Unbreakable Bonds

A/N: I don't own any of the Fantastic Four. I appreciate the reviews, please keep it up. I'm open to any suggestions. It can be from anything to what I need to improve to ideas that you think may make this story better. Enjoy.

Chapter 2

Johnny sat on his hard bed with his back pressed against the wall behind him as he stared at the door in front of him. He didn't acknowledge anything else in his surroundings since he had grown so accustomed to them since he had been brought to his prison nearly two years earlier. He could still remember that night as if it had been yesterday.

He had been heading back to the Baxter Building a few hours after Sue's outburst. He hadn't been sure what he was suppose to expect when he got there but there was no way he was going to leave Sue like that or at least that is what he had thought. One moment he had been walking down the nearly deserted sidewalk lost in thought and the next he was slumped against a building as he pulled a small dart from his neck as his body went numb and for the first time since the space accident he was cold. The last thing he saw before everything went black was a couple of men coming near him.

When he had awoken he had found himself in a small cell; there was a small cot made of fire proof material, a curtained area that served as a bathroom, and a ten foot distance from wall to wall, floor to ceiling with each made of a metal that he had yet to even dent let alone melt. All of his possesions had been taken away with the exception of his space suit.

Johnny had never considered himself claustrophobic but during the first few days of his imprisonment he knew exactly what it must feel like. And if the conditions were not bad enough the people who were holding him made the situation even worse. Everyday one man, Dr. Jacobs, would come in and talk to him. The conversations, if they could really be called that since Johnny hadn't spoken once in the past year, would always start off with Jacobs telling him the date. Why? He figured it was to make him know how much time they had held him prisoner and it pissed him off to no ends. The conversations would be over anything from the argument he had had with Sue before his disappearance which had been completely recorded and later broadcast, to his inadequacies as a human being. Whatever the conversation's topic it was always geared so that by the time it was over Johnny felt terrible.

Once the conversations were over they would leave him alone for what he guessed was about an hour before they would send in two armed men, both dressed in fireproof outfits covering them from head to toe. The men would always cuff him and give him a small dose of something that made it impossible for him to use his powers for nearly half an hour which was the exact time it took them on an off day to get to the lab where he was strapped down to a metal table, complete with metal restraints (all of which were made of the same material as his cell). The lab held the worst memories for Johnny. The 'scientists' who worked on him were complete sadists in Johnny's mind. They had yet to offer him any form of anesthesia though they gave him enough drugs to prevent infections that he was sure that they only withheld pain relievers because they enjoyed his misery.

He never really acknowledged what they had done to him and had long given up on getting them to tell him why they insisted on torturing him. He easily overlooked the scars that now marred his body. Some were caused by too many needles injecting him with drugs that made his powers do anything from go dormant to turn against him meaning that he would feel as if he were being cooked alive by his own body temperature. Others were from the 'scientists' literally cutting him open to see how he ticked before sewing him up again. Most of the other scars had come from his being 'disciplined.' Anytime he tried to resist them or did something else that displeased them they would actually whip him across his back. But the worst scars came from his 'training.'

After his lab sessions they would take him to a metal room that served as a gym. They would always place a collar around his neck during this time so they could control him from the other side of the indestructible glass that covered one wall which protected everyone in the viewing area as he fought whatever opponet they put before him. Every time he would act out of line or make a mistake on whatever he was told to do they would send a strong electric current through his body which reminded him of being zapped by Doctor Doom.

During these sessions they taught him various ways to use his powers and different fighting styles that incorporated his powers. He knew he was being turned into a weapon but he didn't know how he could stop it. The time in the lab always put him in to much pain or exhausted him to the point where he simply did as he was told to keep his tormentors from finding a new way to punish him.

After his training they would return him to his room where a tray of food would be waiting for him. He knew that they had drugs mixed in with it but he had no choice but to eat it. The drugs had originally left him to mind boggled to focus long enough to use his powers but to his relief he had already built immunity to those drugs and his capturers had yet to figure it out. After they left him in his room they would usually leave him alone for the day except for twice a week when they would send in various armed personnel who would restrain him and then clean and shave him. No matter how many times he went through the process he could never make himself relish the feeling of being clean since it was such a degrading process.

And to his growing horror over the course of two years his powers had changed, grown stronger actually. He wasn't sure if it was a result from what they gave him in the labs and his training or if it was natural step in the mutation. All he knew was that now, he had complete control over his own body's flames, of course that was only true when his mind wasn't clouded by drugs, he could also make things burst into flames with a mere thought and he had control over any flame he encountered. Unfortunately the people who held him knew this as well so that was one of the many things they tested him for.

The worst part out of all of this in Johnny's mind was the fact that everyday was like this. Nothing ever changed, not even in the slightest, and that fact alone nearly drove him insane. He had lost all control over his life. His life had turned into a nightmare during his waking hours and his only solace were his final thoughts before he would go to sleep, thoughts of Susie and his friends. For the most part, he only thought of the good times, but as time passed he couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't rescued him. He didn't want to believe that they hadn't looked for him at all, thinking he had run away. He hoped they knew him better than that but still the thought nagged at him, so now every time he thought of them he couldn't help but feel abandoned and yet he couldn't make himself quit thinking of them. They were his lifeline, his reason to fight. If nothing else, he wanted to get of his prison so that he could ask them why. Why didn't they save him?

Johnny continued to stare at the door as it slowly opened and he could barely keep the smile off of his face as the excitement coursed through him. Today Johnny Storm was going to execute the escape plan he had been working on for months. Today the Human Torch would be leaving his prison, one way or another.