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.
A.N.—I couldn't find a place where I could break this chapter without losing momentum, so this will be a double chapter, folks. Hope that's o.k.
10
News traveled faster than the Warbird. The Fantastic Four wasn't halfway back to U.S. airspace before word of the thermal detonation in the remote farmlands of Latveria---and the presence of the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch at the scene of the blast as reported by survivors---was spreading to news agencies around the world. The quartet was officially wanted for questioning by the Latverian Prime Minister and other officials. The United States government, interested in maintaining friendly relations with Latveria, had already promised to look into the matter. The group of reporters who were nearly permanent residents on the sidewalk of the Baxter Building were busy airing 'we warned you' pieces on the evening news.
On advice from Sue, Reed had answered only long enough to suggest that the Latverian government scour the area around the decimated mansion for a large group of men in paramilitary gear who couldn't possibly have been Latverian soldiers. Then he'd broken off communications with the endless parade of people demanding explanations from them and set the Warbird for stealth mode, cloaking it from the radars and satellites he knew would be trying to track them. Reed had more important matters to deal with first.
Silence had settled over those aboard the plane. Ben sat in the pilot's seat, flying them home. He kept one eye on Reed as the scientist poured over the devices Nora Sater had given him. His other eye was trained on the monitors showing the box in the cargo bay, where Sue was alternately watching over Johnny and checking on Reed's progress with the post-hypnotic command program.
Reed was keeping the Human Torch sedated for a while, not wanting to risk a skirmish in mid-air and to force the younger man to rest and recover after Doom had forced him to dangerously overextend his powers. For their safety and Johnny's, Reed had devised what Ben had dubbed a 'reverse wet suit', which kept the retardant gel in contact with the Human Torch's skin up to his neck at all times. The box had been rigged with the most powerful extinguishers possible, but Reed erred on the side of caution. Titanium arm restraints had been added to the cot upon which Johnny was resting, but they were all reluctant to use the bindings until it was absolutely necessary.
They all avoided looking at the fold-down bunk where they had carefully placed and covered Nora Sater's body. The gruesome events in Latveria had shaken all of them, and each was lost in his or her own thoughts as the plane carried them home.
Ben was trying to give Reed peace and quiet to work, but as the hours ticked by the waiting started making him antsier than the worrying. He had kept himself busy for awhile trying to track down the identity of the second guerrilla Reed and Sue had seen in Nora Sater's laboratory, but without a photo or a name to work with it was impossible. When he could stand it no more, he turned the pilot's chair to face Reed's workstation and asked, "So---what's the verdict?"
Reed didn't look up from his work. The portable controller would be handy, but in theory they could get by without it assuming the computer in the box had been properly repaired----and he had no doubt that Sue had made certain it was properly repaired. It was the language key that had been stored on the flash drive that was essential. "Doom damaged the devices all right. I can fix this control box, but the data on the flash drive is corrupted."
It wasn't the answer any of them wanted. Ben tried not to notice the crestfallen look on Sue's face at the news. He wasn't ready to give up hope yet. "S'there enough left for ya to piece together the program?"
Reed put down the flash drive and tried to work out the kinks he didn't realized had formed in his neck over the past few hours. "Enough for me to risk Johnny's sanity by using a program on him that might have major glitches?" Or those 'booby traps' Nora Sater mentioned? "Not nearly."
"You have to try."
The words were from Sue, who finally tore herself away from her brother's side and moved to join Reed and Ben. She felt numb and tired and supposed it was exhaustion and shock. The horrors of that mansion and what Doom and that Sater woman had unleashed there were still burned into her mind. Those dreadful memories and the uncertain future looming ahead of them tainted her relief that Johnny was back with them.
Ben seconded Sue's opinion: "'Sides, it's not like we got a choice. Sparky can't spend the rest of his life doped up in a big metal box." Once more, Ben didn't allow himself to get wrapped up in the 'what ifs'. He knew what had to be done, and if anyone could do it, Reed Richards could. Reed was just being hyper-cautious again, like he was when he tried to undo Ben's mutation and restore his normal DNA. "If it was me, I'd want ya to try," Ben added.
Reed knew Ben was right, and he appreciated his friend's vote of confidence, but he was still afraid. His last mistake had killed Dr. Sater, and Reed didn't want to make another mistake when his family's welfare was at stake.
"Ben's right. If Johnny were himself, he'd want you to help him…before Victor uses him to murder anyone else," Sue added.
"Johnny's safety---all of your safety---is my responsibility and I won't r---"
Sue crossed her arms stubbornly. "This is my decision. Johnny's my brother."
Behind them, Ben sighed. Here we go again…
Reed started to argue, but Sue didn't give him the chance to get a word in. "I don't care if we have to go drag Victor back here----"
"And get more people killed in the process!" Reed wasn't about to do that. "I'm not going to risk repeating what happened to Dr. Sater---"
"I'm not going to risk a repeat of what happened to those people at that estate!"
Sue didn't look at the body covered by the blanket, nor did she have it in her to hate the woman anymore. What was the point? She was sorry the woman was murdered and grateful she'd tried to clean up her mess after what she'd helped Victor do to Johnny. However, forgiveness hadn't quite made its way into her heart just yet—not when they couldn't undo the injury to her brother. Sue could understand Sater wanting to help her people, her family, her country, and she knew how easily Victor could seduce a person into his grandiose plans and schemes. He had fooled Sue for many years, too. But, Nora Sater was a doctor. As far as Sue was concerned, the woman never should have concocted the post-hypnotic control program in the first place---and never should have used it on an unsuspecting, unwilling man. She was supposed to have boundaries and ethics. Dad had taught Sue and Johnny that much.
Whether it was because of Victor's taunting about him, or because he was a neurosurgeon and might have been able to do something—anything---to help, Sue wished her father was there right now.
Ben tried to play peacekeeper again. He rose from the pilot's chair and put himself between the bickering scientists. "Victor's not gonna hurt anyone else with the kid's power, Susie, not after we smash that thermal do-hickey into dust." Ben saw Reed's reaction to that suggestion. "What? Ya ain't seriously thinkin' of takin' those rocks back ta Latveria? Vic will just snatch 'em again…"
"Ben, don't you think I know that?" No, Reed knew he couldn't return the thermal power cells to Latveria. He intended to try to keep his word to Dr. Sater, but those thermal cells were just too dangerous. Reed would find another way to get electricity for those farmers without giving Doom a thermal bomb to play with.
Misunderstanding Reed's protest, Ben walked over to the small box where they had stashed the twin thermal cells and opened the lid. "Then, let's get rid of these rocks right now…"
"No!" Reed caught Ben's arm, stopping him. He tried explaining the problem, "Those rocks are containers---containers filled with Johnny's nova power. Breaking one might release that heat all at once…which could be worse than what happened at that mansion."
Ben closed the lid. "That could get toasty."
Guilt flashed in Sue's eyes. Ben felt bad for her. He knew what she was going through. He'd seen all kinds of awful stuff when he was in the military, but he'd been trained to cope with it. She hadn't. This guilt gala had to end if they were going to figure out how to help Johnny, Ben decided. "Ya did the right thing back there, Susie. A lot more people would've died if you weren't there. Those government yahoos will figure out what ya did for 'em containing blast and lettin' 'em know about the goon squad just as soon as someone loans 'em a crowbar to pry their heads outta their butts." To Reed, Ben added: "And Doom whacking Sater wasn't yer fault any more than what they did to Johnny."
They both nodded, but silence still hung in the air. Ben tried again, "Anyway, I got a question, Reed, since yer the egghead: If this 'deprogramming' all depends on those blinkin' lights, you got any idea how we're going ta get Matchstick to sit through the session? All this work yer doin' ain't gonna mean squat if Johnny can screw it up just by shuttin' his eyes."
Sue and Reed exchanged a look that clearly indicated they'd thought of everything…except that.
Ben shook his head, "Great."
Sue woke in a cold sweat, disoriented by nightmarish images. Some of the dreams she knew too well. Since this mess began, she'd been having the recurring nightmares of the one and only time Johnny (then only thirteen years old) had run away from their grandmother's care, upset when their father escaped from prison and failed to return for them. He'd turned up three days later, after Sue had scoured the city trying to find him, scared to death that something would happen to him and even more frightened that Social Services would use the incident to put her younger brother into foster care. Sue had pushed for guardianship of her brother after that. Johnny never talked about their father again.
This time, the familiar bad dream was joined with a new nightmare of Doom unleashing thermal explosions that devoured villages, livestock, forests, and then cities.
She was awakened, still in a panic, when Reed dropped a blanket across her shoulders. She'd fallen asleep at the workstation where the two of them had been pouring over Nora Sater's p.h.c. program and its elaborate 'language'. "Bad dreams?" Reed guessed.
"Those people…" she mumbled. "Johnny?" She looked at the box and the monitor that showed Johnny still sleeping fitfully inside. Still half in the grip of the bad dreams, she'd awakened almost scared that she'd find the rescue had been a dream and he was still missing.
"Still unconscious. We'll be back at the Baxter Building in another hour. I can keep an eye on him if you want to get some more sleep," Reed said. He could have used some rest himself, she thought, noticing the bags that had formed under his eyes. But he wouldn't sleep, she knew. Reed would sit there studying that program until his feet were permanently rooted into the fuselage.
"I don't think I can now." Sue stood up to stretch her legs and her back before taking a seat on the fold-down cot, which was less comfortable than the work chair had been.
Reed paused from his work, watching her with concern. After a second, he walked over and sat beside her on the bunk. "I know what you mean. It's true though---there wasn't anything else you could have done for those people, Sue."
"I could have stopped Johnny at Selva-Uitti. I could have gone after the bomb first," Sue rebuked herself. "All I was thinking about was not letting Johnny get away again. That's all I've thought about for the last six days." She'd have to live with that decision, and it was a good bet that, if she was going to protect her family and continue using her powers against people like Doom, it wouldn't be the last time she'd have to make and live with that kind of a choice. She stared at her hands, folded on her lap, and the gasket (with its recently added diamond) around her finger that was her engagement ring.
Or live with what those choices do to me. She took Reed's hand, laced her fingers through his. "I'm sorry you got the worst of my temper this week," she said, her apology there in her eyes when she finally met his gaze.
"Don't worry…" Reed wrapped his arm around her shoulders, making a show of flexibility. "…rubber, remember? It all bounced right off me."
Sue groaned at the pun, but still smiled a bit. She was about to stretch her face up to kiss him when Reed, in typical eagerness over his scientific work, ended the romantic moment when he extended his free arm and retrieved the palm-sized computer from the work table. She let out a patient sigh and took the small computer when he offered it. "If you're up for some good news, I think we've made some progress with Dr. Sater's p.h.c. program. Have a look," Reed urged her.
The screen was displaying a cryptic stream of data. She could make sense of some of it, but not all. Reed had flagged certain sections of the program's coding…repetitive and non-repetitive patterns, Sue realized. "Most of the program is repetitive…I think that's what comes across as background static. It keeps the subject in a suggestible state. The non-repetitive patterns…"
"…Are the actual post-hypnotic suggestions," Sue finished.
He grinned. "Precisely. After you programmed what survived of the language key on the flash drive into our computers, while you were sleeping, I started comparing the key to the coding. The computer made a partial translation. I might be able to use that to decipher the rest of Sater's language and the exact suggestions Doom implanted. I think I've already figured out how to counter the 'autopilot' command. Without the autopilot…" Reed pondered that for a moment. "…he'll still try to kill us as soon as he wakes up, but at least he'll be more loquacious while he's trying."
'Autopilot'? Oh, so that's what was making her brother act even more like a homicidal robot back in Latveria. Still, Sue might have felt a surge of hope if she didn't sense the presence of the other shoe hanging over her head. "The bad news?"
Reed filled her in on the rest of details of his brief conversation with Dr. Sater. "Doom was a little too eager to make us witnesses to his little mind games…which means that the program wasn't executed exactly the way it was intended. We weren't supposed to interject with our comments while Sater's computer was 'programming' Johnny. Also, some of these commands are what she called 'mental booby traps'…I don't know what's going to happen when I try to counter them."
There were more variables than Reed would like in trying to solve this puzzle. In the back of his mind, he was also picking at the problem that Ben had pointed out: How did he make Johnny stop trying to kill them and sit through the deprogramming process? Reed was debating with himself between using the controller to keep Johnny on 'autopilot', to force him to cooperate (assuming that Johnny would obey any voices other than Victor's, and there was no guarantee of that, in fact Reed doubted it very much), but his ethical objections that he'd be no better than Sater or Doom if he did so. Ideally, Johnny should make the choice---if he were in his right mind. Turning off the 'autopilot' still wouldn't put Johnny in his right mind.
Reed closed his eyes for a second and leaned his head against the fuselage. . Ask Sater for help or kidnap her and force her to help? Take away an energy source that could improve millions of lives—billions of lives---or risk creating a weapon that might fall back into Doctor Doom's hands. Make Johnny go through deprogramming or ask him to? For the past six days, he'd done nothing but make such decisions---always caught between the ethical Option A's and the repugnant but potentially more successful Option B's. There was never a black or white, right or wrong clear course of action. Every option fell into 'gray areas'.
Option A: Reed would release Johnny from the control of the 'autopilot' function and try to reason with him through Sater's wretched mind control, try to make him understand what had happened and let them help him.
Option B…
A thump from inside the titanium box brought Reed and Sue both to their feet. Sue reached the metal prison first and opened the door. Johnny was still unconscious, but he was muttering something and his eyebrows wrinkled. The thump was his leg kicking at the cramped cot on which he lay.
"I thought the sedative was supposed to last until we got home?" Sue asked. She was already moving to Johnny's side. Reluctantly, she slid the titanium restraints around his wrist. They just couldn't risk a fight in mid-air.
Reed noticed the same thing as he moved to stand at Johnny's other side. "With Johnny's metabolism, it's hard to be precise." It was more than that. It was the post-hypnotic program reasserting control, apparently programmed to decide when the Human Torch had been dormant too long. It was trying to make him flame on, to wake, to burn whatever was keeping him unconscious out of his blood. Reed thumbed the communicator: "Ben! How long until we land?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Five would be better," Reed answered. "And lock the door!"
"I don't exactly got warp engines here, Reed," Ben complained. Nevertheless, he must have seen what was happening over the monitors because Reed felt the plane increase its speed. The door to the box could be opened from here, and the equipment could be remote-controlled by the palmtop Reed was holding, but the lock was controlled by remote, which Reed had left with Ben just in case something like this happened and Johnny tried to escape. The door slid shut and clicked as it locked itself.
Reed tried to snap a restraint around Johnny's other arm. The Human Torch's hand lashed out and caught Reed's wrist in what would have been a death grip if Mr. Fantastic weren't able to constrict his own muscles until he wriggled out of Johnny's hold. He hurriedly closed the lock around Johnny's wrist and took a step back. He used the palmtop to bring the box's equipment online.
Sue moved to the head of the cot and placed her hands on Johnny's shoulders. Even through the gel suit, she could feel his body trying to heat up as he struggled against the bindings. She was ready to use her shields, just in case she and Reed had to get out of the box in a hurry. "Johnny, you're safe. It's going to be all right," she said firmly.
Reed watched. When Johnny's eyes finally opened, before he had the chance to react to their presence, Reed thumbed the palmtop's controls and the box's strobes let out sequence of blinding flashes of light. If he'd interpreted Sater's language correctly, the pattern would at least bring Johnny out of the mindless obedience of Doom's 'autopilot'.
Johnny squinted at the lights. For a few seconds, he stopped thrashing and his gaze became unfocused. Then he blinked, first at Reed, at his surroundings from the gel suit to the computer-controlled lights and speakers to the titanium bands around his wrists, then finally at Sue. She spoke calmly: "We've got you."
Reed added: "How do y----"
"Get off me!" Johnny's deep, mindless rage returned, full force and nearly uncontrollable. The only parts of the Human Torch that weren't covered by the gel suit---his head and his hair---burst into flame so suddenly that Sue recoiled and pulled her hands away from her brother. She wasn't quite fast enough to avoid being singed a bit. She was only glad Johnny didn't shoot fire from his eyes like some alien in a bad science fiction movie.
Johnny tried to break the bands that held him down, but that was impossible. The sensors in the box detected the heat of his flames and deployed the newly installed extinguishers. He found himself choking on a face full of the vile gel retardant.
"I'm sorry about that, Johnny, but you need to listen to us this time," Reed apologized.
Sue's hands went back to resting on Johnny's shoulders, trying to convey their sincerity and concern through the touch. The contact only agitated him further. "We tried to tell you before, Johnny---Victor and Dr. Sater used a mind control program on you. You were in this box, Johnny. Do you remember that? Dr. Sater arranged to kidnap you from your dentist's office and put you in here. We tried to get you out."
"When Victor was talking to you over the earphone, there were subliminal messages in his broadcast. These lights and the drug Dr. Sater used on you in that dentist's office induced a hypnotic state and Victor transmitted the post-hypnotic suggestions…" Reed tried.
He didn't know what the hell they were trying to pull. Johnny did not remember that. He didn't remember this coffin-like box, and he wasn't interested in hearing all of Reed Richard's garbage a second time. "Bunch of crap.." he growled.
"We don't lie to each other, Johnny," Sue argued. "No matter what. Do you remember that?"
Johnny remembered the bench outside the lawyers' offices, outside the judge's chambers, and the hardwood floor he'd spent many hours staring at while events that directly affected him and his sister were discussed without him in those rooms. He remembered the butterflies doing loop-de-loops in his stomach every time he and Susie were called to one of these meetings. Sometimes the twelve-year-old was brought in to answer questions---mostly to do with how he liked living with his grandmother, how was he doing at school, and was he talking to his counselor every week. He knew the courts had their doubts about Nana's ability to be guardian for him, especially with Sue heading to college soon.
"If you're thinking of running again, you're going to have to take me with you," Sue said as she plopped herself down next to him on the bench. "We're sticking together."
"I know what they're talking about. I'm not stupid," he'd told Sue during one of those waiting periods. The idea of Sue going away, so soon after they'd lost their parents, and Johnny being thrown into some foster home terrified him.
Sue took her little brother's hand. "Mom and Dad are gone, Johnny. We have to watch out for each other now. No one's splitting us up, I promise."
He trusted Sue, but he didn't think she was going to have much to say about it. "Don't lie to me, Susie."
"We don't lie to each other, Johnny. Not ever. Got it?" She pinkie-swore on the subject, just in case he doubted her. The incredibly geeky gesture still made him feel a little better.
Doubt tried to creep into Johnny's mind again, and again the anger was stronger, asserting the control of the post-hypnotic suggestions. He tried once more in vain to break free of the restraints, to flame, to escape. His mind screamed: Liars! Backstabbers! He shook his head vehemently, rejecting what they were saying. Since he couldn't escape, he turned his face from them and shut them out of his mind.
"This is what happened in the box! Go on, look! If we're lying, what do you have to lose!" Reed stepped into his line of sight, displaying the screen of the palmtop for Johnny to see. He keyed up the recorded broadcast from six days earlier of the Human Torch's entire half-hour ordeal in the box, sans the subliminal recordings, which Reed had carefully removed. The images tore at Reed and Sue, but they'd sit through every minute again if that's what it took to make Johnny listen to them. "I guarantee you're not going anywhere unless you watch," Reed informed him when the younger man didn't face the screen.
Johnny was about to tell his former leader what he could do with his doctored recordings, but the image of himself on the tiny screen made the refusal die on his lips. He had no memory of anything he was seeing in that recording…and yet, somehow all of it was familiar.
"I don't care what Victor told you, Johnny. You don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. "
"You're losing oxygen in there. It's going to make you feel confused. It's going to make it hard to think clearly. Victor's using that to play mind games with you."
"Think of this room as your chrysalis, Johnny. It's here that your transformation will truly begin."
"I could have picked any of them…I picked you."
"I never said you had a choice in the matter."
"Don't forget to say good-bye to your family, Johnny, you'll be leaving soon."
"I can't be like Doom."
Johnny squeezed his eyes shut. The conflict between what he saw and what his mind was telling him was driving him insane. Someone was trying to trick him. His eyes and ears told him it was Doom. His brain told him it was Richards and Grimm and even Sue. They were the liars. They were the backstabbers. That's why he left them. That's why he torched the Baxter Building. That's why he didn't have any problem with trying to kill them…
…or had Doom tricked him into doing those things?
For the first time since he'd left the trio behind, Johnny didn't know who to believe.
"We've been trying to find you since you disappeared." Sue pleaded with him.
"You've been helpful, Johnny, more so than I'd imagined. It's a shame our association will almost certainly be coming to an end today. Who knows what else you might have accomplished under my tutelage?" Doom shoved the meteorites into his hands.
"It's the truth," Sue answered his unspoken question. "Victor needed to control you because he found a way to harness your powers and made them into a weapon. He knew you'd never willingly help him do that. He knows you're not a murderer. He almost made you into one."
"The applications for them are almost limitless. It would be a revolution in the world energy market, with Latveria reaping the profits as the world's only supplier. People like our friends in the village would go from lanterns and latrines to world superpower overnight."
"It's a nice idea, boss. Only problem is if it sounds too good to be true…"
Sue frowned. Johnny wasn't answering them, wasn't looking at them.
But he wasn't attacking them either. Maybe he was at least listening, she hoped. "Reed, show him," Sue said.
Reed knew what she meant. He called up the images of the wreckage of the Arvizu mansion, taken when the Warbird had picked up Sue and Johnny, on the palmtop and once again shoved the computer in front of Johnny's face so the younger man had to look. Hesitantly, Johnny opened his eyes. He reluctantly glanced at the screen.
"Victor told you it was a thermal cell, that he was going to use it to help those people in Latveria. It's the same thing he promised Dr. Sater to make her help him control you. This is what he did with the cell, Johnny. He made it into a bomb and he used it on these people. Sue saw him do it. You know it's the truth."
It did look like the aftermath of Johnny's nova blast. He didn't remember Doom sending Baraga away with the bomb, but he did remember being ordered to escort Baraga and the weapon. To keep the Troublesome Tr---to keep Sue and Reed and Ben from stopping the attack. To make sure none of Kubeka's guerrillas escaped.
"They were the murderers. They killed innocent people---" Johnny heard himself answering automatically. They were the murders. Doom wanted to help the people in Latveria. Mufale and Baraga and their cronies were the killers. Doom was a humanitarian. Johnny replayed the words in his mind, but his conviction was ebbing away.
"That's Victor talking, Johnny!" Sue retorted.
"You want to talk about what happened?"
"No, sir."
Johnny kept his eyes fixed on the car engine, but he could feel Dad watching him. "You should talk. Last time you were this quiet, Susie had you duct taped to the water heater," his father joked. "What's on your mind?"
"Nothin'," the ten-year-old insisted. He continued working on the car and hoped Dad would drop the subject.
"Nothing's on your mind? Is that why you've changed that same spark plug three times?" Dad asked.
Johnny blinked and pushed the images from long ago to the back of his mind where they belonged.
"There were innocent people in that mansion, too! You've never gone after bad guys with the intention to kill them, no matter how awful they were, and you know it! You didn't just wake up one evening and suddenly decide to forget everything you believe in and switch sides! Come on, you know we're right!" Sue continued.
Reed had an inspiration: "Doom murdered Nora Sater, too, Johnny."
Johnny finally looked at him, trying to judge the truth of what Richards had just said. "I don't believe you."
"I wish I was lying, but you know what Doom's capable of. Dr. Sater gave me the post-hypnotic control program. She was going to help us free you from Doom's mind control. Victor killed her first," Reed informed him. "It was a spiteful, pointless, disgusting, cold-blooded murder, believe me."
Johnny faltered, recalling Doom's advice: I've told you, don't ever spare the life of anyone who has the power to destroy you. Destroy them first. But the doc? No, that couldn't be right. Richards was trying to con him.
Disbelief lingered on the younger man's face. They'd made him doubt Doom, just a little, despite the influence of the p.h.c. program. That was progress---at least, Reed hoped so. If he could prove it to the younger man…well, maybe he'd be more receptive to what they were trying to tell him.
Sue must have had the same idea. Still, her next words stunned even Reed: "I'll make a deal with you, Johnny---I'll prove what Reed said is true. Nora Sater's here. We couldn't leave her there. I'll let you see her for yourself. After that, if you believe there's even a chance Victor is responsible for her death, you stay and let us try to help you. If you still think we're lying or trying to trick you…you're free to leave." The last four words almost killed her, but it was the only chip with which she could bargain for Johnny's trust if her word no longer carried weight.
Johnny considered that, and then nodded. He didn't think Sue would really let him go, and if she did, Richards and Grimm would stop him. But, he'd play along; he was never going to get out of the restraints otherwise. If he could get out of the bindings, out of the box, then he might have a shot at escaping. "Deal," he agreed.
Reed wasn't sure about Sue's plan, but from the look on her face, he knew better than to argue with her. It's still one hell of a gamble. Sue unlocked the restraints, but was still ready to contain Johnny if he attacked them. Johnny sat up, rubbing the circulation back into his hands. He watched them both warily. They backed away a couple of steps.
"Ben, open the door. We're coming out," Reed said over the communicator.
Reed could almost hear Ben's jaw hit the floor. "Say again? Did I hear ya right?"
"Open the door," Sue ordered, staring into the camera so he could see that she was serious.
After the slightest of delays, the lock clicked and the door appeared amidst the seamless metal. Reed led the way out, watching Johnny as he followed. The Human Torch couldn't get out of the gel suit without some effort, but that didn't make him harmless. Sue was the last one out of the box and kept her guard up. Reed moved to the bunk where they'd placed Nora and pulled the sheet away from her face. He stepped aside to allow Johnny to see.
Oh God. Johnny blanched at the sight, all concerns about escaping momentarily forgotten.
It was the doc, all right. Johnny laid one hand across her forehead and very gently turned her face so that he could see the fatal wound. At the base of her skull, there was something that could only be an electrical burn---one caused by more voltage than most machines could generate…but not more than Doom could toss off. It reminded Johnny of the pictures the newspapers printed of the poor jerk banker that Doom had wiped out by burning a hole in his chest. Richards and Grimm couldn't have done this. They were too goody-two-shoes to kill a woman, especially a harmless, powerless woman. Johnny didn't believe in hurting women either…
…not until recently.
…not until he'd left the team and joined Doom.
…not until Doom turned him against his family, made him attack them, attack Susie.
"Is that why you've changed the same spark plug three times?" Dad asked.
Johnny hadn't been concentrating on the half-finished car. He'd been distracted with hearing gunshots in his mind every time he or his father dropped a tool on the cement floor. He'd been seeing his father running in the directions of the gunshots, yelling at Johnny to stay where he was. Johnny, naturally, hadn't obeyed. He'd been seeing blood in every smear of grease on their faces and drop of oil they spilled on the garage floor. He still had nightmares about seeing Mr. Barnes, the grocer, clutching his bleeding arm…and of the robber he'd shot lying on the sidewalk, blood gushing where the bullet had hit his neck.
"Jonathan Spencer Storm!" Uh-oh. Middle names. Dad must have been talking while Johnny was zoned out. The boy jumped.
"You want to know why I saved a man like that robber? Or why I helped him before I helped Mr. Barnes?"
Johnny shook his head. He'd watched enough episodes of MASH to understand that the worst injuries got treated first. "No—I know. That oath and stuff."
Dad circled around the car until he stood in front of the boy. "'And stuff'? Meaning you don't agree?"
He knew the answer his Dad expected from him. It still took some effort to stammer it out: "No, sir. I mean, yes sir."
"I take that 'oath and stuff' seriously, son. What I do is important to me. Not as important as you and Susie and your mother, family always comes first, but important. Whether he was a bad man or not, my job is to try to save any lives that I can, not just the people I think deserve my help."
Ben lumbered into the room. He was about to demand to know what kind of hare-brained scheme was going on inside Reed and Susie's mind when he saw Johnny kneeling by one of the bunks, with one hand on Dr. Sater's forehead. The kid looked ready to lose his lunch. Maybe it wasn't such a screwball idea after all.
After a minute, Ben cleared his throat. "Some 'mentor' ya picked, Matchstick."
Ben's voice rekindled that anger, but this time Johnny forced his temper in check. He still couldn't flame on, but for a second his eyes flashed fire at the Thing in warning.
The plane had landed sometime during the melee. He could see the hangar of the Baxter Building outside the window. Escape would be difficult, but not impossible. The urge to seek his chance to flee and go back to Latveria was strong, almost overwhelming. Johnny tried to resist it, still intent on figuring out whether it was Doom or Richards playing him for a fool. His hands began to tremble with the effort of restraining the impulse to run or attack.
Reed stepped in: "Do you believe us now?"
Johnny didn't answer…but he did at least glance at Reed in acknowledgment of the question.
"The last thing you said when you were in that box was 'I trust you, Reed'. I'm asking, can you trust me one more time, son?"
"Always picking the wrong father figures, the wrong mentors…always disappointed." Doom's voice taunted.
Johnny's shaking hands went to his forehead.
"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." The guard addressed the nineteen-year-old in the cell after opening the door.
Johnny was startled. The guard didn't realize what he'd just said was impossible. Wasn't it? Then Reed Richards stepped around the corner. "That's not my dad, that's my sister's geek ex-boyfriend," Johnny corrected. It should have been obvious, if the guard was paying attention, that the science nerd was no way old enough to be Johnny's father. Then again, from the stern, disappointed look Reed was giving Johnny, he might as well have been Dad.
Still, Johnny wasn't going to say 'no' to getting sprung from this cesspool. He met Reed's look with a smirk and swaggered from the cell as if getting tossed in there was no big deal…never mind that the teenager had been saying prayers to every saint he knew only five minutes ago. He waited until they were safely out the gates and driving away before he asked Reed: "How'd you do it?"
Reed kept his eye on the road. "Hacked into the surveillance system. You're just lucky those chop shop guys don't have the sense to avoid cameras."
"They're thieves, not Mensa. You didn't call Sue?" When Johnny called Sue's ex-boyfriend (not knowing who else would be goody-two-shoes enough to believe in his innocence, much less try to help), he'd expected that the first thing Reed would do was blab to Sue, even though the teenager was now a legal adult and she technically wasn't his guardian anymore.
"No, Hopefully she's at work with no clue that any of this happened," Reed told him. "I assumed that's what you wanted since you called me and not her, right?"
Yes, actually, it was. Susie tended to freak over little things like her brother getting mistaken for a car thief and tossed in jail and almost having his entire future ruined. But Johnny still hadn't really believed Reed would show up, and let alone that he'd come after him personally, go to such lengths to help Johnny clear his name, and try to protect Sue by leaving her out of the loop. Maybe the guy was okay after all...
Too much. His mind told him that Richards was a liar, that all of them were liars, that they were his enemy…his memories told him otherwise. Johnny's tenuous control over his own mind began to fail as conflicting information confused him. Every molecule in his body, and the rage that yearned to reassert control of his mind, cried out for him to flame on, to kill them and make good his escape, and he couldn't resist much longer. The suit doused the fires, but the gel began to sizzle as the heat pouring off Johnny's skin intensified.
Reed knew at once what was happening even before the first bubbles appeared on the gel suit. "Damn!"
Ben was baffled. The kid looked like he was going to have a seizure. "What? The kid got brainlock or something?"
That was pretty accurate, actually. Reed was already at his workstation calling up the fire suppression system. "It's one of the booby traps Sater warned me about. He's resisting the post-hypnotic suggestions and the commands are trying to regain control. Get him back in the box----!"
Too late. Johnny was tearing at the binding suit, running for the hatch, seeking escape. His uncovered face and head burst into flames. He didn't get halfway to the door Ben warned Reed and Sue, "Hang on!" The Thing stomped his foot violently enough to rock the plane. The docked Warbird jolted like it had hit air turbulence and Johnny was thrown from his feet. Susie took over from there. She cast a shield around her brother and propelled him back into the waiting titanium prison, mindful not to hurt him in the process.
Ben was there, ready to hoist Johnny onto the waiting bunk. The gel suit was badly blistered, beginning to melt in some places. Beneath it, the retardant was boiling off quickly. Beneath that, Johnny's uniform glowed as he attempted to flame. Ben was about to put the restraints back on Johnny's wrists, but if the kid flamed on, the bindings weren't going to hold him anyway. Sue resumed her place beside the bunk. There wasn't enough room for four people and a bunk in the small box (particularly when one of those people was the size of Ben), so Reed stood just outside the door.
Sue was about to put her shield up, but instead took a chance. She grabbed Johnny's gloved hand, feeling the heat beginning to penetrate the disintegrating gel suit.
"Sue, watch it---!" Ben warned.
She knew what she was doing. "This is Doom's game, Johnny." Sue made sure her brother was listening to her, moving her head when he turned his face so that they remained in eye contact. "You don't want to hurt me. I know you don't. I'm not going anywhere. If you nova, you're going to take me with you."
"If you're thinking of running again, you're going to have to take me with you. We're sticking together."
Johnny squinted at her through the effort of fighting the nova...and the anger. Doom's snide words baited him still: Need is an impurity. A vulnerability. You still have it…in fact, Sue is a weakness we have in common.
No, he didn't want to hurt Susie.
Ben wasn't about to get in Sue's way; neither was he going to let her get flame-broiled on her own. So he dug in his own heels. He stepped forward where the younger man could see him as well. "What the hell. Count me in. Ya gotta vaporize me too, junior---understood?"
"I said, 'Understood'?"
Johnny bit his tongue, kept standing at full attention, and refrained from answering with the smart-assed retorts that came to his mind at the question. It wasn't as if Commander Benjamin Grimm was subtle (anytime in his life), much less obscure, when making his point. It wasn't as if Johnny hadn't heard his commanding officer loud and clear with Grimm standing almost nose-to-nose with him while he barked out his reprimands.
The only answer Johnny knew was safe when dealing with a seriously pissed off Ben Grimm was: "Yes, Sir!"
And it wasn't as if Johnny weren't used to finding himself on the receiving end of said reprimands. Grimm couldn't be a bigger hard-ass if he were made of stone. The fact that Johnny had tackled with ease every obstacle, task, and curveball Grimm threw his way didn't impress the guy one bit. If he was trying to prove he wasn't going to play favorites with N.A.S.A.'s trainees just because Johnny was the kid brother of Reed Richards' ex-girlfriend, he'd succeeded beyond his wildest expectations.
He didn't want or need to hear that he'd screwed up…and screwed up big this time. Johnny knew that much. Bringing non-authorized persons into restricted areas: Bad. Wrecking N.A.S.A. equipment while sneaking said non-authorized persons into said restricted areas: Very Bad. Embarrassing his utterly humorless C.O…very, very, very bad. What he wanted to hear was what his C.O. planned to say to the group of men and women waiting on the other side of that door. When it came right down to it, Johnny didn't know if he could count on the man. If Grimm, of all people, didn't trust him, if he wasn't going to say a word in his defense, then Johnny's career at N.A.S.A. was going to be a brief one.
Grimm didn't wait for him to respond anyway. "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 the 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. Am I making myself clear!"
Again, Johnny only dared answering, "Yes, Sir!"
"Good. Now sit your ass on that chair," Ben pointed to a wooden chair beside the door, "and keep it there until I tell you otherwise!" With that, his C.O. pushed past him and locked himself in the room with the panel reviewing Johnny's transgression, leaving the younger man sitting on that chair in the hallway, with the uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu as his future was debated once again by people behind closed doors…
Through the haze of pain at holding in power that screamed for release, Johnny glanced hazily at the massive stone man. The rage that was shattering the Human Torch's control spoke in Doom's voice once more: "The point, Johnny, is that 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. You were angry when you came knocking on my door. I know you were."
Johnny almost smiled, despite the strain his body was undergoing. He knew what had happened in that meeting without Ben, Reed, Sue, or Doom telling him…
Closed doors were only effective when they were, in fact, closed and better still guarded. The door separating Johnny from the on-going discussion on the other side wasn't quite shut. It was ajar thanks to the harried clerk who'd followed Grimm into the session, and the beckoning opportunity was too much temptation for Johnny. Grimm had told him to stay in the chair, but that didn't mean the chair had to stay put. Slowly and ever so quietly, Johnny scooted the chair closer, until he could hear the voices on the other side.
"Commander," a voice that Johnny didn't recognize greeted.
There was the scraping sound of a chair being moved and Grimm answered, "Sir."
"We won't waste your time. You're familiar with the details of incident in question, and you're Mr. Storm's commanding officer. We'd like your recommendations before we made a decision about disciplinary actions."
It seemed a long time to Johnny, who was braced for the knife about to be plunged into his back, but Grimm didn't miss a beat. But it wasn't the answer Johnny had expected, nor the one review board anticipated judging by the surprised murmurs on the other side of the door when Ben said: "Johnny Storm is the best trainee in the program, Sir."
During the brief commotion Ben's reply had created, someone noticed the door and pushed it shut.
For a guy who prided himself on knowing everything about everyone, Doom sure got his facts screwed up a lot.
Johnny had been angry about being tossed out of N.A.S.A.---angry at the higher-ups who'd decided his fate, angry at himself for his own stupid mistake, and, yes, angry at Ben Grimm---- not for what happened during that review but for being one of the most uptight, most unpleasant, most admirable s.o.b.s it had been Johnny's sorry good fortune to meet. Ben Grimm had been as much a hero back then as he was now, in his reluctant role of superhero, and yeah, his opinion had mattered to Johnny. Disappointing Ben Grimm had been worse than disappointing the higher-ups who'd booted Johnny out of the space program, worse than disappointing himself.
Doom was wrong about Susie. There would be nothing left of Johnny and Sue's family if she hadn't been strong enough to keep both of them together, hadn't done her best to fill the void left by their parents. He wouldn't be the person he was now if she hadn't been there for him, hadn't nagged and harassed him from PS 201 to N.A.S.A. to Von Doom's space program, hadn't chased him down wherever trouble led him---chop shops of Boston, bus stations and bars in New York City, the backwoods of Latveria. Susie was not weak or foolish.
Neither did those descriptions fit Reed Richards. True, sometimes he needed a kick in the butt to get his attention (particularly in his pre-engagement relationship with Sue), but the bottom line was that none of them could survive this wild ride their powers had laid out for them without Reed there to lead them, and there was no one on the planet Johnny would trust more readily with his life and Susie's.
If Doom had gotten anything right it was only that this group, these three, were Johnny's family and he did need them. If that made them his Achilles' heel or impurity, well, so be it.
These insights, which countered what Sater's supposed---no, not 'supposed'---mind control program had told Johnny to think, brought a fresh surge of false anger and he struggled against it. He squinted at the three of them—Ben, Susie, and finally Reed Richards---and mumbled something under his breath that they couldn't hear.
Sue leaned down so she could listen to the quiet words, "What?"
Shaking, sweating, fighting, Johnny forced the words past Sater and Doom's mental barricades: "…trust…you."