Subconscious Shenanigans...

With the smoke cleared from our eyes due to Reed's ingenious use of his powers to make himself into a glorified fan we can clearly see what has happened to Ben Grimm and it isn't a pretty sight but then again he's always looked like an orange rock monster so I suppose although it's still a bit ugly he's already used to it so he probably won't be too mad but I feel bad knowing that his hopes have been shot down, embedded into the wall about a meter off of the ground is Ben in his orange rock form more known as 'The Thing' and although it's a bit of a letdown that he didn't return to his human form I'm still glad that his condition wasn't worsened or anything as that would result in a much worser situation for me as it would pretty much turn the entire Fantastic Four against me and get rid of any of the goodwill I had before so thankfully Ben is just his normal horrifying rock creature self or I wouldn't know what to do, the thing that I most disheartened about in this situation is not that Ben's hopes were smashed but rather that my invention was smashed as I can see it's no longer attached to Ben's spirits and is now spread across the room in several different parts as it was blown to smithereens.

Ben suddenly moves his arm out of the wall to grip the edge of where he's embedded before using it as leverage to rip the rest of himself out of the wall pretty much damaging the rest of the wall as he does so but in the end he pulls himself free of the bricks and plaster to stand on his own two feet and I'm just glad to see that he doesn't seem into be injured in any way but my mood is brought down when I see the look upon Ben's face as his expression is s morphed into a mix of sadness and anger which he shows as he punches the wall that he just climbed out of knocking it down entirely and making an open floor planned room as we've now got two different conference tables in the same area as a result of destroying the wall, the rest of us stay silent at his action as we know that it isn't right to speak up right now but Johnny doesn't seem to think the same as he's about to speak out and probably make an ill timed joke though thankfully Susan reaches out with her hand and wraps an about a meter force field around Johnny thankfully silencing him before Ben hears him though I can still see Johnny's lips moving inside the barrier with no words reaching my ears, I need something like this to shut him up as well in the future.

"What happened? It was working for a second but everything went wrong." Ben says despondently and I'm unsure about what to say so I'm thankful when Reed takes the initiative to speak to his friend and comfort him, maybe even give him a reason as to what happened as I've come up with some theories myself but I don't know if I feel right about pitching the ideas to Ben as it might just upset him more. "Something went wrong Ben, halfway through your transformation back to being a normal human orange rocks began to grow on your human parts while the orange rocks that were already there kept falling off to reveal your body underneath and it began a cycle when you were between some metamorphosis of Ben Grimm man and Ben Grimm The Thing, never becoming either." Reed speaks out to comfort his friend but even then I still see a glimmer of hope spark in Ben's eyes at Reed's words. "But it was working? Meaning that if you found out what caused the problem you could fix it and then use it to make me human again, right?" Ben's speaks out directing his question towards Reed which grinds my gears a little as this was my invention and if anyone should be fielding questions about it it should be me and not Reed, I made the damn thing and he's only known about it for fifteen minutes.

Reed seems to be trying to find the right words to say so I take this opportunity to answer Ben's question about my device as I am the foremost authority on it, not Reed. "Ben, there is no problem in my device as it worked on both Johnny and Reed and It either works or it doesn't work, there is no in between. Plus I'm sure that Reed's probably already working on a way to solve your issue so I think it's better to wait for his solution rather than rely on my shoddy device that has clearly not worked for you." I speak out and I'm confused when Reed sighs and shamefully hangs his head while Ben clenches his fists so tight I can hear the orange rocks grinding against each other and he growls at me. "REED'S ALREADY TRIED TO CURE ME AND ITS NOT WORKED, IT NEVER WORKS!! HE'S ALREADY TRIED EIGHT TIMES AND IT WORKS FOR A WHILE BUT EACH TIME IT STOPS WORKING AFTER A WHILE AND I WAKE BACK UP AS THIS THING!! I CAN'T KEEP WAITING FOR A CURE THAT WILL NEVER COME!!" Ben roars out practically deafening each of us and makes Reed's shame burn even more though I'm surprised at the fact that Reed has tried to to cure him eight times and each time he's failed, Reed is not the type of man to fail that many times at a single thing.

We all stay silent for a few moment at his words with Ben's heavy panting being the only sound in the room even though he hasn't strained himself at all, it seems that in all the drama Susan released her barrier that was keeping Johnny isolated from infecting the rest of us with his stupid jokes and I realise this when I hear him speak out into the stagnant air breaking the silence. "Hey Nick, didn't you say that either your device works or it doesn't? Then what happened to Ben as something was very obviously working before it stopped for some reason." Johnny speaks out and I'm surprised at the fact that an actual relevant thought left his mouth and it actually has some basis, I'm also a bit angry at him as well as he's just brought up a question I really wanted to avoid and I can now see each member of the Fantastic Four looking to me in askance wanting to now the answer to Johnny's surprising question, I sigh before opening my mouth. "My device works by implanting a belief into the wearer subconscious and that belief is that their powers aren't working and the only have the strength of an average human which means that it either works on people or it doesn't as their powers don't care about the users thought or subconscious, the fact that the process of transformation started for you only to be stalled and disrupted halfway through the transformation can only mean one thing." I speak out with reluctance as I didn't want to share my theories at all as they are bound to anger and sadden Ben.

"And what's that then?" Ben spits irritably and I ignore it for the moment as I can imagine how he feels knowing that he might never return to being a normal man. "It can only mean that there was a thought in your subconscious that was even more powerful than the thought placed in you by my device and both thoughts must have been opposing each other which resulted in a fight between both of them in your subconscious which was essentially symbolised by the the cycle transformation you were having before ultimately the thought that was in your subconscious before my device was put on you won and reverted you back to the Thing, at least that's what I think but I'm not a physiologist or anything so I could be wrong." I take a breath after telling him the bad news and j can see him visibly get angry at the information I've given him. "Who could've put such a thought in my subconscious? Was it Doom? Did he do it just to make Reed fail in trying to cure me? Why?" He begins to go on a tirade though thankfully he hasn't resorted to showing his anger through his actions as that would result in a lot more damage and probably injure me as well (as I wouldn't be able to display or use my abilities to avoid his rampage).

"Ben, I think it's best to get some sort of therapist/physiologist here to take a look at you but it would probably be best to get a telepath to give you a once over as we don't even know if my theory is correct and even if it is we don't know that this has been done to you by anyone." I speak out to direct his thought to how to resolve the issue at hand instead of getting angry and depressed at it but it seems that Ben chose to focus on one part of what I said instead of the message i was trying to show him. "What do you mean 'we don't know that this has been done to you by anyone'? What other probable reason is there?" I'm getting tired of the fact that everyone here seems to be nitpicking my words and reading between the lines, looking for nuances.

"It's possible that there is a chance that.. That the subconscious thought might be your own without any.. Interference from anyone else..." Why did I say that? I'm half expecting to get punched through the wall any second now...

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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, Darth Bane and Arun. Thank you for the support.