Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
So, this one will kick the story up a bit, and lead to the actual confrontation with the villains of this story.
Let's get to it. Hope you don't mind the chapter title. It's the best I could think of for the events of this chapter.
Chapter 5- Flood of Mystery
Reed slowly walks down the main street of Harper's Ferry, wondering what is really going on. He and the rest of the team got back to New York from a trip to Washington DC to meet with the president just yesterday. It's definitely been a chaotic month since their powers first showed up and they became the Fantastic Four. Reed and Sue had been really hoping that perhaps things might finally start to calm down, and they could finally get to work on panning their wedding at last.
That is, until they heard a report of some suspicious goings on in West Virginia. Several floods had struck the area around Harper's Ferry recently, and they were reports of a mysterious figure being spotted in the areas where the floods struck around the times of the floods. Reed had decided that they should go and check it out, as floods never came with this frequency in that area, and the mysterious figure made him think someone was intentionally causing them.
"Johnny, anything?" Reed asks over his earpiece.
Johnny is currently flying over the area, serving as eyes in the sky. He had discovered about a week ago that his powers also allowed him to fly, and he had been very excited about it.
"Nothing. I got nothing," Johnny says.
"Got it. Keep me informed," Reed says as he looks out over the intersection of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. This place is a very beautiful and peaceful place. It doesn't need a possible supervillain causing floods.
Sue walks up beside him and takes his hand. Reed looks at her and smiles. "What do you say we have our wedding here?" he asks with an air of humor.
Sue laughs a bit. "It's beautiful, but I don't know about having our wedding here," she says.
Reed chuckles. "Well, we'd better figure out a location soon. We've done almost no planning," he says.
Sue smiles. "I know. But as soon as we take care of this, I promise we will," she says before giving him a kiss.
Suddenly, Johnny's voice comes over their earpieces. "Guys! We got a problem! I can see a flood surging down the Shenandoah! It's gonna completely overrun everything on the banks!"
Reed turns to Sue. "You have to contain it!" he says urgently.
Sue nods and runs towards the river. Once she gets close enough, she stops and holds out her hands. A second later, she conjures a force field along the bank and across the intersection of the rivers to contain the flood waters.
Within moments, they can see the flood surging down the river. As it reaches Harper's Ferry, it smashes against the force field, and continues down the river. However, it soon reaches the end of the force field that extends over the river, and comes to a complete stop.
Sue holds the force field in place for several moments to allow the flood to slowly settle. Once the waters settle, she slowly begins to raise the force field off the river to allow the flood waters to flow past and down the Potomac, but only a bit at a time. She keeps the force field in its position until all of the flood waters have been released, then allows the force field to dissipate.
Reed looks at Sue with pride. "Nice job, sweetheart," he says. She turns back and smiles at him.
Suddenly, more water comes surging down the Shenandoah. However, this time, the water seems to be concentrated just along the bank closer to them. As it reaches the town, it surges out of the river and onto land in a complete right turn, where it shifts form into what looks like a human made of water.
Reed's eyes narrow. He knows who this is, thanks to a discussion he had with Oliver over video conference about two weeks ago in order to establish a friendship between the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
"It's Morris Bench. Hydro Man," he says.
Beside him, Ben says, "I thought Bench was a good guy. Didn't he fight with the Avengers against Thanos?"
"Yes, he did. Let's knock him out and take him back to the Baxter Building. Maybe then we can get some answers," Reed says.
Morris, still in liquid form, fires a jet of water at Sue, who quickly raises a force field over herself. Right then, Johnny flies in and throws a fireball down at Morris, put it passes right through him and is doused.
Morris turns towards Johnny and fires a jet of water at him. Johnny responds with a powerful stream of fire. Despite the heat of the fire evaporating a lot of the water, Morris' attack begins forcing Johnny's back.
That is, until Sue sends volley of energy spheres at Morris, disrupting his attack and dispersing his water form temporarily. However, he quickly regathers it.
Reed and Ben charge to help. "Sue, try that again! Johnny, distract him!" Reed shouts.
Johnny flies around him, sending one stream of fire after another at Morris. Morris tries to respond with jets of water, but Johnny easily evades them.
Meanwhile, Sue gathers up a larger volley of energy spheres. Then, once Johnny gets Morris to turn his back to Sue, Sue unleashes the spheres, blasting Morris over and over and dispersing his water form. He tries to pull himself back together, but Sue blasts his form apart again.
Morris gathers himself in a different spot, but this time reforms in his normal human form.
"Now!" Reed shouts. Johnny flies in and throws a fireball that hits at Morris' feet, knocking him flying. Reed then stretches out his arms and wraps them around Morris before yanking him back. As Morris comes flying back towards them, Ben winds up. As Reed relinquishes Morris, Ben punches him in the head. Not enough to cause damage, but enough to knock him out.
Sue hurries up and Johnny flies down and lands next to them. The four all look down at the unconscious Morris before Reed says, "Let's get him back to the Baxter Building. Something's not right here. We need to get some answers."
(Hours later, Baxter Building)
"Reed! He's waking up!" Reed hears Ben say. Reed hurries into the lab where they have Morris restrained.
As he enters, he sees Morris looking around in confusion. He speaks up and says, "Morris. My name is Reed Richards, and you're here in the Baxter Building in New York City."
Morris looks at him in confusion, then asks, "Wait. How did I get here?"
"You really don't know?" Reed asks.
"No," Morris responds.
"Wait. What's the last thing you remember?" Reed asks.
Morris sits there for a moment, thinking hard. Then, he starts to say in a lower voice, "I-I was in Berlin. I'd heard about some terrorists there, and I went to investigate. Then, one day in my hotel, I got a visitor at my door. I opened it, and…"
His eyes suddenly widen he looks up at Reed. "You need to contact Barry Allen immediately!" he says.
Reed feels confused. "What do you mean?" he asks.
"I know you know Barry Allen. You need to contact him. He needs to come here, now," Morris says urgently.
Reed looks at Morris a moment longer, then hurries out of the lab to go find the extrapolator Barry gave him.
He quickly finds it in his bedroom. As soon as he pulls it out of his desk, he quickly places the call to Barry as he walks out into the hall.
After several tense moments, he hears Barry say, "Reed?"
"Mr. Allen. I need to come to Earth-99 immediately. There's been an incident, and we have someone here asking for you specifically," he says.
There's quiet for a moment before he hears Barry's voice respond, "I'll be there in a moment."
Sure enough, moments later, a breach opens in the hallway, and Barry steps out. He looks at Reed and then asks, "What's up, Reed?"
"Come with me," Reed says as he leads Barry back towards where Morris is.
As they walk into the room, Barry sees Morris, and looks surprised. "Morris. What are you doing here? I thought you went back to being a vigilante in Europe?"
"I did. But it turns out someone else had plans for me," Morris says.
"What do you mean?" Barry asks.
Morris sighs, then sighs, "I was in Berlin when someone showed up at my hotel room. I opened the door, and next thing I knew, I was being knocked out. When I came to, I was still in my hotel room, but it was all dark. I remember some figure standing in the shadows. I couldn't make out anything about him. All I remember him saying was, 'You will be the means of bringing the Flash to me'. Then, he must have put me under some kind of mind control, because the next thing I remember was waking up here in the Baxter Building."
Barry looks at Morris seriously. "You don't know who this person is?" he asks.
"No. Nothing," Morris says. He pauses, but then says, "But…I do actually remember something else. He said something about waiting for you in Berlin."
Barry nods once. He then walks up to Morris and releases his restraints. "You're free to go, Morris. It's clear you weren't in control of yourself," he says.
Morris stands up and rubs his wrists a bit. "Thanks, Flash. Now, go me a favor. Kick the a** of whoever did this," he says.
Barry smiles. "Count on it, Morris," he says.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked that, and hope you liked seeing Morris again. He'll no longer be appearing as often in this series after his involvement in Phase 1, but I wouldn't give him a short role in this. His next main appearance will probably be sometime in Phase 4, but he may make a cameo or two in between now and then.
Also, quick PSA. I got my coronavirus test results back, and I tested negative. I'm still on quarantine, since I am still sick with something, and I don't want to risk it. But, at least I don't have coronavirus.
So, next chapter will introduce you to one of the two villains of this story. Hope you're excited for it. It'll be up within the next day or two, hopefully. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned!