Someone Is Dosing Johnny With Hormones

"Your symptoms are consistent with daily doses of a novel sex hormone analogs to estrogen and progesterone, along with an anomalous but particularly potent antiandrogen," Reed Richards said. "Frankly, these substances don't occur naturally in our evolutionary biology. Which is why I have to ask, Johnny, what have you been up to?"

Johnny Storm blinked. For the first time, Sue Storm noticed that her brother's eyelashes appeared longer than normal.

"Me?" he asked, voice a touch higher-pitched than Sue remembered.

"Johnny...either you have been taking these substances every day, or someone has been dosing you with those substances on a daily basis. There's nothing else that makes sense," Reed said. "Genetically, you're still male, but your body is being fooled into thinking it should be female."

"I haven't...I wouldn't..." Johnny's face flushed, eyes shocked, suddenly watery. Like he was about to cry.

Reed frowned. "You're probably feeling emotional. I believe you, Johnny. If you say that you're not doing this willingly, then you aren't. But that means someone else is doing this to you. Can you think of anyone that has given you anything to eat or drink—or given you any injections?"

The Human Torch blubbered. What came from his mouth was a babble of casual sexual encounters, accepting the occasional strange pill, free drinks. Nothing Sue hadn't expected, but good cover for her own careful efforts to slip Porkum's milk into Johnny's food and drink.

Mister Fantastic nodded.

"We're going to have to quarantine you for a few days. Go through your room, test everything you have—any pills, bottles of ****, even your toothpaste. Are you okay with that?"

Numbly, Johnny nodded. He was in shock. Then he found the courage to ask Reed the question that burned in his mind.

"Can you...fix me? Make me go back the way I was?" The Human Torch asked. He looked slightly pathetic as he sat there, his nipples puffy, the beginning of what might become a nice pair of tits. His cock was already noticeably smaller.

Reed looked Johnny in the eye.

"Johnny...what you've gone through has taken time. Hormones are nothing to play with. They can fundamentally change the way your body works. Once we've cleared your system on the anomalous materials, your body's natural system should reassert itself—and if necessary, we can try hormone therapy of our own. Surgery to remove excess tissue. In extremis, we might consider more invasive surgical options with cloned genitals. But that's a very dangerous, difficult surgery. A final option if nothing else works. But I can't just run a dermal regenerator over you. It's your own body making these changes, and your own body that will ultimately have to change them back. Okay?"

"Right. You're right," Johnny bit his lip. "But what are we going to tell Sue?"

"The truth," Reed said. "Though not necessarily all of it. You've been dosed with something, it's affecting your body. Not life-threatening. We don't need to go into detail."

The Invisible Woman stayed silent, though her nose twitched. Typical of Reed to respect Johnny's privacy over keeping his own wife in the loop.

As Johnny re-dressed, Sue carefully kept out of the men's way, and slipped out when they left. She followed quietly as Reed led Johnny to one of their quarantine rooms.

"Three days should be enough to monitor a decrease in the anomalous compounds in your system, and give your body a chance to recover. We'll monitor you and develop a treatment plan from there," Reed said.

Johnny nodded. The quarantine room was about as luxurious as a hotel room—but the door was locked, the air recycled and filtered, and one wall was transparent. Johnny, still dressed in a robe, threw himself onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Then he turned on the television.

She left him there. Reed would be looking for her, after he tossed Johnny's room—and she needed to contact Porkum and see how this development affected her mutant lover's plan.