I'm the sling and you're getting shot

he had his mask in his hands after he found out that his fear gas prop was all kinds of real. and while reed knew he was the most intelligent man on earth (excuse his arrogance), he only had an intermediate understanding of psychology. well apparently that’s all but changed now. specifically, he wanted to push the envelope on people’s fears. he wanted to see how long they could last until...well, the end. of the effects of the gas or of themselves, it didn’t really matter. “a vampire,” he noted as he saw billy decked out as alucard. “you would do well for my next project.” reed wore the mask in his hands, his eyes glazed with glee and excitement at the prospect of taking his experiments to new height. “now hold still.”

the first he noticed was that he was a lot more malleable than he was four seconds ago. his powers seemed to have come back on their own accord, and he could stretch his limbs to his heart’s content if he wanted to. the second thing he noticed, however, was that there was a feeling of darkness within him. an almost unbearable darkness that grows inside him, his otherwise rational mind slowly being taken over by an irrational obsession over fear.

and so he found himself seeking out tony stark. the scientist found himself having quite the irrational fear of batman and it was then that reed knew that there was something wrong with him. with the gas sprayer prop on his wrists and the mask at hand, he knew there was only one way to test out his hypothesis.

and he sprayed the gas on the first person he saw: bucky barnes.

“I believe in you.” Johnny knows that if anyone could handle it, Reed would be the one for the job. He has a lot of faith when it comes to his brother-in-law. The boy nods to show that he was still listening, and has to admit that comment made him laugh. “He’s always been like this?” Johnny asks, but maybe it would be better not to worry too much about Victor. He can focus on his friends and spending time with his girlfriend. Ultimately the topic chance was for the better, being the kind of distraction that was needed. “It was BORING. Someone spilled coffee all over themselves though so THAT was hilarious.” Truthfully Johnny misses his cars, and being able to race. “It’s good seeing Peter more often, and getting to know Ben is cool. It helps working with someone I’m familiar with I GUESS.” He looks back at Reed through a mess of blonde hair.

“oh yes, he always was. you should ask ben, he knows all about it. always got on his nerves back in university.” it had been a long time since he graduated from university and yet he could never forget how much trouble doom always put him in. frankly because he was always yapping about how inferior reed was to him. it was at times like this did he miss his friend quite a lot. he ruffled the younger one’s hair again, knowing he might get a little annoyed but he couldn’t help it if it meant comforting the young lad. “yeah? i hope that wasn’t any of your faults. i know what you and peter get to when you’re both bored.” reed always did let them off the hook, so fault’s on him most of the time. but he did put his foot down if anything got too serious. “ah yes, ben reilly. the blonde twin, is that right? i’m surprised all three of them aren’t working with you at the cafe. you three seem to be hitting off pretty well. should your girlfriends be worried?,” he teased his brother-in-law.

stephen knew that reed had a long complicated history with victor von doom, he only wished he could do something more to alleviate his friend from the inevitable torture and annoyance he was going to have to endure. “i’m not entirely sure i want to see the other half, reed.” stephen commented, turning to give him a wry smile. “so what you’re telling me is that we’re all going to have to suffer through listening to him prattle on about how great he is? wonderful, can’t wait to hear more.”

“yes, well, i’m pretty sure we’re at the top of his hate list along with tony and probably charles. he hates anyone who has titles in their names.” it was a full-time job to be dealing with doom but it’s not as if he could do anything now anyway; not when he’s under scrutiny 24/7. apparently, he gets the best kind of security there is. huge congratulations to reed richards there. but he chuckled as he took his cup of tea, sipping as he leaned back on his chair. “ah, stephen. just imagine you’re watching a train wreck about to happen. besides, he’s bound to commit a mistake; he always does.” 

Sooraya was doing very little to conceal her disdain at being forced to attend such festivities. Given the choice, she wouldn’t celebrate Halloween. She wouldn’t rain on her friends’ parade either. It was the lack of choice in the matter that frustrated her. Without her abilities, she had no desire to come face to face with the architect of such diktats. The only positive side was that she might be able to get a look at that armour of his. Work out how a dust-storm could best damage it.   She picked up a mysterious pastry in a napkin, attempting to examine it as politely as possible. She’d long since given up trying to determine the permissibility of meat in that jungle, cutting it out of her diet entirely to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, it looked like she might have to talk to the person next to her. “Excuse me - do you think this is vegetarian?” 

perhaps it was a little amusing that he could get away with his costume. officially, he was supposed to be doctor jonathan crane, the obsessive psychologist supervillain from the batman series. unofficially, he was dressed up in victor’s old college get-up. not that people would know—and he would very much like to stay outside of the dungeons, thank you very much—but it was giving him quite the amusement to know that he was dressed up as victor and no one was none the wiser.

“i believe so, yes,” he said as he looked at the vegetable quiche. “but best to be safe with another dish. i recommend the ratatouille right over there.” victor might be a tad too dramatic for his patience, but he at least can never go wrong with food. or at least his people can never go wrong with food.

Johnny has always felt that without his abilities that he was nothing. He missed flying around, playing with balls of fire in the form of jingling, and just knowing it’s there. Although he was scared since if his powers couldn’t keep his body temperature HOT (a constant 110 DEGREES) — and if it dropped down that would be a death sentence. He wraps his arms back around Reed, staying there for a moment, and it was like being that little kid again. “I’m glad we’re here together. I — I wouldn’t want to be doing this alone. I miss being able to toast bread with my hands instead of using a toaster.” He looks at his feet for a moment, and then looks up at his brother-in-law. “How do we overcome this if EARTH IS GONE? I wish everything could go back to the way it used to be. The four of us, the Baxter building, and going on our weird adventures.”

“I’ll figure something out. I always figure something out. I’m not the smartest person on earth for nothing, Johnny. And I’m going to figure out how we can get our powers back to full throttle.” He could see how devastating it was for his brother-in-law to lose that part of himself when he’s been living with it since he was a kid; something Reed still partially blames himself for. “Don’t worry too much about Victor, okay? He’s still the same egotistic Victor I know from college; it’s going to be his downfall soon enough. Let me worry about him. Focus on yourself first, okay? We’ll be back in the Baxter with our weird adventures soon enough. Now tell me about your day at work. How’s working with Ben and Peter?” Reed still has to work on comforting his family, but he hopes distracting Johnny was enough to get him out of his slump.

“isn’t just about everyone being arrested these days with laws changing every twenty minutes? i’m waiting for breathing to be banned.” lorna sighed - unsure what exactly awaited anyone that was arrested. how bad were the doomgeuns? what exactly is in a pit of doom? she couldn’t risk finding out, though. “avoiding them is exactly what i plan to do. at least until we all figure out how to get our powers back, then i’m tossing the robocops from hell into the sun. what’s your plan in all of this?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Victor did that.” There’s no saying in what Doom was thinking of doing or banning these days; all Reed knew was that his old classmate still had that superiority complex and egotistic nature that could very much be his end. But he’s running his own country now so who’s to say it wasn’t working either. “Laying low for a while. I’m teaching at the academy so I get to have free rein over the labs. Well, as much free rein as I have considering they,” he said as he pointed at the robots behind him with his thumb, “are everywhere I go. I’m beginning to think Victor put more of his robots with me than the rest of the population.”

“Did you see his face?” | @richardsrccd

she didn’t think it was possible that a place could make her miss the dinosaurs, but here she was. at least dinosaurs didn’t outlaw colors on a whim. lorna had to be careful, though, if only for her daughters sake. “whose? the robots? sorry – doombots?” she clarified with a quirk of her brow. the doombots were making rounds, ensuring no one was wearing red. “i can’t use my powers like i normally could, but i can still tell when a metal robot is coming up on me.”

“no, the one they just took. i’m concerned it may be someone we know.” he can’t say for sure if it was safe for everyone out here these days or not, but reed wasn’t willing to take the risk just yet—even if he knew how to deal with victor and his ego. besides, he can’t risk being thrown in the dungeons at the moment; not when he had johnny to take care of. “if i know anything about victor, his robots might have cameras recording everything. best to avoid them whenever you can, miss dane.”

“well, facts don’t matter then.”

Johnny has never known anything REALLY about science, just preferring to see an end result than studying the facts behind it. He looks up at Reed from where his body was curled up on the couch, arms wrapped around his knees. “I guess — I just miss being able to use my powers. I know they’re still there, only working enough to maintain my body temperature. If that stops working I’m afraid of what will happen to ME. I don’t think I’d survive —” His body was naturally significantly hotter ever since he was just a child, but maybe it wasn’t good to dwell on that. “Reed, will it always be like this?” [ @richardsrccd ]

reed felt his heart broke at how fragile johnny was right now, especially with his powers dampened like that. he couldn’t imagine having something that big suddenly be taken away from you; after all, his elasticity only came second to his intelligence. he left his desk and sat beside the younger male, immediately pulling johnny into a hug. they both needed it, after all. “i’m here, johnny,” he whispered as he tried to calm down his brother-in-law. “it won’t always be like this, alright? it’s just a setback we’re going to have to face but i promise you, it won’t always be like this. just give it time.” but reed himself wasn’t sure when and how they were getting back to new york with all their powers intact.

✷  ❝ there are some things you just gotta do. doesn’t mean you have to like it. ❞ !  ⦁  prompt from @richardsrccd​

wanda sighed, her gaze dropping to the ground for a moment before she looked back up at reed. “i suppose you have a point about that,” she replied, her arms folding across her chest. “i don’t hate working as a teacher. art is enjoyable, of course, and it’s nice that i have a friend around, doing something similar, but… i can’t help but feel out of my element. this is something so new, you know? nothing like what i’ve done before. and not being able to use my magic, well… that’s a different story entirely.”

he lifted his glass at her, understanding her statement wholeheartedly. he was just as thrown off-kilter as wanda was, considering he now had to put his intelligence somewhere that victor wouldn’t suspect. it was one thing to be put on constant surveillance—which he believe majority of them are—it was another to be on constant surveillance and on thin ice for apparently being reed richards. victor von doom has yet to get over their rivalry apparently, so he did what he thought would have him off of the limelight for a bit: teach at the academy. “i understand. i guess we’ll just have to lay low for a while, find some way to keep him off our backs. victor has always been the dramatic kind.”

well he’s not wrong there. doom’s castle looked the part of imposing and egotistic, and he can’t exactly deny that the man was dramatic. doom lived on the dramatic, if there was anything at all that would always remind reed of the other man. “his furniture is just as imposing, i’m assuming.” as much as reed felt sorry for the man before, his ego made it quite hard to do so. “he lives for drama, if i remember correctly.”

well he can’t exactly blame the young man. while everyone else was living in doom’s world, bobby was directly working for the supreme overlord or whatever it was that he called himself. “ah, you should’ve seen him in college.” reed has dealt with the latverian in university before and his superiority complex was astounding, it was almost suffocating. “he tends to be overly dramatic about himself.” it was the only way he could describe his supposed roommate at this point. brilliant victor von doom may be, his ego had always been his downfall.

he couldn’t do anything but let out a defeated sigh. reed knew the moment they came back and realised they were on latveria—sorry, planet doom—that they were going to be drowning in von doom’s narcissism. lo and behold, he called himself the supreme overlord. pathetic. “you haven’t seen the half of it,” reed replied as he read the weekly gazette of the supreme overlord, the document bearing the official seal of von doom. “his ego knows no bounds, i’m afraid.”

That was weird… They had found that rift and then… nothing. Gwen’s brow furrowed as she looked hazily around her. Everyone had just been here… How does a whole scouting group just vanish? She called out to them as she moved through the trees, knowing in the back of her mind that she really shouldn’t be yelling, though she couldn’t seem to stop. Not until she saw them… Living in the Savage Lands, you would think she would have gotten used to seeing giant lizards, but not these two… Their attention turned to her, aggression in their eyes as she slowly backed away. “Peter… Harry… It’s me. It’s Gwen. You have to snap out of it… Please snap out of it…”

reed was used to taking care of people. he took care of johnny, he took care of his team, he took care of quite a number of people. so he had volunteered to herd everyone into the tear and hopefully get everyone out of the savage lands. and then he heard someone shouting; someone who could possibly be living in a nightmare and reed knew it was his responsibility to wake up whoever it was that was hit by a nightmare demon. he managed to spot the young lady before the dinosaurs made her their dinner and reed had immediately stretched out his limbs and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “young lady, you need to wake up right now,” he whispered as he looked at the dinosaurs in front of them. “those aren’t peter or mister osborn. wake up. wake up.”

the last thing america remembered was being faced with the monstrous Nightmare. the next second she was back on earth with the young avengers. her mothers poisoned with the virus that had been spread through dimensions. all she wanted was one last hug from them. instead, she was forced to fight them. in the midst of the flying and punching, she was thrown onto a cold metal floor. looking around she was in the holding cell of exterminatrix. surrounded by an army of america the crazy woman had created. though she’s fighting with everything she has in her mind, on the outside, america seems to be in a zombie-like state. she wanders the jungle grounds, staring off into nothing as she mumbles incoherently. 

being woken up by tony had been one of the better things that happened since they went inside the jungle. succumbing to nightmare was easily the worst thing. but they were past that now and reed was trying to get their communications back up with whatever he had at hand. but the hair at the back of his neck stood up again and reed had to be combat ready...only for him to see a young woman mumbling about. the scientist had an idea why she was the way she was and he had immediately approached her and shook her form lightly. “wake up, young lady,” he began, “you need to wake up right now.”