Black Ice

Disclaimer: "It warped his sense of right and wrong." - Kyle Rayner, on Parallax taking over Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Rebirth #3

Chapter 34: Sapphire Twilight Part 5: X-Fall

The Xavier Institute

The X-Men were fighting for their lives. And they were fighting against an opponent they never thought they'd have to face: One of their own. The one they were fighting was Robert Drake, the Iceman. After getting his heart broken unintentionally, Bobby left the X-Men, feeling they wouldn't care if he lived or died and feeling betrayed by his former friend, Sam Guthrie, the Kentuckian New Mutant codenamed Cannonball. After several months of holding in his rage, and two mental breakdowns, the emotional stress took its toll on Bobby's sanity, transforming him into a raving delusional lunatic. He returned to Bayville with a new goal: getting revenge on the X-Men. He had already badly assaulted Sam, and now had gone after his former friends.

"I can't stop this blizzard!" Storm exclaimed in horror. The Kenyan white-haired ex-priestess had tried to use her mutant power of weather control to calm down the blizzard an enraged and psychotic Bobby had created, but it was too powerful. "How does he do this?"

"This blizzard must be linked to his emotions like your powers allow." Forge analyzed while holding on to a tree. "This must be how he shows anger."

"AGH!" Danielle "Moonstar" Mirage screamed as Bobby, in his ice form, picked her up and threw her into Kurt, Roberto, and Rogue.

"LISTEN TO ME! WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN!" Bobby screamed. He turned and saw Rahne standing over a downed Sam protectively, in her werewolf form. Bobby's icy features cracked out his mad smirk. "Hello, Rahne."

"Please, Bobby." Rahne growled. "I nae want to hurt ye. Whatever we did, we're sorry."

"Yeah, right." Bobby scowled. "You're a liar, Rahne. All you X-Men are liars. You never cared about me. None of you loved me, respected me. Now…you will all fear me." He reached out his ice-covered hand. His arm stretched like a rubber band at incredible speed. Before Rahne could react, she found an icy hand clamped around her neck.

"No!" Sam hacked out. Bobby retracted his arm, Rahne still clamped. The choking Scot struggled to break free. "Bobby…you…you psycho..."

"You see Sam? You shouldn't have betrayed me!" Bobby laughed. "See what I can do to you? I can kill your furry little girlfriend here in so many ways. And all you can do is watch." Bobby smirked at Rahne. "Did you know the human body is 90 percent water? I can freeze it all. Or I could do something more classic and snap your neck. It doesn't matter to me."

"Bobby…please…" Rahne sputtered. "Stop this…"

"No." Bobby smiled as he clamped tighter on Rahne's neck. Sam mustered the will to get to his feet and run toward the crazed ice-maker. Bobby glared at the blond and swiped a glowing hand at him. A blast of what appeared to be blue light flew toward Sam at incredible speed. Sam screamed as he found an icicle impaling him in the shoulder.

"Sam!" Rahne cried out. Bobby laughed as Sam fell on his face.

"I guess he finally got my point!" Bobby joked, laughing. He looked at Rahne. "What're you laughing at?"

"Ye…monster…why?" Rahne whimpered, tears leaving her eyes. Bobby smirked.

"Why not?" Bobby answered with a smirk. "He didn't care in the least whether I lived or died in the least. Why should I care about him? ARGH!" He dropped Rahne because Coloosus, in his metal state, slammed into him. Bobby landed spine-first against a tree. With Colossus was Wolverine, Tabby, and Amara. Wolverine had his claws out, Tabby was holding several time bombs, and Amara was in her Magma form.

"Back. Off. Drake." Tabby warned.

"Stop this, Bobby." Colossus pleaded. "We do not wish to harm you. Do not make us use force."

"Why?" Bobby snarled. "WHY? You never cared about me! Not one bit! You all treated me like garbage! Tabby blows me up, and no one cares! Amara burns me, and NO ONE CARES!"

"We don't wanna hurt you, Popsicle." Logan warned. Bobby snarled.

"Don't you dare call me that! I HATE THAT NAME!" Bobby pitched a couple icicles. Wolverine screamed as the icicles impaled him right in between his adamantium-lined ribs. Bobby smirked. "And to think, I used to be afraid of you, Wolverine. What was I thinking? How ya like that, Wolf-boy? Think of it as payback for all those brutal sessions in the Danger Room, you overgrown jackal!"

"Dear God…" Colossus stammered.

"That's it!" Tabby snarled. "Amara, roast 'im!"

"NO!" Colossus exclaimed. Tabby threw her time bombs at the iced-up Bobby at the same time Amara let rip with several fiery balls of lava. Bobby only smirked and did the "Bring it on" gesture with his hands. The time bombs exploded on impact with Bobby and the magma hit him at the same time, creating a lot of smoke and several KABOOMs. Tabby, Piotr, and Amara powered down.

"We have to have gotten him!" Amara growled. Hank McCoy, the blue-furred bombastic Beast was helping cart away a wounded Logan towards Storm and Forge. Forge was standing with Storm, who was concentrating on trying to stop the blizzard.

"God, I'm gonna feel this in the morning." Logan grunted. "Just pull these frickin' icicles out, and I'll be fine!" Suddenly, a jet of water erupted from the cloud and blasted Piotr, Tabby, and Amara. They landed on top of the two adult X-Men. A cackling Bobby walked out of the smoke.

"You're kidding me!" Tabby's jaw dropped.

"Like the new look?" Bobby smirked evilly. He appeared to have taken on a new form. He appeared to be made of water.

"No way." Hank's jaw dropped.

"He can become water, too?" A confused Amara yelped.

"Yup." Bobby smirked. "Hey Beast! I'll say goodbye to your little kid for you."

"What'd you do to Toby and Imara?" Hank snarled. Bobby laughed.

"Oh gee, I'm so dumb, I forget what I did with them." Bobby mocked in a funny voice. "But then again, you always thought I was stupid, didn't you, Beast? I was nothing but a moron to you, right? Yeah, I was just a stupid little ice-making idiot. That's all I was!" With a cry, Bobby sent water flying in all directions, further disorienting the X-Men. Bobby grabbed the first X-Man that washed near him, which was a disoriented Storm. "You should've listened to me, Sam! You didn't want to hear me out, man! NYEAGH!" He pitched the goddess into a tree. The white-haired mutant screamed as the impact smashed her collarbone.

"THAT'S RIGHT, YOU COLDHEARTED WITCH! SCREAM FOR ME!" Bobby yelled, encasing her in ice. "YOU ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN ME! WELL, WHO THE MAN NOW?"

"ORORO!" Forge yelled as he ran to help his wife. "ARGH!" His cybernetic arm and his leg got impaled, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Not so tough without your gizmos, are you Inspector Gadget?" Bobby mocked. He ripped out Forge's mechanical arm and whacked him across the mouth with it. "Lousy nerd." He looked up at the snow-covered mansion, and smiled. "Time to have some fun." He fired ice-beams at the Institute, covering the building in a layer of ice that appeared to be nearly twenty feet thick…and putting what appeared to be a small bottle neck on top of the building.

"What is he doing?" Rahne mumbled to herself.

"Oh…my head…" Roberto moaned.

"Mah God, what is that sicko up to?" Rogue growled to herself. The watery Bobby chuckled.

"Ironic. The very building that was used to help you guys have productive lives will also be the sit of your deaths." Bobby smiled. "YAH!" Calling upon his newly-revealed water powers, Bobby created a tidal wave that swept the battered X-Men into the mansion through the bottle neck, and filled the mansion up with water. The ice-maker cackled as he froze some water into an ice cork and covered the top of the bottleneck. "I hope some of you developed the power to breathe water!" Bobby cackled. He noticed Sam leant against a tree. With an evil smirk, Bobby grabbed the blond New Mutant and threw him into the ice-covered wall. Sam bounced off with a grunt.

"Uhhhnh…"

"Poor poor Cannonball." Bobby laughed as he went back into his human form. "Can't save his friends. You know, you could've avoided this if you had backed me up all those months ago. And speaking of betrayal…" He shot an evil grin at the wounded New Mutant. "I'm going to go say hello to your precious sister. She's going to get what she deserves for once." He cackled as he headed off on an ice slide.

"Oh God…" A battered Sam whimpered to himself as he realized where Bobby was going. "He's going to Dark Hollow."

Next: Sapphire Twilight Part 6: Heartbreak Bobby heads to Dark Hollow to get his vengeance on Lucas Haller-Xavier, the telepath who humiliated him, and Elizabeth Guthrie, the mutant girl who broke his heart.