CHAPTER TWO: Tea Time at Sol's Anvil
"So…that was fun." Bentley scoffed as his kicked at the dust. Valeria didn't hear him. She usually never heard Bentley anyway, so even in the face of complete and utter cosmic destruction and an impossible rescue from the depths of space and time, Valeria Richards STILL didn't care what Bentley had to say. She hunched to the ground and hugged her knees. She had just seen, nay orchestrated, the impossible. She squinted out at her father and grandfather, smiling and diligently working, and she thought, "I made this happen. This is MY win. So," and she hesitates. The thought had never even crossed her mind really. The thought that the end game would make her so….
"Bored…" she hisses through her teeth.
"Back with us, cadet?" Bentley tossed to her. Her reply is a noise that can only be quantified as a passage of air. "Bentley isn't even worth words" she thinks, bitterly as she gets to her feet. "My dad needs help." She offers as she makes her way to the massive structure where her family and class scattered about. "This is why they all do it." She muses, "People just need more and more of this so they keep wandering into insane situations." She has had tons of time to think about this in all the timeouts that she has endured in her short life, but if there is one thing that Valeria Richards knows, it's that she was born to be a super hero.
"I look amazing with a beard!" came the ecstatic voice of her brother, Franklin, as she reached the giant, arching control panels of Sol's Anvil. "Not gonna lie, kid, I am jealous of Future You's rocking chin growth." said Uncle Spider-Man, as he calibrated the massive controls. Valeria did her best to avoid Franklin's impromptu karate skill showcase as she made her way over to the controls that one of her many uncles fiddled over. She propped herself up on the control board and looked at her brother posturing across the room. He is one of the world's most powerful mutants. He has the power to create and destroy entire realities, and here he is…playing chop socky at the end of the world. Val allowed herself to smile. "Okay," she thought "I am way too grumpy without a power nap."
"Whatcha doing, Uncle Spidey?" she probed to the paper thin superhero as he fiddled about. The white and black mask twitched into what Val had come to realize as Uncle Spidey's Science Smile. He lifted his hand from the controls to lift his mask and confirm Val's suspicions. "HA! See I knew you wanted to talk about all this!" she tittered as she pointed an accusatory finger at the hero. Spidey raised his hands in mock alarm.
"Hey, you got me, kid, but you gotta admit, not only did we pull off some the greatest super science hero work this side of Asimov, but I get to hang out with hyper intelligent toddler that made it happen. We did great work today, you weirdo." Spidey grinned as he held his hand out of the awkward high fives that Val had come to adore. She held out her tongue as she targeted the elbow and took her shot. Their hands missed just to the left of one another. Val giggled despite herself. "We can work on it." The kid from Queens jabbed as he started working again. "This is a magnificent piece of machinery. Shame your dad can't just port it or something." Spider-Man said, displaying his seemingly endless font of small talk.
"It's safer deactivated, but I totally get it." Val admitted, sliding down to help with the process. "Where is my dad, by the way?" she asked as her hands moved almost instinctively across the ancient technology. She always felt better with some sort of tech underneath her hands. It was better than her baby blankets. "I saw them when I was out front with Bentley, but I lost them when I ditched him." She murmured through her work. Uncle Johnny says that she is her father's daughter in many ways, but that was the one that directly translated down the line; the ability to carry on conversation while de-constructing the very foundations of science.
"Him and your granddad, Johnny, and by inclusion, Johnny's new pet Annihilus, which is still kinda creepy by the way, all went into the ship to get it ready to take us back to The Baxter Building to help with the New York clean up. Franklin, of course," he quips as he shot Val a look through his big, black costumed eyes and jerked a thumb toward Franklin who is still honing his skill about the room.
"Hey, don't mind me guys!" Franklin chirped as he back fisted an invisible assailant. "You are just jealous that you guys only get computers when I get a pet Galactus!" He jumped into a wonky flying kick and Val couldn't help but smile at her big, stupid, Omega Level mutant brother.
"I swear you are adopted. I refuse to believe we are related despite the genetic evidence to the contrary." Val breathed as she made her way to the power couplings behind the console. She had no time for Franklin's, albeit entertaining, ridiculousness. There was another problem to solve, and by Newton, she was gonna solve it. There is was again. That creeping sense of never being done. Never wanting to stop. She hid herself behind the console as she messed about and readied herself to ask one of the world's greatest superheroes a very, very stupid question.
"Uncle Spider-Man…do you ever get…bored being a superhero?"
She was glad she had hid herself. She didn't want Uncle Spidey to see the creeping redness that she could feel from the boots of her Future Foundation uniform all the way up to her messy blonde hair. Spider-Man ceased his work and propped himself up on his elbows and gazed at the girl genius. "Now, this seems like a conversation I want to have. What's on your mind, kiddo?" he said, slipping into teacher mode again. Val screwed up her face in thought. "How can I word this without sounding stupid?" flashed through her mind as she opened her mouth to speak.
"You said that today we did great things, yeah?" she offered as she picked up a snake like power cord.
"Well, um. Yeah. Of course we did, you were right in the middle of it." Spider-Man retorted as he moved to prop his head up with his fist. "What is the point, Val?"
"Well…what about the time in between great things?" she said meekly. Even saying it she felt a bit ashamed.
"Ah. that kind of bored. I get it." Spidey said as he clicked his tongue in understanding. Val looked up at him with sad eyes. Spidey smiled and then displayed his amazing agility by vaulting over his hands and into a squatting position looking right into Val's face. Her eyes instantly sparkled when he jumped. The kids never get used to that and Spider-Man relished that fact. Got a sad kid, just handspring up and stick to the wall. Problem solved.
"That is what's great about the time in between. When you are fighting mad space gods you fail to see the poetry in motion that is your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." Spidey earnestly stated as he back flipped from his sitting position onto his hands standing straight up. Val squealed, but then caught herself. She hated it when she did that. "The thing about it, kid, really is that-", Spidey started, and Val was pretty fairly sure that he actually had something to say that was worth listening to. She truly had been planning to listen to his words and then take them into deep consideration for the future that she just worked to ensure.
She would have done all these things and more if a proximity alarm hadn't blared out from her communicator watch.
"I. Love. Alarms. They usually proceed clobberin' times." Franklin squealed as he struck what could laughably be called a fight stance. "More crazy space gods to punk?!" he boasted as he jumped over to the pair. Valeria gave Spidey a rueful smile and raised the comm. up for inspection. She was met by the digitized face of her father, the ultimate genius, Reed Richards.
"Val, you need to get to the ship now. Scanners indicate some sort of…object headed toward Sol's Anvil and it appears to be in freefall. Everyone is accounted for, except for you, Franklin, and Spider-Man and I honestly don't know why I was shocked at all." Mr. Fantastic added with a wry smile. Val allowed herself to return it and nodded. "How much time do we have, daddy?" she asked as she begun the wild speculation. A freefalling object coming from the upper atmosphere could mean a great many things; shrapnel from the Kree or Annihilation Wave ships, OR maybe even better, armor plating from the Mad Celestials OR an even slightly better level of amazing, from Galactus himself. Val had always wanted to get her hands on just even an atom of that planet eating beauty. She figured just from one fingernail she could reverse engineer at least seven different forms of free self-sustaining power. She had written it all down in her Lisa Frank diary, but that was back in the ship….or perhaps blown up because it was back at the Bax-
"Less than two minutes, Val.", a voice chirped from her wrist. Val blinked and saw the masked face of Spider-Man and her brother staring sidewise at her. "You know just how creepy you look when you space out like that? You look like a dead fish." her stupid brother said flatly. Val shoved her brother over and focused. "On our way, Dad." Val said, back in Hero Mode. Spider-Man back flipped off the console and motioned toward the large arcs of the giant weapon. "After you, Power Pack." Spidey said through his stark mask.
Val gathered her backpack, and offered her hand to her idiot brother. Franklin took it and rose, pouting. "You kinda hurt me, like all the time. Its becoming a problem for me." he said sullenly. Val shoved him forward toward his super hero uncle. "Oh shut up and run, and if it makes you feel any better, I wish I had your sense of whimsy" As her brother loped forward, Val quickly fell into step and quickly overtook him and hurried out the door, just barely catching a glimpse of her brother's smirk creeping across his face. She squinted against the sun to try to catch sight of the whatever it was.
"C'mon God metal….C'MON….." she breathed to the dusty air. She saw her brother and Spider-Man running toward the hazy looking ship, still busy with activity. Val shrugged her backpack off and went to fishing around inside it. She was positive she packed her long range scanning binoculars. A loud CRACK echoed through the air. She whipped her head toward the horizon. She saw the unmistakable cone of clouds ripple through the blue of the sky. It had broken the sound barrier! Just how fast was this thing going and where in the name of Copernicus did it come from? It was a…box? Perhaps a crate? Maybe something from the cargo holds of some of the warring ships? Her hands found her scanner and she brought it to her eyes. Police Box. Pull To Open.
"What the whaaaaaa…." she heard herself mutter as she rose to her feet. She heard someone screaming her name. She didn't pay much attention. The thing was falling at an increasingly alarming rate, and unbeknownst to dear Valeria, but known to her panicking extended family that now desperately were trying to alarm her about as they rushed to grab her, the blue box was headed straight toward dear Valeria. A 1960's British Police Box was falling from the sky at the end of the world and a little girl was right it its way. Valeria Richards is no longer bored.
A strange sound ground through Val's ears. She was jolted from the wonder to realize her danger. As she lifted her foot to beat a hasty backwards retreat, the box seemed to crash like a wave of cosmic rainbow colors against the ground. Val felt a wave of temporal energy wash over her, sending her lightly skidding against the rocky ground. The strangely wonderful grinding sound echoed around them, as the box bled its cascading energies through what looked like an ancient lamp light affixed atop of the box. As the rainbow of colors bled through the lamp and faded into the air, the box became corporal. Val watched in awe as it became solid and it was…made of wood. Val felt herself scoff. It was Christmas.
The noise came to a ringing stop and the box stood, bold as brass in the shadow of Sol's Anvil. Val left herself start to lurch forward. Her hand extended out in front of her, almost instinctively. "Val, don't you dare." came a sharp, female voice. Val turned, as if underwater to see her family standing at a tense attention behind her. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben "The Thing" Grimm; The Fantastic Four stood along with her brother, surrogate uncle Spider-Man and grandfather, Nathaniel, and the crouched, hissing form of Annihilus firmly in the grasp of Uncle Johnny, ready to greet whatever was about to come pouring out of this strange and wonderful celestial oddity.
"Val, please..." Sue said with a worried edge, holding her hands at the ready to create a force field. They had all just been through hell, and they were at the ready to beat back whatever super science space weirdness that was primed to pour from the box. Uncle Johnny and Uncle Ben said not a word, Ben just steaming in silent rage and Johnny steaming in a more literal sense.
"Don't worry, Mom. I don't thi-", Val started, when the door creaked open with an ancient sounding creak. The First Family snapped to attention and bore holes into the Police Box. The door hung, slightly ajar. The silence hung there. Val craned her neck to try to look into the odd thing, but even though the door hung open, she couldn't get a clear look into it.
The face popped through and Val could swear she even heard Uncle Ben gasp. The funny looking man with the foppish floppy hair and the ludicrous jutting chin seemed to shock the World's Greatest Super-Heroes into a relieved stupor. The ridiculous face spread into a nervous looking grin. How could this guy possibly pose a threat?
"Hello, there…" he said in a bright, but wary tone. The man stepped out of the box. He wore a tattered looking tweed coat, with an even more battered looking pair of boots, with rolled trousers, and bright red suspenders to match his smart looking red bow tie. He seemed to be holding a half broken beautiful china tea cup. Valeria Richards never had a chance. The man studied the crowd and a wide grin spread throughout his dumbly handsome face.
"Just….WHAT are you?" he said, almost a gasp. Val looked at the man's eyes and she could see the wonder and fascination that they brimmed with. Whoever HE was, he wasn't bored either.
Her father spoke up ("OF COURSE he did", Val thought grimly to herself). "I am Dr. Reed Richards, of The Fantastic Four, and head of The Future Foundation, citizen of the planet Earth. We mean you no harm. Please state your name and Galactic sector of origin."
"Well, Dr. Richards. I'm The Doctor. I'm from the planet Gallifrey, located near the constellation Kasterborous, and where do I sign to get one of those flash looking jumpers?"