12 Negative Zone

Laura quickly got settled into my house after I had shown her around. Today was the day Reed planned to test out the portal to the Negative Zone, so I wanted to be there in case something went wrong. I had thought more about my decision to help him in accessing the zone, but I needed the money and it was the best avenue to acquire it so I figured it would be fine.

Laura ended up coming with me to the Baxter Building, never having come with me on my trips there and wanting to see what it was that I had been working on all this time.

Landing in front of the building with our hoverboards, we both collapsed them and put them in our pockets as we walked into the building and entered the elevator. At this point, I had visited this place enough times that the elevator attendant recognized me and brought me straight up to the top floor where the Fantastic Four's lab was.

Exiting the elevator, Laura and I walked into the lab to find the sight of the Negative Zine portal completed. Reed was next to it, looking it over and ensuring that it would operate perfectly for the first test.

"Casper, glad you came. I see you brought Laura with you," Sue said, walking towards us.

"Yeah, she wanted to see what I've been doing all this time. It's not a problem is it?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head.

"No, of course not. Reed's just getting everything ready for the final test," Sue said, leading us over to where Reed was.

"Reed, Casper's here with Laura," Sue said, trying to get Reed's attention, but her words didn't even phase him as he kept looking at the console.

"Reed!" Sue said, annoyance bleeding into her tone as Reed finally looked up from the console and saw us.

"Oh Casper, great your here. I've just finished up the last of the checks, so I think we're good to go," Reed said excitedly.

Sue sighed next to us as I said "That's great. All that work will finally pay off."

Reed nodded as we all stepped back from the portal, Johnny and Ben entering the room as well to watch the portal generation.

"Well hello there, and who might you be?" Johnny asked sidling up to Laura.

"Not interested," was all Laura said as she popped her claws out and pointed them at him.

'Ha, maybe a little bit of an overreaction, but can't say it's not funny.'

"Woah, okay," Johnny said, jumping back and getting some distance from Laura.

"This is it. All my work has led up to this," Reed muttered to himself as he pressed some buttons on the console and the machine began to whir to life.

A circle of energy formed on the platform as it began to swirl, slowly shifting into a void before changing to a view of the other side. Looking through, we could see an alien world. The ground was made of stone with a sort of green living membrane running through it.

"It works," Reed laughed out loud as Sue embraced him.

"So, the portal works that are cool and all, but I think we're all a little more interested in what's on the other side," Johnny said.

"Yes, I have made suits for all of us to explore. Casper, I only have one made for you, I wasn't expecting Laura to accompany you," Reed said.

"That's fine, she can use mine, I have another way to protect myself," I said.

"Well, the suits are designed to adjust to the wearer's size, but are you sure your method will survive whatever conditions are present in this dimension?" Sue asked.

"I'm sure," I said. Sue still looked a little hesitant, but Reed didn't seem to care as he brought out the suits.

"I just realized I didn't ask you. Do you even want to go explore this dimension?" I asked Laura.

"I can't let you get too far in over your head. The last dimensional experience we had ended with us fighting another team of superheroes," Laura said, taking the suit and putting it on. It was similar in appearance to a spacesuit but more streamlined. The suit shrunk to fit Laura properly once she had it on, the Fantastic Four similarly putting their suits on.

"So Casper, what's your method," Sue asked.

"I absorbed a form of energy from one of the heroes we encountered in that other dimension that can protect the user through all kinds of conditions, including space travel," I said, summoning up the green hard-light energy and forming a barrier around my body.

"Interesting, a malleable energy that can withstand any conditions," Reed said, looking me over before nodding.

"Ha, kids more of a glowstick than Johnny now," Ben barked out with a laugh.

"Oh haha, this coming from the walking pile of rocks," Johnny sniped back.

We all stood in front of the portal, as Reed went over some last-minute checks.

"You should only feel a slight compressing feeling as we go through before your suits readjust," Reed warned as we all nodded and stepped through. I didn't feel the compressing feeling Reed mentioned because of the green light protecting me.

We began to walk through the Negative Zone, taking a look around. As we went, Reed and Sue were collecting samples of the ground and different materials that were present in the dimension. Laura and I were content to look around and take in the view. I didn't remember all that much about the specifics of the Negative Zone besides the fact that the main bad guy here was Annihlus.

We continued to walk, venturing deeper and deeper into the Negative Zone as we moved. Reed had a device linked to the portal that would let us return to where it was when we wanted to leave.

"What do you think?" I asked Laura as we walked.

"This place has a weird smell like everything is wrong here," Laura said.

"Well this universe is composed of anti-matter, so it makes sense it would feel off," I said. As I continued looking across the landscape, I began to notice some movement in one point which drew my attention.

"Reed, movement!" I called out.

The Fantastic Four quickly moved to where Laura and I were and looked in the direction I was, noticing that there was a large group of something rushing towards us.

"Denizens of this dimension. I wonder what kind of evolution they have gone through to live through these conditions," Reed said thoughtfully.

"They don't look like they're here for a chat," Ben said, as we finally got a look at the group running towards us. They looked almost like giant insects, and in their hands were some kind of weapon. Beams of energy began to fly towards us as we tried to gain some distance, but they were upon us.

Laura's claws popped out of her suit, the suit remained undamaged as it adjusted to let her utilize them without issue. I similarly popped my claws out as we began to defend ourselves from the mob, killing insects as they fired more and more energy blasts at us.

The Fantastic Four were fighting as well, Johnny having ignited himself, but I couldn't pay much attention to them as we fought the horde.

'I should've read more Fantastic Four comics. They never seemed all that interesting, but it would be good to know what the weaknesses of these things are.'

More and more insects continued to come as we killed them.

"Casper, we need to get back to the portal," Reed called out to me.

"Okay..." I began, but before I could finish, Laura got dogpiled by a group of insects. She tore through a few of them, but their numbers were overtaking her as she began to get dragged back with them.

"Scratch that, need to get Laura, you guys go to the portal," I said, flying through the crowds of insect aliens as I followed the ones taking Laura. As I followed them, I passed a lot of bodies that Laura was leaving behind, but they kept getting replaced with new ones. I could feel gravity beginning to warp as I followed them more.

'We're getting deeper and deeper into the Negative Zone.' I thought as I tried to speed up and catch them, pushing through swaths of the denizens as I reached Laura, blasting the ones holding her with a blast of fire, but one managed to through her towards the source of the gravity disruption. Racing forward, I grabbed onto Laura, holding her in the air, but I could feel myself getting pulled towards the ground.

Looking down, I could see a black hole in the ground, the gravitational pull of the black hole dragging me and Laura towards it.

"Laura, are you alright?" I yelled out as I continued to push the green lantern energy to try to fly out of the black hole's pull.

"I'm holding on," Laura said with gritted teeth, the gravity beginning to crush her suit.

'Shit, it's not going to hold up,' I realized as I formed a bubble of energy around both of us to protect us.

"I don't think I can get us out of its pull," I told Laura as the upper half of her suit crumbled.

"Can this energy protect us from a black hole," Laura asked, her normally stoic expression broken as a worried look appeared on her face.

"It should, but we have to hope my reserves can last long enough to protect us through it and there's no telling where we'll end up," I told her.

"But there's still a chance? Then stop wasting your reserves if you can't get us out. We need to face it head-on," Laura said with gritted teeth.

"Okay, hold on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride," I said.

"Wait Casper," Laura said, causing me to turn my head towards her, but instead of a response, I was met with a chaste kiss on the lips.

Instead of saying anything, I kissed her back quickly before refocusing my efforts on the black hole, Laura wrapping her arms around me and holding on as I directed the bubble to race towards the center of the black hole. My reserves of willpower energy felt good for the moment, so I reinforced the bubble as it began to be pressured. We entered the center of the black hole, an intense gravity pounding on the bubble as I strained to maintain focus.

A black void formed around us, quickly followed by an array of colors as my mental faculties were pushed to their limits. The only thing keeping me focused was my ability to control my body, allowing me to devote my entire being to keeping this protective bubble formed from my willpower up.

I felt Laura go limp, mentally drained from the events as she passed out. I could feel my own fatigue growing, and I realized I wasn't sure I was going to be able to maintain consciousness enough to keep the bubble up. Using my ability to manipulate my body, I quickly set a mental process to keep my mind focused on maintaining the bubble to the last of my energy, even while unconscious as my vision faded to black.

--------------------------------------------------------------Opening my eyes blearily, I looked around. I was laying on some kind of rock formation.

'What happened?' I wondered as I recalled the experience in the Negative Zone.

"Laura!" I yelled, jumping up and looking around, trying to find any sign of her near me. There wasn't any sign of her next to me as I began to panic before remembering that I had put a vital signs tracker and location function on the telepathic blocker I had given her. Looking at my phone, I checked the signal. It showed her vitals were fine, but when I tried to check her location it only gave me a direction and lacked a distance.

'It should work fine, why can't it tell me how far she is?' I wondered, calmer now that I knew that she was at the very least physically fine.

Taking stock of my condition, I realized that my body felt different. I wasn't sure how much, but my body had aged a little bit, most likely as a result of the dimensional travel.

Looking around at my surroundings again to try to figure out where I was, I found a red atmosphere surrounding me. The sky was a mix of red, white, and purple as there were bone-like growths all throughout the distance.

'I'm in the Null Void,' I realized with apprehension.

--------------------------------------------------------------Laura POV

Opening my eyes, I realized I had fallen unconscious and tried to move, but I found myself strapped to a table. Struggling to break out of my restraints, I realized it was futile as I tried to assess my situation.

'I don't know where Casper is, but he should be fine. If I survived, he definitely did. I need to figure out a way to get out of here and then find him if we're going to get home.'

A door opened in front of me as a man walked out. He was tall and built thinly, wearing black form-fitting armor, but what drew my attention was his head. He had pale orange skin, with a scaled head. There was a red crystal embedded in the middle of his head, with a dark goatee present on his face.

"It looks like you have awoken," the man said.

"Who are you," I asked, hoping to find some kind of information to help me.

"You may call me Proctor Servantis. Your physiology is fascinating, perhaps you will be of use in ending the coming storm," the man said with a smirk.

I stayed silent, realizing that giving him any more information than necessary would be detrimental.

"Oh, silent now, are we. That's fine, I'll give you time in here to think all you want, you'll come around soon enough," Servantis said as he turned around and walked out of the room.

'I just need to bide time and look for an opportunity to escape.'

--------------------------------------------------------------Read the author's note, since I know a lot of people don't, but I'll put two points here as well. I need to move the timeline up, and after this mini-arc, I will be devoting the story to the marvel universe, but I started with the marvel universe in its infancy, so I need to give it room to let more events happen. I'm also bringing two villains from here back with them to give Casper personal villains that aren't just stolen from other heroes, so feel free to try to guess who those are.