Back to Gatefold
Issue #2 by Cory Wiegel
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CNN Broadcasting Studios
Washington, D.C., USA
Sitting hunched over a broad and sleek, half-circle desk was Larry King, host of CNN’s longest running and highest rated American talk show, Larry King Live. He was speaking with a middle-aged woman in dress attire, who seemed to shrug, defeated, at the lack of information she had for him. Larry nodded understandingly when a producer called out to them, alerting them of their return from commercial. Larry and the woman exchanged goodbyes and she walked off set.
The host readied himself before the large RCA microphone sitting on the table in front of him, clearly a prop due to the noticeable lapel microphone on his white collared, blue dress shirt. He looked squarely into the studio camera staged before him, a large, multi-colored, dotted map at his back, as he waited for his cue. When it came, he grunted to clear his throat and spoke to his live audience.
“If you are just joining us this evening, welcome to Larry King Live,” Larry began in his froggy, albeit evenly paced, monologue. “It is 9:32 PM Eastern Standard Time and we are… back from a bit of an extended commercial break with breaking world news from Scotland, where mutant terrorists known as the Brotherhood of Mutants have attacked a genetic research center on Muir Island.
“Moments ago we were speaking with Dr. Henry McCoy, world-renown biochemist and… expert in genetic mutation, before he was summoned off stage and then out of the studios due to this apparent emergency,” the host continued, glancing down only briefly to the notes in front of him before looking back up to the camera. “Dr. McCoy is not only director of the Xavier Institute Research Center, but he is… also an active member of the super-hero community as a card carrying reserve member of the Avengers and a long-public associate of the X-Men.”
Larry paused as he studied the notes before him again, his eyes straining through his black framed glasses, and he habitually cleared his throat.
“It is… difficult to imagine what the nature of Dr. McCoy’s role in this emergency will be. Some may speculate that as… director of a sister genetics research center he has a vested interest in a safe, quick, resolution to the conflict. Others may be right in assuming that he will be actively intervening with Scottish law enforcement and other super-heroes. We’ll do our best to keep you up to date on the situation as it develops and… hopefully we will be able to resume our interview with Dr. McCoy, if not tonight then another more convenient date and time.
“Until then, let’s go to senior political analyst… Debra Whitman, who will be joining us to speak on potential government subsidies provided to the Xavier Institute Research Center and… the backlash facing the current White House administration…”
Washington, D.C., USA
Sitting hunched over a broad and sleek, half-circle desk was Larry King, host of CNN’s longest running and highest rated American talk show, Larry King Live. He was speaking with a middle-aged woman in dress attire, who seemed to shrug, defeated, at the lack of information she had for him. Larry nodded understandingly when a producer called out to them, alerting them of their return from commercial. Larry and the woman exchanged goodbyes and she walked off set.
The host readied himself before the large RCA microphone sitting on the table in front of him, clearly a prop due to the noticeable lapel microphone on his white collared, blue dress shirt. He looked squarely into the studio camera staged before him, a large, multi-colored, dotted map at his back, as he waited for his cue. When it came, he grunted to clear his throat and spoke to his live audience.
“If you are just joining us this evening, welcome to Larry King Live,” Larry began in his froggy, albeit evenly paced, monologue. “It is 9:32 PM Eastern Standard Time and we are… back from a bit of an extended commercial break with breaking world news from Scotland, where mutant terrorists known as the Brotherhood of Mutants have attacked a genetic research center on Muir Island.
“Moments ago we were speaking with Dr. Henry McCoy, world-renown biochemist and… expert in genetic mutation, before he was summoned off stage and then out of the studios due to this apparent emergency,” the host continued, glancing down only briefly to the notes in front of him before looking back up to the camera. “Dr. McCoy is not only director of the Xavier Institute Research Center, but he is… also an active member of the super-hero community as a card carrying reserve member of the Avengers and a long-public associate of the X-Men.”
Larry paused as he studied the notes before him again, his eyes straining through his black framed glasses, and he habitually cleared his throat.
“It is… difficult to imagine what the nature of Dr. McCoy’s role in this emergency will be. Some may speculate that as… director of a sister genetics research center he has a vested interest in a safe, quick, resolution to the conflict. Others may be right in assuming that he will be actively intervening with Scottish law enforcement and other super-heroes. We’ll do our best to keep you up to date on the situation as it develops and… hopefully we will be able to resume our interview with Dr. McCoy, if not tonight then another more convenient date and time.
“Until then, let’s go to senior political analyst… Debra Whitman, who will be joining us to speak on potential government subsidies provided to the Xavier Institute Research Center and… the backlash facing the current White House administration…”
“FATE OF THE GENE – PART TWO”
PREVIOUSLY IN NEW X-MEN #1: While Dr. Hank McCoy, also known as the Beast, was invited on the talk-show Larry King Live to discuss the highly publicized re-opening of the Xavier Institute and its new mission, the Brotherhood of Mutants launched an attack on Muir Island’s Research Center with three objectives in mind: murder its human staff, destroy their research, and send a message to the X-Men.
Kevin MacTaggert and Rahne Sinclair, the X-Men’s allies known as Proteus and Wolfsbane, were both on the island and subdued. Likewise, Dr. Moira MacTaggert was captured, had information extracted from her mind, and was then left for execution. When the X-Men were alerted to the siege underway, they activated a remote feed to the island’s security cameras and found that their former leader, Cyclops, was involved in ways they would have never imagined…
# # # # #
Outside of CNN Broadcasting Studios, several dozen blue and white police barricades surrounded a privately owned stealth aircraft. Even at such a late hour, armed police officers acted as crowd control to the growing press and civilian crowds in front of the barricades. The aircraft was an SR-71 Blackbird jet, decommissioned from the military and modified greatly with advanced technology for personal use by the deceased Professor Charles Xavier and his protégés, the X-Men.
The press and the public snapped pictures, resulting in bright flashbulbs lighting up the parking, as chatter and murmurs about the terrorist attacks on Muir Island filled the air. What would happen next and would it come from this aircraft?
Inside the Blackbird, white noise filled the air from a computer monitor. The three occupants had watched the security footage a handful of times and each time it ended the same way: their longtime friend and former leader of the X-Men, Scott Summers – Cyclops – fleeing the scene of a brutal attack on their allies with the Brotherhood of Mutants.
“Hank?” a longtime friend’s voice beckoned, cutting through the white noise.
Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy continued staring at the monitor. It was static, but the footage that had flashed before him only moments ago held him enthralled. The implications were grave indeed.
A firm hand gripped his shoulder, causing his head to turn towards its owner.
“This can’t be real, can it?” Bobby Drake asked. “I mean, we gotta do something even if it is, but… do you think it’s real?”
Hank took a deep breath, shooting a glance to Jean Grey-Summers. The red-headed woman was beside herself in grief, but despite the news that her estranged husband was involved with the terrorists she persevered. She sat with eyes closed as she wore a large golden helmet on her head. It was attached through a series of cables to a portable mutant tracking system, Cerebro, which was commanded by her telepathic powers, and with it she was attempting to scan the site of the attack.
After a moment, Hank looked back to Bobby.
“Let’s approach this one issue at a time,” he finally said. “Muir Island is under attack and we haven’t a moment to waste. Have you contacted the others?”
Bobby shook his head ‘no.’
“We just received the alert from Cerebro when Jean called you off stage.”
Hank nodded and he began to stride with Bobby away from the monitor towards the communications console. “Then we need to reach the mansion and find a teleporter to transport --“
“I can get us there,” their friend’s voice chimed in.
Hank and Bobby stopped and looked back to Jean, who was removing the golden helmet from her head. She set it aside on the console at her side and stood from her seat where she cleared her throat and nodded confidently.
“To Muir Island, I mean.”
“What about the others?” Hank asked.
“You need to assemble them as quickly as possible,” Jean said with determination as she crossed aircraft to another console. Bobby and Hank followed behind her. “I’ve scanned Muir Island and have a sit-rep on what’s happening.”
Jean typed in a few commands on the console and the large screen on the Blackbird’s hull came to life with a digital map of Muir Island’s Research Center. Dozens of blue dots were scattered across the compound with large clusters of red dots moving across several different buildings.
“Humans and mutants on the island in real time, respectively,” she explained of the dots and began pointing to a building on the west of the compound. “The largest concentration of mutants and humans are here, at the security center. It’s safe to assume that’s where the Brotherhood is suppressing the island’s defenses.”
Hank leaned over Jean and pointed a finger at the digital map to a northern building. Several red dots were proceeding towards it.
“That’s where the server room is. The computers there store and distribute all of the research information collected by Muir Island’s staff,” he said matter-of-factly. He drew back his arm and covered his mouth, considering what they were seeing carefully. “Some of the Brotherhood must be serving as decoys while others move to destroy Moira’s research…”
Bobby swallowed back the lump in his throat. “What about Moira and the staff?”
“I couldn’t get a read on Moira, but the Brotherhood’s cutting down any researchers and staff that get in their way,” Jean explained. She pointed to a northeastern building that appeared uncovered by red or blue dots. “This is the research center’s panic room. It’s a telepathic deadzone designed by Forge, so the Brotherhood wouldn’t be able to detect Moira or anyone else if they were holed up in there.”
“We have to move quickly then before they stumble across it,” Hank said. Jean and Bobby turned to him. “First, we must provide back-up support to the security team and force the Brotherhood into retreat. Then we have to reach Moira and the research staff and secure them from harm. The research… will be our last priority.”
Jean and Bobby nodded in agreement.
“Right, but Hank… we need you here to gather the others,” she said. Telekinetic flames consumed her irises and then erupted from her body in a fiery bird avatar. “Bobby and I will hold the Brotherhood off for as long as we can.”
Hank was reluctant to agree, but knew there was little other choice. He took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose, nodding back at them.
“Go,” was all he said. Bobby’s brow furrowed in curiosity.
“Wait, how are we going to -- ?” Bobby started to ask when curiosity quickly turned into concern as the same telekinetic flames consuming Jean overtook him. The two disappeared into twin streams of flame that shot towards the roof of the aircraft.
# # # # #
A piercing avian screech filled the studio parking lot as two streams of fire shot out from the Blackbird into the night’s sky. The surrounding police officers and crowd gasped in shock at the sudden event, pointing and looking to the sky as the streams joined together into one. The stream arced sharply through the air after reaching its peak and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean at unimaginable speeds.
The stream of flame quickly formed into the visage that of the legendary firebird of rebirth, the Phoenix, flying fierce and undeterred.
“HOLY CRAP!” Bobby exclaimed with a sudden gasp as he Jean materialized in the center of the firebird. He began to hyperventilate, wide-eyed and frantic, as the city of Washington, D.C. washed away in a blur and the deep, dark blue oceans of the Atlantic Ocean raced by underneath them.
“Try to talk through our telepathic link,” Jean’s telepathic voice suggested in Bobby’s mind. “You know that breathing’s difficult at these speeds.”
Bobby took slower breaths and tried his best to focus.
“Jesus H. Roman Catholic, we are movin’!” Bobby observed. He shot a skeptical look at Jean. “How ‘bout a little warning next time, chica?”
“Sorry,” Jean replied, undettered. ”But every moment we spend talking could be the death of innocent people on Muir Island.”
“You’re right. So what’s the plan? We hit the security building first, round up the posse, and go after the staff?”
Jean hesitated much to Bobby’s chagrin.
“Jean?”
“Close,” she finally answered. “You’re going to support the security team and gather reinforcements.”
Bobby was taken aback. “Whoa, what?! You mean by myself? Are you crazy!?!”
“There’s no time to waste arguing about it, Bobby,” Jean rebuked her friend and teammate as the skies suddenly darkened even more and the weather suddenly changed. “I’m going to drop you outside of the security building and then head for Moira’s safe room. With any luck –-“
“The safe room won’t be empty and I won’t get slaughtered?” he quipped sharply.
The X-Man rolled her eyes as they began to fly into what appeared to be a thunderstorm, her telekinetic flames repelling the
“I was going to say,” Jean continued after being interrupted. “With any luck Hank and the others will reach the island quickly and we’ll be able to regroup at the server room. Now get ready. We’re coming up fast on Muir Island…”
# # # # #
Telekinetic flames in the form of talons ripped through the gray rain clouds blanketing Muir Island from the night’s sky. A fiery raptor emerged from the storm and swooped down towards the island compound’s security building. It came in low and sharp, lighting up the west grounds of the island as it passed.
With a telekinetic push, Bobby was ejected to the ground from his teammate’s hold before she continued her flight. He dropped from the air into a squat with one palm striking the rain drenched soil to balance his self. With merely a thought his body transformed into a frigid, organic ice state, the deep cold causing his brittle clothes to shatter underneath his bulky, transformed frame.
Iceman stood slowly, looked up, and saw Phoenix barrel roll through the stormy sky, telekinetic flames trailing her as she banked toward the east side of the island. His eyes then fell back down to the ransacked building dead ahead of his position.
With a deep breath, Iceman muttered, “Here we go.”
He launched into a run across the muddied, water soaked grass towards the security center, quickly covering the distance between himself and the gaping, blast burned hole in the building’s south wall. He veered sharply to the building’s right and spun around to press his back against the wall beside the mutant-made entrance, his heart pounding as he prepared to execute Jean and his’ plan.
“Alright, Jeannie. Kill the lights in there and say a prayer for my un-fractured skull.”
“Standby. This will take a moment.”
He took deep breaths as he waited for Phoenix to telekinetic locate and destroy the security center’s power source and back-up generator. The wind howled and rain pounded across the island, and in the distance he could hear the heated commands of the right terrorists and gunfire ringing out in futile retaliation. Screams and cries of agony unnerved him and pleaded for his intervention, but he had to remain focused on the plan at hand.
Even though Iceman was, in theory, one of the most powerful and seasoned members of the X-Men, the full limitations of his abilities weighed heavily on his mind as he waited for his teammate to kill the lights.
The Brotherhood of Mutants here outnumbered him five-to-one in a poorly lit, close-quarters environment where his more powerful ranged attacks would fail him and there were innocent bystanders to contend with, to boot. To make it out of this one alive, he would have to pull out all of the stops and use every trick in his arsenal to drive back some of the deadliest mutants in the world.
Suddenly, the sound of rapidly sparking electricity caught his attention and he readied himself. The sounds were followed by a mechanical roar of malfunctioning machinery and then the lights in the security center died.
That was his cue.
Iceman took a deep breath and twisted around the wall his back was against, taking off in a sprint into the pitch-black, battle ravaged building. As he raced towards the flustered and bewildered ramblings deep inside, his vision fluctuated into a unique form of thermal vision, causing his enemies and the corpses of their still warm victims to jump out of the darkness at him.
This would be his first advantage in the fight. The Brotherhood would be confused and befuddled by the sudden loss of light, but it would only provide a brief window of disarray for him to exploit. Shock and awe had to be the name of the game, and that required him to hit fiercely and unexpectedly.
Everything else he would have to make up as he went along.
# # # # #
Jean was able to cross Muir Island in a matter of moments flying within the fiery raptor of the Phoenix. Along the way she passed over various members of the Brotherhood of Mutants indulging in mindless destruction while the occasional staff member fled for their lives.
Like Bobby, she wanted to intervene and put a stop to the madness, but it would be a futile attempt at the moment and others needed her help.
The island was rocked with gunfire and explosions, but the X-Man noticed that the violence was less apparent the further she traveled northeast. When she reached the furthest building northeast of the compound, the living quarters and a safe room to be precise, she descended to the ground and the telekinetic flames around her disseminated. Rain continued to fall all around her, but aside from it and the winds, the area was eerily quiet. Still, she had no time to waste.
Phoenix reached out to the twin doors of the building with her mind, telekinetically giving them a light bush. They rocked and clanked slightly, but didn’t budge open. Frowning, she flicked her wrist at the doors and they exploded off of their hinges, consumed in telekinetic flames. She then took a careful stride through the doorway, noting the security bar and chains among the debris.
Either someone had locked the door to keep others out or they had locked the doors to keep others in. Much to her chagrin, Jean would soon learn it was the latter.
As she proceeded down the long corridor leading from the building’s entrance, a low, mechanical humming noise became increasingly apparent. Her eyes narrowed in realization. It was likely the psionic shielding machinery that turned the living quarters into a virulent telepathic dead zone. A constant telepathic scan, her usual means of anticipating danger and hostilities, would likely be frivolous. Instead, she would have to use another technique.
Taking deep breaths as she walked, each time Phoenix exhaled she projected a soft telekinetic aura in a thirty foot radius. Any sudden movements within the radius would bounce back to her, much like sonar, and it would hopefully give her enough time to put up a defense against any attackers.
Phoenix wanted to rush through the building to look for her friends and any survivors of the attack, and strike down any members of the Brotherhood of Mutants that stood in her way for that matter, but with a telepathic dampening field surrounding the building she was as good as blind.
As a telepath, any limitations on her abilities to anticipate the unseen gave her a feeling not unlike claustrophobia. The fact that she had no back-up from her teammates didn’t help the situation any, and so she took soft and slow steps along the corridor, using all of her senses to seek out any threat. Soon, she reached a split in the corridor that went in two directions, and one direction decidedly warranted more attention than the other.
“My God,” Phoenix whispered under her breath in shock.
The corridor of doors to her left was littered with several bodies of men and women of various ages and ethnicities, from security officers to research staff to civilians in uniforms, pajamas, and lab coats. They had looked as if they were killed upon coming out of their bedrooms in the dead of night.
As far as Phoenix could tell, some had been disemboweled while others were burned alive, and one security officer had even turned his pistol on himself, blowing his brains out the back of his skull and across the wall behind his head. His body remained slumped over against the wall, his eyes frozen wide-open in fear.
Phoenix began to carefully journey down the corridors, shaking slightly as her heart began to speed up. She was sure to not step on any bodies or in any puddles of blood and guts, but the sights were mortifying and the stench of their still warm remains was unbearable. It almost caused her to lose her balance.
She immediately noticed that blood was spread in streaks across the walls, vertically and horizontally, and even more was pooling out among the bodies on the corridor floor. The looks on their faces were terrified and soon Phoenix turned her eyes forward to the end of the hallway, trying her best not to look at the slaughter she ventured through. Her breathing had sped up significantly, as well as the telekinetic waves she used as sonar that that followed. She had to tell herself to remain as calm as she could or more lives could potentially meet a similar end, including her own.
When Phoenix neared the end of the corridor, her ears perked up and she narrowed her eyes, listening intently. Somewhere on the other end of the corridor there were frantic foot steps and what sounded like animalistic breathing, panting almost. She pushed forward intently until she reached the end of the corridor, unknowingly passing by what appeared to be a large arrow panted in blood.
In the large room at the end of the hall, what appeared to be humanoid lupine – resembling a large red wolf – was running in broad circles, feral and snapping at its long, bushy tail. A large, metal cross appeared to be whipping up and around its torso, adorn from its neck.
“Rahne…?” Phoenix called out to the former New Mutant in disbelief.
It was Rahne Sinclair, otherwise known as Wolfsbane. She seemed unresponsive to by the appearance of Phoenix and her calling out her name, but Phoenix was positive that it was her. But had she massacred the island’s staff? No, her claws and body were clean of blood and human remains, and there was no way she could have caused some of the injuries those poor men and women had sustained.
While she contemplated what had happened there and how exactly she was going to break Wolfsbane out of whatever hypnotic spell she was under, Phoenix looked around the room and noticed strange fluctuations of golden energy lining the walls and ceiling. It was as if the very fabric of reality was on the verge of distortion, but the event had not quite reached its climax.
Then her eyes fell on the far side of the room, near a large reinforced door. It was glowing the brightest and appeared as if it were fluctuating between solid and liquid metal. There before the day laid a young man glowing of a similar aura, with long white locks and a goatee.
It was Kevin MacTaggert, the son of Dr. Moira MacTaggert also known as Proteus.
He was huffing and groaning, but appeared immobile, and Phoenix rushed past Wolfsbane towards his position. The former New Mutant would have to wait, she decided. She was in a mindless trance of sorts, but appeared nonetheless unharmed. The former X-Man she had known as Joseph, on the other hand, was trapped in some kind of agonizing flux with reality that was damaging the surrounding area.
Reaching his side, Phoenix put her hands on the side of his head and closed her eyes as she attempted to enter his mind. In a telepathic dead zone, she knew that the only way to initiate contact was to maintain close proximity and physical contact with the subject. However, other telepaths knew this as well.
Upon successfully entering Kevin’s mind, a telepathic backlash suddenly surged through Phoenix’s mind, causing her eyes to fly open and scream out in excruciating pain. She released Kevin’s head and collapsed to the ground at his side on her hands and knees, heaving and gasping painfully. Her nerves were on fire and she was in a daze, barely able to keep herself upright.
Suddenly, the humming noise that was ever-present in the background grew louder and seemed to speed up into a mechanical whirring. Phoenix swallowed back the lump in her throat and looked up as sparkling crimson and black psionic energy began to swirl around the room. The mechanical whirring increased substantially as the electronic mechanisms controlling the psionic dampeners embedded in the walls began to spark and sizzle.
Phoenix gasped as tiny, but violent, explosions rocked the room and the psionic energy began to swirl around her faster and faster into a fierce tornado. It was then Phoenix felt a menacing presence enter the room as some of the energy broke off from the tornado and formed an entity before her, one who grinned mischievously.
“Hoonnn-eeeeeeeyyyy….” a sinister voice invaded Phoenix’s mind. “I’m home.”
# # # # #
Back on the other side of the island, the security building was pitch dark inside, save for the occasional lighting strike from the storm outside that illuminated the corridors briefly through the windows. There were five heat signatures – members of the Brotherhood of Mutants – standing at the center of the building in the command room, tense and unnerved at the building’s sudden loss of power only moments ago.
They were in combat with the island’s security team and preparing to hunt down the final officers when it happened, so they spread themselves out across the room and sent a member to check on the power. Rain was still pattering in from the hole in the ceiling they had used to enter and the winds roared outside. It was a bad time to be inconvenienced by a power outage, or worse, an ambush.
“Where’s that damn woman at with the back-up generator?” Crule – a large, muscular man with pale, purple skin – said through fang-like teeth. He bared his clawed gauntlets, ready for battle. His head was shaved with the sole exception of a long, almost whip-like pony tail with a mace at the end of it.
“Remain calm and stay alert,” a tall and imposing man in a sleeveless, crimson and black uniform complete with a face-covering cowl said. He was Senyaka. “She’ll be back shortly and then the slaughter can resume.”
“Stay calm? How do ya expect us to do that?” a pudgy man with blonde hair and a white stripe in it asked in a Southern accent. “Ah can’t see a damn thing!”
His name was Landslide and he was growing more angry the longer they were delayed. Senyaka shot him a look, and though his face was covered, his commanding body language said everything it needed. Landslide shut up and kept his eyes open.
“Senyaka’s right, but if Mortis isn’t back soon we’ll just have to continue without her,” a black woman with cornrows – Frenzy – added.
From across the room, a man with black hair, blank white eyes, and a body made entirely of liquid metal nodded in agreement. He was Mercury, silent but strong.
The air in the command room shifted and there was a movement in the furthest corner. It was too dark to see anything clearly and the shadows cloaked much of the room, but the five readied themselves anyway, listening intently for any nearby movements. They looked about in all directions, narrowing their eyes to see anything, when suddenly loud foot steps filled the air.
Mercury perked up as he heard the sounds behind him, but as he turned to face them a fist the size of a punching glove, made entirely of ice, struck him in the side of the head. The surprise attack sent him tumbling to the ground and his assailant, a man made entirely of ice, rushed past him into the fray.
“Someone’s here! “Get ‘em – UNGH!” Landslide bellowed the obvious before he was struck in the forehead by an ice brick projected at blinding speeds. He slumped back and tried to catch his balance, but the blow left even a brute such as him dazed.
Though he had versatile powers and strategies, close-quarters combat with the Brotherhood of Mutants left Iceman with very few options. Firing off ice beams and avalanches required telegraphing his attacks and misfires could flood the room with ice, leaving him less room to maneuver and more opportunity to be overwhelmed. Ice slides were out of the question as well.
He had to act fast and creatively, but mostly avoid getting his frozen face smashed in.
Senyaka, Frenzy, and Crule spread out amongst themselves as quickly as they could, but Iceman was already barreling through the command center towards them. They could only make out his faint shadow, but they could see his relative shape and size.
His first target was the largest and strongest of the three – Crule – and unbeknown to them a sheet of ice appeared behind his feet. He was bum rushed by the significantly smaller man, but the sheet of ice behind him caused him to slip back and strike the ground hard. Senyaka and Frenzy leapt clear of his fall, unaware of Iceman’s deception and stunned by his apparent, uncanny strength.
Crule struggled to get up, but found himself wrapped in ice and stuck the floor like a rat stuck in a sticky-pad trap.
Frenzy hesitated a moment, then balled up her fists and took a swing at his shadowy form, but Iceman was one step ahead of her. He narrowly side-stepped the attack and grabbed her arm, quickly releasing an intense wave of cold into her body. She cried out and dropped down to a knee, and he took that opportunity to unleash a short but wide beam of ice into the side of her head.
The attack dropped her to the ground, then Iceman turned around to face Senyaka, who he could see clearly in the darkness with his thermal vision.
Senyaka cleared the distance between them quickly and lunged at Iceman with energy whips at his sides. Iceman nearly fell backwards over Frenzy’s fallen form as the overpowering man came down on him, but he quickly unleashed a short blast of ice that stunned Senyaka and forced him back.
Iceman then reached out and grabbed him by the neck, putting a foot into his torso and leaping up against him, kicking him in the face. Senyaka stumbled backwards and grabbed his mouth as blood gushed out, then found his hand frozen to his face. He frantically tried to rip it away before Iceman punched him square in the face, causing him to double-back in shock.
A loud bang caught Iceman’s attention as a door slammed open to his left. An indignant scream followed and he shot a look in its direction. A scrawny woman with dark brown hair and pasty white skin charged out of the other room at him with her hands outstretched. Her name was Mortis, and an aura of brown, orange, and black energy radiated from her hands.
Iceman reacted instinctively. He reached out and grabbed her wrists as her hands came inches away from his face. He fell back against the room’s wall as she rushed and struggled against, her power to destroy any organic and inorganic matter she touched threatening to eat through his face like acid.
He gripped her wrists tighter and flash-froze them. Mortis cried out in agony and she tried to pull her hands away from Iceman, but he held tight and pulled her back towards him, slamming her back into the very wall he was up against only seconds ago. He pinned her arms above her head and froze them to the wall, then as much as it shamed him, punched her across the jaw.
The blow knocked her unconscious and he shuffled away before the others could recover, keeping his eyes out for any of them to strike.
Iceman found himself under the gaping hole in the roof, breathing heavily from the rush of adrenaline and the exertion of battle. Rain poured down around him as his five opponents began to recover from his attacks. Lightning struck outside of the building and illuminated him clearly in the center of the room.
Mercury, Frenzy, and Landslide began surrounding him slowly. A loud crash came from Crule as he tore himself from the ice that froze him to the ground as if it were a only a minor inconvenience. Senyaka ripped his hand from his mouth, and the two joined their teammates in slowly surrounding Iceman.
He glanced over each of them as they studied him like cornered prey. With the crack of Senyaka’s energy whip, the five rushed him at the same time.
“ARRGGHH!!” Iceman cried out suddenly, causing his five opponents to skid to a stop just short of attack in shock and surprise.
He arced back his neck and clenched his fists as his average frame erupted with moisture, causing him to almost instantaneously bulk into a spike covered behemoth nearly five times his original size! The hulking X-Man fell into a fighting stance, readying himself for the impending assault.
After only a moment of hesitation, Senyaka was the first to move. He rushed forward again and flicked both of his energy whips at Iceman. The X-Man brought his massive forearm out to block the attack, but the whips wrapped around it. Senyaka gave him a strong tug with both arms, attempting to sap him of his life-force. Iceman braced himself against the pull, gritting his teeth as he felt a slight drain of power and felt hairline cracks appear over his arm.
With a powerful groan, he hefted Senyaka towards him by his whips like a rag doll and swung him into the security center’s wall with fierce strength. The whips around Iceman’s wrists loosened as Senyaka was left stunned and breathless.
Mercury’s eyes flew wide open at the sudden display of power, and then he gasped as Iceman flung Senyaka in his direction by his whips. He attempted to dodge his oncoming teammate’s body, but he wasn’t even able to clear a foot before he collided into him. The combined velocity and weight caused Mercury to splatter in all directions, his liquid metal body becoming little more than mush on the floor, walls, and his teammates.
Landslide bounded towards the monstrosity of ice known as Iceman on his powerful legs, drawing a fist back in midair to strike. Iceman outstretched his massive arm and caught Landslide by the head, and then choke slammed him into the ground like he was swatting a fly. Ice erupted from the ground as Landslide struck it, encasing him in a freezing cold, amorphous block.
In that time, Frenzy rushed Iceman from behind his as his back was turned, but he released Landslide and spun around at a speed that betrayed his hulking frame. He rushed at Frenzy and drew back his foot, then kicked her like a football punter. Ice exploded from his foot upon impact with her torso, launching her straight up into the ceiling of the building. When she struck it, she fell straight to the ground with an avalanche of ice and snow.
Before Iceman could act, he was struck in the back by Crule as the terrorist lunged onto him. Crule wrapped an arm around Iceman’s neck to hold on and then struck at his head repeatedly. Iceman tried to spin around and reach back to get him off, but Crule clung for life. The behemoth of ice rotated several times before he ended up back underneath the gaping hole in the ceiling, the rapid rain and wind striking them both. Finally, Iceman clenched his fists and flexed his upper torso, causing shallow, dull spikes to erupt from his body and dig into Crule’s.
Crule cried out and loosened his grip. Iceman reached over his shoulder with both of his humungous hands and grabbed his foe by the torso, then flung him across the room. Crule sailed through the air and then struck a desk, shattering the wood into splinters and debris.
Iceman took deep, heavy breaths as he looked over his handiwork underneath the rain pouring in from the ceiling. Hairline, stress cracks had spread throughout his entire massive frame from the battle. He swallowed back the lump in his throat and tried to calm himself long enough to think of his next move when suddenly the building began to shake in successive thumps.
His fists clenched and his eyes shot around the room, studying the darkened room in thermal vision. The building shook more violently by the moment as the thumps became louder and louder. They were foot steps! Foot steps of something big and something heavy, but what was it and where was it coming from?!
Iceman continued frantically to search around the room but he saw nothing, when suddenly it dawned upon him. In frantic realization, he looked up to the gaping hole in the ceiling just in time to see a gross, bulbous mass of red, orange, and yellow swan dive off of the roof of the building and through the hole. Iceman tried to dive out of the way, but he was too slow.
The Blob belly flopped onto the back of his massive, weakened ice body and shattered Iceman into thousands of tiny jagged shards.
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Phoenix has stumbled across a massacre and Iceman’s been a party to one! Who has invaded Phoenix’s mind and what is the Brotherhood’s next move? Will the rest of the X-Men arrive in time to make a difference? Find out!
# # # # #
MAKE WAY FOR… NEWMANIAM!
Feedback is as feedback does.
Any love, hate, or meager shrugs can be sent to [email protected]!
I know, I know. I went on one heck of a hiatus for a new series and people didn’t think I would ever come back, but hey, I’m in the business of proving people both wrong and right. I won’t make excuses. I’ll just say sorry for the uber-hiatus, thanks for all of your continued support, and please keep reading!
- Cory Wiegel
October 23rd, 2010
Kevin MacTaggert and Rahne Sinclair, the X-Men’s allies known as Proteus and Wolfsbane, were both on the island and subdued. Likewise, Dr. Moira MacTaggert was captured, had information extracted from her mind, and was then left for execution. When the X-Men were alerted to the siege underway, they activated a remote feed to the island’s security cameras and found that their former leader, Cyclops, was involved in ways they would have never imagined…
# # # # #
Outside of CNN Broadcasting Studios, several dozen blue and white police barricades surrounded a privately owned stealth aircraft. Even at such a late hour, armed police officers acted as crowd control to the growing press and civilian crowds in front of the barricades. The aircraft was an SR-71 Blackbird jet, decommissioned from the military and modified greatly with advanced technology for personal use by the deceased Professor Charles Xavier and his protégés, the X-Men.
The press and the public snapped pictures, resulting in bright flashbulbs lighting up the parking, as chatter and murmurs about the terrorist attacks on Muir Island filled the air. What would happen next and would it come from this aircraft?
Inside the Blackbird, white noise filled the air from a computer monitor. The three occupants had watched the security footage a handful of times and each time it ended the same way: their longtime friend and former leader of the X-Men, Scott Summers – Cyclops – fleeing the scene of a brutal attack on their allies with the Brotherhood of Mutants.
“Hank?” a longtime friend’s voice beckoned, cutting through the white noise.
Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy continued staring at the monitor. It was static, but the footage that had flashed before him only moments ago held him enthralled. The implications were grave indeed.
A firm hand gripped his shoulder, causing his head to turn towards its owner.
“This can’t be real, can it?” Bobby Drake asked. “I mean, we gotta do something even if it is, but… do you think it’s real?”
Hank took a deep breath, shooting a glance to Jean Grey-Summers. The red-headed woman was beside herself in grief, but despite the news that her estranged husband was involved with the terrorists she persevered. She sat with eyes closed as she wore a large golden helmet on her head. It was attached through a series of cables to a portable mutant tracking system, Cerebro, which was commanded by her telepathic powers, and with it she was attempting to scan the site of the attack.
After a moment, Hank looked back to Bobby.
“Let’s approach this one issue at a time,” he finally said. “Muir Island is under attack and we haven’t a moment to waste. Have you contacted the others?”
Bobby shook his head ‘no.’
“We just received the alert from Cerebro when Jean called you off stage.”
Hank nodded and he began to stride with Bobby away from the monitor towards the communications console. “Then we need to reach the mansion and find a teleporter to transport --“
“I can get us there,” their friend’s voice chimed in.
Hank and Bobby stopped and looked back to Jean, who was removing the golden helmet from her head. She set it aside on the console at her side and stood from her seat where she cleared her throat and nodded confidently.
“To Muir Island, I mean.”
“What about the others?” Hank asked.
“You need to assemble them as quickly as possible,” Jean said with determination as she crossed aircraft to another console. Bobby and Hank followed behind her. “I’ve scanned Muir Island and have a sit-rep on what’s happening.”
Jean typed in a few commands on the console and the large screen on the Blackbird’s hull came to life with a digital map of Muir Island’s Research Center. Dozens of blue dots were scattered across the compound with large clusters of red dots moving across several different buildings.
“Humans and mutants on the island in real time, respectively,” she explained of the dots and began pointing to a building on the west of the compound. “The largest concentration of mutants and humans are here, at the security center. It’s safe to assume that’s where the Brotherhood is suppressing the island’s defenses.”
Hank leaned over Jean and pointed a finger at the digital map to a northern building. Several red dots were proceeding towards it.
“That’s where the server room is. The computers there store and distribute all of the research information collected by Muir Island’s staff,” he said matter-of-factly. He drew back his arm and covered his mouth, considering what they were seeing carefully. “Some of the Brotherhood must be serving as decoys while others move to destroy Moira’s research…”
Bobby swallowed back the lump in his throat. “What about Moira and the staff?”
“I couldn’t get a read on Moira, but the Brotherhood’s cutting down any researchers and staff that get in their way,” Jean explained. She pointed to a northeastern building that appeared uncovered by red or blue dots. “This is the research center’s panic room. It’s a telepathic deadzone designed by Forge, so the Brotherhood wouldn’t be able to detect Moira or anyone else if they were holed up in there.”
“We have to move quickly then before they stumble across it,” Hank said. Jean and Bobby turned to him. “First, we must provide back-up support to the security team and force the Brotherhood into retreat. Then we have to reach Moira and the research staff and secure them from harm. The research… will be our last priority.”
Jean and Bobby nodded in agreement.
“Right, but Hank… we need you here to gather the others,” she said. Telekinetic flames consumed her irises and then erupted from her body in a fiery bird avatar. “Bobby and I will hold the Brotherhood off for as long as we can.”
Hank was reluctant to agree, but knew there was little other choice. He took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose, nodding back at them.
“Go,” was all he said. Bobby’s brow furrowed in curiosity.
“Wait, how are we going to -- ?” Bobby started to ask when curiosity quickly turned into concern as the same telekinetic flames consuming Jean overtook him. The two disappeared into twin streams of flame that shot towards the roof of the aircraft.
# # # # #
A piercing avian screech filled the studio parking lot as two streams of fire shot out from the Blackbird into the night’s sky. The surrounding police officers and crowd gasped in shock at the sudden event, pointing and looking to the sky as the streams joined together into one. The stream arced sharply through the air after reaching its peak and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean at unimaginable speeds.
The stream of flame quickly formed into the visage that of the legendary firebird of rebirth, the Phoenix, flying fierce and undeterred.
“HOLY CRAP!” Bobby exclaimed with a sudden gasp as he Jean materialized in the center of the firebird. He began to hyperventilate, wide-eyed and frantic, as the city of Washington, D.C. washed away in a blur and the deep, dark blue oceans of the Atlantic Ocean raced by underneath them.
“Try to talk through our telepathic link,” Jean’s telepathic voice suggested in Bobby’s mind. “You know that breathing’s difficult at these speeds.”
Bobby took slower breaths and tried his best to focus.
“Jesus H. Roman Catholic, we are movin’!” Bobby observed. He shot a skeptical look at Jean. “How ‘bout a little warning next time, chica?”
“Sorry,” Jean replied, undettered. ”But every moment we spend talking could be the death of innocent people on Muir Island.”
“You’re right. So what’s the plan? We hit the security building first, round up the posse, and go after the staff?”
Jean hesitated much to Bobby’s chagrin.
“Jean?”
“Close,” she finally answered. “You’re going to support the security team and gather reinforcements.”
Bobby was taken aback. “Whoa, what?! You mean by myself? Are you crazy!?!”
“There’s no time to waste arguing about it, Bobby,” Jean rebuked her friend and teammate as the skies suddenly darkened even more and the weather suddenly changed. “I’m going to drop you outside of the security building and then head for Moira’s safe room. With any luck –-“
“The safe room won’t be empty and I won’t get slaughtered?” he quipped sharply.
The X-Man rolled her eyes as they began to fly into what appeared to be a thunderstorm, her telekinetic flames repelling the
“I was going to say,” Jean continued after being interrupted. “With any luck Hank and the others will reach the island quickly and we’ll be able to regroup at the server room. Now get ready. We’re coming up fast on Muir Island…”
# # # # #
Telekinetic flames in the form of talons ripped through the gray rain clouds blanketing Muir Island from the night’s sky. A fiery raptor emerged from the storm and swooped down towards the island compound’s security building. It came in low and sharp, lighting up the west grounds of the island as it passed.
With a telekinetic push, Bobby was ejected to the ground from his teammate’s hold before she continued her flight. He dropped from the air into a squat with one palm striking the rain drenched soil to balance his self. With merely a thought his body transformed into a frigid, organic ice state, the deep cold causing his brittle clothes to shatter underneath his bulky, transformed frame.
Iceman stood slowly, looked up, and saw Phoenix barrel roll through the stormy sky, telekinetic flames trailing her as she banked toward the east side of the island. His eyes then fell back down to the ransacked building dead ahead of his position.
With a deep breath, Iceman muttered, “Here we go.”
He launched into a run across the muddied, water soaked grass towards the security center, quickly covering the distance between himself and the gaping, blast burned hole in the building’s south wall. He veered sharply to the building’s right and spun around to press his back against the wall beside the mutant-made entrance, his heart pounding as he prepared to execute Jean and his’ plan.
“Alright, Jeannie. Kill the lights in there and say a prayer for my un-fractured skull.”
“Standby. This will take a moment.”
He took deep breaths as he waited for Phoenix to telekinetic locate and destroy the security center’s power source and back-up generator. The wind howled and rain pounded across the island, and in the distance he could hear the heated commands of the right terrorists and gunfire ringing out in futile retaliation. Screams and cries of agony unnerved him and pleaded for his intervention, but he had to remain focused on the plan at hand.
Even though Iceman was, in theory, one of the most powerful and seasoned members of the X-Men, the full limitations of his abilities weighed heavily on his mind as he waited for his teammate to kill the lights.
The Brotherhood of Mutants here outnumbered him five-to-one in a poorly lit, close-quarters environment where his more powerful ranged attacks would fail him and there were innocent bystanders to contend with, to boot. To make it out of this one alive, he would have to pull out all of the stops and use every trick in his arsenal to drive back some of the deadliest mutants in the world.
Suddenly, the sound of rapidly sparking electricity caught his attention and he readied himself. The sounds were followed by a mechanical roar of malfunctioning machinery and then the lights in the security center died.
That was his cue.
Iceman took a deep breath and twisted around the wall his back was against, taking off in a sprint into the pitch-black, battle ravaged building. As he raced towards the flustered and bewildered ramblings deep inside, his vision fluctuated into a unique form of thermal vision, causing his enemies and the corpses of their still warm victims to jump out of the darkness at him.
This would be his first advantage in the fight. The Brotherhood would be confused and befuddled by the sudden loss of light, but it would only provide a brief window of disarray for him to exploit. Shock and awe had to be the name of the game, and that required him to hit fiercely and unexpectedly.
Everything else he would have to make up as he went along.
# # # # #
Jean was able to cross Muir Island in a matter of moments flying within the fiery raptor of the Phoenix. Along the way she passed over various members of the Brotherhood of Mutants indulging in mindless destruction while the occasional staff member fled for their lives.
Like Bobby, she wanted to intervene and put a stop to the madness, but it would be a futile attempt at the moment and others needed her help.
The island was rocked with gunfire and explosions, but the X-Man noticed that the violence was less apparent the further she traveled northeast. When she reached the furthest building northeast of the compound, the living quarters and a safe room to be precise, she descended to the ground and the telekinetic flames around her disseminated. Rain continued to fall all around her, but aside from it and the winds, the area was eerily quiet. Still, she had no time to waste.
Phoenix reached out to the twin doors of the building with her mind, telekinetically giving them a light bush. They rocked and clanked slightly, but didn’t budge open. Frowning, she flicked her wrist at the doors and they exploded off of their hinges, consumed in telekinetic flames. She then took a careful stride through the doorway, noting the security bar and chains among the debris.
Either someone had locked the door to keep others out or they had locked the doors to keep others in. Much to her chagrin, Jean would soon learn it was the latter.
As she proceeded down the long corridor leading from the building’s entrance, a low, mechanical humming noise became increasingly apparent. Her eyes narrowed in realization. It was likely the psionic shielding machinery that turned the living quarters into a virulent telepathic dead zone. A constant telepathic scan, her usual means of anticipating danger and hostilities, would likely be frivolous. Instead, she would have to use another technique.
Taking deep breaths as she walked, each time Phoenix exhaled she projected a soft telekinetic aura in a thirty foot radius. Any sudden movements within the radius would bounce back to her, much like sonar, and it would hopefully give her enough time to put up a defense against any attackers.
Phoenix wanted to rush through the building to look for her friends and any survivors of the attack, and strike down any members of the Brotherhood of Mutants that stood in her way for that matter, but with a telepathic dampening field surrounding the building she was as good as blind.
As a telepath, any limitations on her abilities to anticipate the unseen gave her a feeling not unlike claustrophobia. The fact that she had no back-up from her teammates didn’t help the situation any, and so she took soft and slow steps along the corridor, using all of her senses to seek out any threat. Soon, she reached a split in the corridor that went in two directions, and one direction decidedly warranted more attention than the other.
“My God,” Phoenix whispered under her breath in shock.
The corridor of doors to her left was littered with several bodies of men and women of various ages and ethnicities, from security officers to research staff to civilians in uniforms, pajamas, and lab coats. They had looked as if they were killed upon coming out of their bedrooms in the dead of night.
As far as Phoenix could tell, some had been disemboweled while others were burned alive, and one security officer had even turned his pistol on himself, blowing his brains out the back of his skull and across the wall behind his head. His body remained slumped over against the wall, his eyes frozen wide-open in fear.
Phoenix began to carefully journey down the corridors, shaking slightly as her heart began to speed up. She was sure to not step on any bodies or in any puddles of blood and guts, but the sights were mortifying and the stench of their still warm remains was unbearable. It almost caused her to lose her balance.
She immediately noticed that blood was spread in streaks across the walls, vertically and horizontally, and even more was pooling out among the bodies on the corridor floor. The looks on their faces were terrified and soon Phoenix turned her eyes forward to the end of the hallway, trying her best not to look at the slaughter she ventured through. Her breathing had sped up significantly, as well as the telekinetic waves she used as sonar that that followed. She had to tell herself to remain as calm as she could or more lives could potentially meet a similar end, including her own.
When Phoenix neared the end of the corridor, her ears perked up and she narrowed her eyes, listening intently. Somewhere on the other end of the corridor there were frantic foot steps and what sounded like animalistic breathing, panting almost. She pushed forward intently until she reached the end of the corridor, unknowingly passing by what appeared to be a large arrow panted in blood.
In the large room at the end of the hall, what appeared to be humanoid lupine – resembling a large red wolf – was running in broad circles, feral and snapping at its long, bushy tail. A large, metal cross appeared to be whipping up and around its torso, adorn from its neck.
“Rahne…?” Phoenix called out to the former New Mutant in disbelief.
It was Rahne Sinclair, otherwise known as Wolfsbane. She seemed unresponsive to by the appearance of Phoenix and her calling out her name, but Phoenix was positive that it was her. But had she massacred the island’s staff? No, her claws and body were clean of blood and human remains, and there was no way she could have caused some of the injuries those poor men and women had sustained.
While she contemplated what had happened there and how exactly she was going to break Wolfsbane out of whatever hypnotic spell she was under, Phoenix looked around the room and noticed strange fluctuations of golden energy lining the walls and ceiling. It was as if the very fabric of reality was on the verge of distortion, but the event had not quite reached its climax.
Then her eyes fell on the far side of the room, near a large reinforced door. It was glowing the brightest and appeared as if it were fluctuating between solid and liquid metal. There before the day laid a young man glowing of a similar aura, with long white locks and a goatee.
It was Kevin MacTaggert, the son of Dr. Moira MacTaggert also known as Proteus.
He was huffing and groaning, but appeared immobile, and Phoenix rushed past Wolfsbane towards his position. The former New Mutant would have to wait, she decided. She was in a mindless trance of sorts, but appeared nonetheless unharmed. The former X-Man she had known as Joseph, on the other hand, was trapped in some kind of agonizing flux with reality that was damaging the surrounding area.
Reaching his side, Phoenix put her hands on the side of his head and closed her eyes as she attempted to enter his mind. In a telepathic dead zone, she knew that the only way to initiate contact was to maintain close proximity and physical contact with the subject. However, other telepaths knew this as well.
Upon successfully entering Kevin’s mind, a telepathic backlash suddenly surged through Phoenix’s mind, causing her eyes to fly open and scream out in excruciating pain. She released Kevin’s head and collapsed to the ground at his side on her hands and knees, heaving and gasping painfully. Her nerves were on fire and she was in a daze, barely able to keep herself upright.
Suddenly, the humming noise that was ever-present in the background grew louder and seemed to speed up into a mechanical whirring. Phoenix swallowed back the lump in her throat and looked up as sparkling crimson and black psionic energy began to swirl around the room. The mechanical whirring increased substantially as the electronic mechanisms controlling the psionic dampeners embedded in the walls began to spark and sizzle.
Phoenix gasped as tiny, but violent, explosions rocked the room and the psionic energy began to swirl around her faster and faster into a fierce tornado. It was then Phoenix felt a menacing presence enter the room as some of the energy broke off from the tornado and formed an entity before her, one who grinned mischievously.
“Hoonnn-eeeeeeeyyyy….” a sinister voice invaded Phoenix’s mind. “I’m home.”
# # # # #
Back on the other side of the island, the security building was pitch dark inside, save for the occasional lighting strike from the storm outside that illuminated the corridors briefly through the windows. There were five heat signatures – members of the Brotherhood of Mutants – standing at the center of the building in the command room, tense and unnerved at the building’s sudden loss of power only moments ago.
They were in combat with the island’s security team and preparing to hunt down the final officers when it happened, so they spread themselves out across the room and sent a member to check on the power. Rain was still pattering in from the hole in the ceiling they had used to enter and the winds roared outside. It was a bad time to be inconvenienced by a power outage, or worse, an ambush.
“Where’s that damn woman at with the back-up generator?” Crule – a large, muscular man with pale, purple skin – said through fang-like teeth. He bared his clawed gauntlets, ready for battle. His head was shaved with the sole exception of a long, almost whip-like pony tail with a mace at the end of it.
“Remain calm and stay alert,” a tall and imposing man in a sleeveless, crimson and black uniform complete with a face-covering cowl said. He was Senyaka. “She’ll be back shortly and then the slaughter can resume.”
“Stay calm? How do ya expect us to do that?” a pudgy man with blonde hair and a white stripe in it asked in a Southern accent. “Ah can’t see a damn thing!”
His name was Landslide and he was growing more angry the longer they were delayed. Senyaka shot him a look, and though his face was covered, his commanding body language said everything it needed. Landslide shut up and kept his eyes open.
“Senyaka’s right, but if Mortis isn’t back soon we’ll just have to continue without her,” a black woman with cornrows – Frenzy – added.
From across the room, a man with black hair, blank white eyes, and a body made entirely of liquid metal nodded in agreement. He was Mercury, silent but strong.
The air in the command room shifted and there was a movement in the furthest corner. It was too dark to see anything clearly and the shadows cloaked much of the room, but the five readied themselves anyway, listening intently for any nearby movements. They looked about in all directions, narrowing their eyes to see anything, when suddenly loud foot steps filled the air.
Mercury perked up as he heard the sounds behind him, but as he turned to face them a fist the size of a punching glove, made entirely of ice, struck him in the side of the head. The surprise attack sent him tumbling to the ground and his assailant, a man made entirely of ice, rushed past him into the fray.
“Someone’s here! “Get ‘em – UNGH!” Landslide bellowed the obvious before he was struck in the forehead by an ice brick projected at blinding speeds. He slumped back and tried to catch his balance, but the blow left even a brute such as him dazed.
Though he had versatile powers and strategies, close-quarters combat with the Brotherhood of Mutants left Iceman with very few options. Firing off ice beams and avalanches required telegraphing his attacks and misfires could flood the room with ice, leaving him less room to maneuver and more opportunity to be overwhelmed. Ice slides were out of the question as well.
He had to act fast and creatively, but mostly avoid getting his frozen face smashed in.
Senyaka, Frenzy, and Crule spread out amongst themselves as quickly as they could, but Iceman was already barreling through the command center towards them. They could only make out his faint shadow, but they could see his relative shape and size.
His first target was the largest and strongest of the three – Crule – and unbeknown to them a sheet of ice appeared behind his feet. He was bum rushed by the significantly smaller man, but the sheet of ice behind him caused him to slip back and strike the ground hard. Senyaka and Frenzy leapt clear of his fall, unaware of Iceman’s deception and stunned by his apparent, uncanny strength.
Crule struggled to get up, but found himself wrapped in ice and stuck the floor like a rat stuck in a sticky-pad trap.
Frenzy hesitated a moment, then balled up her fists and took a swing at his shadowy form, but Iceman was one step ahead of her. He narrowly side-stepped the attack and grabbed her arm, quickly releasing an intense wave of cold into her body. She cried out and dropped down to a knee, and he took that opportunity to unleash a short but wide beam of ice into the side of her head.
The attack dropped her to the ground, then Iceman turned around to face Senyaka, who he could see clearly in the darkness with his thermal vision.
Senyaka cleared the distance between them quickly and lunged at Iceman with energy whips at his sides. Iceman nearly fell backwards over Frenzy’s fallen form as the overpowering man came down on him, but he quickly unleashed a short blast of ice that stunned Senyaka and forced him back.
Iceman then reached out and grabbed him by the neck, putting a foot into his torso and leaping up against him, kicking him in the face. Senyaka stumbled backwards and grabbed his mouth as blood gushed out, then found his hand frozen to his face. He frantically tried to rip it away before Iceman punched him square in the face, causing him to double-back in shock.
A loud bang caught Iceman’s attention as a door slammed open to his left. An indignant scream followed and he shot a look in its direction. A scrawny woman with dark brown hair and pasty white skin charged out of the other room at him with her hands outstretched. Her name was Mortis, and an aura of brown, orange, and black energy radiated from her hands.
Iceman reacted instinctively. He reached out and grabbed her wrists as her hands came inches away from his face. He fell back against the room’s wall as she rushed and struggled against, her power to destroy any organic and inorganic matter she touched threatening to eat through his face like acid.
He gripped her wrists tighter and flash-froze them. Mortis cried out in agony and she tried to pull her hands away from Iceman, but he held tight and pulled her back towards him, slamming her back into the very wall he was up against only seconds ago. He pinned her arms above her head and froze them to the wall, then as much as it shamed him, punched her across the jaw.
The blow knocked her unconscious and he shuffled away before the others could recover, keeping his eyes out for any of them to strike.
Iceman found himself under the gaping hole in the roof, breathing heavily from the rush of adrenaline and the exertion of battle. Rain poured down around him as his five opponents began to recover from his attacks. Lightning struck outside of the building and illuminated him clearly in the center of the room.
Mercury, Frenzy, and Landslide began surrounding him slowly. A loud crash came from Crule as he tore himself from the ice that froze him to the ground as if it were a only a minor inconvenience. Senyaka ripped his hand from his mouth, and the two joined their teammates in slowly surrounding Iceman.
He glanced over each of them as they studied him like cornered prey. With the crack of Senyaka’s energy whip, the five rushed him at the same time.
“ARRGGHH!!” Iceman cried out suddenly, causing his five opponents to skid to a stop just short of attack in shock and surprise.
He arced back his neck and clenched his fists as his average frame erupted with moisture, causing him to almost instantaneously bulk into a spike covered behemoth nearly five times his original size! The hulking X-Man fell into a fighting stance, readying himself for the impending assault.
After only a moment of hesitation, Senyaka was the first to move. He rushed forward again and flicked both of his energy whips at Iceman. The X-Man brought his massive forearm out to block the attack, but the whips wrapped around it. Senyaka gave him a strong tug with both arms, attempting to sap him of his life-force. Iceman braced himself against the pull, gritting his teeth as he felt a slight drain of power and felt hairline cracks appear over his arm.
With a powerful groan, he hefted Senyaka towards him by his whips like a rag doll and swung him into the security center’s wall with fierce strength. The whips around Iceman’s wrists loosened as Senyaka was left stunned and breathless.
Mercury’s eyes flew wide open at the sudden display of power, and then he gasped as Iceman flung Senyaka in his direction by his whips. He attempted to dodge his oncoming teammate’s body, but he wasn’t even able to clear a foot before he collided into him. The combined velocity and weight caused Mercury to splatter in all directions, his liquid metal body becoming little more than mush on the floor, walls, and his teammates.
Landslide bounded towards the monstrosity of ice known as Iceman on his powerful legs, drawing a fist back in midair to strike. Iceman outstretched his massive arm and caught Landslide by the head, and then choke slammed him into the ground like he was swatting a fly. Ice erupted from the ground as Landslide struck it, encasing him in a freezing cold, amorphous block.
In that time, Frenzy rushed Iceman from behind his as his back was turned, but he released Landslide and spun around at a speed that betrayed his hulking frame. He rushed at Frenzy and drew back his foot, then kicked her like a football punter. Ice exploded from his foot upon impact with her torso, launching her straight up into the ceiling of the building. When she struck it, she fell straight to the ground with an avalanche of ice and snow.
Before Iceman could act, he was struck in the back by Crule as the terrorist lunged onto him. Crule wrapped an arm around Iceman’s neck to hold on and then struck at his head repeatedly. Iceman tried to spin around and reach back to get him off, but Crule clung for life. The behemoth of ice rotated several times before he ended up back underneath the gaping hole in the ceiling, the rapid rain and wind striking them both. Finally, Iceman clenched his fists and flexed his upper torso, causing shallow, dull spikes to erupt from his body and dig into Crule’s.
Crule cried out and loosened his grip. Iceman reached over his shoulder with both of his humungous hands and grabbed his foe by the torso, then flung him across the room. Crule sailed through the air and then struck a desk, shattering the wood into splinters and debris.
Iceman took deep, heavy breaths as he looked over his handiwork underneath the rain pouring in from the ceiling. Hairline, stress cracks had spread throughout his entire massive frame from the battle. He swallowed back the lump in his throat and tried to calm himself long enough to think of his next move when suddenly the building began to shake in successive thumps.
His fists clenched and his eyes shot around the room, studying the darkened room in thermal vision. The building shook more violently by the moment as the thumps became louder and louder. They were foot steps! Foot steps of something big and something heavy, but what was it and where was it coming from?!
Iceman continued frantically to search around the room but he saw nothing, when suddenly it dawned upon him. In frantic realization, he looked up to the gaping hole in the ceiling just in time to see a gross, bulbous mass of red, orange, and yellow swan dive off of the roof of the building and through the hole. Iceman tried to dive out of the way, but he was too slow.
The Blob belly flopped onto the back of his massive, weakened ice body and shattered Iceman into thousands of tiny jagged shards.
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT ISSUE: Phoenix has stumbled across a massacre and Iceman’s been a party to one! Who has invaded Phoenix’s mind and what is the Brotherhood’s next move? Will the rest of the X-Men arrive in time to make a difference? Find out!
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MAKE WAY FOR… NEWMANIAM!
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I know, I know. I went on one heck of a hiatus for a new series and people didn’t think I would ever come back, but hey, I’m in the business of proving people both wrong and right. I won’t make excuses. I’ll just say sorry for the uber-hiatus, thanks for all of your continued support, and please keep reading!
- Cory Wiegel
October 23rd, 2010