Bobby Drake was alive. He had no idea for how long, but he was alive. His ice form was blackened with burn marks here and there, but he hadn't suffered any major injuries. His first attack when he was surrounded was to create an area blast that affected most of the Sentinels, the cold damaging their targeting systems. He now held in his hand a sword made of ice, thankful for the sword training he had been receiving from Logan. Around him were the remains of destroyed Sentinels that the blade had brought down. Most of them appeared to be half built, or prototype models. No doubt the real things would be much stronger when completed.
He couldn't say long he had been fighting, but his luck had yet to run out. He didn't have a plan, he didn't have a way out, all he knew was that he couldn't give up. As long as he was still standing there was hope, hope that he would be rescued, hope that he could escape and rescue the others, hope that somehow he would get out of this mess.
To his right a Sentinel moved in, blasting laser bolts at Iceman's head. He easily ducked the misaimed shot and froze the ground beneath the robot. Its right leg slipped forward, pulling the Sentinel into an awkward split. Bobby rushed forward, using his ice blade to lop of the head of the machine. He stretched his left hand behind him, hitting the Sentinel coming up on him with a solid ice pillar that forced it and another behind it into a wall, shattering their chest armor and destroying the mechanics beneath.
"Why do you insist on continuing? You know your demise is inevitable. And you only serve to help create the Sentinels stronger in the future."
Bobby ignored the intercom; he was getting sick of it and the scientist's incessant Agent Smith act. Spinning the sword his hands, he cut down another pair of Sentinels that appeared out of holes in the floor that quickly sealed. He was waiting for a door of some kind to open and allow him the opportunity to at least escape this room.
More Sentinels, more ice attacks, the fight continued. Occasionally he would get stung by a stray blast, but so far his ice armor had protected him. And then what looked like a break came. He could see the wall on one side of the room was opening. It was a large opening forming, which meant a lot of Sentinels behind it, but he could hopefully ice slide over them. He finished one last Sentinel with another ice beam and began a slide heading to the door.
But when he saw two glowing yellow eyes high up in the darkness, he quickly turned around and headed back down his slide. He could see another door open on the other side of the room, and behind it was another full sized Sentinel.
"ORDERS RECEIVED, TERMINATE MUTANT 35," they echoed in stereo.
Twin fusion cannon beams swept the room, destroying ice bridges and smaller Sentinels alike. Bobby crashed to the ground, winded. He managed to raise his head to see the Sentinel in front of him raise its palm, a circular opening there glowing and powering up.
The entire room shook, and the Sentinels held off their attack to steady themselves. Bobby felt something push him up against a far wall just as the ceiling began to collapse in above him. Some of the concrete fell down onto the two Sentinels, which raised their arms to protect their heads. Other pieces began to move in the air near the newly created hole, forming a vortex of swirling cement. Pieces of the destroyed Sentinels rose off the ground and began pelting the two larger Sentinels. Bobby looked down to see what had moved him was part of a Sentinel arm, which lifted of the ground and joined the rest in the assault of the full sized robots.
"UNEXPECTED MUTANT CONTACT. KNOWN MUTANT 1 IDENTIFIED. EXTERMINATE IMMEDIATELY."
The pair of Sentinels lifted their arms upwards and fired the cannons in their hands, but the beams hit the spinning funnel around the opening. When the burst died, shards of metal swarmed out of the hole like hornets, impaling themselves in the joints and other unarmored parts to the Sentinels. The metal continued to press forward, digging deeper into the Sentinels until Bobby couldn't see any of the shards. The robots trembled for a moment, and then exploded outward as the imbedded metal flew out. He tried to form an ice shield to protect him, but was too weak to manage much more then a thin base.
The shards flying directly towards Bobby halted a foot away from him, hovered pointed to him ominously for a few seconds, and flew back to join the rest of the debris currently swirling near the gap in the ceiling. And then Bobby saw him. Slowly lowering down from the hole, cape flowing around him and his red armor almost glowing in the dim light, was Magneto. He came to rest in the center of the mass of objects he was moving through the air, and the all of it lowered to the floor. He walked over to Bobby, and the shield around him fell to the floor. He offered his hand to the young man.
"Gotta say, you're probably the last person I expect to see, and with such a flashy entrance," he said as he was helped from the ground. They walked toward the center of the room.
"Indeed, I probably am. When I heard of the attack on the Institute I could not sit idly by and let this crime go unpunished. As for the entrance, it is always better to scare the enemy with a display of power to give you an edge in battle. The humans we face are cowards and hide behind their machines. Always show them you do not fear them!"
"Yeah, that's great, but we need to go rescue the others. I have no idea where they took them."
"Have no fear Iceman. The Brotherhood is currently freeing all mutants wrongly taken hostage by the humans. I see the doubt in your eyes, but I assure you, the Brotherhood is a much more cohesive team then before. I have taken a more personal hand in their training. And now with the addition of the X-Men to our ranks, our Brotherhood of Mutants will stand united against our oppressors, and take what is rightfully ours."
Bobby stopped dead in his tracks. "We're not joining up with the Brotherhood buckethead. Not all of us want to kill and maim people. We just want to live a normal life like everyone else."
He could feel Magneto's eyes glaring at him from the shadows of his helmet. "Do you think mutants will ever be able to live a normal life as long as human are allowed to do what they want? As long as we live under the yoke of men like this?" The armored man raised his hand and from the hole lowered the scientist who had been observing Bobby. He was sitting in a large leather desk chair and bound with pieces of rebar ripped from the surrounding cement. His mouth was gagged with a thin strip of metal that wrapped around his head. The chair landed between Magneto and Bobby, and Magnus grabbed the man's head and forced him to look straight at Bobby. "Men like this who would put every mutant in the world into concentration camps, to experiment on them for the 'good of the world' and end their lives in what is deemed the cheapest 'final solution' possible? I have lived it before, and I will not allow it to happen again. And if mutants continue to follow Charles Xavier's pacifist ideologies towards humans then men like this will be free to do all they want to us."
"Sure, there's scum in this world like this guy, but not everyone is like that. Most people just want to be safe and live their lives. What are you going to do? Lock them all up somewhere? Kill them all so only mutants are left? How are you better than him?"
He could feel the anger radiating off of Magneto, and several shards of metal on the ground around Bobby began to shake. He tensed, ready to deal with this new threat, but he felt the gaze from under the helmet relax slightly and the shaking stopped.
"You do not understand me or my vision, and so I will let that comment go. But know that I am nothing like this man here. Charles and I have the same goals, a peaceful world, with mutants and humans coexisting. I do not wish to rule the world, nor does Charles. But Charles refuses to deal with dogs like this pathetic whelp the way they should be dealt with. You said it yourself Iceman, there is scum in the world, and we must deal with it accordingly before there can be peace. I will make that sacrifice, as should all mutants on this planet. We must unite and help shape this world for a better tomorrow."
A large shard of metal lifted off the ground, one end of it compacting into a rough hilt while the other sharpened. The make-to sword floated to Bobby hilt first. "Take it Iceman, use it on this man who has hunted your friends from afar, tortured and experimented with our kind for simply being born different. Join me, join us, in helping this world. Charles dream is just that, a wonderful dream. But it is implausible, and thus we must work to make the world ready for it."
Bobby grabbed the sword hilt, looked it up and down in wonder. Of all the things that could have happened today, nothing he had ever expected in his wildest dreams occurred. Here he was, holding a sword made by his enemy, asked to execute another enemy, maybe a greater one. He looked at the scientist, whose eyes pleaded for mercy, mercy he himself was never willing to grant. "I'm better then that," Bobby whispered nearly inaudibly.
"I didn't hear you Iceman. I grow impatient. Do it and let us make sure our brothers and sisters are safe."
"I said," his voice rising, "that I'm better than him and I'm better than your crazy cult!" He threw the sword to the side. It never clattered to the ground but swept upwards and the flat of it hit Iceman back into the wall with. The sitting scientist rose into the air and flew at the nearest wall, colliding with a sickening thud.
Magneto's feet rose off the ground, the objects around him again forming to the circling shield around the Master of Magnetism.
"You have disappointed me Iceman, or should I say Bobby Drake, a child unworthy of his self-chosen name. You had a potential far beyond the level of power you have now. But I can no longer make allowances those who would undermine the rise of mutantkind. Whether they are human or mutant, they must not be allowed to stand in the way of evolution."
The circling metal around Magneto suddenly stopped circling and flew straight at Bobby. Panicked, he summoned all the power he could, generating a wave of ice that headed towards Magneto. Much of the debris broke through the wave and continued towards him, while the wave of jagged ice continued towards Magneto. Both attacks were too large for either to dodge.
Time slowed down. Images flashed before his eyes, of his life, his regrets and joys, things he had loved and would have loved to have done. Knowing full well that this was it, Bobby at least found some comfort knowing that the psycho in the armor wouldn't survive this either. He stared at his death one last time and prepared to embrace it, closing his eyes to steady himself.
"Computer," a familiar voice echoed above him, "end program."
Bobby waited for he metal to hit him, but nothing happened. He cautiously opened one eye, and found that he wasn't in an underground Sentinel factory, that there was no barrage of metal flying at him, that there was no Magneto or Sentinels or scientists. There was a lot of ice, and plenty of destroyed drones, but beneath that the familiar metal walls of the Danger Room greeted him.
He stood slumped against the wall, mouth slightly open in shock at the whole things. He noticed the platform from the command room was lowering down, but hardly gave it a second glance. "I've been in the Danger Room the whole time? When the hell did I get into the Danger Room? It was so damn real."
"While you were coming downstairs. Your mind was distracted and it was easy to redirect you without you noticing," Jean said.
"And Forge made some major upgrades to the hologram generators," Kitty added. "No way you could tell it wasn't real."
He looked up, and saw the entire X-Men team standing with Logan and Professor Xavier. "Why?"
"We needed to be sure of a few things about you Bobby," Xavier said. "While I could always just see into your thoughts, thoughts and actions do not always relate. This way we could properly test your reaction to various situations while you were in them."
"Test my reactions?"
"Hey, cheer up Popsicle," Logan said. "It's not every day you become an X-Man."
"X-Man?"
"Yeah! Congratulations Bobby, you totally nailed the test!" exclaimed Kitty
"Yes, congratulations are in order. You have exceeded our already high expectations," Xavier added. "I know you're confused and surprised, but understand that during my time with Apocalypse I was able to see dark times ahead. Many of the scenarios you faced today may be similar to those that are coming. I do not want to put you into any situation that I know you cannot handle. And you have proven yourself more than ready to face the challenges ahead."
Scott spoke up. "Just look at it like a long training session. It tested your teamwork, your leadership, you ability to think on your feet, handle yourself in a fight, and tested your loyalty."
"Did you go through something like this?" he asked.
"You are the first member of the New Mutants to reach a point where joining the X-Men was an option," the Professor said. "As such, we felt it was important to test as many aspects of what will be required of you as possible. It may seem a bit harsh, but our world is becoming an especially harsh place. This test was designed to help show you that, as well as prepare you for it, while giving us an idea of what to expect from you as an X-Man."
"Ja dude, und you did awesome!" Kurt said.
"None of you get it, do you?" Bobby yelled at last. "I almost died in here, and yeah, I know now that wasn't possible with the safeties in place, but I didn't know that at the time and it sure as hell felt like I was going to die! The whole life flashing before my eyes thing, that actually happened. And you guys come down here and talk like it's some necessary thing, like it's no big deal that you threw me into this. Did you ever consider what it would be like for me?"
"Don't point fingers at me, ah've been against this whole stupid idea from the start," said Rogue, folding her arms and glaring at Cyclops.
The team leader tried to ignore Rogue, but there was anger in his voice. "Look, we needed to know, all right? It's not like you've proven yourself the shining example of maturity, even in combat situations. How do we know you're going to be able to handle yourself again Magneto, or all this anti-mutant sentiment that's being drummed up? For all we knew you'd fall apart."
"Screw you Scott, Mr. High and Mighty X-Man," Bobby said, his anger at the situation forming into ice around his hand. With one quick swing, he punched Scott with a hook to the jaw. Scott tumbled to the ground. "I don't know how any of you can call yourselves the heroes when you mess with one of your own like this."
Bobby walked past the stunned X-Men towards the door. As he reached the door he stumbled a bit and slumped against it as a wave of exhaustion came over his body. Kitty ran to help steady him, but he shrugged her hands off his shoulders. He hit the panel next to the door and it slid open with a hiss. He stalked out.
"Bobby!" Kitty called out, making to follow him.
"Kitty, wait," Xavier said. "Give him time. He's been through a lot, and he needs to sort it out himself. We weren't fair to him, but hopefully he will come to see why."
A/N: One chapter to go, some resolution to the issues at hand. My profile has an updated list of future stories for those that are interested. They won't all be as action packed as this one has been, but will be part of the same timeline/story arch. Thanks again for reading.