[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/iHYRi3o.png[/img][/center]
[b][color=#ffffff]Seymour, Indiana[/color][/b]

[color=#ffffff]Rachna Koul mopped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand. The SHIELD scientist had spent all morning traipsing around Seymour in search of Horton’s Auto-Parts. In a town as small as Seymour, you would have thought it would be easy to find – instead Rachna had been forced to search for it the old-fashioned way after being stonewalled by the town’s citizens at every turn. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to offend them, but by the way they looked at her she’d clearly done something.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]It was late in the afternoon by the time she managed to track down the mechanics. It wasn’t so much a mechanics as a spacious, if untidy garage connected to one of the larger houses in Seymour. A long-since faded sign with “Horton & Sons” was propped up against one of the garage’s walls. A man who looked no younger than eighty was sat beside it.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Rachna smiled at the elderly man warmly as she made her way up the drive towards him. [/color][color=#ff5151]“Excuse me, sir, I’m looking for Jim Hammond.”[/color]

As soon as the name left her mouth, the old man’s leathery features hardened. Whatever warmth Rachna might have expected as a potential customer disappeared. Instead his beady eyes studied the scientist with a suspicious look that felt incisive enough to see through solid lead.

The elderly man's mouth opened to reveal a set of teeth that had been stained a deep brown by a lifetime of chewing tobacco. [color=#ffffff]“Jim [i]who[/i]?”[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“Jim Hammond,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Rachna responded with a cordial smile that the old man was completely undeserving of. [/color][color=#ff5151]“I was told that he worked here.”[/color]

This time the brown teeth stayed firmly behind his whisker-covered lips. The man’s hostility towards Koul revealed more than his cooperation ever would have done. Jim Hammond [i]was[/i] in Seymour, Indiana and better yet now she knew that people there – or at least the old man at Horton’s – knew that there was more to Hammond than met the eye. Now all Rachna had to do was find him. Something told her that the old man was going to be less than helpful in that regard.

“Well, whoever told you that must have been mistaken," he said with a shrug so half-hearted that his contempt for Koul was obvious. "There’s no-one by that name working around these parts and frankly I’d appreciate it if you l-”

[color=#ea9999]“It’s alright, Phineas, I’ve got this.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]From within the garage, a much younger man appeared. He was in his mid-to-late twenties, with eyes so piercingly blue that even though he’d traded in his perfectly sculpted blonde mane for a buzzcut, Johnny Storm was instantly recognisable. He was wearing a t-shirt that appeared to once have been white. Now it, as well as pretty much every part of Johnny’s exposed skin, was covered in oil marks.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Horton clutched at his walking stick as he shot Johnny a paternal look. “You sure, Jim?”[/color]

Johnny nodded. He helped Phineas to his feet and lead him to a lawn chair on the sidewalk by the side of the road. Though the doctors had made Horton promise to stop drinking, the old man took the opportunity to pluck a hip flask from his inside pocket and take a healthy mouthful. Johnny patted Horton on the back and returned to the garage where Koul was waiting.

[color=#ea9999]“So, what brings the biggest egghead on SHIELD's books all the way out to Seymour? I didn't realise they let you people out of the Triskelion.”[/color]

Rachna was shocked by Johnny's sudden directness. [color=ff5151]"What? I don’t know what you mea-"[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“Oh, come on, Rachna,"[/color] Storm groaned as he rolled his eyes hard at Koul's unconvincing acting. [color=#ea9999]"Are you really going to try to convince me that you came all this way just to get your oil changed? Why don’t you save us both some time and tell me what the hell it is you [i]really [/i]want?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Koul’s tanned cheeks reddened with embarrassment. She had many skills but clearly acting wasn’t one of them. Even Rachna would admit that she would make a lousy spy – and the speed with which Johnny had seen through her flimsy attempt at lying spoke to that. Yet she had read Storm's file more times than she could count. There was nothing in it to suggest that Johnny possessed an aptitude for spy-catching.[/color]

[color=#ea5151]"How did you know?"[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“Look, I might not be as smart as Reed but I’m not a [i]complete[/i] idiot. You know how many people live in this town? When I showed up here, they damn near threw me a parade. The second you showed up here and started throwing my name around, I knew about it. Heck, everyone and their mothers knew it. Honestly, I’m surprised it took you so long to come and talk to me.”[/color]

[color=#ea5151]"I wanted to get the lay of the land a little first,"[/color] Rachna shrugged. [color=#ea5151]"I figured there must have been a reason that you chose to settle here – some kind of connection to your past, maybe. Either that or Seymour is a front for some kind of terrorist cell? It wouldn’t be the first time."[/color]

The laugh that left Johnny’s lips was so dismissive it almost hurt Koul to hear it. Gone was the angry young man that Rachna had examined on his arrival in her world. This Johnny seemed more at ease and, perhaps even in a way, more relaxed. It was why his dismissive laughter stung Rachna a little more than they would have this time three months ago.

[color=#ea9999]“Maybe I just liked the town? Did that ever occur to you?”[/color]

Koul scanned the dusty garage for something that made her feel remotely positive and drew a blank. [color=#ea5151]“I mean, what exactly is there to like?”[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“You know, I used to think like you once. I grew up in a pretty little suburb in Long Island. All I ever wanted was to make it to the big city – and fast. Gave poor Sue more sleepless nights than [i]anyone [/i]deserves. And then, after our little accident, I got there and guess what? It was everything I wanted and more. The fame, the adulation, the attention from the opposite sex. I was living the dream.”[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“Well, what happened?”[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“The dream ended,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Johnny said with a sigh.[/color][color=#ea9999] “That’s what no-one tells you, Rachna. Eventually, if you live the high life for long enough, the bill comes due – and God knows mine did. After the craft was destroyed, I tried my best to keep up appearances, to keep going on, but I just couldn’t do it. Living a dead man’s life? Looking his friends, his loved ones, in the face and pretending that I was him? I couldn’t do it.”[/color]

There had been murmurs around the Triskelion about the Fantastic Four disbanding. Though Reed still occasionally visited Hill from time to time, no one had laid eyes on Ben, Johnny, or Sue in months. It had taken Koul every bit of resourcefulness she had to track Johnny down. Though from the look on his face, he didn’t seem grateful to her for interrupting the quiet that he had found in his new life.

[color=#ff5151]“And when it came time for SHIELD to resettle you, you chose Seymour? I’m sorry, “Jim”, but something about this doesn’t quite add up.”[/color]

Outside of Horton’s an elderly couple passed by and exchanged a few words with Phineas. They shouted a hello to Jim and Johnny waved one of his oil-covered hands at them with a relaxed smile. Rachna wasn’t sure how Storm had done it, but he seemed to have managed to make the small town his home within a matter of months.

[color=#ea9999]“No, I guess for someone like you that wouldn't make sense.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]With a wistful smile, Johnny turned his back on Rachna and approached a toolbox. After a few seconds of rooting around he unearthed a wrench, which he tossed between his dirty hands a few times as he approached the old Mercury Montego sitting in the garage. As if Koul wasn’t there, he popped the hood and started tinkering around with the engine. Rachna watched him work for a few seconds, confused, before approaching the car awkwardly.[/color]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/wwrvNYU.jpg?1[/img][/center]
[color=#ff5151]“You know, I was close with Franklin. I studied at the Baxter Building alongside Reed, Sue and I were even [i]almost [/i]friends at one point, and I saw enough of Johnny and Ben to know that they wouldn’t have begrudged the four of you taking their places. They would have understood.”[/color]

Johnny shrugged his shoulders without looking up from the engine. [color=#ea9999]“As touching as that is, Rachna, that wouldn't have made it any easier for me to look myself in the face every morning.”[/color]

[color=#ff5151]“So that’s it then?”[/color] Racha sighed. [color=#ff5151]“You’re going to spend the rest of your adult life as "Jim Hammond" hiding out in Nowheresville, Indiana?”[/color]

[color=#ea9999]“That’s the plan.”[/color]

The scientist wore her disappointment on her face. Not that Johnny seemed remotely concerned. He was still fiddling around beneath the bonnet without a care in the world. The cloying heat didn't seem to affect him, but it was starting to affect Koul. Her patience was wearing through with every turn of his wrench. Finally she wrestled it from his hands in an attempt to get him to pay attention to their conversation.

[color=#ff5151]“What if I told you that I knew something that would change your mind about staying in this place?”[/color] Rachna said. [color=#ff5151]“Would you want to hear it?”[/color]

Johnny sighed deeply and ran one of his dirty hands through his freshly-shaven hair. [color=#ea9999]“It sounds like you’re going to tell me no matter what I say to this question, so go ahead, Rachna, let’s see whether what you [i]think[/i] you know was worth driving all the way out here to get off your chest.”[/color]

The scientist tried to speak but suddenly found herself unable to. A knot had appeared in her throat. The secret suspicions she had harboured for so long had all but been confirmed to her over the past three months and now that it was time to give voice to them she was hesitating. Perhaps she knew it was because once she spoke the awful truth out loud there would be no going back – for either of them.

[color=#ea5151]“You asked me earlier why I hadn’t sought out Reed? Well, the truth is that I don’t know whether I can trust Reed anymore, Johnny. I don’t know if I can trust [i]anyone[/i] anymore. I have reason to believe that Franklin's death wasn't an accident. In fact, it was the complete opposite.”[/color]

Koul commanded Johnny's complete attention for the first time. [color=#ea5151]“I think SHIELD murdered Franklin Storm, and I need your help proving it.”[/color]

There was no shock on Johnny's face. He let the accusation linger in the air for a few moments without response. Rachna could see the gears grinding in his face as he tried to work out what that meant for himself and the people he loved. His weary blue eyes rested on Koul eventually and he nodded in acceptance. Without saying a word he shut the car bonnet, threw on a leather jacket, and made for the exit with Rachna.