That Particular Parade
by Aznavour
Summary: Bobby runs into an old friend, distracts an evil doctor's patrolmen, and ruins some perfectly good pickled tails.
Disclaimer: Not mine, unfortunately, so please don't sue me. All I have is peach jello and Dr. Pently - and he's evil, so he shouldn't really count.
A/N: I had a good time writing this, so I hope you enjoy reading it. Big thanks to Phedra, my fantastic beta!
Bobby faced the menacing men calmly. There were now two of them, reaching for their guns and crowbars and radios simultaneously while they tromped angrily towards him. The teenager carefully placed a steadying hand on the glaring white wall, gearing up to act at any moment; ready to send his frigid pulsations in the enemy's general direction. Any minute now...
The thud of three more pairs heavy boots hitting wooden floor sounded loudly behind the already existing two.
Bobby pelted down the narrow, gleaming hallway, searching for a quick exit. The way he'd come in was no longer an option - he doubted that ice would melt any time soon. Bloody reconnaissance mission, he thought darkly as he hunted for a place to hide, an escape, anything. He should have known when he and Kitty first got here that yes, this was Dr. Pently's new mutant testing lab, and no, it wasn't not worth it for Kitty to quickly scramble the computers while Bobby distracted whoever should happen to come their way.
Then suddenly, there it was - an open door! Bobby darted through, his pursuers hot on his heels. Said door slammed shut behind him and Bobby stopped short, nearly running into a shelf of...what was that? Pickled tails? Bobby feverently hoped not. Now all he had to do was scurry out the window, collect Kitty, and get back to the school in the cover of darkness. Flawless plan, if he did say so himself.
The distinct clicking of a lock made him freeze.
Literally. The tails were caught in the blast and reduced to naught but motionless chunks of ice, frozen solid, as Bobby spun around to face the door. Damn. He really had to work on that. An inky figure leaning against the door frowned at him when pounding began on the other side of it.
"Friends of yours?"
Bobby allowed himself to breathe again.
"What are you doing here, John?"
The other boy shrugged.
"Oh, you know..." John stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I had hoped to slip in and quietly steal Pently's list, but you've managed to effectively rain on that particular parade..."
The pounding continued and Bobby narrowed his eyes.
"You're a pyrokinetic," he hissed. "You don't do things quietly."
John looked hurt.
"I can be sneaky," he pouted, choosing to ignore the sudden stir of calculating whispers transpiring on the other side of the door. "You didn't notice when I borrowed your CDs all those times."
"That was...what? What list?"
"Uh...Pently's evil mutant list?"
"The list is evil, or the mutants are evil?"
John appeared to ponder this.
"I-" John was interrupted by a suspicious-sounding clicking noise from just outside the room. He glanced at his former roommate. "I believe your services are required."
John sidestepped out of his way as Bobby strode over and placed a confident hand on the door's surface. The barrier of opaque, glass-like ice that formed beneath his palm was soon covering the entire wall, and as Bobby stepped back to admire his work, John clapped him on the shoulder.
"Nice, Iceman."
Bobby fought the urge to grin. This was almost like old times, before- Bobby stopped himself.
Or rather, a deafening explosion did.
A quick inspection on Bobby's part revealed, to his glee, that while his barricade of ice was cracked, it was still intact. For the most part. In any case, he was certainly getting better at those. The wall behind it, however, did not fair so well; the sudden appearance of shadowy figures through the glass led Bobby to the assumption that it'd been completely blown away.
"Ooh, they aren't happy about your little ice-wall, are they?"
After listening to half a second's worth of thuds and muffled cursing, Bobby was inclined to agree. He walked swiftly to the window and peered through it. Bugger, they were at least four stories from a reasonable jumping distance. He had lost track of how many flights of stairs he'd sprinted up before the showdown in the hall. Oh well, thought Bobby as he moved to open it anyway. I could always make some sort of pillar of ice to slide down...
"It's locked," John said helpfully.
Bobby glared at the other boy, but was dismayed to find he was right.
"Who locks windows this high?" he demanded. "Who?"
"Evil doctors using mutants as lab rats?" John snorted with the air of one who fully intended to put a stop to such things.
Following several seconds' worth of racking his brain for a clever response and coming up empty, Bobby decided to move on.
"Couldn't you just...melt the lock or something?"
"I'd end up melting the whole bloody window."
There was a pause.
With a flick of his lighter and a wave of his hand, John started melting the whole bloody window.
Kitty found Bobby at their prearranged meeting point, a big oak tree near the outskirts of the property.
"Well," she said upon arriving, "Pently's gonna have a good time sorting out those computers."
"Good."
"I heard some explosions back there..." Kitty continued. "You okay?"
Bobby nodded.
"I think we should get going, then." She glanced back at the mansion that doubled as a science lab.
Together, they began the trip home to Xavier's school. Someone else also set out into the night, but his destination was decidedly different, and his journey would likely include a stop at Burger King for fries.
End.