Another chapter a bit longer than usual, but alot happens so... :)

Chapter 8

All Out War

Johnny really didn't rest while he searched for the boy. But he spent all night searching for the kid, going over what had to be the entirety of New York City and Manhattan. He found nothing. Johnny began to wonder if this kid left town every time he fled, so that Johnny would have a harder time tracking him. And with him having Johnny's power, it was a good possibility that was exactly the case.

However, but late morning the next day, Johnny was beginning to have seconds thoughts about not resting until he found the boy, for he was so tired, he had dozed off twice mid-flight and nearly ran into buildings because of it. Giving up, Johnny returned to his bedroom in the Baxter Building and flopping down on his bed with the plan of sleeping in.

But he never got that far.

"JOHNNY!" a voice suddenly yelled, very loudly, somewhere else in the apartment.

Jumping with fright, Johnny went to investigate. What he found was not good. The other three were gathered around the TV, all staring intently at it. Ben looked dumbfounded, Reed was looking scientific, at least more than usual. Sue, was livid. Johnny was sure he had never seen his sister that mad.

And that was saying something.

She was too angry to talk, and when she saw Johnny enter, she simply pointed at the TV, indicating for Johnny to watch. He did. A reporter was talking currently. Johnny walked in sometime after the report began, so he had missed at least three or maybe four minutes of it, but Johnny quickly figured out what were in those four minutes.

"...reports are coming in from all over the city, that Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, also known as the Human Torch, is behind the many incidents that occurred last night. Of them, it is claimed, and confirmed by actual video footage, that Mr. Storm is responsible for destroying mailboxes, setting gardens and trees aflame, chasing after people, attempting to attack them, and even destroying a car! It is unclear what this line of action is about, and the Fantastic Four itself has declined from commenting about it. Police report that..."

Sue suddenly turned the TV off, and turned to confront Johnny. Her next question pretty much covered everything.

"Why?"

Johnny was stunned. "I didn't do that." he said.

"Of course you did Johnny." Sue stated. "You saw the report, they had actual footage of you doing it!"

"Yeah, but it was all from afar!" Johnny quickly pointed out. "They never showed a good view of the incident! You can't prove that was me!"

"Who else has the ability to instantly burst into flames at will?" Sue asked angrily.

"That kid I keep telling you..."

"JOHNNY!" Sue yelled. "I don't want to hear about it!"

Reed suddenly interrupted, beginning to say something to Sue, but Sue cut him off before he got more than a word out.

"Johnny, if you can't give me the truth about your actions as of late, you will find yourself in very big trouble." Sue said.

Johnny knew there was only one thing left to do. "Then lock me up and throw the key away." Johnny told his sister, hoping this will get her to at least sit down and listen, "Because I've already told you the truth."

"Sue, I built that cell to hold criminals long enough for the police to come and get them, not to lock up Johnny for bad behavior you can't even prove!" Reed was saying, chasing after Sue as she desperately tried to get away from Reed.

"Reed, you saw that news report too. What more proof do you need?" Sue asked, not facing Reed on purpose.

"Johnny brought up a very good point, though." Reed said. "Just because the person portrayed is on fire and flying around, doesn't make him Johnny! We need more evidence! Personally, I think Johnny has been telling the truth the whole time!"

"So you believe his silly story?" Sue asked darkly, ready to turn against Reed too.

"Yes!" Reed answered regardless of the consequences, "I might not have yesterday, but I do now! Those things the news talked about, Johnny just wouldn't do those kind of things just for fun! Not in his right mind anyway."

Sue turned around and opened her mouth to talk about her thoughts about Johnny being insane, but this time Reed cut her off.

"Suppose for a moment that Johnny really did those things." Reed said, "If Johnny really wanted to escape, that cell won't stop him, he'd get out much quicker than you'd think. And he's still there, making no attempt to escape. All he's doing is sleeping! Sleeping, Sue!"

Sue tried to walk away, but Reed stopped her. "Listen, if you won't let Johnny out, then I will, and together we'll figure this out, regardless of your opinion of the matter."

Sue glared at Reed, darkly. "If you do that, I will have no part of it!" she said, refusing to change her mind.

Reed released her and stalked off. "So be it!" he said.

Johnny was glad of one thing. At least he got enough peace now to catch up on his sleep. He didn't know how long he had slept until he had trouble keeping asleep because he was getting too hot. He tried to roll over on the bed and get to a cooler spot, but failed. He made a mental note that once all of this was over, he'd ask Reed to put an air conditioner in this...

Wait a minute. Reed had told him once that this cell he had built had air conditioning, an item most cells didn't have, and that he had it programmed to maintain the cell's overall temperature at room temperature. So, then, why was Johnny so hot? Had it somehow failed?

Suddenly, he heard a hissing noise coming from behind him. Rolling over on the cot, he turned to face the rest of the cell instead of the one wall. He was surprised to find that one entire wall was currently red hot, and ready to melt. Before Johnny could stop and figure out a solution, the wall suddenly shattered, raining red hot debris down into the cell, setting the flammable things aflame, like the cot.

When the inferno had cleared, Johnny looked to where the wall had been. Apparently that wall was what divided the cell from the outside, for now Johnny now had an excellent view of the New York skyline at sunset. And floating in front of that skyline, no more than three feet outside the cell was...

"You!" Johnny yelled, standing straight up, stepping up to the shattered wall like he planned to challenge the teenage boy.

"Yes, me!" the boy said gleefully.

"Just who are you, anyway?" Johnny asked. He heard footsteps pounding from above him. Sounded like the others had heard the wall collapse and where coming to investigate. All he had to do was keep the kid here.

But the kid was onto Johnny. "Gotta catch me first to find out!" he taunted, he started to move away

"What's with you and this catching thing?" Johnny asked quickly, hoping to hold up the teenager. He could hear the footsteps coming closer, and hoped the kid didn't.

"I'm bored." the boy explained simply, as Johnny listened as the footsteps stopped suddenly.

"I can think of far better things to do." Johnny pointed out.

"Although taunting you is a fun sport, Johnny." a voice said behind him.

The door to the cell had swung open, and Reed, Ben, and Sue stood in the doorway, surveying the situation, except for Sue, who was clearly shocked. It was Ben that had spoken.

Johnny was going to say something witty in response to Ben's comment, but then the boy, knowing his cover blown, turned to fly off. This time Johnny was prepared and instantly flamed on and grabbed the boy around the middle in mid air.

What happened next happened very quickly. Johnny's fire suddenly went out, but just as quickly went out, it went back on. But when it went on, the boy's went off. But then the boy's fire came back, the same time Johnny's went out again. Neither staying alight long enough to provide enough downward thrust, they began to drop, both intermittently flaming on and off.

It took Johnny a moment to realize that they were switching the power back and forth constantly, and it would keep happening as long as they were touching each other. So Johnny let go suddenly. He ended up with the power and became fully flamed. But the boy continued to sink. He no longer could light aflame.

Johnny couldn't just let him fall the several stories to the ground, so he put on an extra burst of speed and got under the kid and zipped up to him from behind, catching him. Again, they began to swap the one power with one another very rapidly, but Johnny's upward force was keeping them airborne for the moment.

It was during that short moment that Johnny realized it was going to be very hard to sort this out now, and that his only chance was to hope that when he let go of the boy again, he'd have the power and not the boy, so that the boy couldn't escape. But he couldn't let the boy fall to his death either, so he waited until they had drifted over the roof of a nearby building to let go of the boy this time.

The moment he did, Johnny instantly realized that he had timed it wrong, for his flame shut off and he crashed onto the rooftop, unable to flame on again. The boy, completely aflame now, used the opportunity to escape.

Johnny painfully got up, glad that at least this time he actually had caught the boy for a little while...