423. I'm a homesick telepath and you're the poor soul who is receiving all these emotions, sorry – ft. Franklin Richards and Johnny Storm

Okay, so Johnny is used to all sorts of weirdness – he's the Human Torch, which is a type of weirdness all on its own. So really, he shouldn't be surprised that some empath or something is pushing their emotions on him, making him feel homesick and panicky, which has the effect of causing his pyro-powers to flicker on and off unexpectedly, thankfully only in his fists and the occasional patch on his body. Any more and he might have been in trouble.

Especially seeing as Doctor Doom had kidnapped him and was now trying to observe how his powers worked.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Johnny focused on the direction that the feelings were most prominent and pushed some thoughts out in their direction, mainly based on the why and who and are you okay? The feelings immediately dropped in intensity, before he felt the familiar feeling of a mind in his own.

"Uncle Johnny? What are you doing here?"

It was a kid. Definitely a kid. But – Uncle Johnny?

"Oh no, you're not Uncle Johnny yet."

Yet?

Johnny felt his stomach flip-flop.

Kid, are you from the future? Cause we've got enough time-travellers to get you back, if you're stuck.

"You can get me home?"

Yeah. What's your name?

"Franklin. Franklin Richards."

Richards?…aw fuck, Uncle Johnny. You're my nephew through Reed and Susie, aren't you? The silence answered his question. I have a nephew. Fuck – I have a nephew. Okay. Okay – kid, is Doom doing anything to you? If he was, Johnny would kill Doom with his bare hands-

"No."

Johnny breathed an immediate sigh of relief. That's good. Real good. So. Plan…well, he's obviously not blocking you, so either he doesn't know about your powers or he's just being a douche. How big is your range? And how old are you?

"I'm six. And we're way up high. Moving." Six. So fucking young. Okay…

Okay. That's fine. They must have been in some sort of ship. Okay, be a beacon, kid. Project a big 'help!' as far as you can, and as soon as you pick up a good guy who can actually do something, you push as much shit into their head about our situation into their head.

"Okay."

Johnny could tell the kid was strong. The 'help' reverberated through his mind, literally pushing all thoughts away, and knocking him out of reality for a couple of hours. When he finally gained some sort of 'consciousness', Franklin spoke to him again.

"The Vision was flying about. He's getting us out."

Good, he replied, before stretching and standing up, cricking his neck as the light over his door flickered red. Nice going, Vision. Let's hope Doom doesn't mind his ship getting a little torn up.

"Flame on!"

Stay where you are, kid, unless you're about to die.

"Yes, Uncle Johnny."

Uncle Johnny.

I could get used to that.