'I need your help' Emma Frost admits as she sits in a chair in a living room within the Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach. 'I don't care, Emma' Bobby Drake replies, narrowing his eyes as he stands several feet from Emma, wearing his 90s blue costume. Emma explains to Bobby that there is a family matter she has to tend to that is rather delicate. 'To quote Admiral Ackbar: It's a trap' Bobby replies, while suggesting to himself that he look into franchising the concession stand “Admiral Snackbar”.
Emma stands up and walks towards Bobby, asking him if he really thinks she would be coming to him like this if she had a scheme. 'That's the funny thing about you: yes' Bobby replies, telling Emma that her sweet spot is confusing and abusing people. Emma asks if she can at least explain herself, to which Bobby throws his hands into the air and starts to walk away, reminding Emma that she once said the following words to him: “I owe you nothing”. He suggests that she think about that as she escorts herself out – and that she better hurry before one of their telepath-proof X-Men finds her.
Suddenly, a confused Bobby pinches his face, and looks around, as he finds himself outside, on a busy downtown street. Emma Frost leans against a white convertible car as she tells Bobby that she wasn't done talking, and explains that she encouraged him to come take a stroll with her, away from his nosy peers. Emma admits that circumstances have made her hard up on allies, and informs Bobby that she is scared her brother is being hurt by her father. 'I don't love much. But I love him' she adds. Emma points out that Bobby is less susceptible to telepathic attacks when he is in ice and that he can fend for himself in a fight. 'And... you're good with people. Please, Drake' Emma pleads.
Bobby watches Emma, when suddenly a voice calls out, 'STOP HER!' 'Encase that toxic war-starting monster in ice!' Kitty Pryde exclaims as she rushes towards Bobby and Emma, warning Emma to stay away from Bobby.
Bobby tells Kitty that it is okay, and explains that she just has family drama she needs help with. 'Hmm. The hair is more Cynthia Nixon than Stamos' Emma remarks at Kitty's appearance. 'Shut up' Kitty snaps, before telling Bobby that Emma is just preying on the fact that he has something to prove to her. 'Don't fall for it' she exclaims.
'Do I have something to prove to her? Sure. Emma can be a scorpion crammed into a white corset, but she actually has a vaguely sympathetic cause' Bobby tells Kitty, pointing out that Emma needs to play nice, and that he can prove it, as he asks Emma to project his “request”. Emma then appears wearing curlers in her hair, and wearing frumpy clothes, including a t-shirt that has a picture of Kitty Pryde shouting “Emma Frost is a jerk”. 'If this isn't Emma showing some vulnerability, I don't know what is' Bobby points out. He then gets into Emma's car and tells Kitty to trust him. 'Trust no one, please!' Kitty replies.
In the car, Emma holds up a copy of the Boston Observer with the headline “Heir Apparent?” and a photo of her father, Winston, and brother, Christian. As Emma drives down the road, Bobby asks her if her dad pulls her brother out of an institution to run the Frost family business, why is that cause for alarm. 'Do you think I'm the way I am because my father operates at face value?' Emma replies. 'I forget you're poor' she tells Bobby, informing him that her father expected much from his children, and his own legacy, and didn't take efforts to hide constant disappointment. She projects an image of her parents and siblings onto the car dashboard. 'Whoa, projections. Okay, I get it. I'll stop playing with dating apps on my phone' Bobby replies.
Emma informs Bobby that her brother Christian could always bring warmth and laughter into that house, but her father didn't see his light – nor did he take Christian's sexuality as a fact – and so Christian was sent to conversion therapy, and tried to kill himself. Her father's idea of helping was to dismantle Christian's life and have him institutionalized. Emma reveals that she already visited once before, to suss the situation out and make sure Christian was all right – but her father was firm in not letting her in. 'We are not interested in your poisoning his mind' she remembers Winston telling her as he sent her off in a most surprising manner – attacking her mind with powers she never knew he had. Winston asked Emma to leave, telling her that he didn't need the neighbors to see his daughter grew into an overindulged, unremarkable brat.
Emma tells Bobby that Winston Frost is already a vicious and reactionary man, and admits that she is scared of what cruelties he is laying on Christian's brain with his newfound powers. They pull up at a mansion and Emma informs Bobby that they are here.
Bobby tells Emma that it all makes sense now – all this time he has wondered why she never outed him – because her heart thaws for her gay brother. 'I'm aware of how sensitive such things are for you pretty white boys, yes' Emma admits, adding that her list of treacherous acts is a bit more ambitious than messing up one self-absorbed X-child. 'You really are rusty at being nice' Bobby remarks as he freezes the front door and ice-sleds inside, with Emma rushing alongside him. 'Told you' Emma replies, before calling out 'Father! I'm here for Christian!'
'What's with the dramatic entrance, Em?' Christian Frost asks as he appears in the foyer. Emma goes over to her brother and tells him that she was worried father had him trapped. 'Dad just likes to make sure I'm behaving, is all' Christian smiles, while Bobby sleds around the nearby rooms and reports that there is no sign of Emma's father – just lots of opulence. Christian pours himself a glass of red wine, and Emma asks him where their father is. Christian smiles and replies that their father doesn't need to be here right now, and that he is doing well. He suggests they catch up on the veranda. Emma smacks the glass of wine from Christian's hand and asks him what is going on here. 'Are you a clone? Brainwashed? Wearing a British-cut suit was offensive enough, but my brother would not casually break his sobriety' Emma exclaims.
Emma pins Christian up against the wall and raises a fist to his face, telling him to stop wasting a perfectly good bottle of 1947 Chateau Petrus and her time. 'Where are my father and brother?' she demands. Iceman then informs Emma that he has found the only locked door in the house. He traps Christian in ice-bonds as Christian asks him not to go in there. 'I didn't clean my mess up and he's going to be mad at me if you see' Christian declares. Emma kicks the locked door down, then stares in shock at what she and Bobby find in the room. 'Let this be a weird Frost family telepath gag' Bobby utters. 'Christian, what did you do?' Emma gasps as she looks at the room which has been upturned, furniture is scattered across the floor, and blood spray can be seen up one wall – as Winston Frost lays motionless, slumped over a chair. 'Oh, Em... you weren't supposed to see that. Messes... Winston Frost hates messes. They'll all send me back to the institution if they see my messes...'
Christian then breaks through the ice-bonds and tells Emma that she has to go now – as Dad is back. A projection of Winston Frost appears and announces that Christian already had one outburst when he showed him how happy his boyfriend was in Europe, before pointing out that he now has to deal with this parade of children in the home he worked so hard to build, and psychic energy slams into Emma and Bobby, knocking them backwards, while Christian begins to run. Bobby gets to his feet and realizes that Christian is the one with the powers, not Winston. 'And he used your Papa Frost as a weird expression of himself and he killed him?' Bobby asks, muttering that he misses his folks. Emma begins to run after her brother, and instructs Bobby to keep “that thing” busy. 'Not how teamwork works!' Bobby calls out after Emma, dodging another blast that the Winston construct fires at him.
'Yeah, I thought that painting was tacky too' Bobby jokes as the energy blast slams into a painting. Bobby dodges another blast, and adds 'Wow, no respect for all things nouveau riche', while Emma catches up to Christian and grabs him by his collar, asking him when his powers emerged. 'Dad's here. Dad's mad, Dad's pissed he's here' Christian babbles. Bobby throws up an ice-shield as he informs Emma that “Astral Frost” is only hulking out more, and adds that he doesn't think her plan is working out, as Christian is compartmentalizing further. Bobby suggests to Emma that they have to get into Christian's head if they are going to fix this mess. He adds that he knows she can't use her powers to enter his mind, and asks her if she can throw Christian into his. 'I'll try anything once' Emma responds as she touches her brother's head.
Iceman’s mindscape:
'Welcome to Ice-Land!' Bobby calls out inside his own mind. Various locations including his parent's home, the Xavier Institute, New York City and Coney Island can be seen. Emma and Bobby look out over the mindscape, and Bobby asks Emma if this is what it looks like in everybody's minds. Emma tells him that it isn't, and that humans are all snowflakes, down to their neural processing. Bobby finds a child version of himself who is building a snow castle and approaches him: 'Hey, little me. Here's a life hack: Build that moat as deep as you want, but the tide always takes the castle'.
'This way, I see him' Emma calls out to Bobby. They run across some floating ice-platforms and Bobby asks Emma what her next move is. Emma tells Bobby that they will try everything except force, as Christian has been broken a lot longer than he's been together. Suddenly, a hand reaches up and grabs Emma – yanking her down into some water.
Bobby calls out to Emma, who telepathically instructs him to go on, and that Christian is trying to hide in Coney Island. She tells Bobby to keep Christian focused. 'Do that thing you do where people think you're pleasant' she asks Bobby sleds into Coney Island and sees a memory of himself as child, crying and pointing at a large snow-cone statue, while his parents stand over him, frowning. Bobby remembers this. 'All's I wanted was a snow cone, Dad' he mutters, before a projection of Professor X appears, and calls out 'Bobby! Behind you!' Bobby turns and sees Christian Frost and the projection of Winston, who fires another blast at Bobby. 'Thanks, subconscious Professor X!' Bobby exclaims as he sleds away from danger, avoiding the blast, while his thoughts reach out to Emma, informing her that he thinks his brain only made Christian more triggered.
'Be with you shortly' Emma replies telepathically as she battles a large ice-monster beneath the water surrounding Coney Island. In her diamond form, Emma shoves her fingers into the ice-monster, which causes it some grief, enabling Emma to slip free. She begins to swim to the surface. At that moment, Bobby slides along, when his X-Baby version appears overhead. 'Don't you think I'd do a much better job of handling this?' the X-Baby asks. 'Do you wanna help then, X-Baby?' Iceman asks. 'No, I'm incorporeal' the X-Baby smiles, before a blast of energy slams into Iceman, knocking him from his ice-slide. 'Must you make me do everything for you, you useless brat' the projection of Winston mutters, before ordering Christian to go to his room and stay there while he fixes his problems. Christian runs down a corridor, and Emma rushes past her “father”, while suggesting to Bobby that they switch places, as she is the only one who can get to Christian.
'Switch what?' Bobby asks, before turning around, and seeing the large ice-monster creeping behind him. 'Oh. This! This is what I'm secretly afraid of, Emma – becoming big and evil!' Bobby calls out, identifying himself as the ice-monster. 'Whatever, she's already gone' Bobby mutters.
'Christian!' Emma calls out, following her brother through a hall of mirrors. She comes to a stop, next to a mirror that shows a picture of Bobby as a child with his parents. 'You're in pain and confused, my love' Emma tells her brother, explaining that she brought him to Iceman's mind to show him something. 'The boy was lucky to have parents who merely smothered him with ideologies he could easily escape'. The mirror changes, to show an image of the original X-Men, as Emma remarks that Bobby was even luckier to have found a family that accepted him for the self-obsessed neurotic brat he has become. 'Bobby's chosen family helped him embrace the parts of himself that he thought were shameful. His powers... his sexuality... his identity'. Emma changes the mirror again, now showing herself as a child, with Christian and their sisters Cordelia and Adrienne, along with their parents. Emma tells Christian that she takes credit for making Bobby Drake a more powerful mutant, as he needed a firm hand, tough love.
'That's something we Frosts certainly know how to dole out...' Emma adds, when suddenly, Christian's image appears in all the mirrors around Emma, angrily asking her where she was. 'He did all those awful things to me. You tell me you love me...then where were you?' he asks. Emma looks at all the mirrors in shock, 'When they kept giving me pills, when they starved the gay out of me...where were you?' Christian shouts. Emma closes her eyes and tells Christian that she made decisions – and they had long-lasting consequences. She kneels before the mirrors and admits that she can't excuse how selfish her actions have been, but promises that she will do anything to help him heal – that she won't leave his side. Emma adds that it will break her heart if she can't fix his. 'Pinky swear?' Christian asks as he appears at one of the mirrors.
Back outside, the projection of Winston Frost threatens to kill Bobby, who is now riding the ice-monster, rushing towards Winston, who suddenly vanishes. 'Finally. She chilled him out' Bobby exclaims, adding that it is time to get out of his head. In the hall of mirrors, Emma and Christian embrace, and Emma tells her brother that she loves him, and that she is here. Whiteness then engulfs the two of them, as they are removed from Bobby's mindscape
'Em?' Christian asks. 'Christian...' Emma replies. Bobby grins, pleased with himself as he walks over to the Frost siblings and announces that, for the record, he was the one to escort them from his mind. 'How's that for advancement? I'm not iced up or anything' Bobby adds. 'Good job' Emma smiles, suggesting to Bobby that running a small ice layer around his brain all days seems much better than spinning his wheels about some kiss he had in Los Angeles. 'This guy really has no clue just how soft a side of Sears he sees with you' Bobby remarks. 'What's Sears?' Bobby replies. 'Oh-kay. Last joke about me being poor' Bobby mutters, before asking Emma if she is ready to leave. But Emma tells Bobby that this is it as far as the X-Men's involvement goes. She points out that with her father dead and Christian exhibiting a magnificent display of powers, she will need to take over Frost Technologies and work with him to regain control. 'You'll be able to find your own way home, I'm sure' Emma adds.
Soon, Bobby sleds through a city under the cover of night, lights from the tall buildings glowing around him. 'She sends me out of the state with nothing but my costume and phone... does the White Queen just expect me to sled all the way home?' he mutters. Bobby checks his phone to see if there are any trains out here, when suddenly, he receives several notifications. He thinks this is odd, his phone was silent for a few hours, and now he has five messages from Kitty Pryde, a notification that his pre-order of Dazzler's new single is available for download, and that he has a match on the app Single Not Stirred. 'holy smoke! Score! A match for Bobby Icematch!' Bobby exclaims, throwing his hands into the air 'He's cute, works in property development – and he lives in Manhattan? I'm in love. Damn!'
'Damn' Mr Sinister mutters, holding up a skull. 'He learned to block out prying minds. Fascinating'. Sinister walks through his lab and decides that he is not ready to expose himself to the X-Men just yet, but he needs Iceman physically here to complete his analysis for their little project. Sinister then stops at a contraption which has the red-skinned mutant hooked up to various cables and needles, injecting him with serum. Sinister grins and asks the mutant 'Are you excited to fight your first X-Man?'
