File:Fantastic Four Vol 1 174 001.jpg

Description
The High Evolutionary curses Galactus for threatening to consume Counter-Earth, for now he must battle Galactus to save the world he created, a battle in which he could very well die. The Invisible Girl comments that he is no match for Galactus, but he replies that he is only playing a role that some higher fate has assigned him. It was this same fate that allowed the Destroyer to detect his planet and alert the world-hungering Galactus precisely when the protective screens around Counter-Earth briefly failed. The Evolutionary was forced to quickly evolve a golden gorilla named Gorr and send him for the Fantastic Four, but now he realizes that only someone vastly more than human can prevail against Galactus. Then the Evolutionary reminds Sue of the choice that Galactus has given him and the Fantastic Four, namely, to either find a substitute planet whose inhabitants are willing to sacrifice themselves to the last being, or a world that the Fantastic Four themselves decide can be destroyed in place of Counter-Earth. Even now, Sue's teammates and Gorr have been transported to two of the three possible substitute worlds in this sector of space, and Sue can see on the Evolutionary's monitors that the lives of her teammates and Gorr are in danger. She wants to try to rescue them, but the Evolutionary declines to send her, saying that there are billions of lives at stake on Counter-Earth. As Sue turns invisible, she says she will send herself, but the Evolutionary warns her that she does not know how to operate his instruments. Nonetheless, Sue disregards him, pulls•a lever, and teleports herself away. Unfortunately, she soon finds herself on the third planet, the one lacking oxygen and habitation. She muses that in her desperation, she has doomed herself and perhaps the others as well, for there is only enough air inside her force field to last a few more hours. Meanwhile, on the planet Mekka, Reed and Ben are being held magnetically by elektro-clamps, and even though they have sworn not to betray Mekka's location to Galactus, Torgo refuses to let them go, saying he cannot risk their changing their minds. Then Reed asks Torgo to explain the origin of Mekka, which, clearly not by coincidence, has exactly the right atmosphere for human life. When Ben remarks that robots do not breathe air, Torgo replies that he and the robots are not in fact the original inhabitants of the planet. The earlier inhabitants, humanoids like Reed and Ben, created the robots, and Torgo was the first and largest they built. The robots were so efficient, continues Torgo, that "mekkanization" of the entire planet followed, and soon the entire surface was overlaid with metal. Artificial plants were developed, and true plant life became extinct. But the artificial plants were vulnerable to a spore-virus that drifted in from space, and when the virus was oxidized into the atmosphere by the plants, it killed the human inhabitants. Torgo himself buried the last of them centuries ago, and he renamed the planet Mekka. In the intervening time, he says, the air supply cleansed itself of the virus, for else Ben and Reed would have already perished. Now the Mekkans live in tranquil sterility, never birthing, never dying, powered by the Tower of Life. As Torgo points to the structure, he says that he must go there to prepare them for the Ultimate Resolution. When Ben asks what he means, Torgo replies that they will both be turned into true Mekkans. This, Torgo assures them, is less a punishment than an awesome privilege. His only alternative would be to terminate their lives, but that is against the Primal Directive instilled in the Mekkans ages ago by their creators. As Torgo departs, Reed comments that since they have been left unguarded, Ben can get free anytime he wants. At first Ben doesn't understand, but when Reed explains that Torgo's magnet is only attracted to their outer flesh, Ben immediately hits the emergency escape button in the hand of his exoskeleton. This causes the suit to pop open, and Ben simply steps out and turns the magnet off. Soon Reed and Ben's exoskeleton are free, and Ben puts his costume back on. When a group of Mekkans appear, Reed and Ben make short work of them. Then Reed admits that recently he has been unable to stretch his right arm, but he does not know whether this condition is permanent. Ben and Reed encounter more Mekkans at the Tower of Life. Ben quickly puts them out of commission, but then they face Torgo himself, who says he must protect the tower from intruders, even if it means disobeying the Primal Directive. He alone, of all Mekkans, is allowed to take a human life under those circumstances. As he battles Ben, he remarks that on the Skrulls' world, they never learned which of them was the stronger. Today, he promises, they will find out. Torgo then pounds Ben into the ground, but Ben punches Torgo straight up into the air. Meanwhile, when Reed enters the Tower of Life, he is quickly attacked by Mekkans, who he deduces are communicating with one another by high-frequency signals no human can hear. Despite his stretching power, the Mekkans stop Reed as he is about to reach for the machine's controls. But by stretching just his fingertips to the limit, he grabs the lever and pulls it to its lowest setting. Torgo suddenly keels over in the middle of the battle, and when Reed emerges from the tower, he and Ben find Mekkans lying motionless all over the city. Ben is disappointed to learn that he did not really defeat Torgo, that Reed just turned him off like a light bulb, and he comments that the beings are more than just robots. They have as much right to their lives as the people of Counter-Earth or Ben and Reed's Earth, he continues. Reed agrees, and he asks Ben to turn the Tower of Life back on. This Ben does, and soon Torgo approaches, feeling ashamed. Even though he was immobilized, he says, he could still sense what Reed and Ben were doing, and he agrees to accept their promise that they will keep Mekka's location a secret. They can go in peace, he says. But when Ben and Reed position themselves to be teleported back to the High Evolutionary's asteroid, nothing happens. As Reed and Ben look at each other, they realize that they may never go home again. Meanwhile, Johnny Storm and Gorr are chained in a dungeon, with Johnny chest deep in a tank of water. When they regain consciousness, they remember how they attempted to save a woman from a dragon and were knocked out by what seemed to be medieval knights. Then they were taken to a castle. As they talk, a stately, bearded figure who resembles King Arthur enters. He says that he has come to see the "golden ape that can speak like a parrot." Annoyed by this insult, Gorr challenges the king to battle, and he offers to battle the monarch's hand-picked champion, asking for a boon and freedom for himself and Johnny if he wins. The king agrees, for he had already ordered such a tournament before he came there. But Gorr will die if he loses, continues the king. A short time later, Johnny is wheeled out in his water tank to watch the tourney. When Gorr appears, he is dressed in full armor, and medieval knights of all colors and descriptions abound. Gorr then mounts a horse, and soon he is face to face with the king's champion, the Dark Knight of Astralon. Gorr and the knight charge each other with lances, but when the knight strikes Gorr, the agile ape somersaults back into his saddle. Then he unhorses the Dark Knight with his lance. When Gorr approaches the king to claim victory, the king says that the tournament is not won until he decrees that it has ended. This he will do, he continues, when Gorr slays the dragon the king's men have caged. Then the king indicates the beast, and as it struggles, it shatters its flimsy cage. As the dragon rampages, the king, fearful for his life, orders his men to kill it. Suddenly their lances are replaced by laser rifles, and the dragon soon falls lifeless on the field. Gorr then realizes that the "medieval" knights are not all what they seem, and as the king announces that the need for masks is over, the people change into their true forms—Skrulls. The king says that they conquered the planet and modified it for their chosen lifestyle as imitation medieval Britons. The dead dragon, he continues, was the last survivor of the race of intelligent, herbivorous reptilians that ruled the planet before they arrived. Johnny asks why, if the dragon was a vegetarian, it attacked the girl, and a Skrull explains that she was mechanical, just like their horses, and the dragon wished to destroy her. Now that the dragon is dead, say the Skrulls, there is no more challenge in remaining on this planet, and they return to the castle. A short time later, the castle explodes, and a Skrull spaceship, which was disguised as one of its towers, heads for the stars. Gorr helps Johnny out of his water tank, and they await the time when they will be teleported back to the High Evolutionary's asteroid. Unfortunately, this does not happen, and they realize that something has gone dreadfully wrong. Meanwhile, on Counter-Earth itself, the people watch the gigantic figure of Galactus apprehensively, as he effortlessly shatters their air force's planes one by one. But suddenly the figure of the High Evolutionary, enlarged to Galactus's size, appears in the sky behind Galactus and prepares to battle.