Fantastic Force
Chapter Five
!SPECIAL EFFECTS! "THOUGHTS"
XXX
I took the barely moving form of Ben Grimm, flying up towards where Johnny had been previously, laying him on the gurney. Then I wheeled him into a room that hadn't been destroyed by the disasters and explosions that had happened earlier.
"Will he be OK?!" I heard, noticing that Johnny had carried her up the hole I just had flown through with Ashema following right behind them.
"Johnny, I thought I had told you to…"
"Sorry, Reed. She was rather insistent about being taken up here."
"I can help you with Ben, Reed," Ashema commented.
"Thanks, Ashema."
Then I turned towards Alicia. "Since you're here, can you tell me what disease Ben acquired and where he got it from?"
"I don't know exactly. It could have been something like Malaria. And he was in the jungles of Southeast Asia at the time," Alicia responded.
"Hmmm. I have my machines examining him now."
"Koff! You gotta help me, Reed. I'll do anything I have to to get better," Ben struggled to say as he lay on the gurney.
"There's nothing much I can do. The disease in him is eating him from the insides," I explained as I rechecked my instruments.
"Aaarrgghh!"
The fact Ben was still alive told volumes of how mentally strong he was. Then I decided to make Ben an offer.
"We have a…"
"Someone said something about a cylinder! Can that actually help Ben?!" Alicia expounded.
"Yes, it might…"
"The pain is great, Doc. I'll do whatever it takes!" Ben groaned.
"Listen, Ben. I don't know what the cylinder will do to you. It could quite possibly turn you into a lumpy, orange rock monster."
"I'll take that risk! Ungh!" Ben groaned as his flesh seemed to decompose before my very eyes.
"All right…"
"I have it right here, Reed," Ashema said as she moved the large cylinder which glowed white-hot!
At that point, I picked Ben up and gently shoved him into the cylinder for a few seconds he groaned in pain. Then the cylinder melded into him. After that happened, Ben went from five feet to six feet and three inches tall, weighing 250 pounds of solid muscle. In addition to that, he had become a much more attractive version of himself.
"Wow!" Ben exclaimed upon examining himself. Then he took out a cell phone using it to see what he looked like.
"I went from a chunk to a hunk!"
At that point, I regarded Ashema. "We only have two of those canisters left. Therefore we'll need to be careful how we use the remaining canisters."
"I understand that, Reed. I've already read Ben's mind, so I know he's a good person. The faster we find the right candidates the better. The last thing we want is for these cylinders of power to fall into the wrong hands," Ashema explained matter-of-factly.
"You're right, Ashema. Now, Ben…"
"Whoa!" Ben yelled as he got bigger and bigger!
"Ben, you're growing! Stop before you wreck the building!" I demanded as Ben grew to twenty-one feet tall smashing through the ceiling of the floor we were on.
"Heh, heh. Sorry about that." Then Ben shrunk back to six feet three inches tall.
"You've always wanted to be bigger, haven't you, Ben?" I asked, thinking how short he was in the past before turning into the Adonis he had become.
"Yeah! I wasn't really looking for growth powers, but I've always wanted to be bigger than I was," Ben answered.
"Oooh!"
"Part of the roof broke off and fell on her!" I gasped, zipping towards the lady who was lying on the ground with a couple of chunks of debris laying on her, pinning her down. Then I quickly moved the debris off of her and examined her.
"The damage is superficial. She'll be OK," I explained as Ben ran towards her.
"I'm going to have to control my growth powers better. Sorry, baby," Ben said as he held her in his arms.
Then I heard rapid footsteps coming our way.
"Mister Richards! Look out!"
"What the…"
Peter Parker had come running into the room as if his life depended on it which wasn't far from the truth seeing who was chasing after him, prompting Peter to avoid getting blasted by laser fire. The agility he displayed without any spider-powers frankly surprised me. However, his ability to dodge his pursuer was still limited.
"Ungh!" Alicia gasped out as a stray bolt struck her.
"Alicia!" Ben called out as he looked up in a rage.
"Huff! Huff! There's a metal… Ungh!" Peter moaned as someone blasted him from behind, prompting him to go crashing face/first into the floor.
As Peter's smoking body went limp on the floor, Ashema made her way over to Peter and Alicia, tending to the both of them.
"I got her, Ben."
"Luthor?"
"That's right, Richards. Despite this young fool's attempt to forewarn you of my coming, I'll still destroy you now!"
Victor Von Luthor wore armor similar to what the canon Doctor Doom wore except that it was more sophisticated making him look like a gray/silver man of osmium-like organic steel from his bald head to his feet which was covered with large green boots. He also wore what looked like green trunks, green wristbands/gauntlets, a green chest plate, and a green cape.
I found out later that Luthor had used a portal to enter my building and had blasted several of my employees into oblivion. Despite all that, Peter had managed to avoid getting blasted. Thus he had fled and tried to warn of me what had happened.
"You're talking tough after the beating Superman gave you in Metropolis!" I called out.
"Oh, you think he beat me?" Luthor said as he had his laser gauntlets poised on me.
"That's what normally happens, doesn't it? Now get out…"
"Wrong! Take a look here!"
Luthor made Superman appear on his knees with a wave of his hand, barely conscious while being tied up with glowing chains.
At that point, Superman looked up at me. "Sorry for getting you guys mixed up in all this."
"No problem, Superman. I'll think of something," I answered.
"You'll do nothing, fool, but die!" Luthor called out as he attempted to blast me as well, failing to hit me when I practically glided to the right and left as was needed. Then I prepared to rush him.
"This guy ain't nothing but some bald guy! I'll deal with him!" Johnny announced as his hands glowed brightly red. Then he thrust his hands forward, attempting to flat-blast the intruder.
"Sinestro! Deal with this stripling!" Luthor ordered as he waved his hand creating a portal out of which a red-skinned alien with black hair and a pencil mustache wearing a dark blue bodysuit with light blue trim. In addition to all that, he welded a glowing yellow ring with which he used to create a force field bubble. Then the bubble flew towards Johnny knocking him out of the building with Sinestro following after him.
"You've struck Alicia. It's over for you, pal," Ben said as he grew to twelve and a half feet tall, making his way towards the armored villain.
"Grundy, stop him!" Luthor demanded again, prompting a giant-sized, chalk/white bruiser wearing a white shirt, black pants, black outer shirt, and black shoes to appear right in front of Ben, knocking him down.
"Ben, look out!" I warned.
"No problem, Reed. It's clobberin time!" he screamed as got to his feet only for Grundy to knock him out of the building.
"Pretty man, die!" Grundy called out as he followed after Ben through the huge hole that was made.
Then I found myself struck from behind by a yellow blur. Fortunately, I had become aware enough at that moment to have rolled with the blow.
"Oof! Professor Zoom?!" I announced as the speedster practically had me on the ropes, forcing me to use all of my skill and ability to keep myself from getting pounded, moving in such a way that I was able to block his attacks. Despite being on the defensive, I had surprised the speedster who had figured he would have defeated me a whole lot faster.
"That's right. He's part of my new crew of super-powered lackeys. Oh, but there's more. Circe, it's time for you to join the party."
At that moment, a beautiful woman with long, dark-purple hair and green eyes appeared wearing an ancient Greek toga that was green, thigh-high, and open midriff toga along with green boots.
"Greetings!" At that point, Circe blasted Ashema who countered with a blast of her own, stalemating the sorceress.
"I don't know how long I can hold her off, Reed. At the same time, both Peter and Alicia are fading fast!" Ashema gasped as Circe's energy pushed her energy back.
"Hold on, Ashema! Try to free Superman if you can," I said as I went on the offensive, taking several hits from my faster opponent. However, my fighting abilities were at a cosmic level allowing me to actually hit Professor Zoom once which was all it took to take him down.
"What?! But how?" Luthor gasped. Then I moved in on Circe, striking her hard and fast in the jaw, knocking her out.
"Huff!" Ashema gasped as she fell to the ground exhausted.
"Fools!" Luthor announced. Then a large, yellow spear with a golden crystal/gem at the end of it appeared in his hands.
"The Spear of Gog?!" I gasped as Luthor blasted both Ashema and me with it, sending us to the ground with me barely being conscious.
"That's right. With this spear, I shall rule the world, and neither you nor Superman can stop me!"
"Wrong, Luthor!"
"Superman! What the…" Luthor gasped as he found himself struck with a powerful blow, knocking him out. Then he used his X-ray vision to see what was going on outside.
"Thanks for freeing me, Ashema. Now, I'll go out and help your friends!" Superman said as he flew through the large hole.
"Ashema, how are Alicia and Peter?"
"I'm stabilizing them, but I don't know how long they'll last," as her hands glowed darkly blue with her looming over them.
"All right. I'm going to get those last two cylinders."
In a matter of seconds, I returned with both cylinders. Upon merging each of them with the cylinders, both Alicia and Peter began to stir much changed.
Alicia had become bigger attaining a height of five feet, ten inches while weighing 155 pounds. In addition to that, she had acquired a monstrously radiant, beautiful appearance with shoulder-length orange hair and buxom 40-28-38 measurements. At the same time, she gave off a saffron aroma, a salty-sweet blend of earth, vanilla, and honey.
"What happened?" Alicia asked no one in particular as she got to her feet, opening her eyes and looking around in shock and surprise.
"I can see!"
"That's right. You were blind, weren't you?" Ashema asked as she regarded the saffron-scented woman.
"Yes!" Alicia stated as she continued to look around, taking in the sights. At the same time, the other recent recipient stood up.
"I feel so much better!" Peter gasped as he had grown to a height of six feet, weighing 200 pounds of well-defined muscle. At that point, he resembled the Peter Parker of the Marvel Universe as he looked like in the comics during the late '80s except for the fact he was more impressive in appearance with golden-brown hair and eyes. He even seemed to have a golden aura about him.
At that point, Superman returned with Ben in tow and Johnny flying right behind him.
"We did it!" Johnny exclaimed.
"We did have a little bit of help there, kiddo," Ben said, giving Johnny a sideward glance and giving a nod to Superman.
"I didn't need any help! I was doing just fine against that Green Lantern wannabe! You're the one who needed help against tall, white, and gruesome without accidentally stepping on everyone in the area! How big did you have to get to have a chance against that guy 100 feet?!"
"Listen, space cowboy! I went out of my way not to step on anyone. You're the one who blasted the top of that building!"
"Space cowboy?! You need to get hip to the times!"
"All right, guys. I'm sure Superman has better things to do than hear you argue back and forth," I interjected. Then I noticed Wonder Woman enter the room from outside whipping out her lasso and using it to take hold of Circe who was still unconscious.
"He's not the only one who's heard them argue."
Then from the shadows came, "Batman?"
"That's right. I called a few members of the Justice League to help out with these guys. While I'm grateful for your help against Luthor, you guys have a lot to learn about being superheroes," Superman stated as he reached for the unconscious form of Luthor.
"What kind of crack house are you running here, Richards?" Batman demanded as he got in my face while Superman and Wonder Woman looked on. At that point, the Flash had run into the room from outside after having run on the side of the building. Then he looked upon my crew and me with his arms folded on his chest.
Seconds later, two Green Lanterns, a man and a woman who looked like Latinos showed up with Sinestro and Solomon Grundy in tow via their power rings having made large, round, encompassing constructs. Victor Stone/Cyborg followed after them as well.
"Crack house? We have some issues, but we're working on them. Now if you want to take these super villains into custody, that's just fine. As it is, we have a lot of cleaning up to do," I answered him without flinching or backing down in the slightest.
"Ben?" Alicia said as she ran towards him.
"It's me, baby. You've changed too! I barely recognized you! You smell like the saffron you've been spraying our home with."
"You look so handsome, Ben, and you've gotten huge."
"You don't know the half of it, Alicia. Hey, you can see. How about that?"
Then Ben turned towards me. "I was going to see if you could heal her eyesight, but it looks like she got healed by just showing up here!"
"More likely than not she has acquired superpowers of some sort. Now, you all are going to have to train in the powers you've gotten," I said soberly.
"You better train them well, Richards. I'll be watching!"
"You can watch if you want to, Batman, but I'd appreciate that if you manage to figure out our weaknesses that you keep that information to yourself instead of writing it down somewhere someone could get to it. I'd really hate it if my enemies got the knowledge on how to defeat my friends and me. What? You'd never do something like that?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.
At that point, Batman glared at me as I looked away askance. Then he turned around and walked away, his long cape trailing behind him.
"How did you know he had done something like that?" the Flash asked as he took hold of the unconscious Professor Zoom.
"Heroes like Batman are a suspicious and paranoid lot," I answered with a lousy imitation of Batman's voice, prompting him to turn around and glare at me again.
"Don't worry about Batman. He's a hardass but he means well," the Flash commented.
Then I noticed Victor Stone AKA Cyborg walk up to me. "Your computer security and your security systems are pretty good here, Reed. But I took the time to make sure nobody else was bugging your place or leaving any bombs or anything like that. You did a good job with making that robot Herbie too. Luthor had practically destroyed him, but I was able to restore him."
"Uh, yes. Thanks, Cyborg."
After the Justice League had left with the beaten villains in tow, I went into detail on the training regimen they would all need to go through.
"Are you saying we're gonna need to use our powers to help mankind or something like that?" Ben asked as he regarded me.
"I would have put it in another way, old friend, but yes that's true."
At that point, I put my hand out. "So what do you say, everybody? Are you with me?"
Peter was the first to place his hand on mine, moving faster than the normal eye could follow.
"I'm with you, Mister Richards, but why is everybody except for the Flash seeming to move in slow motion? Is there something wrong with me?"
"Hmm. You seem to have gotten super-speed powers. We'll run some tests on you later during your training."
"OK. My codename will be Gold Rush!" Peter announced with aplomb.
"I've always been with you, Reed. And I've already said my codename would be Celestia," Ashema said as she placed her hand with us.
"Yes, I'll do what I can to help make the world a better place. And I'll call myself Saffron Dawn since saffron is the aroma I'm giving off and I feel that this is the dawn of a new life for me," Alicia explained as she placed her hand with ours. Then she motioned for Ben to join us with her free hand.
"All right. All right. I'm with ya. I guess I'll call myself Brawn since I'm big and strong. I'm bigger and stronger than I ever was," Ben said as he joined his large hand with the rest of us.
"Sure, I'm with you as well. I've already said my name was Space Ace, not Space Cowboy," Johnny stated as he regarded Ben with a hard look.
"And don't forget HERBIE the faithful robot!" Herbie announced appearing out of nowhere and place his robotic hand with ours.
"And of course, as you all know, my codename is Professor Paragon. And we'll call ourselves the Future Foundation!"
Then I heard another voice and steps making their way towards us.
"Mister Richards!"
"Amanda Waller?"
XXX
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks for reading and reviewing my fanfic. Here are Alicia and Ben's stats via the Classic Marvel RPG
SAFFRON DAWN
FIGHTING: REMARKABLE (30) This means a superior and or natural talent backed up with experience and training.
AGILITY: INCREDIBLE (40) This means superior talent with training. Better than an Olympic athlete with the ability to do dodge single bullets with ease
STRENGTH: REMARKABLE (this means being able to lift around two tons)
ENDURANCE: INCREDIBLE (This means the human limit for fortitude, rarely ever tiring)
REASON: REMARKABLE (This is the equivalent of a doctorate's degree with the ability to understand advanced technology and equipment)
INTUITION: MONSTROUS (This is about the equivalent to a Detective background and or skill)
PSYCHE: MONSTROUS (This means willpower that's beyond humanity)
HEALTH: 140
KARMA: 180
POPULARITY: 40
APPEARANCE: MONSTROUS (75) Alicia is a beautiful woman with a radiant appearance and an inhumanly pleasant, saffron fragrance
RESOURCES: Excellent
POWERS:
Resistance: Excellent Resistance (800-1000 pounds worth of force) to physical and energy attacks.
Danger Sense/Spatial Awareness: Alicia's awareness of her environment is to the point where she has 360-degree awareness that allows him to "see" from every direction. She cannot be blindsided. She's also alerted if danger appears out of nowhere.
Enhanced Senses: Monstrous (75) Taste, Touch, Smelling, and Hearing,
Energy Solidification: Unearthly ability to generate and spontaneously shape orange/light energy.
Flight: Incredible (150 miles per hour)
Kinetic Bolt: Alicia can fire bolts of Unearthly (100) intensity
Telekinesis: Unearthly (100)
Broadcast Empath: Amazing (50)
Telepathy: Unearthly (100)
Psionic Detection: Unearthly (100)
Force Manipulation Containers and shapes of Unearthly (100) (the ability to withstand thousands of tons of force) material strength. These containers can also protect her and others from harsh environments like outer space.
Force Field Unearthly (100)
Carrying Unearthly (100) thousands of tons worth of loads
Acting as a limb of Unearthly (100) strength
Create fall cushions that absorb up to Unearthly (100) damage
Ability to heal herself and others.
Even though she is no longer blind, she is still unaffected by light-based attacks, illusions, and hypnosis.
EQUIPMENT
Alicia's uniform adapts to all her defenses and abilities and cannot be easily taken from her. In addition to all this, she can quickly change in and out of her uniform at will.
TALENTS/SKILLS
Martial Arts: B, C, D, Weapons Master, Acrobatics, Tumbling, Resist Domination, Nurse, Anatomy, First Aid, Medicine, Pharmacist, Braille, Energy and Particle Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Construction, Repair/Tinker, Scholar Disease Research, Persuasion, Communications, Electronics, Concealment, Sleight of Hand, Artist (Sculpture)
XXX