Quoted By:
<span class="mu-r">“There’s one more thing I should mention. The girl that helped Arcade make those Pixel Punks—I’m pretty sure she’s getting chased by Doom right now.”</span>
The Thing raised a rocky eyebrow.
<span class="mu-r">“The what?”</span>
<span class="mu-r">“The Pixel Punks? Those gamer terrorist guys who’ve been terrorizing the city for months?”</span>
Johnny looked like he had some vague idea of what you were talking about.
<span class="mu-r">“Oh yeah. Those guys. Is that really why Doom came all the way over here?”</span>
<span class="mu-r">“I think he either wants to take Arcade home, or take him out so that no one gets their hands on his tech.”</span>
Johnny nodded, a self-satisfied smile on his face.
<span class="mu-r">“Yeah, that sounds like him.”</span>
His sister looked far more concerned than he did.
<span class="mu-s">“You want to save this girl?”</span>
You nodded.
<span class="mu-r">“If Doom’s figured out what she can do, I don’t think we can afford to leave her alone.”</span>
Gwen stepped forward to show her support.
<span class="mu-g">“He’s right. Even if she’s committed a crime, I think it would be a mistake to let Doom get his hands on her.”</span>
Reed made a thoughtful hum and stroked his slightly unkempt beard.
<span class="mu-b">“Then we’ll have you rescue her while Johnny distracts Doom.”</span>
Johnny shrugged, seemingly unperturbed by this change in plans.
<span class="mu-r">“I’m game. So long as Susie’s able to cover for me.”</span>
Sue shook her head at him.
<span class="mu-r">“I don’t see how that’s any different from usual, but fine.”</span>
Johnny gave her a shameless grin, and it took everyone a minute to realize that the wrong Sue had responded in her stead. Now it was N’Kalla who was wearing the shameless grin as Johnny glared at her.
—---------
Reflecting back on the thoughts of your past self from 15 minutes ago, you still felt that it was worth involving yourself in this mission, just to see the look on Johnny’s face when you showed him that you were more than capable of keeping pace with him. After the initial shock wore off, he suddenly became a lot more interested in you.
He even challenged you to a race, but Reed and Sue quickly intervened to get him back on track. Aside from that, you found Johnny Storm to be surprisingly good company. He had no problem carrying a conversation, and your combined radio chatter was enough to flood the private channel that the Four temporarily invited you to. Reed and Valeria very nearly created an entirely new channel for just the two of you.
It was almost enough to make you forget about the fact that you were using your body as bait for a major supervillain. Almost.
<span class="mu-r">“On your six!”</span>
Johnny shouted, but you were already turning to allow the volley of enemy fire to fly right past you. If not for your spider sense, this would’ve been 10 times harder. The fact that Johnny was managing without it was admirable in its own way.
(Cont.)
