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Johnny's having a night out on the town, which could really leave him in almost any bar, but the more notorious the better, really. It makes him feel welcome and at home that way. He's dressed in a pair of jeans and a fitted t-shirt, neither of which do much in the way of being considered concealing of his physique. Over this is a leather jacket. At the moment, he's settled at the bar, nursing a glass of bourbon, watching the dancers with appreciation.
Going out is not something that Sue does often. It's not that she doesn't know how to have fun. Sue can have fun. It's just that she rarely has time for it. Responsibility is something she's gotten very familiar with in her lifetime. If it's not Reed, it's an experiment. If it's not an experiment, it's publicity for the team. If it's not publicity, well…It's checking in on her brother. Which may be the only thing that would normally bring her out to a place like this. She wears a royal blue dress with a full, mid-calf skirt and short sleeves, her hair swept up off her neck. It's an elegant look, but it's a little much for this place.
"Really, Johnny?" she says as she reaches the bar next to her brother, looking over with a wry smile as she tries to tug on one of the pockets of his jeans. "Just because unstable molecules can adapt to anything doesn't necessarily mean they should."
"What?" Johnny tries to look innocent; completely fails. He gestures to the bartender, and orders whatever it is that is Sue's favorite drink, "Look, if its good enough for Frank Sinatra, it's good enough for the brother Storm. I'll have you know I've been behaving almost respectable lately. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in like a month, haven't gotten into a fight with anything that wasn't trying to kill me forever, and even recruited someone to work with us." He turns, to lean against the bar on his side and grins after giving Sue a look over, "Pretty, but not right for this crowd, sister-mine."
"You're right, I'd have to make half the dress invisible to fit in here," Sue smirks, leaning an elbow against the bar and tipping her chin toward the bartender to agree with the order for a Tom Collins. "But I'm very proud of you on the speeding front." She almost sounds like she means it. She probably does. Mostly. "What are you doing here anyhow? Have you been missing the police attention with as well as you've been behaving?"
"I felt like reminescing on the Good ol' Days. You know when I used to go out practically every night and bring someone different home. I haven't done that in like a month. I was curious to see if, coming out here, I wanted to." Is Johnny growing up? Maybe a little bit. "But I can't say I haven't missed that seriously awkward expression on the cops face when they try to handcuff the Human Torch for not pulling over to accept his ticket. It's like, hmm, is he going to flame out? Which of course I'm not going to but there's such assumptions. How's your project going?"
"It's not like they don't know where to send the ticket if you do," Sue chuckles, folding her hands on the edge of the bar and looking around as she considers the question. "Slowly, as usual. I'm understanding more about what we can do all the time, but how it happened to us and how to reverse it…Well, that's a bit more complicated. I made a presentation at the fair the other day. Met a man with a very interesting prosthetic."
Johnny stares at Sue for a long moment, "Reverse it? Why in the— oh, this is about Ben, isn't it." He shakes his head slowly, for he _loves_ his powers and wouldn't reverse them if he could. "There's a theory I heard recently, this alien who is going to do some business with us— he'll give us some tech, we patent and license it, pay him royalties, since he's stranded here. Anyways, he said someething about this ancient race modifying us, making the potential for abilities to be possible. That's what mutants are. And us? He didn't come out and say it but I extrapolated…" Johnny's smarter then he lets most people see, though not Reed or even Sue smart. "…that what happened to us might have triggered a similar change as the X-gene does, only without the gene itself."
"Well of course it's about Ben. Although being about Ben means it's also about Reed." Which is more than enough reason for Sue to do anything. "You know Reed won't ever move on until Ben is happy again. And Ben's not going to be happy until we can actually be…normal again. So. I know it's not so terrible for us, but it's still an issue." The casual talk of aliens and x genes gets an arch of her brow. "Is that your new friend, then? A stranded extraterrestrial?"
"Just so we're clear, any cure? Does not get applied to me. The rest of you can decide to do what you want, but I'm not interested. I *like* me, and though I was awesome before this happened, my awesome is now like tenfold." Johnny is firm on that one, giving a quick nod and knocking back the rest of his bourbon. He gestures tot he bartender for some more, "Yes, Mike's an alien refugee, but a different one." There are more then one,a nd Johnny is so totally over being finding it odd. "This other one's a Kree, apparently, but from another reality, whatever that means. Apparently, Kree don't all come in blue by the way." Who knew. "They're both stuck. Noh-Varr's ship is broken, and Mike, well, he has nowhere to go back to. His world died, last of his kind." He winces sympathetically at that one.
"I'd be more surprised that you're this comfortable with aliens after the way our last trip into space went, but you did just say that you're enjoying how that turned out for you," Sue laughs softly, amused. She takes her drink when the bartender drops it off, giving it a light stir before taking a sip. "Mike," she echoes. "I assume that's a name he's picked up while he's here? Noh-Varr sounds a little more appropriately alien."
"Well, they don't have tentacles. They just look like ridiculously good looking humans. Apparently they don't know how to be ugly in outerspace." Johnny snorts and gives a shake of his head, tilting his new bourbon back for a gulp. He is not a light drinker, but he doesn't get wasted or angry drunk or anything like that. "Oh, good catch. Mon'el is his real name, but he goes by Mike Matthews— you'll notice him on the payroll, though he still works. He's a bartender. He knows the importance of blending, while this Noh-Varr fellow walked right up to Baxter, declared to security he was Captain Noh-Varr of the 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt and wanted to talk to Reed." He rolls his eyes, "For _me_ to say that fellow has no sense of a low profile, well, you'll know how remarkable that is."
"That is remarkable," Sue agrees, smile creasing the corners of her eyes. "But I'd like to meet both of them, if they have a moment. If your theory is right, perhaps there might be something in their genetics that could help us unlock what the rays did to ours." She steps back as a dancer comes stalking along the bar, looking up with some amusement. "Honestly, you do find the strangest places, Johnny."
"Sue." Johnny's tone is vaguely pained, "This place is faous. _Frank_Sinatra_." He laughs softly at that point and shakes his head, lifting his drink up to offer a toast, "Well, they both have rooms in Baxter. I made arrangements with the Foundation middle-management. For Noh, rent'll be deducted from his royalties, but Mike is going to be working with the Four if needed. You should meet him. We've become good friends." There's a touch more fondness to Johnny's voice then there usually is about anyone who isn't in the Four. "As for Mike, he's strong, durable and fast. Apparently its something about our sun, because on his planet they didn't have powers. I'm not sure how you'd manage to take his blood to test, though. I don't think any needles we have will be strong enough. Can you get blood samples from Ben?"
"Not yet," Sue grimaces at the question, taking another sip of her drink. "I've learned to limit when and how I ask, honestly. I hate reminding him of it. But it's a valid point. Still, maybe we could get something from saliva." She trails off for a moment, sinking into her own reverie. Unlike other members of the team, though, she can recognize when she's doing it. And even stop! "Well, no sense in dwelling on it right now. And if Frank Sinatra were here right now instead of this show," she gestures to a dancer, "I'd be more impressed with the entertainment."
"Oh, I don't know that he played here, he liked the shows." Johnny flat out snickers at that, tilting his drink back for some more, "I actually did consider Ben's feelings, briefly, when Mike and I started doing some minor missions together. They have very similar roles in a team, only Mike has the handsome too. But, really, having two super-strong can't be hurt people? Keeps you and Reed alive." Johnny's own inexplicable super-durability is known but completely not understood, as it doesn't seem to fit the rest of his skillset.
"Johnny Storm, if you say it like that where Ben can hear you, I'll…show all your baby pictures to the next girl I see you with," Sue threatens, wagging a finger. "But I appreciate the sentiment about keeping us safe. Me safe, I suppose. I'm not even sure how much most things can hurt Reed at this point. He can always just bounce back, after all."
Johnny snorts, "And she will swoon and want in my pants even more, because I was a fucking adorable kid." The Torch grins challenging, but then shakes his head and winces, "But seriously, no. As if I would let it be known to Ben that I gave any consideration to his feelings. It would be awkward and weird and require us to punch eachother a lot." He purses his lips a moment, "Reed's hard to hurt through sheer force, sure, he just bounces and bends. But fire, lasers, I don't know, blasters. Noh-Varr has a blaster. I don't know for a fact that couldn't hurt Reed."
"And I'll thank you not to bring it up with Reed, either," Sue rolls her eyes. "He'll want to run an experiment." Of course, there's still that inescapable fondness in her voice whenever she talks about Reed. It's been there for so long it's hard to remember a time before she knew him. "I ran into Tony Stark at the park a few days ago, you know. He seemed…remarkably balanced for Tony Stark. How is the Avenging going?"
"Stark has a protege, I think its having a good effect on him." Johnny notes idly, giving a little shrug, "And he's feeling like an adult, which I can't so much relate to." Except he's almost described his own impending adulthood. "And I agree with Reed, by the way. Knowing what can hurt us is as important as knowing what we can do— more important, maybe." He shrugs then, noting the fondness but not commenting on that. "But I won't make the suggestion if you'd rather I don't, sister-mine. As for Avenging in general, its fine. Its not a fulltime gig. I explained to Steve and Tony that the Four come first, but we come together, then do our own things, so there's free time."
Sue's lips twitch, humor at some thought glimmering in her eyes. "Well, I'd have thought Tony Stark would have run into the inescapable reality of paternal feelings a long time ago, but better late than never," she grins, lifting her glass once more. "From what I can tell, you three ended up with the durability. I'm just as fragile as I've ever been. Just better able to hit back."
"Ah, but what can get through your shields, big sis? I think we're all survivable in different ways. Ben's a fucking rock, you go guys, kick the rock if you want, break your foot." Johnny laughs at the image and shrugs, "Reed's got no internal rigidity, he might go flying and bounce, but what will you do? Me… Okay mine is a little odder as I *do* have internal rigidity but still just sorta bounce, just, you know, with less bouncing. More slamming into a wall, grunting, and getting up. But you? Yours has to be activated and held, but I think you might be more durable then all of us if you're aware of an attack." He's thought of this. "Its someone catching you unaware that worries me, Sue."
"I've been working on the size of my constructs," Sue nods, still looking around the bar as they talk. There are a lot of unusual things to see here, after all. "I think I'm going to need to visit a more remote place if I want to stretch my limits. Density and longevity have improved, but size is getting tricky to test without interfering with other things." She reaches a hand for his shoulder, a fond touch. "I have all of you to watch my back for me. "
"Mike and I have been planning to take the Fantasticar to the dessert in the west, big wide open sand place where I can show the Nova and try again to measure it." The Four's efforts at measuring Maximum Johnny Destruction has been… limited. Johnny adds, "Mon'el's curious about the whole sea of glass that ges left after. You could come, since it'd be couple days excursion— lots of big open space then. Its not a long term practice solution, but still. Plus you could get to know Mon'el." But he nods quickly, "You're making progress, which is good." He reaches up to give Sue's hand a squeeze, "Always, sister-mine."
Sue tilts her head, giving him a closer look. "You seem…close with this Mon'el," she says with a small smile. "I think I'd like to meet him. And I promise, not just to try to figure him out," she teases. "It sounds like a good trip. Let me know when you're planning on going and I'll clear my calendar for it."
Johnny considers. He's a total horndog, that his tastes wander almost anywhere imaginable that's human shaped isn't really surprising. Sure, mostly ladies. But there's been guys shuffling out of his apartment at two AM too. "Oh, please. Try to figure him out, go ahead. I don't mind and while he knows the value of not strutting around as an alien he doesn't hid eanything. He's the Daxamite me." He laughs softly, "On his planet, he was the crown prince, the center of attention, famous and notorious, his life a party, his people embracing what I would call as a well lived life." Ahem, that means 'decadence and debauchery'. More seriously, "Well, he's here now. There's no plan C for planets to live on, so is willing to risk life and limb to save this one, because really, who better?" He nods, "We'll set this up. There might be picnicing." Pauses, "Or nearby hotels."
"You can make sure I get a room way down the hall if there are hotels," Sue laughs, pushing up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. "Anyhow, I should get home. I just wanted to check in on you. I feel like I've spent so much time on work lately I hadn't had a chance to actually talk to you in ages."
"Come by for breakfast." suggests JOhnny. Johnny does not cook. Johnny does not do domestic. Except, Johnny actually does breakfasts, and we aren't talking burned bacon and overcooked eggs here, either. Its a bit of an oddity. "I'll make banana pecan waffles." Its a very odd oddity, but it is what it is. He lifts his bourbon to toast, "But my experiment tells me this place bores me. So there's that."
"I'll call first," Sue winks as she finishes her drink and sets the glass down on the bar. She knows her brother well enough to know what she could walk in on otherwise. "I'll see you in the morning, Johnny. Call the building if there's anything you need. Or if you're not going to make it back." She can't help herself when it comes to mothering, at least a little bit.
"Yes, Sue." Johnny says in the long-suffering I-am-no-longer-a-child-but-really-kinda-a-manchild tone he can master from time to time, "Good night, be safe."