AN
This chapter's dedication goes to BlazingintheRain for their unbelievable support on Burning Fury :)
The light and power on the top floor of the Baxter Building got brighter and more intense as Johnny and I ran through the city. I can't believe that Reed finally got it to work. However no matter how much we combed through the masses and attempted to get through to the building, it seemed like we were making no progress. Suddenly I had an idea. I snatched Johnny's hand,
'Hold on tight' I told him, shifted my body into overdrive and raced through the city and the clouds of endless people, to the elevator door of the Baxter Building.
I didn't even have to stop to catch my breath, it was just second nature to me know. Johnny it seemed however was no so accustom. I looked back at him and saw at his hand came up to rub the back of his neck,
'Ow' he mumbled, 'whiplash'
'Sorry' I muttered and I knew that it would forever till the elevator came back down, I turned to the stairwell and grabbed Johnny's hand again.
***
Upstairs in our apartment the only lights on were the hall lights and even then they flickered and threatened to burst. The whole place was quiet except for the whirring noise that the generator gave off. I looked over to the machine and saw Sue leaning over Uncle Ben, her face furrowed into a look of worry.
'Sue!' Johnny got his sister's attention,
'Johnny, Max!' she exclaimed, 'the machine worked'
I looked to my uncle and saw that his skin was no longer clad with rock, he was back to normal. A smile broke out on my face but was brought back to attention when Sue attempted to get him up and awake,
'Give me a hand' she huffed. Johnny and I went to her aid and started to get Ben up and on a step.
'What happened big guy?' Johnny mumbled mostly to himself, 'I leave you for five minutes-'
Ben urged his weary eyes open, he looked exhausted.
'The machine' he breathed heavily, almost like he was struggling to form the words, 'Vic used it on himself. He was affected by the cloud like us' my eyes widened involuntarily,
'Victor?' I spoke back, 'I knew he was up to something. We should never have trusted him'
I received sympathetic and knowing looks from all three of them as we sat there thinking about what we could possibly do now.
'Where's Reed?' Sue asked the concerned look returning to her blue eyes. Ben seemed momentarily lost for words,
'Vic must've taken him' he finally managed, his eyes cast down as though ashamed to look at us in the eye. I stood up from my crouched position and steadied my gaze out the window to the high skyscrapers of the city. There was a loud and bright jet of fire that came from the top of the adjacent building. Sue and Johnny joined my side out on the balcony as we observed the missile headed straight towards us!
'Oh no' Johnny strode up to the side of the balcony and looked down into the street a hundred and fifty feet below us.
I looked to Johnny, silently imploring him to not jump and distract the heat signature wired missile. The weapon sped towards us at the corner of my eye.
'We gotta get outta here' Sue tried to steer her maniac brother away from the edge. Johnny ignored her plea and backed up,
'I got an idea' he said enthusiastically.
'Don't even think about it' Sue snapped at him harshly.
'Never do' Johnny admitted,
'What are you doing-?' she questioned dubiously and leapt down from the Baxter Building,
'Johnny no!!' Sue and I screamed in unison as we both leant over the side. He fell from the Baxter Building at an alarming rate. What if he couldn't fly? But then he was consumed in fire and the missile dived from in front of Sue and I and straight down after Johnny. I looked longingly after The Human Torch as he diverted the missile away from the city and in the direction of the river.
The most idiotic and stupid idea passed through my mind but it was too late when I acted upon the stupid thought and jumped down from the building after Johnny. I briefly heard Sue shout out to me to stop and come back, but I left it behind me. I was going to help Ben and Sue get to Von Doom and help Reed. There was no way Victor was going to win, not today.
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.
Johnny...Johnny!
'Johnny?' I called out to the water around me. Where was he? The water beside me bubbled and he emerged, spluttering water.
'Max' he huffed inbetween catching his breath, a grinned and grabbed onto him burying my face in his shoulder.
'Max, come on, we've got to go and help the others' I told me and pulled me away only to my dismay.
'Okay Mr Torch' I agreed and hung onto him again as he flew us into the chaos in the heart of the city. Power surges were flickering through the city's main buildings, the road had been broken up and had created boulder sized potholes, overturned cars and buses littered the streets, lightning strikes crackled and struck up from the ground. Something told me that Victor Von Doom's "symptom" was more dangerous than we thought.
***
Down in the streets there was a figure standing in the middle of the chaos. Donned in a murky green cloak, his arms and face were completely consumed in metal. It didn't take long to figure out that it was Victor Von Doom. He was turning to face Sue, Reed and Uncle Ben all wearing their Fantastic Five uniforms. Ben was back to the way he was before, clad in rocky armour, he was on his back having been cornered by Doom who was armed with a metal post.
I saw Doom give a threat to Sue, Reed and Ben and he attempted to strike them with lightning. However Johnny beat him to the punch. I let go of him of my own accord and sped up to meet my friends just as a huge ball of fire was shot into Doom's face to shut up whatever he was going to say.
'You missed us' Johnny said, directly at Doom. The two of us looked over at the rest of the team, Johnny looked at my uncle and said, 'Had a little relapse huh?...welcome back'
Doom just shrugged his shoulders back as though completely relaxed,
'This is gonna be fun' he announced and raised his arms up to the sky. The electricity that was barely sustaining the surrounding buildings zapped and was drawn to Doom. Spikes of power filled Doom's body with uncontrollable energy. Nearby civilians screamed and attempted to scatter in huddled groups. Every window in the buildings burst and shattered into the street below, showering the entire town square to be cover in a glass rain. Doom paused and shot a bolt of lightning at Ben sending him somersaulting through the air and landing roughly a few metres away. Doom then turned Sue's way and fired a bolt in her direction. She put up her forearm and created a force field just enough to stop the strike form hitting her. But she was struggling to keep it at bay,
'I can't hold it!' she screamed to the rest of us. I was momentarily stunned as to what to do. I didn't know how to fight a supervillain! Naveen was right, he couldn't be named Victor Von Doom and not be as evil as shit.
Reed however came to her rescue and stretched his arm around a mailbox and hit Doom over the head with it. Reed then looked like me was about to dive right into the road when he expanded himself into a human parachute and covered Doom in, his head poked up and looked directly at Johnny,
'Johnny, supernova!' he ordered, a glint in his eye telling him he had a plan.
'I thought we agreed that was bad!' The Human Torch protested.
'Now!!'
Johnny set off at a run towards Doom in a blur of flames. Ben pulled Reed off Doom just as Johnny began to create a fire vortex that enclosed Doom.
'Max, we need a tight spiral on those flames!' Mr Fantastic shouted to me. I took his word and raced straight into the wall of intense heat. My hair, face, limbs and even my throat were up in fire, the heat making my body glow and flare.
'Sue think you can contain it' Mr Fantastic called to The Invisible Woman. In a flash she had captured the swirl of the flames in a violet force-field.
Before I continued anymore there was one thing that I need to do. I walked up to Doom the concrete almost melting beneath my feet went right up to him and delivered a punch right in his face,
Doom's head fell back from the impact,
'You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that' I confessed.I ran circles around him as he attempted to shoot Johnny, only failing as the fabric on his metal consumed body began to crisp and fall away. I could feel the heat in my eyes, at the tips of my fingers, lighting my whole body up in yellow and orange. My suit sucked up the fire and seeped into my pores, completely engulfing me in white flames. On my nine-hundredth circle, Johnny appeared by my side,
'I was wrong' he hushed in my ear, 'you're not Red Fury, you're Burning Fury'
A grin appeared on my face, causing the fire to leak into my mouth and light up my body from the inside out. However soon the violet force field ceased to exist and I watched as Sue slumped from her loss of energy, blood dripped from her nose and her shoulders sunk. Johnny and I went hurtling out from the fire vortex and spat out on the road. My limbs crashed together and I still felt the remaining heat flicker across my skin, but it was soon stopped by the cold of the night. I looked up and saw a ring of melted tar and Doom as the metal melt like candle wax off his arms and face.
'Is that the best you can do?' he sneered, 'a little heat?'
Mr Fantastic grinned and started to walk towards him,
'Time for your lesson' he announced, 'Chem 101, what happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?'
Uncle Ben kicked off the top of fire hydrant on the sidewalk, causing a huge geyser of water to erupt. He moved the jet of water to Reed who shifted his body till he looked like a zig-zagged human slide and set the high pressured stream of water in Doom's direction. The sudden contact with the boiling metal and the freezing water, caused clouds of steam to cover Doom's flailing arms in his attempt to stop the water.
When the steam puffed away, Victor Von Doom was still as a statue, frozen in a frenzied position, completely stark still. I looked over at Sue, Reed, Ben and Johnny looked of gratitude and relief were on their faces.
'You done good kid' Ben said bluntly at Johnny, 'come on' he gestured to me to join Reed and Sue who were standing side by side as the crowds and surroundings people came out from the cafes and behind cars to congratulate us.
'Man I love this job' Johnny muttered as he grinned at the crowds.
'Job huh?' Ben grunted his own version of a rocky grin appeared on the corners of his mouth.
'Well we do have the suits' Reed and I said in unison. There seemed no more to talk about, we were official, the Fantastic Five. Without warning, Johnny clutched my waist in his grasp and pulled me into him. He kissed me as he covered us both in flames. His lips were hot and I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to try and get even closer, to be totally consumed in The Human Torch's fire. I vaguely remember him murmuring 'Burning Fury' against my mouth.