Mind Over Matter

[doc_richards]

Reed Richards is busier than usual, today. He's stretching around the laboratory, tending several projects at once - that much is normal - but today, there's an added sense of urgency

Comments

[suestorm]

"Reed?"

The voice and intrusion are gentle, given from one side of the room and away from the projects. After all these years, Sue knows not to get in the way when her husband is in the middle of a plethora of experiments, particularly when tension is in the air.

Still.

[doc_richards]

"Cease recording." The drone hovers back to its docking station, as Reed stretches to greet his wife with a kiss on the cheek. "Hello, darling.."

[suestorm]

Sue returns the kiss, but her smile, even the lightweight thing she usually wears to express pleasure at seeing her husband at work, is nowhere to be found. "Is it as bad as what I've heard?"

[doc_richards]

Reed sighs, nodding in response. "Jean's connection to the Phoenix Force has awakened again, and it appears to have seized control, or at least is influencing her actions to a great degree. There's no immediate danger to the planet, because she's headed offworld.. but there's no guarantee that she won't return."

[bannerlover]

About thirty minutes later, a soft footfall enters the lab. Sue with the promised meal?

Not quite.

[doc_richards]

Reed stretches around several experiments, his torso arching towards the door. "Ah! Betty - how are you?"

[bannerlover]

Labs don't overwhelm Betty, not when she's used to being around Bruce's projects, but what Reed Richards does is ... unnervingly complex. That's the term for it. "Am I interrupting?" she asks tenatively from the steps, tucking a lock of brown hair behind one ear.

[doc_richards]

"I have been chastized not to overwork myself, so a break would not be unwarranted. And you don't have the look of a woman who's here for a social call."

[bannerlover]

The Cure wouldn't affect Bruce, at least as she understands it, so Betty's attention hasn't been on it as much as she's been thinking of other things, but a look of horror crosses her countenance nevertheless. "That's monstrous. My father mentioned MODOK manipulating people several weeks ago...I didn't know it was all connected. You think that's related to ... you don't think my father's working with MODOK, do you?" Not that it's worse than him working with Blonsky....

[doc_richards]

"I don't know your father well, Betty - but what I do know of him would suggest that he would not knowingly work with MODOK.."

[bannerlover]

"He said he was manipulated by him before, but...." Uncertainty dogs her comment, rendering her silent for several seconds. "Maybe," she resumes softly, "my father's in danger too."

[nuttinbeatsrock]

"'an that's bad, right? I swear, Stretch, I don't get half a the stuff you talk about some days. Manipulatin' people, that I've heard a lot about though."

Ben is here, yes - he'd just been out on a constitutional. Er, or watching Jerry Springer and drinking beer.