-1

Author's note

I don't own Marvel or any of these characters yadda yadda yadda….

"RAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

An angry, guttural cry of primal rage and anguish tore through the night, the sound was animalistic, inhuman even. Nearly consumed by this unholy sound, came a second more submissive one. Barely audible, they had to almost strain their ears to hear it, but once they did it was unmistakable. Without words, it spoke to them of pain, regret, sadness, and finally death. And despite its reticence it echoed eerily through the night, until the darkness and the very nature of the forest absorbed its emotion, and rendered it mute. Everything was still…

"D-D-Did you hear that sir?"

"Yeah I did," responded the Captain, while noticing that the soldier was trembling. Normally he would have chided any of his men for showing fear, but in this situation he had to acknowledge the fact that he too was afraid.

"What was that?", sputtered the young soldier, "Was that our objective?"

Hesitating for a moment the Captain turned slightly and looked at each of his men. There were only six of them, and despite the fact that their faces were masked by camouflage paint, he could still see the fear in their eyes. He sighed, they were still just kids, he thought.

"Yeah, that's our boy." he finally said in a weary voice.

"Si-" one of the men began, but before the he could speak, the Captain raised his hand to cut him off.

"Look, I'm not gonna lie to any of you," said the captain taking time to look them each in the eyes, "Things up ahead can get real bad real fast." he paused for a second to let these words sink in before continuing, however before he could finish one of his men interrupted.

"We know Captain, and we're gonna stick with you no matter what." said the soldier while he cocked his weapon as a sign of readiness. Seeing this display of resolve the other soldiers too cocked their weapons, and faced the Captain.

Moved by his soldier's commitment, the Captain turned on his heel to the face the objective, and uttered only two words.

"Move, out!"

Bayville Mall, more specifically the food court. A place packed with burger joints, sub shops, and even a veggie store or two. But the one thing the mall had in particular abundance was teens.

Everywhere, shopping, talking, trying to look cool, you just couldn't escape the fact that for teens the mall was like an anthill, thought Bobby Drake. "But still I can't complain,"

Bobby thought, "If I hadn't come here to buy that stupid drill for my Dad, I never would have ran into Judy." Judy Harmon was pretty, popular, cheerleading captain, and a senior. The fact that she had asked the fourteen year old to come sit with her and her friends was nothing short of a miracle.

But Bobby had to hand it to himself. Even if he was just a freshman, he was a damn cool one he thought. No other freshman could've pulled this off, definitely not Jamie Madrox, that guy was a klutz, thought Bobby.

Smiling to himself he picked up a French fry tossed it in the air, and caught it between his teeth, and then swallowed it whole. The girls all laughed and applauded, and catching Judy's eye Bobby said,

"You think that's something, just wait 'till I really get started." and with the sexiest look he could muster Bobby grabbed two fries, closed his eyes and tossed them behind his back up into the air. Before they could descend into his waiting mouth, an all too familiar rough hand snatched them out of the air.

Sensing something was wrong, Bobby opened his eyes, and was greeted with the sneering face of the worst possible guy that could show up, Rocky Beasley.

"Hey shithead," said Rocky, "Havin fun?"

Now, Rocky was naturally a big guy, and years of football and steroid usage had increased his already mammoth physique. Great just great, Bobby thought how was he going to get out of this one. He knew he should be scared of Rocky, or rather what Rocky could do to him, but seeing the disgusted look on Judy's face, he decided to throw caution to the wind and open his mouth.

"Hey Rocky you know-"

2 minutes later

Why did he have to throw caution to the wind? He barely had time to think of this, because Rocky landed another hit into Bobby's already bruised ribs and ego.

"What the hell did you call me!?" said Rocky while hoisting Drake up by his shirt, readying another punch.

"Just leave him alone Rocky!" Judy shouted as a crowd of people steadily gathered round them.

"Shut up Judy!" Rocky answered savagely. "I'm gonna teach this little shit not to disrespect me!" Then with all the strength of that quarter back arm of his Rocky cocked back and landed a crushing punch straight into Bobby's face.

Bobby was dead. He was sure of it, it felt like his whole head had been split in two. People say when you get hit hard like Bobby did, you see stars, not Bobby, his vision was obscured by a blinding white light. For a moment he just laid on the linoleum, not aware of anything, but after a little while his senses returned to him. For the second time that day he was greeted with the sneering face of Rocky Beasley.

"Had enough yet?" panted Rocky, "Next time I see you with Judy you'll be usin' that smart mouth of yours to kiss my ass!" He wiped Bobby's blood off his hands and then strutted towards Judy.

Bobby wanted to just stay down, Bobby should have just stayed down, but something wouldn't let him. Maybe it was the concussion, or maybe it was a desire to prove that he wasn't just some weakling that could be kicked around, whatever the cause Bobby Drake stood up on shaky legs leaning on a chair for support.

"Hey Rocky," Bobby heaved tasting blood with every word. "You want me to kiss your ass, well kiss this first!" he shouted, and without waiting for Rocky's answer Bobby snatched up the chair that was steadying him and ran headlong at Rocky chair in hand.

"What the-" Rocky started to say, but before he could react Bobby had brought the chair violently down on his head. Bobby felt the chair connect with it's target, he didn't see it because he had his eyes closed the whole time. After a moment he opened them. And to his dismay for the third time this day he was staring back at the face of Rocky Beasley. Except this time he wasn't sneering, Rocky's face wore a pronounced scowl, and a small trickle of blood from the side of his head.

"You little shit…." whispered Rocky.

"Oh crap," said Bobby

Before he could think to swing the chair again Rocky's muscular hands were wrapped around Bobby's throat, and this time Bobby was sure he was going to die. Judy screamed again, something about the cops coming ,but Bobby was barely conscious and he heard none of this. He felt himself slipping and his vision began to blur. At the same time Rocky's face was contorted in rage, and concentration, but of all of a sudden that expression turned to confusion and then into terror.

"W-What the hell are you doin' Drake!?" shouted Rocky in fear. Bobby didn't know what he was doing. All he know was that instinctively in his last moment of consciousness he had desperately grabbed Rocky's wrist with his hand. He didn't know what he expected that to do, but it certainly wasn't this.

From his hand had come a cold chill, and that chill had turned into a bitingly glacial blast of cold. That cold quickly stretched up Rocky's arms and then his shoulders, spreading across his whole body, freezing him in place. Once it was finished Rocky resembled a life size ice sculpture.

Upon seeing this the crowd became instantly silent, and they all stared captivated and terrified at Bobby, who for the life of him couldn't figure out how he had frozen the biggest bully at Bayville High. Before he could further contemplate this the silence was broken by a scream.

"What are you?!?!?!" shrieked Judy completely losing her head.

"Judy I-" Bobby said lamely trying to free himself from the frozen grip of his former tormentor. Instead all he could was reach his hand out towards her. At this everyone in the crowd backed away including Judy who screamed "Keep away from me freak!!" and ran off with her girlfriends.

This left Bobby with a feeling of betrayal, and humiliation, especially considering his was still hanging several inches off the ground. While attempting vainly to free himself Bobby saw out of the corner of his eyes two police officers running toward him, not mall cops but real cops with real guns Bobby thought! They stopped just short of the scene and unholstered their weapons.

"H-Hey wait a sec!" stuttered Bobby in fear.

The police also afraid cocked their weapons and aimed at non-lethal areas.

Before they could shoot however the entire food court was bathed in several blinding flashes of light, almost like fireworks. While Bobby was pondering what caused this, two dainty hands had yanked him from Rocky's grip, accidentally breaking off one of the fingers.

"Oops," a female voice said guiltily, "But they can like reattach it it's still frozen."

"Come on we gotta go!"

Looking around bewildered Bobby said "Where are you I can't see a thing!?"

"Here grab my hand!" without waiting for Drake to acknowledge her the girl grabbed him by the hand and together they ran out of the food court. After a few moments the lights subsided and Bobby found himself running beside a petite Asian girl, about a head shorter than him with long black hair.

"Who are you?" was all that he could manage to say while running at top speed.

"My name's Jubilee," and with a backwards glance to Bobby who was slightly behind her she said "And I know this mall better than anyone you'll ever meet." with a mischievous smile she began to pick up the pace and was soon several lengths ahead of Bobby. This girl's fast he thought.

"Hey wait up!" Bobby shouted and tried to catch up.

Meanwhile a girl with vivid scarlet hair had just stepped out of the Gap on the second floor of the mall, and happened to look over the balcony. Below her was what appeared to be a young boy being throttled by an ice sculpture. Before she could assess the situation, a blinding flash had obscured her vision. When her sight returned the boy was gone. Dropping her bags she placed her hands at her temples, closed her pine colored eyes and thought.

"Professor, I think we have a problem at the mall."

A moment later a voice responded.

"I know Jean, I sensed it too, Ororo and I are on our way."

Opening her eyes for a second Jean saw three more police officers arrive. They then separated into two teams and hurried off.

"And professor, you need to make it fast!"

End chapter 1

Well everyone that was chapter 1, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Stay tuned for chapter 2 which should be up real soon.