Degrees

Based on X-men movies and comics universe

Disclaimer: Iceman and other X-men characters are owned and copyright of Marvel and 20th Century Fox. They are being used here for non-profit entertainment only.

Part Two: Ronny

I try to catch my breath, but all I do is spit blood. I manage to push myself up on my hands and knees, only to receive another kick in the stomach. I crash down again, tasting dust and concrete... My name is Ronny Drake, and right now, I'm getting my ass kicked. But I guess I should back up some.

I just started college, majoring in political science. I'm also an activist for human rights. One of the first things I did at the university was join the Human League. That is how I found out about the secret meeting of the Friends of Humanity. The FoH is a clandestine group that fights for human rights. Their founder, who we only knew as "The Leader" was going to conduct a secret rally. I had only heard rumors about the FoH and The Leader, so I was more than intrigued to see what they were about.

I arrived at the abandoned building and knocked on the door. I told the guy the secret password, and was in. The meeting was…interesting. The Leader introduced himself as Graydon Creed. He went on and on about how mutants were endangering our future. He brought up Magneto several times, reminding us all how close we came to extinction after "The Incident" a few years back. Then he attacked the government for not having the courage to implement the obvious solution: using the mutant cure on ALL mutants, forcibly if necessary. The mutants that did not want to take the cure, he said, were doing so because they were hell-bent on taking over the world. I nodded for most of the talk, but that little bit at the end was a little "over the top", I thought. Nevertheless, I decided to stick around and talk to as many of the FoH as I could. I guess time flew by, and I found myself to be one of the last ones there. There was only one man that I had yet to meet, and I was not leaving until I did.

One of the men there said the Leader was in the back, but he was not taking any visitors. I started going on and on about how I had to meet him. I suppose he got tired of my whining, so he let me pass. This part of the building was dark, and I walked towards the only room with light. Before I could knock on the half-open door, I heard voices inside. I don't know why, but I just stood behind the door and listened.

"…so this woman, what's her name, Raven? How do we know she will not double-cross us?"

"Her situation is dire, Graydon. Her sentence is life in prison, and without her powers, her chances of escape are less than zero. Our agent indicates that she is willing to give us the information we seek if we can…arrange her departure from prison."

"How much information? All of it?"

"It looks like that depends on how much we can pay her afterwards."

"Money is no object, Jeremy. I want to know everything: the whole layout of the school, their secret areas, their defense capabilities, the brand of cereal they eat in the morning. Everything."

"I understand, sir. I assume you want our experts ready to dissect the information and find a way to destroy these X-men."

"I don't want to destroy the X-men, Jeremy. I want to destroy their whole damn school."

"Uhhh…Graydon, the children, their students, they live on the grounds…I suppose we can place a bomb during a school break or something…"

"…you pathetic little coward…don't you understand? My war is not against the X-men, it's against the whole idea of mutants! The whole concept of a school for mutants…it's repulsive! Immoral! If mutants are allowed to live, they WILL be our extinction. Ask yourself, did Magneto stop to think about all our human children before he tried to annihilate our whole existence? No he didn't, and you know why? He understood this is war, as do I. Jeremy, the only good mutant is a dead mutant. So don't you wimp out on me. We are going to wipe out the Xavier mansion from the face of the Earth, and all the filthy mutants that live in it!"

A low gasp escaped my lips involuntarily at that point.

"…who's there?"

Oh shit, I thought. I ran as fast as I could, not knowing where I was going. I heard voices behind me. I went up a dark set of stairs, until I reached a hallway full of doors. The room closest to me turned out to be an abandoned file room. Crouching behind some old file cabinets, I lay as quietly as I could, waiting for the inevitable…

They say that before you die, you see your whole life pass before your eyes. They say you can see your past mistakes, your errors and triumphs. Sitting there in the dark for what seemed like an eternity, I had plenty of time to do just that.

It hit me like a train, the whole reason why I was so anti-mutant. It was not a desire to "cleanse our world". No, it was about Bobby. Always was. To be fair, I had some anti-mutant feelings before that horrible day when Bobby brought his friends home…I'd seen the articles describing how these mutants were destined to inherit the Earth. How was I supposed to feel, knowing no matter how hard I worked at things, no matter what I did, I was no match for them? The point was brought home when that mutant kid in school used his power to sucker-punch me one time…I can't say I shed a tear when I saw the news of his murder. Anyway, I was somewhat resigned to the whole idea, but then my brother, the perfectionist, appears back from his fancy school. He always received the most affection, and I was always the one getting in trouble. He went to a school for the "gifted". Me, I was lucky to get all C's. He would probably go to some extremely expensive university, use up all my parent's money, and I'd be left with nothing. And then came the icing on the cake! Look, I'm a mutant! Look what I can do, whoopeedeedoo! And my parents? They looked dumbstruck, unable to say anything…"we still love you Bobby". Yeah, if it had been me saying I was a mutant, they would have kicked my sorry butt out of the house immediately! But not Bobby, their perfect son, for him we have to try to help him. Great. Now my overachieving brother was also going to inherit the Earth with the rest of his friends. Great.

When I called the police, I wanted him to get in trouble for once in his life. I wanted him to feel like I felt: rejected. And then things got way out of control. And then he was gone.

I won't lie; my parents treated me 100 better after that. That part worked out great. But I still deeply resented him, along with all his mutant friends. I did not make a mystery of my feelings on the mutant matter, and suddenly I found myself being more popular at school. And I guess it grew from there…God, what an idiot I've been! Just an immature, desperate for attention little kid. And now I see that I'm way over my head. I see where my hatred for mutants would eventually lead, and I couldn't stand the idea. This guy, Graydon, he would not think twice about murdering children. Mutants or not, these were little kids! He wanted to exterminate every single one of them; he wanted to kill Bobby.

I tried to fight it, but I started to cry. Regardless of how shitty I treated him, Bobby was always willing to help me out. He could seemingly do no wrong. Maybe that's why I was so jealous of him all my life. But even with that jealousy, I could not escape from a simple fact: I missed my brother.

Hours later, I managed to compose myself. I had not heard a single sound for a long time. Perhaps they gave up, figured it was the wind, or a mouse…Opening the door slowly, I looked around the dark hallway. Nobody. Eventually I made it outside of the building. The street was deserted, with no signs of life. I stopped shaking long enough to grab my cell phone and dial.

"Westchester County, New York…Xavier School for students, or something…what do you mean it's not listed?...crap, fine."

As I put the phone in my pocket, I heard footsteps behind me.

"I can give you the number for that school if you want."

The man stepped out of the shadows. It was Graydon Creed.

"Umm…Mr. Creed, I was…"

"Shhh, we'll have a lot of time to talk inside."

From out of nowhere, a couple of men grabbed me and pushed me back inside the building.

They looked at my ID's. Some guy ran a gadget over my head and announced I was not a mutant. That seemed to interest Graydon even more.

"You were in our meeting, were you not?"

"Yes, sir."

"So what is your connection to the Xavier school, Mr. Drake? Why were you calling them?"

"I…I don't know what you are talking about. I had some car trouble and was trying to call a cab."

"Really?"

What followed was not very pleasant at all. One guy grabbed me from behind while the other took his sweet time beating me to a pulp…not something I want to dwell on. When I thought I could not take any more, they stopped.

"I'll ask again, Mr. Drake: what do you know about the Xavier school?"

I could only mutter incoherencies from out of my bloodied mouth.

"Are you a spy for them, perhaps? Do you know anybody in the school?"

I could tell Creed was trying to make sense of the whole situation. I was trying to come up with something to say, but I couldn't think straight.

"Were you perhaps snooping around earlier, after the meeting? I though I heard something, so we decided to hang around and see what came out of the building, which turns out to be a human…what did you hear, Mr. Drake? Were you calling to warn them? To warn somebody?...a friend, perhaps, or a relative?"

I knew that if I said something, they would hunt Bobby down. Maybe use him for information or something. And then they would kill him. I knew that for sure. And me? Well, they would probably kill me whether I talked or not.

"So still nothing to say, boy? Very well…"

And then it came again, blow after blow after blow, until the now and the present. I raise myself up again, I stand slowly, weakly, and I look into Creed's eyes.

"I'm not telling you shit, creep…"

Creed stares at me, hatred in his eyes.

"Have it your way."

How ironic. Here I am, a member of the University's Human League, trying to protect mutant lives and paying with my life for it. The blows come harder this time, and soon everything goes black…


"Is he dead?"

"I'm pretty sure he is, but I'm not a Doctor, boss."

"What should we do with the body, Mr. Creed?"

"Dump it in an alley down by the mutant slums. Make it look like he was attacked and killed by one of them."


The first time that the darkness cleared, it came back quickly. All I could think of was how I had to warn Bobby.

The next time, I find my brother sitting by my bed. With difficulty, I manage to tell him everything. I see his demeanor change into a Bobby that I've never seen before. He's focused, serious, and from all evidence, mad as hell. No, I lie. I have seen this side of him before. It happened a few weeks before Bobby left for Xavier's. The school's resident bully, Rocky Beasley, was giving me hell every day. Bobby found me crying in my room and made me tell him what the problem was. His expression then was like the one now. I don't know what he told Rocky or what he did to him, but Beasley never bothered me again. The memory brings a crooked smile to my beaten-up face.

"Ronny, I'm so sorry you had to go through this."

"It's not your fault, Bobby. It's my own damn fault. I was…Bobby, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For everything…I just..."

"It's ok, Ronny. It's ok. You need to get some rest. Mom and Dad should be back any moment. And I need to take care of some business."

Bobby stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"Me and the X-men have a score to settle with Graydon Creed."

I looked at Bobby then and for the first time saw him as a man. I closed my eyes and smiled again. Look out, Creed. My brother is going to kick your ass.

Next: Iceman Unleashed!

Thanks for the reviews!