⁀➷

Ben was laying on the ground in a large crater. Victor grabbed a streetlight pole, yanking it off, and walked toward Ben. He stood over him, raising his arm.

"Goodbye, Ben."

"I can't let you do that," Reed declared.

"Reed?" Victor looked over his shoulder."I'll be right with you." He turned back to Arab Ben, but the pole hit a forcefield. He turned around. "Hello, Susan. And Dorothy, of course. So silent. You four really are pathetic."

He moved toward Reed, Sue, and Dorothy but was stopped when a large fireball hit his side, causing him to stumble back as Johnny flew toward them and landed safely on his feet.

"You missed me," spat out Johnny.

Ben got back up to his feet and stood with the rest of the group.

"Had a little relapse, huh?" asked Johnny. "Welcome back," he said to Ben.

"This is going to be fun," said Victor.

He raised his arms, generating electricity before throwing it at Johnny and Ben, while Sue put up a protective shield around herself.

Dorothy couldn't explain the itching she felt in her fingers, but she had a feeling Sue would jump in front to protect them. She had seen the extent of Sue's shields, and it never lasted.

"I can't hold it!" Sue shouted.

Dorothy nudged Sue out of the way and held her hands in front of her, closing her eyes tightly, but was shocked to not feel anything. Once she opened her eyes, she saw the same energy Victor threw in her hands, submissive and whirring.

Dorothy looked at Victor before flinging the ball of energy back at him. However, he was not deterred easily and was back on his feet.

"Johnny! Supernova!" Reed demanded.

"I thought we agreed that was bad?" Johnny retorted.

"Now!"

Johnny flew off, attempting to gain speed and rise in temperature.

"Ben!" Reed called.

Ben reached for Reed's arms and pulled himself off Victor as fast as he could. Johnny flew around, creating a heat trap. Victor's entire body was now stripped to the metal embedded in his skin.

"Sue, think you can contain it?" Reed called out.

She created a barrier around the flames. As the barrier broke down, causing Johnny to rumble out, the fire died down, leaving Victor standing in the middle.

"Is that the best you can do?" Victor taunted. "A little heat?"

"Time for your lesson; Chem 101," said Reed. "What happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?"

Ben kicked off the top of the fire hydrant, releasing a gush of water from the city's underground system for firefighters and directed it toward Victor. Ben crushed the fire hydrant in on itself to stop the water from coming out and Reid slinked back into his normal shape. In the middle of the road, Victor was frozen.

Ben walked over to Johnny. "You done good kid."

As they all grouped together near Victor's statue, the crowd around them began cheering.

Johnny smiled as he looked at the crowd. "Man, I love this job!"

Ben turned to him. "Job, huh?"

"Well, we do have the suits," said Reed.

Dorothy gave muffled words, throwing her hands around wildly.

"Sorry, Dorothy, I'll get it off you when we get back to the lab," said Reed apologetically.

She huffed and rolled her eyes as Johnny wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her toward him.

"Man, I wish I could kiss you right now," he said.

She rolled her eyes.