"Okay miss, it looks like you'll be just fine now." The paramedic said, putting on a new bandage over Tony's newly placed stitches. Tony sat in the back of an ambulance that had come when the accident occurred on the bridge. She pulled down her sweatshirt to hide her wound, before smiling at the paramedic.
"Thank you." Tony said, getting up on her feet. She looked over to Johnny who was leaning against the door of the ambulance, not once taking his eyes off her the whole time they were together. He moved just as Tony started to walk towards him, sending her a small smile before leading her to the white tent where their friends were stationed.
"Everything okay now?" Johnny asked, looking over her just to make sure. Tony nodded and moved her arm to grip her side where her stitches were.
"Yeah, they gave me some medicine for the pain and new stitches. I'm starting to feel like a raggedy ol' doll that keeps needing patch work." Tony joked. Johnny smirked as the two reached the tent. Sue was also being looked over by a medical professional, while Ben sat looking at the ring Debbie had left and Reed was watching everyone like the calculated scientist he was.
Johnny and Tony walked into the tent and Tony sat down on one of the exam beds, making sure to be aware of her stitches. Johnny sat next to her, looking around before his eyes landed on Ben. It was quite between the group for a few seconds, the noise from outside not seeming to catch their attention anymore. But like Johnny always does, he has to start something.
"Where are your ears?" He asked Ben, who looked up at Johnny and just simply glared. Tony slapped Johnny on the arm when she heard him, getting the young man to look over and whisper, "Ow, what did I say?"
"There are some folks outside that want to talk to you." Tony looked over and say who she assumed was the police chief talking to Reed.
"We're not going public with this." Reed said quickly. "We're scientists, not celebrities."
"It's too late son. Look," The man walked over to the small TV in the tent, and clicked it on. On the screen appeared, the news was blasting about what had happened on the bridge. Clips of Reed and Ben standing together appeared along with a small one of Tony being held in Johnny's arms when she almost blacked out. Seeing how close they were as she walked closer to the TV set made her face heat up and probably very red. "See that? That's what their calling you, the Fantastic Five." He pointed out as a clip of the five of them came up with a little footer at the bottom of the screen, indeed saying THE FANTASTIC FIVE.
"But we're nothing, we're not heroes or anything." Tony said, her eyes not coming off the screen.
"Ma'am, if you don't think what you all did out there doesn't make you heroes, maybe you're not that smart of a scientist." The police chief said, clicking off the TV and getting her to meet his eye.
Johnny let out a small laugh and shouted, "Cool." before heading in the direction out of the tent and to the public.
"No, wait! Where are you going?" Sue asked her brother.
"I'm gonna go talk to them."
"No. We should think this through."
"That's great, brainstorm." Johnny said before rushing out of the tent before anyone else could stop him.
"How is he an adult?" Tony asked, watched Reed and Sue rush after Johnny.
"You got me, kid." Ben said. Tony moved to sit next to the man who still held onto the ring in his large orange hand. "I saw you go down after we pulled the firetruck back up, you alright?"
"Yeah. I just pulled a few stitches in my side, nothing to be too worried about."
"So that vine thing is what you got out of the cloud? Flower power?"
Tony chuckled and shook her head, looking down at her hands. On her right, you could see bits of the vine peak through her sleeve. Tony pulled up her sleeve and showed her arm to Ben, now that it was fully covered with the vine, only small bits of her skin showing through.
"This thing appeared on my body when I was taking my shower earlier, and the weirdest thing is, I think it can feel things."
"What do you mean?" Ben asked, eyeing her arm with wide eyes.
"It flinches every time I'm close to a flame or Johnny, like it's scared or something."
"Maybe it just has good instincts." Ben said, chuckling. Tony shook her head, then looked at Ben very seriously.
"I'm sorry, Ben. You were out there putting my flowers into place and-"
"Nothing for nothing kid, but you need to shut up. This isn't your fault so don't go blaming yourself." Ben said. He handed the small ring over to Tony who looked shocked at this. "I need you to look after that for me until I get my body back. With these big boulders for hands I don't want to end up crushing it before I can give it back to Debs."
"It's safe with me. Now why don't you help me up because I'm pretty sure Johnny is making an ass out of himself right now in front of reporters and TV crews." Tony asked. Ben got up and very carefully pulled Tony up as well, both heading out of the tent. Tony kept a hold on the engagement ring as she held onto her side where her stiches were, trying not to flinch at their pull on her skin. The two friends walked out of the tent and spotted Reed, Sue and Johnny in front of a group of paparazzi, their attention quickly focusing on Ben when they got into sight.
"We will be going directly to our lab to diagnose our symptoms." Tony heard Sue say as her and Ben got closer to their friends, her voice calm like she had done this a million times.
"Symptoms? Is this some kind of disease?"
"No! No, no no. It's not a disease." Johnny said, stepping up. Everyone in the group looked at him wide eyed, trying to telepathically tell him to shut up.
But he didn't get the message.
"If having special powers is a disease, then yeah, we got it bad." Johnny said. No one seemed to laugh though and continued to question the group.
"Excuse me, that thing doesn't look so fantastic." One reporter called out, pointing directly at Ben.
"What is wrong with her arm?" Another called out, motioning with her microphone to Tony. Tony looked down and saw that she had forgotten to pull down her sleeve and quickly covered her vine arm, her face getting flushed.
"Ben Grimm is a genuine American hero." Reed said, quickly putting a stomp on the man calling Ben a thing and ignoring the question about Tony's arm.
"What he means is every team needs a mascot."
"Johnny!" Tony said, yanking Johnny away from where he had wrapped an arm around Ben. The crowd seemed to eat it up as they laughed, which just made Johnny all the more confident. He rewrapped his arm around Ben and his other arm around Tony's waist, pulling her to his side.
"A new day is dawning. The day of the Fantastic Five." After that, dozens of the reporters started yelling questions at the group, and everyone besides Johnny looked uncomfortable. Tony pulled away from Johnny as Reed walked forward, serious as he started to address the crowd.
"Look-Look, we went up to space to find a way to understand D.N.A., cure disease, save lives. Well, now its our D.N.A., our disease, our lives on the line. Thank you no more questions."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The NYPD were nice enough to give the group a ride home; home being the BAXTER BUILDING. Once they started down the street to the building, Tony could make out herds of people outside her home, some even holding signs like "NY <3 U" and "OUR HEROS". The police car with Tony in the front with the officer and Johnny, Reed and Sue squished in the back pulled to the curb. Tony got out as carefully as possible as watched in awe at the "fans" in front of the building.
Looking over, Tony could see Ben getting out of the armored car that had to carry him, now dressed in a trench coat and hat that fit him. She then looked at Johnny, who looked way too happy considering their predicament. Tony eventually made it inside with Reed and Sue, the crowd's cheers dying down a little inside the lobby.
"Is all that for you, Dr. Richards?" The doorman asked.
"I'm afraid so."
After smiling to the doorman, Tony made it to the elevator. There is where a familiar face appeared. "Welcome back to the Baxter, Dr. Richards. You too, Dr. Bradshaw. I got the usual for you." Willy the mail man said with a smile, digging into his bag and pulling out a large stack of envelopes. Tony didn't even have to look at them to know that they were bills. "Good to have you two back."
"Thanks Willy." Reed and Tony said, smiling at the friendly old man as he walked off. Reed started to look through them quickly, but when he caught Sue watching him, he stopped.
"We had a tough year."
"Yeah like nine straight." Ben chimed in, heading into the elevator after Reed. Soon all five of them were in the elevator, waiting to get to the lab and have this day be over with. But as the doors shut and the elevator tried to move, a groaning metallic sound came from around them.
"Either we're moving really fast or not at all." Johnny said.
An alarm started to go off, which brought everyone to look up at the wall where a small light popped on.
EXCEEDING MAXIMUM WEIGHT
Everyone tried to avoid eye contact with Ben, but the tense atmosphere was enough to make him feel even worse about his being.
"I'll take the stairs." Ben said as he walked out of the elevator back into the lobby. He turned back when he heard his name being called.
"Ben, wait. I'll walk with you." Tony said, about to head out of the elevator as well. But when Ben lifted his hand, she stopped.
"With your stitches? No can do, kid. I got this."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I'll see you up there." And with a small fake smile, the elevator doors closed and the four were moving up to the Lab.
"How come Ben can't turn it on and off like we can?" Johnny asked.
"That's what we're here to find out." Reed said, nodding to Johnny.
Sue looked to Reed and seemed to grow nervous with her next words, "I mean, if it happened to him-"
"What? You mean like, we won't be able to turn it off either?" Johnny looked to Reed, who nodded in response, "That would save time, ha!"
"You don't really wanna walk around on fire the rest of your life, do you?" Sue asked her brother.
"Is that a trick question?"
"Grow up."
"Come on. Am I the only guy who thinks this is cool?"
Tony looked over to Johnny who had locked eyes with her. "I just want Ben to be happy." She replied, breaking eye contact with Johnny to look down at her shoes. Reed sighed and put a hand on his assistant's shoulder.
"We all want that. And I'm going to do anything in my power to make it happen." Tony looked up and smiled, just as the elevator dinged as it got to the top floor where the Lab was. Reed squeezed Tony's arm quickly before exiting the elevator. "We should stay here until we can define the extent of our changes. And figure out how to reverse them." Reed explained as he tossed the bills onto a side table as he passed it. Sue followed Reed as he rushed into the Lab area, Johnny and Tony moving more slowly. Tony because of the pure exhaustion that had started to pile onto her shoulders the longer she was awake and Johnny because he was looking at everything that surrounded him.
The Lab was a giant open space that resembled something like a mad scientist's laboratory and something from the future. Metal was everywhere and high-tech screens showed formulas and blueprints of passed works by Dr. Reed Richards.
"Whoa." Johnny exclaimed, trying to take it all in. Tony was watching him with a small smile before looking around herself. Her work station was in a different part of the floor, almost like a greenhouse that Reed had constructed for her a while ago. She couldn't wait until she was surrounded by her flowers.
"But I have to warn you, it's gonna be a little crowded in some areas." Reed said, moving through his Lab with ease. "So, what do you think?"
"I don't know Reed. I think you might be bringing your work home with you."
Reed laughed, rolled up his sleeves and patted Johnny on the back, "Come on. Let me show you guys where you'll be staying." Reed started to move back into the apartment area, Johnny following slowly before he stopped at his sister.
"Busy guy." He whispered. Just then he caught eyes with Tony again, and a smile grew on his face. "You coming to show me around too?"
"That sounds extremely tempting, but I have to check on my own research." Tony said, crossing her arms over her chest. Johnny's eyebrow shot up at that and a smirk replaced his smile.
"Research, huh? Need a lab partner?"
It was then when Tony let out a laugh, almost like the time where Johnny had pulled that crappy pick up line when the two had first met. She grabbed her sides, making sure she didn't hurt herself more. All the while, Sue watched her new friend and her little brother, intrigued.
"Yeah, I'm going to let the man who now has the powers of fire near my plant-based research." Tony said, her sarcasm so potent that it whipped Johnny's smirk off his face. "Thanks for the joke though, I needed a good laugh."
Tony then waved to Sue and walked away to her greenhouse. Johnny watching more confused than ever. Sue looked to Johnny and smiled as she was about to walk passed him.
"Busy girl, huh?"
long ass chapter here!! And there will be another post soon because I am in such a good mood to write this story. Please comment and let me know what you think.