Black Ice

Disclaimer: "Give me money, fat boy!" Kyle Brovlovski, South Park

Chapter 35: Sapphire Twilight Part 6: Heartbreak

The Brotherhood Boarding House

"Oh…Uh…" The members of the Brotherhood moaned. They were scattered around the yard of their property. They all looked terrible, like they had been through a bad fight. Lance's arm was broken, St. John had an icicle through his shoulder, Pietro was pinned to the ground thanks to icicles through his legs, and they all had the general cuts and bruises that came from a fight…well, except for Fred, who was lying protectively over his red-haired girlfriend Rosemary. They lied around the half-frozen, wrecked Brotherhood House. Evidently a certain crazed ice-maker decided to pay a visit.

Dark Hollow

Dark Hollow was a small ghost town not too far away from Bayville. It was he home of the quiet mutant team Nightshift. Nightshift was a group of mutants led by the powerful telepath/telekinetic/pyrokinetic Lucas Haller-Xavier, the son of Professor Charles Xavier. Nightshift were a group of mutants who just wanted to live quietly, not wanting to use their powers for good or evil. And now, they were a target. The target of an ice-making young mutant driven mad by an obsession with vengeance and a broken heart.

A blizzard had overtaken the abandoned village, but the reservoir nearby mysteriously started boiling over like water in a heated pot. One house exploded in a plume of smoke, blue energy, and ice.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" Bobby Drake, the Iceman, screamed in rage as he blew another house away with an ice beam. "WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE ARE YOU, ELIZABETH? YOU COWARD! YOU RUIN MY LIFE AND DON'T HAVE THE GUTS TO FACE ME? NEYAAAARGH!" With another scream of rage, pain, and madness, the insane ice-maker blew away another house in a blast of blue freezing energy. Bobby stood and panted like an animal hen he noticed something. He reached down to the ground and picked up what appeared to be one of those inserts from a newspaper. His face cracked into a psychotic smirk. "Bingo…"

New York City

"Alright, you. Get in there!" A SHIELD Agent snapped at a purple muck monster as the creature was led into a black helicopter with SHIELD markings in futuristic shackles. The members of Freedom Force, except for Ace Starr/Wildstar, and John Proudstar/Thunderbird, were watching them cart the creature away.

"He was easy." Kyle smirked proudly.

"Yeah, if you consider fighting muck monsters easy." Terrell winced, rubbing his shoulder.

"A well-fought victory." Shiro nodded. The only one not celebrating was Lila. Normally, she enjoyed a good fight, but not today. Today, she was too worried. She was looking up at the sky.

"Oh yeah!" Rictor grinned, doing a little shadow boxing. "Yeah! No one can beat the almighty Rictor, baby! With his Sonic Punch of Doom!" He noticed Lila was staring at the sky with worry. "Hey chica, what's up with you?"

"Huh?" Lila blinked, shaking her head to help her get back to earth. "Oh. Sorry, Ric. I wasn't listening."

"Oh, brother." Rictor snickered. "You're thinking about that Iceman nut again, aren't you?" Lila stammered.

"Figures." Kyle laughed. "Hey, babe." He turned to Gina. "Looks like Anakin may have just found his Padme Amidala, huh?" Gina rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." Gina mumbled. Karma looked up at Lila, who had gone back to staring at the sky.

"Hey." She put her hand on Lila's shoulder. "You alright?" Lila nodded. "You're worried about Bobby, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Lila sighed. "It's just…well, I can't stop thinking about him. Poor guy has felt so alone, so angry, and for so long. What can happen to a person to cause all that?"

"Whatever it was, it obviously caused Bobby to shut himself away from the world." Karma sighed. "It also wrecked his willingness to trust." Lila nodded.

"It's like he wants to tell someone what's bothering him, but he is too stubborn to." Lila sighed. A ringing sound was heard. Contessa Fontaine, the SHIELD agent who worked as the adult caretaker of the young mutants, picked up her phone.

"Hello?" The Italian woman answered.

"Hey!" Ace Starr yelped into the phone. He looked panicked.

"Ace?" Fontaine blinked. "Are you alright? Did something happen?"

"Bobby's gone!" Ace exclaimed. "I tried to sniff him out, but his trail suddenly vanished! And John's watching the news right now. Ever hear of the Xavier Institute?"

"Yes." Fontaine nodded. "That's the headquarters of the X-Men, why?"

"Someone attacked the place. It's pretty obvious who, considering it's covered with ice."

Bayville Mall

"Oh, neat!" A blonde girl, with several piercings in her face, dressed like a biker, held up a black t-shirt with the word 'Babe' in silver Gothic lettering over herself. She was in a clothing store. "What do you think, Lucas?" She looked at a blond guy, dressed in a Gothic manner, who looked very displeased with being there. Her voice had a Southern accent. "Ah think it describes me perfectly."

"Of all the bloody…" The boy, Lucas, grumbled in a Scottish accent. He was called Legion. He led Nightshift, but the team weren't really combatants. They were just a group of mutants who wanted to live in peace away from mankind. "I'm sure it does, me dear. It describes ye perfectly, but we didn't come here to mess around in a bloody mall. We came here into town to get supplies, not mess around in a mall, Elizabeth."

"Oh, Lucas…" Elizabeth Guthrie, a Kentucky-born mutant girl with the ability to increase her size, shook her head. She was called Amazon. "Haven't you ever just wanted to spend a day just having fun and not letting the pressures of life get to you. We don't get to go to town often, so let's just enjoy it. The others are. Theresa's at the mall with Sammy, Lorna's sulking at the food court, Kyle is getting some stuff for his guitar, and Alex is checking out surf gear. Just relax, Lucas. Nothing bad is going to happen." The blonde girl then felt something strange. "Lucas…did it just get cold in here?"

"Aye…" Lucas looked around. "It did…"

The Food Court

In the food court, Lorna Dane, the magnetism-controlling green-haired Nightshift member known as Polaris was eating some chips at a table. She noticed a figure dressed in a done-up blue trenchcoat, face covered by longish brown hair, and blue sunglasses walking by her. The figure stopped and looked at her.

"What do you want?" Lorna grumbled at the figure. She then started to shiver. "Is it…getting cold in here…" Others in the mall noticed it, too.

"What's going on?"

"It's freezing in here!"

"Who wrecked the central heating?"

"Hey! It's snowing!"

"Snowing? Inside?"

"This is Bayville, things like this happen all the time here." One person quipped. Lorna shivered, and she looked at the figure. The figure didn't seem to be affected by the cold, and his eyes behind his sunglasses were glowing blue.

"I have a message for your boss." The figure said to Lorna, cracking a psychotic grin. The small snow into the mall quickly escalated into a blizzard.

Back to the clothing store

"YI!" Lizzie Guthrie screamed as she hung on to the side of the clothing store's front door.

"What the bloody!" Lucas roared angrily, doing the same. "Where'd this bloody blizzard come from? I bet it's the X-Men! That cow Storm can cause this!"

"What're you flappin' your gums about?"

"The X-Men are probably after us!" Lucas groused.

"For what?" Lizzie exclaimed. "We haven't done anything wrong!"

"Wouldn't stop those guys." Lucas grumbled. "Maybe they're still ticked with you leaving them."

"Ah think they would've gotten over that." Lizzie rolled her eyes. "It's not like Ah hated any of them or anything. If you're so dad-blamed worried, scan around." Lucas nodded and used his telepathy to scan around. His mind wasn't able to detect any of the mental signatures of the X-Men…except one. Lucas screamed. He clutched his head, which caused him to let go of the door and he started to move backwards, being pushed by the winds. "LUCAS!"

"I'm alright!" Lucas recovered quickly, using his TK to help steady himself. "I got a signal! It's one of the X-Men! The one called Iceman."

"Iceman?" Lizzie blinked. "Wait…Bobby Drake…He's not in the X-Men, Lucas! Not anymore! Ah talked to Sam last week! He's been missing for several months! No one knows where he went! And he can't cause blizzards!"

"Oh, he can." Lucas grumbled. "And more. His power…It's incredible. I've been in his mind. He's mad. Bloody mad. He's out for blood, Elizabeth! He's after us! He thinks we wrecked his life, and it's made him a psycho!"

"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!" A familiar voice yelled out. Lucas and Elizabeth turned and saw a familiar trenchcoated figure. "Remember me, Lizzie?" Bobby Drake smirked as he morphed into his ice form. "The man you ruined the life of? Well, I'm baaaaa-aaaaack!"

Next: Sapphire Twilight Part 7: Rescue While Freedom Force affects a rescue at the Xavier Institute, Bobby Drake battles Nightshift!