Questions

Oh believe me…stressed out Johnny always makes things bad.

"Here you go." Sue said, putting a cup of tea in front of her brother.

"Thanks." Johnny said. "Why do you think she's so evasive?"

"I don't think she means to." Sue said. "But remember…she's young…with the way things keep going, she's not going to be able to celebrate her twenty-first birthday."

"FUCK!!" Johnny said. Sue jumped at his sudden outburst. "Her birthday is next week isn't it."

"Yeah." Sue said.

"Shit, I can't believe I forgot." Johnny said. He banged his head on the table.

"Shh!" Sue said. Johnny stopped and lifted his head. Both of them looked at the baby monitor but all they heard was Reed's snoring as it continued. He had taken Natalie up for a nap once Ben, Alicia and Adrian left and both of them wound up asleep. "Johnny maybe she's evasive because of family."

"Ben is looking just as disappointed as I am, Sue." Johnny said.

"That's not what I meant." Sue said. "I mean…look at what she has. Her parents pretty much abandon her and…you saw the look on Debbie's face on the bridge when we first changed."

"Yeah…" Johnny said.

"Debbie and Ben were saying 'together forever, no matter what' but then he changed and she…" Sue said. She sighed.

"What, so she's thinking that somewhere along the line I'll leave her?" Johnny asked.

"That's part of it maybe." Sue said. "I don't think Merc really grew up with any sort of…foundation of love stuff going for her. She just needs…time."

"She's had two years of time." Johnny said.

"I know, and I'm not understanding it either and really…little short of getting a hypnotist that will actually work on her…" Sue said. "I don't think we'll be able to find out what's wrong."

"God…I hate it so much when you're right." Johnny said, sighing. Sue just smiled slightly at him.

"Why am I the one doing this again?" Merc asked, wincing as some girl pulled on her hair.

"Because it's your book and you're hot so you can get people to buy it." Brian said. He was pretty much her boss but it was almost common knowledge that he liked her.

"Ok, again, stop there." Merc said. "Brian, how many times do I have to tell you?"

"I know." Brian said. "Can't blame a guy for trying." Merc grinned and shook her head. "Besides…harmless flirting…"

"Leads to harmful behaviour." Merc said.

"Miss Denver, you're on in five minutes." One of the stage hands announced.

"Alright." Merc said. She waved away the hair girl and turned to face Brian. "Ok…tell me that I can do this please."

"Oh come you…you know you can do this." Brian said. "Why you asking me to tell you?"

"Cause Johnny's not here." Merc said. "He would have been but since his niece was born last night…"

"Exciting." Brian said. Merc smiled.

"…and now ladies and gentleman, up and coming novelist slash superhero dancer, Mercedes Denver." Merc laughed at her introduction and walked onto the stage, waving at people in the audience.

"That's quite the introduction but I think I'll keep it off any resumes." She said. Everyone else laughed.

"Now correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't a certain someone supposed to be joining you?" The host asked.

"If you're talking about Johnny Storm then yes he was." Merc said. "Unfortunately there were some family things last night." She smiled brightly. "Sue has finally given birth to a beautiful baby girl that goes by the name of Natalie." The audience burst into applause.

"You must be excited." The host said.

"I am! I suggested the name." Merc said, smiling even more brightly. "And everyone is gonna be so high strung because she can turn invisible and stretch."

"That's going to be interesting." The host said. Merc nodded. "So…any other kids being planned in that group?"

"Again…if you're talking about Johnny and me…then no." Merc said. "Still have to get over the marriage hurdle."

"Hmm…" The host said. "Alright, let's talk about this new book of yours." Merc smiled again and went on for a few minutes about the book. "The world has remained pretty safe lately."

"Yeah." Merc said. "I've had nothing better to do but write and dance. Ever since that second shot with Doom everything's been pretty slow. I've found myself actually wishing for some huge disaster sometimes."

"Well for our sakes, let's hope your wishes don't get granted." The host said. Merc laughed. "So you going to give us a demonstration of your powers?"

"I was wondering when you were going to say that out loud." Merc said.

"Do you do card tricks?" The host asked, holding out a deck of cards.

"You know…I just might." Merc said, wiggling a finger and making the deck slide out of the host's hands. She smirked and twirled her finger, making the cards go around in a circle. "Pick a card, any card. They don't bite." The audience clapped and laughed. She did a few tricks because they finally managed to talk her into doing a dance to end the show and she wound up trying, and failing happily, to teach the host some moves.

She was worn out by the time she finally managed to get home. Brian gave her a ride and she was getting out just as a flaming Johnny touched down and flamed off.

"Hey babe." Johnny said.

"Hi." Merc said. "What are you doing up still?"

"Can't sleep without you there, remember." Johnny said.

"Right." Merc said. "Thanks for the ride Brian."

"No problem, sleep tight." Brian said. Merc waved a bit and closed the door. She watched Brian drive off then looked at Johnny.

"What?" Merc asked. "He's like my boss."

"Yeah I know, but I still don't like that he's always flirting with you." Johnny said. Merc giggled and leaned against Johnny. "Do I have to carry you?"

"Are you offering?" Merc asked, looking up hopefully. Johnny grinned and swooped her up into his arms. He carried her, bridal style, into the apartment building. "Thank you so much."

"No problem, babe." Johnny said. "You looked wiped out anyways."

"I so am." Merc said. "They had me do card tricks." She giggled and Johnny smiled at her as they entered the elevator. "And got me to dance at the end but I also tried teaching everyone some stuff…which was a total failure but a fun one."

"Glad you had fun." Johnny said.

"So what did you do?" Merc asked.

"Took Natalie out." Johnny said. "People are funny."

"Let me guess…they thought she was yours?" Merc asked.

"Yep." Johnny said. Merc smiled. "They're very slow too. Almost as if everyone forgot that Sue was pregnant."

"What do you expect from people who have to make up rumors about who's dating who?" Merc asked.

"This actually." Johnny said.

"Hmm…well between that and the show, everyone's going to know now." Merc said. Johnny looked at her. "They asked why you weren't there because you were supposed to come. So I told them about Natalie."

"Cool…saves some time then." Johnny said. He stepped out of the elevator and looked down at Merc…who was now fast asleep. "Aww…so cute. Feels like I shame that I should wake her up." Johnny looked around then empty apartment. Reed and Sue were probably out cold, along with Natalie, in their room. Something hit Johnny in the side of the head and he looked around before looking down at Merc who was shaking a bit from trying to keep in laughing. "Hey now!!!"

"I couldn't help it." Merc said. "I haven't hit you in a while."

"You're so going down." Johnny said. He dropped her onto the couch before climbing on top of her and kissing her. Merc wrapped her arms around his neck almost instantly as she returned the kiss. She forgot about being tired as she got wrapped up in the moment…that was until a light turned on and someone coughed, causing Johnny to jump and fall off the couch and onto the floor. Merc put her hand on the back of the couch and sat up to see Reed standing a few metres away.

"Hi…" She said.

"Hi." Reed said. Merc looked down at Johnny and grinned as he frowned up at her. "Was I interrupting something?"

"No." Merc said. "Just Johnny proving a point."

"I was doing what?" Johnny asked.

"My boss is a flirt and you wanted to make sure that I knew how good I had things." Merc said.

"Oh…I guess I did." Johnny said.

"What are you doing up?" Merc asked, looking at Reed. He held up his PDA. "Is there something going on?"

"It went off and I thought I'd come down here to check it out." Reed said. Johnny and Merc went with him into the lab. Merc leaned against the back of the chair as Reed searched through the possible occurrences that could have set off the alarm.

"Anything?" Johnny asked.

"Nothing that seems big enough to have set it off this way." Reed said.

"Maybe it's a false alarm." Merc said, yawning.

"Maybe." Reed said.

"Most likely." Johnny said. "Really, when you think about it, how long has it been since we had anything really worthy of us?" Merc elbowed him. "Think about it! The last time we actually had any real problem was back before Sue decided to tell us she was pregnant and we had to stop that volcano from erupting because some guy wanted to destroy the island."

"True." Merc said. "But you didn't have to make it out to sound as if the little things are too small for superpowers to deal with." Johnny nodded. Merc yawned against and stretched. "It was most likely a false alarm. Take a look back at it tomorrow. It can't be awfully important if you can't find it now."

"I guess your right." Reed said.

"Of course I'm right." Merc said. She took hold of Johnny's arm, said good night to Reed, then headed up to bed with her fiancé.

Ok so I'm not quite sure who I want to use as a new bad guy. I'm looking at the list of villains that they have and the only one I actually really know is Sandman (who was from Spider-man). So if anyone wants to suggest anything, it would be appreciated. Also I was thinking of some possible "Replacements" for Sue and Reed since they have Natalie and I don't want to make them do a whole lot of stuff. I kinda wanna bring in Spiderman (give Johnny some more competition…lol) but it really all depends on what you guys think would be appropriate.