chapter 23

Reed sat slouched in a chair in the lab, extending his palms toward the broad leaf of a large cattail plant in an attempt to cool himself.

"Why is it so hot?" he muttered, fanning his hands through the air.

He kept waving, hoping for some relief, but the temperature only rose. Sweat dripped down his forehead, and he felt a growing sense of unease.

Is the temperature control system broken? he thought. No, SHIELD wouldn't make such a stupid mistake.

The temperature in the lab continued to climb, and the powerful heat wave made the air feel thin, almost suffocating. Reed's clothes clung to his body, damp with sweat that seemed to steam off in the stifling heat.

The lab felt like an oven, and the instruments groaned, unable to withstand the intense temperatures.

"What's going on? Fury?! Sue?! This isn't funny!" Reed yelled, running to the lab door. He slammed his hand on the door button, desperately trying to escape.

"Open the door! I'm Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards! Open the door!" he shouted, hoping the access system would recognize him and unlock the door.

The system beeped twice and displayed the message: "Unidentified. This person is not in the database."

"This is impossible! I'm a registered hero with SHIELD!" Reed shouted, pounding on the door. Anger rising, he coiled his body like a spring and launched himself toward a ceiling vent in the corner of the room.

But when he tried to grab the vent louvers, his hands slipped on the smooth metal. His hope fell into despair, and frustration exploded within him.

As he landed, he noticed something odd—a movement on the wall beside him.

His eyes widened in horror as he saw a gun barrel emerge from the wall. Flames and fuel shot out, forming a terrifying tongue of fire aimed directly at him.

Who would want to harm me?! he thought, horrified.

He stretched his body like rubber, springing and leaping to dodge the flames. He contracted and expanded with each jump, flying through the heat like a flexible bullet.

"Fury! Are you watching surveillance? Help me!" Reed shouted.

But there was no response, only more gun barrels emerging from the walls, spewing flames that filled the room. The lab was engulfed in a sea of fire, and dense smoke thickened the air.

Lab coats, chairs, equipment—everything was ablaze, crackling in the heat. The white coat hanging on a chair was quickly reduced to ashes, with only sparks left floating in the air.

Chemicals exploded from glass containers, adding more fire and smoke to the already chaotic scene. The walls blackened, the heat melting surfaces until liquid dripped from the metal.

The lab turned into an inferno, as the blazing heat scorched Reed's skin and began to melt his clothes.

Why? he thought, his desperation mounting. Why is this happening?

Collapsing beside the lab table, he gazed helplessly at the flames consuming the room.

In the corner of his vision, he noticed a body slowly disintegrating under the flames, exposing bones beneath melted skin. A realization hit him like a lightning bolt.

He looked up at the ceiling, a crazed smile spreading across his face as he yelled, "Adrian! I know what you fear! You fear the future!"

His voice echoed through the blazing lab, filled with anger and madness.

"Can't you see with that one eye of yours? Our resistance is futile! Why don't you join those evolved beings? Can't you see the beauty of eternal life?"

As his body continued to melt, his once-elastic muscles lost their resilience, his skin liquefying and dripping onto the floor.

"It hurts! Damn it, it hurts!" Reed screamed in agony.

"Just a few more minutes… just a few minutes more, and I could have transformed Susan and the others into new beings! We would—"

Reed's limbs deformed as he collapsed to the ground. His nose drooped to his mouth, one eye melted into a pool, and the other sagged from its socket. His ears melted down to his legs.

No one would have thought that the melted figure was once a living person, yet he continued to shout and roar.

"Do you think you can escape the zombies by killing me? Impossible! Your defeat is inevitable!"

"Ahhh! My hand!" he cried, his voice fading into silence as the flames finally consumed his body.

In his last moments, his final words echoed faintly.

As time passed, the flames gradually died down, and a layer of ashes settled over everything. The lab grew quiet once more.

The gun barrels retracted back into the walls, disappearing as if they'd never been there.

Only a blackened mass remained in the center of the room. The charred remnants vaguely retained Reed's shape, though they had lost all elasticity and life, now hardened and brittle.

Reaching toward another charred mass on the table, his final gesture left a haunting scene.

Watching everything through surveillance, Adrian smiled in satisfaction as he observed the charred remains break apart.

"Your wife… SHIELD is taking care of her. Don't worry," he murmured.

🛡️Ronin 🛡️

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