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Her comeback was great he was glad she noticed his ability to stay alive and the fact that he wasn’t drunk. ”Thanks for noticing. “ he said waving her off like he was embarrassed. His ribs hurt. He needed to stop waving. ”Steel, Cold Steel.” he gave his alias even though it wasn’t really a secret identity. The only secret was how his older self could claim it was he hardly ever tried hiding his face.

He de-aged; he needed to start telling people that when he first met them. It was starting to become a problem. Sam looked down to the index finger that was now on his chest. Raising an eyebrow, ”Not enough apparently.” he commented as he watched her walk back to the bull man studying her as moved. She seemed familiar.

”Not sure yet.” Sam said finally as he walked over to the bullman. ”The woman who was cornered by these guys probably called the cops. If she did they should be here soon if not.” Sam tapped the guy on the other shoulder. ”He got his *** kicked but I got a feeling he will reconsider before doing something like that again. If not.” Sam shrugged, ”Apparently I put his brother away so I can ask him.” Sam said nodding his head as if he had thought everything out. He didn’t.

”You look really familiar zero.” the icemancer said as was studying her face more. Sam crouched down and leaned forward trying to get a better look still giving Zero her personal space. ”I deaged… I knew you before I got to New York. Ten to twelve years ago?” Sam asked trying to recall.

When she said he could do it Sam had the feeling she was going to tell him he could do anything he could set his mind too. While he could because he was Sam, the words didn’t comfort him the way she thought. He took it as a ‘you need to try harder’ a series of words Sam hated hearing all his training in T.A.T. whenever you heard those words you knew some pain was coming.

Sam could raid a village controlled by a mutant dictator leave a trail of unconscious bodies and extract the would be dictator before anyone came to however this stupid session he couldn’t even beat a woman who had years of less training than him. His nostrils flared and he took a breath ignoring his ego that was demanding another round with the woman. He must be tired, that’s why he lost not because she was better.

”Bodies bad.” Sam agreed. While he was okay leaving bodies if he needed to he had to remind himself that was why he left T.A.T. why he spent a couple years on the run, in hiding constantly moving. He didn’t want to be the guy that left bodies he wanted to be the one to save people, make up for years of bad things he thought he was right at the time.

”Not good enough.” Sam said curtly before grabbing his arm and pulling it into a stretch. That was all she had to say because with Sam being Sam that was all he heard. Light touches. He’d have to practice that more and of course never admit Serena had changed his training regiment.

”Beautiful and smart.” Sam said finally hoping to irritate the woman more than anything. ”I guess, I’ve hogged the room enough for one day. Clearly I’m slipping.” not because he was inexperienced, nope ego didn’t allow that thought. ”I’ll let you get back to it.” he said as he started to walk for the door keeping his posture proud and not showing that he was upset about the situation more than he had earlier.

In his ever ending quest to not be his older self Sam decided to try something he knew his older self didn’t bother doing because this was like a blind date out of character for the ice mancer. Sam decided he’d check out the gym not the weight kind but the actual gymnasium.

It was too cold to play any sports outside and while the danger room was his main source of training he figured he’d get his heart rate going another way that didn’t include going down the girls hallway.

It was a Saturday so it wasn’t crowded but there were more people in the gym than Sam was hoping. He was hoping he’d have some time to shoot a basketball or throw a football without an audience. After his session with Serena it was clear to Sam most of the people were further along than he was. That might have been because all of the students learned from Sam but he wasn’t okay with not being the best. That was who he always had to be.

Luckily there was an open court with no one shooting on the net. Sam decided to grab a basketball and give it a shot.

”Can I get down there safely? How many jumps have I done?” Sam mocked as he opened the ramp himself and walked to the edge. He didn’t grab anything; a parachute in this wind would have probably killed him after whipping him around like a rag doll.

”Crank the music, I’ll just do all the work!” Sam yelled over the wind as he overkilled a somersault off the ledge into elements not waiting to hear what else Maya had to say. The wind was already muffling everything. Even though he had an earpiece in it would have been hard to hear. The rain smacked his now ice covered face as he turned down towards the water and the ship.

The goal was to get close to the water, not die then start willing the water to create some sort of float to help balance the ship. If they were worried about the ship sinking (which they were) a dome over the deck would have been stupid. Keeping everyone in a locked watery prison would have been a bad guy would do. Sam was a good guy. The best guy.

So the thing that made the most sense to Sam was touch down and try to help lift the boat and the best place to do that was under the boat. Meaning with all this speed he built up he’d get as far down as he could before his ice started to lift him. Even if he created propellers to force him down more it would probably take more time than he had.

Ice started to form on his arms and legs to help stabilize his decent to the water. The wind was strong enough he was actually worried about landing the dive, which was why his stabilizers were so important. When he got close enough to the water he brought his arms up to close the surface area of his dive. It was crucial at this point that he gathered enough air in his now full ice armor to give him some time to do something useful it wasn’t like he could breath underwater.

Glad he fully armored up when he made contact with the surface he managed to hit the wave just right so he could dive at an angle towards the ship. Even under the water the iceman could see the lightning cracking overhead. He hoped he didn’t have enough bad karma to get struck.

Raising his hands and pointing at the parts of the ship he could see he started to turn his powers up to eleven. The water around him started to freeze when the jets of blue exited his hands. He wouldn’t be able to cover the entire bottom of the ship seeing as he couldn’t see the whole thing but he could at least make it so there was some sort of stabilizer to help lessen the rocking.

While he normally would have hit on Maya given there history young Sam did not have said history so when she said that was it for flirting Sam sighed a little disappointed then figured if she had a pregnant girlfriend whom the ice mutant met he figured he’d cool it on the flirting at least what he considered flirting.

”Condolences.” was his first response to Maya having a pregnant girlfriend. He didn’t know if they were trying to have one or not but Sam just assumed babies for anyone he knew was often a mistake they had protection for a reason.

”Fine mom…dad? Under supervision.” Sam mocked and rolled his eyes, ”Got more time in the air than most people have on the ground.” Sam mumbled as he started to shift through the radio till he found a classic rock song he dug.

The storm was indeed bad but with all the water around it made it easier to construct things, less time to pull moisture from the air especially if it continued to rain as it had been. ”If it was pretty we wouldn’t have to be here.” Sam retorted as he stood up from his seat and was about to walk back to the air-drop.

”I can’t lift the ship but I can put some walls around it to try and stabilize it.” he offered, ”Unless you got some other ideas mom.” he had never rescued a cruise ship at least not since he de-aged. Old Sam had done this once or twice usually creating a massive iceberg or manipulating an existing one. ”It is your mission. I’m just here to be supervised.” he mocked again waiting for Maya to give him the go ahead to jump ship.

Standing with his jaw slightly open he wasn’t sure how to respond to her until she entered the jet. Gawain was a guy… Maya, clearly a woman. The icemancer frowned and then shook his head. Maybe she was a gender shifter as well? He didn’t think much more on it but only called out, ”Awkward… But you got hot.” before climbing into the jet.

Sam frowned and the jet got a little colder as he expressed his irritation because he wasn’t piloting the jet. He was the best the mansion had to offer even if Maya/Gawain could fly there was no way they could keep up with him. He had been trained for years how to fly. ”This is bull@@@@” he finally said as he sat down in the co-piolit chair.

If she wasn’t going to let him fly he was at least going to control the radio. That and chime in every time she didn’t’ do something right. He wanted to make it clear he was the best.

Smirking he nodded his head as he grabbed a scoop of the brownie this time, which was super rich. ”Most of it is false courage.” Sam said lying a bit, sure most of the things he said made it seem like he didn’t care about a lot of things but that was more to protect him from getting hurt or hurting anyone else.

When she finished recounting the story he didn’t bother asking what happened after. If it worked out she wouldn’t have been here on a date with him. So he was glad the guy didn’t pull it off. ”Lot of commitment there. That’s hoping you enjoyed the book enough to read all” Sam shook his head, ”I don’t have enough patience for that.” Sam said simply enough, ”Cute maybe but too many unknowns. Must have been a good book series?” he finally asked.

”Like, how are you going to risk everything like that over a period of time? You could have had a boyfriend and all that effort.” Sam said shaking his head. ”Like if I wanted to ask you out on a second date, which I’m doing right now. Like maybe a meet up in the park or something I’d have to ask right away because if I’m still a solid eight.” he winked, ”I’d have to ask you out now, like I don’t know if I can compete with any tens.” he smirked knowing that was true. He was Sam ****ing Johnson.

Brushing past he asked her out on a second date he took another bite of the brownie then sipped his water.