2014.06.29 - Let It Go Let It Go

It's been less than a day since Sue found Onora up on the roof, having been called out by a late night news helicopter when they noticed the huge '4' symbol made of ice on a rooftop. She's the one that brought the young woman back to the Baxter, rousted Reed out of whatever he was doing, and made sure the girl would be all right. 
Now that everyone's had a chance to rest a bit, Sue has prepared a simple lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and has dragged Reed along to find out what exactly happened. 
"Onora? May we come in and talk with you?" D is hovering nearby, ready to act as interpreter for the young woman again if needed.
Amazing things can happen as you body is racked with pain and you mind shuts down because of it.
The burns still covered a lot of Onora's body but that she was in shifted form when it happened meant they were healing quickly. She still needed bandages though.
There's several moments of silence, almost as if she's asleep, before she nods her head as little as possible giving D the go ahead to know they can enter.
Upon Sue grabbing him, Reed had just send a squad of HERBIEs to the roof to 'mop' up the melting ice. With his scanner in hand, Reed follows closely to the 'Heart of the Four'. 
Onora's two tone eyes settle on Sue and she blinks. A look is given between Sue and Reed and then out towards the window as the surface thoughts of everyone in a about a three mile radius assaults her mind at once.
Sue, being the closest, her thoughts are the loudest. So that's where Onora focuses. Her eyes bore into Sue and she pushes her thoughts out just as she had when she was first learning to control her telepathy in shifted form. < It does tie to him, yes. The ice came from, Bobby.> Her thoughts are pushed at Sue and Reed both so the man isn't kept out of the loop.
Sue Storm blinks, momentarily surprised by Onora responding telepathically while not resembling a cat. She thought Onora had told her that was the only time her telepathy worked. She mentally sets that aside for the moment, her expression smoothing back to calm concern which belies the chaos of her mind. She carries the soup and sandwich over to where the heterochromia iridic woman is resting. "I brought lunch." She turns to look at Reed, as if silently asking him to bring his head back to the here and now and help her figure this out.
Reed stands at the doorway, not wanting to enter right away. Instead he looks into the room his scanner going at full speed. And while telepathy is a nice thing. It would be a bad idea to go into Reed's head at the moment. Too many things going on at once. 
< I can't. I couldn't. I don't know what's going on.> Onora looks at the lunch and smiles faintly. <Thank you, Sue.> She looks at the food and then lifts her eyes back to Sue. <Please tell me you know where Johnny is...> She shifts, wincing a little, to make room for the lunch that was brought to her.
Sue Storm waits patiently for Onora to settle again before setting the lunch for the woman to reach. "Not at the moment, no, but we'll find him." She turns and looks to D. "Please have everyone start a search for Johnny, including Cel. And I don't care if he's already busy doing something else. This is important. Reed, quit hovering in the doorway like a creeper." She turns her attention back to Onora, and asks the question of the hour. "How much can you remember about what happened?"
Before he even walks in he taps the top of his hand and draws a circle. And then under his breath. "Find Johnny, bring him to my location please. Use SDT to find him." Who was he talking to? Oh wait. The HERBIES are out in full force now. Poor Johnny. A bunch of Doctor Who themed, flame resistant robots, 
Walking into the kitchen was Ben Reilly and a floating H.E.R.B.I.E. that had a celery magnetic piece on the chasis. "I don't get it, does he use the word 'Bit-," Cel, the name of the H.E.R.B.I.E. that had the voice of british actor Peter Davison, tried to speak but was cut off. 
"Can't use that word in public Cel. Jessie doesn't care. We have more manners than that," Ben explained. Sometimes letting your robotic companion binge watch Breaking Bad with you wasn't always a good thing. Ben was dressed in a black hoodie, matching cargo pants and a plain white t-shirt. He had a three-o clock shadow on his face. 
Giving a laxadaic wave, he muttered a good aftenroon to everyone. Opening the fridge he pulled out a pepsi, it was one with the glass bottle. Taking a sip his eyes became like saucers. 
Cel said in a monotone voice, "Acknowlegded" then started off in his own direction. 
Snagging his bot Ben clung to the robot and started to get pulled, "LITTLE HELP!" he yelled just before the bot broke away. It flew down the hall with some new objective. 
Running after the bot Ben tried to keep track of it. Sadly, the little thing was moving too quick to keep up. He cried out in the hallways, "Hello! Anyone there?!" Sighing Ben went to an intercom and buzzed in, "My H.E.R.B.I.E. went el nutso. Where's the rest of the team at?" he asked.
<Everything. Sue... That's not Johnny. It's Johnny's body. His powers. And his mind -is- in there but... He's not the one in control. And the one that is, is -very- dangerous. Please be careful... Find Bobby. Maybe he was able to track him.> Onora's brows knit. <He can't know I'm here. If he does, he'll know you've been told...>
Dropping her eyes to the food, she frowns slightly. She toys with the soup a moment. <The mind that holds Johnny... it's dark and chaotic. Unbalanced and out for blood. He took joy in... That Johnny was forced to watch it happen...> Her eyes lift and her brows knit. < I'm still sorting through what I saw... The images were jumbled... Maybe I can...> She trails off in thought for a moment. And then there's that call via intercom and it has Onora lifting her head and blinking.
At the speed Torch can travel, he's halfway across the world by now, doing everything in his power to get away from that telepath. He grumbles at the sight of the search party, knowing the 'bots will be more difficult to put down than your typical mechanoid. He attempts to outrun them, speeding up and climbing as high as he possibly dared to without running out of oxygen. But he knows that if the robots can't get him, then the rest of the team is going to come after him themselves eventually...
The Iceman is indeed tracking the Torch. Or trying to at least. He can follow the heat trail sure but Johnny's definitely faster than him. And crossing oceans and other trails leads to Johnny's getting muddled. Still in his organic ice form and still sliding along tracking the fading remnants of the trail, he shouldn't be too hard to find if the F4 send a bot or two his way. Or even come looking themselves. Heck, they could just call his communicator too.
Sue Storm sighs at the intercom, but before she moves to try and answer it, she does her best to reassure Onora. "This is the safest place you can be right now, short of that space station thing the Justice League people have. And if I feel you need to go there, I'll take you there myself." She looks up at Reed again, to see if he's headed for the intercom himself already or not.
Reed looks at Sue from behind the glasses and nods. And as if he needs to walk to the intercom. With a tap on his hand he answers. "This is Doctor Reed Richards, Ben. I had to do an override. We're in the infirmary. This is a code: Delta." If Ben was a good intern and team member he would have read the handbook reed made. Delta being a 'missing team member' code. 
"Scarlet reporting in boss," Ben replied and moved to the infirmary on the double. He moved to the infirmary and practically pulled the doorgs off the hinges with his strength. "Who's missing and what Fantasticar piece do you need me to take?" his voice boomed in the room. 
His brown eyes went to the new face and he gave them a nod. The Fantastic Four was family to him, he'd ask about the new personlater. Right now it was time to be worried about family. "Which member?" Pulling off his hoodie and shirt, he was just waiting to get the info so he could put on the Scarlet Spider costume.
Onora concentrates, drawing up the image of Jericho that she saw in the mind of 'Johnny' and pushing it at Sue. It's difficult. Her mind is still catching all the surface thoughts of everyone within about three miles of her.
She lifts her eyes to Sue. < It isn't my safety I fear for.>
Leaning back on the bed, she slowly picks at the sandwich, clearly not having much of an appetite. <He said he was going after his father...> And the image she got with that statement is pushed at Sue as well.
Her mind is too jumbled for anything else right now.
She smiles faintly, letting her head rest back against the pillows as Ben enters. There's a small nod of greeting for him before she idly shove another bite of food in her mouth, waiting for them to get the new arrival all caught up.
Sue Storm smiles to Onora and turns as Ben rushes into the room. "Ben, do you know a friend of Johnny's named Bobby? We need to contact him as soon as possible. Something's happened to Johnny and we need to find him and bring him home." Yes, she just made it sound like Johnny is trouble and not like he IS the trouble. She knows what's really going on though, and she knows Ben well enough to realize if she phrased things differently he'd try to go after Johnny himself. And like Onora, he's not immune to fire. Sue would never forgive herself if her brother injured someone else.
"Reed, do you have a way to track Johnny? Or if not that, a way to shield someone from latent telepathic ... um," she waves a hand vaguely, "background noise?" She'll have to find a way to reproduce the faces and names given to her by Onora so the others understand who they're up against. But people are her first priority. Always.
"Johnny. We will be using the Mark Twelve. It has the features we need to search." Reed starts off as he goes into team leader mode. However he stops and turns back to Sue. "Wait. Whats wrong with Johnny again?" Reed says as his clothes seem to trans-morph into his uniform. 
Dropping his pants Ben rushed out in just boxer briefs. He ran through the building in his scivvies then smiled as he hit the lab. Going to a vertical container it made a "VWOOSH" as it opened. "Hello beautiful," he said to the contents. 
Rushing back into the infirmary Ben was clad in a black costume. With the press of a button red started to come to life on the suit. A spider symbol burned bright with spider eyes and various accents. "I'm ready to go," he said back in the costume Reed made for him. It provided some protection against various weapons. If Validius hadn't fried it ages ago, he would have still worn it instead of the spandex number.
"Do I have a way to track Johnny?" Reed says to Sue with a look that has 'you doubt me?' written all over it. "Of course I have a way to track him." Reed says as he starts to nod and rub the back of his head. To Suethat means one thing. He did something she would not have approved of. "We talked about it not long after he began to fly and you said it was a good idea. So I proceeded with your consent." 
Sue Storm sighs at Reed. "I'll get angry at you for that later." She pulls her phone and hastily goes through the contacts in the hopes that she has Bobby's phone number already. She doesn't think she does. "Reed, Onora told me that his mind is being controlled by someone named Jericho, and she gave me an image of the person. He's apparently planning to use Johnny to go after his own father, a man with an eyepatch I don't recognize. And Bobby is trying to chase him down already."
Onora watches everything buzz around her before she blinks at Sue. There's a reason Sue didn't offer up what was really going on and so the shifter remains silent on it. Not that speaking is possible but, ya know, details!
When tracking Johnny is mentioned, she looks up at Reed and then over to Ben and finally to Sue. <The noise will fade with time>
And then Sue informs them of what's really going on. She opens her mind, sending to everyone in the room. < It's Johnny's body, his powers and his mind is in there somewhere but he's not in control. The one that is dangerous and delights in making Johnny watch as people he cares about are hurt. That mind... It's dark and chaotic and not at all balanced.>
Despite the interruptions in the heat trail Bobby is following, he will eventually find Johnny not far off the coast, trying to fend off Reed's army of robots. Robots aren't normally that much of a challenge, but these are fire-resistant and there are quite a few of them.
Coming upon the battle, Iceman takes a few moments to catch his breath. Nevermind that he technically doesn't need to breathe while in his Organic Ice Form. Off the coast is good. Plenty of moisture out there. Smirking a bit, Bobby gathers some of it. He spreads his arms and then unleashes a blast of snow and sleet at Johnny. He'll be a lot easier to talk to when not fiery.
Johnny had been busy handling the robots, so he doesn't notice Bobby approaching. He is taken off guard by the icy blast, and knocked down toward the water, the robots still following him, attempting to grab him or whatever it is they're supposed to do. A feeble fireball is shot Iceman's way as he is falling, but it probably won't go very far.
Suited up Ben suddenly started to clench his head. Not too many people went thumping on his skull. The first time anyone really put him into a mental link since a good year, if not ever. "Warn a guy next time will ya! I don't want you snooping around in there too much. I'm really missing my girlfriend and trust me, you don't want to see those thoughts!" he mused trying to push back the pain. Nearly every battle Ben had was fought with snarky wit. 
"Webbing will do wonders on a person. Just need to get within firing distance," nodding to the group his head looked between everyone, "So when are we retrieving hothead? I'm all dressed up with no place to go right now. We shouldn't keep Johnny waiting, should we?" he started to head toward the Fantasticar. "You put a chip on him like we would a dog if we ever had one, right? I presume I have one too or do I really need to get this spot on my neck looked at?" again more musing since he was worried about his adopted brother.
Sue Storm offers Onora one last quick smile before she hurries off after the other two. She's still wearing jeans and a tshirt, but there's no time to bother with changing clothes now. In short order the three of them are off in the Fantasticar Reed had mentioned, tracking multiple small signatures -- the HERBIE units -- as well as two others, though only one is labeled as being Johnny. 
When they're nearly upon the signals, Sue bails out of the Fantasticar and proceeds separately via her force fields. "Johnny? Johnny!"
Seeing the fireball coming his way, Bobby tosses an iceball to meet it. Steamy! With that done, he follows the HERBIES. "Okay, now we just gotta hope the F4 are actually home and I don't have to drag him back to the mansion and hear Cyke complain at me for doing it," he mutters, unaware of the incoming FantastiCar.
Fire meets ice, and indeed it is very steamy as the water evaporates almost instantly. Bobby's projectile is cold enough to dissipate the heat, and thus intercept the attack. Johnny kersplashes into the water below, disappearing into the depths. The robots go after him, but stop when they reach the water. They then just hover there, not quite sure what to do next.
Sue Storm sees the burst of steam and heads that direction as fast as she dares, Reed steering the Fantasticar after. She stops a bit abruptly, though, and matches pace with the flying vehicle to call to Ben, "Come with me, Ben, in case you have a chance to snare him." She has a force field ready for the webslinger, to convey him toward the mid-air battle.
Slipping into the bubble like a good little Spider, Ben gave a nod when he was inside. He was ready for this first. Sure it was against a walking matchstick that could fly, but there was a flying snowcone maker too. Hopefully the icy guy was on their side and was willing to make a snowcone when it was over. Fighting Johnny was probably going to be a hot and sweaty experience, if not a hot, sweaty and burny experience. Looking to the steam Ben waited for his chance to strike.
Iceman stopped a bit above the HERBIEs as well, eyes narrowing as he looked down at the water for any sign of Johnny. A sopping wet Torch was easier to deal with than a flaming one...as long as he could find him. The sound of the approaching Fantasticar got Bobby looking over his shoulder as he slowly circled on an ice slide. "Oh good, the hot blond back up I ordered," he quipped when he spotted Sue, giving a quick wave her way. "He went for a dip," he calls, pointing down at the water.
So there they all were. Reed, Sue, Ben, Bobby, and the HERBIEs. All hovering there above the water for what seemed like a long, silent moment. One might have started to worry when Johnny doesn't come up after a minute or so...
But finally he emerges, breaking the surface and flying up to about the height of everyone else. However, he doesn't make any attack moves, instead he simply hovers there, not moving.
"He WHAT??" Sue looks at the iced man incredulously for a moment, then Ben's force field sets him down on Bobby's ice slide just as Johnny re-emerges from the water. She ghosts closer to her sibling, clearly concerned. "Johnny?"
"She's taken there Olaf. So just 'Let it goooooo. Let it gooooo.' Besides she tends to prefer older guys and not recent high-school graduates. Sorry there Junior," true Ben was only a few years older than Ice man if that, but Sue and Reed were supposed to go together. In this case Ben was very much that child that wanted to see his mother/father hook up with that awesome step-parent they had been dating for eons. 
Seeing the hovering it caused Ben to have a sudden plan strike his nogging. Heading back to Sue he began to whisper something into her ear when the bubble let up. His plan was a little on the vicious side but it was completely workable.
"He fell and went swimming," Iceman repeats. Ben gets a roll of the eyes from Iceman. "Someone from the Kids' table shouldn't be talking like that. And try to get a less overdone reference," he shoots back at Ben. Yes, he knows Ben isn't the Spidey he hangs with sometimes. And that Scarlet Spider is from one of those Young teams the students like so much. When Johnny re-emerges, Bobby gets ready for another winter blast. Frigid energy can be seen occasionally flickering arund his hands but he holds back for now. "Careful! He hasn't seemed in much mood to talk since he charbroiled the Living Lisa Frank figure," he calls.
"Sis...Ben. Reed. And Bobby." Johnny glances around at his friends who are currently surrounding him, and lets out a bit of a sigh of relief. "Phew, I thought you all were going to attack me there for a second." He scratches his head, glancing at the robots. "So uhmm...you wouldn't happen to have any idea as to why the HERBIEs were attacking me, do you? Malfunction? Field test? They aren't going rogue, are they?"
After nodding to Ben, Sue ghosts a little bit closer to Johnny than the other two. "I told them to find you and bring you home, Johnny. I didn't know where you'd gone and I was kind of worried." She tries to keep her expression innocently concerned. "Onora asked me to find you."
"Hush! The grownups are talking! And seriously, have a floating robot follow you around all day. It reads the internet and suddenly wants to know what this movie is all about. Not my fault he tends to like Olaf. Plus my girlfriend is a closet disney fan," or maybe Jubilee just had a big soft spot for the movie. Either case Ben was unable to escape the frozen movie, "And you know I remember you being much chipper in the movies. We will find the carrot nose you lost in the ocean, I promise," he fired back again then gave Sue a dire look. He didn't like that whispered plan but it was the best option in his mind. How do you snuff out a fire, remove the oxygen. Forcefields could do that. Then he looked to Johnny who was talking more like himself, "Hothead, you okay?"
"You're the one that needs to hush, Spider-Boy," Iceman replies. "Now run back to the web playhouse and your robo-nanny," he adds. He scowls Johnny's way, glancing at Sue and then back to Johnny. "Dude, do not even try that. You blew your cover when you tried to make a fan into a french fry."
"Oh..." Johnny frowns. "Alright I'll be honest with you, I don't even remember coming out here. The last thing I remember is heading back the apartment after lunch with some Kryptonian girl. Next thing I know I'm being attacked by a bunch of HERBIEs. And then Bobby attacks me too, on top of all that! ...how long was I gone?" he glances over at his friend. "I...what?! Wait--" he flies over to Iceman, sounding distressed. "What do you mean I tried to turn a fan into a french fry? Did they--what happened?!"
Sue Storm reaches out a hand the moment that Johnny starts toward Iceman, snagging him in a force field to keep him from getting too close. "Johnny, that's what we're trying to figure out. Please, let us take you back to the Baxter." If he puts up so much as a hint of protest, she'll trap her brother's head in as small a forcefield as she can manage without hurting him and deprive him of oxygen until he passes out.
"They're okay. They called 911," Iceman assures Johnny. Even if there's some kind of crazy evil thing controlling him, Bobby did hear his friend is still in there. He looks to Sue when she grabs Johnny, ready to move to defend her if he has to.
Johnny doesn't make any hostile moves, however. He just looks relieved. "Oh, phew..." then he nods to Sue. "Right, o-of course. I don't even remember coming out here at all, not to mention why. And maybe Reed can figure out what's happened to me. Just...tell me what else happened? Did--did I hurt anyone else?" Is he really back to himself, or is whoever this is just very good at playing the part? Well, there will only be one way to tell. Or at least give them a clue.
Sue Storm takes a chance on trying to see if this really is Johnny or not, by gambling on her brother's trust. "She'll be okay. Now, will you trust me to make sure you get home safely?" She watches her sibling as the force field she still has wrapped around him tightens just a little bit.
"You toasted someone that's gonna be in the next season of Friendship is Magic but she did a Wolverine and should be fine," Iceman echoes Sue. "Tried to toast me but it didn't work too well," he adds. The mutant hero then falls silent, waiting to see how his friend reacts.
Johnny looks even more alarmed, now. "I...O-oh no...Onora!" He exclaims, his eyes widening. "I have to see her. Now. And of course I trust you, Sis, when have I ever not? Now let's just go." he sighs. "You gonna let me out of the force field or what?"
Sue Storm starts directing all of the HERBIE robots to follow Ben to the waiting Fantasticar, then shakes her head no at Johnny. "Just trust me, Johnny, and let me keep that force field there. Okay? It's for my peace of mind."
"Hope ya don't mind if I come along," Bobby speaks up. He worried about Johnny after all. The icy mutant falls otherwise silent, just watching and listening while waiting for a chance to follow. He's hoping there's a spot in the car for him. Sure he can slide but it's annoying to have to do it all the way from NYC and back again.
Johnny nods and doesn't protest any further. "Okay. Well in that case I think I'm gonna chill for a bit, then. Hope you don't mind the extra weight." he winks and chuckles, then simply sits down inside the bubble. "Those HERBIEs can be a handful, you know."
Sue Storm smiles and nods to Bobby, gesturing for him to accompany them as she moves and conveys Johnny back to the Fantasticar. Unless Johnny (or whomever is piloting the Johnny-meatsuit) chooses to kick up a fuss, the return trip is uneventful. If a bit cramped with all of the HERBIEs stacked inside as well.
Bobby follows, ready to fight if a fuss is made. If not, he'll crack a few jokes about A VWBug being roomier but that's about it.
Indeed, the trip is pretty uneventful. Johnny mostly just sits in the bubble and waits to arrive back in NYC. He -appears- to be back to himself.
Whatever peace and quiet Onora might have gotten is ruined as the Fantasticar arrives back at the Baxter and everyone that had been riding inside disembarks. Ben and Cel likely off to do whatever it is that teens like him do, Reed back to the lab to whatever it is he does, the HERBIEs scattering to all corners of the building, and Sue releases Johnny from his force field to lead him and Bobby to where Onora is currently. Even if she's not letting Johnny see it, she is still very much wary of any move he makes, ready to trap him in a force field again at the speed of thought if necessary.
Onora had only made it about half way through her lunch. She just didn't have much of an appetite. Bandages covered the burns that were still healing. She had, briefly, dozed off but as people start to return and the surface thoughts get louder and louder, she rouses. Scanning to see who it is, she remains laying in the bed with her eyes closed and her breath slow and steady. She looks, for all the world, like she's sleeping.
Bobby's not bothering to hide wariness. Mindcontrol is one of those things that's 'Oh it's Tuesday again' for the X-men so they take it seriously. There's no a lot in the way of surface thoughts coming from him either. Mostly things related to how he doesn't want to fight Johnny, wants to kick the butt of whoever is using Johnny like the world's hottest Muppet, and whether or not he can find a place to work a Muppet joke in. The rest is locked down by training on how to keep things locked down. Another X-man thing.
Sue needn't be that much on edge, at least not tonight. Johnny doesn't seem to be up to anything sinister. In fact, he just makes a beeline for the infirmary, hoping Onora will be there. She seems to be okay, though, and he gives a slight sigh of relief. Now if the telepath attempts to read his mind, she just gets bombarded with the same chaos as before...it's difficult to make any sort of sense of it all.
Sue Storm offers Onora a smile when they finally arrive at her room in the infirmary, and sends D to the kitchen with the lunch dishes. No way she's ready to leave Johnny here, even with Bobby standing guard. Speaking of... "Bobby, why don't you try to get some rest? The spare bed right there is free."
Bobby jumped slightly and nodded. "Actually, mind if I grab a shower first?" he asked. Not that he was dirty, he just wanted to recover some moisture and rinse off the ocean salt.
The chaos she gets from the mind of 'Johnny' is enough to tell Onora all she needs to know. She keeps her eyes closed for a few seconds more and very carefully sends the though <Nothing's changed. Johnny's mind isn't the one in control> to Sue and Bobby. Her eyes flutter open at the sound of Sue's voice and she smiles gently at everyone gathered, eyes lingering on Johnny.
"Onora!" Johnny exclaims. "Thank god you're okay...I'm so sorry about what happened." he shakes his head. "But we'll get it all sorted out, I promise." he says with a chuckle. "Nothing the great Mr. Fantastic can't figure out." The Torch leans down to kiss her briefly on the cheek, then turns to leave. "Well it's been an interesting day, better go get some rest." A nod is given in Bobby and Sue's direction, and he fixes the both of them with a more serious look. "Listen, if I act up again...I can rely on you two to put me down if necessary, right?"
As he's saying this to them though, Onora will catch a faint voice. A weak, yet familiar one attempting to reach out to her mind. 'Onora...please....you need to get away from here. From me. He'll get you. He could get -anyone-...tell them to lock me up...'
Sue Storm nods to Bobby. "Sure. Just down the hall on the right." And before she can turn back to look at Johnny and Onora again she hears the woman's telepathic message. Hoping Bobby got it too, she turns back seemingly relaxed, and in the span of an eyeblink, there's a force field around Johnny's head. And no more oxygen reaching him. "Yes, Johnny, you can rely on that." A second force field traps him completely, to prevent her sibling from starting any fires in this room, or on the way to Reed's lab. Because that's where she's taking him. Reed has containment systems for every eventuality. He'll have one to keep Johnny safe until they figure out how to get that Jericho person out of his head.
"Thanks. It alright if I ask one of those bots for a pair of pants to borrow too?" Bobby asks. Then he gets the message and the room gets chillier. He stretches a bit, gathering the moisture in the room to counter any fires. He nods when Sue goes all Barrier Master but stays ready. He'll come along to the lab.
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