked. "We're not mindreaders."

"We don't have to be. We just have to approach this with a touch of intelligence of thinking where they would strike next."

"And that would be?" Johnny asked.

"We have to discover who our enemies are. We know about the Super Skrull, the Hate Monger, and the Psycho-man. But we don't know zip about this Malice character. Besides Lila here, everyone knows that for the briefest of times, Sue herself was Malice, twisted by the evil machinations of the Hate Monger and the Psycho-man to turn against the FF. Her first duty was to attack the She-hulk, who was then a member of the FF, when Ben left for a time."

"So, what is she a robot?" Ben queried.

"No, I don't think so. I don't think that the Hate Monger and company would have the technology to employ a robot of any design. My guess is that someone with Sue's identity and powers would be the culprit. And that leaves Queen Invisible."

"Y' mean, good ol' Doc Doom's wife?" Ben asked.

"The one and the same. Which means that we have an ace in the hole. Sue who can incapacitate Queen Invisible."

"Does that mean that Doom is somehow behind this?"

"That is a safe bet. We can find the Super Skrull and Queen Invisible, roaming the city and trying to draw us out of hiding. But, first I have to test a new invention of mine on Ben."

Hiding in an alley somewhere in downtown, the Hate Monger and the Psycho-man looked heavenward as the Super Skrull and Malice wasted the remains of the city. K'lrt used his flame powers to set the city afire and Queen Invisible hurled invisible balls with deadly force at the hapless citizens.

"This looks good, master," the Hate Monger said to the Psycho-man. "The Super Skrull and-hee hee-Malice has done their work beautifully. Soon, with our emotion-playing powers in full swing, this city, nay this planet itself, shall be ours for the taking. Don't you agree, master?"

"I will see it when it happens," the Psycho-man responded. "We still have the Fantastic Four to contend with. If Reed Richards devises a way to revert Benjamin Grimm to the super-powered Thing, then all will be doomed. But that is why we have Malice, don't we?"

The two villains laughed a monstrous laugh, as the two super-beings cut a major swath through the city, terrorizing all the inhabitants.