Reed was in the garage and entered Johnny's car.
"Guy with the power to fly gets a silly car like this," Reed muttered to himself. "And he thinks it's so cool. It's not cool. It's-" Reed turned the key and started the car. The engine roar made him stop talking for a sec. "Not bad, heh," he finished.
He adjusted the mirror. Reed noticed a pair of sunglasses in the cup holder section next to him and put them on. He smiled at his reflection. Then, with the car still in park, he put his foor on the gas and let the engine roar.
"Okay, Johnny was right. This car is awesome."
Reed drove to the university.
After his three hour lecture at the university, Reed returned to the Baxter Building and was now in his lab.
Sue and Johnny hadn't returned yet, so he wasn't caught driving Johnny's car.
Reed had a smile on his face as he worked. He enjoyed the ride to and from the university in Johnny's car. It felt good to Jhave all that wind in his hair and moving at the speed.
"You seem happy, Dr. Richards," said H.E.R.B.I.E. "What happened?"
"Oh, uh, just had to give a lecture at the university about Unstable Molecules," said Reed.
That was the lecture, but not what made Reed so happy.
Johnny entered the lab with an unhappy expression on his face.
"Hey, Johnny. How was shopping with your sister?"
"I never. Want to see. Another clothing store. Ever!"
"It couldn't've been that bad," said Reed.
"We were looking at clothes for HOURS!" yelled Johnny. "And when we finally went grocery store, the guy who worked there, someone who's supposed to know stuff about the store and the food, was an IDIOT! He didn't know anything! Was all "Uh?" the whole time! I was this close to setting him on fire!"
"Oh my!" exclaimed H.E.R.B.I.E.
"Relax, H.E.R.B.I.E., I didn't do it."
"Sorry to here that," said Reed.
Johnny sighed. "I need to go for a drive. Driving always calms me down. Heh, can you believe Sue thinks addiction problem to my car?"
"Well, you drive it almost every day. I don't see what's so special about it."
Although he was starting to get an idea of how it was so special.
"You wouldn't understand, Reed. And I couldn't explain it to you. You're too responsible. Always following the rules. Never doing anything exciting. You need to live a little, man. Don't keep yourself cooped up in this lab. Do something crazy for once."
Then Johnny chuckled.
"What am I saying? You have fun and do something crazy? Ha! When pigs fly!"
That caused Reed to frown.
"Well, I'm going to drive my beautiful, totally awesome car. Later, nerd."
Johnny exited the lab.
That was what he thought of him? That he was a nerd who didn't know how to have fun?
"I know how to have fun and be exciting," muttered Reed.
"Of course you do, Dr. Richards," said H.E.R.B.I.E. "You do lots of fun things! Like studying the Negative Zone, studying the Microverse, and other science releative things! Those are fun things, right? You always found them exciting."
"No they're not! They're lame!" exclaimed Reed. He now saw that all the science stuff he did, they were nerdy and geeky, and the opposite of cool. "I never do anything reckless and take chances! Johnny takes chances and risks all the time! Even Victor took chances and was wild in college when he did his illegal experiments! Sure, he almost got expelled for them, but he didn't care. He took the risk. I don't take risks! I always play it safe! It needs to stop!"
"Um, okay. What do you suggest, Dr. Richards?"
Reed stayed quiet. He rubbed his chin as he thought of how he could be wild and fun.
Then he thought of Johnny's car and how alive he felt when he drove it.
'That's it!'
"Let's keep working, H.E.R.B.I.E.," said Reed.
He wanted to take chances now, but he didn't want to risk H.E.R.B.I.E. telling anyone, especially Johnny, what he was going to do.
"Okay, Dr. Richards!" said H.E.R.B.I.E., cheerfully.