Marvel Two-In-One #99
Ghost Stories for a Rainy Night
Late one stormy evening, Ben Grimm is alone in the Baxter Building reading ghost stories when a strange hissing sound begins to spook him. Soon after he goes to investigate, the building loses all power. He manually opens the roof hatch and a comatose Rom falls on top of him. Ben takes the scalding hot Spaceknight to the medical lab where Rom's armor releases energy activating the equipment and reviving him. Rom tells the Thing about what has transpired since they last met and the history of the Firefall armor that the Dire Wraiths have reanimated.
He enlists Ben's help in battling the enemy Wraiths while he confronts the Firefall armor. Ben Grimm finds the Wraith horde who attack him with imagery of his nightmares. He is able to mentally overcome the assault and comes out swinging. In the skies above, Rom is reluctantly forced to neutralize the Firefall armor and when he returns to the park is confronted by the Dire Wraiths and the Thing who has been bewitched by them. Ben Grimm then attacks Rom who is once again reluctantly forced to turn his Neutralizer on a friend.
To the amazement of all, the neutralizer does not kill the Thing but reverts Ben Grimm to his normal human form. This also broke the Wraith enchantment and Ben and Rom immediately take out the Wraiths. As Ben laments his regained humanity to the incredulity of Rom who wishes to regain his own; Ben begins once again to revert to The Thing. Rom realizes and explains that so powerful are the cosmic rays ingrained in Ben's cells that the Neutralizer was only able to temporarily negate them.
Recurring Characters
Thing, Rom the Speceknight, Dire Wraiths
Continuity Notes
Ben and Rom recount their last meeting when the Fantastic Four and Heroes for Hire assisted Rom in returning home in Rom #23. However, Rom eventually returned to Earth in Rom #28.
Rom refers to Karas the first Firefall, who was revealed to have sacrificed his life by trapping himself in Temporal but eventually, his armor fell in the hands of Archie Stryker. All this was revealed in Rom #3. Stryker eventually was slain in Rom #11.
Ben compares the Dire Wraiths with the Skrulls, another race of shapeshifting aliens that the Fantastic Four first dealt with in Fantastic Four #2. This comparison is not too far-fetched as Rom #50 later revealed that the Dire Wraiths are an offshoot of the Skrulls.
