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[b]Baxter Building, New York[/b]

[color=#ffffff]A week had passed since Reed Richards had shown Victor von Doom the progress he and Harrison Wells had made made on the timecraft. Now as he had promised, it was completed. All the sleepless nights spent toiling away on the craft had come to an end. The once-smouldering heap of metal was sat at the centre of Reed’s laboratory, now fully restored to its former greatness, for all the world to see. At least, for SHIELD deputy director Maria Hill to see. She too was now wandering around Reed’s lab in hologram form inspecting the super scientist’s handiwork.[/color]

[color=#8e7cc3]“I have to say, Reed, I’m impressed. I had Koul and the rest of the eggheads at the Triskelion look over the schematics you sent over and they tell me that what you’ve managed to do here is unprecedented. There’s no way that craft of yours should ever have got off the ground again.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Reed smiled deferentially and gestured across the room. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“None of it would have been possible without the help of Harrison Wells.”[/color]

[color=#8e7cc3]“Then it sounds like you owe Mr Wells a great debt,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Hill said with a begrudging grin. [/color]

[color=#ffffff]She had tried on several occasions to recruit Wells to SHIELD’s cause but the STAR Labs founder wanted no part of it. The last thing he wanted was to spend the best years of his life cooped up in the Triskelion's basement working on things that were destined to never see the light of day. Koul might have been satisfied by that, but he certainly never would be. It gave Wells some satisfaction that though Koul had been admitted to Franklin Storm’s prestigious Baxter Building, he had created something of his own – and proved himself every bit Reed’s equal.[/color]

[color=#6ecff6]“Don’t be ridiculous,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Wells said through a knowing smile.[/color][color=#6ecff6] “It’s been a pleasure to finally work up close and personal with the great Reed Richards. I finally got to see what all the fuss was about.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Hill finished her inspection of the timecraft and then stood in front of Reed with her hands on her hips. [/color][color=#8e7cc3]“When do you propose to return home?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]For the first time in a long time, Reed Richards found himself incapable of answering.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“I can’t answer that question on my own. I’ll need to sound out the others. What we’re stepping back into, it’s a lot. I’ve been so busy trying to figure out how to fix the craft that I’ve not even considered putting together a plan for once we’ve landed.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It was not as Maria Hill would have done it, of course. In Reed’s position, she would have planned for [i]every [/i]eventuality – tried to compensate for every variable and control every actor involved – but this wasn’t a military operation, far from it, and travelling through space and time could not be treated as such. The fate of their world’s Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben spoke to that fact. All that mattered to Hill was that there was no repeat of what had happened – or worse.[/color]

[color=#8e7cc3]“There can be no risk to our world, Reed.”[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“I agree,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed nodded.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “If the others are also minded to return home, we do the launch from a neutral location – somewhere there’ll be no chance of any loss of life should things go wrong.’[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Wells leant forward from beside Reed.[/color][color=#6ecff6] “They won’t go wrong,”[/color]

[color=#8e7cc3]“With all due respect, Harrison, that’s what we thought last time,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Hill said through gritted teeth.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It was a stark – and unnecessary – reminder of the risks. Everyday that Reed had spent in the Baxter Building was another day spent walking in his counterpart’s shoes. That he innately knew his way around the other Reed’s laboratory was unnerving to say the least – and it was only the tip of the iceberg. They had burned, and so too might Reed and his family, if he and Wells had made even the slightest of miscalculations. It terrified him. But the fate of his entire world rested on their return.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A sudden knocking on the lab door caught Reed off-guard and he smiled politely at Hill. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“That will be them.”[/color]

[color=#8e7cc3]“Alright, Richards. Call me once you’re done – I want to know where we stand on this issue before close of play this evening. Hill out.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The hologram disappeared. Reed felt his palms dampen with moisture. It had been a long time since he had been as nervous as he was now – not even preparing the craft while under siege from Darkseid had caused him such dread. There had been no time to think then.[/color]

[color=#6ecff6]“I’ll leave you to it,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Wells murmured as he began to gather together his things.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“You’re as much a part of this as the rest of us,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Reed said as he placed a supportive hand on his lab partner’s shoulder.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “You should stay.”[/color]

The doors to Reed’s laboratory opened and through them stepped Sue, Johnny and Ben. Guy Gardner was several paces behind them. Reed noticed at once the necklace slung around Sue’s neck and the faint yellowing beneath Guy’s eye. It only dawned on him then how long it had been since he had seen the four of them. He’d been so concerned with repairing the craft that he’d barely left the lab other than to sleep – and from the dejected look on Ben’s face, that fact hadn’t been lost on his colleagues either.

[color=#f6b26b]“So are you going to tell us what’s going on, Stretch?”[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“All in good time, Ben,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed said with a weary smile as he pointed towards some chairs huddled at the centre of the room. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“Please take a seat.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben leant in to Johnny and whispered to him as they sauntered to their seats. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“Did ya hear that? ‘All in good time’ the man says, like it’s not been a week since we last saw him.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Once they were sat down, Reed and Wells took their places in front of them. They both looked run-down, having barely slept or eaten since arriving at the Baxter Building, but did their best to hide it. The thick stubble that had begun to force its way through the pores around Reed’s chin seemed to have aged him even more than the tiredness had. His voice  however, as calm and authoritative as ever, showed no sign of tiredness.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“I’m sorry that i have been [i]absent [/i]over the past week or so. Well, more absent than usual. Harrison and I have spent every waking minute working towards the goal that the four of us set upon arriving in this world – returning home. And I’m proud to say that, after a great deal of work, we have achieved it. The timecraft that Doom and I built to get us here has been repaired. At least, repaired enough to get us home.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There was no rapt applause, no cheering, only a silence that was pregnant with anxiousness. It was not quite what Reed had expected. As he looked at Sue, Johnny and Ben’s stunned faces, he wondered for a moment whether they ever [i]truly [/i]believed he could return the four of them home, or perhaps, whether they were ready to. [/color]

[color=#ea9999]“You’re saying that we can go home?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Johnny murmured  in a voice that was so quiet it was barely audible. [/color][color=#ea9999]“Back to [i]our [/i]world?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Reed offered his brother-in-law to be a nod.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “That’s correct.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Johnny shot up from his seat, clapping his hands together excitedly, as the prospect of home flooded over him. Suddenly, however, his excitement was pierced by some thought that Reed couldn’t parse from his expression, and as if giving in to his conflict, Johnny slunk back into his seat.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Beside Johnny, Sue made no effort to conceal the conflict writ over her face.[/color][color=#9fc5e8] “Home [i]when[/i]?”[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“We can leave whenever we like. SHIELD have asked that we stage our departure somewhere … well, somewhere that’s not Manhattan, which I think is fairly reasonable on their part, but otherwise there’s no reason we couldn’t depart tomorrow if we wanted to.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue shook her head.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“That’s not what I mean. You built that thing in the first place to send us back in time, Reed, and somehow we ended up here. Now you’re saying we can get home. Great. But home [i]when[/i]? Home now? What if there isn’t a home now? What if there’s not an Earth to return to?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It was, in not so many words, the same question that Victor von Doom had put to them on his visit last week. He had warned Reed of the risks of charging blindly into their old world without knowing what would be waiting for them. In the days that had passed since, the comment had stuck with Wells – and it had had been he, not Reed, that had found the workaround that they needed. [/color]

[color=#6ecff6]“It’s a good question. In fact, part of the difficulty in repairing the craft was working out [i]how [/i]the four of you managed to travel across dimensions when you were, in fact, trying to travel through time. It wasn’t until Reed explained that your Victor von Doom was a magic user that it made sense to me. You see, unbeknownst to your fiance, as alien a concept as Reed not knowing something may be to you all, Doom imbued the craft with … well, let’s call it “chaos magic” for lack of a better ter-.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Unimpressed by Harrison’s waffling, Ben cupped his hands around his mouth and heckled him gently.[/color][color=#f6b26b] “Magic-schmagick, answer the damn question, Wells.”[/color]

[color=#6ecff6]“I was about to,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Wells responded spikily.[/color][color=#6ecff6] “Although they might seem it on the face of it, magic and science aren’t too dissimilar, Ms Storm. It took me a few days to work out [i]how [/i]Doom’s enchantment had affected the craft’s navigation system, but I managed it – and better yet, by manipulating the residual energy left behind from Doom’s enchantment, I managed to reroute it. With [i]some[/i] deal of precision, I might add.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The scale of Harrison’s achievement was lost on his audience. For a scientist completely unversed in high-level magic to be able to harness chaos energy as Wells had done, even if it had only been a fraction of it, was unheard of. Once it had become clear that Sue was not satisfied by his partner’s answer, Reed took the floor.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“It’s not exact but we [i]should[/i] return home about a year before Darkseid’s arrival. That should to give us enough time to bring Superman and Luthor together and convince them of the danger of what’s coming. A year ought to be more than enough time to prepare. If it’s not, then I’m afraid that’s our lot. We’ve only got one chance at this.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben and Johnny exchanged a hopeful look. Even Sue, who had been so quick to question her fiance and Wells, seemed to have her worries put to rest by that last response. They began to speak amongst one another, the first green shoots of excitement about saving their world starting to sprout through, when a pink hand shot up from within the crowd. Guy Gardner waved it around until Reed invited him to speak.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“And what about us?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A bemused smile crossed Reed’s face as he considered the comment.[/color][color=#3c78d8] “I’m sorry, Guy, I don’t quite understand what you mean.”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“All I’ve heard from the four of you is how bad things are going to get once this Galactus character shows up and how you’re the [i]only [/i]people that can stop him. I mean, excuse me if I’m talking out of turn here, but I feel like it would be … what’s the word, [i]remiss[/i] of me not to ask. What happens to us when Galactus comes calling and you’re not around?”[/color]

[color=#6ecff6]“Galactus is [i]our [/i]problem,” [/color][color=#ffffff] Harrison Wells said as he sensed the mood turning once more.[/color][color=#6ecff6] “We’ll face him on our own just as their world did.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Unsatisfied by Harrison’s bluster, Guy shook his head and doubled down on his concerns. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“Oh yeah, and what if we lose?”[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“All the data I logged on Galactus, his consumption patterns, the Surfer – [i]everything[/i] there is to know about Galactus – I have put at Nick Fury’s disposal. It’s more than we had when we faced Galactus down. Having seen your Superman at work firsthand, I’m more than confident that you’ll be able to repel Galactus.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Perhaps Reed was confident of that fact, but Gardner was not – nor was he convinced by the feeble smile that Richards offered him by way of reassurance. For the first time since he had met the scientist, Guy had reason to suspect that Reed wasn’t sure at all. In fact, it almost seemed like he was bluffing – and it was a bluff that the SHIELD agent was determined to call.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“Are you willing to risk seven billion lives on that?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben let out a sigh that seemed to signify that it pained him to ever have to agree with Guy Gardner in public. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“I hate to say it, Stretch, but Carrot Top’s got a point. The four of us didn’t high-tail it out of our own world just to stand by and watch while another one gets destroyed.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue nodded in agreement.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“If this craft of yours works as well as Wells says it ought to, surely we can leave whenever we want to? I want to go home just as much as anyone, but another month or two won’t change that much for us – but it could mean [i]all[/i] the difference for this world. Maybe we should stay.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Harrison Wells shook his head. He had been biting his tongue up to this point, uncharacteristically conscious of seeming rude given the context in which their conversation was taking place, but the crassness of Gardner’s question – and the fact it had affected Ben and Sue so strongly – had tipped him over the edge.[/color]

[color=#6ecff6]“No, this is not happening. Gardner does not speak for our entire planet. Your world needs you. It needs you more than ours does. From the looks of it, you people are barely holding it together here – and there’s no guaranteeing that even [i]with [/i]your help we’ll be able to turn Galactus away. What happens if you stay [i]and [/i]we still lose? Then your whole world is doomed. I won’t stand by and watch you trade your whole world away because of sentiment. You [i]must [/i]return home.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]This time Wells found that his contribution hit home. The assembly fell into silence. Outside of Gardner, who was sat stubbornly at the back with crossed arms, each of them looked more conflicted than the next. [/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“Well, I’ll be damned if this ain’t a Sophie’s Choice if ever I heard one,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Ben muttered under his breath.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“What do you think, Johnny?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Reed enquired of the youngest man in the room.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “You’ve been awfully quiet over there.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Johnny shrugged his shoulders guiltily.[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“I don’t know what I think anymore. I mean, this time last week I’d have been all for cutting and running the second that ship was fixed – hell, I even told you and Wells as much when you got back from Central City after the whole Surfer thing. But now that it’s time to decide… I’m not sure what we should d-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A loud explosion cut Johnny’s thought short. The impact shook the Baxter Building. The group sprung to their feet, prepared as ever for action, but found their footing rocked against by another explosion in the distance. This one was nearest than the first and the impact sent the Baxter Building’s electronics into a tailspin. First the appliances shorted out, then the lights began to flicker, before the six of themselves found themselves stood in total darkness.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“Well, that’s not sound good.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Johnny’s hand burst into flames and the laboratory lit up long enough for Guy to pull out his SHIELD-issued tablet from his pocket.[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“What’s going on?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Guy skipped through various CCTV streams being beamed into his handset from across America. There had been a breakout at the Raft, that much he could deduce from the grainy footage, but the scale of the breakout took a few moments to become clear. There had been in attacks all across the country – and the explosion they had felt was only a hop, skip, and jump away from them. Its point of origin a Godzilla-sized woman stomping through New York.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“You ever see that old black and white movie ‘The Attack of the 50ft Woman’? Turns out it's a little truer to life than the studio execs let on.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Suddenly the Baxter Building’s lights began flickering. Guy turned to face Reed, hoping the scientist would be on the brink of barking out orders to his teammates, but in his place noticed an unfamiliar sight. There was something hovering where Reed had once been stood.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]As the lights flickered on, Guy made out the features of a seated man with a large bulbous head. There were thick, pulsing veins across his forehead, almost as if his skull was struggling to contain his brain, and the man's eyes were matched in yellowness only by his jagged teeth.[/color]

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[color=#ffff00]~Oh, trust me when I say that Giganta ought to be the [i]least[/i] of your concerns. Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Hector Hammond.~[/color]