"Come on, Ella, Victor needs you." Susan glanced back and briefly made eye contact with the girl as she spoke.

"Oh? What for?" Ella frowned in confusion.

"Didn't he tell you?" Susan also frowned, glancing back in time to see Ella shaking her head no, "Oh, well, he wants you to attend the press conference. You know, to document this quote unquote prestigious moment."

Ariella rolled her eyes in annoyance, Of course Victor 'forgot' to tell me, he's probably hoping to make me look irresponsible, she thought angrily to herself.

"He's kind of a conceited jackass huh, Susie?" Ella asked rhetorically, her brow puckered in frustration.

Susie bit back a laugh, instead opting to send Ella a disapproving look, "You shouldn't speak about Victor that way, he is the one who's letting you go into space anyways. You should be grateful."

"You're right," Ariella drawled out sarcastically, "I should be kissing his feet and praising the very ground he walks on because he is such a saint!"

Susan couldn't hold back her laugh this time, the sound of her giggles bouncing around the empty hallway the two were walking down. Ella smirked to herself and chuckled at her own joke.

Suddenly a voice behind them called out, "What's so funny ladies?"

The two women whirled around and immediately lapsed into silence. Watching them with a false look of interest on his face was Victor Von Doom himself.

His cold brown eyes met Ella's wide green ones, and a smile, that resembled more of a sneer, tugged at his lips, "Well? Is anyone going to tell me?"

"We were just discussing how ridiculous it is that we waited five years to speak to each other again," Susan said slyly, "Right, Ariella?"

Ariella just smiled, returning Victor's cold stare.

"Well, Ms. Rogers, you don't want to be late to the press conference." Victor smirked.

Ella repressed the urge to vomit at his sickening smile, instead, in a sugary-sweet voice, replied, "Ah, yes, the press conference. How very kind of you to notify me sooner, Victor, otherwise I might have missed out on what could be the best part of my book about this scientific voyage to space. The part where you will most likely rip off Reed's speech and prove to everyone that you're just a huge douchebag!"

Victor's eyes narrowed and his eyebrows shot up, "Excuse me?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I should probably save the insults for after we get back from space," Ella smirked to herself, "Well, I'll see you out there."

As she turned to continue marching down the hall and out to the area where the conference would be held, Victor called after her, "You better take some damn good notes, Rogers!"

Victor glared angrily at the back of the sassy brunette's head, before turning to see Susan staring at him with raised eyebrows. His eyes widened, as he'd momentarily forgot that she was still standing there.

He coughed awkwardly, nodding at her, "Susan."

She bit her lip to hide her amused smile and nodded back at him wearily, "Victor."

Victor forced a smile at the lovely blonde. He followed after the figure retreating down the hall while simultaneously straightening out his tie and smoothing back his hair.

"Show time." Victor smirked to himself.


Ariella reached into the gym bag of all her things slung across her body, and dug out a mechanical pencil and a pad of paper. She sighed as she leaned back in her plastic chair, glancing up at the stage and podium where Victor would be standing in a few minutes.

When I envisioned myself on my first big writing break, I never quite pictured myself stuck in the middle of a bunch of rude-ass reporters while taking notes on a narcissistic asshole such as Victor, Ella thought bitterly to herself.

She glanced around, feeling a bit rattled by the noisy crowd gathered around the platform. Reporters of all shapes, sizes, genders, and ages were flashing about their high-quality equipment; all of them subconsciously leaning forward in their seats a bit, ready to jump up the second Victor stepped out. One particularly large reporter who smelled like he hadn't showered in a week, continuously elbowed Ella in the gut every time he moved. She shot him a few nasty looks, her nose wrinkled in a mixture of disgust and anger.

Can we please get this over with, Ella thought as she shifted over in her seat to avoid the pointy elbows of her neighbor as he fidgeted once more.

As if in response to her thoughts, the set of double doors leading out to the make-shift platform swung open and Victor stepped out. Simultaneously all the reporters leapt to their feet, shoving microphones and cameras towards the stage as they shouted questions. Ariella had to give Victor credit, he never once flinched at any of the shouts and flashes directed at him. Ella knew if their roles were switched and she were up there, she'd run right back through those double doors and away from all the disconcerting nose and flashes.

Ella poised her pencil over her pad of paper, remaining in her seat as she looked up and waited for Victor to begin speaking.

Victor sent the crowd a confident smile before beginning, "Today we stand on the edge of a new frontier. In the furthest depths of outer space... we will find the secrets to inner space. The final key to unlocking our genetic code lies in a cosmic storm..."

Ella's scoffed in disbelief, just like Ella had predicted earlier, Victor had stolen the speech that Reed had prepared for this very moment. Ariella glanced angrily from Victor to her empty writing pad, she lowered her pencil to the paper and furiously began to "take notes".

Meanwhile, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben were passing by the conference on their way to the ship. The reporters barely spared them a glance, all attention remaining on Victor.

Ben paused as he listened to the words spilling out of Victor's mouth, "Hey, Reed, isn't that your speech?"

Reed glanced up at Victor, "He's made a few changes."

Ben scowled, "This is your dream, Reed. You should be the one up there."

"Victor's better at these things." Reed shrugged it off.

The group continued to walk by, just past the press area a blonde woman stood waiting for them. Ben's eyes lit up and a wide grin split across his face before he gathered the woman into a hug and kisses her. Reed briefly glanced from the happy couple to Susan, who ignored him and walked ahead of the group.

"I'll be watching over you." Ben smiled fondly at his fiancée.

She smiled back at him, "Just get back soon, or I'll start looking for a new groom."

Ben smirked and grabbed her hand, looking down at the ring on her finger, "Soon as I'm back, I'm gonna trade that in for a bigger rock."

"I don't care about rocks, I care about you," She looked over to Reed and smirked, "You bring him back in one piece, or you can forget about being Best Man."

Reed smiled, and Ben's fiancée, Debbie, gave Ben one last kiss. Ben grinned and turned, only to see Johnny giving him an amused smile.

"What the hell you smiling at?" Ben snapped, falling back into his tough guy act, "Just keep your mouth shut, and your mind on those SMBs-"

"Actually, the engines are SMEs. Hydrogenbase, carbon propellant," Johnny shot Ben a smirk, "Couple generations past your last ride," then he paused at the entrance to the ship, "I'm not as dumb as you look."

Back at the make-shift press conference, Victor's voice was still booming out over the speakers, "Think of a world without genetic flaws- no asthma, allergies, baldness, breast cancer..."

At this, Ella looked up from her paper to shoot an unimpressed look at Victor, not that he saw, "Baldness? Really?" She muttered to herself.

Victor's speech dragged on, "Darwin discovered evolution. Now we- I - will define it," Ella bristled in her seat and restrained herself from shouting a shitload of curses at the asshole, "Only in America could a little county boy from Latberia build one of the biggest companies in the world, and truly reach the stars. Now if you'll excuse me, history awaits."

And with that Victor exited the stage. Ariella followed him with her eyes, glaring angrily the entire time. She scrambled up from her seat, snatched up her bag and mumbled insults under her breath.

"How dare he act like he actually cares about this mission. Just a few days ago he was about to turn Reed down," At the thought of Reed, Ariella scowled even more, "Reed's the real hero, the real humanitarian here."

She marched indignantly to the ship, her teeth gritted in anger. This was going to be a long trip if she had to spend anymore time listening to that arrogant prick.

Soon after she climbed onboard the Von Doom Space Shuttle, the ship lifted off the launch pad and into outerspace.


The ship soon pulled into the Von Doom Space Station, and the group gathered their things. Ella slung her bag over the blue jumpsuit now covering the suit that Victor had designed. She glanced over to see Johnny picking up a few bags himself, throwing a few sarcastic comments in Ben's direction every now and then. Ella rolled her eyes at his teasing, but inwardly amused by his jabs, though she would never let him know. It would only flame the already roaring fire that was Johnny's ego.

She crossed the small room of the ship to Johnny's side, looking down at the rest of the bags as she spoke, "Need some help?"

Johnny jerked his head suddenly to look at her, caught off-guard by her sudden appearance, "Jesus, you really know how to sneak up on a guy huh."

She rolled her eyes, "No, you're just not very observant."

He scoffed in protest, "I am not unobservant," he narrowed his blue eyes at her as he did a once-over, regaining his cocky demeanor and smirking, "In fact, I enjoy being observant."

Ella lifted her eyes from the bags to his face, her nose scrunched up confusion. He gave her a confident smirk, and cocked his head at her, his blue eyes smouldering at her. She knew that look. That was Johnny's 'I'm trying to woo you' face.

She scoffed in disbelief, "Johnny Storm, you get that arrogant look off your face right now. It never worked on me before, and it's not going to now."

She reached down and snatched up a couple of bags, grunting slightly from the weight of them.

Johnny grinned in amusement, but continued to taunt her, "What do you mean it never worked before? We both know you were all over me in highschool."

"Right," she said sarcastically, flipping her ponytail over one shoulder and strutting out of the room. Johnny paused a moment, his eyes involuntarily dropping to watch her hips sway as she walked away from him. She shot him a sideways smirk as he rushed to catch up with her, "the only reason I ever hung out with you was because I had to."

"Nobody forced you to hang out with me," Johnny paused, smirking to himself, "In my room. Alone."

Ella shot him an unimpressed look, "I was your tutor," a soft laugh escaping her lips, "Stop trying to make it sound like we ever did anything. In your room. Alone."

The two of them paused their light-hearted banter to send each other amused smiles. Their faces momentarily softened as their eyes met. The two were actually close friends, and each genuinely cared about the other, they just had a funny way of showing it. Ella had always known Johnny, he was the popular guy that everyone loved. He was the class clown, he talked back to teachers just to entertain everyone, he pulled pranks on nearly everyone, he was goofy and carefree. She frowned, remembering how he'd recklessly ridden his motorcyle and made out with some random chick, it seemed like Johnny hadn't changed too much over the past few years, and she wasn't too sure that was a good thing.

Sure, it's fine to goof off, but at some point, you have to grow up, Ella thought sadly as she glanced back up at Johnny.


A/N

So I've finally decided to pick back up on this story. Hopefully the updates should become more regular. Feel free to leave your thoughts and critiques in the review section(:

I haven't gone back and edited this chapter, or the previous one, so I apologize for any errors. Also I'd just like to add that some parts of this chapter weren't in the movie, some were just in the script and I felt like adding them into the story.

Oh and sorry that there wasn't much time with Johnny in this chapter, I'm just trying to develop the OC a bit.

Please leave a review(:

-ranny12