Fantastic Four: The Engineer of Eternity

Chapter III: The Growing Man

        Johnny Storm lands in front of the giant android as his flame is extinguished, "What? No! I didn't mean to do that!"

"Johnny, look out!" His sister, Sue, yells as the android winds up again.

The android throws his fist through the lab knocking all of the equipment over, sending the four into a frenzy. The floor begins to crumble and fall through to the next floor down. The entire building begins to collapse as the android smashes the foundation from outside.

Reed throws his shirt off, revealing his prototype suit underneath. He pulls a wire on his arm, expanding the suit to fill his entire body. Sue does the same as they suit up in their new uniforms!

Johnny does his best to get his flames back, "Come on! Come on!" As Johnny slides down the floor towards the gaping hole in the building towards the android, he desperately tries to activate his fire powers once again.

Reed uses his powers to stretch his arms out and hold on to Ben and Sue to keep them from falling. He uses his legs to wrap around some exposed piping and cling to the top of the structure.

Johnny attempts once more as he's about to fall into the face of the android, "Come on flames! Go flames!" He reaches the edge of the hole in the building and jumps off to avoid being swallowed by the android while shouting, "FLAME ON!!!" Johnny's entire body ignites as he flies right past the android and circles back to help his family. While being pushed away from Johnny's flight, the android's hand grabs onto the building and rips it apart even more in the middle, sending the entire team falling out of the sky. Johnny flies down to retrieve his sister who encompasses all four of them in a force field. They all slow down very slightly as they finally fall to the ground on impact as the android crashes down hard on its back. The force field dissipates as the entire team try to get their footing. They get to their feet as they notice the android glowing once more.

Ben speaks up, "Uh... Reed. Last time it did this it... uh... it..."

"It did what, Ben?" Reed asks.

Before Ben can respond, the android begins to stand up as it grows even larger in size and strength. It grows to the size of a large building now.

Reed acts fast, "This robot... it's a stimuloid. It absorbs every bit of energy we deal to it resulting in the rapid multiplication of its artificial cells. It'll just keep growing in size with a proportionate increase in strength and resistance to damage."

"So how do we defeat this growing man, Reed?" Johnny asks.

"We have to reverse the process. Johnny, light that thing on fire. Sue, as soon as Johnny gets that thing engulfed in flames, trap it in a force field."

Johnny flies up once again and throws his hands out to send flames all over the android. Sue puts her arms out in front of her body and manages to encase the android in a bubble as it attempts to grow once more.

As it's unable move, Reed gives his next order, "Ben, let him have it."

Ben smiles and leaps towards the Growing Man's knee, "IT'S CLOBBERING TIME!"

Reed yells, "Sue, release the shield!"

Sue drops her force field allowing Ben to smash right into the leg of The Growing Man sending it to the ground.

"It's starting to shrink!" Ben exclaims.

"Right. The kinetic energy of Sue's force field confused the cells. Instead of absorbing the fire, it just internalized it. Now with each blow against it, it'll send the fire further throughout the system. Killing the cells. It never had a chance to disperse the fire before Ben... what did you say? Clobbered it."

"Hey I was in the moment." Ben responds.

The Growing Man slowly begins to shrink down to a very tiny size as the fire is extinguished throughout the body. The four gather around the small android with numerous questions, the biggest of all being: where did it come from?

After all the excitement, a bunch of citizens gather around including press. They start snapping pictures and eventually get to their questions.

"That was wild!" one of the reporters yells. "There's a number 4 on your suits! What does that mean? What are your names?"

Johnny takes control of the situation, "Well there's four of us. My beautiful sister right here is The Invisible Woman!"

"Johnny!" Sue yells slightly offended.

"And this big guy right here," Johnny puts his arm around Ben, "is The Thing!"

"You better watch yourself tough guy." Ben says under his breath.

The reporter chimes in, "What about you?"

"Me? Well, uh... I'm..." Johnny struggles to find a name for himself.

Reed answers for him with a somewhat ominous tone, "The Human Torch."

"Yeah! That's great, Reed!" Johnny pulls Reed front and center, "And this guy right here is the leader of this team: Mr. Fantastic!"

One of the reporters asks, "What's the name of your team?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Johnny replies, "THE FANTASTIC FOUR!"

The crowd murmurs and begins to disperse.

"No?" Johnny asks. "Ah, it'll grow on them."

As the crowd disperses, a woman approaches The Fantastic Four. Dressed in a black and green jumpsuit and overcoat, the woman carries herself in an intimidating way. "Dr. Richards. I'd like to have a word with you. Up in your lab perhaps?"

"I'm sorry," Reed responds, "You are?"

"Special Agent Brand. I need to ask you a couple questions about your trip and I'd prefer to keep it a tad... discrete."

"With all due respect, ma'am, we're all pretty shaken right now. I'd prefer to keep as many people out of our lab as possible until we gain our footing a little bit. So, do it right here. Probe away."

Agent Brand removes her sunglasses, "I only have three questions. One: Where did you end up when you left the planet? Two: What did you encounter? Three: Who could've followed you back?"