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 Three: Iceman
Bobby Drake kept thinking the same thing over and over again: "How could we have underestimated Graydon Creed so much!". He was doing his best to drive and stay awake. He had barely slept after the long drive from the Mansion the night before.
Fifteen minutes earlier, his brother Ronny had told him the reason why he was fighting for his life in a hospital bed. It all came down to one name.
"Creed." Bobby thought, with a fire in his eyes.
Ronny had overheard Creed's plan to destroy the Mansion and all its inhabitants.
Although unknown to the public, Graydon Creed's name was known to the X-men. He was the reputed leader of the Friends of Humanity, a mysterious group with an anti-mutant agenda. Hank McCoy had informed them that the FoH were suspected of providing false information to media outlets, as well as issuing press releases and mass electronic mailings with anti-mutant tones. This ranged from supposed attacks on humans by mutants, to allegations of a violent team of extremely powerful mutants plotting against the Government. They even used their releases for "outing" well-known personalities as mutants (which in most cases turned out not to be). The FoH was known to condone attacks against mutants. They even went as far as suggesting that the tragic "mutant massacre" in New Orleans was planned by this violent team of powerful mutants in an effort to incriminate human militia groups. The FoH itself claimed to be a peaceful association; "the voice of the average homo-sapien" as they would call themselves. There was no evidence to suggest otherwise, but the X-men took steps to find out for sure.
Bobby had been trying to reach any of the X-men, but had been unsuccessful so far.
He tried another call, this time to Peter, but could not get an answer either.
"Damn!" he screamed "Where the hell is everybody!"
Unbeknownst to him, the X-men had their hands full at the moment. While Bobby had been driving to the hospital the night before, Graydon Creed had gone public. Appearing in a taped interview for a well-known television show, he revealed himself as the leader of the Friends of Humanity. He proceeded to present "evidence" that the danger to mankind posed by mutants did not disappear after the defeat of Magneto. In fact, according to him, the mysterious group of mutants that defeated Magneto at Alcatraz was not fighting Magneto for the sake of humanity. Instead, they had been locked in battle with Magneto because both groups wanted to achieve domination over humans. Several soldiers that were supposedly in Alcatraz indicated when interviewed that both groups had fought with no consideration of the humans in the base, and both had killed human soldiers. Creed again brought up allegations that these powerful mutants had already infiltrated the highest circles of American Government. He talked about mutants that could take the form of anyone else. A janitor for a National Security Government Building related a story about one time when he saw a man that looked exactly like him walk by. Creed also pointed to the fact that the UN ambassador was a mutant, one that was apparently sighted during the Alcatraz fight killing human soldiers. Creed alleged he had detailed evidence of all these accusations, that attempts on his life had already been made by these mutants, and that he prayed it was not too late to save humanity.
The X-men had been busy all day, communicating with the Government, providing assurances to countless bureaucrats that Creed's allegations were all outrageous lies. There had already been hate crimes against mutants following Creed's announcements, and the Government feared there would be more. They urged the X-men to go public too and take steps toward showing the public that their actions were all in good faith. Knowing that Bobby's brother was close to death, but not knowing the reason why, Storm had decided not to call Bobby back to the Mansion.
Already the events had touched the Mansion indirectly. The staff had received a call from the Guthrie family. Two of the Guthrie kids were mutants, Sam and Paige, and attended Xavier's. They had gone home to visit their family for a few days. The Guthries did not make a secret of their kid's mutant genes, and everybody in the community knew it, but left them alone. However, that apparently changed after Creed's announcements. A group of masked men entered the Guthrie home and kidnapped Sam and Paige.
The X-men had their hands full, trying to deal with the Government and coming up with a plan of action regarding the kidnapping. Their communication devices were turned off or forgotten somewhere in the basement.
The students that were still awake in the Mansion were all huddled in the Rec room watching the latest developments. Nobody was near the phone when, after not being able to contact any of the team members, Bobby had settled on calling the Mansion's main number.
"Hello? Anybody, please pick up!...This is Bobby Drake. Whoever gets this, please relay it to Ororo, Kitty or Peter… I've come across some new information about Creed that suggests he is a lot more dangerous than we imagined. He's planning to target the school. I'm worried for the safety of our agent, so I'm going to try to retrieve her. As soon as you get this, meet me at the agent's last known location…I hope she's okay…please hurry!."
Bobby hung up with fear in his heart. An agent had been selected to infiltrate the FoH and find information about the true intentions of the organization. The selected agent was the only qualified person available to the team that could pass as human, because now she was. Rogue.
He had been opposed to the idea vehemently. Rogue would have to go undercover, with no way to communicate back with him or the team. She had to gain their trust, and then find out anything that she could. At the time, there were no serious indications that Creed was anything more than an idiot with a loud mouth, but something in Bobby's heart warned him against the idea.
"I don't want you to do this. It might be dangerous". He remembers telling her.
"I want to do this, Bobby. I'm a trained X-man. Well, an X-woman, actually. I can do this. You guys risked your lives in Alcatraz and I was not even there. Maybe these kinds of assignments are how I'm supposed to help the team. Please, Bobby, you need to understand." She had pleaded.
In the end, it was no use; when Rogue decided to do something, no one had the slightest chance of making her change her mind. She was given a special device that she would periodically activate and transmit her current location to the X-men computers. Before leaving to visit Ronny in the hospital, Bobby had printed out her last known location. When he first realized that it was here, the same city he was headed to see Ronny, he felt it was a strange coincidence. That feeling had been replaced with dread. All Bobby could think about was Rogue. He prayed that she was ok. Her location device was being activated on a regular basis: he knew this for a fact because he personally checked it several times a day. Still, knowing now what Creed was really capable of, and knowing his girlfriend was probably in close contact with that monster, sent chills up his spine. He loved her with all his heart, and could not even fathom the thought of something happening to her.
Finally, Bobby arrived near the location indicated on his paper, a partially-secluded wooded area. It was already late into the night. He left the car in an inconspicuous place and proceeded cautiously on foot. He saw lights up ahead, and walked towards them.
Iceman crouched quietly behind a tree. He could see up ahead a two-story building in a forest clearing. Two men stood in front of what appeared to be the main entrance. There was no sign of Rogue.
The silence of the night was suddenly interrupted by the sound of an approaching helicopter. Iceman looked on as the helicopter landed in front of the main entrance, blocking his view. There seemed to be people getting out of the helicopter, but they were exiting from the side opposite his current position. After several minutes, the pilot signaled, and proceeded to take off. Iceman could see that there was now a larger group of people, a few of them with guns. However, he also noticed what appeared to be a boy, maybe 15 years old, standing between them. The boy turned towards Iceman's location, and a flashlight suddenly illuminated his face.
"It can't be…that looks like Sam Guthrie!" thought Iceman. "What is he doing here?"
The men with guns pointed at him clearly indicated that Sam was not there voluntarily.
"It looks like Sam has been kidnapped by Creed's men! Is he the only one, and is that why I could not get a hold of anybody at the Mansion? This situation keeps getting worse. I wish I knew what was going on…what should I do?"
It only took him a few seconds to resolve his dilemma. Ronny's experience convinced him that Creed was capable of anything, so in the end, it was simple. Sam's life was in danger. Rogue's life could be in danger too. There was no way to contact the other X-men. So, he was it.
"I have to use it all. All the things I've learned. I have to defeat these men quickly, then find Creed and take him down hard."
With a mere thought, he iced his body. He assessed the situation one more time, made an ice fist, and took off towards the building extremely fast in an ice slide.
He raised his hand toward the men with guns, and fired ice spikes towards them. They went down before they knew what hit him.
"What the hell?"
"We got a mutant! Look alive, idiots!"
Everything happened very quickly after that.
Iceman froze all the guns he could see.
"Run, Sam!" he yelled at the astonished boy. Sam kicked the man that was holding him, and using his mutant power, propelled himself towards the woods in a blast of energy. One guy started running after him, but Iceman quickly made an ice wall in front of him. The guy ran straight into it, and fell down on the floor in pain.
In the meantime, one man lunged at Iceman, taking him down. Iceman's wind was knocked out, but he quickly landed a double-handed blow on the attacker's back. He pushed the man aside, and iced the floor just as two other attackers were running towards him. The men lost their footing, one sliding straight into a tree trunk, and the other meeting Iceman's clothesline.
Just then, the main entrance door opened, and five more FoH members appeared. Behind them, Iceman saw his main target. Creed. A fire fueled by anger started burning inside Iceman.
Graydon Creed looked on with fury.
"He's only one teenager! Take him the hell down! Now!" he yelled
Guns came out, as Bobby quickly created an ice shield to protect him while running towards them.
"Creed!" he screamed, doing his best Wolverine impersonation.
A violent avalanche of ice pushed the other men aside like rag dolls, until only Graydon Creed was left standing.
Creed looked in horror as a figure made of ice wrapped an ice fist around his throat.
"…what do you want?..." he managed to say, while falling down on his knees. Iceman looked down on the defeated man.
"I want you to bleed." He said acidly.
Creed's eyes grew wide with fear, as Iceman punched him in the face.
He tried to crawl away on all fours.
"..like the animal that you are" thought Iceman.
He stood up, raising his arms in a plea for clemency.
"Wait! Why are you doing this? What have I done to you?"
"You've done enough. It ends now."
Creed's fearful eyes suddenly turned violent.
"No!" he screamed, lunging at the ice mutant. Iceman successfully evaded his punches, and landed a hard punch to his abdomen, followed by an uppercut.
Creed fell on one knee, blood oozing out of his mouth.
"Stop, you maniac!"
"Look who's talking. Besides, I'm only getting started."
Iceman kicked his chest, and he fell backwards.
"Get up!" Iceman screamed. Creed just stayed on the ground, so Iceman stood him up, grabbed him, and threw him against the building wall. Creed fell down on the ground again, his nose a bloody mess.
The young X-man stood over him and freezed him to the ground.
"Do it, you freak…" Creed was able to spit the words out, even while he felt the dizziness trying to take him over. "You'll prove me right…you're all killers…you want to kill us all…"
"Wrong, asshole." Iceman said, freezing his mouth shut. Creed was defeated. Although it would certainly feel good, beating him up any more would serve no real purpose. He had to look for Rogue, after all, and find Sam in the woods.
"Stop right there, freak!" he heard the voice behind him. Iceman turned around quickly, only to freeze in place.
"Paige!" he screamed. The younger Guthrie was being held at gunpoint by one of the FoH members.
"Professor Drake!" the frightened 13-year old girl yelled between tears.
"You move and I put a bullet in her brain!"
Iceman analyzed his options, only to realize he had none. He had no chance to be faster that a gun pointed right at her temple. And while Paige had the power to shed her skin into any material, it would not be fast enough either.
"Raise your hands and step to the side, now!"
He did as he was told. The other men started to recover, and they started chipping away the ice that held Creed to the ground.
"What do I do with him, boss?" the man holding Paige asked.
"…take him inside…I want to talk to him…" Creed responded weakly, his mouth finally freed from its icy gag.
Two of the men walked towards Iceman and blindfolded him. As darkness covered his eyes, he could only think one thing: "I'm sorry, Rogue. I'm sorry, Ronny. I tried."
Next: Endgame
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