Psi-Lord, Her Grown-Up Son From The Future!

"...your son?" Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, said. The petite woman's nose wrinkled.

"An alternate version of him, from the future," Susan Storm explained. "He was like, 19."

"Like Trunks from Dragonball Z!" She-Hulk said.

"Yes, exactly," Sue said, glad that for once her son's interest in anime had given her a cultural reference she could understand. "But it was all really confusing.

"Aren't all time-travel shenanigans?" Janet said. She pressed half an orange into the juicer, and for a moment there was only the electric whirr as the orange juice filled the reservoir. Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk, reached over to fill up the wineglasses.

Mimosas on top of the Baxter Building at sunset was something Janet had suggested. The heroines toasted the red orb as it touched the horizon, which cast great shadows down the streets of New York City. Sue treasured her girl time with her friends. It was her only chance to vent about daily life with others who understood the unique pressures of the superhero life for women.

Of course, Janet and Jennifer had their share of sexual adventures to share. When the topic had turned to dreams, Sue had felt the subtle peer pressure to share the lurid details of the dream that had haunted her all day.

"Do you think it means anything?" Sue said aloud, as the bubbles from the wine burned her nostrils.

"No! I mean, it's not like it's your actual son," Jennifer said. She blinked. "I had a dream once where Lyra, the gammazon from the alternate future ruled by Thundra, was sucking on my breasts and called me mommy. Perfectly normal. I'll bet we've all had dreams like that."

Janet Van Dyne sipped her wine as the Invisible Woman and She-Hulk turned their eyes on her. She set the glass down and twiddled it in her fingers, obviously enjoying the tension in the air.

"Okay, so you know how a Skrull impersonating Hank knocked up Tigra?" Janet said. "I had a dream last night that he had just pulled out of her, cock stiff and dripping, and he stumbled naked into my room...and told me he wanted to put some kittens in me too. And I said, 'But you're not the champion of the cat people!' Then Hank changed shape, and it was Tigra standing there, with Hank's penis, with these vivid green eyes, and they said 'Now I'm the champion of the pussy people!'"

She said it with such a straight face that for a moment the other two could just stare at her. Then the Wasp cracked, snorted, eyes shut, unable to repressed the laughter. That set Sue and Jennifer off too, and the three heroines laughed at the ridiculousness that were their lives.

The ladies left, shortly after darkness set. Ben took the Fantasticar to fly them back to Avengers Tower, where they'd spend the night. Reed had already tucked the kids into bed, and retreated to his lab. The Invisible Woman paused for a moment outside the door to their room. She remembered that other Franklin, mature, powerful, from a future in which she was long dead.

It had been right before that terrible Onslaught episode. Sue remembered how odd it had been when she had first seen the future Franklin. So mature, she had hardly recognized her own son! Yet he had resembled her...and Johnny...and even Reed's cheeks, the set of his jaw. Had reminded her so very strongly of when she had first met Reed, only the ages were reversed. She older, him younger.

Sue hadn't felt any desire toward the young man then. At least, she didn't think she had. So why had he invaded her dreams now?

The Invisible Woman stopped by the lab on her way to the bedroom. Reed was already hard at work, polarized lenses over his eyes, limbs stretched to touch distant switches on a veritable wall of equipment.

"Are you going to be working for a while?" Sue asked. She suddenly didn't want to be alone tonight.

"Just for a few hours...there's been some strange fluctuations in the aetheric subspace layers, and it's been giving some odd readings on the multi-dimensional scanners I put in place to try and detect what Doom and Dr. Strange called 'magic.' I want to see if I can negate their influence by manipulating the sub-space manifolds..."

Sue gave a little sigh. She hugged Reed from behind, and planted a kiss on the back of his neck.

"Don't stay up too late," she said.

A cold shower. A clean nightie. Sue Storm slid in between the cool sheets, the bed empty beside her. As it had been far too often in her married life. Head against the pillow, she closed her eyes. Began to count sheep.