Burning Fury (Fantastic Four)

Chapter 3: Old Feelings and New Dangers

It the best worst experience of my life going up to space. My jaw hurt just from gazing out the window and awing at everything that went past. It would have been so much better though if Victor and Johnny weren’t on it. Tell you what that ship was going to explode with all the arrogance and stupidity that was bottled up in there. All I heard the entire time was Victor blabbering on about this and that and how fricking rich he was all the while cuddling up to Sue. Reed looked like he was going to vomit and I’m sure Ben was going to kill Johnny any minute, an earful of pride on one side, idiot on the other. It was great…

When we finally got up to the Von Doom space station I was the first to get out of the ship that was brimming with cold and ego. Sue and Reed couldn’t do a better job of skirting by each other and giving each other icy cold glances even if they tried. It wasn’t entertainment anymore, it was just pathetic. And to make matters worse Johnny was doing an awful job trying to not look at my ass every chance he got. He stared at me like he had never seen me before in his entire life.

Finally I got out and it was good to not be cramped, I grabbed the stuff we needed and started to head towards the main control area where we had a beautiful view of earth. Only thing was the mood was far from beautiful.
‘ETA until cosmic event; nine hours’ Victor shouted to us all as we headed towards the control room,
‘If you’re good, maybe next time daddy will let you drive’ Johnny smirked at Ben, winding him up. It was like subliminal messaging, how could Johnny talk like this and not expect to be punched? A grin plastered itself on my face at the chance I could get to punch Johnny Storm.
‘You keep talking and there won’t be a next time’ Ben snapped, talking through his teeth.

Finally we reached the main station control room via the main bridge from the ship to the actual space station. I had never seen the earth like this before. It was so awe-inspiring I had never seen such a large spectrum of blue and green before it was something that I could stare at all day.
‘We can monitor the cloud’s approach and observe the tests from here’ Sue announced as we put down all of the cases and junk we needed in preparation for the storm.
‘Is it safe?’ Ben asked as him and Reed leant against the rail above the control systems.
‘The shields on the station should protect us’ Reed said,
‘Should?’ Ben and I said in unison. Reed just gave us both a grin.
‘What’s the matter Ben?’ Victor smirked from afar. I grit my teeth and clenched and looked away so I didn’t have to see Victor give my uncle a bad time.

‘Getting paranoid in your old age?’ Victor continued. Reed gave a loud sigh and began to divert the conversation away.
‘Let’s start loading those samples. Get your suit ready Ben. Max you can go assist if you want’ Reed gave me a smile, one that also signalled that I needed to get Ben outta there before Victor bled. Ben unzipped the baggy suit before looking at Victor with clear contempt.
‘So I see you’re still doing the heavy lifting. Maybe you should have stayed in the lab’ Victor’s comment made my uncle stop in his tracks and turn around. Oh god. I really wanted to burn that look right off Victor’s face. With a blow torch.
‘Field work never suited you’
‘He does the talking, I do the walking. Got it?’
‘So take a walk Ben. Actually if you all would excuse me, I need to borrow Susan for a moment’ Victor dismissed us all. Contain the fury, I thought and breathed through it as I reluctantly turned on my heel and started to the air-lock hatch where Ben would go for a spacewalk.
‘Permission to punch Victor’ I seethed as I led Ben away with Johnny in tow.
‘Max, you don’t even need to ask’ he gritted his teeth.

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Ben was being put into the space suit as Johnny and I were checking his vitals making sure that he could move and breathe fine. I examined the pretty looking flowers and made sure they were all ready to go for the cosmic storm.
‘Please tell me your guy’s not trying to rekindle things with my sister’ Johnny said.
‘Of course not. Strictly business’ Ben replied, slightly muffled by the suit. I had to laugh. They both looked at me awkwardly.
‘Yes, well his eyes say differently don’t they?’ Johnny was pulled up by Ben who looked more serious than usual.
‘Hey, two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she’s not over it either’ he said very deeply.
‘Wow, Doctor Phil that’s deep’ Johnny taunted, ‘let’s think about that. You’ve got Victor; more money than God, stud of the year and you’ve Reed; world’s dumbest smartest guy, worth less than postage stamp’ Johnny latched the pretty flowers onto a rope attached to Ben’s suit.
‘That’s a real toss up’

‘Don’t trouble your tiny little mind’ Ben snapped.
‘Twenty bucks she chooses Reed’ I betted Johnny. He just frowned at me and said to Ben,
‘Don’t wander off now boy’ Johnny and Ben exchanged thumbs up and salutes before the hatch door opened and Ben was sent outside into space to position the flowers. Eventually it was just Johnny and me…alone.
‘Either you’re seriously rooting for Victor or you are that broke you can’t bet twenty dollars’ I smirked up at him.

‘Fine, I’ll bet she stays with Victor’ he grinned down at me, he was standing very close to me and I felt heat rise up my neck and settle on my ears as my heart jumped up and down on my chest. I broke the tension and checked Ben’s vitals to make sure the suit was working sufficiently.
‘Trying to avoid your feelings isn’t going to work Max’ Johnny grinned at me.
‘Feelings?!’ I snapped and turned around to face him. He still smiled at me like the Cheshire Cat, ‘Since when do you care about my feelings? You didn’t seem fazed about my feelings when I found out you were seeing other girls’

‘So you do have feelings for me’ he waggled his eyebrows as me. I lifted my arm and punched him hard in the shoulder.
‘Ow’ he groaned and pulled back, ‘you punch like a man’ he rubbed his shoulder. I lifted my eyebrow and couldn’t help but smile.
‘It’s hot that you’ve been working out’ he said moving closer to me seemingly unfazed. Without another word he seized my hips and drew me close. I felt like I was going to faint from the heat that threatened to consume me.

We were interrupted by Reed who came running in with a startled and fearful expression on his face.
‘Ben!’ he shouted, ‘You need to get inside now!’
‘What’s going on?’
‘Reed what’s wrong?’ I said and looked to the monitor on the screen and the storm matter was dangerously close to us. If I hadn’t been swooning over Johnny I would have seen it. How could I be so stupid?!
‘I haven’t finished arranging your flowers yet, egghead’
‘Ben turn around’

I looked out the window and holy shit! A crackling mass of orange and yellow electric storm was ascending onto the space station hours earlier than we had anticipated. My god! What are we gonna do? Ben was still out there!!!
‘Guys I’m not gonna make it’
‘Ben you gotta jump!’ Johnny shouted beside me. I wanted to grapple my way out past the glass and grab my uncle. I wasn’t sure if he was actually going to make it. ‘It’s the only way’

The cloud flickered and flew near the space station and it hit the flower arrangement and I saw as the buzzing electricity and the magnitude of the huge mass of storm was coming down on us and everything in my body was yelling, run, run, run. Ben jumped over the gap and was only seconds ahead of the storm it was almost biting at his feet as it zapped and hissed its way towards us.
‘Come on Ben! You got this!’ Johnny shouted
‘Okay Johnny get ready to close the portal’ Reed ordered. It was like everything was slowed down as Ben finally clung his way into the hatch but was knocked out just as the cloud hit the main part of the space station. My eyes brimmed with tears as all three of us were flung back by the sheer force of the power of the cosmic storm. My head hit the floor and my heart and my body felt like it was going a thousand miles an hour. My heart beat against my chest faster than it had ever done before I actually thought I was having a heart attack. But before I could even get up or try and stop my body, I was consumed into darkness.