As we stepped off the Bckbird, a gust of icy wind immediately bit at my face. Despite the suit's thermal adjustment, the cold was sharp. I had to use my ice power to fend off the cold. The North Pole was a bleak ndscape of snow and ice—a desote, hostile enviro. But this st! Blood!

  Logan's witched, his cws instinctively extending.

  "Blood," he muttered, his voice low and gravelly.

  I used my ice trol to stretch my senses, sing as far as possible. Blood... Dead bodies... Well, another fucked up mission. I quickly searched around us to detect the enemy, but there was none. Nothing that's alive.

  Logan sniffed again, narrowing his eyes. "It's fresh."

  Psylocke used her psychic power to check our surroundings. "I'm not getting any life signs except for ours."

  "Kurt, take us to the base," I said while keeping my seretched around us.

  Nightcrawler teleported us to the Shield's base.

  The temporary base was a disaster zone. Large, grey metal structures, hastily bolted together to withstand the harsh weather, now stood eerily quiet. It was like one of those zombie hames with a bunker and zombies hiding inside, except there were only dead bodies. The faint smears of blood streaked across the snow, bed scorch marks charred the walls, and broken equipment was all over the floor.

  Logan crouched he bent and sshed entrance of the rgest building, sniffing the air. His eyes narrowed as he ran a single cw along one of the deep gashes in the door. "These cuts are ," he muttered, his voice low and rough. "Whoever did this, cut this reinforced metal door in just a single ssh. Looks like our killer got a nice bde or sword. Two bdes..." He touched the other ssh mark.

  I followed him inside, my boots g against the icy floor. The metallic smell of blood hit me immediately, sharp and suffog. The se inside was worse than I'd imagined. Bodies of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents y slumped against walls or sprawled on the ground, their bck tactical suits torn apart like paper. The blood beh them was already frozen, but the brutality was just... Too perfect.

  I k beside one of the falles, carefully iing the wounds. Deep, precise cuts marred his chest and neck. "Bde wounds. One short bde and one medium," I said as I noticed the sshes and stabs on the dead body. "The strikes are too perfect. Just look at these sshes..." I poi the wound on his chest and neck. "A short bde sshed the ned a long one punctured his heart."

  I moved on to the body. The same style. Oab and one ssh at the exact same pce.

  "I doubt our killer is a human. It's like some kind of a mae... Or, an alien with X-ray vision and perfect reflexes. Well, this is messed up," I sighed.

  "No footprints outside," Psylocke came in after looking around outside. "The storm's wiped out any tracks."

  I am worried about Natasha. I hope she's alright.

  "Natasha was supposed to be here," Logan said, his cws scraping against the metal wall as he paced. "She wouldn't go down easy. Where the hell is she?"

  "Betsy, you chece again?" Storm asked with a worried expression.

  Psylocke's focus deepened as she reached out with her psychic abilities, her lips pressing into a thin line. After a few moments, she opened her eyes, frustration flickering across her face. "Nothing. No life signs."

  The storm outside just got worse.

  St the entrance as her eyes became white. The snowstorm stopped within seds. "We'll need another way to track her."

  I looked around the room again, searg for clues. My eyes fell on a sole, its s shattered but still flickering faintly. A few keystrokes revealed partial logs—fragments of unication.

  [Log Entry 0429: "…alien energy signatures. Unpreted levels… requesting immediate backup… hostile presee—"]

  The rec cut off in stati followed:

  [Log Entry 0430: "…Romanoff engaging… defensive measures failing… repeating: hostile presen—"]

  I shared the logs with the team. "Natasha was here wheack happened. She might've fought back, but whatever—or whoever—did this overwhelmed them fast."

  Kurt, who was trying to tact the Professor, stuttered, "I... I 't tact the Professor. Some kind of jammer?! This is bad, isn't it?"

  Damn it! I 't wait anymore. She might be in danger. No point wasting time.

  "I have an idea," I walked outside and touched the snowy ground, spreading my sehrough the id moisture. There were a couple of dead bodies outside too, but luckily Natasha wasn't among them. But robots... A few clicks away from our location, there were around twenty giant robots, hiding using camo tech. But they couldn't hide from the ice. I shifted my focus toward that spaceship and ould you look at that? It got some nice ons and they were all aimed at our location.

  It was a well-prap. But who?

  I focused harder, pushing my senses further into the icy wastend. But as I increased my power, the suit failed to withstand the amount of cold energy I rodug. The nanites iarted breaking down and the circuitry failed, causing sparks to fly from my suit. I ripped it apart with ease. My body finally transformed intanic ice.

  My seretched even further, expanding outward in all dires. Using the storm far away and the moisture in the air, I amplified my reach. Everything in the area became clear to me, from the frozen blood on the ground to the fairaovement in the dista was like a 360 surround view. I have never used my ice power to this extent. I could sehe smallest details for miles.

  The first thing I noticed was the circle of robots, camoufged, their metallis blending into the idscape. At least twenty of them, hidden just beyond the snowdrifts, standing in perfeation. Great. First aliens, now robots.

  I adjusted my focus, pushing my senses further. There, just beyond the line of snow-covered hills, was the crash site. The alien ship y partially buried in snow, its hull cracked and scorched. But what caught my attentiohe on systems, active and glowing with faint red energy. The guns mounted on the ship seemed active, their red targeting systems locked onto our position. I could hear the fai of humming sounds, a low vibrational pulse ing from the ship. Probably remote-trolled...

  I narrowed my focus even further, searg for any signs of movement. And there—off in the distance, lying atop a ridge overlooking the base, was a figure, covered in a heap of ice. A humanoid, its form was unnaturally still, yet the faint outline of its blue metallic skin was visible even from this dista didn't look human, but it wasirely robotic either. A woman! The cybot an alien sniper rifle aimed at us.

  Wait a sec! Blue skin... Cyb... Deadly with ons...

  Lady Death said that Thanos was targeting me, so... My wild guess is that the blue ight be Nebu. Let me chece more. I focused my senses ohe st of blood was to. There were even two bdes lying just beside her buried uhe snow. Her eyes are bd that metal area around her eye. Shit! That's definitely Nebu, alright.

  I pulled my senses ba, narrowing my focus to the group. I used telepathy to talk to them. "Aal. We've got twenty robots in position, and the alien ship's on systems are active and aimed at us. There's a cyb sniper, blue skin, far off to the side, aiming her sniper rifle at us. Whatever's going on here, it's a setup. A trap. And they're waiting for the right moment to strike. And there's no sign of Natasha. Now, here's what we are gonna do. Kurt, get everyo of here. Teleport back to the ship. This fight... I will ha alone."

  "What? You 't..." Psylocke said in disbelief.

  "Trust me," I smiled at her. "I won't be able to use my full power with you all here."

  [Bang!] ook a shot, aiming at Kurt. The bullet was fast, but I was faster. With super speed and the power to freeze the bullet in mid-air, I stopped it. "Go! NOW!"

  Everyone grabbed onto Kurt as he teleported back to the ship. They took off.

  I looked at Nebu and pointed my middle fi her. "e a me, bitch!"

  ---

  AN: It's time to unleash full power of ice. And I'm gonna take a few days off to stockpile. See you soon...

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