Chapter 42: Crisis Averted, Chaos Engaged

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"You always told me that it was coming — that a new era would come along, pulled along by an unstoppable tide. The Age of the Daring Ones."

- Trafalgar D. Water Law, (One Piece)

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<(Omniscient POV) > 

"FUCK YOU REED. You told us that the space storm was not headed in this direction, that it would safely pass by us without making contact with the shuttle. Even when I told you that it was coming straight for us, you still told me that everything would be alright and that we would be able to escape in case it came too near to us, right? WHY THE HELL DID YOU LIE, REED, WHY?" Benn yelled in anger as he punched one of the walls in the control station. 

"Calm down Ben, everything would be alright. I needed to complete the tests before we left okay? We weren't going to get another chance like this again. With the data collected from the solar storm, we would learn more about the deeper space and radioactive energies in it than humanity could have learned in the next five decades. Besides, don't forget that I am Reed Richards, one of the smartest men on the planet if not THE smartest. I always have a plan." Reed tried to give a charming smile to the group but failed spectacularly as his fingers typed on the keyboard with lightning speed.

"Smartest man? At this point, I truly doubt it... By the way, where is Atem? According to the rumors and the legends, he is supposed to be one of the strongest metahumans on Earth right, so much so that he is placed on the same level as a god by the people of Genosha and even prayed to by them and other metahumans. He should be able to save us, shouldn't he?" Johnny worriedly spoke as he looked at his sister for more information.

"He is... missing. According to the last message that Zoya, his AI left for us before she too turned silent, he had gone to inspect the cause of the storm. She said that she had recalibrated all of the shields of the shuttle to be able to stop the storm from damaging the hull of the ship. But that was before the storm massively increased in power so much. Right now, the shields even at their full power would be able to stop only about 30% of the radiation and 40% of the physical damage." Susan sounded nervous as she wrecked her brain to find out a way to survive this.

She had tried almost everything. Be it directing power and energy from other parts of the rocket to the shields or trying to plot a course where the ship would be able to get out of the way of the storm at the right moment, however, every single time, the end result would always turn out to be a failure.

If only she hadn't listened to Reed. If only she hadn't stayed at this location in the direct path of the storm for so long. But no, she had to be the overachiever to impress Atem. Truthfully, if Reed hadn't enticed her with the possibility of dominating the solar energy industry by using the research collected from the storm, she would have never agreed to put their safety at risk.

The truth was that she had been as greedy as Reed in her wish to impress Atem and establish herself as a capable woman in his heart and she was now going to reap what she sowed.

"The storm is now dangerously close to us. Screw this, let's at least wear our anti-radiation space suits. I am not going to put my complete trust in these skin-tight costumes that Reed made for us. It doesn't matter if they are made of some ground-breaking research on unstable molecules or something." Ben complained as he gave a stink-eye at Reed's direction while hurriedly putting on the bulky space suit.

Susan and Johnny too silently nodded at each other and began to wear the specially designed astronaut space suits. Even Reed himself decided to wear his own suit after he looked at the other members with guilty eyes. At least with the suit, they would survive in space for some amount of time with the help of the suit's life support system if the ship were to be completely destroyed by the storm.

"Three minutes to the collision," Susan informed her team as she activated the emergency protocol left by Zoya, directing all the power of the vessel towards its shields hoping to decrease the damage as much as possible. This resulted in most of the lights of the shuttle switching off with only some of the emergency lights still working. "Shields at 150 percent power."

"Reed. If you are going to show that world-renowned intelligence of yours, this is the best time. I still haven't even had my first anal experience... and no, I don't care I said that in front of my sister since we are going to die soon anyway." Johnny commented with full seriousness as he grabbed the handles of his chair tightly in fear of his imminent doom.

"I am working on it. Just a little more time." Reed inattentively spoke as he flicked a couple of switches on the main control panel of the ship. 

"We don't have a little more time. Wait, the Black Box, we can at least record our last few words in there... Atem, I don't know if you are listening to this or not but I hope this message finds you. I want to let you know that I enjoyed our dates very much and was looking forward to more of those. Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to meet you again but I wanted to say that... I love you." Suan spoke out her true feelings until her voice choked and a few tears left her eyes.

"Wait, what?" Reed stopped what he was doing on the control panel and looked at Susan with absolute shock etched on his face. His mouth had never been more open in his life as his jaw dropped so low that it almost hurt.

"Great, my sister's last words were about prophecizing her true love for her crush while my last words were about not ever being able to experience anal in my life. Dad would probably whip my ass the moment I enter heaven, if I am even allowed that is."

"Fuck it's here. Impact in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1" Ben counted down as he closed his eyes along with the rest of his teammates.

*Boom*

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

But the huge impact they were expecting never came. Although they heard a boom sound and could see the storm passing through all around the starship, the shuttle itself however was mostly unaffected by it, except for a slight shaking.

 "What happened? Was the storm weaker than we thought? Maybe the radiation of the storm didn't have any actual force behind it?" Ben hopefully said.

"No, that's impossible. Radiation of this amount with so much heat energy accompanying it should pack a massive punch. We should have been a crumpled-up ball of molten metal and flesh by now."

"Then what happened?" Johnny asked while pinching his own skin to see if he was really alive or if they were just ghosts talking after a very gruesome death.

"Don't worry Johnny, you are still alive. I not only made a barrier around the shuttle by enveloping the entirety of it with my psionic energy through my telekinesis but also made a pretty strong magical barrier around it as well... Plus, believe me, if this was some sort of afterlife, you would know it. The place you would most probably go to if you were to die wouldn't be as relaxing as this starship." Atem teased from the back of the control room, surprising everyone as they turned back to look at him.

"Atem, my dude. You returned. Oh, I have never been happier in my life. You know what, you can go ahead and have my sister. You have my blessings. Just make sure to drop me home on Earth and no one will be happier than me." Johnny quickly hugged one of Atem's hands, and almost cried his eyes out, completely ignoring the New God's words about magic and psionic energies.

"Uhh, sure... Thank, I guess." Atem awkwardly stated as he noticed the deep red blush on Susan's face.

"Guys, I think we are still not completely safe." Ben expressed with a modicum of fear in his voice as he looked at them with a grim expression. A trail of blood was visible coming down from his nose. "I don't think our suits were able to completely block the radiation." 

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<(Atem POV) >

Ben wasn't wrong. I could also sense it. The radiation from the storm that had entered the ship was all around us. it was a unique form of energy, something that was similar to my own divine energy but was also vastly different. I knew what sort of energy this was, I recognized it from Apocalypse's armor I once used to wear... it was cosmic energy, and that too in quite a high and concentrated amount, due to it further being affected by Galactus' power cosmic.

[Warning! High amounts of unique cosmic energy detected]

[Ding! Usable energy detected. Permission to use energy to commence evolution?]

[Yes / No]

[Ding! Congratulations, Mother Box has found a new source of unique energy]

[Ding! Mother Box is in danger of self-destruction due to an overload of energy. Automatic evolution commencing in 3... 2... 1]

[Your designated Mother Box is now undergoing its first evolution and will remain dormant until evolution is completed. Time remaining: 21 days]

Instantly Zoya who was floating beside me, trying to collect more information about the storm was suddenly sucked into my body. Opening my system screen, I could see the greyed-out icon of the mother box in my inventory. It seems that I wouldn't be able to use her or any of her functions during her evolution.

Perhaps the same thing would happen in the case of my evolution as well. So, perhaps it is best not to undergo it right now.

"Damn." As much as I am happy with all these powerups, the timing could have been much better... But I guess at least the worst was over.

*Warp drive ready. Initiating Jump in ten seconds* A cold machine voice from the ship's speakers suddenly announced while the ship began to make a strange buzzing sound like it was preparing its engines for something.

"Oh, Dear. I forgot to turn that off, didn't I?" Reed who was taking a look at Ben's nosebleed exclaimed in panic as he rushed towards the control panel.

"No, no. Goddamn it. I don't have enough time to deactivate it. Should I just self-destruct the warp drive? However, that might destroy the ship as well." Reed muttered incomprehensively.

"Reed, what did you do?" Susan who was for some reason blushing every time she looked at my face, asked Reed with a stern tone.

"Well, remember I said that I had a plan? You see, I intended to use the experimental warp drive to warp the shuttle away to a safe part of space, out of the storm's reach till it passed away. Well, I was delayed in activating it at the right time after I was surprised by the... declaration of your feelings. But the timer was still started and it seems that this is going to warp us to a random coordinate in space in approximately... 5 seconds." 

"... If we survive, just know that I am going to kill you after this." Ben calmly stated while giving a cold look at the smartest man alive. 

However, I on the other hand didn't have the luxury to threaten Reed as I spent the last few remaining fractions of seconds using my divine energy to strap all of us tightly to our seats while forming a small barrier around our bodies to make sure that the jump wouldn't dislocate any of our internal organs.

Just as the countdown hit zero, the starship seamlessly sped away at the speed of light with a *Zlip* sound, leaving behind a trail of shimmering energy.

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