 3...2..1...no go.
|
May. 19th, 2009 @ 03:17 am 
|
|---|
Nick Fury, recently appointed head of S.H.I.E.L.D., stepped out of his hovercar (who would have thought a poor kid from Hell's Kitchen would be driving a flying car) in Central City, California. He was the bearer of bad news and the recipient was not going to be pleased.
Such was the way of government projects. They were funded until the money ran out or interest was lost.
Nick made his way through the building until he found one Reed Richards.
"Gotta talk to ya," he said.
|
Reed Richards, the head scientist of said government projects, was conducting some tests in the lab provided to him. He was watching as a device shot a ray as a sheet of metal, jotting notes down as the beam curved around the metal and struck the surface of the wall. Fury's voice made him jump, and he turned to look at him as he entered.
"Ah, you startled me." Reed said as he walked over to Nick. "It's about the launch, right? I've been making good progress on the shielding, and once I get run some tests on more intensive rays, we can start adding the final layers..." He finally noticed the look on Fury's face. "You have bad news, don't you?"
"What gave ya that idea? It my award winnin' smile, wasn't it?"
Nick nodded.
"The launch ain't goin' anytime soon. Budget cuts is the excuse they're blowin' up my ass an' what I'm supposed t' blow up yers."
Reed turns around and sighs loudly. "NASA's already put too much into this, how can they just pull the plug?" He takes a seat at the table and turns off the ray emitting device. He looks back at Nick.
"What about the astronauts that just up and disappeared? Isn't that worth the money? Isn't anyone else worried about a U.S. spacecraft going missing?"
"Politics, Richards. It's all about politics. They control the money an' new things catch their interest."
Nick shrugged.
"I wanna find out what happened to 'em as much as you do, but I don't control the purse strings. My hands are tied."
"It's always politics." Reed slumped his shoulders in defeat. It could be years before he would ever have a chance to test his shielding technology.
"Nick, I didn't want to say this to any of the politicians, but I think this could be a lot more serious than anyone thinks. That disappearance could be a sign of some sort of potentially hostile extraterrestrial force....I'm worried."
Ben checks the phone - not a number he recognizes off hand.
"Ya got Ben Grimm, Whaddya want?"
"Oh, hey Big Brain. Howz the rockit scientist gig goin'?"
"It was going fine. It's actually why I called you Ben. I have a favor to ask, one involving a space shuttle."
"Wuz goin' fine? That don't sound much like /is/ goin' fine. But you know all ya gotta do is ask if there's somethin' ya need."
"No, no."
She pauses and watches him for a minute. "No. I'm not letting you stay in the house by yourself for almost two weeks. Besides, I thought you liked Mrs. Mason. You're always helping her with groceries."
Sue knows that liking the nice lady across the street who sometimes brings over a casserole for no other reason than she just made an extra one is a completely different thing than having to have her "babysit" you. Especially when you're a teenager hoping to have a party while your older sister is gone.
She grins to herself and turns back to her charts and graphs.
Him? Party? Oh hell yeah! But that's not the reason.
"Space, Suzie. Space!"
Sue doesn't even look up from her navigational charts. There's too much to consider. The wrong angle, the wrong velocity and they could completely overshoot their goal, costing the government millions more dollars.
"Johnny," Her voice is long suffering. "No. You're too young, it's too dangerous and even if it wasn't, you'd be missing school." She looks up at him, pen dropping on the table, arms folded over herself.
Trying to change the topic, she hedges, "Didn't you just take a math exam?" Her gaze scrutinizing.
"And I passed it and my social studies teacher assigned me the Apollo Program for modern history - so I can totally do my homework in space!"
Reed sits at the console, making some last minute adjustments to the auto launch program while he waited for Susan and Ben. He looked out the window at his rocket, all prepped and ready to go. Reed rubbed his forehead. He spent the whole night getting the shields attached. If he had more time to test them, he'd be sure they functioned properly, but he had to make do.
Reed sits back in his chair. Everything was set, and now he just had to wait.
Getting in here was tough enough. Getting across an open launchpad without detection just added to the fun, but no one expected trouble, at least, so no one was on high alert.
Ben climbs up, surveying the craft as he goes. "Lookin' pretty good, big brain. What're we still waitin' on?" he asks, as he straps himself into the pilot's chair and begins a systems check.
"Susan." Reed answers, keeping his eyes on the time and the monitors. "Once she's on board, we launch immediately. I checked all over the facility and security is at a minimum since the launch was officially canceled. Susan's should still be able to get here without any major suspicion or interference. No one here should know what we're doing. I hope."
"Ok, once Suzie is on board, we're set to go, all systems look set, but the shields is readin' kinda funny. Bet once the engines start firin', we'll get plenty of attention, in any case. This oughta' be quite a ride."
"Here I am," She says as she comes onto the spacecraft. She has a bad feeling about this. She's not the sort to do this, not the sort to do anything that's not strictly by the rules. And yet here she is, for the good of astronauts gone missing and Reed Richard's research.
"Hi, Ben." She smiles in his direction as she pulls inwards, settling into the designated seat on the launch and immediately entering launch angles, velocity and coordinates. She knows what she has to do, she knows her part here.
"Are we ready?"
Back near the front of the ship, Ben rises quickly from his chair... then doubles over in pain. He staggers about, clutching at his stomach, and tries to head for the door - and instead crashes right through it, the metal bending away, the door torn off its hinges. As he reaches the outside, he falls to his knees, staring at his hands.
"Somethin'... somethin's happenin' to me."
The crash jostles Reed around, stunning him a bit. When his senses get back to him, he sees that Sue is gone and hears Ben crashing through the door.
"Ben, are you alright? Where's Susan?" Reed reaches out to Ben and touches his shoulder. It takes him a moment to realize how far his arm has stretched to reach Ben. A moment later, he feels his whole body change, as if all his bones have disappeared. Reed slips through the harness and falls to the floor, crumpling there. He feels both horror and fascination as he looks down at himself, trying to gain control.
Ben's shoulder is rock hard, literally. "I... I dunno..." he mutters, his voice growing more gravelly and deeper even than usual.
"What's happenin' ta me?!" he bellows, the last sounds breaking into a scream of pain as the transformation really sets in.
"Reed..." A form of bright orange flame emerges from the ship. "Reed, where's Sue? She just vanished."
"What do you mean, where's Sue? I'm right! I... I'm invisible!"
She couldn't help the panic in her voice. She couldn't even see herself. Even her clothes disappeared! Her heart beat erratically. She moved from Johnny's side to Reed's, but before she could even touch him her attention was diverted to Ben.
"What's happening to us?"
|
|
![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}