Iceman

 

Harry

Tanya Redfield

Sherry Redfield


Marrow

 

1:30 a.m. A dark alleyway between the 7-11 and "Barrette's Shoe 'n Sell".

"Aw shoot... ack... that isn't gonna look right..."

Bobby Drake, the temporarily retired X-Man, now profusely frustrated adventurer, knelt down before a figure. A small bottle in one hand, the other gloved with a skintight surgeon's glove like those generally sold in boxes of hair dye.

Shaking the bottle lightly, squirts of liquid splashed onto the snowy shadow before him, his gloved hand stroking the liquid in. Standing up to full height, he took a step back, both brows arching at his creation.

Okay, I've had dumber ideas before...but this takes the cake! Bobby thought to himself, a light sigh escaping his mouth. Suddenly, a large bakery truck passed by at high-speed, catching Bobby's attention in the alleyway.

The dark figure of Marrow stood at full height before him, her back turned towards the streets as trash on the ground was blown up from the powerful shockwave of the large bakery truck. Stepping forward into the brief light of the moon, Marrow's eyes narrowed towards Bobby with the dead-seriousness she was famous for.

"Mr. McCoy...?" Sherry's innocent voice called out to the X-Men's very own Hank McCoy, a.k.a. as the Beast.

"Yes, Sherry?"

Sherry had been sitting on Hank's knee easily enough, on the steel-blue couch directed towards the television set before them. The young girl had taken a liking to Hank McCoy quite quickly, her innocence dulling out his entire appearance...until now.

"Why are you big with blue fur and claws?" Hank blinked, then smiled.

"Well, Ms. Redfield, I am known as a mutant," Hank started, before in-turn being interrupted by the young girl.

" -- You mean those bad people on TV?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say 'bad'," The large furball restarted, looking down to Sherry. "Mutants are simply born different. With this, fear comes from some people who don't understand, especially the media." Hank chuckled lightly, hoping to get a response from Sherry. "But we're not all bad. Simply... misunderstood."

"Oh..." Sherry spoke with the utmost understanding.

"People like you, who have good hearts, can see through simple appearance, and learn to appreciate and befriend someone despite how they look."

"Do you think I could be a mutant?"

"Well, that little mole on your arm does look quite telling!" Hank chuckled again, grabbing at Sherry's sides lightly for gentle tickling. Sherry couldn't help but explode in laughter, falling back lightly on the couch at the tickling assaults.

Jean Grey-Summers watched on from the hall doorway of the next room, a smile growing on her face.

"You do know you can't have the kid, right?"

"I told ya, Drake. I just wanna see the kid, she is mine, isn't she? Don't I have the right to see my own child after having it taken away from me?!"

Bobby clenched his fist. What if she was telling the truth? What if the story she spoke of over the phone, a story of a "normal" appearing baby taken away from a 12 year old girl, who's virginity was stolen from her deep in the Morlock tunnels was true?

"How do you even know the child's yours? And why did you decide to see her now?"

"McCoy's shown me so much lately with those li'l toys of his. Things I've shut out from my mind... things that I wish I wouldn't of shut out." Marrow's dead-serious expression faded, as a grin formed on her face. "Alls I wanna do is see her... talk to her... that ain't so bad, so wrong, is it Drake?"

"Considering you'll put the kid in therapy for the rest of her life? I think it is." Bobby narrowed his eyes, having crossed his arms. Marrow returned the same expression, only now about to do something about it.

"Don't think ya got a choice, Drake. The human who took her dies if ya don't."

Lifting up a hand, Marrow revealed a small remote with one green button and a red button. Drawing her thumb to the red button, she kept her narrowed eyes on Bobby, drawing them down behind him where it appeared snowchild was standing.

Suddenly, a grin crept across her face as she took a look upwards, where Bobby's view quickly followed, only to see Tanya Redfield strapped to a flagpole high above, an explosive device strapped to the section of the pole holding itself over the edge.

"Fine, just... give me a second with her."

Marrow's narrowed eyes parted, forming a confused facial expression as Bobby turned around and knelt down to the snowchild.

"Hold it, Drake!"

Reaching back, Marrow gripped a bone dagger that stuck out from her back and held her hand holding the remote forward, only to have a snowchild molded into that of a little girl with food coloring for facial and body features thrown at her face.

"Shit -- !" Marrow cursed loudly as she fell backwards, the remote falling from her hand and tumbling down a few feet from her.

A wave of ice shooting up his body formed Bobby Drake into the Incorrigible Iceman once more, forming his body into it's dark blue, chisled form...chills shooting up Tanya's back at the site of so, even from such a height.

Crystallized pools of eyes widened as Marrow began to recover from the sudden blow, snow and food coloring dripping off her face and upper torso. Iceman thrust himself forward off the weight of his left foot, diving for the remote.

Blood ripped from Marrow's back as she ripped the bone dagger from her back fully, immediately launching it with dead accuracy towards the new found toy given to her by "McCoy", the Dark Beast of the AoA. As his feet skidded off the ground, sending him tumbling onto his bum, Iceman held up the remote only for electricity to burst from it's center as the bone dagger struck, sending it into the ground.

"Cripes!"

An explosion from high above dropped the disturbed Marrow's prisoner screaming and falling towards the ground. Throwing himself backwards, Iceman shot a stream of ice upwards to form a sled to catch Tanya, her screaming intensifying as her tailbone struck the absolute zero frozen sled. Sirens begin to echo through out the area, as a nearby police unit had spotted the explosion after having just exited the Dunkin' Donuts.

"Unh!"

Grinding her teeth, Marrow shot forward, only for Iceman to roll backwards and slam a double kick into her stomach -- shooting the boned one into the side of 7-Eleven. Rolling back around onto his stomach, Marrow ripping twin bone daggers from her shoulder blades in an attack position.

Just as she was about to launch the twin daggers into our frosty hero's back, the previous police unit pulled up at the end of the alleyway. Marrow and Iceman's eyes both shot towards the car, a light being flashed in their direction.

"Freeze!" an officer commanded as he exited the left side of the vehicle, another coming from the right and drawing his weapon.

"ErRrrHHhrRrr..." Tanya muttered as she rolled off the sled of ice, her tailbone feeling as if she'd sat inside of an ice box for two hours.

Growling slightly to herself, Marrow quickly launched the two bone-daggers in the directions of the police officers. One striking the left officer's hand, breaking the gun away from his grasp. The other snapping against the Police Car's searchlight, the large light bulb exploding.

Taking the opportunity, Iceman shot his leg outwards to rip under Marrow's feet, dropping her to the ground once more. Suddenly, the ice sled he had made to capture Tanya began to crack, until it collapsed! Iceman dove out of the way, slamming his shoulder into the ground as Marrow let out a battle cry, the ice sled crushing her body.

Breathing deeply, Iceman let out a sigh and spoke below his breath.

"Ouch." Glancing over to Tanya, then the cop radioing for backup, Iceman moved to his feet and took a step back. "Maybe it's time for this lone-ranger to fade away into the shadows..."

Turning around, Iceman took off running in the opposite direction of the squad car. The officer suddenly shot up from the squad car door, yelling out to Iceman.

"Freeze! Get back here!"

But he was gone, making it look just that easy.

Tanya's green, bloodshot eyes wandered into the pool of coffee set into her hands. She was sitting in the back of an ambulance near the scene, where squad cars had situated themselves in the area. Blue and red

Smiling warmly, Bobby stepped out from the shadows near the alleyway and the 7-Eleven, his hands dug deep into his pockets. Tanya lifted her head up, her blonde hair a bit rustled. She let out a bit of a smile, despite the millions of questions filling her head.

"Hey... it's you."

"The one and only." Bobby announced, smiling lightly as he walked up to her.

"I bet there's a reason for that." Tanya spoke softly, holding a mild grin.

"Ouch," A crease formed on Bobby's brow. "Some guys might take that hard, y'know. You're just lucky I'm a good sport for a woman I just met."

Tanya chuckled lightly, looking down into her cup of coffee. Bobby sat down gently beside her, forcing the palms of his hands into the edge of the ambulance's back. There was a brief silence, before Tanya spoke.

"So you're 'Iceman'... vigilante to the mutant 'X-Men' group..."

"I guess you could say that... but how'd you know the names?" Bobby turned his head to look to Tanya, curious eyes drifting to her now emotionless face.

"Paid a little attention to the news... mutants have always interested me."

Bobby nodded his head slightly, as Tanya began to reflect on the entire night... the longest night of her life. Of both of their lives.

"Oh my god..." Tanya sat up a bit worried, looking to Bobby. "Sherry...!"

"Don't worry about it!" Bobby held out his hands, a reassuring smile coming upon his face. "I've got it handled. Some friends of mine are watching her..."

"...Wait," Tanya looked to Bobby funny. "What're you doing having your friends watching my daughter? I mean... I just met you a few hours ago!"

"Ack! Well, umm... it's kind of a long story. After getting beat up by a couple friends of Marrow over there, I wanted to go to your house to see if I can find anything that might help me get a handle on what's going down." Bobby gave off another smile. "I'm guessing you already know the rest."

"Yeah... okay." Tanya sighed for a minute, raising up her brow for a moment. Despite the many other questions swirling through her mind, she could only find one that she needed to know right away.

"Is she going to come back?"

"Not for a long time... I hope. Besides, you're friends with a friend of the X-Men," Bobby smiled. "You get the best Christmas cards, and full-time bodyguards."

Tanya didn't feel much like laughing, so she simply smiled, letting her head rest on Bobby's shoulder, a friendly arm resting on her shoulder. As a police officer walked by, Tanya reached out to grasp onto his shoulder. The man stopped, turning his head to the two of them.

"Officer, when can I go home?"

"Pretty soon, miss... pretty soon."

The classic, steel-covered paddy wagon drove down the back roads of Westchester, heading for "The Vault", America's very own federal prison for super-human criminals. Marrow's bloodshot eyes locked onto the guard before her, having stayed there since she awoke from her unconscious state.

Suddenly, the ground erupted across the back road in front of the containment vehicle. Swerving off to the side the best he could, the guard driving ran a quick hand through his hair as he tried to comprehend the moment.

The back doors of the vehicle were ripped from their hinges, as the lunatic Toad, now full-time member of the Brotherhood and teammate to Marrow, grabbed the guard by the collar and ripped him out onto the asphalt.

Mere moments later, the three guards in the containment truck had been taken out, and the Brotherhood had retaken their newest member, Marrow.... in their new double-armored plated paddy wagon.