Epilogue of The Silver Surfer
By Churnok
Disclaimer
The Silver Surfer and all other characters in this story are the copyright of Marvel and are used here for non-profit entertainment purposes only. This story is based on the Silver Surfer cartoon series so names may be misspelled and characters will be different from their comic book counterparts. Permission is given to anyone who wants to archive this story as long as they let me know first and give me a link to their site. I welcome any comments, questions, and/or constructive criticisms.
The silver surfer awoke to find himself in a place he had not seen since before he became the herald of Galactus, Norrin Radd's bedroom. For one brief moment he thought that his life as the Silver Surfer, the things he had done for both good and ill, had all been a dream. But that fleeting thought was shattered when he saw his reflection in his own hand.
"It was not a dream," he said to himself. He wasn't sure if this was a disappointment or a relief. He still had no idea how he had come to be home. "To me, my board," At his spoken command a silver board that had been resting against the wall flew towards him, revealing a second board behind it. Puzzled he ignored his own board to examine this new one. It was exactly like his board in every detail and forged from the Power Cosmic, yet it belonged to another. He mounted his own board and flew out the window to find answers.
Once outside he was met with further questions for in the night sky of Zenn-La was what could only be a universal library of the Watchers floating in the same orbit around the sun like a sister planet, and flying towards him were two familiar forms, Nova, who had replaced the Surfer as herald, and Adam Warlock, the champion and last survivor of Kera-des.
"Nova! Adam Warlock! But how did we all come to be on Zenn-La?"
"You should know Silverado," said the gold woman with the fire hair, "you brought us here after we kicked Thanos' butt and saved the cosmos."
"Everyone except me," said the gold skinned warrior in the red, gold, and black uniform, his red cape and yellow hair flowing in the wind. "I was sent back to my home world first, where I witnessed my world and its people come back to life!"
"But how," the Surfer replied with growing puzzlement. "The last thing I remember was trying to get to the nexus and stop Thanos from destroying the universe."
"When you broke through to the nexus you absorbed enough of its power to make you a match for Thanos and his weapon," Nova explained. "But it wasn't enough to just stalemate him so you summoned me and golden boy here along with Galactus, a short dude with pointy ears named Pip, his big green buddy Drax, an old bald man with a funny beard style that you called Master, a horse-faced alien who calls himself Beta Ray Bill, and your girlfriend Shalla-Bal."
"Once you had us gathered," Adam continued, "you empowered us with the same energy and strength that you possessed and asked us to aid you in your fight. With our combined might we crushed Thanos!"
"Once stone face was down for the count," Nova broke in, "we imprisoned him in what horse boy called the Dreaming. Still seems funny to imprison a guy in his own greatest fantasy, but hey, as long as he don't want out he's not going to cause any more trouble."
"Then you took back the power you gave us and granted each of us a wish before dispelling it," Adam finished. "You already know what my wish was."
"Yep, Blondie here wished for his people to be restored to life with the knowledge of what they had done to themselves so that they don't repeat their mistake and kill themselves all over again."
"And what of you Nova," the surfer asked, "and the others who came to my aid?"
"Well big G decided to retire from the whole world eating business after a fashion. To keep this party from happening again the nexus needed a protector and we all agreed that he would be the best person for the gig."
"But what of his hunger?"
"Taken care of Silverado. Galactus was able to modify his equipment so that he could feed off the nexus. That thing puts out so much energy that he can gorge until he bursts and not harm anything. He apologizes for everything by the way, and would like you to come by and visit when you find the time. Amazing what a full tummy can do for the big guy's temperament."
"Incredible. The mighty Galactus is content at last, and no longer a threat to anyone."
"Come my friend," said Adam. "The others await us on the Universal Library that is now a sister planet to Zenn-La. You can learn the remaining details as we join the celebration." With that Adam Warlock flew towards the planet sized library with Nova and the Surfer following close behind. As he flew the surfer wondered what further joys awaited him this day.
One they were within the Library's atmosphere they were greeted by a holographic projection of the Master of Zenn-La.
"Master?" asked the surfer in disbelief. "But I thought you died saving Pip and his fellow trolls. Have you somehow been brought back to life?"
"I did die my student," replied the Master, "but though the power you gained from the nexus was able to bring back my spirit, you could not return me to life. So now I serve as the head librarian here at the Universal Library. The others await your arrival at what has become my reception hall and I'm sure you and Shalla-Bal have both waited too long as it is to be reunited." With that the image faded.
Shalla-Bal. Even as he followed his friends towards the reception hall the Surfer couldn't believe it. Finally, after countless ages of separation, they were going to be together again. He tried to temper his excitement with caution. For had not Ego, the living planet, once attempted to lure him in with false promises of such a joyous end to his quest. Yet still he hoped.
The first person to meet them was not Shalla-Bal, but Pip and his own love Kealie.
"Yo Surfer, how ya doing pal?" the troll called out.
"Pip my friend," the Surfer replied as he Adam and nova landed before the two former slaves of the Kree, "I have some idea of how you came to be here, but how was Kealie brought here? And where is the Skrull queen's egg that I entrusted to her care?"
"Hey are you kidding?" Pip replied back. "When you gave us each a wish I wished to be able to travel the universe and still come back to my girl when ever she needs me, which translated into me being able to teleport myself and anyone with me to anywhere in the universe, and having a mental link to Kealie."
"A link that works both ways," added the red haired female troll. "Which I'm sure will become as problematic as it is useful for both of us in time. As for the egg, it hatched almost two years ago galactic standard time, and Kayla is already becoming a handful. Drax and Beta Ray are looking after her right now."
"And where is my Shalla-Bal?" asked the Surfer.
"I'm here Norrin," came a voice that the Silver Surfer thought he would never hear again. From out of the shadows came a figure that looked like his lost love, but cast in silver instead of flesh.
"Shalla-Bal?" the surfer was so stunned by his love's apparent transformation that he wasn't sure weather to run to her arms in joy or run away in horror.
"Yes Norrin, it's me. When you summoned me to fight alongside you against Thanos you remade my body so that it could handle the power of the nexus, and when you gave us each a with I wished to keep the power you gave me so that we could explore the cosmos together."
"Then, that was your board beneath mine in my bedroom. But how could you have come here without it?"
"Easy," said Pip, "I teleported her here. Your old teacher said that expelling the remaining nexus energy might scramble your short term memory. You were pretty fried when we put you to bed this morning. We thought that leaving her board with yours would help unscramble it."
"But now I find that being so far from my board is almost as painful as losing you to Galactus," said Shalla-Bal.
Upon hearing this Pip disappeared, only to reappear seconds later with the second board. "OK Shalla-Bal," the troll said as he handed the silver woman her board, "time to show the Surfer the new trick you two can do."
Shalla-Bal took hold of her board and, in a flash of purple energy, transformed herself from silver to flesh. She then reduced her board to a silver disc that could fit in the palm of her hand. This she attached to her belt buckle.
Reading the shocked expression on the Surfer's face Nova explained, "Before we left him at the nexus, big G gave each of us Power Cosmic types the ability to change back into our original forms." She demonstrated by, in a plume of flame, changing into the form of Frankie Reyes, the teen aged earth girl she had been before becoming a herald of Galactus. "We can still call on our powers, change back, and take one heck of a beating, but now we can walk among other people without causing a panic. The only things we can't do in our flesh forms are fly, breath in a vacuum, and recharge our batteries on the nearest energy source, but hey, we need some reason to change into our shiny skins. Go ahead Silverado, try doing it yourself. Shelly here has been telling me all about how handsome Norrin Radd was, but I want to see your old look for myself."
"I can take the form of Norrin Radd at will? But how?"
Shalla-Bal put her hands on his shoulders. "Close your eyes and concentrate on the man you were."
The Silver Surfer did as he was told. Focusing on what it felt like to be Norrin Radd, the warmth of the sun, the feeling of clothes on his skin, the discomfort of a growling stomach. Within moments he felt a tingling sensation flow through his body. When Frankie whistled he opened his eyes and stared at his hands. For the first time since the wanderers had separated him from the Power Cosmic and tried to execute him for leading his then master Galactus to their respective home worlds, he saw a hand of flesh. He was once again Norrin Radd, yet he did not feel weakened by the experience. He could still feel the Power Cosmic flowing through him, but now he felt something else. It had been so long since he had felt this way that he didn't recognize the sensation at first. He was thirsty.
"Is there anything to drink here?" he asked as he shrank his board down to a belt buckle.
Frankie chuckled, "yep. We got all the makings of a slam bang celebration inside," she said as she led the way. The others followed and soon found a grand chamber where a grand feast had been set up. Drax could be seen on one side of the room trying to keep a small shape shifter under control. The champion of the Whinnen, Beta Ray Bill, was standing to the side providing advice and ready to intercept if the shape shifter got loose.
"Careful lad," said the Whinnen warrior. "Kealie will pound the both of us if her little girl is hurt."
"Yes," replied the muscular green android, "but if we let Kayla lose there goes the dinner she and Shalla-Bal spent all day on and we get pounded twice over."
"Is my little girl misbehaving?" asked Kealie sweetly. At the sound of her voice the shape shifter gave a squeal of delight and became a miniature version of Kealie as she ran towards her adopted mother.
"Just a little impatient," said Beta Ray as he turned to the new arrivals. "She doesn't understand that we had to wait for you to get back before we could start eating so Drax and I have been playing with her." He looked at the three wielders of the Power Cosmic, "Silver Surfer, is that what you looked like before Galactus?"
"Yes my friend it's me," replied Norrin Radd. "Though judging from Shalla-Bal's new form you may have to start calling me Norrin Radd, since I am no longer the only silver surfer."
Beta Ray chuckled, "good point and I must say, you make a great couple."
"You should see them in their shiny skins," said Nova. "Definitely a matched set."
"But we have time for that later," said Norrin. "Right now I want to do something I have not done in far too long." He made a beeline for the table. "Enjoy a good meal with real friends."
"I think the guest of honor has the right idea," said Pip as he teleported into a chair.
The meal was truly a feast with foods normally reserved for the grand festivals of Zenn-La, but it could have been month old prison food and it would not have mattered for Norrin Radd was the happiest he had been since before becoming the Silver Surfer.
As they dined, the gaps in Norrin's memory of the final battle were filled in. When Thanos was defeated he was rendered unconscious and his ship was disabled beyond repair. Adam Warlock wanted to destroy him and in truth the Surfer had apparently been tempted to allow him to do so, but they had come to protect not to destroy, and to kill a defeated foe, even to prevent the destruction of all creation, seemed wrong somehow. It had been Beta Ray Bill's idea to recreate the dreaming, a device that had held the minds of his own people in a self made fantasy world, and entrap Thanos in its power. After confining Thanos' body in his ship and his mind in his own dream they encased the ship in a dead planet and Galactus sent the planet to the edge of the universe.
Then The Surfer took back the power he had given them and gave them each one wish.
"I already know what some of you wished for," said Norrin, "but what about the rest of you?"
"I wished for my people to regain what we lost in our addiction to the dreaming," said Beta Ray. "I know we would have regained it ourselves in time, but it was the only thing I could wish for."
"I wished for better unity between my organic brain and my android body," said Drax who had often experienced momentary shutdowns because of problems with the connections between his mind and his body. "I am now a fusion of organic and technology, a living machine."
"But what of my Master?" asked Norrin. "If I could do such wondrous things with this power for all of you, why could I not return him to life?"
"Because each wish was a strain on you my student," said the Master of Zenn-La, "and to do the final task you needed to do you had to have as much strength as possible. So I contented myself with becoming the head librarian of this universal library."
"Final task?"
"You still felt guilty about the civilizations that you destroyed to feed Galactus," Shalla-Bal explained. "To atone for that, you called the wanderers, the survivors of those worlds and brought them to systems where you recreated their worlds with the help of the spirits of those worlds that were within Galactus."
"You were pretty wiped out after that Silverado," continued Frankie. "But you still had enough strength to zap us here. When we got here we put you to bed and started setting up for the party."
"So my friend," said Adam, "what do you plan to do now that you have finally found that which you have been questing for?"
Norrin gazed lovingly at Shalla-Bal. "After all my wandering around the cosmos, I would be content to remain here with the woman I love."
"But I would not," said Shalla-Bal. "As the Silver Surfer you have see wondrous things that I can only imagine. Now that I too have the Power Cosmic do you really think I'll be content to just stay on Zenn-La without seeing a fraction of what you've seen?"
"Shelly does have a point Silverado," said Frankie as she took a bite of her salad. She didn't get a cool new look just to sit around the planet and cook. Besides, don't you want to show your girl what you've seen?"
"And take it from a fellow traveler with a girl at home," added Pip. "The trip is a lot better with your girl by your side."
Norrin chuckled, "Very well, if is what my love truly wants, we shall explore the universe together."
"Great," shouted Frankie, "first stop, Earth!" She pulled a device from her belt as she stepped away from the table. "Just gotta call home and let them know." She punched a few buttons and began talking into it.
"Her wish was to be able to talk with friends and family no matter where she is in the universe," Drax explained. "That device can somehow contact everyone she knows."
"Well," said Shalla-Bal, "It looks like you have no choice now unless you want to disappoint two women."
"My love, with you at my side, I would guide the entire Skrull army through the Kree empire."
They left Zenn-La the next day safe in the knowledge that they would be able to return with stories of their adventures, a fire haired golden female followed by two silver surfers who were flying around each other like a pair of love drakes in spring. The former master of Zenn-La watched them go with both sorrow and joy. Sorrow that he was saying goodbye to two cherished students and joy that two great loves had been reunited.