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 Four: Endgame
"Damn mutant", Graydon Creed thought as two FoH members helped him stand up.
"You okay, Mr. Creed?"
"Do I look okay?" Creed replied angrily. His face was bloodied, and his head felt like it was about to explode.
"I'm going to kill that freak." He said to himself, his words like poison coming out of a snake.
"I want this place secured. Take some men and do a perimeter check." He managed to say through the dizziness. "I don't want any more surprises, not when we are so close."
"We'll get on it."
"We have the Guthrie children secured, right?"
"Umm…the boy escaped during the fighting, when that ice kid appeared."
"And why aren't you looking for him?"
"Right away, sir."
The men that were still standing quickly assembled in teams and went out into the forest.
"I have to get my head straight." Thought Creed. "Use this to my advantage. If our information is correct, that mutant fits the power description of one of the X-men. I can only pray that's true. That would be an incredible coup. He'll tell me all I need to know, or else…And if he doesn't, we'll get what we can from the kids, or from Mystique… Now, what did that little girl call this guy…? Professor something…Drake, was it? Why does that name sound familiar?"
" I bet you were feeling pretty good about yourself back there, weren't you? Well, I guess us lowly humans have the upper hand on you now. And don't even think about making a move, or this nice little girl gets it."
Iceman sat on a chair, blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back. The only sounds in the room were the man's endless litany of harassing words, and Paige's periodic sobs. Suddenly, he felt a painful blow, as the gunman hit Iceman in the face with the back of his gun. The young X-man fell down on the floor, chair and all.
"When Creed gets here, he's gonna take his time with you. He's gonna mess you up good, kid."
He was not paying attention to the man's words, except to get clues. Facing death, he decided not to look back with regret. Instead, he looked for hope, a way to get out of this dilemma. If he was alone, it would be a different story. He did not know how much a bullet could harm him in ice form, but he would risk it if it meant a chance to escape. He needed to find Rogue, save the Guthries and God knows who else possibly being held here. But the gunman's voice came from the same direction as Paige's cries. Any attempt at escaping would most likely spell death for Paige, and that was a risk he found himself unable to take. Besides, Creed would want to interrogate him, find out everything about the X-men and their school. Iceman could lie, give him false information, and occupy him just enough to give the other X-men a chance of getting here. That is, if one of the kids had not erased the phone messages by mistake, which had happened several times before. Iceman quickly threw out that last thought. No, the X-men would hear his message. All he had to do was try to buy some time, and act only if there was a way to do so without unduly risking innocent lives.
"What's going on?" a female voice said.
"What are you doing here? I don't think you are allowed to see this stuff yet."
"Well, if you didn't notice, we are kind of short on thugs right now. Creed just wanted me to check on the situation here."
"It's all under control."
"Okay. I'll go tell him."
After a few seconds of silence, Iceman heard a blunt sound, followed by a thud.
"Are you okay?" he heard the female voice again.
"Yeah…" Paige responded
The blindfold was suddenly removed and Iceman looked up at his savior.
"Rogue!" She was holding a metal piece of pipe in her hand.
"Hi. I'm sorry it took me so long to rescue you."
"I'm just happy you did!" Iceman responded while Rogue freed his arms.
Suddenly his face turned pale.
"Have you seen Sam?"
"Guthrie? No, is he here too?"
"I told him to run away…Oh God, I hope they did not catch him…"
"My brother?" Paige said, fear stamped in her voice.
"Don't worry, we'll find him." Rogue reassured her. She looked at Iceman, her eyes pleading, as if silently telling him: "…right?".
"Yes, but first we have to come up with a plan to get out of here."
"Wait, we can't leave yet."
"Why?"
"I'll brief you on the way, and you can tell me what is going on too."
Iceman turned towards Paige.
"Paige, I need you to change your skin into the strongest, most resistant material that comes to your mind. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes". The girl said, shedding her outer skin for a layer of stone. "Done".
Meanwhile, Rogue had tied up and gagged the unconscious gunman.
"Follow me." Rogue said
"Where are we going?"
"Wait. We'll talk when we get there…there's FOH inside the building."
They walked quickly, as quietly as they could manage. Every time they heard voices, they hid. Finally, Rogue led them into an office room with a desk and a computer. Iceman locked the door while Rogue started up the computer.
"This is Creed's computer. I was finally able to get into it, and have managed to copy some of the files in it. Before we get out of here, I need to finish copying them."
Rogue put a CD in the computer and started to copy files into it.
"What's in them?" Iceman asked.
"Everything. Well, almost. Creed has been planning something big, something only his inner circle knows about…and those files have an additional password that I haven't figured out yet…I'm guessing Creed's big plan has something to do with why you and the Guthries are here?"
"Sort of. I don't know all the details either. All I know is that Creed is planning to destroy the school. I came here to find you, and kind of stumbled on the rest."
"How did you find out Creed's plan?"
"My brother, but that's a long story."
"Your brother?" Rogue asked surprised. "…so, where are the rest of the X-men?"
Iceman lowered his voice so Paige could not hear.
"I could not get a hold of any of them, so I left a message in the answering machine."
"What? You're serious?"
"Afraid so. That's why we have to hurry up and get out of here. We don't know if we have backup, and it won't take them long to figure out I escaped."
"I understand, but these files will ensure that Creed is convicted for what he's done. He's a lot worse than what we initially thought."
"I know."
"You do? Did you know he hired the people responsible for the New Orleans Mutant Massacre?"
"What? No, I didn't know."
"I'm sure you don't know this either." Rogue showed Iceman a computer folder called 'Mutant Info'. "Creed has files on many mutants, including the X-men." She opened the folder, revealing a list of documents. "Look". She pointed to one in particular: 'Ice mutant-unknown'. She opened the document, which had excerpts of interviews from people at Alcatraz. The interviews revealed the presence of a mutant that could control ice, 'presumably a member of the X-men'. Under 'Name' it only said 'Unknown'.
"At least he doesn't know who you are." Rogue said
"Oh no…" Iceman shook his head, and looked at Paige.
"Oh…" Paige understood. "I called you by your name, didn't I?"
"It's ok, Paige. I called you by your name too, remember? It was instinct, no time to think. Besides, Creed had almost passed out by then. Maybe he didn't hear it….It doesn't matter, because when we get this information to the authorities, he'll be imprisoned for a long time."
"There's more." Rogue interrupted. She pointed to another entry: 'Sabertooth'. Opening the document, she scrolled down to a scan of a newspaper. It talked about the death of a young woman named Minerva Walker. According to the article, the woman showed signs of having been killed by a wild beast.
"So Sabertooth killed that woman?"
"Apparently. And look at this." Rogue grabbed a photo from Creed's desk; a young woman smiling in a sunny day. She took the picture out of the frame and showed it to Iceman. Behind it, he read the words: "With all my love, Minerva".
"That's her then?"
"Yes, she was Creed's girlfriend. Now look at this."
In Sabretooth's document, Iceman read: "Name- Victor Creed".
"Creed? Are they related?"
"They were brothers, Bobby."
"Whoa. So Graydon Creed's brother, Sabertooth, killed Creed's girlfriend?"
"His brother, a mutant, killed his girlfriend."
"That explains things then."
"But it doesn't justify anything."
"Of course not."
The words "his brother, a mutant…" still reverberated in Iceman's head. His thoughts went to Ronny, hoping he was still okay.
"Can we go already?" Paige said impatiently.
"Almost done…and…done." Rogue replied.
"Let's go, then." Iceman exclaimed.
At that exact instant, the door of Creed's office was kicked open.
"Duck!" was all Iceman could say before a barrage of bullets flew their way. He quickly created an ice wall between the gunmen and them. Iceman looked towards Rogue and Paige.
"We're okay." Rogue said. The three of them were on the floor behind Creed's desk. Visible cracks started to criss-cross the ice wall. Iceman tried to stop them as quickly as they formed, but had no idea how long he could keep doing it.
Graydon Creed stood behind the gunmen with a smile in his face. He knew the mutants were trapped. And he knew that the girl who had called herself Rose was helping them. All three of them would soon be captured and dealt with.
He looked on as the ice wall cracks got bigger, interconnecting with each other, until the wall crumbled loudly.
"Move in, carefully!" he ordered. The men walked into the office, machine guns in hand, towards the other side of the crumbled ice wall. Once they got there, they stopped.
"Sir? You better look at this"
Creed walked in angrily.
"What?" he asked. Creed looked behind his desk and saw only the floor.
"Where the hell are they?"
The men just shrugged their shoulders.
Just outside the building, Iceman thanked the person responsible for their sudden escape.
"Thanks, Kitty." He said
"You're welcome."
Kitty Pryde had phased into the office from the outside, and had phased the three of them out to safety.
"Are the others here too?" Rogue asked
"See for yourselves." Kitty replied.
Suddenly they noticed that a heavy fog covered the area. Shots were heard. Creed and his men exited the building, only to find visibility outside down to almost zero.
"They're here somewhere! Shoot them!" Creed commanded.
The gunmen started shooting into the mist blindly, while Creed yelled in a panic.
Lightning suddenly started falling from the sky. A figure dressed in black hovered above, somewhat hidden by the fog. Storm took out a gunman with a hit of lightning, and simply blew another one away. Some of the men panicked and started to run into the woods. Creed watched as two of them suddenly flew back out of the woods, landing hard only a few feet from him.
"What the hell?" Creed thought and bit his lip in anger. It was too soon, he thought. A few more days and he would have obtained those military guns with "cure" needles for ammunition. Without those, his followers were at the mercy of the X-men's mutant powers. But he still had one trick up his sleeve. He ran inside the building.
Meanwhile, snipers started shooting from inside the building towards Iceman, Shadowcat and Rogue.
"Stay behind me!" Iceman shouted at Rogue and Paige as he created an ice wall while Shadowcat went intangible.
"I'll be back" Shadowcat said, and ran into the building in intangible form.
Colossus walked out of the woods with one unconscious gunman in each arm.
"You guys ok?" he shouted towards Iceman and Rogue.
"Don't worry about us, we're fine." Rogue answered.
Colossus nodded and ran towards a group of gunmen. When they saw the big metal guy coming towards them, they concentrated their fire on him to no effect. The bullets just bounced off his metallic skin.
Just then, Creed walked out of the building with a large gun and aimed it at Colossus. A low humming sound was heard, and then Colossus's metal skin started to spark and glow.
"Aarggh!" the big Russian screamed as he felt his body become incredibly hot, as if it wanted to explode. He fell down on his knees as Creed kept the gun's blast squarely on him.
"Colossus!" Storm screamed. Creed smiled and turned the gun on her. Suddenly, she felt as if the cells just underneath her skin were heating up to the point of boiling. An excruciating pain traveled through her body as she fell down to the ground.
Iceman looked in shock, and turned towards Rogue.
"Rogue! I have to..."
"Go! We can take care of ourselves!" she said, grabbing Paige and heading for safety.
He turned into ice and shot ice towards Creed.
"Boss, watch out!" one of the FoH screamed. Creed turned just in time to see the cold blast coming, and jumped out of the way. He rolled on the ground and then turned the weapon on Iceman.
Iceman felt his whole ice body become incredibly hot. He grimaced in pain, as it seemed like he was literally going to melt.
"What the hell is this?"! he thought.
Creed allowed himself a small smile. He shouted to the FoH that were left.
"Go take care of the other two while they are still weak!"
The gun was a military prototype that he had paid a fortune to steal. It was a sophisticated microwave gun, which shot high-powered electromagnetic beams. He kept aiming it at Iceman, who fell on his knees.
A searing pain cursed through his body. He slowly stood up, screaming as he did so.
"Impossible!" Creed said. He'd never seen anyone be able to stand a direct hit for longer than a few seconds without passing out from the pain. The gun beams were able to penetrate the subject's skin and cause the water molecules to heat up, which resulted in excruciating pain. On someone made out of metal like Colossus, the effect was even greater. However, someone like Iceman, who could lower his internal body temperature, was another story. It was a painful struggle, but Iceman was able to keep lowering his body temperature to cancel out the effects of the gun. He slowly walked closer and closer to Creed.
With difficulty, Iceman willed his body onwards. Blocking out the pain, he created an ice projectile and aimed it at the microwave gun. It hit its target, as parts of the gun were broken off and the weapon was effectively neutralized.
Iceman let out a big sigh of relief as he felt the effects of it die down.
"No!" Creed shouted. The FoH, who had surrounded Colossus and Storm, turned to look. It was all the opening that the two X-men needed. Gathering themselves quickly, the two suddenly struck their enemies. Colossus threw some about like rag dolls, while Storm spun like a tornado and knocked a few more out.
Creed saw Iceman looking at him and cracking his knuckles. Throwing away the remains of the gun, Creed ran to his car, and stepped inside. Nervously, he tried to put the key in the ignition, but his trembling hands kept missing it. Finally it went in, and the car started up. He turned the lights on, and saw right in front of the car a large man, with skin that glistened in the headlights. Creed watched in panic as the man's hands landed on the hood of the car, rocking the whole vehicle and leaving a large dent in the front. The motor died. Colossus walked towards the driver's side door and proceeded to yank it out of the car.
"You going somewhere?" he said to Creed.
Colossus grabbed him by the arm and threw him out of the car. The remaining FoH started to shoot at Colossus. Creed used the distraction to run towards the woods.
However, he ran into an angry teenage boy.
"You Creed?" Sam Guthrie asked. Creed was going to say something, but Sam kicked him in the groin. Creed fell on the ground in pain, while Sam grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Where's my sister?" Sam asked.
"I'm here!" Paige shouted, as she ran towards Sam.
"Sis!"
He let go of Creed to embrace his sister. Iceman, Rogue and Colossus caught up with them.
"Shadowcat's still inside the building, taking care of any remaining FoH." Rogue said
"I'll go help her." Colossus replied, and headed towards the building. Storm landed next to Creed, and the other X-men joined her.
"It's over." She exclaimed.
By now, Creed had managed to stand up. He was surrounded by the X-men and most of his men were defeated.
"It's not over. I have followers. Even if I'm gone, they'll continue the fight." He said defiantly.
"And we'll be there to stop them." Iceman replied. Creed turned towards him.
"Really? We're not so different, you and me…Mr. Drake."
"What are you talking about?"
"I know now why you came here…the boy at the rally, I hardly remembered his name. He was your brother, wasn't him? You found out I killed your brother and you came to kill me for it."
"Your brother's dead?" Rogue asked Iceman, surprised. Iceman only nodded to her silently. Having Creed believe that Ronny was dead was a good thing, he thought. It would help ensure Ronny's safety.
"You see? That's all I ever wanted: vengeance for all the innocents that you and your people have killed."
"Wrong again, Creed. We are not the same at all. There's a difference between justice and vengeance. I came looking for justice. And with the information we got from your computer, I'm going to get it. There're going to expose you for what you are and lock you away…You, on the other hand, what did you get from your supposed quest for vengeance? Only a poisoned life full of hate. Face it, you've become the same type of monster that your brother was."
"How did you…no, no, NO! You motherf…"
"Shut up, Creed" Iceman said, as he once more closed Creed's mouth shut with a blast of ice. Creed had been silenced; the only question was for how long.
