A/N: So sorry about the late update – school is a nightmare! Thanks for all the awesome reviews! Extra long chapter because I'm such a jerk and forgot to update! ;)
...
The two scientists and one half-naked astronaut quickly marched down the corridor of Von Doom's quarantine centre.
"The cloud has fundamentally altered our DNA." Reed agreed grimly, staring in shock as Johnny's fingertips caught fire once again.
"Cool!" Johnny laughed gleefully. "And you know what guys; I think I was flying..." he trailed off in awe.
Sue froze, just remembering something, "Shit, Reed, where's Sadie?" Her eyes darted around the small group. Johnny shrugged, more immersed in his cool fire powers than anything else. Reed looked worried as well about the girl, who knew what effects the cloud would be having on her! He'd already seen what it did to him, Sue and Johnny; he longed to see what had happened to her too. Sadie had been asleep far longer than the rest of them, bordering on three days. That meant the changes overtaking her body were affecting all her systems, not just one and were taking far longer to have an effect. If his theory was right, she should have a little more control over her abilities than either Sue or Johnny.
Johnny smirked as he snapped his fingers again, chuckling in amazement as they burst into flame once more, "Flame on!" he whispered under his breath, mesmerized by the dancing flames.
Sue turned to her brother, eyes blazing with irritation. "Johnny, shut up. We've all seen your-" she waved her hands towards his flaming fingers "-powers before, we don't need to see them again."
Facing Reed, she said, "I'll go find Sadie. You find Ben." She spun on her heel and darted off in the direction of Sadie's room. The wind whipped past her face as she sprinted past the doors, counting down the numbers in her head. 143...142...141...139...138! Gotcha! She peeked through the open door, heart thumping rapidly as she saw that no one was there.
Okay. Maybe she's in the... in the bathroom! Sue thought, running down the corridor and skidding to a halt when she reached the bathroom.
She threw the door open and stopped as she saw the hunched figure sitting under the sink, their head in their hands and they were breathing in and out quickly. As she slowly recognized Sadie's long dark hair, she stopped at the doorway. "Sadie?" She asked softly as not to alarm her.
The brunette jumped and whipped around to face Sue, gray eyes wide and alert. Her skin was pale and the bags under her eyes held a purplish tint, "Sadie?" she repeated carefully, edging towards the younger girl.
"Has it happened to you as well?" Sadie asked quietly.
Sue nodded wordlessly, sitting down beside her and wrapping a cautious arm around her shoulders. Sadie sighed heavily, the heels of her palms rubbing into her eyes, "How screwed up is this, huh?" She laughed without humor.
"Yeah, yeah it is." Sue agreed as she gazed wistfully out the window. She didn't know why Sadie had emotionally progressed beyond being stunned but she waved it off as just everything crashing down on her. "Can I see?" she asked tentatively.
"Watch this." Sadie said as she directed her gaze over to the open bathroom stall. Closing her eyes again, she threw her arms out and all the water was released from her body in a large shield which surrounded her in a dome. Sue poked the dome curiously to find out that it absorbed the vibrations and threw them back at her. She staggered back, eyes wide as she took in what had happened.
Sadie slumped back against the wall exhaustedly as the structure collapsed around her and Sue darted towards her as she went limp. She was incredibly confused about Sadie's powers as hers and Johnny's powers seemed to be activated by intense emotions like frustration and sadness or in Johnny's snow-boarding case, exhilaration. It was possible that in Johnny's situation the adrenaline release had triggered the fire but she didn't think Sadie's seemed to work like that.
Maybe it was because she'd been out longer than the rest of them. It was highly plausible that the cosmic storm on the station had hit her quite badly and had been slowly changing her internal structure over the duration of time that she had been unconscious. Her temperature was colder than the normal human temperature and now that Sue was closer, Sadie seemed slightly taller and her muscles just a little more defined.
Sue wrapped Sadie's arm around her neck and supported her as she helped the unconscious girl up. Sue kicked the door open with a foot and staggered out, Sadie's form still leaning on hers.
She managed to make it a few steps before she saw Reed. "Johnny, Reed! I've got her." Reed whipped around as his arm slowly peeled out from under the door and the flesh, muscle and bone shrunk back into place.
"That's gross." Johnny said pointedly, still holding the nurse's pink ski jacket around his waist.
Reed shot him a look as he turned to Sue. The two jogged over to Sue and the unconscious Sadie who was still leaning on the blonde, eyes wide. "Sue, is she okay?" Reed asked, his fingers searching for Sadie's pulse on her wrist.
"She's fine," Sue managed as she readjusted Sadie's arm. "She found out about her powers, showed me and I suppose it was too much and she collapsed."
Johnny reached a hand out and helped Sue support the unconscious girl by wrapping her other arm around his shoulders. He flinched as the skin of her arm brushed against him. "Damn, she's freezing." He muttered as her head lolled to the side. She was interesting-looking, he observed, but not in the usual way he liked. Her curly eyelashes brushed the tops of her cheekbones and her pointy chin, wide eyes and her freckle-dusted ski slope nose gave her a pixie-like attractiveness. Her gray eyes were filled with intelligence and he noticed the small chip in her right canine as her head dropped on his shoulder.
He tried to brush her hair off his shoulder but ended up poking her cold cheek. A cool flash rippled through his skin as she jolted awake and leapt out of the siblings grip. "W-what'd I miss?" Sadie asked as she tried to calm her racing heart.
All she'd felt before she woke up was a burning streak across the side of her cheek and her automatic reflex had been to punch – which she was glad she had suppressed as she looked back at Johnny who was staring at her warily. Ever since she'd woken up, her reflexes had been going crazy. She'd jumped into an attack stance if someone so much as surprised her.
"Uh, well, you've been out for a while...longer than most of us..." Reed said worriedly, stepping closer ever so slightly.
"Where's Ben?" Sadie asked, noting the absence of the astronaut.
Reed and Johnny shared a look, "That's what we're worried about." The scientist admitted, gesturing to the open door to Ben's room. Sue and Reed entered, leaving her and Johnny outside.
She flushed bright pink as she realized that he was only dressed in a jacket which was wrapped around his waist tightly. Her cheeks slowly reddened as her gaze travelled up his toned, muscled chest and up to his smirking face.
"See something you like?" He asked, his irritating smirk growing more pronounced by the second.
Forcing her face to cool down, Sadie met his eyes and replied, "Yeah, you wish." He blinked at her snappy response before raising his eyebrows at her and dropping his left eye in a flirty wink.
"However, that ski jacket is quite nice." She suppressed a laugh at his shocked expression as she pushed past him and stepped into Ben's room. Outside, Johnny shook his head, laughing a little as he processed her response. Feisty. He smirked at the thought. Sadie was good, but unfortunately for her, he was better.
He stepped into Ben's room and his jaw dropped at the sight of the massive hole in the wall, glass and steel raining down like a deadly waterfall. If he squinted and cocked his head ever so slightly to the left, he could make out the shape of a large, lumbering figure pushing through the forest. "What is that?" he asked.
"What's going on?" A voice asked from behind the four, authority and confidence ringing in each syllable. "What happened here?" Victor questioned. Sadie stifled a gasp of shock as she noted the haggard circles underneath his eyes, the sallow tint to his normally tanned flesh and the long, jagged scrape down the side of his face which was held together by staples.
"Victor...are you feeling all right?" Sue asked the business man, eyes drinking in his tired and worn pose and the lines on his face that hadn't been there before they had boarded the space station.
"I'm fine, just a few scrapes, that's all." The aforementioned brushed off Sue's concern– none of which, Sadie believed, Victor deserved.
"Ben did this; he's had some kind of...reaction to exposure from the cloud." Reed muttered as he nervously glanced towards Victor, sensing his barely contained facade of calm.
Sue tried to explain things quickly, "We all have different... symptoms." Well, Sadie thought, that was one way to describe it.
"Symptoms?" Victor asked worriedly.
"Victor, I should have-"Sue began, lacing her fingers together and sorrow sinking into her tone.
"Just find him." Victor cut her off before spinning on his heel and stalking out of the room, his cold demeanor vanishing with him.
"Any ideas where the big guy's going?" Johnny asked from his casual position leaning on the wall next to the gaping hole.
Reed's eyes dropped to the floor and an immeasurable look of sadness passed over his face. Stooping down, he scooped up a photograph of Ben and a pretty blonde with curly golden hair beaming happily at the camera, "He's going home."
…
The yellow cab screeched to a halt, tires skidding against the road and Sadie flung the door open, trying not to hit any of the other cars in the horrific traffic jam. By the time the four of them had reached the Brooklyn Bridge, the congestion was so thick that all they could see were countless cars and all they could hear were multiple car horns blaring loudly and people whispering in shock. The impromptu rescue-Ben team shouldered their way through the crowds; it was exceptionally hard for Sadie, who stood at a measly five foot six and a half to see over the crowd.
They were pushed back by the armed police guards at the front. "What do we do now?" said Sue, looking anxiously towards Reed for an answer.
"We're not going to get past these guards," Reed pointed out as a spark of an idea glinted in his eyes, "but you could."
Sue looked at him incredulously before sighing and squeezing her eyes closed. Slowly, her body began to disappear, all traces of her tanned flesh fading away until what remained of Sue was a set of floating clothes. The gaggle of noise around the four grew louder and Reed hissed, "Sue, your clothes! Loose them."
"Oh, right!" The invisible Sue yanked off her jacket and Johnny turned around, not wanting to see his sister strip down in public.
"This is so wrong..." he muttered, looking anywhere but at Sue.
Just as Johnny had decided to face his sister again, the noise grew louder. A floating set of matching underwear was hovering in midair, attracting the attention of multiple bystanders. What happened next was even worse. Sue's slim, nearly naked figure began to flicker back into vision and Reed's eyes widened. Sue noticed the state she was currently dressed in, let out a small shriek of embarrassment and covered herself up hastily with her arms.
"You've been working out," Reed stated.
"Shut up," Sue hissed, eyes flashing angrily as she wrapped her coat around herself. Sadie flushed red with embarrassment for Sue as she turned around and buried the heels of her palms into her eyes.
"Anymore great ideas? Why don't you strip down and have nearly a hundred people stare at you!" she spat venomously and her image began to flash as her figure died away.
"Sue." Reed said, with wide eyes as he took in her invisible figure.
"What?" she scowled bitterly before realizing, "Oh." she said as she then proceeded to drop her coat.
"I'm gonna need therapy," Johnny declared, looking anywhere but at what was left of Sue.
"C'mon, let's get out of here." Reed whispered covertly to Johnny and Sadie, who scooped up Sue's remaining clothes and rushed after Reed. The three darted along the sidewalk unnoticed by the police and the crowd who were too perplexed with the invisible figure that kept bumping into them to even notice a couple of people sneak around the side.
Sue reappeared beside Sadie and said in a low voice, "Sadie, I need my clothes back," Sadie handed them to the invisible figure that then proceeded to quickly change as she averted her eyes. A few minutes later, Sue was fully clothed and glaring furiously at Reed, "I can't believe you made me do that."
"We got through, didn't we? Just find Ben?" he protested before dashing quickly off through the mess of cars.
Sue, Sadie and Johnny moved a little to get a better view, but as each one got a glimpse of Ben, they stopped short. He was huge and scaly, coated in layers of thick, orange rock which made up each of his features. When he finally spoke, his voice was a few octaves lower than it used to be and it sounded gravellier.
Johnny's head snapped to the side as he heard the cry of a small girl, "Mom? Mom?" she called, looking around for help. A small bang was heard and a gas tank exploded violently as Johnny leapt off the taxi and yanked the girl to the side, each car after that exploding in succession. He shielded her with his flame-resistant body as she shut her eyes tightly.
The oncoming fire truck swerved, urgently trying to avoid collision with the deadly looking orange explosion. Half of it crashed through the bridge and was left hanging off the side precariously, men sliding off the ladders and hanging on desperately for their lives.
As the explosion hurtled towards Sue, she thrust her arms out, creating a shield which pushed it back into a contained area. The force field shimmered and winked into existence, giving the orange mushroom cloud a shine to its surface.
As the firemen climbed down the ladders to help their friend, the truck swayed dangerously and tilted even further. Ben tried to pull the truck down to balance it out, but ended up shaking the firemen as Reed stretched his arms to impossible lengths to rescue some of the men handing off the side.
"Reed!" Sue yelled as she caught sight of the last fireman hanging precariously from the ladder on the truck. He kept fumbling with the metal handle and was clearly struggling to hang on. Sadie shot a desperate glance at Reed but her heart sank as she saw him lifting two other men to safety.
Her head snapped back around as she heard a hollow, piercing scream erupt from the man's mouth as the fire truck wobbled and he lost his grip, hands clutching feebly at the empty air. She didn't even think about what came next. Running at a full sprint towards the side of the railing, Sadie flung herself off the side just as the man hit the water. She could hear Reed and Sue yelling at her, how she was too tired and using her powers would drain her too much but ignored them resolutely.
The wind whipped past her face, the chilly air biting into her skin and running through her hair. For a few seconds, she went downward at a speed that constricted her throat so badly that she could hardly breathe. "SADIE!" She heard Sue scream hoarsely as she plunged into the icy water of the East River. Sadie hit the water with a crash that should have knocked her unconscious but she stayed awake as she slowly sunk through the top layer of the water.
Her body's automatic response was to clamp her mouth shut and force herself not to breathe in. She was surrounded by murky water of an incredible pressure that should have been crushing her lungs. But, she reasoned as she took a long inhale of the water and shuddered as the coolness seeped slowly through her body, maybe the cosmic storm had something to do with it. After all, it just felt like normal breathing. The water muffled her ears and she could hear nothing but the dull swooshes of the waves as she sunk further into the cool blackness.
She let her eyes slowly open and scanned the space around her. Bits of her dark hair floated around her hair like long strings of seaweed and obscured her vision. Shit, where is he? Sadie panicked as she looked for the tell-tale symbol of the fireman's uniform shining through the darkness. She kicked powerfully downwards, arms paddling ferociously as she thought, huh. It wasn't ever this easy in Gym class. She kept determinedly breathing in the cold water, small bubbles of air escaping her parted lips. Her wet jeans and hoodie clung to her tightly, dragging her down into the cold depths as she kicked harder.
Sadie yanked off the hoodie and continued swimming down into the blackness. She couldn't see anything now which terrified her beyond belief until the faint sound of popping bubbles reached her ears. She frantically swam towards the sound, relying completely on her enhanced hearing to guide her. Something brushed her leg and Sadie screamed but composed herself as she realized it was exactly what she'd been looking for.
It was a hand brushing against her jeans and Sadie yanked it up and over her shoulder, the dead weight of the fireman on her back. She began kicking to the surface but then a horrifying thought struck her, it was too far up. She glanced back at his peaceful face; he'd die if she swam. It'd take too long. She gritted her teeth and focused on the water around her as it roiled and churned before spitting them out.
Water rose up in a huge, towering column before collapsing on the Brooklyn Bridge, raining down on the people. She skidded a few feet across the concrete, earning herself a few nasty scrapes across her upper arms. She staggered to her feet exhaustedly and stumbled over to the limp body of the man she'd rescued. Placing her hands on his chest she concentrated on the last of her energy reserves and his eyes flew open, glowing blue before he let his mouth fall slack, water gushing out.
She helped him into a sitting position as he spluttered and coughed up the rest of the water. Sadie rocked back on her heels as applause roared around her ears, the cheering sounds were all she could hear. Spots swam through her vision as she rubbed her eyes in shock. The people were chanting for her, they liked her. They appreciated her efforts. A small smile tugged at her lips but soon vanished as a fuming Sue, a worried Reed and an impressed Johnny stalked forwards. Ben loitered near the back, not wanting to be near when Sue's wrath was set loose.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Sue demanded with her hands on her hips and in her best Mom voice. She'd probably had a lot of practice, what with raising Johnny. "You're so reckless! You can't drain yourself like that, hell, you could have died out there if you hadn't had enough energy!"
"But I did," Sadie protested weakly and immediately regretted it as she saw miniature explosions go off in Sue's blue eyes. Oh God help me.
"Sadie, that's not the point," Sue pinched the bridge of her nose with the tips of her fingers and sighed, "you just didn't think. You can't be this reckless, it doesn't only put you in jeopardy, but how do you think the rest of us would feel?"
Sadie swallowed uncomfortably. Sue turned and muttered, "I need a cup of coffee," before storming off with Reed hot on her heels behind her.
A warm hand clapped her on the shoulder, "For the record, my sister was talking bullshit. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen." Johnny gave her a knowing, slightly cheeky smile.
She laughed at the unexpected compliment, "Thanks."
He frowned slightly as he noticed watery blood dripping down her arms, "Sadie, you're bleeding." Sadie craned her neck over to look at her forearms and winced as she saw the bloody scratches running along her arms. "C'mon, let's go to the paramedics, they'll have a bandage,"
Johnny led her through the crowd of applauding people over to the paramedic tent. She sagged against him exhaustedly as more spots flashed around her vision, "Why are you being nice to me, Johnny?" she mumbled sleepily as the chill began to seep into her skin. She shuddered as the freezing water dripped from her wet hair and rolled in beads down her neck. Sadie looked up at the taller man who looked back at her strangely.
He looked startled at the question, "Well, it doesn't hurt to be nice sometimes," Johnny shrugged, his eyes never leaving hers, "because it doesn't hurt to be nice to people every once in a while."
She had no response to the blonde's honest declaration of the truth, instead choosing to watch as the blonde girl from Ben's picture left a glinting diamond ring on the ground in front of his feet and slowly backed away. Reed stooped down and scooped up the ring, seeing how Ben was having trouble managing picking up such a delicate object with his large fingers.
Life really can be a bitch, she thought grimly.
A/N: How was that for the Brooklyn Bridge scene? This had been in my head ever since I'd watched the F4 and I really wanted to put it out there. Review, please!