"Where am I?" I asked myself, as I woke up in some kind of queue, with people walking behind me and in front of me towards what can only be described as some kind of temple. Looking around, all the people surrounding me have a blank look in their eyes. I can see hundreds of people, but a mist is obscuring my vision for more than fifty meters.

Thinking to myself that it wouldn't be a good idea to stand out in a situation where everyone looks brainwashed or something, I just follow slowly, in silence, trying to keep my eyes from wandering too much in case we're being watched. After about twenty minutes with no sound being made but the shuffling of feet against the yellow tiled floor, no movement but the people slowly advancing towards a temple that doesn't look to be getting closer, no matter how much we walk towards it, and not seeing anyone else but us, I decided to be a little adventurous. Still walking in the direction of the temple, at the same speed as the others, i slowly inch to the right, trying to distance myself from the queue.

The moment I step out, however,-

"Finally! Dammit, that's why this part of the queue was stuck in the forgetting mist for the last half an hour. Come on, step out now, it's alright. I understand this might be scary, but we need to talk, and you obviously need answers. Come with me, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything."

As soon as my body was out the queue, a humongous beast four meter high and two meters wide with the head and tail of a bull addressed me. Quite frankly, I don't know what's the scariest thing, that an actual Minotaur like creature exists, or that I feel like it's normal for it to exist. Why do I feel that way? Now that I think about it, why did I not panic about anything around me?

"Now, please, I really need you to come with me, you're delaying everyone. My wife is going to kill me if I do any overtime again, so please, help a brother out and come with me alright?"

What the fuck is happening? Did that really just happened?

"Alright." My body answers without my input on the question, and starts following the Minotaur. What the fuck is happening to me?!

"I'm sorry about that, but I needed you to move, so I used a bit of persuasion. As soon as we're in the office I'll free you from it. There's mostly no side effect from it, and even then, something tells me you won't have to worry about that."

What? Side effects? Why wouldn't I worry about that? Am I going to die?

"Am I going to die?" Asks my body. Yes! Go me!

"Why would you die again so soon? Oh! Is it about what I just said? Oh no I just think you're going to get resurrected is all. So since you'll be getting a new body there is no need to worry about anything. Alright, just a couple more minutes and we're there."

I… I died? I mean, I guess the weird queue, the blank look, the temple, the mist and weird creature should have- no! No, what the fuck!? I died!?

"How did I die?"

"I don't know, probably saving someone since you're getting resurrected. I'm not omniscient, I'm just a guardian. She'll tell you everything you need to know. Alright, we're here. It's the second door on the left. Bye, now! Have a good rerun!" the Minotaur says as we arrive at the entrance of a decrepit looking house. Stepping through the open door, my body stops moving, and I suddenly fall on the ground with a loud thump, unable to move.

"Oh, my bad, there you go. Should be better. Don't dally, she doesn't like people who make her wait."

*Gasps* As I feel my body again, I take deep breaths to calm down. When I feel good enough to walk, I stand up, look behind me only to see the door slowly closing with a squeaking sound.

"Alright then…" I mutter, walking towards the second door on the left as the married Minotaur told me. About to knock on it, it suddenly opens. Stepping through, I see a small table on the ground in front of a huge bed, veiled from all sides. Is the person/creature on the other side so ugly as to have to hide itself from anyone, or is she really scared of mosquitoes?

"Okay, that's it! Stop thinking that shit! Forty-five minutes that I hear you thinking so loud and so rudely! I was going to explain everything to you despite everything, even after you called my house decrepit, but no. You don't get to get that anymore. Who do you think is one of the most hated characters in Marvel?"

What the f-

"Don't you dare finish that thought. Answer my damn question!"

I-

"And trying to think of nothing doesn't work either you shithead! Worst Marvel Character! Now!"

As hard as I try, I couldn't help but subconsciously think of Reed Richards despite my best efforts, and so...

"Mr. Fantastic it is! Get ready for a wild ride!"

"Wait! Don't I get a wish or a cheat ability or a system or anything? This is a reincarnation, right?!"

"You pissed me off, so no. But don't worry, I'll be nice to you, you won't get to remember your past life till you're back from the dimensional travel. If you do actually do the experiment that is…"

She muttered the last sentence just loud enough for me to hear, but when I asked "Wait, what?", I suddenly felt nothing but darkness encroach my mind.

*Gasps* "I… I've got to… to stop doing that…" I say, after waking up. Remember when I wasn't in control of my body in the underworld? Well the last nineteen years have been even worse. I was in the body of Reed Richards, saw him make stupid decisions after stupid decisions, but couldn't do anything about it.

Now, let's deal with the situation at hand. I appear to have my body stretched out. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, think about it becoming normal again, and open my eyes again. Slowly but surely, my arms and legs are pulled towards me, losing their elasticity.

Good, so I can actually control it by really focusing on it. I'll have to work on that, and speak about it to the others. Right! The others! So, this is a difficult situation. Difficult, because during those nineteen years, I didn't recognize this setup, this universe, from anything I read and seen in movies. Granted, I haven't read all of the comics, but even then, this is really different.

Being myself again, in one human sized body, I tentatively take a step forward. My foot touches the floor, and stays in form. The second step is the same. Perfect, let's do it. The room I'm in is blank. There's nothing but the bed in it, and I can't see any camera. I walk towards the door, put my ear against it, and hear nothing from the other side. I try to open it, but it's locked. There's no keyhole on my side. The gap between the door and the floor is just under a centimeter tall, so it's going to take some practice.

After a way longer hour than it had any right to be, my hand finally slips through the door, but instead of reaching out, I try to stay at the closest possible to the recess. As my hands slowly climbs against the door, I manage to find and unhook the latch holding the door closed. After trying out the door from my side, it doesn't appear to be locked anymore, so I pull my hand back and open it extremely slightly, trying to see in the corridor. It's a dark corridor, with five doors in it and nothing else. Walking to the nearest, I unlatch it and slowly open it. Seeing Sue inside, I go to her, and close it behind me.

"Sue.." I whisper. "Susan…" She slowly opens her eyes. Seeing me, she has a small smile, but it quickly morphs into horror. "

"Reed!"

"Shh!" I say, gesturing her to stay quiet. "I don't know where we are. After we came back, I woke up just like you did."

"Oh, thank god, we made it… Wait, what about the others? Are they… Johnny!"

"I just got out of my room and found you, I suppose they're in the other rooms. Take it easy. Breathe, slowly. You're losing control."

"What do you mean I'm losing control!" She says, as her hand and head slowly turns invisible.

"Calm down, we're okay, you're okay. We'll be home soon."

"Why wouldn't I be okay? Is there something wrong with me? Do I…"

To shut her up, as even her hair started disappearing, I did the only thing I could think of in the spur of the moment. I put my hands around where I last saw her face, caught what I thought were her cheeks, and kissed her on what I only hope was her mouth. Surprised at first, she calmed down in my hands, and started kissing back. Her hair, head and hands reappearing as the kiss deepened a bit.

"Okay, I can't believe I didn't do that sooner…"

"I was starting to think you never would," she answers.

"Now that you're calm, we-"

"I wouldn't say calm exactly…"

"Now that you're calmer, I need to talk, and you need to listen just a bit. Can you do that for me for a minute, please? Without freaking out too much?"

"What? Okay… I'll try…"

"So, the storm in that dimension seem to have affected all of us while we were in the pods. They seem to have affected our bodies, and given us mutations. I can apparently control the elasticity of my body while it seems you can control yours to become invisible. It took a little getting used to for me, and it should be the same for you. I told you not to freak out because it seems our emotional state affects our mutation and triggers our… power? When I woke up, I was literally the size of the room I was in. When you started getting worried, you became more and more invisible. See, it's happening again. Breathe, Sue, think about staying visible."

"I… I… My hand…"

"Clothe your eyes. Breathe, slowly. In… And out… In…" As we do the small breathing exercise, she slowly gets her hand to become visible again.

"This is going to take some use to, I know. But we need to check on the other. Can you come with me?"

I held out my hand, and as she opens her eyes again, and seeing her hands, she smiles as she takes mine. As we walk to the other door, we see Johnny on the bed. I tell her to talk with him, bet to keep her distance, just in case the mutation is more dangerous than ours, while I go check on Ben.

I already know about his mutation from all the source material in my last life, and I don't think a small pep talk about breathing is going to help him today, but that's not going to stop me from trying. If that doesn't work, science will find a way. If my science can't help him, I'll ask other scientists. If that doesn't cut it, I'll find someone else. The Ben of this universe saved my life multiple times, so I'll be damned if I can't repay him.

As I open the door, without much surprise, a huge pile of rock is on the corner of the room. It seems Ben is awake, as the floor tiles and a few wall tiles are broken, with the bed bent in multiple places.

"Ben. Talk to me, big guy."

"Reed? Is that you? No! Don't come near me! I'm a monster!" he says in a deep guttural voice.

"Ben, you're not a monster, you just became more than you were before."

"I don't want to be more! I want to be human! I don't want… this!..."

"Listen to me, I had the same problem as you did, and look at me, I'm back." He turns towards me slowly, eyeing me from the corner of his eye.

"Don't lie to me, Reed, you always tap against your hip when you lie!" Looking down, my right hand is truly repeatedly tapping against my right hip.

"Alright, I lied, I was not exactly like you, please, look." I extend a couple of y fingers, before extending my hand, and my arm.

"You don't look any different though! I'm a monster!"

"I have it under control, you can as well, just listen. Close your eyes, take a deep breath."

"I can't control it Red! I'm a pile of rocks!"

"Yes you can, you're stronger than this. Please, just try it." I say, and slowly, he closes his eyes. Or I think he closes his eyes, I can't actually see them…

"Now what?"

"Now, regulate your breathing, once it's slow enough, tell me." After a short time, his breathing became normal again. "Now, with your eyes still closed, think about the last time you saw yourself in a reflection. When was that, Ben?"

"It was… The day before the departure. I snuck out to a bar despite you telling me to be sober. The bar had a huge mirror behind the bottles."

"Good. What did you look like in the bar? Focus on this image, and try to imagine yourself sitting at that bar, looking at yourself in the mirror." To my surprise, it actually started to work, as the rock like appearance of his body started to disappear, starting from the top of his head, to his eyes, nose, the rest of his face. As his hand slowly came to be, Sue and Johnny opened the door, and Johnny, being the loudmouth that he is, couldn't help but shout:

"What the fuck is that thing!?" Ben, disrupted by the loud shout, opened his eyes, losing his concentration, and his body quickly returning to stone, but not fast enough for him not to see that it had started to work.

"Good going there, Johnny. Ben was almost through…"

"That's Ben?!" he shouts, pointing at the pile of rocks.

"Ben, you almost made it, it means you can control it, you're not a monster okay, I can help you-"

"I saw it, thank you, Stretch. I'll work on that don't you worry. I feel better already." He says, calmly, with what I can only assume is a small smiling tone. "Now, where are we? Cos' those aren't normal walls." Looking around, we see the walls, and now that I think about it, a few punches from the Thing should have left more than a couple of broken tiles…

"I don't know yet, but I haven't seen anyone or any camera yet. Let's try to get out of here." Walking out of his room, we turn to the last unopened door. Looking at each other, we slowly pry it open, before seeing white. Not like metaphorically, or because we were blinded, but because it's snowing. Snow and ice cover everywhere we look. Walking out of the building, the only thing that stands out is a small helicopter. While Sue and Ben walk back to the building to see if we haven't missed anything, Johnny and I walk towards the helicopter.

Opening a door, we jump a bit as a robotic voice says, without any intonation "Please board the aircraft and fasten your seatbelts to return to New York City." Standing on the white field and looking at Johnny, I see he's as lost as I am. Before I have the chance to say anything, Sue and Ben come back empty-handed from their search.

"Well," Johnny says, "the helicopter talked to us. That's new."

"What do you mean talked to-"

"Please board the aircraft and fasten your seatbelts to return to New York City." The same voice, with the same intonation sounds out.

"Okay… Reed, what do you think?"

"I mean… Sue?"

"I don't know… There was nothing there, and I'm getting cold out here."

"Don't worry about that, sis, I've got this!" he says and turns into flames, before Ben grabs him and throw him in the snow. "What the hell man!?"

"You want to burn our damn ticket home? What were you thinking?!" I mean… He has a point there.

"Johnny, try to refrain from spontaneously combusting into flames near this helicopter please. We need it to-"

"Please board the aircraft and fasten your seatbelts to return to New York City."

"Yeah, what it said. I know I said I was getting cold, but I didn't want to get a second degree burn instead…" Sue finishes her sentence and climbs on board, trying to put on the seatbelt.

I follow her, and offer to help her. She smiles and nods. Johnny climbs in the back, refusing to put his seatbelt.

"Wow! There, Mount Rushmore, I don't think you fit in there!" he shouts as Ben tried to follow after him.

"Johnny-"

"Don't worry, Sue, I don't mind. And I'm sure it'll be fine, you'll just have to squeeze on the side a little bit. Huh, Matchstick?" he replies, and fits into the seat, even putting on his seatbelt. As mine clicks in as well, we close the door and wait for something to happen, when-

"Please board the aircraft and fasten your seatbelts to return to New York City."

"I don't understand, we boarded the helicopter…" says Sue, frowning. I think about it a bit while she looks for a button on the empty dashboard, when it clicks in my head.

"Johnny?"

"What?"

"Seatbelt."

"Are you serious? Turn the helicopter on instead of worrying about something like that. Man…"

"What is it, Stretch?"

"The computer told us to put on the seatbelts, what if that's the on button?" I ask.

"How stupid would that-" Johnny gets interrupted by the robotic voice.

"Please board the aircraft and fasten your seatbelts to return to New York City."

"Johnny, please. Just try it on." Sue asks him. He tsk-ed, before fastening his seatbelt. As soon as it connects, the helicopter turns on, the motor roars, and the blades start spinning.

"How long do you think-"

"Welcome aboard. The flight will take 3 hours and 43 minutes. It is currently Saturday the 30th, January 2010. The weather is clear for the trip. Unfortunately, no refreshments will be served, and you are asked to keep you seatbelts on at all times until the aircraft has landed. Thank you."

"Well that certainly answers some of my questions," I say. Intrigued to know if it's programmed to tell us that or if it recognized my question as I started asking it. "Who dropped us here?" I ask, only to be answered by the mechanical sounds of the blades turning at high speeds.

"We're flying too fast for it to be a regular helicopter." Ben says. "Whoever made that knew what he was doing. It's years from anything the military's been building."

"Not to mention that under four hours from an icy land to New York is ridiculous. How fast must we be going for it to be less than four hours?"

"If we were in Groenland, it would mean about 3000 km, so around 807 km/h, just under the theoretical maglev train's speed. It's a bit less than Mach 1." I answer, surprised at the speed of my inference and calculation, only to remember that the body that is now mine was still considered to be one of the smartest minds on the planet. It seems I inherited some of his smarts. I'll have to check how much later.

"Yeah, but that's still three or four time faster than the fastest helicopter in the world. I'll have to check what's under the hood when we arrive." Ben replies, clearly impressed with the aircraft.

"I'll take a look as well." Says Johnny, still as obsessed with speed as ever.

"In the meantime, I'll try to take some shuteye, wake me up when you see the coast please. Sue says, putting her head against my shoulder with a smile, and closing her eyes. As she falls asleep, I can't help but put a couple of rebel strands of hair that were falling over her face behind her ear, which triggers a small chuckle behind me. As I try to look without too much movement, I see Ben and Johnny looking in the opposite direction, with a smirk on their faces.

"Bastards, I'll get you for this." I think, while trying to get some rest as well. Three hours might not seem like much, but with nothing to do, it gets really boring, and I'm sure that once we touch down in New York, we won't be getting a lot of rest for a while…