Missing persons, missing humanity.

3 days later…

Reed Richards stood in front of the smoldering ruin of Janet Van Dyne’s studio loft, even days after the blaze that burnt the building to the ground, the ruins smouldered with embers that refused to go out. It all happened so quickly, no sooner had he returned home that he got a phone call from the authorities telling him there was a fire at the loft where Susan had gone to celebrate after the fashion show.

Standing next to the distraught man, Nick Fury signed off a report with one of the forensic specialists SHIELD had brought in to investigate the fire. The head agent placing his hands in his pockets after the specialist gave them privacy. “I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did Doctor Richards.” Spoke the SHIELD director, trying to be sympathetic towards the grieving man still staring into the ruins. "It’s looking like the fire was caused by **** ignited in the bedroom, we’ve found some bodies but from what we’ve found so far, there aren’t ENOUGH bodies to match who eyewitnesses said were present.”

“So, your saying my wife might not have been in there when it started?”

“We’re still doing DNA tests with what we’ve found, but I’m not about to give you anything to cling to until we know for sure.”

Breathing in slowly, Reed Richards turned away from the sight and called for a taxi. Standing at the street’s corner waiting for the vehicle to arrive. His mind was swimming with confusion and doubts; how did this happen? Why did this happen? Did she survive? And if she did why wasn’t she reaching out to him and their family? Even after the taxicab arrived, his mind still couldn’t come up with solutions to those inner questions.

“Reed, if anything comes up, you’ll be the first to know.”

*

It was so much easier to just let go. She spent so much energy trying to fight it, but the more she did the harder it fought back. It was so much easier to just let go, to let the beast lurking inside of her out and indulge, to ride out the carnal pleasures she was trying so hard to resist. The mocking voice in her head hadn’t spoken ever since she decided to embrace her true nature, if anything she had BECOME that voice. She no longer considered herself human anymore. Why? She wasn’t human anymore, compared to her they were a resource for her to hunt, to feed off, to expand her genes. Compared to her, she was perfect, immortal, a queen to a hive of perfect beings who would RULE this world in time.

It was so much easier to just let go.

“Welcome guys to the amateur night special at the Riviera Night Club, give a warm welcome to a special treat of a lady who just can’t wait to unwrap herself for you guys, give it up for Candi!”

At a strip bar on the far East end of the city, the strobe lights flashed over the walkway and men cheered and whistled when the announcer called out the fake name she had gave him. When the lights illuminated her perfect Amazonian figure and voluptuous curves leaning against the red curtain, the crowd grew louder. Covered head to toe in jet-black latex paint that enveloped her entire figure, Susan strutted down the walkway, her latex covered body glistening in the strobe light when she came upon the brass pole at the center stage and expertly hoisted herself up and spun around its length, masterfully flexing and gyrating her body over its smooth surface.

Just when the crowd thought they were getting a show, Susan upped the ante when she traced her fingernail down her collar bone down to her naval, playfully, teasingly tracing a V-cut from the front of her latex suit and pulling the spade shaped material off to toss into the crowd. Exposing her G-cup sized cleavage and creamy skin to the cheering crowd of horny men. Wrapping her legs around the pole and spinning upside down, she did the same with the sleeves of her late body suit, peeling away the material like silk gloves and tossing them into the crowd at either side. Standing back to her feet and pressing her back to the brass pole, ‘Candi’ let her now bare hands roam over her latex covered legs, performing an act like she was undressing a pair of nylons and then flinging the material into the face of a man at the front of the stage, his friends cheering him just as she turned to show off her perfect long legs, flaring hips and heart shaped rear. By now her full body suit had become a ragged black bikini on her statuesque frame, accentuating her flaring curves and firm physique and creamy smooth skin.

Getting to her feet, she paraded back down the walkway, arching her arms behind her back to trace her nail down the back of her latex mask, turning on her foot, she pulled the thing off and allowed her long flowing purple hair to cascade down her back and toss mask into the crowd before she returned to the pole and spun around its length, allowing her hair to sail and flutter in the air.

“Talk about unwrapping a treat, give it up for CANDI!”

The crowd went insane and threw money on the walkway and stage, yet she never picked up a single bill, that wasn’t what she was after. When her dance was finished, she didn’t leave the stage, instead she slipped to her hands and knees and crawled towards the man who caught her eye the entire time. Slinking off the stage to the tiled floor of the club, she pressed herself up against the well-dressed man sitting with his friends and hoisted him up out of his seat by his tie and pulled him into a smouldering kiss that made his eyes bug out.

“Women’s washroom… Five minutes…” She purred, winking back at the stunned man before she pushed him back into his seat and sashayed towards the rest room, shamelessly pulling free the rest of the latex to walk nude the entire way to the room and look over her shoulder to check if he were following.

The cat calls and whistles the man got when he scrambled out of his seat to join her was nearly deafening. Had they known just exactly who and what she was… They would have tried harder to save the man’s life.

*

Stepping into his home and quietly closing the door behind him, Reed found his family sitting at the living room couch watching the news. Immediately his two children sat up to join him at the door to hug him while Johnny turned to look up at the man. “Any word?”

“No, not yet, they’re still processing the crime scene.”

“Dad, is mom alive?” Asked Valaria, looking up to her father with worry.

“I don’t know sweetheart, I hope so.” Giving his two children a hug, the man stretched himself to shorten the distance walking down the hallway to head to their room to console them. Leaving Johnny and Ben to sit at the couch. “Still watchin the news kid?” Asked Ben, seeing the usual spitfire gone in Johnny Storm’s behaviour. “Yeah… Been watching the news for a few hours now, hoping that something about my sister might come up.

“In other news, a string of murders has been occurring in the greater Manhattan area. I would like to advise the audience that the latest images may shock and horrify.” Announced the news anchor as several pictures filled the screen of random men with women clinging to them affectionately, followed by blurred footage of those men in post-mortem where much of the blurring was a red smear. “So far 9 men in the last 60 hours have been found dead of similar means, reminiscent of an animal attack in which said victims have been eviscerated and partially eaten.”

“Jee-zus!” Coughed the Thing, shaking his head while still watching the program. “Although no assailant has been found, police are requesting the public on the whereabouts of these nine women documented with the missing men prior to their deaths and their possible whereabouts for questioning.”

Squinting at the screen at the collection of police sketches and security footage of the women presented, Johnny took on a skewed look. “Hey Ben, doesn’t that look like Susan?”

“Yeah it does… If she had black hair and REALLY hit the tanning booth.” Nodded Ben, scrutinizing the African American woman shown on the television. “So does this one too.”

Nodding mutually to the picture, Johnny answered. “Yeah… If my sister was a red head with freckles, and the eyes are all wrong.” Several other photographs and pictures rolled past the screen; An Asian woman with green eyes, a Latina with curly brunette hair and brown eyes, a Caucasian woman with platinum hair and pale skin. Each were different save for one detail; they all shared the same facial structure of Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman! Turning off the television, Ben Grimm shook his head and got up. “I think that’s enough TV for one day…”

“Yeah, starting to see things, guess I’m worrying so much.”