As Reed opened his eyes, he was greeted with a distasteful vision—the face of Victor Von Doom staring down at him.
"Good morning, Reed," he said, standing in front of the bed, looking down at Reed with his usual infuriating smirk. Beside him was an unfamiliar man with jet black hair who had his arms crossed and an impassive expression.
"Victor," Reed said with a slightly hoarse voice. Looking to the side, he grabbed a glass of water and downed it in one gulp.
"A lot happened in the world while you were enjoying your time unconscious," he said.
"Did World War Three happen?" He chuckled. "Who is this?"
"That would have been the better alternative, honestly," Victor said before gesturing to the man beside him. "This is Apex. He comes from a parallel version of our planet."
"What are you talking about?" Reed said. "Like the multiverse? That shouldn't work like that."
"It does. That and a whole lot more, Reed," Victor said. "Try to grab that glass."
"What?" Reed looked across the room where a glass filled with water was placed. "I can't reach it."
"Humor me," Victor said.
Giving Victor a confused and slightly concerned look, Reed extended his arm in the direction of the glass. Suddenly, it stretched forward, making him widen his eyes as he grasped the glass with a shaky grip, as his arm retracted and came back. He was left looking at it with a gaze of confusion and wonder.
"What's going on?" He spoke, moving his other arm and trying to stretch it again.
"The cosmic storm that you went through induced a significant mutation in your cells, turning them into a unique biological rubberized substance," Victor said.
"I see… What about the others?" Reed asked.
"Everyone has reacted to these things differently. Ben hasn't shown any reactions yet, and Johnny has fire powers."
"What about Sue?" Reed asked, only to receive a hardened look from Victor.
"She is currently isolated and has asked for her information to be kept from you," Victor said. "Now, before you say anything else, allow me to tell you why this person is here."
Reed frowned, as if unwilling to accept the fact that Susan wanted to distance herself from him. "Yeah… Please."
"Allow me to explain, Mr. Von Doom," Apex spoke up. "The current situation of this entire universe is very precarious. And no, this is not your universe. Some external power yanked about forty different versions of Earth from all across the multiverse and put them all together in this cluster. I have no idea who, or what that power is. But I do know that your planet is one of the most vulnerable ones among the forty…"
He explained the gist of the situation to Reed, about the Convergence, and the fact that there were tonnes of superpowered people all over the other Earths, while their Earth only had the four of them who had newly received their powers.
"It's hard to wrap my head around all this…" Reed said.
"I understand that, Mr. Richards," Apex said. "Fortunately, you do not really need to worry about your planet. Let me come to the primary reason that I am here. This planet will soon join the Gaia cluster. It is a collective of planets that are all under my protection and governance. Every planet has a representative leader who sits on the Apex Council, which is chaired by me, but that's not important right now. What is important is that I wish to utilize your smarts for an important project on one of the other Earths. You will receive grants, a working space according to your requirements, and whatever else you ask for as long as you can provide the result."
"What exactly does this project entail?" Reed asked, frowning. "I will not be creating a weapon."
"Unless you accept, you will not be given any details, but I can clarify that you won't be creating any weapons. What I need is a detector."
"What kind—" Apex shook his head with a stern expression, making Reed swallow. "What about money? What kind of resources will I have access to?"
"The collective resources of four planets combined," Apex said. "Gaia currently holds three versions of Earth with planetary barriers. Once your Earth is added, there will be four. This project is important enough that you will have all the resources that you might require. Of course, for supervision and support, my current lead researcher will be working with you on this. She is well aware of the project's requirements and has been working on it for over a year now."
"I can't do this alone," Reed said. "At the very least, I need my partner."
"I am aware of that," Apex nodded. "We will be transferring both you and Mr. Ben Grimm to Gaia as well."
Reed nodded with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Take the time that you need. I will be departing for Gaia tomorrow morning. I hope that you can come with me, Mr. Richards. The fate of not only your planet, but all of the planets under Gaia hangs in the balance."
"No pressure…" Reed chuckled as Apex left him and Victor alone. "Think I can refuse?"
"Unless you'd like for this planet to be exploited out of its resources and destroyed," he said. "You've been unconscious, but I've seen it. Forty identical planets in the sky. I have seen copies of you, Susan, your precious Baxter Building. As for the Gaia Cluster he's talking about, it consists of two planets surrounded by individual planetary barriers that are interconnected by the same barrier."
"Two?"
"The third is separate. Its position hasn't yet aligned with the other two to join with them. He has already pretty much made all of the world's leaders kneel at his feet and accept the integration into Gaia. You are the first person whom he has politely asked to work for him. You can refuse, sure, but I wouldn't recommend it. Not unless you care about your planet."
"So he's a dictator," Reed concluded.
"Virtually, yes. But his presence has forced every country to recall its troops from warring nations. Also, every nuke that we have has allegedly been disarmed, with production of new ones being banned completely. This is the closest we've come to world peace. Someone having a controlling stake isn't all bad."
"You aren't one to get down on your knees for any old person who comes along, Victor," Reed said. "What's your angle?"
"Heh…" Victor couldn't help but laugh lightly as a sense of desolation appeared in his eyes. "Because resistance is entirely hopeless. You cannot hope to contend against eldritch horrors that come right out of the horror stories of old, Reed."
"What are you saying?" Reed felt uncomfortable as he saw how Victor looked frail and weak, with no signs of strength on his face.
"I had this prepared in case you were dicey about this whole thing," he said before grabbing a remote and turning on the screen. "Look at this. This is an unnamed habitable planet in another corner of our galaxy."
It was a clear image of a blue planet that was covered in water all over. Reed frowned as he saw a faint silhouette appearing on the screen in the space. "Is that…"
"Apex, yes," Victor nodded. "He's casually floating in space overlooking what seems like a planet with a full ecosystem and living creatures."
"Why are you highlighting…that?" Reed swallowed his words as Apex transformed into a massive, slimy creature with tentacles extending out toward the planet. It continued growing in size at an ever-increasing pace. Soon, a red glow appeared from the slime before a powerful beam of red energy directly struck the water-based planet. "Is he going to…"
"Keep watching," Victor said, crossing his arms and noticeably shuddering at the view of the black mass expanding into space while the planet ahead of it was being destroyed by the red beam. When the red beam stopped, the creature had grown large enough to hide a significant part of the planet from the point of view of the camera. Seconds later, the slimy creature had wrapped itself around the broken planet and devoured everything, not leaving the slightest traces that there ever used to be a planet there. It then turned back to Apex, who had an annoyed expression on his face. That was when the video ended.
"That … thing ate a planet, Reed," Victor said. "Instead of going against such an entity, I would much rather be his ally. And the only one who can facilitate that is you, Reed."
"How did you get this information?" Reed frowned. "Our satellites can't capture something so far away. Especially something that happened recently."
"It was a data transmission spread all around," he said. "You remember the arc of energy that forced him to pause that red beam? It was the same person who practically broadcast this footage all across the galaxy."
Reed frowned. "I'll be working for someone who can destroy a planet without a second thought, Victor. I don't know how I feel about this."
"You'll be working for someone who currently possesses absolute control over your planet. On a positive note, the two planets that are a part of Gaia, I've seen them with my satellite. The general quality of life on both of them is ridiculously better. Give it a chance. Once you see how things are, I'm sure you will like it. Plus, you can always refuse to work after you start. Maybe you can get some leverage. Think about it, talk to Ben as well. He is also awake."
***
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