Invasion From the 5th (Count It, 5th!) Dimension

Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters are leaving the Metropolitan Opera House after a performance of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, but they walk only a short way before Ben is besieged by autograph hunters. Ben signs a few autographs, but when a small boy becomes frightened by his appearance, Ben and Alicia quickly depart. Alicia asks him not to hurry, because she cannot see, and Ben apologizes, adding a few self-deprecatory remarks. When Alicia accuses him of fishing for compliments, Ben replies that he cannot understand why she is in love with him.

At about the same time, Johnny Storm, dressed in a new suit, enters a tavern called "Your Mother's Moustache," When he sees a girl apparently unescorted, he approaches her, but her boyfriend appears and roughly tells Johnny to move along. Johnny becomes angry and bursts into flame, much to the astonishment of the boyfriend, and soon he melts his way out of the place, annoyed at having lost control. Elsewhere, Reed and Sue are taking a walk and discussing the possibility of Sue's returning to the Fantastic Four full time. Sue has thought of becoming a private detective, and Reed asserts that the Invisible Girl would be very good at the job. Sue says that it is difficult to find oneself, and sometimes she wishes she had never learned that she was lost. As Medusa leaves the public library, the Torch flies back to the Baxter Building, and at 12:32 a.m. he descends toward the roof and enters. A minute before, a wind whipped through the streets surrounding the headquarters, strong enough to knock over ex-Marine Barney Slocum, now a derelict living in the building's shadow. The wind arose from the passage of the mutant Quicksilver as he sped toward the Baxter Building.

As Quicksilver comes to a halt, he uses a communi-disc to contact the Great Refuge, and the face in the disc asks whether he has put Plan "M" into operation yet. Quicksilver replies that he has not, because the teleportation device set him down too far from the city, and he requests more reconnaissance time. But his request is denied, so he begins the assault phase of his mission by speeding into an uncompleted subway tunnel to the secret entrance to the Baxter Building. A massive door opens when Quicksilver touches certain bricks in a pre-set order, and he enters. Meanwhile, Johnny heads for the shower, a bit disappointed that he has to spend Friday night alone. When he finishes and starts putting on his uniform, he is surprised to find Quicksilver in the room with him. Quicksilver tells Johnny to sit down, because he has some questions to ask, but Johnny is in no mood to be ordered around. Quicksilver then grabs Johnny's wrist, but Johnny flames on, burns the speedy mutant, and melts his communi-disc. Johnny is furious. He worked hard at playing the good loser at Quicksilver's wedding, he shouts, but he doesn't have to put up with him "on his own time." Then Johnny chases Quicksilver out of his room with fireballs, and Quicksilver heads for Reed's laboratory. Johnny is less likely to use his flame there because of damage to the equipment. Johnny then calls Quicksilver a coward, and the battle begins. Quicksilver knocks Johnny toward the elevator just as Reed, Ben, Medusa, Sue, and Alicia step out. Ben grabs hold of Quicksilver, but before Ben can punch him, Reed stops him to find out why Quicksilver is there. He came to bring Medusa back, he says, because Black Bolt needs her. He also mentions that he has been made an Inhuman by special decree. Then he explains what just happened in the Great Refuge.

Quicksilver's marriage to Crystal was the first time that an Inhuman ever married an outsider. After the wedding, Maximus was jailed for attempting to disrupt the ceremony, and the revelry in Attilan went far into the night. The weeks after the honeymoon passed peacefully, but two nights ago, an army of strange soldiers suddenly materialized within the Palace Royal and began killing guardsmen, until they ran into Black Bolt, Karnak, and Gorgon in the Hall of Heroes. This was the invasion force of Xemu, master of the Fifth Dimension, and they had planned their raid well. Karnak was felled with a special weapon that wrapped him up in cables, while Gorgon was knocked out with a blaster. Then there was a tremendous shock wave that knocked out virtually all the other Inhumans, including Quicksilver. Only Triton, in his special watery living quarters, man• aged to escape by diving into the bottomless fountain at the center of the city. Legend has it that the water in the fountain descends without end, and not even Triton had ever plumbed its depths. Later, Xemu ordered the royal family brought before him in chains. He offered to set Quicksilver free, because he was not an Inhuman, if he would dive after Triton and bring him back. But Quicksilver replied that he became an Inhuman by marriage and will remain an Inhuman till he dies. Then die he shall, said Xemu. Xemu then proclaimed himself sovereign of Attilan. When Gorgon protested, Xemu ordered him placed under an anestho-ray. He did not come unprepared, he told them, indicating the metal clasp that prevented Black Bolt from uttering a word and drained off whatever electron power he could absorb from the air. Then, as Xemu began to explain why he attacked their kingdom, he gestured, and a large, cylindrical device, the Thunder Horn, materialized.

The Inhumans soon remembered where they had heard of Xemu before—he was once one of the Human Torch's antagonists, a madman with the ambition to rule "worlds beyond worlds." Xemu asserted that it is not mad to wish to conquer a universe of dimensions when it is within one's power to do so, and he offered to demonstrate the Thunder Horn to his captives. As he shouted into one end of it, a powerful shock wave emerged from the other end and shattered a nearby mountaintop. The Thunder Horn, a saser weapon (Sound Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), magnifies sound as a laser does light. At this point Quicksilver asked Black Bolt for permission to attack, even though they might all perish in the attempt. But Black Bolt declined, and Xemu declared that Black Bolt now knew why their hidden land was chosen for the invasion. If the Thunder Horn can destroy a mountaintop when powered by Xemu's voice, asked the conqueror, what would it not do when activated by the voice of Black Bolt? Xemu then tried to force Black Bolt to swear to serve him, but he refused. Xemu's lieutenant noted that their psychic probes indicated that ordinary threats would have no effect on Black Bolt, who would allow thousands of Inhumans to die to prevent billions of outsiders from being subjugated. But, said Xemu, Black Bolt might be persuaded to change his mind if his beloved Medusa were threatened. Then Xemu ordered Quicksilver to travel to the United States and bring back Medusa. Should Quicksilver defy him, he continued, then Crystal would die.

Soon a helpless Quicksilver entered Xemu's dimensional transporter and was carried to a swampy area in Long Island. Then he raced as fast as he could to New York. As Quicksilver finishes his narrative, Reed comments that Xemu's D-machine must have a built-in affinity for that area of Long Island, for that is where Xemu materialized when he battled the Human Torch years ago. Medusa remarks that Quicksilver would do anything to protect Crystal, even lie. Then Ben, Johnny, and Reed decide to take Quicksilver and Medusa back to the Great Refuge themselves. Quicksilver says they must not, for Xemu will kill Crystal, but Medusa says that Crystal would want it this way. Surely, says Sue, Xemu must have foreseen this, and Reed replies that they probably are heading into a trap. But there is little else they can do, and after Reed asks Sue to remain behind with Franklin, the companions strap themselves into the passenger ICBM and launch themselves toward the Himalayas.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Medusa, Human Torch, Thing), Alicia Masters, Quicksilver, Xemu, Inhumans (Black Bolt, Crystal, Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, Maximus)

Continuity Notes

• The narrative of this story references the football game that Ben took Alicia to in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4.

• Sue has just recently returned to her husband in Fantastic Four #149 after a lengthy separation that began in Fantastic Four #130. Here she is debating on rejoining the FF full time, a decision she makes next issue.

• Everyone -- including Quicksilver himself -- believes that Pietro is a mutant. However as revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4, it has been revealed that Quicksilver was experimented upon as a child by the High Evolutionary, who covered his tracks by making it that Quicksilver registers as a mutant if anyone were to check his DNA.

• Once again there is a reference to Johnny's past relationship with Pietro's wife Crystal. The pair dated between Fantastic Four #65-105 when pollution forced Crystal to return home to Attilan. She met and chose Quicksilver over Johnny in Fantastic Four #131-132.

• Xemu and the beings from the 5th Dimension were last seen when they clashed with the Human Torch way back in Strange Tales #103. In fact, the place where Quicksilver is teleported is the original spot in a Long Island swamp where people can pass between dimensions, as seen in that very story.

• Although it is stated that he comes from the 5th dimension, Xemu actually originates from a parallel reality. It was designated as Reality-6212 in Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe #1.