chpt. 22

I smile at Ben as he pours milk and sugar into Johnny and I's cereal.

"Ah! Ah! Not so much!" Johnny exclaims.

"If you didn't want that much, do it ya'self kid." Ben replies.

"Thank you Ben." I sing-song as I take a seat on the massive couch in the lab.

Reed is sipping coffee, "Okay. Herbie, everyone, ready?" He asks.

I take a big bite of cereal, watching in anticipation of what's happening. Reed is standing in front of a massive desk, filled with all sorts of things—three white metal arches that look like alien legs, standing around an egg on a stand. Along with many other metal gadgets I can't name. I see Reed out his hand on a lever.

"We are getting reports that Galactus has passed Mars—" I shiver as I hear a reporter say this on the radio. Reed mutes the sound with a sigh.

"Herbie. Record." Reed says, as all of us—Johnny, Ben, Susan and I— watch in anticipation.

Reed pulls the lever and three electric beams shoot out from the white metal alien leg things, at the egg, creating a circle around it.

I watch in amazement as the same beam begins to glow to my right, at another work station. My eyes widen. The egg is there. So that's how he's going to be moving the Earth.

"There will be many, much larger versions of these spanning all around the globe." Ben whispers to me.

I nod. The electricity trips. Everything goes black for a second before the generators kick in and the lights turn back on. I frown.

"It takes too much power." Reed says to Susan. "I only got this to work by tripling my intake, which drained the New York City grid in two seconds."

"For this to work, I'd have to switch off every light switch on the planet." He says.

"For how long?" She asks.

My phone pings and I pick it up, "Oh! They're here." I grin.

+

Sophia tackles me in a hug the instant the elevator door opens. I chuckle, "I feel like I haven't seen you in years." She breathes.

"I know. Hi, Larry." I hug him. He chuckles, the sound vibrating in his chest.

Sophia eyeballs Johnny as they enter the house. I shake my head, "Impressive." Larry mumbles.

Reed stumbles out of the lab, mentioning us all to follow. His hair is messy and Susan smiles softly at him, "Follow me everyone." She says.

Johnny bumps his shoulder to mind, smiling down at me. I see he has a bunch of papers in hand, headphones around his neck. He's wearing a white compression shirt and blue striped pants—pajama pants, I think,  with white socks.

"What's that?" I ask quietly.

He sighs, "I'm trying to figure out the sexy silver alien's language from what she said to me in space."

I frown, "What did she say?" I ask.

"She said it was a blessing. It means "Die with yours"." He replies.

"What did it sound like in her language?" I ask, curious now.

He frowns deeply, "Moha kupero a mé." He says, "I've listened to it a lot." He chuckles.

"I can help translate if you want." I say softly.

He nods, winking, "That'll be a great help, thank you."

We all follow Susan into the lab and Reed instantly goes into a rather lengthy explanation of everything to get everyone on the same page.

Sophia stares at me, her eyes wide, "This is insane." She whispers.

"I know." I sigh.

"—so everyone will have to switch off their power tonight for this to work, okay. All of you." Reed says his tone sharp.

"For how long?" Larry asks.

"As long as possible. Just to get the teleportation bridges connected to transport us." Reed explains.

"What can we do?" Sophia asks.

"Uh, well, Ben has started getting people together to make the bridges, right?" Susan says.

Ben nods, "Yeah. I'm heading to the City Square in a minute."

Larry holds up a hand, "I can help. I did construction a while back."

Be grins, "The more help the better. C'mon." He says. They leave then.

"I've started contacting people to help get materials in bulk for the bridges." Susan says.

"I can help with that. I know a ton of people, too." Sophia says.

Susan nods, "Okay, here. I have a list of the materials." She hands Sophia a list.

"Y/n?" Reed asks, "I need your help with the technical part of all this." He says.

I then look at Johnny, he nods, "It's okay. I can do this on my own."

"No, I, uh, I can help the both of you." I say with determination. Johnny grins at me.

The next thirty-six hours are dreadful to say the least, as well as Reed being right; I don't get sleep, at all.

Sophia and Susan are off to press conferences, announcing what materials they need in order to make the bridges.

Ben and Larry are helping build them, along with people stepping in along the way all across the globe.

I help Reed and Johnny when and as I can. I've helped Reed with some very complex mathematical and teleportation stuff I can barely pronounce and Johnny with solving the silver alien's language. He's planning on broadcasting it in all the languages in the City Square to her—he hopes she would change her mind about destroying our planet.

I sigh as I read over another page, my eyes have started to burn from all the reading. Then the power trips again. We both sigh, then laugh, despite all that is going on.

"How are you doing?" He whispers in the dark.

"As fine as I can be. You?" I ask. I turn on the torch that was given to me by Susan, scanning the pages again.

I notice something, handing Johnny the paper, "Will this not be the same as that?" I question.

"Yeah, yeah it will. Shalla-Ball. Her name." Johnny grins at me, kissing my forehead, "Y/n, you are a genius." He jumps up.

"Where are you going?" I ask, chuckling.

"Getting snacks and something to drink." He announces, heading out of the room.

He comes back a while later, grinning, "And now?" I ask.

"Ben has decided to grow a beard." He snickers, handing me a chocolate bar. I laugh with him in the dark.