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( 002 ━ FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE )

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THE SKY WAS ON FIRE.

A massive plume of fiery smoke rose up from the distant skyline. The bright glow of fire reflected against the city lights, painting the horizon in hues of deep orange and red. The cloud rose higher and higher still, swallowing what visible stars remained. It left a stunned silence in it's wake, unnervingly still—punctuated only by a second blast that rocked the earth stronger than the first. There was a flash of gold and blue. A thunderous roar. Then, another column of smoke rose to meet its twin, the pair illuminating the heavens like a midnight sun.

The ringing in Johnny's ears was deafening. The explosions had been miles off, nowhere near the Baxter Building, but the impact of each sent a shockwave across the city, rattling windows and shaking the floor under Johnny's feet. His mind immediately jumped to the worst case scenario: a chemical explosion, a gas main break, an alien attack...each more terrible than the next.

His feet were carrying him to the door before his brain had a chance to catch up. The familiar path to the living room felt distant, disjointed, as though time itself was slipping in and out of focus. Somewhere ahead, Sue's voice echoed down the hallway, high and tight, but firm.

"Johnny!"

By the time he turned the corner, the place was all but deserted. Dinner had been forgotten, plates full, chairs empty—all that was left was him, and Sue, who waited impatiently by the elevator. Even Herbie had gone, presumably with Ben.

"Where's Reed?" Johnny asked, the question falling from his mouth though he barely cared for the answer. He could already guess.

"He's with Ben, downstairs. They've gone to get the car," Sue said, breathless. She was jamming the button to the elevator, but the doors weren't budging.

Johnny ran for the balcony doors, where the inferno was perfectly visible. He could hear alarms in the distance—firetrucks, though they couldn't possible get there in time.

"Johnny, go!"

Johnny glanced at Sue over his shoulder. Despite all her efforts, the elevator still hadn't come. It certainly had felt much faster when he hadn't wanted to leave it's safety earlier, but now, it was moving at it's own glacial pace the moment it was needed. "What about you?"

Sue shook her head quickly. "I'm right behind you—we'll meet you there," she called, her back already turned to him. "Now, go!"

Without another moment's hesitation, Johnny turned on his heel and threw the balcony doors open. His skin flared, igniting in flames before his feet had even so much as touched the threshold. The heat enveloped him from head to toe and suddenly he was shooting through the night, a blazing comet streaking across the sky.

Wind howled in his ears, fire trailing in his wake as he tore through the humid August air, slicing across rooftops and TV antennae. He cut through miles of sky in a matter of minutes.

Below, the city was a grid of chaos—cars swerving, people flooding out into the streets, necks craned skyward, some pointing, others running. As he grew closer, he heard screaming. A few even cheered before realizing this wasn't a stunt or a publicity shot. It was real.

The impact site came into view like a jagged wound in the city's skin.

Where there once had been a cluster of new office towers, there was now a smoldering crater several stories deep. Smoke poured from the chasm, thick and black, and the twisted remains of steel beams jutted out at odd angles like the broken bones of a skeleton. The surrounding buildings were caving at the perimeter—already half-swallowed by the fire.

Johnny slowed, hovering just above the blaze. He squinted through the haze, searching.

At first glance, there was no immediate sign that pointed to the source of the explosion. No gigantic, spiny monster, no crazed supervillian, not even a stray criminal. But just because it couldn't be seen, didn't mean that it wasn't there. Johnny proceeded cautiously.

He made a pass over the fire, arms outstretched, and the searing heat rose up to meet him. The response was immediate. As the flames snaked upwards, he drew them in as if he were inhaling a breath, and without it's energy, the fire nearest to him began to dim. Of course, that wouldn't be enough. The fire wanted to spread. It danced along the outside edge of the crater, eating away at the foundations of the closest buildings, weakening the structures until they were nothing more than charred corpses. It wouldn't be long until the whole thing fell apart.

Johnny swept lower into the blaze, close enough that he was practically inside of it, and began to clean the fiery tendrils off of the buildings until their skeletal frames resembled Ben's flambéed chicken from earlier that evening. It wasn't easy work, either; the impact zone was larger than anticipated and the longer it sat, the hotter and farther it burned. It was more than Johnny had tackled by himself before. The sheer volume of heat alone was staggering; it threatened to overwhelm him several times, to burn him from the inside out. It was enough to make him pause, once, long enough to expel a breath that hissed like a furnace venting steam.

"C'mon, Johnny," he muttered to himself. "You've eaten things hotter than this. You've got this."

He dove back in, determined to choke off the flames for good. His own fire burned twice as bright, nearly golden at the edges, pulsing with adrenaline he didn't even know he could muster. He was confident; this was it.

But then, something strange happened. The fire, which, until this point, had been bending towards him, eager to be consumed, began to pull away. No, not pull away: they began to ignore him. It was an indescribable feeling. The only way Johnny could put it into words was that it was like something had been put there to block him. Like a wall, or a veil. Whatever it was, the flames refused to obey him, and without Johnny's help, they only continued to grow higher and wider, eating away everything in their path.

Johnny pulled away from the blaze, breathing heavily, just as a pair of headlights appeared in night sky. The Fantasticar materialized at his left, it's sleek frame cutting through the smoke like a knife through silk. Ben was piloting rn car and Reed, still in his clothes from the lab, was in the front beside him. Sue leaned out the window in the back, taking in the scene with a mixture of subdued horror and sharp, tactical focus.

"I can't control it," Johnny huffed, shaking his head towards the fire. "Something's wrong with it—it won't listen to me."

Reed's eyebrows appeared stitched together as he surveyed the glowing inferno, no doubt calculating every possible outcome before he dared jump into action. Johnny could almost see the gears turning.

"We'll do it together," he said, finally. "Sue—we're going to need a force field large enough to contain the fire. Try to isolate whatever's in the blast zone. Ben, you can start clearing a perimeter. Knock down anything unstable, and block off the roads to keep people back. We don't need anyone else getting hurt."

"What about me?" Johnny interrupted, impatient. "It won't respond to me. What am I supposed to do?"

Reed turned to him, his gaze steady. "You're the fastest one here. If you can't control it, then we need you inside—go look for survivors. I need you to prioritize that, Johnny. If something's causing this to behave abnormally, you need to steer clear until we can regroup."

Johnny didn't like the sound of that. Not because it wasn't a good plan, but because it put him on the back burner. Fire was his specialty, his thing...now he was just the odd man out. But, regardless of how he felt, Johnny nodded, already rising a few feet away from the car, flames curling around his shoulders.

Red adjusted something on his watch. "In the meantime, I'm going to locate a water source. If we can divert it or at least buy time until the fire department arrives, then we might be able to stop this before it gets worse."

No one argued with Reed's plan. No sooner had he finished speaking, did the team jump into action. As Ben steered the Fantasticar to the ground, Sue reached out the open window. A ripple of force shimmered outward from her open hands, projecting a semi-visible dome over the fire. The force field glimmered like oil on water as it closed over the flames and soon, the blaze was sealed in on all sides. Trapped. The shield flickered where the flames licked against it, resisting the fire's efforts to escape.

At the same time, Reed took control of the Fantasticar, just as Ben launched himself into the below, landing with a thud that nearly broke the earth in two. He emerged from the cracked pavement and without hesitation, charged into the rubble, his massive form plowing through the debris like the steel and concrete were nothing.

Johnny followed him, tracing the path he carved in search of survivors. He kept some of the heat off Ben, siphoning off excess flames where he could and standing clear of his fists.

"You know, this is an excellent idea for a new episode," Johnny called from overhead. His lips split into a wide grin, despite the heat and chaos—some things never changed. "Speaking of which, I think my cartoons are on—do you know what time it is, Ben?"

Ben grunted a response, crushing a support beam in half like a toothpick. "It's time for you to pipe down and do your job, Matchstick."

"Matchstick?" Johnny gasped, clutching at his chest in mock incredulity. "You wound me, Ben."

"Get outta here, Johnny. I've got the perimeter handled," Ben grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah. Wreck it with love, big guy."

Ben shouldered his way through a flaming wall, but not before he turned and waved Johnny off with hands the size of dinner plates. Johnny just barely missed being swatted like an irksome fly. "Go."

Johnny dove out of the way, suppressing a laugh as he streaked towards the dome that Sue had made. The force field parted smoothly for him as he shot through, and it closed up just as quickly behind him, sealing him within the blaze before anything could escape. The heat didn't bother him, but he couldn't help but feel a little unnerved. He was alone now, after all.

Johnny set to work immediately, sweeping floor after floor, building after building in search of survivors. He found none.

It didn't make any sense, until he found a charred banner hanging from the front one of the buildings. It was burnt almost beyond repair, but Johnny was able to make out some of the words written in bold lettering on one side: "Grand Opening". Below it was the date, September 1st. It was only the 25th, which meant the buildings weren't meant to be opened yet.

Johnny frowned, thinking aloud into his watch, "I see no sign of life in the impact zone. I don't think there was anyone here to begin with."

Reed's voice crackled to life through the watch, faint above the roar of the fire. "That's good, Johnny," he said. "Let's regroup. The fire department is here."

Johnny didn't move. "Something had to have started it," he muttered.

He hovered a few feet above the crater, his eyes flicking over the floors that remained standing. Johnny shifted his gaze downward, his expression tightening. His eyes ghosted over the crater below, and then he froze, squinting hard.

An indistinct shape was crawling slowly from the crater's depths. From this height, it was small, but unmistakable—moving, alive.

"I think it's still here."

Reed responded immediately. "Hang back, Johnny," he warned. "Wait for backup."

Johnny ignored his calls, and even Sue and Ben's as their voices overlapped over each other through the watch. "Johnny, wait!" "Are you crazy? Don't go in alone!"  "Hold your position!"

"Hang on," he muttered under his breath, muscles tensing as he dove down toward the crater.

The ground was too unstable for Johnny to trust it, so he hovered amidst the burning wreckage, squinting through the ash and embers that choked the air. His sight was limited; thick gray smoke streamed from the crater, making it next to impossible to see. His watch trilled anxiously with the voices of his teammates, but Johnny remained undeterred, nearing the jagged edge of the cliff with bated breath. Something scrambled for purchase against the rock, dragging itself to the edge, and Johnny tensed with his arm pulled back, ready to blast whatever thing was emerging.

Only, it wasn't a thing.

It was a person.

A hand, soot-stained and bleeding, gripped the earth first, fingers clawing for traction against the rocky surface. It was followed closely by a second, and then, slowly, more features came into view. A shoulder, then two. A chin. A rounded face, darkened by ash. A pair of wide eyes. Long, dark hair, tinged with red.

Johnny's breath caught. It was a woman.

She was in rough shape. Her face and body were caked in dirt and ash, and her clothes had been partially singed away by the fire. What skin had been left exposed was either cut and bleeding, or reddened by burns. Minor burns. Somehow, by some unimaginable grace, she had survived the explosion and the aftermath with only minor burns.

The woman coughed, choking on smoke as she continued to pry herself out of the crater. Johnny eased his arm back, lowering it gently. The fire that had encased his palm died off in tiny, flickering flames, dancing briefly at his fingertips before vanishing into the smoke. One by one, the flames retreated up his arms, across his shoulders, and down through his chest and legs, until all that remained was the faint shimmer of residual heat against his skin.

He descended slowly, gingerly, his shoes kicking up embers as he touched down. He took a cautious step forward, his foot crunching against debris on the ground. It was a small sound, too small to rise above the crackling blaze still raging around them, but somehow, impossibly, she heard it.

Her wide-eyed gaze snapped up to meet his.

The shock and bewilderment that registered on her face mirrored his own. She was just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

"Well. That's one way to make an entrance."

The woman stared at him, either too stunned to speak or trying to convince herself that she wasn't hallucinating. It had to be strange, seeing him standing there, completely untouched by the fire and acting as if neither of them were in imminent danger, which they were. Her face, streaked with ash, screwed together in confusion. "What?"

Johnny gestured vaguely to the crater. "What, the front door too good for you?"

The woman's expression quickly soured, though it kept some of it's incredulity, as if she couldn't believe this was actually happening to her. "Sorry, I left my party invitation in the explosion," she rasped, dragging herself another few inches up the ledge. Johnny didn't miss the way her hands shook with the effort.

"Need a little help there?" He asked, stepping closer.

The woman tensed, regarding him with growing unease. "No, I don't need help," she refused. Her voice cracked as she said this, but the words were firm. Do not help me.

Johnny watched as she hooked a leg over the edge and used it to push herself up the rock face until she collapsed on even ground on her hands and knees. She coughed harshly, gasping on her own breath as she tried to inhale something that wasn't smoke or dust, though clean air was hard to come by at the moment. Concern flickered in Johnny's chest.

"Are you hurt?" He asked.

The woman sat back, clearly exhausted, and wiped at her face with a burnt hand. "I just crawled out a massive crater—what do you think?" She retorted, though her voice had lost it's edge. Her adrenaline was waning. "Look, you gotta get out of here. It's not safe. Just leave me."

Johnny ignored her. "Really? I didn't notice. But now that you're saying something, it does feel unnaturally warm, even for August." He crouched down beside her and held out a hand, insistent. "C'mon, let's get you outta here. Preferably before the ground does something dramatic."

She flinched away from his hand, her brown eyes flashing. "You're not listening. You need to go. Right now." Her tone was sharp with urgency, but there was something else behind it—fear, maybe. Of what, she didn't say.

"Lady, with all due respect," Johnny said, his eyes narrowing just slightly. "I'm not the one who was just inside a blast zone. You're bleeding, maybe concussed, and—literally on fire." He stopped talking to gesture to an ember that had sparked to life on her singed pant leg; she reached over to beat it out with the palm of her hand, nonplussed. "I'm not going anywhere unless you're going with me."

She didn't answer. Instead, she pushed his hands away and began to pull herself to her feet, pushing off the scorched asphalt with a grunt. Her knees shook as she stood, clearly favoring one side over the other. But if it hurt, she didn't let it be known.

Once on her feet, she backed away from him, unsteady, but stubborn. "I'm fine. I don't need saving so just go."

But then—crack.

The sharp groan of shifting rock cut through the fire's roar and Johnny's eyes snapped down as part of the ledge to the side of them began to crumble in on itself. The realization hit him a second before disaster struck.

"Stop. Stop moving. Don't—"

But the warning came too late. The woman took a determined step away, too far out of his reach, and at once, the entire ledge gave way—taking her with it. It happened so quickly that she didn't even scream. There was only the surprised gasp that fell from her cracked lips as she reached to grasp something that wasn't there, before she plummeted out of sight over the edge.

Without hesitation, Johnny launched himself in after her.

In a burst of flame, he was airborne, shooting down the side of the collapsing crater like a meteor falling to Earth. The fall was brief, but disorienting. Rock and debris rained down around him and smoke blotted out what little light remained, but the fire that danced across his lower body was enough to see the tumbling figure of the woman beneath him. He reached her just before she hit the next outcropping, caught her cleanly around the ribs, and steadied their momentum with a hard flare of heat as he pulled them both out of the smoke.

Beneath them, the crater hissed and groaned, still burning, still collapsing. Ember-lit smoke swirled in the updraft around them as he soared higher, putting distance between them and the destruction.

The woman clung to him, stunned, her arms locking instinctively around his neck. But as the warmth of his body registered—more than warmth, heat, fire—she flinched, her eyes darting to the jets of flame bursting from his shoulders and feet. She nearly pulled back.

"Relax," Johnny said lightly, adjusting his grip without missing a beat. "You're not burning. That's all me."

The woman's gaze snapped to his face. She didn't respond, only stared at him with those large doe eyes of hers. It was unnerving.

He tried again. "Told you—I don't go unless you're going with me."

However, neither the lightness in his tone nor the small grin plaster to his face was met with much enthusiasm. Rather, her expression twisted, and she started to look like she would have preferred to been left in the crater. The warmth of her grip disappeared from his neck.

"Put me down." Her voice was thin and hoarse but firm. "Put me down! Now!"

Johnny flinched at the sudden shift. It wasn't often that the people he saved begged to be released, especially in mid air. And yet, when he didn't respond right away, she began to twist and struggle, pushing at his chest with a surprising strength. But, for obvious reason, he did not give in to her demands.

"Hey, hey—stop moving!"

"No!" She kicked instinctively, panicked, and Johnny's hold slipped for a breathless moment. A jolt of fear shot through him as she nearly wriggled free mid-flight.

"You're gonna fall!" He snapped.

"I don't care," she shouted. "I won't—if you would just put me down!"

It was apparent in that moment that no amount of reasoning would change her mind. Johnny glanced ahead and was relieved to see the holographic sheen of Sue's force field shimmering faintly in the smoke stained sky. He would set her down, but only once they were beyond the perimeter of the fire.

"Alright—but just hang on a minute!" he muttered, jaw tight. 

With his grip still tight around her, Johnny accelerated quickly out of the impact zone. When he neared the barrier, the force field melted away on contact, as if Sue's powers anticipated his arrival. She, along with Reed and Ben, were nowhere to be seen, but a police presence had appeared in their place, blockades and flashing lights decorating the street.

Johnny touched down on an empty sidewalk several yards away from the scene, and as soon as he landed, the woman shoved herself out of his arms. She stumbled back, breathing raggedly, wild-eyed.

Johnny raised both hands slowly. "Hey. You're okay. I didn't drop you."

"You were on fire," she snapped, backing away. "You are—on fire. What the hell—who are you?"

Johnny blinked, caught off guard. That wasn't a question he was typically met with nowadays. Even the people who hated him were able to recognize him; the fire was kind of a dead giveaway.

"Uh—Johnny? Last time I checked, at least."

There was a moment's hesitation, a flicker of recognition, and her posture shifted ever so slightly, wariness giving way to something more like astonishment. That was the look he was used to.

"Johnny Storm," she breathed, staring at him as if he was not the same man she'd been screaming at moments before. "You're Johnny Storm. The Human Torch."

"What gave it away?" Johnny said with a lopsided grin. "And you are?"

The woman continued without acknowledging his question, looking down the street with a kind of breathless urgency. "If you're here, so are the rest of the Fantastic Four," she murmured. Johnny got the sense she wasn't talking to him, not until she turned on him with a sudden intensity, her eyes wide and sharp again. "Is Mr. Fantastic here? Dr. Richards?"

The way she said Reed's name stirred a sense of familiarity, like he'd met her before, but that wasn't possible. He didn't recognize her face, and a face like hers—no matter how dirty or bloody—he would remember.

"Yes, but—"

"I need to see him," the woman interrupted, walking away from Johnny before he had a chance to argue. He followed. He didn't realize he was still on fire until he tried to put his hands on her shoulders to stop her, and she jerked away from the open flames. They went out immediately after that.

"What you need—" Johnny said, stepping in front of her. "—is a different kind doctor. You know, one of medicine. Works in a hospital, wears a white coat and a stethoscope..."

The woman glared at him, anger simmering beneath the scowl pulling at her lips. The air between them was tense, charged, like a storm building; the hairs along his arms raised as if awaiting a lightning strike. 

"You're not listening to me," she said, her voice trembling with frustration "Why does no one listen to me?"

"Hey." Johnny held his hands out placatingly, his gaze softening. "I am listening. I'm trying. But you're hurt and—"

At that exact moment, his watch burst to life with a sharp series of beeps, cutting through the tension like a blade.

Johnny winced. "Seriously?" he muttered, slapping a hand over it as if that might shut it up.

Sue's voice came through loud and insistent, filling the air between them: "Johnny, come on! We need you—now. Reed's plan just kicked in, the tower's down—get moving!"

He looked up, just in time to hear the distant, groaning creak of metal and the thunderous crash that followed. Somewhere behind the smoke, the water tower was falling—had fallen. Right on cue.

The woman flinched at the sound, her expression tightening. The edge in her glare dulled, softening into something almost defeated.

Johnny hesitated, torn. "Look, I get it. You've got something big to say, and I want to hear it—I will hear it. Just... stay here. Don't move. As soon as this is over, I'll come back, and you can tell me everything."

She didn't answer. Her eyes dropped to the pavement, her mouth pressed in a thin, unreadable line. She looked like she didn't believe a word of it.

"I mean it," Johnny said, backing away slowly, reluctant. "Right here. Stay. You'll be safe."

Still nothing.

He hovered off the ground, fire curling around his feet once more. One last glance at her—just long enough to try and memorize her profile. The slant of her nose, the red in her hair...but his glance was fleeting and final.

"Don't go disappearing on me," he added, a little softer now. "Seriously. I'll be back."

And with that, he shot into the sky, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. As he flew away towards the fallen water tower where the rest of his team was, he hoped that once this was all over, she would still be there. That he would find her still standing on the pavement, waiting to reveal whatever big secret she had to tell Reed. But there was a part of himself that knew she would already be gone.

And she was.