Now the situation gets a twist... ;)

Chapter 3

Intruder

Johnny hadn't moved from where he sat on the couch all day, despite the urge to get up and do something else. What was the point? It wasn't like he had anything else to do. He hoped doing this would buy sympathy from the other three, but Sue looked pleased, Ben looked ready to gloat about it, and Reed, well Reed just ignored him. He was good at that.

Sometime that afternoon, Sue called for everybody's attention.

"Reed and I are heading out for awhile." she explained. "We need to get some more vegetables, so while I'm getting that, Reed will be looking for a new PDA."

"Since my other one got crushed." Reed added, looking at Ben.

"How was I supposed to know it had gotten left in that chair?" Ben grumbled in his defense.

"Point is, guys, is that we're going to be out for a little while." Sue interrupted, "And since Johnny isn't supposed to be going anywhere, Ben could keep an eye on him?"

"Sure thing, Sue." Ben said, giving Johnny a side glance.

Johnny suppressed the urge to moan.

Reed and Sue left the apartment, leaving the other two by themselves.

"Looks like it'll just be you an me, eh, hothead?" Ben teased, whacking Johnny on the back very hard, most likely intentionally.

"Brilliant." Johnny bemoaned.

oooo

As Reed and Sue left the Baxter Building via it's lobby, a teenage boy dressed in janitorial clothes entered. He promptly began to walk across the room to a far hallway, but the doorman stopped him.

"Where are you going?" he asked politely.

The boy held up a mop and bucket. "I'm here to clean." he said simply through the wad of chewing gum in his mouth.

"Oh, that's right." the doorman said, remembering now. "Go on, then."

The bot grinned, and continued on his path, however, as soon as he turned a corner, he dropped the mop and bucket. He had scheduled with the doorman to come in and clean, but that wasn't what he planned on doing.

Making sure no one was watching him, he headed for the stairs, and started climbing up them.

oooo

"Where are you going?" Johnny asked, watching Ben stomp off.

"Downstairs to the game room." Ben explained simply. "A good chance to play some pinball. Maybe get my high score even higher."

Johnny knew what that meant. "Ben, please don't!" he complained. "If you beat my all-time high score, I won't be able to raise mine to keep ahead until this stupid grounding Sue has me on is over!"

"Exactly!" Ben said happily, "How else would I get the chance to get the all-time high score for once?"

He started marching off again, but paused. "Oh, by the way, Johnny," he said like an afterthought, "Don't think you can try anything now. I may be rocky down to the core, but I still have my excellent hearing. And I'll be listening for anything you might be doing."

He gave Johnny once last taunting smile, then left the room. Johnny stayed where he was, wondering how this day could get any worse.

oooo

Unbeknownst to him, "worse," just so happened to be sneaking into the Fantastic Four's HQ through the stairs placed in the back of Reed's lab. And that was exactly where the intruder wanted to be first.

It was the teenage boy who claimed to be coming in to clean. He first went to Reed's control room, and accessed various files, documents, and programs, making minor modifications to each...despite all of them being guarded by a security password. He then wandered over to a locker like compartment lining one wall, and opened it.

He grinned at what he found.

Spare team uniforms.

oooo

Johnny decided to change his situation for a bit, and chose to sit in the only recliner in the room so he could stare at the wall on the opposite side of the room for a change. It didn't seem any different.

He was tempted to try and sneak some fun into his day while no one was looking, but hit walls every way he tried. Not only was there the issue of Ben's good hearing, but there was the issue of monitoring in the apartment that Reed had set up. For obvious reasons, all the phone calls in and out where monitored, so Johnny couldn't call anybody. All the security cameras were all geared with infrared and they couldn't ever miss Johnny, so he couldn't go anywhere he wasn't supposed to without getting seen by them.

He couldn't play any games because they were all in the game room, and that was were Ben was. And he couldn't turn on the TV without Ben hearing it unless he turned the volume way down, and then he couldn't hear it. So he was stuck, whether he liked it or not.

He must have dozed off at one point, for he awoke when he heard a soft clatter nearby. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced around. It had gotten cloudy outside, and the sun was hidden behind it all, a sure sign of rain. It had darken the room considerably, and that threw Johnny off for a few moments, but then he realized it was so dark because someone and turned the lights off.

Deciding Ben must have come in and done it, Johnny got up and wandered to the fridge to get a drink. But halfway there, the pattering of footsteps stopped him. The footsteps were far to light to be Reed's or Sue's, and they certainly didn't belong to Ben. That only meant one thing. Someone was here who wasn't supposed to be.

It was too dark to see clearly, so Johnny lit one hand aflame and held it out like a torch. Standing before at the edge of the darkness was a teenage boy.

Johnny gave the boy a funny look. "How did you get in here?" he asked. "Did Lenny let you in?"

"Yes and no." the boy answered calmly, stepping towards Johnny. "Regardless of all that, however, I'm here to see you."

Johnny's first impression was that the boy was one of his many fans, but then he realized that he didn't have the usual overactive energy most of his young fans had, and then he remembered that all of his fans were female. The he noticed something else about the boy. He wore a team uniform under his clothes. He could see the edge of one sleeve hanging out. What was this kid up to?

"Here for what?" Johnny asked, letting the boy step even closer.

"Here for some fun." he answered simply, then slapped his hand onto Johnny's shoulder.

Instantly Johnny felt a tingly feeling rush through him, one he knew all to well. The last time he felt the feeling was a month ago, when that silver surfer guy was running around.

He felt it every time he accidently swapped powers with another. But he thought that had gotten nullified, or whatever Reed's term for it was.

However, that thought was shot down when the boy in front of him suddenly burst into flames...