Disclaimer: Borrowing these characters, I promise to put them back where I found them….maybe.

Author Note: Hello there! This is my first official attempt at writing a Fantastic 4 fanfic! So please be gentle! I am a college student so sometimes my updates my not be right on time but I am going to try my best, and I do hope some get a kick out of this story as I been enjoying myself writing it. P.S. Thanks to those who listened to me talk and vent about this story, you know who you are and I thank you from the depths of my heart!

Timeline: Takes place shortly after the first film, so a couple months have passed.

Intro

As people, we make choices everyday. Some little as choosing which drink to have with our lunch, others its life altering decisions. Some pick the road that leads them to a lifetime of happiness, others will pick the gruesome death. Preferences, and how we are brought up, make an impact on our lives in every waking moment of each day; unfortunately we never take a moment to realize it until it gets thrown in our face with such a force it knocks us on our asses.

We all have choices that can change the course of our lives. Be the white knight in shining armor, the good guy. Or follow the path of the dark side, make up your own rules and play the villain.

Parallel universes have been speculated over and over again. Einstein himself had his own unique theory on it. Doppelgangers, our alternative self, take a different path then us because of the selection they decided on. But what if it was so dramatically different, if they were sitting right in front of us we would not be able to recognize them because of how dissimilar they are from you.

You were the hero, the kids idolized you, wanted to be you in every sense. Larger than life and enjoying every minute of it.

But what if your doppelganger decided to walk the path of the dark side? Making kids fear you, nightmares of you coming into their room and destroying everything and everyone they hold dear. Not caring who lived or died, just as long as you got what you wanted. To make matters worse, what if that doppelganger had powers?

Now what happens when this alternative self crosses into your reality and this malicious villain is non other than the human torch….Johnny Storm?

Chapter 1

Keep moving that was the key. If he stopped the game was up and he would lose, and he could not afford such a falter. They were counting on him to get away, escape. He was their last hope, and getting caught now would be the downfall of their rein of power. Johnny Storm could not allow this to happen.

Taking a quick glance over his left shoulder he saw with great distress he had not lost his tail. On top of that, it looked like more had joined the hunt and were gaining yardage on him fast. Straining the muscles in his thighs he pushed harder and took the turn and quickened his pace. What continued to slow him down were the people he would slam into as he was running. A hand here, a hand there, would try and grab for him to slow his pace but his reflexes were faster and avoided the attempt every time.

Sweat began to trickle down his forehead making him reach and swipe at it with the back of his hand. If he continued at this rate he would burn off whatever they had shot him with. It had taken him completely off guard, which was the idea, when they had nailed him in the shoulder with a dart. At first he figured them to have lost their minds completely. You can't take down somebody who could turn into a ball of flames. But apparently they had found the right combination after all, stopping his powers. He found his ability to take flight or simply making his fist into a ball of fire had been taken from him, and Johnny discovered for the first time his body was practically shivering from his body temperature being brought down. His only logical guess was liquid nitrogen had been placed in the mix along with some form of a knockout drug. Either his body was fighting it or it was not strong enough for Johnny, he as able to break free, and making them give chase. But the question screaming at the back of his mind was, could he keep this up much longer?

Nothing more then what Johnny wanted to do was sit down for a second and rest, but that kind of opportunity was not going to be given to him. This had to stop, they were going to catch up to him sooner or later, and when they did he would not have any strength to fight them off.

Shooting a look he decided it was time to switch tactics and move this pursuit to a building. He might be able to lose them but he first had to get to one first. So he quickly darted into a tight alleyway, seeing a chain link fence in his path. It neither hindered his pace nor gave him any trouble as he catapulted himself up onto the barrier. He scaled the fence, the chain metal strained under his weight and speed at which he then promptly landed on the opposite side with a thud. Taking off again he saw the mouth of the alley and darted off.

Reaching it Johnny stole another glance, to see where the men were. That was his biggest mistake. He never saw the arm that was leveled to his upper body, he only felt it strike him in the chest. Before Johnny knew what was happening, his feet were pointed towards the nightly sky as his body then registered the gravity and came crashing back down on the hard pavement of New York City. The air he searched for was not there as his lungs desperately searched for the precious oxygen, as Johnny tried to register what just had happened to him.

With dazed eyes and a pounding headache that was suddenly making itself very evident, he saw a beast of a man standing over him with a smirk that Johnny instantly wanted to remove from his features.

"Got you." The man mocked. As he then kneeled down not waiting for the human torch to regain his composure and take off again, he then placed his hands on Johnny's shoulders and put his knee into his gut. The man then called out to the group that had been tailing Johnny for what seemed like an eternity now.

"I got him, over here!' He shouted at the top of his lungs as people either continued walking on by or was awestruck at who laid sprawled out on the ground.

Johnny began to squirm and fight desperately but compared to sizes, this man was a Mac truck compared to him. It also did not help that his body was willing to give up the fight, tired from the running and the drugs working in his system. But if he gave up and allowed himself to be captured he could kiss his ass goodbye and his family at that too.

Moving his head to see where his would-be captors were, it was now or never he either escaped or this was it for Johnny Storm. Then suddenly, like turning on a switch in your dining room, it happened. Johnny felt the heat boiling up inside of him, and he realized suddenly with in one second he had his powers back.

The man holding Johnny also had been watching the group close in on their distance, anxiously waiting.

"Hurry, he's a tricky little son of a bitch."

Then it occurred to the man, the one he had been holding down for the last minute had gone completely still when just only a second ago he had been fighting like a wounded animal to get free. Bringing his eyes off the band of men, he saw that Johnny had his eyes closed. At first he thought the young man had slipped into unconsciousness, but his eyes had traveled to his lips and caught the smirk that sent a cold chill down the back of his spine.

"Oh shit."

Johnny's eyes shot open as his eyes turned into a blaze of fire and before he even had a chance to remover himself and get as far as he could by running at full speed, Johnny broke one of his arms free. Placing his hand in front of the man's face he released a powerful fireball that shot the man off the human torch. High pitch screaming soon followed afterwards as the man tried to extinguish the fires that had covered his entire body. Soon after though the man's movement stilled all together as Johnny had gotten up from where he lay.

"Smells like burnt chicken."

He had half the urge to give the dead body another shot of flames just for good measure. But his eyes shot up and saw he did not have much time on his hands, and best to get out of there as quickly as possible. Ducking quickly into a building he then stormed up the stairs, the following of men he had close behind him were shortly behind him as their own footsteps fell in behind him.

Johnny had to reach the top of the building. That last blast had taken a lot out of him, and the coldness was creeping back into his body. He was not fully recovered as he thought he was but he put that aside for the time being and rather take his chances. The door flew open and bounced off the wall and shut again as he bolted through. If he had the time he would have melted the doorframe to the door but that was one thing he did not have on his side.

As he felt the cold crisp nightly air on his face, he saw his escape plainly marked for him on the ledge of the building. It was only a few feet away but it seemed like it stretched on forever. With that last thought he began racing towards it and never even heard the door open again from behind him. He felt more then heard the bullet go wheezing past his head. 'Don't want me alive, that's fine, can't take me any other way.'

In his near panic-like state of mind he never saw the electrical tower. All he saw was freedom as he screamed, "FLAME ON!" Instantaneously his body engulfed into flames and he shot off the roof of the building. But just as this happened the man who fired the first shot, pulled the trigger a couple times hoping to catch the human torch in mid-flight so he would plummet to his death. Instead, the first bullet was not even close, the second hit the tower.

In an immediate reaction as the tower went into huge light show of sparks, and unbeknownst to Johnny an electrical wave followed his trail right up to his body. The only thing Johnny registered was a surge of power throughout his entire body before darkness claimed his senses.

(Baxter Building)

Sue Storm walked off the elevator to find most of the lights either off or dimmed. At first she believed to be alone and everybody was out for the evening and she would be left to find something to cure her boredom that she was sure to set in quickly. But she then heard the distinct music coming from her brother's room. Curious as to what he might be up to, knowing full well if Johnny was left to himself for too long he would probably be up to no good getting himself into trouble. She then strolled down the hallway and as she reached the door and put her hand up to knock on his open door she found nobody to be occupying the room.

"Looking for somebody?"

Sue jumped at the voice behind her, not expecting her brother to sneak up on her. Turning around she saw the smirk on his face. Like any good brother it made his day when he could scare the living crap out of his big sister. Sue had been one in particular hoping against hope that he would grow out of the childish quirk, but slowly had begun to lose faith. She had the perfect image of herself and her brother later on down the road, they would be old folks and he would scare her into a heart attack. He'd regret it then. Or not. He'd probably laugh about it at her funeral saying something to the degree of, 'Yeah, I killed her, but at least I got the last laugh.'

Coming back into reality she smacked him on the arm as he moved past her and into his room. With the movement she got a good whiff of his cologne.

"Geeze Johnny, I think you may have missed a spot when you bathed in the AXE."

Anytime her brother smelled like that it meant two things. One, he was going out with a hot date and wanted to impress her so he could get some in the end. Or two, he was going out to party and was looking for a hot date so later he could impress her and get some in the end. It was a win, win situation for her brother Johnny.

Johnny was to busy looking in the mirror, but he then replied after a short delay. "Very funny." Making sure everything looked good he then walked to his bed and grabbed his leather jacket.

"Sometimes I worry about you."

Putting his arm through one armhole, he gave his sister a perplexed look as he pulled the rest of his jacket on. "Why?"

"Well, you spend more time looking at yourself in the mirror then I do."

Johnny rolled his eyes realizing now his sister was jesting with him and not being serious. Walking past her he flipped the light off as she followed as he proceeded to make his way towards the elevator to make his exit.

"We have an image to up hold."

Sue crossed her arms and ached an eyebrow stopping to stare at Johnny's back. "That image would be?"

Johnny halted his movement towards the lift, and turned back around. Grinning from ear to ear he then answered her question, "Well you did say I was the face of the Fantastic Four."

Shaking her head and taking her turn in rolling her eyes she watched him then call the elevator and step into the small box that would take him to the lobby floor that would eventually lead him to the busy streets below. But before the metal doors could close she yelled at her brother.

"Try not to use your powers in public."

"Yes mother."

Sue had no doubt in her mind that Johnny would more then likely not listen to her. First chance he would get, he would show off his ability at the first piece of tail that walked by. Oh well. Nothing she could do.

Getting her mind off her sibling she wondered what she could do to pass the time till either her fiancé Reed got back or Ben made his presence known. She was pretty sure she could come up with something and soon enough Johnny Storm's antics were far from her mind.


If Sue Storm had followed her brother who was on the prowl, she would have seen her words had gone through one ear and out the other. For amongst the hundreds of bodies pressed up against each other smell of alcohol and the music turned up as loud as possible without blowing the speakers, stood Johnny Storm. The Human Torch.

He was the center of attention, which of course did not bother him; in fact, he used it for all it was worth. He liked the celebrity reaction he received anytime he appeared at one of the bars, or at any event for that matter. There was even an arrogant part of him deep with inside that believed he did these places well by showing up and causing a scene.

By the end of the night, Johnny had made his way to the bar and was standing behind it as though he himself was a bartender. Not leaving any to the imagination, the girls who had front row seats were bending as far as they could to show off what momma gave them and Johnny Storm was not complaining.

"Come on Johnny, do a fire trick!" One of the girls whined.

A smirk came to his lips as he then reached over to a Jagermeister shot waiting to be dropped into a red bull glass to make a jagerbomb and as quick as the eye could follow he turned his finger into flames and then dipped it into the alcohol. Without delay the alcohol ignited and the crowed let out a drunken cheer as some even raised their glasses. He then dropped the shot into the red bull glass, which extinguished the flames and then downed the drink with in a few gulps and then placed the glass on the counter.

After taking the shot it was only a couple minutes later when Johnny felt the urge to go to the bathroom and made his way towards the men's restroom when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he saw a burly man standing in front of him. Johnny looked at the hand on his shoulder and then back at the guy who obviously had way to many drinks already.

"You think your hot shit cause you can do fire tricks, well I have new for you," the man then stopped in mid-sentence as he closed his eyes to let out a hot belch of Budweiser right in Johnny's face, "we don't tolerate little freaks like you."

Johnny at first was about to open his mouth to be a smartass right back but instead went with the other option that sounded much more appealing. He slowly began to heat just that side of his body where the man had a hold of his shoulder and like cooking a frog in water slowly and gradually turning up the heat, he did so until it finally registered with the drunken man that his hand was burning. His reaction time being off from the alcohol he finally pealed his hand away from Johnny's shoulder and backed up a few feet waving it as though this would take the pain away quicker. Johnny looked him up and down and then turned back around to proceed to his original destination. Only he did not get there before he felt a grasp on his other shoulder spun around quickly and decked hard in the face.

The blow to his face reared his head back and as this happened his body fell backwards from the momentum causing him to collide into people behind him who were not paying any heed to the fight breaking out. Grabbing his jaw for a second the shock soon wore off and he jumped back up and before he could keep his temper in check, he brought his fists to his chest and then brought them back down to his side in a quick flash as they turned into a ball of flames. Eyes fire red he stared at the man having every intent of letting him know who he had just started a fight with.

But as quickly as it took him to turn into a flame of fury, it died just as promptly. He had caught the looks of the other innocent bystanders and he suddenly never felt so alone in his life. They were all staring at him in horror, in awe, nobody sure what to do if he truly decided to release his powers on them. Ever since his transformation he never had felt like a freak but more like a super hero just like in the comics he had always seen sitting on the shelves at the bookstore. Suddenly he knew now what it felt like to be Ben Grimm, to be the Thing.

As he then decided it was best he leave and not say a single word he walked past the man who started it all. At least one thing had happened that Johnny Storm intended, the beast of man was anything but confident but a terrified wuss as he flinched when the Human Torch passed him.

As Johnny Storm made his way back to the Baxter building, he couldn't believe for one time in his life he felt like his sister was right. As he dwelled in his own thoughts he paid no attention to the sky above that let out a surge of electricity. A limp figure came through that surge and dropped from the sky and landed hard on the building in which he had leapt from.

The figure slowly pulled himself up from the hard cement and rolled onto his back looking upwards toward the stars. Blinking his eyes rapidly he wondered what the hell had happened to him. Expecting any second to find the men to stand over him he soon quickly found there was complete silence on the top of the high riser and he slowly sat up with pain aching in his back. Finding enough energy he pulled himself up and walked towards the edge and looked down at the many lights of New York City Skyline. Shocked as ever to find the city in full function and not a war zone that he had remembered it to be. The only thing he could think to say at the time was,

"This should be interesting."

TBC…..

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