Retired — Roleplayer Guild

Johnny tugged at the form-fitting material, which rode up uncomfortably in several sensitive areas. The blue and white full-body suit clung to him in ways that would make runway models envious, but he wasn’t feeling particularly glamorous. 

“Okay, I get that you spent a lot of time and put that big brain of yours to work inventing some new impossible particles—”

“Unstable molecules,” the lanky man corrected for the dozenth time. “And I didn’t invent them; I discovered the molecules several years back. Recent events, however, inspired me to revisit the configuration and synthesize…”

Reed Richards was considered by many to be a once-in-a-generation intellect. To Jonathan, however, he was just the guy his sister chose to date. Not that he disliked Reed. In fact, despite the man’s constant need to ramble on, Johnny had grown fond of him in the years since they first met. He wasn’t as stuffy as some of the other labcoats the Future Foundation had to offer, and he treated Sue with the respect she deserved. Reed was just a bit of a dork and got overly excited about far too many things. But, Johnny supposed, when your mind perpetually raced a million miles a minute, that was to be expected.

“Right,” Johnny agreed after waiting a minute for Reed’s explanation to end. “I get all that. Mostly. The weird molecules make it so the fabric doesn’t burn up when I get all toasty. That’s honestly really cool.”

He emphasized this next part by pulling awkwardly at the crotch of the suit. “But what I don’t get is why you made this thing so damn constricting. Can’t we get it, like, tailored or something?”

Reed frowned from behind his tablet and glanced at Susan Storm, who was readying for the next set of stress tests. The tilt of her head and cocked eyebrow conveyed her thoughts. 

“Well, I hadn’t considered that,” he admitted sheepishly. “It’s a wonder I got a prototype up as quickly as I did, given all the other projects I’m balancing. My investigation into what failed with our transdimensional slide has been taking most of my focus, and…”

Johnny sighed and turned his focus toward his sister. Sue leaned over a control panel on the opposite side of a transparent wall, mirroring Jonathan on all sides. She confirmed several readings and then flashed her brother a thumbs-up. 

“Johnny, we’re good to go. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure we get a new version of the test suit worked up. I’m certainly not stuffing myself into one of those things for my next tests. You look ridiculous.”

After Reed’s project had blown up in their faces the previous month, he, both of the Storms, and the final member of their project team had been faced with more tests than they cared to relive. Doctors had drawn their blood, scanned them with every piece of known medical equipment, consulted with experts in every conceivable bioscience field, and monitored them for weeks on end during isolation. Nothing had indicated the foursome was at risk of harm to themselves or others. However, what had not been tested was the extent of the incredible abilities each had. 

The younger Storm had found himself capable of spontaneously combusting while the elder Storm discovered she could render her physical being completely invisible. Reed could stretch his limbs and flatten his body in a manner that practically taunted the laws of physics, while Benjamin Grimm was now strong enough to bench press a semi-truck. The latter also suffered from a considerable side effect brought on by the metaphysical changes each experienced, though he alone faced this unfortunate fate. As a result, Ben had holed up in his quarters for the last several days to avoid attention. 

Susan, biochemical genius of the Foundation, determined they should all go through a further gauntlet of trials she devised to understand the true scope of changes each had undergone. First, she tested Benjamin after coaxing him from his room long enough, followed by Reed, who tried to modify several of the tests using new gadgets he had designed. Sue had made it clear she would go last only after witnessing the capabilities of the others. However, Johnny would have bet heavily on the fact his sister had likely been experimenting with her abilities privately. 

This left Johnny as the current lab rat. He had been given the unstable molecules uniform to wear to avoid exposing himself again and placed inside a five hundred square foot glass box. Reed had tried explaining to Johnny that it wasn’t truly glass but a transparent composite material nearly as durable as steel but a thousand times more malleable. To Johnny, it just felt like a cage. 

“Sensors are transmitting, Sue.” Reed’s right arm extended and twisted through the air to flick a switch. “Datafeed is live.”

Susan smiled at her longtime boyfriend, the two sharing a moment of scientific thrill. Every test thus far had brought forth incredible material to sort through, the kind of data that a researcher could only dream of encountering in their lifetime. They had run the figures based on Johnny’s previous fiery displays observed during quarantine, and Reed had created a model predicting the young man’s potential energy output. If the facts matched the projections, then things were about to get very exciting. 

She turned her attention back toward her brother. “Okay, Johnny. Let’s start slow. Just light up and let us get a base-level reading.”

Johnny tensed his muscles and felt the now-familiar surge of power run through him. His skin appeared to erupt in red-hot flames, but in actuality, his entire physical form instantly converted to a state of plasma. Remarkably, the test suit remained intact. 

“Great, hold right there for a moment.” Sue looked toward a monitor she and Reed shared, which displayed various input data, including ambient heat in Fahrenheit. After making several notations, she signaled for her brother to continue. 

“Fascinating,” Reed muttered as the data poured in. “Your brother is visibly composed of orange and red flames, which by all scientific measures means a temperature of 1,100 to 1,800 degrees. Yet the sensors first had him at a mere 400 degrees, and now he’s pushing 2,500.”

“I know,” Sue concurred. “If he existed of actual fire, then common sense tells us he should have a white flame right now. I’m not sure what to make of that yet.”

Johnny rapped his glowing fist on the not-glass substance. The material briefly turned yellow in reaction to the burning touch. “Hey, as much as I love being the center of attention, I don’t want to be stuck in here all day. I’ll crank things up and get you what you want faster.”

“Johnny, wait, you’re already on par with the projections and we—”

Sue was cut off when a sudden burst of energy from within the test chamber caused the data feed to erupt with overwhelming amounts of information. 

“3,000, 3,700, 4,500.” Reed rattled off the figures as they flashed across the screen. 

“Johnny, slow down.” Sue tried to reign in her brother, but it was too late. The transparent walls of the chamber holding him had already begun to glow a deep red, and by this point, some of the heat started seeping through to the observation room. 

“Susan,” Reed warned. “He’s gone past 5,600 degrees. The composite is only rated for 6,200. It was meant to have a comparable melting point to tungsten; I didn’t expect for…”

Sue ignored him for the moment. She was well aware that things were reaching a critical point. She was also aware that the communications system wired into the test chamber would have melted by now, rendering any chance of calling Johnny off null. 

“Holy #$%&!, man!” Johnny shouted from within, his words unable to reach the pair outside. His flaming aura had grown, and the radiating heat now encompassed the entire space. “This is totally awesome! I think I can push it even further!”

The composite material gave way at that moment, simply vaporizing the chamber entirely. The intense, feverish wave of energy burst from Jonathan, whose eyes widened in realization and horror. He frantically willed his fire to extinguish, but by that point, it was too late, and the overwhelmingly high temperature and flames poured outward, threatening to incinerate the entire observation room, his sister and Reed included.

At the last moment, just as the inferno looked to consume the two scientists, the cascading fire smashed into an ethereal obstacle. The edges of the flames curled up and washed over themselves as if trapped in a fishbowl. 

Johnny’s corporeal form rematerialized, and the stream of fire subsided. He looked on in shock at his sister, arms outstretched, face intensely strained, as she appeared to be holding the blaze at bay until it, too, died out. A thousand thoughts raced through his turbulent mind as relief, confusion, and astonishment overcame him. However, another beat him to it before he could express any of those thoughts. 

“Susan, honey, what did you just do?” For once, Reed shared Johnny’s dumbfounded expression as he posed the question.

Wiping a trickle of blood that trailed along her upper lip, Susan looked between the two of them. “So,” she answered in between exhausted pants. “I may have discovered something the other day that is pretty fantastic.”
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"Hayao Miyazaki"

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