Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or the plot of the movie, I do however own Maria – or the X-Men. I also take back what I said in my last disclaimer about my laptop, it sort of went strange after I typed my last chapter, so I really extremely love you Spidey! (My laptop is named after 'Spiderman,' another great comic hero I do not own…weep)

Just want to do a little shout out to some active reviewers:

sd-freek – my very first reviewer! Thank you for all your reviews!

Tricia – Thanks, you're spot on, there will be a little thing going on between Johnny and Maria, but I don't know yet if they will end up together… as for her colour, I was going to make her orange, it would have made better sense as Ben's orange… but water's always associated with blue… so that's why she's blue…

carebears4 - I'm glad I make you laugh, cheers!

ChrisFan13 – Yeah, I'm following the path of the movie to a certain extent, a few minor changes though along the way.

KrazieShadowNinja – thanks for liking it and wishing she was in the movie, but unfortunately she's not in the comics… oh well! Lol

warrior-of-the-shadow – I'm sort of basing Maria and Johnny's relationship on the one I have with this guy. My dad doesn't like him very much either, whether or not the two will get together really depends on what happens with this guy…

Anyone I've forgotten, let me know and I'll try to make it up to you in the next chapters or something… but I really do appreciate each and every review I get :)

Chapter five

They foursome were in a cab on the way to Brooklyn where Ben was thought to be, only it was stuck in traffic. Maria had learnt that the other three as well as her father had been affected in different ways, Reed was now elasticised, Sue could go invisible, and Johnny could engulf himself in flames. She had also learnt why Johnny's back was bare when she smashed into him, although she didn't realise until he commented on the fact that he needed to change before they left, that he was only wearing ski bunny jacket around his middle. If the circumstances were any different, she would have been happy to see him like that, only her happiness was overshadowed by her fathers disappearing act.

Johnny told the cabby that Maria was an artist and had fallen into a vat of blue ink when he questioned her colour. He looked even more confused at the thought of why someone would have a vat of blue ink large enough to harbour the human body, only Maria shot him a look that told him to keep quiet. She would have preferred to give him her excuse, that the night before she'd been to a fancy dress party and dressed as a female Night-crawler, but seeing she had more things to worry about, she wasn't all that bothered.

"What's the hold up?" Sue asked. Without answering Reed stuck his head out the window and stretched his neck to the front of the block. He sprang back and said "Ben."

Ignoring the scared and shocked look on the driver's face the four piled out of the cab and ran to the end of the traffic jam.

There were fires, and debris scattered around. Maria didn't know how she did it, but water shot out of her fingers and put the fires out, Sue went invisible and began helping people, Reed stretched himself and saved a man, Johnny went on fire and helped a child to safety, and Ben stopped a large vehicle from ploughing into a group of other citizens.

When everything clamed down did Maria realise her father wasn't her father anymore. He didn't look like Ben at all, but a big orange block figure. She stared at him, and he stared back at her. She wasn't sure whether or not to be scared of him, but then she saw his eyes. He was still the same inside; his eyes hadn't changed at all. She ran to him and flung her arms around him, he too went to put his arms around her, but she yelped in pain as she was getting crushed, and he loosened his grip.

However it seemed that not everyone could see he still was the same person, the public looked afraid of him, and what was worse, Debbie had come to return her engagement ring, publicly humiliating him by placing it on the ground, as if she knew that he wouldn't be able to pick it up.

Sensing this, Reed bent down and handed it to him as the group of five went into a police tent to discuss what was going on.

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It was all too strange for Maria, all too surreal. People had began calling them the 'Fantastic Five.'

They had given a press conference where Sue and Reed did most of the talking and Johnny cracked most of the jokes. Maria just looked around at the faces of the people who were watching some plagued with intrigue, others fear. She could see they were mainly staring at her and Ben, they were the only two affected physically by it, only they didn't seem that afraid of her. 'Stupid materialists!' she thought bitterly to herself.

Eyes followed them into another cab, and they had a police escort to Reed's place 'The Baxter Building.'

As they entered, there were people outside; they were all staring at Ben. "Say something!" Maria whispered to him

"Like what?" he asked back.

She paused a second, "Anything!"

Ben looked around and settled his gaze of a groups of children, "Don't do drugs!" he ordered them. They nodded straight away, Ben smiled inwardly, know that they would be too afraid to ever try drugs, in case he came and tracked them down. Maria also smiled and took hold of one of his fingers, leading him inside.

Reed had decided that the building was the best place for them to be, so he could monitor everyone's symptoms more deeply. Victor Von Doom even stopped by to try and encourage Sue to go to his place so he could have his doctors monitor her condition, but she politely declined, saying she wanted to stay with Johnny. Maria could tell he was angry, but it was just a coincidence that the lights flickered when he left the building, right?

TBC