Author's Note: "Under Fire" takes place between "Double Vision" and "Teachers and Students" over in Iceman, which kicks ass. *cough*shamelessplug*cough*

In Front of Smile Bright...

The rain gently patted across the streets of New York, and all of the by standers of the battle going on before the Smile Bright Office Building.

"Whaaaaat's looove (got to do with it, got to do with it, pain)," Bobby Drake resited as he slid around the frustrated Dominic Petros. "It should be about us, it should be about trust baay-be!"

The surroundings crowds of people could only grin, and applaud the former X-Man's efforts. Police officers had taken the time given to regroup, and train their guns on the mutant terrorists.

"Yeah, uh, yo, I stroll through the club with my hat down, Michael Jack style, Hot 7 who the Mack now?" Their hero continued, as he came completely around Avalanche and launched a blast of ice into his back thigh.

The first of the blast sent Avalanche into a stumble, causing the mutant terrorist to misdirect his seismic tremor. Several police officers moved from it's path, the wave nearly missing the peace officers and overturning the squad car in their place.

"Not my fault 'cuz they love the kid. Might be the chain or the whip, I don't know what it is -- Hey-ey, up and at 'em!" Iceman grinned as a platform of ice rose from under Avalanche, and flung him to the side.

The armored terrorist grunted in pain as he stumbled across the concrete, forming to a stop on his belly. Gaining great confidence in his feats with this battle, Iceman dropped from his sled and began walking towards Avalanche with a wide grin across his face.

"When I look in your eyes, there's no stopping me --" He again continued as he approached Avalanche. Jean Grey had made her way to the front of the crowds, and launched into it's barricade.

It appeared Bobby had it all under control, just like her husband had said. She couldn't help but smile at Bobby's antics.

But something was wrong. Avalanche hadn't moved, and it took only a mere look into his eyes for his plan to be revealed to the X-Men's Phoenix.

Bobby! Watch out! Jean called telepathically.

Iceman came to a stop before Avalanche, and sent a glance to his former teammate. As he turned his head back to Avalanche, he quickly threw himself from a powerful Earth tremor's way.

Avalanche moved to his feet, as the powerful tremor carried into the pillar of ice he was flung from, causing it to explode.

"Thanks Jeannie," Bobby thought a loud, but got no response. "Jean....?"

A chunk of ice had collided into Jean Grey's head from his pillar of ice Avalanche shattered, and sent her slumped over the Police barricades unconscious.

"JEAN!" Iceman shouted, as he rose to his feet and ran her way.

Prelate's eyes fluttered open and he grunted, cringing as he lifted his head up from the somewhat firm branch supporting him. He had passed out when Cyclops... Scott Summers... had blown apart the edge Smile Bright's roof.

Leaning up, Prelate glanced around. How was it that he had survived a fall from that height, and managed to fall into...

"-- a tree fifty stories high?!" Prelate exclaimed, gripping onto the branches around him. Laughter came from the right of him, which he quickly shot an eye to.

"Guess he'll be seein' ye next fall, eh boyo?" Black Tom snickered, standing not too far from Prelate on a large extending branch.

"Shut up and get me down from here, Tom," Prelate sighed, and with held the rage slowly building inside of him.

"Th' look on yer face," Black Tom continued to laugh, standing evenly on the tree branch extending outward from it's collective self.

"I said shut up!" Prelate yelled, firing a blast of thermal energy into the branch under Black Tom. Black Tom nimbly moved to the closest branch, the laughter fading.

"Hey now, boyo!" Black Tom replied, taking a stance on his new branch. "We've got a job t'do here!"

"Do you think I could care less about mutant politics?" Prelate sneered, standing up from the branches he laid on. "McCoy failed me in getting a shot at Cyclops, thus I'll fail him in this little 'pro-mutant rights' mission."

"He's not gonna be happy t'hear that..."

"Get it through your heard, Tom. Does he, or even half of this piece-of-shit Brotherhood care about mutant rights?"

"Now that ye mention it..."

"Marrow's pissed because she got lied to. Greystone wants to go back to his timeline. Avalanche is just a moron. I want Cyclops' corpse as a trophy, and all of us want our place above the humans. What are you in this for, besides that, Black Tom?"

"........"

"McCoy is just exploiting all of us for his own goals, and all of us are only with him so that one day we might be able to get what we want," Prelate leapt down to a branch below him, fuming.

"But will we ever? Of course not, because McCoy needs us -- and we don't need him if we have what we want! How do you think that'll work out?"

Black Tom stared at Prelate for a moment. Shaking his head, Prelate leapt to another branch, slowly and cautiously making his way down the monstrous tree created by Black Tom. And all the creator could do was watch his teammate make his way down, in thought...

Before anyone could move to her aid, Avalanche caused the concrete below the fallen Jean Grey-Summers to rise. The crowds of people behind the Police barricades quickly moved back, hopefully out of the mutant terrorist's reach.

Dominic Petros grinned, and pulled Jean up by her shirt's collar.

"Let go of her, assbag!" Iceman shouted as rings of ice exploded from his wrists. Before he could act however, Avalanche sent a great tremor his way with a mere thought.

Iceman grunted, as he was thrown to the ground, an upheaval of concrete having slammed into him and prevented him from reaching the two.

Scanning the area, Avalanche found a News Cameraman locked onto the transpiring events. Grinning, he drug the barely conscious Phoenix, her heels dragging, towards the Camerman and held her up to his side.

"Are you getting this?" Avalanche narrowed his eyes. The Cameraman nodded his head frantically, taking a step back to capture Avalanche perfectly, and to ease his fright.

"Good," Clearing his throat, Avalanche held Jean Grey limply at his side. "To all those who oppose Brotherhood," Avalanche started, smugly. "And especially to those who dare betray their mutant heritage ... you can let this be a lesson..."

As Avalanche prepared to snap Phoenix's neck in front of the hundreds of thousands of people watching in their homes, he was halted by a sudden trembling in his arm. An immense amount of cold had begun running through Avalanche's veins. Before he could even glance to Iceman, Dominic Petros let out a horrible groan.

Phoenix fell from his grasp and to his feet, her eyes fluttering slightly as she watched her assailant fall to his hands and knees. The Cameraman could only watch on in shock, as Iceman approached Avalanche from behind.

"When I say 'let her go,' you can only assume I mean business, Petros," Iceman stated, as he wrapped his arms under Avalanche's and flung him out of the crowds and bouncing past the Police barricades.

"The only thing these folks are gonna learn, is that your sorry ass only picks on people who can't defend themselves!" Iceman held his palms out, and rose his arms. Avalanche was carried by yet another pillar of ice, which exploded on Iceman's clenched fists, and drove him face first into the ground.

Even through his metallic armor, Avalanche could feel the impact of the concrete throughout his body. Barely holding onto consciousness, he began clawing and fumbling against the concrete in order to raise himself.

"And that the only traitors to their mutant heritage, is you and the Brotherhood!" Iceman walked across the concrete confidently, and knelt down to grab Avalanche by the collar of his armored outfit. "Don't you get it?"

"AAGH!" Avalanche screamed as ice covered his entire body, and Iceman rose to his feet with Avalanche trembling body close to his.

"You're not scoring mutant kind any points by trying to push people who aren't like us around," Bobby Drake lectured, not only to Avalanche, but to the world. "And you definitely don't represent the majority of us -- not you, not the Brotherhood, and not even Magneto himself!"

Avalanche gasped against the intense amount of cold overwhelming his body, not able to say anything in response. Shaking his head, Iceman threw the armored terrorist to the ground and simply stared at him.

Moving through the crowds, a female reporter moved to the Cameraman and put a hand on his shoulder. He held the camera in place, but turned his head to meet her eyes. They both grinned to each other.

Inside Smile Bright...

Dazzler leapt across the debris of the broken staircase, running downward to her destination. Cannonball was carried by her side by his mutant abilities, a blast field enveloping his entire body.

"Only a few more floors, and we're there!" Dazzler announced, barely touched by the physical feats she was taking on.

"And you're where? Six feet under?" A jagged, female voice caught the duo's attention.

Cannonball immediately recognized voice, whereas Dazzler was somewhat caught off guard. They both immediately came to a stop, as Marrow dropped herself from the floor above the two X-Men, holding a bone dagger in each hand.

"Who the -- ?" Dazzler barked in disgust. Cannonball quickly took to a battle stance.

"Watch it, Ali," he warned, narrowing his eyes towards Marrow. "Dangerous an' ugly go hand in hand."

"Sorry I couldn't be as pretty-pretty as this one here, redneck. Ya think it would've improved our friendship a little better?"

"Jus' get outta the way, Marrow. We've got a job ta do!"

"And so do we!" Marrow replied.

"...We?"

Before Cannonball could check his surroundings, two large, grotesque fists came slamming down into his back. Cannonball grunted, and collapsed to the stairs before Greystone, nearly tumbling down the flight.

Marrow was about to impale Dazzler with her two bone daggers, but an intense strobe exploded from Alison Blaire's gloved hands. Marrow cursed as she recoiled, dropping her bone daggers and reaching for her eyes. Suddenly, the room began spinning...

Keeping an eye on her back, Dazzler quickly leapt from the oncoming, powerful arm of Greystone, kicking off the wall close by and spinning in midair, and delivering a powerful round house kick to Greystone's jaw. The attack barely moved Greystone in his current form.

As Dazzler's feet touched the ground, Greystone quickly wrapped his arms around her, putting her into a great bear hug. She squinted and flailed wildly as she felt the air explode from her lungs, and the horrible pressure on her ribs.

Cannonball coughed blood up as he tried to rise from the ground, nearly collapsing in the process. Near him on her hands and knees was Marrow at the bottom of the staircase, throwing up from the strobe light's effects on her.

"URGHH!!" Dazzler groaned loudly, shoving her hands backwards to grasp onto Greystone's face. She felt his bulging temples at the side of his head and pressed her fingers against them, and her thumbs against the base of his eye.

Greystone's grasp loosened slightly as he felt Dazzler's thumbs pushing into his eyes. He shook his head wildly in aggravation, but to no avail. Blood began gushing from his eyes, spilling over his face. Dazzler kept pushing her thumbs into his eyes, growing short of breath.

Finally, Greystone released Dazzler and she tumbled down the staircase, gasping for air. Greystone's large hands immediately went over his face, only to find that his left eyeball had spilled from it's socket.

An explosion soon rocked the air, as Cannonball crashed head first into Greystone's solar plexus, his blast field protecting him from serious injury. Greystone fell backwards with a loud grunt, crashing through the remaining pieces of that floor's staircase. It was a twelve story drop from there...

With a crunch, Marrow pulled another bone dagger from her shoulder and rose to her feet. Dazzler glanced up, heaving as air refilled her lungs. Acting fast, she leapt up and delivered a strong punch to the teenager's jaw.

The blow sent Marrow against a wall, where she dropped her bone dagger. Before she could move to fight back, Dazzler grabbed her by her body suit and sent another punch into her jaw. Marrow's head bounced again the stairwell wall, and her body went limp, sliding down from Dazzler's grasp to the floor.

"Good work, Ali..." Huffed Cannonball, leaning back into the remaining chunk of the stair railing. Dazzler leaned against the wall next to Marrow, heaving just as well.

"No prob, Sam. What being an X-Man's all about, right?"

"You know it," Cannonball breathed a sigh, giving Dazzler a slight grin.

Thunder crisscrossed over New York's skyline. Mark Rogers stood leaning against the large window panel, the uzi in hand over his head. This... beast. This Dark Beast has thrown everything into a funny little spin, and Mark Rogers didn't even know if he was going in the right direction in the first place.

And in the Dark Beast's reflection, he saw a slight grin. "Dr. McCoy" sure was a happy guy, especially in light of the transpiring events. How could he ask him to kill his fellow office employees, and level the top floors of the building, and remain so cool?

John sat up from his spot with the rest of the employees, who didn't know what to make of the situation. Surely Mark Rogers was only bluffing, and only went off the edge to a point where he could pull himself back up.

"It's not too late, y'know..." John started, standing before his fellow employees. "If you plead temporary insanity, and just turn yourself in, they'll let you go in a few months."

"Oh, there's a dandily brilliant idea," McCoy glanced John's way, rolling his eyes and mock clapping his hands. "Mark here is just going to throw himself before those wanting to repress his wife and child, expecting a slap on the wrist for terrorist actions."

"Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?!" John snapped, sending a glare the Dark Beast's way.

"You know I'm not insane anyway, Joh--"

Before Mark could finish his sentence, McCoy had bounded across the 53rd floor before John. John startled nearly fell backwards, catching himself just barely. A toothy grin came over the Dark Beast's gray furred face.

"Tell me," McCoy started, almost proudly. "...Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

Mark could only stare at the Dark Beast hover over his friend. John glanced over McCoy's shoulder to Mark, shaking a bit, then back to the yellow eyed mutant.

"How can you even associate with this monster, Mark? We used to be friends! All of us! And now you're holding us hostage, ready to kill us all?" Shaking his head, John bit his bottom lip, still staring into the Dark Beast's yellow eyes. "How could you take his advice, and listen to him over all of us?!"

"...Because he's just like my wife and son, John. And he makes sense."

"He's a monster!"

Cautious to watch how much strength he puts in, McCoy grinned and slid John across the floor with ease towards the rest of the hostages. Of course he wanted to harm him, but that wouldn't fit into the plan to well.

"Marky Mark and I have the same goal, John," McCoy announced as he strode with his ape like arms and legs back to Mark, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We want all of the world to be safe for those who only different through their genes. Our children, and our children's children. And you, John? You and your kind stand in the way."

John simply stared at Mark, who sighed and turned away from McCoy's hand and walked back to the window panel. He again set the hand holding an uzi above his head as he leaned into it.

Thunder again crisscrossed over the New York skyline...

"Are you The Iceman from the Champions of Los Angeles?" One reporter swapped in Bobby's direction.

Bobby was kneeling down beside Jean, who was holding her head. He looked up as the reporters began confronting him, a bit dumbfounded.

"I -- well, yeah..."

From the crowds came a stretcher, moving around the reporters to Jean's side. Bobby stood up, helping her to her feet. Jean sighed a bit, looking around.

"Did the government send you in to put a stop to this?" Another inquired, holding a microphone near Bobby.

"No, it was... well, the X-Men..." Bobby replied, glancing to the paramedics putting Jean onto the stretcher. He was too distracted to listen to the questions they began asking her.

"Are you saying the X-Men are putting a stop to this?"

"They're the ones protecting a world that hates and fears them, yeah..."

"But aren't they terrorists?"

"No way! They just don't want anyone getting hurt --"

"Are you one of them?"

"Well, I..."

"Do you know the situation inside Smile Bright Offices?"

The paramedics began wheeling Jean towards the ambulance. Bobby shook his head, and turned back to the cameras and reporters.

"Look, you can all quote me on this," Bobby explained, holding his hands out. "The X-Men are mutants only out to put a stop to all the hate going on, and make sure no one gets hurt. The Brotherhood are mutant terrorists only out to start shit up," Bobby looked from reporter to reporter to make sure they were all getting what he was saying.

"Right now the X-Men are trying to take the Brotherhood down, and stop Mark Rogers from making a terrible mistake. Now, my friend is getting taken to the hospital and I gotta make sure she's okay. End quote."

Bobby took off in a sprint towards the ambulance, where the paramedics were getting ready to close the doors. The two paramedics nodded to him, and he climbed in beside his former team mate.

One reporter turned towards her station's Camerman, cocking her head to the side and holding the microphone to her face.

"There you have it. A direct quote from a former Champion of Los Angeles, The X-Men are here to put a stop hate crimes from boiling over. Does this mean the media has had the wrong perception of these outlaw group of mutants?"

The Blackbird....

"...Scott, are you seeing this?" Beast asked from the Blackbird's pilot seat.

"Yeah, Hank," Cyclops replied, staring down at the monitor in the back of the Blackbird with a hand supporting him over the monitor. "I am."

"This is surely a rare event, to see the media questioning whether or not the X-Men are terrorists," The Beast leaned back into the pilot's seat, holding a paw to his fur covered face. "Scott, should I fly us to the hospital awaiting Jean?"

Cyclops stood up fully, looking towards the cockpit, with a solid look across his face. There was a moment of silence between the two, only the faint newscast from both monitors filling the air between them.

"No," Cyclops finally replied. "We still need to make sure things don't go bad down there. Open a line to Sam and Alison."

Nodding, the Beast turned back to the controls around him. With a few commands keyed into the panel beside him, and the flip of a switch, their team mates were alerted.

{{ What's up, Scott? }}

"What's your status, Dazzler?"

{{ We just put Marrow and Greystone down for the count, and are working our way to the floor below us where Rogers is holding the hostages. }}

"Marrow and Greystone?" Cyclops exclaimed. "Are you two injured?"

{{ A few bumps and bruises -- *cough* -- and maybe some internal bleeding. But otherwise, we're good to go. No sign of the rest of the Brotherhood. }}

"Open the comline once you reach the 53rd floor. I want to hear everything that happens once you get there. Me and Beast are moving into stand by position."

{{ Gotcha. Dazzler out. }}

Cannonball coughed again, as Dazzler turned back around to him.

"You going to be okay?" She asked sympathetically, moving to his side.

"Ah'll be fine," Cannonball started as he stood from up against the wall to continue down the battered stairway. "When ah get back to the mansion though, you can bet ah'm gonna fall down and not get up for a few weeks..."

"I think a hot bubble bath is all I'm going to need," Dazzler grinned. "So let's go. The sooner we're done with this, the sooner I can take that bath."

"Maybe ah should order mah self one of those, too..." Cannonball thought allowed, beginning to sprint down the broken staircase.

"Whoa, Sam. I didn't know how straight forward you country boys were," Dazzler hunched her brows, following beside him. Cannonball immediately slowed his sprint.

"Oh uh, shoot, Alison... Ah didn't mean it that way..." He almost blushed, pausing in his tracks. Dazzler kept going however, laughing quietly to herself.

Rain pounded against the glass windows of the 53rd floor. The storm outside was getting worse by the minute.

"How's it going to end, Mark?" McCoy inquired, holding back another toothy grin inside of him. "How's it going to end?"

"What's with you and movie quotes?" Mark shook his head, turning around to face the Dark Beast. "It's almost like you're not taking this serious..."

McCoy, the Dark Beast, could only grin in response.

NEXT: It's the climatic ending to Under Fire! No, seriously... I mean it this time! Special Forces move in just as Cannonball and Dazzler confront Mark Rogers and the Dark Beast! How's it all going to end?