Johnny Storm's Body Gets More Feminine

A part of Sue Storm buzzed all day, waiting for something to happen. Yet nothing did. Nothing she could see. Not when she brought him a warm glass of milk that night and watched him drink it. Not when she poured it on his cereal the next morning. Day after day went by, and Sue Storm's little subterfuge became part of her routine. She even had lies set aside if any of the children asked her about "Uncle Johnny's special milk"—yet none of them did. She could pour it invisibly, after all.

The first thing Sue noticed was a subtle absence. No more condoms in Johnny's wastebasket when she went to clean his room. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time Johnny had a date over. That wasn't like him, so she actually checked the regs. She had been feeding him Porkum's milk regularly for three weeks, and there hadn't been any "guests" staying over for a week.

Sue brought it up during her next visit to Porkum. She hadn't quite understood what he meant when he said that Jimmy's chemistry set wasn't quite right.

Except there were other changes, as the weeks rolled by. Johnny's hair grew a little longer, down to his collar. Sue saw him in the gym more often, but despite that there was a sensation of new weight on his trim body—at least, in some areas. His chest was still toned and muscled, but the tight costume left nothing to the imagination—there was a certain flabbiness around his nipples.

Something haunted her brother's blue eyes, a worry that lived behind them day after day. It was maybe two months after Sue had begun dosing Johnny that she was in his bathroom and noticed his razor by the sink had dust on it.

He hadn't shaved in two weeks. He hadn't had to.

Nearly three months of twice-a-day doses and something broke inside of Johnny Storm. Sue could see it in the set of his shoulders as he quietly left his room and went toward Reed's lab. Attention perked, kids busy with their schoolwork, Sue Storm faded from sight and silently followed him. She caught the tail end of the conversation.

"...wrong with me, Reed," Johnny said. "It's not just erectile dysfunction. My penis is actually smaller. And my chest is sore and puffy! I just feel...off."

Sue slipped into the room as Reed laid a reassuring hand on Johnny Storm's shoulder.

"Of course, Johnny. We'll find out what's the matter. It'll just be between us."

For the next three hours, Sue Storm was the invisible fly on the wall. Reed Richards brought all of his objective scientific observation to bear as her little brother bared all. The Invisible Woman's eyes went wide as she saw Johnny naked for the first time since they were children. His costume had always left little to the imagination, and he was still in impressive shape, but there was no denying that fat had begun to deposit on his chest, buttocks, hips, and thighs. His penis was below average, even limp, and even his scrotum looked smaller than normal.

Reed Richards poked, prodded, and measured. He turned strange instruments on Johnny, took blood samples, swabbed his urethra, and asked calm, collected questions about her brother's sexual history—which Johnny blushed as he answered. Sue Storm blushed too, as he spoke of a much wider range of sexual experiences than she thought Johnny capable of. Not just women, either.

"So you're bisexual?" Reed asked, as he stared at a slide containing some of Johnny's blood under a microscope.

"Bicurious, I guess?" Johnny seemed embarrassed. "When I was with Lyja—the Skrull—we played around, you know. Pegging. Things like that. I didn't think it was gay or anything. She still presented herself as a woman. But when that ended—well, I was at a bar, and I met this transwoman. That was a new experience. Then I met a transman, and I thought that was fine because, you know, he didn't have breasts or anything but he had a pussy, and..."

The Human Torch shrugged helplessly.

"It just felt good, you know?"

Reed nodded, utterly non-judgmental. Then he asked questions about Johnny's diet, **** use, his powers. Sue watched her brother flame on, toss a ball of fire back and forth. He could still emit a burst of heat and light as powerful as the surface of the sun—yet he hadn't managed to have an erection for six weeks.

At the end of the examination, Reed told Johnny to get dressed. Mister Fantastic's face was grim as he tapped the screens and read the outcome of the blood tests.

"Your body is completely normal," Reed said finally. "For someone who has been undergoing transfeminine hormone replacement therapy for approximately twelve weeks. Your bloodwork shows high levels of estrogen, progesterone, and antiandrogens, and very low levels of testosterone. Sperm production is essentially nil. You're also seeing the beginning of breast tissue growth."

Johnny's eyes went wide. His mouth dropped. There were too many questions for him to get one out. Yet he managed to **** out one.

"How?" the Human Torch gasped.

Sue Storm tensed invisibly behind her husband, and held her breath. This could be the ruin of Porkum's plans...