Burning Fury (Fantastic Four)

Chapter 13: Supervillains and Superheroes

The clothes I was wearing tore off my body to reveal the modified blue space suit that was now known as the Fantastic Five uniform. As I sped past the scores of trafficked cars and taxis, the lights that illuminated the city flew past my vision in a flare of washed out hazes. I looked up to the sky and saw that Johnny was right above me with the missile trailing him. I didn't bother with slowing down time just worked on following them. I thought about screaming to Johnny to see if he could see that I was there, but we were too far away from each other.

I must have been fast enough to scale buildings I grit my teeth and just prayed that this worked. I shifted my legs till the momentum of my speed set me up the side of a skyscraper. The office units and apartments passing underneath my feet in a blur, I pumped my arms and made sure that I didn't lose momentum otherwise I would fall stories to the concrete below. The Human Torch veered towards the buildings which I was jumped to and from, leaping from the corner of one building to the side of the one beside it. Fear, surprise and excitement were the only feelings I experienced and I cupped my hands around my mouth and screamed to Johnny.

His eyes landed on me as we were almost far enough from each other to touch now as we flew past the buildings that I raced along.
'Fire!' I shouted at him. I stretched out to him and grasped his right hand, my left caught ablaze and the flames flickered up my body and soon I was engulfed in fire too. Two targets. Try and figure that one out missile. I saw him give me a wink and he turned away and towards the river, the missile was on my tail now so I quickened up the pace even further.

If hadn't seen every part of Manhattan well now I had as I ran and leapt upon every surface given to me, weaving in and out through the skyscrapers and buildings, all the while the missile never very far away. My pulse shuddered in my ears and down the ends of my limbs, I spotted Johnny on the opposite side of the main drag and I veered left and jumped as we crossed paths so that now the missile chased him instead of me. My attention was suddenly averted big mistake! My body was sent hurling into an alley.

Every part of me shook and wriggled under the sheer speed change. I got up and spotted The Human Torch out in the middle of the lake taking the missile away from the city completely. I took in a huge breath and followed him. The shock of scaling buildings side on was enough for today but nothing could prepare me for when I hit the water. Water broke away from my body like a tide splitting in two as I raced on top of the water. I looked ahead to see if I see The Human Torch, he was nowhere to be seen neither was the missile. Had he finally destroyed it? Had the missile destroyed him? It hurt to frown, but my thoughts were interrupted as two huge arms encased me in warmth and lifted me off the water.
'I've got you Red Fury' Johnny said in my ear and I clung to his middle. I looked behind us the missile was still trailing.

I started to look around for something that could divert the heat signature completely. I was tiring and so was Johnny. He turned straight up into the clouds, enveloping us in midnight fog. He shot up a ball of fire further up into the sky, the missile skated past us and followed it. I hadn't noticed that I was no longer holding Johnny until my gut dropped and my red hair flew up into my face as we both plummeted down, down.

Johnny quickly returned back as the missile did a pinhead turn and came racing back to chase us. I wrapped my arms around Johnny's middle and clung on for dear life. We were still flying away when I spotted a waste ship ahead of us I pointed it out and Johnny sent a fireball into the rubbish so that it was completely engulfed in flames. The end of the missile gave a flash of red, finalising its target and sunk into the ship causing the whole thing to explode in a flurry of flames and debris. The sheer power and shock of the explosion caused me to fly out of Johnny's arms, him and I went flying into the water.

Down, down, down. The water filled my nose, eyes, mouth and throat. It seeped into my pores, under my fingernails, I held my breath as my body got heavier and heavier. The silver plate of a moon became a shattered picture as I stared up at it as I sunk down further into the water. Reed, Sue, Uncle Ben, Johnny, I had to get to them. Lifting my arms above my head I dug into the aqua and pulled my heavy body upwards. I had never been a good swimmer. Finally the surface of the water was in my grasp and my head breached the top, my lungs filling with glorious night air. I began to tread the cold water just stopping for a few moments to catch a much needed breath.