End of Hope

Chapter 2

By Skytower

            The quinjet shuddered as it moved slowly through high winds and snow. Sue kept both hands on the control wheel as she guided the aircraft through the storm. Beside her in the co-pilots seat was Mary Jane Parker. Huddled on her lap was a very frightened little girl.

            "Can't we go above this?" Mary Jane shouted as the quinjet lurched down and then back up. Electricity crackled in the quinjet as the energy of the storm leaked through the hull, causing Mary Jane's long red hair to leap wildly around her head.

            "No way!" Sue shouted back, her shorter white tinged blonde hair reacting the same way. "If the Sentinels or anyone else are looking through a satellite we'd show up like a flare. This storm is the best thing we have going."

            The quinjet seemed to flip completely upside-down and lift itself higher into the air. May and Ben screamed and Sue could tell that Rebecca and Mary Jane wanted to join them.

            "Hang on!" Sue shouted as she brought the aircraft under control and took it back down near the ground. The frozen waste of Antarctica looked like the surface of a sugar bowl. But the white peaks and valleys that came ever closer to the aircraft were not powder. They were deadly shards of ice and rock that were frozen solid, and that would tear the jet apart if Sue even brushed against them. Not that Sue was looking out the window; she was looking at the instruments, counting on them to tell her where they were and how high up they were.

            "We got a choice?" Rebecca called from the navigator's chair. Hugging onto her for dear life was Ben. "How long till we get there?"

            "Another five minutes!" Sue shouted as the ship rocked again. "I've got to go lower."

            "Lower?" Mary Jane shouted.

            Suddenly the buffeting subsided and the quinjet seemed to level off. There was a shocked silence in the cabin broken only by the sobs of May and Ben and the sounds of the engines.

            "What happened?" Mary Jane asked.

            "I've surrounded us with an invisible force field." Sue said. In the unsympathetic light given off by the cockpit instruments her skin took on a harsh yellow hue. "I need us stable if I'm going to get us into the base in one piece."

            "Couldn't you have done that all along?" Rebecca demanded.

            "Not and stay awake." Sue said gritting her teeth. The move caused the scar on the side of her face to stand out against her skin.

            "Oh." Rebecca drew back a bit. She was still growing, with curly hair that was a darker shade than Mary Jane's and a body that would be as voluptuous as her mother's had been, but that would be in a few more years. For the moment Rebecca was a tall young woman with large breasts, long arms and legs and big hands. To top it all off she still had freckles. She, Sue and Mary Jane were wearing orange jumpsuits.

"Sorry."

            "It's ok." Sue said.

            "You can feel your force fields?" Mary Jane asked.

            "When they get hit hard enough." Sue said. "It feels like a heavy duty headache."

            "Ouch." Rebecca said.

            "Where are we going mommy?" The girl in Mary Jane's arms asked.

            "Someplace safe May." Mary Jane said trying to keep her calm. May Parker was her mother in miniature, but for her deep blue eyes. She wore her bright red hair bobbed short.

            Maybe, maybe not, Sue thought. It was safe 13 years ago, who knows what the place is like now.

            Sue looked at the fuel gage and realized that it wouldn't matter if it was safe or not, they only had another 2 hours of fuel left. They were on the outer edge of an Antarctican mountain range, five to ten hours from the tip of South America. If the Kree base wasn't there they were in serious trouble.

            I wish I remembered what it felt like to be safe.

            "What about school?" May asked.

            "You're not going back to school." Mary Jane said. "Not that school anyway."

            "But I liked school." May protested.

            "Is this like that day you always told us would come?" Ben asked. Older than his sister Ben's red hair was both darker and shorter, and his eyes were a bright green. He topped May by a half foot.

            "Yes Ben this is it."

            "Day?" Sue asked, wondering if Mary Jane had told her children about the Day in New York when the Sentinels had started their take over.

            "Mommy said that one day robots would come after us." May said. "That we'd have to run."

            "But she never said where too." Ben added.     

            "I knew the TaskMaster wouldn't protect us forever." Mary Jane said. "I never told them where because I couldn't think of anywhere to go."

            "Welcome to anywhere." Sue said as the quinjet headed toward a cleft in the rocks.

            It was a tight fit, with no more than five feet on either side of the passage. The winds dropped as they entered it and Sue was able to ease off her force field. She switched on the quinjet's lights and they illuminated a cave that went far into the mountain.

            "What is this place?" May asked.

            "A Kree base." Sue said. "Do you know who the Kree are?"

            "Aliens." Ben said.

            "Right." Sue said. She smiled at him but he flinched at the sight of her scarred face.

            "Mary Jane I need Jan up here."

            "Ok." Mary Jane said. She got up, putting May down. Then went to the seats where the Wasp was asleep next to Jarvis.

            "Why were the Kree here?" May asked.

"Years ago the Kree and another group of aliens; The Skrulls, were having a tug of war over the planet." Sue said, carefully keeping her face in a shadow. "Earth is located between the Kree and Skrull empires. The Kree set up a base to spy on Earth and the Skrulls had the same idea."

            "What happened to them?" Rebecca asked.

            "They had the same idea in the same place." Sue said. "We don't know the whole story, but when the Fantastic Four found this place it looked like they all killed each other."

            "Are we going to see alien bodies?" Ben asked, excitement and revulsion competing in his voice.

"No." Sue said. "We buried them.

            "Oh." Ben said, and this time relief and disappointment were evident.

            This time Sue didn't smile at him, but she did smile.

            "The Kree left two ships behind, both in dry dock. If we can fix them we can leave."

            "Are going into outerspace mommy?" May asked as Mary Jane and Jan walked back up to the cabin. Mary Jane supported a naked Jan causing Ben's eyes to go wide. Janet Van Dyne was taller than he was by a foot, her body wasn't as scared as Sue's, but she only had one foot. Her breasts jiggled by Ben at his eye level as she passed him.

            "Maybe." Mary Jane said.

            "Sit down Jan, I need you at the repulser guns in case the Kree defenses become active."

            "Right-oh." Jan said hopping into the co-pilots seat. With a practiced ease that astounded everyone but Sue Jan flipped switches and took hold of a gun stick that rose out of the control console.

            "Ben, May go strap yourselves in." Mary Jane said.

            "Ok." May said.

            "But..."

            "Now young man." Mary Jane said sternly.

            His eyes never leaving Jan's body Ben went back and took a seat beside his sister.

            "We've got to find you some clothes." Mary Jane whispered to Jan. Jan's own clothes and the boot that had padding allowing her to walk had been soaked in blood and Sue had thrown them out with the bodies, forbidding Mary Jane or Jarvis from trying to wash them.

            "You'll never get the blood out." Sue had said. "And Jan's not wearing blood stained clothing ever again if I can help it."

            They hadn't pressed at the tone in her voice and since at the time Jan was only a few inches tall and asleep it hadn't seemed like a problem.

            "Anything but grey." Jan said. "I don't look good in grey."

            Mary Jane nodded and a part of Sue felt sympathy for her. It was bad enough her children had just been torn out of a home, terrified by things they couldn't understand, Jan's nudity was no doubt skyrocketing her son's hormones.

            It may not matter when she's only a few inches tall, Sue thought. But when she's full sized Jan's still beautiful.

            Sue could feel the scar on her face as the thought came into her mind. Ruthlessly she crushed it and set the quinjets radio to a specific frequency.

            "What are we waiting for?" Rebecca asked.

            "I have to set the radio to the right frequency and modulation." Sue explained. "Then I can give the password. Otherwise those beams up ahead will trigger and set off the alarms."

            "What beams?" Mary Jane asked.

            "Just a sec." Sue said. She concentrated and in the cavern in front of the quinjet a thousand beams of light became visible. Spaced no more than an inch apart they formed a solid wall.

            "Shock!" Rebecca whispered.

            "A sparrow couldn't get through those." Mary Jane said.

            "It was designed to keep Skrulls out." Sue said, letting the effect drop. She took a deep breath and the quinjet shuddered.

            "Are you alright?" Mary Jane asked.

            "The wind in the cavern is still pretty strong." Sue said in a voice that told everyone she was exhausted. My force field slipped for a second. I'll be fine."

            Suddenly the radio speaker burst out with harsh language that sounded like speeded up German. Sue answered back in the same language. After a pause a single word came through the speakers.

            "First gate cleared." Sue said. "Here we go."

            "First gate?" Rebecca asked as Sue started the quinjet forward.

            "Paranoia is a staple of Kree thinking." Sue said.

            They passed through 2 more security zones and each time Sue gave the correct password. At the last zone a seemingly solid wall folded back to reveal the Kree base. Sue heard the gasp from the others as they saw the alien facility.

            It was big, very big. Sun lamps set into the 80-foot high ceiling lit the base that was easily the size of three football fields. Most of the vast chamber was empty save for the middle. There, between two large ships was an even larger building. It was four stories high and gun emplacements were set on the roof. Smaller buildings branched off and vanished into the wall of the cave. The top of the building was clear glass, giving them a look at a full control room. Below that were small windows. On either side of the building were ships in skeletal cradles. Both were about 50 feet long and 40 feet at their widest point. The ships were arrow shaped with a ball shaped rear section connected by a thick central staff to a wedge shaped head. Their skin was smooth black metal with no markings at all.

            "How did they get those ships in here?" Rebecca asked.

            "The main doors are over there." Sue said pointing to the other side of the cavern. "But they can only be opened by the control tower."

            Sue moved the quinjet into the cavern and landed by the main building. The quinjet seemed very small next to the Kree ships.

            "I'll go out and take a look around." Sue said. "Jan, stay and keep your hands on the guns, ok?"

            "Jan will watch." Jan said.

            "I thought you said it was empty?" Mary Jane asked as Sue walked toward the hatch. May and Ben stared at her as she went past them. Out of the corner of her eye Sue watched them draw back.

            "It was 13 years ago." Sue said. "But now..."    

            "Shouldn't we come with you?" Rebecca asked.

            "I do better alone." Sue said. She took a comunicator from the wall next to the hatch and then opened the hatch. "I'll signal you if it's clear."

            Sue turned invisible and left.

            I'm beginning to realize why Victor wore that mask, Sue thought as she stopped at the entrance to the control tower. The air was warm, but there was a cool breeze and the place smelled alien. A tinge of a slightly acidic aroma permeated the air. Everytime those kids look at me... they're scared of me. A rueful smiled played across Sue's face. It's a good thing they didn't see ME naked. Then again why shouldn't they be scared? From the looks of things they've had a fairly normal life, home, school... In less than a day their worlds been shattered and an ugly old lady with a scar is talking about taking them into outer space! God what am I going to do if they don't want to come? Mary Jane has no idea what the Sentinels will do to her and her kids. Sue let her free hand feel her stomach where the telltale sterilization scar was. I can't leave them here; they've got no chance against the Sentinels. We can't take all of them on the road either. I could barely keep Jan and myself alive.

            The door opened after Sue keyed in the right password and she pushed all the other thoughts out of her mind.

            The Kree above all were a military race. To them everything was to be well ordered. The first floor was given over to a reception area and offices. The next floor was living quarters for the techs, the next floor combined dormitories with an armory. The Kree theory was that in a surprise attack the techs would delay the invaders and give the soldiers time to reach their weapons. The floor after that was given to officer living quarters and dining rooms, the next floor held executive offices and the top floor was the control tower. The walls were all muted pastel colors. In the back of the building was a large warehouse. Sue searched every room, closet and storage room. She took her time and kept invisible, but found nothing. The hardest places to search were the officers quarters. Reed, Sue, Ben, Franklin and Johny had used those quarters while they checked out the base. Sue placed her hand on the bed in the room she and Reed had used. They had expected to be back so quickly... But the SHIELD summons to New York had seemed urgent, if vague. But then Nick Fury had a habit of being vague. There was no way to know that they were heading toward their doom. An image of the SHIELD helicarrier attacking the Baxter Building tried to force it's way into Sue's mind but she fought it off.

            Turning away from the bed Sue moved on.

In the control tower she turned visible and checked on the system status. All the lights were green.

            "They make good bases." Sue said to herself as she double-checked the security systems. The base had been left in automatic mode and the self-maintenance systems had done their jobs well. Going to one of the windows she waved to Jan who was watching from the quinjets cockpit.

            "It's clear Jan." Sue said into the communicator. "Everyone can come in and pick out a place to sleep. For the moment we're safe."

            "This place is awesome." Rebecca said.

            "The Kree build good bases." Sue agreed. They were sitting in what Sue guessed was the officer's dining room. Jarvis had no trouble finding the kitchen area and while the Kree food replicators defeated him (they would not, he maintained, frustrate him for long), he had packed away a good deal of food in the quinjet before they took off. Mary Jane and her children had gone to check out the sleeping quarters while Jan was sitting next to Sue playing with her doll. She was wearing one of Jarvis's coats and it hung on Jan's small frame like a tent, something Sue suspected Mary Jane was grateful for.

            Someone cooking for me, Sue thought. She took a sip of water and tried not let her hand shake. Jarvis was a connection to her old self, her old way of life. It was too easy, too scary, to let her guard down. His appearance helped. The Avengers former butler was tall, but walked stooped, limping on a damaged foot. He was bald but sported a long un-kept beard and his clothes were torn and old.

            The room was luxurious by Kree standards, with a large round table, holograms on the wall of the Kree homeworld and thick carpeting. The table bore the symbol of the Kree military: a sword in a planet.

            "Is this Kree planet the place we are going to?" Rebecca asked.

            "I don't think so. They don't remember the Fantastic Four or the Avengers with very much affection." Sue said with a smile.

            "And we haven't decided if we're going anyplace or not." Mary Jane said walking into the room. Behind Mary Jane came May and Ben. May was staring at the room around them. Ben was carrying something in his hands and as soon as she heard the sound it made Sue dropped her water. The glass was not breakable, but the sound it made and the way Sue stood up made everyone look.

            "Where did you get that?" she demanded.

            It was a hand held video game. Above a small pad shapes of random size and color appeared along with sounds. Each shape had to be assembled with another shape of the same type before both moved out of range.

            "I found it!" Ben said nearly dropping the game in fright. "It was under one of the beds... I..."

            "It's ok Ben." Mary Jane said. "What is it Sue?"

            "I..." Sue gripped the table and sank back into her chair. "I'm sorry." She said. Jan put her hand on Sue's and squeezed. "That was Franklin's. My son's. He left it here by accident, just before we were called by to New York. He complained about it all the way home." Sue let out a sharp laugh and choked back the cry that came with it. "I had to yell at him to get him to be quiet."

            "I'm sorry." Ben said quietly. He started toward her. "Do you want it?"

            "No." Sue said the word as almost a growl and Ben quickly backed up. "No." Sue said getting herself under control. "That's alright. Toys should be played with."

            Sue closed her eyes and shook her head to get herself back under control. The Sentinels rule of no tech beyond the 1930 level had nearly killed the electronics industry. Tube tech was coming back as fast as enterprising warlords could put factories into production, but there was no way tube technology could produce a video game or a computer. All other technology was taken for the Sentinels own uses. The result was a black-market in ever more rare and valuable pre-sentinel tech. The hand held game Ben had found, that Reed had built out of spare parts, could probably have fetched the price of a good sized house.

            Sue fought back the maelstrom of pain and opened her eyes again. Everyone was seated and looking at her.

            "How did you find this place?" Mary Jane asked.

            "The Kree techs were repairing one of the ships out there." Sue said, gesturing toward the wall. "When they were re-aligning the hyperdrive it gave off a magnetic signal that we picked up in the Baxter Building. Reed studied it for a few months, trying to figure out what it was, then we got caught in the middle of the Kree/Skrull war.

            "Bad." Jan said. "Lots of fighting. We won though."

            "Sort of." Sue said. "Reed bluffed both races into thinking that the other race would transmit a signal to Galactus unless peace was declared. While we were in the middle of it he realized that the magnetic pulse he was picking up came from a Kree ship. We came to investigate and found this place."

            "Both sides must have thought the other destroyed it or something." Rebecca said.

            "That's what we thought." Sue said. "My hope is that they finished the repairs and that one or both of those ships can take us where we want to go."

            "But where is that?" Rebecca asked.

            "Dinner." Jarvis announced walking into the room. Even though his foot was still twisted the Englishman walked with a crooked sort of grace that reminded Sue of a sailor at sea. He had cleaned himself up a little as well and looked less like a vagrant. He placed a bowl of hot soup and bread in front off all them as well as a pitcher of milk for the center of the table.

            "Thank you Jarvis." Jan said and for a moment was the adult Jan that spoke.

            "Very good ma'am." he said.

            "Jarvis." Sue said as he was about to go. "I have a healing unit in the quinjet. Before you go to sleep tonight let me put it on your foot, it may be able to heal you."

            "Thank you Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said. "It has been rather hard at times to get around."

            "Where could we go?" Rebecca asked, not letting the subject go.

            "Planet X1." Sue said. To took a sip from the soup and marveled at how good it tasted. It wasn't too hot, too cold or filled with unpleasant things. "The Fantastic Four helped them locate to a new planet when their old planet was destroyed, and we took care of Torgo, the tyrant who ruled them. Trouble is they are a very short people, no more than 5 inches tall."

            "What about the Rigelians?" Jan asked. "They like us."

            "It's a thought." Sue said. Then she explained to the rest of them. "The colonizers of Rigel are a scholarly race, they've settled quite a few planets, but they tend to be stuffy. Not quite friendly to outsiders living among them."

            "How many planets have you visited?" May asked.

            "Over a dozen." Sue said. "Not counting the ones in the Negative zone, and we have no way of getting to those even if we wanted to."

            "Are there any who would help us overthrow the Sentinels?" Mary Jane asked.

            "Maybe." Sue said. "But even if we did beat them, who would take their place?"

            "There are good men and women out there." Mary Jane said.

            "I haven't met any for 13 years outside of yourself." Sue replied. She kept her voice steady and drank her milk.

            "This country was built once before." Mary Jane said. "It can be rebuilt."

            "It was built over a period of 200 years," Sue countered, "and it started out as a somewhat isolated agrarian community."

            The others were watching them and out of the corner of her eye Sue saw Jarvis standing in the doorway.

            "It just seems wrong to leave." Mary Jane said. "We should try to help somehow."

            "How?" Sue asked. "Mary Jane, Jan and I escaped in the beginning of the summer, we've spent all these months moving across the country. I can tell you that if there is resistance to the Sentinels it's well hidden. Maybe ten years ago, or even eight years ago we might have started some sort of movement, but not now."

            "We have those ships." Rebecca said. "They must have weapons."

            "I hope they do." Sue said. "But again, even if we do destroy the Sentinels that leaves who? The Kingpin, AIM, The Magia, The TaskMaster and a hundred different warlords scattered across three continents. They won't give up power easily and I'd lay odds that none of them want the US government back. It's simply too late."

            "But..." Mary Jane started but Sue cut her off.

            "Ben." Sue asked. "Do you know what the bill of rights is?"

            "Sure." he said.

            "The constitution?"

            "Yes."

            "Has your mother ever voted that you know of?"

            "No." Ben thought for a moment. "Sometimes someone would ask about that in school, voting and all, but we never got an answer really."

            "The kid who asked never showed up again either." May said. "They never called his name at roll call or anything."

            "There you have it." Sue said. "How long before the constitution isn't taught at all? We've lost a generation Mary Jane. They've been raised in anti-mutant hate and the adults have gone along with it. Jan and I saw lynch mobs out there."

            "It can be turned around." Mary Jane said.

            "By who?" Sue asked. "Me? I can't lie to you Mary Jane I don't have it in me. I feel like Chief Joseph at the Canadian border."

            "Who?" Ben asked.

            "Did your school teach you anything about Native American's?" Sue asked.

            "Injuns?"

            "So much for political correctness." Sue said. "Yes, indians. Chief Joseph was a leader of a tribe that didn't want to be on a reservation. He tried to lead his people out of what was then the US and into Canada. He didn't make it. After a long and exhausting trip, by foot over the US they stopped him just before he made it. When called upon to surrender he said this:

            "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say no and yes. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food.

No one know where they are- Perhaps they are freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children

And see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sad and sick. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

            Her voice had become more and more strained as Sue talked about children and the pain in her tones seemed to fill the room. She cleared her throat.

            "I feel the same way he did. No more fighting for Jan or me, we tried and lost. Now it's time to retire from the field."

            "His tribe survived." Mary Jane insisted.

            "And that is what I mean to do." Sue said. "But unlike him I mean to survive where I choose. Jan and I deserve some small amount of peace for whatever time we have left."

            This is going nowhere, Sue thought. Mary Jane still thinks of me as part of the Fantastic Four, a heroine who can overcome odds. She wants me to make the world safe for her children. God I wish I could. But I can't. I don't have it in me anymore, I'm not even angry enough to hate the Sentinels. I'm just numb.

            "We could stay here." Rebecca said. "This place seems pretty safe."

            "It is." Sue said. "But stay here and do what? Wait to be found? Wait for some accident of fate to reveal us? Hiding is not a workable long range strategy."

            No one said anything and Sue realized that the argument was over, but that she hadn't won it. The meal was over as well; everyone had finished his or her soup.

            "Look." Sue said standing up. "All of this is merely academic unless those ships work. Give me some time to check them out, then we can decide."

            "That sounds good." Mary Jane said. "For now lets all try to get some sleep, it's been a hard day."

            I have to find someway to convince them, Sue thought. It's the only way to save them. Sue watched as Ben and May helped Jarvis with the dishes. I can't let them stay and be able to live with myself knowing what the Sentinels will do when they catch them all.

            Sue couldn't sleep. She had let Jan take a bath, both feeling good and bad as Jan enjoyed herself in the water, splashing, laughing and playing with her doll, then laid on the bed next to her until Jan went to sleep. Watching Jan bathe had evoked both good and bad feelings in Sue. Good because Jan was relaxed and enjoying herself, bad because she played around like a five-year-old. Sue had gotten used to Jan's mental state, but every so often she remembered the witty sophisticated woman who had led the Avengers and run her own company at the same time.

            Sue had chosen one of the smaller officers quarters, not daring to use any of the rooms the Fantastic Four had once used. After making sure Jan was asleep Sue had taken a long hot shower with soap. Sue hadn't forgotten what a hot shower felt like, but she hadn't realized just how scarred her body had become. As her hands felt each of those scars the memories resurfaced. Fight after fight, struggle after struggle and all of them ending up the same way: with her loosing. The guards who beat her were always proud and they always made sure to leave scars. Depressed Sue had gotten back into bed. Jan curled into a tight ball, hugging her doll to her chest to protect it and breathing softly. Sue and Jan slept above the covers and nude and Sue's hand kept searching for the gun that wasn't there. She could have kept one, but it was too dangerous. Often in the past few months Sue had woken up already shooting at the shadows, she wouldn't risk that with the others. It had been a while since either of them had slept in a bed and a clean one felt strange to her. There was a shock in it as well, that morning all Sue had expected was another day of moving and maybe fighting. The culture shock of warm food, warm bed and someone to talk to other than Jan was staggering. Jan, she knew, would sleep anywhere as long as Sue slept next to her.

            That's bothering them, Sue thought. They look at Jan and have no idea how to act. Especially when she runs around stark naked. Poor Ben, I remember Franklin when the She-Hulk joined us for a while, I had to lecture Jennifer about locking the bathroom door when she took a shower. And sleeping nude. How many times did she run out naked when an alert sounded? How many times did Johny pull the alarm just to tease her?

            For an instant Sue let herself remember better times. Then there was a knock at the door and Sue was tensed to spring off of the bed, a force field thrown around both her and Jan, before she could think. After a moment the knock was repeated and Sue relaxed.

            "Come in." She said softly.

            "I didn't want to wake you up." Mary Jane said walking into the room. She was wearing a full-length floral nightgown and carrying two more. "But I realized you probably didn't have anything to sleep in."

            "Thank you." Sue said. She got off of the bed and put the nightgown on. It was silk and flowed over her body easily. "I'll give Jan's to her when she wakes up. It's better if I don't wake her up, she gets scared."

            "I understand." Mary Jane said. She hesitated for a moment. "About leaving Earth..."

            "Mary Jane it's late." Sue said. She was too tired for the argument to start again.           

            "Ben and May can walk on the ceiling." Mary Jane said quietly.

            "Oh." Sue said understanding.

            "I don't want them to have a new world Sue." She walked over to a wall hologram showing a Kree ocean. "I want them to have the world I grew up in, or at least as close to it as I can get."

            "Mary Jane I'd give anything to have that world back." Sue said. Mary Jane sat on the bed and Sue sat next to her. "But Humpty-Dumpty has fallen. If we had someone, someone like Cap, or Reed, or your husband, maybe we could take the world and tape some of it back together. But look at us. I'm old, Jan's lost so much of herself she plays with dolls, we don't have the power or the drive to save the world anymore."

            Sue reached over and stroked Jan's hair.

            "I wish I did."

            "I understand." Mary Jane said. "I know it's bad out there. But I was proud to be an American Sue. So was Peter. We never actually said it, but we were. Now my kids will never know what was, what it meant. Not really. The elections in Nevada were always fixed, everyone knew it."

            I didn't think of it that way, Sue thought. Maybe saving the world so often I lost sight of being a citizen. But I voted, so did we all. Even Ben.

            "I know that I haven't seen everything you have." Mary Jane said, breaking into Sue's thoughts. "But I still have a hard time believing that every decent person has been wiped off the face of the planet."

            "I told you, we started in New York State." Sue said. "We ended up in Nevada. I didn't find any resistance."

            "But I'm not talking about resistance." Mary Jane said. "I asking if you found anyone good, anyone who was still trying to act civilized."

            Anyone like you. Sue finished for her. I didn't, but to be honest after the Hoffman farm I didn't really look. There didn't seem to be any point.

            "No I didn't." Sue said. "And at any rate Mary Jane what I said before still goes. There are thousands and thousands of Sentinels out there. They rule the world. The other countries only stopped a nuclear war last year by agreeing to let the Sentinels implement their anti-mutant programs."

            "But that's why you can't go." Mary Jane insisted. "You're the last Sue, the last of the Fantastic Four. Can you really leave all those people to face the Sentinels alone?"

            "The Sentinels are not alone!" Sue snapped. "They are never alone Mary Jane!" Sue dropped her voice as Jan stirred uneasily in her sleep. "Those people you want me to save are the very people who helped the Sentinels!"

            "Not all of them." Mary Jane insisted.

            "Enough!" Sue growled leaping to her feet. She took Mary Jane's hand and pulled her across the room and into the bathroom. Once there Sue turned on the light and pulled off her nightgown and tossed it angrily back to Mary Jane.

            "See this?" She said pointing the long thin scar on her stomach. "Week one in the camp, some men took me, stripped me and strapped me down to a table. They gave me a local anesthetic and then a doctor came in and cut me open. Sterilization. They did the same to Jan. They used a local so a Grey could question me while they were operating!"

            "My god!" Mary Jane whispered.

            "I knew the doctor, he used to work a hospital where the FF did charity appearances, our money built half of the place. I saved his wife from a mugger once. But that didn't help me one little bit. After I was healed he raped me, said he'd been wanting to do it for years. Then he brought his wife in so she could "thank" me. Then they raped Jan. Then they charged to let other men and women rape us."

            Sue turned away from her and sat on the toilet seat.

            "It's horrible." Mary Jane said.

            "I don't owe humanity anything anymore." Sue said.

            "Then if me and my family hadn't been in a quinjet you would have just ridden away?"

            "Yes." Sue said coldly. "Because the last time I did help people I got caught and Jan lost a foot. So after that I made damn sure I helped no one! It's horrible, it's mean, it's every bad adjective you can think of, but it's the way we survived!"

            "And you don't think the world can be made better?" Mary Jane challenged.

            "How?" Sue almost pleaded.

            "First get rid of the Sentinels." Mary Jane said. "Then set up a government, one that teaches something besides hate. The children are the key Sue, if we can teach them to think and care... The way you used to.

            "What about the parents?" Sue asked. "What about them? Who keeps them under control? Mary Jane I saw two mobs kill each over a cache of canned food. I saw people crucified on the road with a big M carved into their chest. My god they are eating each other in some places out there! You've got groups who worship the Sentinels as gods!"

            "And you don't want to stop that? Think of what's going on in Europe right now, think of all those people being herded into camps just like you were. Shouldn't you at least try to help them?"

            "And if I fail?" Sue said.

            "Then you fail and we'll all most likely die." Mary Jane said. "Peter told me that with great power came great responsibility, he said the Fantastic Four were the best examples of that."

            "We were." Sue said. "But that was 13 years and 4043 rapes ago. I remember each one of those rapes Mary Jane. Every single one. I can remember all the beatings too; do you want that number? "Good" men and women committed a lot of them. Do you want to know how many times I was beaten? Do you know I only have 8 good teeth left in my mouth?" Sue stood up and backed Mary Jane into the wall. "You say try and if we fail, we fail. You have no idea what failure means."

            "There are good people out there." Mary Jane insisted.

            Sue growled and suddenly she pinned Mary Jane to the wall with a force field.

            "Feel that?" Sue asked as Mary Jane struggled against the invisible energy.

            "Sue... Let me go." Mary Jane demanded, more confused than frightened.

            "This is how it feels Mary Jane." Sue said. She reached under Mary Jane's nightgown and felt the other woman's breast. She squeezed it. Her other hand pressed between Mary Jane's legs. "Helpless, frightened, humiliated..." Sue moved closer pressed her face close to Mary Jane's as if she were going to kiss the other woman. Sue grabbed Mary Jane's chin and forced her to look at her face. "Look at my face Mary Jane! Look at IT!"

            Mary Jane was terrified now. Sue could see it in her eyes and for a moment it felt good. Then a tear escaped from Mary Jane's eye and Sue truly saw herself.

            "Sue..." Mary Jane pleaded.

            Letting her go Sue whirled around, dropped to her knees and threw up into the toilet.

            It was a few confused minutes before Mary Jane recovered from her shock. Then she knelt down next to her and held Sue's shoulders until she stopped heaving. After that Mary Jane held Sue in a hug until the other woman stopped shaking.

            "I'm sorry." Sue said. Her face was pale and her scar a vivid red, but she had not cried.

            "No." Mary Jane said. "I am, I had no right to ask you..."

            "Yes you did." Sue said. "And I had no right to take my anger out on you. That was selfish."

            "I was being selfish too." Mary Jane said. "I don't know, really know, what you've gone through. I thought I had it bad, but you had it worse. I'm sorry for that. But I don't want my children to grow up on some alien world. I guess I'm just not ready to give up on this one yet."

            "I am." Sue said. "Your husband was right Mary Jane, with great power comes great responsibility, but in this we don't have enough power. I won't choose suicide for myself or for Jan. On my own I can take out one sentinel, maybe 3. But that's it. Jan couldn't beat one and the rest of you... your children, when they get older, maybe. But at the moment our resources are two broken down heroines, two children, one teenager, a butler and you. Do you really think that's enough to save the world?"

            "I don't know." Jan said. "But I think the world is still worth saving."

            For a time the two women just sat in silence.

            God can she be right? The thought hit Sue Richards hard. Have I been so wrapped up in just surviving... But no damn-it! Mary Jane hasn't been out there, she doesn't know. I've got to make her see the way things are. For both our sakes.

            "Look." Sue said. "We have time, it'll take me days to see if those ships are good enough to get us out of here. Tomorrow I'll show you how to use the Kree surveillance systems. They had four spy satellites, if the Sentinels haven't detected them then you can see the world for yourself. If you can come up with a plan that sounds workable I'll listen."

            "And if I can't we'll go." Mary Jane said. "No more complaints."

            "Deal." Sue said.

            They stood up and Jan handed Sue the nightgown. For a moment Sue didn't make any move to take it. Then she reluctantly took it, but did not make any move to put it on.

            "Please wear it." Mary Jane said. Sue turned away and didn't say anything. "It's just a gift Sue, it's not part of the deal."

            "Isn't it?" Sue asked. "My body is a map of what I went through. You don't want to see that map do you?"        

            "Please, if nothing else wear it for my son's sake?" Mary Jane tried to smile. "I'm having a hard enough time with Ben as it is. Before I came in I caught him heading this way with a; "midnight snack" for Jan."

            Sue laughed and both women, for a moment, shared a common link.

            "How old is he?" Sue asked.

            "14. It's been hard enough with us living in Vegas and his mother being a stripper."

            "All right." Sue said. She put on the nightgown and started to get into the bed.

            "Thank you." Mary Jane said.

            She left and Sue turned on her side and hugged Jan until she fell asleep.

            The next day brought a rare smile to Sue's face. The healing unit had reconstructed the damaged muscles in Jarvis's ankle and he was able to walk naturally again. To add to the effect he had shaved off his beard and, but for looking older than Sue remembered, could have been his old self. A breakfast of toast and eggs was waiting for them all. Jan was so happy that she shrunk out of her clothes and flew around the room before sitting down next to Sue and growing to full size again.

            "Here Jan." Mary Jane said, handing Jan a robe as soon as Jan grew back to normal size again. Ben was staring once again.

            "No!" Jan shrieked. She dove off of the chair and half-fell/half-ran behind Sue.

            "What?" Mary Jane stumbled back, stunned by the reaction. "What's wrong?"

            "It's ok Mary Jane, you didn't know." Sue said. She got off the chair and helped a terrified Jan get into hers. Mary Jane looked down and realized that he robe in her hand was now invisible.

            "I don't wear grey. Can't wear grey." Jan whispered over and over, hugging herself into a ball.

            "It's ok Jan." Sue said, stroking her hair. She looked up at them. "Grey was the only color we wear allowed to wear in the camp. The Sentinels scanners were specifically attuned to it. If we wore anything else the Sentinels thought we were trying to escape. Sometimes if the guards were bored they'd lock me up and force Jan to wear some other color. Jan had to run away from the robots and strip fast before she was caught."

            "What happened if she was caught?" Rebecca asked.

            "Two days random electro-shock." Sue said. "I'm not sure why, but a while after she lost her foot at the Hoffman farm Jan has been terrified to wear anything grey."

            "I'm sorry." Mary Jane said. She walked over to the waste unit and put the robe into it.

            "It's ok Jan." Sue said. "You don't have to wear grey."

            "Jan bad, Jan wear grey Jan bad, Jan better naked..." Jan was crying, her skin was white as a sheet and Sue could tell that Mary Jane was torn with guilt. "Jan shrieked as if someone was attacking her and Sue hugged her close.

            "Jan used to wear a lot of pretty clothes didn't she?" Rebecca asked coming around the table. She bent down next to Jan. "You were the fashion plate of the Avengers. Costume a day from what my father once said."

            "Yea, bright colors, pretty colors." Jan said and the trembling of her body slowed. "Jan was good then, Jan was good girl."

            "Like this?" Rebecca asked pointing to her own blue and white striped T-shirt. Jan nodded.

            "Here." Rebecca said pulling off her shirt. Underneath she was wearing a beige bra. "Put your arms up." Jan did so and Rebecca slipped the shirt onto her. "Better huh?"

            "Feels good." Jan said. "Not dirty. "Nothing squirming in it."

            "Good, try this." Rebecca slipped out of her skirt and helped Jan to put it on. They were sizes off, but once the belt was tightened the skirt stayed in place.

            "You look better now." Rebecca said.

            "Blue is Jan's color." Jan said. Suddenly she seemed to see the food on the table.

            "Eggs!" She cried reaching for a fork.

            "I'll be right back." Rebecca said, blushing as she suddenly realized that she was in nothing but a bra and panties. She hurried out of the room. Ben's eyes followed her.

            We have got to do something about this, Mary Jane's look said to Sue. Sue nodded.

            The rest of the breakfast passed quietly. Rebecca returned wearing a new T shirt and a pair of jeans.

            "Rebecca." Sue said as they ate. "While I'm working on the ships today and Mary Jane is scanning the Kree surveillance systems, can you take Jan and see if you can do a survey of the supplies in this place? Maybe find her some clothes?"

            "Sure." Rebecca said.

            "Not with you?" Jan asked giving Sue a worried look.

            "You'll be ok Jan." Sue said. "We're safe here."

            "Safe nowhere." Jan said. "But Jan likes Rebecca."

            "Can I help with the ship?" Ben asked.

            "No young fellow you and May will be with me." Jarvis said. "I talked with Mrs. Parker this morning and we both agreed that it is about time I was allowed to teach you true history."

            "What they got in school was heavily twisted." Mary Jane said.

            "Can I see the ship later?" Ben asked.

            "After lunch." Sue said.

            "Thanks for understanding about Jan." Mary Jane said as they walked into the control center. "I wasn't trying to hurt her, but Ben's got enough to handle right now without seeing naked women all over the place."

            "Rebecca was the real help." Sue said. "I think it's a good idea Jan started to get used to someone besides me anyway."

            Sue led Mary Jane over to a console that looked like a massive church organ and pulled out a chair. Sitting down Sue pushed a few buttons and spoke in the Kree language. Instantly the console lit up with nearly a hundred lights and holographic screens filled with maps and alien script came to life.

            The computer system was built with rigid lines of complex logic and Sue could tell from the look on Mary Jane's face that the woman had never seen anything like it.

            "You better take notes." Sue said handing her a notepad that she had gotten from the quinjet.

            "I guess." Mary Jane said breathlessly, trying to take it all in.

            "It would be easier if you spoke Kree." Sue said. "The system is made for intelligent scans, but only on voice command." She started to type in a series of commands. "Luckily the Kree spies used to increase their understanding of our language by working with it on their own systems. All I have to do is trigger the translation program. But it doesn't work for voice input."

            The screen writing changed quickly to English and a list of names; dates and places came up.

            "How long do these records go back?" Mary Jane asked.

            "Looks like 91." Sue said. "That is about when this base went online. My guess is that the computers have been keeping track of things ever since. It wasn't un-common for the Kree to leave bases un-occupied for years, centuries even. I'm just glad there wasn't a Kree sentry robot waiting for us here."

            "This could take a while to sort through." Mary Jane said. "I'm not even sure what I'm looking for."

            "Evidence that mankind is worth the trouble of even trying to save it." Sue said. Try as she might Sue could not keep the cynicism out of her voice.

            "Right." Mary Jane said, trying to match Sue's cynicism with a voice full of optimism. She wasn't successful either.

            "Here is how you start." Sue said reaching for a control button.

            The Kree spacecraft designation number was nearly unpronounceable with the human tongue. By the end of the day Sue had used many variations on it combined with some colorful phrases of her own.

            The craft was a special operations spacecraft and was considered the Swiss army knife of the Kree fleet. Made to be tough, independent and deadly. The front wedge held the flight deck, the shaft that led to the engine held two rooms with bunks on the wall, a small kitchen, bathroom, a cargo area with double doors that opened in the floor and two gun stations. Sue remembered that Reed and Ben had talked about the different types of Kree and Skrull spacecraft over diner many times. Like two old fighter jocks they had talked about differences in range, capability and weapons. Ben had an instinctive concept of what a ship could do, often simply from looking at it, while Reed could describe the ships systems and speculate on how they worked. Johny would throw in the occasional wisecrack.

            Sue remembered those talks as she worked with the ship, and she remembered the dinners where everyone sat and talked and joked. It was all she could do to keep from crying.

            She started in the flight deck. Here were six chairs, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, engineer, left and right gunner, positions Sue could understand. The trouble was each control console had it's own redundant computer system that only would link to the main system after a full systems test. This would not have been a problem, but the main computer system stubbornly refused to come online without either an emergency code that Sue did not have, or a report from all the other computers that the ship was functioning at nominal levels.

            It was, as the text readout patiently explained to Sue, a matter of safety for a ship that had been in hibernation mode for so long. And without the main computer's authorization the separate computer in the engineering section would not come online and tell Sue if the hyperdrive would work or not. Unlike the base computer system the two ships had shut themselves down completely.

            Sue had no idea why the Kree had laid the system out this way, but they had and she had to work with it. Another stall point was reached as she started up the separate systems. The ship had been in hibernation mode for a long time so subsystems had to be started manually. This meant that Sue had to first start the system, wait for the error message to display, discern what the error message was talking about, find that part of the ship, figure out how to turn the subsystem on, and then return to the flight deck and start from the beginning.

            A fully trained Kree crew probably would have done the job in about ten minutes. By late morning all Sue had managed to do was to get life support to start and run for five minutes before shutting down. By then she was emotionally exhausted. Reed's endless talks about Kree technology, talks that Sue had often only half listened too, kept replaying in her mind. Many times Sue was lost in thought and actually turned expecting to see him behind her. Then the memories would be just memories, his ghost would fade and Sue would re-live his death.

           

            Sue guessed it was near mid-day when she saw Rebecca and Ben. The sun lamps that lit the base were set on a Kree Homeworld 40 hour cycle and they were all lit. Rebecca and Ben had rolled out a stack of blue and green boxes into the open and Rebecca was trying to hit the boxes with Captain America's shield.

            Sue looked up from the pilot's seat and watched for a few minutes. Rebecca would throw the shield; miss and then Ben would run and get it for her. Rebecca was trying and becoming more and more frustrated as the shield didn't seem to go where she wanted it too.

            Sighing Sue set the ship's computer to standby mode and opened the hatch.

            "Go left you..." Rebecca grunted as the shield sailed past the crates missing them by about 5 feet. It sailed on for about a hundred feet before dropping to the ground.

            "Thanks." Rebecca said as Ben brought it back to her.

            "Where is Jan?" Sue asked scaring the two of them.

            "Do you have to turn invisible all the time?" Rebecca demanded.

            "I wasn't invisible." Sue said. "You weren't paying attention."

            "She's with my sister." Ben said.

            "This thing was supposed to come back to me." Rebecca said. "Why didn't it?"

            "What did you find in the supplies?" Sue asked taking the shield from her. "What is in those crates?"

            "Those are empty, but we found boxes of clothes and stuff."

            "Stuff?" Sue asked.

            "Yea stuff." Rebecca said shrugging. "Looks like spare parts, or clothes no guns."

            "I think there was a box of computer disk or something." Ben said.

            "I wanted a better list than: "Stuff" Sue said. "We need to know what we have available."

            "But I wanted to practice." Rebecca said.

            "You can practice later." Sue said. "When I ask you to do something, do it."

            "Says who." Rebecca challenged.

            "Says the person who is going to show you how to do this." Sue said.

            Taking a step back Sue drew her arm and let the shield fly. It knocked the crates over, hit off of the wall of the main building and then flew back to them.

            "Shock!" Ben whispered.

            "You used your powers!" Rebecca snapped.

            "No I didn't." Sue said. "You were throwing it wrong. I'll show you how tomorrow, after lunch, do that inventory on the supplies."

            "You're not in charge of us!" Rebecca said.

            "Yes I am." Sue said. "Because either I'm in charge or none of us will survive."

            "Like you've done so hot till now?" Rebecca snapped.

            She regretted it the instant she said it, Sue could tell that from the look on her face. Rebecca probably didn't have a mean bone in her body.

            Down Sue, Sue thought stifling her anger. Remember 2 days ago she was in a semi-normal life. She hasn't even dealt with her rape yet.

            "I've done ok." Sue said, giving Rebecca a smile that hi-lighted the scar on her face. Taking Rebecca's hand she put the shield into it and pressed the young girl's fingers into a slight groove on the edge. "Now draw back and throw." Sue said. "Not hard, but not like a Frisbee either, throw it like your pitching a softball."

            Puzzlement and guilt competed on Rebecca's face, but she threw the shield. It sailed in an arc around the fallen crates and then circled back to her. Rebecca caught it clumsily in the stomach and fell back as the wind was knocked out of her. Sue caught her before she fell over.

            "It's not a question of being in charge Rebecca." Sue said. "It's a question of experience. I know what can go wrong and I know far better than you do the consequences. If somehow we're discovered and there is an attack tomorrow, and there was something in the supplies that could help us, then I should know it today, not tomorrow. Understand?"

            "I guess." Rebecca said.

            "I promise you, I'll teach you how to throw the shield."

            "And fight." Rebecca said. "I want to be what my parents were."

            "And I want to be what my father was." Ben chipped in. "Mom knows the formulae for the webbing, I just have to make the shooters and I got the plans."

            For a moment Sue was stunned. That anyone would want to go back to the life she was desperate to get away from struck her as insane. Then she realized.

            They don't know. Not even Rebecca. They don't know the price you have to pay for putting on the costume and the mask. God can I make them see? Should I? Can I train them? I'm trying to make them see that we should get the hell of off the planet and these two are just like Mary Jane. They really think we can win!

            They were waiting for an answer. Sue could read hope and fear on their faces, in their eyes. They were young enough to look for guidance, young enough to believe it could be done, but not old enough to realize it might not be possible, that failure could and most likely would happen to them.

            And after the failure comes the torture. But if I don't teach them they'll have no chance anyway, and whatever happens just being who they are will draw them into battles, just like us. The FF never went looking for trouble, it picked up a flashlight and hunted us down instead.

            "I'll teach you both." Sue said. "If your mother says it's ok Ben."

            "She will." Ben said with the steady assurance of a kid going to a promised Baseball game.

            "Tomorrow." Sue said. "But for the rest of the day I want that inventory."

            "It's a deal." Rebecca said. "Right after lunch."

            Rebecca and Ben hurried off and Sue stood there watching them. Something made her look up and she saw Mary Jane watching them from the control tower. Mary Jane nodded and turned away.     

            Dear God, Sue thought. Am I doing the right thing? Mary Jane knows. She probably expected it. But no matter how hard or how well I train them they could fail. Does she know that? Of course she does. But she wants me to train them for the same reason I'll have to train them, because of who we are and when we are in history. Why fool myself? Even if I get them off Earth Rebecca and Ben, hell maybe all of them will want to come back and do what I would have done 14 years ago. Try to fix things.

            Sue looked at the Kree ship and then walked toward the main building. She was hungry.

            God I pity them, she thought.

            Jan and May were sitting on the bed in the room May had chosen. Jan had shrunk once more and was being held down by May as Sue walked in.

            "Don't squirm." May ordered the diminutive heroine as she fitted a pair of pants on the miniaturized Jan.

            "Tickles." Jan squealed.

            "There." May announced. She held up a small mirror and the Wasp inspected herself.

            "Jan look good." Jan said. She was wearing a pair of white knee-length shorts with a blue halter-top and a piece of gold string around her waist. Because she was so small the scars on her arms and legs weren't visible, and with her soft brown hair flowing around her shoulders Jan looked like the Wasp Sue remembered.   "No more flying around naked for Jan." May said as if she were talking to a child. The tone irritated Sue for a moment, but she put the feeling aside.

            "Lunch is almost ready." Sue said.

            "Look Sue, Jan got new clothes!" Jan shouted and flew in front of her face.

            "They look good Jan." Sue said "But you better switch to your other clothes before you eat.

            "Good idea." Jan said and flew off happily before Sue could say anything else.

            She's coming along, Sue thought. Two days ago she was scared to be out of my sight.

            "Thanks for the clothes." Sue said.

            "It's ok." May said quietly. "Mom was going crazy what with her being naked all the time." She started to put the sewing kit away. "I saw you with Becca and Ben." Sue said nothing as the girl faced her. May was about 12 or so, years younger than Ben but with a look in her eyes. A look of certainty, of purpose. "You're going to teach them how to fight."

            "Yes." Sue said. "If you're mother agrees."

            "I don't want to learn how to fight." May said.

            "That's up to you." Sue said. "But fighting is hard to avoid now-a-days."

            "Fighting is wrong." May said. She started to arrange the dolls on the bed. "Fighting is for stupid people or muties."

            "Really?" Sue asked. The way May had said that last word got Sue's attention. It was said with complete innocence, but with an edge to it as well. "Muties are bad?"

            "Muties are scum." May replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

            "Scum.", Sue thought as alarms went off in her head. Not "bad", or "strange", but "scum".

            "I'm going to be a doctor." May said. "Curing is always better than fighting."

            "What are you going to cure?" Sue asked.

            "Muties." May shrugged.

            "Your mother tells me that you and Ben can walk on the walls."

            "Yea. So what?"

            "So doesn't that make you mutants as well?"

            May looked at her strangely and Sue could tell that the girl had never thought of things that way.             "What if the mutants can't be cured?" Sue asked.

            "Kill them." May said firmly. "Kill all muties."

            "Really? Your brother? You?"

            "I..." May started to speak and then stopped. Picking up a doll she started to bang it against the mattress. "I don't know. But muties need to be gone, they shouldn't be here."

            "May let's play a game." Sue said. Carefully she took the doll out of May's hand. The little girl looked at her confused.

            "What kind of game?"

            "Concentration." Sue said. She picked up one of the needles from the sewing kit and held it up infront of May's face. "Can you see the eye of the needle?"

            "Sure."

            "Keep looking at it." Sue said and she started to move the needle back and forth. May's eyes followed it without urging. "Just relax and keep following it with your eyes."

            It only took a minute for May's eyes to stop following the needle. Her face blank the little girl stood still as stone.

            "May listen to me." Sue said. "I want you to go back to that place where you're most comfortable. Can you do that for me?"

            "Yes." May said, her voice barely above a whisper.

            May and Sue arrived late for lunch. The meal was strained between Sue's reserved attitude and Rebecca and Ben's excitement. Afterwards Jarvis started to do the dishes. Sue dispatched Rebecca, Ben and Jan to do the inventory and motioned Mary Jane to stay.

            "May, lets show your mother something in your room ok?" Sue asked.

            "Sure." May said.

            "Come on." Sue said to a very puzzled Mary Jane.

            Once in her room May picked up a doll and gave it to her mother, then she sat down on the bed, and a blank look came over her face.

            "What the hells wrong with her?" Mary Jane demanded.

            "She was hypnotized by one of her teachers." Sue said.

            "What?"

            "May was hypnotized by one of her teachers." Sue said. "A card carrying Grey who thought that the best way to teach little children to hate mutants was hypnosis. Everyone in May's class was hypnotized."

            "My god no!" Mary Jane whispered. She bent down and looked at her daughter. May stood impassively by the bed.

            "I'm sorry." Sue said, putting her hand on Mary Jane's shoulder. "I'm sure we can reverse it, wipe out the garbage."

            "How did you know?" Mary Jane asked.

            "I've seen mind control and hypnosis a hundred times before." Sue knelt down beside her. "I came in to see how Jan was and the way she talked about mutants... they were catch phrases I knew you'd never allow her to use. May told me she wanted to be a doctor, to "cure" muties, but if she couldn't cure them, she'd kill them."

            "No." Mary Jane groaned. She started to hug her daughter and then drew back, almost as if she was afraid of doing more damage. "May's a mutant. This explains so much. She's been quieter lately, but she was always the quiet one. But she's been moody too."

            "They've been teaching her to hate mutants and she is one." Sue said. "It would have driven her insane if it kept on going."

            "Bastards!" Mary Jane swore. "Do you know when it started?"

            "It's only been going on a month or two." Sue said. "That's how the Red Skull's men found out about you, the teacher betrayed the TaskMaster and sold you out."

            "Teacher... what?"

            "The TaskMaster is a mutant." Sue said. "He survived the Day by undergoing voluntary sterilization and setting himself up as a mole for the Greys and the Sentinels. They've known where you've been for years."

            "God!" Mary Jane whispered.

            "They were hoping that if any super heroes or mutants survived they would seek you out." Sue said. "As the wife of Spiderman you were the perfect bait for the trap."

            "How do you know all this?"

            "It's in May's mind. She was hypnotized so they didn't bother to keep quiet around her. Every other week they'd get her alone, the TaskMaster and Miss Rasconi, put her under and ask questions."

            "Bastards!" Mary Jane hissed. "All the time he said I was safe as long as I...Oh God what I did for him!"

            "The anti-mutant stuff was Miss Rasconi." Sue said. "My guess is that before that they just bugged your house and watched you for the first few years."

            "That's why he lost interest after a while." Mary Jane said. "I thought he just got bored with me, God I was so scared... I started doing weird sex just to keep him coming to me!"

            "You were protecting your family." Sue said, putting her hand on Mary Jane's shoulder.

            "He must had a good laugh." Mary Jane said. "I must have looked like... Oh God!"

            "At least he had enough pity in him to set you up in a job." Sue said.

            "Yea, great job." Mary Jane said bitterly. "My own club that I kept as long as I shook my ass for the customers and the girls upstairs kept them happy! I was a madam Sue! Not only a whore but a Madam! Damn him to hell! And now this? She's only 12!"

            "The hypnosis is a new idea from the Greys. Miss Rasconi hid the anti-mutant stuff from the TaskMaster, but she showed him the hypnosis to get more money out of him. I guess keeping your house under surveillance was getting expensive. May could be the perfect spy."

            "A teacher." Mary Jane said then repeated herself as if she did not believe he words. "A teacher."

            "She'd get May alone during the school day, put her under and pour that hate into her. May had no chance. Sometimes it was May and a few of the other children, I have a feeling it was a set pattern to get all of them."

            "Those poor kids." Mary Jane asked. "The one place they should have been... What now?"

            "We can get the hate stuff out of her mind, it's not too deep yet."

            "Of all places I thought they were safe in school." Mary Jane said. "God what an idiot I was!"

            "What about Ben?" she asked looking up.

            "I doubt it, I think he is too old, but we can check, and Rebecca too."

            "How long will it take to get that garbage out of her?" Mary Jane asked.

            "I don't know." Sue said. She guided Mary Jane onto a chair. "But I needed you here."

            "Why? You could have told me later."

            "May doesn't trust me." Sue said. "She's fighting my cure. I'm a mutant to her. You are her mother. I'll tell you what to say and you say it. That should do it."

            Mary Jane swallowed and looked at her daughter. May was completely still, breathing lightly and staring into infinity.

            "Tell me." Mary Jane said.

            Two hours later both women were emotionally spent. May laid on her bed and read a book as they left.

            "It was deeper than I thought." Sue said as they walked into the control tower. "Miss Rasconi is probably very well trained."

            "We've gotten her straightened out I think." Mary Jane said. "But the attitude is going to linger."

            She was trying to be reasonable but Sue could tell that Mary Jane just wanted to scream and smash things. She pitied the teacher if Mary Jane ever met up with Miss Rasconi again.

            "Two things we have to do." Sue said. Mary Jane sat down at the control console and Sue pulled a chair up next to her. "One, get her to use her powers more, the more she uses them, the better she'll feel about them and the less she'll feel like she's doing something wrong just by existing."

            "What's the other thing?"

            "Get her to spend time with Jan."

            "With Jan?"

            Sue nodded.

            "Jan's using her powers as naturally now as she ever did, it took her months to get to that point once we got out of the camp. But she's as harmless a superhuman as May will ever meet. May knows what Jan is, and being close to her will dispel any lingering feelings she has that mutants are a threat."

            "But we can't tell them why." Mary Jane said.

            "Not until they're older." Sue agreed. "For now let's just tell her it's a babysitting job. She has to be the one to keep clothes handy for when Jan shrinks or grows."

            "She'll buy that if I ask her the right way." Mary Jane said. "She's already a bit irritated at her brother about it anyway." Mary Jane sighed and weakly punched the arm of her chair. "Damn them she's only 12 years old! How could they do that to her?"

            "For the TaskMaster it wouldn't matter what age she was." Sue said. "For the Grey she's just another mutie to be used and thrown away."

            For a moment they looked at each other, Mary Jane thrown by the harsh way Sue put it. Then she turned to the console.

            "I've made some progress with this." Mary Jane said. "You were wrong when you said no one tried to help you."

            "What?" It was Sue's turn to be shocked. "I was there, I didn't see anyone."

            "The Day was better planned than we thought." Mary Jane said. She touched a control and page with the Grey's letterhead appeared on it. The letterhead was an M with circle and slash of the international prohibition symbol over it.

            "The crowds were led by Grey's, and in the crowds were Grey agents, anyone trying to speak the wrong way got hit by a stun blast."

            "A few people tried then." Sue said. "Out of thousands."

            "You know what a mob is like." Mary Jane said.

            "We both do." Sue said coldly. "Where did you get this from?"

            "It's from an encrypted transmission that was sent to Project Wide Awake." Mary Jane said. "From who and too who I don't know."

            "Project Wide Awake was the Sentinel project." Sue said. "Before he realized what it was about Reed did some consulting on it as a favor to Nick Fury. Even after he stopped helping Nick asked him to help on some other things. It was the in he needed to the Baxter building and our computers."

            "Fury is still alive you know." Mary Jane said.

            "Really?" Sue asked.

            "According to the Kree surveillance systems he's running Gamma Base."

            Sue shrugged.

            "Is that all you have so far?"

            "So far." Mary Jane said.

            "Ok." Sue stood up. "I'm going to go back and work on the ship for a while before dinner."

            "I'll keep working here." Mary Jane said.

            Nice try Jan, Sue thought as she walked to the ships. Throw me a little line about people trying to help on the Day and then try to get me mad about Nick Fury still being alive. Even after what mankind did to her daughter she's still trying to get me to save it. Well forget it Mary, those people failed and Nick Fury can dry up and blow away for all I care. I don't get mad anymore.

            The hatch to the ship was slow to open and without thinking Sue reached down and wrenched it open. There was no damage as she left it open and walked inside.

            "How long do I have to look at this?" Ben asked as he sat in the navigator seat of the Kree ship.

            "Until it stops blinking red and green and turns to blue." Sue said. She pretended to manipulate the controls. "Just relax."

            "Ok. But this is a boring ship."

            "Really?"

            "Yea, I mean not like the ships on Buck Rodgers."

            "I guess." Sue said. Part of the Sentinels ban on tech had been re-enforced by the Grey's playing censor. Any movie or tv show they deemed: "Dangerous", was banned. That had led to a sudden reduction in movies, only those from the early 1950's or earlier were being shown. In Vegas of course those rules were not strictly enforced, not for adults at least. But for children...

            God what a generation this is going to produce, Sue thought. No science past high school, and damn poor science IN high school.

            Twenty minutes later Ben blinked and looked up at her.

            "Did I fall asleep?"

            "Sort of." Sue said. "But it doesn't matter. It's nearly lunchtime and I was shutting down for a while."

            "Ok." he said.

            Ben hopped out of the chair and Sue followed him out of the ship. Mary Jane was walking toward them with a sheet of papers.

            "Lunch is almost ready honey." She called. "Go help your sister set the table."

            "Right." Ben said and was off. Mary Jane watched him go and then turned to Sue.

            "Him too." Sue said. "But only once."

            "Bastards!" Mary Jane swore.

            "It was the same teacher." Sue said. "But since she only got to do it once I was able to wipe it out in one setting."

            "Good." Mary Jane said. "That only leaves Rebecca."

            "And you." Sue said.

            "What?"

            "Jarvis was the Avengers butler." Sue said. "He was trained in resisting hypnosis. You weren't and the TaskMaster could have drugged you."

            "You're being paranoid." Mary Jane snapped.

            "Yes I am." Sue said. "Prove me wrong."

            For an instant Mary Jane's green eyes flashed with rage. Then she got herself under control.

            "There were times when I blacked out." She said her face tightening as she remembered. "You'll take me later."

            It was later that night when everyone was asleep that Mary Jane let Sue into her room.

            "What about Jan?" Mary Jane said.

            "I asked her to sleep with May." Sue said. "I told her that May was having bad dreams and could use the company, but not to tell her that I told. Jan can keep a secret."

            "I know." Mary Jane said.

            She was wearing the same floral nightgown as Sue but it was plastered to her body with sweat and worry. Mary Jane had picked the room that was central to all the others, no more than a door down from Ben and May and insight of both Rebecca's and Jarvis's doors. It was the officers quarters, with a large bed, desk and a private bathroom.

            "Do you know if you've ever been hypnotized before?" Sue asked.

            "Not that I know of." Mary Jane said. She fidgeted.

            "Just relax." Sue said sitting down beside her. She took a spoon she had taken from the kitchen and used her powers to suspend it over Mary Jane's eyes. "Relax and listen."

            An hour later Sue left Mary Jane's room. Mary Jane had not been hypnotized. Sue had been pretty sure of that, with the threat of her children to hold over her the TaskMaster would have no need to hypnotize her.

            But I had to be sure, Sue thought. And so did she. I'm sure she's been wondering about it. It can be hell when you're missing part of your life. I've had it happen to me too many times. Mesmero, the Wizard, the Orb...

            Sue entered her room and lay down on the bed. It was strange not to feel Jan next to her. She lay in the dim gloom given off from the bathroom light and drifted in and out of her memories.

            Chloroformed, drugged, tied up, chained up, put in someone else's body... always rescued, always winning in the end. Barely! God and then going back for more! How many times did I end up naked in some dungeon even before the Sentinels? God the month I spent in Atuma's harem! The comic books glossed a lot of it over, but it happened... I wonder if any of those comics survived? Will that be the only thing that survives? Just a few drawings in a few books... That's not fair...

            Sue reached over and felt for Jan. It took her only moments to wake up and realize that Jan was gone. She lay in bed a little while longer and then sighed and got up. She walked through the corridor quietly until she came to May's door. Sue concentrated and the door turned invisible. Inside the lights were dim. A shrunken Jan slept next to May's favorite doll. May's arm was around them both, holding them to her side. Jan was wearing the same flowered nightgown as the doll.

            Sue sighed, let the door turn visible again and stepped away. The sound of crying stopped her and she looked at the door to Rebecca's room. The light was on, the door open a crack. Inside Mary Jane was sitting with Rebecca on the bed. She was hugging the girl who was sobbing quietly.

            "Even if you had shot a few of them it wouldn't have made a difference." Mary Jane was saying.

            Dealing with the rapes at last, Sue thought. She moved on quietly and headed toward the dining room. Jarvis had a smattering of Kree at his command, and had at last deciphered the food machines. That they had been programmed for Earth food in case of prisoners was an added bonus. He had, "For the children", stocked a fridge with ice-cream and cake. Sue felt the need for some of that now.

            She stopped at the entrance to the dinning room and listened. Jarvis and Ben were in there, and Jarvis was teaching him how to play poker. Sue listened for a few minutes, remembering how Ben Grimm had taught Franklin. Then she walked quietly away.

            Once back in her room Sue hugged a pillow to her chest, curled into a ball and forced herself to sleep.

            "Hypnotized?" Rebecca demanded hotly.

            Sue, Mary Jane and Rebecca were in Rebecca's room. It was an hour past Ben and May's bedtime. Rebecca had chosen one of the larger officers quarters. She had answered the door wearing a blue T shirt and a pair of panties, making her look like the teenager she was.

            "Ben and May were both put under hypnosis in school." Sue said. "To gain information and to start a conditioning process to make them hate mutants. You might have been too."

            "But I'd remember if I didn't remember... I mean..."

            Rebecca sat down on the bed and Mary Jane sat next to her.

            "The tricks a pro can play on the mind are hard to spot." Sue said. "Trust me, I know. The Fantastic Four once spent nearly three months as slaves to the PsychoMan and the whole time we thought we were his creations."

            "But I don't hate mutants or anything like that." Rebecca said.

            "The anti-mutant stuff is the Greys work." Mary Jane said. "But the TaskMaster or one of your teachers may have been doing it on their own. Becca it's better to be sure. Sue put me under and I'm ok."

            Rebecca swallowed and looked at Sue.

            You've got to trust me, Sue said wondering if it would have been better to wait until they knew each other more. Ben and May had been children, but Rebecca was older. Still, if she's been under once I won't have any trouble.

            "You'll be here the whole time?" Rebecca asked grabbing Mary Jane's hand.

            "I won't leave." Mary Jane said. "And I promise you'll remember everything."

            Rebecca looked down and then looked up at Sue.

            "Ok, I guess. Better to know." She was trying to be brave but failing. "What do I do?"

            "Lay down." Sue said. "And try to get comfortable."

            Sue walked over and dimmed the light. Then she went back over and sat on the bed. Rebecca was laying at attention. Mary Jane sat next to her and tried not to look worried.

            "Ok." Sue said calmly. "This will take a while." Bending over she held up a shiny rock that Ben had found sticking out of one of the quinjet's wheels.

            "Ok." Rebecca said. She swallowed again and tried to take a normal breath.

            "Now just look at the stone." Sue said quietly. "Sleep!" Sue shouted suddenly whipping the stone past Rebecca's eyes.

            The result was instant. Rebecca's eyes closed and her body relaxed.

            "What the hell?" Mary Jane snapped, nearly leaping off of the bed in fright.

            "There are a lot of ways to put someone under." Sue said, placing the stone on the bed. "Rebecca was too scared to go quietly."

            "Oh." Mary Jane said, slowly trying to calm herself down.

            Sue looked at Rebecca. She lay on the bed, her body relaxed now and her figure showing through the thin fabric of the T-shirt, her breasts were large and the nipples almost poked through the fabric. She was older than Sue had first guessed and Sue wondered if Dr. Strange's teleportation spell had slowed all of their growth rates.

            Or maybe it's been so long since I've seen anyone besides Jan and guards I just don't know anymore, Sue thought.

            "Rebecca." Sue said with as much force in her voice as she could manage. "You are not asleep, you know that. You are in a trance. You can hear my voice and you will do what I say. Do you understand?"

            "Yes." Rebecca said quietly.

            "Good. Now I want you to go back to the last time you were in a trance. Ignore any instructions you were given then. Tell me what happened."

            "I was at Bobbies house." Rebecca said. "She asked me over to help her with math. When I got there she and Tracy and Melvin grabbed me, wet cloth on my face...my head gets fuzzy... they started to take off my clothes..."

            Rebecca was sweating and suddenly she reached out and grabbed Mary Jane's hand.

            "I don't want them too! Melvin's hand is between my legs, he's reaching INSIDE me! I want them to stop, my head feels funny, Tracy and Bobbie are kissing me... I don't want them to kiss me... I can stop them, I feel power in my fingers, I throw that power at them... I miss... the tv explodes! I have power! I can be like my mother!"

            "What happened then?" Sue asked

            "They put a blindfold on me, I can't see, they tie my arms behind my back, can't see to focus energy... I'm tired, I... blackness, I'm asleep..."

            "Go on." Sue told her.

            "I hear a voice, the TaskMaster. I'm awake and I hear him talking, shouting, telling the family he wanted me left alone... I feel a pain in my arm and I'm asleep again. I wake up, looking at a woman on a television screen. She's in chains. Old woman, white hair, her eyes... her eyes stare at me... I can hear her in my mind, I can feel her hiding my powers... making me hate my powers... telling me... she's telling me that I am worthless, that I... I can't do anything... I can't fight back..."

            "The White Queen." Sue said softly.

            "I go to sleep." Rebecca said. "She makes me go to sleep. I wake up in Bobbies house, I don't remember anything... I go home..."

            "Rest Rebecca." Sue said.

            Rebecca's body seemed to collapse into the matress and Sue motioned Mary Jane over to one side.

            "Explains a lot." Sue said. "That's why the TaskMaster didn't do anything to her. She's too valuable."

            "Who was the White Queen?" Mary Jane asked.

            "A telepath, a mutant. From the sound of it she's a slave now."

            "Bobbie, Tracy and Melvin. They were her best friends, her only friends really. They slept over at our house a week ago." Mary Jane looked at Rebecca. "What do we do now?"

            "What you promised." Sue said sadly.

            Together they walked over to the bed. Mary Jane sat next to Rebecca and took her hand. Sue sat on the other side of the bed.

            "Rebecca." Sue said. "The trance is over. When I touch your forehead you'll wake up, you'll remember everything. You won't obey any of those instructions that the woman with the white hair gave you ever again."

            Sue hesitated as she reached for Rebecca's head. Then she took a deep breath and lightly touched her finger to Rebecca's brow.

            Rebecca's eyes shot open and for an instant there was confusion in them. Then rage, then sadness and finally a calm Sue hadn't seen before. Without a word the young woman sat up and looked at her hand. A blue white energy flowed from her fingers and formed itself into a ball of energy. She threw the ball at a chair near the bathroom. The ball grew to envelop the chair and when it did so energy crackled in the room. Suddenly the chair exploded into dust.

            "I..." Rebecca started to speak. "I have powers?" She looked at Mary Jane and started to cry. "But Bobbie, and Tracy... Melvin... oh God! I thought they were my friends! How could they do that to me?"

            While Mary Jane hugged and tried to comfort Rebecca Sue walked over to the remains of the chair. It had been a metal chair with no padding and now it was dust. Or not dust, Sue picked up a bit of the remains with her fingers. More like clay. She guessed that somehow Rebecca had changed the chair's molecular make up.

            Quietly Sue stood up and went to help Mary Jane.

            Children still need to play. Even in her darkest times Sue had never forgotten that. They also need someone to keep an eye on them. This day that was Sue's turn. The front of the main building had become the de-facto playground and training area. Every day Rebecca practiced with the shield, or learned to fight from Jarvis or Sue. Ben joined the fighting lessons as well, but May refused. It wasn't because of the hypnosis. After long weeks of daily sessions and time spent playing with Jan May was free of that. It was simply that the girl had decided fighting was wrong and that was that. Sue had to settle for teaching her only non-violent defense moves. It bothered Mary Jane. It scared the hell out of Sue.

            "Yes!" Rebecca shouted as the shield rebounded off of the target crates. A few seconds later Sue heard her gasp as the shield flew back and hit her in the stomach.

            "I did it." Rebecca said as Sue helped her up.

            "One half point." Sue said.

            "What?"

            "One of the rules of the fight Rebecca." Sue said. "You don't celebrate until two days after the fight is done."

            "Why two days?" May asked.

            "Because two days is usually the time it takes to tell whether you've really won. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a hero recover because the villain paused to gloat."

            The words sunk in, Sue could tell that from the looks on their faces. It was Ben who asked the question Sue didn't want to hear.

            "What about the Sentinels? How come they won?"

            "Good planning, surprise." Sue said. "They knew where to hit us, how to hit us, when to hit us. In any battle intelligence about the enemy is important."

            "But you were so powerful." Ben protested.

            How could we loose, Sue finished for him. I could go through each battle and tell you how and why, but I'm not going to do that to you.

            "No one's perfect." Sue said. "The Sentinels are robots, they don't gloat, they aren't even alive. They are like your video game." She led them over to the wall. It was straight up, flat and perfect for the training exercise game Sue had come up with. Behind her Sue could hear Rebecca grunting as she threw the shield again.

            Sue had to smile as she saw Rebecca work out with the shield. The revelation that she had powers, and the reversal of the White Queen's mental programming had freed Rebecca from a lot of her guilt and fear. Her powers were, as Sue had guessed, much like her mothers. But where the Scarlet Witch had cast hex sphere's that altered probability, Rebecca concentrated the energy into balls. Within those balls she could transmute one substance into another. Time and training would allow her to choose what substance would come from the transformation. Seeing her explore her powers reminded Sue of Franklin's own tortured route to his powers. Sue hoped she could train Rebecca better.

            "All ready Sue." Jan said flying over to her. Jan had improved over the past few weeks, she still had the mind of a child, but her mood swings had grown less. She was sleeping with May every night now, something Sue had slowly gotten used to. Often at night Sue still woke up and stretched her hand out for Jan, only to remember a moment later that she was with someone else. That hurt, as much as Sue tried to deny it. But she felt that May needed Jan more, and forced herself not to feel jealous. Sometimes she succeeded. Jan had also learned not to change clothes in front of Ben. Between May and Jan they had perfected the art of sewing small costumes, and Jan was wearing one now. Thought little more than a white string bikini it also boasted a blue fringe. Jan rang the little bell she was carrying.

            "Ok, opposite sides." Sue said. Ben walked over to one side of the wall while May walked over to the other. "Blindfolds."

            Both children took strips of cloth out of their pockets and put them on.

            "Ready." Ben called.

            "Ready." May echoed.

            "Remember Jan, no giggling this time." Sue said.

            "Ok." Jan said giggling. She flew up to a random spot on the wall.

            "Go." Sue called out.

            Jan rang the bell for about 3 seconds and then silenced it. Both children leapt onto the wall and started to crawl around, looking for her. Jan giggled of course, Sue knew she would. In about 2 minutes Jan would move, ring the bell again and wait.

            The sight of May crawling around on the wall brought another small smile to Sue's face. For the first week or so after Sue had first introduced the game May could only do it for a short time. Then she would walk away sullenly and find someplace to cry. Occasionally she would have a tantrum and would have to wear herself down before anyone could get near her. Ben was puzzled by the behavior, but Sue told him it was just a "girl" thing, and like all small boys he accepted that. He accepted it for Rebecca as well when she turned moody at times.

            For a while after that night both May and Rebecca slept with Mary Jane. Rebecca came to grips with it sooner, Sue suspected the reason for that was the training. Her anger powered her to get into shape. In her mind Rebecca was well on her way to becoming what her parents were. Sue had no doubt that she was designing a costume and choosing a name.

            May was different. Where Rebecca turned outward May turned inward, drawing pictures, reading books, Sue was amazed how quickly May picked up the Kree language. Gradually, with Sue and Mary Jane working to undo the hypnotic conditioning, and with Jan's near constant company, May had gotten used to her powers again. Now the score between her and her brother was nearly even and she laughed as much as he did.

            "Who's winning?" Mary Jane asked as she and Jarvis walked up to Sue.

            "Tied." Sue said. "You have news?"

            "We need to talk." Mary Jane said.

            "Give them about another half hour Jarvis?" Sue asked.

            "Very good Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said.

            "Some day he's going to call me "Sue" and I'll die of shock." Sue said as she and Mary Jane walked into the control room.

            "He's been with us for years and he's never called me anything but "Mrs. Parker." Mary Jane said. "Some times the kids tease him about it."

            The control room had been transformed. No longer a model of Kree military efficiency it had become a combination family room and art gallery. Mary Jane would watch Jan and May play while she worked, when Sue was training Rebecca and Jarvis was teaching Ben to box. Consequently there were dolls scattered on the floor and May's drawings were taped on the windows. Sue had spent time here as well, usually after everyone was asleep, going through the Kree planet database, looking for a new home. So far she had found only 4 planets that looked promising, and that was according to data at least 20 years out of date.

            Mary Jane sat down and tapped a few buttons. Weeks of practice had moved her past her fear of the machinery.

            "It took a while, but I got the hang of how to search for what I needed. I have figured out why there is no real resistance to the Sentinels."

            A map of the United States, Canada and Mexico appeared. Red dots covered nearly all of it.

            "This is from a Grey High Council Report." Mary Jane said. "The red dots are where anti-Sentinel protest took place."
            "Impressive." Sue said.

            "Deadly." Mary Jane corrected her. "The procedure was the same for each protest. Some Grey's would go into town, under cover, distribute leaflets and organize. They would bring everyone together for a protest rally, then as the rally was going on, Sentinel robots would surround the area and gradually seal it off. Once they were done the Grey's would leave, usually by helicopter, and the robots would kill everyone."

            "Bait them in and kill them." Sue said. "A perfect plan. And with the Grey's controlling the press..."

            "They didn't stop there." Mary Jane said. "Aside from the press they had searches set up on all computer bulletin boards, even the private ones, and telephone activity between cities was randomly monitored. They let that be known."

            "What about the military?" Sue asked.

            "Communications lock down." Mary Jane said. "They had no idea what was going on at first, and the President was still in charge of the military, some wanted to fight, but others held them back. In the meantime the Sentinels or the Greys took the heavy weapons that could have fought against them. The confusion went on for at least a year. By then no city in the US, Mexico or Canada hadn't had at least one protest massacre. When some of the military acted there were battles, but once the president was gone there was no central authority that anyone really took seriously."

            "Hence the mini-empires that have sprung up." Sue said.

            "Doctor Strange's spell shot us forward." Mary Jane said. "I had no idea this had happened."

            "So most of the people who would have fought back were murdered." Sue said.

            "It's worse than that." Mary Jane said and her voice took on a tinge of despair. She pushed a button and a page come on the screen. It bore the Grey's letterhead and was titled: "Enforced Attitude Adjustment in Civilized Areas."

            "May isn't alone." Mary Jane said. "All kindergarten children in the major cities are hypnotized now, just like she was. In five more years it will be all cities. It's an open secret that no one talks about, but from the reports I've read only a few don't know what happens. Once you're in second grade a psychological test is given every year until you graduate high school. If you fail the test, if you still have "dangerous mutant sympathies" three times in a row you are reported to the Sentinels."

            Mary Jane punched another button and a sleek black robot appeared. No more than four feet high, faceless, seamless it gave off enough evil even through it's image to make Sue's hair stand on end.

            "This is a Silent Sentinel. If you fail the test this comes to where you live. It comes in the middle of the night. The entire family is murdered, their bodies disposed off, their possessions destroyed. Any official records of them are destroyed. They are wiped from existence without any warning, any appeal, just here one day, gone the next."

            "Government by terror." Sue said. "Very effective as Stalin found out."

            "I can't fight this Sue." Mary Jane said and Sue could tell that she was close to tears. "I could fight robots, I could fight the Greys, but I can't fight people who would let their children's minds be poisoned. From what I can tell the people who could have, probably would have joined us are dead. They were killed within two years after the Day. The rest go along to get along and are raising an ignorant hateful generation that terrifies me. I can't fight that Sue, I don't know how. Fix the ships, please, get my children away from here."

            Sue laughed, a laugh that turned into a choked off sob.

            "You finally want to go and I can't take you!" she whispered. "I've tried Mary Jane, I can get the ships 99% working, but I can't fix the hyperdrives! I don't know how!"

            "You can't fix them?" Mary Jane's astonishment only made Sue laugh more.

            "I've known for a week." Sue gasped out between laughs. "I didn't know how to tell you!"

            Suddenly Mary Jane started to laugh too. It was a release of tension and for the next few minutes both women laughed, but their laughter was tinged with hysteria.

            "We're doomed." Mary Jane said as her laughter finally trailed off.

            Sue let her laughter end as well and her eyes seemed to turn inward in thought.

            "Like you said, we could hide out here for a while, but for how long? What kind of life is that for us?"

            "There were a handful of men who could fix that ship." Sue said thoughtfully. "Reed. Tony Stark. Maybe Hank Pym. A few super criminals."

            "They're all dead." Mary Jane said.

            "All but one." Sue said. Reaching past Mary Jane she keyed in a sequence. The map changed to a shot of the African continent. Sue spoke a sequence in Kree and it zoomed into a real time shot of a compound. It was a large place, a palace surrounded by high walls.

            "What's that?" Mary Jane asked.

            "That was where you and your kids were going the day Jan and I found you." Sue said. "The co-ordinates were in the quinjet's computer."

            "The Red Skull?" Mary Jane nearly shouted. "Sue you can't be serious."

            "Not the skull." Sue said. "But while he was talking to his commander I saw him torturing someone on a rack. I didn't get a look at the face but I know the scream. Victor Von Doom is alive Mary Jane. And the only chance we have of getting off of this planet is to rescue him from the Red Skull."

            They all gathered in the main planning room, a quiet chamber with chairs set around a large round table. Everyone was silent as Sue explained the situation.

            "Wasn't Doctor Doom the green cloak and the mask?" Ben asked.

            "He did favor green." Sue said. "But aside from the mask he also wore a suit of armor. He ruled the country of Latveria, infact I heard he was dead, but I know he's alive."

            "But the Red Skull..." Rebecca said. "How'd he survive?"

            "He has carved out his own little kingdom in Africa." Sue said. She touched a control and a hologram of a part of Africa appeared on the table. They had a birds eye view of the land. "From what Mary Jane and I have managed to put together the Skull maintains his kingdom by running a huge portion of the black market. Drugs are grown, shipped somehow, we are not sure how, to the rest of the world, and his only rival is Baron Zemo, who controls a kingdom on the other side of the continent. The two kingdoms periodically raid each other."

            "The Skull and Zemo alive while my parents are dead." Rebecca said bitterly. "Great."

            "How can such mean men rule anyplace?" May asked. "I wouldn't take their orders."

            "Not everyone is as good as you are dear." Mary Jane said.

            "Bad men are bullies." Jan said.

            "Rescuing Dr. Doom will not be easy Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said. "The Red Skull will not live in a place easily breached."

            "No, it won't be easy." Sue agreed. "As a matter of fact it will be risky, but Doom is the only one I can think of who can fix the hyperdrive on the ships."

            "But will he?" Rebecca asked. "He was a bad guy, why would he help us?"

            "Victor Von Doom lives, or lived, by a code of honor." Sue said. "I'll simply make his helping us a condition of getting him out of there. To sweeten the pot I'll throw in this base and one of the Kree ships. He'll help us if he is able."

            "This will take all of us working together." Mary Jane said. "Sue plans to use one of the Kree ships to get in and out, and it will take all of us to man the ships."

            "We don't know how to use the ships." Ben protested.

            "We'll learn." Jarvis said. "A base like this would have simulators available."

            "It does." Sue said.

            "Ok." Rebecca said. "But how do we do it?"

            "The Red Skull is a supervillain of the old school." Sue said. She adjusted the display and a view of the Skull's compound appeared. It was a wide area surrounded by a stone wall 80 feet high and twenty feet wide that bristled with gun emplacements. Inside the wall was a complex of barracks, stables, motor pools and parade grounds. In the center of it all was a three-story palace that resembled a gothic church.

            "He always has a way out."

            As Sue manipulated the controls a series of red lines appeared leading from the palace out in four directions.

            "These are hidden escape tunnels." Sue said. "Well hidden, but not from the type of sensors the Kree use." She indicated the tunnel leading north. "This one leads to an underground hanger located here."

            "Isn't that a lake?" Rebecca asked.

            "It looks like one." Sue said. "The hanger is just at the edge of it. That's my way in."

            "You're going in alone?" Jarvis asked.

            "NO!" Jan shouted. "Jan go too."

            "I'm going in alone." Sue said. "Jan needs to be in the ship shooting."

            "But... Jan... always with Sue." Jan said and a bit of the old terror came to her face. May put her hand on Jan's arm and Sue tensed at the contact.

            "Not this time Jan." Sue said gently.

            No one but me, Sue thought. Not with the Skull, especially not Rebecca or Jan. Besides, you have May now Jan, you'll be ok even if I don't come back.

            "This is how it will happen." Sue said. "One of the ships will lift off, we'll take her off the planet and into a deep lunar orbit, if we come out from the dark side of the moon anyone seeing us should think we came from space. We'll use the magnetic interference caused by the poles to lift off without being tracked from here, it worked for the Kree, it should work for us."

            "Shock!" Ben said exited. "We're going into space!"

            "Yes we are." Sue said. "From space we'll come in and zoom along in an orbital track that will take us from the North Pole, across the equator and into Africa. At that point I'll eject in a life pod. When I get to the right altitude I'll eject from the pod, using my force field to get down to the ground. The pod will land here."

            "That's right on the border between Zemo's land and the Red Skull's land." Rebecca said.

            "Right. Both sides will track and it and go for it, that should draw some forces away from the Skull's palace. I'll use my force field to glide to the lake, get into the Skull's compound and find Doom. While I'm doing that you will make one more orbit and come in on the same path. When you get over the area the pod went down in you start firing. By then the Red Skull's troops and Zemo's troops will be in the area and if they aren't already fighting each other pick a side and lay into one of them, preferably the bigger side. That should start them fighting against each other. Then make an announcement in Kree that;" The fugitive should surrender", and just start shooting randomly into the jungle. You keep doing that until you get my signal, then you come and get me. With any luck Zemo will think that the Red Skull got to the person in the pod and that person was rescued. That should be the story the rest of the world accepts as well. The Red Skull will have to deal with that. We'll take the ship out into a deep orbit, wait a week or two, and then once we are sure that no one has found the base in Antarctica, we'll go back."

            "After Doom fixes the ships what then?" Rebecca asked.

            "We leave." Mary Jane said.

            "But you said..."

            "Rebecca." Mary Jane said and there was more sorrow than firmness in her voice. "We leave."

            After a moment Rebecca nodded.

            Three weeks later the ship Ben had christened "Hero's Ark" lay in orbit around the moon. Ben and Jarvis both agreed that the Kree had made a mistake in not naming the ships.

            "Not proper at all." Jarvis had said.

            "Bad form." Ben had echoed.

            So they had named the ship they were going to use. It was Mary Jane's idea to have a naming ceremony and minor party before they started training. Sue actually enjoyed herself during the party and she could tell it had lifted everyone's spirits. Sue had expected to lead the training, but they all found that Jarvis was better at it. It was a surprise for Sue to learn that Jarvis had served in the British Navy, but it was welcome news. He wouldn't tell her the exact nature of his missions, but Sue could tell from the way he acted that Jarvis had seen combat.

            Jarvis took the pilots seat, Mary Jane the co-pilots, Rebecca and Ben each had a gun to handle. May was in charge of communications, the former navigator position, and Jan was in charge of the scanners.

            "It's beautiful." Mary Jane said as they gazed at the Earth. Everyone else was getting in a last sleep session before the start of it all. Sue and Mary Jane had woken early and walked onto the flight deck.

            "It is." Sue agreed. "Picnics on the moon, lunch on Mars."

            "What?"

            "That's what Reed used to tell me we'd be doing by now." Sue said. "That's why he designed the pocket-rocket, the ship that took me into space the first time. Reed was so proud of that ship, it was going to be the first of a fleet."

            "What happened?"

            "The Fantastic Four happened." Sue said. "It was years before Reed was able to figure out that the cosmic rays we passed through were a freak accident, and how to protect travelers against them. But by the time he did the space program had waned, the money wasn't there. He had the knowledge, but the government kept saying no. Everytime he would start to make headway another supervillain would show up and the resources had to go in another direction. He kept saying we'd do it sooner or later, we had time after all."

            For the first time since they had met Mary Jane saw a tear on Sue's face. She put her hand on the other woman's arm but Sue shook her head. She wiped the tear away and closed her eyes for a few moments.

            "If I don't make it tell Jarvis to take the ship to the moon." Sue said. "He knows where the Blue Area is. The Watcher lives there; he might send all of you someplace safe. He's always had a soft spot for the Fantastic Four. If not, well the Blue Area will be safe for a while."

            "And you?"

            "If I don't make it I don't come back Mary Jane."

            The escape pod was a small egg-shaped capsule that had everything a Kree operative needed to survive a crash landing. But it had not been designed for comfort. Sue had been in it for over ten minutes, watching the altimeter reading. She'd passed most of the danger zone, but not all of it. Sue could glide if she maintained her force field in the right pattern, but there were limits and the higher up she was when she bailed out the more chance there was of being picked up by a scanner.

            The black stealth suit she was wearing was Kree built and the fabric felt alien on her skin, a cross between wool and a terrycloth towel. On her hips were two Kree guns, in her boots were two large and four small knives, and on her back was Captain America's shield.

            When the altimeter told Sue she was low enough she cracked the hatch and released the straps. The streaming wind did the rest, taking her out of the capsule like she was a child's toy. For a few minutes the wind simply tossed Sue around, then she got her bearings, turned invisible and surrounded herself with a force field.

            With the field acting like a pair of wings Sue sailed away from the capsule, going over the thick jungle and heading into the setting sun. The timing wasn't the best choice. At night being invisible was less of an advantage, but it would take her a few hours to get to the lake, and the capsule would be found before then. Sue needed the Skull's men to search long and hard, and night would help that.

             Despite the danger Sue could not deny that she was enjoying the flight, or that scene before her was one of primal beauty. The jungle was a lush green carpet beneath her, and the colors produced by the setting sun were breathtaking. The air smelled of life, a warm fresh smell that Sue had missed in Antarctica.

            "Capsule down." May's voice crackled in Sue's earphone.

            Sue nodded. There was no need to respond. Putting aside her feelings the Invisible Woman glided down toward the jungle.

           

            The African jungle had not gotten any safer since the last time Sue had traveled through it. Then she had been with Reed and Ben, working to find the headquarters of the group known as "They". The Black Panther had been with them as well. For once Sue did not turn the memories aside for they told her where to tread and where not to tread. She moved quietly past beast that would have at the least attacked her and at the worst alerted the guards.

            And there were guards, as Sue knew there would be. The Red Skull had grown up in Europe in the 1930's. To a young boy of that era movies were the only way out. That was why Sue wasn't surprised when she saw the lake. It was artificial, a lake out of a Tarzan movie, complete with crocodiles and exotic birds. All of it watched by camera's, patrolled by grim faced guards, and watched over by what looked like the periscope of a submarine in the center of the lake. It had taken Sue three hours to get to the lake after she had landed. The Jungle was pitch dark but Sue kept invisible anyway. She walked carefully and kept a force field around herself at all times. The lake was semi-circular and on the far side was a large plantation house. The porch of the house stretched across the side of the lake. It was set high off the water and Sue knew that under that porch was the hanger.

            Her invisible force field lifted her up and across the water so quietly that not even the birds in the water beneath her were disturbed. Sue set herself down on the porch and then climbed over the side. The smell of diesel fumes guided her to an opening in the fencing and she slipped inside.

            Inside the hanger were a sea-plane, a few motorboats and a submarine being loaded.

            An underground river maybe, Sue thought. That would explain how he gets things out of the country, but why smuggle like that? There hasn't been anyone to bother him down here in years. That he makes the stuff must be known to everyone in Europe, they don't seem to mind.

            Putting the question away for the moment Sue again used her force field to make it across the water unseen. A few bored guards were all that was inside the place. From the water the hanger opened into a long tunnel that was 20 feet high and nearly 60 feet wide. It went back as far as Sue could see. She moved along it, keeping and eye out for camera's or motion sensors. Finding a few Sue avoided them and kept on going. As she did so she passed more planes, some modern, some old, and a drug-processing laboratory. Black children, some as young as 6 sat at a table and worked under the stern eyes of guards with whips. Keeping her anger in check Sue moved on. It was obvious to her now that this was no mere escape tunnel. But there was no helping that now.

            It took Sue an hour to move down the tunnel. There were more guards, more cameras and some sensors that required her to climb across the ceiling to avoid. Sue did this by projecting a force field over the tunnel like a bridge and moving along it slowly. Her main worry was that one of the guards might stumble into the supports she had to put up, but none did. At last she came to a single door. It was well guarded with machine guns, a metal detector that everyone had to walk through, and multiple cameras. Getting through the door was almost too simple after all the precautions Sue had taken. She simply pressed her back against the wall and edged along it until she was at the doorway. Then she was through it.

            It took Sue another hour to find her way through the Red Skull's palace. The place was furnished with the spoils of war. Paintings, fine furniture, and rare works of art were everywhere. Sue stopped at one point, stunned to see the Constitution of the United States, the original that was thought lost when Washington fell, set in a pedestal. The she looked beyond and it and understood. At the foot of the pedestal was a small pen of deadly snakes. The snakes moved through the bones of dead men wearing the uniform of the United States military. Controlling herself Sue moved on.

            As Sue had told them all, the Red Skull was a supervillain from the old school. She had a good idea where the dungeon would be and she was right. The room that led to it was a surprise, not in content, but in scale. If the Red Skull worshiped anything in his life it was the person of Adolph Hitler. He proved that with a 20 foot high statue of Hitler. The statue was pure gold, set on a marble base and the rest of the room held images and relics of the nazi party. The statue was set in the center of a red swastika painted on the floor. The rest of the floor was black. Swords and spears, all of them bloodstained, hung on the walls. Anyone else might have guessed it a museum; Sue knew it to be a temple. Or rather a combination temple and playroom. A blood stained rack was set in front of the statue. On the other side of the room was a door made of iron bars. A person was on the rack, and the Red Skull sat in an ivory chair in front of him. He was wearing a black and gold uniform, with white gloves. The red skull mask was still on his face, revealing only his eyes. They were old eyes, Sue saw. And his hand shook slightly as it held a whip. A nude black girl in chains knelt next to the skull, holding a tray with a bottle of wine and a crystal glass. She too bore the marks of the whip.

            The Red Skull struck out with the whip and it hit the back of the man on the rack. He groaned in pain and the Skull laughed.

            "After all these years you can only groan for me herr Doctor." The Skull took a drink from the wineglass. "Perhaps it is at last time to show you mercy and let you beg for death."

            "I will not beg." Victor Von Doom said quietly. Sue was amazed at the voice. It was said barely loud enough to hear, without any of the strength of the Doom she had known.

            I never sounded that bad did I? Sue wondered.

            "Another ten years perhaps." the Red Skull said. Once again he lashed out with the whip.

            Sue stood for twenty minutes, waiting and watching. She could tell from the way the Skull soon tired of the whipping and turned his attention to the wine that something was wrong with him. His hands shook and there was more uniform than man in his bearing. Doom was rail thin and covered with burn and whip scars. His armor was long gone the former monarch wore only a pair of torn pants. But it was his face that surprised Sue the most. Apart from the dirt and the long straggly hair and beard, it was not scarred or damaged, save for a scar under his right eye.

            Is that what you always hid under your mask Victor? Sue asked silently. Is that why you hounded Reed and the rest of us to hell and back so many times? That little scar?

            Finally her earphone crackled with May's voice.

            "Starting attack now."

            A few minutes later a guard came into the room. He paused to kneel before the statue, then came and gave the nazi salute to the Red Skull.

            "My leader, the alien ship is returning."

            The Red Skull stood up and all traces of weakness were gone. Or at least, that was the impression he managed to give. Sue saw the slight shaking of his hands before he clasped them behind his back.

            "Guard him." the Skull ordered, indicating Doom. He and the servant girl left.

            Once she was sure the Skull was not coming back Sue moved. The guard suddenly started to claw at his face, gasping for air he sank to the ground. He twitched for a few minutes and then lay still. Doom's head raised and he looked around. In the blue eyes Sue saw the same curiosity she had seen so often in Reed.

            They could have been brothers, Sue thought. What a world that would have been!

            "Hello Victor." She said.

            "Susan?" Doom's voice betrayed confusion and surprise, a far cry from the controlled voice Sue had so often heard.

            "I'm here to offer you freedom Victor, in exchange for your word of honor to me and my friends. Agree to help us leave this planet alive in our ship and you will leave this place now."

            "You have my word." Doom said and for a moment there was some of the old iron in his voice.

            With quick movements Sue un-strapped his wrist and ankles. Doom fell to the floor and she let him rest for a moment. The she placed a gun on the floor and let it turn visible.

            "Pick it up." Sue said. "We'll both be invisible until we get out of here, but I'll be holding your hand."

            "Wait." Doom said picking up the gun. He stood up and Sue could see his body fully for the first time. His face may have held only one scar, but Doom's body easily matched hers. "There are others we must free."

            "How many?" Sue asked, following him as he walked toward the barred door.

            "Three others." Doom said. "You know them."

            Unlocking the door he pushed it open and Sue followed him down a short corridor. There were four cells, two on either side. In the first one Doom opened was a nude blonde woman. She wore an inhibitor colar but her body was not scared.

             "Namorita?" Sue asked.

            "Doom?" the woman, asked. Thick iron chains went from her wrist to the wall and Sue saw that heat lamps were focused on her.

            "The day of our liberation has come." Doom said. He walked over and unlocked her chains.

            "It's a trick." a voice said behind Sue. "It's always a trick."

            "YOU!" Sue hissed and let herself become visible.

            "Sue!" Namorita gasped out. "Alive?"

            "And with friends." Doom said. He deactivated the collar and tossed it to the floor. He led her out of the cell and started toward the other. "Come we must..."

            "No." Sue said, throwing up a force field in front of the cells. Both Doom and Namorita were taken back by both her appearance and the hatred in her voice. "They stay."

            "You can't leave them with the Red Skull!" Namorita said starting forward. Sue turned and looked at her and Namorita stopped dead at the sight of her face.

            "I'd leave them in hell if I could." Sue said. "Since I can't leaving them here is the next best thing."

            "Sue," Namorita said, "What ever they did, or you think they did look at them; they've paid for it."

            "At least kill us." the blue skinned woman pleaded. "Please give us that small mercy."

            Sue looked at her. Mystique: one time leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Her deep red hair was streaked with white. The yellow eyes that had once glowed with fanatical power were dim. Her skin hung loosely on bones that Sue could tell were brittle. Her nipples had been pierced and a chain running from rings in them to a ring in her nose was the only thing they held them up. Above her breast the word: "Mutant" had been burned into her skin.

            Did I look that bad four months ago? Sue Wondered. Has she been through what I went through? Did she deserve it? She started all of this! She pushed the bolder down the hill, should I care that she was crushed under it as well?

            "Sue?" Namorita asked.

            Sue walked over and bent down to look at Mystique. The way the other woman cringed allowed her to make the decision. Mystique was not afraid of getting hurt. She was afraid of not making enough of a show to impress the attacker with how much she was scared of him. It was a trick only someone who had been through worse than hell would know. Reaching over Sue turned off the inhibitor collar and removed it.

            "She'll come and we'll decide what do with her later." Sue said, freeing Mystique's wrist from the chains. The woman looked at her wrist in astonishment, then with trembling hands reached to undo the chains that went from her breasts to her nose.

            "It's not a universal pardon Victor." Sue said dangerously as he helped Fury out of his cell.

            "It is all of us or none Susan, thus was the pact we made years ago."

            Sue growled and looked at Fury. His body too bore the marks of long captivity and into his chest was burned the word:"SPY". His one eye turned away from her.

            "Alright." Sue said after a few seconds. "I'll get everyone out. After that we'll talk."

            The gunfire came an instant later. Sue was ready for it. She had been listening to the guards in the outer chamber even as the debate had been going on. The shots bounced off of her force field.

            "Come out now!" The voice of the Red Skull called. "And I may grant one of you a quick death."

            "Everyone form up in a single line behind me." Sue ordered. She keyed in her communicator. "May?"

            "Right here Sue." May's voice came over the speaker. "We're heading your way now."

            "Good, take out the guns and be ready over the south part of the complex. Any damage?"

            "Nope. Jan says Hi."

            "Tell her hi from me. I've got 3 more besides Doom."

            "Ok."

            Sue looked back at the former captives. Namorita was supporting Mystique while Doom was nearly carrying Nick Fury.

            "We're going to be invisible." Sue said. "So move slow and stay directly behind me."

            Concentrating Sue started to walk. The shield held in front of her.

            There were five guards and the Red Skull himself waiting for them. He stood with a raygun in his hand and fired it the moment Sue stepped out of the doorway. Sue was waiting for the shot, she had seen the dust on the floor that would betray where she was. There had no doubt been cameras hidden in the outer room, Sue had counted on them not knowing she had realized that. The shield took the beam and reflected it back to the floor at his feet. There was an explosion and Sue's own Kree gun stunned the other guards while they were recovering.

            Not to many guards. Diversion worked, Sue thought. Too bad they'll know it was me, but once we get off the planet it won't matter. Besides, I'm dead, everyone knows that.

            Sue let them all turn visible and they walked toward the exit. The Red Skull lay on the floor, gasping in pain and clutching at a badly mangled leg.

            "I swore I would see you thus one day you crawling worm." Doom said walking over to him. He did not let go of Fury. "Now you can limp around for the rest of your life and wait upon the full vengeance of Victor Von Doom!"

            "Vengeance?" Sue shouted. "Vengeance? You think I'm going to let you play your stupid pompous games again? Do you think that's why I risked my life to get you out of here?"

            Walking over to the wall Sue picked up a bloodstained broadsword. Before the stunned eyes of the former captives she stalked over the fallen Skull and brought it high over her head.

            For as long as she lived Sue would not forget the look on the Red Skull's face. The mask conveyed his feelings perfectly. It was almost comical the look of accusation in his eyes. Sue almost expected him to shout that she was breaking the rules, that he was the Red Skull, that she was one of the good guys.

            Sue brought the sword down with all her might and it sliced through his neck cleanly. As his head rolled away the last expression the Red Skull's face would ever show was astonishment. It was an astonishment that Sue saw mirrored in the faces of the men and women she had just rescued.

            "Victor." Sue said tossing the sword away as she turned to face him. "To hell with vengeance."

...To be continued.

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