"Next!" the lone bank teller warbled, raising one shaking hand to motion the next customer forward.

A middle-aged woman ever so slowly hobbled to the counter, hooked her cane on the protruding edge and upended her purse, sending coins spilling in every direction. Johnny Storm groaned along with every other person waiting in line and buried his head into his hands. He saw a pink sneaker dance into his field of vision and looked up to see the young girl in front of him happily chasing down the few coins that had rolled off the counter.

"I'd like to deposit these," the elderly woman announced cheerily as she pushed the mound of coins towards the even older bank teller.

Scowling, the Torch counted the people ahead of him in line before glancing up at the large faced clock that had been ticking ominously in the background, alerting him to the fact that he was wasting precious time standing in this never-ending line, all for his brother-in-law.

Thirty minutes earlier…

Johnny Storm walked into Reed Richard's lab ten minutes after receiving a text message from the scientist marked 'urgent'. To be fair, if it really had been urgent, someone (usually Sue) would have hunted him down. Therefore, it was one of those things Reed categorized as urgent, but was really of normal priority for everyone else.

"What's up?" he asked casually, subconsciously grimacing as he saw Reed stretched all over the laboratory floor.

There was a slipping noise and Richards retracted himself so his head was centered in front of Johnny. "I need you to do me a favor," he began.

"Nooooo," the Human Torch stepped backwards, raising his hands to his shoulders. "Nuh-huh. Nothing good has ever followed those words."

"Please," Reed begged, one arm flying past Johnny as it grabbed a beaker from its storage unit across the room. "Just this once?"

"I'm not going to take your check to the bank, Reed," Johnny replied, having heard him beg Sue earlier in the day to do the same favor. "The lines are long, the people are sooo unattractive and, have I mentioned the lines? Plus, there's people crying when they can't withdraw money or their third mortgage is denied and I really am not good with sobbing women—not the slightest," he shuddered as he recalled the time he had walked in on Sue and her girlfriends in the middle of a chick flick marathon.

"I'm quite literally tied up," Reed winced, struggling to undo a knot in his arms. "Sue's out shopping and Ben and Alicia are on a couple's vacation—"

"No." Johnny was completely immune to the forlorn look in the scientist's eyes.

"If you don't take the check today, we will have no power for the entire weekend…" Reed grinned when he saw the petrified look on Johnny's face, knowing the Torch was realizing exactly what having no power would entail. "That means no video games, no ESPN, no nothing, for three. Whole. Days."

"Stop!" Johnny waved his arms furiously in front of Reed's face. "I'll do it! I'll take your stupid check to the bank!"

As he was speaking, an idea came to him and he grinned evilly. "On one condition: next mission, I get to drive the Fantasticar while Wide Load sits in the back. No buts!" he declared as he saw Reed open his mouth in protest. "If we have no power, you can't do your sciency stuff either. We both lose."

"Fine," Reed bitterly agreed. "Just please go take the check," he implored as Johnny headed toward the door. "Before five. The branch on 4th is expecting you."

The Torch spun around, his blue eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Are they now?"

"Just think about how you'll survive the weekend without any power," Reed added quickly, throwing the small envelope at Johnny and returning himself to a chair on the other side of the room.

Johnny easily caught the envelope, all the while scowling at his brother-in-law. "I'm goin', I'm goin'," he shouted over his shoulder as he grabbed the keys to his bike off the entryway table and headed down for the garage.

"It wouldn't kill you to invest in paperless billing—saving the planet one tree at a time and all that," he called as he slammed the door to their unit.

Now, Johnny watched the second hand travel completely around the clock's surface while the teller separated the coins into piles. There was still half an hour before closing, but, at the rate the elderly employee was moving, it didn't look like he would reach Johnny before 5:00.

And that meant no power for Reed's floor.

Which meant he couldn't watch the X Games...or do anything else remotely fun for the next three days.

"C'mon," he silently urged the teller who was slowly, painstakingly counting every coin.

He was able to stomach it for another minute or so before his patience evaporated. "Ma'am, how much do you think that is?" he asked loudly, pointing to the full pile of coins.

The woman turned around, her smile wide. "I don't know. Nearly forty dollars at my last count," she said.

Johnny dug out his wallet and withdrew two twenties. "Forget about the change and deposit this so the rest of us can be helped tonight."

"Why thank you, sir," the woman ripped the bills out of his hand.

"Anytime," he mumbled.

Five more agonizing minutes ticked by and the elderly man was still helping the next customer in line. "Would it be that difficult to get another teller out here?" Johnny questioned in exasperation, raising his voice in order to be heard in the bank of offices to his right.

"She went home ill, sir," the man said, without looking up from the current guest's deposit slip. He reached over the counter and pointed with the tip of his pen at a blank line. "You didn't initial here."

Johnny nearly died right then and there.

Twenty minutes later, the teller was finishing turning away a young girl who wanted to open an account with the $20 her grandmother had given her as a birthday present.

Before the girl had even stepped away from the counter, Johnny dashed forward, waving the check wildly. He squeaked to a stop at the terminal and practically shoved the check in the teller's face. "I need to deposit this into Reed Richard's account."

The elderly gentleman squinted at him. "And you are?"

"His assistant," Johnny lied with a slight grimace, hoping that would expedite the process. He handed over another slip of paper. "Here's the account number. It's already endorsed."

Now hurry, he silently begged.

The teller took the check with trembling fingers. "From the government, I see. Your boss must be a big shot."

"You could say that. Just please deposit his check. Trust me: he cannot survive the weekend without power," Johnny replied curtly.

There was a harsh clanging behind him, but the Torch didn't turn around, focusing all his energy on the ancient teller, trying to psychically speed up the deposit process.

He did, however, turn around at the ratcheting of a pump-action shotgun. His core temperature began to rise as he saw one man standing in the tiled foyer, wearing a black ski mask, said shotgun cradled comfortably in his hands.

One woman screamed and the people in line scattered, running with all their strength for the door, which they quickly discovered had been chained closed.

There were two more clicks and the same number of men stepped out from behind their leader, pointing their weapons at the fleeing hostages. The people shouted in surprise, trying to run the other way before more masked men cut them off. One of the armed men trained his gun on the young girl but a man in a vintage jacket stepped in front of her, raising his hands in surrender.

While the rest of the bank's occupants were panicking, Johnny was running through the possible scenarios in his mind. He could probably hit two or three weapons with fireballs before the other men noticed, but then, he was out of luck: he would have exposed himself as the Human Torch and mostly likely would end up with a gunshot wound, which wouldn't be beneficial to getting all these people out of there alive.

Though Ben always rode him about being foolish and taking too many risks, there was a reason he had qualified for NASA in the first place. Johnny was smart enough to realize that there were too many armed men for him to take on by himself. Anything he tried now wouldn't help. He would have to bide his time and wait for a better opportunity.

Seconds later, the man at the center of the room raised his gun into the air, silently demanding everyone's attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he announced, his piercing green eyes deadly serious. "This is a hold-up."

I started this story back in 2011 and forgot it even existed until a few months ago. It has since been completed so I will be posting chapters every few days, if real life allows.

Thanks for reading! I'd love to know what you thought!