This chapter ran a bit longer than I planned, but what can I say, I was on a roll. :P
Chapter 6
Taunting
"Sorry Johnny, there is no indication whatsoever that the switching powers ability has been reactivated in your body." Reed reported.
"You sure?" Johnny asked, standing nearby.
"Johnny, you've made me do the test five times now, how much more sure can I get?" Reed asked annoyed.
It was the next day, and both Reed and Johnny were in Reed's lab, conducting the test Johnny had asked for. Johnny was sure it would test positive, but it didn't.
"How can that be?" he asked Reed, thinking. "I don't see how, but the boy must have it, or there's an entirely different reason."
"Here's one, you imagined it." Reed suggested. "I mean you're whole story is a little far fetched."
"As far fetched as a silver alien flying around the world causing panic on a surfboard?" Johnny asked rhetorically.
"Okay, maybe not." Reed admitted. "But still, are you sure you're feeling alright? Maybe the stress we've been through lately has gotten to you."
"Well, I suppose that's entirely possible..." Johnny had to admit.
"Johnny!" Sue suddenly shouted from the other room. "You better not be doing anything you're not supposed to! Remember, you're still grounded!"
"I'll say this much." Johnny finally said when Sue had finished, "If I have yet to crack, it's a miracle I've lasted this long."
Even Reed had to agree with that.
oooo
"Bad news, guys." Ben said later that day, just getting off the phone, "some building's neon sign is about to fall down, and there's a repairman stuck on it. They're asking us to go save him."
"With the Fantasticar, it should be real easy." Johnny said.
"FHC." Reed corrected. "Okay, let's go."
Sue, Reed, and Ben headed for the hanger where the Fantasticar was parked. Johnny stayed where he was.
"Guess I'll just stay here, then." he bemoaned. "All alone, with nothing to do."
The other three held up a moment to listen.
"Not much to do when you're grounded and got nothing to do." Johnny continued. "Of course with you guys gone, there might be something I could do...maybe go take off flying again like you guys believe I did yesterday..."
Reed and Ben grinned, looking at one another. They knew what Johnny was doing, but it was Sue's call. Sue was completely aware what Johnny was doing too, and it mad her mad, but she realized that Johnny was right. He'd do anything unsupervised.
Sue folded her arms, trying to find some good way out of it. "Oh all right!" Sue finally exclaimed. "You can come Johnny."
"YES!" Johnny yelled, "You won't regret it Sue!" He raced off ahead the group into the hanger.
"He'd better hope I won't regret it." Sue stated, following Johnny and the others into the hnager.
"To the Fantasticar!" Johnny yelled.
"FHC!" Reed shouted back.
oooo
Moments later they were at the scene. The neon sign Ben had mentioned sat on the top of a five story building, the sign itself roughly about ten feet tall. Apparently what had happened was that the repairman was hooked onto the sign, probably changing a lightbulb. When the sign's supports suddenly gave away.
The sign tipped over forward so that it now hung vertically off the building's roof, hanging out in open space. The only thing that was keeping it from falling where some emergency restraints along the sign's base, and they weren't designed to go through the strain they were being subjected to now. The sign was going to fall very soon, and if the Fantastic Four didn't react quickly, it'd take the repairman, dangling from one of the light fixtures on the sign, with it.
As Reed flew the Fantasticar over to the building, he looked down at the crowd that was gathering below. "If they stay were they are," he said to the others, "the sign will fall on them."
"You'd think that would be clear enough that they'd keep their distance." Ben noted.
"They're probably fans, thinking we're here to save the sign too." Johnny pointed out.
"We can't save the sign, can we?" Sue asked, eyeing the sign as Reed brought the Fantasticar to hover in front of it.
"Maybe we can." Johnny said, "At least temporarily, long enough for someone to come up and do it properly. All we gotta do is reattach those metal cords that keep the sign in place."
"And how do we do that?" Reed asked.
"Easy." Johnny said. He reached his arm past Reed, sitting in front of him, and lit his hand aflame.
Reed watched the dancing flames, catching on. "That could work." he said, "We'll need Ben to hold the sign in place, and me and Sue will try and get the repairman, helping out where we can."
Johnny extinguished his hand and leaned back into his seat. He shouldered Sue, sitting next to him. "Glad I came now?" he asked happily.
Sue held off answering for a moment, trying to ignore Johnny's big grin. "Oh, fine." she finally said, "Maybe a little."
Reed landed the Fantasticar long enough for Johnny and Ben to climb off onto the roof. Then Reed swung it around to hang under the sign.
"Ben, you go and try to keep the sign from falling any lower." Johnny said, "I'll take care of those cords."
"Got it." Ben grunted, and went over and hooked his hands around a support beam on the sign and pulling.
Johnny looked for the cords, and saw that both were dangling limply at either side of the sign. He grabbed one, and started to pull it back to a good place to weld it to the stone rooftop with his fire, but quickly saw a problem with his plan.
The cords were too short. They could only be used to with the sign upright.
"Ben, can you raise the sign any higher?" Johnny asked quickly.
Ben shook his rocky head. "It's taking all my strength just to keep the thing from falling." he replied. "I don't have enough leverage to raise all the way."
Johnny ran to the roof's edge, "Reed!" he shouted down to where the Fantasticar hovered under the sign. Reed's arms were currently wrapped around the repairman, in preparation to pull him off. "In order to make this work, we need the sign upright again!"
"Maybe if I used a forcefield..." Sue began suggesting to Reed.
"Do it!" Reed shouted, understanding what Sue planned to do.
Sue quickly generated a forcefield, and using like a lever, raised the sign back to it's upright position.
"Good!" Johnny shouted. "Keep it there for just a few minutes Ben, this shouldn't take long!"
He grabbed a cord and ran to reattach it at the appropriate place, which happened to be where the cord once attached to the roof anyway. Johnny, straining, brought the cord to the roof surface in preparation to weld it to the roof, but was surprised at what he had discovered.
The metal cords hadn't snapped, they had been melted.
Puzzled and making a note to bring it up with Reed, Johnny quickly welded the cord in place, then, knowing that the cord wouldn't stay in place by itself for long, quickly ran and grabbed the other cord, pulling it towards it's proper location too.
He found that it had been melted away too, but quickly went to weld the cord back in place.
The Johnny felt a familiar wave of heat wash over him, and looked up. It was the boy, fully aflame.
"You again!" Johnny exclaimed and went to grab the boy's foot.
But the teenager boy hovered out of Johnny's reach. "You want to catch me, you'll have to chase me!" he said to Johnny.
Johnny was tempted to, but duty called. "You just wait!" Johnny exclaimed to the boy, and went back to welding the cord in place.
"Sorry, either now, or never!" the boy said.
He threw a fireball at Johnny's hand, making Johnny instinctively pull back. The boy then threw another fireball, which cut through the cord in Johnny's hand. It snapped backwards. Johnny tried to grab it but it pulled back. He then heard a ripping noise and turned just in time to see the other cord snap for real this time.
The sign wobbled then began to tip. Ben yelled out as he strained to compensate, but the beam he was hanging onto suddenly snapped off into his hands. The sign continued to drop, and since Sue had lowered her forcefield lever some time back, it was going back into the vertical position. But it didn't stop there, it continued to drop, hanging by mere a few restraints. The sign swung into the Fantasticar that was still hovering below it and began pushing the vehicle into the building.
Sue, having just helped the repairman into the Fantasticar, quickly generated a forcefield to stop from getting crushed into the building, and the Fantasticar became pinned between the forcefield and the sign, now threatening to fall more than ever.
Screaming could be heard below as the crowd watching from the ground suddenly began running to get out the way.
"Now they move!" Reed shouted sarcastically.
Ben quickly grabbed a new handhold on the sign to try and pull it up again, but Johnny already knew it wouldn't be enough.
He turned to face the boy, still hovering nearby. "I'll deal with you later!" he promised, then completely ignited himself into flames and went airborne, coming to hover above the sign.
"What are you doing?" Ben shouted from below him.
"Just trying to save the day!" Johnny promised.
He threw one stream of fire along the edge of the room and sign, where they joined together, welding the metal of the sign into the roof. He threw another stream of fire, doing the same thing at the other end of the sign. Slowly, he moved the streams of fire together to meet in the middle.
"Move Ben!" Johnny yelled as he brought the streams to join.
Ben moved, and Johnny finished the welding job. Hoping that would keep the sign in place long enough for his intentions, he zoomed down to stop in front of the Fantasticar's nose. Pushing with all his might and using the force of his flying as added force, Johnny slowly began to move the vehicle out from where it was pinned.
After several tense moments, the vehicle came free with a loud grinding noise as it's hull rubbed against the metal neon sign. With the Fantasticar no long in it's way, the sign swung into the building and hung there for a moment. Then, the roof edge suddenly shattered, and the sign finally dropped the five stories to the ground, long ago cleared of anything in the way.
Satisfied, Johnny flew back up to the roof to chase after the boy, but as he had feared, the boy was already long gone.
"Johnny!" Sue suddenly shouted, none too pleasantly, either, "What happened!?"
Johnny cringed. "Not again..." he moaned.