Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Reed was down in his lab working on his next experiment when he heard a hum. The buzz got gradually louder, making Reed check on his machinery to make sure nothing was going wrong. As he reached out to the table, his vision whited out. A blinding white light filled his sight and he held his arm up in front of his face, trying to block it. When everything returned back to normal, Reed was no longer in his lab.

He was alone in a room he'd never seen before. Reed looked around. The room was built of deep brown wood and filled with shelves. There was a couch and a chair in the center in front of what looked like a television, though one Reed had never seen before, and a ping pong table beside it. The shelves held cartridges with titles taped onto them.

There were photos printed in color and framed on some shelves and the side tables next to the seats. The photos just seemed ordinary and not like it was any special occasion, so it was odd that all of them were in color.

Johnny was laying down in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to The Beach Boys I Get Around. He turned over in bed, looking at the newspaper on his nightstand with the article about the Silver Surfer, dated four years and eight months ago.

Slowly sitting up, he reached out for the paper. He never made it to grab the paper before a blinding light hit him and he was no longer in his own room. The music was gone and there was no bed below him, so Johnny fell a couple of feet onto the floor.

“Fuck!” He cursed, almost hitting his head on the ground. He took a moment for the pain to subside before sitting up.

Johnny was in a completely new place. This wasn't anywhere he'd ever seen before. It looked like a dorm room. A very nice dorm room, sure, but a dorm nonetheless. Both sides had identical furniture, but the decorations were completely different.

Probably the most pressing difference, though, is that on one of the beds two guys were looking straight at him like he's a ghost.

“Um…” one of the guys said. He had short brown hair and looked considerably bigger than the other.

“‘Um’? That's all? How about, ‘Get the FUCK out of my room’?” the other one hissed at him. The second guy had longer hair than the first and it was a dirty blonde color. He looked pissed off at both Johnny and the dude he was sitting with.

The taller one rolled his eyes. “What do you expect me to do, Johnny?”

Great. Two Johnny's. That's not confusing at all.

“Where am I?” Johnny, not the stranger Johnny, but the one who's now slowly standing up in their bedroom, asked.

“In my fucking boyfriend's room,” Johnny–other Johnny–spat, standing up and walking towards Johnny–you get the point–with his fists clenched. “Who the hell are you?”

“Johnny cut it out,” the first guy said, standing up. He walked up behind his boyfriend and put a hand on his shoulder.

Johnny shrugged it off. “No, Bobby, he's an intruder.”

“He's clearly lost!” Bobby said.

“Bobby,” Johnny–NOT Bobby's boyfriend, Johnny–said, “and Johnny.” He said, committing the names to his memory.

“Don't fucking call me that,” the shorter one said. “My name is Pyro.” He took a lighter out of his pocket and flicked it open, seemingly for dramatic effect.

“His name is John,” Bobby whispered behind him.

Johnny laughed, seeing the lighter. “Fire?” he nearly fell back against the door laughing. “Don't you know who I am?”

He's the Human Torch, for crying out loud! Yeah, he's not been on a lot of missions recently, but people shouldn't have forgotten who he is! “I'm going to give you a warning, kid,” Johnny said. “You tell me where I am right now, or I'm gonna show you why they call me the Human Torch.”

Bobby glanced at John worriedly and pulled him back a few feet. Johnny didn't like threatening people very often, but it comes in handy sometimes. Bobby stepped in front of John and put out his hand for a handshake.

“How about we start over?” Bobby asked. “I'm Bobby Drake, this is John Allerdyce. You're at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.”

Johnny looked down at Bobby's hand and back up at him before taking it. “Johnny Storm,” he nodded. “How am I here?”

“I don’t know,” Bobby answered truthfully. “But, if you let us take you to Dr. McCoy…” and the rest was washed out by Johnny's own thoughts.

That's when he realized, he's not home. He doesn't have anything he's been working on since… since Galactus. If he's not home, how does he know his research is safe? Where the hell even is the Baxter building from here?

Johnny scanned the room again; two beds, two nightstands, two desks, two dressers, two windows– two windows! The one on the left is open, too. He can certainly fit through there. Johnny looked at Bobby, gave a look that was a silent apology, since the guy had been so nice to him this whole time, and shoved past him. He flamed on, flying out through the window and up into the air.

He didn't get far at all before something grabbed him. Johnny didn't even make it off the campus before he was falling to the ground. Whatever it was, it was terribly cold and it shut off his flames immediately. They pummeled towards the ground, not far from it, before a huge cushion of snow appeared below them and they landed safely on it.

On the way back down, right before hitting the snow, the thing that grabbed him detached. He tried flaming on again, but his flames went out immediately as he turned it on. The snow vanished around him and he was standing in wet grass near a flower bed.

Next thing Johnny knew, he was on the ground with both arms behind his back and someone was sitting on him to keep him pinned down. These were not the usual people the Fantastic Four fought, that's for sure.

“What was that about?!” Bobby's voice nearly shouted right behind him.

Johnny turned his head, trying to confirm his suspicion that it was actually Bobby, but that should be impossible. Nobody could fly like he can, right? Even still, it was actually Bobby behind him. His hands were freezing–literally–to the touch. John was still up in the window, watching closely.

Ben was standing beside the couch where Sue was sitting with Franklin on her lap and they were discussing what Ben and H.E.R.B.I.E. would be making for dinner that night. Ben, earlier, suggested to H.E.R.B.I.E. that they make a stew, but Sue didn't like that idea. Maybe another night, she offered.

Franklin was getting fussy so Ben offered to take him to bed since Sue really seemed like she needed some time to herself lately. Sue thanked him and picked up Franklin, about to leave, when it happened. A loud hum and a bright white light flooded their senses, and when they opened their eyes, they were standing at the front of a classroom.

Sue stumbled down to the floor since she was in a seated position on the couch just a moment ago, so Ben offered her a hand up.

They stood defensively, not knowing what was going on. The teacher froze and stared at them for a couple seconds before introducing herself. “I'm Professor Storm,” she said politely, holding out her hand for Ben to shake. “Normally when we have guests, they come in through the door,” she smiled and chuckled lightheartedly.

“Benjamin J. Grimm,” Ben said.

“Susan Storm,” Sue introduced herself, as well. “...Where are we?” she asked.

“Ah, good question,” Professor Storm said. “Before we get into that…” she added, quickly changing who she was talking to for a moment, “Peter, can you let Dr. McCoy know what's going on?”

A kid with silver hair near the back of the class spoke up, “He's not in his lab.”

“He has an English class right now.” Peter walked out of the room. “Now,” she turned back to Ben, “you are at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters. Specifically, you're standing in my science class. I'll ask Peter–”

“Storm,” the kid with silver hair showed up in the doorway, “he already knows and he says there's another guy in the rec room. And he told me to go check that out.” He was gone as fast as he came in.

“That is Peter,” Storm said, seeming tired. “I was going to say I'd ask him to bring you three to Dr. McCoy’s lab downstairs to wait for him to finish with his class.”

“Who's that with Iceman?” A kid asked, looking out the window. The rest of the class followed his example.

A streak of fire swept through the air outside and Sue looked horrified. That just had to be Johnny out there. Immediately following him was another person, seemingly made entirely of ice, creating platforms in the air to run across to catch him. He grabbed onto Johnny and put out the fire, making them both plummet a few stories to the ground.

The guy the kids called “Iceman” created a thick blanket of snow beneath them and let go of Johnny, kicking him down towards the ground and into the snow before lowering himself down by him. The snow disappeared and Johnny was kicked to the ground and pinned by Iceman.

“Everyone, settle down. Iceman has it handled,” Storm said, trying to get everyone back in their seats.

“That's my brother, I'm so sorry about him,” Sue said. She gasped, “Reed! Ben, we have to find Reed,” she said, grabbing his arm.

“Please, try to stay calm,” Storm said. “Your brother is not going to be hurt, I can promise you that. Who is Reed?”

“My husband,” Sue said.

“He might be the person Dr. McCoy spoke of who he sent Peter to find,” she said, calmly. “I'm sure Dr. McCoy told him to bring him downstairs, you will meet him there. Let me call Raven to escort you.”

She walked over to her desk and clicked a button. Speaking into it, Storm said, “Raven, could you please come to my classroom on the second floor. We have some guests who are lost and I would like you to guide them to Dr. McCoy’s office.”

“Got it,” a voice came through the speaker attached to it.

Storm walked back to the front of the class and past Ben and Sue. She opened the window to look outside and turned to look up. “Pyro,” she said out the window, “make your way downstairs. I can handle the fire.” Then she closed the window and right on cue, it started raining.

Reed was kneeling on the ground in front of the television, looking at the device underneath it. He wasn't sure what a VHS player was, but he was curious to find out. The room was filled with technology he'd never seen before, like something called a Walkman, and lots of little boxes with labels were stacked by it.

He was about to press a button on the VHS player when he heard a voice behind him. “Never seen a TV before?” the person said.

Reed looked up and turned around. The person in the doorway had long silver hair, was wearing a T-shirt with a design Reed didn't recognize, and the ugliest jacket he had ever seen. What really stood out, though, was that he had a smaller version of the Walkman on his belt and it was connected to a set of headphones around his neck.

“You have a lot of strange technology here,” Reed observed, stating what he was looking at.

“No duh,” the guy said. “I'm Peter, I was told to come check on you.”

“Check on me?” Reed asked.

“You’re supposed to say your name,” Peter said like it was obvious. “Did you hit your head?”

Reed rubbed hand over his face, looking around once more. “I might've,” he said, honestly. What else would explain the drastic change of scenery? “I'm Dr. Reed Richards,” he said, “now, what do you mean you came to check on me?”

Peter laughed. “‘Doctor’, fancy. But, like, you're kind of in my house, so… yeah. You know?”

No, he really, really did not know. The way younger people talk always confuses Reed. He needed to get Johnny in here to translate. “I don't understand,” Reed said. “I don't know how I got here.”

“Like I said, no duh, that's why I'm here! I was told to bring you down to Hank's lab because you just appeared out of nowhere and started touching stuff.”

“Who's Hank?” Reed asked.

“He's, like, the guy here. Well, Charles owns the place and runs it, but Hank does a whole lot of everything else.”

Reed had questions he wanted answered, first. What is the thing on the shelf that looks like H.E.R.B.I.E.’s eyes, for instance. “Do you mind if I ask you a few things, first?” Reed asked.

“You just did,” Peter said.

He took a deep breath, reminding himself that he's talking to a kid. “What is a VHS?” Reed asked.

Peter looked at him for a second before bursting out laughing. “I thought you were serious for a second!” He said.

“I am serious,” Reed responded. “I don't know what any of this stuff is.”

The teen clearly didn't believe him still. “This is a couch,” he teased, sitting on the arm of the couch. He scanned Reed's face for a second and realized he was serious. “Oh, wait– okay, yeah, sure,” Peter immediately switched up his tone. “Um. Did you… hit your head? Like, actually?”

“I don't believe so, no,” Reed said.

Peter pointed at him and popped his mouth. “Okay, yeah… how about…” he looked off to the side for a moment, choosing his words. “How about we get you downstairs to Dr. McCoy’s office, huh?” He said, clearly trying to put on a playful look. “Some of this stuff is down there anyway, so let's just get going.”

Reed furrowed his brow, but went along with it.

Rain started pouring down, drenching Johnny. He couldn't use his fire even if he tried since it would just put it out immediately.

“Don't you dare light yourself on fire right now,” Bobby said. At least he doesn't know that he can't.

Johnny was getting pissed off being told what not to do. “Or what?” He challenged, just trying to annoy Bobby now, since he can't do anything else.

Bobby went quiet. It must've been an empty threat, especially if he didn't know what he was gonna say. “My best friend was buried here,” Bobby whispered.

What a bummer to drop right then. Still, he couldn't help but sympathize with him.

“Oh,” was all that Johnny said.

“Two years ago,” he continued. “He was only sixteen.” Johnny let down his guard. How can he fight someone who's going through something like that? “He, uh, his name was Kurt. He loved daisies.” Looking around, Johnny could see every flower bed around them was filled with daisies of all colors.

John ran around the corner and slowed down when he saw Johnny wasn't resisting anymore. “You ready to come back inside now?” John asked, in possibly the least friendly way that sentence could be spoken.

Johnny nodded and Bobby got off of him slowly, probably trying to make sure he wouldn't bolt again. John led the way to the front of the building, but while they walked away from the garden, Johnny looked back at it. At the daisies planted in the flower beds. At the dainty bench placed on one side and the table beside it. It all made him wish he could've given Shalla-Bal something like that.

Once they stepped under the overhang in front of the front door, Johnny lit himself on fire to dry himself off. He was about to offer the other two help, but saw John had a ring of fire around himself and Bobby was happy standing in between them. Johnny flamed off and looked at John.

“You can also use fire like I can? Far out,” Johnny said.

“Nah, I can only manipulate it, not create it,” John said. “Who do you think kept putting you out?” He smirked snidely.

Ben and Sue sat in on Storm's class until a woman walked through the door, taking them away. She never introduced herself, really didn't speak at all, but Ben assumed she was Raven based on the context. Nobody said anything while they walked downstairs. Dr. McCoy’s office wasn't really an office at all. It looked more like Reed's lab in the Baxter Building than any kind of office Ben had ever seen before.

“Hank will be here soon. Sydney's going to cover the rest of his class, but he wanted to finish up the reading,” she said. She brought out a couple of seats. “How many of you are there?” Raven asked.

“Five,” Sue answered. “I hope Johnny and Reed will be down here soon.”

“I'm sure they will,” Ben reassured her, but in all honesty, he didn't know either.

“Do you have any superpowers?” Peter asked, catching Reed off guard. He was a very talkative kid, but most of what he was talking about had to do with the school.

“Yeah, I do,” Reed answered. “How did you guess?”

“Everyone here does,” Peter shrugged. “What can you do?”

“Everyone?”

“...Yeah?” Peter said, confused. “Right…” he said slowly, nodding. “Dr. McCoy.”

He stopped talking after that, and started walking a little faster.

“Peter–”

“Dad says if someone's injured I should take them right to him,” Peter said. “It's just down the stairs and to the left.”

He headed down the stairs on the right and Reed followed. It led into a long, white hallway with many doors on either side. Peter went to the first door on the left and opened it.

“Reed!” Sue jumped up from her seat and ran over to him, hugging him. “Where's Johnny? Is he okay?”

“I don't know where Johnny is,” Reed said. “What's going on? Peter, why won't you answer anything?”

“You said you might've hit your head! I shouldn't be talking to you until Dr. McCoy is here!” Peter said, frustrated. There was a woman standing in the room in front of where Ben and Sue were sitting and she came up behind Peter to hold him.

“I didn't hit my head, I just don't know what's going on. You're– you're saying words I've never heard before, and there's all this stuff around me that is unfamiliar, and I don't know where I am. I'm asking questions to figure out what's going on.”

“Just answer his questions, Peter,” the woman said.

Peter turned around. “But, dad-”

“No.”

The kid looked like he was about to continue arguing, but he swallowed his words. “Fine,” he said. “What do you want to know?”

“You've already told me where I am,” Reed said, “but you didn't answer anything else.”

Peter blinked at him. “Is this about the VHS?”

“Yes!”

“It’s a movie!” He exclaimed, sounding dumbfounded. “A VHS tape is a recording of a movie and you can play it on a TV at home.”

Reed was amazed. “Wow,” he whispered. “And– and what's a Walkman?” he asked.

“You use it to play music.”

“Like a record player?”

“How old are you?” The blonde woman smacked his head. “Ow! You use cassettes,” he answered. Peter took off the Walkman clipped to his belt to show Reed. He pushed a button and the cartridge came out. Peter put it back in and clipped it back to his belt. “Put these on,” Peter said, taking off the headphones and holding them out to Reed.

Reed put the headphones on and watched Peter press a button on the Walkman, making music start playing. It was a totally new style from what he's used to hearing. Everything was so different here.

Peter took the headphones back and paused the music. “Does that help?” he asked.

“Incredible,” Reed said. “How does it work?”

Peter laughed, “No idea.” He looked past Reed at the door. “Hey, John,” he waved.

Reed turned around to see who he was talking to and saw a blonde kid closing the door. The kid turned around and paused for just a second, looking at the group.

“Bobby and the new guy, Johnny, are outside,” John said. “I just wanted to come in and tell you two what Bobby did,” he said quietly, laughing.

“What did he do? There's no way this is any good,” the woman said, leaning in.

“Bobby used the ‘dead best friend’ card to get Johnny to calm down.” Peter slapped a hand over his own mouth and the woman stifled a laugh.

“Hey, woah, how is that funny?” Reed interrupted. Johnny's been down ever since Shalla-Bal disappeared four years ago. It's not fair for him to be reminded of that because of some lie.

“It's a long story. Like, a really long story,” Peter said.

“Bobby did that?” The woman whispered. “I'd expect that of you or Peter, even Kitty, maybe, but Bobby?”

John laughed silently and nodded. The doorknob clicked and the three of them immediately shut up. Johnny walked in and looked around, seeing everyone staring at him.

“Am I at an intervention?” He chuckled nervously.

The woman laughed. “No. My name is Raven, and this is Peter,” she put her hand on Peter's shoulder. “You've already met Bobby and John,” she said, gesturing to the two. “Dr. McCoy will be here soon.”

Johnny sat down in the chair next to Ben and leaned back, trying to get comfortable. He shifted restlessly, unable to sit still. Johnny bit his lip mindlessly, wanting to ask Bobby about his power, but not knowing if it was appropriate. Eh, it was probably appropriate, nobody seemed to hide their powers here.

“So, Bobby,” Johnny asked, “what can you do, exactly?”

“Oh, well, I can manipulate ice,” Bobby answered.

“Like John?”

“Uh, no,” he said. “Here, let me just–” Bobby turned completely into ice in front of him– “see? But also I can take water from the air and turn it into ice. Technically I can't make it, but I also can.”

“He can create ice out of water, but he can't create the water,” someone said, walking through the door. He was very tall and had short brown hair. “Peter, get back to class. Bobby, John, out.”

“Peter might be able to help,” Raven said.

“Fine. Peter, stay,” he said.

“You're talking like I'm a dog,” Peter said, making a face.

“Sorry,” he apologized, ruffling his hair lightly. He stopped talking for a second and looked up. “Storm’s covering chemical properties right now, I can catch you up on that later.” He turned to look at the Fantastic Four, taking in everyone. “I am Dr. Hank McCoy, thank you all for coming down here and not setting anything on fire,” he pointed at Johnny.

“Okay, how do you know that?” Johnny asked, sitting forward.

Hank smiled. “Good ears,” he said. “Speaking of, I heard…” he looked around for a second before landing on Reed, “you and Peter talking.”

“Reed hasn't said anything since you've walked in, how do you know it was him?”

Hank looked at him for a moment and was about to brush past that when Raven answered, “Good nose.”

“That sounds creepy,” Hank muttered.

“But it's how you know!” Raven said. He brushed her off and looked back at Reed.

“Grody,” Johnny said. That got his attention immediately, which was definitely unsettling.

“Do either of you have a driver's license or ID with you?” Hank asked Johnny and Reed.

“Man, I was in bed when I got here,” Johnny said.

“Check anyway,” Ben said.

Johnny rolled his eyes and felt his back pocket. “Oh shit, I do,” he laughed, taking his wallet out. Reed already had his out and was grabbing his ID to hand over. Johnny held his out, too.

Hank took them both and read Reed's. He had a confused expression on his face. Peter came up to look at it also. He looked from the card, to Reed, and back to the card.

“That…” Peter muttered. Hank held his hand up to shush him.

He checked Johnny's card and Johnny could see Peter doing math in his head. “How old are you?” Hank asked Johnny.

Peter opened his mouth, but Hank put his hand over it, shutting him up. “Don't lick my hand,” he heard Hank whisper before wiping his hand off on Peter's shirt, keeping his arm around his shoulders.

“Thirty-two,” Johnny answered.

“What year were you born?” Hank asked.

“1932,” he said.

Hank looked at Reed. “And you?” He asked.

“Thirty-eight,” Reed answered. “Born in 1926.”

Hank nodded. “That matches…” he muttered. “What year is it?” Hank asked Sue.

Sue answered, “1964.”

Hank nodded again. He took his arm back from around Peter and returned the IDs. “It's 1987,” Hank said plainly.

Chapter Text

There was a long, stunned silence, until Johnny couldn't take it anymore. “I'm sorry?” he asked, not sure if he heard Hank right. Johnny knew what he heard, but he didn't want it to be true.

“Whatever brought you here–into our world, I mean–sent you through time and space. We're twenty-three years farther in the future than your world is,” Hank confirmed.

Johnny stared at him and leaned back in his chair. He had a dumb expression on his face, trying to figure out what that meant. Did every Earth start at the same time; was their home now in 1987 and they just missed twenty-three years? Has Shalla-Bal been gone for twenty-seven years now, and he had no idea? She could be gone forever, by then. He didn't want to believe it.

“So, what–” Sue started, but Johnny cut her off, not able to stop himself from asking.

“Is our world in 1987 or 1964?” He blurted out, not realizing he interrupted his sister.

Hank put his hands out in a gesture, “Truthfully, I have no idea. We don't know anything, really, about the multiverse. I'm only making assumptions based on your existence.”

“How do we get home?” Johnny asked.

“I don't know,” Hank sighed. “I will see if I can find out what brought you here, and we can work from that.”

“How–”

“Johnny, calm down,” Reed said to him. How could he expect him to be calm right now? Everything he's worked on for the past four and a half years is gone, possibly forever. “Dr. McCoy, I might be able to help,” Reed said, standing up.

“You’re just ignoring all of this, then?” Johnny snapped at Reed, standing up with him. “We don't know where we are, or how we got here, and that doesn't scare you? How are you so goddamn calm about this– all of this?!”

“I'm trying to be reasonable, Johnny,” Reed said sternly, yet quiet. “I'm not ignoring anything.”

Johnny sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm down. He didn't want to yell at Reed, he didn't deserve that. It's just that he was so unbelievably mad. Everything Johnny did is gone. He felt alone. More than he ever has before, he felt alone.

All his life, people didn't take him seriously. He never got good grades, couldn't do anything how people wanted him to, he was lazy, and selfish, and annoying, but he still, somehow, ended up as a scientist. An astronaut. A hero. But now? He felt like he was nothing.

The only people who knew him for what he was in this new world, are the people who saw all the bad parts of him. No matter how much they say they love him, he knows they see him as an annoyance, a burden.

And if everything–the sole thing he worked on the past four years–is gone, just like that, he's going to be pretty damn upset.

And nobody seems to care.

“Johnny,” Reed said, barely above a whisper. It made Johnny's blood boil that he was being talked down to. “One of the first things I heard in here was that Bobby lied to you.”

Johnny stared at him, trying to see if he was being truthful. He couldn't tell. “I know you're mad,” Reed continued, just as softly, “so don't blow up about this–” he can keep his emotions in check, asshole– “but he lied about Kurt.”

He could feel his entire body heating up, not knowing what he was feeling, though. “I just- I didn't want anyone to take advantage of your feelings–” Reed said.

“You do know, Kurt is actually dead, right?” Raven asked. “He's just not buried where Bobby said he was.”

“Yeah, his grave is out back,” Peter said.

“Why would you laugh about his death, then?” Reed asked.

Johnny was thrown, hearing that they mocked someone like that, “You–”

“Kurt's my son,” Raven said. “Peter's boyfriend, also. We just didn't expect Bobby to ever lie to anyone, especially not about Kurt.”

“Also, Kurt's not dead, he's just in Germany,” Peter said.

What? But they just said he was buried outside.

“He's dead,” Raven disagreed with him.

“In a way,” Hank said.

“What does that mean?”

“He's–”

“You’re confusing them,” Peter said, cutting her off. “Kurt's in Germany, he'll be home soon.”

Another silence, the conversation was over with that. It didn't help clear up anything at all. Then, something dawned on him. Was Peter only telling himself Kurt was just in Germany, lying to himself?

“How about we show you guys around?” Raven asked, changing the subject with a forced smile. “I'm sure Charles will let you guys stay here until everything is sorted out. Johnny, you can…” Johnny was already walking out of the room before she could finish, “nevermind. Sue, Ben, I'll show you around the school.”

“What about Reed?” Sue asked.

She saw Peter mutter something and Hank nod in agreement, but she didn't know what they were talking about.

“Either he can stay here with Hank or come with,” Raven said.

Reed looked at Hank and thought for a moment. Sue hoped he'd come with them, she didn't want to be separated again, but he decided to stay. He said it was to get started sooner to try and find a way back home. Sue sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to convince him otherwise.

Ben, Franklin, and Sue followed Raven out of the room. Raven didn't stay downstairs for long, only saying where a couple of doors lead and not dwelling on that, before they made their way upstairs. The staircase up from the basement–whiched seemed to be almost entirely Hank's domain, plus something called “Cerebro” and something called the “Danger Room” that Sue wanted nothing to do with–lead to a large foyer.

They saw the foyer on their way to the lab, but they didn't have any time to look around. There was a long staircase going up that split into two, branching off to different sides of the room. Other rooms lined those halls, each with numbers beside the door like a school hallway. Though, she supposed, that's exactly what it was.

Ben breathed in deeply behind her and sighed. She smelled what he must've immediately after, someone was cooking fried rice. “Can we see the kitchen?” Ben asked Raven.

Raven seemed a little concerned about that for a moment. “Sure,” she said, “but I'm pretty sure that's Remy in there, and I don't want him to scare you guys off immediately.”

Sue held Franklin's hand, gently squeezing it. “Why would he?” She asked.

“Ehh. You'll see.” And she walked off, leaving the three of them to trail behind her.

They walked down a hall to the left and into the corner of the building. Raven pushed open the door and said, “Remy, we have guests, be normal.”

“I saw one of ‘em earlier, mon ami. Real pretty thing,” he winked at her as Sue and Ben walked in.

She considered saying she has a husband, but didn't want to make a big deal out of nothing. Sue looked around the room, seeing Ben immediately checking out the appliances, amazed by what he was looking at. She couldn't help herself once she noticed something odd, she stared.

“Your eyes,” Sue said, looking at the man. The rest of him seemed normal. Sure, he was dressed strangely, wearing gloves that were partly fingerless was a bold statement, but his eyes. They weren't human. His eyes were completely black other than the irises, which were a striking, bright red.

Remy laughed, and in the thickest accent she had ever heard, he said, “Had ‘em since I was born. You never see no colorful eyes before, cher?”

“They're not from here,” Raven answered. “Different world– you know?”

“Ah, got it,” he said. “I just figured, you friend here made of rocks,” he shrugged. “That like if Colossus said Rogue's hair was strange.”

“Who are Colossus and Rogue?” Ben asked.

“You'll meet them later,” Raven said. “Let's move on.”

Ben came around the island to meet up with the three of them. Before they left, Remy asked, “Hank downstairs?”

“Yeah,” Raven said.

“Just tryin to make sure he eats,” Remy nodded, grabbing a bowl from a cupboard.

Hank’s an adult, why did he need someone to remind him to eat? From what Sue saw, he seemed perfectly capable on his own. They continued down the hall, occasionally stopping at rooms while Raven said what they were. And then a bell chimed, and doors both upstairs and downstairs opened.

Several younger kids, maybe twelve or thirteen years old, ran down the hall past them. Raven shouted at them to stop running and one of the boys said, “Sorry, Raven!” using her first name. Through a sea of kids of all different ages, a man came out of a classroom and leaned against the wall. “These kids are going to kill me,” he complained to Raven.

“Your fault for working here,” she laughed at him.

On the higher floor, older kids who look like they'd be of high school age were coming out of classes. A girl with a brown ponytail was talking to a blonde boy with huge, white wings. One of them had a huge burn mark. After seeing him, Sue noticed a lot of the people looked strange. There was a boy who was completely green across the foyer, a girl with brown wolf ears and a tail, and then a very, very tall man who was completely silver.

“That's Colossus,” Raven said, seeing Sue looking at him. “He's very nice.”

Ben looked around at everyone, amazed. Being different was normal here. Colossus was bigger than him and nobody cared. Rather than Remy poking fun at the way Ben looked, he just pointed out that a physical difference should be normal to Sue– especially not knowing that this wasn't normal for them.

“What were you doing right before you got here?” Hank asked Reed. He was sitting at his desk with a clipboard and a piece of paper. Peter brought over a chair for Reed to sit in and he sat down on the floor right next to Hank.

“I was in my lab, trying to find the coordinates of where we went Galactus, almost five years ago,” Reed answered. “I heard a humming sound and thought it was one of my machines, so I went to inspect it, and now I'm here.”

Hank was writing the whole time he was talking, only looking up for a moment when he mentioned Galactus. “Alright, and what is Galactus?” Hank asked.

Okay, so, there's no Galactus here. Or maybe he hasn't arrived yet. At least this time, they'll know how to defeat him right from the beginning.

“It's this monster. He's huge, like– do you know what Godzilla is? Do those movies exist here?”

“Who hasn't heard of Godzilla?” Peter asked?

“The time skip,” Hank said. Peter mouthed ‘oh right’.

“Okay, well, he was like that scale,” Reed continued. “He feeds off of planets, going across galaxies to eat planets. He got to our Earth and so we made giant versions of the teleporter I had created that were all over the globe to teleport him far away from us.”

“And it worked?” Hank asked.

“Yes,” Reed answered. “When he teleported away, there was a bright, white glow. Similar to what I saw when I arrived here.”

Hank wrote another thing down and thought for a few seconds. “It's not logical, but this is my only guess for what I know right now: could it be that you all were in close proximity with Galactus teleporting, but the effects didn't show until much later?”

“That’s what I thought, too, but it’s been years,” Reed said.

“Can you rebuild it?” Peter asked. “The teleporter. That way Hank can see what you did.”

“That might be too dangerous to completely rebuild it,” Hank told him, putting his hand on Peter's head.

Someone knocked on the door and walked in. “Hello, Remy,” Hank greeted him.

“Bonjour, Beastie,” the man–Remy–said. “Figured you hadn't eaten today,” he gave him a bowl of fried rice with chicken and egg, “had to use up the rice from last night anyway.”

“Thank you.”

Peter was standing next to Remy, seemingly as if he teleported there. That wasn't right. People can't just do that, can they? Hank clearly has superhuman senses, that's one thing, but teleportation?

“Remy, do you know if Logan's here? I didn't see him earlier,” Peter said.

“He out with his boyfriend,” Remy said. “The weird one, you know? Always act like he in a movie, sayin all that shit that don't make sense. Remy don't get it,” he said with a shrug. “Last time I saw him, he was tellin me about this guy named ‘Mr. Fantastic’, some name, huh? But he said he was ‘spaghettified’, whatever that means.”

“‘Spaghettified’?” Hank asked. “Is that what he said?”

“Nah, he said something like ‘spaghettification’ or whatever.”

“Did he say this Mr. Fantastic died?”

“Yeah, why?”

“That's what happens if you get sucked into a black hole. That's what spaghettification means.”

Peter laughed, “There's no way that's a real word.”

“Either way,” Remy continued, “Remy ain't never heard of no ‘Mr. Fantastic.” He looked at Reed, who was currently being faced with the fact that someone from this world knows who he is, and knows how he dies. “You one of them new guys, right?” Remy asked. “Mind telling me who that hot piece of eye candy was?”

“My wife–” Reed started saying, at the same time, Peter answered, “Johnny.”

“Remy only dates men, other than Rogue,” Peter finished. Remy clicked his tongue twice.

“Remy,” Hank said, slowly. “You're looking at Mr. Fantastic.”

“At least that means Wade was wrong about him being dead?” Remy asked.

This Wade person, he knows who Reed is. He's from this world, but he knows who Mr. Fantastic is. And he knows how he dies, apparently. Reed could've gone without knowing that part, but the fact that someone knows that stuff is really good.

“You said Wade is weird, right?” Reed asked.

“A little,” Peter said.

“Mentally disturbed and possibly schizophrenic,” Hank said.

“Total nut job,” Remy said.

Reed was slightly taken aback by the wildly different responses all at once, but he continued. “So, the things he says make no sense?”

“He told Remy about another Remy who he met. Like, me, but not me. If that not crazy, Remy don't know what is.”

“But he knows who I am,” Reed said. “What if, and I know this will sound insane,” he stood up from his chair, “what if he knows something we don't? If he knows how my family got here?”

“Isn't it possible that Wade just said a random name? Mr. Fantastic does sound made up, to be fair,” Hank said. “A hero naming himself about how great he is? No offense, by the way.”

Reed looked around, seeing everyone agreeing with Hank. “Has the meaning of the word ‘fantastic’ changed in the past twenty years?”

Hank thought about it and said, “Okay, that's fair. But we don't know if Wade actually knows what he's saying half the time, how can we know he didn't take a wild guess?”

“We ask him!” Reed said. “Or, or,” he stammered, getting more excited as he spoke, “or, Remy, what else has he told you?”

“Uh,” Remy paused, “like what?”

“Anything. Anything about anyone named Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, or Reed Richards.”

Remy thought about it. “No, Remy don't know. Sorry, mom ami.”

Come on, they're so close to a lead. There has to be something, right? “Hank, is there any way I can talk to this guy?”

“I don't think you want to,” Remy said.

“I do!”

“Next time Logan is home I'll ask him,” Hank said. “Just, be warned. He's really hard to talk to.”

Johnny walked around the side of the building, since it stopped raining. He passed the flower beds filled with daisies where Bobby said Kurt was buried and glanced at it. He kept going, not bothering to stop.

The estate was huge and seemed to go on forever, but finally he reached the back of the building. Johnny shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around. There was a basketball court, a pool, and a massive garden. At the far end of the garden, was a cross. It stood proudly out of the grass, looking towards a long field of trees in the distance.

Curiosity got the better of him, and Johnny went towards it. He stood in front of the cross and read the inscription:

Kurt Wagner
Loving son and brother
1969-1985

Johnny sat on the grass beside it, looking out at the field of trees. He felt a little silly, but he started talking.

“I'm sure they miss you,” Johnny whispered. He looked down at the grass and played with it distractedly. He was thinking about Peter earlier, what he said about Kurt not being home right now. “Losing someone is hard. I can't imagine how it feels to lose everyone.”

He slowly took a deep breath, squeezing his free hand into a fist.

“Isn't that what happens when you die?” He asked. “Everyone else, they lose you, but you lose everyone you knew. It must be lonely.”

“Shalla-Bal had a family, she had a daughter, and she gave up her freedom to save them. And then, she gave up…” Johnny struggled to say it, “...she gave up her life to save my family.”

That was the first time he ever said she died. It hurt to think about it, and it hurt even worse to say out loud. Johnny took another deep breath, trying not to cry. It was a useless attempt. He fell apart within seconds. Johnny held his knees to his chest and buried his face in them, sobbing as quietly as he could.