Seeing that something was off, Susan quickly walked over and pulled Wayne down to sit.
Then she tugged his head straight into her chest, burying his face deep in soft, heavy pressure while her right hand gently stroked the back of his head.
Gwen’s expression turned complicated.
She glanced down at herself.
Hmph.
She was still growing, okay?
She didn’t dwell on it.
Wayne, who normally treated everything like it was someone else’s problem, had just issued a real warning and a threat.
That was enough to worry her.
She stepped closer, concern clear on her face.
“Are you okay?
What you guys were just talking about…”
Wayne calmly gestured at himself.
Do I look like something’s wrong with me?
He motioned for both of them to lean in and quietly filled them in.
As they listened, Susan and Gwen’s eyes went wide at the exact same time.
Gwen covered her mouth, which had formed a perfect O.
“That… wouldn’t that hurt a lot?”
“I don’t know.
I controlled the temperature.
Shouldn’t have charred anything.
Even if it did, better than nothing.”
“Or maybe it’s better if it’s just gone?”
Susan crossed her arms unhappily, supporting the weight of her chest.
Those people had actually planned to grab her and Johnny to threaten Wayne?
The Fantastic Four never really called themselves traditional “heroes.” They saw themselves more as a science and exploration team.
That didn’t change the fact that they had cleaned up plenty of messes for Earth.
Treating them like they weren’t even people was crossing a line.
Anger was one thing.
Fear was another.
Susan and Johnny were far from helpless.
Susan’s force field could tank multiple full-power hits from Mjolnir on defense.
When she pushed it, it could even briefly hold back energy attacks from a not-starving Galactus.
On offense the same field handled impact, cutting, and internal bursts.
It could trash main battle tanks, punch through heavy warship armor, and match ordinary swings from Mjolnir.
At full output it could shake small islands.
Susan was no delicate flower, and Johnny was no joke either.
By dumping every last drop of his energy he could trigger a Nova-level blast hitting a million degrees Fahrenheit.
The term was scientific shorthand.
It meant the Human Torch emptying his entire reserve in one shot, releasing far more destructive force than his normal flames for a short window, with the same “burn yourself out but recover later” drawback as a real nova.
The actual power was nowhere near a true stellar nova, of course.
A real nova was a thermonuclear detonation on the surface of a white dwarf after it stole enough mass from a companion star.
It didn’t destroy the star the way a supernova did, but the energy released in that short burst still equaled hundreds of thousands of years of the Sun’s total output.
The same naming habit applied to a lot of “supernova-level” claims in the multiverse.
Most of the time it just meant the attack was hard to control and might kill the user if they overdid it.
That was exactly why, when Wayne got bored in other universes and casually mentioned that his Heat Vision’s peak output could hit supernova levels, nobody took him seriously.
One confident idiot even charged straight into the beam, fully expecting it to backfire on the user.
They learned the hard way that when this particular honest man said “supernova,” he meant an actual supernova.
Back to the present: Johnny’s ultimate move had a smaller area than the real thing, but the instantaneous heat and kinetic force on a single target still matched a tactical nuclear warhead in the low-kiloton range.
On top of that, most of the Fantastic Four’s work was done as a team.
Reed was one of the smartest people on the planet.
Ben the Thing was one of the few beings who could go toe-to-toe with Hulk in a straight wrestle.
Did these people really think the Four were just some stray dogs they could grab whenever they felt like it?
…
Nick Fury never expected that he, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, would end up in this exact situation.
Till now, he was the one who gave orders to a whole group of people to surround one guy.
How the hell had he become the one getting surrounded?
He looked up and scanned the faces around him.
Hulk was baring his teeth.
Fury didn’t panic.
As long as the big guy wasn’t smiling at him, things were still manageable.
“Nick, I get where your head’s at.”
Steve pulled up a chair and sat down right in front of him.
“But you also know how terrifying it would be if Wayne’s power ended up under any country’s control… especially this country.
You know.”
“Wayne doesn’t want to get involved, and none of us want that either.”
“I understand.
I understand.”
Fury made it clear he never actually expected Wayne to say yes.
He still had to go through the motions, right?
“But I need an explanation, Captain.”
He locked his one good eye on Steve.
“He burned the President’s ass with a cigarette!
I can’t just sit on that!”
“…”
The whole aggressive crowd froze for a second.
Their momentum evaporated on the spot.
They had come in ready to demand justice for Wayne.
Suddenly it looked like Fury was the one demanding justice.
Tony turned and gave Wayne a pure gossip stare.
“You little shit, you actually…”
“I didn’t burn his ass with a cigarette.”
“But the one-eyed pirate just said—”
“I used Heat Vision.”
“Oh… wait, that’s still not okay!”
“I controlled the temperature.”
“Ah.
That’s fine then.”
Tony nodded.
The story hadn’t leaked, so it wasn’t a real problem.
He didn’t believe Matthew Ellis would torch his relationship with Superman over something that small.
“Nick, you heard the man.”
Tony dropped into the seat next to Fury and put on a helpless face.
“You know how kids are.
I’ll take the President for a top-tier spa day and we’ll call it even.”
Fury opened his mouth, but Reed cut in first.
“That doesn’t track.
Wayne wouldn’t do something like that for no reason.”
Cold sweat started beading on Fury’s forehead.
Whatever he had been about to say died in his throat.
“Nick?”
“…”
“Nick, say something!”
“…”
Watching the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
sweat bullets, everyone in the room seemed to hear the same silent signal: team fight, start.
This round was titled “We Have a Point Too.”
“Wayne said that when it happened they were discussing grabbing me and Johnny to use as leverage against him.”
Susan’s voice floated over from a short distance away.
Fury’s heart went ice-cold.
He couldn’t exactly deny it.
Matthew hadn’t refuted the idea at the time.
Part of that was because the President got his ass burned by Heat Vision before he could get the words out, but the fact remained: he never said no.
Fury, who had only come hoping to squeeze a few benefits out of the situation, suddenly had nothing left to say.
“Nick, this is on you!”
“You actually planned to grab me and Susan?!
Do you think we’re pushovers?!”
“Despicable tactics!
The Son of Odin refuses to stand with the likes of you!”
“Hulk hates bad guys!”
Accusation after accusation piled onto Fury until he couldn’t even lift his head.