Before Reed's stretched fist was even halfway there, it collided with an invisible barrier that seemed to morph from his force, warping the air. The warping force-field quickly wrapped around Reed's fist, before extending forward as Susan clenched her outstretched hand. The force field immediately sped up and wrapped around Reed completely, enveloping the man inside a bubble as he floated up.
Before the older Susan could make any moves, Alex had already shot a black blur at her, impacting her head as it wrapped around her head. Through his intimate familiarity with Susan, he only needed a moment to take over this reality's Susan's powers, entirely disabling them as a black mask appeared on her face, sealing away all of her senses as she started trying to rip it away in futility.
That only left the charging Ben, who was about to slam into Susan, but found himself facing Alex instead as the man instantly swapped places with Susan through ‹Inventory›. It was as if the rock man had slammed into a thick steel wall. Granted, he could break through a thick steel wall if he tried hard enough, but Alex's physique could no longer be measured in terms of materials. With a punch, he could shatter this entire planet. Taking the Thing's charge was the same as a fly trying to ram into him—completely meaningless.
The rock man staggered back, only for Susan to envelop him in a force-field bubble as he floated up, powerless to resist.
"See?" Alex said gently. "Your resistance was completely futile. If I wanted, I could've killed the three of you within a second. But I didn't, because I don't have any plans to pointlessly kill my new subjects."
"You can imprison us, kill us…it won't matter," Reed spoke, worriedly glancing at his wife's struggling form before composing himself and turning to Alex with a look of defiance. "Someone will rise up against you."
"I know someone will rise up against me," Alex nodded. "That's why I will neither imprison you nor kill you. You will be my adjudicators."
"Hmph," the Thing snorted.
"Don't believe me?" Alex asked, smiling at him before he turned to the older Susan, who was now kneeling on the ground.
[Block their voices.] He mentally told his Susan as she quickly modified the bubbles.
The woman was still weakly struggling against the black mask that had covered her entire face, trying to rip it away. Amidst her attempts, it stirred, slowly freeing her face as it shrank down to her throat. She gasped desperately for air as the black mask formed a simple choker that stuck itself to the middle of her neck. She was on all fours, desperately gasping for air as it filled her lungs, slowly recovering.
"How does induced choking feel?" Alex asked.
"H-horrible… It's like my lungs were forcefully shriveled. And those… things that entered my orifices…" She continued gasping, not even looking up at Alex.
"Best part? I can put you in that state for hours while making sure you don't die as I manually infuse the necessary oxygen into your blood. Even without any lasting effects, your mind will be completely scarred from just the pain and panic," he said.
"W-what do you want?" Susan asked, finally recovering a little as she glanced at Reed and Ben floating in their isolated bubbles. She could see them moving their mouths, but no sounds reached her. "They'll suffocate…"
"Will they?" Susan asked her older self. "I only blocked the sound waves from passing through."
"That blocks the microscopic holes that allowed sound waves, and by extension, air, to pass through," the older Susan said. "I learnt that the hard way…"
"Oh… Thanks," Susan nodded, frowning in focus as she tried to further modify the bubbles as per her needs.
"Will you be my herald, Susan?" Alex asked, getting both Susans to look at him. "The older one." He clarified. "This one's got a more important role," he patted his host's butt, making her scowl at him.
The older Susan looked at him with a frown.
"What makes you think I'll accept?" she asked.
"You wouldn't want little Franklin's to grow up without his parents, would you?" he asked gently. The older Susan's eyes widened in panic as she gasped.
"H-he's hidden," she said, almost as if comforting herself. "You can't get to him."
"I'm not threatening you," Alex said, clarifying himself. "Johnny's dead, isn't he?"
Susan sat silent at his words, giving him a stiff nod.
"The cosmic storm linked the four of you that you can't even begin to imagine. If any one of you dies, the rest of them follow suit. It's the same with your powers. They are already waning, aren't they? It took you longer to activate your powers than hers. And she's barely had them for a month."
"…" She paused. "Reed's been looking into it… There's no solution."
"The smartest being on the planet can't figure it out?" Alex asked mockingly. "Does that mean there's no solution, or that his perspective just isn't broad enough?"
"Are you offering a solution?"
"I am," he nodded. "A simple one, actually."
"What?"
"Resurrection."
Both Susans looked at him with wide eyes, unable to believe his words.
"If this is a joke…" the older woman's voice had a tremble in it.
"Not a joke," he said. "Infinity Stones can make anything happen within the bounds of the universe. Reviving a single person from the dead is nothing. My only condition: you will be my herald on this planet."
"Are you like Galactus?" she frowned.
"No," he said. "I'm far more dangerous. He simply hungers. I devour as a means of conquest. Then again, I'm nowhere near strong enough to contend with his Power Cosmic."
"What would you expect of me?"
"You, and by extension, your family, will serve as my adjudicators on this planet. You will be responsible for executing my will, maintaining the stability of the Gaia Federation when things move beyond Gaia's means."
"Gaia Federation?"
"Yes," she nodded. "It's a collective of different planets, all under my authority. And yes, it is a federation. You will have a voice in it when I consolidate everyone."
"I need some time to talk to my family," she said.
"By all means. You may join them inside," Alex said, glancing at his Susan as she nodded and merged the two individual bubbles that Reed and Ben were floating in.
The older Susan nodded and leaped up, phasing into the two bubbles as if the force field didn't even exist.
"Whoa…" Susan said. "I didn't even feel her interfere with my force-fields…"
"That comes with experience. Something you don't have," Alex said. "Don't be disheartened, though, even I wouldn't be able to replicate her actions as effortlessly as she. My methods to tap into the potential of your powers rely entirely on brute forcing through my super brain. I would probably try to resonate with the frequency of that bubble and modify my own body accordingly.
"But she modified the frequency of my force-field directly," Susan said, with a realization. "Whatever she touched resonated with her and allowed her to pass through unimpeded."
"Yep," Alex nodded. "She's experienced, that's for fucking sure. Then again, she's almost fifteen years older than you."
"She's in her late thirties?"
"Doesn't look like it, does she?"
"Early thirties, at most," she said.
"Even that's because of the pressure and stress of losing her Johnny," he said. "She'd barely look a year or two older than you, otherwise."
"Johnny… I haven't seen him in a while." She said.
"He hasn't seen you in like six months or so—that's how long it's been since we left," Alex said. "I don't think he even remembers you by now."
"Typical," she said. "He's still on my Earth?"
"Yeah, he's living his hero life, getting all the girls," Alex nodded. "There are times I get jealous of such a carefree person."
"Do you, really?" She asked. "You not only get far more girls, but you keep them permanently, generally doing the equivalent of enslaving them through various overt and covert means."
"Enslaving is a strong word."
"It's close enough. You want absolute control over them. Hell, look at the offer you gave my counterpart. She's practically going to be enslaved as well once she accepts. She even has a collar around her throat."
"Strong argument," Alex agreed, seemingly having no plans to refute her words.
"What about Reed and Ben?" She asked. "How long have they been working?"
"Half a decade," he said. "Give or take. They've been busy."
"Fuck…" Susan said. "What's it been for us? Two weeks? Three?"
"Something like that," Alex nodded. "Your planet's time was naturally faster than quite a few of the others. When I took Reed and Ben away, it was around three days to a year. Here, half a day will equate to a year inside Gaia."
"Such a messed-up situation, don't you think?" She asked him. "Something as primal…raw as time itself is all jumbled up throughout this cluster."
"There's a lot more wrong with this cluster than just the messed-up time," he said. "But there's no point in delving into all that right now."
With his words, the remaining three members of the Fantastic Four seemed to be done talking and silently looked at the two of them as the older Susan grasped Reed and Ben's shoulders, phasing them through the force field as the three of them dropped to the ground.
"Made your decision?" Alex asked with a playful smile.
***
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