Susan Storm-Richards was fuming by the time she arrived back to the Baxter Building. She knew full well that she was taking a huge risk in making Johnny Storm the Chief Operating Officer of Fantastic Four, Inc., but she really did think that it would do her younger brother some good and to teach him some responsibility finally. Susan never expected him to flat out abandon his duties halfway through his first day. She knew that there would be whispers of nepotism with the hire, and deservedly so. Susan had even gone so far as to tell Johnny on their way to work how much him joining the family business meant to her.
That didn’t stop him from leaving her high and dry, she thought bitterly. Holding back tears, Susan recalled how she had to make excuse after excuse for Johnny’s absence the rest of the day. It was so embarrassing. Narrowing her pretty blues spitefully, Susan couldn’t wait to find Johnny and tear him a new one for what he did.
Parking her car in the underground garage, the Invisible Woman walked with a purpose to the large Baxter Building elevator. Next to the elevator was an electronic panel and she pressed a button to active it. Exhaling out in frustration, Susan spoke, “H.E.R.B.I.E., is Johnny Storm in the Baxter Building currently.”
“I am sorry, Susan,” the electronic voice of H.E.R.B.I.E. said flatly, “Johnny Storm is not currently inside the Baxter Building.”
Susan shook she was so frustrated, before asking, “What is Reed Richards doing right now?”
“Reed Richards is currently working in his lab,” H.E.R.B.I.E. said, “He has requested no one disturb him for the time being. I can alert you the moment he removed the do not disturb order if you would like.”
Susan shook her head. She didn’t even want to hear where Ben or Alicia were, because she didn’t want to feel more alone. Completely dejected, Susan sighed out, “That won’t be necessary, H.E.R.B.I.E. Thank you.”
“I am sorry I can’t be any more help, Susan,” the electronic voice said.
With that, Susan rode the elevator to the Baxter Building’s common room. She could at the very least drown her sorrows with some ice cream. The blonde heroine thought back to the morning and how she had never felt closer to her family. What a difference twelve hours could make. She barely registered the ‘ding’ of the elevator before the doors opened. Looking down and lost in her self-pity, Susan took a step forward and didn’t see the figure standing at the elevator’s entrance with a silver tea tray in his hands. It only dawned on Susan at the last second someone was in front of her and she jumped in surprise.
“I am so very sorry, Susan,” came the stammering, overly polite voice of Jervis Tetch, “I thought you saw me standing here.”
“No, Jervis,” Susan said, trying desperately not to sound sad or angry for the unassuming man. Despite this, tears began to stream down her face. She turned away from him so he wouldn’t see what kind of a state she was in, “It was my fault entirely. It’s me who should be saying sorry. It’s just… Let’s just say today didn’t go as I had planned. It actually was awful.”
“I am so sorry to hear that. Truly I am. ,” Jervis said in an understanding tone. Susan turned to him and smiled, in spite of the hurt in her pretty blue eyes. She then looked down at the full tea tray in his arms.
“Um, oh, this. I was going to take tea down in my lab. Some nice chamomile to help me sleep. Would you like to join me? You can tell me what happened,” the Hatter spoke.
“I’d like that,” Susan said, her voice breaking for a moment, “Thank you, Jervis, for being such a good friend.”
Susan went to the common room kitchen’s cupboard and grabbed a cup. She soon joined Jervis inside the elevator as they were carried down to his lab.
**********
Felicia Hardy returned to her apartment after fencing off the stolen diamond from the night before. There was a part of her that felt the need to keep the expensive prize, since she had spent years of planning on how to finally steal it, but the more logical side of her mind had won out. Keeping the diamond meant that she would have to up her security and Felicia knew she would grow more and more paranoid of anyone else stealing it from her.
Speaking of her security, Felicia pulled out her laptop and logged into her own security system. One could never be too careful. She watched the security footage of her apartment in her absence, looking for anything amiss. There were multiple views of her apartment. The cameras had been set up perfectly to catch any intruder. In addition, motion-sensors would alert her if even a mouse found its way inside her home. As of yet, the white-haired cat-burglar found zero evidence that anyone had been there.
She continued to watch the screen in front of her when suddenly the picture went dark for half a second. Felicia’s eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed. She had bought the MacBook just a month before and knew it was the top of the line. It certainly should not be glitching. She gently tapped the side of the screen and nothing happened. Felicia though maybe she would give Peter a call to look at it. That is if he could ever be torn away from his sweet, little Mary Jane…
Just then the screen came alive for a barely a split second and flashed something on the screen. It sent a brief jolt throughout her body. Felicia straightened herself and wondered what she had just seen? It had been so fast that her mind failed to register. Felicia’s mind tried to make sense of it. Had it been a pink and purple swirling pattern? Or had it been a wide, grinning white smile graphic over a black background? The Black Cat looked closer at the screen, which had returned to the surveillance footage of her apartment.
Little did she realize that every so often there would flash a subliminal Cheshire Cat in various parts of the screen. The subliminal messages that the Mad Hatter had placed inside Felicia’s electronic devices had already begun their wicked task of slowly rewriting and twisting the cat burglar’s mind into something madder and madder.