It was crazy. People were already waiting outside the Baxter Building for us to arrive. I stared out of the taxi window in utter disbelief. One little ice wall and I was roped into the media with the rest of them. I sighed. This was not how I wanted my publicity. I was already a published writer; I didn't need to be a hero as well. Johnny looked out over my shoulder.
"C'mon. Tell me you don't think this is cool."
"This isn't cool."
Johnny sighed at me.
"At least your book is probably soaring off the shelves."
"As if you ever read it."
"Well, genetics isn't my favorite topic, but I particularly liked chapter eleven since it was on humans and the differences between most animal reproductions versus humans."
I turned and stared at him with wide eyes. He gave me that stupid sexy smirk that always used to make me melt. Now it just irked me.
"By God! You have a brain?"
"Ha ha…"
The car stopped and we left for the building with cheers coming from all around us. I walked along with Ben and Johnny as Reed and Susan disappeared into the building. Johnny made sure to greet the crowd. He put a hand on Ben's shoulder.
"Come on, Ben. Smile. They want to like you, Ben. Say hi."
Ben looked over at a group of kids watching and smiling. I couldn't help but smile a little as he went over to them. The crowd went quiet.
"Uh, don't do drugs!"
The crowd let out a cheer as I wanted to fall on the ground laughing. I saw Johnny had a slight smirk on his face. I tapped Ben on the shoulder and followed Johnny inside and waited with the others for the elevator. The mail man greeted Reed and once the elevator came we all got on. Susan and I both noticed that the huge stack of mail Reed got had fail mail.
"We had a tough year," Reed responded.
"Yeah, like nine straight," Ben added.
We all waited for the elevator to go up, but it didn't. We all looked around.
"Either we're moving really fast or not at all," Johnny commented.
The elevator alarm rang alerting us that we were over the maximum weight limit. It was sad as we all knew it was Ben. He sighed.
"I'll take the stairs."
We waited and watched sadly as he exited the elevator and the doors closed. Once we were moving I looked at Reed.
"How come Ben can't turn it off and on like we can?"
"That's what we're here to find out," Reed said, squeezing my shoulder.
Susan looked over at him.
"If it happened to him-"
"What? You mean, like, we won't be able to turn it off either?" Johnny asked," That would save time. Ha!"
"You don't really want to walk around on fire the rest of your life, do you?" Susan asked.
I felt a brother sister argument blowing in.
"Is that a trick question?"
"Grow up."
"Come on. Am I the only guy who thinks this is cool?"
We were all saved from answering by us reaching our floor. Reed exited first.
"We should stay here until we can define the extent of our changes and figure out how to reverse them."
He tossed his mail into an ever growing pile of ignored mail. I was impressed anyone could ignore that much mail.
"Whoa."
Johnny was obviously impressed by the set up of Reed's place. The largest part of his hose was his lab which was a circular, metal room with too many things to name. Lots of computers, lots of things to test with, moderately dangerous to play with if you knew nothing about science.
"Believe it or not, he lives here," I sighed, following Susan and Reed," Can't believe I'm stuck here with you."
"Don't you just know how to make a man feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Johnny responded, sarcastically.
Reed continued what he was saying about everyone living together.
"But I have to warn you, it's gonna be a little crowded in some areas. So what do you think?"
Johnny shook his head.
"I don't know, Reed. I think you might be bringing your work home with you."
Reed laughed, though I knew it wasn't really that funny. I looked over at Susan and I could see that this had been part of the reason she'd broken up with him.
"Come on. Let me show you guys where you'll be staying. Candy, you get your regular room."
"Thanks."
Following him, Johnny was put in the room that connected to my bathroom. I was ready to strangle Reed, but he took me into a corner and explained that Susan had another room that he wanted her to have since she used it sometimes when they were together. Johnny was more than thrilled by our connected rooms.
"I can visit you whenever I want," Johnny said, laying back on his bed as I put my things in the bathroom.
I scowled.
"I'll remember to lock my door at all times."
Johnny grinned over at me.
"Only locks from the inside of the bathroom, love."
I gripped the edge of the counter with an iron grip. These living conditions were going to suck. I could tell. I could only hope Reed would make a cure quickly. Letting go of the counter, I stared at where my hands had been. The counter had ice in the shape of my hand on it.
"Oops," I murmured before going into my room and pointedly slamming the door.
Reed started testing us the next morning. He put Johnny in a titanium box that could read the temperature, studied Susan through a glass that could still see here without her being visible to the human eye, and he ran small reflex tests and did x-rays on Ben. For me, he did what he did with Johnny, only my numbers went deep into the negatives. I freaked out at one point, seeing that I could completely cover myself in ice along with shaping ice with my hands and throwing frozen projectiles. Susan helped Reed for most of his, but I requested to be present at the testing of my polar opposite. Reed was more than happy to let me. Johnny could cover himself in flame like I could cover myself in ice.
"He's heating up from his core," Reed noted," You do the same except…you bring down the temperature."
"Well, the male body is normally a higher body temperature than the female body," I quipped.
Reed gave me a look so I put my hands up.
"Just saying."
"His vitals are completely normal," Susan noticed.
I sat down beside Reed. I stared at the computer. The three of us were behind a protective metal wall and glass window that Reed got from the U.S. Army to protect us in case Johnny caused an explosion.
"Okay, Johnny, heat up as much as you can."
"Got it."
As the numbers climbed, Reed's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. I gaped at the screen as he was getting over 3000 Kelvin.
"It's hotter than I anticipated. Okay, Johnny, back it down."
"I can go hotter!"
I groaned and lowered myself to sit on the ground.
"This isn't going to go well…"
"Johnny, just back it down," Susan told him.
It began to get really hot. We were all screaming for Johnny to stop, but of course he wouldn't. Reed wound up having to hit the button that extinguished the fire. The three of us moved out of our protective wall to the sound of Johnny laughing.
"Buzz-kill! You guys are crampin' my style."
It was impressive; he'd melted all but the corners of the box. He stuck his head out of one of the holes to look up at us covered in white and fluffy carbon dioxide. He looked so stupid, I grinned.
"Johnny, you were at 4000 Kelvin," Susan told him," Any hotter and you're approaching supernova."
"Sweet!"
I shook my head.
"No, not sweet. That's the temperature of the sun," I told him.
"Not only could you kill yourself," Reed butt in," but you could set fire to the Earth's atmosphere and destroy all human life as we know it."
Johnny nodded in understanding.
"Got it. Supernova-bad."
I sighed.
"Of course he gets the power to kill the world. The one who is most likely to use it."
Johnny scampered off to shower as Susan and Reed went to clean up. I went back to my room and continued unpacking. I was almost done when Johnny walked into my room with only a towel around his waist. I glared at him through the mirror on my dresser, refusing to turn to look at him.
"Turn around and go back."
"I don't know. I kind of like the feeling over being in your room and not wearing much. Wait…that's true about most women's rooms. Besides, it's nothing you haven't seen before."
"And nothing that I plan to see ever again."
Johnny came over to me and put a hand on my dresser.
"What is your deal? You won't listen to me. It's always what you want. You don't ever want to hear anything you don't want to."
"It's compensation for me having to see things I don't want to see."
Johnny looked like he wanted to say something but he just growled and frustration and went back to the bathroom.
"One of these days, Richards, you're going to hear me out."
"Not any day soon," I replied, under my breath.