"Here's the plan. Johnny, use a force field to contain the energy. Susan, pour as much flame into the sphere as you can. Try to overload it." Sue followed Reed's instruction right away. "Flame on!" she said (Johnny had accidentally said it too) before soaring upward. Just as the energy sphere was within range, it disappeared abruptly, once again. That startled Sue a little & the sphere's force impacted on her as well. Johnny caught her as she fell from the sky; he joked, "That's what you get for being a hothead."

"Okay, H.E.R.B.I.E.'s got a match on the energy type," Ben spoke, sounding more like Reed than he ever did trying to imitate him. "The sphere is utilizing the same inter-dimensional energy as the power gauntlet. It's just inverted....uhh..& I don't know what that means..," he concluded on an awkward note. "That's because you use words with more than one syllable," laughed Johnny. His next words were unusual, "Oh..I..I'm sorry..that was mean. No, no, no! That was funny!"

Azula looked at Reed's PDA in Ben's grasp. "That inter-dimensional energy signature is going to exceed a safe percentage within minutes..," she abruptly said. "Nerd!" Johnny teased while pointing at her. She was ticked off & grabbed the sides of his wrist. She twisted it. Hard. Poor Johnny writhed in pain & decided he keep mum.

Reed picked up where Ben had left off, "If the properties of my power gauntlet were inverted, it could latch on to something in another dimension. It could bring it here to earth." "Bring what here?" Sue already knew the answer would be bad. "Given the energy flares we're seeing, something of great power," replied Reed. H.E.R.B.I.E. helped Reed compare the power difference between the two spheres they'd seen. As expected, the situation wasn't pretty. "You know it's gotta be Doom. He's got one of those power gauntlets. Doesn't he?" said Ben. He had nailed it. An incoming alert from H.E.R.B.I.E. then gave Reed the location of a new energy disruption - taking place near the Latverian Embassy. "Okay, let's go get Doom!" asserted Reed, smashing his fists together.

***

"Intriguing."

"My lord -"

"The Fantastic Four have stumbled their way across my intentions. Although Richards is still clueless as to the power I seek. But more interestingly - he & his team don't seem to be themselves. They're not alone either."

"Would you like to destroy them?"

"Yes, I believe so." He relished the slow speed of his words.

"At once, my lord."

***

The six of them met at the jetty within view of the Latverian Embassy. Ozai & Azula had to drive after the Four. There was no turning back; how else were they to switch their attributes back to normal? A new third sphere towered above the area, emitting more beams each second. Reed's mind started ticking actively, "I think this will work. We may be able to kill two birds with one stone. No pun intended."

"The energy the sphere's emitting is similar to the cosmic rays that created us four. If we can cipher off some of that energy, we can use it to recharge the generator from my experiment earlier, & switch Johnny, Susan, Ozai & Azula back to normal." Sue took a precaution to ask, "So what's the dangerous part of this plan?" "Well, we have to do all of this inside the sphere. & shut it down at the same time, said Reed." "I'm no expert in this field, Reed. Wish I could help more," said Ozai.

Something attacked Reed from behind; he stumbled forward with a thump sounding like gravel. "We got Doombots," Ben alerted them all. A line of Doom's minions faced them now. Sue warned Ozai & Azula, "You two, get back! It's dangerous." "Only if you manage," Azula responded with a sly smile.

Each Doombot had the Four's identities stored in their memory, but they used the wrong weapons to combat their targets as a result of the power switch. This proved advantageous to the team, at least. "Error, identification failure..," muttered a clobbered Doombot after being beaten by Johnny. He had gotten the hang of his sister's powers, so he no longer called them lame. "Target: Invisible Woman. Weapon: Concussion Lasers," said a Doombot chasing after Sue in aerial pursuit. It was blasted with ease by her fireballs. "I hate to say it, but that was hot..," she admitted.

The robots still recognised Ben as "The Thing" although his outward appearance was much less rocky. Thankfully, their power absorbers weren't handy. Ben could twist around them lithely & smashed their heads together. "This is something I always wanted to say - it's clobberin' time!!!" Reed exclaimed. He swung a Doombot into another. "Hey, that's my line...," muttered Ben.

A problem also puzzled the remaining Doombots whereby two new opponents with unknown profiles awaited their attacks. "Target: Unknown. Identification Failure," was all the robots could say. Ozai went for their central processors built into their heads, & punched them hard with burning fists. He combined his leopard kung fu moves to construct heated melee attacks. Azula wished she had firepower, but stayed confident. Her strength, alertness, accuracy & speed had been heightened, & she wasn't going to forget about utilizing them. She smashed the heads of the robots as well, with much success. It felt good. Few of her workouts came close to this level of fun.

"We have to get into the sphere. We're running out of time!" said Reed with urgency. "I need you to create a tunnel with your force fields," he commanded Johnny. Johnny obeyed. More issues flooded in when the Doombots attacking the Four figured it out - "Targets' powers are not consistent with known profiles. Adapt. Targets' powers are switched. Change targets," they instructed one another. One of them could extinguish Sue in mid-air. "I got you, Susie!" said Ben, catching her before she hit the ground. Reed experienced difficulties now as the robots intelligently absorbed shock from his blows. He knew what to do, "Everyone gets in there except Ben! I'll be right behind you with the energy cipher!"

Ben, however, was curious, "All day you've only been taking about the four of them. You're not gonna switch back with me, are you?" "No. I'm not taking my old life back," rang Reed's voice in a reply so honest that it got Ben perplexed. "You deserve this, Ben! This is your chance to be human again. Well, you know, more human." "Reed, I don't know, I...thank you." Ben was so appalled. He was lucky he & his best friend had been roommates in college. Reed was pretty much laying down his life for him with his decision in that instant.

All five of the group apart from Ben progressed through the makeshift tunnel made by Johnny. Doombots were on their tail, unfortunately. Upon entering the sphere, Johnny's focus was tiring already. He fell to his knees, striving to hold his powers together. "You can do this, Johnny," Sue encouraged him. He groaned. "Just pretend you're making the hottest flame you can," said his sister. Warmed by the encouragement, he looked up at her. "Breathe," Azula then told him gently. Shoot, her thoughts told her, I'm being mushy. It was supposed to be Ozai's line, but the partial personality switch really had its effects. There was the sound of a laser.

Reed & Ozai were knocked aside, revealing another Doombot who had made it into the sphere. Ozai's suit suffered some burns. The next wave of lasers blasted Sue on her shoulder, ripping the uniform. "Sue..Reed..guys..I can't hold this!" Johnny said with a voice that had cracks of waning confidence. "Yes, you can! You have to collapse the sphere!" Reed said quickly to keep his strength up. Suddenly, Ben's rubbery arm wrapped around the Doombot to restrain it. Ozai got up, putting his two fists together & ramming them, knuckles first, into the robot with an explosive fiery impact. "Do it, Reed. We've got this covered!" yelled Ben at the top of his lungs. Azula pulled Sue up.

"Ben, no! If you're inside when this goes off - " "There's only one way we're gonna survive this. Together." He continued as the robot malfunctioned & fell, "I may not stay my handsome self, but at least we'll get to stick it to Doom!" Reed, in spite of hesitating painfully, went with the plan using his gadget. He lifted it, activated it, & everything went black.

In his chamber, Doom was sent flying backward at the same time by an energy explosion - the result from Reed's action.

***

The surroundings were sparkling when everyone awoke. "You okay?" Johnny asked Sue. "Yeahhh..," moaned Sue, who gave it a try testing her invisibility. Her powers were restored. Johnny's turn came to test his, "Please make this work...flame...on..." His body was ignited & he soared upward with a joyful "Woohoo!" Reed looked behind to see his best buddy, only he was orange & bulky again. Azula immediately got to her feet & lit her fists up in her bright blue fire, on the watch for anymore danger. "Relax, Azula," Ozai told her. Reed's eyes were sad; he approached Ben. "Ben...," he could only mouth out that one word because the guilt felt rather heavy. "Yeah, I'm okay," his rocky friend said.

"Ben, I don't know what to say, but I promise you," Reed had to dig deep for the words, "I won't give up." "I know you won't", was Ben's confident acknowledgement toward the promise. "What do you think Dr. Happy's doing over there?" questioned Johnny in a funny manner. He eyed smoke rising from a high floor of the Latverian Embassy.

"More importantly, I wonder what it was he was trying to get his hands on," Reed filled in with the serious tone he assumed as a responsible leader.

***

"It's not over!" Victor fumed with fury. Awkwardly he exited the chamber. "This is just beginning....." It was a frequent supervillain tagline, but he wanted so badly for the world to hear it.

& he knew so well how much he meant what he said...