Massive Malfunction

I sigh before reaching out to grab a hold of his arm and slapping the bracelet onto his massive arm before backing up a few steps incase anything unexpected happens and it seems that the others also thought the same as Reed, Susan and Johnny also backed up giving enough space for Ben if anything out of the ordinary happens though I think that's the result we want, Ben is still in the middle of the room while the rest of us have backed up to the edges of the room interested to see what will happen to him and so we wait a moment but nothing seems to happen. "Umm, is this thing working?" Ben questions and I slowly begin to make my way towards him still cautious that something will happen though Ben seems to find my cautious pointless as he rolls his rock eyes at my actions. "It should be working, it worked on Reed and Johnny earlier so I don't see a reason why it shouldn't be working on you." I say and it's at that moment that orange rock start to fall off of Ben's body crumbling to the ground all the while his size begins to shrink in size with orange rocks peeling off of his entire body even his face which gives my a glimpse on the white skinned man that hides beneath the rocky orange surface.

"I- IT'S WORKING!?" Ben shouts in shock with a hint of disbelief and I'm beginning to see more of the man beneath the rock reveal himself one orange rock crumbling off at a time and it's at this point that the rest of the Fantastic Four realise as well, with Johnny shouting in joy and Susan smiling happily at the results. "I- I can't believe it." Reed's mutters shocked that my invention that only reacts with the mind seems to have worked in Ben and I am equally as shocked as I didn't expect it to work in any capacity whatsoever apart from limiting his strength though I can't say I'm unhappy with the results, to think my invention could even release the transformation caused in Ben by the Power Cosmic which is kinda like primordial energy or something. "U- UARGGH-" We are shaken out of our happiness by Ben's sudden scream and it's at this point we realise that Ben's transformation back to being human has suddenly stalled and is apparently causing him immense pain which can be sleazy seen by the guttural screams he is releasing, the areas of his body where the orange rocks seem to have crumbled off are suddenly regaling while other areas of his body shed the orange rocks creating some kind of sickening loop in which he seems to be stuck between both The Thing and Ben Grimm.

"Hold on Ben, we're coming." Reed says while rushing to his tech pad that he left on the conference room table which he picks up and starts to fiddle around on presumably trying to figure out some way to help Ben, meanwhile Susan seems to go straight for the problem at hand and is using her invisible force fields/barriers to try and remove the bracelet from around Ben's half rocky half human arm and it's honestly quite sickening to know that it's my invention causing him this pain when it should have helped him but there's nothing I can do in this situation and so I back up to get some distance and Johnny seems to do the same as well simply because there's no way he can apply his powers in this situation. His body is quickly switching back and forth between rock and flesh never seeming to decide on one or the other and not fully committing to either and while Susan tries to use her powers to remove the bracelet there seems to be some sort of invisible energy field, probably being caused by my invention/energy field and the power that Ben's giving off (Power Cosmic) mixing together in some weird way, that is stopping Susan's powers from getting too close to Ben and preventing her from interacting with the bracelet and so it seems we are relying on Reed to come up with some solution though that doesn't mean that Susan is going to stop trying.

It's at this point that I spot something that the rest of the people in the room have failed to see and it is that the bracelet that Ben is currently wearing seems to be overheating and malfunctioning with sparks leaving the contraption and steam rising from it and it seems like it's only a few seconds away from exploding and with the energy field that's surrounding Ben it's hard to say whether the explosion will be big or small and so I decide not to risk it and back up further but it's at this point that I realise that while Reed and Johnny are far away enough Susan in her attempts to remove the bracelet has gotten very close to Ben and seems to be in the metaphorical 'splash zone', the bracelet is going to blow up any second and so without wasting a second I quickly Spring towards Susan only hearing Johnny in the background squawking in surprise at my actions and I quickly snatch her up lifting her off of the ground and putting her over my shoulder before sprinting back towards where Johnny is though it seems that I didn't have enough time as it's at this point that the bracelet explodes blasting me and Susan forwards though thankfully it seems that we were far away enough not to get caught in the blast and only got affected by the air pressure real eased from the blast.

While rolling on the ground with Susan in my arms I notice that the blast seems to have affected Ben as well as I see a silhouette be blasted across the room through the smoke though I don't have time to think about it as I roll across the floor with Susan tightly pressed to my chest with my hand cradling her head into my chest is to prevent her getting damaged in any way as it seems my presentation has already become a shit show and I'd rather it be just one of the Fantastic Four being injured during my presentation than two and hopefully this will buy me enough goodwill that they will be willing to not kick me out and rescind my internship here, rolling to a stop on the floor with my back on the ground and Susan laying in top of me in a it of a shock at the unexpected explosion and I do my best to ignore the feeling of her chest pushed against me and my arms wrapped tightly around her middle across her supple back. "T- Thanks, I didn't realise that the device was about to explode otherwise I would've put up a barrier." I look down to see Susan staring up at me and I quickly let go of her sitting up while she seems to get a hold of herself and remove herself from my vicinity. "No problem, I had to do something when I saw that my invention was about to explode and you were so close to it." I reply.

"Guys, are you two okay?" I hear Johnny running over to come check up on us and as both Susan and myself work our way up to our feet Johnny finally arrives helping his sister up off of the floor. "We're fine Johnny, thank you." Susan replies while I dust my self off of all the soot and dust that landed on me from the explosion and it's at this point that Reed runs up to us. "It seems we're all okay, come on. We need to check up on Ben and see if he's okay." He tells us before running off in the direction that I saw Ben's silhouette blast off into, I guess he must've seen what happened to him as well. "Cmon, we need to check up on Ben!" Susan says before running off to follow Reed and me and Johnny follow closely behind her heading in the direction Ben flew off into and I can only hope that he isn't injured too badly otherwise I'm gonna be in deep trouble, he was half human half rock monster at the time of the explosion so there's a chance that he could have been seriously injured and what if he's somehow ended up becoming some kind oh human/rock hybrid because of me, I need to make sure that Ben's okay otherwise my whole reason for coming here will be in jeopardy and I won't be able to access the information that would help forward my research.

Me and Johnny finally catch up with Susan just when she stops next to Reed and he seems to be staring ahead into a cloud of smoke but I can just about make out a silhouette in the smoke and I can tell that the silhouette is raised a few feet off of the ground though I can tell that the silhouette is man shaped I can't quite make out the thickness and size of the man inside through the dark smoke and so I can't tell what has actually happened to Ben, Reed proves to also have the same problem and so he goes about resolving it by stretching out his arms in front of him and wrapping them around each other in a pirate before he retracts it very fast creating a force of wind that clears all of the smoke from the surrounding area and gives a clear line of sight to Ben's location so that we can find out what has happened to him.

With the smoke cleared away we all have a clear view of what has happened to Ben and I can say that it isn't a pretty sight, I hope he doesn't get too angry about this...

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<AN> I now have a Pa treon up and running and when a chapter is ready it will go up on Pa treon first so please take a look. Some support from you guys would be appreciated and motivate me.

Currently 14+ Chapters.

(www.pa treon.com/GutsyRipper)

A special thank you to my patrons Tim Brown, Stormrall, Turtle, Wanous, Matthew Laird, Sage Honos, Shawn Smith, Derrick Porter, Alex, Manuel Arauio, Kieta Aki and Darth Bane. Thank you for the support.