The Color of Your Energy

Ch 1: Freebies

It was a day like most days in New York City. Tourists wandered the streets, alternating between staring up at the buildings and staring down at their phones, trying to navigate the unfamiliar streets with their GPS barely functioning due to the skyscrapers' interference.

Inside the kitchen of the sensational bakery and deli called Wake and Bake, Johnny Storm—owner and head baker—was busy whipping together a batch of coffee cake batter. He hummed and danced along to the music rolling from the speaker in the corner as he measured ingredients, happy to be getting down into the nitty gritty instead of delegating it to one of his employees. Normally at that time of day he was taking a more managerial position, keeping folks on track, checking inventory, or going over the schedule for the next few days to see what was on order.

The reason that he was being so hands on that morning was because the Daily Bugle was doing a human interest story about his bakery. It was well loved by locals and tourists alike, with great reviews on every website it was listed on. Additionally, Johnny consistently won awards at baking conventions across the country. The newspaper was sending in a reporter to talk to him, as well as a photographer to take pictures for the article. He wanted to look like he'd been baking. The best way to accomplish that was to actually bake something. To get the right amount of flour smeared on his arms and apron, and appear the right level of disheveled.

Johnny also wanted the bakery and the dining area to look gorgeous and worthy of a magazine for the Bugle piece. His employees had outdone themselves to accomplish this while still serving customers, and would be getting a surprise bonus for their efforts in their next paychecks.

Johnny was damn proud of his baking, and of the success of his bakery. Ever since he'd beeen young, he had always been interested in baking and food preparation.

Even before he'd gone with his sister, Susan Storm, along with Reed Richards and Reed's friend Ben Grimm, and they had all gained amazing powers in that cosmic storm, he had been an excellent baker. After the accident, his baking got even better. His control of fire and heat were incredibly helpful in the kitchen. He knew when something was ready, and he could add a little heat or take a little away if it was necessary. When he made steaks, they were never overdone. When he baked pies, the crusts were never burned, and the filling was never runny.

Johnny had been using his baking skills to fund more baking—and fund his mechanic hobby as well—since he was ten years old. It just made sense that when he was all grown up that he'd start it as a business.

What did that mean, once the four of them became the Fantastic Four?

Well, Johnny had a secret identity. On the team, he was known as The Human Torch, but he kept his head flamed on at all times, making him unrecognizable by both sight and voice. For those occasions when something went wrong and his flames went out, he also wore a mask. Most of the public thought that the mysterious Human Torch was someone who'd been a janitor at the Baxter Building or something similar. Rumors started on the internet by Reed, actually.

At first, it had been a matter of safety. Johnny had been fairly young when he'd gained his powers, and nobody wanted him to get hurt by some villain who would try to go after him at school. Sure, he could be pulled out and home schooled, but he had his friends, he had a life, and of course there were bake sales to protect.

As an adult well in control of his powers, and an experienced superhero, the safety issue was not as big a deal, but now he wanted to protect his business. He wanted the popularity of his bakery to be based on the food alone, and not because people were crazy about the Fantastic Four. If his superhero fame would have been responsible for the business doing well, then how could he truly gauge his skill?