I pull myself up and land onto the roof of The Fantastic Four's jet with a thud, causing the aircraft to wobble slightly in the air. Looking down, I see that each member of the team has their own compartment with a glass ceiling above them that doubles as the entrance into the aircraft, and notably, only three of the four members are currently here with one seat left empty.
In the very front sits an older man with a trimmed beard that is piloting the jet, I can only assume that he is the leader of the team, Reed Richards, by just the feeling of… intelligence(?) that is coming off of him. In the very back, there is a seat much bigger than anyone else's and inside that one sits a giant man made out of rocks, The Thing.
And finally, positioned in the middle, there are two seats next to each other. One is occupied by a young woman with long blonde hair whose eyes are as blue as the outfit she is wearing, while the seat next to her is unoccupied.
The empty seat must belong to the woman, Susan Storm's brother, Johnny Storm. I can only wonder why he is missing.
Landing on the roof, the eyes of both The Thing and Susan immediately turn to me, looking surprised in response to spotting me. I see Susan opening her mouth to say something that I cannot hear due to the howling wind and the roof of the jet in between us, but right after she does that, I see Reed twisting his head at an unnatural angle to look at me for a moment before opening the roof access to Johnny's seat and signaling me to enter.
Deciding that there is no harm in being inside the jet as opposed to on top of it, I enter through the now-opened roof and take a seat on the empty chair. In front of me are a few buttons, but the one that pops out is a big green one with the word "ROOF HATCH" on it. Upon being pressed, the roof above me closes. Very convenient labeling.
"Well, Hello." I hear the voice of a woman through the speakers in the walls. How do I reply… Is there a button I'm supposed to press to talk back?
As I inspect the buttons in front of me, they seem to notice my confusion, and Susan once again speaks, "Just talk normally. There isn't anything you have to hold down to activate your microphone, it's just on at all times."
"Oh, can you hear me? Uh… hello, I think this is the first time we have met, actually. Quite surprising, considering we fight the criminally insane in the same city basically every day." I say before continuing. "Speaking about the criminally insane… there are a few of them on the Ed Koch Queensboro bridge right now, mind giving me a lift there?"
"We were heading there anyways." Reed, piloting the jet, replies to me with an easy-going tone. "And it's nice to meet you, Spiderman. We have all been on a mission in Europe for a while now, so we haven't had a chance to run into you yet."
"Yeah, well done on keeping the city clean. I hear you have been kept busy." The Thing says in a voice much louder than the other two (Is there a way to turn his volume down somehow?). I wonder what the insides of that guy look like, he must have quite a pair of lungs in him.
"Mhm, the city has certainly gotten… more busy since we left for Europe," Susan says.
Europe huh… I wonder if they were doing something involving Latveria. I'm curious, but since I just met all of them for the first time today, I feel like it's not my place to stick my nose into, so I will refrain from asking about that.
Something I do want to ask about, though, is… "So you guys are the Fantastic Four, not Fantastic Three, right? I don't mean to brag, but I actually passed elementary school with perfect grades, and by my count, a person is missing."
For a second, a thought passed through my head that perhaps the flame head had something terrible happen to him, leading to the team of four being reduced to a team of three, and my question would be slightly insensitive, but I doubt the others, especially Susan would be acting so normal if that were the case.
My suspicions are confirmed as Susan shrugs. "Oh, Johnny? He flew off just a little while ago to confront a different villain attempting to rob a bank a few blocks from here. The guy looked like a joke, so he figured he could take him alone and left without waiting a moment more."
Susan looked slightly agitated as she was saying that. I guess she's not happy with her team member and brother just flying off like that without consulting them. Well, she will be happy to know Johnny won't be there completely alone.
"Oh yeah, the Big Wheel guy, I sent Black Cat there as well, so the two of them should be able to handle him with ease." Well, Felicia could have handled him alone, too, and I doubt Johnny would have struggled either, but together it will be an easy feat.
"Black Cat?" Reed questions upon hearing me. "The… notorious thief that is a bane to everyone that owns anything even slightly expensive looking? The very same Black Cat?"
Oh, I suppose they didn't pay that much attention to news about me or New York while away. "Yeah, well, it's a long story, but I kinda got her to reform and help fight crime with me now. She even returned a lot of the stuff she stole!"
It's true! She did indeed return SOME of the stuff she had stolen to boost her image, but it's actually not even 10% of what she had in storage. The idea came completely from her, and initially, she was going to give back nearly half of it, but I stopped her in her tracks.
Much of the stolen goods are from criminals themselves, so who cares about how much they miss their precious 800-year-old vase plus, all that stuff might be a good safety cushion should this superhero stuff ever fail us. Yes, I said us, I may have taken a few cool and expensive-looking art pieces into my inventory, just in case, with her permission, of course.
"If you say so…" Reed says, sounding doubtful. "Still, a bank seems like a bad place to send a thie- a former thief to if you ask me."
"Well, it's a good thing nobody was asking you," Susan tells Reed. Is she on Felicia's side here? "Focus on our task, not Johnny's. We will be at our destination within seconds."
"I wouldn't worry about that. Looks like our target is coming right for us!" The Thing yells out, sounding alarmed.
An immediate reaction comes from Reed, who turns the jet to its side in mid-air, causing me to tumble to the side due to my lack of seatbelt the other members have on. "Fu… Hold on, everyone, we might have to jump out in a second."
Not willing to wait and go down in an explosive crash, I hit the button to open up the roof entrance I came through and cling to the side, or in the current case, the top of the jet. Ignoring the force of the wind pushing against me, I peek over the side to see what the two are talking about and right away find a familiar face from the movies and the comics heading our way.
Adrian Toomes, also known as the vulture carrying a… huge bomb?
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Note: I wouldn't cheer for me to be back until I manage to at least upload a few more chapters during the following week but at least know that I am not dead! Just very busy!