Second chapter today! Hopefully this will make up for the short one earlier! o.O
Chapter Thirteen - Plans and Pranks
The next morning sucked.
First, I stayed up until 4 drinking a Scotch and watching some stupid crime show.
Then, I thought it would be a grand idea to call Tessa. I sat through an entire hour of her describing every second of her time in court against Reagan - "You should have seen the look on her face!" - her verdict - "Innocent, can you believe it!" - and how she had sent each jury member a free ticket to her art show - "Which, for the record, is not bribery since court was already over."
Finally, I got a call from Victor himself, telling me to "get your ass in motion and ruin that son of a bitch."
So, obviously, I was in a bad mood when Reed called us all together for breakfast together, a bad idea as it is. I inhaled an entire batch of pancakes before anyone arrived to the table, and was sprawled across the counter when Sue came in and sat down with a sigh, opening up her newspaper. Reed arrived with his pile of papers, Ben close behind. The rock-man grabbed a large bowl of fruit and another empty one, along with a bag of oranges, and proceeded to squeeze all the juice into the bowl.
Johnny arrived last, saying, "All right, I'm here. Let's make this quick. I got places to go today." He paused for a second to shove me off the counter and grab Ben's bowl of orange juice, which he was just about to drink. I landed with a thud and groaned, before tugging off my glove and brushing Jonathon's leg with my finger, giving him a quick shock. He kicked at me, and I rolled away.
"Oh, wait," he laughed as Ben grumbled. "I don't go anywhere."
As I slowly pulled myself to my feet, Ben attempted to pick up his fork. "Johnny, it's imperative that we stay inside for the foreseeable future," said Reed, waving his hands.
Johnny pulled out a glass and poured the orange juice into it, rolling his eyes. "I know, I know, Reed, but when you said that last time my brain heard a week." He pointed to his head for enfasis.
Sue sighed. "Johnny, it's too dangerous for you to be in public."
Her brother paused, licking his lips. "You've been saying that for years." By then, I was up and slipped past the playboy to snatch a box of cereal. I began to scarf it down as he gave me a disgusted look. "Don't choke," he muttered, turning to the sink.
"What worries me is that our powers are evolving." Reed looked back down at his papers as Ben managed to get the fork into his fingers.
"I know, I know! I am so close to flying, guys, I can taste it." Johnny crumpled up his napkin and threw it on the counter, accidentally setting it on fire.
His sister scoffed. "You can't fly!"
"Yet," he said, giving her a look.
"Johnny, can you put that napkin out?"
"Oh, Jesus." He set down his glass and began to pat at the flaming napkin, to no avail. I rolled my eyes and finished off the cereal, then grabbed the water hose. After putting out the napkin, I threw my empty box at the blonde as he picked up his glass again, then stationed myself by the microwave.
"What's going on, Reed? How're you gonna cure us?" demanded Ben, ignoring us and waving around his fork.
Reed grabbed a diagram off his pile. "I'm gonna build a machine to recreate the storm." Johnny grinned and raised his glass. Sue blinked at him, then turned to her ex with interest. "The cosmic rays will travel from this generator," he said, pointing with his finger, "to this chamber."
"What, no pop-ups?" asked Johnny, earning a smack from me and a glare from his sister.
Dr. Richards pushed through. "If I can reverse the wave signal..."
"... it'll return us back to normal," finished Ben, earning a nod from his best friend. "Huh," he said, finally eating the watermelon on his fork.
Sue asked something, but I was mostly distracted by the crunching noise coming from Pebbles. I did notice Reed's answer, however.
"Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms exponentially..." Ben chewed, causing another crunch. "Or perhaps even kill us."
Grimm growled as he spotted the bite marks in his fork - he had bitten the ends off. "Now, dying - that's bad, right?" asked the younger Storm, pointing with his finger. Reed sighed inwardly and I groaned out loud. "I say we just let sleeping dogs lie, guys." He took the last chair and flipped it around, sitting in it backwards.
"So, how long 'till this contraption's up and runnin'?" asked Rocky.
"I don't know, it's hard to say."
"How long, Reed?" I could tell this was going to escalate quickly.
"I don't know, uh-"
"You don't know?" Ben stood up.
"You don't want this to get worse."
Then Johnny decided to inject his personal opinion with a chuckle. "Worse than that?" He earned an angry scowl from the rock-man, and another slap on the back of the head from me. It wasn't because I liked Ben, but because I really, really, wanted him to shut up.
Sue intervened as well, standing. "Guys, look, we're gonna be stuck here for a while. So let's just try and get along."
From the look on her brother's face, I knew there was a slim to nothing chance that was going to happen. So did Ben. He took off, grumbling about Johnny, while Reed and Sue went their separate ways to plan for the machine. Which left me with Mr. "I'm All That".
"What are you looking at, light socket?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
"A piece of shit," I growled back, picking up the leftover juice and, on instinct, poured it down his shirt.
Judging by the four-letter words coming out of his mouth, it was going to be a long week.
It was. Johnny took pleasure in pranking Ben as much as he could, starting with the shaving cream trick and supergluing his things to the ground. He tried to get me with the warm water trick the first night, but only managed in getting himself shocked across the room. I'm a light sleeper and water doesn't mix well with electricity.
Reed had a few adventures using his power, like retrieving things while he was in the bathroom or multitasking in the kitchen. Sue used hers when Reed walked in on her showering, or when Johnny tried to prank her too. More often then not, Reed had to get me to turn the power back on when he accidentally shut it down, or turn off the fire alarm when Johnny accidentally set them off.
Much to my dismay, I started to grow closer to the "Fantastic Four". Johnny painfully reminded me of a younger brother, though we were around the same age, and Sue was like an older sister or a mom. Reed was like a genius dad who knew nothing about parenting, and Ben was, well, Ben. Truth be told, I still didn't like Ben. He was just a bit too... grounded to be real. He was so wrapped up in the things he lost to really be anything but a whiny brat. He knew nothing about losing people.
Although I was under strict orders from Victor to tear these people apart, he started to seem like less and less of a threat to me. I was scared of losing my job before, but honestly, it seemed like I already had. I was hired to ruin people from the isolation of my apartment or the office. Not up close and personal. Besides, living in the Baxter Building was actually much better than my bare home, and the company was better than a single picture of my mother.
I also partied less. My drinking went down significantly, and somehow, that was better. I had begun drinking to cope with my hate, but it became more of a burden than a help. The Fantastic Four had become my twelve-step program, and it was actually working.
My dreams became more prominent. Tessa still showed up with that glowing cube, a freaky, poetic voice, and prophetic-sounding advice. In real life, my best friend had begun a new set of paintings, the subjects a secret. She did tell me the title of the series was "Evolution," however.
All in all, my time in the Baxter Building had begun to change me. For better or worse, I still didn't know.
Okay, next update is next week. Cross my heart and hope to die! Thanks for reading, R&R, you know the drill.