Chapter 6
“It looked like a man, but completely covered in silver,” Johnny said, “and it was flying this, like…like a surfboard type thing. I know that sounds crazy.”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Reed said.
Hunter sat next to Johnny as Sue gave him a glass of water. Ben, General Hager, and Reed stood facing them.
“So, did you follow the shiny man to the Lollipop Land or to Rainbow Junction?” Ben said sarcastically.
“Ben! There’s no reason for that!” Hunter said.
“Look, I know what I saw,” Johnny said.
Reed stepped in, “Thank you. It’s all right, Johnny. Whatever this thing’s physical appearance is, it has the ability to convert matter and energy.”
“So it caused the anomalies,” the General said.
“It seems to radiate cosmic energy when it exerts itself, randomly affecting matter,” Reed said. “Evidently this…entity…this…Silver Surfer didn’t want to be detected.”
“It destroyed the sensor,” he continued.
“It knew it was being monitored?” Sue asked.
“And traced it back here. We’re dealing with something highly resourceful,” Reed said.
Johnny suddenly stood up and groaned.
“Are you feeling okay?” Sue asked.
“Yeah, I just…I got to walk this off,” Johnny answered.
He walked away and Sue followed him.
“We have to destroy this thing before it attacks again,” the General said. “Richards, find me another way to track it.”
Reed nodded as he left.
“We can’t kill something that’s alive!” Hunter said.
“Hunte-”
“No, Reed. We are not killers, we don’t kill. I’m all for stopping him before he attacks, but I am not going to be a part of something that will kill a being,” Hunter said.
“Hunter, we-” Reed started again.
“I’m gonna go find Johnny,” Hunter said before she turned away and left.
Reed sighed and followed her. Sue stood by the elevator as it closed and walked towards Reed.
“Sue, I am so sorry,” Reed said. “The only reason I didn’t tell you about it is because I didn’t want you to worry.”
“I’m not mad that you built the sensor. It was the right thing to do,” Sue said.
Reed smiled,” Oh great.”
He turned and walked away. Sue narrowed her eyes at his back and he suddenly stopped mid-walk. A force-field contained him from the front and back, squashing him.
“I wasn’t finished,” Sue said.
She turned him around, and Reed spoke, “Okay, continue.”
“See, this proves exactly what I’ve been saying all along,” Sue said as she walked towards him.
“Could you drop the force field, please,” Reed asked.
“We can’t even- oh, sorry,” Sue said as she released him.
She continued as he reformed.
“We can’t even have a wedding without it turning into World War three,” Sue said.
“I know. But once we are married, everything will be back to normal,” Reed promised.
Sue countered back, “We will never have normal lives as long as we do what we do. How could we possibly raise a family like this?”
Reed was speechless.
“I’m going to…I’m going to go check on Johnny,” Sue said before she turned around.
Johnny stood on the balcony as Hunter leaned against the doorway.
“You okay?” She asked.
Johnny turned towards her. She watched him as he let out a breath and didn’t answer her. He bent down a bit and stood back up.
“Johnny?”
He turned away from her and stood up on the railing.
“Whoa, wait a minute, what are you doing?” Hunter said in alarm.
“Flame on!” He shouted and jumped of the railing.
“Johnny!” She shouted and ran after him.
She watched as fire barely covered his body. He headed towards the ground and she ran from the balcony to go outside. She met up with Sue in the hallway and they both headed out. Johnny landed on the ground as soon as the fire dissipated away. A car alarm sounded and a bystander came up to him.
“Hey, are you all right, pal?” he asked.
He groaned and stood up, leaning against the light post. Sue and Hunter came out of the building and headed for him.
“Johnny, Johnny, are you okay?” Sue asked as they reached him.
Johnny weakly replied, “I don’t know. I feel really strange since my run-in with surfer boy.”
“Maybe we should get you checked out,” Sue said as she put a hand on his forehead.
Suddenly, as Hunter watched, a golden glow went from Johnny to Sue and she jerked away. Sue started to glow and her clothes burned.
“Why’d you do that?” Sue asked.
“I didn’t do anything! Stop, drop, and roll!” Johnny cried as Hunter watched.
Sue frantically tried to smother the flames but her efforts were fruitless as it grew until she was on fire.
“Stop, drop, and roll!” Johnny shouted. “Oh my god!”
“Sue!” Hunter cried.
Sue screamed as her clothes were burned off and she rose into the air.
“Sue!” Both Johnny and Hunter cried at the same time.
“Hold on, I’ll get you okay!” Johnny said as he looked up. “Flame on!”
Instead of the usual flames, he went invisible.
“Johnny?” Hunter watched as he disappeared before her eyes.
“Hey, watch it!” He said as someone bumped into him.
Another bump from someone and he fell.
“Johnny? Where are you?” Hunter asked as she couldn’t see him anymore. She looked up and watched Sue on fire.
Reed stepped off the elevator and into a room. He was focused on his P.D.A that he didn’t see Sue floating in the air.
“Reed! Reed!” Sue cried. “Help!”
Reed finally saw her, “Sue?”
“I’m on fire! Reed!”
He ran towards the window and called out, “Sue! What’s going on?”
“I’m on fire!” She answered him.
“You’re on fire!” Reed repeated.
“Ya think!?” Sue hollered.
“Hold on,” Reed said as he looked around.
“Pull me in!” Sue screamed as she lost gravity and headed for the ground. “Help!”
Sue fell as Reed watched. She floated in the air as the pedestrians screamed in glee.
“I’m not Johnny!” Sue screamed in answer to a bystander’s “It’s Johnny!”
Reed ran out into the crowd, “Sue, how did this happen?”
“I touched Johnny, and then this!”
“Reed!” Hunter cried as she joined him. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” he answered.
“Well where’s Johnny?” Reed asked.
“Here,” Johnny responded.
“Oh!” Hunter said as she stepped away in surprise.
Reed turned to the voice.
“Try it again,” he told him.
“Get me down!” Sue screeched.
Johnny headed for Sue and grabbed her wrist. Quickly, Johnny appeared as the fire left Sue. She landed on the ground and gained some whistles and camera flashes. She was nude.
“Nice,” Johnny whispered as he flamed his hands.
“Johnny,” Hunter said as she stood next to him, her hands stretched out.
“Don’t!” Reed demanded.
Hunter looked at him. She was about to touch Johnny. She looked at Johnny, swallowed thickly, and nodded.
“Hey, get out of there,” Reed said to the photographers. “Sue, your clothes.”
Sue looked up at him and around to the other people. She went invisible.
“Why does this always happen to me?” She moaned.
“All of Sue’s results are normal,” Reed said as he looked into the microscope filled with cells. “But Johnny’s-”
“Johnny’s are what?” Johnny said as he leaned against the table, Hunter beside him, close enough to be close, but far enough to not touch him.
“Your encounter with the Surfer has affected your molecules,” Reed said. “They’re in a constant state of flux.”
Johnny nodded and inhaled. “Is that bad?”
“Well, it caused you to temporarily switch powers with Sue,” Reed responded. “Ideally, I’d like to run some more tests.”
“Would you like a volunteer?” Ben asked as he put his drink down and headed for Johnny.
All but Ben hollered “No!”
“No, no! Hey! This is serious,” Johnny said as he hopped onto the table.
“I just wanted to give him a hug,” Ben said as he turned towards Reed.
“We don’t know the extent of his condition yet,” Sue said.
“It could be progressive. It could be degenerative,” Reed said.
“It could be fun,” Ben replied.
“No, Ben!” Sue said.
Ben ignored the warning and touched Johnny’s shoulder. Quickly the power swap occurred and Ben stepped away.
“Ben!”
“Whoa! Hey!” Ben said out loud as he smothered the fire on his body. “Hey, it’s me. I’m back!”
Ben was now normal like he once was before the storm. Reed looked at him and then back to Sue. Hunter went at Ben and hit him in the chest.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”
“Hey, hey, sis, calm down!” Ben said as he grabbed her hands.
“Don’t tell me to calm down you idiot!” Hunter said.
Sue and Reed looked at Johnny as Hunter pummeled at Ben.
“Hunter!” Reed said.
She looked back and her eyes widened. Johnny was now covered in rock. He looked down at himself and then grabbed a reflective surface. He looked into it.
“Oh. My. God! Come on!” Johnny shouted. “We just said this is serious!”
Hunter hid her snickers and smile behind her mouth as Ben laughed.
“Oh yea, serious,” Ben laughed.
Johnny looked into the surface again, “Oh you got to be kidding me!”
Ben pointed at him and laughed. He snapped his fingers and a flame appeared.
“Hey, not bad!”
“Incredible,” Reed whispered as he looked at Johnny.
“Reed, you better be able to fix this,” Johnny said.
“I’m right on it,” he responded.
Suddenly a ball of fire flew by and hit Johnny in the face.
“Ben, stop that!” Sue said.
“I’m starting to see why you like that. Ha!” Ben said as he laughed. Then he stopped when Johnny began to advance. “No, no, no, no, no, no!”
Johnny touched Ben and they both went back to normal.
“Aw crap!” Ben said.
“Serves you right!” Hunter said.
Ben looked at her.
“That’s not funny,” Johnny said.
“You’re damn right it’s not! Now stop it!” Hunter said. “Now I am tired of this. You need to quit treating this like it’s a game, and you,” Hunter pointed at Reed, “stop talking as if this is a disease and sounding like he’s going to die. He’s not!”
She looked at Ben and walked out.
“Hunter!” Ben cried after her.
“She’s right,” Sue said.
Johnny looked in the direction where Hunter left, and turned towards the others.
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?” he asked.
“Just, uh, try to keep your distance from us,” Reed said.
Johnny looked at him and Ben without an answer and walked away.
“You and me are gonna be spending a whole lot of time together pal,” Ben said to the retreating Johnny.
“Ben,” Sue sighed.
He looked at them, “What?”