Chapter 10
The military vehicles, including the one containing the Surfer, pulled into a base in Jakutsk, Siberia. Sue watched as the military personnel dragged the body of the Surfer into the base. She looked to Reed with fear in her eyes, and Reed jumped out of the car.
The five stood within a room in the base, as Reed began screaming at the General, "But General, we had an agreement!" The General raised his hand and clearly stated, "Calm down. The enemy has been captured- mission accomplished." Sue folded her arms and angrily shouted, "Where is he?" The General bit his lip and spat out, "Contained," before being brought to the attention of a man standing behind him, "Mr. Sherman. If you'll excuse us, we have work to do." Reed inched forward, determined to protect the man who protected Sue, "I want to be there for the questioning." The General looked back and abruptly answered, "That's not gonna happen." The General's arrogance and swagger returning to him as he continued, "Please make sure our guests remain here, comfortably." With that the door slammed behind them and the General was gone.
Johnny starred into the security camera and turned to Reed saying, "Are we prisoners? How did that happen?" Helena just sat there, confused between the idea of seeing the Surfer in two different scenarios, the first, holding up Johnny by the throat, the second, him protecting Sue from the missile. Reed turned and answered, "Apparently, they don't want us interfering with their methods." Helena could only look at the table as her thoughts went to utter pity for the Surfer, and she stated, "I can't even imagine what they're doing to him in there." Ben was sitting at a table and said, "I say he gets what he deserves." Sue looked at him quickly, with disgust in her eyes, saying, "How can you say that?" Getting up from the table Ben, continued, "I'm just saying maybe the General is right about this. The guy was about to destroy the planet. He said so himself." Ben always had preferred things to be less complicated than they usually were, and at the same time, hoped that this was it and the worst was behind them. So if a silver surfing alien had to suffer to stop earth's destruction, then let him.
However Sue was quick to point out, "But it doesn't make any sense. He protected me from the missile. Why would he do that?" Johnny, sat in the chair next to Helena, quickly looked to her, before turning to his sister saying, "Maybe he thinks you're cute." Helena was being unusually quiet, but she had become so conflicted, she silently observed as Reed jumped in, "There's a lot more going on here. He said he's wasn't the destroyer." Ben, always the skeptic, added, "Uh, maybe he lied." Helena rolled her eyes, and looked to Johnny, her hand dipped between her chair and his, just as Johnny's hand did the same. Their hands were a mere inch apart, but recoiled as they heard Reed say, "We need to get inside there and talk to him… but under the radar." Sue smiled at her soon to be husband, and the plan was set in motion.
Just then Johnny opened the door and got the attention of a soldier standing watch. "Hey, uh, is there any way we can get some DVDs or popcorn or something just to pass the time?" As Sue was trying to get out she stepped on Johnny's foot by accident, Johnny yelped out in pain, "AHHH!" Helena saw this, got up and spoke trying to cover up Sue's get-a-way, she stepped next to Johnny, and said, "Ahhh, Johnny, see if they can get Center Stage!" She smiled at the soldier, who smiled back, looked to Johnny and said, "I'll call it in Mr. Storm," He then smiled again at Helena, leaned into her close and flirtatiously whispered, "Getting that movie won't be a problem Miss Greene." She opened her eyes wide, not believing that this guy even had the balls to flirt with her in front of Johnny. So she did what any girl would do, said thanks, but then grabbed Johnny's face a gave him a quick but passionate kiss, switching their powers, before turning and walking away. Johnny looked stunned, but pleased because he had noticed the sneaky little flirt in the soldier's voice as well; then smiled as he coolly said, "Great. Thank You. Semper fi." The soldier bit back, "That's the marine corps. We're the army." Johnny nodded, smiling at the gumption of his incredible woman, and replied, "Right. I know. It's the…army." And his thoughts screamed in sing-song in his head, 'I WIN! YOU LOSE! SHE'S MINE! NOT YOURS! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!'
Sue got into the hall undetected. And when Johnny closed the door, he turned to Helena, who was sitting at the table, looking at him with that innocent look of hers. He walked up to her as he said, "What was that?" She smiled, got up and walked up to Johnny, careful not to touch him in an obvious way because of Reed. She grabbed his hand discreetly, switching back their powers, and whispered into his ear, "He just needed to know who I was with." Then she looked him straight in the eye, shrugged her shoulders, with another innocent look, as she said, "That's all." Johnny smiled and took a seat next to his girl at the table, knowing that as soon as Reed fixes this stupid power switch thing, he won't be able to keep his hands off his Lizzie.
As Sue roamed the halls, completely invisible, she spotted Captain Raye going into a secure room, and followed him in. She then saw something she really didn't want to see, the Surfer being electrocuted by chargers from a hospital. She then focused her attention on Captain Raye approaching the General, who said, "General, Von Doom wants to speak with you." The General took a breath a said, "Mr. Sherman, let's take a break." At this all of the military personnel along with this elusive, Mr. Sherman, exited the room, leaving only the Surfer and Sue.
"I know you are there," the Surfer looked up at an invisible Sue and she materialized. Sue walked up to the Surfer and asked, "What's your name? Come on you must have a name. I'm Susan." She took a breath and continued, "You said you weren't the one trying to destroy our world. Then who is?" The Surfer looked directly at Sue and replied, "The one I serve." Sue quickly asked, "Who do you serve?" The Surfer refused to respond, which made Sue claim, "Look, I'm trying to help you. But in order to do that, you have to tell me the truth. Please." The Surfer closed his eyes and his abdomen revealed a world being destroyed by a large cloud. "It is known by many names. My people called it… Galactus - the devourer of worlds. It must feed on energy to survive, both thermal and organic." Sue became disgusted and asked, "How could you willingly serve this thing?" The Surfer simply replied, "Because I must." Sue continued, "Doesn't it bother you? All the worlds and innocent people you've helped destroy." The Surfer replied painfully, "My service spares my world… and the one I love."
Sue looked on at the hero of a distant world, the beacon of destruction for many others, and the victim of love without contact. Sue suddenly understood the Surfer's pain, she had seen the same pain in Johnny who looked at Helena that way now, and she felt an immense amount of pity for this Silver man, and also for her brother. However she needed to know, "Why did you try to protect me?" The Surfer looked to Sue with the pain evident in his eyes, "Because… you remind me of her." Sue reached out and took the Surfer's hand, squeezing it. However, a moment later the door creaked open, and Sue went invisible. She turned to the Surfer and asked, "Could you stop the destroyer if you wanted to?" The Surfer replied, "It is not I who draws the destroyer here. It is the beacon." "What's the beacon?" "The source of my power." "Your board." The Surfer nodded, and warned "Take joy in the last few hours you have left, for he is nearly here."