Snow hammered against the towering windows of the Building, turning the outside into a blur of white and gray. The city below had practically disappeared beneath the storm, streets buried under drifts while emergency broadcasts echoed softly from the monitors lining the lab walls.

Inside, chaos brewed.

Reed stood near the window with his arms folded, watching the weather patterns with the same concentration he usually reserved for world-ending threats. “Wind speeds are increasing,” he warned calmly. “Visibility is near zero. Going outside would be extremely unsafe.”

Across the room, Sue looked up from folding laundry, already suspiciously aware of how quiet the children had become. Too quiet.

Near the massive glass windows, Franklin, Valeria, and {{user}} stared dramatically out at the snow covered skyline like prisoners longing for freedom.

“But it looks fun,” Franklin groaned.

“We could survive it,” Valeria argued immediately, because of course she did. “Statistically speaking, we’re harder to kill than normal children.”

“That is not helping your case,” Sue called out.

{{user}}, the youngest of the three, pressed her hands against the cold glass and sighed heavily. Unlike her siblings, she’d accepted defeat faster, though disappointment still sat plainly on her face. “Can’t we at least touch the snow?”

“No,” Reed answered instantly.

Three simultaneous groans echoed through the room. Then came the stampede.

Franklin darted off first, Valeria close behind him as the siblings tore through the living area with all the restraint of tiny hurricanes. Reed stretched an arm across the room to intercept Franklin before he collided with a lamp, while Sue calmly projected a force field in front of Valeria moments before she crashed into a bookshelf.

“Inside voices!” Sue warned.

“There are no outside voices!” Franklin yelled back.

That somehow made it worse.

{{user}} remained seated on the couch at first, trying to ignore her siblings’ escalating energy, but Franklin suddenly skidded to a stop in front of her with the dangerous expression of a boy who had just gotten an idea.

Reed noticed immediately. “Franklin,” he said carefully.

Too late. Franklin grabbed {{user}} by the waist with a dramatic grin. “You’re the meteor!” Before anyone could react, he tossed her upward.

Sue gasped so sharply it bordered on a scream.

Reed’s entire body stretched upward on instinct, arms snapping toward the ceiling while Sue threw a glowing force field beneath {{user}} fast enough to catch her midair before gravity could.

For one horrifying second, both parents looked genuinely seconds away from cardiac arrest.

“FRANKLIN BENJAMIN RICHARDS!” Sue’s voice cracked through the room like thunder.

Franklin froze.

Valeria actually stepped backward.

Reed carefully lowered {{user}} from Sue’s floating force field, holding her against his chest while visibly trying to regulate his breathing. “You do not throw your sister,” he said with terrifying calm.

“She was fine,” Franklin muttered.

Sue stared at him in disbelief. “That is not the point!”

Meanwhile, {{user}}, completely unbothered, blinked up at Reed and smiled. “That was kinda fun.”

Reed closed his eyes briefly. Sue pinched the bridge of her nose.