19450/Hello Hello Again

Hello Hello Again
Date of Scene:	08 November 2024
Location:	Fantastic Four Inc. - Four Freedoms Plaza
Synopsis:	Sue bumps into Felicity and a desk almost explodes.
Cast of Characters:	Felicity Felix, Susan Richards, Reed Richards

---

Felicity Felix has posed:
Normally, Felicity Felix sorts mail. It's a bit below her qualifications, but the pay is good. Really good. And she hasn't been fired yet, which is probably the best benefit of all. But today, Fel isn't in her mail room, because not even the machinations of Mister Fantastic can resist the Luck Plague forever.

Roaming the halls of the Baxter Building carrying a tall stack of papers, the brunette lady in blazer, pumps and a pencil skirt looks around with increasing concern. Where is everyone?? A lightbulb flickers in its stylish wall alcove as she stops and sighs, looking a bit lost as she stands at a crossroads in the hallways. "...Wonderful time for my phone to die..." she grumbles to herself.

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan Richards isn't quite herself, likely, to Felicity's eyes or, rather, she's more like a memory of Sue Richards. After being killed in space during the continuing battle against Galactus, Sue has found herself unexpectedly resurrected and, in the process, rejuvenated, looking in her mid-twenties despite being nearly sixty. This is not how she looked when she left the planet two months ago. She's only been back a few weeks, but everyone is still adjusting. Sue most especially included.

She's coming up from the Fantasticar garage, making her way back towards the central elevator and the family quarters. She notices the flickering and then finds herself standing across from the young person from the mail room.

"It's....Felicity, right?" Sue says. She's always been good with names.

Felicity Felix has posed:
"Oh, hey!" Her eyes lighting up, Fel jogs over, the stack of papers wobbling precariously. "Excuse me, do you know how to, um..." She glances aside, self-consciously, "...Actually get into the Fantastic Four's office space proper? My magna-tube busted, and I didn't realize until now that I don't actually have any other way to get these papers to Mister Fantastic."

Eyes returning, it's pretty clear from her expression that Fel doesn't recognize Sue at all. From her point of view, they've never even met, old or young.

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan Richards laughs, "Does he really make you call him Mister Fantastic? I think Dr. Richards should suffice. Although technically I'm also Dr. Richards, so you might be right to avoid confusion," she says with an easy smile.

She detected the lack of recognition and, so doing, found a way to inform Felicity without need for pointing it out and potentially embarrassing the young lady. Ever empathetic, Susan Richards.

"Come along with me, then. What is it you're bringing to my husband today? Anything interesting?"

Felicity Felix has posed:
Blink.

"Doctor...Richards?" Felicity's eyes are wide, caught in the headlights. "As in..." Her eyes go down, up, off to the side, and back again. "But..."

Felicity's lips remain parted in mute confusion, for just a couple seconds longer than is normally polite. "But... Um, wow, you're looking great today, Doctor Richards!" she offers quickly as her system reboots. "I'm sorry I didn't recognize you!" She takes a step forward, extending the stack of papers, "Would you like to take these? They're the latest batch of telemetry data from Satellite F-44, out near Jup--" The tile she steps on cracks. And buckles. "--it...er?" Felicity freezes, eyes wide with a different sort of terror, her foot sinking another half inch into the weak space in the floor. "Um..." Her eyes say what her mouth does not: 'Help.'

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan Richards smiles, 'I know you didn't, dear, but it's fine. Suffice to say, my body has been restored to youth. I won't bore you with the details, although I'm sure there's an extensive lore file submitted through the transcription of Reed's public journals," she sighs. "I wish he would put more of a delay of publishing those. What he considers public and what I consider public do not always agree."

She stops and looks over her shoulder to find the young woman interrupted. "Hmmm. That's interesting. Come with me," she says, while reaching down and touching her watch. Through it, shs activates the security system to monitor her location and activate surveillance. Just in case anything else interesting happens. Then she flexes her power, an invisible force pushing up from beneath Felicity's foot to free it, then leading onwards.

She finds the entrance to the private offices and suites of the family, including Reed's lab, individual rooms and shared recreation, cooking and social areas for entertaining. Sue herself is wearing a simple pantsuit in white, with slightly padded shoulders, her blonde hair a bit curled in a long bob. A lob, if you will.

"His desk is over there. Astronomy is Reed or Ben, I can't read a star chart to save my life,' she smiles.

Felicity Felix has posed:
Felicity Felix immediately relaxes, exhaling the moment she feels her foot get pushed back up. "Okay, now *that* is useful." Stepping over the slight indentation in the floor, Fel trots to keep up, hugging the stack of papers protectively. "Thank you so much."

Entering the private suites, the mail-sorter looks about with wonder, clearly never having been here before. She nods along with Susan's commentary until she suddenly slows down upon seeing Reed's desk. "Um, are you..." But she lets it trail off. 'Are you sure this is okay?' goes unsaid. But her heart is racing. She quickly turns to Susan. "I should probably tell you that I don't have clearance for this area. If you want to take these instead...?"

She's got a big, cheesy, awkward grin on. The grin of someone who is very bad at keeping a secret. She hasn't taken another step toward Reed's personal space.

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan Richards straightens up after bending over to plug in her phone - Reed told her the battery was infinite but she was stubborn and kept charging it, just in case. See, she really was almost sixty, no matter how she looked.

"I have all the security clearances you need. I'm still here. I'm not leaving you alone," she says, putting her hands in the pockets of her pants. "Although if you want me to follow you around, I can do that. Just so you feel more secure."

Felicity Felix has posed:
Ms. Felix's smile softens into one of genuine gratitude. "...Thanks." Taking a deep breath, the girl in the blazer and pencil skirt takes three steps toward Richard's desk...and sets the satellite telemetry data down on it. She straightens back up, and a moment passes.

Nothing happens, and Felicity exhales. She turns about to face Susan with a smile and a nod. ...Then something within the desk *pops* quietly.

Felicity's eyebrows shoot up, eyes going wide. "...Do you hear hissing? I hear hissing."

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan Richards immediately wraps the desk and the two of them in an invisible bubble, adding a second layer of shielding inside around both of their bodies. It's a trick she's learned with long practice, putting an instant protective armor over anyone in her vicinity while creating a seal around any potential harm - i.e. in case the desk explodes.

She moves around behind the desk and kneels down to take a look while tapping her communicator watch, "Reed, dear, your desk is hissing. Please advise."

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards had entered the office. An alarm should have sounded when the magna tube broke. I turned out that alarm burnt out too. However, there was an alaram that did sound when that alarm broke. He enters the office to make the repair, is momentarily dumbstruck by Sue bending over. Dammit the battery... what battery?

Reed gets dragged back into society at large. then focuses on Felicity.

Awwww damn. Felicity. Felicity withing a 100 meters of the Negative Zone Portal.

People have accused Reed of lacking any empathy other than for family members and they know that's a crap shoot. "What are you doing up here Ms. Felix? Your responsibilities and areas of responsibility were clearly laid out for you."

"Popping... I sent myself several devices as an experiment... ah!" He spots the experiment in question's parcel. He had placed ID codes on them. Plus it was smoking.

Yelling for a forcefield from your wife was a tad emasculating. He grabs the parcel and does his patented form a sphere to avoid the blast. The sphere quivers and he begins unfolding himself sluggishly. "Owwww. Anybody see my pipe?"

Felicity Felix has posed:
Felicity Felix has never been in a Force Cage before, so when she moves to backpedal, she bumps lightly against the wall. Surprised, she recoils forward when her skirt makes contact, causing her to bonk her forehead this time, less lightly. *Bonk* "Ow." *Bonk!* "Ow!" *Bonk!*

Getting herself oriented in the Force Cage, Felicity squeaks in panic when Reed yells at her, "I'm sorry Mister Reed!! I didn't know how to contact you! My phone battery died!" *Bonk bonk bonk* Felicity can't even escape! And the lights in the office flicker ominously... "I'm so very sorry!" she reiterates, once more calming herself down from being a pinball in a glass tube.

Susan Richards has posed:
Susan Richards floats herself and Felicity up into the air while adding protection to Reed in the process. Not that he usually needed much, given his own hyper-resilience, but Susan wasn't taking any chances. She knew only too well how easily you could die unexpectedly.

Focus, Sue. Focus. She hadn't dealt with the trauma of what happened, not really. She knew that. She just wasn't ready yet.

Once Reed has secured the item in question, she'll release the force bubbles, "The young lady seems to have some sort of anomalous occurrence issue. The recordings are in the security feed under my code, dear. See if she's accidentally picked up any unexpected mutations or unexplained phenomena during her work here? It wouldn't be the first time. I would help, but I have to do a tele-conference with the International Xeno-biological Conference. The samples we're examining are time-sensitive."

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards nods to his wife and blows her a kiss. He finds his pipe in a pocket. It sadly does not share his hyper resilience. He drops it's pieces with the smoking remains of the parcel in a storage container and tells a HERBIE to bring it to Lab F. then he turns to Felicity.

"It is very dangerous for you to be this close to my machinery. Hence the reason for your remote posting. I have to get you out of here and fast. Follow me." He goes to a large glass window and opens it. Then motions to her to come grab hold. One arm snakes around a structural member that he no doubt placed for this reason. Fast exits.

Felicity Felix has posed:
"Ack!!" Nearly falling over when she's suddenly levitated upwards, Ms. Felix is *not* trained for this sort of thing, and when the explosion and danger have passed, Fel is still trying to orient herself.

Finally set down, she wobbles a little from the experience, blinking at a stretchy Mister Fantastic. "Um, pardon? Oh..." Stepping forward cautiously, she asks with a bit of a nervous grin, "Soooo...what do you think the odds are that you could accidentally slip and let me fall to my doom?"

She steps up, steeling herself against terror. "Noooo reason for asking, obviously."

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards sniffs. "It doesn't say 'Mister Fantastic' on my letter heads because of my good looks." He does wrap his arm around her once more for good measure. "Besides, do you want to take a chance on an elevator, or fifty flights of stairs?" With that he he steps off the ledge and lowers the both of them to the street. Fast. He's no Spider-Man but he can do some swinging of his own and HE never worries about running out of web fluid. Hmmm... it'd be a simple matter to install a sensor that vibrates when Spidey's webshooters were running low.... Upstairs, the strut reed grabbed creaks a little

Felicity Felix has posed:
A squeak and Felicity is plummeting 50 floors to her dooooooom--

Then the stretchy elevator suddenly stops and Felicity opens her eyes. Uncurling from the ball she'd curled herself into, Ms. Felix gingerly sets a foot on the pavement. Quivering from the adrenaline hammering through her, she wobbly steps out onto the street. Jittery, jarred, and a little traumatized, she turns to smile sheepishly at Dr. Richards.

"Thank you, Doctor R--"

Then the strut slams into the sidewalk nearby and Felicity screams! "Ahhh, I'm never leaving my mail room again, I promise please don't fire meeeeee!"