Disclaimers: I am but a poor working class girl, who works her backside off in a supermarket everyday doing every job imaginable (no not checkouts, I'm not that lucky) and getting no thanks for it. If I owned the F4 characters, I wouldn't be working, but I would be laughing, and sleeping in really late, and be a nice customer not mucking up the stock and blaming the worker! Needed to get that rant out there… working is not that bad, it makes me value the time I'm not working more than if I just sat doing nothing all day… heiheihei. Anyway, those were my words of wisdom for one day… I only own Maria, so on with the chapter I think :)

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Chapter 10

By the time the duo arrived, the fight was well away. Victor Von Doom was throwing lightening bolts at Sue and Reed, and the two were running out the firing range.

Maria and Johnny had started throwing bolts of water and flame at him to drag Metal Man's attention away from the other two. It worked, he was now paying attention to Maria, but she was too quick for him. Plus she was petrified of what would happen if she did get electrocuted, would she be killed instantly, or would she be in a tremendous amount of pain for a long time until her body heals itself? She really didn't want to find out.

"IT'S CLOBBERING TIME!" a voice bellowed, Maria looked to wear it was coming from and froze, the voice belonged to her father, there was no doubt about that, and he was back to his orange self.

Maria suddenly felt herself flying, or rather being grabbed, flung into the air and pulled at an angle towards the ground. When she was safely on the ground, it became clear to her what had happened. Reed had stretched his arm around her and pulled her to safety as Doom was about to throw another electricity ball at her, taking advantage of her temporarily dazed state.

"Dad?" she asked looking into his eyes, "Why?"

He smiled slightly, "I can protect you better," he confessed, as she gave him a hug.

"Had bit of a relapse, huh?" Johnny asked him jokingly, causing Ben to glare at him.

The five heroes were all lined up in a straight line, for the first time since their DNA had been changed, the five heroes stood as one. As one they were stronger…

"Sorry to break up this little…" Von Doom was going to say 'reunion,' but Reed didn't let him. He ordered Johnny to go Supernova and run rings around him, and Sue to contain the flames. As an exhausted brother and sister were done with what they were doing, Maria was ordered to 'cool him down,' which she did by blasting water from her arms. As the steam subsided, an extremely rigid Victor Von Doom stood in the centre of the larger crowd that had formed.

"So, is he…like…?" Maria started, then stopped. "Can he…?" she just couldn't ask the question without it sounding stupid, and she had four pairs of eyes on her, as well as everyone else who was wandering what she was trying to ask.

"What you trying to ask baby?" Ben asked, looking strangely at her.

"Is he like, vanquished?" she asked trying to think of another word to use, "Beaten? Like he can't hurt us anymore?" She looked at the others, and then back at Doom. He wasn't moving at all, yet she could still hear him groaning lightly, as if he was trying to speak but couldn't move his lips.

Reed walked up to the 'statue' and prodded it, nothing happened. He grabbed Von Doom by the arm and shook him - still nothing happened. "I don't think he can hurt us anymore…" he said looking at the others. Just then, Victor's people showed up in suits and a wheeler, taking him and strapping him to the back of it.

The five watched as they wheeled him into the back of a truck. They were either on the side somewhere watching the battle and knowing Victor Von Doom wouldn't come out of it on the up, or they had been watching the events unfold on any of the numerous news channels.

The crowd of people, and the television cameras now shifted their attention to the Fantastic Five. "Say something," Ben whispered to Reed.

"Like what?" he whispered back to his friend.

Ben thought for a second, "Say something cool, but you can't say 'don't do drugs, that's mine'…" he joked.

Reed coughed, and stood straighter with his head up high, "Well… I think it is safe to say that we're no scientists anymore, but Superheroes!" The other four laughed, as did the crowd.

"What now?" Sue asked loud enough for the herows to hear.

Johnny grinned, "One word sis, one word…" he paused to gain momentum, but Maria knew what he was going to say, she mouthed 'party' as he said it aloud.

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A/N the next chapter will be the epilogue, and the final thing I will post of this story, like I said in the last chapter, I'm hoping to write the sequel soon, so fingers crossed…:)