Continued on from: X-Mission: Fire in the Sky

Sam’s eye opened when he resurfaced and he took a gasp of air looking around to find Jorge. With his sixth sense more harmful to good Sam resisted the urge to call upon it knowing it would lead straight to a blackout. ”Jorge!” Sam called out looking around seeing the island and the plume of black rising from the top of the mountain. The water he splashed around in broke out in wave after wave due to the tremors it was obvious this eruption was going to be big.

Looking up, Jorge watched the surface of the water from within as it sparkled and shimmered with the undulating motions. Deep under the water, he swam upwards, feeling at home in his element, feeling safe and secure. It was much like the same feeling that he felt when Ghost took him out to the ocean to practice his new found abilities when his powers began to evolve. And now, deep under the warm waters of the ocean, he began to feel at home again. How long had it been since he had a calming swim? He couldn’t even remember.

But he was not here for a swim. No, he was here for something that was far more serious.

It had been a lucky thing that Jorge had the day off of work. He was going to spend the day taking Gemma and Chase out but suddenly he received a phone call.

He hadn’t been expecting it. In the middle of the night his phone rang with an urgency that he did not think was possible for a phone. Blindly he reached for it, answered the call, and heard a voice that he had not heard from in months. Sam, also named Cold Steel and a leader of the X-Men. It took a second for Jorge to finally realize what the man was asking him to do but when his head cleared, he finally got it.

Really? A volcano?

Normally Jorge would have thought that this was a prank call, but he could hear something in Sam’s voice. They were going to need his help. He couldn’t deny that.

The next few hours were a whirlwind of activity that he could scarcely remember. He showed up at the mansion, made sure to tell Gemma exactly what he was called in for and promised that he would be safe. Afterward, at some point, he was led down into the lower levels of the school and was presented with the vision of a jet. The school had its own jet! That was really too freaking cool but he managed to keep his composure.

Meeting the rest of the team though…well…

Needless to say he felt like an old man surrounded by youngin’s. But he didn’t say anything to that point. Instead he listened to Sam speak, tried to process exactly what they were going to be doing and commit it to memory. He was a good cop and therefore good had handling high pressure situations. But a cop rarely needs to slap cuffs onto a volcano.

But that is why, Jorge Cervantes, now found himself swimming up to the surface of the water, following that illuminated sparkle of blue light. When he finally broke the surface he sighed in relief as he breathed and began to look around.

This was certainly a new experience…

>> ”Jorge!”

“Yeah! I’m here!” he shouted out as he swam up behind Sam, having surfaced none too far away. As he got close he felt the pull of the waves and immediately he knew that things were getting bad on the island. “Not a good sign,” he muttered.

Using his legs to keep him afloat Sam pushed his body closer to Jorge so they could communicate better. Once he was in earshot Sam looked back to the volcano and saw that little plumes of smoke filtered into a large one that was slowly darkening the sky. If you looked away from the volcano however and ignored the waves there would be no evidence that there was a volcano about to erupt.

Focusing on his mutation as he looked back to Jorge, Sam started forming several small circular balls of ice that bobbed up and down in the water next to them. There were twelve in all for the time being but Sam planned on making more. A lot more. There design was simple and they only served one purpose, they were going to be his immediate source of ice when Jorge wasn’t there to supply him with some quick access of water.

”Can you surf?” Sam asked as another shape began to form in front of him. This figure of ice was long and took the shape of a surfboard. Unfortunately for Sam he had nothing to model off of and he had no experience surfing but he had no problem ice sliding to the island. Looking back to Jorge he smirked and asked, ”How much of a swell can you give us?” climbing up on the ice board Sam nodded his head forward making sure the balls of ice were close by. ”I want to get as close to the top of the volcano as possible."

Jorge could feel the ebb and flow of the water. Not just on his skin, but also from his abilities. He could sense the water all around him and how it moved. He could feel that the rumblings deep in that island were beginning to shove and push the water that was all around, forcing it to shimmer and shake. It was a horrible state of affairs. The vibrations he felt through the water were strong. That volcano was going to blow and it definitely was not going to be pretty.

He turned when he caught sight of Sam swimming closer to him. The man had split their group up, the rest of the crew was working on evacuation while he and Sam were supposed to be handling the angry god of the volcano. Elementals against a force of nature…the irony was not lost on him. But he did not have time to take further note of it.

Before long, he noticed that ice was beginning to form. Not only in spheres, but also in an elongated shape that was directly in front of him.

>> ”Can you surf?”

“In college,” Jorge had started to say. Which was twenty years ago! But he realized that he was going to have little choice in this matter.

>> ”How much of a swell can you give us? I want to get as close to the top of the volcano as possible."

“I’ll give you what I can,” Jorge said resolutely as he swam to the board and climbed on top of it. “The way the ocean’s being jostled, it’ll either be really easy or really hard, just hold on.”

The damn board was cold but it was all he had. He couldn’t shift to elemental while in the ocean, far too much water around, and he easily lose himself. But once they got closer to dry land, then it would be easier. So he would have to reach back to his college days when he used to surf in Miami. The skills were there but they were rusty. He couldn’t afford a wipe out right now, though. He simply couldn’t.

With a sigh, Jorge held onto the board as he reached out to both sides with his hands. He focused as he connected with the water that was all around him and began to feel out the current ebb and flow. When he got a lock on the pattern he slowly just began to add a bit more to it, just enough to get the waves moving in the direction he wanted. Once the water was waving on its own, he’d be able to manipulate it to get them close enough without having to control an entire wave. That would more than likely bring him into a coma.

But he could control just enough.

The water churned as it began to curl into waves that slowly got bigger and bigger. Once Jorge felt that it could act on its own, he let go of the water and began to curl some of the water underneath the board, just enough to get it moving. The wave was quick to pick up the bobbing object and Jorge let his instincts take over. He knew how to do this, he felt he did, and the second the wave began to pick up the board, he took over as he started to steer the surfboard, straight to that volcano.

He smirked, feeling wobbly at first but slowly gaining some control over the board with a combination of his skill and manipulating the water directly until the board to keep it stable. It was a good thing no one was filming this…Gemma’d prolly kill him…

Crouched just a bit, he kept his balance as he tried to trail the waters leading directly to their destination…

Swells they shall have, Sam bent his knees on the board like he usually did during the ice slide but let Jorge direct them where to go as Sam kept focus on the twelve spheres that tagged close behind them as they rose to the top of the wave. ”Cowabunga?” Sam asked Jorge as they closed the distance to the island and to the volcano. Sam knew the wave wasn’t big enough to take them up to the base of the volcano but he was all right with that the closer Jorge was to water the better his strategy would work.

The wave started to die down and they slid into shore and Sam hopped from the board and ran up the beach the globes of ice rolling behind him. The sand under his feet shot up slightly his feet kicking it up from under him with each step it was obvious he was in a hurry. ”We are heading up the mountain so we can build a few walls of ice and water a dam almost so when the water hits the lava it solidifies slowing the flow.” Sam said his words poring out of his mouth hoping Jorge would get the idea, ”Which means I need a lot of water there, there and there…” Sam said pointing at three small hills that sprouted from the mountain. Where trees and grass grew up the side of the hill.

”Think you can manage that?” Sam asked running up the beach before pulling some ice from the water on the shore creating a slide for him to ride up to his destination. The air was hot and somewhat humid so he could at least get started on the walls enough of it at least until Jorge somehow got the water there in mass amounts.

The ice slide moved forward and the twelve spheres followed him on the slide as he headed to the first of the three locations. Hoping Jorge could get there soon.

Jorge steered the surfboard closer and closer to the island. He was actually a little pleased with himself that he still had some of the skills to do this! Then again, it helped that he would manipulate the water underneath them to keep himself balanced. An expert turn and he aimed straight for the beach. It was a good thing that Sam had thought of this or they would still be swimming to the island. If what he thought Sam was expecting him to do was true, then they were going to need to conserve as much of their energy as possible.

When they had finally gotten close enough to land, Jorge’s hold over the water slowly waned as he began to release it. Once sand was beneath their feet, the detective hopped up and jogged up next to Sam as he began to run towards the volcano.

>> ”We are heading up the mountain so we can build a few walls of ice and water a dam almost so when the water hits the lava it solidifies slowing the flow…Which means I need a lot of water there, there and there…”

Jorge took a mental note of each of the places that Sam wanted water to be. Judging by their size and what Sam was planning, it was obvious that the X-Men had expected there to be a LOT of water there. While Jorge would easily manipulate water from one spot to another, he was not 100% sure that he could move exactly that much. The last time he tried to move a lot of water was when he and Gemma were attacked by mutated apples!

He ended up in a short coma. Could he handle this though?


>> ”Think you can manage that?”

Jorge blinked and was about to reply when suddenly he watched as Sam ran off and jumped onto a slide of ice that carried him all the way to the first destination. He shook his head. He really had no idea if he could manipulate that much water…at least not as a man.

He watched as Sam went to their first destination. Jorge shook his head. This was completely untested but he knew that when he was in water form, he did not feel the same strain when controlling water. This is was extremely risky because he would have rather practiced with this ability first before testing it on the field. But he guessed that he would not get that chance now…

Pulling off his Miami Dolphins sweat shirt, Jorge stood for a moment, bare-chested as he stared at the volcano. God he hoped that he was going to come out of this one alive. Closing his eyes, he connected with the water that was behind him, took a single breath and began to calm his mind. He felt the soothing ebb and flows of the water and his thoughts slowly become one and it was at that second that he managed to shift.

Flesh melted into water, then muscle, then bone, until all that was left that there was a humanoid being of pure water that opened his glowing, dark blue eyes to look at the volcano ahead. Then, swifter than he thought possible, Jorge, in water form, launched himself forward, stretching and splashing as he pulled a mass of water in, floating right behind him. He aimed straight for the first location where Sam would be waiting.

All that followed him was the crashing, surging sound of water as it trailed…

It only took Sam a few minutes to get to the first location, the ice slide allowed him to cove the distance quickly enough and the trees that would have gotten in the way were nothing but a collage of green beneath his feet as he passed over it. Jorge, Sam figured would have a harder time with the landscape than he unless the water elemental somehow devised a way to surf on land. Sam’s thoughts trailed to the idea but quickly left him as his body lowered to the ground. Looking back and forth from his current location to the other hill Sam focused on his mutation and rolled the first orb of ice forward.

The ball of ice split and spread its sides out the way a butterfly stretches its wings for the first time. Water poured out of the now opened globe and froze over under the direct command of Sam. A thin layer of ice quickly shot up grasping out to each individual flake, which only added and reinforced the wall. The first layer of the wall was in place. It wouldn’t stop lava but at least it would cool it quickly enough to solidify the first wave the liquid fire would bring.

Even with his thin wall he didn’t plan on it being enough to slow anything the real goal here was to get the water that Jorge was brining in place and hold it stationary until the lava breaks through the first wall. Looking over his shoulder Sam heard the rush of water and to his surprise there was a figure of water leading the charge. Sam smirked and wondered why he was the only elemental he knew who couldn’t turn into the element they commanded. ”Jorge, right against the wall!” Sam said pointing to the thin layer of ice.

Another globe of ice rolled into place and waited until Jorge placed the water. The ground gave a small quake and Sam cursed silently.

The world looked so much different to Jorge Cervantes whenever he was in his elemental form. He could feel the water that surged all around from, water that coursed from that which surrounded the island. It pulled at him, like the beckoning call of home, but Jorge ignored it. He had a job to do. His vision looked like he was staring through a veil of a thin waterfall but even with it like that he could make out the details of the world before him. It was with that sight that he targeted Cold Steel, and the wall of ice he was putting up.

He prayed that this plan was going to work.

He rushed to the meeting spot, the surges of water following behind him. Though it was a power that he rarely tried, he knew that if he wanted to survive this instance that he was going to need it. It was nerve-wracking to be practicing this in the field, but there was little choice. Do or die.

The water elemental came to a stop next to Sam, the surging water roaring around and through him as he stood paused, looking at the wall of ice that Sam had already made. It was so thin, he knew that it was not going to last against spewing lava, but he hoped he could manipulate enough water for Sam to freeze and make it stable. At least enough to give people a chance to evacuate.

>> ”Jorge, right against the wall!”[/color]

He nodded his head. Unfortunately Jorge was really unable to communicate in this form, verbally anyways. Being a living mass of surging water, it was obviously difficult for him to force vocal chords or even release air in order to speak. Instead the most that he could offer Sam were simple head nods/shakes and hand gestures. At least until he returned to human form.

For now though, the X-Men leader was simply going to have to trust that he understood what he was saying.

Rearing back on the pillar of rotating water that made up his legs, Jorge suddenly threw his arms forward and the water that had followed behind him surged forward. It collided with an audible gush against the wall, but not enough to break through it. With another flick of his wrists, Jorge piled the water up against it and waited for Sam’s next command.

In the back of his head, again, all he could pray for was that this was going to indeed work…

One sphere down and a layer of water before him now caused Sam to nod his head and launch the next sphere into places behind the roaring water that Jorge had brought to the table as was requested. Unfortunately the water and ice wasn’t going to stop the lava that much Sam was certain of but if it could stall it. He’d be all right with that. Seconds count after all. The sphere of ice floated into the water deeper and deeper until it expanded and the outer wall of water froze over creating a block of ice with water inside of it.

Once the first wall was completed Sam looked to the other ten spheres of ice and launched two of them into places. They opened up like a cocoon similar to the first one and Sam looked back to Jorge, Sam’s eye twitched as he focused on it his hands outstretched as if he was painting a picture. ”You think you can repeat that two more times?” Sam asked looking away from the water form of Jorge who almost glowed from the sunlight that was vanishing behind the clouds.

”I need to repeat the process twice before we can move elsewhere!” Sam said as he threw another sphere into the two thin layers of ice that had sprouted out and attached onto the stone pillars that protruded from the ground. Turning his attention to the ground behind him Sam placed his hand on the grass and frosted over the ground pulling the moisture from below feeling the water turn to ice killing off all the grass below. Normally he’d prefer not to kill off anything even trees or grass but he’d know that once the volcano erupted it would all be burned away anyways.

The water elemental grunted, as if that were possible, as he finished piling up the water against the water which Sam quickly frozen into a solid structure. Normally Jorge would have been exasperated by such an exercise but when he was in water form he had a much easier time controlling larger amounts of water. That was his main reasoning in shifting into this form for the mission. He hoped it would help in the long run and that he was not pushing his new abilities to the max.

Once the structure was frozen solid he relaxed a tiny bit as he remained a swirling whirlpool of water in a humanoid shape. He glanced to Sam who had sent out another pair of icy spheres…

>> You think you can repeat that two more times?”

Jorge nodded his watery head and gave Sam a thumbs up.

>> ”I need to repeat the process twice before we can move elsewhere!” [/color]

Jorge nodded once again. He wished he could actually speak when he was in his watery form but unfortunately he still did not have the ability to do so. Vocal chords, lungs, none of it really existed when he was in this form and required a finite amount of control that he simply did not possess at the time. It was concentration just to keep a humanoid shape but that was good enough for the moment.

Slipping past Sam, Jorge reached out with his senses and was able to pick up far more locations of usable water that were nearby. Thankfully this form also connected with him farther collections of water. Reaching out with his arms he summoned more amounts of water to him. The clear liquid snaked and spun through the air as he once again came to his call. It swirled and spun around him before he sent the water off to meet with the other two spheres that Sam had placed.

He hoped and prayed it would be enough…

The water came from a different direction this time, locally and away from the ocean but it was water non-the-less which meant Sam could slow it and turn it to ice. Once the water was in place Sam repeated the process until the walls were strong enough to add seconds. Minutes would have been impossible especially in the time crunch they had. They would have had to build wall upon wall and right now that wasn’t going to happen.

His partner was silent, a side effect of his form no doubt Sam couldn’t imagine trying to make vocal chords of ice the concentration would have taken to much effort in the field so he wasn’t upset. As long as Jorge could hear him (what the case seemed to be), be it vibrations or lip reading Sam was happy just as long they could work together.

Letting out a sigh Sam nodded and looked to Jorge, ”This next part is going to be very, very difficult…” With that Sam started to run towards the opening of the volcano up the hill. It took him a few minutes until the ground was too steep to run straight up; rather he had to use an ice slide of the loose water particles in the air. He did his best to avoid from pulling from near Jorge but if he did manage to affect his partner he didn’t intend to do it.

Sliding to the direct opposite side of the volcanic mountain Sam gritted his teeth and landed rather abruptly managing to jar his legs till he fell on his backside. It wasn’t the best landing but he was in a hurry. ”Jorge! I need you to hit this spot right here!” Sam pushed himself up and a thin layer of ice where both his hands were formed. ”High pressure, push the water in there!” Sam didn’t have a ton of time to explain but he was hoping Jorge would do as he was told no matter how difficult the idea seemed.

The walls of ice were formed. Cold barriers to slow the progress of molten hot lava but judging by the looks of them, yes they were impressive, but they were not going to hold up if that volcano decided to unless all its glory upon the world. They could sit here all day making ice barriers but it was a sick joke to think that their glorified ice cubes were going to make any difference. Jorge would have to move the entire damn ocean and Sam would have to freeze all of it. He doubted those tasks were in either of their ability to do.

Jorge, still in water form, turned back to Sam when he heard the X-Man deliver his next set of instructions.

>> ”This next part is going to be very, very difficult…”

As if it hasn’t been already… the water elemental thought and then turned to see Sam suddenly running up hill, toward the volcano’s opening! Was he just absolutely out of his mind?

His watery head shook as suddenly Jorge reached out and summoned another hefty amount of water from a local spring to leap up and gravitate towards him. Once it was close enough, the detective began to splash and slosh up after Sam, watching as the X-man struggled before finally making it to his location on a slide of ice. Jorge could feel Sam pulling at his own source of water, his body, but Jorge managed to stay just far enough away to not be frozen at Sam’s feet.

With a thud, Sam’ landed on his butt and Jorge continued to climb until he was able to get to his side. He could already feel the heat sapping at his control over the water, as well as his own body. It was far too warm, thus it made Jorge focus harder to keep the thinning water together.

>> ”Jorge! I need you to hit this spot right here! High pressure, push the water in there!”

Another thumbs up. He was not one-hundred percent sure exactly what Sam was planning but thus far he’s been able to trust the man. He hoped that trust could continue.

One hand raise, Jorge focused with all his might was the water he had summoned to follow him collected and began to swirl as a large, globule mass. When he was sure that he had collected all of it and had it sloshing in a nice, big sphere, Jorge turned to face the side of the volcano and suddenly shot out his free hand. The water snaked from the globule and flew at high pressure, slamming and cutting into the rock with as much pressure as Jorge could manipulate from it.

The water smacked against the rock and sound Sam wasn’t used to hearing echoed out around them. It was the sound of the area being slowly destroyed by water pressure. Upon impact a few small bits of rock flew out in different directions causing Sam to momentarily shield his face with his arm. After a few seconds Sam lowered his arm, the small bits of rock continued to get blasted out of the way as the water ceased in pressure. His arm stung for a second but Sam quickly pushed it out of his mind as ice formed over his good and bad eye to help prevent getting pelted and blinded. He had one eye; he had no intention of losing another.

”Jorge, ready another round. Pull from where ever you can except where you just hit, I’ll also take care of the heat we just need more water… a lot more!” Sam said as he rushed forward and slammed his hands on the solid rock where Jorge just barraged with water. Feeling the water Sam activated his powers. The rock under his hands was damp, warm and damp it only took a second for Sam to chill the water. It froze and then he melted it again each time he let the water sink down more into the rock as the ice expanded under Sam’s will.

It didn’t look like they were doing much but they were ice wedging the rock, something he had done only twice before and if it was good enough to work on a mutant whose body was solid rock it was enough to work here. From what he was told it was the equivalent to tiny explosions that just kept pushing away the bits of rock from each other. He waited a few more moments each time his hand twitched from clutching the ground he was focusing on.

Worse yet he was getting fatigued, the swim, the ice spheres, the walls, then the run and now this. It would be worth it though, he could sleep later when there wasn’t a natural disaster threatening to take the lives of hundreds.

Jorge grunted, as if that were possible, as he pushed and shifted the water into the rock wall that was in front of him. At first it really seemed as if he were doing nothing extraordinary except for throwing water at stone. After all, how useful is that, really? But there was such pressure behind Jorge’s attack that he pushed as much of it into the stone as he could…and it produced results. Pressured water chipped and seemed into the imperfections of the stone it managed to get in, pool, and then split the rock more. The process was repeated over and over again as he summoned as much water as he could in order to achieve it.

It was no easy task though. They were attacking a frickin’ volcano and the mountain was obviously unhappy by their interference. With as much water pressure as he shoved against the stone it was like shoving a tiny splinter into the shin of a 100 foot tall giant. It would barely notice.

But he hoped that Sam’s plan had some sort of relevance…

>> ”Jorge, ready another round. Pull from where ever you can except where you just hit, I’ll also take care of the heat we just need more water… a lot more!” [/color]

He watched Sam dash forward and suddenly freeze the water inside the stone. Another nod. He understood.

He paused as he tried to regain some of his composure. Making water pressurize like that was no easy feat and on top of it, he was trying to hold onto his watery, elemental form. It was pulling his focus into too many directions but he was going to have to suffer through it. Halting on either endeavor would not end well.

Reaching out with his expanded senses, he looked for somewhere, anywhere that had water. He began to feel like he was tapped out but the harder he concentrated, the more he began to realize that there was water nearby. The bits of moisture in the air, the pool from somewhere below, probably from some past rainfall; all of it would just barely be enough.

Hand raised up, Jorge’s body gurgled with tension as he began to summon. At first it looked as if nothing would come but slowly and surely globules of water began to meet, form and connect with one another. These were meet up with from water he pulled from some unknown pool somewhere below until all of it connected into another extremely large sphere of water that floated above his open hand.

Another hand aimed forward towards the rock face, Jorge’s watery face took on an air of concentration suddenly another burst of even more highly pressurized water burst forth and collided with the stone, etching itself deeper and deeper into the side of the mountain.

The plan wasn’t working as fast as he would have liked. With his eye focused on his work Sam was still manage to see Jorge in his liquid state pull water up, it wasn’t as much as he had pulled before but it would be enough for the next shift. Sam frowned slightly as he pushed himself up and took a few steps back and raised his hand to summon more material for Jorge to use.

Sam shut his eye for a second in haled and exhaled, despite the heat his breath could be seen for a moment as it dissipated quickly. Opening his eye he lowered the temperature around his immediate person and then further away from Jorge so he wouldn’t freeze his partner. Ice started to form at Sam’s will and then it was quickly melted as Jorge assaulted the side of the mountain with his water.

They continued on with this process till Sam could barely stand up straight without leaning to one side due to exhaustion it had been an hour at least and they had made some decent progress however it wasn’t going to be enough, that much was clear. Sam’s right hand twitched and the few scraps and abrasions that had formed from slamming his hand onto the weakened rock burned from being so sore.

Letting out another large exhale Sam looked to Jorge and the last amount of water Sam had formed from the ice. He looked tired? Or at least less defined as he did when he first revealed himself as a mass of water. Sam was about to suggest they call it quits for a few minutes but before he could open his mouth the ground shook once again. This time it was a far larger quake than before. Sam lost balance and fell over catching himself on a rock.

”@#$*” was all that Sam could muster as he looked up towards the volcano as it started to spit out far more smoke than before. It was starting to erupt and the small crevasse that they had formed started to expel more heat than before. They didn’t cut all the way through but if they didn’t move quickly Sam doubted he would have been able to hold off the heat especially in his tired state.

Standing up and click the radio in his ear he spoke, ”Cold Steel to all X-Men on the island…” his transmission got cut off due to volcanic activity or he assumed. ”****” Sam cursed again. ”Jorge, I think its best we leave!”