Chapter Ten: Canned Heat
The next day, Helena, Ben, Sue and Reed were in the kitchen having breakfast. Ben was squeezing the juice from about five or six oranges into a large bowl to make orange juice. Reed and Sue were busy looking over some papers and Helena (in her ballet warm-up gear) was drinking a bottle of water.
Helena smiled as she saw Johnny waltzing into the room, grabbing the large bowl from Ben, just as he was about to drink it. "Alright let's make this quick, I've got a lot of places to go," Johnny leans down an kisses Helena on the cheek, "Hey beautiful," Johnny whispers to Helena, as he continues, "Oh wait, I don't go anywhere!" Helena rolls her eyes and smirks at Johnny's immaturity; she knows it's just an act so it doesn't bother her as much anymore. Ben then looked to Johnny then to Helena, and groaned, knowing that something had already happened. Helena watched Reed as he tried to tell Johnny to stay inside, and she laughed at Reed's attempt, "Johnny, it's imperative that we stay inside for the proceedings." Reed's attempts to control Johnny were always hilarious, Helena thought, even now Reed is still trying to use common sense with Johnny, he never learns. Helena waited for the snide remark from Johnny, which came as she predicted, "I know, I know, but when you said that last time my brain heard a week." Helena choked in a laugh at Johnny's remark, partially because he was right, Reed did only say one week. Sue glared at Helena and started in on Johnny, "Johnny, it's too dangerous for you to be in public." Helena rolled her eyes knowing what was to come next, 'Do I have a snide remark from Johnny… survey says' Helena thought, "You've been saying that for years." Helena laughed as she was right on the money, 'Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner! I really should start betting on this stuff.' Helena smiled at the thought, and looked behind her to Johnny's legendary smirk. She smiled and looked back to Ben glaring at her, so she painted on a smile for Ben, and thought, 'SHIT!'
"What worries me is that our powers are evolving," Reed commented. Helena jumped in and added, "I know, I was doing a spin yesterday and I nearly flooded the studio, with just the water in my bottle." Johnny smiled, and added, "I know, I know, I am so close to flying guys I can taste it." Johnny wiped his hand on a napkin and threw it on the counter, lighting it on fire in the process. Sue quickly jumped in, as Johnny had been claiming he could fly ever since that day on the mountain, "You can't fly!" Johnny, of course, jumped in quickly "Yet!" Sue turned her attention to the small fire on the counter, "Johnny could you put that napkin out?" Johnny looked behind him just as Helena did and saw the small fire, and Johnny tried to put it out, but only made it worse. Helena rolled her eyes, got up out of her chair, "Johnny, Johnny," her efforts to stop him were fruitless, so she placed her cool hands (which to Johnny, felt freezing) on his arm, and he looked her in the eyes, as she continued, "Let me handle it." Helena held her hand out to the fire, extinguishing it with a tiny flick of her wrist, as a small stream of water shot out.
They each shared a nice smile when they heard Ben clear his throat, 'Kill-joy,' both Johnny and Helena thought as Ben started to speak and they both leaned against the counter. "So what's going on Reed, how are you gonna cure us?" With that Reed picked up a clipboard, that held a bunch of drawings on it, "I'm gonna build a machine to recreate the storm." Helena looked to Reed as if not believing it, "You can do that?" Helena responded and Reed nodded, "How?" Helena continued. Reed held up the drawings and began his explanation; "The cosmic rays will travel from this generator to this chamber," Reed began, as Johnny, needing to be the center of attention, cynically stated, "What, no pop-ups?" Helena elbowed Johnny in his side, and said "Hey no more outbursts from the peanut gallery, alright? Sorry Reed, please continue." Sue smiled and mouthed a 'thank you' to Helena for keeping Johnny in check, Helena nodded and turned back to Reed. Reed continued, "If I can reverse the wave signal," when Ben finished his sentence, "It will return us back to normal." Helena smiled at Ben, knowing that he'd had the toughest time with the change, Ben smiled back, the first smile in a long time that Helena had seen.
Sue looked over the papers and asked "Right, but what are the risks?" Helena held in her breath, waiting for the bad news to come, she knew it seemed too good to be true. Reed reluctantly replied, "Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms exponentially, or perhaps even kill us." Helena and Sue looked to Ben, and knew that because of how Reed was (especially with his experiments) that the machine wouldn't be ready for a while.
With that Helena went to sit back in her chair, but Johnny grabbed it before she could, spun it around, and straddled the chair. Helena, briefly annoyed, flicked her wrist at Johnny's head, sending a small (but very powerful) stream of water shooting into the back of his head. Naturally (for Johnny) steam rose from his head, and he smirked back at Helena thinking 'Oh, you're gonna get it for that!' Helena just smiled innocently and shrugged her shoulders.
Johnny smiled as he started speaking, "Now dying, that's bad right? I say we just let sleeping dogs lie guys." Ben looked to Reed as if he hadn't even heard the risks at all and asked "So how long until this contraption's up and running?" Reed replied, "I don't know, it's hard to say," hoping that Ben would understand. Ben wouldn't hear of that, and pushed saying "How long Reed?" To which Reed became flustered, and replied again, "I don't know, ah…" Ben began getting very impatient, as Helena, Johnny and Sue didn't know who to sympathize with. "You don't know," Ben shouted as he stood up, and Helena walked over and put both hands on his shoulders to try and calm him down, thinking that it had always worked before. Reed tried to calm him down by explaining, "You don't want this to get worse!" Johnny had to laugh and remark, "Worse than that?" Helena pointed to Johnny and held out her palm, as if warning him, "Hey! What did I say about the peanut gallery?" Sue then interjected, "Guys, look, we're gonna be stuck here for a while, so let's just try and get along."
Throughout the next month, Johnny and Helena, as well as Sue and Reed, became closer and closer. Sue and Reed were constantly at work in the lab, while Johnny and Helena were either in front of the TV arguing over what movie to watch or in the studio. Ben was becoming more and more isolated with each passing day, spending a lot of time sleeping and in his room.
One day, Helena ran into Johnny's room wearing her uniform with her blue ballet slippers and closed the door. Helena spotted Johnny walking out of his closet, ran up to him, jumped into his arms and kissed him passionately. Johnny was surprised but of course kissed her back without hesitation. Helena pulled away and smiled, Johnny shook his head as if coming out of a daze and smiled asking, "What was that for?" Helena laughed a little then quickly kissed him, grabbing his hand she ran with Johnny for the studio.
Johnny and Helena got to the studio, and Helena sat Johnny down against the mirrored walls. "What's going on Lizzie?" Johnny had started calling her Lizzie. He liked the fact that he was the only one who called her that. He smiled as Helena ran over to him putting a finger to his mouth, kissing it quickly, "Just wait," Helena whispered. She ran over to the stereo pressed play, then ran to the middle of the dance floor. The music started and she began dancing with more energy than Johnny had ever seen from her.
Canned Heat – Jamiroquai
You know this boogie is for real.
I used to buy my faith in worship,
But then my chance to get to heaven slipped.
I used to worry about the future
But then I throw my caution into the wind.
I had no reason to be care free
No no no, until I took a trip to the other side of town
Yeah yeah yeah, you know I heard that boogie rhythm
Hey- I had no choice but to get down down down down.
Dance, nothing left for me to do but dance,
Off these bad times Im going through just dance
Got canned heat in my heals tonight baby
After the first "dance" Helena smiled as she saw Johnny's mouth drop for the third time. In an instant, Helena was turned completely into a water form like in the test, only this time she stayed that way. Her green eyes still shown through the irredescent water, and her feet in the ballet slippers seemed to be the only thing on her body not turned into water.
I feel the thunder see the lightning
I know this angers heaven sent.
So Ive got to hang out all my hang-ups
Because of the boogie I feel so hell bent
Its just an instant gut reaction, that I got I know I never ever felt like this before,
I dont know what to do
But then thats nothing new,
Stuck between hell and high water
Need a cure to make it through.
Hey- dancing nothing left for me to do but dance
Off these bad times Im going through just dance,
Hey got canned heat in my heals tonight baby
You know know know Im gonna dance yeah
All the nasty things that people say.
With each jump and leap, a burst of water erupted from Helena's body, but quickly settled back into her. Johnny looked stunned and incredibly turned on by Helena's power, grace and control.
Dance yeah, but Im gonna make it anyway,
Dance, yeah, got canned heat in my heels
Tonight baby, you know I got canned heat in my heels.
With each spin the water that had shot out of Helena, spun around her with speed and ease, making Helena look like a human fountain.
You know this boogie is for real.
Only the wind can hold the answers,
And she cries to me when Im asleep.
She says you know that you can go much faster,
I know that peoples talk can be so cheap, heyhey,
Ive got this voodoo child inveined on me,
Im gonna use my power to assend.
After this lyric, Helena jumped up and and was lifted into the air floating through the room, still dancing in mid-air. At this, Johnny's mouth was permanently on the floor.
You know Ive got these boogie heels to use,
Sunshine theres no way to lose.
I was born to walk and built to last.
Youve never seen my feet cos theyre movin to fast.
Dance yeh, nothing left for me to do but dance,
All these bad times Im going thru just dance,
Hey got canned heat in my heels tonight baby.
Hey Ive got to dance yeh, all the nasty things that people say.
Dance yeh but Im gonna make it anyway.
Dance yeh, got canned heat in my heels tonight baby.
You now this boogie is for real,
Got so much canned heat in my heels yeh,
Gonna dance, gonna dance my blues away tonight
You know Im gonna dance my blue away.
You know this boogie is for real
Got so much canned heat in my heals yeh,
Gonna dance, gonna dance my blues away tonight.
Dance, come on, got canned heat in my heels tonight(uh huhuhuh yeh),
Canned heat in my heels tonight (uh huhuhuh right),
Canned heat in my heels tonight (uh huhuhuh yeh).
Hey got so much (ahhhhhhhhhh).
With that Helena landed spinning, water surrounding her spinning as well. Helena continued to dance with ease as she was still in water form.
Dance.
Hey dj let the music play (let the music play yeh)
I wanna live this party life, (I wanna live this party life).
Hey dj blow my cares away (let the music play yeh)
I wanna live this party life (I wanna live this party life)
Hey dj let the music play I wanna live this party life,
Hey dj blow my cares away I wanna live this party life.
(party life. I want it, I want it to go on).
Dance, you know that this boogie is for real.
Dance, got so much canned heat in my heels.
Dance, gonna dance gonna dance my blues away tonight.
Whoo, you know, you know this boogie is for real.
Got so much canned heat, canned heat in my
Heels. u know, u know Im gonna dance my blues away tonight (fades)
With the end of the song fast approaching, Helena did a triple spin, and when she turned to face Johnny at the end of the song, she was back to her normal self. Any other time she had tried to use her powers while dancing the entire studio became flooded with water, so for Helena to display this much power and this much control, was a huge deal.
Johnny looked stunned for a moment, and Helena didn't know what to say, so she merely repeated the question she asked after her first test, "Was that OK?" Johnny's face lit up and he ran over to her lifting her into the air and spinning her around in a massive hug. He held her out to take a look at her, "Lizzie, that was incredible! You were flying! Like actually flying!" Lizzie blushed and replied, "Well, I wouldn't say flying. I'd say just floating… with style." Johnny laughed and she laughed with him, they kissed sweetly, and rested their forheads on each other. "It's your turn now," Helena breathed to Johnny, who just held her close, and inside thanked Sue for bringing Helena with them on that mission.
Unbeknownst to Johnny and Helena; Ben, Sue and Reed were watching the whole time. Now Sue had her mouth covered with her hands, Ben was smiling wide, and Reed looked utterly astonished. Each was utterly amazed not only at the massive amount of power and control that Helena displayed through her dance, but also the fact that Johnny had (literally) met his match.
When Ben saw the love and contentment in both Helena and Johnny's eyes, he knew it was his turn to back off, and walk away, knowing that Johnny would finally change with the help of Helena. Sue let out a soft sigh, and unconsciously leaned into Reed, she had always secretly hoped this would happen, and thought they would be good for each other. Reed looked over to Sue and smiled as he felt her body lean into his. He cautiously wrapped his arm around Sue and led her back to the lab, giving the couple some time alone.