Obligatory Disclaimer : I do not own anything (except maybe OC characters) all characters, places, worlds, universes…etc mentioned here belong to their respective owners and/or companies.

This is purely a work of fiction. Not meant to offend or incite, but to entertain and maybe inspire.

‘Mental conversations’

“Normal spoken conversations”.

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THE COLD MAN

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The leaves rustled to the calmly roving wind, adding a silent serene to the clear starry night, the round milky pale moon hung above, bearing down it's peaceful resplendent light. Mindee sat beneath the shade provided by the trunk of large tree. This was her silent spot, a place she could come to get away from all the noise mostly caused by the other students and also her sisters, it was a place she could come to clear her mind, being a psychic meant having to do that a lot, sometimes the chatter of minds were just annoying to bear, she could also admire the serenity of life.

From her spot she could see the large mansion. The various dorms and playing fields. Crunch she noticed the sound of twigs being broken and turning her sight there, she saw him. Robert Drake, the Iceman. He jumped out of his dorm room and landed with a graceful crouch, he then stood, watched around and proceeded to walk towards the woods..

She wondered what he came out for so late at night. All he had on was a new pair of sleeveles jacket and his black trousers and sneakers. She did notice that he would never really close his jacket zipper, ‘Well it's not like he feels cold’ she reminded herself. His intricate tattoos were always on display, she wondered what the story behind them was. At first she thought he was a no good trouble maker, he did intrude on her when she played her music, and he also did cause trouble at the cafeteria. But she found out that he genuinely enjoyed listening to her.

‘It's not like I need an audience’ she told herself, ‘but it's not bad having someone listen to me play’ she nodded. Although he might have anger issues.

The path he was taking would lead him right to her spot. She might as well take the initiative, she decided.

“You know we have telepaths right?” she said to him. The school was always being monitored by the telepaths, so no student could be secretly abducted or intruders coming in unnoticed. Unless they had antipsychic gadgets.

He turned around to face her, his deep blue eyes as enchanting as his aura. Psychics feel the subtle things that normal people can't. Robert, had an Aura about him, a confident, imposing aura that made others want to naturally submit to him. She noticed it the first time they met in the music room. And when coupled with his quiet disposition, it was barely resistable. The tattoos on his body glowed a silent pulsating blue, like the luminescent heartbeat of a lava lamp. The blue dragon coiled around his arm gave the illusion that it was staring right through your soul.

“They always keep count of all the students. If you try sneaking past the gates you will be found out” she added.

“Hi Mindee ” he said to her, pulling his hood down, displaying his black glinting hair in a sidefade style that added to his charm. He was cute, she had to admit. ‘But why am I thinking about that?’ she inwardly chided herself. ‘why am I so distracted anyway?’ she shook her head to refocus on him. His cold expressionless face, now had a thin thawing smile on it.

“Thanks for telling me, I might have overlooked that one.” He replied.

“Why are you trying to leave, Drake? And where exactly are you going? You're not abandoning the squad are you?”

“What? No, nothing like that. Look, it's easier if you just look into my mind and see for yourself”

And so she did. “Wow” she exclaimed involuntarily. “I never knew you had such……..ambitions. I mean you did save a lot of lives here, but I didn't think that you'd actively seek out people to help”. She saw his ambitions, his self given duties. He was going out so late to lend a hand where he could, to help make the world a better place. That was all on his mind, how to help with his powers, he was flawed yes, but who wasn't? At least he truly did want to help, not because he felt it was his grand purpose, not that he even felt important or a savior, but because he felt it was the right thing to do. He believes in the golden rule: do onto others as you would like others to do onto you. Even she herself knew that she wasn't as benevolent as he was. But why did he want to do it? Why does he want to go outside and -- She had to focus on the now, she could ask him about all that later.

The blue eyed tattooed teen deeply gazed into her eyes and waited— expecting her to act. She knew what she had to do, but that didn't mean she liked it. They could get into serious trouble, but she couldn't stop him and since he was her squadmate, she might as well help him.

“Sigh just go, I'll cover for you. Don't make it a habit” She said rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“Thank you” He grabbed her shoulders and smiled gratefully. She had to admit, his smile was charming.

“I'll see you later, Mindee.”

|§§§|

It was easier than I imagined convincing Mindee. I mean she was kind of distant, but she was just a softie I guess.

Roaming around the city at night has a certain allure to it. The bright neon signs, the tall glass towers that stood high in this concrete jungle. The cars that ran the streets, the hustlers moving about, the shifty eyes roaming for targets. The laughter and giggles of the jolly party goers and the not-so-drunk tagalongs. It all felt familiar, but I could not stop to admire it.

I rushed towards the loud alarms and blaring sirens. My scouts relayed the sight to me. A blazing inferno was engulfing an apartment complex. The fire roared against the howling winds and the water pillars sent at it.

The painful screams of the trapped mining with the black smog clouds curtaining the complex, filling the now damp night with the smell of burnt wood and oddly, chemicals.

“Hey! Stop!” I ran past the crowd, ducked under the extended arm of the fireman, jumping over the yellow lines and rushing towards the burning building.

“OH my God! He's gonna die!” “Fuck! Kid don't go in there!” “Don't be a hero! Let the men do their jobs!”

Voices behind me warned—shouted at me to stop. I didn't.

It would be more effective for me to stop the fire inside than try freezing the exterior of the building. The smoke clouded my vision, but I could still see the heat signatures. An ice mask over my face saved me from the thick, deadly smog. The flames did little damage to me skin or clothes, I learned to form cold currents around me— defense against Pyrokinetics and general flamethrowers.

My arms spread out, streams of white fluffy snow shot out of them like rays of white light, spreading through the smokey burning interior, pushing back the tangible darkness.

I was extinguishing the fires, not freezing the building. Clones spread out to form a larger area of effect, the fires were being visibly extinguished, but the smoke remained and the structure was shaky.

I watched as my blue men burst into rooms and formed smooth sleds out the windows of the occupied complexes they had gained access into, sliding down to safety with the shocked coughing people who were now saved. The others stopping the fire on the back from spreading out.

“hwool hwwooool” a sad howl and scratches was coming from below a fallen section of stairs. I approached it to see a spotty(probably due to the soot) golden retriever beneath it. No one let's a doggo die. I raised the section over my back and grabbed on to the dog that happily began to lick at my ice covered face. Slobbering it with saliva. “Ruff! ruff!”

“Yes good doggo you're safe”

I left towards the door joining the other clones on the outside dispersing them as they finished their tasks, I let the dog run off and began freezing solid the almost collapsed structure, stopping it from causing more damage. That went better than I imagined it would. I turned around to innumerable stares and gazes on me.

“Waoh! Did you see that?!”

“It's one of em mutie demons”

“Yeah, a mutant that just saved us! Back off ya ungrateful jackass”

“Cough Mickey?!”

“cough cough! Dave honey! cough I'm alive!”

“Did you see the ice people? They were literally cool”

“Totes”

“Ruff! Ruff!”

A stern looking middle aged man with a not-so-hilariously soot covered face walked up to me his golden furred dog lapping behind him wagging its tail. I was expecting an insult of some kind but what I got instead was a hug. Silent tears streamed down his eyes as he pulled back. “Thank you for saving bucky, he's all the family I have left”

“No problem sir. You're welcome”

“Yea dude you were totally awesome!” others gave me a thumbs up, the blond girl giving me the ‘Call me’ motion with a smile. Two men crying hugging each other.

“Good job kid. But don't go rushing into fires, we have a job to keep all civilians safe and that includes you as well.” A large man with a thick mustache said pulling off his helmet. I nodded in response. I was a certified X-Men but he doesn't need to know that. I gave the servicemen a salut and disappeared into an alleyway.

|§§§|

It actually was really nice. The feeling I had when I rescued those people. Knowing my actions saved a life was really something else. I was more used to the opposite, but that me was died. This new experience was worth it.

I stopped a single alley mugging after the fire. The only other heroic acts I did was helping a drunk girl get home safe and lending a hand to a man with broken down vehicle.

Right now tho, I was done for the night. I decided to take flight and enjoy the night breeze on my path to the mansion.

“Hmmm?” Something came up in my vision. Heat signatures, small and huddled together. It looked like one from a microwave, but why would microwaves be put together that way? And this part of town was relatively full of deserted warehouses. It was probably nothing, but it never hurt to take a look.

I flew down to the large secluded warehouse. The door had an electronic lock of some kind. Now I wonder why? I brought my finger to the keyhole and filled it with ice, morphing it into a fitting key and turned. The red led light turned green and the door slid open. I stepped in. The door sliding back to a shut behind me. The lights came on illuminating the large interior with empty boxes littered around it. Like a shipping emptied out. But the storage thing was the heat signatures. They weren't coming from the boxes. They came from beneath? The ground was cemented, from a glance they weren't any doorways or paths. But sliding back a brown cardboard box revealed a small inconspicuous metal pipe and pulling that down revealed a secret door right beneath it.

I jumped in. Walking along a short tunnel to reach…..a dungeon from hell.

I pushed back the bitter bile that threatened to rise out of my throat.

Children. Cowering children in metallic cages whimpered and shied away from my gaze. The stench of dried blood, piss and fecal matter covered the room. My Jaws tightened when my eyes landed on a small naked, mutilated girl strapped to a bloody metal table, she was dead. Her eyes and tongue were gone as were her hands.

I turned again, I shouldn't have. My gaze went to the TV that displayed depraved, demonic, inhuman acts being performed on crying children. Mutilation, rape, torture, castrations and circumcisions and things I can't begin to say, all by multiple men and woman. The acts burned into my mind. Clones formed around me and rushed to free the scared children. My hands shook as I pulled out cigarette from my jacket pocket. The anger in me boiling to a freeze. Cold fury wrapped around my mind. The room temperature raised, I drew it back in to not harm the children. On another monitor a group of laughing people walking into the were house was being displayed. I won't be sorry John, just know I tried. I pulled out my phone and made two calls. Sending proof to the other number.

***

The ‘nobles’. That was what they called themselves. They were the cream of the crop, the elitist society, they were prominent men and women, sons and daughters of the world's pillars. Of people who had great powerful roles in society. This was where they got together to release stress on the rejected of society. Children of the stupid sheep's they lorded over. The ‘nobles’ showed their true selves here. They dropped the masks they wore, the masks they carefully crafted to fit into society and did as they pleased here.

“Henry, wanna bet me? I can make the kid break faster than you can” a young woman with brown hair poked the side of a taller handsome man she spoke to.

“Hehe, not interested. You're undisputed Julie I just want to have his soft skin he needs some marks you know. He has to understand that he's property”

“True” a third interjected.

“You guys are sick you know that? But I guess that's why we came together” A another man said. He was slightly older than the both of them. And he was the organizer, this place took a lot of cash and time to build. They had to make sure it was safe and secure, hidden from detection of all kinds. Their parents could care less about what they did with their money anyway.

They walked into the room of pleasure as they came to calling it. Where they could perform all their acts without fear of getting caught. Where they could just let go and do as they pleased. The room where lust intertwined with sadistic passion.

Jamie walked in first and came to an abrupt pause. A young man with tattoos on his chest had what looked to be a frozen cigarette stick in his mouth. His heart nearly pounder out of his chest. ‘how was someone here!’ he had to do something he couldn't let this get out of this room. Them and their parents would be finished!

“What?!” the others exclaimed as they walked in after him. The children were playing with blue walking ice statues. They felt the temperature drop, a chill spread out over their spines.

“I-I can't mm..move” someone among them complained through stifled words. Jamie noticed that he was literally frozen solid. His eyes darted to Henry's and Julienne’s and found that they were in the same predicament. A wall slowly formed around them, they watched as the ice men took the children with them leaving the room. A large medieval battle ice axe like the ones from a show he had seen formed before their very eyes and landed in the boy’s open grip. He stared at the boy, his blue eyes were silent and soul chilling, more than the ice on their spines.

He tried pleading. He wanted to say something. He had money, power and influence. He could make the boy a great deal. But the boy just looked at them like they were already dead.

The ice over them receded, the couldn't move but they could speak, no, scream.

The boy swiped down on Jamie's head. Cleanly parting his skull apart. “Ahhhhhhhhhh-ghukk!!” “Pleas-urk!” where the axe landed, blood spilled and flesh parted. The boy didn't rush, his expression was a apathetic and cold as when he first saw them. His eyes held no remorse. Tooth flew as the axe blade went through a screaming woman's mouth. His every swing brought death. ‘I didn't think the decision would come so soon. Forgive me’ he said to himself. The bloody ice axe dispersed to the air as the walls slowly melted. The dismembered and mutilated bodies dropping to the floor.

The boy pulled out his phone and dialed a number saved as ‘shield’ on it. After two rings the phone was answered.

“I'm done here, send the right people to clean up and get the evidence.” the boy hung up and slowly walked out of the dungeon, not a single trace of blood lingered on his body, even as he crossed the blood puddles. He pulled out a cigarette and huffed on it, For a day that was turning out good it went on a wildly unpredictable route.

|§§§|

Sigh, I guess evil exists everywhere. I think I'll begin to take more night patrols. Maybe I could've stopped this earlier had I done just that. Where's the punisher when you need him?

I tried John, I really did. But sometimes Cruz was right. Use a knife when you want to cut meat, not a spatula. Every situation needs a certain type of response. Guess I'm no longer the good type of hero. After all Spiderman would never kill. But I wasn't Spiderman. I'm a guy out to do right and help where I can. Only God can judge me.

……

*******

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And that brings this chapter to a nice end. That was certainly dark, cuz the world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. An appropriate response is to be given to certain situations. When the lives of people are at play, death also becomes involved.

So how'd you like it? Leave a review and comment to let me know. Smash that like, follow and fave box to support the story.

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Big shout out to my patrons(Secret lovers on the low low..hah!) SKULLY(the silent death giver).

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And welcoming to the crew

THE BREAKER (The forger of Endtimes)

Until we meet a again, right on time. I am Reid Rain, I say again. Keep me in mind. Keke.

Away!

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