Title: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1/?)
Author: pravusmutatio
Disclaimer: I'm going to hatch a plan to take over the universe, and when I do…Marvel will be mine!! But until I do, it remains the property of Stan Lee /grumbles\\
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Johnny Storm/Silver Surfer
Warnings: Slash, Movie-verse, Comic-verse
Summary: Life certainly wasn't what it used to be twenty four hours ago.

Author's Note: So, Sarah McLachlan is my new goddess, and well, the current form my muse wants to take on. So, for this particular story, blame the inspiration on her, and uh…her album: Remixed. GAWD!!

Prologue:
Twenty Four Hours

Twenty four hours ago, they saved the world…again.

Twenty four hours, and the world was celebrating. Nation after nation, country after country, people all across the globe were raising their voices in multitudinous cries, collective sighs of relief and patting each other on the back as if they themselves had done a job well done and not the exhausted Four heroes, who, upon returning to the Baxter building, retreated to their own domiciles for much needed rest: Reed and Sue Storm-now-Richards had gone off into their own room; Ben had gone off to seek out the comfortable, soft arms of Alicia, and Johnny…

He could've called any number of super models or celebrities and thrown a big party and done it up in typical Johnny Storm style, but for some reason, he could not find it in himself to celebrate or to even succumb to much needed rest. He stood instead on the rooftop of the Baxter building, staring up at the stars.

If someone had told him weeks ago that he'd be fighting an intergalactic bad guy, Johnny might've called them crazy. Despite all the weird, crazy freaky shit he's seen on Earth, bad guys that existed beyond the tiny microcosm of Earth's solar system had never occurred to him. But now…

The veneer of cocky, arrogant asshole was temporarily suspended, and for once Johnny let thoughts rush through him much as he let his own flames surge and twist and curl inside of him, thoughts of the being called Galactus, roiling and frothing above Earth's atmosphere, about to consume the planet whole. Thoughts of Sue and when he'd almost thought, for the tiniest second, that he'd lost his sister, lost one of the few people on the planet that mattered to him…

And, then most importantly, thoughts of a certain silvery alien, one of whom—if he'd never shown up—would not have brought down the unholy hell of Galactus in the first place. Then again…Johnny couldn't be entirely mad at the guy. It had been Sue who'd told him later that Norrin Radd—Norrin Radd?—had had a semi-decent reason as to why he'd done what he'd done: Norrin Radd was saving his own home world from destruction. And—under the circumstances—if Johnny'd been in Radd's place, he figured he would have done the exact same thing; he just wouldn't have been able to bear knowing that Sue was dead and gone, that the Earth was dead and gone and that he was all alone in the vast nothingness of space with a world devouring thing as his only companion. He didn't know how Radd could have even stood it.

So intent on the sight of stars after endless stars above him and so wrapped in his thoughts, he did not hear or see his sister Sue until she was standing right next to him, gently calling his name and placing a cautious hand on his shoulder. He gave a start, small crackles of flames shooting from his hands in a burst of surprise.

"Jeez, Johnny!" Sue exclaimed, patting at her clothes before they caught fire. "Watch it!"

He winced. "Sorry, I didn't see you." He eyed her as she checked then double checked to make sure her clothes were completely out. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"I came to check on you," she replied, concern lacing her tone once more. "I checked to see if you were in your room, but you weren't. I figured the roof was my best bet."

He smirked at his sister. "Good guess." They lapse into silence as he shoved his hands into his pockets and Johnny's gaze drifted back to the night time sky. Sue followed his gaze.

"You thinking about…" she paused. "You thinking about the Surfer?"

Johnny glanced at her. Shrugged.

"I'm guessing he didn't survive the..uh…whole blowing up of the ginormous planet eater thing," Johnny replied with another shrug. Sue stepped forward, placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

"Reed can't find him on any of his scanners, and he looked four times." Sue sighed. "I suppose he sacrificed himself…" she glanced at the sky as she said this, then dropped her gaze back down and met her brother's troubled blue eyes with her own… "and saved us all."

"Yeah, well." Johnny kicked a stray rock that had loosed itself from the Baxter building rooftop and shoved his hands deeper in his pockets. "You know, if he hadn't have brought that…thing….here, none of this would've happened."

Sue smiled sadly at her brother, took one last look at the stars, and said, "Yeah. Maybe." She took her brother's hand and tugged gently, pulling him towards the open doorway that lead back inside. "C'mon. Let's go inside. You need some rest."

Johnny nodded, dropping his gaze from the cold pinpricks of cosmic lights, smiled his own wan smile at his sister and followed her, letting her lead him inside.

Somewhere, just above the Earth's atmosphere, between the distant street lights below and the farther distant star light above, a figure floated, semi-conscious, as the sun crested the rim of this tiny blue-green ball of a world. The light reflected off the figure's metallic skin, a curious mixture of silver and radiant gold.

The chest of this figure moved. Up and down, absorbing the power of this solar system's sun. His body twitched with the quickening of rapidly approaching wakefulness, an onslaught of consciousness 

that dragged him from the comforting embrace of darkness and into the reality of a blazing sun and the world below, safe and whole and nearly untouched by Galactus' power.

His body twitched again, silver skin rippling, muscles contracting, shifting, nerves wakening once more to the power cosmic that flowed through him, through his blood and through his bones. And when he felt the ghostly whisper of cosmic power finally caress his mind and the psychic link of his board re-assert itself, his eyes snapped open, his board soared towards him and he reached out, grabbing its slender side, feeling strength returning to him anew.

He was Norrin Radd, and he was alive.