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Vincent nodded sympathetically to Kristoff and Cassandra, then braced himself as he approached the podium.

He didn't want to be here. He was terrified. It sickened him to realize it, but he wanted to be barricaded in the most secure sub-basements of the Baxter Building right now.

He's going to come. He's going to come. He won't let them pass without saying something. Doing something. He's going to come. He's going to come.

He shoved the scared child back in the box as he cleared his throat.

"Reed and Susan Richards are exemplars of the goodness in people. My brother and I could not have found better people to take us in, and that would be saying the same even if they were some unknown civilian couple from the middle of nowhere. They raised us alongside their own children, and not once were we ever allowed to think that it was any less our home than theirs.

You've all heard the testimonials and interviews and praise of how Susan Richards was the heart of the original Fantastic Four, but I'll attest to it anyway. She made the world a better place without even trying, and when she did try, she made it extraordinary. To have known her is..." He stops, clearing his throat. "Excuse me. To have know her is to have been made a better person by her." He composes himself again.

"As for Reed.. he changed the world as well. He was the consummate explorer, always looking for more ways to better the world, and more to know; but I don't feel that was what made Reed Richards extraordinary. Reed Richards was not the amazing person he was because of how much he had to tell others, but because of how much he would listen. There was nothing that I, his children, or anyone else in his life could not come to him with. He believed in the importance of the future, and gave those he entrusted it with his absolute attention.

Reed Richards, if he could look back from beyond the grave, would not want to be the greatest scientific mind of all time. His greatest wish, I believe, would be to have paved the way for even greater ones."

He thanked the assembly and then moved to sit by Andrea again.