Iceman

Brooklyn General Hospital.

Cecilia Reyes covered her mouth as she yawned and dropped her clipboard onto the secretary nurse's desk. Having just finished the last of her rounds at the hospital, she was ready to say good-bye to Marcy and call it a night, but the portly middle aged woman wasn't there.

"Marcy?" she asked aloud, a bit annoyed at the absence of the only real friend she had made since she started working at Brooklyn General. Cecilia turned away from the desk and looked down one of the halls.

"Cecilia," Marcy said from the infirmary hall opposite of the one Cecilia looked down. The Puerto Rican doctor glanced towards Marcy, and began walking towards her with a crease in her brow.

"There you are," Cecilia said on her way down the hall to see Marcy. She was looking into the room Cecilia had visited earlier, and had a curious look on her face. "I was just about to check out. What's going on?"

"An investigator from the state department showed up to make an ID on those two super heroes that came in," Marcy replied, biting down onto her lip. "It turns out they're not super heroes at all. They're talking about pulling the plug..."

"What?" Cecilia barked, staring at Marcy in response to the almost inconceivable thought. "Even if they're not really super heroes, how could they just do that? I saw the news report and the footage they showed!"

"Apparently they're wanted criminals," Marcy explained as she looked to Cecilia and shrugged her shoulders, then looked back to the infirmary room. "Responsible for a bunch of property damage; bank robberies. They even killed some cops."

Cecilia glanced away from Marcy and looked to the hospital's tiled floor.

What kind of mess did Bobby get into? She thought to herself, before looking back up to the infirmary room. Two police officers, a man in a brown trench coat and suit were talking with a doctor and another nurse.

"They can't just kill them in their sleep like that," Cecilia muttered, shaking her head in disgust with a snort. "It was clear as a day they saved those kids' lives."

"I don't know what to say..." Marcy shook her head as well.

"Well, I think I know exactly what to say," Cecilia said as she pressed the frame of her rounded glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose, and walked away from Marcy's side into the infirmary room.

"-- That's right, Detective," she heard Doctor Jehnson say she approached the gathering in Maxwell Markham and Martin Blank's hospital room. "Their names were left anonymously when they were brought in."

"Well, they haven't any immediate family to speak of. Neither of them are likely to wake..." the Detective glared down to his pad of notes and then back up to Jehnson. "And with the list of crimes against them is pretty harsh, the City doesn't want them on their tab. So..."

"Excuse me, but their "tab?"" Cecilia immediately dove into the conversation, her eyes glaring from Jehnson and then to the detective standing before the two police officers. "I'm Doctor Cecilia Reyes and I was on call when these two patients came in."

"Doctor Reyes," the Detective nodded in respect, though glaring away from her for a moment to Doctor Jehnson, who in turn stepped to Cecilia's side.

"Is there anything you have to add to the situation here, Cecilia?" He asked, slipping his hands into his long white jacket pockets and looking to her.

"Oohh, yes," Cecilia squinted behind her round framed glasses as she nodded her head vigorously to Doctor Jehnson. "I have something to add to the situation here all right..."

"Sure quick on your feet for such a big guy," Iceman spouted as his icy fists augmented triple in size and he delivered a solid punch into Snowstorm's jaw, though barely moving the snow goliath.

Bobby tried following the attack up with another fist, but Jack reached out and grabbed his wrist before he could connect, twisting it with all his strength. Iceman groaned in pain as he tried to move with the bending of his forearm, but Snowstorm dropped a closed fist onto his shoulder and forced him to the pavement.

"Ow... no fair..." Bobby said under painful gasps for breath as he looked up to Snowstorm from the ground, hugging his hurt wrist close to his torso. "You didn't even give me a chance to say uncle."

"Why can't you just shut up and give me your power, Bobby?" Jack asked, shaking his head side to side as he reached down and grabbed Bobby by his jacket, lifting him up off the pavement just barely. "You're just making this harder for me."

Bobby smiled mischievously as his eyes locked with those of Snowstorm's, his brow folded slightly. "Good, then maybe you'll reconsider the whole darn thing and come get a drink with me at Harry's? We got those umbrella things you put in the drinks that you liked so much."

"Heh, not likely man..." Jack, Snowstorm, shook his head and dropped kicked Iceman in the chest, sending him flying into the street. "Drinking so much is what got me in this situation in the first place."

As Iceman rolled off the street's pavement on his back, a sled of ice began to solidify under him out of the moisture in the air and seemed to reposition him to his feet as it lifted him into the.

"That's only because Loki preys on the weak and those in dire situations. Harry told me all about your wife wanting you back and your car being wrecked outside of town," Bobby said as the sled of ice carried him around Snowstorm's position on the street.

Jack watched as Bobby circled him on that sled of ice, and drew his fist back in preparation to deliver a powerful blow into one of his sled's support pillars, but his arm was struck by a powerful beam of ice that knocked him off balance.

"You know this isn't the first time that kook's been interested in my powers, either, and now you're just playing into his hand," Iceman said, watching Jack as he lost his balance but started to regain his footing quickly. "Thanks a lot, pal."

Snowstorm sent his other arm reeling through the sled, but Bobby jumped off and onto the streets just in time to avert a nose dive from the end of his sled.

"'Tis time to put this game to an end," a sinister and cold voice suddenly crept up on him from behind just as his feet touched the ground with a click from his boots. He spud around abruptly to search for the source of the voice, only there was nothing.

"What the -- ?" Bobby muttered as he looked around the empty snow filled streets. Snowstorm took the opportunity given and rose quickly, bringing his clenched fists down onto Iceman's open upper back side. "AGH!"

He groaned and dropped to the street, an overwhelming pain rolling over his back. Jack reached down to the fallen Iceman with both hands and wrapped them both down around his head, squeezing firmly as he lifted him back up.

The familiar stirring blue aura began erupting from Bobby's torso and head upon Snowstorm's touch. Bobby closed his eyes and gasped as he had already began feeling an emptiness develop in the pit of his stomach again.

"Oh God... unh... not again..." Iceman began kicking his legs and grabbing at Jack's large, snow covered hands in an attempt to break his grasp. He groaned once again, muttering. "If I squealed the words 'lemmego! lemmego!' over again, would you go for it?" Snowstorm merely squeezed his hands against Bobby's skull harder. "Ack! I guess not..."

"Cans't thou feel it, Snowstorm?" that voice called out again, but this time to Jack. Bobby immediately recognized it as Loki and looked around to see nothing. But before he could reply he felt a choking sensation in his throat. "Thou's powers are steadily increasing with every passing moment."

Snowstorm could feel definitely feel it. The aura radiating around Iceman soon became a flurry of lights and energy seeping out of him and into Jack. Bobby squinted and closed his eyes. He could feel the very life force inside being sucked out of him, and he knew it would be soon before he could no longer fight back.

"For the longest time it was driving me crazy inside," Jack said in a raspy breathe as the energies from Iceman's body flowed into him. "My wife, my family... I had done something stupid and thrown all of it away just for a few nights out with the guys and a few beers."

Bobby opened his eyes as he strained against Snowstorm's brute strength, giving him a skeptical look. "Okay, maybe a lot of beers..." Jack said with a sigh, biting down onto his large, purple bottom lip. "But it ruined my home life. I never thought I'd get the chance to fix my mistakes. Then finally... FINALLY... just when I do get that chance, I took a curve wrong...."

"And then I crashed my car into some other guy rounding the same curve," Jack let out a laugh at the irony of his story, and the energies coming from Bobby's body began to flare as they flowed into him faster and faster and still Bobby struggled against his grasp. It was human nature to fight. "When I woke up in the crunched up cab of my car and smelled gasoline, I was sure it was all about to be over."

"Why... unh... why are you.. t-tellin' your story to me and not to the guy on 60 minutes?" Bobby finally let himself hang there in the snow goliath's hands, closing his eyes gasping frantically for his next breath as his mutant powers, and his life, were being stolen from him.

"Because..." Jack muttered pulling Bobby's face closer to his and staring a hole through him before he continued. "I'm trying to make this quick for you. Like I said, I really am sorry for doing this... but... I want you to understand what kind of power he has over me... what kind of power that's driving me... heh, I'm not even thinking like myself.

"When he came, I made a deal with the devil, and hey... here I am now. Try to understand, Bobby. This is for my family... This is for my life. You're just in my way."

Bobby tried to speak out, but only a hoarse breath came from his lips. He learned what seemed like forever ago that there was no way he could physically overpower his opponent. But there had to be another way to get out of his grasp.

Iceman opened his eyes and clenched his teeth down painfully as he looked around the area. Just down the sidewalk, he saw it. He saw what could be his ticket out of Snowstorm's wrenching hold.

A fire hydrant.

Bobby closed his eyes tightly and concentrated on all the water beneath the city streets leading directly into that hydrant, even with all the pain and emptiness overwhelming him. There had to be at least some control left over his powers, and some strength left in him for it to work.

"C'mon, c'mon..." He grunted and moaned against all the pressure on his skull. Finally, he let out what would have been his last breath and let out a battle cry. "ARGHH!!"

"What are you -- huh?" Jack started to say, but it was then. It was then the fire hydrant's red casing exploded, half frozen water gushing out and into Snowstorm with the force of a speeding semi-truck.

Bobby was thrown clear from Jack's grasp and onto the hard street pavement as Snowstorm was sent flying into a nearby building.

The water began building up into him with powerful force, freezing on contact and encasing him in a rock hard glob of ice. Eventually the over pouring water was stopped by it's base freezing over, but Snowstorm was pinned against the brick building's wall and immobile nonetheless.

"Ungh..." Bobby groaned as he tried to push himself up to his feet, but fell short and collapsed onto his side. He settled for rolling onto his back and staring up into the sky and falling snow.

Just before he started to lose grip on his consciousness, he heard the distant sound of whooping. With every breath he took, it became closer, and closer, and he could see what looked like a bulky helicopter of some sort descend through the snowy clouds.

Back at the Hospital...

"I can't believe you, or even anyone with a head attached to their shoulders properly would say what's about to go on in there would be any brand of justice," Cecilia barked, throwing her arms up in the air as she walked out of the infirmary room with Doctor Jehnson close behind.

"They're criminals, menaces. You heard what they said in there, Reyes!" He said in a powerful yet low voice as he grabbed her by her arm. Cecilia spud around to face him before he could pull her towards him, balling up her fist and ready to let loose. Her fellow Doctor flinched at the expression on her face and released his arm, but held onto his dignity firmly. "Is this about the guy that came in with them?"

"Bobby?" Cecilia spit out, but immediately realized the error of mentioning his name and shook her head. "Erh... no! You saw the news on the waiting room Tv like the rest of us, and you know it was clear as day they saved those kids. And now they're both stuck in comas and they can't even defend themselves against these accusations!"

"Look, Cecilia," Doctor Jehnson said calmly as he looked around, seeing the head nurse Marcy standing not too far by. He straightened the glasses on his head, then looked back to her. "I can see you're taking this pretty hard for some reason, but I'm telling this to you as a friend. If you're hiding something about your friend "Bobby" and those two in there, you can lose your job."

"Get off of my ass, I'm not hiding anything," Cecilia shook her head, and though knew she was lying to some extent, pressed on. "The City, the Police... they treat all the costumed super yuppies running around out there, who actually do make some symbolence of difference in the world, all the same and for what reason?"

Cecilia put her hands on her lips and sighed, looking away from Doctor Jehnson who in turn broke his eye contact. Then it hit her. Bobby and the X-Men, what the City and Police were going to do to Maxwell Markham and Martin Blank.

She was a mutant and knew what it was like to get the finger because someone had to be responsible for what was wrong with the world, and for some reason everyone thought it just made so much sense that it was them.

Though she didn't know if Markham and Blank were mutants or not like her, she did know how easy it was to believe someone like them could be responsible for it all. And even if they were, somehow inside she knew she had gone weak and sympathized...

"Doctor Jehnson, look I..." Cecilia started to say, but trailed off. Jehnson looked up to her, his lips curling up to the side of his cheek.

Before she could continue, a woman's horrific scream came from the room behind them, followed by the sound of gunshots and another painful cry, catching the attention of everyone in the infirmary hall.

Jehnson and Reyes wanted to move to investigate, but were both frozen in their tracks as silence grew between them and everyone on the floor.

"Are you going to be okay, Bobby?" a voice asked. Bobby opened his eyes and looked up to see Forge, his former teammate in the X-Men, step towards him and away from a group of SHIELD agents. He nodded and set down the cup of coffee the paramedics had given him.

"Yeah, I should be," He said with a distant tone to his voice that Forge noted. Bobby lifted his knee up from off the ambulance's edge and pressed against his chest as he leaned against the open ambulance door.

When he awoke, Bobby was greeted by three paramedics and a small group of SHIELD agents including the mutant maker Forge. Candy had apparently gotten to the authorities and SHIELD was contacted about the situation. By time the scene had been created, many curious spectators were on the streets huddled together in the cold.

Upon arriving on scene, the paramedics checked Bobby out for injuries, but his ice form had protected him from anything staggering, and now he was sitting at the back of an ambulance with a blanket and a warm cup of coffee.

Maybe it was from the exhaustion of his strength and powers, or Jack's magic power stealing abilities, but he could feel the cold inside. He could feel the cold wrapped around the city, even though it was beginning to fade with the restraint of Snowstorm.

And he could feel the heat of the coffee in his hands. The warmth of the blanket around his shoulders, and the cold his legs felt from hanging off the edge of the ambulance. The Iceman wasn't used to such an overwhelming mixture of temperatures around him, and he didn't know what that meant.

"We'll contact you for a more detailed debriefing on what happened here when you're more up to it," Forge said as he looked over his shoulder to see one of the SHIELD agents nod to him, signifying that Snowstorm was fully restrained and ready for travel. "Are you sure you don't want me to contact Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men?"

"Haven't been much for group participation lately," Bobby said as he moved away from the ambulance wall and let himself drop onto his feet from it's edge. "I'll be fine, thanks for everything though. And congrats on your new position with SHIELD."

"Thanks, Bobby," Forge nodded to him with a bit of an ironic grin on his face, and began walking backwards towards the SHIELD transport. "It's been... interesting so far, to say the least. Good luck to you."

"Be seein' ya," Bobby said as Forge turned around and walked towards the transport ready for departure. The paramedics were packing up as well. It was time he finally got home himself, and got some sleep.

Epilogue

Jack Brown closed his eyes and sighed as he leaned into the cold, metallic holding cell wall of the SHIELD transport. The battle with Bobby Drake and the confrontation with his wife had left him in complete exhaustion, mentally as well as physically.

He had long gotten over the thought that everything that had happened to him was just a dream. For the first time, he was thinking clearly. Thinking of what it was he agreed to and why, and of the irony of it all. What would happen to him now?

"Snowstorm.... Jack..." that patronizing voice he had come to loathe so much called out to him before he could even think of the possibilities. Jack finally looked up to the corner of the cell to see the source of the voice.

Loki stood tall in the shadows of the transport's cell, cloaked in a green robe of sorts, etched with yellow lining, and his hands were clasped within the baggy sleeves. He was probably coming to take him back to further their agreement, Jack thought.

"Loki," Jack said with a hint of remorse in his voice, but he wasn't afraid of what would happen next. The Prince of Valhalla slowly stepped out from the darkness, standing high over Jack with a wicked grin painted on his face.

"To quote the people of Midgard..." Loki began to say as he looked down to Jack, but paused to study and to absorb the clueless expression on his face.

Jack watched as Loki slid a hand out from his robe's sleeve and touched his shoulder. He glanced down, and for a moment he didn't understand. But then the faint smell of gasoline hit his nostrils.

When he looked back up to Loki, the sadistic grin seemed to pierce into his soul. The smell of gas erupted into the smell of burning car interior, and he felt the room to begin heating up.

"Unnh... huh... agh... huh..." Jack began panting as the sudden rush of heat overcame him and sweat appeared on his brow. He swallowed hard and squinted his eyes as the pain building deep inside of him erupted from his pores into flames. "ARGHH!!!"

Loki didn't flinch a bit as Jack began screaming and flailing wildly in agony as the flames engulfed his entire body. He felt an overwhelming pleasure take him as Jack lifted his head through the flames and looked up to him.

"'A deal is a deal.'"