Hopeful Orange...

After that tiresome night I went home and straight to bed and then for the rest of the week I concentrated on my project that was nearly due in no matter how much Johnny continued to pester me in the hopes that I would come out to play with him though I managed abate him by promising that I would start joining him on his adventures once the deadline had passed and I was assured that I definitely had a place at the Baxter building, and so for the rest of the week I worked on my project which is the enhance version of a collar/accessory which will be put on super powered people that will stop them using their powers in an incredible and ingenious way if I do say so myself but this collar can easily ripped off by someone else that has super powers and isn't wearing the collar which is why I have spent this last week working on a schematic which will be a bunch of relays which will create a sort of area affect barrier where everyone inside will lose their powers which is quite frankly pretty awesome and I wanted to get this finished before the deadline to show a possible new route off of my already completed project and prototype collar power inhibitor.

And after a week of working on it straight I've finally managed to finish the schematic in time for my presentation which is in an a half hour and as you can see I've worked my ass of to the last minute even though my presentation was finished a week ago and everything I did in this last week can be seen as overkill and unnecessary but that's the way I like it which is going above and beyond expectations and blowing people socks off and now it's time to blow the Fantastic Four's socks off as its time for my presentation which is in less than half and so I sprint to gather everything I need for my presentation and work to transport it upstairs to the conference room that I was first accepted in and which my presentation will be held in and it takes several trips to bring all the things I need up to the conference room, just in time as well it turns out as the entire crew of the Fantastic Four enter with Reed having his head face down in a tech pad no doubt working on some glorious piece of technology, Ben slumping through the room to sit on the couch at the back of the room while eating crisps (fuck you anyone who says potato chips or chips as chips come with fish goddamn it, they are called crisps or crips) depressed as usual, Johnny enters quite excitedly which I surprised at though I assume he's exited because he knows that after this presentation I will once again be free to go on some escapades with him and for some god forsaken reason I'm looking forward to it as it seems that every time I go to hang out with it I get involved with some exciting event.

After all three of them enter with Johnny joining Ben on the couch and Reed taking a seat at the conference table with his head still buried in his tech pad which kinda annoys me as he should be paying attention to my upcoming presentation but then Susan enters the room looking quite stunning as usual though I'm surprised at the amused look she shoots my way as she also takes a seat at the conference table but once I take a look down at myself I realise why she's amused and its becomes of my appearance that may have very well been quite fashionable this morning but now it's covered in soot with burns and stains littering nearly every inch of my colleges and this is because I have been working all day testing some components of the schematics I was unsure of and after testing them I modified them to make sure they worked although I haven't built the entire schematic but unfortunately all my testing resulted in a few mishaps which resulted in my current disheveled appearance which is definitely not fit to present though I'm not too bothered about that, and once they are all seated and ready though Reed is still keep focused on his tech pad with Ben still slouched on the couch eating crisps while Johnny is sat next to him slyly carving his name into one of the orange rocks that form up Ben's body with something sharp (where on earth did he find that and why is he carving his name into the Thing?) though thankfully at least one of the Fantastic four seem to be paying attention as Susan is sat straight staring at me waiting for me to start.

I decide that Susan's attention is all that I need and so I decide to start my presentation although I don't have a PowerPoint document or anything as I'm more of a show and tell kinda guy though it is a bit nerve racking as this is the first time that I'm actually going to be showing my work to actual genius scientists that save the universe on a regular basis, I quickly shake my head and resolve to power on through and get through this with a calm head and so I begin to speak. "I don't have a presentation or anything as I believe that we are all advanced enough to not need such things so I'm just gonna lay all my work out on the table for you to looks at while I show a demonstration of my work as I think we are all intelligent enough to skip all the posturing and just let the tech speak for itself, Johnny get up here, I need a Guinea pig." I say while spreading all my work out on the table which only Susan seems to be paying attention to while Johnny lets out a startled "What!?" To my words dropping the sharp things he was using to carve his name into Ben's orange rocks before wincing and hopping that the big orange giant doesn't notice which thankfully he doesn't.

Johnny hesitatingly makes his way up towards me while Susan seems to be reading through my project and once he reaches me I begin to give him some instructions. "Don't worry nothing is gonna happen, I just need you to stretch your left arm towards me while raising your right arm into the air and completely covering it in flames using your powers, okay? Good." Saying this I pull out my prototype which I changed from being a collar into being a bracelet/shackles/cuffs for criminals as I feel like a collar will be bad branding for my invention and once I see that Johnny entire right arm has been set aflame I slap my bracelet prototype down onto his left arm and clasp is shut around his arm and as soon as I do the flames that had fully encased his right arm dissipate into the air leaving Johnny to let out a confused sound. "Huh, what?" I hear him say to which I smirk in victory and turn toward my adoring crowd which just seems to be Susan at the moment though Ben seems to have got a good laugh out of Johnny panicked face at losing his powers. "As you can see my invention has made Johnny here lose the use of his powers resulting in him no longer being able to encase himself in flames which is definitely a plus as I'm sure more than a few people were getting annoyed seeing such an annoying firefly fly around the sky." I finish.

"I don't understand." I hear Susan say. "From these blueprints and schematics I can only make out that you've utilised a few different components to create a few different energy fields that when combined allow for a energy field to cover the bracelet which prevents any scans/tampering from happening to it without some serious power or preparation but apart from that I can't tell what you've used to negate Johnny's power which I'm amazed at by the way as I wasn't aware of any way to negate our powers which came from a cosmic power storm, how did you do it?" She says and I'm about that reply when I'm interrupted by the big orange rock for,action in the corner of the room suddenly standing from where he was sitting on the couch and asking his own question. "Wait, I though you just found a way to get rid of his fire but you're telling me that that little gizmo you slapped onto his arm completely got rid of his powers? Is it just specifically for him or does it work for anyone? Could it work on me?" I hear him say with a mountain full of hope and I feel a little bad knowing that he wants to be free of his orange form.

I let out a sigh and scratch the back of my head. "I don't know Ben, it's not been fully tested and I don't know if it'd work on someone with your particular circumstances." I say but I'm pretty sure that it won't work on him as my invention doesn't actually suppress powers...

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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 and Manuel Arauio. Thank you for the support.