Burning Fury (Fantastic Four)

Chapter 8: Soggy Foam and Sexy Speeds

Was this a dream? I couldn’t feel a thing. We stood in silence for a moment halfway down the stairs.
’That!’ Johnny squealed, ‘that’s what happened yesterday! Can you feel anything?’
My tongue had been momentarily stuck to the roof of my mouth, no words managed to come out, I had to search my brain to try and comprehend what was going on. Johnny’s grip loosened slightly on my arm.
’Nope, I can’t feel anything, well not the fire anyway’ I couldn’t help the gleeful smile.
’Hey lovebirds get down here!’ I heard Ben shout from his seat downstairs.

***

I joined Sue and Reed in examining Ben first, slinging over a lab coat we began our experimentations.
’If we’re going to identify the source of the mutation we need to isolate your innominate DNA so we can activate positional genomes’ Reed announced, couldn’t have said it better myself. Uncle Ben however had a blank expression,
’Huh’
’We need to do a physical in order to see what got zapped’ Sue piped up dumbing down the scientific phrase.  
’Oh, why didn’t you just say so’ Ben grumbled. We put the x-ray up to his chest and got to the computer where it showed up an inside view of his organs. My brow furrowed at the sight of a rocky heart thumping in rhythm and even the veins were crackly rock.
’His internal organs are completely solid’ Reed, Sue and I leaned forward more to try and get a better look, when we turned to Ben in astonishment.
’How bad is it? ‘ he fretted, ‘you know I used to smoke’

I gave a throaty chuckle. Sue fetched out a little reflex hammer and began tapping Ben’s solid rock knee lightly,
’Feel anything?’ she asked.
’Nope’
Reed had disappeared and came back with a huge hammer,
’Okay’ he said and pretty much smashed the hammer right onto Ben’s knee, his reflexes finally caught on and his foot went up and set a chair flying up into the air only to be smashed on the wall above.
’Well…we activated the positional genomes’ I said as I crouched dodging the flying chair.

***

‘Okay Johnny hop in’ Sue order her brother. Johnny stepped into the titanium cubicle.
’Max, if what you say is true and you can resist Johnny’s fire, maybe you could go in and see how much you can resist.’ Reed suggested.
Me, in a box, with Johnny Storm…Every alarm bell in my body told me it was a bad idea.
’Reed do you really think that’s wise?’ Sue snapped quickly, coming to my rescue, ‘We don’t want Max burnt to a crisp in the name of science’
’It’s fine Sue, I’ll be fine’ I said. Reed nodded at my eagerness, Sue just rolled her eyes and headed up to the control room.
’If you even begin to feel a little hot, call out and we’ll shut it down’ Reed gave my shoulder a reassuring nudge as I stepped into the cubicle. The door was shut and I was pressed up against the cold metal wall waiting for Johnny to “flame on”.

‘This is cozy’ he smiled.
’Delightful’ I grit my teeth.
’Whenever you’re ready Johnny’ I heard Reed’s voice come through the intercom. The playboy got his hand to set on fire and soon the fire spread up his arm and consumed his body, the flames completely burning his clothes. The flames neared my face and I still couldn’t feel a thing, the flames were almost invisible to me, or maybe I was invisible to them.
’He’s heating up from his core’ Reed’s voice broke me away from my thoughts.
’And his vitals are completely normal’ Sue added, ‘and it seems that Max’s entire body is somehow reflecting the heat rays, from what I can see here there’s a protective layer around all of her organs and muscles, that’s protecting her’ she explained. A protective layer? Wow.