A Freaky Fantastic Fourth
By Caleb Jones
CHAPTER ONE
"It's Clobbering Time!" Ben Grimm shouted out to his teammates!
It was the Fourth of July and he ought to be celebrating with his friends but instead Ben had been forced to leave the fireworks behind and confront a gang of super-powered thieves calling themselves the Telekinetic Trio.
He took the lead position, drawing any weapon fire towards his rather giant-sized target of an orange hued body. Indeed, several guards hired by the criminals to give them cover fire attempted to shoot Ben and his friends with automatic weapons, but those weapons were intended to stop the police, not someone like Grimm! Grabbing hold of a street light, Ben yanked it out of the ground as if it were just a weed in a garden, and swung it into Hugo, the strong man of the criminal gang of super villains who collectively called themselves the Telekinetic Trio.
Hugo, wanted for several murders committed during his crimes, was apparently far more limber than his bulky appearance indicated. He easily ducked under the swiftly moving concrete and metal street lamp. Ben had put so much into the swing that he was unable to stop its forward momentum. While the villain laughed at the swing and miss by Ben, he continued to follow through with the swing, turning himself around in a complete circle, and catching the overly amused criminal totally unprepared!
With a loud crash of the lamp pole hitting the strongman's relaxed telekinetic force shield, Hugo went flying into the wall of the bank he was trying to rob. His telekinetic power may have been overwhelming to most, but it was no match for the might of Ben Grimm, also known to the world as the Thing! Ben was one of the strongest beings in the world, and a founding member of the world famous Fantastic Four, a group of heroes dedicated to making the world a safer place to live in.
Hugo's unconscious body dropped to the bank floor along with several bags of stolen money.
Another one of the heroes known as the Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm, also known as the Human Torch for rather obvious reasons to anyone who saw him fully powered up, arrived on the scene, circling above the street. Johnny's flame powers surrounded his heat-immune body, propelling him though the air much like a jet engine propels a plane.
From his high vantage point, Johnny located another member of the gang attempting to escape out the back of the bank, and with his power of complete control over his fiery flames, the Human Torch surrounded the second gang-member in a cage made of fiery plasma!
In a hurry to give aid to his fellow heroes if they needed any, Johnny didn't notice the transparent telekinetic steps his foe was creating to get him over the walls of flame. Ironically, he was utilizing one of Johnny's sister Susan's best tricks to escape Johnny's flaming trap!
Johnny's sister Sue and her husband were last to arrive at the bank. Reed Richards and his beautiful blonde wife Susan continued the search for the third Telekinetic Trio member. Reed was able to stretch any part of his body for very long distances, and in any direction. He could even make himself thin enough to slip through the crack under a door or wide enough to catch a falling body like a safety net. Susan Storm Richards was able to become invisible or to reverse that power and make others invisible. She also several telekinetic powers of her own which making her a formidable match for the so-called Telekinetic Trio.
Johnny finally noticed his escaping prisoner and added a fiery roof to his impromptu plasma cell. The second member of the Trio cursed the Human torch and reluctantly walked back down his telekinetic stairway and waited for another chance to escape.
Two of the Trio had been restrained, but one more remained at large. This criminal, their leader, was often referred to as the Mind Master by his associates for his more cerebral mental abilities. Unlike his fellow Telekinetic Trio gang members, he had the ability to project and read thoughts to and from other people. He was the one who had planned the heist, reading and influencing the minds of the bank guards to determine the best time to strike.
Reed Richards stretched his arms outward, wrapping his super-elongated limbs around the criminal mastermind, as he prepared to immobilize the man in a human cocoon. Sue made her husband's limbs invisible as they had rehearsed, to give Reed a chance to surprise the Mind Master. Onlookers could see a strange sight as the thief's body appeared to be tied up as if a huge boa constrictor had wrapped itself around the man, only there was nothing visible making the compressions that surrounded the thief. Truly, it was a fantastic sight!
"I've got him Sue! You can make me visible now." Reed said to his wife.
Suddenly the blue costume worn by Reed Richards was visible once more and it was obvious that he was the cause of the Mind Master's restricted condition.
Sue smiled at her husband's reappearance. The criminals were captured and none of the Fantastic Four were hurt in the process. Maybe now they could get back to celebrating the national holiday!
Johnny and Ben brought their prisoners over to Reed and Sue, and they began to transfer the Telekinetic Trio over to the police, who had a special containment vehicle to transport dangerously super-powered criminals to equally secured jail cells.
The Mind Master may have been captured but he wasn't ready to go to jail! He had one ace up his sleeve, one move that no one knew about, one power that he had kept secret... until now. If he was to escape the Fantastic Four, then he had to use that power now! He unleashed the power of his mind and mental energies swirled around Johnny and Ben, and Reed and Sue. The four of them fell to the ground and covered their heads with their hands as if to keep the evil energy away, but physical hands were no match for the mental power of the Mind Master! The Trio was suddenly freed as Reed's elastic limbs went limp and Johnny's fiery plasma cage burned out without his attention to it to maintain it!
The police were waiting for them though so Mind Master instructed the barely conscious strong man Hugo to punch his way into a sewer system. Grabbing the few bags of money Mind Master had been carrying, the Trio made their escape underground.
No one above them heard the Mind Master as he laughed evilly at what he knew awaited the Fantastic Four when they woke up from his mental assault.
CHAPTER TWO
The police and paramedics did their best to make the four heroes comfortable, they appeared to be unharmed physically but efforts to make them conscious were unsuccessful. So they were taken to a nearby hospital, and a vigil began as the world waited to learn if the Fantastic Four would survive.
Sue Richards was the first to wake up.
She looked around the hospital room. She seemed shocked to see her husband unconscious in the bed next to hers. She stood up on shaky legs, uncertain of her ability to even walk, and made her way to her husband, Reed.
The nurses couldn't hear what she whispered to Reed but after a few minutes Reed Richards also awoke, with a gasp that was almost a scream. Sue whispered to him some more and he calmed down. Apparently he had been expecting to be injured as Reed kept checking his chest for signs of bullet wounds.
The Doctor called to the room noted that two of his patients had revived and appeared to be understandably distraught, but otherwise unharmed. He looked in on his other two special patients. Both were still unconscious.
The medical expert decided to wait a bit longer to see if they would also revive unharmed as the other two victims had just done. As he had no idea what caused the condition in the first place and thus had no treatment to cure it, he had little choice but to wait and pray, perhaps the toughest part of his job, he thought to himself.
Sue and Reed held each other up and made their way to the room where Johnny and Ben were still lying unconscious. Sue moved over to Ben and tried to talk to him. It had after all worked on Reed and she knew a familiar voice has been known to wake up even those in a coma on rare occasions. Reed moved over to Johnny and seemed especially distraught. He also tried talking to the young man, giving him a voice to focus on even while unconscious. None of the medical observers heard what was said to the fallen heroes but the voice therapy began to work.
Johnny was the first to awaken. He appeared to be shocked by his survival like Reed and Sue before him, but seeing the Thing down on the heavy duty bed next to his may have shocked him the most! He pulled Reed aside and talked to his orange and rocky skinned friend and team mate.
Ben Grimm finally woke up. The others tried to calm him down but he must have thought he was still in battle, putting his fist into the bed and smashing it into scrap metal. Finally gathering his wits together, Ben calmed down and the doctor was able to examine him.
Declaring the four of them fit for duty, the doctor returned to the emergency room and all too swiftly had other patients to attend to once more.
The Fantastic four made their way outside, refusing to talk to reporters and made their way back to their headquarters. There was no way they could go back to celebrating the Fourth; they had too much on their minds!
As soon as they were totally alone and no one else could overhear them, the four of them finally began talking for real, no longer masking their incredible problem for the public.
CHAPTER THREE
Ben Grimm moved over to the mirror, staring at his rocky features as if for the first time.
"I sure hope you can fix this Reed! My girlfriend Sally isn't going to want to go out with me as long as I look like this. She wasn't even fond of me flaming on!" He stared at his four-fingered orange hand. "Nope, she won't like this at all."
Johnny Storm put a hand on the big man-monster's shoulder. "If she dumps you, Johnny, maybe I can go out with her. After all, we know she already likes this new face of mine. And she's pretty cute! I think I'm going to enjoy being you for a while, kid!"
The Thing turned to the Human Torch "Yeah, well, don't forget that I can squash you like a bug now if you do anything that I wouldn't do, Ben."
"Not once I figure out how to work your flame power, runt!"
"HA! You're the 'runt' now, Ben!"
Reed Richards move in and separated the two.
"Boys, boys, stop fighting! It isn't helping! I know it's a strange situation but you're not the only ones who have swapped bodies you know."
"Aw, Sis, I didn't mean to upset you." The rocky skinned Thing awkwardly hugged Reed Richard's body. "It's still hard to imagine you inside that body, Sue."
"It's even weirder being inside it, Johnny. But I'll manage until reed figures out how to fix this mix-up."
The three males turned to the female member of the group and awaited a response from the brilliant man inside that body.
"Sorry, guys, I haven't come up with anything yet. I swapped bodies with Dr. Doom once but this exchange seems different somehow. I can run some tests but I think our best bet is to recapture the Mind Master and make him reverse this."
Sue's body paused for a second. "There is no way we can get him to do that until we get back to full strength. That means we have to learn how to operate these bodies and the powers that they possess."
Sue stepped in. "It's late and we are still in shock, Reed. I think we had best start practicing with our new powers tomorrow. I for one have a headache and really need to get at least a full night's sleep."
"A night's rest sounds good to me too, Sue" Johnny agreed. "It's almost midnight anyway. I'll see you guys in the morning." He headed off to his room until Ben called him back.
"Johnny! You can't sleep in your room. Your bed is flame-proof, not weight-proof. Your bed would collapse in an instant with my body in it. I guess we'll have to switch bedrooms until we straighten this out."
"I suppose so, Ben." Johnny reluctantly agreed.
"At least that won't be a problem for Reed and me." Sue said. "As husband and wife, we both sleep in the same bed. But we'll also have to wear the clothing that belongs to our body as well or else we'll all look ridiculous." She smiled inwardly at the thought of Reed in a dress.
"I can't wait to see Reed in a skirt!" Ben said, almost falling onto the floor as he guffawed loudly at the image in his mind.
Johnny had a hard time keeping a big grin off his newly rocky mug as well.
Reed was blushing furiously within his wife's curvaceous body. No way was he ever going to wear a dress!
The end of part one
To be continued -if you want me to do so,please leave a review.