Chapter 43: Chapter 42: Break Up

Chapter 42: Break Up

“So what’s our plan now?”

Susan asked Reed after Benjamin left.

Before he could answer, Ben shook his head and raised both hands up.

“What plan? I’m out. No way I’m going to go along with another one of Reed’s crazy plans. I’m done.”

Today he got lucky but who’s to say he’ll continue to be lucky next time?

What if he ends up being stuck as some kind of crazy monster? Or worse, dead?

After Ben left, Johnny also followed.

“Uhh, same here. I’ve got other plans now that I’m a full-blown superhero.”

“Superhero? Johnny? Johnny!”

Susan tried to call out to him but he didn’t listen to her as he left as well.

Susan sighed and shook her head.

She can tell that Johnny’s about to do something reckless…again.

Just as she was about to chase after him, Reed caught her arm.

“Sue, listen…there’s something I’ve been meaning to say…”

“Not now Reed, I need to stop Johnny before he does something stupid.”

“Johnny can turn into fire, and he’s already an adult. He can take care of himself. You don’t need to keep spoiling him. Please, just five minutes.”

“...Fine.”

Susan frowned but felt that Reed was serious about something so she nodded.

Reed then turned to Alyssa.

“Alyssa, do you mind giving us the room for a bit?”

“...Sure.”

Alyssa glared at him for a second then left with a huff.

She had been worried about his condition for a while now but here he was shutting her off so soon…well, it makes sense. She’s not his fiance…

Alyssa sighed before throwing the thought back into a corner of her mind.

She wanted to leave completely but was inevitably curious as to what Reed wanted to tell Susan. And so her inner gossipy self compelled her to stay by the door to listen in discreetly…

Inside the room, Reed and Susan faced one another.

After hesitating for a moment, Reed took a deep breath and spoke.

“A few years ago…we both agreed to marry each other…and I said I wanted to have a bit more time before we, well, finalize things.”

“...Yeah?”

Susan looked away, a bit guilty, but still answered.

“I was going to say it when we were in space but…well, I suppose now’s a good time as any. I think I’m ready.”

“Ready?”

“For the next phase of our lives. Together.”

Reed looked at Susan in all seriousness as he said that.

Susan was surprised and didn’t know how to answer.

By the door, Alyssa bit her lip and regretted her decision to eavesdrop on them.

Suddenly, Reed started to bend his knee and Susan knew what he was about to do so her hand moved subconsciously and…stopped him.

“Stop…”

“Sue?”

“...I…think we should hold off on that…for now.”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Not only was Reed surprised, but Alyssa was also surprised and unconsciously uttered along.

Reed and Susan looked at the door and knew that Alyssa heard them.

Susan sighed and called out to her.

“You can come in too, Alyssa…this also concerns you.”

“H-huh?”

Alyssa was confused but since she was already called out, she can only enter again awkwardly.

“Uhh…I didn’t mean to eavesdrop…I just…uhh, forgot something…”

“It’s fine. I know you’re concerned about Reed.”

“W-what are you saying?”

Alyssa continued to dodge Susan’s gaze and pretended to look for something she left behind.

Susan smiled wryly and continued to speak.

“In fact, I woke up pretty early and overheard your worried voice for Reed when we all arrived here…I knew you still had feelings for him.”

“I…”

Susan didn’t bother hearing her excuse and turned back to Reed.

“And Reed, let’s face it, you don’t really love me.”

“Huh?”

“You love your own work more. That and Alyssa. I’ve come to realize that for a while now.”

“That’s not true!”

Reed shouted and Susan just rolled her eyes.

“Please, I’ve been sending hints for the past few months and you can’t pick up on any of it. I even told you I cheated on you and you just brushed it off. If you really had any love for me, even if I was lying about it, you’ll still show some reaction to it…but you didn’t.”

“...”

Both Reed and Alyssa were shocked.

Susan smiled and looked at the two of them.

“This past month we’ve been working on this spaceship, I’ve been observing you two. You tried to hide it well but I know you still haven’t completely forgotten your previous relationship with one another. Why did you two even break up in the first place? Your crazy genius obviously matches her crazy genius.”

Alyssa averted her gaze.

“That was…we owe it to the world to spread out genius genes and not monopolize it…”

“Bullshit.”

“...”

Susan rolled her eyes again.

“Do you honestly believe that excuse?”

“Excuse?”

Reed looked at Alyssa in confusion, making Susan speechless and facepalm herself.

…Don’t tell me he actually bought it?

Alyssa sighed and gave up.

“Fine…it’s because I was afraid.”

“Afraid? Of what?”

Reed asked.

“I was afraid that…if we ended up together…I’d always be compared to you…”

“Huh?”

“When we were dating, I could already tell how brilliant you were…and I was afraid that I won’t be able to match up to your brilliance one day and drag you down…so I said that and broke up with you…”

“That’s preposterous! I would never think any less of you!”

“Reed…”

“...”

Suddenly, a lovey-dovey atmosphere appeared between the two, making Susan the instant third wheel…

Susan’s mouth twitched in annoyance.

“Ahem. Anyway, I know you’re also feeling that things between us are getting…dull. So you staged this whole nonsense spaceship thing to make us work together again on a large project where you can test your feelings for me again in a period of time. This is just a whole experiment to you, isn’t it? But the thing was…you mistook your feelings for Alyssa as feelings for me. So…take your time and talk with Alyssa before you decide on this again.”

“...I understand…thank you…and I’m sorry.”

Reed sighed as he thanked Susan and also apologized to have made her do this.

Susan just smiled and turned to leave.

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Before she left, Alyssa caught up to her.

“Sue wait.”

“Hm?”

“...Thank you as well…for giving me this chance.”

Susan nodded and patted her on the shoulder.

“It’s fine. Go.”

After leaving, Susan took a deep breath and exhaled outside the Baxter Building.

Judging from their expressions when she left…she can already tell their answer.

“Well. Guess I’m gonna be single again.”

Susan chuckled and called a certain person, completely forgetting about her initial plan to chase after her brother.

The call soon connected.

“Sue?”

“Benjie! Let’s drink!”

“Huh?”

“Drink! Now!”

“A-alright. I’ll be there.”

Benjamin was confused about what was suddenly going on but he knew better than to dilly-dally when a woman was waiting.

After asking where she was, Benjamin immediately teleported to her and they found a pub nearby.

Benjamin wasn’t in a hurry to ask what happened and simply sat with her as they drink in silence.

Finally, Susan couldn’t bear it anymore and asked.

“Aren’t you going to ask what’s wrong?”

“You’ll tell me if you want, right?”

Susan smiled and leaned on his shoulder.

“Reed and I are breaking up.”

“Huh? So suddenly?”

“Yeap.”

Susan nodded and drank another shot.

“...Is it because of me?”

Benjamin asked after hesitating.

Susan chuckled and shook her head.

“No…it was a problem in our relationship in the first place…but I do admit you and your dick helped.”

“Uhh…”

“Hahaha! I’m just joking, relax!”

“...”

“Or am I?”

“...”

Benjamin sweated.

Your jokes are too much!

Benjamin sighed and continued to ask.

“So? It’s really over huh? Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Susan sighed again and poured another drink for herself.

She looked at the glass and her drink reflecting her own face as she reminisce.

“It’s funny…it feels like just yesterday that I had these thoughts of growing old with Reed, having a family, a son…I even thought of a name for a boy. Franklin Richards…but in the end, we weren’t meant to be.”

“...Is this really what you want?”

“Maybe if you asked the me from a year ago, that would be what I have wanted…But now, I’ve changed my mind.”

Susan smiled and looked back at him.

“Maybe the son’s name this time will be Franklin…Freed?...No, double F as initials isn’t good. Well, I’ll think of something.”

“H-huh?”

Benjamin was caught off guard and didn’t know how to react.

Susan hesitated and averted her eyes.

“Or…is that a ‘no’?”

Benjamin finally snapped out of it and smiled.

He held her hand and bent his head to kiss her.

“Does that feel like a ‘no’?”

“Hmm…I don’t know…maybe if you do it one more time.”

Susan smiled and teased.

“Oh, I can do it more than one more time.”

“Oh?”

Just as they were about to leave and do something else other than kiss, the TV on the pub changed the channel and they saw a familiar figure.

…It was Johnny Storm.

Currently, he seemed to be having an interview with a beautiful reporter.

“So tell us, Mr. Storm, how on earth did you become this…Human Torch?”

“Please, you can call me Johnny. You see, me and three others rode this spaceship earlier today and were hit by this thing called a cosmic storm. The cosmic rays changed our bodies and gave us abilities. Me, now known as the Human Torch. My sister who can turn invisible is the Invisible Woman. Reed Richards can turn his body into rubber! You should see it’s quite fantastic! Oh, that’s what he should be called! Mr. Fantastic! And then there’s Ben Grimm. He can turn in this…thing! The Thing! Yep! That’s him! Together, we’re known as the Fantastic Four!”

“...”

“...”

Benjamin and Susan were speechless.

Susan’s face darkened and her hand rubbed her temples in annoyance.

It was as she feared. Johnny had done something stupid…no, it was even worse than that!

He gave them names! And even a group name!?

The interview continued.

“So does this mean you will all be joining the EPD as a group as well? What rank do you think you’ll get?”

“Me? I’d say definitely S-rank Combat type. Obviously.”

Although Benjamin had created ranks on the EPD depending on their abilities, he separated them into Combat, Support, and Auxiliary types.

Meaning, one can still achieve a high rank even if their ability was useless in combat.

Support types are abilities like healing or buffing others while Auxiliary types are those that can’t be used in combat but are useful in daily lifestyle.

A person with telekinetic powers may fall into the Combat type if they decide to hone their powers in that way but alternatively, they can use their powers for helping in construction or heavy lifting as well. It is entirely up to the person.

In the first place, most abilities of the commonly enhanced people aren’t useful for combat so there was no reason to solely rank their abilities based on that.

If they were to choose an Auxiliary type, they would be in another division of the EPD designed to take in requests of other people to help out…basically, EPD is now like an Adventurer’s Guild in a standard fantasy world…

Well, Benjamin’s vision of turning this Marvel universe into something like My Hero Academy or One Punch Man world is certainly getting closer.

As for Johnny’s claim of being S-rank Combat Type…well, he is still far from it at his current state.

At best he can be B-rank or A-rank if he pushed for it.

S-ranks are the likes of Omega class mutants and other special cases like Wolverine.

Oh, and if you’re curious, Tony Stark’s intellect is considered an A-rank Auxiliary type and his armors have different Combat type rankings.

Currently, his best armor is still just an A-rank Combat type but if he were to develop the Bleeding Edge armor or Hulk Buster or other powerful armor, then it would probably fall into S-rank.

Beside Benjamin, Susan groaned and stood up.

“Sorry, I need to go deal with this…”

“It’s fine. Just call me if you need me.”

“Thanks. Bye.”

Susan gave him a peck on the lips and then left.

She’s on her way to murder her brother…

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