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'Well, I'm stumped. The hot cheeto is a mystery to me.'

'It's not the first-time people are surprised that Johnny's made it this far...'

Tony sighed and put down the screen he pulled from JARVIS's display. Details of Johnny's vitals and cell activity were displayed in blue, showing how his body changed when he ignited his abilities. Tony stopped next to Sue, who looked over the railing down at the containment that held her brother. Pipes ran from the rectangular machine and connected to power points in the corners of the lab.

Johnny, clad in his blue suit with the napla-shape on the breast, worked on centralising his fire to parts of his body. The chamber monitored his progress and allowed JARVIS to run tests. If needed, extinguishing fluid would be released to ensure the fire department wouldn't need to be called to the Stark tower.

Sue watched as the chamber's crevices were overcome with flames from the inside. Her natural blonde had grown to leave only a few inches of brunette at the bottom. Tony said he liked the blonde and Sue was contemplating cutting the last of the brown off. Johnny's brown hair had fully grown out and he looked like his old self prior to the Marvel-1 mission.

'This guy's getting too much,' Tony mumbled as he looked at the read-out JARVIS showed on the screen. It climbed from two-thousand to four-thousand degrees kelvin, exceeding by the minute.

'Alright, Johnny, back it down!' Tony called out.

'I can go hotter!' his voice was heard from outside the chamber.

'Johnny! You'll set the whole place on fire!' Sue tried.

Johnny's temperature accelerated and the two outside the chamber covered their eyes at the blinding light. His flares went white, and the lab was filled with flashes bright enough to blind the eye. They yelled for Johnny to stop, only for Tony to slam his hand down on the extinguisher button. Foam sprayed inside the containment and Johnny is extinguished, head to toe in white clouds that smelt like nail polish.

'You really cramped my style, there,' Johnny called out from the large hole he created in the chamber. The edges were singed to a black, and the containment was ruined, but at least Johnny's ego was unnecessarily boosted.

'You were at four-thousand kelvin!' Sue called down to her brother. 'Any hotter and you're approaching supernova-'

'Sweet!'

'No, tabasco, that's the temperature of the sun,' Tony retorted. 'Not only could you kill yourself, but you could set fire to the Earth's atmosphere and destroy all human life as we know it.'

'Alright, okay, supernova. Bad,' Johnny held two foam-covered thumbs up. He stepped out of the hole he created and started wiping off handfuls of white.

Sue looked down at the panels that controlled the chamber. Levels were at zero and warning signs covered eighty percent of the screens. The man had been so hot that he cooked the system that operated the cell monitoring and the vitals data. JARVIS wouldn't be able to view anything in the state it was in.

'It's alright,' Tony let her know and swiped at the screens to clear all the warnings. 'I'll fix it. No biggy.'

'So, Johnny's still a mystery. He just... powered through the cosmic storm?' Sue made sure and Tony lowered his head in a nod.

'One of space's many mysteries.'

Tony turned to look down at Sue. They spent the last two years settling into the Stark tower that had become their new home. After the Stark mansion was destroyed, Tony made the Stark tower his permanent residence. Since it was across the country from Malibu, he asked Sue to move in with him. There wasn't much to consider as they were partners in combat and maybe even for life. Their relationship had grown from the unaffectionate one they had when Tony was dealing with post-trauma from the Chitauri invasion. Unfortunately for Tony, with Sue moving in with him, that meant Johnny followed her like a flaming shadow.

'Please don't destroy my house,' Tony had said, and Johnny waved him off with his lop-sided smile.

Sue looked at the place where Tony's arc reactor once sat. He had decided to have it removed once and for all when he exterminated the Extremis virus from within Pepper. It was a sign of a fresh start and in Sue's eyes, brought him back to reality and the world outside of the Stark mansion's workshop. Tony was working on being a better boyfriend and man to Sue. That meant spending more time with her and working less on his Iron Legion; the army of suits he had created for his Hall of Armour.

'Pepper's flying out tonight,' Sue said as she put her hands on Tony's chest. 'Johnny's seeing her off, so we'll have the night to ourselves.'

'Now, that hasn't happened in a long time,' Tony encircled his arms around her waist and grinned down at her.

'Sir, you've got an incoming call from a landline in Washington,' JARVIS spoke up and the two turned to the screen to see the ringing phone.

'Washington's never a good sign,' Sue mumbled as Tony pressed to answer it, one arm still around Sue.

'Mr. President, I had nothing to do with SHIELD. I was roped into it and-'

'Stark, it's me.'

Sue and Tony straightened up at the sound of Steve Rogers' voice. SHIELD had been dismantled by the U.S government, labelling them as a terrorist organisation. Any associates were hunted down and the two of them had tried hard to keep themselves under the radar, especially with Johnny in their presence. He was technically under SHIELD's allegiance since the Marvel-1 mission and his files had been one that was leaked on to the internet. Luckily, Johnny had ignored most of SHIELD's status report requests ever since living with Sue. He always said he never liked rules, and having SHIELD loom over him like a parent was quote, 'cramping his style'. Hence why the government didn't focus on the Storm, as it appeared that he had no current contact with SHIELD. However, the government weren't too fond on the idea of The Human Torch soaring around with Iron Man and The Invisible Woman in the first place.

'Cap, it's been a while,' Tony said.

'I'm going to need your help on this one. Sue and Johnny's, as well.'

'Anything for the capsicle,' Sue piped up and Tony gave her a small smile.

'Suit up. We're heading to Sokovia.'

---

Sue, clad in her red suit that was identical to Johnny's, ran through the snow-covered forest. Natasha and Clint were on either side of her and Thor, Steve and Bruce were not far off. Bruce was in his green phase and let out his mighty roar, grabbing heads of HYDRA soldiers and throwing them as far as he could. Thor called upon his thunder and electrified anyone who ran at him, leaving black marks in the snow. Steve threw his shield like a discus and cut through trees and soldiers alike. Clint fired arrow after arrow, activating their bombs as they implanted in crowds of soldiers. Natasha, equipped with electric batons, zapped through their black armour and kept an eye on Bruce, who she had formed a bond with over the last few years. Sue kept her hands engulfed with spheres of clear blue, throwing them one after another and ensuring her teammates were protected with barriers when needed.

The HYDRA base was a large castle-esque structure that sat in the middle of a forest in Sokovia. Through Steve's information, the Avengers were told that they had gained control of Loki's scepter. Without SHIELD, the group would have to infiltrate the lab, run by a scientist named Strucker, alone.

'Shit!' Tony cried through everyone's earpiece. He collided with a forcefield that surrounded HYDRA's base, his suit protecting him from any harm.

'Language!' Steve was heard. 'JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?'

'The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield,' JARVIS informed through the earpieces. 'Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken.'

'Isn't this your area of expertise, Susie?' Johnny asked as him and Tony circled the base to find a weak spot.

'I can only make forcefields, not reverse them,' Sue retorted, her form materialising behind HYDRA soldiers and sticking blue spikes through their eyes.

'Loki's scepter must be here,' Thor said after knocking a soldier to the ground with his hammer. 'Strucker couldn't mount this defence without it. At long last.'

Clint fired an arrow past Sue's face, the point skimming past her blonde hair and slicing through a soldier's heart. Sue threw up a hand and blocked a round of bullets that were fired in his direction, the shells bouncing off the dome-shape and falling into the snow. Steve took out the soldiers around the two and waited for them to run ahead, sticking behind them with Natasha nearby.

'Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said "language?"' Tony questioned and Sue looked to Steve, whose gaze was down in the snow in embarrassment.

'I know... it just slipped out.'

Johnny left flames in his wake as he dodged the gunfire that came from the base. He flew low and ignited the HYDRA bunkers. Snow turned to streams of water when he descended close enough, and trees turned to tall sticks as their leaves disintegrating from his heat. Johnny hadn't been able to see Pepper off for flight because of this sudden mission, so he wasn't holding back with frying anyone who was with HYDRA.

'Drawbridge is down, people,' Tony was heard through his earpiece and Johnny headed around to find him. The forcefield was down and they would be able to head inside to infiltrate Strucker's lab.

In the forest, the team was in a quiet patch. Soldiers littered the snow and Sue was teamed with Steve. Sue's leather boots crunched against the ice, and she looked to her teammate who kept his shield in front for any incoming bullets. 

When she and Tony arrived, Steve looked troubled by the mission. He was with SHIELD when the government shut them down and HYDRA had been a big problem for him since the war. Sue knew that this mission was personal for him and hoped that his emotions wouldn't get the better of him. But she was confident he was aware of that possibility.

Suddenly, a flash of silver sped past Steve and sent him off his feet and into the snow. Sue froze as he groaned and looked around in quick whips. The forest was silent, and Steve got to his feet.

'What the hell was that?' Sue questioned, looking around in bewilderment.

The silver skimmed past Sue's line of sight and took out her legs. She flipped in the air and landed on her side, a yelp leaving her as the cold numbed her cheek. Her suit was insulated, but her face was blasted by the icy snow covering the forest floor.

'We have an enhanced in the field,' Steve said into his earpiece, running over to Sue to help her up. She thanked him with a groan and resisted the urge to coo at how much of a gentleman he still was.