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"Tell Franklin his uncle Johnny loves him."
They're the last words Johnny will say to his family for a long, long time. It's all a blur, after that. No voices come through the comms, but that's fine, he knows they're in shock. His sister is down for the count, Galactus is still trying to crawl his way out of the portal, and there's nothing anyone can do.
Except him.
This asshole has threatened his family, his sister, his nephew. He hurt his brother in law, who, for all of Johnny's complaints, is still one of the coolest guys he's ever met. He nearly killed Ben by throwing him into space, he tried to kidnap the little nugget that's only just joined their little family, and above all else, he's irreparably hurt Sue.
Johnny isn't sure if she'll get up again. He can't let this bastard steal away her kid and make her sacrifice be in vain. He would gladly give his life if it meant that little Franklin could grow up on Earth in the arms of his mother, surrounded by a family that will love him no matter what.
It's no choice at all, really.
So he shoots forward, ablaze with a fire that burns from within even on his coolest days, and pushes Galactus the last few feet back into the portal.
He doesn't watch as it closes, doesn't look back for one last glimpse of his family. He doesn't know much at all, as the bridge rips through reality itself towards the very edges of the universe.
When it's over, when his mind stops trying to tear itself apart and his atoms stop trying to split down the middle, Johnny finds that he can't breathe. His flames are extinguished as he floats through the void of space, it's infinite cold seeping into his bones like a poison. He knows he doesn't have very long to live.
But hey, at least he's got one hell of a view.
Before him is Galactus, giant, earthy face twisted in rage, his eyes aglow with ethereal, eternal fury, and his hand is stretched out towards him.
Behind him is a supermassive black hole.
Reed's got fantastic aim, he'll give him that. The giant roars, soundless as the black hole's fiery fringes lick at his limbs and back. He splinters, pieces of him falling off and getting sucked into the ever-hungry consumer of space. It's ironic, really, that a being older than this universe, an eater of worlds, would fall prey to something so similar to himself.
But, hey, guess not even Galactus stands a chance against the innate forces of the cosmos.
What chance does Johnny have?
Galactus' hand tries to close around him, but it's too late. The giant disintegrates before his eyes, the lava in his veins spreading out as stone and ore and power escape him, into the maw of the hungry beast around them.
All of this happens in less than 15 seconds. Lucky timing and Reed Richards will be the only reasons he survives this.
Johnny has less than a millisecond to think, shit, before the lava is on him. His fire tries to spark instinctively, to absorb the heat, and it shouldn't work but somehow it does. It doesn't protect him as molten rock and ore coat his suit and skin, but it protects him from the burns, empowered not by oxygen but the wayward cosmic power of a god.
He scrambles away, flames bright, brighter than they should be, but he doesn't notice in his panic, and he flies blind through molten rock and brimstone. He's fighting through the remnants of a god getting pulled to it's final grave.
Somehow, he comes out the other side, out of the reach of the black hole and limbs stiff with cooling metals.
"Shit! Shit fuck, shit!" Johnny yells, and he tries to wipe the stuff from him, and succeeds only partially. He doesn't notice at first that he can hear his own voice, or the odd, quiet distortion that follows it.
Johnny huffs out a breath, and it's only then that he freezes. Or rather, doesn't. The flames still circle him, enshroud him and the solidifying metals with a brightness he's never achieved before, nearly white in their intensity. He's warm, in the coldness of space, able to breathe despite the lack of oxygen, and hear his voice where there should be no sound at all.
"What the fuck." He says, and only freaks out more at the weird distortion to the words. "What the actual fuck."
He looks frantically around, as if a planetoid with atmosphere will suddenly appear to explain what the hell was going on, but the only thing close is the black hole, consuming the last of what was once Galactus. He stares hard at the remnants, at the purple cosmic power that drifts from them, and then he stares at his hands, where wisps of purple drift through his flames.
Seriously, what the shit. Did he absorb some of Galactus' powers when he absorbed the lava's heat? What kind of fuckass unintended consequence is this? Jesus, Reed is going to lose his mind when Johnny gets back.
…When Johnny gets back. Holy shit, he's still alive! He can go home! He cheers, the sound reverberating through space like there's a medium for it to travel through. Reed's gonna want to science the shit of that too.
Johnny turns away from the black hole, nearly vibrating in excitement, when he runs into a problem. A really, really big problem. There's no bridge. Maybe that should have been obvious, given the nature of it's purpose to strand Galactus far, far away from Earth, but he hadn't realized. The only thing around him, aside from the black hole, is empty space.
How the fuck is he supposed to get home?