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Issue #15 March 2004	Written By Tom Moses

"Haven't you ever wondered where your limitations really end?" Kalia asks, as she starts to touch the bare skin of Drake's arm once again.

He stares at her hand for a moment. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop doing that," Drake tells her. "There's nothing you can do that will make me do anything I might regret later on, so you might as well just stop trying."

"You think your petty little human friend has anything that I couldn't offer you?"

"No, I think my pretty little human friend has a level of sanity you'd find hard to reach." His eyes quickly shift to her hers. "Besides, she certainly has a lot more respectability to her."

A smile grows on her face, and he notices her eyes beginning to change color to a deeper blue. Curiously, her face also starts to lose its color; instantly, his vision tells him of the dramatic drop in her body temperature. Drake watches her smile grow larger as frost begins to form across her eyebrows and her skin turns to a pale blue.

"Well, aren't you somewhat talented." He draws his speech out, in reluctance to take his eyes off the woman. "Have to give Sinister credit; here I thought you were a recruiter or something. Note to self: Sinister hires attractive goons now."

Kalia's eyes scowl with mention of Nathaniel Essex. "I am not some hireling, Iceman. I am the closest thing to a daughter Nathaniel has. He is my creator, a much better father than my true biological."

"I think it's time to go see a shrink, lady." His words trail off as he starts to step backward. "Your delusions are a bit too thick to wade through at this point."

Her skin tone turns a deeper blue, as frost continues to spread to the ends of her hair. The look on her face betrays the anger she tries to conceal. "I've been waiting for this day for a very long time, Bobby Drake. Nathaniel thinks highly of you, and scorning both of us was surely not in your best interest."

"Babe, I think you're losing what little grip on reality you still have."

Not a moment before Drake could open his mouth to utter another word, Kalia lunges her fist into Drake's unprotected chest, hurtling the mutant several feet backward and tumbling through the soft dirt. "Do not insult me, or your pretty girlfriend might regret it."

Drake grits his teeth along with the pain of at least two broken ribs. Twisting his body, he takes care getting to his feet. "I don't know who you think you are or what you think about Sinister, but he's far from the saint you make him." The air starts to snap and crack around him. Making sure she is witness to his transformation, Bobby Drake smirks through a slowed transition from flesh to ice. "Sinister is a murderer, manipulator, and beyond that proper exterior I'm sure he's got you more than simply fooled."

"And it happens just as Nathaniel told me it would." Kalia laughs. "You're almost too predictable in relying on your powers."

The woman sprints toward Drake, tackling him to the ground once again. The two roll in the dirt, wrestling one another until finally she kneels above him. "I haven't been able to do many of the things you can." Her knee digs into his chest as she speaks. "Though my strength enhancement should make up for some of it."

Completely changed into ice, and pinned to the ground, Drake feels no pain with her knee on his ribcage. "You seem to know enough about me, and I'd have to give you much kudos, if I were single, for the compromising position, but you aren't the brightest of people, are you?"

"The cold doesn't bother me." She says, "You can desist now with your jokes on my hair color."

No sooner than her words complete, the woman is tossed through the air like a rag doll. Iceman stands to watch her painfully hit the ground, and the remnants of the column of ice he created crumble from his chest. "The cold may not bother you, and that's really fair," he says much to himself. "But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to think that you shouldn't stand on top of someone that is able to create things out of thin air."

The laughter all but stops, and the woman springs to her feet. Seemingly no worse for the wear, she rushes toward him, and Iceman braces while rings of energy form around his wrists. "So much for chicks who go down without a fight," he says, clenching his fists.

"Why the sudden interest in Robert?" Henry asks as his fellow X-Man flies off to aid Drake. "You are usually obsessive toward the Summers line."

"And it all returns to step one," laughs Essex. "Scott has outlived his usefulness; however, to say my interests stopped with him and those who share his bloodline would be foolhardy indeed."

Henry attempts to make a grab for Essex, succeeding in only pushing the scientist slightly backward. "I've about had it with your damn riddles!" Henry McCoy threatens. "You have plans for everyone, why don't you come out and say what it is that you want? What is it that you want with Bobby now?"

A blue furred fist grips tight as Henry McCoy's camouflage device fails. "Don't fret, Henry. Kalia knows enough self-control not to truly bring your friend to any harm; besides, I believe she is somewhat taken with him."

"I do not know if I can fully explain my intentions for you to understand what it is that I gain to do," Essex tells. "I hoped with your agreement to join my research that you would come to an understanding on what it is I have come to find."

"Bobby's abilities are curious as of late, as much is certain," agrees Henry. "But I cannot ignore, nor can I condone the secrecy."

"Only a test." Essex laughs away the concern, "If I am correct, Kalia will be much too strong for Iceman to contend."

With a thump to the earth, Iceman impacts the dirt again, the man of ice now looking oddly like a being composed of mud. He brings his hand to his mouth as if to wipe blood from it, before realizing he doesn't bleed in elemental form. Iceman struggles to stand, as the woman's enhanced strength has begun to catch up to him. "Look, maybe I should rethink some of the things I said." He brings his arm upward to block a blow to his face and wins the opportunity to strike with his own.

Kalia is swept to the ground, and in a fluid motion she flips herself backward, using her momentum to land on her feet. "And you asked me if I was new to this hero/villain game?" She mocks him and throws her left foot across his face. "It looks to me like someone else needs to re-evaluate himself."

Shards of ice fly through the air with Kalia's connected foot strike, and Iceman twists to the ground again. Gritting his teeth, he can't think about any recent time he's had this much trouble with an opponent. "I don't know what the hell Sinister wants with me." His voice shakes, and his eyes jaunt to her position standing over him. "But there isn't any way you're convincing me to even talk to the guy."

"Don't be silly, Bobby." She bends down to whisper to him. "He only wants to know what secrets you hold that will make me stronger."

Taking advantage of Kalia's low stance, with a single motion, Iceman forces a multitude of growth around his fist and into Kalia's chin. The young woman is hurdled off the ground and backward, landing flat on her back, and with a violent motion the air in her lungs is forced out at once. "Hopefully, you'll take that lesson into consideration."

Despite the cold radiating from her frame, blood flows from the edge of Kalia's mouth and nose. "That was unexpected." She laughs and stands a little too quickly. Feeling the effects much more than she expected, she staggers to the ground.

"I'm not into hitting women and battering them down, so stop all this, all right?"

Kalia literally shakes the pain off. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that, Iceman."

"You're really starting to get annoying, you know that?"

Kalia wipes the blood from her lip. "Maybe your friend in the sky can add a little flavor to the game?"

Quickly moving his eyes to the sky to see Warren coming up in the distance becomes a move that Bobby Drake regrets. Much like he did, Kalia uses his distraction to her advantage. With his head turned to the sky, Kalia rears back, calling her own hand to freeze to a hardness she'd only thought vaguely possible to this point; letting loose with her strike, Iceman is taken completely unaware.

Just catching view of the fight below him, Archangel's enhanced vision allows him to see shards of ice fly every direction as Iceman's unconscious form hurdles to the ground. His wings push hard against the ambient air, as cold and frost grow around his them. Pain shoots through his back like an electric current.

A hard landing isn't something Warren is used to. The pain multiplies as the tumble causes his wings to bend in ways they aren't meant to. The angelic mutant stands between Iceman and Kalia, holding his arm close to his body to nurse a pulled shoulder. "I don't know what you are here to prove, but you're finished trying."

Kalia smiles. "It's not far from finished Archangel."

Archangel turns to peer at Iceman, who hasn't moved since falling to the ground minutes earlier. "How'd you do that?" Archangel says pointing to his fallen comrade. "It's been a long time since I've seen him unconscious during a fight. He's not the type that goes down easily."

"We've all got to learn our potential someway."

His wings fold against his back, in effort to make himself a smaller target. Warren Worthington, or Archangel as he mostly known, stands defiantly between Kalia and Iceman.

Kalia stops suddenly, holding a hand out toward Archangel. "You might want to move out of my way." She orders him, "Move and let me finish, or this will only get worse for you."

Archangel ignores the woman's statement and walks toward his friend. Checking his frame for broken bones before realizing such things don't matter in Iceman's elemental state, he turns the unconscious body of his friend and jumps at what he finds.

A pool of water, from melted ice, rests below Iceman's head. Archangel lifts his friends head from the pool to discover a frightful sight: the pool of water is half of Iceman's face. Archangel gently rests his friends' head, shattered like a thick pane of window glass, back onto the earth. Anger wells into Warren's eyes as he runs toward Kalia.

The angelic X-Man takes to a low-level flight and crashes into Kalia, swooping into the air and touching the ground quickly. He stands over top of the disoriented woman. "You haven't the slightest idea what you've done!" He screams, "Why provoke this attack!"

" Archangel, you must understand the nature of these things." Kalia smiles, taking the pain to stand. "The nature of all things includes replacing the inferior. I am created to be Iceman's replacement in this world, though I had wished it would have been different."

Anger takes control of all things, and Archangel answers her statement with an open handed strike to her chest. "You and your nonsense end right here!"

Rolling her shoulders produces a disgusting crackling sound. "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" She steps backward, raising her hand.

The cold around the area intensifies, and Archangel takes quick notice of the change. His extremities, fallen victim to minor injury from his hard landing, only grow worse with the dropping temperature. The ice crystals around his wings and hair return, and it doesn't take much to make the X-Man fall to his knees, shivering violently in the wake of the sudden cold.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this." Kalia has trouble believing her own lie. "As you can see, one doesn't have to be as adept as Bobby can be to bring down an opponent. Too bad I'm just too much for him to handle."

Kalia stands tall above the curled Archangel. Twisted into a fetal position using his wings to provide a futile addition of warmth, the X-Man barely holds onto consciousness.

"Am I to assume I have not enlisted your aid?"

Henry McCoy scowls back at the man. "If the day had gone differently, you may have swayed my opinion; however, you threaten my friends again, and may whatever deity that still pities you have mercy when your ultimate time arrives."

A frown grown on Essex's face betrays his usual lack of emotion. "It is a pity, Henry." He says, "My efforts may now have to continue as they have."

Henry McCoy stares at Essex, his blood boiling. "Harm any of my friends, and there will be nowhere you can go or hide that will hold you safe for long."

The century old scientist merely shakes his head. "I'm sorry it has returned to this." He promptly turns his back. "Don't fret, Henry; I will get all the information I require, and we shall see each other plenty more."

His point made, Essex vanishes into the thin air of upstate New York, leaving Henry to his own thoughts. Only a minute passes before he realizes his need to help his friends. Placing the disk Essex had given him in his pants pocket, the blue-furred scientist takes off in a four-legged sprint in the direction he last saw Warren fly.

"You X-Men think you have the answers for everything that comes against you." She says, "But what do you do now.."

Unable to finish the words she began, Kalia suddenly stops. Falling to the ground as if she were thrown, she quickly stands and starts to search the area. She finds nothing has changed: Iceman's body still lays unconscious and Archangel is rapidly falling victim to the danger of the below thirty degrees temperatures.

Standing defiantly, Kalia searches the area around her with a frantic worry. "I didn't know there was an invisible X-Man." She tries to taunt whomever it was that had thrown her. "Shouldn't be a problem, though; Iceman and Archangel weren't much of a fight."

The environment begins to warm, as Kalia's hold on the temperature slips. "You know, if I have learned anything from everyone who has decided to mess with me," a voice from nowhere tells her, "it is that I can do anything I particularly want to."

"Iceman?" Kalia's eyes spring wide open, and she swallows hard at the thought. "You're not supposed to be alive."

"Things change, crazy lady." And with his few and simple words, Kalia falls victim to the seldom seen anger of Bobby Drake. From every direction, a number of ice-formed fists appear, each one landing a blow to Kalia's body. The onslaught seems only fitting to Drake.

The woman kneels to the ground, blood running from nearly every facial orifice, her breath ragged and quick. "You're not supposed to be able to do this."

"Do I have to keep reminding you.," his voice again booms from everywhere at once and a large fist forms just far enough to catch her kneeling at one most grave disadvantage. A single blow forces her up and through the air with blood flying in every direction. ".things change," his voice finishes calmly.

Impacting the ground on her back, Kalia is barley conscious. Tears mixed with small amounts of blood flow from her eyes. "Stop.," her ragged voice begs. "I...I can't.."

Her speaking ends with Iceman's battered and broken body standing over her, not showing an ounce of pain, though one third of his face and head are missing and bits of ice fall from his frame. "You wanted me to see my potential," he says without his mouth moving. "Neither one of us was prepared to do this, but it looks like we all have our breaking points."

Moisture collects from all around the area, forming into the outline of a human body and soon begins to freeze. Iceman's body-that-once-was stands over her still, while a new form thaws from the unharmed duplicate, and Bobby Drake is once again in view. "It's over. You expected to have me beaten with little effort, and it might have worked," Bobby says, inspecting his former ice-form. "Just remember, fighting between us is all well and good; if you feel like coming back for another turn of being beaten to the ground, don't ever touch my friends or family again."

Kalia's eyes roll back into her head, and she falls from the notice of Bobby. Turning to his friend, he sees Henry running in the distance. Stopping in his tracks, Bobby concentrates on returning the temperature to normalcy, hoping to give Warren the fighting chance to survive his hypothermia.

"What on earth happened here?" Henry stops just feet from Bobby and Warren, taken aback by the damage done to the area of the park: trees fallen, ditches of earth dug into the ground, and Essex's escort lying on the ground, guarded by what should be Bobby's elemental form.

"Hank, we've got to go." Bobby attempts to pull his friend away from inspecting his former ice structure. "I know it's all so interesting and you want to learn all about it, but Warren is looking really bad."

Bobby looks around to still find the park as empty as he first entered it. "Xavier is going to bust my balls for this one," he says to himself, as the group of three lift off the ground on a massive column of ice.

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