New Beginnings

Earth-149

She was nervous, why wouldn’t she be? Standing in the elevator and watching the floors go up one by one, the well-dressed woman fidgeted and checked herself over in the reflection of the elevator interior walls to make sure she looked just right. Wearing a stylish button-down blue dress with sky blue blouse, Susan combed a finger through her long blonde hair to make sure her make up was just right and her earrings and necklace weren’t too ostentatious. She didn’t plan for this, not really. It was more out of curiosity than anything else… That and maybe wanting to find her own slice of happiness in her world. Sighing, she leaned back against the wall behind her and placed a hand to her chest to slow her heart rate. It was almost funny. She dealt with the insanity of the multi-verse, met different versions of herself and even slayed a vampire… But what she was trying to do was making her heart pound like a jackhammer.

Stepping out of the elevator when the chime announced she had reached her floor and the doors opened, she slowly stepped out in her pearl blue high heels and made her way down the hall. Keeping her eyes on the door numbers to her left as she walked, she muttered to herself, practicing on what she was going to say to introduce herself to the man. But when she found herself in front of the door labelled ‘4F’, Susan froze.

“What am I doing?” She whispered, hugging herself tightly and finding herself backing away and pace in a circle in front of the door. “Come on Suzie, what made you think this was a good idea? We’ve never met before; what do you think he’s going to do when you knock on the door?”

Leaning against the adjacent wall and looking straight at the door with her manicured nails tapping against her chin, Susan closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Looking back at the door, she stepped forward and gently knocked on the door. After a few seconds, she worried she didn’t knock hard enough to get attention and tried to knock again when the door opened, startling her.

“Hello? Uhm… Might I ask how I can help you?”

Clutching her hands to her chest, Susan found herself face to face with her universe’s Reed Richards. Dark skinned and green eyed, he scratched at the side of his head and wiped down his button shirt to look more presentable, seeing as the woman in front of him was more well dressed than he was. Susan had tried to prepare for this moment, trying to catch up on the news of Reed’s exploits in her world. How he had managed to get a job for Nasa as a think tank but never got off the ground as a pilot like his friend Ben Grimm. From what she gathered, neither of them ended up in space like the launch that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. Ben went on to do commercial flights out of Queens, and Reed remained in New York writing papers on relative physics.

“Well…” Still nervous, Susan slowly approached the man and tried to offer her hand to his. “H-hello, my name is Susan Storm, it’s… It’s nice to meet you.”

Looking down at her hand as he gently took it in his, Reed squinted and repositioned his glasses, tilting his head slightly as a thought came to mind. “Susan Storm… Susan Storm the model?”

“Y-yes! Have you seen some of my work?” She asked excitedly, unconsciously bringing a free hand to her cheek to hide the blush she was giving off. He nodded, his eyes widening now that he could recognize her.

“I’ve seen your poster on 5th avenue, the one of you pulling up Lavi’s jeans or something.” Realising she had been holding his hand for too long, he looked down and finally separated from her, bringing his hands to his pants pockets. “So, are you here for a photo op or something? Or maybe a book signing? I don’t do that anymore; it’s been a few years since I’ve written a paper.”

“I KNOW! I’ve read them, all of them really.” Susan blurted out, wringing her hands together in front of her, as her nervousness intensified. “I thought your theories on phasing matter was really something, and… Your papers on cosmic and gamma radiation and…” Seeing the man’s face as she listed off his works with her fingers, the look he gave back was not one of being impressed. But feeling like he was being humoured. “And… Your flying car…”

“Sigh… Look, I’m very impressed that you’ve seen my work, but it’s been a bit of a day for me and unless you’ve got a book for me to sign and a pen to do it with, I’d like to…” He was about to step back into his apartment and close the door when he felt her grab his arm.

“Wait! I’m sorry, I didn’t want to come off as some fan wanting a signature or anything, I just wanted to meet you, just you.” Turning to look back at the woman, Susan was taken back by the look of disbelief on his face, making her step back and not know what to do with her hands as she wrung them over her chest. “I just… Oh just look at me, I had this entire moment planned, I had hoped I could get to know you better, I even looked up your work so I could be prepared and… And… Oh my god, I’m such a trainwreck!”

Bringing her long blonde hair up with her hands, Susan tried to hide her face behind it, feeling like she could die of embarrassment. “I’m sorry, this was a mistake, I didn’t mean to make you feel like this, I just wanted to know you.”

Nearly in tears, she looked up at Reed, thinking he would scoff at her babbling, only to find him standing there stunned. Blinking his eyes, he turned his head to look back at either end of the hallway as if he were looking for something and began to wave his arm in front of him, very quickly bumping his open hand against her shoulder. “Hey!” Looking down at his hand as it tried to feel up her upper arm and shoulder, her eyes went wide to find there was nothing there. She was completely invisible. Feeling both his hands at her shoulders, tracing over where she was to get a fix on where she was standing.

“How are you doing this?”

“I… I don’t know?” She answered, unsure HOW to answer the question as she looked down at her hand and found nothing there. It was only when she calmed down that her hand and arm reappeared, and Reed found himself just a bit to close to her face that their noses almost touched. Backing away but never letting go of her hand, his cheeks darkened while he looked down at her hand with his fingers and checked her over, his mind racing a mile a minute.

“Incredible. Is it epidermal? No… No, your clothes went invisible too, maybe a field of influence? Perhaps light being bent to obscure visibility or maybe… Is it technology? If that’s the case the amount of energy needed to do that would be impressive. This is just… Fantastic!” Realising he had been staring at the woman’s bare hand for over a minute that she had calmed down, but not without a slight blush of her own, Reed realising he was gawking and looked back at his open apartment door. “Would… Would you like to come in? Maybe have some tea? I’d love to know how you did that.”

Smiling, with her blush intensifying when she found him looking into her eyes, Susan nodded. “S-sure… I’d love to.”