It was dark. This was the only thing Vali could see when he took the place of hulk v2, complete darkness. The strange thing though is that this place didn't used to be so dark when hulk v2 was still here.
This meant something unknown to him had occurred during the split second he took to switch places with hulk v2 and this caused him to frown, this was definitely the work of an incredibly powerful person or monster.
"It's cold..."
Vali let out a breath of cold air which immediately materialized into white vapor. The cold didn't really bother him, neither did the dark, it would be a joke if the shadow monarch was helpless to see in the dark.
"I see, this whole place is covered in a layer of ice." Vali mumbled as he tapped his foot on the solid ice beneath his feet.
He was starting to get suspicious, he doesn't remember any real powerhouses in the marvel universe with such potent ice abilities except maybe iceman?
There was only one thing that confused him though, even if iceman was somehow taken here, how could he kill his shadow? Hulk v2 was at the elite knight level, did he overestimate his shadows powers?
No! That's impossible. Vali was aware of how much power hulk v2 held, it was at least two times more powerful than the hulk during the chitauri invasion on earth and that was just a rough estimate.
"Somethings wrong... is this because of Rosses experiments?" Vali asked himself with uncertainty.
It was a plausible explanation or else how could there be such a powerful ice user? Unless there was an ice user he was unaware of, he after all didn't read too many comics and most of his general knowledge of this world was based on the live action movies.
Vali didn't waste any more time thinking and started wandering around the dark hallway. Why think about it when he can just find out directly?
Along the way Vali had found that the whole place was most likely covered in ice, all the doors he had passed were frozen over with a thick coating of ice but it was nothing for Vali to break them down and search the rooms one by one.
Occasionally he would find a few bodies impaled by shards of ice and they would all either be wearing white lab coats or military uniforms. When Vali came across these dead bodies, he would use shadow extraction and have them search the underground research facility as well.
Vali was honestly bored as he just repeated the same process over and over again. If the shadows found bodies he would head over and use shadow extraction on them and before he knew it he thoroughly swept though the entire facility.
He was right. The entire facility was covered in ice, he was only irritated by the fact that he couldn't find the source of the ice. He repeatedly searched the entire facility over and over again but he still couldn't find anyone.
There was only one thing he figured out about this and it was the fact that he never found a single body that belonged to a mutant or Ross and there was supposed to be mutants here or else how would Ross conduct his experiments?
The most likely explanation for this was that the ice user was a mutant and that mutant is iceman. He was taken here by Ross forcefully at his weakest moment and was forced into experimentation along with several other mutants and somehow the experiments took his powers to a whole new level.
It was probably when he had finally decided to end Ross when the iceman decided to retaliate against Ross and most likely ran into hulk v2 and took a cheap shot at the big guy while it was focused on Ross, explaining how hulk v2 died so easily.
This was the most reasonable explanation Vali could come up with, the only thing he couldn't figure out was how the iceman disappeared so fast with Ross, was there another powerful mutant with him?
"So irritating, there's no tracks to work off of either, for all I know the rogue mutants could be anywhere and they had Ross with them!" Vali cursed.
Right when he thought the search was a lost cause, one of his shadows found something interesting. In one of the labs, they had found a working device that wasn't frozen by the ice hidden in a secret compartment.
Without any hesitation, Vali immediately turned the device on and his eyes brightened when he saw multiple red dots on the screen all bunched together on a map of world.
A tracking device! Fortunately the device wasn't anything difficult to use and only after a few minutes of fiddling around with it did he pinpoint the exact location of all the mutants.
"Still in New York... I know this place, what a coincidence!" Vali smiled as he looked at the device.
"Return!" Vali immediately recalled all his shadows before he vanished from his spot.
From the spot where he disappeared, hulk v2 appeared and scratched his head sadly as he looked down on the ground and kicked a chunk of ice before sighing.
When Vali returned to the x mansion, he found that he was standing on a broken sofa and he immediately figure out what happened here. He gave Charles an apologetic look then sat down across from him.
"Don't worry about the sofa but your power..." Charles wanted to talk about Vali's power but was stopped when Vali put up his hand signaling him to stop.
"My power isn't important right now I'll show you later when I have time. We have a more serious situation right now." Vali calmly said.
Hearing what Vali said, Charles ears perked up and he asked, "is it about the mutants you told me about earlier?"
Vali nodded in confirmation and added, "there's been a few complications, we need to go pick them up."
"Alright, I'll go with you to pick them up." Charles immediately agreed to pick them up without any hesitation.
"...we'll be heading to Manhattan, there's an orphanage there called Greystone orphanage, it should be shut down now..." Vali said with a tinge of sadness in his voice.
'I wonder if he's in this world... maybe there's another version of him here.' Vali thought to himself with a bitter smile. The orphanage brought out a lot of old memories from his past.
Charles noticed Vali's despondent look and worked out that the orphanage and Vali were probably connected in some way but he didn't pry and just let him be.
"I'll go get ready, we'll be heading out in a couple of minutes." Charles informed Vali before he left.
Vali also snapped out of his daze after Charles left and he shook his head, the past should stay in the past, there was no point in letting it hold you down your whole life.
When Vali exited the school there were 3 black SUVs parked there. He could see the team that Charles was taking along consisted of Logan, Scott, and Jean.
Jeans appearance was quite unexpected, this was the first time they would meet since she locked herself in her room his entire stay. Apparently her power got a little out of control a few months ago and she harmed many of her friends and colleagues so she locked herself away.
Walking towards the SUVs, Vali gave Charles a nod then met eyes with Logan. They both glared at each other before the snorted and ignored each other.
Logan hopped into the middle car while Vali asked Charles with annoyance, "why's the weasel coming with? We don't need him, it's just a pick up!"
Charles felt awkward and didn't know how to answer and he just tried to appease Vali, "you and Logan are so similar, I don't get why you can't get along..."
Vali felt annoyed but he knew Logan was dependable so he didn't give Charles a hard time. He greeted both Scott and Jean with a smile before he got into the car in the back.
Scott felt awkward as well, he knew Vali and Logan didn't like each other and already expected this outcome when Charles explained their goal this time around. Thank god he recommended getting three rides or else the ride would be awkward as hell.
Jean was the only one who didn't understand what was going on. Who was the new guy? What's with the tense atmosphere? She looked to Charles and Scott for answers.
"Let's go, we'll tell you about it on the way." Charles said as he headed towards the car in the front.
Both Jean and Scott followed after him, neither of them wanted to be in the other two rides. Each car had its own driver so none of them had to personally drive and the cars immediately started moving once everyone was in.
"The new guys name is Vali, he came here half a month ago." Scott started informing Jean on the recent happenings in the school for the past few months.
"Actually, I don't know why him and Logan are like that. I don't think anybody knows either... the first time they met they were at each other's throats, that's all I know." Scott continued.
Charles was also confused by the relationship between Logan and Vali, it was almost like they were born to be enemies. It's not like they had any feud between them either and he was sure they had never met before their first meeting in the school.
He had never interfered with them before but he decided he should at least try to find out the reason so he sent a thought over to Logan.
'Logan... why do you and Vali hate each other so much?' Charles asked curiously.
Logan didn't answer, there was suddenly a long silence before Logan sent a thought back, 'are you trying to read my mind? Stop!'
Charles was startled and chuckled awkwardly before he retracted his ability, 'sorry, my bad.'
Logan didn't reply again and the car ride continued on smoothly.