Disclaimer: I do not own Fantastic Four which belongs to Stan Lee and Marvel or Star Wars which belongs to George Lucas.

Authors' Note: I want to thank all of those that reviewed this story! Please continue to read and review. Your encouragement makes this possible. Thank you.

Chapter 2

It was now three days after the big blowout between Reed and Johnny concerning his PS2. Reed temporarily gave up until he thought of some way to persuade him to give it up. But Johnny claimed "to never be swayed or turned to the dark side" as Reed remembered him saying.

To Reed's delight, they accumulated a hefty quantity of appliances to autograph and sell. They all came to an agreement to simply autograph each object with their team name 'The Fantastic Four'.

Reed sat at the dinner table picking at his food. Surprisingly he didn't feel that hungry this evening. Now that he had a solution to the electrical dilemma concerning his bills, he kept feeling as though he had overlooked something. Surely this feeling of forgetfulness was not related to Johnny's game console. Then why couldn't he get his mind off of it? It was slowly driving him mad!

He took another bite of the spaghetti and meatballs that Sue had prepared for dinner. It was now ice cold! Great. His thoughts were momentarily interrupted when Sue spoke his very thought out loud.

"Since we've been jawing this entire time, my food is cold."

Susan got up to reheat her dinner in the microwave. Ben finished his food way before anyone else had and Johnny was looking mischievous. Not a good thing when Johnny is concerned! Reed learned that the hard way. He became Johnny's new but temporary prank target right after the game issue. That was when Reed realized why Johnny had that look to begin with.

Johnny was apparently holding both hands under his plate trying to appear innocent as if nothing interesting was happening. Reed then noticed a few seconds after Johnny held the bottom of his plate in his hands that steam began to rise off of his now hot food. That was the answer! Reed mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner.

He called a meeting right after dinner in the living room.

"Okay stretch. What is this about? I'm still not giving up my play station if that is what you were going to say!"

"Actually, I have a better idea in mind."

"Really?"

Now the other three were looking more confused than ever. Everyone automatically assumed that Reed was aiming for the PS2 again.

Reed was trying hard to hold back an all out grin. Oh, Johnny was in for a big surprise! Payback was imminent.

"I will get straight to the point. I propose that we lose the microwave."

"WHAT!" Ben, Susan, and Johnny exclaimed in disbelief.

"Sure, I mean we have other alternatives," he pointedly directed that statement at Johnny with a wide grin.

"Reed, you are talking crazy! We need the microwave to heat up food!"

"Actually, we don't."

A moment of silence followed as the others tried to figure out the meaning and method of Reed's madness.

Then Sue's face lit up as she 'got it', while Ben and Johnny sat in utter confusion.

"Reed, you can't be serious!"

"What? Serious about what?" Ben asked in puzzlement.

Sue gave him an 'it's so obvious' look and pointedly directed her eyes at Johnny for emphasis.

Ben's eyes lit up in understanding and he had to bite his tongue from howling with laughter.

Johnny was beginning to feel extremely irritated. He hated being the last one to figure something out. His irritation soon turned to a feeling of discomfort when everyone directed their full undivided attention on him. The feeling only worsened when he realized that whatever Reed was getting at, that it had something to do with him. Crap…he's getting back at me for all of those pranks I pulled on him last week. Johnny began fidgeting until he couldn't take it anymore.

"WHAT!"

"Johnny, I have decided to let you keep your play station…"

Johnny whooped gleefully but his joy was short lived.

"BUT on one condition only."

Uh-oh, this can't be good.

"You may keep it as long as…"

Oh no, here it comes! Reed is going to get even.

"…you become the new heat source."

Phew! Was that all? Ha, what a laugh! Some punishment! I thought he was going to make me do something embarrassing or incredibly stupid like use my powers to…AW MAN! HE CAN'T BE SERIOUS!

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"

"Oh, I am 100 serious. You heat up our meals using your power in exchange for your play station. If you can't decide we will have a vote."

Johnny looked absolutely scandalized. He couldn't believe his luck! One lousy prank on Reed and he was turning on him like this! Figures. Play station Nazi!

Reed then spoke up, "Concerning the retirement of the microwave in place of Johnny, all in favor say Aye!"

Three Aye's rang clear like a hammer through Johnny's mind.

"All opposed, say Nay!"

"NAY!" Johnny shouted a little too loudly.

"Sorry but the majority rules Johnny! Thank you for your newfound service."

Ben, Sue, and Reed were rolling with fits of laughter at Johnny's expense.

"This so isn't fair," Johnny pouted once more crossing his arms.

"Well, if you absolutely refuse then your play station can take the microwave's place."

"NO! Anything but that!" Johnny exclaimed horrified as the near reality of his play station's demise came crashing back down on him.

Reed raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Fine, I'll do it," Johnny groaned.

"Great! It's all settled then."

About a week later, everything in the Baxter building was up and running the way it used to. The autographed appliances sold wonderfully at the garage sale the day after Johnny agreed to Reed's ridiculous compromise, inevitably becoming 'the human microwave', as Pebbles took to calling him recently.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Victor Von Doom became a psycho and eventually revealed that he had in fact been exposed to the radioactive space cloud, despite the fact that he was behind the shields when the thing hit the space station.

Johnny was currently 'flamed on' and flying towards open water with a heat seeking missile on his tail that Doom had just fired at him! He was trying desperately to keep from panicking. His sister went after Reed once they learned from Ben that Doom had taken him. Doom had somehow powered the machine enough to turn Ben back to his normal, human form. But Victor had a dark motive behind helping Ben out. The end result was that Victor exposed himself to a full dosage of the cloud turning him into some kind of cyborg or metal man, as Ben described.

Johnny Storm managed to trick the missile into exploding into a burning barge that he ignited with a fireball and fell into the water. After reaching shore he noticed what appeared to be lightning filling the sky a few blocks away. He flamed on and flew towards, what he noticed with growing worry, a battle scene. Doom was about to strike Reed, Sue, and Ben with electricity. Ben's back to normal! Johnny noticed a little pleased. Why he was happy that Ben was back to being 'The Thing' was beyond him. Maybe it was the sense that this is what and how they were supposed to be for the rest of their lives that ignited the feeling.

In the long run, the Fantastic Four defeated Dr. Doom after a tiring battle. Doom was now an unmoving metal statue after he was heated with Johnny's 'supernova' and then rapidly cooled with water.

Later that night…

The Fantastic Four were lounging in the living room watching the latest news reports concerning their battle with Doom.

Johnny shook his head sadly. If only Doom had found something useful for his powers instead of running around killing everything that moved. Like power an electrical facility instead of turning into a destructive, murdering, madman.

Johnny handed Sue, Reed, and Ben the popcorn that his heat provided them. After a week or so, heating up food with his power wasn't as stupid as he thought it would be. It became quite useful and this newfound service gave him a deeper sense of being needed. In fact, his new 'job' amused him as of late.

Yep, there definitely wasn't anything better than being a 'human microwave' during times like these, when he could just hang out with his best pals that he was slowly beginning to view as a family.

Well, there was one thing. The whole super hero biz was working out real well these days. The Fantastic Four decided to make it a career. And because they had, the crime rate was at an all time low. If any other crazed loons or washed up wackos like Doom ever surfaced, they would be ready for them.

The current News Reporter was replaced by an emergency broadcast announcing the arrival of a new villain that immediately began harassing innocent people. Time to go to work!

"FLAME ON!"

THE END