The Silver Crystal

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Nine​

Nothing in the life of Prince Zuko had ever been perfectly right, especially when his family consists of a megalomaniac father, a spoiled sister, and a grandfather who wished for his own father to kill him at a very young age. The only thing that made sense in his hectic life was the kindness of his mother, who had mysteriously disappeared in his life when he was only eleven years old, leaving him to deal with the horrors of growing up as the son of a vicious Fire Lord.

One of those horrors include a fire duel (known as “Agni Kai” to the most experienced Firebenders) that he had with his own father, who he didn’t anticipate as being his opponent after speaking out of turn during a war counsel. The duel did not last for very long, mostly due to the fact that Zuko refused to fight his own father, and Ozai (Zuko’s father) viciously burned him—giving him a permanent facial burn scar radiating from his left eye over his ear—stripped him of his birthright, and exiled him from his beloved homeland, declaring that he could only return if he was able to find and capture the Avatar. A fool’s errand by all accounts, but one to which Zuko cling desperately as his only hope of regaining everything that he had lost.

Zuko’s search for the Avatar had lead him all through his home world with his uncle, Iroh, who served as his companion and advisor in his journey. The elderly Iroh was a Firebending master, former Crown Prince and heir to the Fire Nation throne, retired General of the Fire Nation, and older brother of Fire Lord Ozai. He was destined to succeed his father (Fire Lord Azulon) as Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, but because of the no-longer mysterious events surrounding Azulon’s death, and Iroh’s abandonment of the siege of Ba Sing Se (capital of the Earth Kingdom) to grieve for his son, who was killed in action during the siege, Ozai succeeded to the throne. Easygoing, friendly, and dryly good-humored, Iroh treated his self-imposed exile as though it were an extended vacation.

The search for the Avatar had taken the two Firebenders literally to great heights, as they discovered one of the transport pods to the Leviathan ship, Moya, which Avatar and his friends were entering upon being discovered by Zuko and Iroh. Believing it would be good strategy in capturing the Avatar, Zuko and Iroh stowed away into the transport pod and went to the ship. However, once inside Moya, not only did they find it difficult to search for the Avatar in such a gigantic spaceship, they also found themselves taken away from their planet unexpectedly.

By the time Zuko and Iroh could find a way out of the sip, via the transport pods, they were already hovering over Earth’s atmosphere. With the one transport pod they had used, the two Firebenders trekked directly towards Earth, believing it to be their own home world (it looked so strongly similar to it). They headed northward, heading in the direction of Greenland, where the sprawling ice sheets stretched for miles in every direction, white upon white, as far as the eye could see. Its absence of color was one of the country’s most startling attributes, here at the top of the world, where the aberrant weather and the isolation had driven many a pilot or explorer to the brink of insanity.

Staring out the window of the transport pod, Zuko and Iroh took notice of the constancy of the ice and the absence of color, which should’ve created feelings of both vertigo and confusion to them. After a moment of awkward silence, Zuko finally said, “There isn’t a Waterbending tribe here! Where is the Northern Water Tribe? It’s supposed to be here!” There was panic in his voice. Although he didn’t really care for the Waterbending tribes of his world, seeing one at that moment would’ve surely given him assurance that where he and his uncle were was their home. It didn’t.

“They must’ve moved.” Iroh suspected, which made Zuko roll his eyes with exasperation, due to the fact that it was such a poor deduction.

While continuing to soar over the icy, snow-covered landscape, Zuko and Iroh’s transport pod passed by like a blur to a helicopter piloted by Victor Von Doom, with Phil van Neuter and Mulch as the passengers. They barely even acknowledged its presence as Victor swung his helicopter to the right, surveying the endless expanse of white, the sun fueling a reflective glare that could easily blind him. The view shield to the copter had been fitted with a special tint that defrayed most of the glare, making their passage easier. The craft was also outfitted with the latest GPS technology and satellite direction, thereby reducing their chances of becoming lost. Victor had been asleep in that crate for who knew how long, and he didn’t welcome the idea of another unexpected nap, deep in the ice, especially with Phil and Much by him.

Victor adjusted his coordinates and slowed his speed. He scratched an itch on the side of his burned and damaged face, wincing at the pain. He feared his face was beyond repair, another lingering effect of the cosmic storm that had irrevocably changed his life, so he left it open to the elements. The infamous family faceplate remained in his laboratory in Latveria. He pulled his green cowl up over his head against the dipping temperatures of the barren landscape.

Overhead, one of the sensors blinked a warning red, the quiet beeping filling the cockpit. “I believe we’ve found our silvery friend,” Phil said, while Doom adjusted his flight path accordingly. To the three men, it felt good to be back on the hunt.

The wipe, opaque glacier pointed like a finger from the Earth to the sky. It was the highest peak in the surrounding area of this frozen wasteland, its base sometimes obscured by the gusty winds and ice flurries common to the region. In the middle of the ice sheet sat a deep crater. There was no residual debris to suggest the crater was the work of an asteroid hitting the Earth, and the surrounding ice showed no signs of deep impact. The crater was perfectly round and smooth; its flawless walls glistening silver, leading down deep from the face of the ice sheets. A glow rose from the crater, bathing it in a light that was clearly not of this world.

“Now that’s impressive.” Victor commented.

Inside the crater, the alien being rotated on his board, his hands outstretched. The mere motion of his hand turned the earthen walls into the smooth, silvery material, reinforcing the crater and rounding it in its luminescence. The being’s face was passive, stoic, unaffected by his task and almost robotic in its execution.

Victor, Phil, and Mulch exited the sleek helicopter just a few feet from the glowing crater. Not very far from their parked aircraft, Zuko and Iroh landed their transport pod, just as soon after they spotted the crater, and stood behind a mound of snow to eavesdrop on the three earthlings that walked carefully toward the crater.

“I do not recognize these people.” Zuko uttered. “We can’t be back on our world, Uncle. We’re somewhere…different.”

“I could’ve told you that looking at the weird foamy creatures with that man.” Iroh remarked.

Victor’s long green cowl blew behind him in the icy wind. The alien paused and turned his head, as if listening for something. He began to rise, the board effortlessly taking its rider out of the deep crater to the surface of the ice above.

Victor, Phil, and Mulch shielded their eyes, as had Zuko and Iroh. Shards of ice from the alien’s exit flying at them like broken glass. They stared at the alien, fascinated. Its long, sleek body seemed to be made entirely of a silver alloy. The radiant glow seemed to come from within him, not relying on the sun for the reflection of light. It glistened with power, standing sturdy atop his flying board.

Victor was almost humbled. “He doesn’t look that different from us,” Victor whispered, only afterwards realizing whom he was whispering to. “Well, at least not from me.” The alien, too, seemed confused by the similarity and stood motionless, hanging in the air.

Phil turned his gaze from the alien to the crater he had just made. “Don’t tell me,” he said mockingly. “It’s the world’s biggest barbecue pit.”

The alien remained still, staring impassively at Victor, Phil, and Mulch. His face showed neither acknowledgment nor concern. Victor turned in Phil’s direction and said, “I don’t think he understands that classic Muppet humor.”

“That was ‘classic’?” Phil remarked.

Ignoring Phil’s confusion, Victor focused on the reason he was there before he himself lost track of things. “We’ve come here to make you an offer. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Victor said the last words slowly, as if speaking to a child.

The alien nodded his head.

Victor smiled. They could communicate with this thing. “Together, we could be unstoppable. Anything would be ours for the taking!” Victor clenched his fist by his side, his metallic hand closing, an expression of his power.

Zuko looked on with interest, witnessing the actions of Victor Von Doom, a man who he was never familiar with until this very moment. He almost found it intriguing how similar this man was to him, from the burn scars that damaged his face to his lust for power. It seemed to the young Firebender that Victor was willing to do anything to get the strange silver being to join his side. And if it had refused, Zuko would’ve been sure to accept either of the two as a new ally in finding the Avatar, who Zuko was starting to realize was on that very planet.

They all stared at the alien, waiting for an answer to Victor’s offer. Victor knew that with this being at his side, it would be only a matter of time before the entire world would be squirming under his foot. He could at last begin to take back everything he, Phil, and Mulch had lost.

The alien continued to hover in the air. Nothing about the appearance of Victor or his offer caused a change: His body, his face, his physical language were silent, stoic, unaltered. Without any change in expression, the alien started to speak. His voice carried a slight tremble and an otherworldly depth.

“All that you know is at an end.”

Victor and the others stared at the alien’s face, a blank silver slate. They were unable to read it. “What do you mean by that?” Victor asked. He was prepared for violence if, indeed, that was a threat.

The alien raised his hand and made a simple hand gesture. As if on cue, the ice sheet beneath Victor, Phil, and Mulch cracked like glass and broke away. They stumbled on the hard ice, into the small valley made by the alien. The silent silver being started to move away.

“Wait!” Victor shouted, recovering from the fall and shaking ice from his metallic arms. The silver being ignored Victor, continuing to move away.

Victor’s patience was at an end. Alien or not, nothing in this world or any other ignored him. “I said wait!” he bellowed, unleashing a torrent of electricity from his hands toward the being. The fingers of power reflected in the ice sheets below as they staggered and danced all over the alien’s body. The powerful glare from the blast covered them both, blinding Victor and everyone else for just an instant.

Zuko recovered his sight to see the alien hovering as before, unaffected by Victor’s powerful blast. Despite this, Victor’s display of power impressed the young Firebender. He knows how to control lightning just like any other Firebender…especially Azula, he thought along with his uncle, who was just as impressed.

Victor, Phil, and Mulch experienced a moment of panic. The charge Victor had hit the creature with could have leveled a building. “What the h*ll are we dealing with?” he asked aloud.

“I’d say God, but I never really thought silver was his color.” Phil uttered.

The alien raised a hand. Victor felt a tugging deep inside him, as if something was trying to claw its way out of his body. He clutched his chest, metal hitting metal, as his legs began to shiver and shake. Phil and Mulch could only look on and wonder what was happening to him.

The last thing Victor saw was an endless expanse of white: either the sky or the ground, or the distant horizon beyond. Victor was pulled apart into billions of tiny particles of matter. It happened so quickly that he did not feel a thing. The alien kept the particles floating there above Phil and Mulch, the last remnants of Victor Von Doom, hovering like fireflies. With another flick of his hand, the alien sent them sailing away upon the icy wind like so many motes of dust.

“Good Lord!” Phil exclaimed, his words expressing just how everyone else around him, from Mulch to Zuko, was feeling about the stunning display.

The particles continued flying on the air and went sailing through a wall of solid ice, far away from the alien’s crater, into a cave. The darkness inside the cave was not helped by the presence of thick walls of ice surrounding its exterior that only reflected light away from the cold, dank space. The particles entered the cave and hovered, as if shivering in the cold. One by one they slowly gathered together, reforming the person of Victor Von Doom. Victor, reassembled, fell to the floor of the cave. He clutched his stomach and tried to retch into the cold, dark ice but nothing came. He breathed deeply and quickly, trying to calm his quaking mind, his rage balanced only by a small sense of awe at the power of the silver being.

“Aliens,” Victor said, spitting the word out like a curse.

Outside the cave, Phil and Mulch were looking skyward to see the alien fly out of the Earth’s atmosphere on his board. “Now that’s just the wrong attitude to have,” Phil stated. “Especially when someone asks nicely.”

Just as the two Muppets were about to enter the cave to find Victor Von Doom’s remains, Zuko and Iroh stepped out from their hiding spot and finally confronted them.

“Wait.” Zuko said, and Phil and Mulch jumped in surprise, not expecting anyone else other than the silver creature to pop up in such a cold atmosphere. “You must help us find that thing. My honor might depend on his helping me find the Avatar.”

Phil and Mulch exchanged confused looks. “Uhh…okay? If you want an avatar, we have a camera in the copter you can borrow and take our photo with. Just be sure to let the folks on Muppet Central know we’re the real deal and not really good puppet copies.”

Zuko and Iroh looked to each other puzzlingly. “What?” Zuko uttered. “Listen, that thing has powers beyond any of our wildest dreams! Capturing him would mean taking control of all four nations a lot faster than my father is hoping to achieve.”

Neither Phil nor Mulch had any clue what Zuko was saying. But they did understand that confronting the silver being again would mean another person getting atomized in seconds. “Chase after him all you want, buddy, as long as we’re far away from that thing. We want nothing more to do with him. He’s scary. Right, Mulch?”

Mulch grunted an affirmative answer.

Iroh placed a hand on his frustrated nephew’s shoulder. “Let us leave them be, Prince Zuko. Perhaps our destiny will lead us down a different path of finding the Avatar.”

“I don’t need my destiny guiding me, Uncle! I know my path of finding the Avatar, and this is it!” Zuko furiously snapped, his hands bursting with fire under his rage.

The unnatural ability that Zuko unknowingly displayed before the eyes of Phil and Mulch was what helped them take the young Firebender much more seriously than they had been. Seeing his hands on fire without any serious harm being done made them wonder whether if Zuko was a mutant—someone caught in some sort of horrible lab accident or born with such a superpower—or something that was not of their world, much like the silver alien they confronted.

Zuko looked in their direction again, pointing a flaming finger directly at them. “If you will not help me find the silver man, then perhaps I will just have to seek my own methods of doing so!”

The exiled prince and his uncle were about to leave, until a voice spoke from nearby and addressed them. “Stop!” Their heads turned towards the entranceway to the cave, where Victor Von Doom staggered out. His metallic body moved slowly, but his mind was a flurry of activity. “You sound like someone who has lost more than I have, not to mention someone who possesses an interesting power of his own.” Zuko looked carefully at Victor, as if sensing another offer coming up. “Perhaps you and I can work together to find the silver man. You’ve got the fire, and I’ve got the lightning.”

“He has plenty of lightning from me, thank you.” Iroh stated, as if to usher Zuko away from making an offer he felt in his conscience was not right somehow.

Zuko ignored his uncle, interesting only in what Victor was offering him. “I’m listening. Tell me how I can find that creature. I will do anything you ask, if it means capturing the Avatar and regaining my honor.”

Victor smiled. With someone who can bend fire like this young man could, he could be ready for another encounter with the silver being. Yet he realized that he also needed to use more than brute strength to stop him. He would need something a bit more cerebral, which meant it was time to pay a visit to some old friends.

“First thing’s first, kid,” Victor said, “Tell me a little about this Avatar that you’re talking about.”

END OF CHAPTER NINE​

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

Must...read...more..@_@
*Zombie-like gaze*

 

[The Count]

Thank you for this wonderous gift Sean. Been doing some reading all day, and this was a pleasure to find. Hope the next part gets added soon.

 

[muppetwriter]

One thing that I should mention for those who aren't big Avatar viewers and are reading the events of this tale, I'm pretty much setting the storyline dealing with characters from the show in the middle of "Book Two: Earth", where Zuko undergoes what I like to call a "double change", switching back and forth between good and evil.

I'm also basing much of the Avatar storyline off "Book Two: Earth", so if you'd like to see what happens in the episodes of that season, here are some links:

Chapters 21 through 25

Chapters 26 through 30

Chapters 31 through 35

Chapters 36 through 40

Another thing that I should mention about the Zuko character is his current status in the series. In the recent season, "Book Three: Fire", he's good again (this time for good, if you excuse the pun) once he realizes that his destiny is to help the Avatar (Aang) learn about Firebending and defeat his father, Fire Lord Ozai. He finds out about the reason his mother disappeared, in addition to the truth about Fire Lord Roku (the Avatar before Aang) being his great grandfather from his mother's side.

Unfortunately, I won't be referencing any of "Book Three" into this story.

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

Thank you for this update.

*Prods him to post the next chapter*

 

[muppetwriter]

I'm going to be taking a break from the story for the next three days to enjoy my Christmas holiday like everyone else is, but when I get back, I promise that things will really start to heat up from the next chapter onward.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

:3 Happy Christmas to you (soon).
Do take a break!

This authoress will do the same.

 

[muppetwriter]

I should have another chapter up by tomorrow morning. Been so busy enjoying my Christmas holiday that I totally forgot to get back to it. But I'll be sure to have another chapter up definitely sometime tomorrow.

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Ten​

The Fantastic Four and their new and old friends grouped in Reed’s laboratory, where General Luft, Captain Raye, Jack Crichton, and their usual military escort were waiting to see what the reason for Reed Richards calling them over there was all about. Reed ignored the group in the room and walked directly to his computer and started punching in numbers.

The general was in his usual sour mood, his face creased into its customary scowl. “What’s the emergency, Richards?”

Reed looked up from his computer and addressed the group. “I’ve been cross-referencing the Surfer’s radiation through every astronomical database.” He pointed to a large monitor to his right and scrolled through a series of satellite photos of dead and barren planets not far from Earth’s solar system. Each photo was worse than the one before, showing lifeless landscapes, dried-up oceans, and ruined atmospheres.

From there, John Crichton took over the explanation. “All of these planets are where the Silver Surfer has been: Altair Seven. Rigel Three…Vega Six.” Crichton fell silent for a moment, letting the pictures speak for themselves. “And now they’re lifeless, barren. No atmosphere, no thermal activity, nothing. Wherever the Surfer goes—eight days later, the planet dies.”

“Just like Thra.” Jen sadly uttered.

Bunsen looked in his direction, hearing what he had said and noting the depressed look on his face. “That was your planet?”

“Thra was once a place of fear and terror, before I healed the crystal and returned balance to our planet.” Jen said. “And now it’s all gone, all because of this silver creature.” The Gelfling looked directly at Bunsen, tears welling up in his eyes. “He killed a good friend of mine. Took away everything I’d ever loved and care about.”

Honeydew’s head lowered in despair, listening to the first-hand glimpse of the destruction the Silver Surfer brings to the planets it visited.

Sue spoke up. “He’s already been here for six days.”

Clifford, who was there with Will, Irma, Hay Lin, Taranee, and some of his KMUP crew, was finally catching on. “Are ya’ll sayin’ if we don’t stop this thing in the next forty-eight hours, there will be nothin’ left livin’?”

Crichton nodded. “Yeah. That’s pretty much what this means.” Everyone in the room started murmuring and whispering, expressing their shock and dismay. A heavy mood fell over the crowd as each person came to terms with the grim and frightening news.

“Get me the White House,” General Luft ordered Captain Raye, who immediately pulled out her cell phone and started dialing. That one small act seemed to shake the room’s occupants from their collective shock.

“How do we stop him?” Will asked, sounding ready for a fight. “We don’t even know where to find him.”

Reed turned back to his computer and punched up a display of Earth on the screen. “The Surfer’s craters are marked with those blinking dots,” he said.

Sue walked over to his side. “The craters?”

Reed continued. “They seem random, but there’s something about them…” He thought for a moment, then hit a button on the console that rotated the image of Earth. The dots indicating the craters disappeared for a moment and then began blinking in the order in which they’d been created. Reed began furiously typing and numbers and equations whizzed past on the monitor. The others watched in amazement as Reed’s brilliant mind sifted through the numbers that appeared and disappeared before them.

Finally, Reed’s face brightened. “It’s the Catalan numbers sequence, modulo three-sixty.”

General Luft spoke for some when he said, “I don’t follow you.”

Bunsen began to explain on Reed’s behalf. “The craters aren’t random, General. They’re appearing in numerical sequence.”

“That means you can predict where the next one’s going to be,” Taranee added.

Reed pulled out his PDA and began typing again. Captain Raye interrupted, holding out her cell phone. “Sir, I have them,” she said, gesturing to the phone.

“Just a minute,” General Luft told her.

Reed finished his computations. “Latitude: fifty-one degrees, twenty-five minutes north. Longitude: zero degrees, five minutes west.”

Johnny’s face fell—being an experienced pilot, he knew exactly where the Surfer would strike next.

Even General Luft sounded worried. “Well,” he said quickly, “where is it?” His voice echoed in the silent room.

Meanwhile, as Will listened closely to Reed as he gave the location, she focused her thoughts on Taranee, utilizing her mind-reading ability. Contact Cornelia and tell her to meet up with us, she thought to Taranee.

I’m way ahead of you, Taranee silently remarked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The small flicker of stars glowing dimly in the cold air punctuated the inky night. Beneath them, the Thames River moved slowly and silently, as dark as the night above. The military helicopter moved swiftly through the darkness, following the length of the murky river. The coordinates Reed had pinpointed as the location of the Surfer’s next appearance had taken them all by surprise and added weight to an already heavy situation.

It wasn’t much of a surprise to Aang and his friends, seeing as how they had no idea what kind of place it was—they have only been on Earth for one day, and even the difference in time zones confused them (in New York City, it was daytime, and in London, it was nighttime). As they followed the military helicopter carrying their new earthling friends on Appa the flying bison, who was surrounded by a large cloud created through Waterbending and Airbending, their clothes were very different from before.

Aang was wearing a baseball cap sideways, with a red, short-sleeved, button shirt over an orange t-shirt and short blue jeans, in addition to white tennis shoes. Katara was fitted with a blue tank top and light blue jeans, along with brown sandals. Sokka had on a blue muscle shirt and baggy jeans that he had great difficulty trying to keep up, as well as white tennis shoes with blue stripes. And Toph had on what she believed was the most uncomfortable outfit she’s ever worn: a tight green t-shirt that showed off the build of her upper body, a green mini-skirt, and—to top it all off—brown hiking boots that completely threw off her special Earthbending senses, which enable her to detect her surroundings (a fact that she failed to alert Cornelia on, as she was fitted with the clothes).

“This is just downright ridiculous!” Toph exclaimed. “I can’t see a thing with these stupid shoes on my feet!”

“Why don’t you just take them off?” Katara suggested.

“Because Little Miss Fashion tied some sort of knot on them, and I couldn’t see how she did it.” Toph remarked, as she fiddled with trying to untie the knot, only to create another one over it.

Ignoring her complaints, Aang stared over the right side of Appa and noticed a sight he had never before seen: the London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, stood proudly against the river, its lights offering a balm to the darkness around it. The large observation wheel held thirty-two passenger capsules attached to its steel circumference and stretched over four hundred feet into the night sky. Shaped like a bicycle wheel, the London Eye rested on the western end of the Jubilee Gardens, on the south bank of the Thames.

The impressive structure sat on the bank of the river, just near a pier that led to a walkway down to the water. Even from the helicopter and Appa, everyone could see people riding inside the capsules, admiring the London skyline, or milling about in the gardens near the wheel or the adjacent County Hall. Quite an attraction in a heavily populated city.

“There are so many people down there.” Aang said, shuddering to think what dangers could happen with the Silver Surfer around. “I hope nothing really serious goes down out here.”

Inside the military helicopter, General Luft seemed to be thinking the same thing. He looked over at Reed. “You sure your team can handle this alone?” he asked. “I’d feel better bringing in ground and air support.”

Will couldn’t help but to suppress a smile ask the general asked such a question, because she knew of the backup that would come in the form of their element-bending friends from another world. “Trust us, General,” she said. “This is what we do.” However, Will’s confident words betrayed the apprehension she felt. They hadn’t been battle-tested in a fight with the silver entity. Their previous encounter with it had almost destroyed the roof of the Baxter Building, and had left Johnny an unstable bundle of molecules. Some of the team feared what else could go wrong in an all-out battle with the Surfer.

General Luft eyed Will, still looking skeptical. He was told of the amazing things she and her fellow Guardian friends could do, but something about putting the world’s fate at the hands of preteens and their freaky super-powered allies made him feel awkward. “Well, you’re not going to be doing anything if Richards here is wrong about the location.”

Bunsen, who had kept his eyes on the view of the Thames from the helicopter, motioned downward and said, “I do not believe you have to worry about that, General.”

They all peered below to see that the Thames was beginning to churn. A circle of water about the size of the Surfer’s craters started to roil and froth, glowing with energy and light. The site of the sudden luminescence was silent except for the splashing of the water. People below crowded the banks of the Thames, astonished at the show of light, anticipating fireworks or more lights to add to the already impressive London skyline.

The military helicopter descended quickly and landed beside the Millennium Wheel, near the gardens. Meanwhile, Appa (still shrouded by the fog) landed in between the trees of the Jubilee Gardens. The sight of the copter landing caused more people to gather and stare. Inside the wheel’s passenger cars, people could be seen angling for a better view of the skyline, the churning, glowing water, and the sudden arrival of military transport.

Reed and the others exited the copter quickly, while Aang and his group jumped off Appa and ran out of the fog to join the gathering crowd. They watched their Earth friends as Reed motioned their way. “General, we need to clear these people out of here.”

“I’m already on it, Richards,” he said brusquely, as soldiers began driving people away from the landing site and the perimeter surrounding the wheel, evacuating them from the area. Only Aang and his companions were the ones who ran from the crowd and towards the Millennium Wheel, undetected by General Luft and his soldiers.

The Fantastic Four, Beaker, Bunsen, the Guardians, the Gelflings, and the Moya crew stood directly behind the wheel, in the middle of the gardens, on a paved walkway lined with the lighted trees, one of which Appa had been hiding near. The wheel and the river stood directly in front of them. “If he surfaces soon, we’ve got to move the fight away from the crowds.”

Johnny shook his head. “He’s too fast for that. The second I see silver, I’m hitting him.” Johnny started to walk toward the river.

“Wait,” Reed yelled, careful not to touch him and trigger another shift of their powers. “You can’t do that. We’ve got to stick to a plan and work as a team.”

The last word seemed to catch Johnny’s attention—and his ire. “Oh, we’re still a team now? That’s news to me.”

Bunsen and Beaker were taken aback. “What are you talking about, Jonathan?” Bunsen asked.

“I’m talking about Reed and Sue breaking up the team to have a nice, calm, boring life!” Johnny replied.

“Johnny, this isn’t really the time,” Sue said.

Ben stepped forward and joined the fight. “The kid’s got a point. You should have told us, Reed.”

The Four and Bunsen & Beaker started arguing, filling the normally quiet gardens with the sounds of their angry voices, while the Guardians, the Moya crew, the Gelflings, and Aang & his friends watched on with exasperation. Johnny made clear that he had overhead his sister’s talk with Reed and wasn’t happy with their decision. The consequences of Johnny’s fight with the Surfer hadn’t aided his mental state, so he yelled. As did the others.

John Crichton suddenly shoved his way into the middle of the argument to get their attention. “What the h*ll is wrong with you people?” he asked.

Before anyone in the group could respond, a loud boom sounded from the river. As one, they raced toward the Thames to witness the Silver Surfer bursting out of the glowing water. His high-velocity flight created a shock wave that hit the London Eye full force. The large steel wheel shook from the blast, the windows of the capsules shattering in bursts, jagged glass hitting the inhabitants and falling to the ground below. The structure’s heavy frame began to wilt like wet paper, sending the entire thing tilting toward the river.

The screams of those inside the capsules could be heard as they held on for dear life, their bodies bouncing against the metal and remaining glass like toys. One Japanese tourist fell hard against the rounded glass observation room, breaking the already cracked laminated glass and almost pitching out of the jagged window. He held on to the window frame, glass scratching his bloodied hands, his feet dangling in the cold night air as the wheel started to fall. His digital camera fell to the ground and shattered.

Suddenly the wheel stopped its descent, stuck at a forty-five-degree angle. Sue and Bunsen stood on the pier between the wheel and the river, their arms outstretched as they struggled to hold the seventeen-hundred-ton wheel up with a force field and crystal shield. Reed winced as he saw his fiancée’s nose start to bleed with the strain, as well as seeing Bunsen faltering a little. Then the wheel began to topple into the river; Bunsen and Sue’s strength was waning.

“Ben, Taranee, Irma…quickly!” Reed called out as he extended his arms into the cold night air, wrapping them around the metal wheel and weaving rapidly in and out of its steel spokes. Reed strained against the inertia of the substantial structure and held on to it while Ben, Taranee, and Irma tugged on the rest of his body, trying to anchor them all to the grounds of the Jubilee Gardens. Both Reed and the wheel screamed from the strain of their efforts, the cold metal eating into the flesh of his elongated form.

Will, having spied two people hanging out of a capsule, about to fall to their deaths, screamed “Hang on!” and took to the air with Hay Lin at her side. Johnny noticed the danger as well and followed, surrounded by his living flame. He was eager to get to the man in peril and didn’t pay much attention to Reed’s extended arms, which had been wrapped around several spokes of the wheel numerous times in his attempt to stabilize the shifting structure. As Johnny zoomed past Will and Hay Lin, Will quickly took notice of his change in trajectory and how it was too sudden for his speed, brushing his arm against one of Reed’s extended limbs.

Reed screamed “No!” as the direct contact with Johnny caused his body to retract, suddenly bathed in the powerful cosmic glow of Johnny’s unstable molecular composition. Reed’s entire body burst into flame as he absorbed Johnny’s power, the side effect of the Human Torch’s encounter with the Surfer once again wreaking havoc on the group. Ben, Taranee, and Irma, startled by the unexpected transformation, let go and Reed fell to the ground, setting the grass around him on fire.

Up in the air, a still glowing Johnny started to fall from the sky, his limbs stretching uselessly over the spokes of the wheel, where he was left dangling like many of the passengers in the capsules. And without the benefit of Reed anchoring it to the land inside the gardens, the wheel again began to tip.

The sudden, violent motion of the wheel tipping caused the Japanese tourist and another man to finally lose their grip on the window frame. They shrieked as they realized they couldn’t hold on and began falling toward the cold, hard ground. The air rushed all around them as they fell, and they began whispering prayers, anticipating their impact. But suddenly their fall was stopped, as Will and Hay Lin caught them both in midair and guiding them gently to the ground. They fell to their knees when they realized they were safely back on land, away from the shaking, rattling wheel.

Sue and Bunsen suddenly lost control over their force field and crystal shield, dropping their hold on both to allow the wheel to tip further and crash through the mixture of crystal and invisible energy. Seeing how the wheel was tipping over, Cornelia summoned the earth beneath her feet to extract a gigantic mound of rock to press up against the side of the wheel, keeping it from tilting any further.

Cornelia strained to extract more rock from the ground to set the wheel upright, and it was obvious to Aang and his friends how difficult it was for her to do just that. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she tried to hold on to the structure without the help of the others.

Toph could hear Cornelia grunting stressfully and knew that she needed help. “I’m going in!”

“Toph! Wait!” Katara exclaimed. “We should go in together!”

Toph obviously wasn’t listening, because she was already running far away from her friends and toward Cornelia. However, due to the shoes that she wore on her feet, she could not see exactly where she was heading and ended up bumping right into Cornelia, knocking them both to the ground and breaking Cornelia’s concentration on the mound, which had suddenly crumbled to nothing more than pebbles.

“What are you doing?” Cornelia snapped at her.

“Trying to help you out, which is easier said than done, thanks to these shoes you shackled to my feet!” Toph yelled, just before she heard the sound of the wheel tipping over again. “I’ve got this!” She then stood up to stop the wheel from tipping over, utilizing her Earthbending skills to create a mountain from the gravel for the wheel to rest up against. Unfortunately, she was facing in the opposite direction of the wheel and developed a mountain beneath the feet of General Luft, his soldiers, and the crowd of people, setting them down at the peak of it.

Realizing that much of the team was failing in each of their tasks, Aang knew that he had to step in himself and take control. With his trusty Airbending skills, he blew a massive gust of wind against the wheel until it finally came to rest, upright. Reed and the others took notice of the actions of these strange newcomers, who apparently have just as powerful elemental-altering abilities as the Guardians.

“Where did they come from?” Ben asked.

“Never mind.” Reed told him. “Just make sure that wheel is kept from tipping again.”

Acknowledging Reed’s command, Ben rushed beneath it and braced it with his substantial frame, wrapping the ruined metal around itself and creating new beams of support. Sue and Bunsen got back to their feet near the pier, watching the water recede from their view.

Reed marveled at the impressive display of power that Aang the young Airbender had displayed before running away from the scene with three other youths and disappearing into a strange fog that had lifted from the ground and into the night air. Reed’s attention then went to Sue, who he remembered seeing collapse along with Bunsen. He rushed over to her, leaving a set of flaming footprints behind him on the scorched grass. He spied one of Johnny’s useless, elongated limbs dangling over a low part of the wheel and touched it, igniting the transformation between them once again.

Returned to his regular form, Reed again started for Sue. Johnny followed, but Reed turned to face him, keeping a safe distance. “Just stay back. You’re going to get somebody killed!” Johnny stopped dead in his tracks, shaken by Reed’s violent and dismissive tone.

Reed reached Sue’s side just as she and Bunsen were regaining their strength. He wiped some blood from her upper lip and cradled her head gently. They looked back at the London Skyline, still intact beneath the black night sky. But something was different. In the light of the half-hidden moon, they saw that the once mighty Thames River was gone, completely drained in the aftermath of the Surfer’s appearance. All that remained was a large silver crater resting at the bottom of the empty riverbed, its ethereal glow yet another reminder that time was running out to save the entire population of Earth.

A shudder ran through them both as they heard the wailing cry of an ambulance in the distance. It was then that Reed knew, deep in his heart, that they had failed.

END OF CHAPTER TEN​

 

[The Count]

Ooh... Simply marvelous in every regard. Must know how this continues. Post more please!