{Chapter: 28 - Fighting Or Misunderstanding? With Invisible Women}
An invisible force slammed into Aiden with the intensity of a battering ram, sending him staggering backward—three, four solid steps before he caught his balance.
"So, this is the famous Invisible Force Field projection," he muttered, rolling his shoulders. "Not bad... not bad at all."
A regular super-soldier would've been floored by that kind of impact, maybe even severely injured. But thanks to the Extremis coursing through his veins, his body was far beyond the limits of ordinary enhancement. The blow still hurt—it was like getting hit by an invisible semi-truck—but his healing factor was already dulling the pain and knitting together the minor tissue damage.
He looked up.
Susan stood ten feet away, her stance wide, swaying slightly on unsteady feet. Her hair was a mess, strands clinging to her flushed cheeks. Her mascara was smudged. Her breaths were uneven. She reeked faintly of alcohol—but the power crackling around her, even if invisible, was palpable.
Aiden placed a dramatic hand over his chest, feigning pain. "I'm not here to stalk or fight you, Susan. Seriously. I'm just here to make sure no creepy bastards tail you into dark alleys. That's all. I just—"
"Liar," Susan snapped, voice sharp but cracked around the edges. "You're just another creep… watching me like I'm some damsel. I'm not helpless, okay?!"
Susan's eyes narrowed, her guarded posture, and the fury simmering just under the surface told him she wasn't buying any of it.
"You think that innocent face and those carefully chosen words are gonna fool me?" she snapped, her voice carrying a slur, tipsy yet clear enough to be dangerous. "That thing following me wasn't human—it was a puppet. A clay doll moved by someone's hand. And you just happened to show up in the exact same place... twice? Do you take me for a fool?"
Her tone rose with every word, bitter and sharp, a storm uncoiling. Aiden realized then—this wasn't just about him. Her voice had cracks in it, places where emotion leaked through like steam from boiling pressure.
She was hurt.
And that hurt had a name.
Mr. Fantastic.
Aiden sighed inwardly. Wrong place, wrong time. Again.
"You're drunk, unstable, and you nearly caved my ribs in—"
"Good!" she cut him off, throwing her other hand forward. A ripple of air distorted the space in front of her.
A second blast came. Sloppier. Wider. Less focused.
Aiden sidestepped just in time, but the wave still clipped his arm and sent him spinning into a dumpster. It dented inward with a clang as he bounced off it, landing in a crouch.
He wiped blood from his lip, blinking.
"Okay… so you've been training," Aiden muttered, a hint of surprise in his tone. According to all the deep dives he'd done online, it hadn't been long since the Fantastic Four got hit with those cosmic rays—just a few months at most. So for her to be this strong, even while drunk, emotionally shaken, and barely standing straight… Yeah, she'd clearly been putting in the work. And just as he finished that thought, she answered—confirming everything he'd suspected.
Susan's lip trembled. Her arms were still raised, but her hands weren't steady. "Six… six damn months," she slurred. "While you people vanished. While we sat in that stupid tower and Reed told me I wasn't good enough. That I let everyone down. That I couldn't protect my team."
She took a shaky step forward. Her heel nearly twisted, but she caught herself with a force field platform underfoot.
"I did all this—for them. For him. And he still looked at me like I'm just the girl who makes bubbles and turns invisible…"
Another flick of her wrist—another blast. This one barely formed before she lost control, and it backfired slightly, the shockwave rumbling at her own feet.
She winced. Her hand clutched her forehead. "Ughh… I shouldn't've drank so much."
"You think?" Aiden muttered, then raised his voice. "Okay," he said, voice dropping into a more neutral tone. "I can't talk sense into a drunk woman. If you're that determined to misunderstand me, I'll just leave."
He turned.
"You think you can just run now? After spying on me—plotting against me—and now acting like the victim? Like both of them? Not a chance!"
Her voice cracked with something deeper. Not rage—something more raw. Hurt. Humiliation. Exhaustion.
Her hand flung forward, and another wave of invisible force screamed toward him. His enhanced reflexes flared to life. Aiden sidestepped at the last instant, a blur of motion, the force field slamming into the ground where he'd stood. The resulting force left a crater the size of a car hood.
Aiden glanced at the smoldering hole and whistled. "If I didn't have Extremis... that would've turned me into paste."
What he thought would be a lucky encounter with the Invisible Woman had clearly become a damn battlefield.
Aiden took a measured step forward, his voice calm but edged with steel. "You're lashing out at me—attacking the wrong person. Maybe ask yourself why your fists are aimed at me instead of… I don't know… Reed? Seems like he's the one you're really angry at."
That did it.
With a snarl, she hurled a full-body force pulse, unshaped, fueled purely by emotion. It was like a cannon blast of invisible fury. Aiden raised both arms, bracing.
The wave hit like a truck. He was launched back, tumbling through the air and slamming through a parked car's windshield. Glass exploded in every direction.
He groaned, sprawled halfway across the dashboard. Flames briefly flared up around him, burning the remaining fabric on his upper body to ash as Extremis kicked in again.
"Alright…" he said, dragging himself out of the wreck. "I didn't want to raise my hand against a woman—especially not a heartbroken one—but if you're gonna keep swinging like that, I might have to knock you sober. No more soft talk."
Across from him, Susan's breathing had quickened. Her hands glowed with psychic pressure as her invisible constructs took form. The weight of her emotions pulsed in the air: frustration, betrayal, heartbreak. She had gotten stronger over the past six months—much stronger—and her force fields reflected it.
Aiden snapped open his silver lighter.
"Let's see if you can handle the heat."
With a flick of his fingers, a ring of fire burst into existence around him, licking the alley walls like a living beast. Flames coiled and surged, responding to his will.
"Come on then," he said. "Show me what you've got."
"Oh, you wanna play with fire?" Susan scoffed. Her form shimmered, and with a subtle shimmer of her powers, her outer clothing was changed—replaced instantly by the skintight blue and white suit of the Fantastic Four. Her figure snapped into focus, strong and poised, no longer the swaying woman from moments before. The suit hugged her form like a second skin—perfectly accentuating her form—and as much as Aiden wanted to appreciate the view, he had more pressing concerns.
"I've sparred with Johnny for weeks now. You think a few flames are going to scare me?"
Susan's invisible barrier rose between them like a glass wall.
Aiden launched his flames. A tidal wave of fire surged forward, hissing and crackling as it collided with the barrier. For a moment, it held.
Susan smirked.
But the fire wasn't all he had.
In the next instant, his fists glowing red-hot, bubbling like molten lava.
Flames spiraled around his fists as he approached.
Susan's force field flickered back to life, but it was weaker now—shimmering, unstable.
Susan's eyes widened. She felt the heat even through her shield.
"Stop looking at me like that…" she muttered. "Like you pity me."