Shields vs. Flames (Captain America & Human Torch FF)

S01 Chapter 16: Worse Than a Nightmare

If you already read the past chapter, I HIGHLY recommend you to read it again, well the few last parts I added, if you still haven't, since I thought it's supposed to be in that chapter and not in here. PLEASE, PLEASE read it before this! It's not much of a spoiler but it's your choice if you wanna.

And I'm so sorry about that!

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(Maddy)

I firmly step on the accelerator with my hands tightly grasping on the steering wheel and my eyes locked on the road as I drive one of Tony's Audis with Bruce on the passenger seat. I don't give a crap right now if he'll kill me if I accidentally crash this car or give this a scratch. All I care about right now is Steve and Johnny.

I swallow at the thought of Steve on his motorcycle crashing it on a car due to his guilt or anger because of what happened earlier. And Johnny setting a car on fire, letting it explode without using his powers to stop the fire, killing himself. My chest tightens and I breathe deeply to relax myself as I remember that Bruce is with me. I dont want him getting on an accident just because of Steve, Johnny and I.

As a crowd of people and a firetruck block our way from the wall of fire, Bruce and I step out of the car. I begin to feel very worried if Steve or Johnny was involved with this and my heart starts to pound its way out of my chest as I run pass the people to get to the other side. Suddenly, a fireman stops me.

"I'm sorry, miss," says the fireman. "For your safety, please—"

"What the hell happened here?" I ask, shaken.

"A truck with gallons of fuel was passing by when somebody set fire to it and kaboom! Nearly the whole block got roasted. Unfortunately, a man was on that road and he got roasted as well."

My chest just had the hardest pound as I think of Johnny. He must have set fire on that truck and let it explode on him. He must have felt so badly hurt because of me. Why did I become so weak? Why didn't I just told Steve right away after he kissed me that Johnny and I are already together?

"No, please!" I cry and tears fall on my cheeks. "You have to let me pass! Please!"

"I'm sorry, miss but like everybody else," the fireman says, "stay behind the line."

I try to run pass him but he has me on a tight grasp and I squirm. Fortunately, I got out of it and run across the line. The fire gets smaller as I look for either Steve or Johnny on the fire area but I found none of them. Instead, I find an ambulance on the other side. The paramedics carry a man on a stretcher as they make their way back to the ambulance. That poor man got roasted badly. His clothes didn't get that burnt, just a number of ripped parts, mostly on his jacket's sleeves. His skin is slightly red, I can almost see the flesh below his skin. And his hair, his blonde hair... More tears stream down my eyes. I wish my eyes are just deceiving me. I wish this isn't real.

My chest tightens even more and a lump in my throat grows but I manage to scream out.

"Steve!"

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(Steve)

As the engine purrs to life, I start to rev my motorcycle even more and make my way out of Stark under the night sky, not having any idea where to go.

Without any helmet on, the cool air blows sharply on my face. I glance swiftly at the speedometer and I'm going over 90. Maddy might kill me because of that plus I'm not wearing any helmet. But I don't think we will ever speak to each other again because of what happened.

I actually feel so angry with her being a two-timing... bitch. Well, she called herself that so I'm fine calling her like that until she stops being one.

After all those arguments we had a while ago, I feel like a stupid, worthless, uneducated person. She was right. I shouldn't have smacked my lips to hers that quickly. But I was lost for words that time and I couldn't control myself. I should've told her first before kissing her.

But still, it's all her fault. It's all on her. If only she told me about her and Storm first before admitting her true feelings for me. If only she wasn't crying. If only she didn't return. If only I didn't knew her. If only she hadn't found that Tesseract piece from that cliff, I think my life, our lives won't be like this. I'd still be walking around the city, sitting on my chair at that old apartment I had, staying at the gym, torturing the poor punching bag trying to figure out the purpose of my life.

But is she really the one to be blamed? I mean, I was the one who kissed her. I was the one who wasn't thinking clearly. Even if she wasn't in a relationship with Storm, I should not have kissed her. I should have just told her instead of going for her lips. Now, she's in trouble because of me. Or is it because of herself?

I rev the engine a lot more and I'm going over 100. The cool breeze blowing on my face gives me adrenaline, not caring if I'll die. I just want to get over this. But I dont want to die. What if Storm dumps her and there will be no one to comfort her? Who will be there for her? Well, there's always Bruce but I doubt he'll be enough.

The buildings and cars pass through me in a blur. Then, a huge ball of fire comes falling towards me and I have no idea in hell on what I should do. I gasp like the air has been sucked out of me as it comes closer and closer. This is the time I decided to jump and break my fall on my right. I lightly wince in pain and watch as my motorcycle get caught in flames. Then, it explodes. I carefully get on my feet and my right side hurts a bit. But it's better to jump than to get roasted.

As I limp to the sidewalk, I see another ball of fire coming right at me. It gets closer and I realize it is not just a fireball. It's human in shape. Then, it lands a couple of feet away from me. The flames disappear and it reveals a man in a blue suit. It's Storm.

"Storm," I say between breaths, "there's no point of killing me."

"Why isn't there?" he coldly asks. "You're the reason why she's become a bitch."

"Why me?"

"Because you kissed her!" He throws a fireball at me but I quickly block it with my arm, which burnt off my jacket sleeve and I try to put it out.

"Well, you can have her now! She's all yours!"

"No, Rogers. If I'll have her, then you need to get out of the picture."

"If you kill me, she'll come after you and kill you."

"How would you know that?" He scoffs. "Oh, right. You knew her first."

"Why are you even doing this? Killing me will just worsen your relationship with Maddy." He doesn't say anything. "Please. We're both victims. We both got played because she loves us both. And we both know that we both love her."

"Bu still, you kissed her!" He throws me another fireball and I block my face with my arms as I fall on my back. "You're a big dick for doing that!"

"I didn't know she was with you," I'm beginning to run out of breath.

A truck of flammable substance passes by the left road and Storm trails off. In no surprise, he sets fire to it and...

BOOM!