File:Fantastic Four Vol 1 162 001.jpg

Description
To the consternation of Arkon's soldiers, the other Reed Richards (who resembles the Thing and has much of his super-human strength) shatters his electronic restrainers. But before he can make good his escape, Arkon suddenly arrives and knocks him out with a thunderbolt. Arkon berates his guards for allowing the captive to break free and orders them to bind him with adamantium chains. As the Earth-A Reed Richards is shackled, Arkon asks his vizier for a progress report. The vizier turns on a three-dimensional Scopitron, which displays the Human Torch and Phineas leading a huge army in the Firth Dimension. The vizier explains that the Human Torch has joined Phineas to invade Earth-A, because that is the world from which the Andrones have attacked the Fifth Dimension. Phineas does not suspect that the Fantastic Four's Earth is preparing to attack the Fifth Dimension, which is thought to be responsible for the onset of a devastating ice age. The plan is subtle and complex, muses Arkon. Each of three worlds, existing side by side, is under attack by one of the others, while its own weapons are used to devastate the third. Meanwhile, continues the vizier, the Androne army of Earth-A has been relocated to attack Marvel-Earth, while soldiers and creatures from all eras of time are arriving on Earth-A through a time machine formerly owned by the Marvel-Earth Reed Richards. Even now, gloats the vizier, they are causing panic in Earth-A's New York City. Arkon's conversation with his vizier is interrupted by the Earth-A Reed Richards, who revives and pleads with Arkon to stop his insane scheme. Of course Arkon ignores him. After Arkon and the vizier depart, he sees that they neglected to turn off the Scopitron completely, and he formulates a plan. Arkon has made his first mistake, he thinks. But he does not know whether, heavily sedated as he is, he can take advantage of it. Back at the Baxter Building, the Marvel-Earth Reed is hard at work on a device to counteract the glaciers that are encroaching on the world. But just as Sue enters, a wall in the lab caves in and three warriors—a caveman, a hoplite, and an Indian, attack. As Reed and Sue ward them off, Sue says that they must have come through Reed's time machine, but Reed replies that he gave DeVoor the time machine as part of their deal. The warriors must have somehow gotten by security downstairs during a power blackout. It takes only seconds for Reed to defeat the warriors, but then he is stricken with a sudden headache that feels as if someone else were inside his skull. When the headache abruptly ends, an image of the Earth-A Reed Richards appears. He introduces himself, and Reed and Sue recognize him from Ben's descriptions. The other Reed explains that his field is robotics, and that not long ago, a man named DeVoor, representing Inter-Related Technocracies, approached him with an offer to buy his operation. He foolishly accepted, he says, and a man named Phineas of the Fifth Dimension also accepted DeVoor's offer when DeVoor acted as representative of Inter-Politan Thermo-Dynamics. DeVoor was after temperature devices, Phineas's specially, says the other Reed. Thus, replies Reed, DeVoor is not really of Earth at all. He represents Arkon, the Imperion of still a fourth continuum, whose aim is to destroy the three dimensions with each other's weapons. The other Reed then explains that he is Arkon's captive, and Reed suggests that they may be able to combine their wills—being, in a way, the same person—to help him break free. This stratagem works, but when the Earth-A Reed breaks his bonds, the contact between the worlds terminates, leaving the Earth-A Reed alone. Soon Reed and Sue approach the offices of Interlocking Technologies, Unlimited and confront A. E. DeVoor himself. It does not take long for Reed to coerce the terrified DeVoor into revealing Arkon's scheme. Meanwhile, the Earth-A Reed, after disposing of a pair of Arkon's guards, escapes Arkon's stronghold and discovers to his surprise that he is not in Arkon's world but still on Earth-A. When he sees a newspaper account of the capture of Ben Grimm—the "Reed Richards lookalike"—he realizes that the Thing is being held prisoner only a few blocks away. Figuring that the government thinks the Thing is in league with one of the invasion forces, the other Reed heads for Ben's prison to help him escape. But when Ben smashes through the prison wall, the two Things encounter a squad of troops led by General T. E. Ross of the U. S. Air Force. The other Reed tries to convince the general that he was holding the wrong person prisoner and that three different worlds are in danger, but the general stubbornly refuses to listen. Faced with uncooperative armed forces, the two Things see no alternative to doing battle. But before they can begin, Earth-A's Ben Grimm joins them. Then a dimensional gateway opens in front of them, from which the Human Torch flies out. The Torch thinks both Things are fake and attacks them, but the Earth-A Reed grabs his arm and makes him hear him out. He recognizes Johnny and says that on Earth-A, Sue's brother was killed in action in Vietnam. Then the two Things, the Human Torch, General Ross, and the Fifth Dimension soldiers call a truce until Johnny can determine the truth of what he has been told about the war among the three worlds and Arkon. Johnny's troops return to the Fifth Dimension, promising that at the first sign of treachery they will renew their attack with their advanced weaponry. The Earth-A Reed remarks that it is his fault that the homes of the Fifth Dimension soldiers were laid waste by the Andrones, which he designed for I. T. Then General Ross tries to take the Torch and the two Things in for questioning, but Johnny creates a wall of flame to keep him away while he and the two Things continue their discussion. But then another dimensional gateway opens, and they see Marvel-Earth's Reed with DeVoor. Reed says that he "persuaded" DeVoor to explain Arkon's plan. If Arkon can cause nuclear wars on the three worlds simultaneously, he continues, enough atomic energy will be released to power Arkon's world for millennia. The Avengers stopped a similar scheme by Arkon before, and now Arkon must be stopped again. There is a nexus equidistant from all three dimensions, continues Reed, through which the atomic power would enter Arkon's world. This nexus—a hole in space-time—must be destroyed so that Arkon will never again have the option of saving his world by destroying theirs. Then Reed gives them DeVoor's skate-like devices for traveling between dimensions, and says that one of them must try to reach the nexus while the other two go to Arkon's world and attack Arkon on his home ground. So Johnny and the other Reed head for Arkon's world, while the Thing heads for the nexus. But when Ben arrives, he discovers that Arkon has not left it unprotected. Standing unsteadily in empty space on the skate-like footgear, Ben confronts a being named Gaard.