FF: Earth Girls Ain't Easy Update (Patreon)

The doors slid open and multiple Nova corpsmen rushed into the rooms
in tactical deployment, their weapons ready, their suits glowing with
energy.
 

Thoran entered warily, surrounded by high-ranked, battle-hardened corpsmen.
 

"Suzerain!"
 

Adora stood in a loose robe before the wall-wide windows, holding a
narrow crystal vial of wine in her hand. She did not look away from
her contemplation of the sprawling cityscape. "You did not announce
yourself, Prime Thoran. Why such breach of protocol?"
 

"Please excuse us, Suzerain." He glanced nervously all about.
 

The corpsmen spread with strategic efficiency through the rooms, ready
for combat. "We were worried about your safety."
 

"Were you?"
 

"The watch that went missing from here, from your quarters... They
were found, dead. All twelve of them!"
 

"How troubling. You must appoint more competent staff, then, Thoran."
 

"Security footage fails to show who did it! It must have been tampered
with, by someone with high level clearance!"
 

"Who could have done it?"
 

"The Earthling! Who else? He was here, and has Centurion-level access,
Rhomman Dey be damned! He must have killed the watch before we
arrived! And you were alone with him! I feared that-"
 

"I'm touched by your concern, Thoran. Quite touched. But you can see
I'm perfectly safe."
 

"But he-?"
 

"He left." She drank. Slowly. "We only had a brief meeting. Nothing important."
 

"Did he say anything that-?"
 

"Nothing important," she repeated, lowering her vial.
 

"He must be found, and apprehended! He must be made to pay!"
 

Adora turned at last towards Thoran, her eyes cold.
 

"Yes. He must."
 

***************************************************
 

A figure dressed in Grecian-like robes stood on the barren lunar
surface, facing the bluish orb of the Earth.
 

Watching.
 

He felt the shudders run through the nearby space-time layers, and
tilted his bald head slightly to a side.
 

So it began.
 

***************************************************
 

As soon as the swirling energies faded away the Fantastic Four exited
their protective capsule, stepping out onto the familiar floor of the
Baxter Building's hangar space.
 

"Back on good ol' Earth," Ben muttered with relief, just before he
stumbled forward, nearly losing his footing.
 

Sue reached for him, though she would have been of little use to
detain his enormous mass. "Are you alright, Ben?"
 

He shrugged. "Just slipped, Suzie. Ain't nuthin'."
 

"Ben's just probably hitting the sauce hard while we aren't watching,"
Johnny said, his teasing only half-hearted.
 

"We were in lower gravity environs," Reed said. "We'll need a moment
to adjust." He walked slowly towards a nearby control console, to plug
his hand-held device into it. Hunched forward, he peered at the
display, frowning. "He's here already."
 

"The Sphinx? On Earth?"
 

"Yes. He materialized on Egypt. At Giza, fittingly. Egyptian air
forces engaged him but were easily destroyed."
 

"Dat sucks." Ben grimaced, feeling sympathetic for fellow armed forced
flymen. "We gotta do sumthin'"
 

"As soon as Galactus gets here, we'll go there." Reed tapped the
console furiously. "We have so little time left."
 

Sue winced at Reed's words. His hair was completely white and visibly
more sparse, and his outfit hung loose on his now frail frame. "Reed,
did you contact Herbie? How did the-?"
 

"I did, Sue. I did. But there's no time-"
 

"There must be. Reed, what did Herbie report?"
 

He leaned on the console, eyes closed for just a moment. "Latest
models failed. All of them. Herbie sent me the figures but I... I
could not pinpoint the reasons. I-I don't know... It should have
worked. A final model is now being run. It may be the last one we
can-"
 

"Reed. You must solve this. You must-"
 

"First we must save Earth, Sue. Galactus will stop the Sphynx, but then he-"
 

"Yer pretty confident da Big G gonna win, aintcha, Stretcho?"
 

"He must. But we must then stop him, stop him from-"
 

"Gobbling up da Earth."
 

Sue reached for him. "You are the only one who knows how to do that,
Reed. How can we save the Earth if you... if first you..." She could
not bring herself to say the words.
 

Reed rubbed his deeply-lined forehead. "I think I know how... but what
if I'm wrong in that, too? What if-?"
 

She hugged him from behind, hiding her anguish at his frailty.
 

"Reed, you can do it. You will stop Galactus. You will find that cure.
I trust you can. I trust you."
 

He nodded, and took her hand. "I trust you, too." He placed in her
open palm a small, battered notepad, the one on which he had been
scribbling all day. "If I cannot-"
 

Sue shook her head, handing the notepad back quickly. "No. NO. Don't
say that. You cannot give up. You can't!"
 

"Sue, you must be ready if-"
 

The console began to beep loudly, and Reed quickly turned to it.
 

"What's the matter?"
 

"It's my subspace link with Xandar. There seems to be some kind of commotion."
 

Sue blanched. "The Skrulls again?"
 

"No. Master Xar says it's.... Rich Ryder?"
 

"Rich?"
 

"Da kid?"
 

"The Nova Corps turned against him, somehow. There's fighting going on..."
 

"Wotta revoltin' development!"
 

"Reed. We cannot let-"
 

"I'm on it." Reed's fingers moved quickly over the input pad, though
not as fast as they had once been. "I can control the long-range
transporter. I'm bringing him over. Herbie, too."
 

"Herbie? But isn't he working on-?"
 

"That may be compromised, too. I may use him better here."
 

The protective capsule they had just vacated filled with light, and
from within its shimmering halo two figures emerged, one after the
other.
 

"Rich!"
 

Susan and Ben rushed together to help the slender young man stay
upright. His Nova suit was blackened all over and letting off
acrid-smelling smoke.
 

His voice was weak and hoarse. "Ms. Richards?"
 

"Hey, what'm I? Chopped liver?"
 

"You are Benjamin J. Grimm," the just-arrived hovering Robot
contributed in mechanical monotone, his optical apparatus scanning the
surroundings.
 

Reed beckoned him. "Herbie, deliver status report."
 

"As the Creator orders."
 

"Rich, what happened? Are you hurt?"
 

He removed his helmet, his brown hair lank and matted with sweat
against his head. "They called me traitor. Tried to kill me. I-I had
to fight them-"
 

"Why, dose ungrateful bums... Next time da Skrulls come callin' we'll see-"
 

The Baxter Building alarms blared for all of a second before being
silenced by the much louder noise of most of the hangar's south side
catastrophically crumbling away into rubble, along with much of that
side of the building.
 

Dust filled the air and her ears rang, yet no debris had reached
 

them, and the impact wave had not harmed them, thanks to her
quickly-raised forceful. Yet she was breathless from Rich's weight
over her, as he had yet again jumped to bodily cover her, in
completely unnecessary protectiveness.
 

She unceremoniously pushed him off and rose to her knees, while two
steps away, Ben also tried to get up, his sprawled massive body
appearing more cumbersome to manage than ever before.
 

She kept her force-field up, wrily. "Reed? Johnny?"
 

"Here! I'm alright, Sis."
 

"I'm... here, too, Susan." Reed's voice was weak, and Susan saw Herbie
help him sit up.
 

"What the hell happened?"
 

The dust suddenly parted and cleared away, as if cleanly cut away.
 

The hangar and several other floors of the building were now fully
open to the city outside, and facing the forced opening floated a
large piece of meteoric rock, upon which arrogantly stood Terrax, his
cosmic axe glowing ominously in his hand.
 

"There you are."
 

TO BE CONTINUED