Another one of the clones partially shattered as it held on for dead life only being fully destroyed with the second upturned vehicle that rolled away from the street. The heat was distracting to Sam, but he had enough experience with his abilities and his battle prowess to know how to multitask in the middle of the fight. Hoping that the heat source was indeed an ally he doubled down with his clones and formed another from the abundant source both he and the neanderthal wielded. The newest clone ran and leapt onto the mammoth’s back.

They were getting further away from Sam, something that would make controlling the clones increasingly difficult. The mammoth was just creating havoc the real dangerous one was the one who was throwing around his element hurting people. It was terrifying to see what ice could do when he didn’t use it that way, not in almost a decade. He couldn’t anymore. Sam was supposed to be the good guy.

Electricity cracked overhead as the powerlines separated creating a large bolt across the sky where the wires arched until they were too far apart. Next was a transformer and the block started to dim. Luckily it was in the city, while it was dark now there was enough light pollution to illuminate the area around them. It was dark but he could still see. His thermal sense now significantly focused on everything except the massive heat source helped as well.

The glow of the fire caught the icemancer’s attention. It was focused, calling all challengers letting them know that someone with immense power was there. Sam really hoped it was his back up and not the rest of the ‘prehistoric pals’ they didn’t need to add a meteor man to this.

Before Sam could follow and counter the caveman’s powers as he leapt away the team leader of the X’s attention had to shift to the mammoth who trumpeted as it approached charging straight for the real ice man. ”Nice try-” Sam started dodging the tusk at the last second only to be smacked with the trunk and batted into a car causing a portion of the vehicle to cave in. If it wasn’t for his armor he would have been injured badly.

”Nope. You got me on that one.” Sam coughed and wheezed expelling his lungs to catch his breath unaware it was Rex who was generating the distraction so he didn’t have to fight both of the snow bros. The mammoth roared and charged again.

The shower of ice shards ripped and stabbed at Rex’s charges. They began screaming even as they managed to pick up speed. Suddenly they were far less worried about slipping and falling, especially as Rex’s inferno was rapidly melting the ice in the area. Even the ice shards were losing their edges by the time they struck.

“I hate firestarters!” a voice roared out of the ambient blizzard. “They ruin everything!”

From another direction, the wid suddenly blew a horizontal hail of golf ball-sized ice chunks at the people. The old man and the girl immediately fell. “NO!” Rex shouted, lunging forward, only to pull himself up quick. He couldn’t help them, not wreathed in fire as he was. At least, he could help them in that way. Instead he pivoted and he threw himself between the people and the hailstones, blunting them with his blaze. It wasn’t perfect, as he was merely a column of flame and not a wall, but it was the best he could do.

“Stay together!” he shouted, unaware if they could hear him or not. “I’ll protect you!”

Mocking laughter echoed amongst the howling winds. “That’s adorable!” Ice Age crowed from somewhere beyond the flames and ice. “But you can’t even protect yourself!”

For a moment, the winds elsewhere slacked and then began reforming directly above Rex. The blizzard narrowed and focusing directly above his fire and then began touching down. Rex stared up into the swirling snow and bared his teeth. “Prince of lies! Power of the air!” the man shouted in defiance. “You shall not claim these souls tonight! My god is a consuming fire!”

Steam began billowing up from the flames, as the fire slew every single snowflake that struck it. The blizzard twisted and whirled tighter and tighter, growing larger and larger, but even the steam began working against it. For the blizzard only worked with the water that was there - Rex’s fire came from an unearthly plane.

For several seconds, then several more, then even more, Rex fought the howling winds with his own fire whirl, the flames flowing one direction as the blizzard blasted in the opposite direction. As six tons of wooly mammoth tried to smash, crush, bash, or gore Cold Steel, the blizzard kept growing and growing and growing.

The fire didn’t go out.

In the distraction, the two men and the two women managed to flee. Rex only fleetingly saw them, mostly blinded as he was by the contrasting light and darkness, as well as the strain of keeping the fire stirred. His blood was running hot and he was sweltering under his coat and clothes. Sweat poured down his face, threatening to blind him as well, but he didn’t stop. He switched to Latin and recited another verse, rekindling the fire to continue the blaze.

Then the blizzard abruptly halted, as if it froze in place. “Argh! Firestarters are the worst!” said the man in the loincloth and thin sheathe of ice. He was perched on top of a frozen truck, his spear in one hand, aimed at Rex. “I don’t have time for this! Do what you want, I’m finishing this!”

The wind howled and caught him up into the air, where he hovered several stories up. He pointed his spear at the old man and at first nothing happened. Nothing noticeable, at least. Then Rex realized that as they’d made their escape, they’d moved far beyond the protective aegis of his fire.

Then the man and girl stumbled, slowed, and then with final, pained gasps, collapsed as plumes of ice began erupting from their bodies.

”Still-” he inhaled and groaned trying to push himself out of the car that was wrapped around him he struggled until the ice behind him helped under the guidance of his own will, ”cool” even if it was trying to kill him and even if it was a mutant. Mammoth’s were always on his ‘too bad I can’t see it’ list.

The mammoth trumpeted and got closer swinging it’s tusks and trunk around upping another car closer by before getting to him. The mammoth however stopped short as the two clones fought back giving Sam the time he needed to break himself free. The clone on it’s back started to dig into the fur and pull the hairs while the other one leapt for the mammoth’s face.

Among the commotion Sam heard someone yelling in protest, “You shall not claim these souls tonight! My god is a consuming fire!” he didn’t know who shouted it but suddenly felt the need to make sure Rex was alright. He just got this new sponsor if he had to start all over again... ”Need a drink.” he moaned and moved away from the car.

The light from the flames illuminated their surroundings killing his motivation for thermal sense but giving his eye some things to focus on. ‘Ice age’ was gone fighting the flames. He saw the man leap around causing snow and ice to form trying to snuff the flames. Sam ignored him for the time, there was... more pressing matters like a car being flung at him.

Ducking and dodging the appendages with the help of his clones the neanderthal took to the air leaping from point to point until he stopped moving. Overlooking the chaos. He was up to something but Sam couldn’t see it, or feel it. Everything it seemed was working against him and his ability to get an understanding of his situation. ‘No killing’ rang out in his mind in the voice of a few women. All the promises he made over the years to people who were far more blessed than he.

”You were warned.” the icemancer finally said exhaling one last time but in doing so brought the frigid air under his control. ‘Ice age’ was so nice to give Sam all this ice and snow to work with. It meant he could focus on controlling instead of creating.

The clones on the mammoth got bigger and heavier as he used the two as focal points for the cold. His element. They grew bigger and slower as they continued to climb up the large beast until they were able to wrap their arms around the beast. They continued to grow until all the weight started to slow the mammoth. It’s legs now covered in ice, while it moved it broke but quickly reformed. Sam was literally turning the mammoth into a giant ice cube. All except for the tip of the trunk, that he left exposed because he wasn’t trying to kill the beast.

There was a roar, a weak one but the final plea as it tried to free it’s massive hairy self from the ice. Sam didn’t stop but kept adding the ice to thicken, strengthen and weigh down the beast of burden. He was making so the only way free was an icemancer. It was a move to distract but also alert the one who wanted this. An ice age.

In the stillness of the frozen world, horror crashed through Rex. His jaw dropped and he rushed over to the man and girl, to try to get a better look. There was still time. Hypothermia took time to kill people. It had only been seconds after all. Seconds in which a mutant had focused all of his power on them.

Rex stopped a couple yards away, his flames roaring in his ears, matching the screaming voice in his head. “No, no, no, no,” he whispered, as he was able to see their faces.

Eyes were frozen over and a thick glaze of ice covered their bodies. The ice already looked inches thick, their expressions mercifully obscured beneath impurities in the ice. Rex did not need to see any more rictuses.

“Now stay out of my way!” the loincloth-laden man shouted before leaping off the truck, a gust of ice and wind lifting him into the sky.

The fire around Rex dropped even as the fire inside of him continued to rage.

“Now, where were we? Ah yes!” Ice Age said as he reoriented on Megafauna. “Have you killed the---MEGAFAUNA!”

She was frozen in ice, locked up like her Siberian ancestors.

“Nooo!” he roared in the arctic wasteland. “That’s the last straw! Die! Die! Every last one of you! Die!!!”

A blizzard yanked Ice Age up into the sky, a couple dozen stories into the air, far higher than any of the apartment buildings in the neighborhood. The man let out an unearthly scream and raised his spear high. Winds howled around him, a whirlwind of ice and snow, blocking him from sight, but elsewhere, nothing happened. Not at first.

Then the ice began expanding past the street, into the surrounding streets. Doors and windows began to seal up. Powerlines snapped and fell. Cars stalled. Heat inside homes began to fail and the people, the people, cozily wrapped up in their homes, started to panic. Ice began growing on them, on their walls, freezing their pipes, freezing them. Children started crying, adults started panicking. Within seconds, as the wail of Ice Age just barely hit their ears, the temperature for blocks around were already dropping below zero.

There was movement under the ice a struggle but the haired prehistoric elephant couldn’t break free. The ice kept climbing, directed by his hands he willed certain points in the ice to hold more pockets of air so he didn’t harm the creature despite it’s willingness to harm others. ”You were warned.” Sam said knowing this was just part of the problem. The other issue was the neanderthal using his element to harm people. Luckily he was busy battling whoever was able to wield fire in battle, long enough for Sam to take the mammoth off the board.

>>>“Have you killed the---MEGAFAUNA!”

On cue Sam spat on the ground to get the taste of blood out of his mouth, he’d live. Not a lot of people could say they went around with a mammoth and lived. Doc could heal him later, he’d live. ”Just notice?” Sam asked more to himself and the two clones that were forming and pulling themselves out from the ground.

”Damage control.” the one eyed icemancer commanded and waved his hand dismissing them. Both of which leapt off into different directions to help where they could while staying within range to Sam to access some of his abilities. One broke open a frozen cab door and helped some people out of the vehicle while the other jumped on a downed powerline pinning it in place so it couldn’t arc towards anyone.

>>>That’s the last straw! Die! Die! Every last one of you! Die!!!”

It got colder still, Sam took a few steps forward doing his best not to over extend himself. Combating the ice while trying to minimize his thermal sense so he wouldn’t be blinded Sam struggled at first to get a gauge with what he was dealing with. It was clear, Sam couldn’t hold back. The caveman needed to be stopped and if he didn’t stop him soon there was a chance the mammoth could be freed. Looking around he spotted the source of the heat, and flames. It was... Rex...


”You got to be kidding me.” the icemancer shouted moving closer to the firefighter who was fighting the frozen tundra with his powers. ”Way to downplay yourself!” Sam said landing close to Rex noticing his plight of frozen victims. They were frozen all for a moment when Sam arrived, either due to his powers alone or the help of Rex’s the ice melted around them and reformed into more clones. These however were just precautionary as he was already focusing on the two who were moving around elsewhere helping others escape and minimizing damage.

”Glad to see we got more in common. Can you throw flames?” Sam asked feeling himself get more and more used to the temperature drop one that was weird he wasn’t directly causing. The landscape was covered in snow, ice and cold. He hadn’t been this confident in his own abilities since he was last in the artic.

Shards of ice flew towards them and stopped short as they impacted Sam’s frozen hand. Snow fell harmlessly to the ground as more frozen sentinel Sam’s started to form.

Rex stood in a six foot circle of scorched asphalt, the newly blackened surface sharply contrasting with the white world around him. The melted snowfall was already freezing over though. His flames had flickered out and new snow was landing on him, turning to steam where it touched his skin but merely melting as it reached his jacket.

The firefighter still felt the heat in his face and in his heart.

The caveman had vanished and suddenly, Rex couldn’t care any more. Even when Sam appeared by him, Rex hardly took notice. For the moment, the cold wasn’t bothering him - he felt like he was burning up. He forced himself to resist the urge to peel off his winter gear and leave it strewn about. He’d suffer through it. He’d been in fires, he could handle this.

But he couldn’t handle the people who’d been frozen.

“Merciful Father, help us!” he whispered harshly as he stumbled to the old man and the little girl and fell to his knees by them. He didn’t hear Sam’s jest or question. The ice was gone and the back of Rex’s mind barely registered that the ice was forming into people. He couldn’t concentrate on that. There was no time. He maneuvered his hands toward the old man’s face and an oath escaped his lips. The ice might have been gone, but the damage was done.

The skin had gone black, already killed by the cold. The effects of other cells suddenly expanding and contracting under severe temperatures had….far more gruesome effects.

A gust of wind cut through to Rex’s heart and he turned to the girl. A moment later, a tear froze to his face.

They wouldn’t be moving again.

High above the street, in darkness of a winterstorm sky, the demon of ice and snow kept shrieking and waving his spear. Here and there, ice shards would fly out, some as large as a javelin. One nearly caught a rainbow-trailed flier as they streaked by on some errant errand. By now, the cold front was spreading, striking all the neighboring streets. The central area, the focus of Ice Age’s power, grew even colder. In the negative digits. Negative tens. Negative twenties.

More people would start dying soon.

Frostbite. Sam knew enough about the cold, more than most people would know having been apart of it all his life, he knew that once the cells were frozen there was no coming back from it... unless you knew a healer and some talented individuals back at the mansion. If they were alive they could be healed. Meaning the most recent victims of the cold had a shot, only if they survived and their survival right now was going to depend on if Sam and Rex could handle the caveman to curb the cold.

”Rex!” Sam shouted over the howling windstorm as shards of ice fell harmlessly around them. Any ice or snow that came into range of Sam was melted or captured so he could tame it for himself. ”I need you to focus man!”

His hand was already reaching to put his communicator in first on the X-men channel, ”This is Rime.” he stated calmly trying to collect his thoughts for a moment while forming a dome of ice over the ones who couldn’t run. At least to cut down on the frozen projectiles and the now frozen air. It wasn’t a permeant solution but it would help at least.

”I’m downtown center of the storm. We’ll need an evac team and a healing team here asap. We’ll also need to set up a perimeter around the storm... I’ll do what I can to slow or stop the guy causing this.” Sam switched over to the police frequency and repeated his orders hoping that it would be enough to save anyone who was stuck in the storm.

”Rex... I know some healers, They will do what they can! They won’t be able to do anything though if this place is covered in ice or if everyone is dead. So you ready to take the fight to him?” Sam asked knowing he was probably going to have to kill the other icemancer to get everything under control.

Sam could go alone, but having the fire and heat as a distraction... that would just increase his effectiveness. ”We need you!”

More tears froze to his skin as Rex’s world hollowed out. Again. The familiar chasm opened in his chest and it ached all the way to his magic-stained soul. These people were killed because Rex couldn’t save them. They were killed because a..a…a mutant decided they needed to die.

“Damn you,” Rex whispered, barely audible especially in the storm. “Damn you, you sorceror, you murderer, damn you, thief of lives!”

Rex slowly looked up, at the caveman high in the sky. Cold Steel cut in and drew Rex’s attention. He stared at the other ice mutant in almost blank comprehension. Rex stood up stiffly, his joints already protesting the freezing cold which was starting to affect them as well. “Damn you,” he said softly to the other man. He didn’t know what he was asking. Fighting? That wasn’t what Rex did. Rex tried to save people. Rex killed people.

“Damn you!” he said again, another tear rolling down his cheek. This one did not freeze. “Damn you, man!” He said, anger starting to mix with the pain. He’d heard the man’s report to the authorities. This caveman was going to try to kill everyone in the street. There were already screams as people realized they were being frozen inside their homes.

The tear evaporated. “Damn you!” he said louder, his blood starting to boil. He stepped forward into the storm and tore his gaze from Sam, focusing on the flying figure, barely seen. “Damn you! Be ye damned for what you have done!” he shouted, letting the anger swell inside of him. Steam started streaming from his exposed skin once again. “Damn you, Scion of Satan! Progeny of the Serpent! Damn you for this!”

Tears flowed freely and vanished into steam. Sparks began emerging from his mouth as he spoke. He reached out to that place where he felt the fire, but this time he had no verse. All he had was rage, pain, fear, and an empty void inside of him.

And magic.

“Damn you to Hell!” Rex roared as he crashed to his knees and struck the icy ground with both fists, throwing his head back and howling wordlessly in rage and grief. His heart pounded in his ears and the energy, the power, the fire inside burst out.

A jet of fire blasted from Rex’s mouth and then the rest of his body erupted into flames. His clothes immediately project a cloud of choking, black smoke even as the fire shot forth into the sky. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhrgh!” he screamed.

THe fire spiraled and grew, what started as a ball the size of a basket expanded until a car sized column struck Ice Age in the center of his storm. Flecks of fire peeled away and formed into tiny flying creatures, imps that began chasing after errant ice and snow. A new scream could be heard, faint over the sudden roaring.

The fire stopped spewing from Rex’s mouth, but it did not go out. It concentrated into a ball, a miniature sun in the middle of the storm, blindingly bright and hellishly beautiful, centered on Ice Age. More imps came flying out of it and as each one did, the fireball grew smaller and smaller and smaller.

Then darkness. Nothing remained. The imps vanished seconds after.

And Rex screamed as the fire devoured his flesh and clothing until he blacked out.

A lot happened in a span of a few seconds, even for Sam who was currently experience the adrenaline rush of the century. Not knowing if he’d survive, Rex and then the rest of the city. The X-men could eventually bring him down. Sam’s trump card was of course Gawain/Maya throwing the guy in a mirror and then shattering the thing. Was his element about to defeat him?

Looking down to his hands he felt anger, hate and he knew what he wanted to do to the neanderthal who was freezing not only the city but everyone in it. The most brutal aspect of Sam’s powers. The thing that made him too dangerous to be in the public as a kid. The one that got T.A.T.M.A.H.’s attention on how useful he could be. The thing he spent so much of his life learning to control, lock away.

Sam knew what he needed to do. It break a lot of promises in the process and probably get him into some trouble with the law in the process. Sam was going to kill him and end it. His cold didn’t effect Sam. Sam had better control. It seemed the caveman had no interest in it.

Before he could leave Rex and leap into the last fight ‘Ice Age’ would ever had, Rex started to curse him, everyone. Including Sam, which was enough to throw him off for a second. ”Wait... me?” Sam was standing by Rex, trying to console him. Motivate him even, Sam wasn’t aware of his powers before but things started to make a lot more sense about the firefighter now. They were the same person. Sam just had years to adapt to what he was.

It was blinding, Sam was starting to run over to Rex when he dropped to his knees. What the icemancer wasn’t ready for was the heat and fire that erupted from him. His thermal sense cut off instantly and his frozen armor started to melt under the intense heat. Reinforcing his armor so he didn’t burn Sam covered his face and waited for more. It never came, at least for Sam. The fire erupted forth in a bright light of red, yellow and orange.

Smoke filled the area near him as Rex burst into flames, Sam wasn’t ready for it. Hell, the cave man wasn’t ready for it nor the fiends that the fire brought forth. It was... awe inspiring. A true last ditch effort, Sam’s stomach turned a little when he looked back to Rex who was screaming in pain before blacking out.

The small sun that appeared in the center of the storm died out and there was something that fell to the nearest building and stayed there. Sam looked back to Rex and blasted him with snow, ice and cold to suppress what was left of the flames that surrounded Rex’s limp body. He was burned. Badly, but he lived. Sam didn’t drop his armor nor the ice golems that littered the streets just in case he needed them... well what was left of them anyways. Most of them melted, a few of them were on fire from a few of the creatures of fire that had nothing else cold to attack.

”Well... you did what I asked.” Sam sighed more to himself knowing Rex was out for the count.

----

“I will... I will...”

Sam walked up to the wheezing form of the caveman, half of his body was still in flames the other half was blackened and charred, already reduced to ash. He was dying, slowly. Doc could save him. Sam slowly walked forward making sure to see that he was no longer a threat. He killed so many.

“Megafauna... I’m sorry... I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t... make a world for us.” Sam approached in silence as he looked up to the sky crying with milky eyes no longer able to see. Just feel. His spear in one ashed hand remained at his side. With a little tug the spear was free as his hand crumbled to soot. Sam ignored his gasp of pain.

“You... of the ice... I can feel you brother... help me...” he wheezed. “Freeze me... please....”

”.....” Sam turned the spear and lodged it in the man’s chest and turned the shaft till he was through the body. ”No... There is no place for you here. You proved that.” before watching the last bit of life exit man who’d freeze the world. What Sam could have been if he didn’t find his friends, his loved ones. ”May you never find rest, you don't deserve it.”