Five days past found Reed making a number of important discoveries concerning their powers. One of them involved when both Johnny and Elena were flamed up.
"So wait, go over that again?" Elena stated as she sat on the couch with Johnny, they were watching Mission Impossible.
"Since you have the hottest type of flame known to science and Johnny can reach the temperature of the sun," Reed started but the two just stared at him, "You two could create the same energy and heat amount of a solar flare or a star dying."
"That's really bad, right?" Johnny asked making Elena hit him for his stupidity.
"Extremely, so if you two do get into a heated fight, control the flames," Reed scorned before walking out.
"Finally alone," Johnny smirked making Elena roll her eyes and get up. Johnny watched her walk. Ben was watching the two and growled. Elena glanced over and sighed, then looked at the calendar.
"I'm going to the gym," Elena stated to Ben.
Ben nodded knowing that she missed a lot during the testing, "Don't over do it, Lenie," she smiled and kissed his rock cheek.
Johnny's head immediately snapped up, "Wait, she can leave?!" he growled, "Why?!"
Elena looked at him perplexed, "Johnny, I'm going only downstairs," she shook her head and made her way to her bag, picking it up and stepping in the elevator.
"I'm coming!" Johnny yelled and before jumping into the elevator with her before Ben could say anything. Elena glanced over at him and sighed.
"Couldn't give me a moment alone?" she asked.
Johnny smiled, not smirk but smiled at her, "Come on, Glow," he stated looking at her. She was wearing cropped leggings and a loose crop top, "What you doing in the gym anyways?" she glanced at him and sighed.
"Practicing," she muttered before hearing the elevator ding. They walked into the gym and Johnny was surprised to see what it looked like. It was open, extremely open with bounce hard wood floors and a mirrored wall. It was a dance studio. Elena dropped her bag by the stereo and kicked off her shoes for a pair of Nike Studio Wrap shoes. She placed a CD into the stereo and looked at Johnny, "Are you gonna do something?"
Johnny shrugged and sat down, "I'll just watch and see what you can do," Elena wearily watched him. She was nervous for him to watch her, "What?"
She rubbed the side of her neck, making Johnny even more attracted to her, "No one's seen me dance in a while," he realized why she was hesitant.
"Forget I'm here," he stated and she nodded. She pushed play and closed her eyes. Johnny watched her as the music from Swan Lake flooded his ears. Her arms slowly dipped and then she moved too. Johnny watched in utter silence as she danced. Twirling and jumping, he nervously moved forward when she jumped then rolled down to the ground before moving her arms and laying them on her legs as the song ended. Her legs had shifted to diamond and she groaned when she sat up. She felt a tear roll down her face and Elena put her face in her hands.
"Glow?" Johnny asked standing up, she looked up at him with red puffy eyes and tears running down her cheeks, "Hey," he whispered sitting in front of her, "Hey what's wrong?"
She shook her head with a slight hiccup, "There's a reason why I never talk about my parents," she scrunched her nose, "I can't get through this fucking song without thinking about them."
Johnny furrowed his brows at her, "What?"
Elena swallowed before meeting his eyes, pushing her white blonde hair from her eyes, "I just got home from school," she smiled slightly, "I literally just graduated from MIT. I was an expert in computer engineering with the passion for dancing," Elena tucked her knees under her chin and looked up at Johnny, "My parents were in a rough patch, always fighting. It never got physical or threatening," she sighed, "Until one night."
Johnny felt his breath leave him as he watched her crumble before him, "Elena you don't have," she shook her head.
"They were screaming, yelling. Mom was angry with his drinking," she rolled her eyes, "Dad was done with her nagging. I came in and watched silently. I just returned from dance practice. Sue and I were planning on meeting up for dinner. She and I had become close, we were introduced through Ben. I was in the kitchen getting something to eat when they came storming through. I didn't think much of it, it was mostly normal. Dad was screaming the most, so I texted Sue that I needed her to come get me," Elena paused, "Then Dad pulled a knife," she wiped her nose as Johnny felt dread sink into his stomach, "Mom pulled a gun," she started shaking, diamonds covered her chest.
"Elena," he pulled her closer to him making the diamonds vanish, "You can stop."
"No you need to know, the others do," Elena whispered before taking a deep breath, "Dad was getting angrier and angrier. I was about this far from him when he wildly swung," she lift her shirt off and exposed her stomach. Johnny's blue eyes widened when he saw the white glittering line moving from her left hip bone, across her abdomen and stopping under her right breast, "He blamed Mom for it, he held me as he yelled at her. She was furious," Elena pointed to the bullet wound on her right shoulder, "Shot him through me. Hit his heart," she pulled her shirt back down, "Sue was coming up the stairs when my mom put the gun in her mouth. I was barely conscious, but I saw it happen. Sue came rushing in and called Ben then came the ambulance."
"That's why you freaked," Johnny whispered in understanding, "You were cornered when you were attacked and it triggers the memory."
Elena chuckled, "You're not as dumb as you seem," he gave a playful punch, "Anyways, I was out of dance commission for a year, due to my injuries and therapy. One year for a dancer causes this," she gestured to her shapely body, "No company wanted to hire me so I got cocky, started a computer business. The dare came and well, Ben got pissed. Made me work for Reed and here we are," she shrugged before standing up. Johnny watched her as she got her things together, not bothering to get out of her dance shoes.
"Glow," she looked up at Johnny, "How old were you?"
"I was fifteen when I gained this," Elena said, she weakly smiled at Johnny, "Come on, the others must think we've killed each other."
Johnny chuckled and stood up, "Yeah why is that?" the two walked over to the elevator.
"Because you're an asshole and I'm the innocent niece who's gotten the government pissed a few times," Elena smirked.
"I resent that."
She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "It's true. You want to fuck anything with a pulse," she leaned back against the wall of the elevator, "There's a reason why Ben doesn't like you."
"And why's that?"
Her grey eyes narrowed on him as the elevator stopped, "Because he and I have been broken hearted enough times without the likes of you."
Johnny felt shocked as Elena strutted forward into the lab and following Reed up to the booth. She was speaking to him about gaining her computer back when Sue entered the room, tossing the suits from the station at Johnny, "Get dressed," she stated going over to where Elena and Reed disappeared to.
"Our uniforms were exposed to the storm like us, so they can transform, like us," five figures stood in the sitting room, their old space uniforms back on their bodies. Elena looked over her suit and then at her hands, wondering in it were true. Her hands diamonized and the suit followed with becoming the sparkling gem.
"Well no shit," she whispered.
"Language," Johnny teased making her growl at him.
"You guys look like an eighties rock band," Ben laughed as Elena playfully scowled at him.
"You know, Ben, this material stretches. I'm sure we can figure a way to make it fit," Sue suggested. The bulkier man of the two laughed as he shook his head.
"Nah, I wouldn't be caught dead wearin' that," he insisted as he took a chug of water. Elena made a face.
"I love these costumes," the four looked over at an enthusiastic Johnny as he grinned at himself, "They're missing something though, like some spice."
Elena shook her head, "They're not costumes."
"You can't just use your powers in public, Johnny," Susan reminded him as he gave them a tired look. He shook his head and turned to face the mirror.
"You guys are worse than NASA."
"NASA isn't that bad, it's the Pentagon thats bad," Elena muttered but Johnny heard it.
"You could burn somebody," Susan pointed out as Johnny shrugged. Elena rolled her eyes and stood up, her hunger taking over. Johnny smirked as he watched her walk towards the kitchen. The view more than perfect for him. Feeling his gaze Elena turned around and rolled her eyes at him.
"Maybe you're missing a utility belt!"
Elena fell asleep on the couch and was woken abruptly up by the sound of music, "What?" she muttered peeling herself off the couch and walked towards her room. She listened to the music and realized they came from Johnny's room. She growled when a wave of exhaustion washed over her. She stormed to his room and kicked his door down.
"Johnny!" she screamed as she came into his room, flames licking her hands. Said man turned around wearing nothing but a towel on his waist. Elena's eyes slightly widened as she quickly stepped back, against the wall. Johnny smirked and turned his music down.
"You usually burst through doors when someone's fresh out of the shower?" Elena growled as Johnny as he gave a playful smirk.
"Why do you have music blaring?"
"Why are you in here while I'm changing?" Elena forced herself to not blush before pushing herself out of his room.
"I was asleep!"
Johnny smirked, "I know."
"You're impossible!" she screamed as she walked back into her room.
"You love me and you know it!"
"Don't be so full of yourself!" Elena growled as Johnny quickly pulled on his clothes.
"Did I really wake you up?" he asked as Elena rolled her eyes as she unzipped her space suit. Johnny walked carelessly into Elena's room as she pulled out her clothes to wear before jumping up into the loft where she once held her computers.
"Not fair!" Johnny chuckled when he heard her sigh but caught a glimpse of Elena's legs, "Personally, I think is place is getting smaller and smaller," he said as Elena quickly changed into her skinny jeans, a flowing blue tank top showing the sides of her lace bra and a pair of ankle boots. Jumping out of the loft she landed in front of Johnny.
"I get what you mean. I don't like being cooped up all the time," she said as Johnny followed her out, watching how her jeans hugged her butt perfectly.
"Thank you! I'm glad someone here finally understands!" Johnny exclaimed rolling her eyes.
"This doesn't mean I don't think they're right."
"Of course," Elena glanced back and smiled at him, Johnny gave a smirk. The two walked into the kitchen with Reed, Susan and Ben already sitting at the table. Johnny strutted past Elena as he walked to the counter, stealing the bowl of orange juice Ben had freshly squeezed, "Alright people, lets make this quick. I've got a lot of places to be today," this made Elena roll her eyes as she kissed the top of Ben's head before she took a seat next to Ben and across Susan, "Oh wait, I don't go anywhere!" Johnny fake laughed making Reed sigh.
"Johnny, it's imperative that we stay inside."
"I know I know. It's just, when you said that last time, my head heard a week," Elena tried to ignore Johnny's complaining and put her head in her hands, exhausted.
"What worries me, is that our powers are evolving."
"I know, I know! I'm so close to flying guys, I can feel it!" Elena scoffed making Johnny look at her exhausted form, rolling up his used napkin and lightly tossing it on the counter.
"You can't fly," Susan chuckled as Johnny gave her a smirk.
"Yet."
"I can fly," Elena mumbled into her hands.
"Johnny can you put that out?" Johnny turned around and his eyes widened slightly as he finally noticed his napkin lit in flames. He quickly began to slap them away, only making it worse.
"What's going on, Reed?" How are you gonna cure us" Ben asked as Reed grabbed his chart. The four listened intently as Reed began to explain his master plan, the basic idea of his strategy simple, yet very complicated.
"I'm going to build a machine to re-create the storm," Reed explained, holding up a chart to show them, "The cosmic rays will travel from this generator to this chamber."
"What? No pop-ups?" Johnny asked sarcastically.
"If I can reverse the wave signal…" Reed carried on as though he wasn't interrupted.
"It'll return us back to normal," Ben finished for him. The stony man loved the idea.
"What are the risks?" Sue asked as she flipped through Reeds plans for his machine.
"Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms exponentially," Reed paused, "Or perhaps even kill us."
Everyone looked at him, startled by his words, "Now dying.." Johnny's brows were arched high on his forehead as he looked from Elena to Reed and back again, "That's bad, right?" When Reed only sighed the blonde continued, "I say we just let sleeping dogs lie, guys," he stepped forward, spun a chair at the table around and sat down on it backwards.
"Yeah, I don't fancy being killed or being a walking diamond shop for the world," Elena muttered.
"So how long until this contraption's up and runnin'?" Ben demanded as if Johnny and his niece hadn't spoke.
"I don't know. It's hard to say…"
"How long, Reed?"
"I don't know—"
"You don't know?!" Ben stood from the table, outraged making Elena stand up too, her skin immediately changing to diamond form.
"You don't want this to get worse," Reed tried to explain.
"Worse than that?" Johnny asked with a laugh. Ben took a step forward to the blonde, but the glittering, diamond form Elena pushed him back, surprising them all.
"Ben!" Elena pleaded but her uncle stepped forward to Johnny again forcing her to shove him back with more strength than all of them thought was possible, "Please."
"Yeah, listen to her, Bennie," Johnny cooed placing a hand on Elena's shoulder making her diamond form vanish with a puff of sparkling dust.
"Guys! We're going to be stuck here for a while, so why do we try to get along, ok?" the two men heard Sue's words, but eyed each other warily with Elena in the middle of them.
Elena sat at the table with a bowl of fruit, "Elena?" Susan asked as she came padding through to the kitchen, "It's two in the morning," Elena glanced up at she plopped at berry into her mouth.
"I can't sleep," the white haired girl shrugged, then a thought came to her mind as she offered Susan some of her fruit, "Hey Sue?" the blonde looked at her, "I think I figured something out about my powers."
"Oh yeah? What?" Sue asked, suddenly interested in what she had to say.
"Well, I was wearing my diamond necklace when we got hit, so it makes sense on why I can do my diamond form. But," she paused, "Before the cloud, when Ben was coming back. Johnny stopped me because the cloud was too close. And we were holding hands, I guess, when we got hit."
Susan's eyes widened, "That's why your diamond form vanishes when he touches you," she smirked, "He told me you talked about your parents," Elena nodded, "I told him that it means you trust him, and you don't trust easily."
"Yeah well, he's living here, I need to trust him," Elena grumbled poking at her fruit.
"What're you thinking about?" she asked making the 23 year old look up at Susan.
"What?"
"You keep playing with your nails, you're thinking about something," Elena chuckled.
"I'm curious on how this 'get along with everyone,' is going to work. Those two can't stand each other," Susan smiled and stole a berry.
"Well, you got in between them easily," Susan countered.
"I don't want them killing each other," Elena smiled but Susan saw and heard something else in her words.
Johnny smirked to himself as he slowly peeked over the couch, Ben sleeping like a rock with a bottle of shaving cream in his hand. He quietly laughed to himself as he glanced around with a wide smile. He grabbed a feather duster and silently crept back to the couch.
Reed sighed as he heard Elena singing in the shower before turning to the other bathroom. As he opened the door, his eyes widened, a gasp filling the air.
"Don't you knock?!" Susan exclaimed as she held a towel up and rapidly turned invisible. Reed, too embarrassed to actually speak a formulated sentence, looked away mumbling sorry to the invisible woman before closing the door.
"Elena! Do you have a power cord I can borrow?" Johnny opened her door after knocking and stopped, eyes wide.
Elena was in a backbend in the middle of the room wearing only a sports bra and spandex shorts. She had her eyes closed as she slowly tried to form her diamond skin. He just stood there and watched Elena. He smirked, allowing himself the view of Elena as he heard music blaring from her iPod. Elena's brows furrowed when she realized she wasn't changing forms and opened her eyes.
"Johnny?" she asked seeing him leaning against her door frame and pushing herself up while pulling out her earphones.
"Now why did you ruin this moment?"
She gave a growl before pushing him out of her room.
Johnny smiled as he held the handle of the duster to Ben's face. After a few attempts with the feathers he decided to flip it around and use the wood against the stone man's skin. He gently caressed Ben's cheek with he handle of the duster, he waiting as the handle ran over Ben's face and finally, the shaving cream had made contact with his target. Johnny threw his hands into the air, more than pleased with his victory before sprinting out of the room.
Reed, Susan and Elena were doing some testing when Johnny came running in.
"Oh good! You're here!" Reed said seeing his arrival, but Elena watched him with a critical eye.
"What did you do?" she demanded seeing the glint in his eye.
"Hmm?"
"Johnny what did —"
"JOHNNY!" Ben's roar echoed through the floor, startling the four, making Elena change into diamond form while they all turned to the blonde.
"Hey Elena, how's it coming?" Reed stopped in the middle of his sentence when he saw the white haired 23 year old curled up next to a sleeping Johnny, exhausted from the tests that day. They weren't touching but one could see the comfort the two had next to each other.
Reed walked over to wake her up when he noticed something when he reached towards her. Her shoulder changed to diamond form the moment his hand came near, but when it back around it vanished. He decided to wake Johnny up instead and when he did the blonde opened his mouth to snap at him but saw Elena sleeping and stopped. He heard her nightmares through the walls and decided she needed the sleep.
Elena woke herself up around 4 am and threw herself into a shower. It was about an hour long shower, but she changed and styled her hair, put on some make up. Made herself look pretty for no reason. She just felt like it. She was wearing skinny jeans that showed her powerful legs, a scoop neck loose tank top in a pretty blue shade, and some heeled brown ankle boots. She put her necklace on and fix her side parted hair.
She got herself down to the kitchen and started breakfast. She was tired. Way too tired. Nightmares plaque her constantly at night and she barely was able to sleep during the day. Sitting at the table she looked at the apple before her and focused. Reed explained to her that her powers were very difficult to understand, her diamond nature made everything possible.
Elena and Sue sat next to each other with wires going everywhere on their body, each wearing shorts and a sports bra. Elena ran her hair through her white hair and sighed, she dyed it brown last night and this morning it was white again. Her grey eyes flitted over to Reed who was looking at a monitor before placing one more wire on her and Sue's heads.
"I'm going to use this to examine your brain wave lengths when you're in diamond form," Reed explained, "This should help figure out what else your abilities can do."
The two women nodded before Sue became invisible and Elena changed her form into a million tiny diamonds.
This is so fucking stupid. I can't believe I'm actually sitting here with hundreds of wires all over me. I wonder what Sue's thinking about all this. Elena thought to herself.
"I can't believe he's so blind," Susan's soft voice rang in Elena's ears.
"What did you say?" Elena asked turning to the invisible woman.
"I didn't say anything," Sue said confused on what the 23 year old meant.
"Elena, can you reach out and touch Sue?" Reed asked as he glanced from his computer which was really Elena's to the two women. Her glittering hand connected to an invisible shoulder and both gasped. Diamonds littered Susan's skin before they both vanished, "WOW!" Reed gasped forcing the two to change back to normal.
"What?" Susan asked pulling off the wires and walking over to Reed's side.
"When Elena shifted, her reading went blank and when she was talking to you, yours fluctuated and when she touched you both were blank," Reed stated utterly amazed by the charts before him.
"So?" Elena questioned sitting on the counter.
"SO, you can block out anyone who tries you read your mind, or essentially read others minds," Reed looked up at Elena curiously, "What were you thinking about during the scan?"
Elena shrugged, "How stupid this was and I wondered what Sue thought about all this…" her voice trailed when she looked at the blonde haired woman.
"AMAZING!" Reed screamed making Elena jump and a hot rush of wind blow through the lab.
Susan glanced around thoughtfully before looking at Elena, "Reed, what does it take to make a diamond from coal?"
Reed shot her a perplexed look as he helped Elena out of the wires, "Scorching heat temperatures and air, why?" Susan felt the slight rustle of warm air before looking dead on with Elena.
"Who's the one covered in diamonds and white fire?" she smirked.
Elena focused on the apple, feeling her body warm up as her short hair brushed against her cheeks. She saw a tiny mini tornado travel across the table before hitting the fruit and hovering it above the ground. She sat there for a while just watching the fruit float in the air as the sun gracefully rose and filled the apartment with light. Her grey eyes sparkling in her trance. Ben was the first one up, but he went about his business of getting ready. Then came Sue who showered before going to the lab to check on the teams charts where Reed was still working on the machine. Johnny woke up when his stomach rumbled and he quickly dressed before walking with Ben silently to the kitchen.
"Morning!" he called out as they entered the room. Elena jumped in her seat, shifting into diamond form. The apple suddenly did the same and launched itself towards her 'attacker' as a shimmering, glowing bubble hovered above Elena's skin, "Wow!" he quickly ducked seeing the diamond fruit come hurtling his way but it hit Ben in the chest.
"Ow!" Ben groaned hearing the diamond apple hit the ground.
"Johnny!" Elena hissed standing up as her skin changed back to normal, "You scared me half to death!" her eyes widened when she saw Ben carrying the apple she was focusing on in his hand.
"What was that?!" Johnny asked panicked as Ben nervously handed his niece the fruit back who grimaced at the sight, "You almost took my head off!"
At his words, Elena's eyes widened, "I'm so sorry!" she gasped, "I didn't mean to," her voice was so small that Johnny literally flinched.
"What were you doing anyways, Lenie?" Ben asked as she looked at the diamond apple sadly.
She shook her head before burying it in her hands, "I was practicing," she muttered, she glanced up at her uncle, "Couldn't sleep."
Ben immediately understood and went to comfort his niece who just turned away, ashamed of herself that actually hurt one of her friends, "Hey," Johnny said with a curious expression on his face, "Think you could change it back?" she nervously glanced at him before looking at the apple that was now on the table. She scrunched up her brows as she focused on the apple. The fruit shook a bit before she let out an exhausted sigh, "Well," Johnny smirked, "I could always sell it on eBay."
Elena shook her head before turning towards the kitchen, "I'll make breakfast," she slightly smiled.
"Elena," Ben started as Johnny made himself comfortable at the table, "You need to sleep."
Elena sharply turned to her uncle, "I can't. Every time I go to bed, I relive that night over and over again!" her words were rushed out before moving to get something ready for the group.
"You never dream about the storm?" Ben asked curious now, she shook her head, "Why?"
She rolled her eyes which gained Johnny's attention, "I didn't care about the storm. It wasn't someone who was suppose to care for me and hurt me. It was a bunch of particles that changed our DNA," she stopped moving and locked eyes with her uncle, "It wasn't someone that I trusted."
Johnny watched Elena silently as she went about preparing the meal while Ben went to get Susan and Reed, "You're big on this trust thing, aren't you?"
She glanced up from mixing the eggs and nodded, "I only hate two people in this world. My parents. I trusted them with my life and they almost killed me," she sighed, "There's a reason why I'm jumpy. I bet you've noticed that."
Johnny smirked before standing up and leaning against the counter, "You bet I have."
"Well, it's because every loud noise reminds me of a gun shot," she stated calmly, "Johnny there's something you should know about my powers and yours."
Johnny chuckled, "What? When did you become a scientist?"
Elena gave him an aspirated look, "I'm serious."
Johnny smirked as he saw her leaning against the corner counter, he slowly walked over to her and nodded, "I bet you are," he said huskily as her eyes widened as she looked him over. He saw she wasn't scared or changed into diamond form and took advantage to that. Carefully he reached up and brushed a wave out of her face, "Glow," he whispered before leaning closer to her face making her sparkling grey eyes flit over to his lips. Without hesitation he dipped down and their lips collided. He felt her tense at first but was shocked when she kissed him back, allowing his tongue to enter her mouth. It was like a spark. He always thought Elena was just a craving, but now, actually kissing her, he realized she was something much more. Her tan hands moved to the back of his neck and brought him closer to her. The air in the room suddenly spiked and when they pulled back panting, she saw Johnny's blue eyes reflecting her flaming hair. Immediately she flamed down but looked at Johnny with those sparkling eyes.
"What do you mean she turned an apple to diamond?" Reed's voice hit them with a force, making the separate and look at each other with confused eyes. Well, Elena was confused about the kiss and Johnny was confused about this shining feeling inside of him, "Elena?" she turned to look at Reed who was entering the room and stopped when he saw the apple shaped diamond on the table. He immediately picked it up and went back to his lab to study it.
With one more glance over to the fire man, Elena started making breakfast again.
AN: AHHHHHHH THEY KISSED! THEY KISSED! OMG! What do you think Elena was trying to say to Johnny? Okay, I'll update soon. Please leave a review and no FLAMES!
Also I have a few polls up in my profile. It would be great if you voted!
Xoxo - Scar