One year later…

Looking at her reflection through her bedroom window, wearing a pair of jeans and a custom-made sweater with four sleeves, Susan closed her eyes and concentrated. Slowing her breaths and picturing in her mind what she wanted to see, the woman could feel the muscles in her face twitch, the tentacles of her scalp going limp and drape down her shoulders and back while the crown of antlers over her brow began to slowly recede. Inside her mouth she could feel all her fangs blunt into human teeth while she concentrated harder on what she wanted. Until…

“MOM!”

Blinking her eyes open, Susan found herself looking back at her human reflection before it snapped back to her blue, tentacled self again. Sighing and plucking a stray tentacle between her talons, Suzie gave her reflection a pout. “This used to be so easy before… Yes Val?”

“Mikey’s being a handful again!”

“Be right out.”

Combing her fingers through her tentacled scalp with one of her hands, Susan huffed, stepping out of her bedroom to find Valaria and Franklin playing with their seven siblings in the living room, and her daughter struggling to contain her baby brother in her arms while he kicked and flailed to get free. The sight was almost adorable to find Valaria with a one-year-old in her arms tugging on the girl’s blonde hair with his tentacles to break free of her grip.

“He’s got me by the hair!”

Smiling down at the two, Susan pulled little Mikey from his big sister’s arms and nearly laughed hearing him cry out in protest until he was cradled in her lower arms. The others were either intently watching television or were playing a board game with their elder brother and two uncles Johnny and Ben at the table.

“Now Mikey, stop being a hassle to your older sister.” Susan scolded playfully while scuffing up her son’s tentacles with one of her hands. “Sit with her brothers and sisters or no one gets desert after dinner.”

Squinting with a grin, Susan had to put up with the chorus of complaints from all her kids after the little declaration. Even Valaria and Franklin stopped what they were doing when they heard that.

“What?! No pie?” “But we were waiting all DAY for that!” “Darn it Mikey!”

Waving her four hands to calm them all down, Susan laughed and rolled her eyes at their cries of disappointment. Calming them down from picking on their unruly brother for having them miss out dessert.

“Alright, alright, dessert isn’t cancelled, but listen to your sister Mikey.” Seeing the little blue skinned child nod back to her, Susan grinned and pulled her son in for tickles, her smile splitting her face at the little toddler laughing and struggling impotently to get away when she pulled his shirt up to blow a raspberry over his belly button. Seeing her other two sons and daughter Jake, Sam and Mandy take seats next to her on the couch, the woman hugged them all close while they watched what was happening on television.

Going from one channel to the next, Susan stopped over at a news station where two anchors were announcing the latest for the viewer. One was a handsome man in a brown suit, and the other was a blue skinned woman with tentacle hair and horns in a white business dress smiling back at the camera with her hands folded in front of her.

“Good morning everyone and welcome to our morning report.” Spoke the middle-aged anchor as he ruffled the papers in his hands. “Today we cover the Avenger’s return from the West coast after another attempt by the terrorist group known as Hydra tried to invade California.”

“That’s right Sandra, here we have the Director Nicholas fury on site with the Avengers as they begin their exit from the city… He was not available for comment, but SHIELD representatives have explained that the crisis has been dealt with.”

Watching the television, Susan made a face watching a scowling Nick Fury glare back at the camera in the distance while the Avengers packed up and left. A year ago, he was not just mad about how she and the others attacked the Avengers directly, he was red faced pissed off! The man was fire and brimstone when he arrived onto the end of the battle with Lilith after the gene trigger was dispersed across the city. He almost made true on his threat to lock up everyone infected until the tally came back a few days later that nearly 20% of the city’s population was infected.

With a sizeable population scaly and tentacled, Fury was **** to relent on the threat… Especially since the Avengers took Susan’s side in the matter afterwards. The months since had been a transition for everyone. Help groups had been set up for those who had trouble coping, especially for the newborns who had reached adulthood within days and were freed from the swarm mind. Though thankfully they had a trait she was rather grateful for…

“Gosh darn’it kid! Why’d I give you the manual to hold while I was settin up?” Cursed Ben, shaking his head as Susan’s two newborn son and daughter were beating Johnny and Ben at monopoly. Psychometry was a natural trait of the species she and the others had become able to absorb information stored in any medium they came in contact, books, magazines, internet, much to her pride she found that even though her seven toddlers were only a year old; they’d had amassed enough knowledge to earn a doctorate… Once they were old enough to apply.

“You keep trying to overreach Uncle Ben, you need to pace yourself as you accumulate wealth from your retail squares.” Smiled little Allie, making the orange stone man grumble to himself as he paid up his spot on her square with 3 hotels, ending the game as he gave his last dollar to the smiling little girl with bows in her tentacles. “Looks like I win.”

“Deh… Best two outta three.”

“Yeah!” Chimed in Johnny, finding himself broke and sitting on the sidelines after being bankrupt by the two blue skinned kids.

“Now, now you two, play nice.” Scoffed Alicia, coming up from behind Ben and draping her arms over his shoulders to peck a kiss behind his head, her many tentacles coiling around his back and shoulders affectionately while she watched the four set the board up again. Leaning over to his ear, Alicia whispered to the man, making Ben nod with a grin before the two kissed and Alicia joined Susan at the couch.

Trading each other knowing looks, Susan sat Mikey in her lap and smiled, looking over to her shoulder to find Ben more enthusiastic about the rematch after Alicia’s whispered words.

“So… What did you tell him?”

“That Allie’s favorite colour is green, and if he wanted to win, then he should get all the green properties to haggle off if he wanted to win.”

“That’s it?” Susan asked with a coy look to the other woman.

“Well… That and I told him if he won, he and I would play some games of our own later tonight.”

“Well, THAT will certainly motivate him!” Smiling and shaking her head, Susan continued to bounce Mikey over her knee, making the boy laugh and cry out before being hugged tightly by his mother and have his tentacles ruffled in her hand again. Getting up from her seat, Susan heard the doorbell ring and stood to open the door. The moment she did, she was pleasantly surprised to find a familiar face at the door bending down at the waist to see the woman at eye level. Standing at the door frame and wearing a pair of purple pants and sweater that read ‘Bun in the Oven’, was the She-Hulk beaming back a broad smile and combing her tentacles away from her face.

“Hi Suzie.”

“Jennifer! Welcome, please come in, take a load off your feet.” the woman offered, hugging the tall woman at the door as the two returned to the couch and shared a seat with Alicia and Susan’s kids on the floor watching television. With a huff, Jen sighed after getting off her feet and cradled her swollen middle with a content smile.

“SO, I see the rumours about you and Thor being a couple weren’t just tabloids.” Smirked Alicia, eyeing the taller woman lean back and rub a sore spot to her belly after kicking her shoes off. “So, tell me, is he good in bed?”

“Heh… Thunder and lightning girls, thunder and LIGHTNING.” Chuckled Jennifer, sighing to herself as she calmed the activity in her womb. Giving a small smile when her clawed hand roamed over an active spot. “The Thunderer ain’t here but the storm he left behind’s been growing and growing ever since.”

“Triplets?”

“Quadruplets! And gotta admit girls, he’s been pretty good having around, even during the mood swings.”

“You haven’t hurt him, have you?”

“Pff… No!” Scoffed Jen, waving a hand back at Alicia. “Let’s just say I give the term ‘Hulk Smash’ a whole new meaning when my hormones act up.”

It did not surprise Susan in the slightest that the two or others in the Avengers paired up after the events.

“Oh! And Suzie? Steve says hi.”

Smiling warmly at the gesture, Susan ‘s mind wandered back to Captain America. Ever since her septuplets were born, being old fashioned as he was, Steve Rogers tried everything he knew to accommodate her during the entire affair, offering money, assistance, co-dependence. She found that rather attractive about the man, but… She already had the perfect man in her life. From what she heard; Carol had snatched the man up. Getting up from the couch and padding down her pants, Susan turned to her two friends and grinned as she made her way over to the kitchen.

“So, Jen, are you staying for dinner? I’ll let Reed know.”

“Sure thing, where is the egg head anyway?”

*

Meanwhile in Reed’s laboratory…

Reed was looking up at the primary display screen at his lab desk, going over his research in the gene trigger he had administered last year to stop the Lilith crisis. Double checking his calculations, he did not like what he was looking at. The gene trigger, the one he carefully designed, was not going to be a permanent solution as he thought. From what HERBIE and he had determined, the trigger was going to **** over time. It was not noticeable in the initial tests, and most likely he would never see symptoms of it within his lifetime, but the trigger would eventually break down and when it did, Susan and the others would revert to their former selves. Looking up at the screen and scratching his chin in thought, the number kept running through his mind.

34278 days.

That was how long the gene trigger would keep effect before the immune system would finally break it down to its base components. The prospect worried him, especially Lilith’s last words before she dissolved. This species had genetic memory, with all he had done, was there a chance she or a version of her would return? Would the world fall into the same crisis he and his family narrowly averted? Sighing to himself, Reed rubbed the bridge of his nose between his eyes and leaned forward in his chair, distraught and deep in thought.

“Reed, honey? Jen’s here, want HERBIE to make extras for dinner?”

Turning in his chair to look out his laboratory doors, Reed looked back at the readings and back towards the door, smiling to himself lightly as he got up and exited the lab.

“Sure thing, Susan, does she want some of the pie too?”

Stepping out of the lab, Reed turned off the lights, leaving the screen on to keep the digital display up in the dark after he left. 34278 days.

The End