The Storm Inside (a Johnny Storm/fantastic four fanfic)

Chapter 6

"Okay, Ben. You're all strapped and ready to go." I smiled as I finished buckling Ben Grimm to the tether. I waved as I watched him float into space, wishing I could go with him.

I sat on a ledge and looked around the room. Equipment was everywhere, and buttons and switches covered operation panels. And it was remotely silent, until I heard a whisper coming from down the hall. It was getting louder, so I squeezed into a closet and left the door open a crack.

"Daddy, why does Johnny love her?! I'm the one that's known him all his life. I'm the one that flirts with him. I'm the one that actually likes him!" Sylvia whined to Victor. I held my breath when there was a pause of silence.

"Sweetie, Johnny's allowed to like whoever he wants to, and it's okay if he doesn't like you. There are plenty of other nice boys that I'm sure would be interested in dating you." Victor suggested. I could practically hear Sylvia rolling her eyes and grimacing in disgust.

"But Johnny's the only nice boy that I'm interested in. He likes the same things I do- parties and loud music- so I don't get why he likes her! She's only been to the one party that I dragged her to! And she hates loud music! All she listens to is like... cello music!" she complained. Victor let out an audible sigh. I almost laughed when Sylvia started ranting about my classical music playlists, but I then realized that I was hiding in a closet and that I wasn't supposed to be heard from here. The conversation went silent for a moment when Victor realized that he had heard something. I covered my mouth with my palm to stop my breath from making any noises.

"Daddy, can you please help me? Have Johnny work with me on this mission, not Lonzie. I don't want him seeing her any time soon. It's just going to ruin things!"

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll do my best, but Reed Richards is the mission leader... I'll see what I can do about that." Victor replied. He nodded to Sylvia as he walked out of the section. Sylvia followed close behind, looking back over her shoulder at the closet that I was hiding in. I tucked behind the closet door so that I wasn't visible from her range of sight. She lingered for a moment then left the room after her father.

I let out my long-held breath. My gaze shifted to the large, glass window panels. Everything in outer space was nearly visible from here. I admired the beautiful galaxies on the other side of the glass as they spiralled and twirled in space, a shimmering beacon of total destruction.

And destruction was just the first tragedy of what was about to happen.

The human body isn't supposed to withstand fire. Or freezing cold temperatures. And definitely not harmful gases like carbon monoxide. I learned that in chemistry. I also learned that it is absolutely impossible for one single cell in the human body to even withstand the impact of a cosmic gas cloud. So I don't understand how any of this happened.

It was all a blur, but I could hear someone screaming for me to reel Ben into the station. I tried to act quickly, but a heard a crashing of glass. I ducked out of the way but was then swept off my feet and into the air, a large mass of red and yellow absorbing my body. My mind went blank as time slowed down, eventually coming to a stop.

...

My eyes flickered open. I was in a room with wood panelling overing the walls and tubes and medical equipment covering most of the visible floor space. My tired body lay in a white bed, shrouded by white sheets. Everything was white.

I looked underneath the sheets to see that I was in no way shape or form clothed. Complete Birthday Suit.

Crap. I thought to myself as the nurse entered the room with a clipboard in her hand and dragging a cart full of medical instruments behind her.

"I see someone's awake." she teased. She was a pretty girl, much prettier than me with her curly brown hair and her curvy waistline. "I'm Erin. I'm you're personal nurse while you're staying here. You ended up needing more care than the other patients that came from the space mission." She pointed to my right arm as she pulled a tool off of the cart.

I looked down to my right arm to find that there really was no right arm to look at. It was comptelely missing. Just a nub sprouting from my shoulder where the arm should have started. And there wasn't even a wound. I thought that I could have maybe gotten a bad wound and they would have amputated it, but no. It was as if I never had a right arm to begin with.

"What the heck happened to my arm?!" I shouted.

"You came in here like that. I just figured it was a birth deffect or something like that, but I asked around and everybody said that you had had an arm there earlier." she replied so calmly that I thought she might have been a robot.

"Are you going to get it back?"

"I don't see how we can. Sorry."

I let a long sigh slip from my mouth, closing my eyes as she took my blood pressure from my left arm. I don't understand how this could have happened. It was as if this was some weird dream. Maybe Sylvia knew what happened.

"Is Sylvia von Doom staying in this hospital?" I asked.

"Yes, her room is down the hall from yours. And by the way, this isn't a hospital. Its a suite that Victor von Doom is allowing the crew from the mission to stay in while they recover." she explained. I looked out the open door, wondering when I was going to be released. "Okay, I have to go examine other patients. If you need anything, press this button." She pointed to a red button hanging from my hospital bed as she dragged her cart back out the door.

Only ten minutes had gone by, and it was starting to feel like an eternity. I looked around the room, at the fancy, wood walls, and the window that covered the entire far side of the room. Light poured into the room, which was what I assumed to be an effort to make it look more livable. It didn't really work, though.

I suddenly heard a sneeze come from somewhere; the closet. It sounded exactly like my unique sneeze, quiet and catlike, but I knew that it couldn't have come from me. I paused a second, thinking that I might have been hearing things, but when another petite sneeze came from the same closet, I knew I wasn't being delusional.

I slowly stood from the bed, treading lightly as I moved towards the closet. My left hand gripped tightly around the doorknob, and all at once. I flung the heavy closet door open, almost knocking it off its hinges.

I was shocked at what I saw standing there...

Me.