~ a Snowball's chance ~

[Emma Frost]

This was Limbo, a hellish dimension where demons ran amok, whose Lord was called Belasco and wherein was trapped Emma, Scott and their students. They had to get out, they had to save themselves and each other. They had a snowball's chance in this hell.....

Running and leaping down the hill Emma Frost, headmistress of the Xavier institute- the mutant academy, pushed herself to keep ahead of the recently formed light-sculpt of a huge pipe that contained one Lorelai Kavanagh, better known as Frostbite. The young man Kevin she held in her arms, codenamed Hardlight, had used his mutant gift to create the structure out of solid light. Emma, the Diamond Queen, using her enhanced strength and stamina was rushing to the aid of her love Scott Summers, better known as Cyclops- the headmaster of the academy and his rapidly dwindling team of youngsters.

"Scott! Children! We found you!" she cried out to get their attention, but there were other matters slightly more pressing than their arrival. She saw her lover being mauled by a huge hell hound as a mighty demon looked on and laughed. At his feet was the torn and bloody body of what looked to be her student Guardian. Her heart froze in her chest at the sight.

[D'mnchyld]

'Oh god! Guardian!' was all k'8 could think as her sorta friend got ripped down the middle from the demon behind him. She was right there and his blood sprayed out and hit her in the face. It stung her eyes and she freaked.

Wiping away the sticky salty blood with her sleeve and stepping back too quickly for her feet to handle it, panic grabbing an icy lock on her nerves. She tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground as a hell hound leaped over her and attacked Cyclops. She was frozen momentarily with fear and looked up to Sean, hoping this wasn't real and she might have just fallen asleep in the cave waiting. Wishing this was a dream- a nightmare.

The reality was worse than any nightmare and she scrambled back crawling rapidly as the demon who had killed Guardian laughed and bent down to stir the dragon-boy's blood with the soul and make his gruesome mud salve. She was horrified by the knowledge that what the creature was applying to itself was made from a kid she knew. A kid, she was remembering, who had tried to kill her not too long ago. 'Maybe payback really is the bitch they say it is.' she thought for a second as she watched with morbid curiosity. Shock twisting her mind in strange ways she reached over to touch the mud puddle.

That was when she heard a voice, familiar, distant...and urgent. It was Ms. Frost, but she was too late- too late to save Guardian, too late for Cyclops, too late for her.

[Frostbite]

I shouldn't have done this I shouldn't have done this I shouldn't have done this.....But it's so nice and COLD...But I could run someone over! Stupid stupid stupid Lor, Frostbite thought as she continued zooming down the hill in her iced up light wheel tube thing, blind to what was in front of her and around her as she was encased inside. The fast ride was pretty smooth; she hadn't run into any obstacles or anything so far, so that was okay. It would have been more fun going so fast, but since she couldn't see where she was going, and so it wasn't so fun. It was actually only getting more scary.

"WATCH OUT!!!" she screeched from inside as she kept going, knowing she had to have made it down by now. The wheel thing bumped something on the ground, but as to what it was, a rock or a demon or even....a fellow schoolmate or Cyclops, she had no idea. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!" she yelled next, becoming more frantic the longer she stayed in there. I swear, if I run over one of my classmates or Cyclops or something that's not a rock or a demon, I'll have screwed up again, but worse. That's it. No more doing anything for my comfort here, it ends BADLY. And if I die, then at least it won't be someone else, she decided as she tried to keep her balance inside the speeding wheel, hoping some way that'd she'd stop and get out.

[Cyclops]

The demon dog weighed a ton and Scott struggled underneath it trying with all his might to maneuver it around to get a clean shot and blast it off of him. It was all over him though and he was getting crushed and chewed. "AHHGG, GET----OFF!" He cried out as it bit into him hard, he felt bone snap under the pressure of it's jaws.

He might have given in but his responsibility to his students, the ones he hadn't let perish, held back that option. He had to fight on, no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice or pain. Then he heard her voice. The voice of Emma Frost, and the screaming of what sounded like a young girl.

He couldn't help but look as the Huge tube of light came rolling down at the little group he found himself in charge of. With a herculean effort he managed to muscle the Hell Hound over and then let loose a blast right into it's gut. The creature launched out skittering and flopping across the rough rocky ground coming to rest right in front of the light-sculpted frost-lined pipe.

Cyclops watched as the beast was crushed under the giant tube of light and the mass of it's body launched the tube into the air. The skyward momentum giving them a vital few addition seconds. "Scatter!" he called out as it loomed directly above him and his remaining charges, spinning as it reached the apex of it's hop before gravity could take hold of it.

[TuneUP]

Everything happened so fast, almost like in a really odd blur to Sean. One minute he was holding on to Kate and the next he was watching Guardian die. When Cyclops optic red blast lit up the sky, thats when reality settled in for Sean. He had gripped that rifle with white knuckles and his brain finally started functioning. And just in time with this big pipe of light soared above them.

"KATE!" he called and brought his rifle up automatically. Almost in slow motion, Sean aimed the gun and a loud bang was heard in the air as he hit the demon in front of Kate. I need to act fast, I can't let something happen to anyone else. Not her, shes been through so much, he thought as he ran over with speed fueled by adrenaline and grabbed Kate as he flung at her to get her away from the impact. He twisted his body in the air so he'd feel the impact of the ground and not her.
"Argh," Sean exclaimed when his back hit the ground hard. He didn't have time to dwell on his pain as he pulled himself and Kate to take cover behind a large boulder. "Hold on Kate, take cover!" he yelled and tucked her away so his body shielded hers.

[Ember]

The only thing that rang in Aideen's ears was her fast racing heart. BA-BUMP BA-BUMP BA-BUMP BA-BUMP.... With Frostbite's light pipe high in the air going right on top of the demons, her eyes went right to her injured Headmaster. After how good he's been to her, even when she didn't deserve it, there was no way even in hell that Aideen wouldn't do everything she could for him. He and Emma had done more for her than anyone in her life and had found a place in her heavily guarded and cold heart. Even in the odd mind state she was in, an internal part of her kicked in when it came to the Headmaster and Headmistress. For the first time in a while Aideen acting on her heart instead of her orders. "Get out of there Lorelai," she yelled into the tube from afar before she brought the heat from her skin into her body.

Aideen dove down to where Cyclops was, beaten and injured from that demon mutt. Her eyes were still lit up in the same bright flame as she struggled to bring all her body heat in. It didn't all go in, but enough of the heat did. With the added speed of diving down from the air, Aideen grabbed Cyclops' chest and with all her strength and the added strength the heat gave her she pulled him up in the air. In the less than a second she flew him in the bottom hollow of a jagged cliff. Aideen let go of him the minute he was on the ground, afraid that she may have injured him more with her heat.

She sat near him, breathing hard as the BA-BUMP of her rapid heart thudded against her chest. It didn't burn through the clothes... its not as severe as I thought. I'm getting good at absorbing heat internally. Aideen looked him over, not liking the nasty bite from that demon. Her fire lit eyes went to the light pipe as it was about to fall.

[Hardlight]

"Oh god Miss Frost --- look!" Kevin saw the whole scene playing threw from the safety of the head mistresses's amrs. He knew from that height that if Frostbite was gonna hit she'd be crushed and sliced to bite sized pieces. He couldn't let her die, she would never let him die, not on porpuse, no way. He knew she didn't mean to put him in jepordy with his light bridge, she was just rushing across to stop the demons there.

Thinking fast the only thing he could imagine to save her was a roller-coaster. He couldnt' do much to slow her down but he could put that tube of his on a track and soften the fall. As miss Frost landed from her leap close by where the thing was going to land he made two tracks out of light shoot up to the height of Frostbite and her pipe. They weren't very strong, but they would have to do. He was rushed. The slope he made was gradual and it might give Miss Forst a chance to help out, he hoped it would hold.

[Emma Frost]

Realizing Frostbite would be pancaked and sliced to ribbons without some help Emma, quickly placed Kevin down and rushed to where the tracks ended, running full tilt. 'Gotta slow that sucker down.' she thought as she spun around and readied herself for the inevitable impact. She would allow it to keep spinning under her diamond hard hands, the sculpted light against the smoothness of her palms should make it easier for the momentum to allow Frostbite time to get out of it.

As the massive pipe of light came sliding down the tracks and made contact with her hands Emma let it push her backwards across the rocky hot landscape, making a cut mark almost a hundred yards long where her feet were. "I got ya!" she called out to Frostbite.

[D'mnchyld]

"Huh?" k'8 was lost in her own strange little world for a moment when all of a sudden Sean grabbed her up and swooshed her away with him. "What? Take cover? Why?" she asked and peeling herself from his protection she looked up at the reason looming high above them. "Oh hell, that's gonna mush somebody!" she said and spun back to bury her face in Sean's chest again.

"What about Cyclops? And Guardian's body? And that Demon man?" she was getting confused. She had always, well for the longest time now, played with her friends that she'd spawned from her blood with her self mutilation and they had been demons. In the past few moments the shock of seeing another person ripped apart down the center had thrown her mind into a spin.

"We can't let them get hurt, Sean?" she looked up into his eyes. The tone of her voice pleading and the look something glazed over or worse. "Sean we gotta save them. Don't we?" she tried to get loose from his protective embrace and started panting and whimpering. The crash was about to happen any second....any second...any second now...."What happened?" she asked when there was no crash.

[Frostbite]

At the point Frostbite realized she rolled over something, she realized something else. She got a visceral feeling, like if she were falling or going up really fast. Her eyes widened as she realized she was in the air, and she was going to fall. Looking out one end she saw that the ground was a nice little distance away and she couldn't help but scream again. She could feel that she was starting to fall back down again, and expected to crash while she tried to think frantically about something she could do to break her fall when she felt the tube land on something and roll down. It almost felt like a roller coaster the way it sounded in the midst of her screams.

Feeling the decline she was then jolted inside as she felt the tube hit something. Oh no what did I hit?! she thought as she quickly moved to brace her hands and sliding feet against the inside walls and swiftly made ice creep over her hands and feet, holding her in place as it continued to spin, and thankfully slow. Having been in the coldness inside the tube Frostbite felt rejuvenated and she was filled with cold energy, brimming with it. She felt a hell of a lot better, and when she finally stopped spinning so fast and slowed down enough for her to get out, she made the ice break off of her hands and feet. The makeshift skates were gone now too and adapting what she had done during the Brotherhood attack, she half fell, half sat down and made the ice around and beneath her slide out of the tube onto the ground like a second tube. The ice around her melted quick enough and so once she finally felt like she stopped moving, she got up with a small crooked sort of smile and looked to see Miss Frost had caught her, there were tracks of light in the air, Cyclops looking beat, Hardlight, Ember, and Sean and k'8 scattered around, out of her path.

"Snap," she said weakly, a good bit of her voice gone from all the screaming. However when her eyes passed a big heaping pile of what she could've sworn looked like Guardian, the little smile faded and her eyes widened in shock. "Oh, my- " she stuttered, blinking once or twice. Oh my god, Guardian??! He's dead?? But how?? He was on my team.... she thought, looking away to Hardlight, who was still alive, and she gulped. Her train of thought was lost to her as she looked away to look at everyone else silently.

[Cyclops]

"Oh, ow, uuggh.'' The muttering escaped Scott's lips as he realized that a flaming flying girl had just saved him in the proverbial nick of time. Before his very eyes the fire licked around her, yet she looked familiar. "Ember? It is you isn't it?" He said, the pain in his mauled and mangled body was immense as the wounds from the razor sharp hell hound fangs were draining his life out in a dark red puddle on the floor of the cave.

"I'm not feelin' too hot kid, but you look like you are." he said softly as he tried to prop himself up on his one good elbow. "You can Fly?" he said as he gritted his teeth. "How are you with cauterizing flesh wounds?"

[TuneUP]

Sean looked up over his shoulder, refusing to loosen his hold on Kate. He saw that someone had caught the huge light thing as it went down this slide that he recognized as the same sort of stuff Kevin used to make his sculpture. "It's alright there Kate. It looks like someone caught it. That light stuff belongs to Hardlight," he said softly to her, now feeling a bit more confident about their current status.

Leaning back, Sean sat back and ripped off his entire shirt sleeve. He handed Kate the plaid ripped long sleeve of his shirt and smiled softly. "Here ya go Kate, just wipe up that purty face with this. It'll be alright," Sean said trying to make her feel better after what they had just seen. "Let's wait till its safe enough for us to not take cover anymore.

[Ember]

Aideen put out the fire that framed her body, only the fire in her eyes remained visible even glowing a little brighter. She glanced at her own shoulder wound that she closed not that long ago. "I know a thing or two about it," Aideen said and reached over to gently take his hand on his injured arm and carefully took off his leather glove. She folded it carefully and turned her fire eyes at Cyclops. "Lay back and bite down. Yours is much deeper than mine was," she said and gently pushed him down on his uninjured shoulder.

Aideen placed the folded up leather in his mouth and her hand lit up in blazing white hot flames. The heat from her hand was most of the heat that her body gained in this hell, which made it so hot that the air around them got noticeably warmer. Aideen placed her free hand on Cyclops' shoulder to hold him down the best he could in case he jerked from the pain. "One... two... three," she said softly and on three she placed her extremely hot hand on his wound. The smell of burning skin filled the air as Cyclops' skin sizzled and knitted together under her hand. Aideen held down Cyclops while she waited for the wound to be closed completely before taking her hand off the wound.

[Hardlight]

"Allll-Riiight!" Hardlight exclaimed in a cheer as he watched Emma catch the tube of light containing Frostbite. It was a great relief to know that she was safe ,and that he had helped to save her was a totally jazz! He was feeling like almost a hero and then a noise behind him or a bit off to the side kinda caught his attention. When he turned he saw a big demon getting to it's feet, at first he thought it was Aideen with blue fire, but she didn't have a skull for a head and covered in muddyness. He had no idea where the mud came from and then he saw his dear friend Guardian lying on the ground and he was torn almost in half.

Tears burned in his eyes and he realized the blood of his friend had made the mud that the demon was wering. Guardian had been such a good friend, aside from Frostbite he was the only one who really had been there for him and helped him, told him and showed him he could be better than he thought he was and better than his parents had let him think he was. Guardian had been there for him and now he was gone, and Kevin could never hear his voice again or say another word to him either. Kevin's breath caught in his chest and as the demon approached he froze, his mind swirling with grief.

Hardlight looked up at the demon as he came right up to the little mutant and still frozen, in a mixture of fear and grief and a deep sense of loss, he could do nothing. His mind was not working all he could see was the last time he had been talking to Guardian in the lab before they got here. Then all at once he screamed out "NOOOOO! You killed my friend?" he was the only demon nearly big enough to do something that gross and evil, Kevin knew from the look in the monster's face that he was responsible, but he was tapped and couldn't even move his feet. His power was drained, his imagination a blank gray slate, and his feet frozen alls he coulda done was run, but he just didn't have it in him.

[Emma Frost]

"I know Frostbi-" Emma had seen where she was looking and the stabbing pain in her own heart surely matched what her young charge must be feeling. Then she heard Hardlight's voice and looking at him saw the demon closing in on the boy. With a swiftness and deft move Emma, the Diamond Queen, picked up the giant light-sculpted tube in one arm and hurled it like a javelin hopping on one foot with the follow through. She grit her teeth wanting to cry out for him to duck, but not wanting to give away the attack.

In a blink of a second she had taken the chance to transform back to her normal form with the hope she would have time to let him know telepathically to watch out. ~* Kevin, duck! Duck and roll away! *~ she said directly into the child's mind. Watching she saw him react just in time as the humongous construct of sculpted light struck the ground right there and a huge smoke screen of dust and rock flew up. "He's safe, he rolled away." Emma said to Frostbite, as she saw the expression and knew that Kevin had indeed moved in time to save himself. The Demon had certainly been hit, she couldn't say for sure, but her aim was true and she had thrown that thing with the intent to kill. She was sure it was done for.