Firey Rebirth

Ok. Spoilers for Rise of the Silver Surfer and obviously the first movie. I don't own any of the rights etc to F4 or any of the Marvel Characters.

I hope you enjoy. This was an idea that just occurred to me and has stuck in my head… I mean lets face it – Johnny is just hot :) absolutely NO pun intended.

What if the Silver Surfer had done something to Johnny during their fight just like he did to Doom? He gave Doom his human appearance back (whether intentionally or not), what if he gave Johnny something too?

Chapter 1

"You win." The unbreakable grip was tight on his throat. The blank silver stare penetrated straight through him, as though the stranger was analysing his very genetic makeup.

He could feel the strength in the hand that held him, and power seemed to almost visibly pulse within his opponent. He didn't know how he could tell that, but something within him resonated in response to it. There wasn't a chance to dwell on it however, as consciousness was rapidly slipping away with his precious oxygen. His eyes started to slide shut and there was a brief surge of current that flowed from his captor to himself. He felt a momentary tingling across his entire body, then a sudden stabbing pain in his skull.

"Denial and uncertainty seem to be the cornerstones of your species." The voice was deep and resonant, almost otherworldly. Johnny tried to think of a response to the enigmatic statement, something witty and clever. Spiderman would have had something ready on the tip of his toungue, but Johnny's remaining second of consciousness slipped through his fingers, and then he was falling.

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He didn't remember much of the following minutes as the earth grew steadily larger in front of him. It occurred to him to attempt to flame on again, but his mind didn't seem to be working. He felt flame briefly flash around him, the now comforting feeling flowing through him, but it vanished as quickly as it came. His lethal plummet seemed to have slowed however and he tried again, succeeding in sustaining it for perhaps a second longer. He closed his eyes and focussed, desperately willing himself to burst into flame. He thought it sputtered briefly, like a guttering candle, but then he opened his eyes and it was too late.

With an almost bone cracking thud he slammed into the top of what appeared to be a dune. Sand flashed up in his face and he felt himself cartwheel awkwardly through the air, slamming into the ground several more times before tearing through some sort of fabric and coming to a stop.

The sound of sand settling gently around him filled the air as the world stopped spinning, and for several seconds he simply lay there, unmoving. As his mind eventually caught up with the fact that he was lying in what appeared to be a burning tent he managed to exert himself enough to scramble free. It wasn't that fire could normally harm him, but with the loss of his power seconds before and the strange encounter with the silver… "surfer", he didn't want to take the chance.

He didn't know what had been done to him, but already he could tell it'd been more than what it had looked like. He'd felt something moving inside him, as though the silver man had somehow peered into his mind and decided to rearrange what he found. Then there was his cryptic final remark.

Johnny shuddered briefly as blank silver eyes flashed into his mind. He didn't know how, but they almost seemed to have a secret knowledge in them, as though they knew his secret.

A secret he didn't even know he had.

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"Johnny?" His name was said with such genuine concern that even if he hadn't been able to tell it was Sue behind him he'd still have known who it was. Ben would have just barged into his space and Reed was blind to anything but his science. Well his science and Sue.

He was presently standing on the roof of the Baxter building, the shining '4' shaped skylights rising behind him. The welcome homes had been short, his accidental swapping of powers with Sue, and then the less than accidental swap with Ben had necessitated in depth investigations. He wondered when plummeting to Earth from the edges of space and living to talk about it had become so routine that it didn't even garner a comment.

"Hi Sue. Everything ok?" She stopped at the railing next to him, close, but not close enough to touch. They wouldn't be making that mistake again.

"Reed's already working on what he thinks the 'Surfer' may have done to you. Apparently it's all to do with the cosmic energy that's left inside all of us from the storm." Johnny didn't bother telling her he'd already heard Reed's theory. If it helped her to go over it again then he was ok with that. His mind was still too unstable for him to worry much about anything right now.

"Are you sure you're ok Johnny?" Evidently his non-response had his sister concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine sis, thanks. Just worried about accidentally touching you guys again. We don't want that happening unexpectedly." He didn't mention his other concerns; that the alien had done something more to him than just mess with his powers. Whatever it was, he somehow felt it was something only related to him, not something that affected the team. He didn't know why he thought that, perhaps it had been the very personal way those silver eyes had stared through him, or the seemingly meaningless farewell before he'd dropped him back to Earth.

Denial and uncertainty? He was the very antithesis of those 2 things. He always acted quickly and decisively with the facts he had at his disposal. Reed had chewed him out numerous times for acting too quickly and not thinking through his options. And he'd never tried to deny anything. He'd been the first to accept his new powers after the shuttle accident, embracing it with an acceptance that had taken the others weeks to achieve. Yet, now he doubted himself. Common sense told him he was just being screwed with, but he knew that wasn't the case.

"Well as long as you're sure Johnny. You know you can talk to me about this if you need to right? Don't let Ben get to you. He's just having some fun. It's just his way of dealing with it." He gave her a slight smile and nodded.

"Yeah, it's right. I know you guys are here if I need it." He had no intention of going to any of them of course, but if it kept them satisfied and off his back he could do them lip service.

With a final nod at him Sue turned and headed back inside, arms wrapped around herself to ward against the approaching evening chill. He sighed in relief at being left alone again and watched as the lights of New York came alive, replacing the natural beauty of the sun with the artificial beauty of technology.

He needed to go out, that's what he had to do. Hitting the clubs had always been his way of coping - losing himself in the booze, the music and the women.

So why then did that idea suddenly seem so unappealing to him?

Fin…