[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZfvPPwT.png[/img][/center][b]Triskelion, Washington DC[/b]

[color=#ffffff]Sue Storm seethed as she made her way through the hallway outside of Maria Hill’s office. A little over a week ago she had seen Guy Gardner steaming out of the office every bit as perturbed as she was – and now she felt she understood him slightly more. Her confrontation with SHIELD’s deputy director had not gone quite the way she had expected – partly because of her own eagerness to get one up on Hill, but also because of her brother’s inconveniently-timed Ferris Bueller act.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Stood by the elevator at the end of the corridor was a brown-skinned woman in a lab coat. From behind Sue failed to recognise her but as she drew closer to the elevator there was no mistaking SHIELD’s chief scientist – or the look of discontent on her face.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue stopped beside the woman and offered her the nearest thing to a smile she could manage. [/color][color=#9fc5e8]“It’s Koul, isn’t it?”[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“Call me Rachna,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Agent Koul said as she extended a hand in Sue’s direction. [/color][color=#ff5151]“Please.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There was an unfamiliar sensation as Sue shook it. She looked down at Koul’s right hand in confusion. It was a tanned brown, the exact shade of Rachna’s skin, with signs of imperfection, defects that only natural skin could possess, but it felt cold to the touch. It was a prosthetic. And a very good one at that.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Suddenly a wave of guilt washed over Sue as she thought back to the way she had spoken to Koul in Hill’s office.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“I’m sorry for raising my voice at you back there. It wasn’t [i]you[/i] that I was angry with.”[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“Don’t worry,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Rachna laughed. [/color][color=#ff5151]“I’ve answered to Maria long enough to know by now that she’s not exactly the easiest person to work with.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]That was putting it lightly, Sue thought. Back on her world, Hill had been a difficult customer – but on this world she was something else. It didn’t help matters that Fury seemed to be almost perennially absent. The small quirks like that were what Sue found most difficult to adjust to. If they had arrived in a world wildly dissimilar from their own, getting their bearings may have been easier – but here, surrounded by memories of their own world, reflections, it was hard to keep your feet on the ground.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]And harder still when you know that Galactus is on his way and you’re one of only four people on Earth that have so much as heard his name.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The elevator arrived at their floor and Sue and Rachna stepped inside. The scientist hit twelve and dutifully pressed the ground floor button for Storm as the doors slowly shut. Sue peered through its glass walls at the inner-workings of the Triskelion as they descended past them. The building was every bit a marvel as it was on her world. It might even give the Baxter Building a run for its money – though she would never tell Reed that.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]From beside her Koul let out a self-deprecating sigh.[/color][color=#ff5151] “You don’t remember me, do you?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue was about to offer some kind of defence but realised before the words left her throat that she didn’t remember Rachna at all. In fact, before she’d locked eyes on her in Maria Hill’s office, she wasn’t sure that she’d so much as heard her name before – on this world or her own.[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“We met when you first arrived here,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Rachna said with a smile.[/color][color=#ff5151] “I oversaw all of the medical examinations and psych tests the four of you took after you were brought to the Triskelion the first time.”[/color]

[color=#a4c2f4]“Oh, I’m sorry, everything was such a blur in those first few weeks. Between Darkseid, what we walked into in Latveria, that fiasco with Namor on the Pegasus, and now this Surfer thing, I don’t think any of us have had time to catch our breath.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]At the mention of Namor’s name, Sue had noticed a gentle roll of Koul’s eyes. She thought hard for a moment and remembered that Ben had said “[i]some egghead[/i]” had saved Gardner from being put to death in Atlantis. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Koul had been that egghead.[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“Ah, yes, our silver-skinned friend is languishing several hundred feet below us in a vibranium-reinforced cell awaiting transport to The Raft.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The comment caught Sue completely off-guard.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“They brought the Surfer here?”[/color][color=#ffffff] Sue said as she glanced through the elevator’s walls at the White House in the distance. [/color][color=#a4c2f4]“To Washington?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Koul smiled confidently.[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“I can assure you, Sue, there’s no place on the Eastern Seaboard more secure than the Triskelion – I designed it’s defences myself, after all.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Just over a day ago, it had taken everything that Superman and the Flash had to put the Silver Surfer down – and they had brought him to within walking distance of the Oval Office. It seemed so staggeringly stupid that even thinking about it made Sue’s heart race with panic. She could feel her heart thumping away in her throat.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It wasn’t safe – despite all of Rachna’s assurances to the contrary, there was no way having the herald of Galactus sitting below the ground, recuperating with every second that passes, was a good idea.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]God knows what SHIELD were doing to him. If Hill was willing to cover up her counterpart’s death to avoid blackening the organisation’s eye in the media, what would they do to a captive extraterrestrial? One that had been forced into his master’s service. It didn’t bear thinking about.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]But Sue could think of nothing else. When Rachna Koul placed a comforting hand on Sue’s arm and softened her voice, Sue’s thoughts were still with Norrin Radd.[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“You know, I knew you – well, the [i]other[/i] you – on this world. I studied at the Baxter Building under Franklin. You and I were … friends, of a sort. We didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye all of the time but I like to think there was a bond there – some kind of sisterhood.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The scientist’s eyes were locked on Sue. There was something about the way that Koul was speaking that made her feel uncomfortable. She couldn’t quite place it. Her sincerity felt laboured, like she was overcompensating for something, but Sue wasn’t exactly sure what.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]All she knew was that something seemed out of place – and that every second she spent thinking about it was another that Norrin Radd was potentially being subjected to unspeakable treatment.[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“Sorry, I shouldn’t be saying all of this,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Koul mumbled. [/color][color=#ff5151]“It was just so difficult for me after what happened. Franklin and I were [i]very[/i] close.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue was no more comfortable with people speaking about her ‘father’ in this world than she had been in her own. It was difficult enough talking to Johnny about it – let alone some woman she barely knew – but she felt obliged to nod along dutifully all the same. As the lift approached the fourteenth floor, Rachna reached once more for Sue’s arm.[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“He’d be very proud of the woman you turned into.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]This time, sensing an opportunity, Sue threw her arms around Koul’s shoulders. The scientist let out a small yelp in shock but returned the hug and patted Sue on the back softly.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“Thank you, Rachna,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Sue said as she swiped Koul’s identity card free from her belt and slipped it into her pocket. [/color][color=#9fc5e8]“That really means a lot.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The super scientist bid her goodbye and disembarked on the twelfth floor with a smile. Once the doors to the elevator shut, Sue pressed a button marked “-8” on the elevator panel and prepared herself to put the Triskelion’s defences to the test for the second time this morning.[/color]