Benjamin J Grimm

Ben's military career:
Originally join the United States Marines after college where he received training as a pilot. In 1947 when the USAF was created he shifted to that branch and became a test pilot.

Retired with an honorable discharge.
Rank: Major
Wing:
Stationed: Edwards Air Force Base, California and Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

Air Force wings and bases




Who knows how much of this is still accurate given comics sliding timeline.

Ben has been trying his best to deal with the feelings and ghosts his recent visits to Milliways have provoked with little to no affect. He is still plagued by nightmares, and his temper is suffering. Worse yet he can't shake the feeling he ran out on Milliways, but the truth is, the last thing the bar needed was him to turn into Angrir again. The fear is also gnawing on him, and he finds himself wondering if he is going to turn into some sort fo coward now. Was he really that messed up from Angrir? Did Agrir still lurk within him, waiting to return?

He needed help. He needed to know. Thor would be the first guy he should goto since the whole mess was started by his uncle, but things are kind of crazy with the Future Foundation and the Fantastic Four, not to mention the New Avengers, so he needs to stay close. He couldn't disappear for the time it would take to fly to Oaklahoma and Asgard.

Doctor Strange is another possibility, and since Ben had business near Greenwich Village today anyway, why not take care of two birds with one subway token.

Of course as soon as Ben had knocked on Strange's front door he got sucked into some sort of nightmare.

"Sweet Aunt Petunia! Strange ya got'a work on yer interior decorating," he yelled out as he fought with the tentacle that was wrapped around him. He grabbed it and dug his fingers in to get a good grip before pulling and tearing it apart.

"Benjamin! Are you a sight for sore eyes!" Strange called out from inside what appears to be a cocoon of webbing. Two vaguely human shaped tenebrous shadows crouched over the cocoon and hiss at the intrusion. "Or ears I should say rather. Be careful, I believe this is some attack from the Nightmare Realms."

"I'm comin'," Ben calls out before more tentacles come, tentacles that turn to thick vines which remind him of the Slenderman nightmares. He can feel the fear buildings again and he finds himself coughing. His sight is fading too. "Assumin' I can find ya."

The fear is sticky tar sweet and reaches into his heart. He tries to fight it, to be brave, but he finds himself trembling like when he was a kid and fell down the sewers with the rats. He's drowning in the fear and can't find his way out.

A memory brushes his heart then. It's FDR, and it's like he is reaching out to that kid in the sewer, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. The kid stands and remembers Captain America leading the Allied Forces through the darkness, but the fear pushes back, drowning him again.

Then he hears another bit of broadcast advice. Fear is the mindkiller.

"Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration," he whispers into the tunnels. "I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me." He stands and opens himself to the fear, pulling it in. "And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see it path." Ben opens his eyes to Dr. Stranges' entryway and the paradaemons. "Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

He picks the shapeless, tar-skinned pair up and pulls them close before saying, "Boo," and releasing them. They tear and fade as shadows at dawn, and Dr. Strange is left blinking and dazed on the rug in the corner. "You okay Doc?" Ben asks helping him up.

"Yes, I am now. Thanks to you." Strange says recovering himself. "May I help you with something?"

Ben dusts off some imagined dirt off Strange's housecoat. "Nah, I'm good. Just thought I'd stop by fer Dim Sim if Wong has up for it?"

 The paperback of War and Peace slipped out of Ben's grasp as the sleep he had been avoiding finally took him and he dreamed.

"Okay Benjy, you wanna be in the gang, ya have ta spend the night in the Warehouse," Micky, the leader of the Yancy Street Gang was saying as the rest of the gang shoved Ben towards the abandoned building everyone knew was haunted. Ben tried his best to stay brave but he had been expecting a beating not this. 

"Fine, I can take whatevers ya can dish out!" He declared though he wanted to run, especially when the alley cat yowled. Several of the gang did jump but Ben managed not to.

Jamie, the most recent member pulled open the board of the fence while Tommy gave a mock bow, "After yous." Ben ducked through the fence and the board slammed shut. He stood there, gathering his courage and clenched his fists before stepping forward. He could do this, he knew he could. It'd just be a few hours and then they'd know he was a tough guy and they could count on him.

The fog grew and made a good try at hiding the warehouse but Ben knew where the door was. Once last look at the sliver of moon and then back to the door with a gulp and Ben stepped forward only to whip around towards the figure he knew he saw out of the corner of his eye. But nothing was there. Shaking his head, he scowled. So they thought they could scare him? Pretend to be ghosts? Fat lotta good it'd do them.

The hinges creaked as he forced the door open and he nearly screamed when he felt something brush on the back of his neck and he spun again but nothing was there. He saw all the graffiti though, the circles with the x's and couldn't shake the feeling he knew them or that they were somehow watching him. He shook his head again laughing at himself. Idiot.

Fifteen minutes later and he can't get the feeling of being watched out of his head. Shadows continue to reach for him and cobwebs always seem to wrap around him. He's coughing too and has decided to hide in an office for the night. If he doesn't wander, nothing can find him right? He found an old desk and curling up in the hollow below, he's almost comfortable. His eyes close as he suddenly feels drowsy but snap open when he hears the office door creak open slowly and whisper of footfalls tantalize.

[OOC: *This comic never existed and all the following is my canon.]

When the time comes to end the fun,
I'm the one that gets the business done,
ain't no one in the world that can get in my way
Oh no!

I've found a place among my friends,
and I'll be there up until the end
the first family to make me forget I was so grim
That's why I finally feel like one of the guys...
~Kirby Krackle, One of the Guys

A week later and Ben is hosting a benefit concert She-Hulk set up as a way of fostering good will and raising money. He didn't think he had any good will to foster from folks but went along with it cause when Jen set her mind to something you just went along for the ride. He still hadn't moved back to the Baxter Building as while Reed and Susan forgave him, he was finding it hard to forgive himself. Plus Doctor Doom living there with his villain chums just sat wrong.

Alicia found Ben behind the stage as the final act played their last song. Using his shoulder for balance, she lowered herself to sit on the curb beside him.

"Sorry, the crowds were gettin' ta me," he murmured by way of explaining why he was hiding. She sat silently giving him the time to say what really was bothering him. "Will they ever trust me again?" he whispered finally.

She leaned against him and took his hand. "With time," she said with all the love she felt for him. "They thought they lost their hero but he returned. They need time to trust that and so do you." She stood then and pulled on him to stand as well. "They will forgive you and trust you. In fact, listen…"

Ben turned his attention from her and his thoughts to listen and heard the crowd, thousands of New Yorkers singing, "It's clobbering' time, it's clobbering' time..."

"Come on, they want their hero," she says pulling him up just as his phone rings.

"Hold on," Ben says pulling out his ear piece. "Yeah Reed?"

"Ben...we need you, can you come back?"

"'Course. How soon?" Ben replies unable to hide the thrill in his voice.

"About an hour?"

"I'll be there." He says to Reed hanging up. He stands and holds out his arm to Alicia. "Better not keep the crowd waiting."

It's been hours since the world was saved and Ben is busy working with rescue workers; cleaning up and saving those that can be. He hasn't rested, hasn't allowed himself to rest and there is still so much work to do. So far he's been out here on his own; no other heroes have arrived but then a lot of them are far away right? He works deliberately and carefully, keeping his head down to avoid the stares of the people of Yancy Street. He can't ignore them but he can keep working. They leave him alone as they stare, seemingly unsure what to do, until an old woman marches right up to him and yells in his face, "MONSTER!" She spits at him and he just stands there exhausted and deserving it until a couple of kids from the Yancy Street Gang politely lead her away.

Ben takes a deep breath and gets back to work.

Reed and Susan are the first to arrive to help him. He knows they need to talk but the rescue and clean up effort takes all their attention. Later the rest of the Avengers show up and he can see in all their faces how tired they are, how much this fight took out of all of them.

The reporters and TV camera show up soon after and it isn't until the Yancy Street Gang forms a barrier between him and the TV vans that Ben is able to get back to work. He glaces over and sees the old woman who called him a monster being interviewed as well as a little girl who holds up a lost dog poster. Idly, he wonders where she found a copier to make them but when she comes up to him he sees that she drew each one by hand. "Have you seen Buster?" she asks him nervously and he leans in to get a good look at the border collie.

"Nah, but I'll keep my eyes open. When did he go missing?" He replies.

"Last night when the robots attacked."

Twilight comes and Ben still hasn't seen any sign of the dog and he fears the worst. All day he's seen the girl walking around with her flyer and asking anyone who would listen and his heart just broke ever time he saw her. He grunts as he carefully lifts a large slab of wall that's fallen on a subway entrance and almost drops it when he hears barking underneath. He lifts it the rest of the way and sees an excited Buster dance back and forth. "Come on boy," Ben says gesturing for the dog to join him as he looks around for the girl.

"Hello?" Calls a voice weak in pain and exhaustion.

"MEDIC!" Ben calls and races down the stairs to the dog and the woman Buster had been protecting and keeping warm. Her leg is broken pretty badly and she's pale. Kneeling Ben rests a careful hand on her shoulder to let her know it's going to be okay. Her eyelids flicker and she says, "Penny?"

The medics take her, Penny (the little girl with the flyers) and Buster away toward New York General and everyone goes back to work now that the excitement's calmed down. Ben makes it to an alleyway before he loses it, sobs breaking free. He doesn't hear the old woman come up.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

Startled he jumps and then glares. "Don't worry about it."

"You saved that child's mother and dog," she replies, ignoring his glare.

"What's it matter, I'm still a monster right?"

She laughs then. "What monster weeps for a little girl? Why do you weep anyway? The girl is safe, her dog is found and her mother is safe."

"I just...I spent all day convinced I had killed that girl's dog." He doesn't know why he's telling her this, likely because he hasn't really spoken with anyone all day. "Guess I'm just relived."

She nods. "I can see that. And no, you are not a monster. Not any more. As I said, a monster does not weep for a little girl. A monster does not work all day to fix what he has done. This morning maybe you were a monster but now you are a hero. It's like your Yancy Street boys have been telling any reporter who would listen, a man has a right to fix his mistakes and that is what you have done and will continue to do. Now come, I have food and then you can go back to fixing."

Angrir turns to follow Spider-Man as he swings through the sky, his tread heavy and sure.

Angrir pauses, considering...then throws his hammer at a door to open the way and steps through the broken doorway. On the streets people peek from around corners and door ways in fear, waiting for the building to collapse. Seconds pass and then suddenly Angrir comes flying out of the doorway and smashes into the building opposite which collapses on top him. He stands, shakes himself off and continues on his way.Meanwhile in the crowded E.R. waiting room at New York General, Spider-Man is on his last leg. He's been fighting and rescuing and feeling like he was the only sane person in a world that has gone crazy but he got the pregnant lady to the doctors and everything will be alright now.

Then the wall of the front entrance explods in a blast of energy and in walks...

"Is that...?" the doctor asks.

"Thing? Ben?" Spider-Man begs as the monster strode towards him. The waiting room froze until, as one, the people ran screaming in panic. Spider-Man just stood there however as the hopelessness of it all was just too much. Angrir cocks back the hammer to strike and...

"Spider-Man?! MOVE!" The doctor yells and suddenly his body is working again. He leaps clear of the strike, just barely.

"Ben! We all have our cranky days, but this is a little much," he quips, falling on old habits. "We can talk this out, buddy. I will need my head to do that though." He adds as Angrir continues to swing. "Look alive!" He says, turning a dodge into a shove at a frozen bystander. "And clear this place out!"

"This is insane...you have to get him out of here!" The doctor yells as she punches the elevator button over and over in panic while covering the injured mother on the gurney from debris.

"Working on it!" Spider-Man yells back as the vital signs monitor he had just used as an impromptu dismount was hit by the hammer and went flying towards the doctor and patient to explode against the side of the elevator. "NO!" Spider-Man yells and hits Angrir full on in the forehead. Angrir doesn't even flinch but hits him back to send him flying.

"Spider-Man! We can't get upstairs, we have to do this here," the doctor calls out, pulling out the paddles as the expectant mother's heart has stopped. "I need more time!"

"Ben...BEN!" Spider-Man calls out to be a target and hope to get through whatever is wrong with Ben. His hand feels like it is broken and he tries his best not to flex it. "Listen to me...you can beat this. Whatever's got you. Whatever's happened to you...you can beat it." He takes a step forward as Angrir's attack falters. "You're one of the best people I know. You're not going to hurt anyone. Come on, Ben...you can do this."

"Spider-Man..." Angrir replies, "Die."Fifteen minutes later, Spider-Man has fought off his attack and came close to finishing him but didn't have the guts to do it. Angrir needed a more worthy opponent and so he left the weak hero to find a Hulk. He finds the Red Hulk outside of Avengers Tower.

"Make it stop!!"
"It's Ben Grimm--It's the Thing!!!"
"We need medics over here, someone call--"
"The Thing?! Never! He wouldn't--"
"Take Cover--"
"He's lost it!"

"Drop the hammer and lay on the ground." The Red Hulk commands.

"Do you really think that's the way this is going to go?" Angrir asks with a smile as he turns and charges.

"I had to ask," the Red Hulk replies before leaping to meet Angrir's charge. Bystanders are knocked to their feet as the two titans clash, each fist strike like dynamite. Even the ground shudders in sympathy as Angrir clotheslines Red Hulk with the hammer and then hammer slaps him. A punch to the stomach and then a backhand to the jaw. Red Hulk finally recovers to kidney punch Angrir before grasping the hammer and hitting Angrir with it.

It is a valiant fight but five minutes later, Avengers Tower falls atop Red Hulk. When the dust and debris settle, Angrir stands triumphant. His triumph is short lived as the starfish shriek the Serpents commands. The Odinson has been found!

Here we go...don't read unless you want a peek at an epic battle in equally epic slowness.

And just so you know, Ben is slated for Subthread #2 - -05 to -04 hours after the Darkgate beasties break loose.

Things have been hard for Ben. Not everyday but enough of them he hasn't been able to really get beyond his grief and guilt. There's been good days like when he fought those A.I.M. nutcases who freed The Wizard (okay maybe that wasn't a good day since they got away) or the time they fought four of Spider-Man's nutjobs who thought they could handle the FF. Then there were the really bad days like when Ben found out Doom was joining the FF or when that little creep Bentley got in Ben's face about Ben's usefulness after all the big brain villains joined up with the FF. With how close Ben had come to hitting the little guy and Ben had to admit the truth in his words, Ben had decided to take a few days to himself and left the Baxter Building. Reed and Sue knew how to get ahold of him.

And the new white uniform of the newly minted Future Foundation just didn't go with his orange rocks very well. And why did they have to change from the Fantastic Four to the Future Foundation anyway? Yeah, Johnny was gone but Spidey was working out despite Ben's initial misgivings and they'd had fill-ins before. They were still the Fantastic Four when She-Hulk took Ben's place weren't they? And why didn't they call Jen to fill in? Why'd it have to be Spidey? Oh yeah, Johnny's request.

"I'm sorry," Alicia says as she sets the tea service on the coffee table, breaking Ben out of his brooding. "I don't have any Splenda, Ben. Just sugar."

"It's fine, Alicia," Ben says reaching for the cup and saucer she holds out. As she sits across from him he watches her and that old familiar ache for her beauty pierces his heart again.

She lifts her cup to sip the tea, Darjeeling. Ben mimics her move with a smile remembering a time when he couldn't even open doors without breaking them and all the patience Alicia had shown as she helped him learn to use his new body.

"You haven't called," Alicia says jumping straight in.

Carefully Ben puts down the bone china cup before answering. He finds he can't look at her so looks down before replying, "I know, I…"

"You haven't called since that night."

"I…"

"And you didn't speak to me at the funeral."

"….I know. I'm sorry. I've been kinda keeping' to myself. I…I…I'm just haven' a hard time with…." Ben swallows to clear the lump in his throat. "Bein' with you…it shoulda been the best thing ever. Now I look at you and all I can think about is how I couldn't save my friend…my brother. I feel so guilty, Alicia."

"Are you looking at me right now?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Because I want to make sure you hear me when I say there are two things you're going to have to deal with…Johnny's gone. And I love you."

"Alicia, don't…"

"No. You need to know that I am not going anywhere. You need to know that I need you as much as you need me…and, most of all, that Johnny would want you to be happy. I promise you…things are going to get better…There's nothing to be afraid of."

Ben sits there lost in her words and can't help but wonder at the fear and sense of forwboding they leave in his heart.

[Day 08, in which even the Fantastic Four's worst enemy pays tribute to Johnny Storm; pages one and two.]
[Day 14, in which Ben get's out of the house.]
"Let's pounce on them!" Luke Cage says as they all sit waiting on the roof of a Bed, Bath & Beyond in Maine as the sun goes down. Ben had been glad to hear from Luke for a chance of some action to distract him from his grief but a stakeout was not what he had in mind.

"Luke Cage; impatient man," Jessica Jones, the hero formally know as Jewel, replies.

"Really." Ms. Marvel agrees.

"I'm with Cage," Ben adds already bored with waiting. He needed action not sitting around. Sitting around thinking is all he's been doing for weeks now.

"You used to be a private eye, Jessica; you're used to doing a stakeout," Danny, aka Iron Fist, points out.

"I love a stakeout. This is the best part."

"The best part is the clobbering," Ben deadpans.

"Hold on...shhh..." Wolverine hisses.

"What's going on, Logan?" Luke asks.

"Shhh, means SHHH!!!"

"Avengers...I am broadcasting live from Barrington, Rhode Island," they each hear as Mockingbird reports on their bluetooth head sets.

"Is there movement?" Luke asks into his earpiece.

"Oh there's movement," she replies. "We have some truly scary-looking human growth hormone experiments moving all their stuff in."

As they had been talking Ben was watching the trucks come in and the guys begin to unload some stuff that looked very high tech and heavy experimental equipment; not quite like Reed's but definitely along the same lines, maybe AIM? As the talking continued (arguing about when to spring the trap and the legality of when), Ben clenched his fists open and closed, getting more and more impatient. He didn't care about technicalities like legal search and seizures. These guys were ex-Hammer agents trying to set up shop, that was enough for him. Finally he can't take the debating any more.

"But they're going to. That's why we're here." Luke is saying to Jessica.

"But they haven't done anything yet," she replies.

"But they are. Do ya know how I know?" Ben interrupts.

"No," Jessica says startled a bit by Ben's interruption; he had been so quiet up until then.

"Watch this," he says and does a passable impression of one of the Hulk's leaps towards the building the ex-HAMMER agents are using.

Back on the Bed, Bath and Beyond's roof, Wolverine says, sarcastically, "Okay, he'll distract them."; while Spider-man says, "Guess what time it is?"

Ben crashes through the roof yelling, "It's Clobberin' Time!" to land in the middle of a bunch of startled toughs with extra bulging muscles. He cracks his knuckles and looks around. "Who's first?"Thirty minutes later at the nearest hospital...

"Code Blue! Code Blue!" one of the doctors working to save Mockingbird yells as they rush to surgery, fighting to stabilize her.

"What do we do, Doc?" Spider-man asks Dr. Strange numbly.

"There's...there's nothing we can do here."

"We should call her ex-husband," Ben says gruffly. How was he going to tell Clint he may have gotten his ex-wife killed? Why did he rush into that fight before everyone was ready? Is another hero going to die because of him? Maybe it was time to hang up the tights before he got anyone else killed. If he did that, though, what else did he have?
[Day 26, in which Johnny reaches out from the grave to try and help Ben; pages one, two, three, four and five.]

"Someone's gotta stay? That's it...there's nothin' else?" Ben asks once the situation was explained to him, Johnny and Franklin.

"Bentley?" Val says in reply.

Bentley watches the read out of the image enhancer but the army of insectiods is like a cloud and he really doesn't need the numbers to know how dire things are. "Sixty-three seconds until the Annihilation Wave hits."

"One minute, Uncle Ben," Val says tonelessly. She wishes it could be some other way but facts are facts. "We're simply out of time."

Ben thinks back on the week he's had and can't argue that now would be a great time to go. "Well, then..it's been fun. Get everyone on the other side Johnny."

"You've got to be joking!" Johnny says taken aback.

"Not this time pal. Because of you, I just had one the best weeks of my life. No way I go out owin' you."

"C'mon! There's gotta be something you're not thinking of...right?" Johnny begs the kids. "Isn't there anything else?"

The kids look at each other one more time hoping for a miracle but no one has anymore ideas.

"No." Val says and the kids turn back to the portal and begin walking through.

"Okay...that settles it then," Johnny says as if he accepts the choice.

Bentley takes one last look before stepping through. "They're here. Incoming."

"Tell Alicia..," Ben starts to say but then turns when he sees Johnny move as if to hug him. Aw cripes man, kid's gonna make me cry. Instead Johnny grabs Ben's collar and waistband, spins and throws him towards the portal. "Johnny! What're you...NO!" Ben manages before he's through the portal.

Johnny reaches and activates the energy button before Ben can race back.

"You stupid dumb...Open this back up! OPEN IT!!" Ben yells.

"We can't," Val says looking downcast. "There's no time left! If he's going to activate the vibranium shield it has to be now."

"I could make more time." Franklin offers still feeling the buzz of his returned powers.

"No. That's not...that's..." Ben's really tempted, really, but then he thinks, And have another M-day or Onslaught on their hands. Damnit, I'm sorry Johnny I just can't risk the world for you. "Val, just tell him how to work the thing."

Val looks up to Johnny. "Okay Johnny, listen closely. Enter the access code (4-3-2-1), that'll engage the failsafe lockdown. This will also randomize the access code, so no one on your side - including you - will be able to open it again." She pauses and wants so badly to apologize but it's just facts right? She's not sending her uncle to his death.  There's really no other choice, the facts speak for themselves. "Dad will have a backdoor built in. We'll be back."

Johnny knows this last isn't going to be any help for him but smiles for Val anyway. He knows she's trying to make him feel better, to give him some hope. Behind him the first barrage of energy attacks begins. "Entering the code." He reports and then looks to Ben. "When you see Reed and Sue...you tell them...tell them this is where I made my stand."

The gravity of the situation has frozen Ben in his tracks. He can't move and his limbs feel leaden. HIs chest tightens.

Johnny turns back to the portal's instruments. "Engaging the locking mechanism."

A sudden spasm grips Ben and he nearly collapses from a sudden weight. His skin feels like it's suddenly drying out and hardening. "Urk! Wai..." Panic hits and he wants to fight the situation. He starts pounding on the energy shield. "Wait! No!" He feels like he could smash through anything as a sudden energy surge washes through him. He could save Johnny...but then damn the world. "NO!NO!NO!" Too late he's back to his old self (When did 'his old self' mean the Thing?) and Johnny's still in another universe sacrificing himself.

"Unbelievable." Johnny says and Ben just gives him a look.

"You don't wish it any more than I do," Johnny says and holds out his hand to the energy shield. Ben raises his and touches Johnny's through the shield. Johnny pulls back first as the blasts from the Annihilation Wave are nearly on top of him.

"So. This is it." Johnny says over his shoulder as he turns to face the Wave which now covers the horizon as far as he can see. "A billion to one." He laughs a little. "You think I'm afraid of that? You Think I'm Afraid Of That?!?! FLAME ON!!!!"

Ben can only watch as the vibranium shield closes. "Oh God, John..." he manages before all his strength leaves him and he falls to the floor. Grief and guilt well up inside him and overwhelm him.

Smothering...pulling him down...


Drowniing...washing everything away...


Until he feels Franklin and Val crawl up beside him...


Gotta be strong.....they need me.


It should've been me.