Johnny was not happy about waking up alone. It made the whole thing feel like a dream—surreal.
He sighed, I really hope not. The pillows still smelt like apricots.
Forcing himself on to his feet, he selected a towel from a shelf and wrapped it around his hard torso. He was in dire need of a shower, a cold one.
Johnny emerged from male shower rooms while tucking the towel into a tight knot around him. He was heading back to his room when a female voice called his name.
Part of him immediately jumped to the conclusion of Elise being the caller. He turned to find it was the beautiful blonde woman with great skin. She was wearing her camouflage suit with her fair hair held back in a tight pony tail.
"We are heading to intercept the Surfer in ten minutes, with or without you."
He found it unnerving that she could make eye contact with him in his almost undressed state. It was bad enough Elise could do it. He suddenly felt out of his reach and his reflexive playboy ways came into play.
"Were you waiting outside the bathroom to try and catch me in a towel?" He teased, allowing his body to get just a touch hotter. Steam radiated off his board well built form, paired with his sexy grin he hoped it would make the woman show some reaction.
She did not look amused. Giving him one last reproachful look, she turned to walk away.
This shocked him, he was only kidding.
Gripping at the knot of his towel, Johnny chased after her and rounded around to face her.
"That was a joke. I was joking." He said firmly with a sociable air "Why are you so down on me? You don't even know me."
"I know you very well." Doubtful he thought automatically "I read your personality profile."
His dark brows lifted in acknowledgement. He would have liked to see this 'personality profile' the army had compiled for him. He braced his hands on his hips as she continued to speak.
"Confident. Reckless. Irresponsible. Self-obsessed, bordering on narcissism." She listed resentfully.
He mulled on her words for a moment before a grin wormed its way on to his lips. Well she wasn't wrong "Okay, so you do know me."
A little.
"All I've seen is a guy that almost got his team killed."
He stilled at her statement. Remembering his argument with Elise. Eli was obviously a lot crueler but hearing her words in different context still irked him.
"Okay." He nodded earnestly "I've been a little off my game lately."
The blonde shook her head, disapprovingly. Her blue gaze was wide and critical.
"This is not a game." She walked away, leaving Johnny to his thoughts.
Do people see me as such a thoughtless mess? Does Elise..?
Johnny sat in the crowded helicopter, pressed against the window. He was seated directly in front of Elise but she hadn't acknowledged him once.
She was too damn entranced by the landscape of Germany. Its high mountains, tall trees and misty white fog.
He stared intensely at her, he wasn't even blinking.
Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.
She looked, he grinned.
"Have you seen this view?" She voiced loudly over the heavy spin of the rotor blades above them. She was tapping on the window, encouraging him to.
Johnny dead-panned. The view? She was joking right?
Reed however, mulled over the Tempest's excitement from beside her.
"Eli, have you considered trying your abilities on steam?" He asked.
"Why?"
"Just you have the ability to control air. Vapor is just another form of it. Maybe if you focus enough you can condense the air." The doctor mused, unaware of the death-glare Johnny shot his way. The man had grabbed Elise's attention when Johnny had tried so hard to gain it, without being obvious about it.
"Condense?"She repeated "Like into a solid object?"
He nodded, pleased that she understood "It's a possibility."
"Dude." Her eyes were sparkling in wonder "I am so putting that on my list of things to do when I get home."
Hopefully I will be on that list too. Johnny couldn't help but muse wistfully while staring at her grinning expression and feeling his heart thud loudly between his ribs.
They landed on a location near the forest. He was hoping they had to walk to the base within the forests. That way he had a chance to talk to her without being heard.
His frustrations deepened when the soldiers directed them to individual Buggies to take them to the site.
They arrived at a recluse location within the Black Forests of Germany. Men and women dressed heavily in uniform and protective head gear bustled around them. Carrying heavy duty items and avoiding collision with the large tanks and missile launchers.
At one point Elise jolted out of the way of one of the security men. As a result she fell against Johnny's chest. Power surged between them, in that electric trembling way it only did with her.
"Shit, sorry." She apologized this time before looking straight at him again.
Her gaze was lacking the sexual charged energy from the night before. Johnny on the other hand, couldn't stop picturing her naked.
Dude, you are wearing a really tight suit He reminded himself Calm yourself!
He had to picture his grandmother's toothless smile for a moment in order to compose his body's needs.
They quickly touched to gain their powers back.
Reed announced that he wanted to find the General because he felt like they were just spectators. The team followed Mr. Fantastic towards small tent like structure.
Hager was looking at a document provided by the attractive blonde female—whose name, Elise still did not know—Sarah, she decided. She looked like a Sarah.
"General, give us a one-mile perimeter." Reed began to bargain.
"Forget it, Richards. You had your shot and you blew it. This is a military operation now." He stated sternly. He approached Reed with a domineering stride.
"Jam the signal. Get out of the way and let us do our job." He dismissively passed by Reed and the doctor courteously moved out of the way.
"You don't understand—"
"No, you don't understand." The general cut in gruffly "So let me make it clear for you and your pack of freaks here."
Johnny felt Elise tense at the word. She had an obvious disdain for that particular word, or maybe it was just Hager. Either way, he liked that she was agitated. He wanted to see that fire in her eyes.
"I am the quarterback, you are on my team. Got it? But I guess you never played football in high school. Did you Richards?" Hager scoffed smugly before turning to leave.
"No, you are right. I didn't." Reed's voice stilled the General; he turned to face the doctor again.
"I stayed in and studied like a good little nerd." His statement was soft and simple. Then he abruptly raised his gaze and it was dark and confident in a way they had never seen before.
"And fifteen years later...I'm one of the greatest minds of the twenty first century." He turned his passionate gaze to Susan "I am engaged to the hottest girl on the planet."
Susan smirked self-righteously.
"And the jock who played quarter-back in high school." Reed began to approach Hager fearlessly "He is right in front of me, asking me for my help and I say he isn't going to get a damn thing. Until he treats me and my friends with some respect."
Elise was sure Hager was going to punch Reed in the face. Richards could see the intention in the man's eyes too and still chose to stare back, defiantly.
The general subdued and moved back to his subordinates. They could only stare in wonder when he uttered the words Reed wanted to hear all along.
"Give him what he wants." Then he walked off.
Wow. Doctor Geek's got some fire in him after all. Elise guessed even Reed calm-through-a-blizzard Richards, had his melting points to.
Susan strolled over casually to her fiancé's side and whispered "I am so hot for you right now."
"Me too." Johnny exclaimed, appearing behind Reed and embracing him from behind "Yeah alright Reed."
"Where did that come from? And when can you do it again." Eli pondered from next Susan. Richards looked to the short girl and grinned bashfully.
"It won't take long, considering Hager." He said, coaxing smiles from his team.
Reed had four large boxy containers. He took one, gave the other to Susan, another to Ben and the last one to Johnny. Richards knew that despite all her skills as a fighter. Eli was the most vulnerable when it came to an attack from the Silver Surfer. He was going to suggest she accompany Ben but she instinctively followed after Johnny. Reed didnt want to mull on the strangeness of it for long, he had work to do.
They made their way through the forests until they found the last crater.
"This is it." Reed announced sternly.
"We gotta be fast. You have your coordinates. Set up your posts and rendezvous back here."
They split off from the huddle, each focused on reaching their given locations.
Johnny watched Elise silently work. She opened up the small latch of Reed's device to capture the Silver Surfer. The box split with a sigh and inside it was a clear glass bowl stabilized on a mechanical pedestal of some sort.
From the silence on her end he began to wonder whether last night had really happened at all, she seemed completely unfazed.
Johnny wanted answers, he needed them.
"So, last night." He spoke up, she was crouched down in front of the device.
"What about it?" She asked not looking up, this irritated him but he kept his cool.
"You don't want to talk about it?" Elise stiffened while in the middle of inserting the cylinder shaped device into the opening of the bowl to activate the field. She looked over her shoulder him, surprise written across her pretty face.
"Please don't tell me you are the type who does" She retorted, he blinked from not expecting those particular words.
"No I just, I am surprised you are just so…" she turned away from Johnny could finish, pushing in the tube shaped object and then watching as the device light up, she then got to her feet.
"Calm." Johnny added while watching her with keen eyes. He had forgotten for a moment how great she looked in the suit, even better without it. Elise turned to face him, taking steps closer and he stood stock still, captivated by her emerald gaze.
"How did you expect me to react?" She questioned. She crossed her arms over her chest, in anticipation. Johnny smirked and shrugged lazily.
"Awkwardness, a little flustered, the usual." He answered smiling down at her, Elise blinked contemplatively.
"Nope none here, you?" He grinned, continuously amazed by her. He shook his head dismissively and said.
"Nope"
"Cool" She muttered grinning, then turning away to watch the scenery. She was taking in the scent of the pine trees around them.
Johnny still wasn't satisfied, there was still the question of whether there was still going to be another night? And he wanted one so badly he ached.
"So if we make it through this…" He spoke up grabbing her attention once more. He was hoping she would understand what he was implying and she did.
"My place and you are buying pizza after." She stated in an almost professional manner that he found utterly arousing.
"What's your status?" Reed's voice boomed through their headsets cutting through Johnny and Elise's heated staring. He brought a hand to his ear piece and pressed down on the button.
"Good to go." was Ben's reply; Johnny watched Elise reached for her head set as well.
"Same here." they both answered in unison.
The lust radiating off them was thick. Johnny couldn't think of anything else but pressing her up against the tree behind her and kissing her.
The moment her gaze dropped to his lips, he lost all self-control.
In the next instant he swept her up into his arms.
Elise gasped when her back collided with the tree closest to her. But the sound that left her lips was muffled by his mouth.
His deliciously, warm mouth.
Her response was explosive. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed back just as intensely. The cold feeling in her hands had left completely just from a touch by Johnny. She was aware of every inch of him pressed up against her body as he braced her against the tree.
Johnny dug his gloved fingers into her sides, beguiling a moan from her lips. The resonance sent a jolt of pleasure straight to his groin.
Oh God. Things were getting out of control, they were supposed to be alert for a destructive alien not playing tonsil hockey. But Johnny couldn't get enough. He wanted her desperately in a passion that was overwhelming.
"Guys?"
They broke apart instantly at the sound of Susan's voice in their ear. Her words were like a colossal statue to the head.
Johnny stared down at Elise, still hovering over her. Her lashes swept open. Her emerald gaze was delirious as she looked to him, blushing and in disbelief.
"We have a problem." Susan spoke again into their head sets.
"What's wrong?" Reed responded when they couldn't.
"He's here."
At the statement Johnny and Elise's eye contact instantly broke and they were bolting through the forests, to Susan's aid.
Grandma in a leotard. Grandma na—no scratch that. Madonna naked. Johnny had to continuously chant in his mind as he raced behind Elise while trying not to trip over anything.
After a while of picturing all the women he found unattractive, he felt the pressure in his groin lessen.
They had arrived to find Susan jamming the cylinder into the glass bowl. Reed was present along with Ben.
The Silver surfer was causing mayhem at the army base, shooting waves of energy that resulted in explosions.
Johnny was ready to fly into action.
"Let me just—"
"No. Wait!" Reed objected.
The Human Torch complied, even though his trouble expression didn't fade.
After the alien was satisfied, the Surfer turned his attention on to them. Ben began to panic.
"Reed." He called trying to keep calm as the Silver Surfer headed straight at them.
The rectangular device in Reed's hand suddenly beeped to life. Elise watched, puzzled as he pressed a button.
Silence followed.
Elise figured it must have been some invisible attack because in the next moment the Silver Surfer had lost control. He clutched his head in pain and lost consciousness. His body slide through his board and went descending towards the forests.
