Chapter Three

Revenge of the Cliché


Under the purple hue of the approaching night, Reed and Cyndie made their way onto the large steps near the academic hall entrance. She crossed the final step and took a great big look at the sunset's final moments, linking her arms defensively.

"You know, I never told anyone this, but…I was always a fan of the nights here," Cyndie mentioned suddenly. "Right between the sunset and the pitch black, when the campus was winding down enough to be quiet. It always felt freeing…Y'know? Seemed timeless to me...

She turned back to Reed, blushing. "Sorry. It must sound so selfish to talk about a little thing I liked when I was figuring my future out… So you're a rubber band now, huh?"

Reed chuckled. He raised his right arm and stretched it up through the air until it was taller than the closest streetlight. "It appears that way," he responded while retracting the limb. "I remember just being skinny my whole life. The next thing I know, I can do a great many things that most men and women only dream of."

"And then going to parallel dimensions?" Cyndie added. "Fighting monsters and demons – even Vic? Having a wife and kids? I can't even imagine what you've been through, Reed."

"Thank you for that, but I'd like to hear what you've done as well," Reed said back to her, earnest.

Cyndie gripped her arm, turning nervously. "Who, me? Nothing really to tell. Nothing except-"

BOOM!

The two swerved, their ears and forms disturbed at a commotion so great that it was enough to make the walls of the entire hall shake from where they were. Reed changed to his game face, immediately cycling through what could be happening. Cyndie's features, in comparison, flushed.

"You don't think…Victor!?"

"I wouldn't put it past him to crash the event on his terms," Reed said while lengthening himself out," but in this manner…and now? Not his style." He moved quickly with increasingly longer limbs, then looked back at Cyndie. "Come on!"

She shook her head and ran after him.


The concept that Ben Grimm associated with the FF's villains was that they were pretty out there. Mole Man? A lonely old guy who spent his time with underground monsters. The Skrulls? Bug-faced aliens who were way too addicted to invading other planets with their weird shapeshifting. But Mad Thinker? That guy was a self-proclaimed mad genius they had trounced a dozen times, his schemes being simple enough to collapse in on themselves. So Ben's brain began to question its logic when he heard him rant about having been a student here. Since when? He should've been able to recall him –just by his face at least.

"For years, I labored away and toiled at the academic halls here, trying to just improve my merits. But do you know who was standing in my way? All of you!" Mad Thinker cried out fervently, pointing to the shocked crowd. "From the guards that didn't let me in, to the jocks that harassed me day in and day out, and the girls who said I was too ugly to go to parties with them – this is all on you! You made my life a hell, transforming me into the hardened but superior genius I am today!"

Geez. The longer this guy goes on, he might as well be trying to be Doc Ock, Ben whined mentally.

"Is that too much for the likes of your simple brains? Fear not, I have the necessary antidote right-"

"HEY!"

The Mad Thinker's rant ceased, and in looking to the heckler, he gaped. "The Thing?! What are you - how dare you interrupt me!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got the memo, pal," Ben bared while folding his cuffs so his arms could move more. "Yer here to mess with the event and hurt people because ya' got bullied in the past. Not exactly revolutionary, is it? But since I'm here, ya' better give up, or clobbering' time will come early…"

The Mad Thinker's frame rattled. "You want to stop my plan, Grimm? Defeat my android! Andrew, attack!" The verbal command came into effect as the large grey android turned its' hammer-like head and bent down with both arms punching. Ben barely dodged them before the impact sent chunks of the ballroom floor into the air. Guests ran, some bumping into each other on their attempt to the exit.

"Christ!"

"Oh Hell!"

Ben picked himself up and vaulted towards the hand, jumping onto it just as it began to lift. He rocked his fist backward before sending it into the side of the grey palm, but to his surprise, nothing happened. No tremor, no vibrations back into him – nothing.

"Look at that - It didn't do a thing!" Ben realized out loud.

"Of course!" Mad Thinker responded from on top of his creation. "I'm not a fool, Grimm. Andrew has been upgraded to withstand your tenacious strength – and then some!"

Right as he said this, Awesome Android took notice of the Thing and decidedly flicked its wrist. Ben was sent tumbling into the air before crashing down onto a punch table, the structure and drinks smashing into pieces under his dent.

"Ugh,…neat trick…"

Awesome Android raised his fist and was about to let it come back down until something as thin as a rope wrapped tightly around it several times in the nick of an instant. Ben squinted as he recovered, right before a lightbulb exploded in his head.

"Stretch!"

"Richards? Here too?" said Mad Thinker as he realized Mr. Fantastic to be in his creation's way.

"Thinker…why would-" Reed's question was rudely interrupted as the Android reached its other grey arm at him. Luckily, Mr. Fantastic stretched his tuxedo-fitting body out of reach and instead around the robot's arm even more. After looping a couple of times, he gave a mighty tug and the android moved, but only to a degree of what he'd hoped. "Fascinating. Despite all the pressure, I've not accomplished any movement."

"Of course!" Mad Thinker guffawed. "You think I'd invent something as ineffective as to that in which you can defeat? You delude yourself, Richards!" He reached up a hand and snapped his fingers. A moment later the entire surface of Awesome Android's body sizzled with electricity, electrocuting Reed to the point that he yelled and promptly fell onto the floor as a heap of steaming leather and rubber.

"Unnngghhh…" He exclaimed, still feeling the aftereffects speeding through his body. "Your technology has improved, but that's not always enough."

"I couldn't agree more," Mad Thinker replied coolly. He directed the Android some feet before it lifted its right leg over the leader of the Fantastic Four. In a matter of seconds – and without warning – Reed was promptly squashed underneath it's foot as flat as a pancake, and not one of his limbs escaped.

"Stretch!" Ben cried out, getting up to do what he could. He knew his friend would be fine, but roughhousing his teammates was out of the picture. "Yer getting big of yerself, Mad Thinker!" Using some quick thinking, Ben grabbed hold of some tables and sent them flying into the air. There was no actual damage, but that was never the Thing's intent; he only wanted the giant robot's attention.

"C'mere and get me, ya' giant idiot!"

"I don't think so, Grimm. Your petty insults don't do as much as your fists. Andrew?" The villain cried out, and the android responded, casually leaning down and flicking Ben into the wall backward with his large metallic wrist. As if to add insult to injury, Awesome Android lifted its fist in victory.

And the Mad Thinker cackled with precise glee.

"You see that, you cowards?!" He let out another cackle before peering the terrified alumni standing around in shock. Then his eyes landed on the two ex-bullies who had made his life hell in college that whole time. "Andrew, grab those two!"

The giant robot bent down and swiftly collected Sammy and Orson in its' hand and then lifted them screaming. The goal completed, Awesome Android turned to the wall and promptly ran through it, all three intact on its' figure.

"No, let us go! Please!" Sammy yelled from the robot's grip. As the large automaton got farther away from the wrecked auditorium, their cries faded into the distance.

"Ben! Reed! You have to get up!

The Thing shook his head and saw Cindy next to them, helping Reed retract his stretched-out spaghetti of a body. "Cindy, what…"

"No time to talk, Reed," Cindy barked aggressively while reaching for something in her dress. Ben's eyes widened when he saw the blue and white emblem she'd produced in her palm.

"Cin," he asked as he steadied him and Reed up. "What's with ya' having a S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem in yer pocket?"

"Oh," she. "I…I'm an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. now, Ben. So hurry up!"


A/N: And things are heating up! You could say that thenext chapter will be the last one, but what will happen? Tune in next time!