The Future Foundation
Chapter Four
"THOUGHTS"
XXX
Later the next day after talking to Herbie who seemed to have become more sentient ever since we returned to earth, I walked up to the one who had sold me out.
"Hello, Melvin. How have you been?"
"I've been OK."
Melvin was surprised that I'd even be talking to him, but what I had to say to him surprised him even more.
I've been thinking of selling some stocks in my company to add more money to my coffers. What do you think about that?"
"Uh, I don't know."
"Oh, well. Thanks for giving me your opinion on the matter." That having been said I walked away with my silver-white cape trailing behind me.
A few minutes later, through a listening device, I had placed on him, I heard Melvin talk to his boss, William Bentley.
"That's right, Mr. Bentley. Reed Richards is planning on selling stocks in his company," Melvin" stated.
"Hmm. Now my bosses can buy Richards out and own everything he has. Good work, Melvin! Talk him into selling as many of his stocks as possible!"
"Yes, Mr. Bentley."
I smiled as I heard all this. I had already created dummy stocks and bonds. Now Bentley and his benefactors would waste their money buying them.
XXX
As I walked through my building, I noticed a guy with coke bottle glasses working in a lab.
"That guy's Peter Parker," I thought to myself. This version of Peter Parker looked as he did in the first issues of Spider-Man when he still looked unimpressive unlike he did years later.
A little after that, I looked at his employment file being impressed with his scientific skills.
"I'll have to talk to his boss to see how he's doing, but as for right now, I have some projects to look into."
Then I paused for a moment. I had been so busy with experiments and science projects that I hadn't paid too much attention to the people I had hired. However, I would pay more attention to who came and went inside my building in the future.
XXX
Later on that day, one of my research scientists, Ashema Listener, had managed to catch up with me.
She had a short, slender physique, long black hair, blue eyes, and tanned/olive skin. She was very attractive and head over heels in love with me. I found her very likable too, but she was in her twenties, at least two decades younger than me. Despite all that, I found her adorable.
Come to think of it, she was a ringer for that celestial that appeared in that Heroes Reborn series that came out in the '90s.
"Oh, Reed!" the lady swooned, prompting her impressive bosom to heave and threaten to burst free of her lab coat.
"Now, calm down, Ashema, have you finished that report on wind power?" I asked as I admired her despite thinking better of it.
"Oh, yes! I have it right here!" she answered as she handed the paperwork to me with a bright, toothy smile.
"Good. I'll take another look at this later. It all looks good so far."
At that point, I made my way towards the main lobby with Ashema still following me. "You can go back to work now."
"It's actually time for my lunch break. How about…"
"Hello, Reed."
"Sue! It's been a long time!" I called out as I rushed to greet her. However, at that point she put her hand out, stopping me in my tracks.
"Not in this universe, Reed."
She had no idea how right she was. However, she still looked gorgeous with her usual busty physique. While wearing a red sweater with a button-down shirt underneath, she wore a black skirt. In addition to that, she had her blond hair in a bun as she wore glasses.
At the same time, Ashema seemed to glare at Sue from a distance. I had hoped she wasn't jealous or anything like that.
"All right, Sue. Why are you here?" I asked.
"Since you're doing so well, you need a publicist, a spokeswoman, and if necessary, a lawyer. That's what I'm doing now. As it is I offer fair rates."
"Is that the only reason you're here?" I asked with eyebrows raised, having noticed someone in a wheelchair several feet behind her.
"No. My brother Johnny is sick, and I heard you were involved in a lot of experiments so I kind of hoped you might be able to come up with a cure of some kind."
"I don't know about that, Sue. What does Johnny suffer from?"
"He has radiation sickness. And since you're a radiation expert, I had hoped you'd be able to help him," Sue answered.
"How did he get radiation sickness in the first place?"
Sue paused for a moment. "He was involved in a race with an experimental car using nuclear energy. It wasn't well tested, and I personally think there was some foul play because the car blew up when he accelerated over 200 miles per hour," Sue said.
"Then he survived the explosion intact, or is he crippled for life?"
"I'm in a wheelchair, but I'll live! All I need from you is help for the radiation sickness I have!" a voice called out.
"Johnny, you should be home in bed!" Sue countered, turning around abruptly.
"I'm not gonna waste what little of my life that's left lying down in bed, Sue. Now if your boyfriend can help me, it's all good."
"Johnny! You know full well that I'm married to Namor Mackenzie!" Sue exclaimed with her cheeks reddening.
I had read about Namor Mackenzie. While he was an Olympic class swimmer and diver and had a reputation as unusually strong, he wasn't super-powered like Namor the Submariner from Marvel Comics even if he looked a lot like him.
"Whatever? Anyway, can you help me, doc?" the young man said, making an effort to rise from his wheelchair and slumping back in upon his failure.
Johnny Storm looked as if he had been a handsome young man at one time, but the burn scars on him were all over his face and body. In addition to that, there was little if any hair on his head.
"All right. I'll see what I can do. You might as well come inside. I have a few empty suites, you can occupy while I figure out how I can fix your problem," I explained as we made our way inside.
Then I noticed Ashema glaring at Sue.
"Don't worry about Sue, Ashema. She's just an old friend," I said as we walked by her when we entered the elevator. Then she ran inside, joining us.
"Isn't she kind of young for you, Reed?" Sue asked, giving me a sideward glance.
"Can't blame Reed for liking a hot babe like this. And we can't blame her for digging Reed either. I mean look at what he's turned into. He makes Fabio look like warmed-over oatmeal," Johnny commented, regarding my new silver-haired appearance.
Then Ashema abruptly turned towards Johnny. "I was in love with him from before he turned into a superhero, Mister Storm!"
"Well, I'm no threat to you, young lady. I'm already happily married," Sue responded.
"I'm not a lady!"
At that point, Sue rolled her eyes while Johnny smirked until he broke out into laughter.
At the same time miles away from my friends and me, another conversation was taking place.
"Are you ready, Major Disaster?"
"I'm ready."
"Good, at this time tomorrow, I want there to be all kinds of disasters to occur in and around Richards' building."
"Yes, Mr. Wittman. But when do I get paid?"
"You'll get your money after these events have taken place," Wittman replied sharply.
Upon the end of the call, Bentley handed the receiver to the android lover he had built himself. He really didn't need a real woman as his beautiful, shoulder-length, blond-haired, curvaceous, and buxom android woman that was five feet four inches tall weighing one hundred twenty pounds with 36-24-35 inch measurements did what he wanted her to do without any arguments or hassles.
There were plenty of life-sized, mechanical sex dolls with AI on the market for thousands of dollars each which he could easily afford, but due to Bentley's genius, he was able to create an even superior android that was soft and firm where she needed to be with the ability to walk and talk independently.
After making love to the literal object of his desire, Bentley Wittman got up out of bed and made his way to his hidden room where he walked over to the wall and pressed an invisible button causing the wall to slide open, revealing a mechanical lab with blinking lights and lit up consoles.
"It's time."
Bentley walked over to a glass casing in which a suit of armor resided. The battle suit was maroon with light purple leggings and sleeves. There were even maroon gauntlets and boots along with an oval helmet attached to the rest of the suit. In addition to that, there were discs on the chest of the armor.
"My spies have told me that the cosmic rays that engulfed Richards on his way to that unlimited energy source have turned him into a superhero with superhuman strength and invulnerability. So I've had to upgrade my gravitational battle suit making it stronger and more durable. Richards will see how my genius is hands down superior to his as my power is superior to his."
XXX
Later the next day with Ashema assisting me, I was running some tests on Johnny, who we had laid down on a medical table in one of the many labs in the building, giving the young man's problem my undivided attention we heard a loud boom.
"What the…" I exclaimed as I went flying into a nearby wall. Another explosion even knocked Johnny off the table, crashing to the ground.
At that point, another explosion coming out of nowhere caused Ashema to go flying through the door. Then another explosion caused the floor under her to collapse which made her fall a few stories down to a room she hadn't seen or entered in before that moment.
"Ashema!" I called out as another explosion came virtually out of nowhere, knocking me into a nearby wall.
"Oof!" Ashema gasped. Then she looked up.
"What are these glowing generators and why has Reed placed them here?" Ashema thought as she got to her feet and regarded the five cylinders. Then another bomb went off a few feet from her, knocking her into one of the cylinders, causing her to crash and meld into it.
"Aargh!" she screamed as she went into convulsions, writhing in pain until she had passed out.
A few moments later, Ashema woke up much changed. Her height and weight had increased to five feet eight inches tall and a hundred and thirty-five pounds, having burst through of her clothes. She was a little more muscular and a lot buxomer with 38-24-36 measurements. Even her black hair had become bluish and longer, having grown several inches below her shoulders. Thus her appearance had become inhumanly beautiful on a divine, ethereal level.
After figuring out her new surroundings, she noticed that her occupied room was a little smaller from her perspective. At that time, she willed herself up, surprised how she had popped up to her feet. Then she took stock of herself.
"What is this? What have I become? Is this how Reed acquired his change? It must have been! Maybe, one of these cylinders can help Johnny," Ashema thought. Then she willed one of the cylinders towards herself, prompting the dark/blue glow to come from her hands, drawing one of the cylinders and moving it towards her.
At that point, her recently-increased senses made her aware of who was causing the explosions. Upon putting the cylinder down, she wished herself outside. Then she floated several yards behind a man wearing a dark blue leotard with light blue trim along with a hood and a cape. Before this man noticed her, she raised her hands and blasted him with mystical energy, knocking him out cold.
After regarding the barely moving form of the man she had just sent into a world of unconsciousness on the ground, she willed herself back inside.
"Reed! Johnny!" Ashema called out as she floated back upwards through the hole she had recently fallen through with the cylinder in tow. Then she made her way back towards the lab in which she had hoped I was still working on Johnny Storm.
When she finally arrived at the lab what she saw horrified her.
"Oh, no!" Ashema gasped as she saw Johnny on the ground injured and bleeding out with a few tons of concrete debris smashed onto him. Then she noticed a huge hole in the wall that looked as if a man had smashed through it.
Upon looking through the hole, she noticed me engaged in a battle with a man in maroon-colored armor blasting me with yellow energy, knocking me back several yards back and upwards into the sky as I struggled to keep from going upwards even more until I tore off a six-inch diameter disk from off my chest.
"Ashema! Koff! Get out of here! This building could blow up any minute!" Johnny called out from the floor.
"That won't happen anymore. I've dealt with the person who caused the problem. I can help you. Then I'll help Reed!"
"You've seen how powerful he is! Reed can take care of himself. And what could you do anyway?! Has your voice changed?!" Johnny called out from under the debris with his vision somewhat obscured.
"That's not all that's changed about me!" Ashema answered as she reached out through the debris that covered Johnny, transforming it into smoke thus freeing him or so she thought.
"Aaagghh!" Johnny moaned in pain prompting Ashema to realize that the debris that had smashed much of his body including his bone structure into flat pulp was the only thing that had held him together. At this point, Johnny didn't have much time to live.
"Oh, no!"
"My life's been great, Ashema. It's not like I can complain… What are you doing?! Johnny called out as he noticed the large cylinder smash into him.
"Sorry, Johnny. I hope this works," she said as the cylinder merged into him, engulfing him.
"Aarrgghh!"
Then Johnny passed out.
XXX
After another bomb explosion blasted me out of my building, I found myself a few kilometers outside.
"Oof!" I called out as an energy blast struck me. Then he felt as if an invisible hand was slowly taking me upwards, immobilizing me.
"Don't think turning into a silver-haired freak will allow you to escape the powers that be, my power especially!" Bentley Wittman called out as he shot forward in the air blasting me and knocking me several yards back end over end.
"I'm going to have to break out of this stasis field somehow," I speculated. Then I vibrated at superhuman speed, "breaking" out.
"What the… But how?"
"I'm tougher and smarter than you could imagine. Now, this is for you!" I screamed as I shot towards my antagonist, striking him in the torso with a forward thrust kick that put a dent in his armor and knocked him back several kilometers away.
"Aaaaagh!"
"Reed, we're in here!" Ashema called out.
Upon hearing a warped version of Ashema's voice calling out to me, I flew back through the hole in the building I had made earlier.
"What the…" I called out as I saw a much-changed Ashema and a fully healed and also changed Johnny Storm standing next to her.
"What happened, Ashema?!"
"I fell into one of those power sphere cylinders you had in a hidden room and absorbed it into me. When it empowered me, I figured another one would help Johnny and it did."
I gasped at the larger-than-life appearance of my paramour who had become even more beautiful, resembling a goddess! The fact that her clothes were torn, leaving little to the imagination, had made it even more difficult to keep from staring at her.
"See something you like?" Ashema said with a wry smile in my direction. Despite all, that I still couldn't take my eyes off her.
"I guess you fixed me up without really trying, Professor. Regardless of all that, I appreciate being what I am now," Johnny explained.
The young man had become five feet ten inches tall weighing a well-muscled 175 pounds. In addition to that, his blond hair had come back with a vengeance, becoming a brighter yellow than it could have been previously. Even his eyes were a sharper blue. Thus he had improved on his previous good looks, having become more impressive in presence and appearance.
"I see. Am I right in suspecting you have gotten new powers?" I asked with my eyes narrowed in on them.
"Yes, I have the ability to teleport along with other abilities while Johnny has flight and energy powers of some kind," Ashema answered.
"That's right! I'm hot stuff in more ways than one," Johnny announced as light and heat emanated from his hands.
"Then you're going to have to train in the use of your powers. Fortunately, I've already created a virtual training room for that purpose."
"Are you gonna tell us we have to use our powers to do the right thing?"
"Yes, as everybody knows, my codename is Professor Paragon. What are your new names going to be?" I asked the two new superheroes.
"I'm calling myself Celestia," Ashema answered.
It was strange how she named herself Celestia while having a civilian name almost the same as the Celestial she resembled.
"And I'm calling myself Spacehawk!" Johnny announced, placing his fists on his hips in a dramatic pose.
"Well, that's nice." Despite everything that was going on I still had a hard time tearing my eyes away from Ashema's visage. Even Johnny kept looking Ashema up and down at his vantage point from behind her.
"If I wasn't so in love with you, I'd be offended with the way you've been staring at me, Reed," the pretty young woman said upon sauntering her way to me.
"Heh, heh."
"At any rate, my eyes are up here."
"Um, well…"
I've often seen images of beautiful women in comic books with gorgeous bodies that were hands down superior to women of the real world but seeing such a woman who put the best-looking comic book superheroines to shame in person was breathtaking.
All of a sudden, a loud crash interrupted my thoughts.
"Help!"
"Excuse me for a moment," I said as I left the room through the hole I had made earlier. Upon swooping downward I saw that a medium-sized pickup truck had crashed into the building. However, while the front of the car was caved in, the building was unharmed.
"What happened here?!" I demanded as I touched down.
"I'm a friend of Ben Grimm!" a woman's voice called out from the passenger side of the car.
"Alicia Masters?"
Alicia Masters was of medium height, weight, and build with shoulder-length, orange/red hair. She was also fairly attractive.
"Yes, How did you…"
"What happened?!" I interjected quickly.
"It's Ben! He said you might be able to help him. He's contracted a tropical disease from an adventure he took a few weeks ago!"
"Did Ben drive here himself?" I asked as I regarded Ben's barely moving form behind the wheel of the vehicle.
"Yes, but it wasn't easy for him."
"What's going on here, dude?!" Johnny asked no one in particular as he and Ashema touched down near the accident.
"I'm going to take Ben upstairs where you were just a few minutes ago, Johnny. Can you help Miss Alicia inside? She's legally blind."
"She's blind?! That explains why she'd be with an ugly midget like this," Johnny announced with a smirk as I helped Ben out of the truck.
"I'm not a midget, you schmuck!" Ben called out as he looked up and shot Johnny a hard look.
Then Ashema spoke up. "He's very ill. I can tell that already. Maybe we should use one of those canisters…"
"That's the last resort, Ashema. In the meantime, let's get our new guests inside and help them," I said, ending that conversation.
XXX
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Be here next time. Now I'd like to present the stats for Ashema and Johnny in the classic Marvel RPG
CELESTIA: Ashema Listener
FIGHTING: INCREDIBLE (40) This means a superior and or natural talent with training.
AGILITY: AMAZING (50) This means a superhuman sense of dexterity and or accuracy along with the ability to dodge multiple gunshots.
STRENGTH: EXCELLENT (20) this means being able to lift over one thousand pounds.
ENDURANCE: REMARKABLE (30) This means the human limit for fortitude, rarely ever tiring
REASON: INCREDIBLE This is the equivalent of a doctorate's degree with the ability to understand non-Terran, advanced technology, and equipment
INTUITION: UNEARTHLY This means in touch with the universe.
PSYCHE: UNEARTHLY This means a closed mind, practically uncontrollable by outside sources
HEALTH: 140
KARMA: 240
POPULARITY: 40
APPEARANCE: UNEARTHLY Ashema has better than a rapturing appearance, practically divine
RESOURCES: Excellent
POWERS:
Resistance: Good Resistance (500 pounds worth of force) to physical and energy attacks.
Flight: Excellent (150 miles per hour)
Personal Force Field: Incredible (40)
Linguistics: CL1000 ability
Teleport: Unearthly (100)ability to teleport. Celestia can also teleport several passengers along with her.
Phasing: Unearthly (100)
Illusion Casting: Monstrous (75) ability to create illusions that possess visual, audio, olfactory, and tactile realism
Illusory Duplication
Illusory Invisibility
Blending:
Energy Solidification: Celestia can solidify her own illusions with Amazing (50) ability. This power is linked to her illusion casting powers.
Magic Sense: Unearthly (100)
Magic Dispel: Unearthly (100)
Mind Reading: Unearthly (100)
Mind Blast: Unearthly (100)
Magic Blast: Amazing (50)
Magic Shield: Unearthly (100)
Energy Blast: Amazing (50)
Danger Sense: Unearthly (100)
Mental Paralysis: Unearthly (100)
Animate Image: Monstrous (75)
Animate Objects: Monstrous (75)
Dimension Travel: Good (10)
Telekinesis: Excellent (20)
Invisibility: Amazing (50)
Molecular Conversion: Monstrous (75)
Weather Control: Amazing: (50)
Reality Alteration: Amazing (50)
Reality Alteration-Future: Celestia can disrupt probabilities to make unlikely events occur with Amazing ability, this can range from igniting fire sprinklers to car crashes, etc.
Conversion: Monstrous (75)
Molecular Conversion: Monstrous (75)
Matter Animation: Monstrous (75)
Molding: Monstrous (75)
Ability to heal herself and others. Unearthly (100)
EQUIPMENT
Celestia'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.
Wristband:
Allows Flight at 45 miles per hour.
Allows communication at an undetermined distance
Allows Life Support: self-contained breathing in space
TALENTS/SKILLS
Martial Arts: A, C, D, Acrobatics, Tumbling, Resist Domination, Architecture, Radiation, Engineering, Physics, Energy and Particle Physics, Biology, Psychology, Parapsychology, Chemistry, Construction, Photography, Medicine, Pharmacist, First Aid, Scholar: Disease Research, Scholar: Burn Victims, Paranormal Phenomena, Sleight of Hand, Concealment, Mystic Knowledge, Occult Lore, Stealth, several languages
XXX
SPACEHAWK: Johnny Storm
FIGHTING: AMAZING (This means ultimate human fighting machine)
AGILITY: MONSTROUS (This means a superhuman sense of dexterity and accuracy with the ability to do dodge autofire bullets with ease)
STRENGTH: INCREDIBLE (this means being able to lift around 10-30 tons)
ENDURANCE: AMAZING(This means superhuman 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: REMARKABLE(This is about the equivalent to a Detective background and or skill)
PSYCHE: INCREDIBLE (This means a strong sense of will)
HEALTH: 215
KARMA: 100
POPULARITY: 40
APPEARANCE: REMARKABLE (Johnny has an attractive, statuesque appearance)
RESOURCES: Excellent
POWERS:
Energy Blast: Starbolt/Laser Shift-X (Millions of tons worth of force)
True Invulnerability: Amazing (hundreds of tons of force) to physical attacks, Unearthly (thousands of tons of force) versus energy attacks, much greater to light and heat-based attacks including flash attacks
Damage Aura light/heat: Unearthly
True Flight: Shift-Z 15,000 miles per hour FTL in outer space
Absorption: If Johnny can tap into a large energy source, he can increase the power of his energy blast, damage aura, flight, or invulnerability to energy attacks to an unknown level
Immunity to Temperature Extremes, Vacuum/High Pressure, Radiation, Does not have to breathe
EQUIPMENT
Johnny's uniform adapts to all his defenses and abilities and cannot be easily taken from him. In addition to all this, he can quickly change in and out of his uniform at will.
Wristband:
Allows Flight at 45 miles per hour.
Allows communication at an undetermined distance
Allows Life Support: self-contained breathing in space
TALENTS/SKILLS
Martial Arts: B, C, E, Aerial Combat, Acrobatics, Tumbling, Aeronautics, Mechanic, Electronics, Laser Technology, Scholar: Laser Tag, Powers Specialist: Energy Blast, Electrical Engineering, Actor, Professional Racer, Pilot: land and air vehicles, Astronomy, Astro-Navigation, Navigation, Repair/Tinker, Vehicle Design,
