The Silver Crystal

[The Count]

Wow... Just wow... Loved every part of this. All the action, and emotion, and complications. The one thing that's been missing, and I'm not sure if you'd be able to work it in is... Everybody but Beaker's gotten a chance to show off their powers/abilities. True, Beaker has had a bit of a running gag with Johnny's unstable power-switch... But still, I'd feel slightly better if the last member of the team got his moment to show what he can do as well.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to however it is you continue this story.

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Twenty​

The small piece of jet was still smoking, a thin wisp of black cloud rising up into the dull, sun-washed air. Morning had come, the sun high and far away, as if it was keeping its distance from the violence on Earth. The Surfer pulled Sue’s body along the dirty street, nursing a limp that almost caused him to fall to the ground. He stared at the large building behind them and recognized it as a place of worship. Citizens were standing in the doorways, witnesses to the sudden crash. They, too, kept their distance, unsure of what they were seeing.

The Surfer laid Sue’s unconscious body near a deserted Shanghai market street. The stalls were closed up and the few people who were out in the early morning scurried quickly to their destinations, avoiding the sight of the strange silver alien and the sleeping white woman. The Surfer eased his injured leg to the side as he too, took a seat on the ground, weary from the battle. He had never seen power like the one he had just witnessed. He had no idea the board was capable of that. He had seen carnage before, but usually from the presence of Gah Lak Tus, the Destroyer. And while the board was connected to that power, never had he seen it so violently displayed.

He cradled Sue’s head in his lap, brushing her blond hair away from her face. Blood oozed from a cut on her forehead and ran in a delicate path to her eyebrow and then down the side of her face. He touched her cheek lightly, remembering Shalla Bal, the one he left so long ago. But memory, he knew, had a way of making time seem weak, powerless. What he left so long ago could be sitting with him here and now. Memory took only a matter of seconds to make it so.

Sue’s eyes fluttered and then opened. She awoke to find herself cradled by the Silver Surfer, her head protected from the cold, hard street. She could smell the burning smoke mixed with the humid wetness of dawn. Strangely, she felt quite calm. She looked up to see Norrin Radd staring intently at her, a look of relief briefly crossing his face. The intimacy of the moment touched her deeply. Their connection was not romantic, like what she felt with Reed, nor was it the bond she felt with her brother, Johnny. But she did feel drawn to him, perhaps as one warrior to another, and the need to protect him was somehow never far from her mind when she was in his presence. Only now he was protecting her. She reached up and touched his hand, to convey her gratitude. He helped her stand, slowly, she unsure of her footing and he still nursing his injured leg.

Suddenly they heard a loud screech, sounding like a big flying overhead. Only it was not a bird that they saw as they had looked up. It was the Azula-Skeksis, soaring close to the Shanghai street, squawking horribly as she passed. Neither the Surfer nor Sue had ever seen such an appalling creature that would’ve only existed on a planet like Thra, the Gelflings’ home world. Even as it slammed to the ground, making web-like cracks in the concrete, the up-close view they had gotten of it was horrendous. Slime oozed out from its beak, its yellow eyes glaring from one direction to another, its claws scratching against the concrete, and its talons protruding from boots worn by its alter ego, Princess Azula.

The Azula-Skeksis looked in the direction of Sue and the Surfer, screeching in excitement to find its first morning prey. She unleashed her cross-bending abilities again, mixing Airbending and Firebending again to rocket towards the two beings. Before she could’ve laid her claws on them, a large chunk of the ground shot up and knocked her away from them, sending her crashing through the wall of a nearby building.

Soon the cavalry had arrived in the form of the Benders, the Guardians, D’Argo, Caleb, and Vathek, as they climbed off Appa just as soon as they had landed. It was Toph’s crafty Earthbending skills that knocked the Azula-Skeksis away from Sue and the Surfer, long enough for Sue to lead him to the corner of another building, helping him lean on it for support. She looked back to see her section of the jet smoking but still intact. Once she dealt with Norrin’s injury, she might be able to get it working again.

Meanwhile, the Azula-Skeksis had busted its way out of the building it had crashed into, letting out a loud screech at its new prey. The screech slightly effected Toph’s hearing, which was all that she had left to be of used to her, since her eyes wasn’t. “Man! Azula, I can’t see what you look like now, but you sound like one ugly mother…”

Before Toph could even finished that statement, the Azula-Skeksis began sending large balls of fire and earth flying towards them, forcing them all to dodge out of the way. Aang, Katara, and Toph quickly made a counter-attack, using their elements to overwhelm the Azula-Skeksis.

Nearby, Sue noticed a cardboard box in the doorway of a stall across the street and went over to it, looking for something to make a splint for the Surfer’s leg. She took a few deep breaths, hoping the intake of air might help clear her head. The base of her skull throbbed and nausea burned in her stomach. Crossing the street, she tried to remember what she could: the elongated craft separating into individual components, the dogfight in the air, Victor’s rabid attack and his seemingly limitless power. She wondered where Reed, Ben, Bunsen, Beaker, and her brother were; she hoped that they’d also survived the fight.

Sue kneeled before the half-opened box, while listening to the intense battle going on near her between her element-bending friends and the creature. Chinese lettering was stamped on the rough cardboard in faded red ink. She opened the two flaps and found brightly colored silk fabrics, scarves, and perhaps a heavy garment or two. She wasn’t sure they would be of much use, but it was all they had. She’d have to make do.

Just then Sue heard a loud humming coming from the air. Standing, she looked up and down the street. She looked up to the gray sky, the dull sunlight unable to break through the heavy cover of clouds. It was then that she saw the streetlamp near her grow soft and begin to bend, its heavy lamp hitting the street, the glass shattering in thick, uneven shards. Another streetlamp across the street did the same, wilting like a flower. Soon all the streetlamps were falling as if they were melting in the sun. She looked toward the place of worship, on the far side of the crash site, and saw people running inside, shutting the heavy wooden doors behind them—running not only because of the unearthly battle that waged on in the street.

Sue heard a loud pop and turned back to see an electric sign above a storefront suddenly light up and glow. It burned so brightly that it blew out its bulbs before falling heavily onto the street. It was then that she saw him, hovering in the air above them. Victor on the board, still shining, still powerful. Still deadly.

Victor floated just above the Surfer, who was still leaning against the building. His dull, tarnished skin looked even worse next to the radiant glow of Victor and the board. The Surfer looked up at Victor, horrified by the sight of him. He had a sudden awareness that this was how the others had seen him—all the other people on all the other worlds, including Thra. This was what they saw before their planet was destroyed.

Doom locked eyes with the Surfer. This pathetic being didn’t deserve the power the board granted, he thought. The Surfer wasn’t strong enough to handle such a gift. Victor, however, was. It was destiny, he thought, to be reborn by destroying the very thing that had once ripped him apart molecule by molecule and left him to rot deep within a cave of ice. “You should have taken me up on my offer,” Victor said coldly. It would have saved them both a lot of trouble.

Victor extended his hand into the air. Silver matter rippled on the surface of the board near his feet and started working its way up through Victor’s body, a traveling motion of waves that undulated up his side and ended in the palm of his hand. The silver matter congealed there before elongating, growing and thinning, taking the shape of a long silver spear. Victor cocked his arm, ready to unleash his new weapon on the Surfer. He wanted to pierce him through and be done with this, thereby taking sole ownership of the board.

Suddenly a force field surrounded him. Victor looked over to see Sue running toward the Surfer, her hand extended before her, keeping the field intact. Her eyes burned holes in Victor as she tried to constrict the field around him. He could feel it cutting into the molecules of air surrounding his metallic skin.

He gave her an evil smile. “Sorry, Susan,” he said his voice low and deep. “Not this time.” With one gesture from his free hand, the field was hurled back at Sue. She let out a yelp as the energy hit her like a ton of bricks, knocking her off her feet.

Sue fell to the ground, the Surfer reaching out his arm in a futile, instinctive reaction to catch her. How pathetic. The power of the board imbued Victor with a lethal silver glow, as he aimed the point of the spear directly at the Surfer’s head. Nothing would survive its deadly touch—even the creature that Victor once thought all-powerful.

~~~~~~~~~~~​

A few blocks away, Reed was limping down a side street with Ben and Johnny. They had found one another quickly, Reed using his elongated torso to stretch up into the air and follow the smoke given off by Ben’s crashed jet. The only part of the jet that was still active was Bunsen and Beaker’s, which Bunsen was able to repair and fix its heavily damaged exterior by crystallizing it. The two Muppet scientists flew just above their three teammates, as Reed led them to the outskirts of Shanghai, where he thought he spied another smoke trail near a large temple not far from the center of the city. Reed was concerned about Sue, but also fearful of another encounter with Victor.

Reed stretched out his hand, causing Ben, Johnny, Bunsen, and Beaker to stop dead in their tracks. Out of nowhere, a fleet of alien ships flew over them, heading directly towards the city. Their eyes widen with shock as they realized the number of them that had begun attacking all of Shanghai.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Ben exclaimed. “As if Victor and the kid weren’t enough to worry about!”

The situation was seeming more hopeless than it had already become. Nothing in their arsenal could match the dark forces that had brought havoc into the innocent, sacred city. But hope had soon arrived, as soon as they spotted some C.O.V.N.E.T.-class jets that had soared over them and started to attack the invading ships. The jets resembled a cross between F-117 Nighthawks and B-2 Spirits, two well-known U.S. Air Force stealth aircrafts. John Crichton, Aeryn Sun, and Chiana flew each.

Bunsen and Beaker watched the battle that was taking place in the air intently and knew, with their half of the jet still functional, that they could do something in the air rather than the ground. “We will handle the alien ships, while you all take care of Doom.”

“Meep mee meep!” Beaker acknowledged.

Reed nodded in agreement and his two friends flew higher into the air, making their way into their air battle. The three remaining teammates watched as Bunsen flew near a few ships and Beaker, utilizing his superpower, transfigured into a bolt of lightning and zapped through the ships, disabling them. They had repeated this action on other ships, while Crichton, Aeryn, and Chiana simply maneuvered around them and fired their plasma cannons as soon as they got a good shot.

After viewing a little of the commencing air battle, Reed led Ben and Johnny toward the ones happening in the city. They rounded a corner just in time to see Victor hovering in the air on his board above the figure of the Silver Surfer. Reed scanned the street looking for Sue until finally he saw her, lying a few feet from the Surfer. Thank God, Reed thought. We’re not too late. She’s still alive.

Sue pulled her body across the street, crawling over the pavement toward the cornered Surfer. Her blue eyes were wild and determined. She had to reach him. Everything in her body told her this, and she felt every muscle ache and strain in her attempt to make it to him. But she was too late. Victor brought his arm back, preparing to unleash the fatal spear.

It was like Sue witnessed the action in slow motion. She saw Victor throw his arm forward, saw the spear leave his hand and take to the air. She could sense its overwhelming power, its direct connection to the board, a weapon born out of the same power that could destroy entire worlds. The tip of the spear shone brightly even in the overcast light of the morning. The spear parted the air as it made its way toward the Surfer. Sue screamed “No!” and, using the last of her energy, threw her body directly in front of the wounded silver being. Directly in front of the spear.

The powerful weapon impaled her torso. She felt a rush of air, like she had taken a long, deep breath, and then she felt nothing. She crumpled to the ground like a ruined flower.

Reed stopped breathing when he saw the silver spear pierce the woman he loved. “Sue!” he yelled.

He could only imagine what Johnny felt at the sight of his sister falling to the street, the spear sticking out of her body at a perfect right angle. “No!” Johnny screamed.

The screams of Johnny Storm caught the attention of the Guardians, who could only watch the fierce battle taking place between the Benders and the Azula-Skeksis without the super strength of their abilities intact. They noticed in shock as Susan had been stricken by the spear and ran toward her. Caleb, who had assisted Vathek, D’Argo, and Sokka in fighting hand-to-hand with the Azula-Skeksis while her attention was momentarily distracted on the Benders, stopped and took notice of the Guardians running off to aide the wounded Sue. He dodged his way out of the battle he was fighting in to join up with the Guardians.

Meanwhile, Victor’s eyes grew wide when he saw the spear hit not its target but the woman he’d once loved, the woman who’d once made him feel human. He let out a deep growl and took to the air, letting the board take him higher and higher, away from the sight of it.

The fool Johnny Storm decided to pursue. A fatal mistake, to be sure.

With a mere swipe of his hand, Doom’s cosmic power sent the insect flying back toward the ground, right where he belonged with all the other insignificant mortals. He saw Storm crash into the street below…yet still alive somehow, even as his doltish rocky companion made his way over to him to see if Victor had left him in one piece.

Reed, Caleb, and the Guardians rushed to Sue’s side, shock and fear pulsing through their bodies. The others just looked on and prayed, while Reed gathered Sue in his arms, cradling her head gently, mindful of the deep, penetrating wound in her chest. The entire front of her uniform was covered in blood…her blood.

Once Victor was out of range, the spear disintegrated, but Sue’s wound did not. She continued to bleed out onto the Shanghai street, a bright silk scarf still clutched in her hand. It took a moment for her to let it go.

Her beautiful blue eyes were round and moist, glassy as marbles. They struggled to focus until she saw Reed, holding her close and trying to keep her warm against the onset of shock.

“Reed,” she said, drawing the word out in a long exhale. “Where’s Victor?”

Reed welled up with tears at the sound of her frail, weakened voice. “Don’t try to talk,” he said. He was unable to bear the sight of her, his eyes pleading with her to stop. To breathe. To hold on.

“You have to find a way to get the board,” she said.

“I can’t. I…” Reed let out a sob. “I don’t know how.”

“Listen to me…you can do this…it’s who you are. It’s why you’re here…” She smiled lovingly at him, her eyes memorizing his face in one last, long look. “It’s why I love you.” As soon as the last word left her lips, she started to tremble, wincing in pain. A curtain fell over her features, taking her away from him. Reed held her tightly as her body continued to shake. A thin line of blood escaped from the corner of her mouth and ran down onto the dirty street beneath her.

The eyes of the young girls that were once known as Guardians of Infinite Dimensions had welled up with tears, as they looked upon the sight of Reed cradling the body of his fiancée. It had greatly affected Cornelia, whose relationship with Caleb almost mirrored that between Reed and Sue. She turned to him at that moment and embraced him, crying on his shoulder. Caleb did all he could to comfort her, he himself also shedding tears of Sue’s condition. Never had the two cared more deeply for each other than now.

Will started to feel ashamed of herself, as she gazed upon the chaos that had erupted all over the city, from the Bending battle taking place on the street to the intergalactic dogfight in the air. “We could’ve prevented all this,” she said softly. “If only we had kept Azula away from that crystal, this all would’ve never occurred.”

Suddenly the street filled with darkness. The gray morning turned into night, as if the sun had disappeared. A loud, horrible rumbling came from the sky, followed by shattering blasts of thunder and lightning. Strong winds appeared, blowing trash and one long silk scarf down the street, twisting it into the air and taking it away. Reed held on to Sue tightly, feeling the last of her body’s warmth give way to the cold blasts of air.

The Surfer, holding on to the building for support, rose from the ground. His dull face was racked with anguish, after watching the beautiful human protect him. As her life bled into the street, he stared at the others around him. The man cradling her, bent over in sadness. The young one, no longer made of flames, his face contorted with grief. The powerful one, made of rocks, large and so strong but still useless in the face of the coming power. And the youngest warriors, the boy and the five girls, sharing the grief and loss of hope with the others. The Surfer looked up to the dark sky, felt the Earth tremble beneath him in complaint. He had seen this before. He had caused this to happen.

“It is here,” he intoned, unable to mask the sadness in his voice.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY​

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

Holy...smit.

Oh my God.

D:

-Praises Sean-

OH MY GOSH!

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Twenty-One​

The inside of the Command Carrier was quaking tremendously, causing several areas to explode to pieces, blowing its inhabitants away. Several lives were ended within seconds on the huge alien warship, and they could have easily have been spared, if Scorpius had listened to the lieutenant’s warning about a large, dangerous cosmic cloud coming their way. The half-Scarran/half-Sebacean barely even notice that his ship was coming apart, as he focused heavily on the image of Earth on the view screen.

“Sir!” The lieutenant cried. “What is your order? We are at critical damage!”

Just as soon after the lieutenant had asked that question, one section of the main deck had exploded, taking the lives of six technicians. The lieutenant, who was too panicked to wait and listen for an order by Scorpius, dashed out of the main deck and hoped their was still an operational Prowler ship left on board to serve as a method of escape. She would not have gotten very far, since the vortex passing over the ship had already claimed much of the ship.

Scorpius, left all by himself on the main deck, soon became fully aware of the danger he was in. His obsession with conquering the planet of Earth overwhelmed him greatly, the thought of taking over millions of lives and having all of John Crichton’s family and friends at his control plagued his sense of reality. He only became self-aware of the danger ahead, as soon as his view on Earth was obscured by bundles of dark clouds.

The half-Scarran/half-Sebacean let out a scream, as the main deck shook more viciously than before and then exploded, consuming Scorpius in the flames. It was the last part of the Command Carrier to have vanished into oblivious, as the entire warship had crumbled to pieces afterwards, the first unfortunate victim of the wrath of the Destroyer.

~~~~~~~~~~​

The remaining Prowler ships left in the dogfight over the skies of Shanghai had suddenly shut down and left their pilots crashing into buildings or streets, as the very atmosphere of the Earth seemed to tremble. The thick formations of clouds parted and dissipated as it arrived, dropping down through the atmosphere without thought to the heat, fire, and gases burning all around it. The Destroyer moved closer and closer to the surface of the planet. It blotted out the sun. It dropped the temperature of the planet by tens of degrees. The very core of the Earth quickened and panicked, sensing its end was near.

Gah Lak Tus arrived in the air over the Pacific seaboard. The swirling vortex of organic matter and energy was unlike anything the world had ever seen. It held the power of more than a thousand hurricanes and yet took on the appearance of one, its layers and layers of quickly turning wind and air masking the destructive energy that lay at its center.

With the remaining Prowler ships destroyed, Crichton and his fellow fighters became aware of the coming of Gah Lak Tus and immediately landed to the windy street in the Shanghai market district down below, where the battle between the Benders and the Azula-Skeksis continued while the others remained motionless. Getting out of their ships, they gazed around the sudden and violent change in the weather surrounding them. The strong winds were ripping wooden roofs and structures apart, casting chunks and beams of timber into the air.

The dark sky was menacing, filled with the energy and thundering clouds that had obliterated the sun. Large fingers of lightning could be seen sporadically lighting the horizon. Bits of hail fell, stirred by the cold winds. The ground beneath them started to crack, opening large, gaping wounds in the middle of the street that would lead to the core of the planet.

There was nothing much Crichton, Aeryn, Chiana, Bunsen, and Beaker could do about the arrival of Gah Lak Tus. But they did know that the Azula-Skeksis needed to be stopped at all cost. If the end of the world was inevitable, at least they could go out as heroes defeating the monster that stood before them. So they joined their friends in battling it, firing weapons from a distance or getting close enough to execute hand-to-hand combat with a mixture of Martial Arts or cosmic abilities.

If Reed Richards had ever imagined what the end of the world would look like, it was there in the dying landscape before him. He watched buildings reduced to rubble in seconds, trees wilting and dying in less than that. The entire world seemed to creak and groan, a sharp dagger dangling just over its pumping heart. As a man of science, the logistics of what he was seeing were incomprehensible. Science and logic failed him. He was flooded with a completely emotional response.

And yet none of it mattered. Beyond the horrors around him, his world was ending on a much more intimate scale, there in his two arms. The body of the woman he loved was cradled there, drawing shallow, weak breaths, fading in and out of his vision. He held her close, trying to protect her from the debris falling all around them. Ben provided some cover, shielding them from the flying wreckage of the market stalls, so they could be alone. Alone as the world ended.

Reed held Sue close, trying to keep her long blowing hair away from her face. Her brow furrowed every few seconds as she winced at the pain from her injuries. Reed kept pressure on the large wound but he knew it wasn’t enough. She had lost too much blood. A soft moan escaped from her mouth. Her eyes remained shut. Better that she not see what’s happening, Reed thought. It wouldn’t be long now.

As Reed held her, the world falling to pieces around them, his mind took him back through their years together: the first time he spotted Sue at MIT, the first time he showed her the view from the Baxter Building, the time they had went to a Muppet show and met Bunsen & Beaker, and the vision of her in her wedding dress. That perfect dress. Before he messed everything up, putting that sensor on the roof. Before the Surfer arrived and all h*ll broke loose. But they had prevailed. They had defeated the Surfer, using Reed’s mind and the science he was so willing to give up now.

Sue’s last words rushed through his mind then. You can do this. It’s who you are. It’s why you’re here. She was right. He couldn’t let her life end this way, bleeding on a street as the entire planet was destroyed. He had to control his emotions now, and use more than just science. And he couldn’t do it alone. He had to draw on the courage of the group. They could no longer be bystanders, observing the end of the world. They had to be heroes.

Reed spotted Bunsen and Beaker too busy fighting off the Azula-Skeksis, so he motioned for Ben and a stricken Johnny to come closer. Reed’s mind was racing with ideas as he tried to form a plan. “Victor’s got to have a tachyon pulse emitter linking him to the board,” Reed said, explaining how Victor was controlling the powerful silver weapon. “It must be built into his armor. We take it out, and we can separate him from the board.”

Johnny took his eyes off his sister long enough to speak. “He’s too strong for me.”

Ben’s expression grew grim. “I could whale on him, if I could get close enough. But he’d see me comin’ a mile away.”

“It would take all of us…” Reed began, until the answer hit him like a thousand lightbulbs going on in his mind. “Or one of us.”

Perhaps he had been missing the point all along. The Surfer, this intergalactic being, saw the entire planet, miraculous and complete, a living system of organic matter all connected together. One touch altered Johnny’s powers, switching them with the others. Not just any of the others, but the ones closest to him. His family. He was able to share their powers, feel what it was like to be them, and bask in the abilities that only they themselves could know. He was connected to them. It wasn’t a side effect from the Surfer. It was a gift.

Ben and Johnny looked perplexed, even as Reed’s expression was renewed and determined, hopeful. “Ben, come closer. Johnny, you too.” Reed grabbed Sue’s hand in his own, reaching out for the space between them. Ben and Johnny joined in, the four hands stacking on top of one another in close and direct contact, a sign of solidarity and strength.

The transformation began just like it had before. Johnny’s contact with the other members of the group caused the creation of a large, swirling cloud, alight with energy and cosmic dust. The light grew out from him, enveloping the entire street, the cloud pulsing and growing, lighting up the darkness, a sudden and new candle in the increasingly dark and dangerous world.

~~~~~~~~~~~​

Every section of the lab had been checked and double checked for any crystal shards, as the group had concluded their task in finding all the remains of the Crystal of Thra and gathered them at the center of the room in an eight-foot pile. Elyon, standing before the pile with her friends behind her, spread her arms apart and closed her eyes.

“Everyone shield your eyes,” she said. “This might be a little bright.”

The group had done just that, as Elyon started to focus really hard. Within the pile of crystal shards, a light had emerged. It wasn’t long before each and every one of the shards glowed themselves, consuming the lab in an overwhelming silver hue. No one could see what was happening beyond the intense light without rendering themselves blind. It was impossible. All they knew that whatever was working was working.

“I should’ve brought my shades, h’okay.” Pepe said.

“Lucky that I decided to wear mine today,” said Clifford, who still shielded his eyes despite the fact that he wore sunglasses that moment. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have to do much coverin’.”

As soon as the light had dimmed and left the lab once again partially lit, the group opened and unshielded their eyes to see the Crystal of Thra sitting where its remains once were, reformed back to its original state. They stood there for a moment, wondering if their plan had completely worked. But then Jen and Kira realized that the Crystal was not glowing in it average silver hue, but a purple one instead.

“It is still cracked!” Jen exclaimed.

“You mean we have missed a piece?” Iroh asked him.

“Yes,” Kira replied, checking through the Crystal of Thra to see where the last piece should go until she noticed an area at its upper end that had a small hole in it. “And unless we retrieve it, the Crystal is only giving off half of its energy.”

Immediately, the group began searching for the last remaining piece of the Crystal of Thra. Jen almost felt a sense of déjà vu, having to rejoin one piece of the Crystal in the same area that he had inserted it before. Only he hadn’t had to suffer any great difficulty searching for it in order to do so.

“Yo, Sal,” Johnny Fiama said. “This is almost like searchin’ for a needle in a haystack, am I right?”

“Gee, Johnny. I thought we were only lookin’ for a crystal.” Sal remarked. “You mean we’ve gotta look for a needle, too?”

“Hey, I found one.” Andy said, holding up a small needle.

“Me, too!” Randy said, also holding up one.

Rygel hovered over to the four Muppets, feeling aggravated over their lack of intelligence, which reminded him much of his own crew. He grumbled something in an alien language to them that they obviously didn’t understand. The only word they got was “frellin’.”

“Hey, I think that I got what that word means.” Andy uttered.

“Really?” Randy said. “What does it mean?”

“I think it’s another word for fu…”

“I HAVE FOUND IT!” screamed a voice from the corner of the room, and everyone turned to see Traveling Matt there, pointing to the location of the last crystal shard. Everyone looked there and realized that it was caught between the wall and a piece of heavy machinery.

The area was too small and crowded for any of them to reach through. Even Traveling Matt, the small creature that he was, could not get through there. “Is there not one of you silly creatures who can crawl through there?”

“I can!” Robin shouted from behind the group, and everyone parted to let him pass and approach Elyon, who knelt down to compare the sizes of the tiny frog and the space where the crystal shard was caught.

“Do you really think you can make it, Robin?” Elyon asked him.

“I have to, Your Majesty.” Robin said. “The fate of the world counts on me reaching that last piece.”

Elyon smiled the brave young frog and allowed him to start crawling his way into the space. “Be careful, Robin,” she said.

~~~~~~~~~~​

Will felt a weird sensation within her chest, and her hand instantly went to it, catching herself reaching for the Heart of Kandrakar. Her friends noticed the way she was clutching her chest and wondered if she was alright. That was when she pulled the Heart out from her shirt and watched it glow in her eyes. She soon realized that the Crystal of Thra must’ve been repaired for the Heart of Kandrakar to have suddenly regained its power.

She looked to her friends, seeing the smiles that had emerged from their faces as they had realized the exact same thing Will had. Their eyes went from the Heart to the intense battle that had waged between the Benders and the Azula-Skeksis. There was an obvious flaw in their plan, as Azula still remained in her sinister form. It only meant that the team would have to put an end to her once and for all, which was easier said than done.

But with the power now back in the Heart of Kandrakar and the Benders on their side, perhaps it would not be so much as a difficult task.

“GUARDIANS UNITE!”

The words escaped Will’s mouth like a complete blur. She never aware that she actually said them until all of them had transformed from their human forms to their Guardian forms in less than a second. Caleb stood by and watched proudly, seeing them all return to the forms that they were more familiar with than their human ones and more than ready to take on the Azula-Skeksis.

Together, they all joined up with their friends, as they continued battling the creature. Eight warriors with element-controlling abilities taking on one with the ability to control them all, along with nine fellow warriors that were armed with their own fashion of weapons to use as the Azula-Skeksis was distracted by her element-bending adversaries.

As Aang noticed the Guardians joining them in battle, he was pleased to see them in their super-powered form. “Hey! You’re back!”

“And better than ever!” Will remarked. “Azula doesn’t sand a chance, now that we’re all in this together!”

Toph used her Earthbending talent to summon chunks of concrete from the ground and cover her fists entirely. She slammed them together as she yelled, “It’s clobberin’ time!” She then punched the Azula-Skeksis with one fist, knocking her several feet from the group and into a nearby building.

~~~~~~~~~~~​

Victor Von Doom reveled in the presence of chaos. He floated gracefully in the air, sturdy atop the silver board, while the world went to h*ll around him. Hovering over the center of Shanghai, he watched the crowded, densely populated area crack and crumble. Pieces of buildings and a few cars twirled in the air, caught on the violent currents all around him, while he stood calmly upon the board. Lightning crashed down from the heavy batch of thick clouds, causing fires in the forests surrounding the city. Entire blocks of buildings were either aflame or brought to ruin, tumbling in upon themselves. Lakes were stirred to a rolling boil and began to give off steam, killing every living thing within them as they evaporated from the liquefying of the earth’s center. The surge of power within the board that accompanied the arrival of the Destroyer was tremendous. Victor let his eyes roll back in his head, feeling the euphoria overtake his body completely. It was a divine experience, the amount of power and strength surging through him, as the Earth gave up its final resistance. The power of death was sublime.

His body trembled with delight as constant, rabid laughter spilled from his mouth. He watched a mountain crumble into dirt. He saw the craters begin to glow, opening like hungry mouths, eager to begin streaming the molten core of the earth into the Destroyer that now sat high in the sky, just inside the planet’s atmosphere. Victor’s eyes grew wide as he witnessed the sanctity not of creation, but of destruction.

Calm settled around Victor, the board protecting him from the chaos all around him. The wind did little more than whisper to him, tiny voices telling him he was safe. But suddenly a different voice whispered in his ear. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him, but the voice was familiar. Confident and cocky at the same time. The voice grew louder and he realized it was the voice of Johnny Storm. He shook his head, trying to dispel it, swatting his hand at the air like he would swat a fly.

He suddenly noticed Johnny materialize in front of him, and as he appeared, Victor saw that this person had changed: his body appeared to be made of rock, but his trim frame still burned with living fire. Johnny drew back his now large fist and pounded Victor in the face with its rocky power. Victor went flying back from the blow, across the vast expanse of sky. Johnny stretched out his other fist, reaching through the torrents of wind and hail, and pulled Victor back to him. Johnny then hit him again, this time with a blow that would have leveled a building.

Victor flew backward once again, reeling from the tremendous punch, which knocked him across the dark and foreboding skyline toward the center of Shanghai. He crashed directly into a large billboard that advertised the television program Muppets Tonight, the face of Miss Piggy imploding from the sudden and powerful impact before falling to the street many stories below.

On that same street, Aang and Hay Lin had worked together in unleashing a powerful blast of wind that knocked the Azula-Skeksis into the path of the falling billboard. It had crashed right onto her with a tremendous thud. Hay Lin had noticed the advertisement on the billboard and saw the way Miss Piggy’s face had been ruined on it.

“Miss Piggy would’ve hated something like this,” Hay Lin stated, “but at least it was for a good cause.”

A loud screech bellowed from beneath the crashed billboard, and the Azula-Skeksis exploded from underneath it, flying straight up the air and then soaring towards Hay Lin and Aang. Before she could reach them, a gigantic wall of concrete had emerged from the ground, courtesy of Cornelia and Toph, causing the Azula-Skeksis to slam right into it and fall face first into the ground.

“See what kinds of cool stuff I can do without those shoes you put on my feet?” Toph asked Cornelia.

The Earth Guardian rolled her eyes in disgust and responded, “Okay, so boots aren’t your thing. But I know these cute flip-flops that you’d just.”

“ZIP IT, MISS SUGAR QUEEN!” Toph snapped.

“Sugar Queen?” Cornelia uttered.

~~~~~~~~~~~​

Victor quickly recovered from the blow, summoning up his strength through the surfboard, and flew toward Johnny. He raised his hands toward a large office building, pulling pieces from it to hurl at the Human Torch. One by one large chunks of glass and concrete flew at Johnny like deadly, heavy missiles. Johnny flew evasively around them, but one chunk caught him squarely in the chest, throwing him backward. Johnny flew into the side of a building, smashing through layers of glass and rubble that fell down to the part of the street where Taranee stood.

The Fire Guardian unleashed her power on the layers of glass and rubble that fell, turning them to ash in seconds. As soon as the ash had evaporated, Taranee turned her attention to where the Azula-Skeksis was laying on the ground, noticing the way she was getting to her feet and unleashed her own Firebending skill on Taranee. A massive bolt of lightning fired from her fingertips and came towards Taranee, who wasn’t absolutely certain how to deflect it.

She closed her eyes, fearing that this might’ve been her end. But then something stood in her way that deflected the lightning back at the Azula-Skeksis, exploding in her face and sending her crashing against the side of a vehicle. Taranee opened her eyes and realized that what had deflected the Azula-Skeksis’s lightning was Zuko, utilizing his own Firebending skill.

“You saved my life!” Taranee told him.

Zuko turned to Taranee and, for the first time since she had met him, smiled at her. “You can’t be the only Firebender out here, defending yourself.”

Taranee returned his smile, but only for a split second, as the Azula-Skeksis had soon returned to her fighting stance and ready to eliminate Zuko and Taranee. It wasn’t very long before she was distracted by the stilettos that Mai had begun hurling at her, long enough for Ty Lee to flip in and attempt to puncture certain areas of the Azula-Skeksis’s body to shut down her Bending skills. But the creature proved to be a lot quicker than Ty Lee, as it had blew her away with its Airbending abilities and used Earthbending to create a wall of concrete to block Mai’s stilettos.

~~~~~~~~~~~​

Johnny regained his balance and threw himself back toward Victor like a human spear made of fire. He burned his flames as strongly as he could; he was surrounded by an aura of bright reds and oranges. Victor focused for a moment and raised his hands, harnessing the strong air currents around him and using them to send Johnny up and over him. The strong rush of air caught Johnny off guard and he went flying uselessly over Victor, careening backward into the heavy air. As he flew away from Victor, Johnny passed a large antenna bolted to the roof of a building, still intact. He elongated his arm, stretching out his hand to reach it. He grabbed the metal antenna with a fist made of rock and swung back around, ricocheting through the air, using his momentum to propel himself toward Victor and the board.

The Human Torch concentrated and formed a fireball of rock in his hand. He hurled it at Victor, the weight of the rock carrying it through the powerful winds toward its target. Victor deflected it, forcing the air to take it far up and safely away from him. Victor smirked at Johnny, his face a mask of derision. You can’t touch me, kid, he thought, eager to destroy Johnny the way he had his sister.

Johnny caught Victor’s look and simmered with anger. Determination filled of his entire body. He thought of his sister down on the ground, his face contorting in pain. She’d want to be here for this, he told himself. So it’s only right that she gets to finish it.

Johnny clenched his fists and once again aimed himself at Victor. His body was rigid and severe. He dove directly through the powerful winds and currents, ignoring their fury and focusing solely on Victor. His fists drew tighter and his heart raced. Victor was only a few feet away. This would be over soon.

Victor stood strongly on top of the board, steeling himself for Johnny’s attack. He was growing impatient with the boy’s futile determination. Can he not see what is happening all around us? Victor thought. He did not want to be distracted from the main show: watching the destroyer consume this pathetic little planet. He eyed Johnny’s darting form and prepared to finish this once and for all. No more games, Victor thought. No more mercy.

Suddenly Johnny disappeared. A hint of confusion formed in Victor’s brain as he scanned the dark, violent sky, wondering if the boy had been taken up in the storm. Victor’s eyes narrowed as he searched the dark clouds and pulsating energy fields. He saw nothing. He scanned the ruined streets below—a lost cause, seeing the intense, unearthly battle happening down there, it would’ve made it difficult to search for Torch. Where the h*ll did he go? Victor thought.

Just then Victor’s body convulsed, as if he was caught up in a seizure. He lost control of his arms, and they were drawn in tightly to his sides. His legs clamped together as if caught in a vise. Standing alone on the board, hovering midair, Victor froze as he realized he couldn’t move an inch.

Johnny’s rocky form rematerialized as he cast off his sister’s power of invisibility, stretching his body to cover Victor entirely. Johnny used Reed’s elasticity to engulf Victor like a rubber coating, shrouding him from head to toe. Victor struggled as if in a straightjacket, but Johnny’s rocky hide was too dense and heavy to lift. Using the powers of his friends to immobilize Victor, Johnny turned to the one power he knew best: his own. He ignited his thinly stretched and rocky body, covering Victor with his living flame. He burned strong and bright, flaming as hard and fast as he could. Johnny thought of his sister’s face as he pushed himself to the limit, approaching supernova. He burned a hole in the surrounding darkness as Victor screamed and writhed in his incendiary grip.

The metallic armor smoked and singed from Johnny’s assault. Burning from the intense heat. Victor continued to struggle and toss about but Johnny kept him locked tight in his fiery embrace, bringing Victor down from his high altitude to the airspace just above a series of tall buildings. Victor’s limbs scorched and smoked. The tachyon pulse emitter melted into nothing, turning to ash and air, severing Victor’s link with the board.

Victor’s body went limp as his bond with the board was destroyed. A rush of profound despair assaulted Victor’s entire psyche as he was cast off from his link to the powerful silver weapon. The euphoria faded and the silence of the world returned to him as he lost his connection to the sublime destruction around him.

Johnny heard Ben calling out to him. He looked over to see Ben in his human form, sitting at the controls of a massive construction crane adjacent to a nearby building. “Hey, kid,” he yelled at Johnny. “Watch out!” Ben threw a few levers on the control panel, swinging a massive bundle of steel girders, still attached to the crane, in Victor’s direction. Johnny jumped off Victor at the last second, watching the hurled girders slice through the air straight toward them. They smashed into Victor mercilessly, the screeching sound of metal clashing with metal ringing out as they knocked Victor off the shining silver board and into the air. The thundering impact of the girders knocked Victor immediately unconscious. His limp figure ricocheted through the air before plummeting, landing with a loud splash in the river, the churning waters wild with the Earth’s heat. The weight of his armor took him down quickly, his silver skin now scorched and ruined. Victor disappeared into the dark and merciless water.

~~~~~~~~~~​

A few blocks away, Reed continued to hold Sue gently, cradling her in his arms. The violent trembling of the ground was getting worse. The sky appeared darker, Gah Lak Tus now visible to them, a swirling vortex of annihilation and destruction that filled the entire sky.

The Surfer stayed silent, afraid to speak and not knowing what to say. He, too, was to be a casualty of the Destroyer, but he cared little about that. His stoic gaze rested not on the landscape but on the scene before him: the dying woman and the man who loved her. He watched the man try to comfort her, attempting to make her final moments as gentle as possible. He looked away when they started to speak because it was too painful to witness.

“Just relax,” Reed whispered to Sue, touching her face. “Think about how our life’s going to be. A nice house in the country. Kids playing in the yard.” His voice caught in his throat as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Sue opened her eyes and looked up at him. She smiled slowly. “That sounds so nice,” she said, the words barely able to leave her lips. She reached up to touch his face but her hand stopped in midair. Her fingers trembled a bit before the hand fell back to her wet, bloody chest, lifeless.

Reed kept repeating her name, his voice breaking loudly, as he clutched her to his chest. His body wracked with sobs as he realized she was gone.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE​

 

[The Count]

*Applauds vigorously. *Wants more posted soon please!

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

SUE! NOOOOOOO!
Don't die....don't die....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Bad writer, bad! D:

-Tackles Sean-

First you scare me, amuse me, shock me, and now you're having me shriek in horror for the beloved Sue!

Shame! ;P

*Can't wait for the next chapter*

Can there be a flicker of hope? ;D

Heeeheee!

WHOOOOOO!

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Twenty-Two​

Elyon, Rygel, Noranti, Jack, the KMUP Muppets, Blunk, Iroh, and the Gelflings waited patiently for Robin to search for the last crystal shard in the cramped area that it was in. They were patient, even though it was chaotic outside. Debris flew across the dark and angry sky. The world seemed to be giving up the last of its riches in the presence of the destroyer. There were often times when Elyon would look past the hole in the lab to look up at the massive vortex of energy and power now clearly visible and taking up much of the air in his sight line. Gah Lak Tus was here, drawn to this place by the Surfer and his board. They didn’t have much time left.

“I’ve got it!” Robin shouted from the cramped area, as he crawled out of it with the shard in his tiny hand.

Jen immediately walked up to Robin as soon as he came out, taking the shard from him and patting him gently on the back in a congratulatory way. “Good work, my friend,” he said, and then brought the shard over to the crystal, that déjà vu feeling coming back again as he held the shard over the hole in the Crystal of Thra. “Here goes everything!”

With great force, Jen shoved the shard into the hole, reconnecting it with the Crystal of Thra as well as healing it. And just as soon as it happened, the Crystal began glowing again, its purple hue fading into its silvery one again. The room again was bathed in a bright silver light that forced the inhabitants to shield their eyes again. But the effect of the Crystal healing itself not only illuminated the room, but it also quaking it to pieces.

“Man! Let’s get the heck outta here!” Clifford shouted, and no one thought twice about his suggestion, as they immediately dashed out of the lab and into the snowy landscape outside, heading far, far away from the C.O.V.N.E.T. base.

Once they were at least a mile from it, they stopped to watch what was happening to the base. The intense power of the Crystal of Thra was catching it a whirlwind of energy, sucking it up into pieces as if it were caught in a tornado. The aftereffects almost matched the chaos that the destroyer had brought to Earth and only added to its “meal,” as the remains of the C.O.V.N.E.T. base were sucked into the vortex overhead.

The only thing that remained in the aftermath of the vanquished base was the Crystal of Thra itself, as it hovered high in the air, the only thing on Earth that was unmoving. Its shining light partially brought back the daylight that had been robbed by the arrival of Gah Lak Tus. It was almost symbolic in a way. It had almost represented the last glimmer of hope for this world.

Undoubtedly, the group succeeded in their mission. The rest laid in the hands of their friends in Shanghai, the center of the destruction.

~~~~~~~~~~​

The Azula-Skeksis was not giving up. Even after Irma and Katara worked together in overpowering her with a tidal wave from the river, which had just consumed Victor Von Doom, she still fought back. This was plain obvious to Will, as they all surrounded her on the street.

“No matter what we do, she keeps coming back!” Will yelled.

“It’s hopeless!” Sokka admitted. “Even if we were able to defeat her, some big, scary cloud’s gonna take us all down any way!”

“There must be something we can do!” Bunsen exclaimed.

“Meep mee moo!” Beaker said.

“Face it, guys.” Aang said, as he looked upward. “There’s nothing else we can do.” He then looked towards the Azula-Skeksis, glaring at her. “Except fight to our death!”

Hearing the Avatar himself utter the word “death” brought some chills down a few spines. If he knew this was the end, being the special warrior that he was, then it was undoubtedly the end. And all they could’ve done was exactly what he said…fight to the very end.

As they were about to come together and take down the Azula-Skeksis with one combining blow, something unexpectedly happened.

An eerie, silver glow shot out from the eyes and mouth of the Azula-Skeksis, creating a beam that had aimed directly to the dark and angry sky. Half of the clouds had parted, letting the beam shine past Earth’s atmosphere and through the stars.

The warriors watched this unusual effect with great confusion, wondering what in the world was happening to the evil creature. As they all looked up to the small opening in the sky, they suddenly noticed the sudden appearance of eight glowing forms that had arrived through the small opening in the sky. They descended down to the area that the Azula-Skeksis stood, forcing the warriors to back away as they surrounded her themselves.

As the hovered amongst them, the group got a good look at the figures, which were obviously alien due to their appearance. They were almost like ghostly alien, being as transparent as they were. Even though they were not absolutely certain of it, the warriors sensed that these beings were noble in a way.

Unbeknownst to them, these beings were known to any resident of Thra, such as Jen and Kira, as UrSkeks—noble beings shining with an inner light who entered the world through the Crystal. They were once of two distinct races, Mystics and Skeksis, until the Crystal was healed, just as it was moments ago by the same Gelfling known as Jen. And as it had then, the Crystal called to them, alerting them of the horror that had been caused by one being tampering with its intense power.

Out of the eight UrSkeks that had arrived on Earth and surrounded the Azula-Skeksis, only the one known as Unglm had spoken with a powerful voice that had echoed throughout the skies. “The Crystal has been restored. But its effects must be undone. If there is to be order.”

With that being said, Unglm and the other UrSkeks raised their arms up to the air and unleashed a wave of energy into the Azula-Skeksis that overwhelmed with so much that it began to glow brighter than the UrSkeks themselves. Within seconds, the disfigured body of the Azula-Skeksis vanished, taking its glowing form away in the process.

“Azula!” Zuko exclaimed. “What have you done to her?”

Unglm turned his attention to the warriors standing behind them, speaking a peaceful tone. “Worry not. The human vessel has been spared. We have returned her to her world with no recollection of this entire experience.”

“You mean she won’t remember anything about the Crystal or its effect on her?” Aang inquired.

“Yes.” Unglm remarked. “There must be order. And it has been restored.”

The UrSkeks then looked up towards the skies, ready for departure, but Will quickly approached and addressed them before they could have done so. “Wait! Can you help us with what’s going on now?” she asked. “Our world is coming to an end. There must be something you can do to stop Gah Lak Tus from tearing everything apart.”

“We are sorry.” Unglm stated. “Only the herald of the Destroyer can prevent your devastation.”

The UrSkeks took one final glance at the warriors before hovering back into the skies, disappearing through the opening that they had arrived in, which had closed up as soon as they were away from Earth’s atmosphere.

~~~~~~~~~~​

Johnny grabbed the shining silver board and felt his fingers tingle from its touch. Its power was extraordinary, even with both of its previous riders defeated and out of commission. It must be the Destroyer, Johnny thought. It didn’t matter who rode the board; its destructive connection to the massive, living vortex remained undiminished.

The Human Torch fought his way through the violent winds, pushing himself against the near-catastrophic sky. He burned his flames higher, hoping the surrounding fire would shield him from the worst of the flying debris. Half the city seemed to be in the air with him; he dodged various pieces of timber and metal, making his way through the carnage all around him. It wasn’t long until he spied the familiar market street and saw the others crouched in the doorway of a building, one of the few still left intact.

He raced down to them, turning off his flames as soon as his feet touched the unstable ground. He ran over to the others, noticing how they were all hovering over his sister—everyone from Aang and Will to Reed and Ben. “I got it,” Johnny said excitedly, holding up the shining board. The others barely seemed to notice his arrival. He dropped the board and grabbed each of his teammates’ shoulders, the direct contact once again triggering the massive display of light and energy that signaled the switching of their special powers. Johnny felt the energy surging through him as it had before, but this time something felt different. The connection felt a bit off, as if something was missing.

As soon as the light faded, he noticed the difference in the group. Ben, his rocky visage once again in place, still looked crestfallen, his massive shoulders hunched and low. Reed had barely noticed Johnny’s arrival and Johnny could now see him clutching Sue, weeping openly. His sister had yet to stir, and he saw the large wound covering her chest. No, he thought suddenly.

“Sue?” he yelled. But she did not move. Johnny fell to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. It was then that he knew his sister was dead.

“I’m sorry, Johnny,” Bunsen said softly, the first time he ever addressed him as “Johnny” since they had been friends and fellow teammates, and Johnny couldn’t hear him. He was already flooded with grief.

The Surfer stayed silent, watching the vivid display of grief around him. His eyes remained deep pools of dull silver, but began to leak tears. He had never been so close to the destruction he was connected to, had never seen up close what havoc the presence of Gah Lak Tus caused. His thoughts had always been about his own home, the loved ones he left behind; he’d never lingered on the ones who suffered under his touch.

But here it was, painfully displayed before him: the dead body of the woman who saved him, the grieving figures of her friends and loved ones who had also tried to protect him. The Surfer struggled with the realization that their futile gestures amounted to nothing beyond their own grief. Their actions had no effect on the arrival of Gah Lak Tus and the destruction of their planet.

The sky grew darker around them, shades of gray turning into swaths of deep purple and black. Large meteors crashed into the ground, shaking the street and filling the air with rock and dust. The Surfer could feel the energy in the Earth beneath him start to rumble and give way as the Destroyer prepared to feast on the planet’s core. Somewhere, he knew, bright spires of molten rock were emanating from the craters he’d made and feeding the great beast. It wouldn’t be long now before this planet, like so many others before it, would be consumed.

The Surfer stood, pulling his injured body up against the corner of the crumbling building. He looked up to watch the roof of the structure fly off and up into the dark, swirling air. The Earth boomed with sound as more meteors hit its surface, cracking it like an egg. The Surfer limped over and grabbed the glowing board that Johnny had so carelessly tossed aside.

As soon as he made direct contact with it, light grew from its source and covered him entirely. The Surfer’s leg healed instantly and his body regained its bright, silver gleam. He appeared as he was before. The others could feel the heat of the energy on their faces, a small burst of warmth in the thickening and cool air. With his power returned, the Surfer once again appeared radiant, glowing, and otherworldly.

Reed looked up from Sue’s lifeless body to see the Surfer returned to its power. Part of him hated the silver figure, for it was his arrival here that had led to all of this. But the Surfer was the only one who could draw the Destroyer away from the planet. As much as Reed hated to admit it, they needed the Surfer. They needed him to leave.

The Destroyer loomed larger than before, taking up the entire sky with its dark power. It was almost close enough now; close enough to feed on the planet’s core.

“You’ve got to go now,” Reed said, yelling over the sound of the wind.

“Not yet,” the Surfer said. He walked out into the street, clutching the board. He surveyed the broken landscape and watched the sky carry pieces of the planet away. Death was all around him, just like it always was. But this time the price was too high. The Surfer could not, would not, expose this place to any more loss. The Surfer turned back to Reed. “You will not suffer my fate. Step away,” he said, motioning Reed and the others away from Sue’s lifeless body. Reed laid her gently on the ground, pulling the grieving Johnny, Ben, and everyone else away from her.

The Surfer raised his hands into the air. He closed his eyes, suddenly lost in concentration. Even with the world falling to pieces around him, the Surfer radiated a sense of pure serenity, like a safe haven in the overwhelming storm. Reed watched him wordlessly, once again transfixed by the ethereal calm of the silver being. The Surfer’s hands began to pulse and glow, a shining beacon against the dark sky. The light grew brighter and brighter, increasing to a radiance none of them had ever seen before. It almost hurt to look at it, but no one in the group could turn away.

The Surfer opened his eyes quickly, locking them on the lifeless figure of Susan Storm. From his deeply pooled eyes came rays of silver light that lashed out across the air, alive like snakes, enveloping her in their glow. It looked as if the Surfer had turned himself inside out and was unleashing the radiant power that lived inside of him, transferring his very essence onto her lifeless form. Reed watched the incredible display of power, his eyes growing wide as Sue’s physical body broke apart on a molecular level, the atoms reduced to small, glowing motes of dust. The motes danced and pulsed before coming back together in a round ball of pure, glowing energy. The energy stretched out into the form of a woman as the molecules reverted to the shape of Susan Storm. Reed watched her materialize in front of him, her body once again resting on the trembling street. Her wound was gone. Her eyes fluttered and remained closed but her chest moved with breath, her skin once again pink and warm and filled with life.

The Surfer collapsed to the street, his radiant skin simmering down to a dull glow. His body showed signs of the strain and Bunsen & Beaker ran to his side to hold the silver figure up. The two Muppet scientists could feel the Surfer lean on them, exhausted.

Reed rushed to Sue’s side, taking her in his arms, making sure her breathing was regular and even. He wiped a long strand of hair from her face and caressed her warm cheek. He heard the Surfer’s deep and wavering voice say, “Life and death are but different forms of energy.”

Reed let grateful tears stream down his cheeks. “Thank you,” he said to the Surfer, once again holding the woman he loved.

The Surfer regained his composure quickly, drawing up his strength and leaving Ben’s side. His silver skin was radiant and glowing with power, his face stoic and resolute. He stood on his board and hovered over the team. He took a final look at those below him. “Savor each moment with her,” he told Reed before taking to the air.

The Surfer sped up into the sky, the violent winds swirling all around him. He struggled to rise higher, the board no longer able to protect him from the catastrophe occurring around him. The Surfer summoned all of his might to whisk himself higher and higher into the maelstrom above the surface of the planet.

But he couldn’t do it. The presence of the Destroyer was too intense, the atmosphere too unstable, the end too near. He fought against the gale-force winds and small hurricanes that cracked through the sky. The Surfer flipped and struggled against them all, caught in the heavy riptides of air all around him. He focused his mind, trying to rise higher. He had to break through the chaos if he was ever to punch through the atmosphere and draw Gah Lak Tus away from the planet.

Suddenly he shot up through the air, bursting through the maddening winds swirling around him. He broke free of the riptides and sped into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. He looked back and saw the Human Torch, covered in living flame, gripping the back of his board and propelling them both toward the heavens. The powerful flame acted like a booster rocket, taking them through the rough winds and debris. The dark sky fell away, lightening a bit before the beginnings of outer space again became visible.

A strong sense of déjà vu overcame Johnny as he propelled them away from the planet’s surface. He had been here with the Surfer before, not that long ago. Their previous fight had taken them to the highest reaches of Earth’s atmosphere as Johnny had struggled with the feelings of isolation that came with a bird’s eye-view of the planet. It looked different to him now. The planet, now under siege, looked vulnerable and precious, something to protect and defend. His hands, still connected to the powerful board, felt these feelings surge within him just as the flames on his fingers began to extinguish. The lack of oxygen at such a high altitude began to diminish the flames all over his body.

“Okay,” Johnny said to the Surfer. “That’s it for me. From here on out, you’re golden! I mean…silver. Whatever.” Johnny saw the Surfer’s eyes meet his just as his hand that touched the board began to tingle. Johnny gave the Surfer a final push and watched him rocket out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Johnny reversed his course and sped back down toward the surface of the planet, his flames returning to strength in the oxygen-rich atmosphere. Upon re-entry, he was battered about by the storm of meteors and debris, though his flames burned up and shielded him from the largest bits of detritus. He ricocheted off them, caroming down to the surface of the planet. Just then, a barrage of large boulders and wreckage caught in a twister headed straight for him. At this speed, Johnny didn’t have time to maneuver or turn. He burned brighter and closed his eyes, bracing for the painful impact.

High above the Earth’s atmosphere, the Silver Surfer burst through the swirling, powerful essence of Gah Lak Tus. No more of this, thought the Surfer. Not this world. Not her.

For this first time in the Surfer’s memory, Gah Lak Tus was taken off guard. He could feel it penetrating his thoughts, attempting to mine some semblance of reason for its herald’s transgression, this unexpected interruption of its feeding.

What then would be the price of Norrin Radd’s insubordination?

The Silver Surfer raced away from the lonely blue planet, his merciless cosmic overlord eager to pursue.

~~~~~~~~~​

The chaos around the Fantastic Four and their allies grew quiet. The wind died down, the shaking stopped, and the massive amounts of dust in the air fell in thick clusters to the ground. The dark atmosphere around them lifted, letting little cracks of light break through the cloud cover. The cracks of light grew wider, brighter, forming a glow on the horizon. Bunsen and Beaker looked up to see a flaming spot in the sky, glowing brightly, coming directly toward them.

Johnny broke through just as the darkness dissipated and the sun became apparent in the sky behind him. As the smoke and dust cleared away, they all could see the Destroyer pulling away from the Earth, moving at an incredible speed, allowing the gray and charred sky to return to their view.

The Human Torch landed on the ground near them, his arrival kicking up a cloud of dust. He turned off his flames and ran to the others. “He did it,” he said, a large grin breaking over his face.

Sue sat up, brushing dirt and dust from her uniform. She looked over at her brother, and then at Reed. “What did I miss?” she asked. Reed smiled and kissed her, pulling her close to him.

Bunsen and Beaker walked over to Johnny. “Excellent work, Jonathan,” Bunsen said.

“Meep mee meep mee!” Beaker added, patting Johnny on the back.

“Thanks, guys,” Johnny said, just before he suddenly flinched, remembering his ability to switch powers with the others. But the direct contact had no effect. “Hey,” he said. “I’m not changing…or talking in meeps! I’m cured.”

Bunsen smiled. “It must have been your quality time with the Surfer,” he assessed.

Johnny remembered the strange tingling in his hands just before he’d pushed the Surfer off toward space. He kept touching Beaker all over, then moved on to Bunsen, and finally on Ben, making sure the ability to switch powers had finally left him.

“Okay,” Ben said, pushing Johnny back. “Now you’re making me uncomfortable.”

Watching the interaction between Johnny and the other teammates, Will was suddenly reminded of the situation happening outside the city with repairing the Crystal of Thra. It was obvious that their friends had succeeded, but she wanted to be absolutely certain.

She turned her attention to Taranee, who seemed to have been way ahead of her, as she had been contacting Elyon telepathically. “Elyon says that everything’s cool. The Crystal’s back together.” She stopped for a minute to receive the last part of the message. “And…she says…to make sure you bring…a forklift?”

“Are you sure you’re not reading Andy or Randy’s minds?” Irma inquired.

Nearby, Ben had approached Crichton and the half of his Moya crew that was with him. “I gotta admit, Crichton…you and your pals were really hanging in there ‘til the end. You guys really came through for us.”

“As I have said,” D’Argo told Ben, “I am not the type of warrior who stays out of the battle.”

“You can say that again.” Ben said with a chuckle.

Chiana seemed a little confusion. “What the frell?” she said. “He can understand us again, but still needs it repeated to him?”

Crichton smiled at his alien friend. “No, Chiana. It’s just…never mind.”

Meanwhile, Reed was oblivious to all of the interaction happening behind him, focusing his attention solely on Sue. She looked tired but still beautiful. He couldn’t believe he had almost lost her. He vowed to himself that he would never let that happen again. He grasped her hand and held it tightly.

“So I guess it’s all over, huh?” said Ben from behind him.

“Now you can go start your new life.” Bunsen added.

“Meep mee.” Beaker sadly uttered.

“No,” replied Reed.

“No?”

“Meep?”

“No,” Sue parroted.

“Yes!” Johnny shouted, ecstatic.

“If it wasn’t for us,” explained Reed, “the whole world would be gone now. What are we going to do during the next crisis?”

“We can’t run and hide from the people we need to protect,” said Sue, looking at Reed with love. “It’s who we are.”

“Exactly!” said Johnny. “I was going to say that!”

Ben still looked befuddled. “But what about having a normal life—a family?”

Hearing their discussion, Aang approached them with the others in tow, smiling. “Who says you have to be normal to have a family?” he said.

“You already look like a family to me.” Katara added with a smile.

Sue reached her hand out to her brother, who quickly walked to her side. They placed their joined hands out, one over the other, Ben joined in, his huge fist enveloping them both. Bunsen and Beaker then came in, placing their small hands over Ben’s, Johnny’s, and Sue’s. They all looked at Reed, their leader, who soon followed suit, placing his hand over Bunsen’s and Beaker’s.

Reed knew that the team had been stretched to the breaking point. But they’d recovered, just like they always did. They had saved the planet, and nothing in this world or any other would ever tear them apart again.

“You up for another media circus wedding?” asked Sue, a small smile on her face. “Sixth time’s the charm.”

Reed couldn’t help grinning. “No. I’ve got a better idea.”

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO​

 

[The Count]

*Hoots and hollers for that last chapter. But wait, is that it? All over and done with? Mmm, at least an epilogue or somethin'. Thought you'd show Captain Ray in her alternate identity... You know... Aw heck, I'll let you tell the story, it's your story anyway.

Thanks Sean.

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

: ) Sean, what can I say, babe?

You cut de cake, hokay?

Thank you so much for your activity as a talented author.
If only some of the other writers had that.

O_O -hypocrite major-

XD Ok, I'm guilty of it as well.
But---I'm kind of adorable...so I have an excuse.

:3 *Smiles sheepishly*

 

[muppetwriter]

Here's the ending to "The Silver Crystal".

Epilogue​

The early afternoon was calm, sunny, and bright. The sun had returned to its place in the sky and was warming the blue horizon with its unblinking stare. A gentle breeze wafted through the Japanese garden, stirring the manicured trees and shrubs. Tufted moss cascaded down a small incline to the left of a wooden pergola, which was adorned with long drapes of fine silk. To the right sat a small pond, with large water lilies floating peacefully on its surface. Reed surveyed the landscape and drew a deep breath of clean, fresh air. It was hard for him to believe that a serene landscape such as this had almost been lost. But with its preservation came a sense of renewal, for him and for the others.

He looked over to see Susan standing next to a stone lantern near a large blooming tree. One of the monks here told Reed that the crimson colors of the changing Japanese maple tree were meant to create awareness of the passage of time. Reed had nodded serenely to the kind monk, for that was something they all seemed to understand better now, after almost losing so much.

Susan gave Reed a warm smile and started walking toward him. She wore a simple cotton dress, its white fabric glowing in the radiant daylight. A water lily adorned her blond hair, a last-minute gift from a passing monk who’d been looking after the garden. She walked the simple path to join Reed under the pergola passing Johnny, Ben, Alicia, Bunsen, Beaker, the KMUP Muppets, the Guardians, Matt, Caleb, Blunk, Vathek, John Crichton, Jack Crichton, the Moya crew, Jen, Kira, Fizzgig, the Benders, Sokka, Momo, Mai, Ty Lee, and even Dr. Phil van Neuter and his assistant, Mulch.

Susan wanted a simple ceremony, one held far away from the eyes of the world. As she looked out at the beautiful garden she felt protected by the lush landscape, grateful to be here.

Ben Grimm stood watching Susan join Reed under the pergola. He held Alicia close to him, as close as his large, rocky frame would allow. Nearby, Caleb was doing the same with Cornelia; only he lacked a large, rocky frame that limited his comfort level with her. They both realized now how much they loved them, and how fleeting their times together could be. Ben and Caleb wanted to make the most of it, in any way they could.

“Cornelia,” Caleb said, “How would you like for us to spend the rest of the summer in Elyon’s kingdom, all by ourselves?”

A smile grew brightly on Cornelia’s face. “Caleb…that’s so sweet. But is Elyon really going to let us have the castle for a whole week?”

“Well…maybe until Friday afternoon.”

“Cool with me.”

Meanwhile, Ben whispered to Alicia, “I’ve got something for you.” He pulled out a silver key on a long chain and placed it in the palm of her hand. “You’re going to need it if you’re moving in.” Alicia felt the cool metal in her cupped hand. She smiled and hugged him.

The moments between the two couples were interrupted by the voice of the minister. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…” The minister barely finished the introduction before a crisp beeping filled the air. Reed started at the sound before realizing it was the alarm on his PDA going off. He grabbed the device from his pocket and looked sheepishly at Sue. Her face showed no anger, only concern.

“What is it?” she asked.

Reed scanned the small screen of his PDA. A frown formed on his face. “There’s some kind of giant creature attacking Paris.”

“Now how de heck does dat just happening, h’okay?” Pepe asked.

“You can’t help to blame the economy on that one, man.” Clifford said.

Sue smiled at Clifford and Pepe and then turned to the minister. “Can you skip to the end?”

The minister, obviously flummoxed by the turn of events, started to stutter. “Uh, the love these two share—”

“The very end!” The crowd behind Reed and Sue exclaimed in unison.

The minister nearly jumped out of his skin at their abrupt tone and then blurted out, “I now pronounce you man and wife!”

Reed turned to his bride and smiled. Sue returned the smile and leaned in for their first kiss as husband and wife. After the intimate moment, Sue pulled back quickly. Her face showed that she was all business. “Okay, that’s it. Let’s go!”

“Finally! Some action!” Will exclaimed, feeling satisfied of the aftermath of their last adventure, which involved the Crystal of Thra being safely brought back on board Moya to be taken to the remains of Jen and Kira’s planet, in hopes of healing it back to normal. Jen was certain that the process would work, since the Crystal had already healed much of Earth after the recent catastrophic event.

Aang smiled as he and his friends joined Will and hers. “I can’t think of a better way of saying ‘goodbye’ than helping you guys kick some serious butt one last time!”

The Fantastic Four and their allies, new and old, raced out of the Japanese gardens, past the changing maple tree and stone garden, past the pond with the gentle water lilies floating on its surface, past the raked sand garden, to the front of the temple. There stood Appa, some C.O.V.N.E.T. jets, and the refurbished Fantasticar, all in one piece, polished and shining in the afternoon sunlight.

The teams boarded their modes of transport respectively. Reed revved up the enhanced engines. He pulled the jet up into the pale blue sky, careful not to damage the “Just Married” banner on its side as a trail of noisy tin cans followed them up into the air, leading them all into their next adventure.

THE MARVELOUS MUPPETS​