[June of 2012]
[New York City]
3rd PoV
A great booming sound resounded, followed by a large shockwave that spreads in omnidirectional.
Susan Storm – who was trying to ignore the flirting Tony – lifted her hands in hurry and formed large force-field that covered all those around her.
Andrew on the other hand, didn't forget to conjure a force-field around the curious and brave citizen from earlier as he watched the shockwave spreading for about 700 meters before eventually losing power and dispersing.
The buildings and establishments that are in the inside the range of the shockwave had their glass shattered while the cars and vehicles all also had their glass shattered.
Some small vehicles like motorcycles were even overturned from the that strong shockwave alone as the people – who have evacuated to the upper part of their buildings – slowly poked their messy heads to take a peek at what happened.
A few seconds passed as the smoke and dust eventually subsided. Andrew used his Oscar-Tier Acting and acted as if he was totally exhausted, while making sure that it was cleanly captured from the camera of that citizen, as he fell down from the sky and smashed to the ground roughly, rising a small cloud of dust.
Cough! Cough!
Those that were inside Susan's force-field all coughed, Susan included, as her force-field doesn't have the ability of filtering the air that would flow from the outside and into the space inside the force-field, like Andrew's.
"Quick! I need to close off the portal!" Reed Richards recovered and ran to the limits of Susan's shield and shouted while holding the device tightly.
The dust subsided completely as Susan took down her force-fields and they all looked up to the portal, some expecting the dragon to still be there while Tony and Reed was doubtful as they first hand experienced the intensity of Andrew's attack.
And lo and behold. The poking head of the dragon was no more and all that remained was chunks of its meat and bones that miraculously managed to survive the annihilation of Andrew's attack, and it all rests messily on the ground below the hovering portal.
They can also see the body of that dragon lying on the other side of the portal, totally and surely dead.
"Close it off now, we don't know if there's more of those creatures in that place." Tony said as he walked to the side of Reed with his helmet opened. His eyes looking around the sky, trying to find the featureless mutant hero.
"Oh." Reed Richards simply said as he activated the device in his hands.
Crack!
Creak!
Crash!
The large gash-like portal in the sky began moving about as the rifts in space around it also moved, twisting and turning.
After a few moments, the portal began shrinking and eventually disappeared from the sky as if it wasn't even there in the first place while the small bolt-like space rifts also disappeared along with it.
"Where's that creepy guy?" Johnny asked curiously as he turned his head around, along trying to find Andrew.
"Don't call him creepy, he's just being careful by hiding his identity." Ben reprimanded the playboy as he also looked around.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Hurried footsteps resounded behind them as they all took a stance in alertness. But they all relaxed after turning around as they saw a random guy with worry etched in his face. The guy was wearing an office working suit while carrying a camera as he ran to a spot where a certain someone is currently lying.
"Oh shit, he's there, is he dead?" Johnny said in surprise as he began running in that direction.
Reed, Ben, Susan, and Tony also quickly followed behind as they hurriedly went to the spot where the clone of Andrew was lying.
Susan quickly crouched down to the unconscious artificial body of Andrew as she placed her finger on his neck, trying to check his pulse. She then spoke without looking at the group "No, he's just unconscious, I think that attack he used seemed to have strained his body and this resulted in him being unconscious."
"That's good." Ben Grimm nodded in relief.
Johnny Storm then spoke as he realized something "Wait, how does that thing covering his face still up? Shouldn't it be deactivating by now since he's already unconscious?"
Gasp!
Johnny had his eyes widened as he continued "D-don't tell me that's his real face?"
Tony Stark looked at the young man with a face that says "really?" as he talked "No, i think its just he's subconsciously still trying to protect his identity, that's why its still there."
Click!
Click!
The brave citizen was rapidly taking shots of his favorite hero as he was definitely not gonna slide this this chance.
"Hey." Tony called out to the busy guy with a slightly raised voice.
"Hm?" The citizen turned stopped taking shots as he turned his head to look at Tony as he asked with a curious face "What?"
Tony Stark's face twitched in annoyance and amusement as his great and arrogant mind cannot comprehend why the hell this citizen was taking pictures of an unconscious hero when the genius billionaire, playboy, philanthropist him was just standing a few feet away from him.
But he didn't voiced out his inner frustration as the voice of Jarvis interrupted his inner monologue [Sir, the military are coming from all direction and they're about to arrive in about a minute.]
Tony hummed in response as he turned back to the brave citizen who went back to taking shots of Andrew while occasionally taking shots of Reed Richards and his group.
His inner child was soothed for a bit as he saw the guy finally taking shots of him as he finally spoke in a good mood. "Hey."
He continued after the guy turned back to him once again "The military is coming, you should go if you don't want to get dragged by them."
The man's eyes widened at that statement as he quickly took one more shot of them all and then ran – entering a random building down the blocks.
Tony chuckled after seeing that and turned back to the unconscious Andrew.
On the other hand. The silent Reed also crouched down beside Sue, as he reached his hand to Andrew's face, poking it from here and there.
"Hey, what are you doing, you have some weird fetish?" Tony spoke with a mocking tone.
"Don't bother me, man-child." Reed replied without looking back as he continued poking the glass-like face of Andrew.
Tony frowned at that jab.
The genius billionaire clearly knows who Reed Richards was as the two have already faced many time in the past. Mostly by proving to the whole world who really deserves the title of Smartest Man Alive.
The two of them have gone face to face by introducing new kinds of things which is also the reason why the current year of 2012 is as advanced as those of 2020 courtesy of the inventions of Tony.
In Reeds side, he had already introduced cures for some of the known dangerous diseases. He was even the one to release a cure for Ebola Virus which had already plagued the world since its discovery back in 1976.
Because of that, the position and title of The Smartest Man Alive have been ever changing, as everytime Stark would release a new gadget, the people would give the title to him. It is also the same for Reed.
Back to the present, Tony Stark frowned at that jab of Reed and was about to counter back with his own when the sounds of moving vehicles resounded behind them.
The Troublesome Four and Tony looked around as they not only found the military vehicles from earlier coming from behind, but there were also a group coming from the front – surrounding the whole street.
Swoosh
Screee!
The drivers of the military vehicles all hit the breaks at the same time as they immediately stopped just after leaving a trail of wheel prints on the cemented grounds.
The leading vehicle had its door opened as a well built, greyish-white-haired 50-ish old man climbed down and stood with an authoritative aura surrounding him.
Reed Richards and Susan Storm stood up after seeing the military while Stark began walking towards the leader of the battalion.
The original Andrew who was in the headquarters of celestial industries quickly recognized the old man but didn't made his clone do anything as he wants to ingrain in the minds of the citizens that he actually collapsed just to protect the city.
The Fantastic Four also followed Stark from behind with the exception of Ben who stayed behind beside the unconscious form of Andrew.
Stark waved his hand in a casual greeting as he spoke to the man while nodding "Ross."
Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross was a bit annoyed by the disrespectful greeting but he didn't pay it anymore mind and ignored the billionaire as he turned his head and looked at the incoming group of Reed.
"General." Reed Richards also nodded at Ross after tucking the portal device in his pockets.
Ross didn't bother replying to him whatsoever as he uttered the words that made Reed's eyes widen in surprise "Men. Arrest him."
...
...
[End of Chapter]
Title: Smartest Man Alive's Arrest
******
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