Tess Tempest is wearing a Fantastic Four uniform

It had been over a decade since Sue Storm had stood face-to-face with Mae Mifton. The heroine knew, from the website, that Mae had gone blonde. That she was an adult entertainer now. Cosmetic surgery. Fuller lips, bigger tits, a toned body that spoke of tummy tucks or liposuction as much as the gym. Blue contacts. Yet the Sue Storm had not been prepared for the door to be answered by Tess Tempest.

Absurdly, the first thing Sue noticed was how tall Mae was. The pornstar had built heels into the blue boots of her Fantastic Four outfit, which gave her a couple of extra inches on the Invisible Woman, and helped to show off her calves. While Sue's own unstable molecule fabric outfit was form-fitting, the material of the blue-and-white uniform that Mae wore was sheer and in places seemed to defy gravity; it cupped each breast so that the nipples were clearly distinct through the sheer fabric, and Mae's shaven labia made a clearly-defined cameltoe.

There was subtle makeup around the lips and eyes, an affection that Sue rarely bothered with. She couldn't exactly stop to fix her mascara during the middle of an adventure. Mae's hair was a dye job, but a good one, and the slightly wavy blonde locks were worn a little longer than Sue preferred, in that touselled mess that Sue had always associated with a woman who had just finished sex.

Tess Tempest grinned, and showed off perfectly even and flawless white teeth—caps, Sue thought immediately—and then she stepped forward and enveloped the startled heroine in a bear hug that pressed her huge silicone-enhanced assets against the Invisible Woman's real but much more modest assets.

"Sue! Oh my God! I can't believe it's you!"

The house was dedicated tastefully. There were Adult Video News awards on the wall. Photos of Mae with celebrities. A surprisingly large amount of Fantastic Four mechandise, some of it obviously bootleg, some of it—like the blue latex couches in the living room—Sue suspected came from porn sets. One wall of the den was dominated by a massive screen, and another by a collection of DVDs and BluRays which, Mae explained, represented her "brag shelf." All the pornographic films she had starred in or produced over her career thus far. A line of sex toys lay on the mantle of the unused fireplace, and a stripper-pole occupied one corner.

The Invisible Woman could barely get a word in edgewise as Mae gave Sue the tour of the house, and a running commentary on her life. How inspired she had been when her friend Sue Storm had become the Invisible Woman. Her first tentative forays from nude modeling to hardcore features. Her debut as Tess Tempest. Breaking away from her agent to found her own production studio. The epic challenges of filming the Tess Tempest erotic saga. Sourcing unstable molecule fabric. Recreating scenes from Sue's adventures with CGI and exotic locations. Personally testing each and every applicant for a role almost to exhaustion before she let them be on camera with her.

Sue Storm saw a bed with a mattress bigger than any she had ever seen. Realistic models of Mae's vagina, which were sold as Tess Tempest-branded sex toys in Japan. The molds she'd made of her castmate's cocks and pussies, captured forever in silicone. They even paused briefly at a small inset in the wall in a corridor that ran between the living room and the kitchen, where Sue saw the twin urns where Mae's parents' ashes were kept—and framed, in the middle and above them, was the photo of Sue and Mae on the day of their graduation.

"And I owe it all to you!" Mae said, as she led Sue back to the living room. The Invisible Woman blushed and nodded, dumbly. It was all almost too much to take in. She had barely been able to bring up the reason for her visit, much less ask why Mae was dressed like that, in her own home, alone, in the middle of the day. Sue couldn't repress the feeling that something wasn't quite right, that there was a creepy edge to Mae's idolization of the Invisible Woman that went much deeper than the character of Tess Tempest.

Then they sat on the couch—Mae seated herself right next to Sue, and held her hand in both of hers—and she looked Sue in the eyes. For the first time since Sue had arrived, she noted how nervous Mae was.

"I...I also have to confess something," Mae cleared her throat, as though to stall for time as she searched for words. "I had sex with...someone you know. I wasn't going to tell you, but the guilt has been eating at me, and since you're here—I have to tell you."