chapter five!
005. the fantastic five

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    SITTING IN the back of the taxi was filled with anxious silence. It was a long drive back to Brooklyn. Already, Ingrid has spent too much time being in close quarters with Johnny Storm than physically possible before she was sure to spontaneously combust out of pure frustration. The clock was ticking down. At this stage, she was sure to only have five minutes left within her before she'd blow. 

    But there were more important things to worry about other than Johnny's insistent, annoying comments in the back seat beside her. 

    Something had happened to Ben▬just like the rest of them. Except this time, whatever it was, it was something on a much larger, physical scale. None of them could possibly imagine what the storm had done to Ben Grimm▬they were a little scared to find out. 

    As they got closer to New York City, Ingrid couldn't help but stare out the window and imagine herself back home in her father's small apartment. She felt terrible▬she still hadn't called him. She wondered whether he was waiting▬by the window or by the door, sitting at their table and pushing through the pain of his past to prepare a smile for when his only daughter walked through the front door. He did whatever he could to be happy for her▬to sacrifice his pain so he could shoulder hers to make sure she always felt supported, loved, and happy. 

    And now she was going to pass through her home▬past their apartment▬and not be able to run through that door into her father's arms after all she had been through. 

   She glanced down at her phone, wondering if she should call him now. But as she glanced at Johnny, Sue and Reed seated in the taxi with her, on their way to find Ben, Ingrid realised she couldn't. 

    Beside her, Johnny was still trying out his new trick. Ingrid's expression went flat, annoyed. She scowled at him out of the corner of her eye, watching the small flame appear and then disappear on his fingers. Smoke slowly filled the back of the cab, and Ingrid could see the driver sniff at the air, confused. 

    "Stop," whispered Ingrid, smacking his shoulder lightly. He didn't listen. "Johnny, Johnny▬" she reached out and smacked his hand that was emitting the flames. "Stop." The flame disappeared just as the driver glanced curiously up through the reaview mirror. 

    "Okay, okay," he hunched up, his voice going high in mocking sincerity. "I'll stop▬I'll stop."

    But after Ingrid had given him one last scowl and settled back in the middle seat, he snapped his fingers again and grinned, mischevious when the small flame danced on his fingertips. 

    Ingrid gritted her teeth. "You▬" she reached out and snuffed the flame like she had done back at the quarantine centre, and smoke curled out from between her knuckles. 

     He watched her, looking more disappointed rather than annoyed. On Ingrid's other side, Sue sighed softly and let her head fall into her hand, not in the mood to deal with her brother and his new favourite hobby of annoying her intern. "You're really dampening my mood here, princess."

    "Would you be serious for once in your life?" she whispered to him harshly and he shrugged, as if he had considered it but decided against it. "Ben is out there▬we have to find him."

    Johnny lowered his voice and leaned in closer to her. She scowled at him. "Between you and me," he whispered conspiratorily, as if sharing with her some deep, dark secret, "I think whatever thing barged its way out of that room ... that's not Ben."

    She wanted to argue, but she hesitated. As horrible as it sounded, there was a part of her that agreed with Johnny. What if whatever the solar storm to the rest of them had completely overrun Ben? He had been hit with it directly▬it was miraculous it didn't kill him. What if that meant that he had been changed ... completely to the point that not even a slither of the gruff, kind man he was before was left? That really worried Ingrid. 

    "No," she murmured stubbornly, shaking her head. She met Johnny's gaze, determined. "Whatever that thing was, it's still Ben▬and he needs our help."

    Just then, they slowed down at a set of traffic lights in the same block as her apartment. Ingrid's determination fell and she stared out the window, seeing the apartment complex that was her home. Her gaze found her floor and her heart grew tight in her chest▬her father was so close, and yet so far away. 

    Even though he did his best to do well on his own, Ingrid had always gone out of her way to try and take care of him. Ever since she could remember, she's done what she could to make life easier for him▬to look after him. And now, she wasn't there. She was stuck in quarantine, in this cab▬what if he had fallen? What if he was in pain and he couldn't make dinner? What if he needed her, and she wasn't there ... the possibility tore her apart. 

    Everything she was doing in college was to try and make it to M.I.T., but if she got accepted, would she even go? If she went, that meant she had to leave her father alone▬and Ingrid knew she couldn't do that without feeling incredibly guilty, as she did now. 

     If Johnny noticed her change in attitude, he didn't say anything about it▬and she appreciated it, even though she'd never express it to him in words. Ingrid settled back in the middle seat in the back of the cab, troubled by her thoughts. It was then that Johnny finally stopped his annoying trick for the remainder of the ride. 

    She could just text him. Ingrid could just message her father▬that was all it took, and she didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to do it. Was she ashamed? Ashamed that for the first time in her life, she took a risk she didn't spend days calculating the consequences, and it turned out to be a mistake? A mistake that has changed her, has forcibly taken her away from her father longer than she wanted. Or was she afraid that if she saw her father again now, would he recognise her? Was she scared about how much the storm had changed her, she just hadn't realised it yet. 

    This was something she could calculate and she couldn't predict. She couldn't plan out the journey to reach a decided destination, and Ingrid was terrified. 

    The driver took them onto the Brooklyn Bridge, slowly moving through heavy morning traffic. She rubbed her eyes, admittedly tired from staying up all night. She frowned, however, when she heard muffled yells further up the rows of cars. She tilted her head, trying to see past the sea of colours▬the shouts sounded startled and fearful. She noticed some people running past on the pedestrian walkways.

    The mighty crash made Ingrid jump in her seat. Tires squealed, steam curled, people shouted in alarm▬further up ahead, her eyes widened to see cars spiral up into the air, ram into each other and be squashed behind braking trucks and buses. The traffic came to a sudden stand-hold, and Ingrid gripped onto Susan beside her to keep herself from flying forward even with her seatbelt on. 

    "What the▬?" Johnny didn't even finish his sentence before he unbuckled his belt and pushed open the cab door. Their driver slammed his palm onto his horn▬much like many others, and soon, Ingrid's ears were rattling from the loud commotion all around her. 

    She, Sue and Reed all followed Johnny, rushing out of the cab to try and see what was happening. Smoke was starting to form a low-hanging, suffocating cloud over the bottom quarter of the bridge▬hovering right over the source of the shouts and screams. Above, spectators were rushing where they couldn't, scrambling along the pedestrian walkways with their phones out▬either running towards the commotion, or away. 

    Everyone was slowly starting to get out of their cars, and two police officers who had been on the bridge when the commotion started, begun to create a tape barrier to stop the growing mob from getting any closer. Sirens wailed behind them as more police vehicles raced towards the Brooklyn Bridge with a firetruck on their tail▬and everyone was forced to make a pathway as first responders all tried to squeeze through the halted traffic. 

    Johnny tapped Ingrid's shoulder. "Come on▬" he told her and gestured to the others. Together, they pushed through the growing croud, slipping between shoulders and ducking underneath arms. Ingrid stood on her toes, jumping up and down slightly to try and see what was going on. 

    "Everyone! Get back in your vehicles!" 

    No one was listening to the cops as they pushed back the barrier▬the entire mob of people just flooded as close as they could, and Ingrid was prepared to declare 'nosiness' a part of the collective human nature. 

    In just minutes, the right hand side of the Brooklyn Bridge had turned into a scene of chaos with wailing blue and red sirens, growing crowd of restless onlookers, and desperate first reponders trying to get as close as they could in amongst the devastating crash zone that had left multiple vehicles destroyed and many people in critical conditions. Ingrid coughed a little at the smoke hovering overhead, that pounding headache returning. Her heart was racing and she rubbed at her chest, trying to calm it down as she felt it pound against her ribcage in irregular flutters. 

    She had been fine before. But now, it was as if as soon as she was surrounded in a sea of chaos, Ingrid felt as though she was drowning in pain and anxiety▬and she couldn't figure out how to stop it. Below, the water of the East River seemed to grow just as restless as the crowd. Curious onlookers near the piers pointed, startled at the way the water suddenly lapped visiously at the shore and couldn't believe their eyes when waves started to roll over the river's surface not towards the island, but away from them.

    Susan stood on her toes to see over the ocean of shoulders and heads. She couldn't glimpse past the ambulences and police cars. She swore under her breath and spun to Ingrid, Johnny and Reed. "What are we gonna do now?"

    Reed sighed and propped his hands on his hips. "We're not gonna get through these guys," he said, watching as some people even stood up onto the top of their cars to see over the blockade. He huffed, annoyed and distressed▬until an idea suddenly struck him. He went still and slowly turned back to Sue, watching her with a newfound interest. "But ... you could."

    She stared back at him, frowning. "You're kidding, right? You want me to turn invisible with all these people watching?" she said this in a harsh whisper, gesturing at the crowd around them. 

    Reed shrugged at her. "Well, what other choice do we have?"

    Sue glared at him, not happy about this at all. But she didn't argue. Gritting her teeth, she shuffled anxiously on her feet. The last thing she wanted to do was become a spectacle in the middle of a crowd▬which surprised her, because for so long, she had been so sick of feeling invisible to everyone around her. But there was a difference to being seen on her own terms, for her own skills and worth, and being turned into some prized show for onlookers. She couldn't begin to imagine what would happen if people saw her strange new powers▬if they saw all of their abilities.

    But they had to get to Ben on the other side of this bridge, wherever he was, and so, Susan Storm took a deep breath and closed her eyes. 

    Ingrid watched, her jaw dropping in amazement as slowly, Susan Storm began to disappear. The light shifted around her, it twisted and wrapped around her body until it seemed to merge into her skin and she became it. Her skin shimmered, and right before Ingrid's eyes, Sue turned invisible.

    All except her clothes. People started to murmur and turn around▬their attention easily switching from the crash to the strange floating woman's blouse, pants and blazer.  

    Reed glanced around, sheepish. "Uh, Sue▬" he shuffled closer to her, rushing out an urgent whisper through gritted teeth. "Sue, your clothes. Lose them."

    "Excuse me?!" she let out, suddenly furious at the suggestion and her voice echoed around them. Susan then realised what she meant, seeing that her clothes were still visible. "Oh, right▬" she fiddled with the buttons of her blazer, and even though her expression was hidden by the light she manipulated, Ingrid knew she was glaring at Reed▬not happy about this at all. 

    Johnny turned up his nose and had to look away. "This is so wrong..." he muttered, and he noticed some guys watching with eager grins on their faces. "Hey▬what're you looking at?" he shoved one of them back. 

    Ingrid shuffled closer to Susan and tried to shield her from onlookers as she took off her blouse, revealing her underwear under so many watching eyes. Even if she was invisible, it didn't make it any less horrible for her, and any less uncomfortable for Ingrid who had to hear the whistles that echoed in the circle of spectators around them. 

    The whistles made Susan freeze. She hunched up, and her concentration faltered. The light shifted again, and soon, it revealed her▬standing there in nothing but her underwear. People gasped, there were more whistles and she soon realised. She squealed and tried to cover herself up.

    Johnny turned away immediately, "Oh, God..." he muttered, looking traumatised but stood next to Ingrid, trying to shield his sister. 

    Reed stared like a fish out of water. He blinked at his ex-girlfriend. "You've been working out?" was all he had to say. 

    Susan threw her shirt at him. "Shut up!" 

    "Reed," snapped Ingrid, snapping her fingers and urging him over to join them in the circle they were trying to form around Sue to help her out.

    He jumped and rushed over to join her and Johnny, mumbling, "Oh, right▬uh▬sorry."

    "Yeah, great idea, Reed!" meanwhile, Susan was seething as she scrambled to hold up her blazer to cover herself up. "Why don't you strip down and have a hundred people stare at you?!"

    "Not cool, man," grumbled Johnny, not impressed. 

    But just as her anger seemed to reach boiling point, the light on her skin seemed to turn iridiscent once more, reflecting the world around her like she was a mirror. Ingrid noticed and hitched her breath, quickly nodding at her. "Sue▬look, look▬"

    She noticed. "Oh, thank God▬" and as soon as she was completely invisible to the wandering eye, she dropped her blazer and rushed to take off the rest of her clothes, wanting to get this over and done with. 

    Johnny noticed his sister discard her underwear and made a face, staring up at the sky. "Oh, man ... I'm gonna need therapy after this..."

    Sue slipped off her socks, and just like that, it was as if she was never even there. She was completely invisible. Ingrid watched people gasp and move out of the way when something suddenly barged into them, making her way through and past the barricade without anyone noticing. 

    One of the alarms on the cars went off, and everyone was momentarily distracted by the loud noise. Reed tapped Johnny and Ingrid's shoulders. "Come on▬that's our chance, let's go▬" and led the way through the crowd. Johnny quickly gathered up his sister's clothes and they followed, weaving through the disorientated mob to the very edge of the road. They ducked around the side of the ambulance and hurried deeper into the chaos before anyone would notice. 

    They met up with Susan on the otherside. Once she was back in her clothes, her furious face was revealed in the daylight▬and she looked murderous as she spun to face Reed. "I still can't believe you made me do that!" she fixed her hair out of her blouse collar. 

    "I can't believe I had to watch that," muttered Johnny and Sue fixed her glare onto him. He hunched, holding his hands up in surrender. 

    "We got through, didn't we?" he argued and she narrowed her eyes at him▬as if planning the best way to hide his body. 

    Ingrid ignored them. Her brows furrowed as she wandered up to the nearby truck. Its head had been crumpled and squashed by a shattering impact. She rounded the side, her heart pounding and her head spinning to see what looked like an indent of a fist planted right in the middle between its headlights. She thought of the destruction in Ben's room back at the quarantine facility, and the destruction around them. Her chest felt like it was caving in. The water of the East River below seemed to churn. 

    "Guys▬" she called back to the others, her voice small and frantic. "I think you should see this..."

    Their bickering stopped. Ingrid felt their shadows hover behind her and all four of them frowned at the damage to the front of the truck▬a similar thought passing through each of them. They shared uneasy looks. 

    Ingrid's breathing grew a little laboured. "I think ... I think Ben did this," she murmured. 

    Reed grew tense at that. His gaze shot up to the billowing smoke around them. "Ben?" he called out, surging foward and rushing through the flames and car wrecks in search of his friend. "Ben!"

    Sue rushed after him. "Reed, wait!" she ducked around an open cab door and skidded between two pick-up trucks. 

    Ingrid went to follow, but her temples spiked with pain and she stumbled, her hand lifting to her forehead. She felt dizzy. When Johnny realised she wasn't behind him, he glanced over his shoulder. Seeing her struggle, he frowned and raced back over. "Whoa, whoa▬hey, hey, hey, what's going on?"

    "I'm fine," she murmured, trying to control her breathing to slow her heart rate. 

    Johnny went to touch her, but his hand pulled away like he had been burned. "Jesus▬!" he cursed, shaking his hand with a hiss. "Damn, Ingrid, you're like ice-cold."

     "What?" Ingrid frowned at him, confused. Before she could say anything else, gunshots broke through the smoke with loud cracks and she gasped, ducking down. After a moment, both she and Johnny peered over their shoulders in the direction Sue and Reed ran off, and the road seemed to tremble as something ran away from bullets with heavy thuds on the tarmac.

    Her heart dropped. "Ben," she realised and pushed herself to move. 

    When she stumbled a little, Johnny grabbed her elbow despite her skin being ice-cold to the touch. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there▬" he helped her to stand up straighter and they moved through the wreckage of the bridge together. "I got you."

    Ingrid glanced up at Johnny, surprised. Her heart fluttered at a different beat, and she scolded herself over it. She couldn't let herself fall into the same trap she did the first time they crossed paths▬to let her naivity overcome her rationality whenever she saw even a glimpse of the person Johnny had been that night when they were alone, and there was no one else they needed to pretend in front of. Because if she did that, she knew she'd get hurt again▬she knew she'd be left stranded alone in a desert of Johnny's dry promises. She had learnt her lesson. 

    Never again would she let herself lose control of her life the moment she got to taste a life of freedom and adventure▬of not caring about where the road would take them as they drove down it over the speed limit, of letting herself just run with the feeling that sent her heart wild without being able to predict the ending. 

    It didn't matter if that night▬just that one night▬had been the one time Ingrid Rivers felt alive, and free of her cage she locked herself in. Never again did she experience anything like it since. 

    She didn't even realise the dizzying pain in her head, and her icy skin had disappeared the longer Johnny gripped her arm. 

    They made it through the wreckage of cars to the centre of the crash, both of them skidding to a stop together next to Reed. Sue was leaping up onto the top of a yellow cab, trying to see over the destruction on the Brooklyn Bridge in search of Ben. Suddenly, she let out a strangled gasp.

    Ingrid's scream was stuck in the back of her throat when she saw him. Her eyes widened and she let out her own horrified gasp▬unable to believe what she was seeing right before her eyes. 

    Through the smoke and flames, there stood a towering figure. He stood at around six feet and five inches tall with mighty, muscular limbs and thick, meaty hands▬but he wasn't a man at all. His entire body▬from head to toe▬was covered in scaly, cracked sandstone and rock. Every time he moved, Ingrid could hear stone scrape against stone and feel the ground shudder beneath her. The Thing seemed to be more boulder than man, but underneath thick, heavy rocky brows and one either side of a crooked, bulging, pebbly nose, were a pair of frightened eyes that were very, very human. 

    "Oh, my God..." whispered Ingrid, her chest tight with horror and dread▬and she wasn't sure whether it was from fear, or grief. "Ben..."

    For a moment, none of them moved▬they were all frozen in their shock at the sight of Ben Grimm▬or what had once been Ben Grimm, but now instead stood a creature of earth and stone. 

    It's still Ben, Ingrid reminded herself. 

    Her troubling thoughts were broken at the soft, fearful cry a few metres down. "Mom? Mom!" the sound of a terrified girl, trapped between the wreckage of two cars as she desperately tried to search for her mother in the chaos. Ingrid's nose itched with a horrible smell▬there was a high whistling sound, and her heart lurched when she noticed the cannisters lying nearby the young girl, soaked in oil.

    Johnny's eyes widened and he leapt into action. "Johnny▬!" Ingrid shouted, but he was already gone. He ran up the front of one car and dived towards the young girl just as the flames sparked. She screamed and he wrapped his arms around her, spinning them around and tucking her in close. He clenched his eyes shut and braced himself when the explosion hit. 

    Flames billowed with what felt like the force of a cannon, and Ingrid was thrown back by searing force▬it burned the hair right off her arms. She tumbled and rolled across the tarmac, watching as the flames spread down the bridge like a wildfire▬uncontrollable and deadly. 

    Pedestrians who were watching all screamed and ducked. The fire truck that was speeding towards them in the opposite lane slammed the breaks and its wheels spun out▬it flung sideways to avoid the cascading wall of fire that rolled towards it. It skidded and crashed through the barrier of the bridge▬the firefighter holding onto the ladder at the rear yelled and clung on as the truck dangerously tilted over the side, and he was left dangling above the river. 

    Her heart pounded as she glanced around through the embers and smoke. She coughed, feeling the ash burn at her lungs. Ingrid watched as people ran and screamed, trying to escape the flames that were getting larger and larger with the bitter smell of gas. 

    The pain in Ingrid's head spiked and her stomach lurched. She doubled over with a cry, clutching at her hair when the pain became suddenly so overwhelming, her vision blurred. A low rumble echoed across the river when the water churned into restless wirlpools beneath the bridge. Ingrid glanced up, dizzy and disorientated. She noticed the flames loom over her and she threw up her hands to try and protect herself. Her stomach flipped and suddenly, the river exploded. 

    A wave towered high over the Brooklyn Bridge and people screamed once again▬they cowered and hid as the water cascaded down, but it never hit them. It swept over their heads and separated from the river, like a gigantic serpent of water, it curled above the firestorm before it finally struck.

    It crashed down and the flames were snuffed out. The water ran a current through the wreckage, spluttering out the fire everywhere it went. Ingrid swayed as she tried to stay upright, watching the East River gush around her and towards where Johnny and the girl had been. 

    The flames disappeared, and there they were. Ingrid stared, her head spinning and feeling the need to heave▬but she didn't. She hitched her breath as Johnny glanced up and pulled his arms away, revealing the girl safely tucked away. Both of them were completely unharmed. 

    Behind them, the fire truck was now almost vertical, seconds away from falling into the river below. The lonely firefighter dangling at the foot of the ladder slipped, and his screams pierced through the air.

    When suddenly, something▬no, someone▬caught him. He glanced up and almost flung himself out of the man's grip in fright. Reed Richards gritted his teeth with the effort of holding the man up, his torso stretched halfway down over the bridge edge. Slowly, did his skin retract, and with it, he pulled the firefighter up. He let out a strangled groan of effort through clenched teeth before heaving the man onto the side of the road. He dropped to his knees as he felt all of his organs retract, too, twisting and squirming back to their normal side inside him. The firefighter scrambled back, wide-eyed in shock▬and a little bit disgusted.

    Just as the fire truck was about to tumble over the side, gigantic hands calloused with rock and stone gripped the front bumper and heaved. Ben Grimms feet dug into the tarmac, leaving two humongous footprints where he stood. He yelled a gravelly sound▬deep and low in the pit of his stomach, sounding hollow as if it echoed up through the tunnels of a cave. Slowly, ever-so-slowly, the fire truck began to drag back up onto the road. The metal of its hood dinted, its back wheels topped down into the river below, but with one last mighty pull, the fire truck returned horizontal to the tarmac with a heavy thud.

    A heavy silence followed. Those who were watching▬police, firefighters, ambulance and the average New Yorker▬were stunned into silence, but were unable to look away as the mysterious five superpowered individuals stood amongst the destruction and smoke of the Brooklyn Bridge. Moreso, the beast that stood taller than any of them▬a frightening creature that had caused this destruction, and then risked his life to save them, and now it was up to the world to decide whether that was enough. 

    Ingrid took a few deep breaths to keep herself steady as she stood back up. Johnny passed off the young girl he saved to a nearby police officer and joined her at her side. He grasped her elbow, for once at a loss for words.

    It was suffocating, the silence▬a tension that made Ingrid feel as though she was drowning. Or perhaps that was the ash she was still coughing from her lungs. 

    Until, amongst the heavy crowd, someone clapped.

    And like a domino effect, one clap followed after another▬until the entire Brooklyn Bridge erupted into applause and cheers. People whistled and applauded from above, others broke through the police barriers and surrounded the team of five with bright smiles. Police and firefighter vehicles blared their horns in gratitude and appreciation▬joining the bellowing, standing ovation from the people of New York that made Ingrid's shoulders fall in surprise, and a breathless sigh of amazement leave her lips. 

    "Did that just happen?" Ingrid whispered, her voice drowned out in the applause.  

    "Oh, yeah, it did," Johnny grinned, throwing up his hands and the cheering roars grew▬he spun around, taking it all in with a smug smile. Ingrid watched him with a scowl.

    But there was a face in the crowd that wasn't smiling. A beautiful woman, who wrapped a robe around her nightgown with slippers on her feet. She brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes, and her gaze fell onto the stone figure of Ben Grimm with tears streaming down her face.

    Ben faltered▬the loud applause drowning back into silence when he noticed his fiance.

    He went to go to her, but she stepped back. She shook her head, taking a sharp, shaky breath through her nose. She glanced down at the beautiful ring on her finger. Ben's fiance hitched back her sobs and struggled to pull it off. She gently set it down at her feet and with one last, heartbroken look, she turned away and disappeared back into the crowd, leaving Ben standing there▬and just like the rest of him, he felt as though his heart, too, had just turned to stone. 

    Ingrid's heart fell with it. Even Johnny stopped, his arrogant smile dropping and his hands returning to his side. Susan held her breath, wiping away the blood that had fallen from her nose▬she tilted her head, pained by the sight.

    Ben crouched down and tried to pick up the engagement ring he had given the woman he had loved▬who he had thought he would spend the rest of his life with. But it was too small. His pebbled fingers scraped the road, and no matter how hard he tried, they couldn't grasp the delicate gem▬and he wanted to shout in pained fury.

    Until someone else reached down and grabbed it for him. Reed Richards silently placed it into his stone palm, and Ben looked up to meet his gaze. His best friend took a deep breath and sighed out a sad smile, but when he placed his hand on his shoulder▬there was a determined vow made deep in his eyes. 

    "I promise you," said Reed Richards, "I will do everything in my power until there is not even a breath left in me▬" he held his friend by the arms. "You're gonna be Ben again."

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    INGRID BARELY registered the feeling of the pressure cuff tightening around her upper arm, her stare distant and dull as she frowned at the corner of the medical tent for a good thirty minutes while they checked up on her. She had been watching the same bug crawl up and down the canvas▬over and over and over again, trying to find its way back out into the open, but always missing its freedom by inches. She couldn't help but feel the same. 

    She was trying to comprehend all that had just happened▬trying to put two and two together; to think logically and rationally about the solar storm, the effects it had on her and her team, and the powers it gave her on the bridge. She needed to make sense of it all▬to feel grounded again, and not lost in this endless space of confusion and fear, always drifting and never sure where to land. As if she had lost all sense of gravity, Ingrid almost felt as though she wasn't truly present with the world around her, but instead floating above and simply watching, unable to return to the ground. Perhaps she truly had died up there at the space station, because ever since she woke up back on Earth, Ingrid didn't feel like the person she once was. She had been changed, and it terrified her. 

    Her blood pressure had returned to normal▬which baffled the paramedics, but there was no way they could explain it, and Ingrid couldn't help them. She was just as confused and just as concerned. 

    She had pulled the water out of the river like some vacuum▬a vast, vicious power that she could feel inside her: restless and out of control▬sending her heart rate spiking, her blood pressure fluctuating, and her mind spinning. And when it all became too much, it had burst▬manifesting into a tidal wave that took over every sense of rationality and stubborn control she had left in her to keep it hidden, to keep it stable inside of her ... and what if there hadn't been a fire to put out? What if, instead of saving everyone, she had destroyed them?

    The paramedic pulled apart the cuff from her arm, and his mutterings that told her that there didn't seem to be anything abnormal about her went in one ear and flew straight out of the other. Ingrid only just remembered to mumble a soft, "Thanks," as he left her to sit there alone.

    The tent was a jumble of muffled chatter and conversation. Johnny was pestering Ben, eyeing his stony differences with almost a childish curiosity▬not caring about the tension in his shoulders and the way he stared, glum, down at the engagement ring in his palm. "Where are your ears?" he asked, and Ben glanced up at him, more dubious than angry.

    Noticing that she was free of EMTs, Reed Richards left the conversation he was having with Sue Storm and the police supervisor and approached her. Ingrid glanced up, taken aback when he sat down beside her. 

    "You all right?" he murmured, gentle and caring.

    It took a moment for Ingrid to answer, she was so surprised by his genuine concern. "I▬uh, yeah," she nodded, clearing her throat to clear its sudden hoarseness. "Just▬uh▬you know, a little shocked by it all."

    She watched him sigh and hang his head, rubbing at the frown that knitted his brows▬as if trying to ease a pounding headache. Ingrid pursed her lips, contemplating what the right thing was to say▬or whether it was better to stay sitting there in awkward silence. She twiddled her thumbs, her legs swinging slightly off the edge of the stretcher. 

    "Um, are ... are you okay?" she decided to say in the end.

    "Yeah," Reed nodded. "Yeah," he said again, as if trying to convince himself. When he noticed the soft, unguarded look Ingrid held as she watched him, his resolve fell away and he sighed once more. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "This is all my fault."

    "Why?" Ingrid frowned. 

    "I miscalculated▬I should have been more prepared up there, checked again ... maybe I could have prevented all of this." His gaze settled on Ben, and heavy guilt weighed down in Dr. Reed Richards' eyes. 

    Ingrid looked down at her fingers again. She understood why he would blame himself▬and maybe if he had checked his calculations again, he would have seen something astray, or maybe, simply, it had been an anomaly none of them saw coming, and none of them could control. 

    "It was an anomaly," she murmured to him, pulling his gaze back to her. "There was no way you could have predicted that. We can't control everything, no matter how hard we try."

    (She just wished she could take her own advice).

    "We just have to figure out what to do from here," continued Ingrid, shrugging. "Follow the scientific method▬we have our question, now we just gotta explore it, observe what we find, and only then can we analyse it and come to a conclusion. We can't skip any step before then."

    Reed managed a small smile at that▬finding it almost endearing that despite how terrified she must be, this young college student who was his responsibility, not the other way around, was reassuring and schooling him. (And somehow, it worked).

    Outside, Ingrid could hear the crowd that had still not left▬instead, it only seemed to grow as more people heard about what happened, and came to see the team of powered individuals themselves. A whole band of police officers were doing their best to keep the growing mob and flock of reporters at bay, but they were growing restless.

    The Captain of the FDNY ducked inside the tent, fixing his tie and glancing at the group of them with a wary frown. When he saw Reed, he nodded and gestured him over. Ingrid smiled, letting Reed know she was okay and he slipped off the edge of the counter, walking up to the Captain. 

    "There are some folks outside that want to talk to you," he announced, propping his hands on his hips. 

    Reed's eyes widened and immediately, he shook his head. "No," he said. "We're not going public with this."

    Johnny blinked and scoffed out an incredulous laugh at this, "Heh▬What?" he leapt off the stretcher he was lounging back in, looking positively mortified at this revelation.

    "We're scientists," continued Reed, shooting Sue's younger brother a dry scowl, "not celebrities."

    "It's too late, son," said the Captain of the fire department. He gestured to the television that was playing inside the medical tent▬and none of them had been paying that much attention to it until now. "Look."

    Ingrid's feet dropped down from the stretcher she was on, too, to turn and frown at the television screen. The Fox News headline had Helicopter cameras zoomed in on the wreckage of the Brooklyn Bridge. It switched to a shaky view of the five of them, and Ingrid pursed her lips when she stared back at herself on TV. "...When a New York Fire Department ladder truck became part of the tragedy. But the rescue itself is not the story. One of the five stretched to an amazing length▬"

    "That's what they're calling you," the Captain glanced back at them. All five of them had slowly huddled together to stare, shocked at the news footage. Ingrid shared an uneasy look with Sue at the headline they had given them: "The Fantastic Five."

    Johnny grinned. "Cool!" he exclaimed amongst their pale faces of dread. 

    Ingrid spun to him. "What?" 

    But he was already shuffling backwards to the street. Sue's eyes widened at her brother. "No, wait▬!" she rushed after him and the others had no choice but to follow. "Johnny! Where are you going?"

    Johnny swivelled around last minute, flashing them all a bright, eager smile. "I'm gonna go talk to 'em!"

    Sue shook her head. "No!" She propped her hands on her hips, sounding more like a disapproving mother than an older sister. She then spun to the rest of them. "We should think this through."

    Her younger brother scoffed and rolled his eyes, waving off her advice with an immature, dubious chuckle. "Okay▬well, that's great. You lot can brainstorm, while I▬" Johnny didn't even finish. He darted out into the boisterous chatter and camera flashes on the street and Sue huffed out a frustrated▬

    "Johnny!" she gritted her teeth and threw her gaze up to the heavens, making a furious sound in the back of her throat and looking as though she wanted to throw something at her brother. "I swear to God▬I'm gonna kill him. Johnny!" she called after her younger brother once again before following him at a run. 

    Ingrid, Reed and Ben all hurried after them, ducking out into the open. Ingrid's heart was racing when she saw just how many people had crowded by the barricade, immediately breaking out into whistles and cheers when they saw them emerge. Johnny grinned and waved at them, blowing a few kisses to some college girls in the front row. 

    "Johnny!" Sue bristled behind him, but he wasn't listening. "Get back here right now!"

    Reporters clamoured to the front of the barricade the moment Johnny stepped closer. He held up his hands, chuckling and calling out a smooth order, "Settle down, settle down▬!" 

    As they caught up to him, he glanced back at their disapproving scowls and simply smirked. "Do you believe this?"

    Ingrid hovered behind Reed's shoulder, wary of the cameras that started to flash in their faces and the many microphones being shoved over the barricade. 

     The Captain scrambled in front of them, stopping Johnny before he could get any closer. "Hang on▬Which one of you is the leader?"

    "Uh▬" Johnny made a face, gesturing at himself. "That would be me."

    The Captain glanced at him, scanned him up and down and burst into soft chuckles. Johnny's grin dropped. "No, seriously."

    For some reason, without any words exchanged or any hands raised in vote, Ingrid, Sue and Ben all set their eyes on Reed standing in the middle. Collectively, an agreement passed between them, and there was not one single objection that crossed their minds▬it was unanimous, there was no one other than Reed who would lead them in this moment.

    Though the only way he moved was with a pointed nudge from Susan.

    Dr. Reed Richards took an uneasy breath and stepped forward, facing the many cameras and microphones under his nose. The chatter grew louder▬there was a mess of shouted questions and demands. Ingrid wanted to hide away in a hole and never reappear again. 

    "Uh ..." Reed cleared his throat, wiping his clammy hands on his cardigan. "During our recent mission to the Von Doom space station, we▬we were exposed to as-yet-unidentified radioactive energy."

    They didn't care about that. There was a burst of more questions. Ingrid only caught a few: "▬What happened on the bridge▬?!", "▬How can you stretch▬?!", "▬Are you really on fire▬?", "▬Is it true you can fly▬?"

    Johnny shouldered Reed out of the way and snapped his fingers at the reporter's question, eager to share. "Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it. It's actually really difficult▬"

    Ingrid reached out and lowered his hand, giving him a short look. He shrugged at her, mouthing an annoyed, What?

    Thankfully, Sue stepped in to take over the situation. "No, actually, we do not know much more than you do at this point. We will be going directly to our lab to diagnose our symptoms▬"

    "Symptoms?" gasped a reporter from CBS, her breath hitching. She shuffled forward eagerly and urged her microphone further out towards Susan Storm. "Is this some kind of disease?"

    "No!" exclaimed Johnny, rushing in front. "No, no, no▬It's not a disease▬" he eyed his sister, scoffing at her words and she shook her head, trying to demand that he would keep his loud mouth quiet. Ingrid's face fell into her hands▬this was a disaster. "If having special powers is a disease, then, yeah▬" he chuckled, "▬we got it bad."

    "Excuse me, excuse me!" another journalist from the Daily Bugle shoved his way to the front. "That thing▬" he pointed at Ben hovering behind them, "▬doesn't look so fantastic."

    Ben let out a low rumbling growl and charged forward. Johnny quickly grasped his shoulder to keep him back. Reed came to his defense. "Ben Grimm is a genuine American hero▬"

    "What he means is," interrupted Johnny, trying to slide his arm over Ben's shoulders, but falling short. He settled for slapping him heartily on the back, "Every team needs a mascot!"

    The crowd laughed and Ingrid stared at Johnny in disbelief. She stepped closer to him and grumbled, "Johnny▬!" But he simply tugged her into his side, wrapping his other arm tight over her shoulders. 

    "A new day is dawning!" His pearly-white smile adored the camera flashes that made Ingrid wince and try to cover her face. "A day of the Fantastic Five!"

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    a/n: i'm never happy with my writing so imma save the complaints lol. long story short, i wanted to update this book before the end of the year, and here we are, new years eve and i was like wait, fuk, i'm running out of time. so here's a new years eve present for you all! sorry for the long wait, life is always very busy, but just know that i love this book, and i love ingrid and Johnny, and i love writing, and even if it's been a while since i might have posted, if i haven't taken down my book, i am still planning to return to it when i find the time. writing fanfics is my form of escapism, and i even tho i've been on wattpad for ten years now, i don't plan on leaving this account any time soon <3 

    there is a very good chance i'll still be writing when i'm friken graduated from uni, have a phd and is married with a family of three kids and you bet y'all be hearing about it all hahah. having this account is like having nearly 8k amazing friends who i cherish with every part of me, i love you all so much.

    (minimal editing)