Chp. 90 Meeting the Fantastic Four...

"You Americans are still pretentious as ever, even with god given gifts you deny it and call it disease! In my eyes you are the disease!" The Old Russian man roared in anger hearing Reed's attempts to dissuade him of his actions.

"I have been forgotten above there but I survived and I have watched! Watched as how wars were started due to simple greed of men of your country." The Red Ghost walked unflinching from the guns pointed at him by agents and police alike in the area.

"I have seen too much while I was in stasis in space! How the motherland has weakened and ruled by incompetent fools! Though the one who sits above now shows promise, the gluttony of Americans have covered the land!" The man growled as he stared red eyed at Reed but his dialogue was interrupted by a chuckle from the side.

"Pathetic excuses...hehehe..." Viktor said as he smirked while looking at Red Ghost in disdain as he walked out from the entrance of the Baxter building looking more metallic than ever.

"Viktor you..." Reed noticed the changes in Viktor who just waved at Reed it was alright as he walked to the middle of the street uncaring for the powered villain glaring at him.

"You speak as if the Americans are the ones at fault for their greed when your eyes shine as green as the paper bills in my pockets, I can see it in your eyes you lust for the power within them. I can tell because I had the same look a while ago, humans are greedy by nature, so stop the pretense trying to justify your actions as you are nothing more but a relic forgotten by your own homeland." Viktor sneered as he said this while stepping aside dodging a street pole flung at him by the Magnetic Orangutan.

"Tell him Viktor! All this guy did is yap and yap but no walk to follow his talk." Johnny cheered as he looked ready to take some actions.

"No walk eh? Let us see you walk once I break your legs like dried twigs!" Red Ghost said while speaking commands to the Super Apes.

The Baboon suddenly elongated like Reed but on a limited scaled but he suddenly sprang so fast that the others were not able to react as he closed in on the hot head.

The baboon reformed and swung it's hands that morphed into a large sledge hammer unto a fire hydrant nearby making if burst water towards Johnny Storm as he was about to ignite.

This caused agents and police to fire but before they could their guns and their cars floated away from their grasps as the Orangutan manipulated them to be pointed at Johnny who cannot ignite at the moment.

"Johnny!" Sue who was on the side reacted and wanted to make a force field for Johnny only for Red Ghost to suddenly phased through the force field and attacked Sue making her lose focus and back in fear.

"Sue!" Reed was quick to come to the rescue to Susan but he was stopped in his tracks by Igor the Baboon waving his hands that now has long razor sharp claws that even cut through easily at the asphalt of the road.

As Ivan was about to slash down to Susan he was suddenly hit by a lightning bolt sending him away making the others look at Viktor Von Doom whose fingertips still sizzled with electricity.

"You're welcome..." He said but he looked to the other side of the street where Johnny is being cornered by Peotor the Orangutan as he was still soaking wet with water so he could only dodge the bullets by rolling around, thankfully the Ape has not yet fine tuned his control over metal.

But before Viktor could shoot the orange Ape with a high voltage bolt of electricity, a truck flew towards him making him raise his guard as he was hit dead on sending him back along with the truck to the side of the Baxter building.

Onlookers were in chaos as many now tried to flee the scene but some stayed as they were curious being New Yorkers and all.

Susan was shocked but her thoughts were on Johnny who was being rained bullets by the orangutan making send a force field to cover him saving him in time from getting hit.

But this gave time to the Gorilla who leaped and was about to make Susan Storm a pancake, but another vehicle flew by as it hit the Gorilla sending him to be plastered to the other side of the building.

"Hey furball! Why don't you take someone your own size!" Ben Grimm said as he ran like a juggernaut to the Gorilla who also recovered from being hit. "It's clobbering time!"

"Roar!" Miklho banged his chest in challenge as he leaped towards Ben Grimm making the two produce shockwaves from their clash.

"Ugh, that hurt a bit..." Viktor said as he walked out calmly from the building feeling sore from being hit by a fire truck.

"Viktor your okay!" Susan was glad as she saw their friend get out from that attack.

"Celebrations for later, we have a Relic to entertain." Viktor folded the sleeves of his suit as he walked seeing Ivan has also recovered.

"Flame on!" Johnny shouted as he was able to ignite again and flew to fight the orangutan who kept sending metallic constructs to him.

*Zap!*

Viktor sent another bolt to Ivan but he turned incorporeal and the lightning passed through the guy.

"Annoying..." Viktor groaned as he swung his fist to meet the angry Russian but every time the attacks just phase through while Red Ghost's attacks can't make a dent on the semi metallic skin and body of Viktor.

Sue Storm helped from time to time by giving force fields to those in need like Reed and Viktor while Johnny and Ben were having a slug fest fighting their opponents.

This was viewed all over the world as the new group of powered beings had caught the attention of many, even the new person with the Fantastic Four which oddly was not identifiable by any means as Paul felt that Viktor's Identity should not be made public yet.

This made him affect the cameras as well as the minds of the onllokers nearby as the fight raged on.

"Enough of this!" Viktor said as he released an energy surged which affected Ivan a bit making him back off but Viktor noticed something which made him smile.

"Interesting…"

"…Reed, swap places!" Viktor said as he suddenly ran towards where Johnny was and jumped high to tackle the floating Orangutan who was surprised at Viktor's sudden attack.

Johnny, Reed and Susan were confused but they saw Viktor raise his hands and electricity suddenly surged towards him disrupting the electromagnetic field Peotor the Orangutan was using to control the metals around.

"Brilliant!" Reed said as he swerved and shot towards the angry Russian who wanted to assist his Apes.

The Baboon wanted to stop him but he was suddenly faced with a force field halting his steps.

Johnny with a free hand flew towards where Ben Grimm was having a brawl with Miklho the Gorilla.

"And here I thought nobody could beat your ugly but I stand corrected." Johnny said not able to pass a chance taking a shot at Ben's appearance.

"Shut up fly boy! Yo-ughh!! That's it you Fur ball, I'm gonna bash your teeth in!" Ben got angry and pummeled the Gorilla with a series of boxing combos.

In the matter of strength they are equal but Ben being human had learned and applied boxing as well as some wrestling that he was able to out maneuver the Gorilla in a few moments.

Johnny annoyed the Ape as well by shooting fire to its eyes blinding it so it could not react in time when the Thing is raining knuckles left and right.

Reed on the other hand had a nerve wracking fight as he and Ivan kept on dodging each other's attacks.

Reed would weave his body away in a split second anytime Ivan attacks and Ivan turns incorporeal every time Reed counterattacks when he is attacking.

Viktor on the other hand was having a blast as he rendered the Orangutan's magnetic field by sending disruptive electric shocks which also took out the cameras of the reporters and onlookers nearby.

Sue in the meantime was able to hold her opponent down seeing the baboon cannot pierce through her force field, but it is taking a toll on her to keep it up.

"You Thieves!! Just because you could thwart me here doesn't mean I am not without plans!! If you keep resisting then I will press this button which will detonate the bombs I have placed in many places so if you do not surrender then you will get what you deserve!" Ivan was fuming as he felt frustrated being outsmarted and not being able to make the Fantastic Four yield.

On his hands was a phone which has a glaring red button showing on its screen, this was a contingency Ivan had to make in case the powers he had seen on TV was more that he could handle.

The Fantastic Four were surprised with this move and surely they paused what they were doing but for Viktor he was not deterred.

"Go ahead, blow the bombs up. I dare you to try it because this will make you more of a villain and people will beg for your head to be put on the platter." Viktor walked towards Ivan as he held the Orangutan by the neck while absorbing the electromagnetic pulses the ape emits to fuel his powers.

He did this as he focused his thoughts on sending a simple EMP to disable the phone in Ivan's hands.

Ivan was distracted for a bit and it was this time an Arrow flew from nowhere and hit the phone making him let go of it and stopping his attempts to activate the bombs.

The Fantastic Four was shocked at this and tried to look for the shooter but this gave Miklho the Gorilla a chance and sent an uppercut to Ben sending the Thing flying back hitting Johnny.

The Gorilla used this chance to charge towards Susan who was holding back Igor the Baboon but before he could get close to her Viktor threw the orangutan towards the large Ape making him slow down to catch the fellow ape in his hands.

Ivan was mad as he tried to pick up the phone but Reed was faster and got the device first.

"Graghhh! This is not over! Activate timer sequence!" Ivan shouted as he had little time to prepare and study everything but he was able to place a voice recognition program in the phone making it turn the bombs on, only it was timed.

Reed was stunned as he looked at the phone in his hands show a thirty minute timer counting down.

"Now what will it be? Us or finding the bombs!? But I think you don't have a choice since we will make sure you all stay here!" Ivan was red eyed as he became feral.

Being in stasis while also aware to a certain extent on what is happening to the world bottle up emotions within the old Russian scientist thus his hasty plans in trying to take the Cosmic Radiation within the Fantastic Four.

Driven by greed he was able to come up with this plan as contingency but even when he knew the general situation of the world, it was not enough for him to understand that there are hidden groups that could take him out in an instant.

SHIELD had been made aware of his performance and had been back tracking his activities before he started his show in front of Baxter Building.

Thus even before he pulled out the Phone there were agents already dismantling the bombs he had placed in places around New York.

That was also the reason why they had sent Barton to watch over Ivan in case he tries to pull out the trigger which he shot down as soon as he saw an opening that Viktor so easily provided.

[On a nearby Building]

"First it was a guy in an iron suit now we have monkeys with powers, who's next? Godzilla?" Sitwell's voice sounded out Barton's comms as he watched while perching on an edifice of a skyscraper besides the Baxter Building.

"If memory serves right they are Apes agent Sitwell, so how's the STRIKE team doing with the bombs?" Barton asked cheekily as he acted normal despite knowing Sitwell was HYDRA.

Even the STRIKE team was HYDRA but Fury kept the image that they were ignorant and were doing their jobs as dictated by the government council.

Pierce didn't suspect yet because he still think the problem within HYDRA was internal and that Ophelia has hired the help of the mutants.

Fury kept close watch over this as to not spook out the snakes into the bushes, he wanted a complete wipeout of HYDRA. Well except for the part of Ophelia's who already promised she'll let her side be integrated to SHIELD completely.

She was vengeful indeed but she was also ambitious, she could already see the winning side thus agreed on letting SHIELD absorb her part of HYDRA once the other factions within the organization has been dismantled.

Right now their eyes were on New York as the appearance of this group of super powered beings piqued their attentions.

But even then bad news came to Fury's ears.

[SHIELD, New York Division]

"This is STRIKE team Alpha, director we have a problem." Rumlow's voice sounded over as he looked seriously at the bomb in front of him.

"Agent please state the situation?" Fury connected immediately.

"Sir, these bombs were made with unconventional means we have little knowledge of. It looks like a relic but it is much more complicated that our bomb squads are stumped at the moment, but we do know this, if we make one wrong move they all blow up at the same time." even as a double agent Rumlow is still competent in doing his job.

"What do you mean like a 'relic'?" Fury's voice sounded out in the comms.

"Like Cold War kind of relic sir, but much more intricate. It definitely is Russian by the way it was built but there are things that even the latest toys we got cannot identify." Rumlow looked at the sweating faces of the bomb squad as they racked their brains out to figure out how to diffuse the bombs.

"Having trouble there Nick?" a rather arrogant cheery voice interrupted the conversation making Fury raise his brows.

"Stark, this is a secure channel so why are you tapping in?" Fury's angry voice can be heard as he realized who the owner of the voice was.

"Not so secure it seems, but I think the Russian doohickey here is making you all have some trouble it seems." Stark smiled in his Jet as he wore a head band like device as he is being shown the live feed of the events in New York.

"You and I are going to have a talk soon Stark but last I heard you were going somewhere else?" Fury had noticed Stark taking a private plane somewhere but he didn't know what for.

"I know, but I have a solution at hand. You see having an angry Russian guy come at you with that much anger, I can relate. So when said guy tried to blow up right in front of my face I had some inspiration in learning about how Russians like their bombs…" Stark drawled as he seemed to be rather relaxed in his plane.

"Go on…" Fury said as he looked over at the live reports and seeing the fight still going on as well as Ivan not pulling out the trigger meant they have time.

"What? No pretty please?" Stark smiled as he could imagine the annoyance on Fury's face.

"Remind me again Stark who's helping you keep those nosey neighbors away from your toys?" Fury said making the billionaire grunt in boredom.

"Geez you're no fun, anyways I already have someone on the field to take care of it." As soon Stark finished Fury received reports of various Iron man armors arriving and helping out in dismantling the bombs.

"Sir, I have eyes on the trigger." Barton's voice sounded out making Fury look at the screen.

"Shoot when there is a chance Clint. Agent Hill have the other recording device that were able to capture the fight unaffected by the EMP blast confiscated and delay media from sniffing in this accident." Fury looked at the cold looking agent in his side who nodded.

"Also sir, the council is waiting for you." Hill said making Fury frown.

"What now?" Fury walked begrudgingly at the room where he would face the decision makers of the entirety of SHIELD.

[Baxter Building]

"Look of guy, we don't know who you are and what happened to you to lose your hair like that but have nothing to do with it so chill out will you?" Johnny said as he tried to diffuse the situation his way since the timer started but it further enraged the Old Russian scientist.

"How could he chill with such a hothead like you nearby!?" Ben Grimm roared as he ran back and tackled the Gorilla to grapple with the beast.

This caused the Ape to drop its comrade somewhere he would not be affected by their brawl.

Susan still kept sending force blast towards the Baboon who was still nimble and dodged her attempts to disable the ape.

Viktor on the other hand stopped and watched over the spectacle as he was a bit thoughtful.

"You know, as much as we can be smart. There are already people watching over us even as we speak." Viktor looked at the direction of the arrow came from and subconsciously touched his cheek.

"This is all the help I can give you Reed, I still have a flight to catch." Viktor said as he left not caring if there were still villains to take care of.

Reed cannot answer for the moment as he tried to stop Ivan from his tracks, as he had seen that there is a limit and a pattern as to when Ivan can phase out or not from his observation.

Johnny ever the annoying one kept putting flames in the Red Ghost's way as he tried to escape but being new to his powers made him prone to mistakes as he got emotionally unstable.

Soon the Russian was filled with burns and wounds as he tried to run away but somehow the ground wouldn't let him phase through, this made the Red Ghost confused.

He could phase through anything but somehow when he tried to phase through the ground again he could no longer do so as he was oblivious there was someone much powerful watching over to begin with.

Only ones to notice this were Fury and Viktor who knew that there was someone stronger in the top of the ladder watching over earth.

That was why Viktor left, he had seen the frustrated face of Ivan and thought there was no further need of him there.

But as he walked away he glanced one last time as he saw the rest of the Apes to have been subdued.

"This is not a place for me…" Viktor whispered as he looked a bit gloomy but his eyes showed resolve that was much harder than the material he is now. "…mother, wait for me."

Paul saw this and felt a bit relieved that Doom did not go for his initial fate of being the main villain but he knew one day the Fantastic Four will be drawn gain to Viktor in the future.

Still looking at the first villain group of the Fantastic Four that made them accept their roles as heroes brought Paul a smile in his face.

Though they are still a bit disorganized but even then there is a matter he needed to solve with the Dreaming Celestial problem.

Right now he and Phastos are in Baxter Building watching the fight below, this was why Ivan cannot Phase into the floor because he was close by watching.

He was able to observe long enough to emulate and copy how the body behaves to make his own version of phasing through solid objects.

Though Ivan's was a bit different as he just like Ghost, the girl who was exposed to the quantum energy blast, is phasing through a separate dimension making him and her exist between two realities.

Though Paul has no idea of which dimension Ivan is phasing through but it is most likely connected to the Cosmic Radiation.

So in order to do so Paul must be connected to another dimension which he already has, or sort of, the various mini worlds inside the artifacts could be used as mediums to enable Paul to phase in and out of this universe.

So what Paul did was use his understanding of Space laws and made the ground under Ivan become an entirely different space as this reality so as to prevent him from phasing into the floor.

Phastos on the other hand was scanning and studying the machine built by Reed.

"Amazing, even with such limited resources and technology he was able to create a machine able to emulate the Cosmic Storm. Only a galactic level type of civilization could have done this but even then it would be unstable…" Phastos marveled at the machine as he found the simplicity and complexity within its build quite a contrast but also beautiful.

"Like I said, he is the dumbest genius within this planet and he does not even have any idea how dangerous his research are in the wrong hands…" Paul looked at the SHIELD agents putting on power dampening collars on the Apes and Ivan which somehow surprised the Fantastic Four.

"And here I thought humans would not be able to develop without this guy's help…" Gilgamesh said as he ate a sandwich while watching the TV, he followed along as he wanted to act as some sort of body guard to Phastos.

Paul might have been able to gather them for a good cause but they still cannot understand the real intentions of Paul, so they would not let Phastos go alone with him in case that there might be something bad that could happen to their fellow Eternal.

Paul noticed this as well but he didn't mind as he knew his approach has been too hasty, anyways they will trust him in time since he didn't plan anything more to the Eternals anyways.

Right now he could see the confusion as to how this government secret operative that just appeared already have items that could stop the activation of the powers of people who had been subjected to Cosmic radiation.

What Reed didn't know that these were already present long before because of mutants and only adjusted to target the energy pattern within the Super Apes and Ivan.

But there was something else that bothered him as he looked at the designs of the power dampening collars.

Only Reed and Susan were able to pick up on this quickly as Ben was getting annoyed by the people that were cheering on them while Johnny was enjoying it to even bother thinking about the items that the SHIELD agents have brought to capture the Super Apes.

So while on the way up to their floor Reed and Susan were arguing about the ramifications of such findings thinking that he and the others might be in danger if the government already has devices to dampen their powers.

"I know it even if it was just a glance Susan, it was something I have developed years before and it is being used by the government without my knowledge. I used the same technology within my machine so it could siphon the Cosmic Storm within us." Reed said as he was mind boggled about this.

"Wait a minute, so those cuffs they put those furballs on were things that could take away our powers?" Johnny asked in a rare moment of paying attention.

"Technically yes, but I can still see the eyes of that Orangutan glow, so in other words the cuffs were there to destabilize what factor that are giving them or us powers. I noticed this because the technology was made by me, I patented it in hopes that it could be used in Nuclear Reactors but no one has taken interest in it for so long I almost forgot about it…" Reed massaged his head as he thought about how the technology he made is being applied while thinking of using it on them to let them experience some sort of normality in life.

"But how are we going to ask them why they used your tech when we can all see there Reed that those people were much more than the likes of the FBI. They have cages for the Gorilla but meant for something much larger, whatever the reason for that does not bode well for us." Susan said as her powers made her able to sneak a peek inside the vehicles SHIELD brought in.

She saw a containment cell that was similar to what held Blonsky in the TV series She-Hulk. She saw the parameters and understood enough that the cage was meant for something larger.

"I heard rumors from the bar recently, saying there were other monsters out there much larger than me. Something about a fight near Harlem that leveled that place down…" Ben said as he seemed thoughtful since there were some drunks in the bar he frequented with Alicia that talked about some 'Hulking' figures fighting in the streets of Harlem.

Many dismissed it as just some conspiracy for corporations to lessen the real estate value of the area to buy it, which really did happen but it was Paul who was buying the buildings nearby for his own plans.

"You sure it's not you sleep walking big guy? People tend to run away when they see you hahaha…." Johnny laughed as he said this since the elevator door was opening and ran inside their floor.

"I still can't believe you were able to make this elevator for me…" Ben said as he walked out of the large elevator that was able to carry his large weight.

"Yeah, I did that… some of Reed's patents were able to sell quite a bit since his face was all over the news. Though those were just the simple gadgets but it gave us some money to use but that is not the main concern right now." Susan said as she looked at the complicated face of Ben and patted his shoulders.

"You were amazing back there Ben, thanks for having our backs." Susan said as she knew Ben had already gotten normal but gave that all up just so they would be safe.

"Yeah Ben, I'd rather have you watch over us rather than Viktor…" Reed's face seemed complicated as he said that since he still cannot understand the rationale in Viktor's decisions.

"Nah, don't sweat it Reed. You may be flexible enough to watch your own back but I still need to protect you, I see the eyes of the people out there. They may adore you now but someday they'll look at you like you're some kind of monster good thing now you all have me for them to look at…" Ben chuckled a bit self depreciatingly at the thought that he at least is protecting their group from public scrutiny.

People don't like someone different from them, so they will likely hate those with gifts that they do not have like the mutants. Sure Sublime has been taken care off but there always exist people who think that humans with powers are abominations.

Using many reason as religion or human supremacy which are just useless justifications to make themselves look like the ones in the Right to judge those with these powers.

Paul had seen these many examples all throughout the world and he has been taking care of them slowly and silently.

He might be all powerful and could destroy the world but he still finds himself to be human, though that might be far from what he is now, but having a bottom line somewhat keeps his heart at peace.

But the real reason he still sees himself as human is because even with that bottom line, he still has the most basic trait of what makes a human…

…Hypocrisy.

Paul may be helping a lot and making jobs left and right with his clones but he is also helping in the dark in resolving many problems like crime in the world.

And many of those are hate crimes which has been rampant since Sublime had amplified the hate for mutants all over the world.

Paul target most were the extremist of those groups and made sure they will not have time to make stupid decisions on harming others due to their jealousy.

Ben Grimm also knew that, so he understood that he'll be protecting their group with him around since people tend to stare at him longer for them to get jealous about the powers of the Fantastic Four.

But maybe if they keep on being heroes then the world might just tolerate them much more than they do now.

Reed and Susan also realized this as they looked at Ben complicatedly and felt that he was really the bulwark of their group.

They walked towards their lab as they thought again about the power dampening cuffs but they paused as they saw three unfamiliar faces poking about, well two as the other one was eating a large sandwich.

"It's about time. Doctor Reed Richards, the dumbest super genius there is, the world needs you…" Paul said not caring as he saw the faces made by Reed and Ben while Susan became thoughtful and shrugged in agreement.

"Hey guys anyone seen my sub? I remember buying some before and… who are these jokers? Hey that's my sandwich!" Johnny just arrived seemingly confused but still saw Paul and the others but his eyes locked on Gilgamesh who was eating the sandwich.

"Is that?" Johnny's brows rose as he saw Gilgamesh eating his sandwich.

"You asshole!" Johnny said as his hands was in flames and shot a fire ball towards Gilgamesh in anger but his eyes widened as he just realized what he just did.

Ben, Reed and Susan were stunned as well but they were not able to react instantly as they have been thinking which government group these people in front of them were from.

Phastos and Gilgamesh were surprised for a bit but it didn't faze them much as Gilgamesh just waved his hands and slapped the fireball off like a candle.

"Oh? Pretty decent heat you got there kid." Gilgamesh said as he seemed nonchalant at what he just did.

The Fantastic Four on the other hand were alert as they looked at the unscathed man in front of them.