Chapter 12
Doom brought his hands down to the ground and a pulse erupted from him, making the blast go everywhere. It blasted against the door and pushed it forward. The large broken piece flew out into the hallway where the five just turned the corner. Johnny and Sue jumped out of the way as soon as they spotted it. Reed pushed Hunter out of the way and she hit the wall and landed on the ground with a cry. Reed winced as he heard her and stood behind Ben.
“Aw, crap,” Ben said as it sailed towards him.
It smashed into him and pushed them into the wall behind them. Sue and Johnny got up from the ground, looked into the direction it came from to see that it had flew through several walls, and looked to other side to see Ben and Reed gone. Hunter still sat on the ground watching them. Then suddenly, the piece of wall fell down to reveal Ben embedded into the wall.
“Okay,” he said, “that one hurt.”
“Where’s Reed?” Sue asked.
“Back here,” a muffled voice sounded out.
Ben looked behind him and then stepped out. Reed was fine as he was just pushed on the wall. An imprint of Ben’s body marked Reed. He pushed himself out of it and reformed back to normal. He looked at Ben with amazement.
“My bad,” Ben said.
Reed nodded and looked over Ben to see Hunter.
“Hunter,” Reed said as he went over to her. “I’m sorry.”
She took the hand he offered and responded, “I’m good, hazards of the job.”
Reed’s eyes widened when he remembered her condition.
“The ba-”
“It’s- I’m fine,” She corrected and looked at him.
Reed nodded with a sigh, “Good, all right lets go.”
Ben suddenly knew what was up with Hunter just by processing Reed and Hunter’s slip-up. He let Reed ahead of him and as soon as Hunter was about to pass by him, he grabbed her arm.
“Whoa! What?” Hunter said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ben hissed as they followed the others.
“Tell you what?” Hunter looked at him confused.
“That you were pregnant!”
Hunter froze, as she looked at him, speechless.
“How did you… no, you know what, not now,” Hunter said as she pulled her arm away from his grasp. “We’re busy here.”
“We are going to talk about this later,” Ben said.
Hunter nodded and moved into the other room where the rest of the team was. Ben followed her. Sue heard her footsteps and whirled towards her with her hands up.
“Hunter no!” Sue said. “Stay where you are, you don’t need to see this.”
“See what?” Hunter said as she ignored what Sue said and stepped inside.
She looked in the direction the others were looking in and gasped. She brought a hand up to her mouth as her stomach rolled. She ran to a corner and bent over. Sue went and stood by Hunter as she emptied her stomach. The sight that greeted them was awful. The dead body of General Hager stared at them, pieces missing and turning into ash.
“It’s okay,” Sue whispered as she rubbed Hunter’s back.
Hunter wiped her mouth and stood up.
“It’s not okay! He just murdered a man!” Hunter said as she gestured over to the corpse.
“We’ve got to get it back,” Reed said.
Hunter and Sue went back to the others. Hunter ignored the dead body.
“We need to get to the Surfer,” Sue said. “He’s the only one that understands its’ power.”
“Even if we break him out of this place,” Ben said, “how are we gonna catch up to Victor?”
Reed nodded, smiled, and responded to Ben, “Leave that to me.”
He took out his palm pilot and pressed several buttons. As whatever Reed called came to them, they busted out the Silver Surfer. Ben ran and broke through the wall and headed for the window doors. Sue caught the two guards in her bubbles made of the force field. Ben broke through the windows, popping them off the hinges.
“Pal, this is the luckiest day of your life,” Ben said to the Surfer.
Ben pulled off the restraints and Reed took ahold of him, letting the Surfer lean on him. They all departed the room and ran into the hallway where they had the bad fortune to encounter the woman who always stood by Hager. They stopped as she pulled her gun on them.
“What the hell is going on?” She demanded. “Where is General Hager?”
“He’s dead,” Reed said.
“If we don’t get him out of here,” Ben said, “we’re all gonna be.”
“Frankie,” Johnny started.
She moved her gun towards him and he stopped. He opened his mouth but Hunter stepped forwards.
“Oh, for god sake!” Hunter said before she stood in front of Frankie.
She grabbed the gun in her hand and wrenched it out. The woman looked at her in surprise.
“Good night,” Hunter said as she pulled back an arm and let it fly.
Frankie crumbled to the ground as she was knocked out. Hunter threw the gun off the side and turned towards the others. They all stared at her opened-mouth except for the Surfer.
“What?” Hunter said as she brought her hands up. “I don’t like her, and we didn’t have time.”
Johnny grinned and shouted, “That’s my girlfriend!”
He went up to her intending to kiss her but Hunter put a hand on his chest, stopping him.
“Frankie?” Hunter asked.
Johnny stuttered and gave up, “I love you?”
Hunter smiled, “That’s much better.”
Johnny grinned his traditional smile and kissed her on the lips, swapping their powers back.
“Let’s go lovebirds,” Reed said as he passed by them.
They all headed for the stairs and went up to it.
“We need to get to the roof,” Reed said as he helped the Surfer. “It should be here by now.”
“What should be here?” Ben asked.
Ben opened the door to the roof and ran out. He looked out and his mouth dropped. The others looked in the direction and the others who didn’t know about the oncoming object dropped theirs. It banked around and stopped in front of them. It was a small aircraft.
“Holy crap,” Ben said.
Johnny looked at Reed and said his name. He followed Ben on the ramp, Hunter behind him.
“This is by far the coolest thing you have ever done!” Johnny claimed in excitement.
He laughed, as he got closer to it. He looked it over and noted the brand.
“Hemi?”
Reed looked back at him with a smile and nodded, “Course.”
“Looks like you’re not the only one with a secret,” Hunter said.
Ben and Reed gave her a look as Johnny looked at her with confusion.
“What secret?” Johnny said.
“Nothing,” Hunter said, as she turned away and went to inspect the other side of the aircraft.
Johnny knew something was up but he couldn’t press on as Reed spouted out orders.
“Okay, Ben, you get inside,” Reed said. “Johnny, Hunter, you guys fly behind us.”
“No, she’s riding with us,” Ben interrupted.
“No way!” Hunter said. “I can protect myself.”
She climbed on the railing, iced up, and jumped off.
“Sorry Ben,” Reed said. “There’s no room for her anyways.”
Ben growled. Johnny watched her bank up and float in front of them. He turned to look at Reed with a pleading look.
“Dude,” Johnny said, “you gotta let me fly this thing.”
“Forget about it,” Ben said. “I’m the best pilot here. I should drive.”
Reed and Sue looked back and forth as each man spoke.
“Are you serious? We’ll be lucky of this thing can carry you!” Johnny spoke.
Hunter groaned in annoyance.
“I can fly circles around you blindfolded,” Ben retorted back.
“Guys!” Sue said.
Johnny opened his mouth but Reed cut in.
“Ah, shut up!” Reed said annoyed. “And move it!”
Johnny and Ben looked at each other as Reed, Sue, and the Surfer passed between them.
“I’m driving,” Reed continued.
Johnny smiled, ran for the railing, and shouted “Flame on!”
Hunter followed the aircraft as it flew up into the air, Johnny following behind. He flew next to her.
“What is this secret you were talking about?” Johnny asked.
“It’s nothing!” Hunter said without looking at him.
Johnny was fed up and he took her arm, stopping them in mid-air.
“What is going on with you?” Johnny asked. “And don’t tell me it’s nothing. There’s something.”
Hunter shook her head, “Now’s not the time Johnny, I’m sorry.”
She gently pulled her arm out of his hand and flew off. Johnny grunted and growled with frustration and followed her. They flew higher and met up with the craft in time to hear Ben.
“Okay,” Ben said, “we’re now officially enemies of the United States of America. Victor is out there somewhere with unlimited power, and we’ve got a giant intergalactic force that’s about to destroy our planet in less than 24 hours. Did I miss anything?”
“Way to boost team morale, bro,” Hunter said as she flew beside him.