Will The Real Johnny Storm Please Step Forward?
Written for the prompt : Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm, Becoming the invisible man
Disclaimer : All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
Johnny Storm, as everyone knows, is all style, panache and attention grabbing behavior. He's the center of attention, on magazines and news reports almost daily. And when being Johnny Storm isn't enough, well then he brings out the Torch, adds a little spice and heat to the occasion to make sure he's enough. No one could miss him.
Johnny hasn't been the shy, retiring type since he was a child. He was once, it was his natural default, but then he realized that with a sister like Sue, he needed to be something more. Back at school, Johnny's score was good, not excellent and it was never enough, not when he followed in Sue's footsteps. Johnny was a walking disappointment to his father.
In the end, it seemed better to do that well, than be ignored completely, so Johnny began to come out of his shell. He made himself be loud, draw attention to himself and was surprised to find that with it came 'friends'. It wasn't long before teachers and his father noticed too. The year Johnny let his grades slip even further was the first time his father threatened something that Johnny wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't follow through on.
After a while, he figured out that while never bright enough to rival his sister, he was clever enough to keep his grades decent and be the Johnny Storm that people knew was there.
Only once in his time at school did anyone come close to seeing beyond the glib answers and cheeky smile; only one teacher saw the real him. She saw through the show and tried to speak to the Johnny hidden inside, but it would be years before he really understood what she was talking about. In the meantime, she gave him the approval he craved and the attention he needed. By then, she was a drop in an ocean of disapproval, not enough to alter him, or so he thought.
She was enough to get him to pass his exams, improve his grades and make it into the training he wanted to do. She gave him enough to make sure that he got where he wanted to be, even if in his own mind, it was for all the wrong reasons. He never appeared to be the brightest nor the best, but he was good enough to get into the Air Force Academy and from there into NASA. He knew he could do better, be better, but it was never going to be enough to outshine Sue, so he did enough.
Until Ben put paid to that by kicking him out. Admittedly Ben may well have had justification for his actions, but . . . yeah, Johnny certainly lived up to his father's expectations that time.
It's only later in his life that Johnny realized that Sue must have seen more in him as well, because she got him the job at Von Doom Technologies and it was not just any job; it was a test pilot job. And yes, he could have done it with his eyes shut most of the time, but the fact was, his record was not squeaky clean, he was not a shining example of dedication to his job and he was extremely lucky not to be making the tea or sweeping the hangars. He didn't realize any of that at the time.
He changed as they all did after the radiation hit. He took some time to get his power under control, learned most of the control from manipulating the environment to his advantage. How was a young man with a healthy libido supposed to resist the temptation to raise the temperature and have attractive young ladies remove articles of clothing?
He learned the hard way what his recklessness could do to others now, what it could mean to everyone else when he didn't toe the line. It took until then to remember what that teacher had said about being more than a class clown, being able to achieve something worthwhile. Recognition and adulation were fleeting and fickle and he could be worth so much more than that.
It wasn't until he saved a child who should never have been caught up in the danger in the first place that he began to realize he wanted to be more than an item on the entertainment news. The real Johnny, the one he hid inside so many years ago was the one he wanted to be now. So gradually, little by little, step by step, the invisible child he hid away so long ago came forth. He learned to use his powers for good, real heart-felt good. He learned to think of others first and he feels himself grow a new kind of warm inside. And the strangest part of it was, he didn't feel invisible anymore, he didn't feel lost and ignored alongside cleverer people.
Johnny may never be the one his father was proud of, but now he had let the real hidden him out, he could at least be proud of himself. He felt like he was the real Johnny Storm at last.