Post by DiscipleofBob on Jun 1, 2015 2:08:13 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #7:
Picking Up the Pieces
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Picking Up the Pieces
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
When the four finally arrived back in Central City, they all knew they had to be confined to the lab until they could all be cleared. If not for their own health, then for the risk they posed to others. Hank had to invent new diagnostic procedures just for the occasion, with Reed and Sue's help. It took over a week of mind-numbingly tedious testing, but besides their newfound abilities, and Ben's new body, they seemed to test clear.
"Almost there, Sis. Just a few more seconds," Johnny said, anxiously looking at the glass case as Susan’s form was obscured in the slightly green mist. "Are you okay?"
"It tastes like stale plums. Am I done yet?" Standing in the green fog, Sue was the last to be treated for the possible radioactive signature after the crash. Johnny went back to the console where Janet was monitoring the levels of the chemicals in the stall.
"Just a few more seconds, right?" Johnny asked eagerly. Janet looked at the teen and smiled. He was only like this for his sister.
"Removing chemicals now, starting final readings," she said as she typed into the program. "We’re clear. Get her a robe?"
Johnny, now beaming, grabbed one of the thick robes and hurried over to where Sue was exiting the box, now tinted light green. She put it on and the two hurried to the showers.
"She clear?" Hank asked Janet as he watched the two disappear behind the wall.
"Yup. Everyone's clean. If they were radioactive after the crash, then it's faded since. What did Reed want?" she asked as he sat down, giving her a mug of coffee as he sipped his own.
"He wanted to talk about a few things. Doom's leaving leaves a few holes," Hank replied. "How's Susan?"
"I'm used to seeing Johnny as the clingy one," Janet sighed. "I think it's been too much, too fast."
"Reed is shaken, but we need to get the company steady. Sue talks to you. I got Reed. You good to do this?"
"It’s spring. I think a shopping trip is in order." Janet stood up. "A girl's day out."
When Hank eventually found Reed in one of the other labs, he was staring at a sea of blue in a large, vibrating test tube as he played with dials and levers at a nearby console. He was muttering to himself as he manipulated the contents in the bin, focusing almost entirely on the experiment at hand. "Hank, I'll be one moment. Just finishing up," Reed said as he fixed the controls and walked over to the case as a green button started glowing. "I think I got it perfect this time. Sue will love it."
Hank forced himself not to smirk. Subtlety was not Reed’s strong suit. Hank could see the fabric inside slowly come to a still, at least until it became translucent before disappearing entirely. When Reed pressed the button again it came back.
"Fantastic. Good as new." Reed opened the case and pulled the blue mass out. The suit that had barely kept Sue warm in the escape was in one piece again, more than a little of a miracle. Reed beamed and then walked to carefully fold it place it with the others. ”Fully operational, and pristine."
"That has to be the world's most expensive laundry," Hank commented.
"Just the most technologically advanced," Reed replied. "Your unstable molecule invention was quite genius and very useful. Not only did our suits survive the crash, they seem to have adapted to the changes our bodies went through. Absolutely fascinating."
"If the board gets their way, these and everything else will be sold to the highest bidder. The board is breathing down both our necks. If we don't pacify them soon I expect most of the lab will be auctioned off at yard sale prices. They anything but patient."
"I know. I've been getting it too." Reed was stressed. His work was here. So was everyone's, and it would take years to get back to this point if they even got the chance. With the bad press that chance was unlikely. "What have they told you?"
"They want to start breaking up the company, make some money back. The bad press from the crash has them scared," Hank said as Reed shook his head. "That Doom just ran off didn't help."
"Victor never meant for this to happen," Reed said, hating the situation.
"But it did. You keep saying his doesn't mean for things to happen, but they do," Hank replied. "And once again we have to clean up after it. Once again others are left paying for it. So now we’re about to lose everything. What do we do?"
"Get me the board," Reed said. It was hard to argue with him. "We fight."
When Susan had excused herself to take a shower and clear her head, no one had thought anything of it. Between the miscarriage, the divorce, and now the crash and ensuing events, she was under more stress than anyone. Some time to herself didn’t seem like a terrible idea. After weeks of dealing with lawyers and officials, not to mention seeing Victor on a near daily basis, she was openly wearing thin.
Everyone on the team was affected. Ben never liked the man, had taken the window of the divorce being finished to reprogram the systems so that the Victor wouldn’t get back into the employee rooms. Susan was off-limits. Johnny had helped.
Reed was trying to stay balanced between one friend and the others, but it wasn’t working. He was actually angry, but it was strange to see the man with actual emotions. Victor had gone off the grid during a time he should have been present for everyone.
Janet went to talk to Johnny instead. Johnny's room had a new decoration, and with it, he had a new hobby. He had put Victor's last Time magazine cover on his dart board. As Janet walked in, one dart after the other stuck into different parts of Victor's face.
When she caught the time on the Johnny’s alarm clock, she realized Susan had been in the shower for over two hours.
The showers weren’t fancy, but she could hear the water running and as she got closer she saw the shower bag outside a stall. She also saw blood.
Sue was on the floor, under a broken and sharp, jagged water dial. A large gash ran down her shoulder and chest. Barely conscious she was muttering, asking for help, and trying to stay awake.
"Sue!" Janet pulled the woman out of the stall and covered her in the robe to warm her up. Then grabbing the first aid kit from the wall and calling for help she hurried to try to seal the large gash. Sue wasn’t moving much, looking blankly into the something, as Janet worked.
"Went to reach the knob to turn the shower off." Sue was shivering. "When it broke-"
"I know. You’ll be fine." Janet hurried still calling for help. She needed to get Sue to the infirmary. For now she needed to know how she was doing. Sue was looking pale and delirious. "I need you to look at me, Sue. Come on, look at me. What do you see?"
"Is she here?" Sue asked, her eyes looking into the distance. "I think she's here. Please, can she just be here?" Janet cried with her friend, waiting for the others to arrive. Losing her daughter, reliving it was cruel.
The Storm siblings' parents died when she was 16 and he was 7. Even with top scholarships and grants she needed to work two jobs between classes just to look after Johnny. That they managed to keep up their grades was only that much more impressive.
Janet had met her about this time and Sue had only said that her brother had lost enough.
She didn’t want him to lose his home as well. She had lost her parents and her world in a week. But still Sue and Johnny had always moved forward. She always knew what she was doing next.
This morning, Sue was lost. Johnny had left to finally return to school, and Sue had removed the mask and was now lost in her own head as they took their run in the park.
The woman was running like a maniac, which was bad as Janet had been slacking somewhat in her friend’s absence. Just keeping up was going to cost her tomorrow. Only her mind was racing as fast as the two very angry legs that were flying over the paths of the park. And her increasingly exhausted friend.
"Sue, enough!" Janet screamed while she was still able to breath. She bent over, pleading with her lungs to stop burning. "The hell?!"
The blonde stopped, not even winded, and paced around before suddenly lashing out and kicking the oak just off the trail and screaming.
"Seriously, what is this?" Janet hurried to get between her friend and the innocent wooden trunk. The tree had done nothing to deserve this. She quickly had to move to protect the next victim, an ash. "Stop attacking shrubberies and talk to me!"
"I'm completely screwed!" Sue screamed and made for her first target again before being blocked. "It's over! I blew it, okay? When it comes to a personal life I have the IQ of a mentally challenged goldfish! Now get away from my tree!"
"We do not punish innocent trees for backstabbing exes! We're supposedly adults now!" Janet pulled the woman a few feet away. "You aren't ruined. You're free. Tell the man to shove it and date again. He can't stop you."
"Date again," Sue said, sinking onto the bench, a bleak look on her face. It wasn't a look she wore often. "Sure, I mean, I did so well last time."
"Everyone is allowed one dud. Hell, I had three before Hank. You're still doing better than me," Janet said sardonically, getting Sue to at least laugh dryly. "You'll get there. Find a good man, have a real home, whole ten yards."
"Whole ten yards includes a family, Janet. That can’t happen." That was the cruelest part, that the woman who most wanted a family the most had so many issues having one. The last attempt even with the most advanced science and medicine Victor could buy had only resulted in a physically and emotionally traumatic miscarriage. The doctors since told her she wouldn't be able to conceive and carry to term.
"I don't know. Science is pretty amazing, right? And worst case scenario you’ll have to take in a couple orphans, raise them in a huge house, give them the best education this world has ever seen, and you know you'll love them senseless. Tell me you wouldn't love that." Even with her foul mood Sue cracked a smile. "Exactly."
"One condition. I want you as my approval committee," Sue said, a little happier. "Catch any duds for me. You and Hank. Maybe I need someone who knows how to make it work."
“Yo, Earth to Johnny!" He heard a voice call from the bleachers as he walked to the front gates of his school. "What's up, space man? Besides you of course!"
"Jimbo!" Johnny smiled at his lab mate and longtime friend. Jimmy Darnell had been his best friend for years. When he and Sue had tried to build a life in the city, Jimmy became his first real friend at school.
Thin with sizable glasses and very much looking like the science nerd he was, Jimmy was the son of a local chemical engineer and his wife. He and Sue had stayed with them more than once when they were still figuring things out. Now he and Jimmy used Sue and other contacts at the Baxter Building to get ahead on their projects.
"Holy crap man! You crashed from space! How awesome is that?!" The teen was excited and beaming. "Tell me you did the G-readings. They had to be off the charts! Can we pull the data for this year's science fair? We'd kill with something like that! Sue knows we’re good for it, she can just check our work like she always does."
"They're still pulling data from the wreck, but if they find it, it's totally ours." The two reached the door and walked to the bioscience wing. Jimmy was already pulling out the breakfast of champions for high schoolers: nacho cheese Doritos and a can of Mountain Dew. "What did I miss here?"
"It’s school. What can I say?" Jimmy shrugged as he opened his soda. "You have a ton of make-up work to do. Mrs. Stein finally called it and moved to upper biology. She was miserable teaching Intro. We got a batch of new transfer students as we do every semester. Oh, there's one new student - wait until you see her, you'll blow a gasket."
"A girl?" Spending several months in space during the hormone-raging time of puberty meant Johnny had some catching up to do on more than just schoolwork. He looked at the roster list just inside the science hall. It listed majors, one of the many signs this was an advanced school for extra overachievers. She was listed under new students, one of three. Alicia Masters, second year. Johnny couldn't help but think the name sounded familiar, but according to the information, she was brand new. She had entered the class at Lab Theory IV. It had taken Johnny and Jimmy two years to get into that class. "Wow."
"I know, right? Mrs. Stein says she's already top of the class at chemical integration. You know that's something we need to work on." Jimmy hurried down the hall and they got to the class where they got quite the welcome.
"Mr. Storm! Welcome back to Earth! We're all so glad to have you back safely!" The middle-aged teacher wasn't the only one visible excited at Johnny's presence. He was quite the celebrity. Johnny found himself swamped by eager and excited classmates. For the sea of science nerds, falling from space really was the ultimate adventure. They were asking all kinds of questions.
"Seriously, that was amazing." "You must have been so scared though, falling like that." "Is everyone really all right?" "Did you really get exposed to the vacuum?" "How bad was it?" "How awesome was it?"
A redheaded girl with bright blue eyes and a wide, friendly grin on her face, looking more like a model than a science nerd, had hurried over, "I read all the papers. Very cool."
"That’s her, dude," Jimmy whispered next to him. "That's Alicia. She's totally into you!" If he was right, Johnny would be completely okay with that.
It was a cold evening in New York. While everyone else was back in Central City, Ben, in the many rapid near-death experiences had to get back to familiar territory, and that meant the Big Apple. The thick trenchcoat and fedora did little to help him blend in, but it was better than baring the rocks for everyone to see, even if he did feel like a ninja turtle. Though it probably didn't matter. After all, the city knew what he looked like, right? That damage was already done.
In moments like this, instinct tended to take over. Even for stone-skinned people this was true. Walking down the old, familiar paths, Ben only had one place on his mind: Yancy Street. Specifically the Yancy Street Bar and Grill. It was a hole in the wall, but it was his hole in the wall and he needed a stiff drink.
The dive bar was older than dirt, a phrase that had new meaning for Ben. No one really remembered a time it wasn't there. There should have been a plaque, but the owners had no intention of putting up the small sign the historical society had given them. They thought it was tacky. Not the giant stuffed beaver, or the massive fish mounted on the wall, or the old signs from Yancy Street businesses that were torn down to make room for other buildings that were already looking old and decrepit themselves.
Thankfully, there were wide stools as the stone man sat down and waved for a beer. The dive bar was dark as usual. He could at least hope to go unnoticed.
The bartender had a pint of lager in front of him without asking. Service with an indifferent shoulder, just as Ben remembered it. Ben put some cash on the table, but it was ignored. It didn't matter. He focused on the beer. When the glass was empty he saw the bartender mindless take the glass and replace it.
The noise in the pub got louder but Ben could see the sports scenes on. Yankees were on. That got people riled up. He had no idea how his new form would affect his ability to get hammered, but by the time he downed his fifth pint he was feeling it. He needed to pace himself.
It was a few hours drinking alone in the darkest corner they had, but it was the best Ben could hope for. He needed to pay his tab though and the bartender had been ignoring him all night. "Hey, Bub,” he said but the man ignored him like he had all night. He was handing out drinks and plates. "Hey, I gotta tab to pay ‘ere!" Ben reached over to tap the bartender on the shoulder, and with the same scowl as before, the bartender finally turned around to give Ben a good once-over. So did everyone else in the bar as well. Suddenly the game was turned off.
"Your money ain't no good here," the bartender said with a sneer. Double-negatives aside, Ben sighed as he didn't want the night to take the turn it seemed to be taking.
That afternoon, Hank, Janet, and Sue wandered back into the Baxter Building labs slightly confused. Not surprised, but confused. Especially when Reed was frantically working away at the lab. Reed getting absorbed in his latest experiment wasn't unusual. Being at five stations at once while he stretched around the perimeter of the room like blue taffy, on the other hand, was something Hank still needed to get used to.
Janet and Sue arrived both arms filled with multiple shopping bags from the girls' day out, placing them down where room was available.
"Reed?" Janet called out, but now that he was back in the lab, Reed followed the 'Rule of Three'. "Reed!" Hank called again, but as he suspected, Reed continued to fail to notice him. "REED!" Sue finally shouted.
"Ah, hello all! Are we still meeting for lunch?" Reed said with an excited smile.
"Just coming back from lunch, actually," Sue replied curtly.
"Oh..." Reed quickly realized. "Sorry. It's been a while since I've had a chance to get lost in the science."
"What exactly are you working on?" asked Hank as he took stock of the many experiments around the lab, wondering what exactly what Reed had started to tamper with. One corner of the room had Janet's ant farms and other specimen cages, mostly filled with the sort of creepy crawlies that no one believed someone like Janet could specialize in. The opposite corner was Hank's and contained more of the technical side of science. Microscopes, spectrometers, and a hundred different gauges measuring different energies and radiation sources, some of which didn't even have names yet.
A few large capsules Hank used to test the effects of said radiation had been repurposed by Reed for whatever he was working on. Blue uniforms not unlike those from the space station were suspended inside the capsules.
"Well, we need some leverage for the board meeting," Reed reasoned. "The best way to convince them not to sell off everything is to try and hopefully give them a product they CAN sell, right?" Hank knew to be suspicious. Reed worked best when he had someone checking his work, but sometimes his mind and body raced faster than anyone, even the other geniuses at the Baxter Building, could keep up with.
Reed continued, "So a suit of unstable molecules affected by whatever affected me has a similar amount of elasticity. Sue's uniform now becomes transparent under certain conditions. Johnny's is more heat resistant than the tiles we use for space shuttles. This is all in reaction to, what is at this point, and unknown radioactive stimuli.
"Therefore, logic dictates that experimenting with other types of stimuli to unstable molecule fabric should create similarly unique, fantastic effects."
"Well, it sounds good in theory," Hank said reluctantly, more trying to be encouraging than anything else. "But you have no idea what sort of reaction they'll have. They're called 'unstable molecules' for a reason. And running several experiments at a time...?"
"Don't worry, Hank, I kept track of three times this many experiments on the space station," Reed said confidently.
"Yeah, but each of those experiments had their own separate lab, sometimes their own wing," Sue pointed out. "You're working with radiation that doesn't always act as we expect. It's not always contained."
"I'm sure I've calculated for all possible outcomes. These capsules are designed to weather these types of experiments," Reed assured them.
"Right, but you have five experiments going on at once," Janet said.
"I told you I can handle it," Reed assured them.
"But we only have four working radiation test capsules," Janet followed up. "Where did you get-"
Suddenly one of the test capsules started to violently whir while beams of energy shot from miniscule, cracks. Reed's entire stretched body quickly to try and correct the problem, but there was too much damage too quickly. Sue threw up a forcefield to try and contain the inevitable explosion.
At first, all there was was a blinding light. Sue's forcefield contained the force from the blast as well as the debris from the damaged capsule. But before anyone could run for cover, the force field was sapped like a sponge until it failed. The light flooded the room, and for the four scientists present, everything went dark.
One by one, the scientists woke up on the cold floor. Reed in particular was in a noodley mess, having to roll himself up like a hose. "Is everyone alive?"
"Kind of wish I wasn't. My head's killing me," Janet grunted.
"And yet this is only the second worst crash I've experienced this year," Sue said surly as she got to her feet. "Where are we? How long are we out?"
"Not long according to my watch," said Hank. "As for where..." The four finally got a chance to look at their surroundings. The floor seemed to have a familiar tiling, and the fluorescent lighting at least they were inside, though the room seemed to larger than most warehouses. Estimating the distance between different walls was surprisingly difficult and disorienting.
The reality of their situation was even more difficult to grasp, but as they all looked around, they found familiar yet distorted surroundings. "We haven't gone anywhere," Hank realized. While debris and shattered remains of equipment were scattered throughout the room, they were undoubtedly in the same lab as before.
They were just less than a centimeter tall.
To be continued...