Kombat Zone: Iceman vs Kula Diamond

(Walking through the frozen refinery, Bobby Drake looks around for as if looking for someone.)

ICEMAN: Scott, I’m the refinery. I haven’t seen anyone yet.

CYCLOPS: Take your time, Bobby. Remember, try to capture the intruder that was sighted here. The professor may have some questions he wants to ask.

ICEMAN: Got it. Bobby out.

(The mutant suddenly stops in his tracks, sensing another presence. Making his way deeper into the refinery, he sees Kula Diamond skating around, doing figure eights.)

ICEMAN: Hey you. You wouldn’t by any chance have seen anyone freezing this joint up, huh?

KULA: Why yes, that was me.

ICEMAN: Okay. Any reason you came here of all places?

KULA: I just wanted to see what would happen if I tried using my powers in a confined space. No biggy.

ICEMAN: Except for the people who usually work here. I’m gonna have to ask you to come with me.

KULA: Nah, places to skate, people to fight.

ICEMAN: Wrong answer, and I hate to break it to you, but I’m not leaving emptyhanded.

KULA: Ooh, so serious. Okay, let’s go for it, you and me, right here and now.

ICEMAN: Okay, since you asked nicely.

(The two ice users circle one another for a full minute. While Bobby remains unsure how he should act, Kula immediately leaps into action, skating towards the X-Man and performing a powerful uppercut with her foot, aiming for the mutant’s chest. Iceman raises his left arm to block the blow and retaliates by punching Kula in the face with his right.)

ICEMAN: That all you got?

(Kula laughs.)

KULA: Of course not! Wanna see something really cool?

ICEMAN: Not really.

KULA: Too bad, buddy!

(Iceman watches as Kula’s hair suddenly lights up, each strand turning into part of a sheet of flexible ice. She gives Bobby no chance to admire it as she skates toward him and swings the back of her head in his face, knocking him backward. Kula attempts to follow up on her attack, but Iceman creates a barrier to block her next strike. As she tries to break through the barrier, Bobby dives to the side and tackles Kula. The pair roll across the icy floor, but Kula squeezes free of Bobby’s grip. However, as she tries to slide away, Bobby grabs hold of her leg and throws her into a wall.)

ICEMAN: Had enough? More where that came from if you haven’t.

KULA: Are you kidding? This was just starting to get fun!

ICEMAN: You have a strange definition of fun.

KULA: Ahh, don’t be such a killjoy.

(Kula inhales deeply and performs her signature Diamond Breath attack. Once more, Iceman raises an arm to defend himself. With his free hand, he shoots an ice beam to intercept her attack. Pushing his hand outward, he starts to force back Kula’s attack and nearly succeeds in freezing her head, but she breaks off her attack at the last second. Iceman keeps her on her toes by launching multiple icicles in her direction. Using her ice skates, Kula avoids most of them. Getting frustrated, Bobby makes an icicle bigger than the others hurls it at Kula. However, she stands her ground when she sees it coming. Timing the moment right, she kicks the icicle with all her strength, sending it back Iceman, impaling him in the shoulder.)

ICEMAN: Geez. This chick’s crazy. This is getting out of hand. Our fight surely can’t be going unnoticed. If people start coming to check out what’s going on, someone could get hurt. I can’t let that happen.

(As he removes the icicle from his shoulder, Kula takes advantage of his momentary loss of focus to get the jump on him. She begins to perform uppercut after uppercut, using her skates to slash at Bobby’s icy skin. Eventually, Bobby sees and opening and backhands Kula. Before she can get up, he grabs hold of her feet and rips her skates from her boots before tossing them out a nearby window.)

ICEMAN: Try that again without those skates.

(Kula looks up like this is a challenge.)

KULA: Okay.

(To Bobby’s surprise, Kula uses her powers to create a fresh new pair of skates out of ice.)

ICEMAN: Are you kidding me?

(Kula responds by kicking Bobby in the face with her skates, knocking him onto his back.)

ICEMAN: That’s it. Time to switch things up a bit.

(As Kula closes in on the downed mutant, Iceman concentrates and numerous clones of himself. They all look up and see Kula moving closer to them. As one, they charge her, forming a circle around her. Kula looks for an opening, but she finds none. Together, the clones fire ice beams at her, but at the last second, Kula raises and ice barrier of her own, withstanding their combined attack. As this is all going on, the real Iceman moves around the circle, expecting Kula to break out at any moment. This turns out to be so, as Kula releases herself from her barrier, sending all the clones flying and destroying some of them. Turning to the real Iceman, Kula gives him a big smile.)

KULA: I like you a lot. You’re fun to play with.

ICEMAN: Yeah, well playtime’s over.

KULA: So sad.

(Kula becomes upset and starts to launch multiple spikes of Ice at Iceman. Although he avoids her assault, more of the clones he created get shattered to pieces. While rolling on the evasive, Bobby returns fire with his icicles, intercepting more and more of Kula’s shots. Eventually, one of his icicles sinks into her knee, bringing her efforts to a halt. By now, only two ice clones of Bobby’s remain, which now close in on Kula. Just as she gets Bobby’s icicle out of her leg, the clones grab her by the shoulders, keeping her down on the floor. As they hold her down, Iceman advance and hits Kula with an ice stream, sending her flying into the air. As she starts to descend, the ice clones wrap themselves around Bobby and become part of him. Concentrating harder, Iceman begins to grow in size until his head reaches the refinery ceiling. Kula looks up just in time to see Iceman kick her into a wall. However, she flips around in the air, planting her feet against the wall and kicks off sailing straight for Iceman. Iceman sees her coming, but isn’t fast enough to stop her from sailing through the chest of his massive body. Iceman falls to the ground and shatters, saddening Kula.)

KULA: So sad. I didn’t want to break you this badly.

ICEMAN: You didn’t.

(Kula suddenly turns around and sees Bobby advancing on her, back in his normal state and appearing to be completely fine. Kula stares at him in complete surprise.)

KULA: What? How?

ICEMAN: It takes someone a lot more powerful than you to put me down and out for the count. And like I said earlier. Playtime’s over.

KULA: Not cool. Not cool.

(Iceman grabs Kula by the neck and starts to freeze her head. Her eyes seem to now be staring a million lightyears away. Once he’s sure she won’t bother him again, Iceman slams his hand down on the floor, shattering Kula’s head in the process.)

ICEMAN: Well, that’s that.

(Something suddenly occurs to him.)

ICEMAN: Oh shit. I was supposed to take her back with me for the professor to question. How am I gonna explain this to him and Scott?

GAME OVER!

EXPLANATION:

Probably not the most brutal death I’ve done, but that was still pretty cold. Any way you slice it, though, it was pretty clear that Iceman had the odds greatly in his favor. Kula may have had a much more creative power set, but against Iceman, that hardly mattered at all. I would say her abilities with ice were as strong as his, but the reason it made no difference is because Iceman’s complete immunity to ice in every shape and form, so Kula didn’t have any powers she could use to even put a scratch on him. The only thing in her arsenal that could inflict any damage onto Bobby were her ice skates, but he’d be smart enough to remove them from the equation after seeing what she was capable of doing with them. Once they were factored out of the fight, Iceman would be completely safe for the rest of the fight. After that, it was only a matter of how long he’d have to hold out before she finally expired. The only thing preventing him from putting down Kula outright was his own lack of diverse attacks. But as limited as he is, the few attacks Iceman did have at his disposal were more than enough to get the job done. After all, his clones were strong enough to briefly hold back Juggernaut, his ice sweeps could send a Sentinel flying, and his icicles were strong enough to cut through the dense skin of the Brood. In other words, Kula’s success hinged on nothing more than a prayer at best, and that prayer had zero chance of being answered. Bobby Drake was just way too cool for her to handle.

The winner is Iceman.