Iceman

Emma Frost

Harry

Tanya Redfield

Sherry Redfield

Watch as numerous passengers flood themselves from the departing aircraft into the John F. Kennedy Airport's lobby. See the one with the white business suit, that fits the curves and apparently unnatural bust size of her body perfectly?

That would be Emma Frost, current Headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy. Former teacher of the Hellions, and White Queen of the Hellfire Club 's Inner Circle.

Right now, she's looking around for me. I told her I'd meet her here. And hey, I'll admit it. I need her help right now. But you know what? I think I'll make her scream on the inside and then out... just for old times sakes.

Bobby Drake, you are such a little devil sometimes...

"Robert Drake, you inconsiderate spec of a man..."

Emma Frost walk up behind Bobby, turning him around by the arm and using a brief mind bolt to cause him to trip back into the vending machine. Few boarding and unboarding passengers bothered to glance their way.

"Emma! Hey," Bobby replied with a mock surprised, smiling. "What're you doing here? Your plane wasn't supposed to arrive until..." He glanced to his watch. "Twenty minutes ago."

"You made me look for you on purpose, Robert, and you know it."

"Oh c'mon. You're exaggerating!" Bobby turned back to the vending machine partially, straightening out his dollar bill on it's edge. Emma Frost narrowed her eyes.

"I'm a telepath, you moron. Don't you think I can tell when someone's lying?" Emma crossed her arms across her chest, and Bobby couldn't help but glance that way.

He himself then crossed his arms, one handing moving to his chin and he's thought about it. With all the positions she's held, Emma Frost has always demanded respect. Bobby Drake had to be of the only people who didn't fear her authority.

"Y'know... that's a good point you have there, Emma," Bobby replied nonchalantly, dropping the hand from his chin and nodding. "I apologize."

Sighing, Emma unfolded her arms and turned to leave. Bobby turned back towards her from the vending machine, shoving the dollar bill back into his pocket.

"Hey-ey, I was just playing around Emma!" Bobby pleaded, smiling to her. "Don't leave. There's this little girl. She might be one of your students one day..."

Emma arched a brow, turning back around to Bobby and narrowed her eyes. Bobby was sincere in his pleads, though his voice was too much of a mix of being laid back and enthusiastic for her.

"So you didn't call me down here to waste my time with stupid jokes?" Emma asked harshly. Bobby took another moment to think.

"Well, I did... but only after you meet her..." Emma sighed. Bobby held himself back from chuckling, only grinning really wide. She began walking in the other direction with him, heading across the Airport to the baggage check.

"So how did you find me, anyway?" Bobby asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Use your telepathic abilities?"

"On the contrary... I just followed your stench," Emma replied coldly. Bobby bit his bottom lip, holding back a grin. Meeting up with old friends was so much fun.

"You seen Jessica?"

"I think she's in the bathroom, I don't know."

"Game starts in like, five minutes!"

A few lockers away, a young woman stared at herself in the shower room mirror. Staring back at her was Jessica Mastiff who was haunted by the past year's events....

"Look at them all," Bolt stated. "Flatscans going about their lives. All there for the picking."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Blizzard asked, bringing her ice-scythe up. "The time has come for the sacred culling!!"

"Yes," X-Man replied. "Pale Riders attack!!"*

( *Excerpted from the Apocalypse: Ageless Fury Collected Edition - Dino )

"Jessica?"

Turning away from the mirror, Jessica shook her head and looked to Monica. She almost wanted to kick herself for getting lost in her own thoughts...

"Sorry," she replied, faking an embarrassed smile. "Was kinda thinking about something."

"Well, c'mon, girl, geeze. Our game's against some yups from a Westchester town."

"Yeah..." Jessica rose a brow, smiling. "I'll be out there in a minute."

Monica patted Jessica on the arm, returning her smile before leaving the locker room with another girl. Jessica looked back in the mirror.

"Uhh..." Iceman moaned as he slowly stood, watching the Enforcers approach. "Damn."

"That's the least of your worries!!"

Before Bobby could do anything, something slammed into him. Standing above him was Blizzard, wielding her ice-scythe.

"You are weak," she stated. "You have no place in the new world order. You have great power, yet you squander it. You have so much wasted potential. Better to put you out of your misery."

Sighing, Jessica turned away from the mirror and grabbed her skates and hockey stick. She threw the skates over her shoulder, and walked out of the locker room behind her team mates and fellow employees.

E.S.U. Parking Lot.

Bobby shut the door to Hank McCoy's white, Lincoln Navigator, and waited as Emma did the same. Her blue eyes traveled across the grounds, finding a large carving in concrete on the lawn before the campus.

"Empire State University?" Emma inquired allowed as she looked up the large university, turning to Bobby. "What are we doing here?"

"Oh, y'see... there's a hockey game going on in the rec hall later on, and..."

"A hockey game?" Emma demanded before Bobby could finish his sentence. Bobby looked at her as if he were expecting more of her.

"You preach respect, yet you don't allow me to finish my sentence?"

"My apologies," Emma felt like giving a curtsy out of sarcasm, if the performance itself wasn't below her. "Continue."

"As I was saying..." Bobby rolled his eyes, holding back another smile. "There's a hockey game going on in the rec hall later on, and I promised the girl and her mother I would meet them here before it, and bring you along to introduce you to them."

"Ah," Emma nodded, striding beside Bobby through the campus grounds. "...You wouldn't dare be trying to say this was a date, would you Robert?"

"Of course not, Emma," Bobby replied with dignity. "We're professionals after all."

Emma nodded in agreement. For a moment, she almost thought of Bobby as somewhat mature... until he held out a bouquet of chiseled roses. She couldn't help but take in the detail of each rose, until she realized what she was doing.

Bobby grinned for a moment as he saw the look in her eyes. Emma harshly pushed the flowers and Bobby's arm aside, and began walking towards the campus.

"Does this mean no kiss?"

Sherry drilled a finger into her ear, trying to clean out the wax. Tanya's face tightened a bit as she watched her daughter look at the ear wax on her finger tip.

"Sherry babe, that's grose..."

"Sorry," Sherry replied, rubbing it off on her shirt.

"Ooooh Taaanyaaa," a voice called. Tanya smiled at the sound of the voice, turning her head to see Bobby walk through the near empty stands to her, Emma Frost trailing.

"Hey Bobby."

"Tanya, this is my friend -- "

"Ahem," Emma broke in, cutting Bobby off.

"Oh, I mean 'associate'," Bobby corrected himself, rolling his eyes. "Emma Frost. She's the Headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy for Gifted Youngsters."

Tanya turned her head to Emma, smiling and extending a hand. Emma shook it, and crouched down to get an eye to eye view of her daughter. Sherry glanced to her, and offered a somewhat forced smile.

"And what's your name?" Emma asked, almost kindly.

"Sherry," the young girl replied, blowing one of her sloppy pig tails from her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, Sherry."

Bobby knelt down beside Emma, furrowing his brows. Emma glanced his way, and Bobby moved to whisper to her.

"Geeze, Emma... you almost seem like a kind person," Bobby said. In an instant though, Emma shot her elbow backward into Bobby's ribs. Bobby almost fell over from the sudden elbow to his ribs, catching himself on his hands. "Ow..."

"I think I like you," Sherry chuckled a little. Emma couldn't help but smile herself.

"Your mother, and that thing over there told me you were having some weird dreams. Could you tell me about them, Sherry?"

"That 'thing'," Bobby muttered. "What am I? An unidentified noun?"

"Actually...." Emma interjected, sending a glance to Bobby. Sherry chuckled again. "So Sherry, what are these dreams like?"

"They wake me up a lot, and seem real sometimes..." Sherry explained, shrugging to herself. Tanya listened to the conversation, not sure what to expect.

"Hmm," Emma nodded in understanding, drawing her fingers gently to Sherry's temple. "Try to close your eyes, dear. I'm just seeing if you have any bumps on you head."

Sherry was a little reluctant to comply, but did so. Emma closed her eyes with Sherry for a few moments, then opened them. Sherry's eyes opened as well, blinking for a moment. Emma could only smile.

"I think you'll be all right, sweetie," Emma deducted, standing up to her full height and frame. She reached into her suit pocket, and pulled out a card. "If you ever need me again, here's my card. I expect to be seeing her in a few years."

Tanya rose from her seat, and accepted the card into her hands. She was a bit surprised to see that their meeting was so quick, and simple.

"Thanks for seeing Sherry," Tanya smiled. Emma nodded, and smiled back politely. She looked to Bobby, and he rose.

"I'll be back in a sec, you two," Bobby said to Tanya and Sherry, and walked back up a few rows with Emma beside him.

"It's a little strange for a child of such young age to have an active X-factor gene in her," Emma stated. "Did you have Henry examine her?"

"Yeah, he said the results came up a little funny," Bobby bit his lip for a moment, bringing a hand up to his chin. "He said it could've been from the chemicals they put in foods that make kids mature faster, or sitting on the microwave, or something like that."

"Whatever the case, I've suppressed her powers. There shouldn't be any more incidents like you explained to me on the ride over here."

"Can telepaths do that?" Bobby asked, raising a brow.

"Well, not all of them...." Emma boasted, shrugging her head to the side. "The only payment I want is to see her at the Massachusetts Academy when her powers surface naturally."

"You know that's all up to her Mom, Emma."

"I have a feeling she'll welcome the opportunity," Emma grinned wildly. Bobby gave her a long stare, then shook his head.

"Thanks again, Emma," Bobby offered his hand. "I appreciate it, and so does Tanya."

Emma stared Bobby in the eyes for a moment, then looked down to his hand. Smugly, she turned away and walked up the stands. Bobby watched her walk away, not able to himself to the view before him.

"Hooookaaay,"Bobby quickly shook the thought from his mind, turning around and jogging down the stands. "Hey, Tanya, Sherry! Ready to see me tear up on the ice?"

Winterbrand Technologies

"A mister.... Tony Master to see you, sir," a young Asian woman announced from the door of the corporate office.

"Thank you, Kim. Show him in," replied an elderly man, adjusting his glasses. Kim nodded, and opened the door further.

A tall man walked into the room, wearing a dark gray, hooded body suit with steel gray pads and pockets on several parts of his outfit. Slung over his back was a sheath, and under the hood was a ghoulish skull mask with two yellow eyeholes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Master," the elderly Asian man smiled, standing up from his desk. "It's safe to assume that you're reputation exceeds you."

"You can say that, mister...?"

"Weiss. Alain Weiss."

"I'm assuming you have a job offer for the Taskmaster and his students?"

"Of course," Weiss replied, moving out from behind his desk. "If you'll come with me...."

Later

Bobby skated from the visitor's bench behind the rest of his team with ease, twirling the hockey stick between his fingers. Harry came out from around the five other employees under him in goalie gear, and smacked Bobby on his upper thigh.

"Hey!" Bobby yelped, turning around on his skates to face Harry with a bit of a grin. "We don't do that kind of stuff on this part of New York."

"You know I didn't mean it that way, Bobb-o," Harry grinned as he skated his way towards the goalie box, keeping a glance on his team.

"Yeah, yeah. Just keep them oversized goalie glove wearing hands to yourself, buddy."

Laughing, Harry took his goalie stance before the net. A whistle was blown. Both teams taking their positions around the center of the rink.

Jessica skated up smoothly, dragging the end of her hockey stick along the ice gradually. As she skated to the center of the rink, she would occasionally lift it and tap it against the ice. Bobby smiled as he looked up from the center of the rink, seeing Jessica take position in front of him.

Lifting her head up, Jessica looked into Bobby's eyes as she readied her hockey stick in anticipation for the ref to drop the puck. Almost on cue, both Jessica and Bobby looked back up to each other.

Blizzard raised her weapon, prepared to deliver a killing blow. Then, a large pile-driver composed of ice sent her flying.

"Maybe you're right," Iceman said, his body grown to a massive size, icicles sticking out of every part. "Maybe I do squander my power. Maybe I do have wasted potential. But, you know something? I don't really care.

"Because as far as the two of us are concerned, you're just sloppy seconds, babe. All you can do is make that little weapon. We're not even in the same league."

"Hey...." Bobby realized, his body loosening up a bit.

"It's you," Jessica realized, narrowing her eyes to Bobby and tensing up.

The referee then blew a whistle, signifying the start of the game.

NEXT ISSUE: Nearly one year after Apocalypse: Ageless Fury, it's Iceman vs. Blizzard -- Round 2! Plus, more on the Taskmaster and Winterbrand!