Paradoxical (Fantastic Four)

18.

Soon, Johnny and I were back at the Baxter Building confirming our story to the others. I wasn't too surprised to see General Hager and his troop present.

"It looked like a man, but completely covered in silver, and it was flying this, like -- like, a surfboard type thing," Johnny explained as he tried to use a charade of the surfer, "I know that sounds crazy."

"Oh, no, not at all," Ben shook his head as Susan handed Johnny and me each a glass of ice-cold water, "So did you two follow the shiny man to Lollipop Land or to Rainbow Junction?" My brother teased.

"Look, Ari and I know what we saw."

"He's not kidding," I shook my head giving my big bro a stern expression.

"Thank you. It's all right, Johnny and Ari," Reed nodded at us and turned to everyone else in the room, "Whatever this thing's physical appearance is, it has the ability to convert matter into energy."

"So it caused the anomalies," Hager spoke up.

"It seems to radiate cosmic energy when it exerts itself, randomly affecting matter. Evidently, this... entity, this... silver surfer... didn't want to be detected. It destroyed the sensor."

"It knew it was being monitored?" Susan questioned.

"And traced it back here. We're dealing with something highly resourceful."

Johnny stood up with a sigh. Yet again, he looked exhausted.

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked glancing up at him.

"Yeah. I just-- I gotta walk this off," he answered and left the room.

I nodded and left to put on some clothes, but not without hearing Hager tell Reed about destroying the surfer. It made me think. The way the surfer grabbed Johnny was because the latter pursued it in a hostile manner. If we were to come across the silver entity again, I'd ask it some questions and maybe it could tell us its purpose of arriving on Earth.

Layla, Ingrid, Howie, and Cameron asked me what had happened with Johnny and what he and I saw. I ended up telling them everything.

In the middle of the conversation, there was a scream. I looked out the window and was shocked to find Susan on fire and hovering in the air.

I was once again correct about Johnny not feeling like himself. He and Susan accidentally switched powers when she touched him, which explained how she was literally on fire. We ended up running some tests on both of them in the lab.

"All of Sue's results are normal," Reed told us, "But Johnny's--."

"Johnny's are what?" Johnny himself asked feeling impatient.

"Your encounter with the surfer has affected your molecules. They're... in a constant state of flux."

"Is that bad?"

"Well, it caused you to temporarily switch powers with Sue. Ideally, I'd like to run some more tests."

"Would you like a volunteer?" Ben asked placing his slushie on the table.

"No, no, no!" the rest of us exclaimed in unison as my brother was about to touch Johnny.

"No, No! Hey! This is serious," Johnny yelled.

"I just wanted to give him a hug," my brother shrugged.

"We don't know the extent of his condition yet," Susan pointed out.

"It could be progressive, it could be degenerative," Reed added.

"It could be fun," Ben smirked.

"No, Ben!" I hollered as my big bro placed his hand on Johnny's shoulder.