003. out of this world

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chapter three!003

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chapter three!
003. out of this world

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    NONE OF IT felt real. Ingrid pinched herself multiple times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She walked onto the shuttle with simply the clothes on her back▬the snug synthetic suit and the space uniform over the top. She took a deep breath and looked up at the top of the shuttle, feeling it loom over. Ingrid pursed her lips and hugged the straps of her bag with only the essentials she would need for the trip. Her phone would have to be left on Earth, which meant she wouldn't be able to talk to her father until she returned home. She tried to remind herself that it would only be for a day, but Ingrid always felt better when she had her father just a phone call away. 

    Her heart was racing, and she took a moment to try her best to calm it. She chewed the inside of her cheek, very nervous. 

    Ingrid couldn't stall any longer. It had been planned that once they made it to the space station, they would have six hours to prepare for the solar storm. They needed to leave now.

    She took one, final deep breath and forced herself to step inside. 

    A space shuttle was almost like another world. It was very much like what Ingrid would imagine a submarine would look like▬narrow passways, tight spaces and circular hallways that held no roof and no floor because as soon as they left the atmosphere, there would be no gravity to keep their feet on any sort of ground. The walls were grey and white▬dull and holding no function other than to be practical. She had to bend down, ducking her head underneath piping and devices drilled into the plated interior. 

    When she made it to the front, the control room was more like the nose of an aeroplane. The front panel, sides and above her head were covered in switches, buttons and blinking lights. It was a tight space with seating against the walls and two at the very front. 

    Ingrid was the last to step inside, and her heart was racing once again. She awkwardly shuffled to the side as Susan marched onwards towards the communication panels on Ingrid's left. At the captain's seat, Johnny fixed his comms and was the most focused she had seen him▬his fingers ran across the controls with Ben Grimm at his side, speaking into the comms so casually, it was as though he was in his natural element. And he was. Adventure, thrill-seeking▬anything that made his heart race with excitement was the very oxygen Johnny Storm breathed. 

    She wasn't exactly sure where to go or what to do, which she hated. Ingrid grasped the straps of her bag tighter over her shoulders until she noticed the sight of a man she'd only ever seen the steel of his likeness. 

    Ingrid started to feel as though she preferred the statue of Dr. Victor Von Doom to the very man himself. Dr. Von Doom was a tall man▬slender and rigid, with the same steel-grey gaze as his likeness depicted. Maybe he was a statue in real life. A set jaw, and hands that always fixed the fabric of his suit around his neck and sleeves so he embodied perfection. She remembered how his voice sounded on the phone and could picture it belonging to the same man who stood nearby. Sleek, mysterious and soft-spoken, but every word was as clear as cut glass. 

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