The journey was mostly silent, except for the occasional murmur between Hank and Ororo. Bobby contented himself with looking out of the window, his attempts at engaging X-23- no Laura- in conversation having failed.
"Where are the others?" Laura asked.
"An area in the Rockies" Hank replied, his eyes on the instrumentation. "Cerebro picked up something unusual this morning. On maps, there does not appear to be anything around the sight, but not all things are on maps."
A beeping from the computer drew his attention. "We are here" Hank announced. A screen came to life in the middle of the dials and an impressive fire ball was captured flying across the screen. Various explosions scattered the ground.
"Oh my stars" Hank glanced at Storm. "I think our friends could use some help."
Upon this, Storm eyes glowed white and the clouds that had been drifting around condensed and strengthened. Thunder boomed, lightning flashed and rain began to fall, announcing the arrival of the reinforcements.
With a screech of exhaust, the jet banked sharply and landed on a stretch of smooth plateau. Laura was out of her seat before the jet even landed, standing at the jet door. When the plane touched down, she leapt out, towards the chaos.
Hank Bobby and Storm were not too far behind. Storm leapt out of the jet and soared into the air, but Bobby hung back slightly. He caught Hank's eye. "I'm going to stick to the shadows for a minute. They don't know I'm here and I'm going to see if I can catch them by surprise."
"Be careful" Hank cautioned before leaping apelike out the jet. Bobby waited for ten seconds, before slipping out and hunkering under one of the jets landing gears for a moment.
The fight was raging fiercely, on the ground and the air. Of the Brotherhood, he saw Wanda, the Blob, Pyro and though not a Brotherhood member, the Juggernaut. It was clear he was causing the most chaos; hurling boulders and charging at members of the X-Men. The X- Men he could see were Scott, Logan, Jean, Kitty, Kurt and Rouge, as well as Beast, X-23 and Storm. Kitty and Rouge looked like they had been taking the brunt of the attack; both looked exhausted, Kurt not looking much better. Wanda and Pyro had been keeping them busy trying to dodge them. Coupled with that and trying to take down the Juggernaut had taken its toll. After all, they posed the biggest threat in removing the guy's helmet, so Jean could use her telepathy on him. She, Scott and Logan were also suffering from the tactics, but were trying to occupy the Juggernaut, with help from an eager Laura. Hank was tackling Blob, while Storm hurled lightning bolts at an indifferent Juggernaut.
The arrival of more X-Men had prompted the arrival, seemingly out of nowhere, Avalanche and Quicksilver, Lance Alvers and Pietro. Avalanche stomped the ground, making it difficult to stand, while Quicksilver had generated a tornado. They seemed to have the upper hand.
Bobby smiled. Time to see if he could even the odds.
He slammed his own foot to the ground. Frost shot outwards in all directions. The result was that Quicksilver completely lost his footing and went into an uncontrolled spin, ending in him crashing-at speed- into the Blob, who staggered back a step and fell over on his ass. The fight momentarily froze.
Bobby exploded into motion. Icing up, he shot out of his spot on an ice slide. He concentrated on the water molecules in Wanda and for a split second, froze them. She fell, unconscious before she could fire a hex at him.
Landing beside a stunned Pyro and Avalanche, he punched Pyro straight in the nose, while lashing out with a leg into Alvers midriff. Both collapsed.
Juggernaut was not so taken aback. He charged at Bobby, not slowing for fear of falling. Bobby shot around him, the icy ground making it easier for him to move than his opponent. With a snarl, he skidded to a stop, swinging his fist around. Bobby dodged and sliding to the side, slammed his bare hand against the other's arm.
Juggernaut howled. Bobby concentrated hard, freezing the water molecules ruthlessly. The man might be raw power, but he was still made mostly of water. Still it took nearly a minute before the man lost consciousness.
Breathing returning to normal, he looked around. Half of the Brotherhood was now on the ground out cold. The only two still awake and trying to fight were Quicksilver and the Blob but the icy ground made it impossible for them to stand without nearly toppling.
"Hey come on" Pietro whined as he struggled gracelessly to keep upright. Bobby had forgotten had his irritating voice. "This isn't fair! When my father finds out..."
"What? That his son can't stand when it's a bit icy? Ah'd think he'd find more entertainin' than anythin' else. Ah know Ah do."
Bobby grinned at Rouge's Southern drawl as he turned to meet her. She was approaching him a little cautiously, but she was smiling widely.
"Hey Popsicle great timin', these dweebs dang near had mah number." She had now reached him and playfully punched his shoulder. "Great to see ya, but pull that disappearin' stunt again, Ah'll track ya down and ya'll be sorry."
"Great to see you to Stripes" causing her to punch him again.
"Anyone that'll kill the Icecube, it'll be me" Logan growled as he approached.
"Awww, I missed you too Logan." He grinned at the man. "Well maybe not your training or you're yelling or you calling me bub or Icecube or...."
Logan rolled his eyes and sheathed his claws. "Still the same. We'll just see how much of a smartass you'll be after I'm done with you."
"Great" Bobby deadpanned.
"Logan leave alone, he like, totally saved our lives" Kitty protested as the rest of the group joined them, except Jean who was busy taking care of Juggernaut and the Brotherhood.
"Ja man, zhat was awesome" Kurt agreed. He and Bobby fist tapped. "Great to zee you man."
"You too, 'Crawler, Kitty, Scott" he added to the older teen, who had so far said nothing. Scott gave a curt nod, just as Jean flew over.
"That's the best I can do. The Professor's already calling the guys who imprisoned the Juggernaut and I think they're coming. I'm not sure, but I think he'll be out 'till then. She smiled at Bobby. "Hey Bobby, great to see you and thanks for that. The Brotherhood has gotten a lot better and Juggernaut is really hard to take down, as you know."
"Are you back with us, zhen?" Kurt enquired.
"Depends. Do I still have a place?" he looked at Scott and Logan in particular.
Logan snorted. "Ya think you're getting off that easy, Icicle? By the time I'm through with you, you'll be begging to go back to the Arctic."
"We should get moving" Scott announced abruptly. "Magneto and the others are still in down that tunnel the others came up. We have to find them."
"Found the tunnel" Laura said. She had been at the edge of the group and had moved away, looking at a particular stretch of rock.
"Kid's right. Let's go. You can play catch up later" Logan strode over to Laura, the rest of the X-Men following.
Bobby happened to fall into line beside Kitty and he glanced at Alvers stretched motionless on the ground.
"Are you and Lance still going out?" He knew Alvers from the time he'd been briefly part of the X-Men. He was pretty cool, except for the whole 'hood' thing.
"God no." She wrinkled her nose. "We started falling out ages ago, the whole Magneto thing. I'm dating Colossus now. Remember him? He joined the X-Men a while ago."
"Ah wouldn't ask, Sugah" Rouge advised quietly behind him. "Get her goin' and ya'll be there for an age about them both."
More than a little amused, he followed the others.
