Sue Richards: Aftermath of an Explosion (Tony and Reed)

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

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Chaos. That was what had happened on one level of the Baxter Building. Reed found himself sitting on the ground, one leg kneeling as the dust settled. His eyes began to look down at the lifeless body of his wife... or rather what he had thought was his wife. Instead, what he saw was a green alien in the suit of what had been Sue Richards. Reed's life was beginning to come crashing all around him as the explosion of his large machine had ended up killing whatever it was that had ended up replacing her. Yet, within his mind, it just made Reed spin more and more, and more, because now he had to figure out what it was that had happened to the real Sue, wherever she was. So many questions were being raised, one after the other, and as one was answered, two more sprawled up. His hand was slowly shaking as he began to pull out his phone, on speed dial he had the one man he could trust more than anyone else... Tony Stark. While Stark had his own duties now with S.H.I.E.L.D., his business, and everything else, there was no one else that he could turn to. Johnny would be too emotional, Ben was nowhere to be found... and as of now, there was no one else that he could trust with this information if she happened to not be the only one. Quickly he began to await for the phone to answer until finally it seemed to be patched through wherever he was answering from as Reed spoke up, "Tony... I need you at the Baxter Building, now. It's an emergency."

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Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

[Revan]

REVOLUTIONARIES WAIT
for my head on a silver plate
JUST A PUPPET ON A LONELY STRING
--------------------

Tony Stark sat in his workshop in Stark Tower going over schematics of the Helicarriers and their defenses. If a bunch of ninja could just get on board and infiltrate that easily, than they needed some serious work done on protecting themselves. Perhaps they had become simply too complacent with their display of power, but all the better if he could improve their systems and designs. But this was only one of many projects he had on his plate at the moment. He was just going over the idea of having constant energy shields in play to prevent people simply dropping down on them and the energy issues such a thing could bring up when HOMER alerted him to a call.

"Mr. Stark, Reed Richards is on the line."

"Ooh, good. Put him on." Stark replied. HOMER put the line through, "Reed! Glad you called, I've got some ideas for the Quantum phase-inducement stabilizers that'll send even your hypothalamus into overdrive." Stark said with a chuckle. However, it seemed Reed had other things on his mind. Everything was wrong. His tone spoke volumes alone, never mind the fact he was asking for help which was unusual in general. Mostly the Fantastic Four handled their own problems and they were good at it. Stark might have thought it was something tech related he wanted an opinion on, but that would be a minor issue he wouldn't sound so... hollow about it.

"I'll be right there, buddy." Stark said, jumping to his feet and signalling with his arm. His Extremis armor activated, disassembled, and flew at him. While he normally utilized the less powerful Mk 25 these days, Extremis was much quicker to put on in a pinch. The window opened and he jumped out, the armor parts attaching themselves as needed. Then he was off for his short trip north a few blocks from Union Square to 42nd street where the Baxter Building was located. He flew up to the floor of Reed's lab and popped his mask so the scanners could confirm his identity and let him in. He re-closed his face-plate, landed, and looked around.

"Reed?" he called out.

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OH, WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING?

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

-----------------------------------------

Hollow. That was the perfect way to describe how Reed felt at the moment. Rarely was it that the genius that was Reed Richards was thrown for a complete spin, but this was one of them. He sat there as the dust was starting to clear, the shattered glass of his laboratory speaking volumes as he stood there almost like a mannequin. Completely still, his eyes simply glazing over the place as if he were dead already... the only difference was that his mind was not dead. He was already attempting to try and figure out what it was that had transpired, and why it was that the body of what he had assumed was his wife was now a skrull. The implications of this extend far more than any singular mind could comprehend, but if any single mind could, it was that of Tony Stark.

While Tony and Reed may be work partners, constantly putting their minds to the test to try and solve what ever problems faced the world, they were also in many ways good friends, brought closer during the Civil War compared to anything else as they both had weathered the strain that was their friends turning against them. Friend against Friend. Family against Family... and here they were again, this time looking at another problem. "Tony." was all that Reed said as he continued to not move, his head obviously cocked down at the green body in the Fantastic Four suit, "Tony... Tony... Tony... Something's happened, something we didn't know about until now."

-----------------------------------------

Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

[Revan]

REVOLUTIONARIES WAIT
for my head on a silver plate
JUST A PUPPET ON A LONELY STRING
--------------------

Iron Man heard his name called and he climbed over the debris to the source of the voice, his friend Reed. He did not sound well at all which prompted Stark to activate his vital sign scanners. Reed was coming up distressed, but he didn't seem to be hurt. Then he found him, and in his arms... Stark first saw the blonde hair and blue suit. His sensors weren't detecting another life-form... It sent a chill down his spine that Sue might be dead. Then he saw her skin. Another chill, though one of fear and dread.

"Oh, no no no no no no..." Iron Man muttered as he moved to her opposite side and began taking scans, "This is bad. This is very bad." That made three. Three. The number that was enough to start considering this more then the odd spy.

This was very bad.

His scanners also continued to work on Reed, but for different reasons. Everything they said told him he was Reed Richards right down to his reaction at seeing his wife killed, then finding his wife wasn't his wife at all. But did that confirm it? How could he know for sure? He really didn't have much choice in the matter though. Now, he had to trust someone. And he needed Reed's help for this. Iron Man pulled a device from his gauntlet and put it down. It created a sound force field around the two so they could talk without worrying about anything outside the bubble hearing. This place could be wired to the teeth if one had been here for... how long even? Stark lifted his faceplate so he could talk to his friend eye to eye.

"Reed... I wouldn't exactly say didn't know about until now. In reality... this is the third one I know about." he told him somberly, "And I'm starting to think that's not all of them..."

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OH, WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING?

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

-----------------------------------------

As Tony was beginning to put the shields up, his eyes were going back to the man in the suit as he started to put down the body. The shock and terror that had been within him was not for the grieving of his wife, or at least the being that was in his arms. His mind was not to where the real Sue Richards was, or rather what had happened to her. He had no clue how long ago this had happened, what had happened... how it had happened. He just began to slowly squinch his eyes a bit as he tried to hold back the obvious anger he was beginning to have at the thought of Tony knowing about this already, "You knew about this already?" he said in a blanket statement. Had it been prior to the civil war, he figured there would be no surprise at not knowing... but after, Reed and Tony had been forced side by side with each other, so when something of this scale was beginning, he was shocked not to have heard, "If this is another, then we have a far larger issue here Tony. If S--- they were able to replace Sue, then anyone could have been."

This was all too much to consider. The Fantastic Four were one of the pinnacle groups of heroes for the public to see. The Baxter Building stood tall, and they were always cast in the limelight. If someone had been able to convince him fully that they were his wife, then anyone could have been fooled. Anyone could have been replaced. And no one was safe. This was far larger than they likely could anticipate, but already stress was coursing in his veins as his voice began to become far more solid, "We cannot trust anyone."

-----------------------------------------

Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

[Revan]

REVOLUTIONARIES WAIT
for my head on a silver plate
JUST A PUPPET ON A LONELY STRING
--------------------

"Well, not about this one in particular." Stark replied, sensing his phrasing might not have been the best, "Just noticing a trend." he said. Reed seemed to understand and state exactly what he had been thinking too.

"Exactly." he said, "Which is why I've been keeping quiet on this." Hell, he still wasn't completely sure he could trust Reed, but he had to trust someone with this. Now that it had gotten to three, the pattern was too real. And someone like Sue? Someone who was constantly around people? Reed was on point when he said they could be anyone. Literally anyone. And so far they seemed to be. But who else? How many teams were infiltrated? How many governments? Were the unregistered teams free from this or did they too have spies?

"By the way, what happened here?" Stark asked, flipping his faceplate back down and looking around the ruins of the lab. His scanner went over it, looking for signs of sabotage.

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OH, WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING?

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

-----------------------------------------

"Oh, a trend!?" he said with a bit of sarcasm as he looked towards the man. Obviously Reed had been through a large lapse of volatile emotions in such a short time as he worked through it. He had experienced grief, anger, confusion, and now just all of the above not due to the death of what he knew was an alien in front of him... but rather the confusion and frustration as into what in the hell was going on. That was when the fantastic man began to just take a deep breath as he looked at Tony adjusting his faceplate again.

Just as Tony was thinking about the other teams, he was thinking about the national scale. Political Figures, Government Heads, all of the same things that Tony had thought of. It also made him think about if Tony was trustworthy now. It was exactly what they wanted, they wanted them questioning everyone. He had called Tony here, but for all he knew he could be one of them. Perhaps telling him the information before he targets him to make him more comfortable. Either way, it kept him all over his toes as he tried to accept what was all happening at once.

"That's the next question..." he said as he thought about it all so far, "I was working on this machine." he pointed to it, knowing that he was trying to fix another terribly bad problem in the world with all the rifts that had been opening up. "I was working on this machine here, it was supposed to be something to help calibrate and prevent some... rifts opening up here and there. Not sure exactly what they are yet." he said before shaking his head, "But that's not the point. The point is, I was starting to run the machine, and it began to fall through. It was almost like something fell apart inside, cause a chain reaction... an explosion." he said while looking at Stark, "It should have been perfect." There was something fishy about all of this, "But yet it wasn't. It exploded, I was able to react, I got back and was able to stretch through the rest..." he trailed off before gesturing to the body, "She or... they, whatever. It seems they got caught in the explosion, whether they planned to or not."

-----------------------------------------

Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

[Revan]

REVOLUTIONARIES WAIT
for my head on a silver plate
JUST A PUPPET ON A LONELY STRING
--------------------

"Yeah." Stark replied to Reed's sarcasm, preferring to ignore the lash out. He knew this would be hard on Reed, especially since they had no idea where the real Sue actually was. Was there even a real Sue? No, Stark couldn't let himself fall that far down the paranoia tree. Both Mockingbird and Squirrel Girl were back after all. Though Squirrel Girl was still a question mark if he was being honest. He gave Reed a moment to collect himself and then the man started explaining. Rifts, huh? Stark shook his head. One issue at a time, but they'd have to come back to that one for sure. Stark's scanners corroborated Reed's story easily enough.

"I doubt it planned to be caught like this." he replied. No, that wouldn't make sense. The dead were putting them on to the Skrulls, that would be counter to their plans. They needed their secrecy and having some of the smartest defenders of Earth on their trail was not a good thing for them. Especially since they seemed to have been working at this for years.

Then again, maybe the plan was to let him know while a fake Reed lead him astray?

"Okay, so here's the situation. I don't know if I can trust you, and if your thinking straight you don't know if you can trust me. But we're going to have to trust someone if we're going to fight against this. So I'm choosing to believe that you're the real Reed Richards." he said, "So my intel is number one: Mockingbird. She returned recently, right? Official word is that she was that she faked her death to go deep undercover on a mission. The reality is that she was rescued by Star Lord's crew from the Skrulls. I exhumed the corpse that was buried. It's a Skrull. Second was reported to me by Charles Xavier. During a sentinel attack on his mansion, Squirrel Girl was killed in action. Except when he found her, it wasn't Doreen. A new Squirrel Girl has popped up too. I have some eyes on her but I don't know if she's real or fake yet. Sue here is the third." he explained. Iron Man stood up, still staring at the Skrull body.

"As I said, we need to trust some people. So here's what I want to do. I want to bring the Illuminati back in on this. We're the least likely to be replaced without causing enough of a stir to be noticed and we need some strong minds working on this behind the scenes. It's our best chance." he said.

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OH, WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING?

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

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'And if you're thinking straight you don't know if you can trust me.'

That might as well have been the understatement as Reed stood there, going over the same scenarios like the mad scientist he was on whether or not this was the real Tony Stark. He had been tracking the rifts, he had heard the reports of a girl causing a mess with Rhino... as well as a kid on fire who seemed to have escaped from Xavier's mansion. Either way though, he was right in that he couldn't trust Stark. Perhaps this was an imposter telling him that he would trust him just to get him on his good side. Was there any good side to Reed at the moment? He didn't know. He did however seem to have the knowledge of the Illuminati or else he would not be bringing them up in the first place.

"Suppose you are in fact the real Tony Stark... not that I am implying that there is another; shall we bring in the Illuminati? Then what. If Sue can be compromised, then almost anyone could be compromised. She's not exactly the easiest person to get your hands on." he said before he began to try and put all of this together. The man was on edge, but he had to be logical. "You're right that it may be our best chance though. We need someone else on this. Whatever 'this' is."

-----------------------------------------

Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

[Revan]

REVOLUTIONARIES WAIT
for my head on a silver plate
JUST A PUPPET ON A LONELY STRING
--------------------

"A secret invasion." Tony replied. An invasion that had been going on for years, at least since they had thought Mockingbird had died, and was slowly building to a head. Reed wasn't wrong that even the Illuminati members weren't immune to the possibility, and maybe it was simply Stark being arrogant, but he had to believe. Believe that the likes of he, Reed, Xavier, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, and Namor couldn't be replaced without making enough of a scene to expose them. Xavier could contact every X-Man in an instant. Strange was unparalleled with magic. Black Bolt ruled an entire race that had his back and could level mountains with a word. the Atlantian King would likewise be a difficult target and by no means go down quietly. Reed, Stark believed, could come up with something to alert everyone and his intelligence would be hard to replicate. And Stark had an army of old armor and thousands of protocols to prevent unauthorized use. A Skrull getting every single one of them? Unlikely. But the people around them? That was easier.

"Hmm, I have an idea for proof. What do the six of us have? The one thing we swore we would sacrifice everything to keep out of the hands of evil? The thing no one but us knows we have and none of us would give up for anything because of just how dangerous that would be to the entire universe and reality? Which do you have, Reed?" Iron Man asked. If Reed knew the answer, then he'd get both his the fact that Tony was speaking of the Infinity Gems and that his reference to reality as him stating he had the Reality Gem. If he was fake then he wouldn't have any idea what the man was talking about. If their was one thing Stark had faith in, it was that the Illuminati would never give up the location of the gems.

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OH, WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING?

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

-----------------------------------------

Reed knew what Tony was trying to lay down, if he had been any more specific it would have made Reed think that he himself had been replaced by a green imposter. A 'Secret Invasion' was quite an interesting way to put it. They had been invaded, people had been taken, people had been replaced, and now the enemy was right under their noses. Now, in the midst of the flaming laboratory, Reed realized what was going to happen next. Another war, not one so unlike the Civil War, except for instead of it being ideological and hero versus hero... now it was going to be Hero vs. Who Isn't A Hero.

"Just as there is reality, there must be a power behind it... one that controls said aspects of our Universe and all of the other four which all come together to create what we know now." He wasn't going to say it outright, nor was he going to state that said 'gem' was actually far closer to them then even Stark himself could think. "I believe its clear that both of us are who we say we are then." Even if Stark had been replaced, there is no way he would have given up the Reality Gem. "So now we need to find the other four. Obviously two of them are far closer than the other two." he mentioned in reference to the King of Atlantis... the last person he wanted to speak to; and Black Bolt even further away up on the Moon.

-----------------------------------------

Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

[Revan]

REVOLUTIONARIES WAIT
for my head on a silver plate
JUST A PUPPET ON A LONELY STRING
--------------------

Stark breathed a sigh of relief at Reed's answer. The power stone was correct and that was going to be the best evidence that this was the real Reed Richards. He didn't believe for a second that Reed would give up the power stone for anything. Even his family. Because that was what the Illuminati was all about, making the decisions for the greater good. But now that they had both decided to trust each other, they could just go about the business of dealing with this problem.

"I can handle the bulk of the travel work. If you'd like to get in touch with Xavier, maybe the two of you can start working on a way to detect these skrulls? I'll handle the other three. Nothing out of the ordinary for Tony Stark to do the rounds." he said. He certainly wasn't about to suggest that Reed go talk to Namor and it wasn't strange at all for him to check on Antilla or visit Doctor Strange, who was a registered Avenger.

"I can get the Skrull Monkingbird's body to you for study. Xavier has the Skrull Squirrel Girl hidden away, then there's this one. Xavier said Dorreen registered to his mind as Doreen while she was alive and as for scanners..." Stark pointed his left hand at Skrull Sue and scanned her, then held his right palm up where a holographic display appeared displaying the results of the scan. The readout stated that she was Sue Storm and human, despite the fact that this was clearly not accurate.

"They've figured out a way to trick our best tech and our best psychics. In fact the only way to tell seems to be when they die." he said. Talk about a potential witch hunt in the making.

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OH, WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING?

[Deleted]

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

-----------------------------------------

The thought of this ever-growing witch hunt was already starting to give Reed a headache just from the start... all of the emotions were just the beginning for Reed as his scientific brain was already trying to think up the best ways to try and detect what was going on. Obviously this had been going for far longer than they had been expecting, or at least he had been. In many ways he found it odd that Stark and Xavier had decided to keep this secret to themselves. While he knew they each collectively had their secrets, just had Reed had his own... two keeping from the other four was quite suspicious.

"Ever heard of the Salem Witch Trials?" he said with a bit of an obvious tone as he knew that Stark had heard of it, "Because I have a feeling that this might be its reincarnation." What else were they supposed to do? No one could be trusted, he had put his trust into the Tony in front of him, but they always had to be on their toes. As well, unlike Tony, he had to hide this from the rest of the family. Keep a secret from the kid that create a whole new universe if he really wanted, while also working with a telepath to find a fix to this.

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Tell my wife I love her very much she knows