In a strange plot, Thing and Sub-Mariner break up MODOK’s scheme wherein he is testing new virus gasses on homeless people.
Sub-Mariner has learned nothing from my tag about ineffective trenchcoat disguises.
At the end of issue #81, Thing has been exposed to the virus himself, and believes himself to be dying. This causes him to stagger through the street, where a gang of hooligans decides to beat him up. I don’t know what would make three hoods think they could beat up Thing for kicks and giggles. In a standard Marvel coincidence, Captain America is nearby and intervenes.
He helps Thing get home, where Reed Richards and Bill Foster team up to help cure Thing of the virus, which is mutating him from being covered in rocks to basically having big orange blobs all over him. Which is ironic, because Foster himself is dying of cancer but I don’t see the same level of effort going into curing him. And he notices the discrepancy as well…
So, at the end of the story, Bill Foster wanders off feeling sorry for himself. And, really, who can blame him?