SUE COULD BARELY FORCE THE WORDS OUT OF HER mouth. Back in the conference room, she told Reed and the others what the Surfer had shared with her through his holographic memory. She told them everything: about Gah Lak Tus, the endless number of planets destroyed, the millions of people killed. She watched the reactions on her teammates’ faces — expressions that swung from fear and horror back to resolution and determination. Suddenly she felt comforted by their presence, by the collective strength of the group. She remembered that she was in the company of heroes.

“It’ll be here in a few hours,” she said in conclusion. “He said the board is drawing it here.”

“We have to get the board and lead it away from here,” Reed surmised. “Before it’s too late.”

Johnny thought that could be a lot harder to do than to say. “You think the general will go for that?” he asked.

“He won’t have a choice,” Reed replied.

At that moment, the general was walking down a hallway with Victor Von Doom. He’d allowed his armed guard to escort Victor from the conference room so they could talk in private, per Victor’s request. The general did not want Richards to know he had struck a deal with Victor behind his back. I am the quarterback of this team, the general reminded himself. I have the authority to do what I want.

As they walked toward another containment facility, the droning voice of Victor Von Doom was already trying the patience of General Hager. The armed escort walked behind them, alert and ready for any disturbances. They passed several armed checkpoints within the facility on their way to another top secret lab.

“I helped deliver the alien to you, as promised,” Victor continued. “Now keep your end of the bargain.”

The general held up his hands. “You can do your tests on the board,” he said. “But under armed guard. In my presence only.”

Victor scowled as they turned a corner and arrived at the containment lab. The general once again dismissed the armed guards and he and Victor entered the sleek, modern room filled with state-of-the-art equipment, enough of it to rival even Richards’s back at the Baxter Building. Victor’s gaze moved over a number of new toys he no doubt wanted to get his hands on, but his eyes stopped on one object in particular: the Surfer’s board. There, motionless on a pedestal beneath thick glass, sat the thin, shining piece of weaponry. It still radiated a strong, reflective silver hue. Only the Surfer had suffered from their separation.

Victor eyed the surfboard ravenously. He could feel it was the most powerful weapon in the universe. Its metallic hue was not entirely unlike his own. Standing so close to it, Victor could feel a vibrant hum course through his body. A slight sense of euphoria permeated his thoughts and feelings. It felt like the board was calling out to him, like it belonged to him.

“Thank you, General,” Victor said, his eyes never leaving the silver board. “But I’m afraid the truth is — as much as I hate to admit it — something Reed said is right.” Suddenly Victor turned on the general, unleashing his powerful electric currents all over the unsuspecting man. Hager collapsed against a wall, his clothes letting off trails of smoke. Victor easily shot down the armed guard as well, his chest scorched and still burning by the time his lifeless body hit the floor. “This is a tachyon pulse emitter,” he said to no one, placing a small electronic device on the forearm of his metallic skin. Victor’s body armor began to hum and glow, giving off the powerful and seductive tachyon energy. The Surfer’s board also began to glow and then, suddenly, sprung to life, rising off the pedestal and into the air.

Victor raised his hand toward the board. The thick glass surrounding it rippled like water and separated, allowing the board to come to him. Victor stepped gingerly on the board and instantly felt it: the surging and powerful energy, the full-throated euphoria of being connected to every living thing. Victor could feel everything on a molecular level, could see the strains and bonds that kept matter intact, could see how to bend them at his will. Victor had long harbored the secret ambition to be a god and now, standing on the board, he felt that dream had come true. That this was meant to be.

On the floor next the wall, General Hager stirred. His hair stood on end and his fingers tingled — the aftereffects of Victor’s strong electromagnetic blast. The general looked up to see Victor glowing, lost to the power of the board. He pulled out his gun, armed with metal-tipped bullets, and aimed squarely at Victor’s shining chest. Victor noticed the general the way he would a fly. With a slight wave of his hand the armor-shredding bullets turned to a fine dust that drifted lightly to the floor. He narrowed his eyes at the prone figure of the general, who was trying to crawl away, out the door. With a movement of Victor’s fingers the general halted. His body became rigid, caught in Victor’s invisible grip. Like a puppet the general was lifted off the ground and spun around, suspended in midair while Victor locked his eyes on the petrified man. Victor looked deep inside the body of the general, sensing the molecular construction of his internal organs. He began making alterations, experimenting with his new power.

A thick trail of blood dripped out of General Hager’s ear as he writhed in agony, as pain lanced his entire body. Victor played with the general’s epidermis and his once clear, dark skin shriveled like wet paper and fell the ground below him in a puddle of blood and cells. His throat constricted as Victor brought his lungs and heart up from his chest, the general making wet choking noises, unable to move or defend himself. Blood vessels on his face and arms popped like grapes in a vise. His fingers turned deep purple as they pooled with blood. Violent tremors kicked his legs and feet. The base of his brain swelled and finally exploded, partially covering the wall behind him just as his aorta collapsed and the general sent out one long, final cough thick with phlegm and blood. Victor let the bloody general fall to the floor, the insides of his body pooling around his lifeless form. Victor stood motionless on the board, impressed that the gory act had required little more than a thought to complete. He turned to the wall of the lab and with a single clap of his hands sent the entire side of the military base flying into the white, barren landscape. Explosions rocketed the structure as the fire reached out to the ice.

Victor sped through the destruction, laughing, watching the flames begin to engulf the lab and the entire side of the isolated military base. The flames looked radiant against the background of sheer white. He rose on his board, higher and higher, oblivious to the cold, crackling with energy and power. He shot off toward a deep black Arctic sky filled with stars, another silver speck in an already crowded and now deadly nightscape.