After a reassuringly mundane class, Bobby was heading off the campus towards the train station, figuring it would be a good idea to take public transport after ice sliding to school. But the screaming of people nearby along with the unmistakable sounds of cars being hurled through the air, made him forget the idea. Running towards the commotion, he was just in time to see the Amazing Spiderman go flying across the street and into a truck. The reason for this was immediately identified as a man with giant metal pincers protruding from his back, a couple holding him aloft, while the others were picking up a garbage truck to throw after the Spiderman.

Bobby ran forward and icing up, grabbed hold of one of the claws holding the guy in the air. Instantly, ice shot up the creepy metal spine up his back to which all the claws were attached, freezing the joints.

The man bellowed in outrage and tried to turn to glare at Bobby. "Who dares challenge Dr. Octavious?! Who would be so foolish as to intervene in my moment of personal triumph; dare to challenge the greatest mind in the world? I...ump!"

"Save the speeches, Doc, we've heard them before" Spiderman answered, having sealed his mouth shut with web. He grinned at Bobby. "Thanks Iceman, appreciate it."

"No prob. So who's this whack job?"

"Dr. Octavious" he replied promptly. "Also known as Dr. Octopus, for obvious reasons."

"Of course" Bobby looked at the man, who was struggling mightily to be free. Good luck with that with web and ice holding him down.

He heard sirens coming closer. "New York's finest" Spiderman looked at the doctor. "I think you'll be a good boy and behave for the nice policemen yes?"

Bobby chuckled. "I better go Spidey I've got a train to catch."

"Had enough of New York? Can't really blame you, but if you wanna be a superhero, you really don't need to go anywhere else."

"Yeah, you guys have really quite a lot of lunatics in tights around here."

"Humph, don't knock it till you tried it" Spidey retorted.

Bobby laughed. "See ya."

"Yeah. Thanks again." Spiderman leapt back into the air, firing a web line at a building and swinging out of sight. Bobby followed suit on an ice slide, heading towards the train station but stopping well before his destination in an alley to destroy the slide.

A little over an hour later he was back in Bayville and walking back to the school. The lengthy commute gave him time to start on his homework; a problem with being back at the mansion was that there was little peace to work.

He was walking up the mansions driveway when he spotted something: Logan's bike. Quickening his pace, he walked into the foyer and looked around.

We're in my office Bobby." Grimacing Bobby walked down to the Professors office, where it was opened by Ororo, who smiled at him and let him in.

The others in the office were Xavier, Logan, Hank, Jean and Scott, who like him, were in college and had different timetables to the rest of the students.

The Professor smiled and gestured at Bobby, who slipped over to stand beside Hank, leaning against the wall.

"You were saying Logan?"

"Fury was pretty forth coming when I told him Magneto had trashed the site. Basically, from what I gather it was kinda like a storage area for the government's info on mutants. Old classified stuff, like in the Second World War and through the Cold War. Black op experimentation, knowledge gathering. From what I can tell, for most it was shut down years ago, but Fury hinted-after he sniffed around a little- it might still be used by the powers behind the curtain. He thinks there might have been a data site there for all of the current things as well-all known mutants on file, tampering of the X-Genes, the Sentinel programs, behind the scene experimentation on mutants." There was an edge to Logan's voice at this. He was one of those experiments.

"Why would Magneto go after this?" Jean frowned.

"Perhaps persuasion, use knowledge of what black ops the government has performed to rally those to his cause." Xavier tapped his desk thoughtfully. "I've been trying to track him through Cerebro, but I cannot find him or the Brotherhood. Magnus helped me design it; he could possibly have figured a way of shielding himself and the Brotherhood."

"The Brotherhood guys are nowhere around here." Scott spoke up. "We checked the Mystiques house a couple of times; they haven't been there for a while."

"This raises more questions than answers Charles" Hank mused.

"Indeed" the Professor sighed. "Thank you Logan."

"Sure Chuck. I am to inform Mags when we find him he is under arrest by the power of S.H.I.E.L.D., assuming he's in a fit state to be arrested."

Xavier chuckled reluctantly. "All right, that's all for now."

The group dispersed as they left the office, Bobby heading for his room when he noticed the Danger Room in session. Knowing instantly what this meant, he went in.

Sure enough, there was Laura in the midst of an intense session again. She was incredibly predictable when it came to them, he almost always saw her in here. He often joined her in the practise; he enjoyed fighting with her and she seemed to finally relax a little around him, though rarely talked. It also had the bonus effect of aggravating Scott who couldn't really get Logan on his side to stop them from coming in whenever they felt like it.

The session halted and Laura landed nimbly on the ground. "Yes?" she snapped at him.

He looked at her startled. "What?"

"Is there a reason you are here?"

"Thought I'd come in and practise" he replied, puzzled.

"I wish to be on my own" she answered, silently daring him to argue.

Bobby, being Bobby, pushed the issue. "Everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. Now will you leave?" she stared at him, her eyes flashing and her shoulders tense.

Bobby leant against the wall, frowning at her. He knew he was playing with fire, but he hadn't seen her like this since he had come back.

A thought ran through his head and he voiced it. "Is this about Logan going to S.H.I.E.L.D?" As far as he knew, S.H.I.E.L.D had been the ones to track her down when she was X-23, to recapture her.

Laura flinched, almost imperceptibly. She said nothing, but the tension in her body grew.

Bobby knew he nailed it. The little he knew about Laura's life was enough to let him know how truly awful it was. Raised as a weapon, to kill others before the time she could walk. Experimented on, created by Logan's DNA, never knowing what it was like to be a child, was so cruel and unimaginable. It made his own experimentation look trivial.

"I'm sorry, Laura" he said quietly.

"I don't need your pity" she snarled, her claws sprouting out.

Bobby held his ground. "It's not pity. I'm sorry for what those people did to you and admire you for not breaking and being who you are. Getting experimented on isn't cool and for it to be most of your life..." he trailed off. Before she could rage at him, he hooked up his shirt and showed his belt.

"Mine was for only a day. I think it takes a person of great strength to survive that for years and I really admire you for it."

She stared at him for a long second, the tension slowly draining out of her. "I see" she said finally. Bobby could hear the unspoken apology and smiled at her. She smiled back.

"Want to kick the computer's butt?" he asked lightly, driving away the leftover tension. She gave a feral grin at this and with a command, the room exploded into action again.

A/N: I was going to deal with the Scott and Bobby attitude in this chapter, but I liked this better. At the moment, it's just rambling while I figure out the ending, which at this rate will be a while. I think I know how it'll end, but my thoughts change and so might the ending. Ah, who cares? It'll come to me.