A Favor For a Friend

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A Favor For a Friend
Date of Cutscene: 18 January 2022
Location: A Private Airstrip in Texas
Synopsis: Johnny Storm considers his life choices while he test drives the latest Venom prototype for his friend John Hennessey.
Cast of Characters: Johnny Storm

Hennessey leaned against the crisp lines of the yellow and black car sitting quietly on the tarmac. It was 73 degrees at the private Texas air strip with a light wind blowing in from East. Hennessey glanced toward the distant hangar where he'd left his lunch, lamenting the choice he'd made. The sky ripped open in front of him unzipped by a column flame that descended and detonated percussively into an inverted mushroom. By the time enough flame and smoke had cleared to permit normal vision, a casually dressed Johnny Storm was already striding toward him, slipping tight thin gloves onto his hands.


"Johnny." Hennessey gritted, offering a professional smile as hot wind washed over his face.


"This her?" Storm wondered, but in a way that implied a unexplained confusion that wasn't born of ignorance.


"Course she looks the same, Johnny." he exhaled and paused as the bitter truth built up in his mouth, "Engine Tech is dead, its all aerodynamics and material sciences now." Hennessey lamented.

"Nothing turns out the way we though it would." Storm said, conveying his empathy. The two men shared a moment as words hung in the air. "How fast?"


"On paper, with the aero sucked in, she'll do three forty seven. But at that speed the rubber will burn off the rims if you don't run out of fuel and battery first."


Storm raised one sculpted eyebrow to Hennessey. "Like I said Johnny, its all material sciences now." Hennessey qualified as if his hands where somehow tied, and raising them up slightly in defense.


"Whats the practical?" Storm asked after a beat.


"You tell me." challenged Hennessey, "I'll be on the console reading the real-time and authing you past any red bars." he cocked his head "Thats not a problem is it?"


"I don't mind if you watch." Storm replied, his meter just staccato enough to offer the galling but unspoken implication.


"Gross." Henessey affirmed as Storm snorted amusement. "This is the part where I toss you the keys and the music fueled montage starts."


At speed the car display lit up with a variety of important metrics, EGT's were low, tire pressure and temperature were low. 'Slow down Johnny, you're rushing me', the car's instruments seemed to opine as Storm roared down the tarmac toward the taxiway. She felt her tires heating up faster than she expected, she noted this in her log, but Hennessey was thus far more impressed by his sandwhich.


Storm double clutched into the turn, her computer controlled suspension didn't need to be conned into compliance but she recognized the input and dipped low. At the apex, Storm slammed the car back into gear and mashed the petal to the floor. In his mind's eye the car urged him on in a borrowed voice from the past. 'Yes. More, Johnny." she purred. The feeling sympatico was punctuated by a persisting loneliness which angered him, there was no time to explain it away as he bullied her out of the turn and into the next straight.


With her back tires hot and sticky, she didn't chirp through the gears, white hot speed poured out of her and sent the road running behind them. 'Let me take your pain away, Johnny.' whispered the voices as the EGT's got up to stoichmetric levels, everything burning just the way it should.


Storm reviewed his life of friction. Heat from bodies pushing and rubbing on each other in the dark, pistons gliding on columns of lubrication, conflict of egos in contest. All the energy flowing out of him, into the world, all the energy flowing out of her, into the street. Not giving anything to each other, just witnessing each other, made even his most intimate memories seem starkly empty.


'Redbar, redbar. Exhaust Gas Temperature is higher than expected.' Hennessey licked a finger clean and patted the spacebar to take the default 'Y' option, sending Storm through into the next threshold of performance.


'Redbar, redbar. Battery overheat detected.'


'Redbar, redbar. Engine coolant too high.'


'Johnny!' the wide eyed breathless expression in his mind's eye obfuscated the warnings. The car was at the end of its rope, the instrument panel was screaming. Hennessey gently patted the spacebar, with increasing rapidity, to clear the way for Storm.


With the car behind him, smoking and still, Storm walked down the centerline of the highway, removing his gloves. Sue in his mind now, talking to a much younger Johnny. "We make decisions, Johnny." she said, her voice rising and falling to affirm real truth, "We make decisions and we live with them." and then helplessly, "And then, we just are what we are."