"In other news today, we commemorate the first year anniversary of the incident dubbed by the public as M-Day, where hundreds were killed during a devastating battle that caused severe damage to the city of Chicago. The incident resulted in the exposure of a previously hidden society of superhuman individuals known as mutants, against whom there has since been a vast increase in hate-motivated attacks. Even now, the world's governments continue to heavily debate how to handle the mutant population, with military action being heavily rumoured. Professor Charles Xavier, the alleged leader of the team known as the X-Men, has yet to be reached for comment, while the same question remains on everyone's mind... who and what are these mutants, and what are their intentions for humanity?"
"Y'know... I guess one person can make a difference... 'nuff said."
Stanley Leiber AKA Stan Lee (1922-2018)
Rest In Peace
HAMMER INDUSTRIES
Wanda groaned as she opened her eyes, finding it impossible to move because of the sedative she'd been injected with. She was restrained to an operating table in a dark, morgue-like lab, the leather straps wrapped around her wrists, ankles and forehead, but she was barely able to turn her head right to see the young girl stationed on the operating table next to her.
"K... Kitty..." she managed to say quietly as the girl slowly opened her eyes as well. Wanda noticed that there was a metal collar around Kitty's neck, realising that this was restraining the girl's powers so she couldn't escape. "Kitty... Kitty... you need to get me out of..." Wanda stopped herself from talking as they both heard the large door at the front of the lab opening.
"I think we can all agree, even though you might not like the methods, this is a pretty cool design, right?" the familiarly slimy and patronising voice of Justin Hammer said as he walked into the lab, pointing to the large blueprints on the screen in front of them. His delivery was slightly stilted and awkward, as if this entire speech had been rehearsed several times, as one would expect from a poor man's Tony Stark.
"Pretty sure you'd never see Stark trying something like these bad boys… even if he did, he'd probably be wasting a lotta time making sure he was the only one who could drive them, but… as a, uh… as a good colleague once said to me… drone is better…"
Kitty grunted with a laugh as she struggled to free herself, glaring at him as she snarled "you're not smart enough to design these things yourself, Hammer! You're a fraud! Everyone knows it!"
"Hm… well… Kitty, is it… while I'll have to agree to disagree with you on the whole fraud thing… I have to point out, technically, that the plans for these Sentinels were never patented by SHIELD…"
"Wait... what...?" Kitty went wide-eyed as she looked up at the robotic designs on the blueprints presented behind Hammer, her eyes going wider as she recognised the design. "No… no, it isn't possible! The X-Men destroyed those plans! How did you get them?! HOW?!"
Hammer didn't answer, before the door opened behind him and a female figure walked in. With the light behind her creating a silhouette it was hard to tell who it was, but soon Kitty recognised the blonde hair and silky voice of her former teacher from the school. "Hello Kitty, dear..."
"Regan! Regan, what are you doing here?!" Kitty snapped out, but Regan kept a smug grin on her face as the door remained open. Kitty gasped as Regan's black-haired, red-eyed and ghost-white-skinned companion emerged from behind her. The woman had her hand placed tenderly on Regan's shoulder, prompting Regan to turn around and kiss her on the lips.
She then looked back at Kitty, saying "you remember Claudine Renko, don't you, Kitty?"
"NO!" Kitty continued tugging at her straps to no avail. "Regan, no! No, you can't join the Brotherhood!"
Claudine chuckled as she walked over to where Kitty was, cupping the girl's face gently as she said "aw… poor, naïve little Kitty. It's not like that at all… see, like Regan here, the Brotherhood and I just had some… creative differences…"
"These two fine ladies were the ones that generously gave me the plans." Hammer interrupted. "I put up the money to fund their little project."
"Regan, why are you doing this?!" Kitty said in a desperate tone. "Why are you building the Sentinels?!"
"Kitty, you need to understand..." Regan answered back. "Because we flattened half of Chicago last year, the human governments aren't going to tolerate mutants, regardless of what the Professor says! Do you really think these plans are the only things they had in mind for us? And that was before the public knew about our society!"
"It's a shame, really..." Claudine added as she slunk over to where Wanda was restrained. "If you and your Avengers hadn't dropped Sokovia out of the sky all those years ago, we all might have been able to get along…"
PTOO! Wanda mustered enough strength to spit in Claudine's face. Claudine was caught off-guard by this, roaring in rage as she sent a powerful fist into Wanda's face that knocked her head to one side with an audible THWACK!
Regan grinned at this, before touching her forehead for a moment, as if her telepathy was alerting her to something. Or someone.
Wanda, with blood streaming from her nostril down her left cheek from the punch, used most of her strength to turn her head to face Claudine, groaning as she used the rest to try to speak. "Y… you… you are all… monsters!"
Claudine, while visibly pissed off by this remark, chuckled as she softly strokes Wanda's hair. "Well… as they say… it takes one to know one, doesn't it?"
"Don't listen to her, Wanda!" Kitty snapped as she continued trying to free herself, while Regan slowly reached for the gun on her belt after noticing Kitty glancing up at the ceiling for a split second. Claudine was undeterred, still focusing on Wanda as she said "tell me something… how many people have you put in harm's way over the years, Wanda? Johannesburg… Sokovia… Lagos… I could go on…"
"AH-HA!" Regan suddenly whipped out the gun and shot it up at the ceiling, cutting the rope that the white-dressed figure was sliding in on and causing them to land on all fours gracefully like a cat.
"Ava!" Kitty called before the former got up and unsheathed her clawed gloves, saying "hope you girls don't mind if I cut in!"
"On the contrary, we've been expecting you..." Regan snarked as she put her gun back. "DEPLOY!"
Platforms on the walls slowly open and seven identical drones flew out fully armed to attack Ava. These drones, known as Sub-Sentinels, were human-sized yet armed to the teeth with repulsor beams and missile launchers. One of them took a moment to scan Ava, before saying "Detecting… White Tiger… DESTROY!"
Ava went wide-eyed for a split-second and shot up as five of the seven Sub-Sentinels surrounded her. Through a brief but violent fight, she was able to defeat all five of them while only suffering a minor injury on her left arm from the second-to-last drone. Hammer was wide-eyed as Ava stood on the five mangled and clawed corpses of the drones, though she was exhaling heavily with her hand over her stomach after using most of her energy fighting them.
Regan scowled at this, her ears pricking up a bit as she heard a faint thwip! from the outside the wall. She ignored this as the remaining two Sub-Sentinels prepared to attack Ava. Claudine raised her hand to stop them, a smug grin on her face as she looked at Ava.
"I'm impressed… didn't think you'd last…" she said sarcastically, not noticing Ava reach into her pocket and drop a small, circular device on the ground, concealing it with her foot. Ava chortled confidently, before saying "I think you'll find, Dracula, that you muties aren't the only ones that are full of surprises… NOW!"
"There's another one! OOF!" Regan was knocked off her feet as the red and blue figure swung into the room, knocking her out of the way and kicking Claudine back with a loud "HEE-YAH!"
Spider-Man unloaded everything he could on Claudine while she was down, mainly kicks and punches as she grunted without any time to defend herself. With Regan still on the ground, Ava ran to cut Wanda and Kitty free, though Wanda was still too weak to move as Kitty helped her up. "Kick her ass, Spider-Man!"
"Left hook! Uppercut! Roundhouse! Knock-oh!" Spider-Man went wide-eyed as Claudine caught his final punch, placing a vice-like grip on his left wrist as she got back up while forcing him groaning onto one knee. PPSSSSSSSHHH... his left web-shooter burst and sparked as she crushed it like a bug, the web fluid slowly streaming down out of it.
"HOLY SH-UGH!" Spider-Man was cut off as Claudine suddenly attacked, sending a barrage of calculated, precise and strong strikes and punches to his body at a speed and strength that caught him completely off-guard. She was clearly enjoying herself as she finally picked a battered Spider-Man up by the throat, lifting him off of the ground as she turned to face a shocked Ava with a smug grin.
"HUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!" Claudine roared out as she sent a final blow to his stomach and slammed him face-down on the ground.
"PETER!" Ava called out, before a sudden, excruciating pain pierced her brain like a knife. She fell shrieking to the ground as she clutched her head, looking at Regan as the latter continued her telepathic assault. Ava groaned as she fell to the ground and the two remaining Sub-Sentinels subdued her, while Claudine smugly stood over Spider-Man's barely conscious body.
She chuckled as she got down on one knee and turned Spider-Man onto his back, casually gripping his mask and pulling it straight off with an unexpectedly loud RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIPPPPPP!
She was surprised by what she saw. While his nose and mouth were predictably gushing blood from the beating, his face was far less youthful than she expected, he was old enough to have graduated University and he had even grown a moustache and goatee to mimic his mentor, Tony Stark.
Claudine casually patted the side of his face as he scowled weakly at her, before looking up at Wanda, Kitty and Ava with a grin.
"I think that was a perfectly good explanation for why mutants are known as Homosapien Superior..." she said in an arrogant tone, before gripping Peter by the neck and throwing his body like a rag doll against the wall. She stood back up and looked at his mask, scoffing as she threw it towards Peter's body. "I always knew that you goddamn Avengers were overrated, anyway..."
