unbreakableben | Entries tagged with the fantastic

"Hey mom," Ben says and turns away from the guard so he can at least pretend he has privacy. "How are you doing?"
"Ben?!? Oh honey it's so good to hear from you. Where have you been? It's been more than a week and you never wait that long to call."

"I'm sorry mom, I got wrapped up in helping Reed," he replies and he has really. "Listen, I'm gonna take the next semester off of school. Reed needs some help here and I could use a break from school."

"Benjamin, don't you give up your education for Reed!"

"It's not like that mom! Reed needs my help here and I can probably get some work credit or something."

"What is Reed doing that he needs your help?" she asks clearly not buying it.

"I can't tell you mom, it's government stuff," Ben replies at a complete loss before he remembers some equipment some of Reed's peers showed him earlier. "Just testing things."

"If you are sure," she replies clearly not quite believing him. "I need to go but don't forget to call okay? I was worried."

"I will mom but they are keeping me busy here. I'll call in a week. I love you."

"I love you too honey. Say hello to Reed for me."

"Bye now," he says and hangs up. He didn't quite lie but it was close. Damnit Reed!

It takes all morning for him to be poked, prodded and ID'd to the military's satisfaction and his mood isn't any better. He finally comes across Reed and the head scientist of the Baxter Building, Dr. Storm, on his way to search for food. They, of course, want him to come with them and he complies cause he's really not sure where anything is at this point.

They walk through a door to a bright sunlight room and Dr. Storm says, "Johnny?" Ben walks behind with his head down so he doesn't see that the kid's hand is on fire.

"Dad, I can totally control the - AGGHH!!" Johnny says catching sight of Ben.

"Johnny..." Reed starts to say.

"What is that thing?" Johnny interrupts.

This is my life now, Ben thinks looking up finally.

"Johnny, this-this is my friend Ben. You met him yesterday before the..." Reed replies.

Johnny doesn't even bother to hide the shocked look. "Wow. Seriously."

"Johnny?" Dr. Storm says slightly exasperated at his sons behavior.

"Did the thing that made me like this, make him like that?"

Kid's talking like I'm not even in the room, Ben thinks.

"Yes, but you need to calm..." Dr. Storm says before Johnny interrupts again.

"Wait! Where's...what happened to Sue?"

"We don't know yet," Reed says in a choked voice.

"What is going on?" Johnny tries again.

"We don't know yet."

"I mean, one minute I'm, like, in the desert, then I'm in Yugoslavia or something. And then..." Johnny says getting a good rant started before a loud explosion is heard from outside. All four men rush to the window and look down. Even after all that's happened Ben can't help but wonder if he's lost it.

"Oh, man. I hope that's not Sue..." Johnny says as a giant monster pulls itself out of the ground amidst the devastation of the hole it burst through. He leans against the glass to get a better look. "Do you see that? Dad?"

"I..I..."

"Anyone?"

"I..."

"I mean what is that?"

"Uh Johnny? You're..." Dr. Storm begins to say as he notices the heat coming from his son and the distortion of the glass as Johnny heats it. Smoke starts to rise. "Johnny, calm done!" He yells but it's too late, the glass melts away and Johnny falls through as well as the pressurized air of the room. "Johnny, no!! JOHNNY!!"

Johnny falls for a few seconds, nearly long enough to reach the street before he shouts in a panic, "Flame ON?!?!?!?" He bursts into flames and starts flying. "Aaaaah HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!"

Up in the room Dr. Storm says, "Oh thank God! Now he's on fire. What is he doing?"

"It seems his flame form is lighter than air and causes some sort of combustion to keep him airborne."

"That's not what I..." Dr. Storm sputters. "Johnny! Johnny!! Stay away from that thing!! Let The Ultimates handle it! (He can't hear me...)"

"Dad-I can totally handle this thing with my..." Johnny says flying by before the monster takes a swing at him.

"Johnny!!" Dr. Storm yells, again.

"AAAAAAGHAAAAARRRGH!!!" yells the monster.

"This creature seems transfixed by Johnny's incandescence." Reed says falling into scientist mode.

"I was just going to say that," Ben says.

"At least by distracting him, Johnny is slowing his path."

"Mr. Grimm?" Dr. Richards says noticing Ben stepping through the melted glass.

Reed looks over and yells, "BEN! Wh-what are you...?"

"Well, the way I see it, clearly I've gone apeshit insane. Or I'm having some fantasy dream or something...So, guess I might as well be the hero in it."

"What?" Dr. Storm says completely confused.

"BEN!" Reed yells as Ben steps from the window and falls.

I hope I don't hit anyone, Ben has time to think before he hits the pavement. He pulls himself out the crater he's made and says, "Probably could have thought that through a little more." The monster however had noticed Ben's fall and hits him hard before picking him to to get a good bite.

"Mr. Grimm," General Ross says from behind his desk," let me begin by saying I sympathize with your situation."

"Thank you Sir," Ben says stands awkwardly as none of the furniture in the office looks like it will support his weight and the general never offered him a seat anyway.

"That does not however change the fact that you should never have been there or here in the first place. This facility is very important to the long range goals of our country, not to mention its security. Our countries enemies would love nothing more than to get their hands on any one of these brains we've got stashed here, your best friend especially. Nothing that occurs within the walls of the Baxter building is allowed to get out. High clearance is a stepping ladder to get the merest whiff of the things we do here."

"I understand Sir."

"And yet here you are. Do you realize the President doesn't even know of the N-Zone experiment? Yes son, you know something the President fo the United States doesn't and that just does not sit well with me."

He and Ben stare at each other for a few seconds before Ross continues. "We are still unsure what to do with you. You are not military, you have no clearance and yet here you are. I don't like problems Mr. Grimm and you are one hell of one. As I said, I sympathize with your situation but I have a responsibility to the security of this facility and to the United States. My superiors have decided to give you a choice. You can stay here. If you do, you are not to leave this facility, you are not to speak with anyone in the media and you are to stay away from windows and any exposure to the general populace. You are to become a secret like most of the things in this building. I understand you have a mother. You will be allowed to contact her in a limited fashion. One phone call a week which will be supervised and you are never to reveal your condition to her."

Ross takes a breath before continuing, "Your only other option is a cell waiting for you at the Triskelion*. You are now an asset of the United States Mr. Grimm. So will you cooperate with these conditions or shall I give General Fury a call?"

Ben blinks a few times but what choice is there. "I'll stay," he mumbles.

"Very well. You will need to sign some papers swearing you abide by these conditions which my Lieutenant will provide for you in the next room. You are dismissed."

Ben shuffles to the door which the Lieutenant has opened. "Damnit Reed," he thinks as he ducks through.

*The Triskelion is a high security prison for super powered individuals and the head quarters of The Ultimates, a government sponsored team of super powered individuals.

Reed has been sitting and watching his best friend (his only friend, the guy who saved him from countless beatings in school) sleep for nearly an hour now. He knows he needs to wake Ben up, face up to what he has done to him but he just can't. How do you tell the one friend you've ever had that you've ruined his life? That he's a monster because of you? But he owes it to Ben.

"Hi, Ben," he croaks out finally before he can think better of it.

Ben starts awake and blinks a few times before he sees his hands. "Aw, man...it did happen."

"Yeah," Reed says wishing he could turn invisible or something else useful.

"It wasn't a dream." Wakanda scholarship...gone. Football star...gone. Babes...gone.

"No."

"What happened to me, Reed?"

Reed looks away but forces himself to look back. "I don't know yet."

Ben looks around at the fake red leather furniture and the blue and yellow checkered floor. There's not much else to look at. "Where am I?"

"New York City. We're...we're back at the Baxter Building."

"How did I get here?" Football...gone.

"You passed out in Mexico."

"I was in Mexico?"

Reed swallows the lump in his throat. "You were in Mexico. The Army found you and...and they transported you here."

Ben forces himself to look down, to face what he's become. All gone...poof. "What am I wearing?"

"It's an impact suit." Reed says brightening a bit at a chance to talk about the suit's technology before the reality of the situation hits him. "It...it absorbs the extra impact you are putting on yourself and...you know, the world. What does it feel like? How do you feel?"

Ben glares at Reed. "Angry."

Reed shrinks into his chair.

"How did this happen?" Ben closes his eyes not really wanting to know. Babes...gone.

"There..." Reed says before clearing his throat. "There was an accident..."

His eyes crack open and through clenched teeth he asks, "This is your fault?"

Reed feels as if the ground has fallen away beneath him. "Yes."

Ben is moving before he is even aware of any choice he's made. He's just filled with so much anger. The couch he was sitting on flies across the room as he leaps at Reed, one hand already coming down to lay into Reed. For a moment Reed just sits there in the shadow of Ben before his body twists like a snake, dodging Ben's blow which destroys the chair he had been sitting on.

"My life is...!!!" Ben manages to say through his fury.

"Ben please!!" Reed says freaking out as his mind works out the forces Ben is putting on the building.

"YOU!!!"

"You'll crash the entire building!! You have to...you'll hurt people." Reed says as he wraps his elastic body around Ben hoping to reduce Ben's rampage.

"What you've done to me and my..."

"Stop it!"

Ben struggles against Reed but can't really get any good leverage. Then his mind catches up to what Reed is doing. Startled from his fury he says, "Wait...what are you doing?!"

"I don't know!! I just need you to calm down."

"What the hell happened to you?" Despite himself Ben can't help but feel worried for his friend.

"I'll stop it if you will."

Ben takes a calming breath. "'Kay."

Slowly, as if not quite sure if he can believe Ben, Reed uncoils and pulls himself to a more human shape. "We have to, listen, we have to find Sue and Victor. They are still out there and every minute that passes..." Reed stops as he catches Ben's eye. "Ben, I promise. I will fix this. Please, please trust me. I will fix this."

Ben looks away, still too angry to offer any sort of absolution. "Well, let's see...Took you a good fourteen years to find a way to mess my life up this bad. Guess I can wait around another fourteen...see if you ever figure out if you can fix it." Ben spots a door and he suddenly can't be in the same room with Reed anymore. "Like I got another choice." He opens the door and steps through only to hit his head before he ducks and slams the door. Damn it Reed.

He wakes up and it feels like the worst morning-after in his entire life, worse even than the Everclear and Tequila night. He watches the pink thing near his eyes because it's easier than trying to remember. The pink thing twitches and he hears a squeak. The ground is dry and there are no plants.

"It's like a..." Words fail him but he's glad it's not hot. The pink thing twitches again and his eyes follow it down to the gray matted fur and teeth. Small eyes stare back at him as it eats a piece of cheese. "Rat," his over taxed mind says. "No desert. I'm in a desert and that is a rat. Am I in Tijuana? Shouldn't I be hot?" He doesn't feel hot. What he feels is heavy. He's laying on the ground and getting up feels like the hardest thing in the world. The ground's soft though, almost like a bed.

He hears a scrapping sound and his eyes track to it. He stares at two pairs of feet in sandals for a long time before his mind connects again to say, "People." He look up and he sees two kids staring, slack jawed. "Hey," he says to be neighborly.

The kids stare for a moment before one screams and they run away. "What the heck?" he thinks as he heaves himself to a sitting position. From there he rises to stand. "What's the wrong with you?" he calls after the kids as they round a corner past a pack of stray dogs.

"Hey, what are you...?" he calls after them as he begins to follow. By his third step he feels the earth shiver beneath him. "Earthquake? Is that why they're freaking out?" Another foot fall and the pack of stray dog is knocked off their feet before they scamper back to run away.

"What is everybody..." he muses as a fire hydrant breaks near him, spewing water into the air. He pauses finding it so hard to think clearly. There's a flash of Reed, that cute girl of his and her brother. Then that smug, condescending smirk of Van Damme's. The blinding light and then the pain. "Um..."

Something shoves him hard in the back, not enough to knock him over but enough to get through his muddled thoughts. Before he can look over his shoulder though a shadow blocks out the sun. He looks up into the terrified eyes of the farmer and his chickens as an old pickup truck flips over him to come crashing down. "Did that truck hit me?"

"Uh, um...I need some help here!" he says into the stunned silence. He finally looks down and sees arms, legs and a torso that belong to a monster. He flinches in fear and sees the arms do the same. The realization hits just before he passes out. "That's me!"

[OOC-All spoken dialog and events from Ultimate Fantastic Four #03]

Current Mood: confused
Current Location: Mexico City

The flight from Texas wasn't too bad but he's still grumpy when the Arizona air hits him full in the face. He had really wanted to make the whole trip by walking or hitchhiking but he was on a time schedule and he only had two days left until Reed's experiment went live. Arizona is pretty much what he expects, dry, hot and dusty but he still gets a surprise in the form of a courier who comes up to him.

"Mr. Benjamin Grimm?"

"Yeah," he says confused. No one should have any idea where he is. Okay he's called his mom with updates but who would know enough to get a courier to met him in Arizona?

"This is for you," the courier is saying and handing him a small padded envelope. "Sign here."

He signs and is tearing open the package before the courier has turned away. Just as the items within pour into his palm his phone beeps. Pulling it open, he shades the screen with his hand and sees it's a text from Reed, or at least the unknown caller who seems to be Reed.

Welcome to the desert. Don't lose those IDs, they were tough to get and this is an exclusive performance.

Ben looks at what fell out of the envelope and sees several security badges with his photo, each a different color. He looks from it to the phone and types: How?

How did I get the IDs or how did I get the picture or how did I know you'd be there?

Yes.

Look up and say 'Hi'.

Ben looks up and sees a security camera has swiveled to face him.

This is creepy. Like Orwell.

I could hack into a satellite next time if that would make you feel better.

That's okay. See you soon, I've still got a state to get through.

Okay. Why are you walking anyway? You could have taken a direct flight.

Needed some time to think. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

See you then. Remember don't loose those IDs. Any of them. They're the only thing that will get you in.

I won't, see you.

And with that done he clips the IDs to his passport lanyard and tucks them into his shirt as his sticks out his thumb to hitch a ride.

"Holy shit," Ben thinks to himself as he dries his face in the bathroom. He can feel the base of the music from the party downstairs, a typical last fling before folks fly away for home or other parts during Spring Break. He catches his eye and can't help but smile at himself. First string draft pick for the New York Giants...it's like a dream. And if that's weren't enough, eligible for the Wakanda Scholarship for study abroad. One full year paid for any foreign university he could get himself into. But which to chose? Tough choice but what choices. If his future were any brighter he'd need shades.

It's then that his cell phone vibrates and he flips it open to find a message from Reed: "Live test, March 4th@12:00, 115.49'00"W 37.14'00"N. Hope you can make it."

"Well I'll be, he really did it," Ben thinks to himself. "Maybe I should go on a trip to figure out my future and visit Reed and see his grand experiment like I promised. Yeah, a road trip is just the thing."

His thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door and a woman's voice calling, "Ben? You gonna be much longer? There setting up some jello shots down stairs again."

He looks at his watch (it's been an hour since his last drink) before answering. "I'm coming!" and with that he adjusts his toga before opening the door.