Disclaimer: I don't own the Fantastic Four—Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, 20th Century Fox, and probably a bunch of other people do. However, if the aforementioned parties feel like loaning out the guys, put me at the top of the borrower's list. Also, I'm not making a penny off of this. I am banned from reading other F4 fan fictions until this is finished, so any similarities to other stories are entirely coincidental. Typos are mine. If you haven't done so, you really need to read 'Oxygen' before this story.
5
Reed put himself between Johnny and the exhausted Sue, prepared to fire another wave of retardant at the younger man if necessary. The Human Torch was still held fast, upper arms pinned at his side by Ben's grip. The younger man's lips curled into a sneer devoid of any warmth, friendliness, or even the faintest happiness to see his family again. He could see nervousness, and maybe some fear, in both Reed and Sue's eyes. Nervousness about fighting him? Johnny wondered. That would do nicely. Johnny wasn't the slightest bit hesitant. He'd been eager for this fight.
Johnny spied the backpack contraption Mr. Fantastic wore over his blue uniform; it was the obvious source of the gel that now hampered him. "Nice gear there, Spengler."
Ben couldn't resist saying, "Told ya."
Reed made a face at Ben's amusement, but kept his undivided attention on Johnny. He could see Johnny had used that moment's distraction to try to flame again, and again the gel had impeded his effort. Reed was certain the gel would work until it was dissolved by water, but not certain to wait and find out. They had to move fast. He reached for one of the small syringes of anesthetic clipped to the strap of the backpack.
Johnny could not use his powers. He tried increasing his body heat to dry up the goop to no avail. He couldn't move his hands to push back his sleeves to expose skin that was free of the gel and might flame, nor could he squirm free of the Thing's solid grip. How can Pebbles hang on with this slime Reed dumped on me? When he tried slipping out of Ben's hold, he heard the Thing gloat: "Save it, Sparky, ya ain't gonna generate enough heat to toast a marshmallow while ya got that goop on ya. I know ya don't know any better, since Doom scrambled yer brain, but we're still on your side, kid."
The words stoked fury, hot as the flames he could generate, from somewhere deep within Johnny's soul. "Like you were on my side when you helped N.A.S.A. hand me my walking papers, Ben? When you told the big wigs I was 'unreliable'? That I had no self-control? Pretty funny getting temper lectures from the future Mr. 'It's Clobberin' Time'."
The words had the sting Johnny had hoped for: Ben paused, just for a millisecond, and when his guard was down, the Human Torch nearly broke free. Ben recovered quickly, and his hold and Johnny's arms became impossibly stronger.
Johnny saw Reed coming at him with a syringe in hand and knew what the scientist intended. Typical Reed, Sue, and Ben---they couldn't show the slightest bit of respect for Johnny's choices. No, they were going to knock him out and drag him back to the Baxter Building like some disobedient child. Johnny could fight them, but three against one were bad odds.
Divide and conquer.
Sue was standing close at hand, ready to net Johnny within a force field if he should slip away from Ben. She tried distracting her brother from Reed. "You know that's a lie. Victor wants you to kill us. He put that anger in your mind when he had you in that box, he used that box to brainwash you. He made you attack us, just like he's making you do his dirty work now. It took us some time, but we know how he did it. We can help undo it…"
She read it in the blank look her brother gave her in response: Johnny didn't remember the box or anything that had happened in it. He didn't know what Doom had done to him.
Johnny forgot his struggle to escape Ben's grip, almost laughing at the sheer lunacy of Sue's words. Was she kidding with that stuff? "Sorry, Susie, it's all my own idea."
"Yer gonna have to trust us, Matchstick. We're taking ya home," Ben growled. He nodded to Reed that he had a firm hold on the Human Torch. Reed would have to douse Johnny's arm with the gel before he could inject him.
The Human Torch scowled at Ben's words.
"All skill and no sensibility will not get you far while you're my responsibility. I stuck my neck out for you, Storm. You get yourself killed, that's your problem. You get your crew killed, that's my mistake because I put you on that shuttle in the first place. I don't need mavericks, show-offs, or fools under my command, on my ship, or on my team, and, junior, some days you are all three."
"Grimm was your C.O., he had a say in the decision to throw you out. You have to know that. At the least, he had the power to speak in your defense. Come on, Johnny, tell me the truth, you must be a little angry with him."
"He didn't let emotional impurities like friendship and loyalty get in the way."
The sudden blaze of fire in Johnny's eyes alerted Reed that he was up to something, but even Mr. Fantastic couldn't have anticipated the Torch's attack.
"Trust you? Why? You never trust me. I do everything you guys tell me to do, just like I did everything you told me to do back at N.A.S.A., Pebbles, and all I get for it is screwed over. I think I'm gonna stick with my own plan this time."
When Reed took hold of the younger man's wrist, holding his arm out to douse with the retardant gel, Johnny lunged as if to break away from Ben and attack Reed. Johnny knew he couldn't pull free; that wasn't his goal. When Human Torch unexpectedly shifted his weight, Reed struggled to keep hold of his wrist---in the process, Johnny yanked his arm back and suddenly his former leader had a handful of nothing but goo-soaked glove. In the blink of an eye, so fast that Sue barely got her shield up in time, Johnny hurled a stream of fire at his sister and Reed, driving them back just a few steps.
Before they recovered, Johnny found his next target: He put every bit of heat he could muster (which was quite a bit) and focused it on the steel girders of the high-rise building under construction nearby. The workers who hadn't fled were trapped as the steel buckled and began to collapse. The Invisible Woman, still reeling from Johnny's first salvo of fire, reacted at once to the civilians' plight and focused her shield on holding the structure upright while they moved quickly for the elevators. One tripped and fell, and Sue split her concentration between holding up the heavy building and catching the man before the five-story plunge killed him. Johnny had almost killed innocent people, Sue realized, stunned. No, not Johnny. This wasn't his doing---it was Doom's.
Johnny's ungloved hand clamped on to Ben's arm. The Thing grunted: "Ya ain't gonna hurt me before Reed knocks ya out, so don't bo----"
Ben was silenced, mid-sentence.
His rocky skin was impervious to all but the most extreme ravages of heat and cold, but warm blood still coursed through his veins beneath that thick hide. He could perceive the heat from Johnny's nova blasts and he might be burned by prolonged exposure to Johnny's flames (if, for instance, Johnny forgot to turn off the flames on his hands when he carried the Thing during a battle). Cold had become an unfamiliar sensation to Ben---and it was the last sensation he expected from contact with the bare hands of the Human Torch. Ben could only gasp in shock as the heat went out of him, absorbed by Johnny, and cold penetrated his thick skin and enveloped his entire being like a blast of Arctic air would affect an average person. His body felt like a Popsicle; He couldn't move, he couldn't blink, and he couldn't open his mouth to warn Reed or Sue.
Reed, however, knew at once that something was wrong, and he quickly deduced what Johnny had done (however impossible or unexpected) by the way Ben's orange skin turned a pale shade of blue-tan and his breath crystallized in the warm late afternoon air.
There was no time to react. In the split-second that it took for Reed to figure out what Johnny had done and prepare to spray his hand with the gel, the Torch spun himself---and the immobilized Ben---and put the Thing between himself and Reed and the syringe in Reed's hand. The shot of gel splattered onto Ben's back, and the needle connected with his stone skin and instantly broke. Johnny tried again to flame, and again the crud covering his skin and uniform extinguished his flames. What the hell is this crap! he cursed it.
Trapped in the frozen Thing's hold, with Reed advancing on him with a fresh syringe of knockout juice, Johnny had only one avenue of escape. Spinning himself and Ben to face Reed once more, Johnny's kicked against Mr. Fantastic's chest, using him like a trampoline to push off. The motion toppled the immobile Ben. He fell backwards and slid down the hillside like a toboggan, dragging the Human Torch along with him as he glided towards the river and water tanks. Johnny rolled a bit and managed to control the slide so that their plunge came to a stop a few feet above of the empty tanks. Ben impacted with a parked forklift, which jostled him so that his grip slackened and Johnny was able to squirm free.
His freedom was short-lived. Able to cover the distance between them in two steps thanks to his ability to stretch his legs, Reed caught up to Johnny almost instantly. Reed swung his left arm like a lasso; it coiled around the younger man's torso and pinned his arms more firmly than Ben had. His right hand, the one grasping the second syringe, snaked towards Johnny's exposed neck.
Reed hoped there was still some part of the younger man's mind that had resisted Sater and Doom's influence, some part of him that could still be reasoned with, that was still the real Johnny. "Sue and Ben are telling you the truth, Johnny. Doom had his scientists create a program that implants subliminal suggestions through light and sound. It's like hypnosis—you wouldn't remember the box or being Doom's prisoner, but you were. Doom and Dr. Sater used that program to turn you against us and make you obey him…"
He had been talking just to distract Johnny, to forestall another attack long enough to inject him with the anesthetic. He expected more derisive comments and denials from the younger man, but, instead, Reed saw Johnny startle---just a little bit---at the mention of Dr. Sater. In recognition? Reed wondered. "You know Dr. Sater, don't you, Johnny? Maybe you recognize the name from when she abducted you from your dentist's office? She called herself 'Dr. Reinhardt' when she introduced herself to you. Victor called her Reinhardt to throw me off her trail."
"Where's Dr. Morris?"
"He had an unexpected emergency. I'm Dr. Reinhardt. Don't worry, Mr. Storm, you're in good hands. Very good hands…"
The memory was a snippet; the woman who spoke was a faceless shadow as she leaned between him and the glare of the lamp pointed at him. There was a needle in her hand, too, when she approached the man in the dentist's chair…
"I'm a Behavior Modification Therapist, not a Freudian."
That moment of confusion, of vulnerability, lasted only an instant, but it had been real. Reed had broken through Sater's programming for a second. The second was over before he could inject the Human Torch, and Johnny's face became a mask as cold and steely as Doom's. "Wow, now that sounds like a bad comic book plot, Stretch. Nobody makes me do anything. Ever think maybe I'm just tired of you and Susie and the Rock treating me like some dumb kid? Ever think maybe I just want to work with someone who's not afraid of what we can do with these powers?"
He couldn't move his arms or bring his hands up to flash-freeze Reed like he did Ben, but he still had one hand free of the gel retardant. Rubber melts as good as it freezes… Johnny gathered all his energy one more time for a blast that would light up his former leader like a Roman candle.
"He may have programmed you to think he's some kind of benevolent mentor, Johnny, but Doom's a murderer. You know that. He'll make you use your powers to become one, too, if you don't listen to me---you almost killed those men just now," Reed indicated the steel girders which Sue still struggled to keep from toppling onto the construction workers. "Is that what you want?"
Johnny's hand smoldered beneath the gel as the younger man gathering his energy for another blast. With Sue still occupied with the collapsing tower and Ben out-of-commission, Reed would have to try to dodge the shot---he would not let Johnny go. He tried again to break through Sater and Doom's lies. "Do you want to do that, son?"
"Johnny, do you trust me, son?"
Again, Johnny faltered. Reed could see it.
"Prisoner 34789—Storm, Jonathan S., it's your lucky day: You don't have to eat what the State Corrections System feeds its residents. Your old man helped us find the guy who really jacked that car. The charges have been dropped."
"That's not my dad, that's my sister's geek ex-boyfriend."
"You wouldn't remember the box or being Doom's prisoner, but you were. Doom and Dr. Sater used that program to turn you against us and make you obey him."
The gathering energy abated momentarily. Once more, uncertainty filled Johnny's eyes.
Once more, Dr. Sater's programming prevailed.
"Are you that desperate for a father figure, Johnny?"
"Always picking the wrong father figures, the wrong mentors…always disappointed."
"You never trust me."
Johnny's anger flared anew, overriding the indecision, and his ice-cold expression was back. He turned to his former leader wearing the same homicidal smile he'd worn before destroying the Baxter Building. The Human Torch's hand burst into flames, and Reed plunged the syringe into Johnny's neck a heartbeat before the fireball slammed into him. Johnny had not held back his powers—the heat of the blast was searing; Reed raised his right arm to shield himself from its intensity. Still, Reed did not let go.
"Suddenly you feel like playing Dad or Big Brother, Reed?" Johnny snapped. "I remember you leaving skid marks on Sue's driveway, so don't hand me that paternal-fraternal garbage now." He staggered a bit, already feeling the effects of the drug. His knees threatened to buckle beneath him. He raised his body temperature, trying to burn it out of his blood before it took him down. He had to get away, get the slime off himself.
"I'm trying to help you----" Reed said. He took a step towards the unsteady Johnny, but the Human Torch dazedly unleashed another spray of fire to warn Reed off.
"Tell you what, Stretch, why don't you help yourself---or better yet, why don't you worry about helping Pebbles?"
Johnny rallied, still fighting the sedative, and kicked with all his mutation-enhanced strength at the inert Ben, who still lay where he'd landed at the bottom of the slope. The blow propelled Ben the rest of the way down the hill before Reed could stop him. Ben gained speed as he slid the short distance, and his momentum carried him crashing through a section of fencing around the perimeter of the empty tank and he fell. Workers inside the tank ran as the massive Thing hit the bottom of the tank.
The crash-landing didn't so much as scratch Ben, but the tank's walls cracked and the gate holding back the river water buckled and bent. The pressure of the water, combined with a second shot of heat and fire from Johnny, sent the damaged gate flying and the river began to pour into the tank. Some of the construction crew hurried to the tank's one ladder, the only escape route, but a few who recognized the Thing stayed behind. They tried in vain to hoist the frozen superhero from the rising water. He was just too heavy for them to lift.
"Ben!" Reed shouted.
"Your choice, Reed—hang on to me or help Tons of Fun down there. Stone men are sturdy, but they can still drown," Johnny taunted, struggling to keep his eyes open.
Reed was torn. There wasn't time for every worker in the tank to scale that tall ladder, and he couldn't lift Ben and all of those workers out of the tank with just one arm, not before the water engulfed them. He shouted for Susan, but guessed she was still occupied with the tower. She wouldn't break her concentration to answer him while lives were in danger.
Johnny sent another searing stream of fire Reed's way. Distracted by Ben and the workers, the blast slackened Reed's grip on Johnny, and the boy pulled free. The Human Torch was moving slowly and shakily, Reed saw. He wouldn't get far.
Shrugging off the cumbersome backpack, Mr. Fantastic moved to help Ben and the construction crew.
Stumbling and fighting the drug Reed had given him all the way, Johnny made it to the river and dove in, desperate to rid himself of the gel. As he'd hoped, the slime dissolved upon contact with the water, leaving only a thin layer of powder. That solved one problem. Weakly, dripping wet, summoning his adrenaline, he climbed out of the river and slumped on its bank. He concentrated again on raising his body temperature as high as it could go without a supernova. The water sizzled on his burning hot skin and evaporated quickly. The drug in his veins was vaporized. The powdery residue of the retardant was incinerated.
Still, he lay there on the shore for a minute longer, watching the movement of his flames, waiting and trying not to lose consciousness until the effects of the drug began to wear off…
…and only the deep-seeded anger remained.
His flesh turned to fire.
Mr. Fantastic stretched down into the tank, grabbed Ben, and hoisted his friend from the tank. Reed set his friend gently on the safety of the higher ground. The water still would overtake some of the crewmen before they could climb out. Taking a firm grip on the railing that surrounded the tank for support, Reed molded his pliable form to become a conduit and diverted the water up over the side of the tank, where it ran down the hill back into the river. This slowed the rise of the water, but did not stop it. Water began to seep from the fractures in the tank. The pipes must have been cracked under the force when Ben hit the concrete. There was a drain at the bottom of the tank, but it was bolted and locked and there was no power to the computer system that would ordinarily open the drain (even if it that system had been completed, which it wasn't). Ben could have pried it open, but Reed could not. He urged the fleeing workers to hurry.
Halfway up the ladder, the crew's foreman stopped and stared at something above the tank. He pointed and shouted something unintelligible with the noise of voices and river water. As the man gestured wildly, a large, dark shape plummeted over the side of the tank and hit the water with a massive splash. Reed caught a glimpse of hard orange skin sinking to the bottom of the tank.
Ben! How---? Reed dared not stop what he was doing or everyone in the tank was doomed. It was the foreman who dove from the ladder into the rising water. Three more workers followed him down.
Reed glanced up and found himself blinded by the fire emanating from Johnny. He spread his arms and trails of flames encircled the tank in a ring of fire, dashing any last hope of escape for those inside. Reed directed the spray of water towards Johnny, but his flames were too hot, almost nova-strength, and the deluge only turned to steam in such heat. The Human Torch's glare was merciless.
The four workers broke the surface of the depths, combining their strength to stay afloat and pull Ben's head above the water. Johnny watched this and the glare became that now-familiar, terrible smile. Reed knew full well his intention. All he needed to do was melt one more of the floodgates, make one more crack in the walls of the tank, and Ben (along with the workers) would drown before they knew what had happened. Johnny was already raising his hand to deliver the fatal blow.
The Human Torch was going to kill them.