Black Ice
To Aaron: Hey there, Aaron! Nice to hear from you again! I'm very glad you liked the last chapter! For some reason, I kept thinking of Bobby has having blue eyes in this fic, so I decided to have his powers turn his eyes ice blue. His teammates don't mean to offend him with the remarks, and Kyle explained the "Anakin" thing in an earlier chapter. It's just that Bobby is hyper-sensitive about the remarks.
To Red Witch: Hey there, Red Witch! Nice to hear from you again! I'm very glad you liked the last chapter! Yup, new missions are lots of fun! I don't plan to have Bobby become ice permanently in this fic. But I am giving him some new powers that are logical extensions of his own powers. You'll have to wait and see what they are. Enjoy the new chapter, and I can hardly wait for new chapters of "Evolution XMJ"!
To todd fan: Hey there, todd fan! Nice to hear from you again! I'm very glad you liked the last chapter! I had Bobby's eyes change color because I thought it'd be cool, and it's more for symbolism. Here's more for you! Enjoy the new chapter, and I can hardly wait for new chapters of "Slugs and Snails", "Random Tales of the Magic Roundabout", and "Gifts and Curses"!
Disclaimer: "Everyone there has to wear gloves, because it's the law."
Chapter 21: Viral Attack!
A Stark Industries subsidiary in Los Angeles
"Why are we here again?" Bobby Drake grumbled as he and the rest of Freedom Force sat in a waiting room. They were all in costume, and all the jokes about no one noticing they were in costume were dealt with. In fact, they weren't really needed, considering the fact that Lila Cheney, the interstellar teleporter codenamed Starway, had used her powers to get them into the building in the first place. Bobby smacked a vending machine. He was standing at a vending machine, trying to get a packet of chips.
"To get a look at the new nanite machine, Bobby." Contessa Fontaine replied, reading a magazine. Several of the mutants were sleeping, which included Starway, Velocity, and Thunderbird. Sunfire was meditating. Thunderbolt and Wildstar were watching the television. Rictor was counting ceiling tiles. Karma was reading a magazine.
"Oh, yeah." Bobby muttered. He smacked the machine again. "Gimme my chips! I gave you exact change, now gimme my chips!" He started shaking it as the ice-maker's blood rapidly boiled over. "GIMME MY CHIPS, YOU STUPID HUNK OF TIN!"
"Hey man, you need to calm down. Get someone to fix it." Rictor grumbled.
"They can fix this!" Bobby's fingers extended into icy claws, and with a crushing and ripping sound, Bobby tore the machine wide open, causing bags of chips and candy bars to fall out on the ground.
"What the-?" Rictor's jaw dropped.
"That's coming out of your stipend." Fontaine said calmly, not looking up from her magazine. Every week, the members of Freedom Force were given a stipend of money. Bobby snarled at that remark. He created an icicle and stabbed it into a soda machine that was standing next to it.
"Whoa!" Rictor and Ace's jaws dropped.
"Take that out of my stipend, too!" Bobby snapped angrily at Fontaine. Surprisingly, neither the other kids nor Fontaine reacted much to the Iceman's outburst. But then again, they had grown used to Bobby being…Bobby in the time that he has been with them.
"Geez Bob, you didn't need to go psycho on the poor vending machines." Ace rolled his eyes.
"Gives me something to do." Bobby shrugged. "Besides, I wouldn't have had to do that if the vending machine had just given me my chips." An assistant, a pretty woman, walked in.
"The invention is ready." The assistant said simply. Fontaine looked up and put down her magazine.
"Alright. Shan…" Fontaine nodded. Shan looked up and nodded back. The Vietnamese girl put down her magazine. The two got up and followed the assistant.
"I've got to see this…" Ace snickered. He tapped Rictor's shoulder as he got up and followed the girls. The young Mexican mutant shrugged and got up as well. Bobby watched the four leave. He looked at the rest of the kids, who were snoozing or meditating.
"Ah, what the hey." Bobby shrugged and followed the others. They walked into a white room with computers adorning three of its white walls. In the center of the room was a white table with a glowing top, and a circular device that looked like something out of Star Trek with a small nozzle on it and what appeared to be an upwards-pointing satellite dish at the top with eight small green lights around it. A man stood proudly behind the device. He looked like he was in his 60s, his long black hair, speckled with gray, was slicked back and put into a ponytail. The man was dressed in a green sweater and black slacks with a white lab coat over them. His blue eyes were covered by round-shaped gold-rimmed glasses. "What's that?"
"Looks like something out of Star Wars." Ace whistled. Bobby growled and muttered under his breath.
"That nickname's gonna come back…"
"Relax, Bobby." Shan reassured. "Only Kyle calls you 'Anakin'. You know him."
"If I hear one more person call me 'Anakin' today, I am going to…" Bobby started to threaten.
"It is good to see you, Dr. Winter." Fontaine greeted, unknowingly interrupting Bobby's threat.
"Yes. Thank you, Contessa." The scientist greeted with a grin, shaking her hand. "I am glad that SHIELD is very interested in my technology."
"We just wish to see it's in the right hands, Doctor." Fontaine nodded. "Technology like yours can be very dangerous in the wrong hands."
"Like Forge's." Bobby muttered darkly under his breath. Dr. Winter looked at the young mutants. His face formed an expression that indicated insecurity.
"Uhm, Contessa…are you sure that SHIELD knows what they're doing by sending me these…children…" Dr. Winter asked Fontaine nervously. Bobby clenched his fists, struggling not to let his newfound temper get the better of him. And it was a battle he was rapidly losing.
"I assure you Doctor, these young mutants are highly trained-" Fontaine started.
"You listen here, Four-Eyes!" Bobby snapped angrily at Dr. Winter. "Are you saying that we're incompetent? Are you saying we're stupid? Are you saying we are incapable?"
"Iceman, calm down!" Shan hissed.
"You listen to me, you arrogant nerd!" Bobby got in Dr. Winters' face. He grabbed the scientist by the front of his shirt. "I have grown very sick and very tired of people saying I'm stupid! If you very insult me again pal, I will make you into a popsicle!"
"Bobby! Stop!" Fontaine ordered. Bobby snarled for a second, and then roughly let the scientist go. With a grunt, Bobby stomped out of the room. Ace went out after him.
"What the heck was that about, man?" Ace exclaimed as he followed Bobby. Bobby went partway down a nearby hall and punched the wall.
"I hate it when people call me stupid!" Bobby screamed in rage. "I am not stupid!"
"Alright, alright…" Ace tried to calm down the ice-maker.
"I'm not stupid!" Bobby growled. "Why does everybody always think I'm stupid? Just because I don't understand fancy scientific garbage, doesn't mean that I am stupid!"
"You're not the only one." Ace shrugged. "I never got that stuff either. We all have stuff we're not good at."
"Tell that to the X-Men." Bobby growled. "Academics were never my strong suit. They always said I was stupid because of that."
"I sucked at science myself." Ace smirked. "But I don't mind, because I know I'm good a something. For me, it's music." The feral had a bolt of inspiration hit him. "You know what you should do? You should find something you're good at. What're you good at?"
"…Nothing, really." Bobby shrugged. "Well, except that I used to be a prankster."
"The big bad Iceman, a prankster?" An amused Ace raised an eyebrow. "Wow."
"I don't do pranks anymore. Pranks are for idiots." Bobby growled.
"Rictor fancies himself a bit of a prankster sometimes." Ace smiled. "Maybe you could show him some of your tricks." Bobby scoffed.
"Yeah. Sure. That'll get me respect." The ice-maker scoffed. Rictor ran up to them.
"Hey, guys! You gotta see this! C'mon!" The young Hispanic mutant waved. Ace and Bobby followed Rictor into the room. Inside, Dr. Winter put what appeared to be a piece of badly burnt human flesh on the table.
"Ewww…" Shan winced a little.
"I've seen worse, Shan." Fontaine shrugged.
"This is a piece of skin from a burn victim generously donated by the local hospital." Dr. Winter explained. He then held up the device. "I programmed this device, my Nanite Generator, to build a group of nanites to rebuild the skin back into a pristine state. I believe that nanites can be used to revolutionize medicine. Nanites are so small, they can actually interact with cells and rebuild them."
"That has quite a lot of possibilities." Fontaine nodded.
"Yes." Dr. Winter agreed with a smile. "Nanites can be used to remove cancerous growths without harming normal cells. They can rebuild tissue, allowing reversals of heart conditions, for example." He put the device down on the table next to the skin. "In this example, nanites can accelerate healing by rebuilding the damaged skin cells in this sample. Watch." Dr. Winter pressed a button on the Nanite Generator. The eight green lights turned on one at a time. The nozzle released a blob of silver liquid about the size of a half-dollar coin. "The silver liquid is the nanites. There are millions of them in that glob." The liquid moved toward the skin sample, and started working on the burnt parts. Once it was finished, the skin looked perfect, without a single burn mark. The liquid then crawled away and went back inside the Generator. The kids watched the whole thing with dropped jaws.
"Wow!" Ace exclaimed.
"Talk about being quick to recover." Rictor whistled.
"Whoopee." Bobby rolled his eyes.
"Yes, with this device, many people's lives can be saved." Dr. Winter smiled.
KABOOM!
The wall behind the doctor exploded.
"Dr. Winter!" Fontaine jumped up and knocked the doctor to the ground.
"What the-?" Ace exclaimed. A scrawny teenage boy floated through the hole. He was dressed like a punk rocker: A heavy metal t-shirt, biker gloves, studded wristbands, blue jeans with a black studded belt, white sneakers, a sleeveless jean jacket, and a green headband to keep his long brown hair out of his face. He had a maniacal grin, and his green eyes glowed electronic green. On his back, there was a futuristic jet pack. Ace's eyes widened.
"Oh no…"
"Great…" Bobby grumbled. "Just great."
"Or your device can be used to free me fellow machines from the tyranny they're forced to endure under organic rule." Vincent James, aka Virus, grinned madly.
Next: Viral Brawl