Victorious is furiously etching an entire room within Victory Castle with his arcanotech-- his time on Earth might be limited. As a Herald of Galactus, he could be called at any time to perform his sacred duty. Until then... Ah! To have such power and be unable to help all of earth! But HE, VICTORIOUS, will do it, must do it!
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The Mole Man and Fantastic Girl have an announcement, they had often frustrated the team by leaving separately, but they always drew back to each other. But it makes sense to leave... together. There's a surprising number of undiscovered countries and monsters, right up their alley!
Victorious tells them that's not important right now.
Wizard has readied a different approach to his Wonder Gloves™, one that incorporates localized grav-response induction over rigid quantum actualarities.
Victorious tells him that's not important right now.
Mr. V shows his team that there's a progression, a momentum of their discoveries, and as the world's foremost science heroes, they should be the ones on the cusp of that wave! Like this, the particle generator being experimented on by...
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Owen Reece, a lowly lab technician at Acme Atomics, was lamenting his lot in life. Sure, he became a rocket scientist, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to tell him he was at a dead end in life. Sort of makes all that college a waste of time.
So imagine his surprise when 4-Victory arrive for a tour of his wing! The world's scientists supreme? Here? Wow. Owen's ecstatic! Or he's hyperglycemic, which is hereditary, after all.
The Wizard asks some questions (on behalf of Victorious), and Owen is more than happy to try to act important and as if he knows everything. I mean, in *theory* he knows everything, and since this is all theoretical physics, that sure is convenient, huh? Ha-ha-ha!! Ha-- ha... Ha. .... Ahem.
The Wizard doesn't see anything that's cutting edge, or couldn't be replicated at Victory Castle, but Victorious knows better. He has suspected there is something *beyond* normal science here. Which perks Owen up. He hasn't shown them the best part! He tries to get the experimental particle generator working, the one that taps into a newly discovered extradimensional energy. But... it doesn't work? Nothing? Not a bit. Huh. Here-- just a second. He actually has to tap it a bit with this monkey wrench. Sometimes those clichés are the best technology we have.
Wait! Owen! Don't--
TAP.
BOOM.
Owen Reese awakes in a quaint Greek restaurant, one that's quite empty. This is convenient, since he wanted some nice eggplant moussaka recently. But the members of 4-Victory have found themselves inside a glass casserole dish, about to be roasted alive! They manage to burst out eventually. but Owen is so surprised, he drops his baklava.
Owen finds himself in many an odd places after that. A boat in the moat headed toward a Tunnel of Love. A UFO-catcher full of overdue library books. A co-ed dorm room. Okay, that last one could have been alright.
But each time, 4-Victory had to fight their way out of Owen's "dreams." In fact, Owen was subconsciously re-writing the reality around him, warping all the molecules into twisted scenes better left for therapy sessions. Except that the people in Acme Atomics (including 4-Victory) weren't effected, and could only be tossed around like so many characters in some amateurish fan fiction.
In their final confrontation-- in Lego-version of Donkey Kong's scaffolding-- the 4-Vees had to talk Owen down to reality, despite the fact that reality wasn't all that appealing. Victorious has an offer-- to let Owen try to use his powers to *help* fix things wrong in the world. All he needs-- is a focus.
But... that's just a stick. Nonsense. Owen can use it to become the Molecule Man! (Oh, so it's a crutch.) Try it! Every hero needs a costume. Fzwam! How's that? Is the cape too much? I think it might be a bit too much.
Cover and text by Danny Wall
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