Johnny woke up buried in sand. He quickly stood up and looked around, noticing miles and miles of sand dunes. He was in a crater, about fifteen feet deep and fifty feet wide, with scraps of material lying all around him. He looked up and saw two people on the edge of the crater, shouting down at him in some foreign language. He had no idea where he was, but his head was hurting immensely. He flamed up again and flew straight into the air for a few thousand feet, trying to see where he had landed. He started replaying the events in his head; then he remembered Amera had fallen somewhere, somewhere he didn't see. He looked around and saw the Mediterranean Sea, and then flew back over the Atlantic. When he saw New York approaching, he started searching the skyline for the Baxter Building. He spotted it and landed on the balcony just outside the living area. Reed, Susan and Ben were already back, and all in their ordinary clothes.
"Hey, guys!" Johnny banged on the door, and Susan ran to open it.
"Thank God you're alright! We've been trying to reach you two, but all we got was static." Susan sighed in relief, and looked behind Johnny for Amera, but she wasn't there.
"Johnny…where is Amera?" Susan asked, sounding angry and worried at once.
"I…don't know. That silver…surfer guy got her around her throat. He got me too, but he dropped her before I could see where. He practically dragged me into space and dropped me…I don't know where Amera is…I couldn't see her light when I flew back." Johnny explained erratically. Ben automatically looked angry, not at Johnny, but with the silver humanoid that got her.
"We'll find her Johnny. She should have her communicator with her, we'll track that." Reed said to them, trying his best to comfort everyone.
"Well, you tell me where to go, but I'm going right now…" Johnny said, heading back out onto the balcony, flaming up and flying off the balcony. Before he had even flown ten feet, his flame started flickering on and off, and he dropped out of the sky like a rock.
"Johnny! Johnny!" Susan shouted, running out onto the balcony and seeing him falling to the ground. She made a force field and floated down to the ground to see if her brother was alive. He lay on the ground, a little dazed but alright. He hadn't fallen nearly fast enough to cause any damage, but he was feeling a little iffy. He stood up and looked up at the balcony and then back to Susan, shaking his head.
"Johnny? What the hell happened? I've never seen that happen to you…" Susan said, touching his forehead to see if he was feeling normal. As she touched him, a spark flew between their point of contact. Susan pulled back from the surprise, but as soon as she did, flames started crawling up her hand and arm.
"Johnny! What did you do!?" Susan shouted at him, seeing the flames crawling all over her body.
"I didn't do anything!" Johnny shouted back at her. Susan started lifting off the ground and started flying. She was screaming at Johnny, but he couldn't hear anything she was saying. He tried to flame on but went invisible instead. Susan was now at the top of the Baxter Building, where Ben and Reed still stood looking out the door. When Susan floated up past them, she screamed at them.
"I'm on fire!"
"You're on fire!" Reed said back, rather astonished.
"You think!?" Susan shrieked at him, still floating upwards.
"Just calm down, Susan! This is like the first time you had powers, control it." Reed instructed her. Susan started calming down and soon started floating back down to the ground. Reed and Ben ran to the elevator, taking it non-stop to the ground floor. When they ran out at the bottom, the crowd had gathered and Susan was still coming back down.
"Where the hell is Johnny? How did this happen" Reed asked, looking around.
"Right here…she just touched me, now she's on fire and I'm invisible." Johnny said while still invisible, and Reed immediately knew what had happened. Susan was now close enough to the ground for them to touch her.
"Touch her again, Johnny." Reed told him, and without even blinking, Johnny had reappeared in front of them, and Susan fell out of the air completely naked.
"Susan…invisible, quickly." Reed whispered to her. She looked down and realised her clothes had burnt off. She went invisible in a flash and sighed.
"Why does this always happen to me?" Susan sighed. They shooed the crowd away so they could get back into the Baxter Building. They took the elevator straight back up and stepped out in the loft.
"Alright, no one touch Johnny until we figure out what happened. But first, we have to find Amera. Come with me everyone…" Reed said to them, waving them to his lab elevator. Susan took a detour to get a Fantastic suit, as did Ben and Reed. They followed and stepped out on a floor they had never been on before.
"Where did this floor come from?" Ben asked, looking around.
"This used to be one of the floors I used for Herbie's mainframe. But I streamlined Herbie's hardware, and now the mainframe is on the floor below this one; this floor is two floors above my lab. But there's something here that I've been working on for a while…" Reed said, pointing to a large flat object covered with a white sheet.
"I present…the Fantasticar!" Reed said, pulling the sheet off in one swift movement. The team's mouths fell open at the sight of the Fantasticar; it was a mean looking machine.
"Ben, you're the pilot." Reed said, pointing to the biggest seat in the rear of the Fantasticar. Ben didn't hesitate and climbed into the rear of the plane.
"Wait, why are there only four seats?" Susan asked, looking at the design.
"Amera said she didn't need a seat, seen as though she can travel the speed of light." Reed shrugged and climbed into the front seat.
"Amera knew you built this?" Susan gasped and Reed nodded.
"She suggested it in the first place."
Susan shook her head in surprise and got into the Fantasticar with Johnny, and Ben piloted it out of the portal that has just opened in the side of the building.