| Fire and Ice | |||||
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| What: Johnny calls his buddy Bobby to hang out. | |||||
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So it would appear that Johnny has the Baxter Building apartment to himself tonight. Hmm...what should he do? He could go out to the bars, and have girls cling to him, and all that, or have the crowds come here, but he finds himself not in the mood for the public eye for some reason. Unusual for the typically spotlight-loving Torch, but hey, everyone has their moods! But then again at the same time he doesn't like the idea of spending the night alone, either...
So what does he do? He calls up his bud Iceman a.k.a Bobby Drake. Yeah, that's -exactly- what he's in the mood for! Some genuine super-powered shenanigans with one of his best friends. Maybe some pizza, video games, movies, arm wrestling, card games...and the like. So he picks up his cell phone and gives Bobby a call, hoping he'll answer. BRRRRRIIIING. BRRIIIING goes the phone from the other side.
The phone gets picked up after thrree rings and the sound of something falling over is heard before Bobby's voice.
"Damn...hey, you've reached Bobby Drake. What's up?" he answers the phone, having missed the called ID entirely.
Johnny's voice can be heard on the other end. "Heeeey Bobby!" he says, popping a potato chip in his mouth as he lounges on the couch. "...something the matter? You swore just now. Anyway, I kinda have the place to myself tonight (I think), so I thought you might wanna come over and hang?"
"Yeah, just knocked over something," Bobby quickly waves that off. His tone gets a little more cheerful as he recognizes it's Johnny and he can't help but grin at the offer. "Man, that sounds like a pretty awesome idea. I'll be over in a few minutes. I'll even bring some pizzas," he says.
"Sweet!" Johnny approves as Bobby mentions pizza. "Seeya in a few!" he says, then hangs up and waits for Iceman on the couch, still holding the bag of chips. He flips on the TV while he is waiting.
"See ya," Bobby offers before hanging up. It takes about twenty minutes but eventually Bobby shows up at the Baxtar Building door. A pair of pizza boxes in hand, the icy-armored mutant rings the bell and waits to be let in. He definitely needs this kind of break these days.
The door leads directly on to the upper balcony of the F4's living space. Johnny immediately gets up from the couch, dumping the bag of chips onto the living room floor, of course. The Torch hovers up there as he signals the doors to slide open and allow his friend inside. "Bobby!" the Torch greets. "What's up, man. Thanks for the pizza. Come on in!"
Once he's inside, Bobby lets the ice armor fall off his body. Shaking the rest off, he grins. "Johnny!" he greets. "Thanks for having me over, man. You've got no idea how much I needed something like this."
"Yeah?" Johnny asks, flaming off and escorting his friend down the stairs and into the living area where the TV is on and playing a Chevy commercial. "Something bothering you?" The Torch plops down onto the couch again and invites Bobby to join him. "I'm all ears." He hands Bobby the bag of chips, offering to share.
Bobby follows along, switching pizza-hands so he can de-ice that one. Sorry about the puddles, F4. He sets the pizzas down and snags some chips as he plops down next to Johnny. "Yeah," he sighs. "I left the X-men for awhile," he admits.
Johnny's eyes widen, then are filled with concern as he peers at Bobby. "Rough." he says, frowning. "What happened?" he questions. "I mean, I'm guessing it was more than just ONE thing."
He hands the chips off to Bobby, then flips one of the pizza boxes open and grabs a slice.
Bobby starts eating with a sigh. "Lots of things. Too many of the others were leaving or flat out disappearing, Cyclops turned into the world's biggest asshole, it felt like my job wasn't even mattering anymore, and on top of that...it stopped feeling like the X-Men were even being, y'know...heroes anymore," he's grumpy. "And that's the short version."
Johnny listens, then nods sympathetically and pats him on the back. "Sorry to hear that, man. But hey, we all have our ups and our down, you know? I'm sure things will get better. So--what have you been up to lately? Since you're not with the X-men at the moment."
"Yeah, it sucks," Bobby replies, leaning back. "Not a lot. Mostly doing the solo superhero thing," he replies. "Trying to do the whole 'promote mutant and human peace' thing on my own."
"Sounds legit." Johnny says, finishing off his slice of pizza and helping himself to another. "Well if you ever need someplace to crash, or someone to talk to, the F4's here for ya." He takes a bite out of his second slice. "Seems to me that what you really need right now though, is something to get your mind off of everything."
Setting the chips down, Bobby grabs a slice for himself. He's not going to let Johnny eat it all. "I can crash here?" he asks, perking up. "If ya don't mind, it'd be easier on my wallet than where I'm staying now," he says. "Right now? Some fun, man."
"Heh," Johnny chuckles. "Yeah, maybe I should just let you stay. You know, since Reed's been adding members to the group, forming his own companies and making me COO of them all without telling me and stuff." he says, grinning mischievously. Of course it's just ONE company, not multiple--he may be exaggerating a bit there.
He grabs another piece of pizza, but instead of eating it, he eyes it for a few seconds. "Hmm...yeah, some fun. Good idea." Now what could they do? They could be normal and play board games or video games--but that'd be boring. "Let's make up a game." he flops the slice of pizza onto the couch between them. "How about, you see if you can turn this piece of pizza into a block of ice before I can incinerate it?" he suggests, winking.
"Dude, I'd owe ya one if ya let me stay. I've been in a hotel since I left and finding a cheap apartment is not easy," Bobby says. "You got new teammates? Who hooked up with you guys?" he asks, curious. He grins at the suggestion to make up a game. He finishes off the slice he's got in hand before looking at the pizza on the couch. "A whole block or just freeze it solid?" he asks, rubbing his hands together.
"Yeah, Ben Reilly and Jennifer Walters." Johnny answers. "Not that I mind them, just thought it was weird they didn't tell me."
He looks thoughtful as he considers Bobby's question about the game. "Hmm...you know what, actually I have a better idea!" He snaps his fingers at one of the HERBIEs. "Hey D. HERBIE D. Get us a carton of eggs or two. As many as you can carry, actually." D obliges and takes off, returning with three cartons that it places on the coffee table in front of them. Yeah, they have a lot. I mean, hey, with someone like Ben around, it makes sense.
Johnny picks one of the eggs out of the carton and places it precariously on the table, then pushes the rest of the cartons off to the side. "Okay, here's how this'll work. On the count of three, I'm gonna start heating this egg up from the inside out, and -you're- gonna start freezing it from the outside in. Your goal is to freeze it solid -before- it blows up. Sound good?" he asks, grinning.
"Ben Reilly...I heard that name before but I can't remember where," Bobby remarks. "Wait, She-Hulk? Damn, lucky," Bobby whistles. He quirks a brow at Johnny declaring he's got an idea. The call for eggs gets confused look from the icy mutant. He's used to large amounts of food from his time at the school so the mass of eggs doesn't faze him. As Johnny lays down the challenge, Bobby laughs. "Oh, you are so on, Storm."
"Haha! I know, right? She's pretty hot." Johnny admits. Then he focuses on the egg. "Okay," he says, grinning. "You ready?"
"Three--two--one--!" And sure enough, the egg beings to heat up from the center of the yolk outwards as the Torch focuses his concentration on it.
"Real hot," Bobby replies. "And real cool," he adds. "Ready."
And then the game begins. Bobby focuses on the shell, concentrating on pushing the cold in and against that heat.
Given that the egg is quite small, it isn't hard for either Iceman or the Human Torch to overwhelm it with their willpower and thermokinetic abilities. Indeed, it freezes solid, turning into a hard, round, and icy geosphere for a few seconds. But eventually the cold outer shell gives way to the heat within, and it explodes suddenly, spewing partially frozen egg contents in every direction. Needless to say, they splatter all over the carpet and sofa.
Johnny bursts out laughing. "Hahahah! Gotcha!" he teases, pointing. Though one might argue that Bobby -did- freeze the thing solid before it exploded. It's just...well, it still exploded. "That was too damn easy, though. We should try something different. Something -bigger-."
"Johnny?" Sue's voice, and with a clear note of concern. "What was that noise?"
Bobby starts grinning as he freezes the egg. The explosion gets a quick reflexive ice-shield risen to defend against Egg-Shrapnel. "Got me? No way, man. I iced that thing over before you blew it up," he protests, giving Johnny a playful shrug. Then there's that voice and Bobby jumps. "Uh oh."
"Ffffff, yeah -right-!" Johnny laughs, giving Bobby a playful punch in the shoulder. The room definitely smells like burned eggs, now. But then he hears his sister's voice. "Oh, -crap-!" he whispers. "I had no idea she'd be home this early...I'll see if I can distract her."
He raises his voice to answer Sue. "It's nothing, just dropped some books, nothing's broken don't worry!" he calls back. "Oh--I think there was a message in our voicemail for you! It sounded kinda urgent, might want to get on it real quick."
Then he turns back to Bobby. "Okay, let's try it on this." he says, picking up a 1-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper HERBIE had brought over earlier to go with the pizza. "Three--two--one--!"
"Yeah, distract her!" Bobby whispers back. "Nice one, man," he adds after the distraction. There's a nod from the mutant at the challenge. "Dude, we should totally see if we can screw around with mentos and coke later. After I kick your butt at this," he adds. At the countdown, he starts bringing the cold again.
Sue doesn't reply again, so there's no telling if she fell for Johnny's excuses or not. But at least she didn't show up to ruin their 'fun'.
This time, the entire container freezes up, turning into a block of frozen soda. It hadn't been opened though, so it had been completely full, and the plastic cracks as the liquid within expands outward. Slushy soda leaks out onto the table and floor.
Johnny punches the air. "Aww, man! You win, this time." he chuckles as the heat within is extinguished. "Oh yeah, Coke and Mentos--you know I never did get around to giving that one a go." He glances around furtively, looking relieved that Sue hasn't yet come to investigate. Lowering his voice, he leans a bit closer, "But we should probably take this into my room...it won't be long before Sis comes in here. You can crash in there too, if you want. I think I have a sleeping bag and a few blankets you can borrow. C'mon!" he gestures for Bobby to follow him upstairs.
"Booya! One soda slushy for the win!" Bobby chuckles. He lets the cold fade and leaves the slush to melt into a mess. He leans in too, nodding to what Johnny says. "Sounds good, man. Let's go," he says, following after Johnny. Hanging out with his friend for the night is a lot better than another night in a hotel for sure.
Later, Sue walks through and stops to look at the mess in horror. "Johnny!"