Chapter Text
Sue paced back and forth as the red sign, DEEP IN THOUGHT, IN THOUGHT KEEP OUT, hummed, holding herself as she eyed the large steel door. Reed had been in there for just thirty-seven hours, and that wasn’t even his record! She looked at the camera, stepping forward,
“Reed? Please, honey, we need to… Talk,” Sue said, shaking her head as she looked down at her uniform. She shook her head, looking up at the door. Susan Storm may be someone who would let Reed work himself until he unraveled, but Susan Richards doesn’t have the time. She waved her hands at the door, making part of the wall more and more translucent. Inside, Sue could start to make out Reed’s lab.
Reed was stretched all over his lab, his hand stretched so that each finger was in charge of a separate experiment. His other hand was busy writing equations on the chalkboard, while he leaned forward to his computer. Reed then looked at Herbie, their helper robot he made so that Sue wasn’t the only one cleaning their home, and looked at the now see-through wall. He nodded, carefully putting away the experiments and approaching the door as Sue made it opaque again. The door ground open, allowing Reed to poke his head out,
“Sue! Glad you could come, darling, I have something to show you!”
“Reed--”
“It’ll only be a moment,” Reed said as he stretched his hand over to two sheets of data. He held them close, revealing that they were the same bit of data. “Do you recognize this?”
“No, Reed, is it a measurement of my patience?” Sue asked, frustrated that she had to ride out whatever Reed’s mind had taken him,
“No, this one on the right,” Reed said, “Was from our rocket when we crashed six years ago, and this,” Reed said as he lifted his left hand to Sue, “Is a signal I picked up just yesterday!”
“Huh,” Sue said, “And what does it say?”
“I don’t know. It seems to be alien in origin,” Reed said as he scratched his head, “Though it seems as though it’s a message. From whom or the meaning, I do not know. However,” Reed said as he looked at his computer, “I rerouted where the data signal was coming from, and strangely it seems to be originating from the Moon.”
“The Moon?” Sue said, “Why would aliens be trying to contact you on the Moon?”
“I know, intriguing, right?” Reed said, “I mapped out the location of the signal on the lunar surface, and to make matters even more complicated, it’s on the other side of the Moon. Whatever is causing this signal is a profoundly powerful source, one that would be able to send it out through the celestial object.”
“Sounds like an adventure,” Sue said, “But before we do that, I have something to--”
“Uh, Reed?” The intercom chimed in, Johnny’s voice ringing in, “Were you expecting… Company?”
“Not that I was aware of, why Johnny?”
“Oh, nothing, just a lady with snakes for hair and a girl with glass hands are here to see you.” Reed and Sue looked at each other and dashed out of the lab.
Reed rubbed his jaw, shaking his head as Sue made them an invisible platform to stand on, flying through the hallways,
“Of course, there's company before I have time to shave,” Reed said. “Do I look presentable?”
“You always do,” Sue said, waving her invisible powers through Reed’s head, “Though your hair could be straightened.”
“Thank you, Sue. I wouldn’t know what I’d do without you,” Reed said,
“Please, I’m sure you do,” Sue said as they entered the living room, seeing Ben flipping through the channels,
“Hey Susie, hey Stretch! What are you two in the rush for?”
“There could be intruders,” Reed said, “They’re on the roof!”
“Just please tell me it ain’t Spider-Man again,” Ben said, lifting his rocky body off his specially made, titanium frame chair, “I don’t think I can go another ‘performance’ check like that numbskull put us through!”
“Ben! Don’t hold it against Peter,” Sue said as they sprinted towards the roof, “How could he have known about how our team works if none of us left this building?”
“That reminds me,” Reed said as he clicked a button on his control remote, “Just checking the security measures of the building, won’t have any damage like last time.”
“Just make sure you got that Skrull DNA finder, don’t want another one of those--” Sue gave Ben a cold, icy stare, shutting Ben up as they came to the roof.
Johnny waved at the three. Blue paint flicked on him as he was busy painting the roof of the Baxter Building. A large black four marked the roof, with a blue circle and white paint filling in the spaces, as two women stood over by the edge of the building,
“Hey guys!” Johnny said, “Recognize those two, Reed? Especially anyone you know from college?”
“Johnny, not everyone that comes over to kill us was a college roommate,” Reed said, “Just the two… Or possibly three if Ricardo Jones is still angry at me. We should call him.”
“Later, Reed,” Sue said as she approached the two women. One had hands made of glass, which moved as though they were flesh. Her irises were clear, and her smile was bright. The other also had a head of red, silky hair, or would be hair unless a closer look was taken, for at the ends of her hair were the tiny heads of snakes, their little eyes looking at Sue as the woman in front of her bowed. Strangely, the woman with snake hair had a black blindfold on as her hair coiled around her purple dress. “Hi, I’m Sue Richards. How can we help you?”
“I am Queen Medusalith, of the House Boltagard,” The woman with the snake hair said. “This is my younger sister, Crystal, though it seems your worker boy has already gotten acquainted with her.”
“Please, Medusalith,” Crystal said, “I was just talking to him!”
“Uh huh,” Medusalith said, looking back at Sue, “Are you the leader of this world?”
“Leader? Why would you think that?” Sue asked,
“Because… I’m sorry, you all have powers, correct?”
“No, I’m just a rock guy!” Ben barked out, “My poor mother had to push me out, and the doctors weighed me to be fifty pounds!”
“Well, at least your face came out the same then!” Johnny snickered as Ben stomped over to Johnny, flying away as a bolt of fire as Ben shook his fists,
“Come down here, matchstick!”
“Make me, rock for brains!”
“Please excuse Ben and my brother Johnny,” Sue said as she made her arms invisible and then visible to show Medusalith, “He’s stuck in that form, but yes, we do have powers.”
“Then how come you’re not in charge?” Crystal asked, “Wouldn’t your powers make you the most superior beings on this planet?”
“Whoa, aren’t you from here?” Johnny asked, flying over towards Crystal, “Though thinking about it, you both do look out of this world!”
“Johnny!” Sue yelled at her brother, putting her hands on her hips, “We don’t talk to guests that way!”
“He’s quite right,” Medusalith said, “We are not from this world, though we share common ancestors. We are Inhuman!”
“Whoa, don’t put yourself short,” Ben said as he walked over, his lumbering figure grinding against the building, stepping over Johnny’s paint job, “If you’re mutants, I’m sure--”
“We are not one of you, literally,” Crystal said, “We are those descended from the experiments of the Kree! Our last ancestor was over a million years ago!”
“The Kree?” Reed said as he mused to himself, “We haven’t tangled with them since our ‘trial’ with Ronan the Accuser!”
“Oh yeah!” Johnny said as he snapped his fingers, “The look on his face when his tumor boss let us go!”
“The Supreme Intelligence?” Medusalith was amazed, her snakes looking amongst themselves, “To have the greatest mind in the universe see your value… It must’ve been an honor, one that we unfortunately did not have.”
“We have lived in isolation,” Crystal said, looking at the humongous buildings around them, “We escaped our captors, tossed aside by the Supreme Intelligence itself, and intended to reclaim our home. But when we came back, we found that the world turned without us, and we realized we didn’t belong. We have taken towards the worlds near our homeworld, our crown city lying on the moon.”
“The moon, you say?” Reed said, walking in as Johnny slapped Ben for ruining his paint job, “Although we may not be rulers, we may be able to represent our world. I assume you came here to invite us?”
“Officially, yes, although I come here for your aid, Reed Richards,” Medusalith said, stepping forward as her snakes looked around with worry, “My husband, the king of our people, has gone missing. I have traveled to each of the worlds under the rule of Atillan, looking for my husband. Neither of the houses that rule the cities of Aphrodan and Tiamat have found anything, the barren rocks of Mercury show nothing, and the fields of Vulcan show nothing as well.”
“We aren’t sure. I haven’t seen or even heard of him as of yet,” Reed said,
“Trust me, you would hear him if you could,” Medusalith said, her blindfold becoming damp, “I hope his brother might have a clue, though that weasel’s always up to something.”
“Okay, I need a Game of Thrones recap here,” Ben Grimm said as he walked over, “Who is your husband, and what’s going on again?”
“Black Bolt,” Crystal said, forming a statue out of her hands. The glass statue showed a man wearing what looked like a wingsuit, sparks coming out of a strange fork-like object on his head. “He is the Silent King of the Moon, and we haven’t seen him in months. We were hoping he went somewhere to meditate, to even let out some steam and shout, but… Nothing.”
“If you can, find him. I would greatly owe you a debt beyond imagination,” Medusalith said, her snakes hissing mournfully as she kept her stoic demeanor,
“Well, we have done the impossible before,” Sue said, looking at her husband, “We can help, and it would be nice to get out of the house.”
“Will we meet you there, or…?” Reed asked as Crystal waved her hand, bringing out a fork-like object. She ranged it, and put it to her mouth,
“OH LOCKJAW!!!” Electricity zapped in the air, space warped around as reality tore itself apart, and a gigantic bulldog leaped out of the wormhole. Reality shifted, as the large dog with a fork on his head sat down, panting as Crystal rubbed her smooth hands over his wrinkly face, “Good boy!”
“A teleporting dog!” Johnny said, running over as he petted the large fido, “Oh my God, Reed! We need one!”
“Please, I can do that without the dog,” Reed said, “As soon as I configure the coordinates module, test it on non-living matter, then living matter, then perform more tests in a dust-free environment to perfect the technology. Sue, remind me to invite Mr. Stark over one of these nights,”
“Later, right now we have a dinner to go to,” Sue said as the Royal family walked over to their dog, Johnny stepped back as the dog started to zap,
“Sorry to vanish too soon, we’ll meet you ther--” KASHOOM!!! The family fades away in a vortex of lightning and distorted reality, instantly disappearing from the Baxter Building.
“Right, time to get my best tux!” Ben said as he patted Johnny, “Forgetting Laura already, huh sparky?” Johnny flinched at her name, his flaming spirit fading as he rubbed his arm,
“Ha, yeah… Sure man,” Johnny said as he walked off, shaking his head,
“Ben!” Sue said as she looked at the living rock man, “You know that Johnny’s still… Sensitive about Laura…”
“Jeeze, you think you would get over that your fiancée was a Skrull spy!” Thing said, “So what, the kid’s forgotten gals like a goldfish remembers!”
“It was different… Johnny felt something… Real with Laura. He was happy… Only for it to be a lie…”
“Let’s be glad that we managed to get back the data crystal,” Reed said, “If the Skrulls got their hands on that, they would have a full collection of Earth’s knowledge, knowing our weaknesses without even being here. To think, my Christmas present almost spelled doom for our world!”
“I’ll go talk to Johnny,” Sue said as she left, but not before she looked at Reed. “Reed, we still need to talk about… Something…” Sue left, leaving Reed and Ben puzzled,
“Huh, bedroom problems, Stretch?” Reed raised an eyebrow as Ben chuckled, “Can’t imagine how!”
“Wouldn’t you with Alicia?” Reed asked, making Ben frown. Ben then grinned a big smile, leaning down next to Reed,
“At least I’m getting my rocks off!” Reed groaned as Ben laughed, walking down with his best friend towards the stairs of the roof, and heading into the hangar. “Don’t worry, I don’t think it’s anything serious… What, is it the end of the world?”