"You're Not My Parents?"

Chapter Four: Big! Huge!

The Baxter Building lobby was bustling with activity. But it's one of those places ware you know it's not normally this busy.

And there was a big banner that I knew was a one-time thing too. It read "Welcome Home Isabelle Richards!!!" with bold italics. What really caught my eye were the three exclamation points. !!! I felt special with that, so I smiled.

"There she is!" some one who looked like paparazzi pointed at me.

"Where?" some people turned and some people shouted my name.

"Isabelle, Isabelle!" they shouted.

I heard some interviewers yell questions like; "What's your favorite genre of music?" or "How are you taking this whole experience?" or even "Can you tell us about your super powers? Do you even have any?"

My smile faded and I was utterly engulfed in blinding light. I was cut off from my parents and my uncles and I was surrounded with flashing cameras, arms with waving microphones and recorders, and some pens with newspapers; they all wanted some thing from me. An autograph, a picture, or a quote.

Ben pulled me out of the crowd and my arm out of my socket. "Okay, okay," Ben waved his arms out in front of him.

My mother took my hand and stroked my hair. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

I almost burst into laughter. I bit my lip; "I'm fine."

Everyone got really quiet. "Thank you Ben," my father stood beside me and Mom. "Now, every one, our big announcement is that our daughter has come back to live with us." Both my parents smiled down at me. My father continued. "So we can't continue our job as The Fantastic Four."

My jaw dropped and the room was chaotic again.

"Mom, Dad. You can't do that." I said calmly above the noise.

"We're doing it for you, honey." My mother said caringly.

I shook my head, "You not seeing the big picture. If you do this you endanger lives. You endanger me."

And they realized it right there. "You're right." My father nodded agreeing. "Excuse me! Listen."

And I finished for them, "They take it back," and I hugged my parents close while I spoke. "They are The Fantastic Four."

It was an hour before the Four's big tour of Manhattan started when we got to the penthouse.

Johnny showed me my room with it's own adjoining bathroom. Ben showed me the lab and testing room and my mother had me step into my walk-in closet complete with clothes I could only have dreamed about in my past life.

That's what I was calling my time with the Roads; my past life. I sort of was a past life. It was significantly different from this one.

But my favorite part was the library with a balcony, so on warm days I could go out there to read.

The library was mysterious; I kept hearing music coming from one of the shelves. But there wasn't any room for speakers and since when did they have books that play tinkley music?

I neatly stowed my stuff away in my room and cleaned up in my bathroom. I tried not to litter it with blue hair.

I came out in a new outfit courtesy of my mother and cheerily said hellos again.

"Oh Isabelle you look absolutely beautiful," my mother gushed. She didn't look like the type to gush. "Like a young woman already."

"I agree Sue," my father stayed in his smart-guy character. "She resembles you so much."

I bushed. "Awe, Mom, Dad."

They suddenly gasped. "What?" I said a bit scared from the look on their faces.

"Hey Izz," Ben came in and I noticed I wasn't the only one that cleaned up. He was reading the newspaper so he had no clue what was wrong. "Sue? Reed? What's the matwhoa! That is your daughter Sue."

What was going on? Three pairs of eyes I hardly knew were looking at me in a surpized way. Where is Johnny, let's make it a full house.

"Hi guholy…" Johnny's voice floated behind me. He walked in a circle around me. "Here, kid, see for your self." He gave me a pocket mirror.

I grabbed the mirror and held it up. I saw nothing. I didn't see neither my face nor my blue hair just tints of it floating. I razed my hand to my face, it wasn't there ether. I felt my fingertips on my skin but I didn't see it. Just the fingerless glove around it.

I gulped and took a breath and looked down. My ankles were supposed to be exposed where my khakis did not reach. But they weren't there.

This could not be happening, "Oh no! No! No! No!" I dropped the mirror down in fear as if it were the reason why I was invisible. "What's the matter with me? What happened?"

My father merely smiled and said, "This isn't surprising, you got this from your mother." And as if to give me further proof my mother disappeared. Her clothes hung there in midair as if she were a ghost. Then she reappeared, smiling prettily.

This didn't make me any calmer, "But what if I can't go back? What if I'm stuck like this." I raised my hand up to my forehead, "This is so much like Things Not Seen."

"Don't worry," my father put his hand on my shoulder and bent down to look at my face but did not know where to look. "We can get you back to normal if you just calm down."

"But this is big! Huge!" But I nodded, breathe in, "Ph-h-h-h-h-h…", breathe out, "Ah-h-h-h-h-h…"

I kept an eye on my arm and indeed it slowly turned visable again. "I have a feeling, Dad, that I'm going to hate it when you're right." He smiled and so did I.