Fantastic Four: Storm Rising

Chapter Two

Once the battle finally ended and Reed, Susan, and Ben had finished tying the thieves together for the police after they had disarmed them of their weapons, the three members of the team looked around the room and noticed that Johnny was nowhere in sight and neither was the man that led the group.

"Did either of you see where Johnny disappeared to?" Sue asked her husband and Ben nervously.

"Matchstick's probably just found a pretty face to flirt with," Ben responded. "A frightened damsel in distress. You know how he is, Susie."

One of the thugs spoke up saying, "Trust me, the woman your friend is with is no damsel in distress."

As each of them turned to look at the man who spoke, Reed scowled as he asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, this was all a set up between that woman and our boss," the guy answered. "She set us all up just to get caught and our boss allowed it to happen."

"What did she hire you for?" Sue asked angrily. "What did she want?"

Another one of the men replied, "We were hired to rob the bank. That was all, but I heard her talking on her phone to some guy. She said something about the Human Torch. I'm just not sure what she wanted with him."

Sue quickly responded, "We need to find Johnny. Which way did he go?"

"Their leader and this woman they're talking about are missing too and the only way they could have gotten out of here was to take this exit to the top," Reed answered as he headed toward the stairwell that led up to the roof. "Chances are, Johnny saw them run and took a short cut."

"You two go find the kid," Ben said quickly. "I'll stay here and make sure these guys don't try anything funny."

Reed nodded as he allowed Sue to run past him and then followed closely behind her all the way up the stairwell. When they finally reached the roof, they found the thieves' leader unconscious on the ground, with his fire weapon on the ground beside him, as well as a gun that looked like a part of it had been scorched, most likely Johnny's work. Neither Johnny nor the woman that supposedly had hired these men and women to rob the bank were in sight.

After quickly scanning the area, it was then that Reed noticed something strange on the roof, not too far away from the man's body and as he moved toward it, he spoke up more to himself than to Sue, "This doesn't make any sense. Why is there frost right here and not anywhere else up on this roof? I suppose it's possible that something was left over from something having been frozen after it was moved, but it would have had to have been moved within a few minutes ago. Otherwise, it would have melted no matter how cold it is out here."

Sue replied, "Who cares about frost residue, Reed. Johnny's gone. That woman did something to him. He wouldn't have just flown off."

"She may have had a way off this roof and he probably just chased after her, Sue," Reed responded as he stood up and pulled his wife into his arms. "I'm sure he's fine. He can take care of himself. He is the Human Torch after all."

"Yes, but what if this woman isn't normal either?" Sue asked fearfully. "What if she wasn't working alone? We have to find him!"

Reed softly answered, "We will find him, Sue. I promise you, we will."

Several hours later, late into the night…

Johnny awoke only to find himself completely submerged in some kind of water tank about the size of a coffin, with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth to help him to breathe and his wrists and ankles shackled to the sides of the tank. There were also a number of what appeared to be electrodes attached to his bare chest that ran from him, out to a large machine in the middle of a much larger room where he found himself in. The water inside of the tank had to be freezing cold as his abnormal body temperature would have caused anything warmer to begin to boil as he tried to flame on and he was strangely cold. He knew his efforts to escape were a waste of time, as fire and water didn't mix, but he wasn't willing to allow whoever it was that had kidnapped him to do whatever they wanted to him without putting up some kind of fight.

After taking in everything that was around him, Johnny tried to remember how he had gotten himself into this predicament, as the memories of the woman he thought he had rescued from the thieves at the bank came back to him and he suddenly realized he had been set up, the moment she had mentioned the Fantastic Four's greatest enemy, Dr. Doom. The very last thing he remembered was feeling extremely cold as she had somehow frozen him from the inside out when she kissed him and then nothing but darkness as he finally fell unconscious.

Johnny still continued to struggle to break himself free, but as he did so, Victor finally walked out from wherever he had been hiding, followed closely by the red head, who had fooled him, as Victor spoke up saying, "There's no use in trying to escape, Johnny. It's a pointless effort."

"Don't you think you ought to explain your plan, seeing as I am sure he would be asking what he has to do with all of this if he could talk?" Miss. Frost asked as she moved to stand in front of the tank in order to get a good look at their prisoner.

"This machine Johnny is connected to is designed to drain his power from his body and absorb it in order to eventually create what will have very similar effects of an atomic bomb," Victor replied smugly. "It will be extremely painful for you, Johnny, and it will take several days to absorb the amount of your power that's needed, but when the machine is fully charged, the world will be mine and eventually you'll die, as will your sister, Reed, and that annoying rock pile you call, the Thing. I will not be beaten and humiliated this time and your family will not find you in time, nor will they be able to stop me from destroying this city and its people, all thanks to you."

On the outside, Johnny only glared angrily at the villains as they stood in front of him, so that they wouldn't be able to see how terrified he was on the inside. The fear was not for himself, but for his family and the people he had sworn to protect since he had received his powers, especially knowing that their lives were at stake because of him. He had faith in Reed, but they've never had to fight against themselves.