Chapter 8
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Maria ran through the building as fast as she could, fearing what she'd find when she reached her destination. Her legs were screaming for to her stop as she ran up every step to the top floor, and with every step she cursed the elevator for not working.
She reached the top and hurled the door open ad screamed. There before her was Ben Grimm, her father, looking every bit back to normal.
He laughed a little, "Not quite the reaction I was hoping," he said weakly.
Maria walked up to him, and touched his face, "You're…" she started. "The machine, it works?" she asked hopefully.
Ben shook his head, "Yeah, it works, but not the way you'd think," he explained.
"He's gone," came a voice from inside the laboratory, a voice that made Maria's heart skip a beat, a voice that belonged to Johnny Storm.
"You're back!" she cried.
He flashed her a cheesy grin, "Yeah, and this proves that people can't cope without me!" he joked, then turned serious, "He's not here, anywhere!"
Maria shook her head, "Who are you talking about?" she asked.
"Reed," Sue answered coming from behind Johnny, "He's taken him," she said fearfully.
"Let me guess, Vermin?" she asked, and the others nodded. "Did he do this to you?" she asked her dad.
"Yeah, but I was a willing participant," he confessed.
Maria nodded, "I can understand, you've suffered more than any of us," she said giving her dad a hug.
He laughed a little, "No, I did it for you," he confessed. "You didn't even want to go up into space in the first place. I figured if I tried the machine and it was safe then you could have your life back. You could drink hot chocolate again, and go out in the rain," he smiled sympathetically.
Maria blinked more tears from her eyes, "Oh dad," she began, "I don't care, about that. And who knows, when everything blows over I can start my training again," she smiled.
"Uhhh, speaking of blowing over… rather, blowing up," it was Johnny pointing at something in the distance.
"What's that?" Sue asked.
There was a light heading towards the quadets, more importantly, it was heading towards Johnny. "Heat-seeker," he muttered. Before thinking Johnny was up on balcony and jumped off it, just as Sue ran to stop him. The three looked down as he fell towards the ground, the heat seeker also changing direction. For a split second, Maria feared he was going to hit the street below before, all of a sudden, he burst into flames and soared upwards into the sky, the heat seek directly on his trail.
"Oh…no…" Sue breathed watching her brother flying away, she looked at Maria with tears of fear in her eyes.
"I'll go after him," Maria said and began running down the fire escape, she knew the only way to stop it was if something else was burning instead, and that meant it was need to be put out.
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End of chapter.
A/n Sorry this is short, I just wanted to post something before Christmas. Hope everyone has a good one! Please don't get into a car with soon who has been drinking, and if you're old enough to drink, don't drive. Always make sure there's a sober person at the wheel. Other than that, have a great time!