AUTHORS NOTE: Thank you TheTorch for being the only person to review my story. Please review it, this is my first fic and it makes a person cry when nobody reads their stories.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but an eMac.
"I'm going out," Ben said as he pulled on his jacket.
"Where?" Reed asked as Ben rarely left the house.
"Pebbles has a date," Johnny said mockingly as he took a sip of his soda. Sue poked her head out from round her bedroom.
"Did I just hear that Ben has a date," she said with a big smile.
"He does with some girl called Alicia," Johnny said with a smirk. Sue came out from her room.
"Ben that's great," she said.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Reed asked, slightly hurt that his best friend failed to inform him.
"Slipped my mind," he said quietly.
"Unlikely!" Johnny said as he stood up to put his soda can in the bin. "I heard you singing and saw you looking in the mirror."
"Shut up Tinkerbelle," Ben said menacingly.
"Did you tell them the reason she gave you her phone number too?" the teenager asked his glaring friend.
"What's the secret?" Reed asked curiously.
"I guessing the only reason is cos she's blind and doesn't know you're a walkin' talkin' rock." Johnny said with his trademark smile. Reed and Sue looked at each other.
"I told ya to shut up or I'll do it for ya!" Ben said angrily.
"Dude, if she just like suddenly regained sight over dinner she'd fly to Pluto" he said, enjoying watching Ben get irritated.
"That can't happen," Sue told her brother in a warning tone. Johnny ignored her.
"Are you sure she just forgot her glasses or is she crazy? I mean, even the sound of your voice is scary and your weight must scare her too. What did she think when the ground shook every time you took a step?" Ben painfully remembered when he walked into the bar and his steps made the record skip. "That's it," Ben yelled.
"Ben no!" Sue said as she put a force field around her younger brother.
"Calm down Ben," Reed said soothingly to his best friend.
"Don't worry, I ain't gonna touch him," Ben said with a smirk.
"Thank god for that," Sue said. Ben walked over towards the TV. Johnny watched curiously and began to panic when he realised what was happening. "Sis lemme outta here!" he yelled from within the force field. Susan ignored her brother and watched Ben pick up Johnny's beloved PS2.
"Shall I?" he asked Sue and Reed. The three laughed mischievously.
"Aww come on guys you know I was joking," Johnny pleaded. Ben looked at his watch.
"Your lucky I have places to be," he said as he threw the games console on the sofa and walked towards the elevator.
"Enjoy yourself Ben," Sue said.
"Try not to catch the eye of the paparazzi," Reed said.
"Kinda impossible for someone big and orange," Johnny muttered. "You gonna let me out anytime soon sis?" he added to his sister. Sue got rid of the force field without even looking at it; Johnny who had been leaning on it fell down and picked himself up,
"Not funny," he yelled to a chuckling Ben.
"See you guys later," Ben said happily before going in the lift.
"Take the rest of the evening off Leonard," Victor said as he put on the silver mask he received as a present from his country on.
"Are you sure Sir?" Leonard asked his boss uncertainly.
"Yes, maybe you could spend an evening with your girlfriend, what was her name?"
"Miranda Sir."
"Lovely girl, go on then. Go home, maybe you shall see me on the television but looking a little different." Leonard bowed to his boss before scooting out the door just in case Victor changed his mind.
Victor was in a good mood; he had a good feeling about tonight. Ben Grimm was going down and nobody was going to stop him. Victor quickly checked the monitor to make sure the other three members of the Fantastic Four were at home. They were. Victor took off his gloves and looked at his metal hands for a moment, before putting on an old cloak, which once belonged to his grandfather. And the show starts, he thought, now for scene 1, location: Mario's pizzeria.
Ben glanced nervously at Alicia as she took a small bite out of her pizza. He was sure that she was hating him right now. He had been ten minutes late picking her up due to Johnny's foolishness and the paparazzi were following them like persistent flies. Alicia could tell Ben was nervous, it was radiating off him like heat from a flame.
"So you're a superhero, tell me what that's like." Alicia said to start an ordinary conversation.
"Well, we're not really superheroes. We're just four friends with special abilities." Ben said modestly.
"Yeah right," Alicia said with a grin.
"I heard what happened on the bridge - you guys saved a lot of people that day and were the talk of every radio station in New York, maybe even the world."
"Yeah but that only happened cos of me. I scared a man who was about to commit suicide."
"Is he still alive?" Alicia asked curiously.
"Yeah, I saw him on TV yesterday talking about his traumatic event."
"Well there you go. You stopped somebody from killing themselves and cleared up all the damage you caused"
"No we didn't, the City had to pay for everything."
"I mean the valuable stuff like life - nobody died that day because you guys made sure everyone was safe." Ben sighed; he knew Alicia wouldn't stop till he admitted he was a hero.
"Okay so I am a hero, but ya wouldn't wanna be me," he admitted.
"I know hundreds of kids in my area who would sell their souls to be you." "They don't know what it's like to not be able to turn the page of a newspaper or pick up a piece of paper. I can only use the phone in my room and crush nearly everything I touch."
"And the plus side?"
"There aren't many."
"So, I want to hear them, no matter how small they are." Alicia said comfortingly. Ben tried to find any bonuses, only a few came to mind.
"Okay I find it really easy to make freshly squeezed orange juice …er… if I lose the TV remote I just pick up the sofa instead of bending down to look and … I know you." Ben said the last bit softly and watched as Alicia smiled and put her hand on top of his. At first Ben wondered how she found his hand so easily, and then he remembered his hands weren't very hard to miss.
The lights of the restaurant suddenly began to flicker - Ben looked around. Alicia sensed his panic.
"Ben what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
"The … the lights are fli-," suddenly Ben was sent flying through the wall of the restaurant and on to the street. Before he passed out he thought he heard a scream, Alicia's scream.