As Susan came forward, the young man undid whatever was holding Franklin in place on his head then held out the baby to her, whereupon she grasped Franklin and pulled him to her in a grateful embrace. The other three came forward as Susan started to ignore her surroundings to check on her baby and just generally cuddle with him in relief, with the baby responding enthusiastically in return, apparently none the worse for his adventure.
Reed took a moment to take in what had obviously been a battlefield not too long ago. There seemed to be fifteen of Annihilus's followers scattered, and he used the word with feeling, around. He could literally not tell how many of them there had been originally, there were far too many pieces. A few seemed to have been somehow converted to other things, somehow transfigured from living to nonliving matter. The outcrop of spinning rock that the young man was standing on seemed to be one such.
Some of them had been turned to glass then shattered, others had been impaled or simply exploded. One, oddly enough, looked as if it had been dressed in a clown outfit then crucified onto another that had been transformed into wood formed into a crucifix shape. He wondered what kind of ability the young man had that could have done all this. Perhaps he is a mutant like Xavier or some of the others we have met in the past two years. I wonder how he arrived in the Negative Zone?
The young man looked at the trio and his smirk if anything widened after taking in their odd appearance, showing little to no surprise at any of them. "If you don't mind me saying so I think I'll let you," he pointed at Ben, "take out the next group that shows up, old boy. They're a bit more in your weight class than mine and I could do with a break."
Ben grinned, liking this kid already. "Sure thing. Thanks fer finding and looking after our little guy there."
"I'll help!" Johnny said, a little miffed that his own appearance didn't cause some reaction from the other young man. He was, y'know, on fire after all! In fact, the other man looked so calm and accepting of their appearance that it was a little weird.
"And if I ever need to start a fire, I'll know where to go", the green-eyed man said, waving his fingers a little.
Johnny looks down at himself and realized that he wasn't on fire anymore, and he floundered in midair having lost all propulsion. "What did you do?"
"Just a little flame freeze charm, my friend. After all," he said sententiously "secondhand smoke is bad for babies." Johnny growled a little and the green-eyed man shrugged. "Sorry chum, but I've got a thing against blond pretty boys and unfortunately you look like their poster child. This will be the first of many pranks, I warn you."
Ben broke out into loud guffaws as Susan recovered enough of her presence to join Reed in thanking the young man. He simply smiled and held up a hand. "No thanks necessary. After all, I didn't think he was one of them when I saw Annihilus' boys carting him off, wrong color and species for that. Besides, he's been quite the pleasant company for the past week. After five years trapped in this Zone it's become a bit boring, don't you know."
"Five years!", Susan gasped then paused. "A week! It's only been a few hours, maximum of twelve since he was taken!"
The young man and Reed answered at the same time. "Time moves differently in the Negative Zone." Then they looked at each other and the young man grinned. "I don't suppose I could catch a lift to the old sandbox, can I? And how did you lot get in here anyway?"
"The portal is one of my inventions, and I've been researching the Negative Zone for some time, though I'm sorry to say I never saw evidence there was a human trapped here." Reed replied.
"Portal and you said the heathen word 'research'," the black-haired man mused aloud, "so that means you're not wizards. Don't suppose I could ask you to give me the year and the date, could I?"
"It's the year 19**. We came through from San Francisco where the Baxter Building, our home is located," Susan answered. "But what do you mean when you say wizards?" Agatha was a witch, and they knew about magic, but she didn't use any spells that could account for the variety of wreckage around them.
"I should've expected you were Yanks by your accents. And as for magic, that's how I got here, and trust me, where I'm from I could count the number of magic users on one hand that knew what the scientific method was. I suppose you could call me a victim of a dishonest government and the media it controlled. There was a civil war and I decided to 'gasp' actually fight it rather than simply assume that the corrupt government, that the narcissistic bigots I was fighting controlled, would actually prosecute them after they were caught."
"But after the big baddy was put down the bloody bastards in power decided they had no need of me. Before they could decide to have me killed in any of the esoteric ways they had access to, I decided to take a leap of faith and go through what they called the Veil of Death. But either it wasn't that way for me personally, which wouldn't be the first time I've broken the rules of magic, they're not so much rules you understand as guidelines, or they were just wrong, wouldn't be the first time for that either."
As Reed was wondering about their new acquaintance's psychological state, Susan suddenly brought her hand up to her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry we haven't even introduced ourselves. This is Franklin, who you've already met obviously. I'm Susan, this is my husband, Reed, that is our friend, Ben, and my brother Johnny. And yes, I'm sure we can give you a lift back to Earth. Though I have to say that what you're describing doesn't sound at all familiar."