The human torch's flame

Chapter 6

You feet skipped across the floor. The shinny silver surface of the floor sparkled under you feet, leaving you to wonder : Where's the janitor? You took a left and entered in a stable part of the platform. Stable as things got in space. You shifted your weight as you looked out onto the dark sky. Wrapping your hands around the ramp. 

A sharp pain came from your right hand. The wound had been deeper than you thought and blood was now starting to flow again. You gasped as you saw blood covering your hands. You turned around and fumbled in the nearest draw. Nothing. Then you remembered the map. You mentally mapped the place and tried to imagine where would be the most likely place you could find a bandage.

A deep voice came from behind you. "Badly cut, hey?" You turned to see Ben. You grinned and pressed your left thumb on your palm to stop the blood from flooding further down your hand. 

"Yup. Do you know where I could get bandages?"

"I think Reed has a few in his medical kit in the shuttle. I can grab it just stay here."

"Sure." Unlike most of the people in the crew Ben Grim made a good first impression with a warm smile and a comprehensive nature. You sat down to the side and looked down at the statistics. Something still wasn't quite right. You grabbed a pen from the pocket and scribbled with your left hand because you could with your right. You pressed your palm to your suit.

(If you are right handed: The notes on the paper resembled poorly what you were calculating but you would easily be able to explain to Reed if he didn't understand. / If you are left handed: Luckily, the wounded hand was not your writing hand so you were able to right perfectly fine.)

Suddenly someone cleared their throat next to you. You looked up and, of course, it had to be the annoying Johnny Storm. As soon as you saw him, you looked back to your paper, suddenly intrigued with your writing style.

"Come on, you don't have to act like that."

"You know rather than trying to sleep with me, look out the window. The result will be more constructive."

"What is my chance of succeeding?"

You snorted. "Like one in a gizillion billion."

He grinned, a goofy smile on his face and said: "I told you I had a chance."

You nearly choked on your air and errupted into a fit of giggles. You covered your mouth and placed your remaining hand on your abdomen to try to stop laughing. You finally managed to calm down and stop laughing. Johnny didn't seem too pleased by your reaction. You tried to ignore him and went to work on the sheet. You were nearly done with your calculations....

Two pairs of hands grabbed your injured hand and their owner's eyebrows furrowed. If you had not know Johnny, you could think he was concerned. But judging by Mr.Storm's character , he was more intrigued than «concerned». 

You pulled your hand away, pressing your hand flat against your thigh. Johnny raised and eyebrow at you and simultaneously Ben walked into the room with a bandage. He gave it to you and walked away with a smile for no apparent reason. You wrapped the bandage tightly across your skin, so much as to see your fingertips redden.

You were trying to block the bandage so that it wouldn't unroll by tucking it inside but win one hand it wasn't easy. You weren't going to ask Johnny. That would be followed by listed in him say the IamsoawesomseIhelpedyouwithabandage sentence. 

A hand helped you tuck it underneath. You looked up to see Johnny's arrogant smirk. You waved him away and went back to the sheet of paper. It took you some time to finish the calculation but when you did you realised it was not going to be good. You passed the main room where Sue and Victor where. Ignoring there 'moment' you looked out an integrated telescope. It was there. The storm. Without a seconds hesitation you took off to wherever you thought it most likely Reed would be. You first went into the lab; no one. Then you realised, Ben's outside; he's going to die. You took off so past your feet nearly slipped but you didn't care. You slammed into the rail because you didn't have the time to slow down. 

Your feet were becoming blurry. You'd never been (amazing/great/good) at running but fear was forcing you forwards and urging you to run faster. You stopped as soon as you saw Reed and caught your breath in a well deserved second.

He was just outside a door and was talking to Ben through a microphone. Meaning that.... No. 

"Reed? Look I am 99% sure your calculation are wrong. Look." You pointed to the statistic at the bottom of the second sheet.

"You counted the force of attraction of earth but you didn't calculate it's gradually increasing speed. The thing is the cloud is so irregular it will decreased speed as it approached the moon's force of gravity. But now it's locked on to earth's orbit. Earth is going to be fine, the cloud will ignite as soon as it touches Earth's atmosphere but the thing is it's coming now."  You said as fast as you could. 

Reed eyes widened and looked out the small slid that was served as a window.

"Ben, we need you back inside." Reed said urgently

You heard a grunt and Ben say: "I ain't dome arranging your flowers, egghead."

Reed spoke more urgently but still with aggravating calmness.

"Ben, this is serious. Turn around."

You could see much through the small slit but you could guess what was happening. You were losing time. You grabbed Reed's microphone because some egghead hadn't judged it necessary for you to have one.

"Get out." Your tone was cold but still concerned. 

A voice boomed from the loud speakers." Event threshold in two minutes."

Your eyes wide you realised what was happening.

"Get inside. I'll get Ben in safely." You said, your heart beating at a hundred miles per hour.

"No way." Johnny said. 

At that moment you really wanted to stop him.

"Fine. Johnny with me. We're stopping the barriers from closing until Ben gets in."

Johnny grinned and you both bolted to the exit leaving Reed yelling "Jump" To Ben.

"Closing shields in 90 seconds."

You crossed Susan and Johnny immediately grabbed her by the waste and led her back in the main room. You could see Victor typing rapidly. You punched him upwards and split your knuckles in the process. He fell on the ground and you ignored Johnny and Susan's gasps.

You clicked the button to open an accelerate process of Ben being pulled in. You used all the metal in his equipment to be pulled by an on board magnet.

Susan tried to stop you. She placed herself between you and the computer and yelled: 

"Are you crazy? The pressure would kill him."

"He'll be caught by the storm if I don't do anything. LET me do it. Trust me and get out of the way." You yelled back.

" You can't do this." She said.

"Sorry Susan." She gave you a confused look as you punched her in the jaw and got her out of the way. Not the best way to treat your colleagues. Johnny was now behind you. You clicked the last button, accelerating the process of Ben coming on board.

You turned around to face Johnny who had a look of bewilderment on his face. 

You snapped and said: "I'm trying to help. You are stopping me from saving your friends." A tear slipped down your eye. It was the stress and the whole situation was breaking you apart. You were shaking and bleeding from your knuckle. Your bandage had come undone and you were bloody all over your clothes.

The most surprising: you were crying. Johnny looked concerned as you suddenly felt a wave cross over you. And you felt your body and atoms disperse.

A/N:

Yes I know this is a little different from the film but there has to be a clever person to actually bring Ben on board.