Chapter 4: Sign of Life

I'm looking to the sky to save me,
Looking for a sign of life
Looking for something to help me burn out bright.
I'm looking for complications
I'm looking 'cause I'm tired of lying
Make my way back home
When I learn to fly.
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Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly

The road was silent for a long time, and Reed was surprised that there were very few cars on the road around them. New York was supposed to be the city that never slept, but tonight, it seemed, the city was as tired as his wife had been when he left. There were no interruptions and no unexpected detours on their way to their usual destination, and Reed knew his ride in a car with blacked out windows was over when they turned out of Graymalkin Lane and into a long driveway marked with gates and a guard booth.

The window Reed was sat beside was lowered, revealing the intercom that spoke in a short, brisk voice. "Please state your name and your reason of business," it said, the voice crackled by the electronics.

"It's Reed Richards, the Professor is expecting me."

"Of course, Dr. Richards. Welcome back to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."

The gates were opened, and the driver took them through to the driveway. Reed never ceased to wonder how long this driveway was, as it took a fair couple of minutes to reach the school building once they had set the gates behind them. Still, when they reached the far end of the driveway, Reed stepped out of the car, as he usually did, and looked up at the school building with a sense of awe. When he had first arrived at this place four years ago, he hadn't imagined it to look so…normal.

He hadn't even been aware of the growing mutant population in the world until they had encountered their own share of genetic abnormalities, and that had been when Charles Xavier had contacted him and invited him to attend a meeting at the school. These meetings became regular, once a month; as regular as the failed pregnancy tests that Sue threw into the trash. Even now, when he looked up at the building, he felt a sense of pride towards the Professor. Xavier had done a wonderful thing by setting up a school for the mutants of the world. Even though every student and faculty member here was comfortable with the word 'mutant', Reed still felt it to seem rather cruel, and tried to avoid using it as much as possible.

He walked through the entrance to the courtyard, taking note of a large memorial statue that had recently been built. It contained names of fallen ex-students of the school. He knew because the last time he was here, he'd seen Charles inspecting the construction of it. It had been created from a large slab of marble by two of the older students, who had used their abilities to shape the stone.

He knocked on the large front door, and to his surprise, it was answered almost immediately by an African woman with white hair.

"Dr. Richards?" She enquired.

"Miss Munroe," he said, remembering Ororo from previous visits. "It's good to see you again."

"I take it Charles has another of his meetings?" she asked, softening from her initial surprise.

"Very last minute," he confirmed, "are the others not here?"

"They probably are," she told him. "However, they rarely use the front door," she added with a smile. "Come on in."

Reed entered, and Ororo closed the door behind him. He shuddered as the instant warmth hit him. Even though it was technically still summer, there was a chill in the air; a chill that made him regret leaving the bedroom window open for Sue before he left.

"He's in his office," Ororo told him. "Do you remember how to get there?"

He nodded. "Of course. I'm sorry if I disturbed you," he apologized.

She waved off his apology, however. "Don't worry about it," she assured him. "Someone has to keep the youngsters in bed."

Ororo walked away, and he smiled after her before heading to Charles's office. Of course he remembered the way. It was only a matter of going up the stairs and walking past the atrium. When he reached the office and raised his hand to knock on the door, a voice inside his head stopped him.

"Come in, it's open."

He didn't think he was ever going to get used to hearing the Professor's voice inside his head, but still, he opened the door, and walked in. Five men sat inside the room, all of different appearance and stature. However, it was the man furthest from him that greeted him.

"Nice of you to join us, finally," he said, irritancy lining his voice.

Reed looked at the man who spoke to him. He and Tony Stark had never really seen eye to eye, despite being students at the same college. Whilst Reed had entered the MIT program at the age of sixteen, Tony Stark had entered the undergraduate electrical engineering program at only fifteen years old, putting him in the year above Reed. He'd inherited his father's company, Stark Industries at the age of twenty-one, when his parents had been killed in a car accident, and one of his first moves have been to buy out the company that made the faulty brakes on his parents car, and correct the physical problem.

He was known more commonly for his alter-ego of Iron Man, however. During the Gulf War, Stark was caught in a booby trap, and captured by a Vietnamese warlord name Wong Chu. Stark was then pressed into building weapons for him, along with the famed physicist Ho Yinsen. However, at the same time, Stark and Yinsen used the workshop to secretly design and construct a suit of powered armour, an iron exoskeleton that gave Stark tremendous strength as well as other abilities. When he finally returned to the U.S., he continued to improve the armour, establishing a dual identity as Iron Man.

But still, as respectable as he was, Reed found himself faced with teenage quarrels and disputes when it came to Stark. "Unlike you," he reminded Stark calmly, "I had a wife to leave behind tonight."

"How is Susan?" came a voice from Reed's right.

Namor was more commonly known to those outside of the ground as the Sub-Mariner. However, there were very few people outside of their gathering that knew him to be in existence. As Emperor of the lost city of Atlantis, he wasn't on ground for very long at a time. Still, however, Reed was always curious into the concern he showed for Sue when he had never met her before.

"She's fine, thank you," Reed told him simply.

Tony smirked at him. "Did you tuck her into bed before leaving, lie to her about where you were going?" Reed simply glared at him. "Oh, so she doesn't know you're here, then?" he realised.

"So much for representing a united front," spoke the man to the left of Tony.

Dr. Stephen Strange was another that Reed had a general inability to get on well with, however, this time it wasn't for a juvenile reason, but instead the fact that Stephen rejected a scientific nature. His focus instead was on the mystical and non-scientific side of life. The man beside Stephen, Blackagar Boltagon, known to them as Black Bolt, spoke in a similar tone.

"Perhaps our united front would collaborate more efficiently if we could get through the initial greetings without chiding Richards for taking a wife," he suggested.

Tony scoffed. "Wives are liberties," he complained.

Reed shot him a look. "Sue is not a liberty," he defended.

"But she certainly seems to be a weakness, doesn't she?" Tony teased him.

Before Reed could rise to the bait that Tony had laid for him, Charles stepped in. "Enough." He said simply, putting an end to the squabbling. "Please, Reed, sit," he said calmly, as Reed fell into the last available chair around the table. "We do not have time for the squabbling tonight. Tonight, our union is more important than ever."

The union, as Charles referred to it, was the Illuminati. The group had formed many years prior to Reed's invitation to join four years ago, but it was only when Tony and Blackagar suggested that they formed a government for the mutant world that it was brought to light. Namor was the first to refuse, on the grounds that too many mutants are violent outsiders. Charles refused on the grounds that mutants are already feared and hated, and if Tony thought that he could win the war brewing with iconic superheroes, it would result in heroes being more feared and hated as much as the 'bad' mutants. Dr. Strange also refused, on the grounds that too many of their kind are anti-establishment, and that the group Tony had proposed would be a form of counter-establishment. However, they did agree to exchange information regularly.

"Mutants everywhere are going into hiding," Charles revealed. "We're not sure why."

"Can't you get inside their heads and ask them?" Tony asked him.

Charles shook his head. "I will not pray into someone's mind without their permission unless it is in the interest of their safety or our own."

"How do we know that it isn't?" Reed proposed.

Charles raised a single eyebrow, giving Reed the impression that he was asking the right question. "It would appear that the general public know something we do not."

Blackagar looked to Charles. "You don't believe this to be a coincidence with Von Doom's return to America?"

Namor answered the question for him. "Von Doom possesses abilities just like our own. Why would he target his own kind and send them into hiding?"

"A fair point," Stephen agreed.

"Victor's capable of turning against his own people," Reed pointed out. "I know that first hand."

One again, Tony turned to Reed with a withering expression on his face. "Victor turned against you because of a silly school-boy quarrel that lasted too long," he reminded Reed. "Oh, and wasn't it over a woman?" he teased.

Charles, once again, stepped in before Reed could. "I though we'd agreed to leave Susan out of this for tonight."

"Who knows," Tony said, leaning back in his seat. "Perhaps she might be able to serve some use to us."

"Excuse me?" Reed challenged him.

Tony eyed Reed triumphantly for a moment, and then addressed Charles. "I believe we can use her intelligence and her naivety on this."

"Naivety?" Reed questioned.

"What do you propose?" Blackagar asked him.

Tony took advantage of the glare that Reed sent his way. "Surely the most efficient way to gain an understanding of what Von Doom plans to do would be for someone to infiltrate the VDI headquarters?"

"Victor's intelligent," Reed said, not dropping his glare for a second. "He's realise what was going on."

"Not necessarily," Stephen said, understanding what Tony was suggesting. "If the infiltrator was working amongst him, becoming an employee and placed in a position of trust under his control, then he would have no reason to doubt them."

"Precisely," Tony nodded.

"It's a risky plan," Charles pointed out. "One that would require heavy preparation."

"It's too risky," Reed insisted. "Victor isn't one to let things go lightly. He'll kill if he feels like it."

"Which is exactly why it needs to be someone he can trust." Tony explained.

Blackagar nodded uncertainly. "Finding someone whom Victor will confide in would be difficult."

"Not as hard as you might think," Tony said, his gaze falling on Reed again with an expression with made Reed uncomfortable.

"If you're going to suggest what I think you're going to," Reed warned him. "Don't."

But this didn't stop him. "Susan has been an employee of his before, correct?"

"You can't be serious…"

"In fact, as Director of Genetics Research, she would have been in a very trusting position to Von Doom." Tony continued.

"This has nothing to do with--"

"Wasn't he in love with her, Reed?" Tony interrupted.

"Tony." Charles said firmly, before Reed felt the need to injure Tony. "What, exactly, are you proposing?"

"Susan should serve as our infiltrator," he suggested. "Von Doom has a known weakness for her, and she'd easily be reinstated to a position where she could gain the knowledge we'd require."

"He poses a strong point," Blackagar agreed.

"I don't care," Reed shook his head. "Sue's not getting involved in this."

"Why not?" Tony challenged him. "Afraid she might find out where you've been sneaking off to?"

He shook his head. "I won't put her in a position where she's in danger. Not my wife. And not near Victor."

"So, who do you suggest we use?" Tony asked him.

"Anyone. I don't care," Reed told him, "but Sue isn't being brought into this."

"We should take a vote," Stephen suggested, when all that was being accomplished was a dispute between Reed and Tony.

"All those in favour of Susan acting as infiltrator on behalf of the Illuminati?" Blackagar announced.

Reed watched in despair as Blackagar, Stephen and, of course, Tony, raised their hands. But, thankfully, that created a 3-3 vote. It could only be decided with the majority. But, just when he was starting to think that he had gotten away with this one, Namor raised his hand, adding his to the vote.

"No…" Reed said slowly.

"It seems we have the majority vote." Tony announced with a smug grin.

Reed turned to Charles, his face a picture of helplessness. "Charles…"

"It is undeniably a good plan," he admitted.

He shook his head. "Not my wife," he whispered to him.

But Charles held strong. "Perhaps we should speak about this properly tomorrow." Tony smiled, and Reed looked at him in dismay. "Reed, you should bring the rest of your team with you."

As the rest of the Illuminati stood from their seats and began to leave, Reed stayed in his seat. Running his hands over his face, he couldn't help but think back to the promises he'd made Sue that morning.

You know I won't let anything happen to you.

He won't get anywhere near you, I promise.

You're safe from him, he won't do anything.

I won't let him hurt you. Not again.

Now, he was in trouble.