Author: Dark-Angels-Tears
Title: Darkfire
Rating: T for Violence, Language, Graphic content... All that good stuff.
Genre: Angst/Action/Adventure. In that order.
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it isn't ours. If you don't, total legal-glomp.
Summary: AU. To go back in time and change the past, in order to save the future. This is the mission of one Johnny Storm. However, his family doesn't understand this new, ruthless, darker Johnny. None have them have ever seen this side before... except Sue.
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Jackie: In this chappie, we're trying to get back to some of the least-touched on genres in this fic so far: humour and romance.
Sarah: And before you're all, 'Oh noez! Johnny/OC!', relax. Just read the darn thing- and I'll letcha know right now, SHE DOESN'T HAVE ICE POWERS! Or any powers, for that matter. –shifty eyes-
Jackie: Are we allowed to tell that yet?
Sarah: If we don't want to lose any readers, ya it is. –cringes-
Jackie: …anyways…. On with the show!
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Chapter Ten
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Skin against skin – blood and bone.
You're all by yourself, but you're not alone.
You wanted in, and now you're here.
Driven by hate – consumed by fear!
Let the bodies hit the floor…
-Drowning Pool, Bodies
She didn't seem to hear him, and the crowd of reporters was pressing in again. Pretty soon he had lost her in the sea of faces, to his dismay. Despite how hard he tried, how many people he shoved past, he could not find the slightest trace of the woman. She had utterly disappeared.
Crushed, Johnny finally headed back to the Fantasticar, wherein his concerned teammates waited. Sue said something, tried to ask him what was wrong, but he shrugged off her attempts at conversation and simply withdrew, staring at the far-off horizon, at the gathering stormclouds.
And remembered a time long ago, when he had done the same… with company.
FLASH
"What's the matter, Johnny?" Myra asked gently, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her cheek on his head.
He shrugged sullenly, staring out the tiny window and stroking his short beard. "Storm's coming. It's going to rain soon." They both know what he meant- the fourteenth was coming around soon, and they would be going back into morning for their fallen very shortly. It put everyone in a mood before the Day even arrived, and Myra knew that Johnny was still in pain from the last fatality.
She turned her face to the side and lightly bussed the top of his head, then said in a very forthright manner, "Johnny… you can fly. You of all people should know- even when the sky is filled with clouds, the sun is still shining. Just because you can't see it anymore doesn't mean it isn't there."
She was about to kiss him again when he suddenly looked up at her, causing her lips to fall on his. The woman let out a small noise of surprise, but not displeasure.
As they broke apart, their eyes locked, and Johnny slowly smiled. "What would I do without you?"
FLASH
He closed his eyes and tried to recall the scent of her vanilla and lavender perfume; the sensation of her lips on his; her skin - warm even to a pyrokinetic - against his. Something burned behind his eyes and Johnny discreetly wiped at his eyes. No fair, he thought childishly, March's Day had been more than a fortnight ago. He was supposed to be over this kind of behaviour.
He was supposed to be, but the memories drawn to the surface by that one small incident were so overpowering, so vivid and clear in his mind, it was almost as if he could step into them and be living in that glory once again.
If only…
Johnny mostly managed to hold himself together until they got home again, where, without a word, he retreated to his room again and sat with his back pressed against the door. His body shaking violently with the force of his suppressed sobs.
She was so close, but so far away. Even if he were ethically able to meet her again, he wasn't supposed to meet the woman for four more years.
And there was no doubt in his mind at this time- he couldn't allow her to suffer through all that. Not again.
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Whether or not they showed it, the weeks that passed since Johnny had administered the antidote to Ben had wreaked an invisible toll on the two infected members of the household. Almost daily the younger member was spotting blackened patches of skin, and it was getting harder and harder to hide the scars from his bloodletting.
Ben had not yet revealed any weakness, but the gray patch on his back had been spreading at a steady pace and he had been acting slightly... off... lately. Johnny had even caught Reed staring curiously at their large orange friend once or twice, however, nothing had been brought up as of yet.
Due to the poison's later stages, the pair had never been able to fully consult on its side effects specifically to them; so he was not exactly sure what Ben was going through. Nonetheless, the worn, haggard look in the man's eyes spoke volumes of his torment. The other two members of the team, so caught up in the excitement of Sue's pregnancy and the distress of Johnny's exposure, never noticed and Ben never brought it up.
For the most part, those three were living in blissful ignorance.
Johnny, on the other hand, knew better. However bad this stage of the toxin was, it was simply that- one stage. There were three others coming and he would know exactly when they were to arrive.
This creation of Doom's was indeed one of his most ingenious. It was designed to give and continue to give false hope throughout all stages, until the end finally came.
The first stage, which was what Johnny and Ben were currently in, was the easiest to deal with. The dormant poison was replicating itself thousands of times over within their bodies, and spreading itself throughout every major system. This was done so that it might use its presence to fundamentally alter the body in order that it might be able to attack easier. Meanwhile, in one area, a build up of contaminated black blood cells would occur, causing the infamous dark patches of skin (or rock). The build ups would spread and spread until great spans of their flesh were covered, and finally the lot of it would break down and be released into the body's bloodstream to eventually replace the healthy red blood cells.
What Johnny was doing in his bloodletting was, essentially, breaking down the build ups early on and externally releasing the contaminated blood. Because the poison could not become powerful enough to attack the body before it was released, its progress was stopped for the time being and it had to attack on a different front. In this way Johnny was prolonging his time spent in the first stage and hopefully buying enough time to do all that was necessary before he himself succumbed to the toxin.
The second stage was more difficult, especially for him. The poison began to select parts of the brain, specifically those dealing with the senses and memory. The effect was that frequently they would experience sensory 'ghosts.' All of a sudden there might be a tingling or disjointed sensation feeling anywhere on the infected one's body, or they might hear, smell, or even taste something that wasn't there. Most disturbingly of all, because of the poison's influence in the hippocampus, memories long since past would suddenly come to light through one or more sense; delusions that felt absolutely real. The end of the second stage had always been marked by a rather violent delusion involving every sense, transitioning to the third stage usually through vomiting black blood and passing out.
The third stage was the worst. At this point the poison attacked the vital organs in full force, absolutely destroying everything. Eventually the poison spread to almost every system in the body, but it left the nervous system undamaged in order that they would be able to feel everything as the toxin progressed. During this stage the individual lost all bodily control, all coherence, as every nerve in their body was alive with a single message: pain. Seizures and fading in and out of consciousness were frequent. The stage lasted around a fortnight before all these symptoms, and all that came before, suddenly stopped. Before they passed into the fourth stage.
The fourth stage being a week-long coma... and then death.
They had not had the antidote at all in his timeline. Johnny's poison had been 'scheduled' to activate first, and the only reason he had survived it was because of his unique ability to burn out foreign agents in his bloodstream. This poison was far too powerful for him to get rid of so easily, but he was able to weaken it just enough that he lived.
Because of this, he was able to endure the poison, but at the same time, he would not be able to take the antidote – which did basically the same thing for the others (that is to say, weaken its effects to a bearable point). If he tried to take it, his already overactive immune system would blaze through it and leave no trace of its existence.
It would be a waste of time to try and save himself. But Ben...
Ben was important. Ben had a life to live. Ben had many things left to do... and what was Johnny to compare to that?
Said hero sighed and shook his head to break these thoughts. He was supposed to be training, not daydreaming.
In weeks gone by, Johnny's injuries had finally healed up. At his final visit to the doctor, the man had declared him fit (excluding his strange bruises and scars, which he attributed to the dangerous life of a hero) and finally eased Sue's incessant worrying about his health. Ironic, because this was about the time when she should have been worrying more than ever...
Anyways.
Also in weeks gone by, Johnny had managed to convince Reed to build the training room. It had specific machines that would allow the foursome to test the limits of their individual powers or fight robotic foes that have programmable levels of difficulty, but apart from that it was mainly just a large steel room with some computers and machinery around the outlying edges.
But that was more than enough.
Johnny had been taking refuge in this room since its creation in order that he might work his body into the state he had had it in the future. Certainly, he had been in very good shape before, but in comparison to the layer of solid muscle he was used to - the power, the endurance, the speed... he had a lot of work to do in order to reach that standard. That demanded him to always fight the highest level foe he was given, and to heck with the demands that he do otherwise.
Which was why he was back in the training room at three in the morning, staring down five identical robotic figures in a battle-ready position. Reed has designed them with smooth, virtually featureless silver faces and a simplistic metal body, but when Johnny looked at them he could only see a steely gray mask and forest green cloak.
He took a deep breath and opened eyes that blazed with all the fury of an inferno, yet held a deadly cold edge. Five Doombots. Five minutes.
Go.
He flamed on and darted towards the robots, leaving a fiery wake behind him. The center robot was the most prepared and leaped forwards with a lightning-fast punch, but as fast as it was, Johnny was faster. He ducked under the punch and drove his elbow into its side, then circling halfway behind it, brought the same elbow up to smash the robot in the back of the head. To finish it off, he completed the motion and used his other elbow to slam its 'face' into the ground.
Another one was on him almost as soon as he had finished with the first. It launched itself towards Johnny before he even had time to get up, but he was far from helpless. He dropped his chest almost to the ground and lifted his lower half into the air, catching the robot's head with his knees. Using its speed and momentum, Johnny pushed himself off the ground and flipped the both of them over in the air. Together they crashed to the ground, the robot taking the full brunt of the fall and sending sparks flying into the air. It looked pretty beat up, but to make certain it wasn't going to come after him, Johnny grabbed the bot's chin with one hand and crown with the other, then snapped its neck with practiced ease – and a particular vehemence.
The third and, shortly behind that, the fourth were on their way already. The first one Johnny dealt with by tripping with his lead foot and raising his opposite knee into the swiftly falling head. As it fell limp, he improvised a weapon by grabbing the figure by its legs and hurling it into its fast-approaching comrade. The two of them began flying backwards and Johnny jumped into the air after them, propelling himself with a slight burst of flame from his feet and quickly catching up. He began punching what would have been the life out of them, until his knuckles hit bare wire. At that point, both robots dropped to the floor as dead weight.
Hovering about seven feet above the ground, Johnny looked around to survey the damage he had caused. Three destroyed metal bodies, yes, and one that appeared to be attempting to get up again... but where was the fifth?
Suddenly, a flicker of black rippled across the surface of Johnny's blazing skin, and instantly his fire cut out. He fell to the floor, too shocked to catch his fall, just as a smooth silver face invaded his blurring vision and an impossibly powerful uppercut slammed into his solar plexus.
Dazed and winded, Johnny staggered backwards a few steps, taking several more blows – including a vicious right that split his lip and spilled vibrant crimson down his chin - before he regained his composure and began to block the attacks, to fight back. Eventually the devastating blows landed were again solely his.
Relying solely on his own speed and strength, Johnny let loose with a series of kicks to the abdomen, chest, neck, and head; he jumped over the robot, flipping in the air to grab its head with his hands and, like he'd done with the second one, slammed it into the ground with all his might.
By this time he knew the first robot was on its feet again and was preparing his final assault. The unsteady metal footsteps behind him became louder and louder, until finally when it was within striking distance he spun around and backfisted it to the floor. Almost eagerly he dove on top of the metal beast, pinning it to the ground with his knees and lashing out with all his strength, hurling punch after punch into its mocking blank face; his own eyes cold and merciless.
He was breathing heavily and bleeding from numerous lacerations, including his split lip, and he could almost hear the gears grinding in the robot's head as to how it could use this to its advantage, but that would never happen. Johnny was going to end it first.
That is, he thought he was.
A scream from the training room's doorway jerked him from his zen-like battle state, and when his head whipped towards the doorway, he was met with his sister's panic-stricken face.
"JOHNNY!! OH MY-"
He never got to hear the end of her exclamation, as all of a sudden a metal foot came flying out of nowhere and struck him heavily in the face, sending him spiralling into blissful unconsciousness.
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Sarah: Again, dun dun dun!
Jackie: I'm not going to comment on that this time. T.T
Sarah: Not commenting is a comment. n.n