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Summary: While Johnny is sick and the rest of the Fantastic Four is on a business trip, the Baxter Building is broken into by an antimutant rights group. Now they've decided to use Johnny as an example. Will Johnny's flame finally flicker and die?
Burn It All Up
Chapter 1;
Sick
Johnny usually liked being left to himself when the rest of the Fantastic Four went on a business trip to discuss some form of science or another. But not while he was sick. And he sure as hell was sick. Groaning he pressed his head against the cool tile of the bathroom floor and vaguely wondered if he'd be alive when his family returned. The Torch was now quite familiar with every nook and cranny of the bathroom, having spent the last four days lying on the floor and making his insides comfortable with the toilet. He was at least sure that he was getting slightly better, seeing as he hadn't thrown up in the past four hours. Sighing, he wondered how on earth he had gotten sick when Reed had told him that it was impossible because the virus would immediately be burned out of his body.
The phone rang and he groaned, adding people who called him repeatedly to his growing hit list. For the entire time he had been sick, he'd been receiving mysterious phone calls that no one ever answered. It didn't really concern him, he'd played enough of his own prank calls on his sister to know that it was probably just a bunch of kids looking to irritate someone of high level social standings. Not like he'd know how to do that, it's not like he'd called the president and told the guy that he needed to be out of office in the next forty minutes or the country would fall under some ancient curse. And it's not like the president had replied, 'How the hell'd you get my home phone number?' Groaning, he lurched to his feet and staggered out of the bathroom, following the sound of the ringing to the den.
'You gonna talk this time, or am I just gonna get the silent treatment?' Johnny growled tiredly.
'Johnny? What are you talking about?' Susanne asked obliviously, the annoyed pitch of her voice adding to his headache.
'Sue?' he groaned, flicking the lights back off as they burned his retinas and made him queasy. He paused to cough before he flopped down onto the couch, covering his eyes dramatically.
'Johnny? Are you alright?' Sue asked with growing concern.
'Are you on speaker? And is Reed there?' Johnny asked and received an affirmative yes to both, 'Reed, you're a goddamn lying idiot! Can't get sick my ass! I've spent the past four days on the goddamn bathroom floor!'
'Whoa, calm down hothead,' Ben told him gruffly. Then again, everything Ben said was said gruffly, and everything he did was done roughly. Johnny wasn't quite sure if that counted for anything or not.
''I wasn't talkin' to you, Rock head,' Johnny groaned quietly. Very suddenly he lurched to his feet, the handheld phone still in his tightly clenched fist. He moved surprisingly fast for someone so sick and was soon back in the bathroom hurling up his guts. Stomach acid burned his already sore throat and he washed it out with a bit of water. Groaning, he leaned back against the tub, closing his eyes as he brought the phone back up to his ear.
'What're you all callin' for anyway?' he asked, his voice now slightly raspy.
'Well, to check up on you, actually, and let you know we'll be home in two days,' Sue replied, 'Now, make sure you drink lots of fluids, try and get something down if you can. Soup, toast, whatever, as long as you keep it down. Put on something warm, like a sweater and some track pants and…'
'Sue?' Johnny interrupted, 'Shut up, you're giving me a headache. I'll be fine, okay?'
'Jonathon Storm! You will--,' Sue began in a rage, but the click of a button and the connection was cut. He stared at it for a minute in the darkness of the bathroom before he sighed and stood up. Slowly he walked back to the den and replaced the phone, shivering slightly and grumbling about his lack of fire when he was sick. Turning, he found himself staring straight into the barrel of a loaded gun.
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