Second Stretches 3 part 1

Second Stretches Chapter Three: Nuptuals in which Susan Richards is maid of honor.


A black head of hair slowly rose up out of the New York Harbor. The head of hair was slowly followed by a well-sculpted (one might go so far as to say regal) face with piercing blue eyes. As a full (mostly) human body slowly emerged from the waters anyone could see that the body was indisputably male (given that he had a completely bare chest which was incredibly well-muscled) followed by the green, scale-like pair of swim trunks that were the only article of clothing which adorned his body.

No other adornments were needed for he was Namor, Prince of Atlantis and ruler of the seas. Leaving aside his all but impossibly-toned physique, the much more obvious sign of how he was something other than normal was the small pair of wings that were sprouting from his ankles. How exactly those things allowed him to soar through the air with complete and utter ease was a question still up to debate, but he didn’t bother trying to answer such questions.

Instead, he focused on what lay ahead of him as he flew toward one of New York City’s most obvious landmarks, the Baxter Building home to the Fantastic Five. As he approached the building however the entire side of it facing him was instantly surrounded by a glowing blue barrier of pure energy, and a mechanical voice spoke out to him from some unseen origin.

“Approaching subject identified as Namor... classification, non-applicable. Your majesty, if you wish to speak with Doctor Richards then he is being summoned to the roof after having been notified of your presence. Be aware that until your intentions have been determined you will not be allowed to enter the rest of the Baxter Building...” Namor gave one of his most surreptitious sneers in response to this particular message. But, not wanting to do battle with the technological creations of a man who had managed prove himself capable of creating weapons the likes of which even he had reason to fear, Namor ascended upwards.

When he finally landed on the roof of the Baxter Building, Reed Richards was there, dressed fully in his protective armor, holding a weapon that looked like something both strangely surreal and deadly. He tapped the side of it while pointing it at Namor’s chest.

“I designed this one with you in mind, Namor. It shoots highly pressurized jets of water, which, as it leaves the barrel, has a several thousand volt current running through it. Trust me, you’d find the sensation anything but ‘refreshing’. In fact, by comparison it would make getting hit with a tazer would feel like nothing but a tickle. So now that I’ve made clear how the only thing I need is a modified squirt gun to fill your mind with unbelievable amounts of pain, I’m open to the idea that you came here intending to have a reasonable conversation. So what brings you here, Namor?”

Being above such plebeian concerns, the prince of the seas did not begrudge Doctor Richards his paranoia and the less than gracious welcome. Namor himself was more than man enough to admit had someone made machinations concerning his own pregnant love he would have loathed to ever forgive them.

Of course, Namor hadn’t known of said pregnancy at the time, which, of course, was also the only reason he had been able to bring himself to raise his arms in violence against the woman who the both men mutually adored.

“I do, in fact, come here peacefully, Doctor Richards, and with glad tidings. Since despite my regrettable behavior prior, you were willing to accept my presence at your wedding, I thought it would be only appropriate to return the favor.”

For one of the few times in his life, Reed Richard seemed to be completely and utterly surprised. With the mask attached to his armor hiding his eyes and face, it was hard to see. However, when he repeated the statement he had just heard by turning it into a question, it was fairly obvious.

“You’re inviting us to your wedding?” Namor nodded and, before anything more could be said, another member of the Fantastic Five joined them on the roof. She was one of the most beautiful women it had even been Prince Namor’s honor and pleasure to lay eyes upon, even if, sadly, the only times he had ever laid hands upon her, it had been in battle.

She lacked the traditional bluish tinted skin of Atlantean woman but this was an easily forgotten thing. For not only was her peach colored complexion quite remarkable in its exotic way, but the head-to-toe blue outfit she wore prevented him from seeing vast amounts of the skin. This served to remind him that she was not one of his subjects.

Her long blond hair rolled down in glorious curls which, against the previously-noted color of her costume, almost seemed to suggest that the world had turned upside down and now waves of flowing sand were breaking upon solid water. Her eyes were a deep, enthralling blue, possessing the same depth and beauty as the oceans of which he ruled.

Her hands were, at the same time, both dainty and elegant as befitted a proper noble lady, but also (he knew from rather embarrassing experience) possessed strength she would not hesitate to use to ensnare or throttle foes. Her breasts were well-formed and, as always, spectacular, though now they seemed to be even more forcefully-thrusting themselves forward like a pair of monarchs standing side-by-side as they surveyed their shared kingdom.

Her belly, though usually flat, once again puffed outwards. But it was not with the sagging softness of indolence or laxity, not in the least! It did so with the hard firmness of a woman who was proudly doing right by her husband with his heirs to be. Thus, in her maternal state, did the body of Susan Richards cut an even more imposing (and impressive) figure than usual.

“I heard that Namor was up here. What do you want? Because if it’s to try to carry me off to be your bride again then need I simply remind you that I’ve been happily married for over half a decade now, have half a dozen lovely children who I couldn’t bear to be apart from, and, as a cherry on top if you didn’t notice, I’m pregnant again.” At the last she pointed towards the womb which had already drawn her guest’s attention. Namor at once went down on one knee and inclined his head towards the ground in a gesture of supplication.

“No, Susan, I do not come here to ask for your hand, but simply to offer you a possibility of being a maid of honor at my upcoming marriage to Lady Dorma. She is a member of my own realm who I am proud to say has won my heart, for her beauty rivals, if not somehow manages to surpass your own, even if she will be hard pressed to match your fertility.

“I would say more, but there exist boundless tasks to complete in preparation for the blessed event. So, I must return to my kingdom. You may refuse my offer without fear that I will be offended in the slightest. But, if you do come, I will offer you all the pleasures that Atlantis can provide. Now I must be off with all possible haste.” And sure enough, without further ado, Namor took off flying back towards the watery depths from which he had emerged.

----

The entire Fantastic Five, plus Alicia, were gathered around a table for the impromptu meeting that Reed had called after Namor’s departure to explain the unusual offer they had been presented with. Ben was the first one to raise his voice once Reed opened the floor to discussion.

“You realize, of course, that this could be a trap. I mean name one time that ankle wings has ever brought us anything but trouble.” Across the table Johnny glowered at him, transforming his skin to organic metal for a moment, then letting it slide back to flesh.

“How about that upmpty bazillion dollars he provided us with when the Fantastic Four was running low on cash?” A pair of half-pained expressions were exchanged between Susan and Reed, who were the only members of the team who had known exactly what had taken place during that particular event. Then Reed decided to intercede before the two’s argument could gather any more steam.

“I know that Namor tends to be temperamental at times, but I’ve never known him to out and out lie.” Temperamental was hardly the word that Susan would have used. After the Second World War, Namor had suffered from a bout of amnesia that he had emerged from the worse for wear, just to start with. Apparently, due to his connection to the seas, as one became a less healthy place to be, the other became less and less pleasant to be around.

Reed had once half jokingly said that the crash of the Exxon Valdez had made Namor bipolar, an explanation which could make dangerous amounts of sense at the time. Every so often Namor tended to be involved in some almost international incident, like threatening to invade whatever country had ended up accidentally having a nuclear sub malfunction and nearly irradiate a small portion of the ocean. But, at the same time, every so often he’d also show up to pitch in to help deal with whatever global crisis was threatening the world, since if the Skrulls or Kree conquered the surface world then they’d been setting their sights on Atlantis next.

Ben looked at Reed as if he had just been blindsided by a tank while waiting at a red light.

“Umm, why are you so interested in singing fish breath’s praises, Reed? I’d figure that you of all people would have the most reasons to hate him.” Reed coughed slightly and looked away.

“Well, it’s just that you need to remember that even at the best of times Namor has never actually opened up anything remotely resembling an embassy with humanity. So for whatever reason, this particular offer represents a chance for us to literally go where no man has gone before... if I could have a chance to examine their technology or whatever they have that passes for a library...” Susan decided it was probably a good thing that Reed was still dressed in his armor, because otherwise Susan was 100% certain that everyone else in the room would be able to see the fact that he had started salivating. But, it turned out that it wasn’t necessary since Ben (who had obviously come to the same conclusion she had) had proceeded to cover his face with both hands and plant his chin firmly on the table.

“You’ve got to be kidding us. You mean that we’re gonna walk into whatever he’s got waiting for us, just on the off chance that you will get to peek at some books?” Reed gave a rather spluttering cough that sounded nothing at all like his normal completely and utterly confident tone of voice.

“I’m just saying that, well... there are significant dividends that could result from accepting his offer, even leaving aside simple good will. It’s a wedding invitation rather than a mission, so it’s not as if the entire team has to go.” Susan’s right arm (the one that was closer to Reed) grew longer and wrapped itself quite firmly around his body.

“Well, I guess it’s pretty clear that you’re going to need someone to tag along and look after you or else you’ll study your brains out. Quite personally, I really like those brains just fine right where they are...” Over at the other side of the table, Johnny seemed rather pleased with this particular turn of events.

“There’s no way that my sister is going to go for a journey to some underwater city and I don’t get to come along. Crys, you up for it?” Crystal sighed mightily for a moment, but then smiled openly and, to all appearances, quite proudly.

“Well, I’ve been to a lot of different places as a result of being with the Fantastic Five, but I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a city under the sea before. After spending so much time growing up in a really high place, it should be interesting and fun to go some place really low instead!” Ben’s wings flapped as he very slowly began to pull his hands away from his face.

“Oh boy, this is gonna be one of those field trips which is just bound to go wrong. Well guess it’s my job as always to make sure that it all comes out okay in the end. Well then there’s only one question left, though I guess this means there are only two questions left. Alicia, are you going to come with us or stay here to look after the kids?”

“Hey! Who says she can’t look after the kids and come with you?” Susan’s face instantly became extremely downcast as she stretched out her left arm towards a nearby ventilation shaft. She poked around it for a few moment before she proceeded to yank out a struggling Samantha Richards. She looked around at the table for a few moments then smiled awkwardly.

“So, how is everybody doing?” Susan unceremoniously half dumped, half threw her daughter onto the table. The Richards family was understandably unconcerned about casual use of corporal punishment since, after all, the children they were raising were more or less immune to such minor incidents as being hurled across the room. Sure enough Samantha was only slightly bent out of shape by her landing.

“You see, Mom and Dad, I was just... um...”

“Hanging around in the ventilation shaft?” Samantha’s head bobbed up and down rather pitifully.

“Yeah Mom, that just about perfectly sums up what I was doing. So, I’ll just be going now. I think I see a crack in the floor that’s plenty large enough for me to squeeze through in fact...” She began to scoot her way towards the edge of the table, but once again Susan proceeded to grab her daughter by the scruff of her elastic neck.

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere, young lady. By the way, if there are any other sets of ears listening I’d suggest you show yourselves like mature adults if you want to be treated like them. That or your father can just use his psychic radar to find you....” A moment later Franklin came skulking out of the exact same ventilation shaft that Samantha had been in been in, looking at the floor the entire time.

“I’m sorry Mom and Dad....” A moment later a blue substance began to slink down out of the ceiling and, as it dripped onto the table, took the form of Benjamin Richards.

“If you guys had wanted to keep us out you should patch the roof.” A moment later, Susan could feel something wriggling against her legs as Jane emerged from beneath the table leg that she’d apparently been wrapped around.

“Or the crack in the table.” Looking to see if any more of her children would reveal herself she looked around the room and saw a single ear stretched out so that it would fall just inside the room. She let out a loud “ahem” and the ear vanished only to reappear a few moments later as all of Valeria Richards entered the room walked in.

“Some of us don’t even need to take advantage of the occasional millimeter wide crack in the masonry.” Then it was that the most ambitious of her children made their appearance. What she had originally assumed to be some kind of harmless looking blue coaster suddenly proved to have eyes as it expanded outward transforming into Rachel Richards.

“Chance favors the prepared mind, and knowledge is power. So it only makes sense that we’d like to know what’s going on.” Susan released her grip on Samantha but redirected the arm towards Rachel instead.

“Okay young lady, how exactly did you get in here?” Rachel shrugged slightly a rather bemused smile on her face.

“You guys always have your conversations in the same place. So when I heard you were having one I made my over here pronto and then just sat there nice and quiet. Susan looked around the room for a few moments not quite sure what to do about the sudden over abundance of her offspring filling the room.

“Okay seeing as it’d be a waste of effort to kick you kids out at this point I guess we’ll just have to make room for you. But if you’re going to come in here then you’re going to have to put up with sitting at the kiddie table since there aren’t exactly an extra half dozen chairs to go around, so everybody on mommy....” Susan leaned back and stretched out her body creating a wide flat area for the six children to climb up onto. They of course did just that quite gratefully, glad to have a seat from which they only needed to extend their necks a few inches in order to properties the other occupant of the table.

Once the thoroughly expected shoving match that was bound to result from placing six children whose bodies could more or less whatever take up whatever amount of space they chose into a relatively confined area had been settled Benjamin spoke up once again.

“What I don’t get is, how exactly any of us would be able to go, or at least stay there comfortably. I mean it’s underwater after all!” Though no words were spoken the brief flash of approval Susan detected in Ben’s eyes made it quite clear that he’d been planning to ask the same question himself sooner or later. Johnny at once turned to the problem solving tool of choice for any issue that he couldn’t solve with brute force, his wife.

“Well Crys can control the elements, she could probably use her powers to make sure we don’t drown while we’re down there...” Crystal herself blushed slightly as she looked around at all the occupants of the room.

“I know I could do it for myself okay given some of the times I went swimming with my cousin Triton when I was younger, but I’m not sure if I could handle so many people, especially for an extended period of time.” Johnny gave her a quick reassuring pat on the back and placed one of his gloved hands on top of her hers.

“I’m sure you’d do great, besides, Reed’s armor is air tight now so he wouldn’t need it, and I know my sister has been training her kids in how to compact large amounts of oxygen within their lungs so they don’t need to breath very often. This means you’d only need to worry about me, you, Ben and Alicia if she comes.” Reed coughed loudly and promptly rendered that particular issue moot.

“I’ve been working on something that might prove rather useful in my lab recently. It’s intended purpose is for exploring deep space. Seeing as it is an object you can wear on your wrists which projects an artificial atmosphere and forty eight hour supply of oxygen if we each take two of them that should make sure we neither drown nor suffer any of the other maladies which can accompany considerable amounts of time spent underwater.”

“Like the bends!” Rachel immediately piped up, unable to resist a chance to share her already nearly encyclopedic knowledge with everyone in the room. In the wake of her comments Ben sighed heavily.

“Which all brings us right back to where we started. We can do it, but are we sure we want to.” Alicia reached out and after fumbling for a moment managed to run a hand along one of his outstretched wings.

“I think we do, Ben. Look on the bright side if there really is a completely different culture down there then maybe I’ll get a chance to feel out some of their artwork.” That, of course, sealed things rather firmly. It was clear that if Alicia was intent on going then Ben would cease to raise any noticeable sort of argument. Not that it meant he’d stayed silent.

“Okay, but if this turns out to be a trap...” Susan shifted herself about slightly, sending ripples through her body, playfully bouncing her children up and down while stretching the arm she didn’t have attached to her husband across the table to give him a playful pat on the shoulder.

“Look on the bright side Ben. There was a time when we’d walk into a trap without realizing we might be about to get in trouble ahead of time!”

----

“Oh wow, look at that!” Franklin pointed excitedly out the porthole in the recently named “Fantastisub” that they were taking down to Atlantis. Susan turned to look in the general direction of the porthole to make sure that none of them did anything foolish.

“Dad, can we go outside?” Like if Jane decided that she should create an ‘ensie weensey” crack in their vehicle large enough for her to slip outside through, give or take the few hundred gallons of water it would take equalize the pressure inside and outside.

Unsurprisingly, a few moments after she’d spoken, Jane had proceeded to tap her finger on the porthole, and Susan wrapped an arm around her and yanked her back before she decided to try anything more forceful.

“No you can’t. We’re all going to stay inside.” Jane wiggled about in her mother’s grip more as a means of general protest at this treatment than any real hope of escaping.

“But why, Mom?” Actually Jane proceeded to stretch out that last word into at least a five second and several syllable long protest. Rachel cheerfully tapped the complicated looking device that she was wearing on her right wrist.

“Yeah, Mom, I mean we’ve already got our antidrowning devices on. Given how much noise this thing is making it’s unlikely that anything too dangerous will take a look at us. Heck, given our powers the only thing that might possibly hurt us would be getting eaten by a whale, and what are the odds of that?” Given the way that the closer you got to Atlantis the more ‘exotic’ and ‘eccentric’ the sea life got, Susan felt the odds might turn out to be surprisingly good. A moment later it turned out that her children weren’t the only one feeling a bit curious.

“Well if you really want to, I don’t see why you couldn’t. Make sure to keep one knotted limb around the sub at all times!” Susan was mature enough not to send an irritated glare in her husband’s direction. Though for the most part Reed Richards was firmly grounded, as Susan had previously noted during the discussion around going to Atlantis, there were times when he let his interest in learning things get the best of him.

Knowing that it would only be a few moments before Susan’s ears were buffeted with requests to make good on their father’s comments, she decided to approach that particular problem head on.

“Okay fine, let’s head to the decompression chamber.” Cheers went up from all of her children as the group worked their way through the relatively crowded sub. Towards the one main exit. Of course the actual decompressing part of the chamber wasn’t necessary in his case thanks to the previously noted bracelets they were all wearing, but it did serve one more important function, it could be filled with water and then easily pumped dry again without letting water get inside the rest of the sub.

Once her brood was clustered about inside the room Susan pulled he hatch closed behind them, and began to run her hands along it using her powers as a convenient way to make sure that indeed it was airtight.

Just like 99.9 percent of the things he designed, it worked exactly as Reed said it would. Doubtlessly having seen a small panel light up to let Reed know that his children were ready for their swim, a section of the sub slid back and water began to fill the chamber.

Susan took a deep breath, and for a moment she was forced to fight down a perfectly reasonable fear of drowning. That fear took on a surreal edge when the water began to splash about, and kept expecting to feel both wet and cold, yet remained perfectly dry and warm.

Slightly reassured by this turn of events, Susan began to move towards the exit, but the rushing force of water was too strong. So she just stood there able to see that the water was now up to her hips (and over her children’s heads) but still untouched by the stuff. In fact Susan could see that her children were anxious to take advantage of their shorter stature, to leave, even if their mother couldn’t. A few surreptitious looks were all that she needed to keep order, however.

Once the chamber was completely flooded, (and yet another advance of their wrist bracelets asserted itself, it turned out that she could see just fine while underwater even without using her powers) Susan drifted outwards grabbing hold of the sub straight away. Her six children followed their mother outside, and to Susan’s pride they one and all did the exact same thing.

Anchored in place they were able to look around and see the full splendor of the underwater world around them. Even an experienced superheroine like Ultra Woman was momentarily left speechless by the countless different kinds of aquatic life they were surrounded by with. Of course she recovered her senses just in time to wrap her right arm firmly around Franklin who had ended up letting go of the sub due to his overwhelming surprise.

Susan let loose with a reasonably loud cough, and Franklin at once realized that he was in danger of being left adrift, a few moments later not only were both of his legs wrapped around the sub, but he had a pair of knots tied in them just to be on the safe side. He looked up at his mother apprehensively, but Susan gave him a reassuring nod before she returned to examining the others and making sure that they were all keeping their own grip’s tight and firm.

Of course as it turned out for all its beauty, there were unpleasant things in the depths of the ocean, and not all of them were considerate enough to look ugly.

“Hello again Susan. I see you are enjoying the grandeur of my realm.” Ultra Woman was in no mood to mince words with Namor who was lazily drifting by through the water, seeming able to effortlessly keep pace with the Fantastisub.

“Good to see you as well, Namor. We decided to take you up on your offer.” Namor nodded quite calmly as he surveyed the other bodies dressed from head to toe in blue riding on the outside of the sub.

“And it is a pleasure to see your children up close and personal for what I do believe is the first time.” Susan nodded slowly, taking a moment to cross her arms rather defiantly.

“They’re psychic, by the way.” She wasn’t sure why. Given that Reed had ended up possessing black hair instead of brown before Susan got pregnant, at the moment she was left keenly aware of the fact that her children probably wouldn’t have looked all that different (except possibly having ankles wings as well) if Namor had been their father instead of Reed Richards. This realization could have lead to an extremely unpleasant and even more extremely protracted silence had not Samantha stepped into to fill the verbal void.

“So Mr. King of the Seas, is it true that mom almost beat the snot out of you even when she was pregnant?” Unsurprisingly Namor still hadn’t picked up the finer art of sarcasm.

“While I hardly take pride in the memory, I cannot deny that it was a glorious battle between two extremely worthy foes...” There was no stopping him now as with considerable relish Namor went about the process of describing the fight between himself and Susan in the kind of overly dramatic descriptions that was his stock and trade, and doubtless to leave her children hanging from his every word.

And so the Fantastic Five ended up spending two full days quite peacefully in Atlantis, availing themselves to whatever their individual interests in the underwater kingdom. In the process Susan discovered that the only way to make morning sickness more irritating to experience it underwater.

Suffice to say learning how the ‘facilities’ worked underwater (the three sea shell set up was damnably unintuitive) had been tricky enough, but they also quite clearly hadn’t apparently been designed with making it easy to dispose of a preciously digested meal. She’d ended up needing to use her powers to corral the stuff with a stretchy hand, and in the process been free to realize just how much more disgusting free floating vomit was.