Retired — Roleplayer Guild

“I believe I’ve figured it out.”

Johnny sat at a long table in one of the Baxter Building’s conference rooms. He and the five others who joined him faced the lanky young man standing before them. Reed Richards had called the group together suddenly and without explanation, then left them waiting for more than thirty minutes before he finally showed up with various data printouts and tablets tucked under his arm.

Franklin Storm was the first to speak up. The director of the Future Foundation and father of the Storm siblings sat at the head of the table in a dress shirt, tie, and trademark white lab coat. Franklin pushed his wireframe glasses up as he addressed his protege.

“You’ll have to start at the beginning, Reed. No one else here knows what you’re referring to,” he said with a slight trace of humor in his voice. It wasn’t unusual for Reed to begin a conversation mid-thought, which often left him having to circle back around to catch everyone else up.

Reed glanced around the table before continuing in a tone that suggested what he was about to say should be obvious. “My project, sir. The failure with the transdimensional slide. I believe I’ve figured out the error that caused the incident. You see, it was…”

Johnny scanned the rest of the table. Sue and Ben sat across from him. Alyssa Moy and Ivan Kragoff flanked Franklin. Johnny didn’t know much about Alyssa other than she was almost as quiet as she was brilliant. The young woman, not much older than Johnny, sat with her mess of dark hair, obscuring most of her facial features, as she chewed on a pen while staring intensely at Reed. He wasn’t sure what her area of expertise was, but he knew his father had put a lot of time and effort into recruiting her to the Foundation, almost as much as he had put into getting Reed years earlier. 

Then there was Ivan. At 28, he was the oldest member of the Future Foundation. Ivan came from Russia and was one of Franklin’s earliest initiates. Unlike Alyssa, Ivan wasn’t an introvert. He was the most outgoing of all the young scientists in the building, and he seemed to share many of the same non-academic interests as Johnny. When they first met years ago, Ivan had even gone out of his way to help Johnny design the schematics for a new, suped-up sports car. 

Still, something about the older man had always rubbed Johnny wrong. By all rights, Ivan was a solid guy, but to Johnny, he gave off the impression of trying too hard. It was almost as if he needed to be well-liked by everyone. It was an impression no one else seemed to share, but Johnny had decided to avoid him long ago. 

It made sense why Reed had assembled them all. Each of them had been involved with the project in some way. Under Franklin’s supervision, Reed had led the project. Sue was in charge of monitoring the biometrics, Ben intended to pilot their experimental craft, and Johnny acted as an assistant to Reed regarding assembly. Alyssa aided Reed in running calculations, while Ivan later joined the project as a consultant once Reed realized there would be high concentrations of radiation involved. 

Johnny met Ben’s eyes across the table. Even seated, he had to tilt his head slightly to meet the goliath’s gaze. They were the only two non-scientists in the room, and while everyone else was nodding along to Reed’s explanation, they sat in silence, waiting for the final punchline.

“But have you determined what caused the mishap in the first place?” Ivan asked in his faint accent. “Such a mistake could not have occurred in isolation, no?”

Reed frowned, considering his response before answering. 

“No,” he finally said after a long minute. “It is unclear how such a simple error went unnoticed.”

Johnny thought he could hear something in Reed’s voice, but before he could give it much thought, Franklin cut in. 

“Chalk it up to human error, my boy. No one is perfect, not even you.”

“Yes, that may be true, sir, but I have taken steps to ensure human error will be taken out of the equation for the next time. My new Highly Engineered Ro—”

“The next time?” Sue and Alyssa interrupted simultaneously. 

Franklin was the one to ask the question on everyone's mind. “Reed, you’re not considering starting the project over again, are you?”

“Oh, certainly not, Doctor Storm,” Reed clarified. 

There was an audible sigh of relief.

“There’s no need to start all over. I’ve already completed revisions on the initial test run, and the measures I’ve put in place, along with the B-type integration unit I’ve installed, will ensure no further errors. This time, the transdimensional slide will work as intended. I guarantee it..”

“Stretch, are y’sayin’ what I think y’re sayin’?” Ben grumbled out incredulously.

“Yes, I am. I believe it is the best avenue for understanding and potentially reversing the metamorphosis each of us has undergone. Sue, Ben, Johnny,” he said, turning to each of them in kind. “By this time next week, the four of us will be the first of humankind to traverse to another dimension. Isn’t that fantastic?”
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"Hayao Miyazaki"

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