[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZfvPPwT.png[/img][/center]
[b]Baxter Building, New York[/b]

[color=#ffffff]It was the morning. At least, Ben Grimm thought it was the morning. He rolled over in his bed to see that the clock had just struck seventeen minutes past ten. He’d spent his evening helplessly watching what morsels of footage they received at the Baxter Building of Superman and the Flash battle against the Silver Surfer. When they had gone to bed, the Surfer had been downed – but they weren’t sure how long it would be until his master would be upon them. In short, Ben wasn’t sure whether there would be a world to wake up to if he went to sleep last night. He was glad to see that there was.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The Thing climbed up from his specially-reinforced bed and made his way towards his en suite bathroom. After a hurried shower he stood before a large mirror and brushed his pearly white teeth. There was a shaving foam dispenser beside the taps that Grimm tapped with a smile. He slathered the foam on the lower half of his face and chuckled at his reflection before washing it away and heading down to the kitchen.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There waiting for him on the counter was a baloney sandwich with a handwritten note from Sue. He glanced at it but the sound of football from the living room distracted him and he set the note down, picked up the baloney sandwich, and headed to the source of the noise.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Guy Gardner was sat on living room sofa with a root beer in his hand. On the television, highlights from the Gotham Knights-Metropolis Meteors game earlier that morning were playing. The ginger-haired SHIELD agent nodded in acknowledgement and handed the Thing a root beer as he plonked himself on the sofa beside him.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“What the hell happened to you?”[/color][color=#ffffff] Ben asked as he noticed the shiner below Gardner’s eye. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“You look like a bag of crap.”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“I feel like one too,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Guy said curtly as he tracked the path of a deep pass on the television screen.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Unsatisfied by the shortness of the answer he’d received, Ben cleared his throat and leaned towards Gardner with an expectant look. Guy let out a sigh as the deep pass fell to the ground incomplete, felt the weight of Ben’s gaze on him, and let out a sigh as he prepared to recount a tale he was clearly reluctant to tell.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“The world’s ending and I see a bunch of kids trying to loot a mom-and-pop convenience store. Do I say to myself ‘screw it, they’re probably insured’ and leave them to it? Of course not. I figure I can go talk some sense into the little bastards. Turns out I was wrong.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]To Guy’s surprise, Ben’s craggy features did not move an inch. They were perfectly still for the first few seconds as if he was trying to process the information that Guy had just unloaded. Then a particularly conspicuous-looking frown appeared on the Thing’s face and he set down the bottle of root beer with care.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“You’re telling me that big, bad SHIELD agent Guy Gardner got his ass handed to him by a bunch of snot-nosed punks?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Gardner nodded sheepishly.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben erupted into a fit of laughter that was so sudden it made Guy flinch. There was a look of genuine mirth on Grimm’s face as his shoulders bounced up and down uncontrollably. After a good thirty to forty seconds of uninterrupted laughter, Ben slowly began to calm down. In the corner of his famous blue eyes a few tears had collected. His orange digits scraped them away as he let out a contented sigh.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“Oh man, that is too good to be true.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Guy shook his head disapprovingly as he took a swig from the bottle in his hand. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“What was I supposed to do?”[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“If they’re old enough to loot, they’re old enough to get their asses whooped,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Ben shrugged. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“Heh, you try and pull that kind of thing on Yancy Street and you might get more than your ass whooped.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]For the first time since they had met, Grimm saw something change in Gardner – the bravado, that chutzpah that he possessed in spades, melted away and was replaced not with fear or anxiety, but something much deeper than that. He wasn’t sure what he’d hit upon but he knew that he’d hit upon something.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“Beating on kids isn’t my style,” [/color][color=#ffffff]the SHIELD agent muttered before turning back to the screen.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sensing that he’d struck a nerve, Ben rejoined Guy in watching the highlights. He alternated swigs of root beer and bites of the baloney sandwich that Sue had prepared for him in the morning. It wasn’t until Grimm was halfway through the thing that he’d remembered there had been a note from Sue attached to it – and that he hadn’t seen her all morning.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There was a note of concern in Ben’s voice that he did his best to mask.[/color][color=#f6b26b] “Have you seen Suzie?”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“She left for Washington this morning,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Guy responded nonchalantly without so much as looking away from the television.[/color]

[color=#f6b26b]“Washington?!”[/color][color=#ffffff] Ben hollered as he let the baloney sandwich drop to the ground. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“What for?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The SHIELD agent shrugged his shoulders.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“Said she wanted to give Hill a piece of her mind in person.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Ben’s eyes widened in shock. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“And you just let her go?”[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“What can I say?”[/color][color=#ffffff] Guy said with a mischievous smile. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“I’d already had my ass handed to me once and didn’t quite feel like having it happen a second time. Plus I’m here to stop the four of you from getting yourselves into trouble, not to stop the Fürher from getting chewed out.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Gardner reached down, picked up the baloney sandwich, and blew on it to clean it of dust. He bit down on it greedily and sank back into the sofa with a contented smile. Ben let out a chuckle as he imagined the world of hurt that was coming Maria Hill’s way and then gestured to Gardner to pass him another bottle.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Guy cracked it open and Ben took a hearty glug from it before letting a smile cross his lips. [/color][color=#f6b26b]“You know what? You’re not too bad, Carrot Top.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The two men shared a fraternal smile. It was cut short by the sudden appearance of a familiar sign on the screen in front of them. The football highlights had given way to breaking news footage taken from a helicopter high above New York. Emblazoned in the sky was a sign familiar to Ben Grimm, but not Guy Gardner – it was Spider-Man’s mask. Floating in the sky beside it was none other than the Human Torch.[/color]

[color=#b6d7a8]“Fuck,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Guy muttered as he stood up. He brushed crumbs from his lap and looked towards Ben. [/color][color=#b6d7a8]“Looks like the two of us are going for a ride.”[/color]