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At the Baxter building, standing 35 stories high just east of Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, Reed Richards leans closer to his monitor with narrowed eyes. He hums as he places his finger to his chin, before stretching his right arm all the way across the opposite side of the room to scribble something on a white board. Just then, Susan Storm-Richards walks in with a cup of coffee. Eyeing her husband, she lets out a sigh in amusement. “Reed” she calls out while ducking her head under his out stretched elastic arm. “Oh, I’m sorry dear. I wasn’t aware of your presence”, he says apologetically, as he pulls his arm back towards himself, reverting back to its standard form. Sue makes her way towards her husband and stands behind the chair he’s sitting in. Looming over him, she presents a hot cup of coffee. “I made you coffee” she announces sweetly. Reed looks up at her and a smile spreads across his face. “You’re the best, Susan” he tells his wife, as she kisses him gently on the cheek. “Reed, you’ve been in your lab all day. We’ve talked about this” Sue complains. “I know, Susan, but--” he begins to protest. “Reed” Sue whines.
“Yeah, Reed. You really oughtta get outta the lab more often” a voice from behind interjects. Both Reed and Sue turn around to see Johnny Storm leaning on his right shoulder against the door way, with his arms crossed and his left leg crossed over the other. A cocky smirk is on his face and he lets out a low chuckle. Susan’s face lights up and she runs over to her brother, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tightly. “Oh, Johnny. You’re back!” she exclaims. “Yeah, Sue. But I dunno for how long ‘cause it’s kinda hard to breathe” the young blonde muffles. Sue releases him and steps back, looking at her sibling. “Johnny I--” his sister begins. “It’s alright, Sue” Johnny assures her. “Everything’s okay.” Gazing into his sister’s eyes, Johnny feels guilty with the way he left things between them. He never meant to hurt her the way he did. He’s sorry, but can’t bring himself to utter those exact words. He fathoms his heart isn’t nearly as beautiful as hers.
Reed gets up from his chair and walks over to Johnny. Still holding his cup of coffee, he places his free hand on the younger hero’s shoulder, “Welcome back, Johnny.” Johnny smiles in response. Just then, a distinctive voice booms, “Well, well. Look whose back, the walkin’, talkin’, over-sized birthday candle!” The voice belongs to none other than Ben Grimm. “Says the walkin’, talkin’, rock” Johnny retorts. Ben grunts and Johnny makes a face at him. Although Johnny’s secretly elated to see his teammate, he doesn’t exactly express it. He doesn’t have to. Me and Ben…we understand each other. “I’m so glad you’re back, Johnny.” Sue confesses. “And perfect timing, too” Reed adds. “What do you mean?” Johnny asks. Reed sips his coffee before responding, “We have a meeting with the Avengers in an hour.”
“In an hour?” Johnny chokes out with surprise. “Yeah, why? You got better things to do?” Ben inquires accusingly. “No” Johnny whines like a child. “Besides it’s none of your business even if I did” he remarks, as he shoves his hands into the front pockets of his fitted dark blue jeans. “We leave in 50 minutes, so be ready!” Sue calls out to her brother as he departs the lab. “Yeah, yeah” Johnny dismisses while he waves his hand in the air.
As Johnny walks sluggishly down the hall towards the elevator, he can faintly hear Ben, Reed and Sue conversing. It feels just like old times and he wonders why he chose to stay away from them for so long; being surrounded by the people he loves and cares about soothes him. It’s good to be home. Johnny enters the elevator and calls out to H.E.R.B.I.E, “To the 31st floor, Herbs.”
“Welcome back, Mr. Storm!” H.E.R.B.I.E. shouts with enthusiasm as he fulfills the occupant’s request. The elevator’s altitude decreases and Johnny leans his head back against the glass with a smile on his face.
Moments later the elevator stops and Johnny exits. He walks down the hall that leads to his room, with his arms now swaying freely by his side. “Mr. Storm. You currently have three episodes from season 5 of The American Ninja Warrior recorded on the DVR; however, two of those episodes have been previously recorded. Would you like me to delete those episodes?” Johnny groans in annoyance. “Mr. Storm, you also have seven unread e-mails that require your attention. Mr. Storm-- ”
“Hey, H.E.R.B.I.E.?” Johnny calls out, interrupting the A.I.’s rant. “Yes, Mr. Storm?” H.E.R.B.I.E. replies. “You ever heard about what happened to that A.I. that couldn’t stop talking?” Johnny asks. ”What do you mean, Mr. Storm?” the artificial intelligence inquires. “He was reprogrammed and never heard from again” he lies with a cynical grin. “Mr. Storm, what do I do? Will Mr. Richards reprogram me?” H.E.R.B.I.E. rambles frantically. “Hey, H.E.R.B.I.E., shut up!” Johnny shouts in aggravation. “Okay, Mr. Storm. Maybe if I don’t speak, Mr. Richards won’t reprogram me” H.E.R.B.I.E. concludes. “Exactly” Johnny says as he enters his room.
His room is large and surprisingly neat; something not many people would actually believe if he were to tell them. Johnny smiles while he glances around his room. It really is good to be home. Johnny enters his large walk-in closet. All of his clothes are organized and labeled accordingly. He doesn’t need to walk deep into his closet, as the section where he keeps all his uniforms is conveniently in the front. He pulls one of his costumes off the hanger and the hanger falls on the floor. He grabs a pair of gloves and boots, as well, throwing them near his bed. He’s about to exit his closet before deciding to walk deeper in to retrieve a black jacket. As he grabs his jacket and finally exits, his phone unexpectedly rings. Slipping his hand into his back pocket, he pulls out his phone and looks at it. He doesn’t recognize the number displayed, but he answers it anyway. “Hello” Johnny says. He hears a giggle in the background as the other voice responds, “Hello? Johnny Storm?” The voice belongs to that of a female. A voice Johnny also doesn’t seem to recognize. “Uh… um…yeah” Johnny replies reluctantly. “Do you remember me? We hung out, like, two nights ago” she tests. “Uh…” he pauses. He looks up at the ceiling trying to recall the events of the past two days, but he can’t fully remember. He knows there were many women but their faces come to him as a blur. “My name’s Laura” she tells him, “Do you remember me?”
Her name doesn’t ring a bell either but he doesn’t want to disappoint her. “Oh, yeah. Laura. Of course I remember you” he lies again. “I thought you didn’t remember me for a second” she announces with relief. “How could I forget you?” Johnny says while placing his jacket on his bed. The unknown woman on the other end laughs nervously. “Alright, well it was nice speaking to you. Take care” Johnny states as he rushes off the phone. “But--” the woman tries to speak, but Johnny hangs up. He quickly blocks her number and flings his phone on the bed, landing on top of his black jacket. Man, I should really stop giving out my number to random girls. Johnny strips off all his clothes as he makes his way to the bathroom. He steps into the shower and turns on the hot water. Johnny raises his arms and leans them against the tiled wall while he drops his head, allowing the scolding hot water to soak his hair and stream down his back. He dreads having to attend that meeting. Not only because Reed’s meetings are usually boring, but mainly because he’s just not ready to face Hawkeye just yet. He feels nothing but humiliation when he thinks of that night, and although he was drunk, he remembers everything. He knows Sue’s going to nag him to apologize and he knows that he’s eventually going to agree because he can only take so much of her nagging before he finally gives in. But he’s not used to giving apologies; neither is he very good at it. And besides, why should I be the one apologizing to him? He hit me first.
At the Avengers Tower, approximately ten blocks north of the Baxter Building, members of both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers attend an imperative meeting called upon by the leaders of each team respectively. Reed Richards and Tony Stark stand at the front of the room, explaining their current findings, which they present on a large screen to the heroes in attendance before them.
“Okay, wait. Lemme get this straight.” Spiderman interrupts with his arm high in the air as if he were in a classroom. “You’re saying that a bunch of Skrulls are hiding here in Manhattan and could possibly be devising a plan to destroy our planet?” Spiderman asks. Reed nods, “Yes, precisely” he says calm and casually.
“And also, just so we’re clear, we’re not gonna be paid, right?” Spiderman jokingly adds, but Reed just ignores him and continues his presentation. Spiderman slumps down in his seat, “Okay, guess that’s a no” he mumbles to himself.
Across the table, Johnny chuckles to himself at Spiderman’s reaction; he’ll never admit it but he’s actually funny sometimes. Johnny sits with both of his feet crossed and propped up atop the table and he leans back against his chair, which he rocks on its hind legs. Tony Stark presses a button on the remote he holds in his hand, allowing the large screen to display various locations in Manhattan; but Johnny doesn’t look up, as his full concentration is occupied by the game he’s currently playing on his phone, which he holds in his hands horizontally. He reaches the next level in the game and has to wait for the next level to load. Why does this game take forever to load? You’d think the Avengers would have better Wi-Fi.
As he waits for the game to load, he raises his head in an attempt to actually pay attention to the presentation. “The race of extraterrestrial shape shifters known as the Skrulls have acquired advanced alien technology.” Reed explains. ”Technology of which we do not fully understand as of yet” Tony adds. Johnny’s eyes flutter in disinterest. “This technology is evidently superior to our own in that it was somehow able to override my devices, jamming the radar, enabling them to camouflage their exact locations.” Reed continues. “From the information we were able to gather, these are the locations we suspect the Skrulls have chosen to infiltrate. However, as Reed said, these locations are not rigorous” Stark says, gesturing to the large screen. Instead, Johnny looks back down at his phone screen in hopes of drowning out Reed and Tony’s “boring speech.” He stares intently at the screen until the game fully loads. Finally. It’s a racing game that requires the player to tilt the screen side to side, the kind of game he enjoys most. Johnny unintentionally tilts the screen too far to the left and crashes the virtual car. He swears under his breath as he restarts the game. Then suddenly, the phone seemingly disappears from the palm of his hands. Without thought, Johnny swiftly turns his head to the right to face his sister; she’s clearly upset. “Johnny, put that away, you’re embarrassing me” she reprimands in a whisper. Johnny rolls his eyes. “Now” she mouths. Johnny lets out a low groan in annoyance but ultimately complies, shoving his now visible phone into the right pocket of his jacket. He pulls his feet down from atop the table and the chair slams forward with a loud thud. The room falls silent for a brief moment and all the superheroes in the room look his way; but Johnny’s unfazed, as he confidently repositions himself in the chair. Reed smiles warmly at him before continuing, successfully drawing everyone's attention back to the front of the room.
Johnny leans forward in his chair while his blue eyes wander the room in refusal to focus on the topic at hand. The room is large and spacious. He figures there are other meeting rooms as well and wonders if they’re all this big. He’s never been through the whole Tower, but he guesses this is the room where the Avengers have most of their meetings since it’s on the ground floor. The table is also enormous and it could possibly seat at least twenty Avengers at once. Johnny’s attention shifts to the many heroes within the room. Next to him on his right, sits his beautiful sister, Susan Storm-Richards, the Invisible Woman and next to her sits the sexy Russian spy, Black Widow. On his left is the Thing. Johnny glances at Ben, wondering how long it’ll be before the chair Ben’s sitting in finally breaks. Now that’ll be funny. Johnny sits back in his chair, struggling to get comfortable. He laces his fingers through his blonde silky hair, while eyeing the Avengers before him. Across from him sits Ms. Marvel, now known as the new Captain Marvel. Next to her on her left is the X-Man, Wolverine, who sits back in his seat drinking a beer. Seated beside her on her right is Spiderman and next to him is Hawkeye. Johnny avoids looking directly at the archer, but out of the corner of his eye he can see the many bandages he has on his face, thanks to him.
Johnny’s eyes land back on Captain Marvel once more. Her face is exposed, as she chose not to wear her mask. Her hair is shorter than he remembered but, nevertheless, he decides she looks good. Johnny doesn’t realize he’s staring at her until she glares at him with a weird look on her face. However, instead of looking away, Johnny smiles at her with his perfectly straight, white teeth. Her face softens for a moment and the corners of her mouth crease slightly. Then suddenly she narrows her eyes and purses her lips before looking away. Johnny can’t tell, but it almost looks as though she smiled back. Almost.
A couple minutes later, the meeting is practically over. “I, Reed, and Hank, who’s not here at the moment, will be working to improve these devices to pin-point the exact locations of these Skrulls” Stark announces. “Until then, remain vigil” Reed suggests. “Well, are there any questions, concerns…?” Tony Stark asks the heroes. “Nah. We’re the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, we got this” Hawkeye remarks. “Yeah” Ben joins in, while Wolverine raises his beer in agreement. “Wait. I have a question” Spiderman calls out. “Are the Skrulls trying to take over the Earth, or blow it up or something?” he asks. “They’re motives are not clear at the moment, but anything’s possible” Reed answers. “Any other questions?” Tony asks the group of superheroes, who shake their heads in response. Clasping his hands together, Tony Stark dismisses the heroes.
Johnny’s relieved the meeting is finally over and he’s the first one out the door. He strides down the hallway, staring at the floor with his hands in his jacket pockets. “Glad that’s over” Spiderman says, as he runs up next to his friend. Johnny’s surprised when he looks up to see Spiderman beside him. “I literally thought I was gonna die of boredom” Johnny confesses. He turns to his friend and he can’t help the smile that automatically forms across his face. “Like I don’t have enough stress in my life. The last thing I need is J. Jonah Jameson turning out to be a Skrull, trying to take over the world or something” Peter complains. “Oh, yeah, because your life is just that bad” Johnny sarcastically remarks. He always secretly envied Peter. His abilities, his dedication, even his alter ego. Peter’s everything Johnny isn’t, and he honestly doesn’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
“No, seriously. My life is such a wreck; I’m surprised I wasn’t offered a reality TV show by now.” Spiderman jokes. ”Maybe you’re secretly a Kardashian” Johnny infers. “You mean, like, a long lost sibling?” Peter questions. He turns to looks at the other hero while they walk and Johnny just smirks. “You’re joking right?” the iconic hero inquires. Johnny playfully shoves his friend, “Of course I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone” he reveals before pausing momentarily and thoughtfully adding, “Except Doom. I’d probably wish that on Doom.” Spiderman laughs before placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “Hey, I gotta head back to Horizon Labs. Got a few more tests to run.” Johnny tilts his head, “Oh god, you are such a nerd” he states. Spiderman snickers as he walks past his friend, down the hall, heading towards the exit of the Avengers Tower. “See you around, Pete” Johnny calls out after him. “Catch ya later, Johnny” Spiderman shouts back.
Johnny’s pace slows down as he watches his friend rush down the hall. Just then, Carol Danvers walks past him, catching his eye. He jogs up beside her, peering at her he greets her with an informal, “Hey, Ms. Marvel.” “Captain Marvel” she corrects him. “Okay, fine. Captain Marvel” he mocks. She doesn’t respond, instead she walks faster. Johnny frowns. “Why won’t you talk to me?” he asks when he catches up to her. “I just spoke to you” she slyly remarks. “You know what I mean” Johnny counters. “I feel like ever since we -y’know- in Vegas, it’s like you’re trying to avoid me or something” he continues. Without looking at him, Carol sternly states, “We were drunk and it was a long time ago”, as she stops in front of an elevator and presses the button. “Oh, come on. We weren’t that drunk” Johnny points out. “And it wasn’t that long ago” he mentions although he’s not entirely sure of the validity of that statement, but once again she doesn’t respond. “You have my number. Maybe you should make use of it” he suggests with a grin. She looks away concededly. He’s definitely made use of hers in the past, but she never responded so eventually he just gave up and stopped trying to contact her. The elevator doors open and she narrows her eyes at him once again before she walks in. “Carol…” Johnny pleads, but her expression remains stagnant as the elevator doors close, and he sees nothing but his own reflection peering back at him.
He sighs as he presses his forehead against the elevator doors. In the distance he vaguely hears the other heroes chattering as they wait for the arrival of another elevator he passed earlier, further down the same hall. “Look all I’m saying is, what if he falls in love with one, tries to domesticate it, and make it his wife? I mean we’re talkin’ about Skrulls here. We all know what happened last time” a male voice says as the elevator arrives. Johnny knows that voice belongs to Hawkeye, and he knows he’s talking about him. Johnny’s expression quickly hardens and he scowls. A female laugh can be heard and the male voice responds, “You know it’s true”, as the elevator doors close. Johnny turns around, now leaning with his back against the elevator doors, as he patiently waits for the rest of his teammates.
Moment later, the Fantastic Four return home in their Fantasticar and all four heroes jump out of their seats. “H.E.R.B.I.E., the lights, please” Reed Richards commands the A.I., but the room remains dark. Reed repeats his command and once again there is no response. “Hmm. H.E.R.B.I.E. seems to have malfunctioned. Perhaps a reprogramming would be sufficient” the world’s smartest man considers. “Oh, no. Please don’t reprogram me like that other A.I., Mr. Richards” H.E.R.B.I.E. exclaims. “What are you talking about, H.E.R.B.I.E.” Reed asks in confusion. “Mr. Storm said that you would reprogram me if I spoke too much” the A.I. confesses. All of the Fantastic Four teammates look to Johnny. With guilt written all over his face, Johnny chuckles nervously while rubbing the back of his neck, “Oh, come on, Herbs. Y’know I was just kidding.”