Opposites ➤ Johnny Storm

Chapter Twenty

I don't know how long we stayed standing in the middle of the room, finally giving into something that's been haunting me since our last mission. Unlike the first time there was no rush, no surprise. This time I was perfectly in control, this only happening because I made the choice. And that made everything about this perfect.

Perfect until the end and a voice sounded through the intercom system. We were being called to a meeting and weren't alone for long before a couple of soldiers walked in. They didn't seem at all surprised to see us, just held the door open for us to walk past them.

In the hall, we stayed silent as I tried to find something to say to relieve some of the awkward tension. But I had no idea what I was supposed to say after I went against everything I've told him. I don't really think that 'I'm sorry I went a little crazy and started making out with your face' is the right thing to say.

"Rory, I-" "I'm sor-"

He pulled me to a stop and looked right into my eyes. "Are you going to apologize? Because if you are then you can stop right now. You only apologize for mistakes and I don't regret any of this. But if you do, please tell me now. Please just talk to me."

"I just-"

"Hey you two. You on your way to the meeting or are you planning to play hooky again?" Ben walked up and put his arms around us. He pulled us towards wherever it was we were supposed to be going. Once again we weren't able to have a conversation we desperately needed to be having. And I actually wanted to physically hurt my brother for interrupting.

"It was one time that we ditched! You guys had it under control and it was Halloween, you know how much Rory loves Halloween!"

As they continued arguing over our Halloween adventure, I zoned out and continued on our way to the meeting. I wanted to be going anywhere else beside this meeting that would no doubt involve the General yelling at us to his little army heart's content. So I was prepared for the worst meeting I'll probably ever attend.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I think that might have spoke too soon. Because as I saw who was waiting for us in the meeting I felt anything but prepared.

"Victor?" Hearing his name made it real, that he wasn't a hallucination from the temporary insanity that made me kiss Johnny earlier.

I wasn't able to get a good look as Johnny instantly moved in front of me, but hearing his voice was confirmation that it wasn't some look-a-like and was in fact Von Doom back from the dead. "What's the matter? Afraid of ghosts?"

Ben ran past us and grabbed the dead man by the throat slamming him into the wall. "Don't move! Since you're a ghost, you won't mind if I break your neck."

The general spoke up in an unamused voice as he watched my brother holding the dangerous sociopath. The words that he said making about as much sense as the dead man standing in front of us. "Let him go."

"You know who that is?" I think we all knew the answer to the question, but the room was silent as we waited for his answer. For once I was hanging on every word the man was saying, not something I thought I would ever be doing. But then again, lately I've been doing a lot of things I didn't think I would ever do.

"Victor von Doom, he's here under my orders."

With that one sentence, we all knew there was nothing we could do to stop him. The man who had tried to kill us all, and many innocent people, was under the protection of the United States Army. But he was still a killer and there was no doubt he show his true colors sooner or later.

"Ben, let him go." At Reed's command Ben let him go and now that Von Doom was loose, Johnny moved even closer to me. He was so close I could feel the heat radiating off of his body and it brought memories of what we were doing before to the front of my mind. Memories that as amazing as they were I couldn't think of right now, instead focusing on the conversation in the room.

"How is this possible? How are you still alive?"

"No thanks to you five, that's for certain."

"Von Doom's made contact with the alien. He's got valuable information. Information that might just help save the planet." So that's how he got the General's protection. By having this 'information' he'd tricked them into thinking he was 'helping'. I don't like the man, but I thought Hager was smarter than that.

"Now let's be clear about this shall we? I hate you. All of you. But the world's at stake and we need to work together to survive."

"General, we know firsthand, you trust Victor and you're gonna regret it."

"So far, the only one I've regretted trusting here is you, Richards." Reed flinched as if he had been physically hit. He wasn't a prideful man, but the low blow still had to hurt. Maybe to the point where he wasn't thinking clearly.

I took a step closer to him, trying to ignore Johnny's frown that I was closer to Von Doom as well. "Reed, don't agree to this."

"Let's see what he's got."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well?" The video we just watched did hold some possible usefulness, but I didn't like the messenger. Anything from Von Doom shouldn't be believed as true.

"I like the part where he knocks you on your ass."

"Can we watch that again? Maybe on a loop?"

Von Doom shot me a menacing glare, but unlike the last time we faced him, I wasn't scared. "Look at where the energy levels surge when he attacks me." As we rematches the video, I noticed something I hadn't before.

"The energy was channeled through him, but it originated from his board." Reed nodded at my words and I could practically see the gears in his head turning.

"If we can separate him from the board, we can cut off his power completely. But how?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't need you people, would l?" All five of us turned to Von Doom with looks ranging from disgust to pure loathing. There was nothing I wanted more than to have Ben fight him again, but now I was going to have to work with him.

I was about to follow Reed to the lab when he turned to look at me. "Rory, since you focus on genetics, we won't need you in the lab." We all heard the words he wanted to add, 'and you'll probably end up stabbing Von Doom within the hour.' Or something like that, as we all knew my temper would result in a fight.

"I'm glad we have the opportunity to collaborate again. I'll try to talk slowly so you can keep up."

I glared after him as he walked with Reed and Sue towards the lab. Right before I could storm off, Johnny turned to me and Ben, "I think we could all use a drink."