Johnny Storm Notices Something Off About His Sister

"Where's your breakfast?" Johnny asked.

It was breakfast. Sue was sipping her morning coffee, the kids were digging into a cereal that was approximately half fiber and half sugar (with marshmallows), Ben Grimm had decided to make the full English, which meant the kitchen smelled like burnt tomatoes and beans that had been left on the burner too long, Reed and Johnny had settled on steak and eggs, and even Alicia Masters, dressed demurely in one of Ben's bathrobes which was far too big for her, had a fruit cup and tea.

But Sue just held her coffee in slightly jittery hands, sipping quietly.

"Oh, I'm not hungry this morning," she said with a smile.

Johnny said nothing. Except it was the third time this week. He had seen his sister skip meals before, when she was on a diet, trying to maintain her fighting figure. As he cut into his steak, he noticed his sister's face seemed a little more drawn, the hands a little thinner than normal, the shirt a little loose.

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe.

Except the next morning, as he came into the exercise room early, he saw Sue rubbing a finger across her gums. She was already sweating, the exercise clothes drenched and sticking to her, as though she'd been power-lifting or had just run for miles. She flashed a toothy grin, and Johnny saw the wide black pupils, much more dilated than normal.

"Hey!" she said, as she ran a towel over the weight bench. "Just, ah, cleaning up. Lot of sweat today!"

Johnny nodded. After she left, he circled the machine—and that was when he found her panties, bunched blue fabric, where they had apparently fallen.

The Human Torch left them there. But his heart was troubled. And he didn't know who to approach about it. Reed and Ben? He had no evidence, not really. Only a suspicion. One too many after-school **** **** ads about warning signs. A concern for his sister's health.

But why would she be on ****? he wondered. Though of course he knew why. Plenty of professionals used pharmaceuticals to push themselves, plenty of housewives had chemical crutches to help them through the day. His sister was the busiest woman he knew; team mom, wife, superheroine...

The doubt gnawed at him, even as he began his workout.

What do I do? he wondered to himself. How can the Human Torch spy on the Invisible Woman?

Then he had an idea.

"H.E.R.B.I.E." he said aloud.

The small robot hovered into the room.

"My sister dropped those," he said, pointing to the panties. "I need you to take them into her room to return them. And...while you're there..."