Triskelion, Washington D.C.
Raised voices rang through the corridors of the Triskelion. Its point of origin was deputy director Maria Hill’s corner office. Loitering outside were a handful of SHIELD administrative staff that were pretending to be working. Inside Guy Gardner was making his last stand. Hill had removed Gardner from command of the Pegasus the second it had touched down at the Triskelion – and Guy was determined to get it back. Even if it cost him his badge.
“My service record has been exemplary since that mess in Atlantis. Ask any of my cre-”
Hill shook her head with an exasperated sigh.
“You don’t have a crew, Guy, the Pegasus is Vostok’s command. You were put in charge on an interim basis while Valentina was on maternity leave because we thought maybe you’d learned your lesson. Clearly were wrong.”
A thick vein on Gardner’s head throbbed. He was seething. He wanted to break something. He had spent three years toiling away in obscurity, stuck in dusty rooms filling out paperwork or guarding useless artefacts, as penance for the incident in Atlantis. Now through no fault of his own it was being used to drag him back down again.
If Dugan was still around, he would never have hung Gardner out to dry like this.
But Dugan wasn’t around anymore. His successor Maria Hill was the anti-Dugan. She’d had it in for Gardner from the moment she’d met him. She was a stickler for rules, structure and hierarchy who had made the decision early to make rank rather than cut her teeth in the field.
He wanted to bawl her out for it but even in his angered state knew it would be counterproductive. He’d be playing right into her hands. Instead he took a deep, calming breath, closed his eyes, and tried to get his temper under control.
When he opened them his voice was significantly quieter than before. “This is bullshit, Maria, and you know it.”
“You’re done, Gardner.”
Guy shook his head angrily at the suggestion. “Let’s see what Fury has to say about that.”
A cold smile crossed the deputy director’s lips. For the first time Hill confirmed Guy’s suspicions and let on that she was enjoying taking him down a peg.
“You think Fury is going to tell you something different? Fury doesn’t give a damn about you. Face it, Gardner, Dugan’s not around to save your behind this time. You’re done.”
The two locked eyes across Hill’s desk. Their contempt for one another was almost suffocating.
“I don’t have to listen to this horseshit.”
Guy leapt out of his seat and stormed towards the exit. He pressed a panel on the door to Hill’s office and it slid open. He stood fuming in the doorway for a few seconds. Beside the door was a waste paper basket. Guy looked over his shoulder at Hill, who was watching on with a bemused smile, before booting the basket across the room. With that done he stamped his way out.
The waiting admin staff scattered as the fuming Gardner approached.
“Don’t you pen-pushers have some photocopying to do?” Guy shouted at them. “Fucking cockroaches.”
In the distance Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben appeared. They stepped out of the elevator to the twenty-eighth floor escorted by a junior SHIELD agent for their meeting with Hill. Ben Grimm spotted Gardner walking towards them and shot the SHIELD agent a mischievous smile. When it wasn’t returned he realised that something was wrong.
“What’s a matter, Carrot Top?” Ben called out jovially. “Someone pee in your cereal this morning?”
Gardner pushed past them without so much as look in their direction.
“Must be having a bad day or something,” Grimm muttered to Johnny.
Johnny nodded in agreement and pointed discreetly to his sister and Reed. “He’s not the only one.”
Reed and Sue had barely spoken since Sue had accepted Namor’s proposal on the roof of the Pegasus. To say that it made things awkward was an understatement. Usually Reed and Sue were inseparable, but they had been anything but the past twelve hours or so. It was impossible not to notice. Ben and Johnny had been walking on eggshells around them ever since.
A young SHIELD agent scuttled out Hill’s with a dented waste paper basket under their arm as they made their approach.
“I hope we’ve not caught you at a bad time,” Reed Richards said with a polite smile. “We can come back another time.”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Hill said as she stood up from behind her desk and gestured to the four of them to step inside. “Please take a seat. The five of us have a lot to discuss.”
Hill dismissed their escort with a nod and the Fantastic Four shuffled in to Maria’s office. She sauntered towards the large meeting table in the corner of her room and took a seat at the head of it. Reed took the seat to her right hand and Sue awkwardly slid around him to sit at Maria’s left. Ben and Johnny exchanged an awkward smile as they decided where to sit. Ben slid into the seat beside Reed and Johnny next to Sue.
“I understand that Agent Gardner informed you of the fate of your counterparts in this world,” Maria began by way of introduction.
Ben bristled beside Reed. Sensing his disapproval, Sue responded to Hill as matter-of-factly as possible. “That’s correct.”
“I’d like to apologise for that,” Hill said curtly. “That wasn’t Agent Gardner’s information to disclose.”
This time there was no stopping Ben. His fist clunked against the table so loudly that Johnny jumped in his seat.
“Are you kidding me? You’re apologising for Gardner telling us the truth, not for covering up our deaths? You’ve got some front, lady.”
Hill grimaced.
“What would you have us do, Mr. Grimm? Tell the world that the most expensive space expedition in living memory ended in the incineration of the world’s smartest man? Reed Richards was on the cover of TIME magazine at twelve years of age. The people of this world thought his research was going to put an end to climate change. How do you think they'd respond if we told them that he was burnt alive on our watch?”
“You can try and dress it up however you want,” Ben said with a disapproving mumble. “It don’t make it right.”
Hill pinched the bridge of her nose. “Right and wrong is a luxury I cannot always afford in this job, I’m afraid.”
Reed watched on in silence. He knew very little about this world’s Reed Richards but the more he learned about him, the more sorry he felt for him. From the sound of things, their Reed had been forced into the spotlight much earlier than he had been. When Reed had been twelve years old, he’d been building his first teleportation device in his father’s garage. He couldn’t imagine how isolating all that pressure must have been.
“What’s done is done,” Sue said with a conciliatory look towards Ben. “What we we need to know now is whether you’re willing to help us get home? If you’ve seen our interviews then you understand why we left – and why it’s so important that we get back.”
Hill nodded. “Yes, you have unfinished business with this Darkseid character.”
“Unfinished business?” Johnny said with a frown. “Darkseid conquered our entire world, Hill. Imagine everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever known, dead at one man’s feet. The people you've fought alongside for years enslaved – turned into instruments of death. I don’t know if 'unfinished business' quite does that justice.”
Ben approvingly banged his fist against the table. “You tell her, Matchstick.”
Hill sighed and pressed a button on the desk. In front of them, at the centre of the desk, a holographic image of Darkseid appeared.
“Don’t let me language fool you, Mr. Storm, I am aware of the threat that Darkseid poses. Our world has yet to encounter these Apokoliptians the four of you spoke of in your interviews with Gardner – but we’ve already begun to prepare for them. The best strategists that SHIELD have to offer have been working around the clock wargaming for a potential Apokoliptian invasion.”
The hologram of Darkseid’s face was replaced by images of Earth’s newfound protectors lining up to defend their world against an invasion force. Projections of possible successful defensive strategies played out before them. The four watched on, unimpressed by the display, having lived the battles themselves and found SHIELD’s efforts to be lacking.
“This is all well and good,” Reed said with a dismissive glance at the holograms. “But how exactly does that help us, Maria? With all due respect, we’re not here to be reassured that your world is well-defended, we’re here because we need your help to return to ours.”
Maria swallowed hard as she considered his question. “You’ll have all the help that SHIELD can offer you, but I can’t promise that our scientists will be able to get you home.”
“You leave that part to me,” Richards responded resolutely.
“Given that the whole world thinks that the four of you are still travelling through space I’m afraid you’ll have to be confined to the Triskelion while you do your research,” Hill said dispassionately. “But rest assured that your every need will be seen to while you’re here.”
Reed’s nose wrinkled with displeasure. “I don’t think that’s going to work. I’m going to need to enlist the help of some of my – well, Reed’s – contemporaries if we’re going to have a shot at getting home. I can’t do that from here.”
“I’m with Stretch on this one,” Ben said as he placed his rocky hands behind his head. “There’s no way I’m being cooped up in this place like some kind of common criminal. And before you consider suggesting that we don’t have a choice in the matter, I’d like to point out that all the boy scouts in the world couldn’t stop us from walking out of here if we wanted to.”
Maria Hill lent back in her seat as she mulled over the ramifications of letting the four of them roam around America without supervision. How long would it be before someone got a picture of Reed? Grimm wasn’t inconspicuous and if this Johnny Storm was anything like theirs he wouldn’t be out of the headlines for long.
Suddenly a small smile crept onto Hill’s lips as a potential resolution was revealed to her.
“You make a convincing case, Mr. Grimm.”
She stood up from her seat abruptly as if to announce that their meeting had come to an end. Ben looked to Sue, slightly confused, and she gestured to him to stand up with the rest of them. Hill took a glance down at her watch to check the time and then shook Reed’s hand firmly.
“Give us twenty-four hours to finish going over your tests results and we’ll have you relocated somewhere I think you’ll find slightly more comfortable.”
With that Hill called to the junior SHIELD agent outside to collect them. Reed and Ben departed first with Sue and Johnny following shortly after them. As Johnny reached the doorway to Hill’s office he lingered for a moment and then turned back to face Hill.
“By the way, your hologram thingy is wrong,” Johnny said as his mind reached into the past. “Darkseid's eyes aren’t black. They’re red.”
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