Twin Fire Signs ✓

Chapter 6

We received a police escort back to the Baxter Building. When we got there I was shocked to see a huge crowd had shown up. "This is insane." I say as we come to a stop. Johnny is just smiling, taking in all the screaming girls as he helps me out of the back of the cop car. I roll my eyes at them and follow Reed and Sue inside. 

"Is that all for you Dr. Richards?" Jimmy, the doorman, asks. 

"I'm afraid so." Reed says apologetically. I turn around when I don't hear Johnny or Ben enter behind me. Johnny has his arms raised in greeting, milking the attention for all it's worth, enamoured with the fame. I scoff, this guy is unbelievable. 

"Welcome back to the Baxter, Dr. Richards, Jackie! I've got the usual for you," Willy, the mail guy, says as he hands Reed a huge stack of bills. 

"Thanks Willy." We say, embarrassed. Sue looks over my shoulder at the stack of final notice letters that make up the majority of our mail these days.

"We had a rough year." Reed tries to downplay it. I nod along. 

"Yeah, like nine straight." Thanks Ben. Good to know we can always count on you to keep it real. We all get into the elevator to head up to our apartment/laboratory/office. It creaks and groans and won't go up. 

"We're either moving really fast or not at all." Johnny says sarcastically as the maximum weight alarm goes off. Ben groans.

"I'll take the stairs." I was still annoyed with Johnny so I made to get off too, to keep Ben company.

"No Jackie, it's ok. I know you hate the stairs." I give him one last look before the doors shut and the elevator starts moving like normal, and we're alone. Just the four of us. The awkward tension in the air is thick. 

"How come Ben can't turn it off and on like we can?" Johnny asks. Maybe he wasn't such a lost cause after all. 

"That's what we're here to find out." Reed says.

"I mean... If it happened to him..." Sue begins.

"What? You mean, like, we won't be able to turn it off either? That would save time." I swear sometimes he's the biggest kid in the room, and not in a good way.

"You wanna walk around on fire for the rest of your life?" I ask him.

"Is that a trick question? What you don't?"

"Grow up Johnny." Sue tells him, before I could respond. 

"Come on. Am I the only one who thinks this is cool?" He wasn't but I knew my brother wouldn't be happy if I told him I wanted to stay like this. For so long I've lived in his shadow and on that bridge, when I took in that explosion, when I saved all those people from a fiery inferno, I felt like I was something outside of the great Reed Richards baby sister. 

Before a fight could break out between the other set of siblings though, I interrupted. "I think Ben can't turn his off because he was hit directly with the cloud, a pure wave of it. We were hit as it came over the station."

"It's a plausible theory." Reed says as the elevator comes to a stop. Wow, high praise. "We should stay here until we can define the extent of our changes and figure out how to reverse them." 

Johnny and I share a look. Reverse them? I might not want to use these powers for the same reason as Johnny but that didn't mean I wanted to give them up either. We walk into the center of the lab, a big open space with a wall of floor to ceiling windows and two observation pods on the second level. "Whoa!" Johnny says.

"Believe it or not, they actually live here." Sue says.

"But I have to warn you, it's gonna be a little crowded in some areas. And we only have three bedrooms so two of us are going to have to bunk up."