THE WORLD CHANGED IN AN INSTANT, AS IT OFTEN does.

One moment Sue was piloting her section of Reed’s experimental craft, and the next she simply wasn’t. She remembered a display of lights and a barrage of colors and sounds, some of which felt like they were new, just invented, shades and hues she had never before seen.

Her first instinct was a calm, natural one — My, how beautiful — before the violence set in.

A strong gust of wind cracked the windshield in front of her and took all the sound away from her ears. She could hear only a dull, subtle ringing then, and when she looked over at the Surfer she saw that his usually calm visage was changed. His hands were suspended in front of him, his deeply pooled silver eyes wide at what they were witnessing. She could remember thinking something inappropriate — Finally, a different expression — before she realized what she was seeing: fear.

The once powerful being known as the Silver Surfer was showing fear.

That was when her heart climbed into her throat and she couldn’t breathe. That was when she knew they were falling. The blinking lights and warning alarms of the control panel were distant ringing bells; she couldn’t hear them. She could only see the ground coming upon them, fast. She tried to concentrate, tried to form a field around them to offer some protection from the impact. Then, nothing at all.

The small piece of jet was still smoking, a thin wisp of black cloud rising up into the dull, sun-washed air. Morning had come, the sun high and far away, as if it was keeping its distance from the violence on Earth. The Surfer pulled Sue’s body along the dirty street, nursing a limp that almost caused him to fall to the ground. He stared at the large building behind them and recognized it as a place of worship. Citizens were standing in the doorways, witnesses to the sudden crash. They, too, kept their distance, unsure of what they were seeing.

The Surfer lay Sue’s unconscious body near a deserted Shanghai market street. The stalls were closed up and the few people who were out in the early morning scurried quickly to their destinations, avoiding the sight of the strange silver alien and the sleeping white woman. The Surfer eased his injured leg to the side as he too, took a seat on the ground, weary from the battle. He had never seen power like the one he had just witnessed. He had no idea the board was capable of that. He had seen carnage before, but usually from the presence of Gah Lak Tus, the Destroyer. And while the board was connected to that power, never had he seen it so violently displayed.

He cradled Sue’s head in his lap, brushing her blond hair away from her face. Blood oozed from a cut on her forehead and ran in a delicate path to her eyebrow and then down the side of her face. He touched her cheek lightly, remembering Shalla Bal, the one he left so long ago. But memory, he knew, had a way of making time seem weak, powerless. What he left so long ago could be sitting with him here and now. Memory took only a matter of seconds to make it so.

Sue’s eyes fluttered and then opened. She awoke to find herself cradled by the Silver Surfer, her head protected from the cold, hard street. She could smell the burning smoke mixed with the humid wetness of dawn. Strangely, she felt quite calm. She looked up to see Norrin Radd staring intently at her, a look of relief briefly crossing his face. The intimacy of the moment touched her deeply. Their connection was not romantic, like what she felt with Reed, nor was it the bond she felt with her brother, Johnny. But she did feel drawn to him, perhaps as one warrior to another, and the need to protect him was somehow never far from her mind when she was in his presence. Only now he was protecting her. She reached up and touched his hand, to convey her gratitude. He helped her stand, slowly, she unsure of her footing and he still nursing his injured leg. Sue noticed that he winced in pain, his silver eyes narrow, when he tried to place his weight on it. It was only the second time she’d seen his face show expression.

Sue led him to the corner of a building, helping him lean on it for support. She looked back to see her section of the jet smoking but still intact. Once she dealt with Norrin’s injury, she might be able to get it working again. She noticed a cardboard box in the doorway of a stall across the street and went over to it, looking for something to make a splint for his leg. She took a few deep breaths, hoping the intake of air might help clear her head. The base of her skull throbbed and nausea burned in her stomach. Crossing the street, she tried to remember what she could: the elongated craft separating into individual components, the dogfight in the air, Victor’s rabid attack and his seemingly limitless power. She wondered where Reed, Ben, and her brother were; she hoped that they’d also survived the fight.

Sue kneeled before the half-opened box. Chinese lettering was stamped on the rough cardboard in faded red ink. She opened the two flaps and found brightly colored silk fabrics, scarves, and perhaps a heavy garment or two. She wasn’t sure they would be of much use, but it was all they had. She’d have to make do.

Just then Sue heard a loud humming coming from the air. Standing, she looked up and down the empty street. There wasn’t even so much as a breeze to blow the trash around. She could hear distant footsteps of someone running down a nearby street, but they faded quickly away. She looked up to the gray sky, the dull sunlight unable to break through the heavy cover of clouds. It was then that she saw the streetlamp near her grow soft and begin to bend, its heavy lamp hitting the street, the glass shattering in thick, uneven shards. Another streetlamp across the street did the same, wilting like a flower. Soon all the streetlamps were falling as if they were melting in the sun. She looked toward the place of worship, on the far side of the crash site, and saw people running inside, shutting the heavy wooden doors behind them.

Sue heard a loud pop and turned back to see an electric sign above a storefront suddenly light up and glow. It burned so brightly that it blew out its bulbs before falling heavily onto the street. It was then that she saw him, hovering in the air above them. Victor on the board, still shining, still powerful. Still deadly.

Victor floated just above the Surfer, who was still leaning against the building. His dull, tarnished skin looked even worse next to the radiant glow of Victor and the board. The Surfer looked up at Victor, horrified by the sight of him. He had a sudden awareness that this was how the others had seen him — all the other people on all the other worlds. This was what they saw before their planet was destroyed.

Victor locked eyes with the Surfer. This pathetic being didn’t deserve the power the board granted, he thought. The Surfer wasn’t strong enough to handle such a gift. Victor, however, was. It was destiny, he thought, to be reborn by destroying the very thing that had once ripped him apart molecule by molecule and left him to rot deep within a cave of ice. “You should have taken me up on my offer,” Victor said coldly. It would have saved them both a lot of trouble.

Victor extended his hand into the air. Silver matter rippled on the surface of the board near his feet and started working its way up through Victor’s body, a traveling motion of waves that undulated up his side and ended in the palm of his hand. The silver matter congealed there before elongating, growing and thinning, taking the shape of a long silver spear. Victor cocked his arm, ready to unleash his new weapon on the Surfer. He wanted to pierce him through and be done with this, thereby taking sole ownership of the board.

Suddenly a force field surrounded him. Victor looked over to see Sue running toward the Surfer, her hand extended before her, keeping the field intact. Her eyes burned holes in Victor as she tried to constrict the field around him. He could feel it cutting into the molecules of air surrounding his metallic skin.

He gave her an evil smile. “Sorry, Susan,” he said, his voice low and deep. “Not this time.” With one gesture from his free hand the field was hurled back at Sue. She let out a yelp as the energy hit her like a ton of bricks, knocking her off her feet.

Sue fell to the ground, the Surfer reaching out his arm in a futile, instinctive reaction to catch her. How pathetic. The power of the board imbued Victor with a lethal silver glow, as he aimed the point of the spear directly at the Surfer’s head. Nothing would survive its deadly touch — even this creature whom Victor once thought all-powerful.

A few blocks away, Reed was limping down a side street with Ben and Johnny. They had found one another quickly, Reed using his elongated torso to stretch up into the air and follow the smoke given off by Ben’s crashed jet. Reed had led them to the outskirts of Shanghai, where he thought he spied another smoke trail near a large temple not far from the center of the city. Reed was concerned about Sue, but also fearful of another encounter with Victor. Nothing in their arsenal could match the power of the board. Not one of them had enough power to stop him.

Reed stretched out his hand, causing Ben and Johnny to stop dead in their tracks. Reed cocked his head; he thought he heard the sound of an explosion. It was followed by a loud crash of glass and metal. Instinctively, all three of them sped toward the sound of the fight.

They rounded a corner just in time to see Victor hovering in the air on his board above the figure of the Silver Surfer. Reed scanned the street looking for Sue until finally he saw her, lying a few feet from the Surfer. Thank God, Reed thought. We’re not too late. She’s still alive.

Sue pulled her body across the street, crawling over the pavement toward the cornered Surfer. Her brown eyes were wild and determined. She had to reach him. Everything in her body told her this, and she felt every muscle ache and strain in her attempt to make it to him. But she was too late. Victor brought his arm back, preparing to unleash the fatal spear.

It was like Sue witnessed the action in slow motion. She saw Victor throw his arm forward, saw the spear leave his hand and take to the air. She could sense its overwhelming power, its direct connection to the board, a weapon born out of the same power that could destroy entire worlds. The tip of the spear shone brightly even in the overcast light of the morning. The spear parted the air as it made its way toward the Surfer. Sue screamed “No!” and, using the last of her energy, threw her body directly in front of the wounded silver being. Directly in front of the spear.

The powerful weapon impaled her torso. She felt a rush of air, like she had taken a long, deep breath, and then she felt nothing. She crumpled to the ground like a ruined flower.

Reed stopped breathing when he saw the silver spear pierce the woman he loved. “Sue!” he yelled.

He could only imagine what Johnny felt at the sight of his sister falling to the street, the spear sticking out of her body at a perfect right angle. “No!” Johnny screamed.

Victor’s eyes grew wide when he saw the spear hit not its target but the woman he’d once loved, the woman who’d once made him feel human. He let out a deep growl and took to the air, letting the board take him higher and higher, away from the sight of it.

The fool Johnny Storm decided to pursue. A fatal mistake, to be sure.

With a mere swipe of his hand, Doom’s cosmic power sent the insect flying back toward the ground, right where he belonged with all the other insignificant mortals. He saw Storm crash into the street below…yet still alive somehow, even as his doltish rocky companion made his way over to him to see if Victor had left him in one piece.

Reed rushed to Sue’s side, shock and fear pulsing through his body. He gathered her in his arms, cradling her head gently, mindful of the deep, penetrating wound in her chest. The entire front of her uniform was covered in blood. Her blood.

Once Victor was out of range the spear disintegrated, but Sue’s wound did not. She continued to bleed out onto the empty Shanghai street, a bright silk scarf still clutched in her hand. It took a moment for her to let it go.

Her beautiful brown eyes were round and moist, glassy as marbles. They struggled to focus until she saw Reed, holding her close and trying to keep her warm against the onset of shock.

“Reed,” she said, drawing the word out in a long exhale. “Where’s Victor?”

Reed welled up with tears at the sound of her frail, weakened voice. “Don’t try to talk,” he said. He was unable to bear the sight of her, his eyes pleading with her to stop. To breathe. To hold on.

“You have to find a way to get the board,” she said.

“I can’t. I…” Reed let out a sob. “I don’t know how.”

“Listen to me…you can do this…it’s who you are. It’s why you’re here…” She smiled lovingly at him, her eyes memorizing his face in one last, long look. “It’s why I love you.” As soon as the last word left her lips she started to tremble, wincing in pain. A curtain fell over her features, taking her away from him. Reed held her tightly as her body continued to shake. A thin line of blood escaped from the corner of her mouth and ran down onto the dirty street beneath her.

Suddenly the street filled with darkness. The gray morning turned into night, as if the sun had disappeared. A loud, horrible rumbling came from the sky, followed by shattering blasts of thunder and lightning. Strong winds appeared, blowing trash and one long silk scarf down the street, twisting it into the air and taking it away. Reed held on to Sue tightly, feeling the last of her body’s warmth give way to the cold blasts of air.

The Surfer, holding on to the building for support, rose from the ground. His dull face was racked with anguish, after watching the beautiful human protect him. As her life bled into the street he stared at the others around him. The man cradling her, bent over in sadness. The young one, no longer made of flames, his face contorted with grief. And the powerful one, made of rocks, large and so strong but still useless in the face of the coming power. The Surfer looked up to the dark sky, felt the Earth tremble beneath him in complaint. He had seen this before. He had caused this to happen.

“It is here,” he intoned, unable to mask the sadness in his voice.