Three weeks later, Bobby was not so content. He was in fact, dodging missiles being launched from a mammoth bipedal robot, which was intent on blasting him out of the sky.
"Magma, Boom Boom, hard left" he snapped over the communicator.
Tabs and Amara responded, just barely out of the way of a stray car getting tossed in their direction.
"Mutants. You are hereby ordered to surrender or be eradicated." The behemoth robot commanded.
"Get bent, you piece of scrap metal" Ray hurled a bolt of electricity at the machine, which made it step back before firing a bolt at Berserker, who would have been hit had not one of Multiple's dupes grabbed him out of the way.
Bobby gritted his teeth and then a small grin formed when an idea occurred to him. "Alright guys, change of plan. Everybody scatter and keep the bot distracted. Magma, I need you to fire on a specific spot on its chest. Move."
The others broke up, fanning out. Sunspot, his body jet black, threw cars at the robot. Wolfsbane, who did not fare to well to this kind of fight, snapped and snarled around the things feet, along with Jamie and his dupes, who was actually safer among the chaos his dupes made. Ray, Jubilee, and Tabitha hunkered around behind cars, throwing lightning, plasma and bombs at the seemingly indifferent monstrosity.
Amara from her position shifted into her lava form and unleashed an intense stream of liquid fire at a spot on the machines torso. She kept at it, the area glowing red. Then she let out a yelp as the machine fired a cannon straight at her.
Having no other alternative, Bobby swung around to intercept the beam. Intense heat battered his icy body, knocking him off his slide. Skidding back to the ground he let his thermal vision take over his eyesight, honing in on the area Amara had hit. He hurled a beam of ice straight at the heart of the white light.
A massive plume of steam rose instantly from the instant contact of hot and cold and a dull cracking could be heard. Pushing the water molecules away what he saw made him grin. Just visible, was a long thin crack in the bots armour.
"Way to go Icicle" Tabs yelled as she flung minute bombs at the fault, Ray and Jubilee copying.
"Sunspot, Multiple, Wolfsbane, move it!" Bobby yelled. The team mates promptly raced away from the robot, just as it froze...and with a satisfying bang, exploded.
The flying debris shimmered out of existence before they could react to it and the Danger Room's doors opened.
"Hey good job" Jean smiled in approval, looking impressed.
"Could be better" Scott said flatly. He gave Bobby a look. "What the hell was that?"
"What was what?" Bobby replied, puzzled. He'd thought it had gone pretty well. From the looks the others were giving Scott, including Jean herself, they were confused as well.
"The whole being a hero thing and taking a hit." Scott snapped. "You were supposed to defend, not be a reckless daredevil trying to impress us."
"But I wasn't..." Bobby began, becoming a little annoyed.
"Scott" Jean spoke reprovingly and he relaxed...slightly. But he was still giving Bobby a look which was pretty easy to read, despite the visor. He wasn't happy.
Well in all honesty, Bobby wasn't either.
"It's time to get ready for school" Jean announced. "Bobby you want to hurry..."
Bobby glanced at his watch and let out a startled yelp.
"Cripes I'm going to be late. See you later guys!" he sprinted down the hall.
In record time, he had showered and changed and was rushing down the stairs, his bag bouncing wildly on his shoulder. He skidded into the kitchen, making a beeline for the coffee pot usually reserved for the staff. He also grabbed a muffin and an apple from the counter; in too much of a hurry to have cereal, but not daring to skip eating breakfast altogether. He had done that one day when he'd been late and the reaming he'd received from Hank about it gave him no desire to try his luck again.
Speaking of Hank, he Ororo, the Professor and the older students were already down at the table, most of who had looked up briefly at his entrance.
"Hi guys" he said, before wolfing down his breakfast, not bothering to sit. Hank frowned, but showed remarkable restraint by not commenting on his inhaling of a light breakfast.
"Will you be able to catch the train?" Ororo inquired.
Bobby glanced at the time and grimaced. "Gonna have to ice slide the whole way. It'll be faster."
"And if someone spots you?" Scott asked, now joining the others.
"It'll be fine. I'll be going fast; by the time I get there the ice slide will be gone before anyone can complain too much." Eager to leave as he could see a lecture coming from Scott now, he gulped down his cold coffee and bolted for the door. "See you guys later!"
Out on the lawn, he concentrated and launched into the sky on his trusty ice slide. Cool morning air whipped his face as he soared high over Bayville, able to see the morning traffic building up. His method of transportation was far faster, though had the awkward complications of someone seeing him or spotting his slide. Thankfully the speed he could reach on his slides could rival that of the X-Jet, if pushed, leaving not a lot of time for people to gawk.
This was about the fourth time in the last three weeks he had to commute this way to get to college, largely because of the time spent in Danger Room. The class he was in was less than two hours from when he had to catch his train. It wouldn't be so bad if he was in the X-Men session beforehand; but for some reason, Scott had put him in charge of the New Mutants sessions.
Scott had been confusing in his attitude towards him since he'd returned. He barely spoke to him outside of training and when he did, it was usually in the form of orders or dressing downs when Bobby did something he didn't approve of, even little things like this morning. He also hadn't brought him back to the sessions with the older students yet, which puzzled him. But after a couple of weeks, he suspected Scott was pissed about his leaving or coming back or possibly both. He was also sure he wasn't particularly happy about the Professor's decision to have him teach the others.
He had agreed to teach some of the classes of his fellow teammates, while inwardly wondering if he'd signed his death papers. Surprisingly it was quite easy to give out instructions and have them followed after the others got over the fact he was teaching them. He had been the somewhat unofficial leader of the New Mutants when he'd been here before, yet it was surprisingly gratifying to be able to get them to listen to him, even if Tabs had taken to calling him Cyclops Junior occasionally. He'd even had some classes with the new members, though it had mostly involved getting them comfortable around him and finding out their powers.
Bobby knew that when he had been there before, he'd annoyed Scott with his attitude and pranks. Scott, to all intents and purposes, was far too strict for his own good. Bobby had never really seen him lighten up, except maybe in the occasional mutant ball game. Having to deal with Bobby all over again was probably severely testing that uptight demeanour.
Bobby could actually sympathise with him, but after a few weeks, he was starting to test his own patience. He might take stuff like that, but not forever.
He wondered idly when Logan would come back from meeting Fury. Having a lead on what Magneto had snagged would give Fearless Leader something else to focus on. They hadn't come across any of the Brotherhood since they last fought and the utter defeat at the hands of their enemies wasn't improving Cyclops mood.
His destination in sight, he dropped to land in an alley near the college, destroying the slide in the process. Enough of worrying about annoying colleagues and supervillan enemies. He had class to get to.
