[A/N]: Alright guys, the next goal is 450 Power Stones for the next bonus chapter đđ„
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Savage Land - Jay and Domino's Base
The communication console lit up. Jay's hand paused over the holographic display showing Loki's arrival. Behind him, Domino cleaned her weapons, humming something off-key.
The console pinged, and Jay pulled it up.
Reed Richards appeared on screen, face pale and eyes wild. "Jay, I know you're monitoring communications. Susan's water just broke. We need you. Now. Please."
The transmission ended.
Domino raised an eyebrow. "Convenient timing."
"Could be a coincidence." Jay was already moving, pulling together medical supplies. "Or maybe the universe has a sick sense of humor."
"Right. Because nothing says 'random chance' like a hero's labor starting during an alien invasion."
"Welcome to my life." Jay donned his Overcoat, then paused. "Come with me to the Baxter Building."
"Now you want me there?"
"For this? Yes. For the alien invasion? That's the Avengers' fight."
Domino holstered her weapons, grabbed her go-bag. "Your kid better not decide to summon Gallactus mid-delivery. I've seen enough weird shit this month."
"Not my kid. And don't even joke about that."
Blue energy rippled through the base.
Baxter Building - Manhattan
They materialized in the lobby. Every alarm shrieked to life. Red lights bathed everything in crimson. A force field snapped into existence around them.
"Well," Domino muttered, "guess they upgraded security."
Heavy footsteps thundered down the corridor. Ben Grimm burst through in full Thing form, orange rocky fists raised.
"Whoever the hell you are, you picked the WRONG damn day to..." Ben stopped dead, squinting through the force field. "Jay? That you?"
The force field dissipated and Ben's posture melted into relief.
"Thank God! Sue's been hollerin' fer ya every five minutes! She's in the med bay, and Reed..." He shook his massive head. "Stretchin' himself thinner than phyllo dough in a tornado. Never seen him this bad, and I've seen him bad."
"Where's Johnny?" Jay asked, already moving.
"Went ta grab Dr Storm. Figured Sue'd want family here." Ben fell into step beside them. "And yeah, we know about the Loki thing. SHIELD's been blowin' up our comms. But Reed ain't leavin' Sue's side, and I don't blame him."
They rounded the corner as the door to the med bay hissed open.
The room was pure Reed Richards. Advanced monitoring equipment covering every wall, holographic displays showing vitals in real-time, backup systems humming. The medical bed looked like something from a starship.
Sue Storm lay in the center, belly swollen, face flushed and damp. Her hospital gown clung to her body, dark with sweat and amniotic fluid. She gripped the bed railings, knuckles white. Her breathing came in measured counts.
And Reed Richards was everywhere.
His body stretched throughout the room. One arm extended fifteen feet to monitor the fetal heart rate. Another wrapped twice around a blood pressure cuff. A leg stretched to the backup generator, his toes literally plugged into the power port. His neck craned at an impossible angle, reading three screens simultaneously.
"Susan, your blood pressure just increased by point-three percent, which could indicate early-onset preeclampsia, or it could be nothing, but we should adjust your position just to be safe, maybe recalibrate the bed's angle by point-seven degrees, and the ambient temperature, did I check the ambient temperature? It's twenty-one-point-three Celsius but should it be twenty-one-point-five? I should run another thermal analysis, and the humidity, when did I last check the humidity levels..."
A contraction hit Sue mid-breath. Her entire body went rigid as a strangled gasp escaped. Her force fields flickered into visibility, shimmering spheres pulsing in rhythm with her pain.
"Reed!" Sue's voice carried force, though it came out strained. "You're stretching yourself too thin!"
Jay's voice cut through from the doorway. "Literally."
Reed's eyes, currently positioned three feet apart, swiveled independently before snapping to focus on Jay. His entire body contracted back together with an audible snap.
"Jay! Oh thank God!" Reed was across the room in two strides, hands grabbing Jay's shoulders. "You're here! I've been monitoring everything, running every scenario, calculating every variable, and I still can't account for the seventeen percent margin of error in my delivery complication projections, and the cosmic radiation readings are increasing exponentially with each contraction, which suggests a correlation between Sue's stress hormones and our son's power output, which means if labor becomes too stressful the radiation could spike to dangerous levels, and I don't have enough data to predict when that threshold will be crossed..."
"Reed." Jay placed his hands over Reed's. "Breathe."
Reed sucked in air as his chest expanded beyond normal human capacity, then deflated too quickly.
"Right. Breathing. That's important. Oxygenation. Sue's oxygen saturation is at 98.7 percent which is optimal, and the placental blood flow is adequate, I've been monitoring it every thirty seconds, so the baby's getting proper oxygenation, but what if... wait, no... I need to focus... the hemoglobin cascade, I should... no, wait, that's not..."
Sue's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist hard. Her force field encased just her palm, making the grip unbreakable.
"Reed Richards, you listen to me right now." Her voice cut through his spiral. "You are going to sit down, you are going to stop spiraling, and you are going to let Jay do his job. Do you understand me?"
Reed's entire form solidified. He nodded jerkily.
"Good. Now sit."
He sat.
Ben clapped a massive hand on Reed's shoulder. "Listen, Stretch, I gotta go pick up Alicia. She'd murder me if she missed this. Ya gonna hold it together, or do I need ta slap some sense into ya first?"
Domino stepped forward. "I'll come with you, Ben. Haven't seen actual buildings for months. Jungle's got great ambiance, but sometimes you miss this concrete mess."
Ben's face split into a grin. "Sure thing. Fair warnin' though, Alicia's gonna grill ya about what kinda trouble yer gettin' into with our boy here."
"I've been interrogated by worse than curious girlfriends. Try SHIELD on a bad day."
"Ha! Yer alright, kid."
Ben paused at the door, his rocky features softening as he looked back at Reed and Sue.
For a moment, the worry showed through the bravado. Then he forced his characteristic grin back into place and lumbered out, Domino following.
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