Iceman

 

Harry

Tanya Redfield

Sherry Redfield

Adnan's Auto-Repair.

"Oh man..." Bobby moaned, pressing a hand against his temple as he looked over the repair fees to his vehicle. "How could there be this many digits in a row without a law being broken?"

"....You don't know much about auto repair, do ya?" The Muslim man over the counter spoke, in a bit of an insulting tone. Bobby blinked, then pulled out his check book and began filling out the neccesary points.

I hate doin' this... choking the Xavier account for cash, Bobby thought to himself, continuing to fill out the check. But it's not like I won't pay it all back.

Surpressing a grin, the mechanic waited patiently as all the T's were crossed, and the I's were dotted. Ripping the check from the booklet, Bobby dropped the pen on the counter and handed the check over to the mechanic.

I'll have to make a trip to the bank to get some money in my own account from Xavier's so this check will go through... like I can afford for something to bounce.

Glancing down to the check, Adnan folded it and put it into his pocket. Bobby made a rounding gesture with his finger.

"Kayvon! Bring 'er around..."

Harry's Hideaway.

"Eh-heh-heh.... eh-heh.... eh-heh-heh-heh..."

"....Oh no. You've gotta be kidding me." The young, hispanic woman responded to the obscene comment. Jack Brown, a regular visitor to Harry's Hideaway, continuing his fit of chuckling for a moment, then took a swig of his drink.

Candy simply walked off down the inside of the bar counter, looking to Harry with a folded brow and an annoyed complexition. Harry smiled to himself, pressing his hand against his hip as he awaited her comments.

"I know you probably put your kids through college on Jack over there, but if he says anything else about my panties-- " Glancing back to the out of shape and middle aged man, who waved mock seductively, Candy sighed. "He's gonna be getting drunk from a tube running up his nose.

"Give the guy a break, will ya? His wife just left him, after all!" Harry chuckled a bit, running his finger tips over the gray hair on his temple.

"Grrr... he can look, just not touch, fantasize, or speak upon." Harry let out another chuckle as Candy walked off to get an order.

Down the counter, Jack's low and hysterically laughing slowly died down into a sobbing. He suddenly went quiet, as he held the bottle of beer with care. He took another swig as he was left to himself.

*RING-RING!*

"Harry's Hideaway." Harry spoke as he picked up the phone. ".... Yeah, actually. He's right here." Extending the phone out to Jack with a caring expression, Jack looked up to Harry in overwhelming depression.

"Hello?" Jack's voice didn't sound for a moment slurred as he took the phone. "....Jamie!"

Few's attention was sent to Jack as he sat up, a look of excitement filling his face. Harry grinned slightly, polishing away at a mug.

"Y-You mean it?! You wanna talk things over?!" Jack began to heave lightly as excitement overwhelmed the latter of depression. "I'll be there soon, honey."

At that very moment, a slender, young blonde woman walked into the establishment. Her name is Tanya Redfield... and she was just almost knocked over by the stampeding Jack Brown.

"YAHOOOO!!!"

Tanya smiled to herself lightly, a crease forming over her brow as a green eyed glance was shot back towards the roughly out of shape man, beer bellied man. Harry continued to smile ear to ear as he polished the glass mug in hand.

"What was that all about?" Tanya inquired, leaning against the bar counter.

"His reason for living just returned to him." Harry set the mug under the counter, and began rubbing down his hands. "So what brings a pretty lady like you here?"

"I was actually looking for Bobby. But I guess I'm a little early."

"Hot date?" Harry grinned, tossing the wash rag onto his shoulder. Tanya couldn't help but blush, but of course trade a sportsman like grin.

"Nooo. Not a hot date." Tanya cocked her head to the side, crossing her forearms on the counter. "Just something to eat and a movie. Bobby told me he was going to pick up his check, hang out a little, and then we'd go."

"Ah." Harry nodded in understanding. "Sorry, but he hasn't dropped by yet."

"That's no problem. I'm early anyway." Tanya smiled.

{{ Jamie had a chance, oh she really did-- }}

"Whoa-oh!"

{{ Instead she dropped out and a had a couple of kids! }}

"Whoa-oh!"

{{ Marshal lives at home, 'cuz he's got not job-- }}

"Whoa-UnGH!"

An explosion rocked the right edge of the 1986 Ford Escourt, chunks of the road being thrown about as. The explosion sending the vehicle swerving off the back roads of Salem Center and into a ditch outlining an orchard.

The former X-Man let out a moan, as he lay his head against the wheel of the vehicle unconscious. A small fleet of Sentinels began descending upon the deserted road, their eyes glowing an ominous yellow.

{{ What the hell is going on? The cruelest dream, reality. }}

"Oh man, I can't believe this, I can't believe this..." Jack panted to himself over, a hysterical grin taking to his lips.

Pushing the limitations of his 1955 Ford 200, in all honesty, Jack could barely see street. All five of his senses caught with their defenses down, due to the immense alcohol intake his body sustained. In all amazement, he was able to catch the large semi-truck coming his way at the corner of his eye, and evade it.

*HONK-HONK!*

"HEY WATCH IT BUDDY!!"

"MY WIFE'S GIVING ME A SECOND CHANCE!!"

"UP YOURS TOO BUDDY!!"

And as Jack's eyes returned to the road as he prepared to take the sharp turn ahead of him... the next few moments of his life would be to jumbled to get a clear look upon.

"....ungh...."

His name is Bobby Drake. And right now, he's got a splitting headache. The approaching blue and purple robots? They're called "Sentinels," emotionless machines built to hunt down and destroy mutants.

For the longest time, even after the similar inventions known as 'Enforcers' created by Apocalypse took the world by storm, Sentinels were long thought to be retired. Heck, even Bobby Drake, former X-Man, believes these monstrosities to be history.

Until now...

"Gladiator of the Frost," the lead Sentinel started in an awkward tone. Under the Prince of Valhalla's bidding, thou is to be terminated. Resistance is futile, foolish mortal."

"...Huh?"

When the Sentinel began to gather yellowish energy into the palm of it's hand, which faced the Ford Escourt, Bobby knew clarification wasn't called for.

"Aww cripes!" Our hero's voice cracked.

Pulling off his seatbelt, our hero shoved his palms into the door of his vehicle as an intense amount of cold chilled through the structure, thus, allowing him to throw himself from the vehicle and into the orchard's field as another explosion rocked the battered Ford Escourt.

Bobby rolled onto his back, his forearms ice blue with rings of jagged ice erupting from his wrists. A sigh was given as his vehicle completely went up into flames. The half-dozen pack of Sentinels rose above the flames with the aid of thrusters mounted to their feet, allowing their censors to fully lock on to their target.

As they prepared to fire in formation, a sheet of ice pulled up from the watery ditch to penetrate into the two leading Sentinels' midsection, sending them both backwards with an explosion. Above the sheet of ice, Bobby Drake rose on a sled of ice... his entire body, along with his clothes, turning to ice with a single thought.

"Y'know for a moment there, past the Brotherhood of Mutants, outside of Wonderland's zip code, and a fairy ride across Super-Heroism, I thought I was getting the normal life I wanted!" Redirecting the sled of ice downwards, Bobby drew his hand back and launched it forward to send a barrage of ice shards towards the rising Setinels.

"But noOoo..." Scraps of metal was sent in random directions as the larges shards of ice riddled the Sentinels' metallic frames. "Here, you guys come around, actin' all big and bad... and you blow up my car!"

Bridge of ice connecting from the sheet of ice, Bobby evaded several randomly fired beams of energy from the battered group of Sentinels after letting out a wave of ice from a back hand. The wave of ice crashed into the Sentinels' face plates, covering their yellow oculars completely with solid ice.

"What's up with the way you guys talk, anywho? Don't get me wrong -- in a way it's kind of an improvement to your former cold, RoboCop like tone -- but it's still a subject of interest!" Bobby might as well of been talking to himself. It wasn't that he expected a response from the machines, it was just a way of amusing himself through this push-over force that he had practiced matching witts with so many times in The Danger Room.

Skidding across the sled of ice as the Sentinels attempted to remove the snow covering their only sense of the outside world, Bobby rose his hands to the air and slammed them forward. A gleam of icy aura falling his hands as a large ball of ice comes striking down through the ice, and toppling the Sentinels from above.

"Piece of cake." Bobby let him self slide down the ramp's heading, gently touching onto the grass. "Only thing is, since when did Sentinels talk in an Old English tone and 'bid' to The Prince of Valhalla?"

Sunset.

Low flames fed off the grass surrounding the turned over auto mobile. Jack's eyes slowly began to open, though horror would fill his mind as he realized what had happened. He had violently smashed into another car, and been sent through the window. It was obvious the other driver had died on impact. Why couldn't he have been as lucky?

Grunting as he struggled to sit up against the door inside the crunched cab of his car, Jack found himself inable to move. And even worse, he was able to see and feel the bleeding from his stomach and the head -- his body having been brutally ravaged from being rocked about. If the flames hadn't picked up within the car, he probably wouldn't of awaken from his unconscious state.

Through the rising flames, stepped a cloak figure. Such an eerie prescence hadn't gone unnoticed by Jack. Turning his head as much as possible, Jack was able to get a glimpse at the cloaked man.... before he opened the car door, and let Jack's limp body collapse to the grass outside his car.

"Ungh....w-who're you?" Jack trembled slightly, looking up to the cloaked form. A light grin forming across his dark face.

"Cans't thou feel it....?" That grim smirk seem to grow at Loki's words. "Thou mortal's cherished life on Midgard... is slowly slipping from thy grasp.. "

Jack swallowed hard as the figure stood over him... could this be it? Could Death be here to take his life away from him... just as he was ready to reclaim it?

"Thou hast a decision to make. Accept the House of Loki's offer, and great power will come to thee. Alas, thou will also be allowed to continue thy life." Tilting his head to the side, Loki's grin retreated to a look of sympathy. "Decline, and death awaits thee."

"Fine... whatever it is.... it's a deal! Just as long as I can see my wife and kids again!" Jack coughed a bit of blood as he spoke, a partial struggling to breath falling.

Retrieving a hand from inside his cloak's sleeves, Loki extended it out to Jack. Taking in a moment of hesitation, Jack looked to the hand and sighed, then took it in his. Suddenly, Jack could feel a cold that reached into the depths of his soul.

And Loki grinned.

NEXT ISSUE: Jack gets a new lease on life -- but at what costs? And just what exactly does The Prince of Valhalla, the God of Mischief, Loki want with our frosted hero? Find out next time -- same frosty-'fic site, same frozen pizza dinner! ....Wait....

Spicy Damn? I feel like such a.... bag of hot cheetos. Heh, but for reals. Thanks for the nice words, my muslim brother. I'm still wondering how we can be related when I'm white, and your muslim... but ah well. Let's not let little things like genetics ruin our brotherhood. >=D