Johnny and Susan led us to the tower, the iconic 4 logo brightly lit above us. Many people were looking at us strangely, and I don't mean Johnny or Susan. I just meant Felicia and me. They had to be wondering why some kids were following the Storm duo.
"Welcome," Susan said.
I really strained my jaw not to say something stupid, but I had to make a joke.
"W—Pfft. What a fantastic place. Hahaha~!"
"Are you really laughing at your own joke?" Johnny was so deadpan. It was okay, though; he didn't get how good the joke was.
"Hehe~" The girls seemed to find it funny. Johnny didn't really seem to like my attempt. Although this attitude was to be expected, the hot-head clearly only liked women and his friends.
We walked through the building to an elevator that went all the way up, with a melodic chime revealing the room beyond.
"I just want to ask, you guys don't bring all mutants in here this easily, right?"
"Of course not." Susan was quick to reply. Even quicker to call her little brother out. "This idiot has tried various times. I'm sure you can guess who he was trying to bring in here."
Felicia moved us closer to Susan's side.
"Smart decision." Susan smiled playfully with a side glance at Johnny. Johnny, who just stormed off somewhere else, no pun intended.
We reached the center of the room, where a massive ring couch was clear for us to sit on. Felicia was in awe of everything, while I just kept my eyes focused on Susan. My intentions were very clear; I just waited for her to speak.
"Sue, I saw that—kids?"
"Not normal ones, Reed."
"I can tell. That boy's eyes are like the sky. I don't know any normal kid with such unique eyes." Reed walked over, and I stood up, extending my hand—a gesture of respect on my end.
"Julius Montgomery."
"Reed Richards."
I felt him try to test me, but I had already activated Infinity as a little way to show him how abnormal I was. He smiled as he took the seat across from us, right next to Susan.
"Your ability infinitely slows down whatever approaches you. Is that right?"
I raised my hands in defeat.
"Yeah, you really are smart."
"And that isn't all to your ability, is it? Those eyes of yours must play a key part. I'd assume you need to perform rapid calculations and need very keen senses to execute those calculations correctly, not to mention energy control, amongst other things."
"H-holy shit."
"Language!"
Susan and Felicia said in unison.
"Sorry." I sat back down in disbelief. I knew my current ability was nothing in Marvel, but man, I wanted some confidence. Reed didn't even look bothered by my ability; he must've already made hundreds of counterplans.
"Don't look so down, kid. I'm sure most threats are nothing to you, but the bigger ones can easily handle you."
"I know." I appreciated his words. He wasn't talking down to me or anything m. He was genuinely leasing me here.
"So Sue, why are they here in the first place?"
Susan explained everything to him, to which he gave an awkward smile.
"Johnny can be a bit hot-headed, but it really isn't his fault."
"It's fine. As I said before, he didn't do anything overly serious."
"Phew, that's a relief." Reed adjusted his posture, becoming more relaxed. "Anything you kids want then? As long as it isn't excessive."
I didn't really have to think about it.
"Can I spar with you?" I blurted it out the moment the thought sprang in my head.
"Of course, you would, you idiot." Felicia pinched my hand. Her eyes looked unamused, like she had expected something like this out of me.
"Someone is dating this idiot."
"You're right!"
See what I mean? She got flustered at random times, I swear, but at others she was like this!
"You want to spar against me?"
"Yes."
"That's it?"
"Anything else you can give me, I can get on my own, but this is something I'd rarely get the chance to obtain."
"Hahaha~ alright then."
Susan pinched the bridge of her nose. "What about you?"
Felicia just shrugged, "Money."
"That's it?"
"Yep. My stupid boyfriend has a black card, and I don't! I want to spoil him sometimes, too. Chicken nuggets aren't enough in my opinion."
"Chicken nuggets… pfft. Okay." Susan hid her laughter. I didn't really get why she did, but she did nonetheless.
My lips twitched at hearing my cute girlfriend. Despite this being a different verse, she still seemed to enjoy the things that come with wealth. This was the only thing I knew about her original character.
…
..
.
"You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." I stared down Mr. Fantastic, thankful that this wasn't a death battle. Otherwise, giving up didn't seem right right now. He was only looking at me casually, but I felt the difference in experience.
'Just think of this as dealing with an overly smart Luffy.'
I dashed forward to test my basics first. I knew of many martial techniques in my head, but never had the body to replicate them. Now that I did, breaking them in wasn't a bad idea.
"Trying to converge different styles?"
"Something like that."
He blocked and threw in a few strikes at first. Until around the hundredth move, he sped up, pushing me to my current limit. After the two hundredth, he reached a speed that made me sweat.
I jumped back, creating distance.
"You adapt quickly. I'd say you've already reached a level above a normal martial artist."
"T-Thanks." My body was so damn sore just from that little exchange. I should have figured that it was too much.
'Reverse Cursed Technique.' While it couldn't really be called that anymore, the technique's healing properties were the same. In three breaths, the soreness lessened, and in five, it was gone. The only thing remaining was slight mental exhaustion.
"Healing? Interesting, kid."
I raised my right hand, a blue sphere manifesting.
'Blue.'
I shot it forth. Reed dodged easily, but I controlled it to follow him. His eyes showed nothing but amusement as he stretched his arm to the ceiling and just leaped over it. A quick flick of my wrist changed its direction back.
Reed expanded his foot and crushed the blue sphere. He fucking crushed it!
"Didn't think of that, did you?"
"No," I said
"That sphere seemed to be utilizing negative distance to draw things towards it, crushing whatever entered like a black hole."
"No fun, dude."
"Fun? This isn't supposed to be fun." He chuckled. "If you can create negative distance, then you can probably—?!"
"You're right."
BANG~!
A strong hand ruffled my hair.
"Trying to sneak attack me like that!" Reed laughed, not taking any offense. "So, if you can create positive and negative, I'm sure you've tried combining the two?"
"Tried? No, I've succeeded, but that would be too dangerous to use in a spar."
"Agreed. The two concepts would probably create something that disintegrates anything that comes into contact with it. Anything else you can do?"
"Yeah, but I'm not using it against you. It'll probably just power you up."
Unlimited Void wouldn't matter against him, I'm sure. All that information would feed back into his already insane intelligence.
"An ability that would power me up? Well, kid, for the first time in a while, I can't find an answer. I would assume it deals with my intelligence, but I'm unsure how you would have such an ability paired with what you've shown."
I just shrugged, opting to keep my secrets. Reed had already shown me a few things I could work on. I didn't want to lose my Unlimited Void's virginity against someone who could tank it.
"Julius!"
Felicia hugged me, her body just radiating energy.
"You were so cool!"
"O-Oh." I felt my face heat up, my own hands hovering awkwardly for a second before resting on the small of her back.
"Hehe~ your boyfriend is adorable." Susan stepped forward, a playful glint in her eyes as she crossed her arms, leaning slightly against a sleek, chrome lab table.
"I know; keep your hands on Mr. Richards, though." Felicia didn't skip a beat, tightening her grip on my arm and pulling me a fraction closer, her chin tilted up with a possessive little smirk.
'She did not just say that.'
Reed scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, this is perfect. Sue, I was wondering if—"
"Oh my God, yes!"
Felicia just blinked.
"D-Did I just get spared?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Reed and Sue got lost in their own world while we just sat outside of it.
"Think we should leave?"
"Yeah. I got my money."
Hand in hand, we made our way to the exit.
"Wait, Julius. Take this. And here's hers."
I was handed two slips with numbers written on them. I whipped out my phone and quickly entered the information, making them the second and third people in my contacts—Felicia being first, of course.
"You probably want to shred these."
"Oh, I forgot you could just do that."
"I'm confused as to why you had slips ready to give…"
"I did it before the spar."
"I see. We'll get going now. Good luck with your date. We're going to continue ours."
"S-Sure."
Even Reed Richards could get embarrassed. That was an interesting fact I just learned.