The autumn at Columbia University was a stark reminder of the new school semester. Students from every ends of the earth had came to study at the most prestigious university in New York—and Reed Richards was no different. He had already graduated from various schools from the age of fourteen, earning degrees was like a fun hobby he liked to do on the side. I mean, he was already a doctorate in two subjects, and he strived to become a doctorate in genetic biology. New York was his second home, but he had fled from California awhile ago—abandoning his broken home to find his footing and had ultimately settled on New York. The busy streets of NYC gave him a favorable opportunity to network with important people and study. Because that’s all he did, he studied and studied and discovered. Science was his life, his love.

Which brought him to the topic of his love life. Everyone around him had found someone to love—Ben Grimm, his best friend had married his longtime sweetheart, Debbie. And well, he was still a lonely bachelor. But he didn’t care, he was more into research than women. Besides, he hadn’t found a woman who could knock him off his feet. Sure, there were a few pretty girls—but he wanted someone intelligent. Witty. Someone who wouldn’t mind being second to his passion for science. And if he had to settle for being single till the day he died? Then so be it.

The lecture hall was full of men eager to learn, their eyes observing the chalkboard infront of them. It the year 2000, the second week of school, and as they began to go into lecture notes and discussing the subject of molecular structures excited Reed. He was the main one talking, glancing downwards at the notes he scribbled in messy handwriting then up at the professor again. Something about DNA strands and a recent discovery in chromosomes done in their lab over the summer intrigued him, especially at the mention of the researcher coming to talk to them. He had expected an older man, wise with age and history.

And when he turned his head at the young woman who walked in and stood beside the professor in a lab coat, she would wave at the group of men who raised eyebrows in both misogyny and interest. A woman had made a groundbreaking discovery in genetic modification for DNA strands? No way.

But Reed—Reed was quietly impressed.