AN: I've picked up this story again. Please note some small changes in the first chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter Two
Johnny couldn't get Crys out of his head. Still reeling from his lack of suave composure during their encounter he found himself distracted the following week. Reed, who had poor perceptive skills in the first place, remained oblivious when it took Johnny a little longer to process things than usual. Ben wasted no time in simply teasing him about his mistakes without reading further into them. However, his peculiar behaviour could not get past his older sister unnoticed. Sue kept a eye on her brother since the morning after the diner when Johnny ignored a long list of messages from adoring girls who he had taken out that month. She was even more suspicious of this new behaviour when he engaged her in a conversation that didn't involve poking fun at her new husband or Ben, but asking her if she was happy. Though it wasn't a big stretch from the ordinary, it was unusually deep for Johnny's regular breakfast talk.
Sue had suspected that something had happened, but decided not to pry and see how things played out for Johnny. She found that things didn't change much as the week wore on. Johnny continued to pay little attention to any invitations or messages sent his way and spent more and more time in the confines of the Baxter Building. She brought her questions about her brothers odd behaviour to Reed first.
"Johnny's been acting strange lately." She said bluntly, moving back and forth through a chair in the lab. Reed slid out from under the Fantastic Car and sat up.
"Really? How so?" The intuitive Reed Richards has done it again!
"Haven't you noticed he's been around more? No outlandish stories about wild parties and dates when he's basically been a prime fixture of the New York celebrity scene all up until to a week ago. Don't you find it odd at all?" She had forgotten how much Reed could separate himself from surrounding human activity.
"Are you sure you are talking about Johnny? That doesn't sound like him at all." He said, kissing his wife on the forehead. He was met with a cross look.
"That's my point. It doesn't make sense."
"Do you think he's sick or something? I could run some simple tests -"
"No, no... I don't think he needs tests. I just would like to know what could have happened." As Reed was about to respond, Ben entered the lab.
"Sue, there is something wrong with that brother of yours. I think he's taken one too many hits to the head. I just took a shot at him to knock him off his high horse and instead of throwing it right back at me, he said 'Nice one, Ben' and asked where the mustard was."
"Mustard?" Reed gave a confused look.
"He was making a sandwich. But since when does Hotrod not respond to barefaced insults?"
"See, Reed! I told you something's different."
"What's different?" Johnny had just walked into the middle of their conversation carrying a half eaten roasted beef sandwich.
"Johnny, we were just talk-" Sue began to explain when an alarm went off and filled the lab with it's piercing toll.
"What is it?" Ben asked, as the whole group rushed toward the large computer screens that displayed a scene of chaos.
"Back Bolt Tower was hit with a runaway semi truck hauling highly unstable substances that exploded and fire fighters are having problems putting out the blaze. They can't reach those trapped on the top floors."
"And what about the lower ones?"
"It says they were evacuated when the truck first hit, but I'm not sure if everyone got out Johnny-"
"FLAME ON!" Johnny shouted as he disappeared out the window in a ball of flames out into the city.
Johnny had been through the first ten floors of Black Bolt Tower that had been engulfed by the relentless flames and found them to be vacant of anyone left behind. It was a relief not to have found any casualties so it was time to join the rest of the team and get those who've crowded up in the topmost floors out to safety. Just as he was about to escape the chemical flames something, or someone caught his eye on the street.
Where the police were restraining the growing crowds that were forming around the area a disturbance had broken out between a blonde woman and two officers. Looking up, out of a broken window he saw that the rest of the Fantastic Four had the evacuation under control, he decided to go down to the street first.
"You can't do this to me! Do you know who I am?! I am a head executive in this building and I must get in there!"
"Lady, the building is still on fire. No one gets in there, till the fire crews say so." Firmly answered one of the officers. The woman gave the officers an angry looked and stomped off into the crowd.
"Is there a problem here officer?" Johnny asked, extinguishing the flames around him as he landed behind the two men.
"Not anymore Mr. Torch." Replied the taller of the two men.
"Execs always think they have the run of things." Said the other. "She seriously thought she could get back in there! The place is still is five floors of flame."
Johnny was no longer paying attention to the ramblings of the officers and was trying to scan the crowd for the perturbed blonde woman. He could have sworn he recognized her, even from all those floors up. Before he could begin to really look for Crys, the surrounding heat that was created by the burning building instantly disappeared and Johnny felt like all the oxygen had left his lungs. The onlookers and officials seemed to have shared the same breathless feeling and were left gasping.
"Johnny! Was that you?!" Sue yelled, as she descended to the ground on a barely visible platform surrounded by frightened people in suits and dresses.
Once she had everyone safely on the ground, Sue ran over to her younger brother and looked at him with wide eyes.
"What are you talking about, sis?" Sue spun him around and left him speechless.
All traces of flame were gone. The charred skeleton of the building stood there, not even smoking.
"Uh, that wasn't me."
"Torch, would you say you now have the power to extinguish flame as well as create it?"
"How long have you had this ability?"
"Do you think this will bring you in closer work with the New York fire department?"
"What other abilities have you not told the public about yet?"
A mob of reporters and cameras had the Fantastic Four surrounded on the steps of the charred Black Bolt Tower. Each member of the heroic team has a look of bewilderment and confusion on their faces.
Johnny didn't put out that fire.
"Uhhhh... I - I - I..." Johnny stumbled into the mic of a young news correspondent. "I have no comment."
"Excuse me?" asked the reporter.
"I have no comment." He repeated in a firm tone. The media frenzy quieted. Johnny Storm has something to say about everything and was never one to leave the press hanging.
Johnny's eyes drifted away from those in front of him as the mob began to shoot more questions at the Four. Ben stepped between his team and the cameras.
"Hey! HEY!" His rough voiced roared, gaining the attention of all those on the block. "You heard the kid. He has no comment no SCRAM!" Ben turned and headed to the Fantastic Car. Sue took Johnny by the arm and lead them after Ben who was clearing a path through the crowd.
"Mr. Fantastic, do you have anything to say?" Piped a reporter. Reed looked at all the eager, impatient faces and spoke.
"I don't," he paused." Until I am certain what extinguished the blaze on Black Bolt Tower there is nothing to say."
"So you're saying that the Human Torch had nothing to do with it?"
"No comment."
"Our top story tonight is the events surrounding the tumultuous blaze of Black Bolt Tower. The casualty count was six, including the driver of the runaway semitrailer. Injuries of those working in the building were extensive and varied, ranging from first degree burns to smoke inhalation. Only ten Black Bolt Corp. employees are in critical condition tonight. Many lives were saved and deaths prevented today by the NYFD and the Fantastic Four, whose heroic efforts evacuated the trapped occupants of the top most floors."
The entire team had gathered around the television. Reed and Ben stood looking from the doorway as Sue kept Johnny company on the sofa. The day was replaying in their minds over and over. The news woman began to speak again but the picture on the screen changed an a small picture of Johnny appeared in the corner of the screen.
"The Human Torch evaded reporters' questions today in regard to the mysterious and sudden extinguishing of the tower blaze."
Footage of Johnny on the street that afternoon began playing on the screen. He could clearly be seen on the loft in the crowd, while fire crews were battling the raging flames on the right. Within seconds all traces of flame disappeared and everyone on the black froze or doubled over gasping.
The newsroom reappeared.
"Was this mysterious event the work of the Torch, who's lack of words answer little questions, or is the Fantastic Four hiding something? Could there be a Fantastic Fifth somewhere among us? We will not know until the Four discloses more." The screen changed again to the video of Johnny's shaky words to reporters.
Sue turned off the television and the room was silent.
"It wasn't me." Johnny said quietly. "As much as I would like to take the credit, I didn't do anything."
Sue put a comforting hand on her brother's back. "It's okay Johnny. Reed, do you think you'll be able to find what caused this to happen?"
"I had the police forward me all the news footage recorded. I'll analyse it frame by frame to find something, but there is a big possibility that nothing will be there." Reed turned to Johnny. " Are you sure you had nothing to do with it? We've yet to discover the true potential and limits of our powers and you never kn- "
"No. None of that was me." Johnny interrupted.
"All right. I'll get started on that video. Ben, I could use an extra set of eyes."
"Right behind you, Stretch." The two left the room and headed to the lab.
Sue had no words of comfort or reassurance for her brother. The situation was so bizarre. She deeply hoped that Reed would find something.
"I need some air." Johnny said, rising from the sofa. His sister nodded and watched him walk out with a concerned look on her face. What ever had been bothering him before, this was definitely something that he didn't need.
Johnny pulled the dark dark hood of his sweater over his head and exited the Baxter Building from the service entrance. He didn't want a mob of media attack and surround him again. At this point when wanting to be alone, he would usually head off to the garage and take his barracuda out to the country but something compelled him to change course to Central Park.
He ended up on a vacant little bridge over a small pond. The sun had almost completely set and the sounds of the surrounding city filled the quiet park.
Johnny didn't know how long he stood there, leaning on the rail of the bridge looking into the trees, but he was eventually joined by another. He didn't care to look at them, so he would not give away his identity.
The person began to speak.
"Hell of a day, don't you think? Especially for you, Red."
It was her.
