26: Cosmic Energy 2.2

Bang!

"WHERE IS HE! WHERE IS REED!" The voice was hoarse and loud reverberated throughout the lab like a rumble.

The sound of a thunderous impact was followed by a sound akin to metal clashing against rocks.

"Calm down! I'll explain everything but you have to stay still!"

Daniel's voice rang out, even with all the noise it was still easy to hear.

Susan stood in front of her father looking at the mess in front of her.

Johny had rekindled his fire and was watching from the side not too far from them.

In one corner of the lab a huge man covered in rocks was flailing and thrashing around in panic.

Daniel circled around him and held back his thrashing and pawing trying to calm him down.

His movements were agile and he saved several of the lab's apparatus and prevented the rock man from destroying everything around him.

With a quick movement he held both of the giant's hands and prevented him from continuing to flail.

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Daniel looked into his eyes, even with his body turned to stone his eyes were still very human.

He could see the fear in them and the concern.

"listen, there was an accident, Reed's machine went out of control and opened a rift in space time releasing a large amount of unknown energy, your body has undergone unprecedented changes because of this, the mutations could be dangerous to your body so you need to calm down so I can help you" there was a tense silence.

The giant man nodded slowly, took a deep breath and exhaled sharply before sitting down on the floor.

"Where's Reed" Daniel swallowed, looked the giant in the eyes and bowed.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't save him, the rift sucked him in" he was direct, Reed was this boy's friend and Daniel couldn't save him.

The giant stood up quickly.

His body trembled uncontrollably shaking the entire lab floor.

"no... NO!" the roar was like that of a beast howling in pain.

The rock fist lunged at Daniel, it was fast but not that fast, still Daniel didn't move away.

There was an explosion and a shockwave spread out.

Daniel felt his face move a few inches to the right.

That hit was hard.

His lip split, that blow actually made him bleed.

"Hey! That's enough!"

Johny who saw this couldn't stand still any longer.

He rushed over to the two quickly his body bursting into flames.

"It's not his fault he couldn't save your friend!, he did enough already saving our hides!"

Seeing him even if he was covered in flames Ben could recognize him.

"YOU! This is YOUR fault!" the giant moved quickly and struck towards johny, the young Storm was unprepared, he had gotten too close and that was a mistake not having his guard up as Daniel left himself too open, daniel thought he would be sent flying instead something different happened.

The rock covered fist approached his flame covered body but did not impact, instead it passed through the flames as if johny's body was immaterial.

"Woa!" johny felt strange when this happened, he quickly stepped back.

His chest had a large hole in it but it quickly reformed filling with flames again.

"Johny!" susan and Dr. Storm shouted, susan quickly reached out a hand and a barrier of blue light enveloped Ben.

The blows began to impact the barrier and Susan struggled to maintain it.

She stretched out both hands the sweat running down her forehead.

"Don't stop him" Daniel wiped the blood from his mouth and walked over to the barrier. He didn't notice that the wound had closed.

He looked at the giant behind her, a fist hit the place where his face should be, cracks spread like glass about to shatter.

"Undo the energy field Susan" his voice was clear and everyone looked at him in amazement.

"What!?" Susan asked in bewilderment.

"He has a right to be angry it was me who couldn't save his friend so let me deal with him on my own."

Johny looked at him seriously before nodding, he stepped back and the flames in his body quickly died down.

Susan furrowed her eyebrows, bit her lip before reluctantly nodding, lowering her hands and undoing the Energy Field.

Ben screamed and lunged at Daniel.

His blows were like meteors, strong and fast but not fast enough.

Daniel blocked each blow instead of dodging it.

Using everything he had learned it was easy for him to block each attack.

There was no technique to the blows, no experience, just mindless attacks of rage, if it were anyone else any of these blows could kill him with a graze.

Daniel felt his bones tremble every time he parried a blow, his muscles burning from the effort, he had only felt something like this when he practiced with Carol, this gave him a familiar feeling to those fights, Carol was tougher than him, that was something he had realized the more time he spent with her, Carol's body was extremely resistant and every blow she received had more probabilities of hurting the other party before hurting herself, for that reason he was very hesitant to face her, even now that he knew her weakness.

If it was Carol who was in front of him this fight would have long ago destroyed the whole building and would have spread throughout the city,

But it wasn't Carol who was in front of him and so he didn't back down a step, even though Ben was strong he couldn't use all his strength properly plus he was stronger than he was fast, and Daniel was much faster than him.

He let him let off some more steam before deciding it was time to end this.

With a quick movement that the giant wasn't able to see, Daniel's fist hit his hundred with precision, there was a dull sound before the huge body staggered and fell half kneeling on the ground shaking his head.

Daniel grimaced internally, his knuckles and two of his fingers cracked as he delivered that blow, this guy was tough but not as tough as Carol, if he had wanted to do this to her he would have broken his arm completely, she was getting stronger every day thanks to the sun and those e reflected more in her durability, in question of physical strength carol and he were not much different, he was a little stronger in fact, but in question of durability there was no comparison, blows that could break his bones could barely create a bruise on carol.

He looked at his hand with bewilderment as he noticed that his broken fingers and knuckles were already healing, it only took a few seconds and his wounds were in perfect condition, he hadn't used the nucleus, he shook his head, this was no time to be distracted now.

Daniel leaned down in front of Ben, also with one knee on the ground and looked him in the eyes.

"I couldn't save your friend, I really wanted to but I wasn't strong enough or fast enough to pull it off, I don't know if he's still alive but I promise I'll do everything I can to find him, bring him back" and this was something Daniel had already been thinking about since Reed was sucked through that rift.

How could he still call himself a hero if he couldn't even save the people in front of him?

He knew he could not save everyone, that was an idealistic dream he did not have, but he always considered that he could save those who were within his reach, that as long as he was there he could be the hero.

Now he realized that this was also a dream.

But he refused to let that dream be shattered.

He would save Reed, no matter how he would do it.

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Ben looked at the eyes burning with will in front of him, her words held a certainty and an unspoken promise, but he didn't want just a promise.

Ben gritted his teeth, anger still inside him but he still nodded.

"Swear it, swear you will save him" his voice didn't have that strength, it had become weaker yet it was clear to everyone.

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Daniel smiled.

"I swear, I'll save him. That's my job after all."

Ben looked at him and relaxed after a second.

Daniel helped the big man to his feet.

"But even if I have to save him I have to help you too."

It was with these words that Ben remembered his abnormal state and looked down at his rock covered body.

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"What a mess" Johnny looked at the place where Daniel and Ben had "fought" even though Daniel did his best to avoid damage there were still some traces left by the shock waves.

"Don't complain, this is partly all your fault" Susan scolded her brother, they were both checking the equipment to make sure there was no damage.

Johny narrowed his eyes, a thin line forming on his lips.

Any grumbling died inside him when he remembered why all this happened.

"You don't have to be so hard on your brother Susan, no one could have predicted something like this would happen" surprisingly his father defended him which left the young Storm perplexed.

Dr. Storm sighed, he looked at his sons.

"I know things look difficult but we'll get through this, we'll find a way to fix this."

His father looked older, more tired.

Johny grimaced.

"I don't think that's going to happen dad, you heard that guy, the changes are at the molecular level, it's not going to go away" and if he was honest johny didn't want them to go away.

The feeling inside him, that fire burning inside him, made him feel special in a way, different.

"His name is Daniel johny, you need to be more polite" Susan scolded giving her brother a hard look.

Johny snorted.

"your sister is right, if it wasn't for her help we could have ended up like Young Reed."

His father gave him a hard look.

"I didn't ask before because of all the fuss and stuff but, how did he save us? And how did we get here so fast? It's all very confusing" these were questions that Johnny and Susan had since they calmed down and were able to think deeply about the situation.

Her father furrowed his eyebrows, he obviously knew something but said nothing.

"if you want to know you could ask it directly" the voice startled johny making him jump.

He looked towards the doors and saw Daniel returning.

When he calmed Ben down he decided it was best to give him a room to himself and Daniel took him there for tests.

Dr. Storm ignored his son's discomfort and looked at Daniel.

"How is he?" he was obviously asking about Ben.

Daniel sighed and shook his head.

"He can't go back to normal, he can't feel the energy inside him and he can't try to control it, his body has been left in that state permanently, unless he finds a way to control the energy to induce a change like johny does."

That would be difficult, looking for a way to induce an artificial control on an Unknown energy would take an unclear amount of time.

"I guess he didn't take it very well" Susan reached over to Daniel and touched his cheek which had another extra bruise in the process of fading.

Daniel grimaced turned away and shook his head.

"he gets upset easily, he's emotionally unstable right now, the bad news keeps coming and he's not ready for it" Daniel excused Ben.

"You're too soft on him, he's not a child, he shouldn't let his emotions cloud his mind and throw tantrums" Dr. Storm criticized.

"his best friend could be dead and his body has been irreversibly disfigured, his entire future, his life, could be lost unless you find a way to help him and you want me to ask him to be reasonable?" Daniel gave Dr. Storm a puzzled look.

Johny scoffed.

"He's not very empathetic or understanding" his father gave him an angry look but he didn't care.

Susan sighed.

"So what shall we do?"

Daniel gave Susan a puzzled look.

"We will?" this caused the Young woman to give him a hard look of rebuke.

" You keep saying you're going to help him, you're going to save his friend but you leave us out of those plans, I don't know if you forgot but everyone here can help."

Johny nodded Quickly.

"Listen Man, this happened almost entirely because of me, the least I can do is help."

"No!" his father stood up and quickly refused.

"what you guys should do is stay for observation, we don't know what side effects this might have, your lives could be in danger."

Their father's refusal upset the brothers.

"And he can go out and do everything on his own? Last time I checked everyone here was affected" johny protested.

"It's not the same!" Dr. Storm didn't back down.

"Why not? because we're your children?" susan stepped forward looking at her father angrily.

"That's not what your father means" Daniel decided to step forward before the situation got even more heated.

"I am not like you, the effect this energy could have on me is not the same as on your bodies."

I try to explain.

"Besides, it is my duty to take care of this situation, you are just ordinary people who have suffered an accident, it is best that you remain under observation."

"You said that again, that it is your duty, you said it before when you promised to save Reed and you say it now, why is it your duty to help? Why should you be the one to take care of everything?" Susan asked, she looked at Daniel suspiciously and narrowed her eyes.

Daniel, looked her in the eyes before smiling slightly.

"That's because I'm a hero."

Susan's eyes widened slightly, her mind working quickly.

"You're Defiant?"

Daniel nodded, confirming susan's suspicions.

"now you can see how this is my job and why I must take charge" susan opened her mouth to say something else but a shout next to her prevented her.

"IT'S YOU!" johny pointed his finger accusingly at Daniel.

"uh yeah?" Daniel grimaced.

"because of you my face was in every newspaper in the country!" johny complained.

Daniel actually ignored that fact because of everything that was going on, now that it was back to the front of his mind he couldn't help but laugh.

"Of all the countries" corrected Susan, that actually had been trending, it was one of the clearest images about defiant after all.

" did you at least get any girls?"

Johny's face of bitterness.

"no... i didn't" johny was depressed.

Susan snorted but quickly wanted to get the conversation back on track.

"Even if you're a hero you can't do everything alone, I've seen the news you spend most of the day flying around the world unless you can multiply I don't see how you can help Ben."

Susan had a point, if she wanted to help him she would have to ignore some of his other activities.

Daniel was beginning to realize that he was putting too much on his plate.

"this is the baxter foundation, we have equipment and brainiacs, I think we can do something" johny snapped out of his depression and supported his sister.

Daniel looked at them, narrowed his eyes, he was going to say something but remembered that no matter how much the brothers talked, the one who had the last word was Dr. Storm.

For his part, Dr. Storm kept shaking his head, his children had no idea what they were suggesting.

Sure, the foundation had those things, equipment and brilliant minds, but it also had a lot of problems.

Spencer wasn't lying when he said the foundation was in decline.

It wasn't the same as it once was.

"Listen to things not-" Dr. Storm's words failed to finish.

His throat was blocked from behind by the grip of a burned hand.

Behind the Doctor the man named Spencer appeared.

Half of his body gave off a dim light, like a low fire.

Daniel's pupils constricted, with his senses beyond human he hadn't actually noticed Spencer awaken. He hadn't felt the man approach at all.

Spencer's burned hand clamped around Dr. Storm's neck preventing him from speaking and lifting him into the air.

His eyes glanced over to the gurney that had Victor lying on it and shook his head in an altered manner.

"No, no no no No! This can't be happening!" his voice was inhuman.

The burned vocal cords gave him an eerie tone.

"Papa!" johny and Susan wanted to rush but Daniel Quickly stopped them, he didn't know what skills Spencer had gained, rushing blindly could be dangerous.

"Doctor Spencer Smythe!" Daniel shouted the man's name, he had learned it from Doctor Storm.

Hearing his name the man snapped out of his alteration and looked at him.

"You need to calm down things don't look good but we will work it out I promise, so let go of Doctor Storm" Daniel took a slight step forward.

Spencer declined and a low, gravelly laugh came out of his mouth.

"Fix it? How can you fix it, you have absolutely no idea what happened!"

The man looked back at Victor.

"you have the prince of Latveria bedridden with a disfigured face and body" a laugh akin to a cry came from Spencer.

"they'll kill me, they'll kill me for letting this happen."

At his words Daniel stopped dead in his tracks, he looked at the bedridden boy.

"Fuck!"

He hated politics.

This was a mess.

Spencer then looked at johny.

"no... this isn't my fault, This is your fault! Yes, you were, it's because of you that all this happened" Spencer's hand tightened and Dr. Storm groaned.

"If anyone has to answer to the government of Latveria it has to be you."

Daniel no longer wanted to hear him speak.

"This was an accident and no one here is going to answer to anyone" the world slowed down and Daniel began to move.

In a split second he reached Spencer's side, he was going to break his hand and free Dr. Storm.

Of course Daniel had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy.

And he wasn't wrong, Spencer's eyes followed his figure in high-speed motion.

In a flash of smoke and embers Spencer and Dr. Storm disappeared from where they stood.

Daniel stopped dead in his tracks and looked back seeing spencer appear where he was previously.

"Fuck!" the movement generated a gust of wind that whipped through the room, everything instantly became a mess, susan quickly covered her and victor with a barrier.

Johny burst into flames ignoring the strong winds.

"You're that hero aren't you? Defiant, I heard him while you were talking, I really didn't expect you to be so young, you've actually done some good things so I won't tell you twice, get out of the way" Spencer spoke.

"If you know who I am then you know that's not possible" daniel braced himself, a teleporter was something he hadn't faced before.

Worse, he could track its speed of movement with his eyes, He hadn't used all of his speed, not even a quarter of it, but for him to manage to dodge it was not something he expected.

If he had any other ability then Daniel wouldn't know if he could capture him or take Dr. Storm away from him.

Having no experience would make this an uphill battle.

But Daniel had begun to realize that very few battles would be easy at this point.

Johny approached burning with concentrated flames, no longer dispersing and instead seeming contained within his body.

He had begun to gain more and more control since awakening.

"listen asshole, let go of my father before he decides to finish the job and turn your other half into barbecue" johny's words made Spencer's expression turn grim.

"Failure, as always disrespectful to his elders, you really did a bad job raising him, didn't you Franklin?" he spoke to Dr. Storm but the man couldn't respond.

Johny clenched his fists his body heat intensifying.

Spencer smiled mischievously.

"You love your father don't you? Then take him from me."

That seemed to der the missing switch because it was at that moment that things escalated.

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Susan could not see it, she tried to but her eyes were not fast enough to follow the movement.

She could only cover herself with a barrier to prevent the wind and fire from making a bigger mess in the lab.

She took care to cover as much as she could, the power reaching her more easily with each passing second.

Still it was not enough for her to do more than defend herself.

Blurry figures moved like flashes across the room, johny seemed to move extremely fast, like a trail of flames.

His body would pass through anything as if it wasn't there, some kind of fire based intangibility was her theory.

Daniel on the other hand needed no such ability, his body would obliterate anything in its path as if it didn't exist.

Both in a race to catch up with Spencer.

Who seemed to be able to appear and disappear from reality faster than the two of them could move.

Susan wanted to help but her reflexes couldn't keep up, the only reason she had a general idea of how things were going was because of that strange connection she had with Daniel, which allowed her to know his exact location.

although that didn't help so much when he was moving so fast.

His senses didn't quite register him in one location when he was already in a totally different one.

It was frustrating.

But she wouldn't let something like that stop her.

Slowly the energy in her body began to spread throughout the room.

Her barrier carefully covered every possible wall, ceiling and floor.

If she couldn't follow him then she would enclose him from everywhere.

She didn't know if her teleportation ability could get him out, but the fact that he still hadn't left the room might be an indication that he couldn't move too far.

It was only a theoretical and vague hope at best, but it had to be enough.

When her barriers touched each other and she felt she had achieved her goal she acted.

Like a wave the barriers closed in on themselves like an implosion.

Daniel and Johnny passed through them as if they didn't exist, because Susan wanted them to.

But Spencer did not get that permission.

His body was suddenly enveloped in an energy field that completely surrounded him, his father fell to the ground now separated from Spencer's grip.

Daniel didn't hesitate, he accelerated and reached out to Dr. Storm holding him in his hands and pulling him away.

The field only held Spencer for a second, then his body seemed to disappear and he appeared behind Susan.

Or where she should have been.

She was ready, she had anticipated that she would be attacked when she interrupted so her body became invisible at the same instant she acted, she had already moved several meters away to the other side of the room.

"Hm! You always were the smartest Susan, smarter than your father and way smarter than your pathetic brother" Spencer wasn't upset about losing his hostage nor about not being able to attack Susan.

Instead he just glared at johny as he praised Susan, then he looked at Victor and his expression soured.

"but none of that matters anymore, Latveria won't let me go, not when I was responsible for the heir's safety... But I won't go down alone" his voice turned grim.

"Aghh!" doctor Storm yelled and daniel looked up only to see his neck, the place where Spencer had taken him, begin to burn in a burn that gave off smoke and embers.

"No!" daniel didn't know if it was him, johny or Susan who screamed first, but they certainly all did.

Before daniel could think of what to do the lab exploded, with Dr. Storm being the epicenter.

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Note:

this may be the only chapter of the week, i have a backlog and i lost some time, but i will bring more chapters next week to make up for it (i hope).

give me your opinions, comments and reviews, how do you think this mini arc is going? there are still many things to show and many things to come, I feel I have so much to write but so little time to do it, I already have many ideas written down but I can't get to them without building the road first.

I feel like a man in a desert dying of thirst and suddenly finding all the drinks in the world, there are so many that I don't know which one to try first and no matter which one I choose I will always want to drink the others.

I hope that didn't sound strange.