COMES THE FALLEN ONE
By: Dan Bivens
Chapter 2
"How beautiful this backward world truly is," lamented the Silver Surfer as he soared atop his board, so brightly gleaming under a single sun, across the face of our own blue-green globe. Filled, impossibly it seemed, with a natural splendor the likes of which the Surfer had not known since he, as Norrin Radd, existed on long-lost Zenn-La, deep in the Deneb system of this self-same spiral galaxy. "Yet how maligned its magnificence by the self-same Humans I, myself, along with the Fantastic Four and four former heralds of Galactus answering my psychic call, had salvaged against Galactus' resurgent need to feed upon Earth's peerless life-energies. As I streak across its skies, some sorely polluted and others still pristine, at speeds from far below that of sound to some five times same, I go from the viewing of indescribably beautiful wildernesses with myriad varieties of both fauna and flora in exceptionally immense numbers to…"
In an instant, the Silver Surfer, soaring so majestically from heights as impressively lofty as fifty thousand feet to those as humbly low as a couple of hundred, quickly covered the expanse of a strangled city to that of the verdantly dominated Human-free forests and entangled jungles. From sections scarred by society to those untouched by time.
"Of all the countless planets I have visited while in servitude to great Galactus," continued the Surfer as his silvery skin glinted as brightly as the silvery space-time traveling board upon which he stood so stately. The wind whistling past his august Self as, more than occasionally, sonic booms of multi-Mach speeds exploded in his sweeping wake. "Of all the endless solar systems in the literal millions of galaxies I have streaked through at both near-light, in normal space, velocities to piercing straight through the fabric of space-time via advanced quantum tunneling techniques incorporated so cosmically into the board co-created at the same moment as he who was once known as Norrin Radd was transformed into the Silver Surfer…only Earth is at once so singularly lovely and so unspeakably base."
Having, in the short seconds such considerations within his super-consciousness took to pass so swiftly from one forethought to the next, covered over a thousand miles on the opposite side of the blue-green planet, the Silver Surfer once again considered the completely incongruous Truth that, for some as yet utterly unknown reason, readily recognized by the more than 13-billion year old Galactus, third force of the universe, Earth held a uniquely indomitable life-energy than virtually every other world so lustfully consumed by the Eternal Eater of Planets.
Curious. Most curious.
Just as the fact that there existed in a city known as New York not only a great gathering of such cosmically-sought, by Galactus, energies, but super-beings so altered by more simplistic cosmic forces, into the collectively called…the Fantastic Four.
Those to whom he had altered his universal viewpoint and realigned his allegiance against he who had bequeathed unto the Silver Surfer the self-same power cosmic as had been done for those four who'd also fallen from grace over the untold millennia of cosmological time.
Four who not only perceived the psionic transmission sent forth through sub-spatial subsistence of such a vast cosmos and, much more importantly, tunnel-traveled straight to this small planet existing near the edge of a simplistically basic spiral galaxy in order to enjoin their power cosmic in order to force a former master to turn his titanic back on a singularly suffused-with-life energies Earth. Again.
Perhaps the Silver Surfer would stay for a time. A dozen decades, maybe. Several centuries, possibly. Then again, the Surfer might streak straightaway into endless space and once again enjoy the plenitude of wonders this immense cosmos offered such as he.
One thing was absolute certitude: so long as the Surfer did stay, he would always look out for these hapless Humans and their uniquely life-energy permeated planet. And he would also remain fast friends with…
The Fantastic Four were definitely not the type to expend super-powers dealing with the likes of common criminals or even basic terrorist types. Such simply did not seem to present such as they with the properly elevated level of activity for cosmic ray-granted capabilities contained in the persons referred to as: Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing.
They separately and collectively believed their singular existence centered around such as a Dr. Doom, in regards to earthly threats, or a Galactus in as much as pertained to unearthly threats.
As such, save for Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards, resident genius whose IQ easily exceeded Einstein's and who was constantly ensconced in super-scientific experiments or investigations, the likes of Susan "The Invisible Woman" Richards, Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm, and Ben "The Thing" Grimm were all left to fill their days in much the same manner as most Americans.
Such as The Invisible Woman, her special Fantastic Four attire hidden beneath designer-styled clothing, either shopping or spending her days doing interviews with everyone from Larry King to Ryan Seacrest.
Such as The Human Torch mostly utilized self-generated plasma flame to streak through the skies of New York and more at the speed of a missile as well as engaging himself, once he was flamed-off of course, with a variety of extreme sports and, naturally, enjoying the cozy comfort offered by beautiful ladies.
The Thing, when not spending precious romantic time with a certain Alicia Masters, blind sculptress extraordinaire, loved to laze around the living room or even his own private quarters scarffing down hundreds of pounds of buttery popcorn and other fast food concoctions while watching Action presentations via DVDs or satellite TV.
That was except for the occasional super-powered spats, such as the one that had earlier occurred and caused Mr. Fantastic to send out for more reinforced furniture to replace the pieces so completely obliterated by The Thing while being haplessly harassed by The Human Torch.
Now, suddenly, detected by intricate computers constantly scanning surrounding space, both to offer NASA an ever greater degree of data needed to plan space shuttle missions as well as creating a proverbial "protective web" about the Earth-Moon section of the Sol system used, essentially, as an early-alert procedure for potential super-cosmic dangers aimed directly at a world's race of Humans…
"Oh, God," Mr. Fantastic uttered under his breath even as detector systems tracked and authenticated some kind of cosmic menace streaking straight for planet Earth.
Even as Mr. Fantastic swiftly super-stretched one arm in order to hammer an inflated fist against a special Red Alert control connected to all levels of the Fantastic Four areas atop the Baxter Building, while also simultaneously alerting the Pentagon and the White House…
That which he'd detected, now traveling at less than half the speed-of-light constant within normal space, was the Fallen One, dark matter incarnate and possessor of the same power cosmic as was the Silver Surfer.
Ahhhhhh, thought a suddenly smirking humanoid shape almost as black, down to his bizarre atomic structure, as the dark matter/energy over which such as he had an absolute link while still streaking straight for the blue-green globe. Now I understand why the great Galactus, along with five ex-heralds who came along many eons after me, saw reason to so concentrate their space-spanning consciousnesses upon what would seem, on the physical surface, to be merely an ordinary life-sustaining planet. Just as I sense he who was the second selected by the Devourer of Worlds to be his herald long after I fell from grace. The Silver Surfer!
In the seconds of real time it would take the Fallen One to eventually enter the outermost atmosphere of Earth, not only the Fantastic Four, but, by way of his own celestially attuned senses, the board-riding Surfer would rapidly prepare for perhaps the greatest battle short of a third cosmic melee with mighty Galactus.
END OF CHAPTER 2