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An accident at college reminds Johnny how far he's drifted from his hero aspirations. When he feels like he's slipping backwards he calls the only person who could provide him stability.

Johnny sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes. He winced as the vivid images that awoke him began to fade. He racked his brain for a story or a plot, but every time he tried to find the thread, it jumped and disappeared deeper into his mind. He kept his eyes closed until the only thing that he remembered was the same emotion he had every morning: the unease that he should have done something. That things would have been difference somehow. If he knew more, if he was better. He stared out as the bright sun of California beat down, and made up his mind. He picked up and dialled a number, a number he probably should have tried to call more.

"Uh..Hello? Sue?"

"Johnny?" the blonde glanced down at her phone, "To what do I owe the pleasure of this call? In fact what're you even doing up at this hour? Is everything ok? Did something happen to grandma or grandpa?" It was unusual for Johnny to call her, especially this early in the morning. If she heard from him at all it wasn't until well past midday, for him to actually call her at the moment wasn't a great sign. As the saying goes, she had a bad feeling about this.

"Uhh," Johnny faltered. "What do you mean? Can't I call without a reason?" Johnny realised the hollowness of his own words as he stammered them out. He sighed and feeling unusually tongue-tied and decided to just lay the cards on the table. "So...We had an accident at the shop...the UCLA garage...it wasn't really an accident there...it was." He paused and continued. "We were testing our new designs...normally I'm the driver but I was injured from the game...and well. Something went wrong...we don't know if it's a calculation error or...Sue, it exploded. The driver's alive. Critical but alive. Sue, I could feel the flames. They were calling to me. They were begging me to control them, but I couldn't...I've been neglecting...training. It feels like I'm going backwards. I should have been the one. I should have been able to stop it..."

"Wait, what?" Sue sat forward, everything else forgotten for the moment, "How close to the explosion were you are you alright?" She couldn't help herself, she had to ask, you didn't switch off being an older sibling, ever. "Was anyone else hurt? Any of your friends?" she asked leaning back in her chair, "You know you couldn't have stopped it, not unless you were expecting an explosion. You're good, but no-one has reactions that fast," and it wouldn't be lying to say she was glad that he hadn't been driving that day. "Even if you'd been practising all day everyday it would still have taken you by surprise, it's not your fault." She was intimately aware of the irony of her saying that when she was still feeling guilty over Warren's leg. "I know how you feel, the guilt and everything, but you can't blame yourself Johhny, it was an accident."

"No, it was lucky...just the driver...I mean the program's shutdown for review..." Johnny could feel himself blabbering and stopped. "I know I couldn't have stopped it," he whispered, "but what's the point if I can't, you know? Why can we do what we do, if not to stop it? I used to dream of being a hero. Johnny Storm. The Fireman." He laughed. "Both kinds, I guess. What happened to those kids? I guess I got so wrapped up in being Johnny Storm that I forgot that we were supposed to be Johnny Storm and the Stormettes...or was it The Storm Siblings...nah..." He trailed off and was quiet for a minute. "I want to get better Sue. I mean, I want to be better, you know... I think I'd like some help."

"Since when have I been a sidekick?" the older sibling quipped leaning back in her chair in relief, he was ok, "I'm a co-star at the least, Sue and Johnny, the siblings supreme." Sue gave an audible sigh and span her chair to look out of the window. "If you really want help, well the people here are the experts, they've got everything you could think of, or have seen it before. I mean you should hear some of the stories they tell. Gods and Devils and everything in between, they've seen it all, it's everything that we ever talked about and more but..." the young woman's mind flashed back to the sight of Warren collapsing as blood sprayed from his leg..."it's not something you can walk into halfway. You know what dad says, a little knowledge is a terrible terrifying thing."

Johnny paused at the mention of his father, and how different his and Sue's feelings about him were. But he had to admit, the man was hardly ever wrong. "A little knowledge is a terrible, terrifying thing," he repeated. "Does that mean a lot of knowledge is a more terrible, horrific thing? Or a good thing?" He smiled, knowing the likely answer.

"Hmm," Sue took a second to ponder that question, "I think that anything less than complete knowledge about something is dangerous since you can still get something wrong, and it's always that one thing that makes it the worst possible outcome. But if you know enough, well then anything is possible...except trying to jump through a ring of fire smaller than you are. That only happens in the movies."

Johnny paused, as he wrapped his head around what Sue was saying. "Uh...ring of fires? What kinda movies are you watching? This isn't another weird Cirque de Soleil obsession is it?" He smiled and continued, "I'm sure knowledge can be whatever you make of it. It's just how you use it..." He laughed to himself, Sue did always cheer him up, even though he doubted that she knew that she was doing it."So...who should I call?"

"Dad," Sue replied instantly, "If you're coming back to the city you probably want to have a place to stay, and you know let your parent know that you're going to be back in town. Might be a bit of a rude shock for him otherwise. Let me know when you get back and I'll find someone for you to speak to around here." Someone who wasn't going to encourage her brother's antics preferably, he gave her a heart attack right now.

"Yeah, sure. I'll call him now," he said. He made his goodbyes to Sue and hung up. He stood staring at the phone hearing the seconds tick by. His finger shook hesitantly before dialling the number it had remembered by heart. The phone flashed Dad as it began to ring. He wondered briefly why he hadn't just used the contacts, rather than typing it by hand, before quickly hoping that the line would be engaged or his dad would be too busy to pick up. He counted the rings. One. Two. Three. Just as he convinced himself that it was a bad time and he should hang up he heard the line connect. "Hi Dad," he softly spoke into the phone.