63: Pay the Price.
The Agent Coulson adjusted his dark glasses as he felt the wind from the quinjet's rotors hitting his face. Walking toward the cleared area where the aircraft had just landed, he nodded to the agents who had secured the perimeter before standing firmly and waiting.
Something he didn't have to do for long. Following the sound of the rear ramp finishing its descent, the figure of Nick Fury emerged, walking slowly out of the quinjet. The cane he had been using these past days was gone, but if one looked closely, a slight limp in his left foot was still noticeable.
"Sir," Coulson greeted, and Nick Fury nodded back as his one eye inspected the area, his gaze quickly focusing on the interior of the large building—now empty and cordoned off—with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents combing through the place.
"Do we have any idea what happened here?" he asked Coulson as his eyes moved down to a long, deep crack stretching across the floor. It wasn't the only one; whether on the walls or even the ceiling, hundreds of cracks of varying sizes spread throughout the building's structure.
"Nothing concrete, sir. Defiant didn't explain much when he contacted Agent Romanoff, and what we've managed to uncover so far is still unclear," Coulson replied.
"What about the security cameras? The witnesses? For God's sake, there were thousands of people present in this place!! No one saw anything?" Fury complained, with good reason.
"Well, we have some witnesses, but most of them were in the outer areas of the venue, so their accounts are somewhat inaccurate and imprecise," Coulson tried to explain but was quickly interrupted.
"And the others? The organizers? Where are the scientists from the Baxter Foundation? Surely They must have some idea of what happened. Take me to see them."
"I don't think that's possible, sir," Coulson said, earning a confused look from Fury. Clearing his throat, he continued.
"Whatever happened caused a lot of damage… a lot of deaths. From what I've discovered, most of the scientists and staff from the foundation were caught in the middle… no survivors."
Fury remained silent for a moment before letting out a sigh.
"What about the security footage? I know the Foundation likes put up a bunch of cameras in these places when they host events like this."
"About that— the agents in charge of retrieving the data couldn't find anything relevant, sir. It's as if someone had tampered with the system before we arrived, erasing most of what happened."
Fury didn't like this. Didn't like it one bit.
"If you ask me, I think this was Defiant's work, sir. Agent Romanoff mentioned that he wanted us to help him minimize the impact of this, block the news as much as possible, whatever happened in this place, he doesn't want people knowing about it."
"And without images or reliable witnesses, it won't be very hard to do…" Fury added with a snort at the end.
Why did Defiant do this? What did he want S.H.I.E.L.D. to help him hide?
'You better have a damn good explanation for this,'
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At that moment, at the top of the main building of the Baxter Foundation in New York.
"Where is he!?" The deep voice boomed through the laboratory, reverberating with such force that several nearby objects trembled.
A fist, larger than a human head, swung through the air, threatening to crash into a wall—but before it could, a palm intercepted it, blocking the blow and generating a thunderous shockwave.
A sound like metal striking against rock echoed.
Daniel held Ben's fist firmly, stifling a small grunt of effort.
"Where's Reed!?" the rock-skinned boy roared, panic and fear barely concealed beneath the fury in his voice.
Seeing the massive being, nearly three meters tall, begin to lose control, Susan stepped in front of her father with her hands raised, blue light glowing between her palms. Johnny, for his part, ignited in flames once again, his attention so focused on the situation in front of him that he didn't notice how his new clothes remained intact on his body.
The tension in the room was palpable, and Daniel couldn't help but sigh quietly, remembering how things had reached this point.
It had all started just moments ago when Ben woke up.
Just as he had done with Susan and Johnny, Daniel came to his side, keeping him from panicking and beginning to explain the situation as best he could. But when he reached the final part, the weak and fragile calm Ben had been trying to maintain finally shattered.
"I tried to help him, to stop the rift from dragging him in, but I couldn't do it… I'm sorry." he said to him sincerely, and upon hearing it, Ben recoiled sharply, as if a thunderclap had exploded in his ears.
He didn't want to believe it. He tried to deny it. But when he saw the seriousness in Daniel's eyes, he knew he was telling the truth—and that made the situation finally hit him like a freight train, any previous denial vanishing from his mind.
Ben shuddered. He looked at his hands—huge, deformed hands, now with only four fingers instead of five, covered in thick and rugged rocky plates resembling uneven scales.
Not only had he lost his friend, but he had also become a monster!
"No… NO!"
His scream was like that of a beast howling in pain.
"AHHRG!!!" Ben's free fist shot toward Daniel—it was a quick movement, faster than anything of his size had any right to be, but not fast enough to escape his perception.
Even so, he didn't move away.
The rocky knuckles smashed into his face with enough force to snap his head sharply to the side. His lip split, sending droplets of blood flying along with fragments of orange stone.
"Hey!" Upon seeing what happened, Johnny could no longer stay still. Before his sister or father could do anything to stop him, the blond boy had already crossed the distance between them.
"That's enough! Chill out, man! It's not his fault he couldn't save your friend—he already did more than enough by saving your ungrateful rocky hide!" he shouted at the orange giant, aiming his flaming finger at its face.
Upon hearing him and seeing his face up close—even if it was covered in flames—Ben was still able to recognize him, causing the overflowing rage inside him to explode even further.
"YOU! This is your fault!" he roared, yanking his fist free from Daniel's grip and launching himself at Johnny in a swift motion that shook the ground.
Not cowering in the slightest upon seeing it come barreling toward him, Johnny raised his guard and surged forward, flames burning on his fists like small suns about to burst.
Just as they were only inches away from colliding, a blue energy field formed between them, causing them to crash into it and then bounce backward.
"Enough!" Susan growled, manipulating the energy in her hands to form a semi-transparent dome around Ben, trapping the rocky giant inside.
Still blinded by rage, Ben got to his feet almost immediately and began pounding the energy barrier with wild fury
Blow after blow made the entire building threaten to start shaking.
Susan clenched her teeth, sweat beginning to drip from her forehead. Each impact made her shudder, almost as if she were receiving them herself.
"Let him go," Daniel said suddenly, stepping in front of Ben once again, calmly watching as his massive fists struck the energy shield until small cracks began to form in it.
"What?" Susan looked at him in confusion.
"Take down the energy field, Susan," he repeated more clearly as he wiped the blood from his mouth.
Susan wanted to argue, but the protest died in her throat when her eyes met Daniel's intense gaze.
It wasn't threatening, nor terrifying—it was simply a completely determined look that told her to step aside. And although she was stubborn most of the time, this time Susan hesitated before finally sighing and lowering her hands.
With her action, the barrier that had trapped Ben dissipated, and the rocky giant shot toward Daniel, his fists raining down like small meteorites tearing through the air."
Despite not being at his best, Daniel still chose to take the blows head-on, blocking each one directly rather than dodging or deflecting.
'Pure brute strength, no skill or technique,' judged a part of his mind as he lifted his body a few centimeters off the ground to prevent the impacts from damaging the building's structure.
Every blow sent waves through his body that made his bones quake.
It almost reminded him of those early training days with Carol. In a sense, she had been the same at first—nothing but raw power, with no experience in how to use it properly.
Not that he'd been much better, of course. Gaining powers had been something new for him back then too. But if there was one key difference between them: it was that Daniel had plenty of prior experience getting into physical trouble.
Despite what people might imagine, it didn't matter whether you had the strength of an average man or the strength to lift mountains—in practice, a punch was still a punch.
There was a reason even the gods in legends used them often.
Daniel blocked several more blows, letting Ben vent as much as he could for a few moments before deciding it was time to put an end to this.
Intercepting the next attack with his left arm, Daniel clenched his right fist and counterattacked with precision and power, driving a vicious blow toward Ben's temple.
BANG!
He moved so fast the orange giant couldn't react at all, his head snapping sharply to the side, sending rock fragments flying through the air as his vision swam and his balance faltered, collapsing to one knee.
"You alright?" Daniel asked with a slight internal wince—that punch had nearly broken his knuckles. Ben was much tougher than he expected… but not tough enough. At least not at Carol's level.
"I…" Ben fell silent, the sharp pain at the side of his head clearing most of the rage from his mind.
"Come on, let's talk a bit." Taking his arm, Daniel helped him to his feet. The orange giant rose above him, head bowed and wearing a completely defeated expression—he almost looked like a small child who had just been scolded.
All the intimidating aura he might've had before vanished in an instant.
"He's really… really gone?" he asked, almost in a whisper, making Daniel sigh.
"Yeah… but he did it trying to do the right thing—trying to save them all. I'm sorry I couldn't do more for him." Maybe it was cold comfort, but there wasn't much else he could say.
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Not far from them, seeing that the situation had finally calmed down, the Storm family almost let out a collective sigh of relief.
Even though Daniel had done everything he could to minimize the impact of Ben's blows, they still affected the surroundings to some degree.
For the three conscious people watching them, it was almost like being trapped at the epicenter of an earthquake.
Fortunately, the building—as well as Dr. Storm's laboratory—was well reinforced.
"I'm going to check on the other two," Dr. Storm said, a slight tremble in his voice. Even if witnessing a firsthand display of 'superhuman' power was fascinating, it was undoubtedly also bone-chillingly terrifying.
The man needed a moment to recover.
Of course, Susan and Johnny were also shaken, but somehow they were handling it a bit better.
"What a fucking disaster," Johnny muttered as he watched his father head toward where Victor and Dr. Harvey were, his frown tightening at the sight of the unconscious man with half of his body charred.
Beside him, Susan shot him a sharp look, still upset over his reckless behavior earlier. She was about to scold him, but the words caught in her throat when she noticed something strange about him—his clothes were still intact on his flaming body.
"Why aren't you naked?" she asked in confusion, making her brother raise an eyebrow at her in puzzlement. Then he looked at himself and realized what she meant.
Curiously, he extinguished the fire covering him, seeing that indeed, the clothes were still there, without any apparent damage.
"You know… I have no idea, but I'm not complaining. It'd be really embarrassing if I ended up with my ass out every time I used my powers." Being known as the flaming exhibitionist didn't sound attractive at all to the young Storm.
He preferred something more like… the living flame! No wait, that didn't sound so great either. Maybe something like… the flame on fire!
He'd have to think about it more…
Seeing how Johnny seemed distracted, Susan decided not to keep asking for now and instead she made a mental note to try to find out more about this phenomenon later.
'If there even is a later,' she thought with some discouragement. Daniel hadn't been very clear when he said it, but she could still read between the lines—many people had died, many had been injured.
Even if this wasn't exactly the Baxter Foundation's fault, it had still happened during one of their most important events and under their supervision.
Saying they wouldn't be affected would be a lie. This could end everything—everything her father and mother had worked for, everything she had worked for…
Maybe that's why her father seemed so out of it at the moment, probably already imagining the dark days ahead for them.
Susan almost felt her shoulders sag, but didn't allow them to. There would be time to despair and cry beneath her sheets later. Right now, she needed to stay firm—even if she barely felt capable of it.
Her whole world seemed to be falling apart around her, and she didn't know how to stop it—or even if she could.
Before she could help it, her gaze unconsciously turned toward Daniel.
She watched him talk with Ben, his expression tense yet serene at the same time, projecting a composed calmness that, somehow, gave the sense that everything would be alright. And, without exactly knowing why, that made her feel a little calmer and much safer.
In a moment like this, having someone by her side who seemed capable of facing hardship, no matter what they were, meant far more than she would have ever imagined. It was like possessing an anchor in the midst of the storm—something keeping her afloat and reminding her that, no matter how bad things seemed, perhaps a solution still remained.
Maybe that feeling wouldn't make everything return to how it was before, but in this moment, that was enough for her.
Susan had to pull herself out of her thoughts when she saw Daniel begin walking toward them—it looked like he'd finished talking with Ben.
"How is he?" she asked quickly, catching his attention.
"Better. Still agitated, but more focused. Though that could change soon."
"Why? Does he have anger issues or something?" Johnny asked with slight mockery while continuing to play with the flames in his hand, trying to make them take different shapes—from simple things like spheres and squares to more complicated ones like the silhouette of a car.
"No. The problem is that he can't go back to normal."
His words made the flames in Johnny's palm extinguish abruptly.
"Oh shit… that sucks." Johnny didn't know what else to say—suddenly he felt pretty bad for the big rocky guy.
"Are you sure?" Susan frowned. She didn't know Ben nor had any relationship with him, but she knew that part of the blame for this whole incident fell on her family and the Foundation.
Because of that, she felt a responsibility toward him and his situation. If he couldn't go back to normal, they had to do something to help him… the problem was that she had no idea what.
"Yes, but you don't have to worry too much. I have a few ideas about what might be wrong—it won't be easy, but I think I can try to fix it."
And just like that, once again, he took charge of the situation without hesitation, taking the weight off her shoulders before it could even fall on them.
"Great! So… how can I help?" Johnny suddenly asked, making them turn toward him in surprise.
"Hey! Why are you looking at me like that?" he growled in annoyance at their bewildered expressions.
"You really want to give me a hand? I thought you didn't like me."
"And you're right, I think you're a buzzkill. But that doesn't matter right now, does it?"
Johnny scratched the back of his neck, lowering his head for a moment before raising it again and glancing sideways at Ben, his lips pressing into a tight line as he saw the rocky giant crouched down, staring at the corner with his head hung low.
"I know I can't do much, but the rock guy right about one thing—this is my fault."
Admitting it was hard.
"And if you have any idea how to fix some of this, I at least owe it to him to help you try, don't I?"
Seeing her brother—who usually ran from problems instead of facing them—take a step forward for the first time in a long while, gave Susan mixed feelings.
On one hand, she felt proud and happy. But on the other, she also felt sad. Though she was glad to see Johnny finally making progress, she wished it hadn't been under these circumstances.
"He's right. We can't let you do everything. We can help too," she added, deciding to support her brother.
Seeing both of them so determined to lend a hand, Daniel could only manage a slightly helpless smile.
"Well, I suppose I could try to find something for you two, but I'm not making any promises."
He didn't want to get their hopes up too much. The fact they even wanted to help was already significant, but whether they could actually be of help or not was another matter entirely.
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On the other side of the room, Dr. Storm stared absently at the serum connected to Victor's arm. After making sure the IV drip was still working properly, he turned to Harvey, frowning as he examined the horrendous scar running across his face.
Despite all the earlier commotion, the vital signs of both men remained stable.
"People never spoke well of you, you know?" he murmured almost under his breath to the man who had caused all of this, the anger in his words barely contained.
"Many told me keeping you around was a mistake, but I insisted there was more to you, that you could get better." Franklin smiled with irony before continuing. "I often questioned whether firing you from the Foundation was the right decision, but now I know better."
Narrowing his tired eyes, Franklin growled.
"You were always the piece of shit everyone thought you were."
And he'd been the only fool who took too long to see it.
Shaking his head, Franklin turned away, not noticing the slight twitch in Harvey's eyelids.
Talking to an unconscious man made no sense. He had to focus on the immediate—find a way to fix things… or at least make sure his children didn't come out of this worse than they already had.
But before he could take even a single step away from Harvey's gurney, a hand suddenly shot up, grabbing his wrist tightly and yanking him back.
"What the—?" The words caught in his throat when a second hand lunged for his neck, taking him completely by surprise.
"H-Harvey?!" he stammered, feeling the man's grip tightening, his eyes locking with the distorted gaze of the scientist he had believed to be unconscious.
Harvey breathed erratically. From his scorched skin, wisps of ash and glowing embers began to flake away.
The disfigured scientist looked around in alarm, his eyes darting across the lab as if trying to reorient himself. But the erratic movement of his pupils stopped cold when they landed on his reflection in the vitals monitor screen beside the gurney where he'd been lying.
The beeping of the machine began to rise, syncing with his accelerated heartbeat. The lines on the screen became erratic, chaotic.
"W-What is this?…" Harvey whispered, with a broken voice, his scorched throat barely allowing the words to form.
"What did you do to me?!" he growled, fixing Franklin with a furious glare—but his anger was abruptly interrupted when a figure suddenly appeared by his side and grabbed his arm with such force that it made him tremble in pain.
"Argh?!"
"This is what you did to yourself, Harvey," Daniel said, narrowing his eyes as he stared at him with intensity.
"You…"
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Several meters away, Susan and Johnny blinked in confusion as they felt a gust of residual wind hit their faces and ruffle their hair, both barely noticing that Daniel had vanished from their side in the blink of an eye.
Confused, they looked at each other, not understanding what had happened, and quickly began scanning the room, searching for where he had gone.
"Dad!" they exclaimed in unison when their gazes finally landed on the area where Harvey and Victor had been resting. Without thinking, both of them started running toward it.
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Harvey gritted his teeth, his bloodshot eyes meeting Daniel's cold blue ones, who held his gaze calmly, though inside he was completely on guard.
His grip on the man's hand should have been enough to make any ordinary person lose their strength, yet Harvey still kept his hand wrapped around Doctor Storm's neck despite that.
And with the way ashes and embers were beginning to peel from his burnt flesh in an unnatural way… Yeah, he was no longer dealing with a normal human here. The scientist had changed too.
And that was not good news.
"Hey! Get your hands off my father, you bastard!"
Johnny's shout rang out almost at the same time he and Susan arrived, the boy gritting his teeth as flames began to ignite around him in response to his anger.
Harvey turned his gaze from Daniel to look at them, his eyes—now beginning to emit an orange light—focusing mainly on Johnny.
"You, this is your fault! Look at me! Look what you've done to me!" he screamed at him, his voice now far more inhuman than before. his grip on Dr. Storm's throat increasing, making the man let out a groan of pain as he felt the air beginning to leave him.
Daniel frowned and pressed harder on Harvey's burnt arm, but once again, it didn't seem to be enough to make him loosen his grip.
'If this keeps up, he might break his neck.' He didn't want to escalate things, but if Harvey left him no other choice, he would have to take drastic measures.
And that would probably complicate everything. Now that Harvey possessed unknown powers, the odds were uncertain: in the best-case scenario, he could subdue him quickly without too much collateral damage; in the worst… he would have to kill him.
"Listen, I can help you. We can fix this, Just let Doctor Storm go and calm down," he offered one last time.
"No! You don't understand! There's no fixing this! I can feel it... crawling under my skin, changing me, whispering to me!" the man turned sharply toward him, desperation coloring his voice, his previous expression full of rage shifting into one of terror.
"There is no salvation for me…" he finished, the horror flashing in his eyes for a moment before it vanished completely. And in that emptiness, something else awakened: an unnatural, inhuman glow… something Daniel knew all too well. Something he had seen many times over the past few months.
Something monstrous…
The cold realization hit him almost at the same time he felt his grip on Harvey's arm vanish—and in its place, blazing embers filled his vision, as if the very air had suddenly transformed into pure, burning kinetic energy.
Boom!
"Watch out!" Susan hastily raised a shield in front of herself and her brother, while at the same time stretching out her other hand toward the stretcher where Victor lay, deploying a second shield over the still-unconscious boy.
"What the hell was that?!" Johnny exclaimed, going on guard.
Smoke completely filled their vision for a few moments before it was forcefully cleared away by a sweep of Daniel's hand.
"Are you okay?" Susan asked him, looking at him with slight concern, but Daniel didn't answer her right away. Instead, he simply tore the tattered fabric from his torso while inspecting the surroundings with extreme attention, until his gaze finally found Harvey several meters away, with Doctor Storm still in his grip
'Teleportation?' he narrowed his eyes.
Without hesitation, he rushed forward, launching himself toward them as fast as he could, causing the ground beneath his feet to sink.
His eyes met Harvey's just as the tips of his fingers were about to reach him. The man—no, the monster—smiled at him with malice, and before he could stop it, the embers and ash-like smoke returned just as suddenly as the first time.
Boom!
"Fuck!" he cursed as he felt the explosion hit him in the face.
"Let him go!" Hearing Susan's shout from behind, Daniel didn't hesitate and moved again, quickly retracing his steps.
In front of the Storm siblings, Harvey had appeared suddenly, looking at them with contempt and fury.
"You heard her, son of a bitch! Let go of our father or I'll finish the job and turn your other half into fucking barbecue!" As his words dropped, Johnny ignited completely in flames, ready to hurl himself at the deranged scientist holding their father captive.
"The failure… as disrespectful as ever to his superiors. You really did a poor job raising him, didn't you, Franklin?" Harvey laughed, looking at the man, who could only respond with muffled, choked grunts.
With cruel sadism, he lifted Doctor Storm into the air and began shaking him violently from side to side like a ragdoll.
"You want your father back?" he asked, locking eyes with Johnny.
"Then come and take him from me!"
"AHHRG!!" Johnny didn't need to hear that twice— without hesitation, he shot himself forward, causing the fire to erupt on his back. Unexpectedly, this propelled his body through the air like a comet, closing the distance between them almost instantly.
"Wait!" Susan shouted, reaching her hand toward him.
Boom!
Smoke once again flooded the room. Susan winced and, with some effort, moved her hand backward, causing a semi-transparent blue energy sphere to fly in her direction from the epicenter of the explosion.
Inside it was Johnny, without a single scratch on his body.
"Damn it, I lost him!" he cursed, beginning to scan the surroundings, ready to try again.
"Don't ever do that again!" Susan growled at him, dissolving the energy sphere with a tremble in her hand. Only she knew that she had barely managed to cover him with it in time.
"And what the hell am I supposed to do?! We need to rescue Dad!" Johnny shouted back at her, his state much more agitated than before.
Susan didn't know exactly how to respond, but fortunately, someone else had an idea.
"His teleportation is fast, but not unbeatable. If we work together, we can catch him off guard and take Doctor Storm from his hands," Daniel said quietly so only they could hear, earning their attention.
"And how do we do that?" Susan asked, a bit uncertain.
"I just need you to distract him for me. He wants to bother you, so he'll focus all his attention on both of you—especially Johnny. So give him that. While he's focused on you, I'll take advantage of the most opportune moment to act," he said as he extended his auditory sense until he found the erratic heartbeat of Harvey, locking onto his position without needing to look.
"In short, I go after him, and Sue covers me, making sure I don't get blown to pieces, right? Sounds like a good plan to me," Johnny nodded confidently, ready to begin.
Sue wasn't as convinced, but it didn't seem like they had other options.
"Alright... I'll focus on keeping his explosions from causing too much damage."
Seeing that both of them were on board, Daniel nodded at them and turned toward where Harvey was now.
"Then let's begin."
As he said that, it was as if Daniel had pressed a switch that made everything explode.
Without waiting another second, Johnny shot forward, his body engulfed in flames, leaving a trail of fire behind him.
Seeing him coming, Harvey smiled… and just as they were about to collide, he vanished, leaving a thunderous explosion in his place.
In a matter of moments, dozens and dozens of explosions flooded the lab in rapid succession, like a fireworks show gone out of control.
Susan felt sweat dripping down her forehead as she did everything she could to keep up with her brother's rapid movements.
Each time an explosion went off, she deployed a barrier to prevent collateral damage while also making sure Johnny didn't get hurt.
It was a very demanding job that required a lot of concentration and quick reflexes—luckily, she was very good at both.
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For his part, Daniel didn't rush to act. Instead, he picked up the unconscious Victor and quickly carried him over to Ben, who had been silently watching the situation unfold.
"Hey big guy, can you do me a favor?" he asked, causing the boy to tear his gaze away from the 'light show' and turn toward him.
"Keep an eye on this guy for me for a while." Without waiting for an answer, Daniel left Victor on the ground next to Ben and moved, returning to Susan's side.
Ben blinked, looked down at Victor on the floor, nudged him with his foot, and seeing no reaction, shrugged and kept watching the fight, unknown thoughts flickering in his eyes.
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"No matter how hard you try! You'll never catch me!" Harvey shouted mockingly, easily dodging yet another attempt from Johnny to reach him and leaving another explosion in his wake.
"Damn it!" Johnny growled through gritted teeth upon seeing that he had missed again. Even if the plan had only been for him to serve as a distraction, he had still hoped to get his hands on Harvey somehow.
'I guess I'll have to settle for doing it later,' he thought, catching sight out of the corner of his eye of Daniel moving silently through the lab. His position seemed close enough to Harvey's back.
"Why don't you stop running like a damn coward, huh?!" Instead of charging like before, this time Johnny shouted louder, hoping Harvey would fully focus on him.
"Come on! You know you want a real fight—leave my father alone and come for me!" he challenged, jabbing a thumb at his own chest.
Harvey clicked his tongue. For a moment, it looked like he was going to accept the offer—but he didn't. Instead, he tightened his grip on Dr. Storm's neck, drawing a pained groan from him that immediately made Johnny visibly tense.
"Look at you… so anxious and afraid. I can almost taste your desperation," Harvey nearly burst out laughing at the hatred on his face.
"Don't worry, you little bastard. When I'm done, you'll both—"
He couldn't finish his sentence. In a movement so fast it looked like a blur, Daniel suddenly appeared at his side, and without hesitation, struck with a palm shaped like a blade.
In an instant, the arm holding Dr. Storm was severed from Harvey's body, cleanly cut at the elbow.
"AARGH!" The former scientist screamed in pain as he fell backward, clutching his bleeding stump.
"Ha! Take that!" Johnny took a moment to celebrate before rushing to his father's side. With some effort, he yanked Harvey's severed arm off his neck and hurled it into the air.
"You okay?" he asked with concern as the flames surrounding him finally died down. Dr. Storm nodded, unable to answer with words, as he was only just beginning to catch his breath.
From her spot, Susan let out a long sigh of relief as she saw it was all over. With a smile on her lips, she ran toward them and pulled them into a tight embrace.
Daniel watched them for a moment with a faint smile before turning to Harvey, who still writhed in pain on the ground beside him.
Not wanting to give him a chance to escape, he quickly grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air, starting to walk toward a more isolated area in case he tried to teleport again and caused another explosion.
"Alright, you've caused enough disaster. I'll give you one last chance—stop fighting, or I'll break the limbs you have left," he warned. Though in any other situation, his first choice would've been to snap his neck immediately.
A few months ago, he might have hesitated more. But after so much research and facing enough monsters, he had come to understand an undeniable truth: without a cure to restore their humanity, anyone transformed by the M Gene lost all consciousness and empathy—becoming a living weapon driven solely by their darkest desires.
Beings like that… couldn't coexist with humans.
Of course, just because he understood this didn't mean others did as well. Whether it was the Storm family or Ben, none of them knew what Harvey had become—or what that truly meant.
If he killed him in front of them, things might get... tense. He didn't want to give them the wrong impression, and so, at least for now, he held back.
"N-not enough, I still haven't done e-enough, he still hasn't paid the price for turning me into this! H-he has to!" Harvey spat through clenched teeth, staring with madness. "...and I know exactly how to make him do it," he added in a nearly sinister whisper, a huge and deranged smile forming on his lips.
Daniel frowned, ready to knock him out and silence his ravings, but right at that moment, his danger sense roared at the back of his neck, causing his pupils to contract to the fullest.
As his perception accelerated, he began searching for the source of his unease. At first, he thought it was coming from Harvey, that he was about to do something—but he soon realized that wasn't it.
'Wait!' In slow motion, he turned his head toward where Susan and Johnny were with their father.
The man, still in his children's arms, looked at him. His previously relieved expression shifted to one of horror—like he could feel something Daniel couldn't.
Reacting faster than he ever had in his life, Dr. Storm abruptly tore himself away from his children and threw himself forward, trying desperately to get as far from them as possible.
On his neck, over the marks that Harvey's hand had left on his skin, the flesh began to boil, swelling, deforming, with an orange glow starting to emerge from within.
There was no time to hesitate.
Letting go of Harvey, Daniel moved. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance separating him from the Storm siblings, planted himself in front of them, and covered them with his body.
BOOM!
With Dr. Storm as the epicenter, an explosion burst forth—more intense and devastating than any of the ones before.
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Note:
Writing scenes with a lot of characters in them is really complicated! Even more so when there's a fight involved, hahaha. It honestly took me more effort than I expected, and I have no idea if it turned out good enough. I just hope it's not a complete disaster. I'd really appreciate your honest opinion.
Aside from that, I sincerely apologize for the delay, I really don't like breaking the usual schedule and I hope it doesn't happen again soon.
With that said, I'll say goodbye for now. Don't forget to leave a comment and share your thoughts on the chapter—what you liked, what you didn't. It all helps me improve and understand what you're hoping for.
Until next time!
Remember that You can already find the next chapter of this story on Patreon ( patreon.com/EmmaCruzader ) All the support received is appreciated ;D