Central Park, the X-Mansion:
'Are you sure it's all right that we didn't get gifts?' Oya asks as she and Michaela Ladak rush into the front entrance. 'Mr Drake's moving, Idie! All he wants from us is a hug and an inside joke on a group card!' Michaela replies – but they discover the mansion foyer, where the party was being held, is empty. 'I didn't think we were so late we'd miss the whole party' Michaela remarks. Oya adds that it isn't even curfew, and asks Michaela to text Evan or somebody and ask where they are.
But suddenly, as the girls move further into the mansion, they go wide-eyed. 'Oh my -' Oya gasps as they find the mansion a mess, with melting ice and ice-slides everywhere. 'Uh, I'm guessing this X-Men rager turned into a bloodbath...' Michaela remarks, before she hears a moan. 'Over here! That's Jonah – Mr Drake's boyfriend!' Michaela exclaims as she and Oya rush towards him. 'It's Judah' Oya corrects Michaela, before telling her to prop his head up.
Michaela does so, and as Oya creates some ice to block the serious wound Judah has been inflicted with. 'Keep him still, we need to make sure he doesn't bleed out more' Oya orders, while Michaela tells Judah that he is going to be okay.
Oya asks him if he can talk, and what happened. 'D... ken...' Judah gasps, while nearby, Zach a.k.a. Amp walks past. “It's my party and I'll die if I want to...” he sings. 'Zach! That two-timing scum-sucking West Coast brat!' Michaela exclaims, before telling Oya to keep Judah alive, as she has to beat the crap out of that wuss. Michaela then runs after Zach, while Oya looks after Judah and warns Michaela that if Daken is still here, she is going to get hurt. 'Don't care!' Michaela calls back. 'Stupid frickin whiny baby, teaming up with the first bad guy he meets!' Michaela exclaims, before looking up, where she sees Daken leaping from a balcony towards Bobby “Iceman” Drake, who slides past him on an ice-slide. 'Whoa... Mister Drake, please kick son of Wolverine's ass...' Michaela calls out as she carries on after Zach.
'Come on, baby, show me your teeth!' Daken shouts at Iceman, easily slashing his way through an ice-shield that Bobby raises. 'I'm thinking of shadow-boxing your skeleton as a keepsake for my living room. Thoughts?' Daken asks as he wraps an arm around Bobby's neck, claws at the ready. But Bobby suddenly releases ice-shards from his back, knocking Daken upwards. 'No need to get prickly, Drake' Daken jokes as Bobby throws him against a wall. 'Daken, you can kill my boyfriend, wreck my home... but I won't lose my temper and stoop to your level' Bobby responds. Sliding over to Daken, Bobby creates some ice-golems who surround the maniac. 'As a vile being, I know you're just lashing out' Bobby tells Daken, who mutters 'Stop sending photocopies – and stop acting like you know $#!& about me!' as he leaps forward, slicing the ice-golems in two with his deadly claws.
Down a corridor, Michaela is closing in on Zach. She tells him to quit running and to fight her. 'Spit Girl says she wants a fight?' Zach calls back, using his power to short the lamps near Michaela, startling her. 'You're dampening my powers and amping yours – real classy!' Michaela calls back, before telling Zach that at the end of the day, he is ten kinds of stupid, and she doesn't need her spit to knock him out, as she hurls a small table at him, it slams into his back and Zach drops to the floor. Energy crackles around Zach, who rubs his head and declares that the he can't focus the Death Seed energy. He wonders where it is going.
Iceman fires a stream of ice at Daken, but misses, when suddenly, Daken is surrounded by energy. 'What the -' Iceman utters, averting his eyes. 'Is it over? Did Zach stop funneling evil mojo into you?' Bobby asks. 'Quite the opposite – I am your DEATH!' Daken, whose body has increased in mass, roars, as he moves towards Iceman, extra claws bursting up from his elbows can be seen. 'Well. Guess it's only fair to even the odds' Bobby replies. 'How's fifty-to-one?' he asks as he creates fifty additional ice golems who move towards Daken.
'Sauron's coming back!' Nature Girl calls out in the Danger Room from where she stands on a ledge, as a Danger Room projection of Sauron swoops above, and Doop floats alongside her. 'This is a lot harder with our powers dialed back...' Phoebe Cuckoo complains as she and Mindee help pull Celeste up onto the ledge, as Glob Herman lifts Celeste towards them from the lower ledge. Eye-Boy, Bling and Benjamin Deeds are on the lower ledge as well, 'Does anybody remember where the internal fail-safe switch is hidden? We could turn off this hologram and get out' Glob suggests, while Eye-Boy announces that he sees something coming on the bioelectric spectrum – some energy. Rockslide is on the ground level, as he acts as a ladder for Genesis, Hindsight and Anole, who is being helped onto the next ledge by Benjamin, while Kid Omega dangles from the ledge nearby.
Energy crackles in the Danger Room, and Eye-Boy asks the others if they feel that – he thinks they are back to normal – but the projection of Sauron swoops towards him, and Eye-Boy looks worried, until Bling grabs Sauron and slams him into a nearby cliff. 'Yep. We're back. Which means we can actually beat this scenario!'
The young mutants leap off the cliff as a projection of Zabu rushes towards them. 'Anyone wanna punch a fake tiger?' Genesis wonders.
In the Danger Room control booth, Michaela jokingly calls out: 'Hey, Siri – can you turn this thing off? No? What about Danger? How do I get her to fix this...' she mutters, as Zach enters the booth, and tells Michaela that she picked the wrong side. He reveals that Daken planned this whole thing out, and that once he has gotten his revenge on Ice-Bore, they will be on their way to ruling this whole city. Michaela turns to Zach and informs him that she did feel bad for him, that having no friends must have been tough. 'But you didn't ever try, Zach. And now? You're a bully fronting as a Filipino Angus Young'.
Michaela suggests to Zach that they fight to prove that she rules, and that Zach is his own reason why his life sucks. 'Gladly!' Zach exclaims as he moves towards Michaela, fist at the ready – but he misses her, and Michaela is able to slam an elbow into his back, 'Son of Wolverine only taught you offensive, eh?' she asks.
Daken slices through another ice-golem and tells Iceman that he doesn't understand him, that he fights for people who couldn't even sniff out his secrets. 'I HATE you and I know you better than your stupid “family”' Daken declares, slamming one ice-golem to the ground, while telling Iceman that he wastes his power on hollow causes, that he is too dumb to remember, he will always sniff him out – Daken then shoves his claws through another ice-golem's head, while the really Bobby leaps towards him, so Daken knocks him back across the room and tells him that nothing he does will tip the scales. 'This world is drenched in kerosene... and everyone's holding up lighters like Hendrix is playing'. Daken picks Iceman up by his neck and starts punching him in the face, over and over: 'When will you learn?' Daken asks. 'Never' Bobby coughs as he smiles back at Daken. 'Cuz I give a damn. Everything changes when you choose to care. It's a game changer'. Bobby then creates a huge ice-spike from his chest, which bursts upwards through Daken. 'That Death Seed's festered for too long, it's made you a loveless monster' Bobby tells Daken, who replies that love doesn't prevail, and that he is ready to move on and kill everyone now.
Daken and Iceman fall through the floor, landing several feet from where Oya is still watching over Judah. Bobby groans from the impact of Daken landing on him, before looking over at Judah, calling out to him. 'Buh... Bobby?' Judah utters. Bobby returns to his human appearance and rushes to Judah's side: 'Oh my God, you're alive! Stay with me, I'm here, we'll get out of this -' Bobby begins, before Daken snarls 'No one is getting out alive. It's just not allowed!' and leaps towards Bobby, his claws at the ready, but suddenly Oya screams 'NO!' as she blasts a powerful surge of flame at Daken, and tells him to surrender before there are further casualties. She adds that this can still end with the X-Men forgiving him. 'Can it?' Daken asks. 'From where I'm standing, I'll be eating your eyeballs off my claws by the time your Bic lighter runs dry' Daken replies. Annoyed, Oya declares that she has seen true darkness, and tells Daken that his apathy doesn't scare her. 'Plus... she was buying me time to regroup' Bobby announces as he ices up and returns to the battle alongside another army of ice-golems.
Bobby smashes his ice-slide into Daken, knocking him out of a large window and into the open. The ice-slide washes down and catches Daken and the ice-golems before they hit the ground, while Daken tells Bobby to bring as many snow clones as he wants. 'You literally cannot kill me!' Daken boasts. 'Not trying to anymore' Iceman replies, remarking that as much as he loathes the nihilist abyss that is Daken's life, he is still going to save him. 'Will you though?' Daken asks, popping his claws, inches from Bobby's body, as Bobby creates a large ice-hand behind Daken, it moves up from the ice-slide and restrains him. 'Yes' Bobby whispers as he leans in an locks his lips on Daken's, releasing an icy breath into Daken's body, before he kicks Daken backwards off the ice-slide. 'Can't kill you. Can't extract the Death Seed. But I think I just figured out how to freeze it' Bobby reveals, as Daken falls to the ground and lands on a large snowball.
Back in the Danger Room control booth:
'Any last words before I blow your head up?' Zach asks as he holds Michaela down towards the exploding control console. Suddenly, Michaela is able to spin around and spits at Zach, striking his shoulder. Zach reels backwards, and Michaela tells him that Mister Drake told her that it's never about what the power is – it's how you use it. 'Weenie' she calls Zach, flicking her fingers against his ear.
Uptown, in a bar, Northstar and Kyle, Rogue, Rictor and Cannonball are standing around, waiting. 'I guess Bobby isn't coming to his own going-away bash' Northstar remarks.
In the Xavier Institute Infirmary:
'Ow' Bobby complains as Dr Cecilia Reyes applies another bandage to his body. 'Quiet. You've been through worse. I've seen it' Reyes snaps at Bobby. 'Memories! Thank you for playing doctor on party night, Cecilia' Bobby smiles, before pulling his shirt on. Cecilia tells Bobby that she is sorry she missed the show, and that his girls said he was epic. 'Speaking of... I gotta check in on a patient' Bobby remarks, before he enters another room within the infirmary, where Judah is sitting up in bed, and Michaela and Oya are standing with him.
'... and then I was all like “You stupid weenie” and flicked him in the ear' Michaela tells Judah and Oya. 'So Zach's got a dampener on now, but they still haven't found Daken?' Oya asks. Michaela tells her that the teachers are sweeping, but apparently he is gone. 'You don't get extra credit for volunteering in the infirmary' Bobby tells his students. Oya explains that they were just checking on Judah while he recovered, before suggesting to Michaela that they go see if Bishop needs help interrogating those goons Daken had masquerading as Purifiers. We'll get out of your hair' Michaela smiles as she and Oya run from the room.
'Hey' Bobby tells Judah. 'Hi' Judah replies. 'I'm really glad you're all ri-' Bobby begins, before Judah interrupts him: 'I don't think you should move to Los Angeles' Judah declares. Judah tells Bobby that he thinks his life is insane. 'I've been here less than a week and I get clobbered by Colossus and stabbed by some sexy Asian biker guy... who is still alive and out there? I can't do this' Judah explains. Bobby explains that he wasn't moving to LA just to be with Judah. 'That's why I'm getting my own -' Bobby begins, but Judah interrupts him again: 'This world isn't mine. It shouldn't have taken my getting skewered to figure that out, but... I don't know. That's all I got'. Bobby and Judah both look away from each other. 'Okay' Bobby says after a moment's silence, before he starts to walk out of the room. 'I'm still your ally' Judah assures him. 'I don't know that I see any value in that right now. Maybe one day, but not now' Bobby replies.
Later, Bobby is outside, and makes a large snowflake over his hand. 'Bobby, I'm sorry' Kitty remarks as she walks over. 'Huh? Sorry for what?' Bobby asks. Kitty tells him that she should have been more supportive. 'Eh. You were doing what felt right' Bobby tells her, but Kitty asks him to hear her out. As Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Old Man Logan, Prestige and Magma work on repairs and clean-up, Kitty tells Bobby 'I keep saying I'm your friend and that I care about you and believe in you. But as your boss, I've done nothing to help. You were being underutilized here and while Los Angeles could use the Iceman – I think the X-Men need him'. Kitty then tells Bobby that if he wants a good reason to stay, he should show her a team he wants to lead and she will make it happen!
