Rocky Grimm Space Ranger Part VI (of XII): One Thing Leads to Another!

Ben Grimm and Tarianna are continuing their expedition of Battleworld, scaling a massive mountain. When the reach the top, Tarianna asks why Ben didn't transform into the Thing as it would have made climbing easier. Ben explains that his time here on Battleworld wasn't meant to be easy. Then when trying to explain that he had strayed on Battleworld to sort out his feelings for a woman back home, he and Tarianna both find themselves kissing each other. Feeling conflicted between his feelings for Alicia Masters and Tarianna, Ben stops and just as he does the ground begins to shake. Suddenly, the ground beneath Ben opens up and he falls through the hole. Before Tarianna can follow after him the hole seals up trapping her outside, but she vows to rescue Ben no matter what. Meanwhile, Ben falls down a deep pit and decides to change into the Thing so he can survive the impact when he reaches the bottom. Climbing out of the rubble of his impact, Ben finds himself in a strange cave with a series of networked tunnels and begins looking for a way out. As he goes, he recalls that every time he tries to get close to Tarianna something interrupts him, between his need to help the Turek to his battle against Gruhl. However, he can't help but wonder if it is possibly the guilt he feels over Alicia Masters, the woman he left behind back home and his feelings about her that he stayed on Battleworld to sort out. Ben realizes that staying on Battleworld hasn't helped clear his muddled thoughts.

As Tarianna begins to dig through the earth to try and find Ben, Ben continues his thoughts as he tries to find a way out. Reverting back to human form, Ben thinks about how he could be trapped below for months. Pulling out the device that Reed left him, Ben wonders if it might just be better just to return home to Earth instead. Ben decides against it and agrees to rethink his situation if he gets hungrier.

While on the surface, Tarianna is attacked by a rock burrowing worm-like creature and slays it. When the creature dies, she then uses the tunnel it has burrowed to gain access to the ground below in the hopes it will lead her to Ben.

Elsewhere in the tunnels, Ben is suddenly ambushed by an army of creatures that resemble his Thing form. When he tries to talk sense into them, they won't listen. Thinking maybe turning into the Thing might help, Ben is shocked when he tries to transform and finds that cannot.

Meanwhile, Tarianna finds herself in a cavern full of animated skeletons that are trying to kill her. Back with the Things, the creatures take Ben's signal device and one of them takes it off to be examined. Needing it to eventually get home, Ben manages to struggle loose and make a break for it. Hiding out, he is confronted by who claims to be Lorra Gudma, the elder of the Things, who helps hide him. After the Things pass be her home, Gudma allows him to continue on. However "Lorra Gudma" is not what she seems, when after Ben leaves "she" changes into a mysterious cloaked man, who laughs with a tone of menace over unfolding events.

As Tarianna battles her way through the skeletons, Ben tries to sneak out of the Things' village by draping himself in a robe to disguise himself. When a sudden earthquake threatens to cause a cave-in, Ben almost high tails it out of there when he suddenly remembers he needs to get the teleportation device back. On his way back into the Things' village, he spots a strange cloaked figure watching over him. Realizing that this man is causing the earthquakes, Ben tries to take a lunge at him, but the strange cloaked figure disappears in a wisp of smoke, leaving Ben open for recapture by the Things.

Meanwhile, the strange cloaked figure ambushes Tarianna and takes her prisoner.

Back with the Things, Ben is let go when the Things realize that he is no responsible for the danger they have faced recently. After returning his device, they show him the way out of the tunnels. Along the way, Ben discovers his ability to change back and forth into the Thing has returned.

On his way out, Ben comes across the destroyed skeletons and Tarianna's sword among the ruin.

Recurring Characters

Thing, Tarianna, Grimm the Sorcerer

Continuity Notes

• This story takes place after the events of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12. In the second issue of that series, Ben discovered that he could change back to human form. By the end of the series he believed it was something to do with Battleworld and decided to stay behind. In reality, as Mister Fantastic deduced in Fantastic Four #245, a mental block in Ben's mind associated with his relationship with Alicia Masters has prevented Ben from willingly being able to change back and forth. A fact that Reed keeps secret from Ben until Thing #23.

• Ben believes that his surroundings were the product of the Beyonder creating Battleworld in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1. However, his surroundings are actually being shaped by his subconscious mind, as revealed in Thing #22.

• The mysterious cloaked man turns out to be Ben's dark side, dubbed Grimm the Sorcerer as revealed in Thing #22.

• Also discovered in Thing #22, Tarianna is the image of Ben's ideal woman. It's later revealed in Thing #27 that Tarianna's appearance is based on a female adventurer named Sharon Ventura. He is also presently struggling over his feelings for his girlfriend Alicia Masters whose romance he has been re-evaluating since Thing #2.