The Storm Ignites || Johnny Storm

Away from this Life?

Sue didn't seem to fully grasp his idea either, "What are you talking about?" Shifting herself so her face was fully turned towards him.

"We move out of the Baxter Building." He started to explain, a small grin actually forming on his lips at the idea, "I'll take a teaching position somewhere. Get back to my research and the two of us will live out lives and raise a family like normal people."

Sue was slowly beaming, "You would do that?" Her heart fluttered when his face drew nearer to her own.

Reed looked at her seriously, love leaking into his words, "Nothing's more important to me than our future together."

"Oh, thank you!" She exclaimed with delight, wrapping her arms around him tightly, loving him even more. It wasn't until the thought of their siblings and Ben came to her mind that her smile started to dwindle, "But, what about Ben, Johnny and June?" Her tone concerned as she relinquished her grip on his body, moving away from him just a little like before. They couldn't leave the three of them to carry on with the Fantastic Five by themselves ... could they?

"They'll understand." Reed assured her, although he wasn't fully sure himself. He knew that his sister has always wanted a family of her own as well much like him, and obviously Johnny was going to be that other half - but he wasn't sure how much she loved being in the group either in the long-run. She might want to take his and Sue's route and stop being a superhero to live out a normal, safe life. But then, with Johnny in the picture, who knew?

Ben, on the other hand, he wasn't so sure about either. He had Alisha and they seemed happily in love – but what has Ben got that could get him a job or something outside of the Fantastic Five? He wasn't like them; he didn't have a normal human body like them anymore.

He realised Sue was giving him a look that clearly said, 'You can't know that'.

"Besides," Reed continued, wanting to assure her better. "Johnny and June have each other and Ben has Alisha; they'll be perfectly fine without us."

Sue couldn't' disagree completely with that, "Alright, but let's keep this to ourselves. Johnny's got enough on his plate with his power problems as it is."

Johnny gritted his teeth from outside, his hands clenching. They were going to keep it from them?! They disserved to know something as big as them leaving the group! He shook his head, feeling anger brew within him. Not able to believe that his older sister, one of whom he had secretly looked up to on occasion - and the guy who was supposed to be his hopeful 'brother-in-law' (whenever he can next get the best chance to ask June to marry him) could keep something like this from them.

...

"They're breaking up the team." Was the first thing Johnny said upon entering the training room where Ben and Alisha were located. He couldn't seem to find June, it's like she kept moving around the place in order to not bump into him. It hurt, but he knew it was his own fault. He still hadn't been able to figure out a way to make it up to her without spouting out his secret.

Ben did a double take, "Huh?" Looking up from his seat, having been in the middle of lifting a few of the heavier weights. He didn't really know why he did weight training; it wasn't as if he could get any stronger – maybe he just liked something physical to do here and there.

"Reed and Sue." Johnny exclaimed in a heat, "I just overheard them. They want a nice, normal, boring-ass life with no more Fantastic Five."

Alisha was calmly listening, not able to actually see how Johnny was reacting but just analyzed his tone.

Ben began feeling what Johnny felt, betrayed and angry. "Well, what do they expect us to do?!" He asked, rhetorically with a loud boom. He heaved himself up from where he was sitting, getting closer to Johnny. "Keep it going with just you, me and Junie?!"

Johnny smiled sarcastically, "And call ourselves what?" It couldn't become just the three of them, it just wouldn't be the same. "The Terrific Trio?"

"When were they going to tell us?!"

Alisha stepped in calmly still with her words, not affected by their heightened heart rates and moods. "They'll tell you when they're ready to tell you." She told the boys, not looking around to their general direction. Johnny and Ben glanced over to her, their eyebrows creasing as she continues – clearly listening to her wise words. "It's their decision, not yours. You can't be mad at them for just doing what makes them happy."

"And, Johnny." Alisha continued, speaking to him alone this time alone. "Have you ever asked June what she wanted? That maybe in time, she'd want the same thing as Sue?"

Johnny went silent. No, he hadn't really thought about that honestly. And ... he's never actually asked her what she wanted. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and only a couple of times has he ever thought about starting a family, but, as time went on in their relationship – he could actually see them starting a family together ... in time. And before he could run into another internal monologue, Reed walked into the room with a distressed look on his face.

"Guys," Reed started, looking between the three. "We've got a serious problem."

...

"I've been cross-referencing the Surfer's radiation through every astronomical database." June explained, pressing buttons on the keyboard to pop up every planet that Earth currently knows, the ones that have died lately so to speak. "Altair 7, Rigel 3, Vega 6..." Photos of the planet's current condition blew up on the screen and everyone looked at the images in disbelief.

June didn't look, but she could feel Johnny's eyes on her ... she pushed herself to ignore him.

"He's been to all these planets?" Ben looked gobsmacked, leaning in to get a closer look. The visions were devastating. Are they saying? ... that Earth might end up like these planets? A sliver of nervousness bubbled under his skin.

"And now they're lifeless, barren." Reed confirmed, pointing to the pictures his sister brought up. The amount of chaos was catastrophic. "Some of them even shattered."

June glanced down at her notepad of notes, "Everywhere this Surfer goes, eight days later the planet dies." She calculated.

This brought a tense silence into the room.

"How are we going to stop him?" Ben questioned, he was looking at Reed and June as if they've already figured out a plan. But they looked stumped too, "We don't even know where he is."

Something suddenly came to Sue, "What about the craters?" She suggested, there had to be something useful in them.

June tilted her head at the screen in thought, observing the crater photos and her eyes narrowed suspiciously with Sue's suggestion. "Maybe..." She mused, before going back to type on the keyboard – bringing up every single location of the craters that had been created so far on Earth. Little boxes with a time, date and location of a crater were brought up on the screen.

She narrowed her eyes further, and then finally realised, "That's it-" She began, surprise in her voice – how did they not see this before? Everyone was looking to her, "They're appearing in a numerical sequence." Looking over to her brother.

Reed's eyes lit up, "Of course!" He exclaimed, now seeing this. He turned to June, "See if you can figure out where the next crater will be – that'll be where the Surfer's heading next."

And she did just that, "Okay, if the last crater was formed in Greenland then ..." She ploughed through the calculations both in her head and on screen, "So the next in the sequence should be-" She paused, her eyebrows raising at where the next stop for the Surfer was. "-Latitude 51 degrees, 30 minutes north; Longitude zero degrees, seven minutes west." She frowned, looking over to the three who weren't Johnny. "It's the London Eye."

Note: Yes, I know there hasn't been a confrontation between June and Johnny yet, that'll be later on. Promise – and no, they will NOT break up. But as couples do, they go through rough patches and this is them going through one until Johnny can get his head out of his arse ... lol.

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