Reed found the road blocked as he landed the Fantasticar
a pair of silver SUVs about a mile away from the town. He glanced at Sue passenger seat, Johnny looked over, Ben huffed .
A man with black hair and a face that managed to be both solemn and impertinent knocked on his window.
Reed rolled it down.
"Can I see your license please, sir?"
Reed could only stare at him for a moment. He was impressed that he could ask that with a straight face.
"Seriously?"
"Yes sir."
Reed took his driver's license out of his wallet and handed it to the man, who looked at it with no change of expression.
"Where are you headed today, Mr. Richards?" he asked, handing the license back.
"Um, it's Mr Fantastic, or just Reed. We've been tracking some glitches in the magnetic field. They seem to be coming from this direction. I'm trying to figure out what's causing them."
"The road's blocked up ahead. I suggest you find an alternate route, Mr Fantastic."
"What's going on?"
"Nothing you need to worry about, sir."
"I'm really sorry but we aren't going to be doing that so im sorry agent..."
"I'm Agent Woo,"
"Right. Agent Woo, I'm not going to say I'm a big deal, but..." He gestured to himself. "I'm kind of a big deal, and I'm going to follow this signal whether you let me through willingly or not, so I suggest you get on your phone and tell whoever's in charge that the Fantastic Four is here"
A deliberative expression played across Woo's face. "I'll tell my boss you're here. But for the record, I've dealt with bigger deals than you." He walked away from the car and made a phone call, returning a minute later. "He wants to talk to you."
Reed flew the Fantasticar through the checkpoint, and over the hill he saw a cluster of temporary buildings.
Fury was waiting for him by the roadside.
"I thought you'd show up, Redd?"
"No. We picked up reports of Distortions in this area. What's going on?"
"We're still trying to figure that out. Since you're here, want to help out?"
"Just like old times," Sue said.
"Just like old times," Fury agreed.
Reed nodded. "What do we know so far?"
If there had been any new developments in S.W.O.R.D.'s investigation of the Westview Event, they hadn't shared it with the Fantastic Four begrudgingly allowed to monitor the situation.
Ben and Johnny didn't care as much, but Reed and Sue knew that Fury had told the scientists Wanda might be causing the phenomenon. They'd interrogated Reed for hours about what he knew of Wanda's powers.
They were taking a coffee break in their field tent, looking out through the plastic window at the weird ripples in the air that marked the city limits of Westview.
"You're being even quieter than usual," Sue noted. "Is it making you nervous being around secret organization types?"
Ben shrugged. "It's not really that. I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts, I guess."
"Want to talk it out?"
Ben flashed her a smile, appreciating the consideration. Despite their rocky start, " i kinda know how she feels"
"Yea?."
"Ever since S.W.O.R.D. Caused my skin to turn rock like, I've been shunned, people have ran from me in fear, when we are saving the world sure they cheer for us but as soon as its over they go back to treating me the same way they always did. So I asked myself if what Wanda is doing is bad or good."
Sue frowned. "If we're right that Wanda's behind this, she cut a whole town off from the rest of the world. She's altering people's minds. How can that be good?"
"She's making the people around her feel happy. Making them be kind. True, she's doing it by altering their minds, but everything is mind-altering: good food, sunshine, friendship. Whether it's a bad thing is a question worth asking. I loved how I felt when we were visiting her. But I thought about it and decided stopping her, if we can, is the right thing to do."
"What led you to that conclusion?" Sue asked curiously.
"Feelings like sadness, boredom, and anger are good in the right doses. Necessary even. They let you know you need to change something, try something new, move beyond the way things are. Those are the feelings that lead to progress, improvement, creation. Being happy all the time is stagnant. And if you have no choice but to feel happy, you'll never realize it if something needs to change. Have you ever had a thought pop into your head that you don't want to think? Like if you're, on a tall building and you suddenly start to wonder what if you just jumped off for no reason? Or throw your phone off the edge or something?"
"Yeah. That's called intrusive thoughts. Most people have them. What does it have to do with brainwashing?"
"I think maybe that's your brain reminding you that you always have choices. Even if those choices are terrible, they're always there. The call of the void is a sign that your mind is free. When you choose not to do that dumb thing your brain just thought of, you're exercising that freedom. And sometimes—maybe almost never, but once in a while—that freedom of thought might lead you to realize something you need to do that you never would have thought of otherwise. I bet no one's having thoughts like that in Westview right now."
Sue stared out toward where the town should be. "I bet you're right."
Johnny poured himself more coffee.
Their pensive silence was broken by a familiar but unexpected voice outside their door. "Knock knock."
Sue frowned in confusion. "Reed...?"
Ben opened the door, revealing Reed on the other side.
"Are we still working for Fury?."
"As a few minutes ago we were still working with Fury." He ducked inside. "Do you think Fury's right that she could be causing this?" Johnny asked.
"All we know is Wanda was here. We don't know if she was still here when the Westview Event happened, but we have no reason to believe she wasn't," Reed answered.
Sue raised an enormous eyebrow. "Really?"
"We don't think she meant to be doing it," Reed quickly added. "We don't think she even knew what she was doing."
Sue nodded. "Well, she's...she's powerful."
"But I've never seen her do anything even remotely like this," Johnny added, gesturing to the wall of energy visible out the window.
Ben looked out at it and nodded to himself. "You're worried about her."
"Yeah, I am. I'm worried about everyone else in Westview, too. Wanda would never purposely hurt innocent people..." At Ben's incredulous look, he added, "...anymore. But after everything that's happened, everything she's been through..."
"Who knows what she might do without meaning to," Sue finished for him.
