Sparks of Love

Chapter 4

Johnny ran after (Name) as the flames burst. He jumped over her and quickly covered her and the small child with flames that protruded from his back, countering the blast. Reed quickly swiped his hands out, extending them in great lengths to protect the crowd. Sue, out of reflex, made a force shield to contain the fire. She pushed the force of the flames down onto the road, ceasing it into nothing.

"Are you okay?" (Name) asked the child once they were out of harm's way. The little girl nodded and quickly ran to the crowd where her worried, but relieved, mother waited with open arms. (Name) glanced at Johnny whose back had burned up his shirt and jacket. "Johnny are you—"he pulled her into a hug.

"Don't ever run away like that. You don't have super powers like the rest of us. You need to control yourself next time. You almost gave me a heart attack, (Name)!"

(Name) smiled at his gesture and slowly hugged him back. She then pulled away when the loud noise of firetruck sirens heading towards the disastrous scene, but it skewed and crashed sideways into the safety rails of the bridge. Half of the truck dangled over the water and several of the firemen quickly made their way to get off of it while Reed used his powers to catch one of the men from falling. Ben wasted no time and grabbed onto hood of the truck made an attempt to pull it back onto the bridge. He dug his heel into the ground as he slowly, but successfully, levels the truck.

Ben, exhausted, backed away until he felt the familiar arms of his younger sister wrap around his waist. He carefully returned the loving gesture back, somewhat happy that someone wasn't afraid of him. He looked into the crowd and he saw a familiar face. "Debbie," he whispered. (Name) quickly gazed up to see the woman. Debbie murmured the word "<i>monster</i>" under her breath and placed her ring on the ground. Anger boiled in (Name)'s blood and quickly dashed after the woman. "Debbie!" (Name) yelled as she ran through the crowd to catch up to her.

Debbie stopped walking and turned around, only to be greeted by the younger Grimm's fist. The force caused her to fall down as blood trickled down her nose. Johnny heads over to (Name) and gets in between the two women but mostly to stop (Name) from throwing another punch at the older lady. "The next time I see you call Ben a monster, I'll show you who the <b>real</b> monster is," (Name) threatened.

Debbie scurried away while grabbing her nose. "I'm going to make sure that I never get on your bad side." Johnny joked as he and (Name) walked back to Ben, Reed, and Sue.

(Name) looked at him and punched his shoulder enough to make him wince.

"What was that for?!" he yelled as he grabbed his arm.

"That's what you get for running into the hall with some female's jacket covering your body."

"(Name), are you jealous?" he asked, trying to make sure the hope wasn't evident in his voice.

"No, I just found it disturbing."

  ~*~*~*~*~*~  

The team waited in a tent as paramedics cared and inspected everyone for any injuries. Ben watched his younger sister as Sue bandaged her bruised hand from the impact hitting Debbie. "Was it necessary?"

(Name) looked at him, her tired (e/c) orbs looking back into his, "I kept my promise."

This caused Ben to chuckle as he kissed (Name)'s forehead. Little traces of sand covered her forehead causing the younger Grimm to giggle. Johnny watched the siblings, but mostly staring at Ben's new form, from the entrance of the tent and quietly walked up to the siblings. "Hey Ben," he interjected as the two Grimms' looked at him curiously, "where are your ears?"

Suddenly, the Chief Fireman walked in. "There are some folks outside that want to talk to you all," he informed the group.

Reed furrowed his brows together, "We're not going public with this. We're scientists, not celebrities."

"Too late son," he replied as he turned on a little TV monitor that was in the corner of the tent. The incident on the bridge was on every news channel. Every single one of program had the tagline <b>Fantastic Four</b>. "That's what they are calling you; the Fantastic Four."

"Nice," Johnny coolly commented.

"Johnny slow down, let's think about this," Sue implied to her younger brother.

Johnny seemed to pause and think. "Okay, done thinking," and quickly dashed out towards the news reporters a few meters away.

Everyone else looked at each other. "He can't be your spokesperson," (Name) murmured as the group walked outside. Cameras were taking shots of everyone as they walked towards Johnny and the reporter. "So who is the leader?" another firefighter asked as he stood in front of them.

"That would be me," Johnny quickly replied.

The Chief looked at him in disbelief. "No seriously."

The team all turned to look at Reed as Sue gently pushed him forward. He reluctantly took the mic as the chief told him the reporters wanted a statement. He gulped and started to talk. "Uh, during our recent mission to the Von Doom space station, we were exposed to as yet-unidentified radioactive energy. It's most likely some kind of nucleotide compound—"

Out of nowhere, the reporters went crazy and started asking questions like: "What happened on the bridge? Who's this girl that is always with you? Does she have powers as well? Does it hurt to stretch? Were you really on fire? Is it true that one of you can fly?

"Working on it; it's a lot harder—"

Sue quickly cut Johnny off, "We don't know much more than you do at this point. Which is why we will be going directly to the lab, where we can diagnose our symptoms and—"

"Symptoms; so it's like a disease?" the reporters proclaimed.

(Name) look at Ben who was staring at the engagement the once belonged to Debbie. Johnny leaped in to comment. "Symptoms; please, if having powers is a disease, then yeah we got it. We are gonna blow your mind. There's a new day dawning; the day of the Fantastic Four."

"That thing doesn't look to fantastic," the reporter pointed to Ben.

"Ben Grimm is a genuine American hero, and not only that he's my brother," (Name) interjected, annoyed by the reporter's rude comment.

"What (Name) is trying to say is every team needs a manager and a mascot," Johnny smiled.

(Name) glared at Johnny as the reporters laughed. He's back to being an asshole. "Look," Reed explained, "We went up to space to find a way to understand DNA, to cure disease, and save lives. Well now it's our DNA, <our disease, our lives on the line... Thank you; no more questions," and with that you all walked away, heading anywhere that's private.