Chapter 40: Future Foundation

Reed Richards and Eren Parker sat next to each other at the massive, long, rectangular dinner table conversing with each other as they waited for Sue to finish preparing dinner. The two kids, Valeria and Franklin, "helped" their mother from the kitchen while Ben and Johnny trained elsewhere.

Reed looked at Eren's face intensely, as if he recognized him from somewhere. Eren noticed his gaze, and upon the two making eye contact with each other, Reed told the boy what was on his mind. "You remind me of someone, Eren." Reed told him, still looking at his face intensely. From the kitchen, Sue looked back at Eren's face, taking a look for herself before agreeing. "I was thinking the same thing, honey. I just can't think of who."

"Oh my god... how could I forget..." Reed said breathlessly. "Parker, of course!" The scientist exclaimed, leaving Eren a bit confused.

"What do you mean? You knew another Parker?" Eren asked.

"Yes! My old college buddy, Richard Parker. Do you know him?" Reed asked, immediately causing Eren's face to react. His jaw nearly dropped in disbelief.

"That's my father." Eren told them. "He never mentioned you by name, but he did mention he had a genius college buddy a few times. That must've been you."

"You look just like him, Eren. I heard about what happened about a decade ago, I wish I could've helped but he was so enveloped in his own work, he didn't tell any of us that he was sick." Reed said sadly. "I'm sorry for your loss, Eren."

"It's okay, it took a long time but I've come to terms with it. Sometimes I wish I could go back and tell him that he was sick before it was too late, but all I can do is move forward from here on." Eren told him.

"You know, Richard was obsessed with the concept of time travel? I remember we saw Back to the Future together with a couple of colleagues, Sue was there too, and after the movie, he told us:

"I'm making a machine just like that." Sue, Reed, and Eren said in unison.

They all laughed a bit, thinking of the memory of Richard Parker before Eren spoke more about his father. "Yeah, he made me watch that movie a hundred times, he said that to me every time the movie ended."

"How's your mother doing? Mary was it? We haven't really heard from her in years" Sue asked, though based on Eren's expression, she knew the answer already.

"She's gone too... late last year." Eren told her sadly.

"I'm so sorry, Eren. I didn't know." Sue apologized, realizing she shouldn't have brought it up.

"No, it's okay. It's fine, really." Eren admitted, which was mostly true. His mother's death was something that he was able to look past.

There was a brief silence between the three of them until Sue broke the silence herself. "Who takes care of you? An aunt? An uncle?" She asked.

"I don't have any relatives, really. I know nothing about my mom's side of the family and my dad's brother, I think his name is Ben or something, but I've never met him. I'm on my own, really. I take pictures for the Bugle so I make enough to survive." He told her, scratching the back of his head nervously. He forgot to add the world barely beforehand, as he had almost no money left.

"You're free to live here if you want, Eren." Sue offered.

"Yeah, we would be honored. There's a vacant room next to Johnny's. You two are around the same age, I'm sure he'd love that." Reed added.

"No, it's okay. I'd feel like I'm freeloading off of you guys, besides, I'll be living on campus in a few months with my best friend, I'll be fine." Eren told them. He appreciated it, and he truly did, but he was like his mother and didn't want financial help from anyone, it made him feel like a leech.

"Well, if you ever change your mind, the offer is always there, my friend." Reed said, placing his stretchy arm on Eren's shoulder.

As those words left Reed's mouth, Johnny flew into the dining area and past the two men before hovering behind his sister and looking over her shoulder. "Hey, Sis, is the food done? I'm starved after absolutely destroying Ben in combat simulations."

"No, Johnny. What did I tell you about flaming on in the kitchen?" Sue scolded, pointing a spoon directly at her brother's face.

"Ugh, you've always been such a prune." Johnny said, returning back to his human appearance. Just as he did, Ben Grimm entered the room, stomping in with his rocky footsteps.

"One, he did not 'destroy' me, he won by a single point." The Thing said, defending his own honor from Johnny's lies. "Two, he set it to the ice region and ice enemies, I was at a disadvantage!"

"Gotta be ready for anything big guy." Johnny teased.

"Mommy, mommy, I wanna do simulation room combat fighting!" Franklin, Reed, and Sue's son asked, tugging on her apron.

"I want to do combat too!" Valeria added.

"You two don't have your powers yet. When you do, you can train all you want, okay?" Sue promised, though she was worried about her children for when they were going to be ready for combat, as a mother should.

"When's that gonna happen?" Franklin asked, looking back at his father.

"I'm not sure, your uncles, your mom, and I weren't born with our powers. All we know is that our genetics were passed down to you both so you should get them eventually... maybe." Reed saying this saddened the children and they began to pout. Valeria looked over at Eren, looking at his young face before asking him a question.

"Mr. Spider-Man how old are you?" She asked.

"You can call me Eren now, Valeria." He said with a laugh. "I'm eighteen."

"How old were you when your powers manifested?" She questioned, sounding much older than any girl her age.

"Well, I was seventeen but I wasn't born with them either. I was bitten by a spider." He admitted, shrugging to the girl.

"Valeria! I saw a spider earlier, let's go find it!" Franklin added, showing their gap in maturity despite him being the older one.

"Hey, wait hold on!" Eren added. "It wasn't just any spider, it was a special spider. One of a kind. If you're thinking of going around letting spiders bite you, please don't do that."

"Awe, man..." Franklin said sadly.

"Ew, I don't want to get bitten anyway, I'll just wait for my powers." Valeria told him.

"Enough talk about spiders, dinner's pretty much done. Everyone sit down at the table, please."

"Ugh, finally!" Johnny said, making his way to the table and sitting next to Eren. Everyone else followed suit, finding their seat around the table as Sue began preparing the plates for everyone.

Soon enough, the table was set and the entire family was in their seats. Reed cleared his throat before making a proclamation to the family. "Now that everyone is here, I'd like to make an announcement. Sue and I have decided that it would be best for us to move on from the name Fantastic Four and onto something new! We started the team back when there were only four of us, but with Eren being a member of our team so often and the kids likely manifesting their powers soon enough, we thought a change would be necessary. From today on, we are the Future Foundation! What do you guys think?"

Everyone looked around at each other, all agreeing that the name was fitting for the new team. "Yay! We're on the team, we're on the team!" Franklin celebrated.

Reed smiled, rubbing his son's hair before ending his proclamation. "So with that said, let's dig in shall we?"

And so, the family enjoyed their steak and potatoes dinner together, giving Eren the taste of a mother's home-cooked food, something he'd been missing for so long. When everyone finished their dinner, Reed and Sue began cleaning up, bringing the cleaned plates to the kitchen before an alert interrupted them.

"Receiving call from: Nick Fury." The alert said, causing both Ben and Johnny to groan in annoyance.

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"That's never good." Johhny moaned.

"Yeah, that just means he wants us to do some heavy lifting." Ben Grimm added.

"Let's be nice, boys." Sue told them before looking over at Eren. "It's a holo-call, so..." She said, pointing at her face.

Knowing what she meant, Eren covered his face with his white Spider-Man mask, concealing his identity from the man on the holo-call. Reed pressed the answer button, revealing the holographic image of a bald, brown-skinned man with an eye patch and an overall stern aura about him.

"Hello Fantastic Four, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Nick Fury said, scanning the room and taking a close look at every member.

"We're actually the Future Foundation now since there's more than four of us now." Johnny Storm added.

"Ah, of course, so Parker will be joining you?" Nick Fury said, looking directly at Spider-Man's masked face.

'What!?' Eren thought to himself, his eyes widened in response to hearing his name spoken by a man he'd never met.

"Surprised, Parker? I know everything about you already. Eren Parker, age eighteen, friends with Harold Osborn, in a relationship with Cindy Moon, you work at the Daily Bugle as a freelance photographer, and you're Spider-Man." Nick Fury said with confidence.

Eren retracted his mask, glaring at the man angrily. "How do you know all this!?"

"Son, I am the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. I have more knowledge about you than you could imagine. I have details of every superhero's identity on the planet, you don't do such a good job of hiding who you are. All we had to do was have a drone follow you back to your apartment and the rest was easy." Fury admitted, smirking slightly at the boy.

'I've been that careless? Why didn't my Spider-Sense detect it? Is it because they weren't a threat?' Spider-Man thought to himself.

"You mentioned you were looking for your old friend Victor Von Doom, yes?" Fury said, looking directly at Reed.

"Correct." Reed answered.

'Right, I did ask Reed about that Doom guy... Project V, I've been so busy I haven't been looking much into it. Could this be it?'

"Well you were correct, he is planning something. And boy has he been busy. Not only has he taken over an entire nation, becoming its leader, he also has a massive army at his disposal, one capable of conquering any country on our planet."

"So, what, is he attacking the US?" Johnny asked.

"Wakanda." Fury told him.

"T'Challa's home?" Sue added.

"You would be correct, Mrs. Richards. Victor, referring to himself as Dr. Doom, is planning on conquering the nation of Wakanda for its resources and its powerful army. He gave the nation two weeks to surrender themselves to him or else he and his army will attack."

Valeria was clearly shaken up upon hearing the name "Doom", as that was the name that had been invading her dreams for the longest. 'All hope lies in Doom.' She thought to herself. 'What could that mean?'

Despite having incredibly high intelligence, especially for her age, she couldn't decipher what her dreams were trying to tell her, they were too abstract. Regardless, she sat and listened closely, waiting for any answers Fury may have for her.

"T'Challa cannot defeat this army on his own, therefore I need you to go to Wakanda and defend the country. He said two weeks but he could grow impatient and attack at anytime. Go now, the planet depends on it. If Doom gets his hands on their Vibranium... there's no telling what would happen."

"Understood, thank you for letting us know. We're heading over this instant." Reed told him.

"Inform me of your arrival, Fury out." Nick Fury's image faded, leaving the members of the Future Foundation to themselves.

Reed looked over at Eren, seeing that the boy was nervous based on his expression. "Eren, if you aren't ready for something like this-"

"No, I'm ready. I've just never been part of anything with stakes this high, is all. I want to help fight." Spider-Man told him.

"Alright. Everyone to the garage." Reed declared, leading everyone toward the elevator.

Once everyone was on board, he noticed Franklin and Valeria getting on the elevator as well. "You two stay here with H.U.B.E.R.T., he will watch you while we're gone."

"But Da-" Valeria tried to speak, but Reed wasn't hearing it.

"No buts, this is too dangerous for children." Using his stretchy arms, Mr. Fantastic pushed the children out of the elevator before closing it and sending it down to the garage.

All five active members of the Future Foundation, all wearing their white costumes, soon found themselves in the garage and in front of the Future Foundation's personal jet. The members of the team boarded it, but before they could take off, Spider-Man had a realization. 'Cindy!' He thought, looking to Reed before walking over to him for one last request.

"I need to say bye to my girlfriend, she'll be wondering where I am." He told him.

"Go, we'll be waiting for you."

In a flash, Spider-Man dashed away, leaving a blue trail behind him as he took the stairs back up to the main building. The hero was so focused on his destination, he failed to notice the two children, Franklin and Valeria, hiding on the staircase in an attempt to get down into the garage.

Within minutes, Eren was outside Cindy's window, tapping on it impatiently before she finally opened it. "Eren?" She said confusingly. "I thought you were having dinner with the Fantastic Four?

"I was. Listen, I don't have much time. I'm going to be gone for a while, in a different country. I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye." Eren told her quickly.

"What? You're just going to leave?" Cindy asked, wondering who would protect the city in his absence.

"The planet is in danger, they need me. I'll be back within a few weeks, I promise." Eren said, leaning into the window and kissing Cindy on the lips before dashing away in an instant. Realizing he forgot something, the hero dashed back to Cindy, adding one last thing. "If anyone asks, I am taking a summer class abroad in Africa for African American students, got it? Okay, bye." The hero said, dashing away in an instant and making his way back to the Baxter building.

Cindy closed her window before sitting on the floor in her room in front of it, thinking about what was going to happen now that Spider-Man will be out of the country. Once again, she looked down at her own hand, thinking about the powers that she manifested not too long ago. 'While he's gone... should I?' She thought, feeling a pit form in her stomach as she imagined herself bearing the same weight as her partner.

Back at the Future Foundation jet, Eren zoomed up the ramp and into the cock pit, placing a hand on Reed's shoulder and telling him, "I'm ready." With that said, the ramp closed and the jet began to move, prompting a massive door to open, big enough for the jet to fit through.

The jet slowly rolled out of the garage before lifting itself in the air like a VTOL ship until it was higher than any building in New York City. "Everyone strapped in?" Reed asked, receiving a nod from every person behind him. "This might be a little rough."

In an instant, the jet took off, causing everyone's back to press against the seat, surprising Eren due to never having been on a plane before.

Beneath the plane, inside the cargo hold, the two children thrashed about, along with the luggage, covering their mouths in an attempt to stifle their laughter.

Valeria wanted answers, and this was the only way to do so. Franklin, however, was just in it for the fun of it. Little did the two children know, they were in for much more than a fun trip to Wakanda as Doom would be much worse than a game for them.

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