All or Nothing

Chapter Three

"Can't do it. I cannot do it." Ben stated, looking through binoculars down at Johnny who was currently driving a motorcycle while making out with a woman who was driving a red Corvette.

Elena looked at Ben amused, a wry smile on her face as she said, "Told you so."

"External S.R.B.'s, orbital system engines," Reed looked over at his friend. "It's just like the shuttles you flew in-"

"No. I cannot take orders from the underwear model." Ben crossed his arms, having no thought of backing down. Not this time. "That wing nut washed out of NASA for sneaking two Victoria's Secret wannabes into a flight simulator," Ben said pointing out at motorcycle as it raced to the entrance of the compound.

Elena arched an eyebrow, remembering back when Ben had told her about it when it had first happened. Most of her reasons for disliking Johnny Storm came from the stories her older brother told her. In retrospect, she had a feeling he had purposely told her all of those things in order to make sure she didn't fall for the playboy.

Not that she would've anyway.

"Youthful high spirits." Reed tried but it was obvious even he didn't even fully believe that.

Elena gave Reed a dubious look as Ben stressed, "They crashed it into a wall. A flight simulator!"

Elena snickered, causing her brother to look at her. "I wouldn't be laughing if I was you, El. After all, who was it who nearly burnt an apartment down because she forgot to put water in the kettle before turning the burners on?"

"Hey!" The redhead blinked in surprise. "That happened one time!" At Ben's look, she crossed her arms. "Okay, maybe twice." Ben arched an eyebrow, causing Elena to throw her hands up in the air annoyed. "Okay! We've established the fact that I forget things easily so lets just get onto another subject already."

Reed shook his head in amusement at Elena before looking at Ben. "Come on, when have I ever asked you to do something you absolutely said you could not do?"

"Five times!" Ben said almost instantly, holding up his hand to show the number before walking past Reed annoyed.

"I had it at four!" Reed shouted back.

"Well, this makes five!" Ben yelled back, which caused a smile to appear on Reed's face.

Reed looked at Elena, the smile still on his face. "What about you?"

Elena arched an eyebrow. "What about me? I said I'd come so I'm coming. However," She crossed her arms at him and narrowed her light green eyes at him. "If I die because Johnny somehow manages to crash the space shuttle, be prepared to be tortured by me in the afterlife."

Reed chuckles. "Thanks Elena."

Elena shook her head. "No, don't thank me. You owe me, my friend. Don't forget that." With that said, Elena walked off into the direction her brother went. Reed rolled his eyes before following after.

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"Um, Sue?" The redhead questioned, not taking her eyes off of the thing that was on the bench in front of her.

"What?" Sue inquired, turning towards the teacher who was looking in horror at something.

"What is that?" Elena asked slowly, having a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer.

Sue chuckled quietly as she noticed what Elena was staring at. "Victor designed it."

"Always knew he was a pervert." Elena muttered, picking up the skin tight suit she was going to have to wear.

The blonde shook her head. "No, he isn't, El."

Elena turned and looked at her friend with her arms crossed. "Sue, the guy's creepy as hell."

"People could say the same about Reed." Sue pointed out.

"Nope." Elena shook her head. "Reed's creepy in the adorable, nerdy way whereas Victor is creepy in the…creepy way."

Now it was Sue's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Creepy in the creepy way? You do know that doesn't make any real sense whatsoever, right?"

"And you do know who your talking to, right?" Elena retorted, causing Sue to roll her eyes.

"Just put on the suit, El…and I'd hurry if I were you before my brother gets here."

Those were the magic words which sent Elena scurrying to hurry and get the skin tight suit on before Johnny could be, well, Johnny and decide to walk into the women's changing room.

"See?" Sue remarked as Elena glared in distaste at the mirror. "You look good."

"Yeah, but it's tight." The redhead stated, her obvious dislike clear in her tone. She tilted her head, biting her lip. "Though it is comfortable, I have to admit." A smirk suddenly crossed the woman's face. A smirk that Sue had seen countless times and had taught her to be wary of whatever Elena was planning.

"What are you up to?" Sue asked warily, an amused look on her face.

Elena looked at her friend slyly. "Oh nothing. I'm just trying to figure out how many guys Ben would kill if I went into a night club wearing this."

Sue laughed. "Enough to possibly consider him a serial killer."

Elena walked out of the room with Sue following after her a minute later.

"… I can handle the ship. I can even handle Mr. Blonde Ambition. But I don't know if I should be flying or doing Swan Lake in these suits. Who the hell came up with these?" Ben remarked, looking annoyed.

"My thoughts exactly." His sister stated as she walked in with Sue. She heard someone let out a low whistle and she turned light green eyes onto the blonde man who had done so. Elena arched an eyebrow. "Hi Johnny."

Johnny grinned. "Why hello Elena. Looking good." He remarked, looking her up and down as he said this causing her to roll her eyes.

"Thanks." The redhead replied dryly, looking almost amused.

Ben shook his head annoyed as he crossed his arms. He looked at Sue. "Who designed these anyway? And why the hell does it have to be so tight?" He questioned, glaring at Johnny as he said this last part considering the blonde was still eying Elena.

"Victor did." Sue answered. "The synthetics act as a second skin, adapting to your individual needs."

"See, now what that means is, it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff cool." Johnny explained.

"Gee, really? I'd never have guessed that." Elena remarked sarcastically, despite the fact she really hadn't known that. Chemistry was as far as her knowledge of science went, which was a good thing considering that was what she taught.

"Wow. Fantastic." Reed breathed, staring at Sue with wide eyes.

Elena raised an eyebrow. Is Reed actually checking her out? She wondered in amazement as Sue blushed. However, Reed's next words completely destroyed that hope.

"Material made from self-regulating unstable molecules. I've been working on a formula for this." Reed said in awe, still staring at the skintight outfit.

The redhead groaned. Reed was the dumbest smart person she knew.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Sue flashed Reed a fake smile. "Great minds think alike." She handed Ben the flight suit. "Here you go, Ben."

"Thanks Sweetie." Ben replied, nodding at her.

"Reed." Sue threw Reed's suit at him as she walked past.

"Idiot." Elena remarked, shaking her head at her friend who had a confused expression on his face.

"Was it something I said?" Reed asked the redhead.

"If you don't know what you did wrong, me telling you won't help any." was all that Elena said to him before looking at Ben. "So," She smirked. "Want to make a bet on how long it'll take before you kill Johnny?"

"Standing right here, just so you know." Johnny remarked with a grin on his face as he walked up to her. "How've you been El?"

"Fine. You?" Elena questioned, looking up into the handsome face of the blonde man.

Johnny smirked. "Amazing as always."

"Conceited much?" The redhead shook her head amused before walking off, not noticing Johnny's eyes looking her up and down as she walked away. Ben, however, did notice.

His eyebrow twitched. "A hour. Tops." He muttered in reply to Elena's bet. It would be a miracle if the blonde survived the whole trip.

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Elena walked into the Command Center with Sue. It was hard for her to believe that she was actually in space. Still…her excitement was only slightly diminished as the bad feeling she had mentioned to Jess returned.

Shaking her head, she smiled. She didn't have time to worry over something that obviously didn't mean anything.

"If you behave, maybe next time daddy'll let you drive." Johnny grinned mockingly at Ben.

Ben, who was struggling to keep his calm, said, "Keep talking, and there won't be a next time."

"Benny Boo, don't commit any murders when witnesses are around." The redhead remarked, patting her brother on the back.

Johnny's grin grew as he looked at her. "I knew you liked me."

"However, if you take him to the other side of the space station where no one else is, there won't be any witnesses to worry about." Elena smirked at Johnny.

Ben chuckled. "I think I just might do that, El."

Sue rolled her eyes at her brother's look before looking out the giant window alongside Reed. "Long way from the projection booth at the Hayden Planetarium, isn't it?"

Reed looked at Sue, a small smile appeared on his face as he looked at her. "Yes. Yes it is."

Elena shook her head. Why can't Brainiac just admit to himself that he's still in love with her? Glancing at Ben and Johnny, she noticed that they had seen the exchange as well.

Looking back at the others, Sue smiled. "We can monitor the cloud's approach and observe the tests from here."

Ben looked at Sue and asked bluntly, "Is it safe?"

Elena blinked, not having even thought of that. It better be. She thought annoyed, crossing her arms in an attempt to hide her sudden nervousness.

"The shields on the station should protect us." Reed said from beside him in an attempt to reassure him.

Ben stopped and looked at Reed. "Should?" He echoed, a frown on his face.

"You better mean will." Elena added with narrowed light green eyes.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you." Johnny winked at the redhead, which caused her to roll her eyes.

"On second thought, death would be much more preferable." Elena remarked with a completely serious face even though she didn't mean it at all.

"What's the matter, Ben? Getting paranoid in your old age?" Victor inquired as he approached them.

Ben took a threatening step forward, but Reed stopped him by saying, "Let's start loading those samples. Get your suit ready, Ben."

Ben nodded and moved to do just that, when Victor spoke again. "So I see you're still doing all the heavy lifting?"

Elena arched an eyebrow at Victor who had turned to Reed to say, "Maybe you should have stayed back in the lab. Field work never suited you."

"He does the talking. I do the walking. Got it?" Ben snapped at Victor, obviously having reached his limit.

"So take a walk, Ben." Victor remarked mockingly before straightening up. "Actually, if you'll all excuse me, I'd like to borrow Susan for a moment."

Sue, who had been looking at a monitor, looked up surprise. "Sure." The two left for another area of the space station and Reed went off to recheck his calculations.

Elena stood next to Ben as he got his helmet and boots on. She was in the middle of telling him something one of her students had done which she had found hilarious, when Johnny suddenly remarked, "Please tell me your guy's not trying to rekindle things with my sister again."

Elena arched an eyebrow at Johnny. "He isn't, but so what if he was? He's the better choice anyway." Johnny snorted in disbelief at that, clearly not agreeing with the redhead's opinion.

"'Course not. Strictly business." Ben stated.

Johnny raised an eyebrow. "Yes, well, his eyes say differently, now don't they?" He commented as he typed something into a pad on Ben's wrist.

"Hey," Ben remarked as he grabbed Johnny's wrist, "two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she's not over it either."

"My point exactly." Elena smirked, crossing her arms. "In my opinion, I think the only reason she even started dating that creep Victor was to make Reed jealous." Though she should've known Reed would be too dense to realize that's what she was trying to do, the woman thought with a sigh.

"Wow Doctor Phil that's deep." Johnny said mockingly. "Let's think about that. You've got Victor, more money than God and stud of the year," Elena's nose scrunched up in disgust. There was no way in hell Victor would ever be stud of the year, though that was just her opinion but still! "And you got Reed, the world's dumbest smart guy, worth less than a postage stamp. That's a real toss-up."

"I wouldn't expect your tiny little mind to understand." Elena stated as she rolled her eyes.

A few minutes later, they stood in front of the airlock, ready to go.

"Don't you wander off, boy." Johnny patted Ben on the shoulder, and stepped out of the air-lock.

Elena gave Ben a quick hug before the doors shut. Johnny gave a sarcastic salute to which Ben gave a thumbs up.

Elena rolled her eyes and smiled, excited for her brother. She waved at him as the metal airlock door opened and Ben went out. The bad feeling from before was back but she ignored it.

Johnny and the redhead both turned away from the door and went about watching the different monitors, particularly the ones that watched out for pulse acceleration as well as the amount of oxygen left in the suit Ben was wearing.

"So…how've you been?" Johnny questioned, looking over at the redhead who was in the middle of trying to figure out what the readings on one of the monitors meant. It felt as if she was reading ancient Greek considering she understood little of what the monitors said.

"Good." She responded after a moment as she wrote down what one of the monitors said before looking at him with an eyebrow raised. "What about you?"

Johnny nodded with a grin. "I've been pretty good. Sue told me you're a teacher now?"

Elena looked at him curiously, wondering where this conversation was going. "Yeah, for almost a year now. Eleventh grade Chemistry." She responded, her amusement showing on her face. "Why?"

Johnny sent her a wicked grin. "Chemistry teacher huh? That's hot."

Elena blinked and, before she could help it, she snickered at that. "Why would I even expect you to have a nice, normal conversation?" Johnny actually managed to look offended at that.

"Hey, I can have nice conver-" Johnny was cut off as Reed came running into the room.

Instantly alert, Elena quickly walked over to her friend while wondering what had caused the anxious look that was on his face. "What's up?"

She didn't get an answer. Instead Reed yelled at Ben over the radio, "Ben, you need to get inside NOW!"

"Reed, what the hell is wrong?" Elena demanded, worry filling her face as her green eyes peered at him intently.

"I ain't done arranging your flowers yet, Egghead." Ben's voice replied over the radio.

Elena's eyes followed Reed's horrified gaze. Her mouth fell open and she gaped at the sight of the cloud getting her closer. "I thought we had a few more hours before it would hit!"

"Ben, turn around!" Reed ordered.

After Ben looked behind him and saw the red cloud nearing, he began running for the station. "Guys, I'm not gonna make it!"

Elena felt panic begin to set in. She couldn't lose Ben. He was the only family she had left since their parents had both died when she had been younger. "Ben, you can do it! Get your ass in here!" She shouted, blinking back tears.

"Ben, you have to jump. It's the only way!" Johnny said, pounding on the glass with his fist.

Ben jumped slowly drifting towards the doors, but the storm was right behind him.

"You can do it! Come on Benny Boo!" Elena ordered, her eyes darting to the cloud that was rapidly gaining speed. It was mere inches away from her brother.

"Johnny, get ready to close the door." Reed told the blonde who nodded seriously.

Just as relief began to fill Elena as Ben entered the station, the cloud hit.

Elena didn't even have time to process what had happened before intense pain filled her. She felt as if her molecules were being pulled apart one by one. It was unbearable. She felt herself being thrown back against one of the walls, her head hitting it sharply.

Her vision became clouded by darkness…and the last thought that went through her head was that if she died, Jess was going to be pissed.