Location: New York City
Date: December 25, 1988
Susan Storm POV:
She spent her walk back home thinking about the conversation with the interesting man she had just met.
Mark, he was not the first to circumvent her invisibility, and his ability to 'feel her presence' probably should have been more concerning, but...
'He made it feel comforting. When was the last time I didn't feel... invisible?' she thought.
Susan felt seen by him and it made his perception oddly reassuring. But what slightly surprised her was how easily he had put her at ease. Not by dazzling her. Not by trying to impress her. He had simply noticed she was hurting… and wanted her to feel better.
She could not remember the last time she met someone that did not want something from her. And not only was that a breath of fresh air, talking with him had been very enjoyable as well.
'But, how had I not seen this before?' she thought.
Mark had given her a moment of terrifying clarity, and self-awareness. The Baxter Building was her entire life. It was her home, work, family, future, everything.
'But if this life disappeared tomorrow… who am I outside of it? If I walked away from it tomorrow… what would I actually have left that belonged solely to Susan Storm?'
The answer came far too quickly: very little.
That did not make her happy.
Somehow she had let herself fall into a situation where she had no independent financial foundation, no private life outside the team, no clear personal future separate from Reed, and nowhere she could retreat to that was just hers.
Even worse was that she never consciously chose this. It simply happened around her while she was busy taking care of everyone else, trying to make the Fantastic Four into the family she always wanted.
'Is it any wonder why I felt invisible even before the powers.' she thought bitterly, the reason seeming rather obvious to her now.
A flicker of anger surfaced, unexpectedly sharp. She pushed it down immediately.
---
As Susan reached the Baxter Building, her mood fell as she was reminded why she had went out today in the first place.
Susan stepped through the main doors of the Baxter Building and quickly walked to the elevator. The ride up felt longer than usual and when the doors finally opened, she already knew what she would find.
Stepping into her home, she paused. The familiar hum of machinery drifted through the halls. Voices echoed faintly somewhere deeper inside. The lights were the same. The corridors were the same. Everything looked exactly as it had when she left.
A strange hollowness settled in her chest. She stood there for a moment, staring at the room.
'Why does this place feel emptier than I remember?' came the uninvited thought.
Susan frowned. Nothing had changed, not really. The Baxter Building was still her home. The headquarters of the Fantastic Four. The place where she had spent most of her time. So why did it feel different?
Trying to put such thoughts out of her mind, she moved forward. She needed to see Reed.
His laboratory was brightly lit. Reed was standing at a workstation surrounded by holographic displays and half-disassembled components. Across from him, Alyssa leaned over a monitor while Reed explained something with obvious enthusiasm.
"...if the field inversion remains stable for more than eight seconds, we can bypass the entire containment stage."
Alyssa nodded and Reed smiled. Not a forced smile, or a distracted one. A genuine smile. The kind that appeared whenever he was discussing something that excited him.
Susan stopped in the doorway, unnoticed. For a moment she simply watched. Neither of them had seen her yet.
Reed was completely absorbed. He was focused, engaged, alive...
The sight should have been familiar. Comforting, even.
Instead something twisted inside her. Not because of Alyssa, not really. The feeling surprised her when she identified it. Jealousy, not romantic jealousy or possessiveness, it was something far worse.
Alyssa had Reed's attention, his full attention. The thing Susan could never seem to get for more than a moment. She always had to compete with science, discovery, and the next problem waiting to be solved.
The realization stung.
Mark's words drifted back into her mind. "I met someone very interesting and she has made my day very special indeed."
Such a simple thing. So effortless. No grand gesture or cosmic adventure. No world-saving crisis. Just being seen. Just being appreciated. Just being wanted in that moment.
The comparison was unfair. She knew it was and she felt guilty just thinking it.
Reed loved her. She had never doubted that, not once. But standing there now, despite the guilt, Susan finally allowed herself to acknowledge something she had spent years avoiding.
This was just who Reed Richards was.
The disappointment hit harder than she expected. Then, just as quickly, she let it go. Not the feeling, the expectation that things might change. It was a small difference, a devastating one.
Something inside her shifted, almost imperceptibly. Like a door beginning to close.
She was not angry anymore. She was not even sad. Just tired of waiting for a version of Reed that did not exist. Tired of hoping each holiday would be different. Tired of convincing herself that after the next project, the next crisis, the next discovery, there would be room for her.
The now familiar loneliness that followed did not surprised her. The room was full of people. The building was full of family. And yet she had rarely felt more alone.
Finally Reed glanced up and his face brightened immediately. "Sue! You're back." He smiled warmly, their Christmas plans forgotten. Completely unaware why she left, or that something had changed.
Susan returned the smile automatically. The practiced smile came easily. Years of experience made sure of that.
"Yeah," she said softly. For a brief moment she wondered if, and hoped that, he would notice. Would he hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes, recognize that she needed him to see her.
Reed didn't. He turned back toward the monitor. Already halfway back to the problem occupying his thoughts. Susan watched him for a second longer. Then she looked away.
And for the first time, she found herself lowering her expectations instead of raising them. The thought should have hurt.
Instead it felt strangely peaceful, which frightened her far more.
-----
Mark POV:
As he walked home, Mark was also thinking about his conversation with Susan and his life in general.
Actually talking to someone who had experienced the events of this world was more eye opening then he thought it would be. It made things feel more real, more personal.
It also made him reexamine his previous plans and actions.
But there was only one possible conclusion, 'I cannot continue forward as things are.'
Since Mark arrived in Marvel, all the problems, threats, and villain schemes in the city had been on the relatively small end of the scale, leaving him unaffected, but that would not last. He needed to start preparing seriously.
His basic safety and survival were taken care of. At least if living in an abandoned, rundown house with no money, other then his part time work on weekends, was considered 'taken care of'.
But after getting the Force he felt more confident. It was time to start building a place for himself in this world.
'So what does my ideal situation look like?'
After considering for awhile Mark decided, 'I need a real base of operations, preferably something that can survive attack. That means money and resources.'
'I had the cash to cover dinner for myself and Sue, but anything that costs more substantial than food or clothes and I'm basically broke.'
If he wanted to get the kind of money he would need, a job of any kind would not be enough. He would need to take advantage of the resources he had and Cortana was foremost in his mind.
'But what to do?'
As he considered, he looked around at the streets. The city had seen better days. Crime was pretty bad, and Mark was not sure the best way to deal with it, or if he should even get involved.
'Actually, I may be the only person who knows that Fisk is the Kingpin. Maybe... No, even if the police had evidence of his crimes he has enough power and money to get himself off the hook... Wait, the money... Fisk is rich, seriously rich.'
A devious smile slowly spread across Mark's face. 'I cannot imagine Cortana passing on the opportunity to unburden someone like that of his heavy financial load.'
He could not help but laugh quietly to himself.
There was just one problem.
Mark had quickly grown bored of school, and if his scheme works out he would not want to stay any longer.
Though he was willing to admit it had been useful enough early on when he had no power.
'Maybe I can graduate early from the school?' he thought. He had not put much effort in so far, simply completing the work he was assigned. But if he could graduate early...
The idea was very appealing.
He decided to talk to the student counselor again as soon as winter break was over.
The thought of being fully free to chart his own course in this world lightened his step and brought a bright smile to his face.
Just as he had told Susan, he wanted to have more fun and go on some adventures. Now it finally felt like he would be getting just that.
Things it seemed were going better than ever...
-----
Location: Unknown
Unknown POV:
The underground laboratory was quiet except for the soft hum of machinery.
Predictive models ran simulations with data from banks of genetic records, bloodlines, mutations, and family trees stretching back centuries.
Most of it ran automatically. He had learned long ago that genius was wasted on routine observation and so the machines watched for him. Only anomalies were brought to his attention.
A soft chime sounded.
He did not look up immediately.
He set aside the sample he had been examining and turned his red eyes toward a secondary monitor.
A small notification blinked.
CEREBRO EXCEPTION REPORT
Classification Failure.
Source: Cerebro Passive Detection Log.
Location: New York City
Subject Status: Human.
Mutant Markers: Negative.
Baseline Human Profile: Negative.
Classification: Unknown.
"Interesting."
He touched the screen and the raw data from Cerebro was displayed, curtesy of a secret data siphon imbedded into Xavier's systems years ago.
It was a human neurological profile, but no X-gene, and no other matching signatures were known.
"Run cross-reference."
The machine obeyed. Thousands of databases were searched. Government archives, SHIELD records, academic records, medical records, mutant registries... nothing.
He knew how Cerebro worked. Not every detail, but enough.
He leaned back in his chair.
The expression on his face was not excitement. It was hunger.
"Again."
The machine reran the analysis. The answer remained the same.
Human, non mutant, unknown.
His eyes narrowed.
For the first time in several minutes, he stopped looking at the data and started looking at the implications.
He rose slowly, the laboratory lights reflected from the crimson diamond on his forehead.
"Very Interesting."
Most scientists feared discovering they were wrong. That new data would overturn their beliefs and expectations. He lived for it.
Somewhere in New York City, a variable had entered the equation. Something new. Something Cerebro could not properly categorize.
Xavier would discover the anomaly soon, and no doubt try to seek this person out.
That meant time was limited if he wished to act freely.
"Let's discover what you are." he said, a predatory smile on his face.