Disclaimer: I don't own the FF etc.

Author's note: I have to make this quick before I completely lose my internet. Again. Thanks for reviews and enjoy

Victor looked the girl up and down. She didn't seem to be intimidated by his steely gaze, she looked right back at him with a smug smile on her face. Leonard looked between the two of them nervously; Sofia had requested to meet Victor when she drove him into the company car park. Leonard had told her Victor was dead and then the man himself had shown up. He had obviously heard about the happenings at the hospital and was curious as to how Leonard escaped so easily.

"And your name is?" Victor asked, breaking the silence.

"Sofia Wallace," she spoke with such confidence. Victor was obviously quite impressed.

"And you want to join me?" he asked.

"Well that is why I'm standing here. I heard you were in town and I thought you might want some help," Sofia said calmly. Leonard admired her nerves of steel; a simple question from Victor sometimes made him tremble.

"Well what exactly could you do for me?" he asked.

"That depends on what you need. Unlike some people," she cast a playful glance at Leonard, "I know how to spy on someone and I could get close enough to the four if you wanted me to."

Victor was quiet for a few moments as he debated whether or not to take up her proposal.

"Leonard, brief her and then introduce her to the rest of the team," Victor said with a genuine smile. Sofia and Leonard smiled and quickly left the room.

"How exactly would you get close?" Leonard asked Sofia once they were outside the office.

"Well I've heard that Johnny Storm will let anyone in his bed," she said with a smirk. Leonard just raised his eyebrows. "There's always the helpless, injured girl who needs medical attention in the Baxter Building," she added. "People like them are suckers for all that stuff."

BAXTER BUILDING

"You what?" Ben shouted. Johnny swore he could see birds fly away from the ground as he spoke. He looked down at the cast on his arm and fingered the rough edge.

"I lost him," Johnny mumbled. Ben stared at his friend in disbelief, then he looked at Reed and Sue.

"You trusted him with that guy?" then he turned his attention back to Johnny. "And you! Why didn't you catch him?"

"Ben, calm down, we'll have plenty of opportunities to get Leonard," Sue said soothingly. Johnny noted that she didn't say something like 'it's not his fault'.

"Will we?" Ben asked. "Victor ain't stupid, he learns from his mistakes."

"Okay so Johnny messed up. It's not the end of the world, we still have other things," Sue said desperately.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ben asked. Sue looked at Johnny anxiously.

"SG. If one of the kidnappers was SG, Johnny could identify him." Sue looked at Johnny hopefully; he nodded eagerly.

"I can do that," he said excitedly.

Reed, who had been sitting quietly, spoke. "And you remember what they looked like?"

"I have a photographic memory," Johnny said proudly. Reed and Ben didn't look convinced.

"So were the kidnappers wearing masks?" Reed asked. Johnny's smile faltered.

"Uh…yeah," he mumbled.

"Well that's a great load of help," Ben muttered sarcastically.

"But!" Johnny said desperately. "I did see one face. When I was chasing the one with Franklin his mask fell off and I saw his face for like a few seconds."

"Draw," Sue commanded. She thrust a piece of paper and a pencil into his face.

ONE HOUR LATER

"Ta-da!" Johnny said loudly as he presented his drawing to the rest of the team. Silence filled the room for a few moments.

"You don't like it?" Johnny asked sadly. He pouted and for a moment Sue thought he was nine again.

"No Johnny, it's fine. It's just…we could be looking at the mastermind behind all this," Reed said solemnly.

"That's pretty good kid, I never knew you could draw," Ben commented. Johnny beamed.

"Just one of my many hidden talents," Johnny boasted.

"Don't get too happy Tinkerbell, it ain't that good."

"You're just jealous," Johnny retorted causing Ben to roll his eyes.

"Dream on, there ain't nothing to be jealous of," Ben said with a smirk.

Sue took the piece of paper out of Johnny's hand and stared at it. In true Johnny fashion he hadn't just drawn an expressionless picture. It was bright and bold, filled with colour. Johnny had also added a worried and scared expression to the man's face. Her blood ran cold at the idea that she could be looking at a portrait of her stalker. Hastily she put the picture on the table face down and stood up.

All eyes turned to Sue worriedly.

"You okay Suzie?" Ben asked. Sue nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered and left the room.

Reed watched her leave sadly before taking on his team leader persona. He picked up the picture and cleared his throat.

"I'll take these down to the police station and see if they have any records of him." Reed pointed at Ben. "Your coming with me, we'll get a photocopy somewhere and you can go to Hanson Street and see if anyone recognises him," he turned to Johnny. "And you…don't mess anything up, please," he said in a desperate tone.

"Yeah, sure," Johnny said quietly, trying to sound like he wasn't offended by Reed's plan. Clearly no one trusted him enough to handle anything important. Nether the less Johnny smiled and shouted joked goodbyes to his friends as they left.

"Don't get back too late boys, you wouldn't want a cold dinner now would you?" Ben turned around at the last remark and chuckled.

"Don't get into any trouble kid, I'm trusting you on this," he said.

"I think I can handle being a good boy," Johnny admitted.

"Actually Johnny, I wouldn't be so sure," Reed said with a smirk. Johnny laughed and pointed.

"Wow, he's being funny," Johnny said in mock amazement.

"Just be good," Reed instructed before disappearing out of sight.

The moment they were gone Johnny's smile faded. He sighed and slumped down into a near-by chair. He scratched the back of his neck and pulled at his sling, it was more than uncomfortable. He heard footsteps behind him.

"Don't play with that," It was his sister, her voice sounded off; she'd been crying. He turned around to face her.

"I wasn't playing with it. It's just…irritating," Johnny muttered.

"Where're Reed and Ben?" she asked.

"Gone clue hunting," Johnny mumbled. Sue noted the slight bitter edge to his voice.

"And you didn't want to go?" she asked curiously.

"I wasn't invited," he admitted resentfully and walked off.

"Invited?" Sue asked. "It's not a party," she said as she followed him to the living room. Johnny sprawled himself out on the sofa before he replied.

"Yeah, well Reed was all like 'stay here and don't do anything stupid'. Somehow it sounds like he didn't really want me to come along."

"He's just a little stressed out right now," Sue said soothingly. Johnny sighed.

"I know," he muttered. He looked his sister in the eye, "I screwed up didn't I?" he said sadly. Sue bit her lip, sighed and sat down beside him.

"You didn't screw anything up," she said.

"You think so?" he asked, a hint of hope in his voice.

'You just…made a bit of a mess of everything," Johnny's face fell. "But its not the end of the world, everyone screws up sometime," she added quickly.

"It is! I didn't screw just anything up Sue. My…screwy-ness got your baby kidnapped."

"It wasn't just you who made a mistake. We all did that night; if we'd handled everything a little better then everything would be okay. We should've seen SG and followed him instead of running back home." Sue said sadly.

"But if I never drank that vodka I woulda caught him," Johnny admitted quietly.

"If I locked up the alcohol you never would have drank any," Sue added.

"I am sorry you know, for drinking it. It's just when I saw it on the counter it kinda-"

"On the counter?" Sue interrupted.

"Yeah," Johnny said slowly. "Why?"

"Well, I put it away before I left," she said slowly.

"Are you sure?" Johnny asked. Sue nodded and stood up.

"Do you think they knew you'd drink it?" she asked. Sue didn't need to mention a name; Johnny knew exactly what she was talking about. He nodded slowly.

"They tricked me," he said angrily.

AT THE POLICE STATION

"I dunno Mr Fantastic, you gotta a name for him?" Reed wasn't surprised by the outcome of events. The police department were once again refusing to help him.

"Not yet, actually, I was hoping you could help me with that," Reed said, there was a hint of desperation in his voice, which the Brooklyn-born officer seemed to pick up on.

"Well unless someone recognises him in here," he gestured to the people behind him, "we can't help ya. If you give us a name we'll be able to track this punk down." Reed deflated and the policeman looked down guiltily.

"Give it here," he muttered and snatched Johnny's drawing out of Reed's hand.

"Hey! You lot! I want you all to take a good long look at this picture here and tell me if you recognise the person in it," he shouted. This grabbed the attention of his colleagues. Most of them came up to look at the picture and shook their heads but several didn't bother to look.

"Hey, you punks at the back! I said look at the picture," the officer shouted.

"We can't see it from here," someone shouted.

"Then get your lazy asses over here, now!"

The remaining officers reluctantly got up and came over to look at the drawing. None of them recognised him.

"Thanks for your help," Reed said as he left, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "You've helped me tremendously," the sarcasm was more apparent now but the officer ignored it.

"You're welcome," he called after him, causing Reed to roll his eyes.

HANSON STREET

"Are you sure you don't recognise him," Ben said slowly. The man shook his head and slammed his door shut. Ben had visited almost every building on the road but no one seemed to recognise his or her own neighbour. Ben smirked and walked over to no. 62, it would be funny if SG himself opened the door.

He lightly pressed the doorbell and waited for an answer, he was there for a minute before someone finally opened the door. It was a tall lanky man with deep brown eyes and long bleached blonde hair. He was almost exactly like Johnny's picture apart from the fact that he had long blonde hair. Ben showed the guy the picture.

"What?" the blonde asked dopily.

"Know this guy?" he asked. The SG look-alike went pale and his eyes widened. He slammed the door shut leaving Ben with a smirk on his face. He'd found his target.

VON DOOM TOWERS

Sofia sat quietly at the end of the long table in Victor's office. He sat opposite her in his throne with a smug look on his face. She had to admit she sometimes found his stares unnerving; it was like looking into the eyes of someone who had seen everything. His face, however, hid nothing; from just glancing at him she could tell he was extremely cautious of her. He didn't trust her motives for joining him and thought she was a mole. She smirked slightly; it was typical of someone like him to doubt those around him. Lack of trust wouldn't get him anywhere, she had a feeling he didn't even trust Leonard.

"The first two phases of my plan are complete," Victor announced, breaking the silence.

"And they are?" Sofia asked.

"Classified information," Victor said coldly. His tone softened, "I hope you don't have a problem with my precautions. The only person who knows every single detail of the plan is me. You will know only about the parts you will play."

"And how exactly will that help?" Sofia asked.

"Take Leonard for example, if he were to be captured and the plan was forced out of him he could only tell them about the first two phases. The Fantastic Four would still be clueless about what is to come," Victor said with a hint of impatience. He didn't like people who dared to question his decisions.

Sofia had to hand it to him; Victor knew what he was doing. He'd had a long time to think this plan over and he hadn't missed out any detail, he'd considered every scenario and it showed. The Fantastic Four didn't stand a chance.

"So what part will I play?" Sofia asked curiously. Victor smiled.

"Phase three, obviously. I would like you to pay a little visit to someone."