FANTASTIC FOUR: UNCHARTED TERRITORY
FANTASTIC FOUR: ORIGIN
Europa
November 14, 2061, 19:16 EST
Europa. The smallest of the Galilean moons, the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter, with a diameter of 3121.6 km, slightly smaller than our Moon. It is covered in a thick layer of ice 15 to 25 kilometers thick, underneath which could be a subsurface ocean containing twice as much water as all of the Earth's oceans combined, because of tidal forces coming from Jupiter and its other moons. Because the ocean is made of liquid water, scientists think that it could contain life.
That is what one such scientist wants to find out: whether or not we are alone in the universe. This scientist built the first spaceship that could travel faster than light and took three of his friends along to explore the cosmos and search for alien life. One was a childhood friend, an aerospace engineer and the pilot, another the scientist's fiance, a biophysicist, medic and archaeologist of the mission, and her teenage brother, the mechanic.
The four launched from Earth earlier that day, and were able to explore the surface of the red planet and its moons and the dwarf planet in the middle of the Asteroid Belt, as well as the atmosphere of the largest planet in the Solar System and its three largest moons Io, Ganymede, and Callisto. Currently, the four were on the icy surface of its fourth largest moon, looking for signs of life.
Unbeknownst to them, what the four will encounter along the way will change their lives forever.
On the surface of Europa, the scientist and the medic were collecting ice samples using a drilling machine. The machine had collected an ice sample, and the mechanic carefully reached down to grab it.
"Careful, Sue," said the scientist, Reed Richards, a tall man at 29 years of age, with short, brown hair and brown eyes that appeared blue through his glasses, wearing a blue and white spacesuit, just like the other members of his crew. "The ice is delicate." Next to the scientist was the medic, Susan Storm, a woman at the age of 26, with shoulder-length blonde hair. She carefully grabbed the ice from the machine, and handed it over to Reed. The scientist examined the ice sample in awe.
"Amazing."
"Hey Ben, how's the subsurface drill going?" he called out to his childhood friend.
"Almost ready. Just give us a minute, egghead," replied the pilot, Benjamin Grimm, a tall, burly man the same age as Reed, who towered over the rest of his crewmates, with short, red hair. "Almost got it..." said the mechanic, who was setting up the last of the machine's legs. The mechanic was Johnny Storm, a teenager slightly shorter than his sister, with messy, blonde hair. "Alright!" he pumped his fist into space. "Yo Reed, sis, we're done with the subsurface drill!"
Reed and Sue walked over to where Ben and Johnny were standing. The four watched as the drill activated, and started drilling through the ice. It would take quite some time for it to reach the ocean, Reed thought. To kill some time, he resumed his examination of the ice sample.
"Ya seem pretty excited about that ice sample, Reed. Thought ya would be more excited 'bout all that water n' stuff," said Ben, noticing Reed.
"Sure I am. If we find any signs of alien life, microbial or otherwise, in the subsurface ocean or in the ice," he replied to Ben, "my life's work would be complete."
"Maybe the four of us could be the first people to make contact with aliens," said Johnny. "Me, fifteen years old, making contact with aliens. How cool is that?"
The ground shook.
"Was that seismic activity?" asked Sue.
"Doubt it," said Reed.
"Hey, Reed," said Johnny, who looked up at the sky. After a brief glance, his eyes were widened in shock and awe. He shook Reed's shoulder. "Remember what you said about alien life being so sufficiently advanced that they could easily open holes in space?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we found them," said Johnny, pointing at what he had seen: a rip in the fabric of space, next to the orange, candy-striped gas giant Jupiter and the yellowish, volcanic moon of Io, both of which were basking in its bluish light. Tendrils of light emanated from the central source, as the center of the rift started to glow brighter. As it did, they saw the outline of something, or someone, humanoid. Space warped around the figure, giving it a distinct outline. Inside the figure were energies that ebbed and flowed, as well as tiny dots that seemed to be stars inside of a microcosmos, which seemed to make up the figure's body.
"I-is that-"
"Impossible! Nothing could withstand the forces of an opening rift in space!" Reed said, in disbelief of what he was seeing. Ben's eyes widened in horror.
"Everyone, back to the ship!"
The four made their way to the ship. It had a large, rectangular main body that was white with blue stripes, the caption "Fantastic" on its right side, with two fins towards the edge and three engine nozzles. The flight deck, surrounded by a dark blue dome, was positioned one-fourth of the ship away from the nose. Attached to the body were two wide wings, each with a groove towards their edges, auxiliary thrusters, a singular blue stripe, and two engine nozzles. The quartet quickly boarded the ship, and they set off, leaving Europa's icy surface, heading in a direction away from the Jovian system. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for the path the ship would take.
"Ben, activate the Superluminal Engine," said Reed.
"Negative: Superluminal Core compromised. Any more interaction with the exotic matter the rift emits will negatively react with the ship's tachyon fields," said the ship's computer.
"Crap," said Ben.
"Try using the quantum fusion drive," said Reed.
Ben pushed a button. One of the cockpit's many holograms glowed green and displayed the captions: QUANTUM FUSION DRIVE ACTIVATED.
The ship continued on its course, but after a short while, it started heading towards the giant planet, which also meant they neared the rift. As they did, the more they were bathed in the rift's bluish radiation.
"Ben," said Reed, covering his eyes to shield himself from the intensity of the radiation. "Try reversing the-"
"Trying! Subspace distortions are just too damn strong in this area," said Ben. "It's as if the rift has a gravitational field of its own."
"Try using the auxiliary thrusters," said Sue.
"Already tried. Those blasted thrusters won't work," grunted Ben.
"Warning. Warning. Energy levels critical. Shielding is insufficient to withstand the rift. Dark energy levels off the charts. Cooling system compromised-" the computer shut off.
"W-what does that mean?" asked Johnny.
"It means... we're gonna get sucked in the rift. Brace yourselves, everyone!" Reed shouted. The ship encroached closer and closer to the rift, and as it did, parts of the ship started to disintegrate. The rift flooded the main compartment with matter and energy beyond the edge of known physics, not even Reed could predict their existence, appearing as white, blue, and purple blobs, filaments, and swirls, and bright, multicolored dots that blinked, merged, and faded in and out of existence. They passed through the four, leaving them in excruciating pain.
Ben and Johnny eventually collapsed onto the floor, the former unable to get up. Sue struggled to put herself in front of her little brother, but the energy just passed right through her. Reed outstretched his arm, trying to shield himself from the intense radiation from the rift.
Finally, the ship reached the opening of the rift, and it swallowed the whole ship through, and it collapsed, leaving no trace of what had happened.
The ship warped through multiple points throughout space, passing by multiple astronomical objects along the way. The four had no time for sightseeing, for they quickly entered and exited these points, and as they warped throughout the cosmos, they started feeling adverse effects.
"It-it hurts!"
"I-I can't see!"
"M-must f-find a way-"
"Can't hold on!"
Finally, after warping away from one point in space, they did not warp to another. No. They had warped into an area where the laws of physics made no sense. Around them, weird, black dots came and went out of existence. Strange tendrils of energy danced around, glowing and dimming by the moment. Streams of gas and dust passed them by, as did white points of light. Filaments of various colors surrounded them. Various spheres with stars and nebulae on their surfaces passed them by. Below them, space warped into waves as they saw various galaxies, dust clouds, and stars pass by. Then, they exited the area. Regular space reappeared around them, and they found themselves careening towards a planet covered in blue-green oceans and long, white clouds, orbiting a blue sun.
They plummeted into its atmosphere, heading towards a small island. Alerts blared all over the ship, but unfortunately for them, the controls were too heavy to operate. The island grew bigger and bigger. There was nothing the four could do to prevent themselves from crashing; the controls were all broken. All they could do was accept their fate. And then, blackness.
Little did they know, their fate would be fantastic.
?
November 14, 2061, 20:26 EST
Johnny Storm woke up. He grunted as he pushed himself off the ground; the spaceflight had really shaken him, and now he was... where was he exactly?
He examined the environment he was in, a small island with white sand that looked slightly closer to pink given that it was nearing sunset. Nearby was a forest, with trees covered in green, orange, yellow, and red leaves. Closer to the ground were small plants and flowers in the same colors, though more of them were green. The sky was reddish, a sign that the place they were on was nearing sunset. The waters reflected the color of the sunset, as it did the glaring light of the planet's parent star, a bright bluish white.
Suddenly, his head started to hurt. Don't think I have a fever, especially since the whole ship was supposed to be sterilized and all, he thought. He felt a weird burning sensation that started from his head, but it moved down to his chest. Soon, it moved into his arms and legs, and then his feet. When it went through his feet, the sensation was all over his body. It started to feel hotter and hotter over time. And then, without warning, his fingers set aflame. Then both of his hands and shoulders. Then the head. Then the torso, and then the legs. His whole body was ablaze.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
?
November 14, 2061, 20:28 EST
Reed Richards woke up, lying in a forest. His vision was blurry, on account of his head still spinning from the impact, and the fact his glasses weren't on. Although his vision was still blurry, the reflection of his glasses' lenses were enough to indicate they were nearby. His vision cleared up, allowing him to make out his view on the ground: the brown soil to the right side of his vision, littered with small green and red leaves, to the left side, the far view of tall trees with brown and brownish green stems, with leaves in all variants of green, and leaning more towards the right, the faint blue glare of the lenses of his glasses.
That's odd, he thought. For all his life up to now, Reed Richards was myopic, and thus required glasses to see clearly. His vision had briefly become clear, without the aid of his glasses. He thought to himself once again. Could the exposure to the rift and the spaceship failure have altered his and his crew's bodies in some form?
He stretched out his left arm to retrieve his glasses, which out of his arm's range. As he tried to get them, he noticed that his left arm elongated as he reached outward. He grabbed his glasses, and pulled his arm back towards him. "Fascinating," he said to himself, examining his arm. He noticed the lenses of his glasses were cracked. "Gonna have to fix these."
"AHHHHH! I'm on fire! I'm on fire!"
Reed tried to find the source of the scream. It was a man encased in flames, running around frantically. The voice was that of Johnny.
"Oh man oh man oh man! I'm on fire! WhatdoIdowhatdoIdo-" He remembered that they were on an island and that there should be a source of water nearby. With that fact in mind, he charged towards the nearest source of water, the ocean, and jumped into it. As he submerged himself into the water, the flames were slowly extinguished.
From a distance, smoke was seen emerging from the water. Looking for Johnny, Reed took sight of this and figured that he must have jumped in to cool himself off. He stretched his arm out over the water.
Johnny," Reed called out, "grab my hand." Johnny had surfaced from the water, alarmed at the sight of a greatly stretched out arm.
"Reed?" he said. He grabbed the older man's hand, and was pulled to the shore.
"You're able to-"
"Stretch. My whole body's become malleable and elastic and I possess the ability to stretch and contract my body parts at will."
"I can set myself on fire, maybe even create fireballs. That last one I'm not too sure about, but just what exactly happened to us out there?" he asked.
"Well, the energies and exotic matter from the rift interacted with the ship's FTL drive, causing a negative reaction in the Superluminal Core, resulting in it shutting down, thus disabling the shielding, the combined effects of the rift and the drive's failure blasting us with exotic matter, dark matter, dark energy, tachyons, etc."
"I thought some of them were theoretical."
"And how theoretical are our powers?" said Reed, stretching and contracting his fingers to prove a point. "From where I left off, because of what we were exposed to, our bodies were altered at the molecular, no, perhaps atomic level, maybe even deeper than that, thereby imbuing us with these powers. In the meantime, however, we're gonna have to look for Sue and Ben; they shouldn't have landed too far from where we are."
?
November 14, 2061, 20:29 EST
Susan Storm woke up underneath a sunset canopy. The skies were reddish, obscured by trees covered in multicolored leaves. She groaned as she got up, clutching her head. "W-where is everyone?" she said, looking around the environment for signs that they were safe. She meandered around the forest for a while, passing by trees and flowers on the way, as well as the occasional tree entirely in red, orange, and yellow stripes.
During the fateful flight, she recalled her sight just disappearing as the ship warped. Whether or not she thought it affected her was not on her mind. All that she thought about was the whereabouts of her crewmembers.
"REED? BEN? JOHNNY? ANYONE?" she called out to her crewmates. No response was heard. She had anticipated it, however. She figured that they weren't far off, although it would be some time before she'd find them. She would frequently get mild head and body aches, as though some invisible force was crunching on her, and her arms and hands would frequently tense up, although they weren't too painful. As she continued to wander around, she noticed things started to disappear. One moment, a whole tree was there, the next, the trunk was gone. Sometimes, it would be the branches, or the leaves, or the entire tree itself. Other times, the tree would partially fade, and she could see through them.
Up ahead, she saw two people with torn spacesuits: one of them was tall and had brown, salt-and-pepper hair, the other, shorter and had blonde hair similar to hers. It was her fiance and brother, Reed and Johnny, respectively. We still have to find Ben, but thank goodness those two are okay, she thought.
"REED! JOHNNY!" she screamed out." The two space explorers turned to her direction but were confused. It was as if they heard something.
"Sue?" he said. "Is that you?"
"I can't see you," said Johnny. "It's as if you're a ghost."
"Very funny, Johnny," she said.
"No, I literally can't see you, sis," he said.
"What?" Sue looked at her hands, but they were gone. She tried to look at her legs, but they were gone too. She tried looking for any part of her that wasn't invisible, but there were none.
"No... i-it can't be!" She said in disbelief. "I-I'm invisible!"
"How am I supposed to become visible again? I-I-" Reed put his hand on her shoulder. "Sue, it's fine," said Reed. "We were similarly affected too. The exotic matter we were exposed to in the ship all affected our bodies in more than one way or another. My body is now malleable and elastic."
"I can set myself on fire and shoot flames," interjected Johnny.
"And I became invisible," said Sue. After she said that, she noticed that her body was becoming visible again. "And become visible again. I just hope Ben didn't get the short end of the stick."
"RICHARDS! YER A DEAD MAN!" a voice bellowed from the distance.
?
November 14, 2061, 20:26 EST
Ben Grimm woke up, groaning as he got up from a giant rock, multiple rocks surrounding his field of vision, as did dried up trees and fallen tree trunks. He walked slowly in a dazed motion, his head still hurting from the crash. Ugh... of all the places I coulda landed, I had to land in a pile o' rocks, he said to himself.
He continued to walk like that for a few minutes, before an unexplained heaviness from his head and chest caused him to collapse to the ground. He clutched his chest, as he felt his heart grow heavier and heavier. Seconds later, his stomach and lungs became heavier, causing him to have a hard time breathing. He wheezed and wheezed as other organs became heavier, and soon his arms, then his legs. His back became heavy, and he fell flat onto the ground, trying to get up. That's when he noticed he was truly beginning to transform.
First, he noticed his skin become a shade of orange, starting with his hands. Second, he felt his skin become rocky, which caused a great deal of pain. Third and finally, the most painful part, his body started to grow larger. He screamed in agony, the top half of his suit ripping of his body, as he grew in size. After his growth, the pain subsided, but he was, in his words, "Some sorta Thing!"
Horrified and angry at his new transformation, he knew who to blame, the man who was responsible for getting him into this, the one who built a rocket that could travel at faster than light speeds, the one who wanted to find alien life, but turned him into an alien, Reed Richards. "Reed..." he growled.
"RICHARDS! YER A DEAD MAN!" he howled, charging towards the trees. With his newfound strength, he effortlessly plowed through the trees, pushing some away, causing them to fly great distances. He kept charging through until he could find Reed. Finally, he found him, and ran straight for him. "REED!" he threw a punch towards him, but the man in question easily stretched and dodged the attack.
"Oh, so ya got yurself some powers too, huh?" he threw a hook towards Reed, but he ducked under the attack. "Ben, stop!" said Reed. "I didn't intend for any of this to happen! What we were exposed to out there gave us all powers, Ben! You're no different from us."
"Y'all still get to retain yur regular appearances, but what about me, huh? I'm the frickin freak o' the week!" he yelled at Reed. "It's all yur damn fault." He grabbed a nearby tree trunk.
"Wait, Ben, can't you-" he swung the trunk at Reed, who moved backwards to dodge it.
"Hell no. Can't go back to my normal form. If ya hadn't been such a-" Reed quickly went over to Ben's back, and wrapped his arms and legs around his body in an effort to restrain his angry friend.
"Do you think this is what I wanted to happen?!" yelled Reed. "No. None of us wanted this to happen, Ben."
"ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!" screamed Sue, as the two quarreling space explorers were separated from each other by something invisible. "I don't care whose fault it was, but whatever we were dealt with, we gotta deal with it, and we gotta get ourselves back home. Reed, any idea of where we are now?"
"Sis, did you do that?" Johnny looked at his sister.
"I-I don't know," she replied.
Reed looked at the setting star, and after a while of thinking, he replied, "We're on a planet orbiting the star Deneb, 2616 light years from Earth."
"Great," replied Ben.
"Hmmm, even at this distance, my tachyon communicator should still be able to transmit and receive messages. I should be able to send a distress signal to Earth, or to anyone willing to receive it. However, we have to make sure that our ship is still intact." A clockwipe revealed that the ship was, in fact, not intact. Smoke billowed from the ship, one of its wings having been broken off, and another chipped off the main chassis. The food and water boxes and living quarters were surprisingly intact.
"Or maybe not," said Reed.
"If we actually manage to repair the ship, it's probably gonna be held by duct tape, if any of the tools/spare parts didn't suffer any damage," remarked Johnny. An explosion from one of the damaged ship's compartments, the one containing the parts he mentioned, confirmed that the tools did suffer damage, as Ben glared at him.
"Really? Now what?" asked Ben.
Reed replied, "We should be able to fix the ship whatever's on this island, but that'll take weeks. It would be faster if we could contact someone with sufficiently advanced technology."
"Is there anyone on Earth with that kind of tech?" asked Sue.
"Not even Tony has the technology to just bring us back to Earth, and he's probably busy doing his own thing," said Reed. He put a finger on his chin and thought for a while. "The only one I know we could contact is Alyssa Moy."
"Alyssa Moy? Really?" said Sue.
\"We don't really have much of a choice," Reed replied. A hologram appeared above Reed's right hand. It glowed teal and displayed the captions INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM EARTH. The middle of the hologram opened up to reveal a woman near Reed's age with brown hair tied into a bun, wearing glasses and a lab coat. It was Alyssa Moy, Reed's ex-girlfriend.
"You gotta be kidding me," said Sue.
"Reed?" the woman in the hologram said. "Is that you?"
"Yes it is," he said. The woman was horrified to see the view on her screen: Reed Richards, his arm stretched out like taffy; behind him, a blonde haired boy with half of his arms on fire, and some giant, orange thing. The fourth member of the crew was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh gosh," she put her hands on her mouth. "H-how? Don't tell me it was the radiation belts."
"No, the ship was designed to withstand the radiation of an O star, so it should have been able to withstand Jupiter's radation belts. It was a rift in space that affected us, and the drives, both of them."
"And now you're stuck on an alien planet 2616 light years from Earth, farther than any of the nearby habitable planets and spaceways that you charted that could get you and your friends home..." she noticed that there were a few pillars of smoke behind the three on screen, indicating the ship was destroyed, "and your ship is destroyed."
"I should be able to fix it with whatever's on this island, plus this planet shows signs of intelligent life. We should be able to get their assistance," replied Reed.
"Yeah, but you better hope they're friendly-" the signal went to static, eventually fading away. The hologram turned off. The four stood there for a while, pondering what to do, until Reed noticed that Johnny set his arms on fire.
"If we're gonna contact aliens on this planet," he said, "maybe I can create a signal, something like a flare." He tried to form a fireball in his palm. Reed quickly stretched out his arm and put it on his shoulder, saying, "Don't - they'll probably think we're enemies. I have an idea - we can use this communicator."
The stretchy man pulled out a small, rounded device with a couple of buttons. Before pressing a button, Johnny asked, "Are you even sure that's gonna even work, Reed?"
"It should work - I've designed it such that a theoretically intelligent being could pick up its signal."
Sue asked him, "But what if the aliens are unfriendly? Have you considered that yet?" Reed put his thumb and index finger on his chin, pondering that thought. He looked at the smoke coming out of the damaged ship.
"Nonetheless, any aliens on this planet are gonna find us one way or another. We're gonna have to hide ourselves and the crashed ship. Johnny, can you absorb the flames from the crash?"
"I'll try," he replied walked towards the damaged ship, extending his hand out towards the flames. After a brief struggle, he started absorbing them until the fires were completely extinguished.
"That wasn't too hard," he said to himself.
"Sue, try making us and the ship invisible," said Reed.
"Right," she replied, "I should be able to project this invisibility onto others-" She thought she had heard the sound of humming engines.
"Do you hear that?" she asked. The three boys nodded. "It must be moving." They turned to see the source of the sound, a young woman with waist-length hair and a pink bodysuit with yellow jewelry adorning her neck, arms, and legs, aboard a flying, bathtub-shaped vehicle with various glowing lights in its cockpit heading their way. The four, not knowing what could happen next, braced themselves for what was coming. The vehicle arrived on the island they were stranded, landing on the shore. The strange woman exited her vehicle, walking towards the four explorers...
"Fefjeocapafnior Shalla-Bal. Fneneioefihaof?" she said. The four not understanding her, she kept repeating herself, but eventually, she realized it was futile.
"Everyone," said Reed, "use your suit's built-in universal translators. It was desgined to be able to understand and translate non-human languages." Reed raised his right hand up and tapped his left chest, a blue-green light appearing where he had tapped. His crewmates followed suite.
"Fefjeo-My name is Shalla-Bal? Are you alright?" said the woman.
"We are uninjured, but our ship has been destroyed, and we have been stranded on this planet for a few of our hours," replied Reed. Shalla-Bal noted the damage the ship had undergone. She then turned her attention to the four, studying them with great scrutiny.
"Are you a Skrull or Pink Kree?" she asked. Reed shook his head, having no idea whom those species she mentioned were.
"I am afraid I do not know who or what you are talking about," he replied. She pulled out a device, lasers scanning their heads. Taking a brief glance at the device, she replied, "It appears you are speaking the truth. You are neither of them.-"
"Hold it right there, missus," said Ben. "Did just scan our-"
"Ben," said Reed, sternly, doing a hand gesture telling him to calm down.
"I apologize for the slight inconvenience. I had to make sure you were telling the truth. Now what species are you and where do you hail from?"
"We are human beings, and we come from the planet Earth," Reed replied.
"Humans? I have not heard of any human before who has set foot on this planet. Now, tell me why you have come here. Have you come to invade?"
"No, we come in peace. We were looking for alien life in our home planetary system, when a wormhole appeared and pulled in our ship, subsequently sending us to this planet. We might as well be the first humans to venture out of our planetary system," replied Sue.
"In short, we got dumped on this planet," added Ben.
"Ah, I see. Your arrival on Zenn-La was accidental and exploratory in nature. Now is there anyone or any place that you know on Zenn-La that may be able to offer you shelter?"
"None, we have just arrived on this planet. We do not know of anyone who may offer or any place wherein we can find sanctuary," said Reed.
"Very well. I will offer you shelter until your ship is repaired, however, you must make haste - I do not want any of my fellow Zenn-Lavians to find you. They are not particularly friendly to non-Zenn-Lavians." She walked over to her vehicle and opened its door, gesturing to the four to board it. The four did so, and once they were all accommodated and counted for, Shalla-Bal threw a sphere-like device towards the ship and its parts. Bluish-green lasers scanned then and the surrounding environment. They glowed in a bluish green light before shrinking until the surrounding environment was cleared of any evidence of the crash, dissipating into pure energy before being absorbed into the device, which promptly to its master's hands after it was finished doing its job.
The Zenn-Lavian pressed a button, and the vehicle started hovering in the air. The four looked out of the vehicle, seeing the shore in the distance. Pressing another button, the vehicle started moving forward, the island shrinking into the distance.
The vehicle flew over the purplish-blue ocean, the passengers watching as it distorted and reflected the light from the planet's star. Sue took notice of what appeared to be the Zenn-Lavian equivalent of dolphins jumping over the water. The four watched the oceans go by until they had reached another shore, which transitioned into solid land.
A few minutes later, the vehicle had arrived in a giant metropolis under a reddish sky. Giant, futuristic buildings, some of which were domelike, towered over the surface as long, twisty roads slithering through the city as other hovering vehicles littered the skies in rows. On the golden, pristine ground were many humanoids similar to Shalla-Bal, many of whom bald, wearing robes and clothing similar to hers. The four were amazed to see an alien city up close, with their eyes glued to the ever-changing scenery around them.
Remembering that Zenn-Lavians were unfriendly to non-natives of their planet, Reed asked, "Shalla-Bal, forgive me for asking, but why are Zenn-Lavians not particularly friendly to non-Zenn-Lavians?"
She said, "Because Zenn-Lavians have reached such great advancement that they look down on other, more primitive species, and think that they must be changed and removed of their savagery to become like them. Even they have looked down on some of the universe's greatest alien races, like the Kree, Skrull, Shi'ar, Xandarians, and Rigellians. Many of these races have appearances not too different from you humans." The rest of Reed's crew widened their eyes in awe as Sue started pondering the idea.
"So, you are saying that a large number of alien species in the universe are anatomically similar to us?" Sue inquired.
"Yes," the Zenn-Lavian replied, "that particular pathway of evolution is quite common among multiple planets."
The vehicle started ascending into the air, flying cars and giant buildings whizzing past them. It passed multiple domelike buildings until it arrived at a tall building with a large, circular base. On top of the base were multiple pillars, and in between were glowing swirls of light changing shape ever so often, as well as screens that displayed them. On top of the pillars was a round dome with a large window one could use to gaze at the infinite cosmos above Zenn-La. Next to the main building was a landing pad connected by a long, thin bridge. The vehicle approached the landing pad and began its descent, blue jets of plasma being emitted as light smoke appeared on the ground. Not too long after, the vehicle touched down, and the five passengers exited it. A beeping sound was made to indicate that it was locked.
Shalla-Bal led the four across the bridge, eventually arriving at the main door. Blue-green holograms were projected out of a small hole, with a hand sign hologram at the frontmost. Shalla-Bal put her hand on the hologram, and the other holograms started glowing green. The door opened, and the Zenn-Lavian escorted the four inside. The four noticed they were in what appeared to be the living room. It was a spacious, circular room littered with a few carpets here and there, a few weirdly shaped chairs and tables, a few alien plants growing into the ceiling, extending from below. It contained a large window from which one could see the bustling view of the main city and the reddish sunset skies, and multiple oddly shaped doors.
She then led the four into one such door, which led into a large, dark room that lit up as soon as she stepped in. It was a very spacious room filled with all sorts of scientific experiments occurring in the background. In one area, various assortments of plants and chemical samples were stacked on top of one another, while in another area, various holograms and screens were shown the room, and in another, various weird devices and cubes stood on racks attached to the wall.
Shalla-Bal led them to the center of the lab, the lowermost floor. There, they saw that a yellow, gray, and red-orange ship stood idly. She took out the cube, and their ship materialized in front of them, complete with all the parts that broke off during the crash.
"Guys, let's go repair the ship," he said.
"Maybe tomorrow, Johnny," yawned Sue. "We had a long day." Reed and Ben nodded.
"Your sister is right," said Shalla-Bal, "you require rest. I will lead you to the lavatories and your residential quarters."
Reed pressed a button on his suit, and lasers emanated from his glove, scanning the ship to see if their belongings were intact. Seeing that they were, Reed asked Shalla-Bal if she had any device that could teleport them out of the ship. She pulled out a remote-like device from her pockets and pressed a button. Immediately, their belongings materialized out of thin air into the explorers' hands. After that, she led them to their rooms, of which there were three. Reed and Sue would occupy one, Johnny another, and Ben the largest one. He was surprised to find that the bed could accommodate him.
Shalla-Bal's House, Zenn-La
November 14, 2061, 22:31 EST
The Storm siblings found themselves sleeping soundly. Reed wearily laid down on the bed he shared with the older Storm sibling, staring at the ceiling. He could only think of the events that happened today, how hours ago, they were lauded by the press as four of the greatest scientists and explorers of the century, how he had revolutionized space travel with the invention of the Superluminal Engine, created in collaboration with NASA and the Baxter Foundation. The four of them would make history as the first four humans to explore the outer Solar System after a brief stopover at the red planet, and find alien life on the moons of the outer planets before moving on to the Kuiper Belt and maybe to the nearest stars. But then, that wormhole changed everything - he accounted for everything from solar activity to the extreme planetary environments of Io and Triton to the radiation belts of Jupiter, he even accounted for any possible anomalies in space. But that wormhole just came out of nowhere, and it sucked them in and gave them powers. He knew that the four of them would never live normal lives again, especially Ben.
Ben, oh poor Ben. His entire body was transformed, and he could never transform back. Reed could only imagine what his childhood friend was undergoing, the agony and pain of having to live like that. Who would want to live like that, some sort of Thing as his friend put it, the mockery and derision that he would have to undergo. And all Reed could think about was guilt. He had gotten his friends transformed into freaks, and they would be forced to live like that forever. How could he ever make it up to them? Who would they be known to the world as, he thought to himself. He removed his glasses and stretched his arm out to a nearby table, stretching it back before putting both of his hands on his chest.
"This... this is all my fault..." he thought to himself repeatedly before dozing off to sleep...
And that's a wrap for my first fanfiction on this site. I haven't had much experience writing fanfiction, so please leave some comments and constructive criticism.