The highest bidder...

Back in the living room, the many versions of Susan Storm dotted over the four children at the table while Johnny and Ben with his wife chatted over the day’s events. Hugging her daughter close and ruffing up her son’s hair, causing him to laugh at the attention. Susan turned to the others and smiled at their own pleased looks as they watched the kids laugh and giggle. Seeing the whimsical smile on the blue skinned woman as her angelic wings fluttered behind her, Susan grinned.

“So, you have a Valaria and Franklin in YOUR universe too?”

“Oh yeah, they’re probably worried SICK that I’m not at home right now, my Reed too.” Smiled the Succubus, sharing a look with the alien woman sitting next to her.

“Same with mine.” Sighed the tall wendigo woman, folding her muscular arms and leaning her head into the palm of her hand. “My girl ends up in quite some trouble sometimes.”

“Are your son and daughter furry like you?” Asked Jo’Venn, making the wendigo sit up straight and pout her lower lip at the question.

“What?! No! Could you imagine our food bills?”

The rest of the living room laughed, with Alicia nudging her husband’s shoulder in the elbow and making Ben chuckle while scratching the back of his head. Watching the four ladies interact with the children, the former sex **** looked up to the imposing version of her sitting quietly at the table, her eyes filled with intensity as if she were furious, grating the surface of the table with her gloved fingers.

“Did… Did YOU have any kids with Reed?”

Turning her attention to the woman, her gaze alone made the timid version of Sue flinch as the rest of the room fell silent, wondering how the Canoness would react. For a brief second, the armored woman exhaled, and her demeanor softened.

“No… We never had the chance to be together.” Folding her gloved hands together, the Canoness looked down and pulled one of her gloves free of her hand, exposing metal underneath. Raising her mechanical hand she opened and closed her fist with the soft whirl of micro-servos, giving everyone present an eyeful of her prosthetic hand. “We only knew each other for a few years in the hive city. We had been betrothed… Before the Drukhari came, they took him from me… While I was still holding his hand.” Seeing everyone’s reaction, she continued, pulling the glove back over her mechanical hand. “I joined the sisterhood soon after, for 78 years I have spent making those knife eared monsters know MY name… And the bite of my blade.”

A little confused, the others looked to each other in disbelief before the holographic woman sitting with Ben and Alicia raised her hand. “Doesn’t that make you… What? A hundred or something?”

Franklin sat up from his chair and spoke up. “Does that make you my Grandma?”

Hearing Johnny snort and hold back laughter, Susan gave her brother a dirty look that made the man wave his hands and shake his head. “No kid, it doesn’t mean she’s your grandma, heck for a centennial you look pretty good for your… HOLY HELL!!!!!!!”

Seeing the Human Torch jump in fright and scurry behind Ben’s chair to look over the safety of Ben’s shoulder out into the hallway, the rest of the Susans looked over to what caught his attention and froze. There, being guided gently by the hand down the hall into the living room, was the cosmic being of Susan Storm. Her skin gave off a neon light that flooded the room, and her long sky-blue hair flowed up into the air as if she were submerged in water, for the first time since she arrived she was wearing a very simple attire that looked like the lab coat the wendigo Susan tossed on her earlier, only now it was shaped like a sundress over her. Reed finally stopped at the center of the room and smiled back at the others with a hesitant wave.

“Everyone, this is Susan.” Checking everyone’s frightened reaction, Reed steeled himself and continued. “She’s decided she wants to come out of the lab and chat with you all, I’m sure you’ve all got a few things to say to her too.”

“Please don’t kill us…” Whispered Johnny, ducking his head behind the chair along with the supermodel who joined the man behind the Thing’s seat. The two hugging each other as they hid behind Ben Grimm who shook his head in disappointment. Offering the woman a chair at the table, the blue glowing woman sat and gently folded her hands in front of her there, staring forward and expressionless.

“Now, now Johnny, that’s no way to treat one of the versions of your sister.”

“Reed has told me that you had defeated Galactus, how were you able to achieve this?” The glowing woman asked bluntly, catching everyone off guard that she could speak and that her attention was on the matriarch of the house. Finding herself in the spotlight, the Invisible Woman smiled sheepishly as she watched her husband walk around the table to join her, leaning in close so she could whisper to him.

“Okay Reed, I’m sorry about the whole lab thing, but why…?”

“Shh, its okay, just give her an answer.”

Darting her eyes and shifting her hands together, Susan turned her gaze back to the other woman’s white glowing ones and sighed.

“B-before Galactus first arrived, the Silver Surfer ended up on Earth and met Ben’s wife, Alicia.” She explained, pointing over to Ben and Alicia sitting at the two chairs in front of the nearby coffee table who watched on apprehensively. “She encouraged him that life on Earth wasn’t worth losing. When Galactus arrived, he actually tried to stop him.”

The woman remained still save for her long flowing hair, her face completely unreadable but she continued to listen.

“B-but that didn’t work out so well…” Looking back to her husband, the man nodded for her to continue, not sure at what he was playing at. “So, what we did was while the two were occupied with each other, we snuck into Galactus’s ship and found a weapon that could hurt him, the terms we gave him were if he didn’t stop what he was doing… We’d shoot him.” Still seeing the woman simply sit there listening, Susan shrugged. “After that he agreed to the terms and just left.”

Finishing her explanation, she watched the woman look down at the table and shift her eyes as if she were thinking on the matter, she then turned her attention to the others and spoke again, causing a few to jump in their seats. “Is that the same for all of you?”

“Well…” Scratching the back of her tentacled head, the alien Susan made a face of thought before answering. “In MY universe, the Silver Surfer just… Blew up and took Galactus with him.”

“Mine went the way of this one’s too.” Pointed the succubus back to the Invisible Woman. “We’ve bumped into him a couple of times after that, but he decided Earth was too much trouble for a meal.”

Nodding, the tall wendigo woman spoke. “Yeah, mine said that too.”

Slowly crawling out of the protection behind Ben’s chair, the supermodel version of Suzie straightened her skirt and hesitantly raised a hand. “Uhm… Who’s Galactus?”

“I have not heard of this ‘Galactus’ either.” Spoke the Canoness, folding her hands together in front of her at the table. “What is he?”

Looking into the worried gaze of all the other Susans in the living room, the glowing cosmic being’s face was still unreadable as she turned her attention back down to her folded hands, deep in thought. “This… This is impossible…”

“No, not impossible, just improbable, but it still happened.” Explained Reed, finally coming around the table to stand next to the glowing woman. “In their realities just as I had mentioned, Galactus was either defeated or he just never even arrived.”

“I talked with the Surfer personally.” Answered Alicia, getting up from her seat and carefully making her way to the table to where she was hearing Reed and this other Susan speak. “He had the heart of a poet and a kind voice.”

“YAWN!” Scoffed the latex wearing woman in the corner of the room, overexaggerating the act of covering her open mouth before getting up from her chair and sashaying out of the room. “This is getting BORING; I think I’ll take a cat-nap.”

Ignoring the woman’s departure, Alicia extended her hands out to feel the cosmic being’s face, leaving everyone to gasp with anxiety when she finally cupped the woman’s face in her hands. Gently tracing her lips with her thumb, she explored the woman’s blank expression, even looking a little surprised when she noticed the woman’s hair flowed up instead of down from her shoulders. “You feel like Susan, but your skin is so… Tingly.”

“You are blind.” The Susan stated matter of fact.

“Yes, I am, have been my entire life.” Alicia smiled warmly, pulling her hands away to hug herself. “Is there an Alicia in your world?”

Narrowing her eyes, the cosmic powered woman furrowed her brow, still deep in thought until she finally answered. “I do not know… How did you convince the Surfer to go against Galactus?”

“I told him that in destroying all life on a planet he would be destroying beauty as well, I even showed him some of my sculptures. He was very impressed”

“You are an artist?”

“Good one too.” Called out Ben from his chair, getting a smile from his wife. “I’ve been’er muse a few times.”

Turning her gaze to the stoned skin man and back to Alicia, the cosmic powered woman slowly tilted her head. “Do you know what he looks like?”

“I know what he FEELS like. That’s all that matters to me.”

Standing up from her seat, the woman looked Alicia in the eye and stared into them for some time. Eventually she raised a hand and tapped her finger against Alicia’s forehead, stunning her still and making her hitch her breath as her body began to twitch. Everyone else quickly got to their feet as the cosmic being tilted her head again, narrowing her eyes as if displeased with what she was finding and pulled her finger away. The moment she did, Alicia staggered back and winced her eyes closed, bringing her hands to her face as she gasped out a cough.

“Alicia, you okay?” Worried Ben, getting out of his chair and gently catching his wife by her shoulders before she collapsed. Looking down at her face, the woman opened her eyes and looked up at her husband. But instead of her glassy pale orbs, her eyes were now a vibrant and sharp blue.

“Ben? Is that you?!” Blinking her eyes, Alicia encompassed her hands around his rocky face with elation, then looked around the living room as if for the first time… Because it WAS. Gasping and barely containing the smile cracking her features, Alicia looked over to her two adopted children, breaking out into a laugh as she approached them, feeling over their faces, and breaking down into tears as she hugged them close. “I can see you. I CAN SEE YOU!”

The other Susans were just as moved as the formally blind woman kissed at her children’s foreheads and felt over their faces, committing everything about how they looked to memory. Quickly returning to Ben’s arms, she hugged and kiss him on his stony lips. Stunned silent and moved by the simple gesture, Ben and the others looked back at the glowing woman as she returned to her chair and neatly folded her hands in front of her again.

“Her absence of vision can only give me an incomplete picture as to why the Silver Surfer betrayed Galactus, and your testimonies are circumstantial at best. I need more information. for that I have resto…” Caught off guard by a fierce hug by the artist, the woman did not know how to respond as Alicia wept and continued to mutter praise to the glowing woman who sat stone stiff and confused in her own chair. Turning her gaze to Reed and Susan across the table, they made hand gestures for her to mimic.

Slowly patting the woman gently on the back, the cosmic being waited patiently for the woman to calm down and let her go. Utter confusion etched on her face as she did not understand the act.

*

Meanwhile…

“MeOOW! What a bore.” Complained the cat-burglar as she wiped the back of her latex covered hand over her cheek and opened the door to some random bedroom in the apartment complex. There she simply dropped herself onto the cushion and draped herself over the soft fabric like a tired housecat. “First, I was on the steal of the century with the Spanish diamonds, next I end up in the Twilight Zone surrounded by a bunch of mes from some kind of carnival funhouse…”

“Yes… Something we can all agree on.”

Rolling onto her side and resting her head in the palm of her hand, the cat-burglar looked up to find three other versions of herself appear right in front of her. The same women who left the living room earlier.

“Hmm, so what brings you all to my cat bed?”

Sharing in the woman’s smug grin, Susan Von Doom stepped forward and extended her outstretched hand to project a holographic representation of the energy absorber, letting its image circle around the palm of her hand long enough for the cat-burglar to recognize it.

“We are currently in the market for a thief, one that can obtain this item from SHIELD custody in this city. Would YOU be the one skilled enough to perform this tincey-wincey favour for us?”

“Sorry sister, this cat only works for the highest bidder.”

Closing her gauntlet and looking to both the vampire and Malice behind her, the trio grinned then turned their attention back to the woman lounging in front of them. “I am Susan Von Doom, Queen of Latveria. My fortunes are vast and my influence global. Do this for us, and you will be rewarded when we return to our home realities. Oh, and as a down payment…” Curtseying forward, Doom outstretched her other hand to reveal a bundle of diamonds she let cascade through her fingers to be caught in the cat-burglar’s cupped hands, quickly gathering what she could to admire, mesmerized by their glittering facets. “Consider that a down-payment.”

“WELL THEN!” Purred Susan. “Guess that makes you the highest bidder.”

Cruel laughter filled the room by the three as one by one they disappeared, the door opening briefly only to close with a final whisper. “I thought you’d see things our way… We’ll keep in touch.”