Burning Fury (Fantastic Four)

Chapter 6: Powers and Pressures

By the morning, Sue, Reed, Johnny and I had packed up our stuff and gotten to New York and we were on our way to Ben's apartment on the far end of the city away from the extreme hubbub of the main streets. The little apartment was where I spent most of my days when my parents were working. It had only been in the past three years that I had gotten the job as Reed's assistant and finally gotten the notion to move out of both Uncle Ben's apartment and my parents place. I live at the Baxter Building now with Reed, it's not bad, the rents easy to manage and it's not a problem if I want to take my work home with me. I don't see my parents much anymore, they work to often to even call or see me, Christmas and Thanksgiving are really the only times I see them when I go with Ben. To be honest he's been there for me more than they have.

At the moment we were all stuffed into a tired looking taxi, we were going with the flow of the traffic and no one had bothered to say anything or explain what we were going to do once we actually got Ben's apartment. The back of the taxi had been a tight fit, even me being the tiny little creature I am I still was practically sitting on Johnny's lap as I was squashed between him and Sue. My right leg was draped over his left and my entire right side was pressed up against him. I had squirmed and been irritated for ten minutes about how uncomfortable I was to be cuddling up to my ex-boyfriend, but I had to come to terms with the situation because it was a half an hour drive and I just had to suck it up and get on with it.
'If you're uncomfortable Max, just say so' Johnny taunted with that award winning smile on his face.
'I'm uncomfortable' I clenched my jaw tightly and crossed my arms. Why couldn't Sue sit on his lap? She was his sister after all. Did she and Reed not care at all about how I felt about this?

I finally gave up trying so now here we are stuck in traffic on the bridge waiting for the traffic to hurry their butts up. I sighed for the hundredth time and looked out the window of the car. Finally the taxi started to move again only to jolt and come to unexpected halt. All four of us were launched forward as all of the lanes on the right side of the bridge were stopped.
'Get out' I urged Johnny as I unbuckled. We all got out of the car and looked ahead to see there had been a crash on the bridge. Oh swell, we were never going to get off the bridge now for hours.

There were a series of fires and car that were overturned and alight, people scrambling from there broken vehicles, grey smoke puffing out from the wreckage of the crash. From here I could see a huge truck had been stopped in its tracks by what I couldn't see, there was a whole wall of smashed cars and fire. Already the cops had arrived and had started making a barrier with their vehicles and officers. We tried pushing through the crowd but the police had completely blocked off the site.
'What are we gonna do?' Sue spoke up above the ruckus.
'We're not gonna get past these guys' Reed observed, 'but you could'

What? She was going to turn invisible right here. This wasn't going to go smoothly. Johnny, Reed and I cleared a space in the crowd of people so that Sue could channel her energy into turning invisible. She closed her eyes and thought hard, soon her hair and skin began to shift into a translucent blue hue and soon her skin and body disappeared. But her clothes stayed behind.
'Sue, your clothes' Reed hissed, 'lose them'
'Oh, right' Sue's voice came. She began to unbutton her shirts and strip down to her underwear, a floral pink lace matching pair.
'This is so wrong' Johnny sang quietly beside me and looked away from his sister. But then Sue's invisible body began to reappear and her blonde hair and long limbs were visible as she stood in her underwear infront of the civilian crowd.
'Oh' Johnny mumbled and looked away, totally embarrassed.
'Wow, you've been working out' Reed did nothing but gawk at Sue as she wrapped her arms around her semi naked body.
'Shut up!' she snapped, an evil frown working its way onto her face.

She picked up her brown jacket and tried to cover up her body. The people around us were giggling and laughing and looking away as they watched the scene unfold infront of us. Their bulging eyes and poorly concealed grins and taunts made me feel sorry for Sue.
'Any more great ideas?!' Sue shouted at Reed, 'why don't you strip down and have a hundred people stare at you!' she grit her teeth as once again her body began to disappear. Wow, she was angrier than me. It was like she anger was making her turn invisible. Finally only a bra and panties stood hovering in the air.
'Sue' Reed nodded to her.
'What! Oh' the underwear fell the road and it was creepy to know that Sue was naked running around in public being invisible.
'Imma need therapy' Johnny complained.
'Come on let's get outta here' Reed directed up through the crowd as we followed an invisible Sue. Johnny picked his sister's clothes up and we followed the clear space infront of us.
''scuse me, coming through 'scuse' came Sue's voice through the crowd. People were being jolted and shoved this way and that as she moved them out of the way. We got through the sea of people and cops and finally to the crash site where I found a spot where no one would see Sue return to her normal state.