The rest of the school day dragged by in a haze. Johnny sat through math, half-burned pencil in hand, pretending to take notes while his mind wandered to more flammable thoughts. Every few minutes, he'd glance out the window, his eyes flickering with faint orange whenever sunlight hit just right. He felt the call of the sky — that open, endless freedom that made everything else feel small for him.
When the final bell rang, it might as well have been a starting gun.
"Later!" he said, as he tossed his backpack over his shoulder and practically sprinted down the hall.
Eve watched him go from across the lockers, an amused smile tugged at her lips. "In a hurry much?" she murmured. But then she noticed something odd — a faint shimmer of heat against the sunlight pouring through the doors he'd just burst through.
Moments later, as she stepped outside, she squinted at the horizon — and froze.
High above the campus, a streak of flame arced through the sky, weaving between clouds with dizzying grace. For a split second, the shape resolved into a human figure — arms outstretched, fire trailing like a comet's tail.
Eve's lips parted in awe. "No way…" she whispered, a soft laugh escaping her. "Of course it's him."
She watched as the fiery silhouette rolled midair, flipped backward, then shot upward again like a living rocket. "Show-off," she said under her breath, but the fondness in her voice was unmistakable.
Meanwhile, Johnny couldn't stop grinning. The wind whipped past his face, cool and sharp against the waves of heat coming off his body. He soared over rooftops, diving low between buildings just to hear the echoing whoosh bounce off the walls.
He looped upward, the city sprawling beneath him in a blur of lights and motion. Cars honked, people shouted, someone on a balcony screamed and dropped their phone. Johnny whooped with laughter, twisting into a backflip midair, leaving a fiery spiral behind him that shimmered like molten glass.
He spread his arms wide, letting the updraft carry him higher. "Man, this never gets old!" he yelled, his voice half-lost in the rush of the wind.
He tilted downward, picking up speed until the city became a glowing maze. Below, people stopped in the streets, pointing, phones raised — another "mystery flame man" sighting bound to flood social media within the hour.
Johnny didn't care. For once, he wasn't thinking about bullies, school, or what he was supposed to be. Up here, he wasn't late, or awkward, or hiding. Up here, he was free.
He rolled again, flames flaring brighter, painting the sky in orange and gold as the sun began to dip toward the horizon. The reflection off the glass towers made it look like the whole city was catching fire alongside him.
Hovering above the skyline, Johnny took a deep breath and looked down — tiny people, tiny problems, tiny everything. He smiled softly to himself as he saw this view.
"Guess I'm not doing so bad after all," he murmured. Then, he spotted the reflection of his own flaming outline in a nearby skyscraper, and grinned as he confirmed that Eve was right, he had lost weight. "Must be because my powers burn all the fat inside my body? Cool! Still gotta work on the whole clothes situation, though."
With a playful salute to his own reflection, he kicked off the air, leaving behind a streak of light that cut across the sky like a comet heading home.
Johnny cruised through the clouds, the wind roaring in his ears as the world blurred beneath him. The city lights were flicking on, one by one — constellations being born from concrete and glass. But as the rush of adrenaline began to fade, a thought crept in, quiet and persistent.
Doctor Connors.
He hadn't seen the guy since the field trip to Oscorp — back when everything was still… normal. Before he woke up on a hospital goon after saving the son of the doctor. Before he had to do some tests to know what happened to him.
Maybe Connors will know something by now. The guy was a biologist, sure, but he'd been talking about cross-species genetics and cellular mutation — things that sounded a lot like the weird science-y version of what Johnny had become.
"Yeah," Johnny muttered to himself, turning sharply and banking east. "Time to get some answers."
Flames roared to life around his body as he shot toward the Oscorp tower. The night sky streaked past him in a blur of color, and within minutes he was descending over the familiar silver-and-green building that loomed like a futuristic monolith over the city.
But something was off.
The front entrance was dark. There were no lights in the lobby, nor scientists hurrying home. And even the huge Oscorp logo wasn't glowing like usual.
Johnny frowned, landing lightly on the rooftop, his fire dimming to a soft ember-like glow. "That's… weird."
He hopped down onto a lower ledge, peeking through a wide lab window. Inside, everything was empty — equipment covered, monitors off, the sterile shine replaced by shadows. The same lab where he'd stood just a few days ago, joking with classmates while Connors explained his theories… now silent.
Johnny pressed a hand against the glass. "What the hell happened here?"
He glanced at a security door — locked, keycard only. He could probably melt it open, but he didn't want to risk setting off alarms.
"Figures," he sighed. "Finally try to be responsible for once, and the place is shut down."
He was about to take off again when a calm, slightly amused voice drifted from behind him.
"Funny thing about Oscorp — you'd think a multibillion-dollar company wouldn't close one of its research wings overnight."
Johnny spun around midair, flames flaring instinctively around his body. A tall man in a long black coat stood on the edge of the roof, unbothered by the sudden burst of heat. His hands were in his pockets and his expression was calm — almost too calm for Johnny.
"Whoa—hey, who are you?!" Johnny demanded, hovering a few feet above the concrete, ready to bolt if this guy tried anything.
The stranger smiled faintly. "Relax, kid. Name's Cecil. Let's just say I've been… keeping an eye on you."
Johnny narrowed his eyes. "Okay, creepy much? You stalking me or something?"
"Not exactly," Cecil said, stepping closer. "You're a hard guy to miss. A human torch flying through Chicago sky? Kind of stands out."
Johnny frowned, crossing his arms even as the flames around him flickered uncertainly. "Human torch, what are you-wait?! You saw that?"
"I see everything that matters," Cecil replied evenly. "And you matter, kid. What happened to you — the power, the fire — it's not random."
Johnny hesitated, scanning the man's face for any sign of deceit. "You know something about this? About me?"
"Let's just say I know enough to know you shouldn't be flying blind," Cecil said, tone calm but edged with purpose. "Doctor Connors won't be helping you anytime soon kid. Oscorp pulled his funding and shut down his division this morning. The good doctor's… gone underground."
Johnny's eyes widened. "Gone underground? What does that mean?"
"It means whatever changed you might've been part of something bigger than either of you realized," Cecil said, glancing briefly toward the skyline. "And if you're smart, you'll want to understand it before someone else decides to make you their project."
Johnny's flames flickered higher, reflecting the tension twisting in his gut. "Okay, look, you're throwing around a lot of mysterious nonsense right now. Start talking — who are you really? And how do you know all this?"
Cecil gave him a calm, knowing look. "Let's just say I work in information. People like me make sure the world doesn't burn down before breakfast." He smirked faintly. "You, on the other hand, might need some practice with that."
Johnny blinked, caught between irritation and confusion. "So what, you're like some government guy? A spy? You with the feds or something?"
Cecil's smile widened ever so slightly. "Close enough."
He turned to leave, his coat rippling in the wind. "Enjoy your flight home, Johnny. We'll talk soon."
"Wait—hey!" Johnny called, flying forward a few feet. But Cecil was gone — he had vanished like smoke, leaving nothing behind.
And so, the rooftop was quiet again, the only sound was the hum of the city below.
Johnny hovered there for a long moment, staring down at the darkened Oscorp lab and feeling a chill despite the flames dancing across his skin.
"…Great," he muttered. "First I turn into a walking bonfire, now I've got mysterious men in trench coats stalking me. Just perfect."
He looked out over the city, the lights stretching endlessly beneath him. For the first time since his transformation, he felt a twinge of something new — not fear exactly, but the uneasy sense that whatever was happening to him… wasn't just an accident maybe, at least not completely, the event was an accident but maybe the effects of it weren't.
With a frustrated sigh, he ignited brighter and shot off into the night, a comet streaking across the sky — unaware that far below, Cecil was still watching from a nearby rooftop, with a faint, almost calculating smile on his face.
Johnny flew through the darkening sky, cutting a trail of orange and gold across the edge of dusk. Chicago spread below him — lakeside lights shimmering like a constellation, wind whipping past his ears as skyscrapers turned into glowing towers.
But even with the cool air rushing over his face, his mind wasn't calm.
Gone underground? Pulled funding? What the hell does that even mean?
He replayed Cecil's words again and again. The man's tone wasn't just casual — it was confident, like someone who already knew everything and was just waiting for Johnny to catch up. That smile, the way he said "I've been keeping an eye on you"—it wasn't random.
"Yeah, well, that's not creepy at all," Johnny muttered to himself, zipping between two tall apartment buildings. "Who even is that guy?"
He tried to shake it off, but the image of the abandoned Oscorp lab kept haunting him. Just days ago it had been full of scientists, bright lights, and expensive tech. Now? Like it had never existed.
It wasn't just weird — it was wrong, at least it felt like it.
He slowed his speed, hovering over the dark waters of Lake Michigan. The reflection of his burning body rippled on the waves below, orange flickers dancing on the surface like fireflies on black glass.
"Guess I'm not gonna get any answers tonight," he sighed. "Maybe Connors just skipped town. Maybe this Cecil guy's just some nutjob who likes trench coats."
But he didn't believe that — not really.
With another burst of flame, he turned toward home.
Within minutes, he was descending over his neighborhood — rows of quiet buildings, and a few trees swaying in the breeze. The orange glow from his flames illuminated the rooftops as he dropped altitude, landing on the balcony of his apartment. He extinguished the fire before touching the ground, the heat around him vanishing instantly.
The chill hit him immediately. "Man, I gotta learn to keep a shirt intact," he muttered, brushing ash off his arms as faint wisps of smoke rose from his skin.
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