Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.

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Chapter Twenty

Breakthrough

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Xavier looked curiously at the indentation on the wall, then at Clark.

"Proof that I'm an idiot." Clark explained with an embarrassed expression. "I was trying to beat some sense back into myself."

"By hammering the wall with his forehead." Peter commented. "Sir, we did it."

"Did what?"

"We managed to find a way to shut down powers at will." Forge grinned. "It was while we were examining the remains of that Sentinel and how it could detect mutants that we realised, the key was the bio-field! Mutants have a certain underlying pattern to their bio-field and if we dampen it in a specific way, the powers stop working!"

"Means that I finally can see in colour." A voice added and Xavier's eyebrows shot up as Scott walked into the room, his eyes perfectly visible.

"Scott?"

"Indeed." Scott grinned, his eyes crinkling. "Oh, I'm still carrying my shades, but this watch that they made for me? It lets me see more than shades of red!"

"We're still running an analysis of Rogue's power-signature, it's more complex than Scott's, but we think that within a week at the outside, we'll be able to at least let her touch others without ill effects and hopefully even duplicate the effects of borrowing powers without actually having to touch people."

"That would be incredible." Xavier breathed.

"We've managed to make this one for Jamie." Peter offered, holding up a smaller watch. "Once he wears this, he won't have to worry about accidentally duplicating himself unless he wants to. We're planning on having him test it out this afternoon."

"I see." Xavier smiled.

"Now, if you'll pardon me," Clark said, glancing at his wrist where the time was displayed on his uniform's sleeve in a frequency invisible to most people, "I really need to be going. I have a conference to attend."

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"…is why mutants are a threat!" Senator Kelly finished triumphantly. "At least heroes like Iron Man rely on technology and even Giant Man was born human!"

"As was Armor." Superman countered and he looked round to see people staring at him in confusion. "She was the girl kidnapped by a group that we still haven't tracked down, a group that used a machine on her that would have killed her had it been active for even a quarter hour more. I was there when she was re-united with her parents, they had been worried sick."

"Big words from an alien." Kelly sneered and Superman raised an eyebrow.

"Thor is an alien too, if you recall, yet like me, he is dedicated to those who cannot defend ourselves. The main difference between us is that he still has a homeworld he can visit, whereas my birthworld is no more."

"Birthworld?" The host asked and Superman shrugged slightly.

"I was born of Krypton, but raised on Earth by a loving family. I always knew that I was different, but at the same time, I have never held myself as being superior to humans in any way."

"But you can fly…" Kelly started, only to have Superman interrupt.

"As can Sunspot."

"And… move very fast…"

"Quicksilver, although he's not one of the good guys, unfortunately."

"And you're strong?"

"Bruce Banner. Or Spiderman. He's also agile enough that trying to fight him is almost an exercise in futility. You see, there are humans who can equal what I am capable of and have advantages I do not. I recently had a sparring match with Juggernaut of Genosha. He's almost as strong as I am, and possibly slightly tougher. Of course, his strength is psionically enhanced."

"And what do you think about his recent proclamation?" The host asked and Superman smiled.

"An offer of refuge to any mutant or meta who feels threatened in their homeland so long as they promise to use their powers in ways that do not impact the wellbeing of others? King Marko has my full support with that one."

"And why would that be?" Kelly sneered.

"Because people tend to fear what they do not understand." Superman replied calmly. "Once you have understanding, you need not fear, but understanding can be very difficult at times. The problem is that Fear can easily lead to hate, hate to anger and anger begets suffering. Given that, is it not a good idea for there to be a place where there is no fear, a place where hatred is unlikely, there is little anger and people work together to prevent suffering? As America has shown to the world that your gender, your skin colour, your religion or your parentage do not bar you from being able to work to better your own life and the lives of those you care about, Genosha is showing that if you have powers, you can be accepted and welcomed by those who do not fear what you might choose to do with them, because they know that you will choose good."

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"He is getting annoying." Creed growled as he glared at the screen on which Superman was deflecting or disarming most of Senator Kelly's barbed comments. "We need to do something about him. No, we need to take down Genosha. Unleash a full Centuria on them. It will make a good combat test."

"Of course, Sir." Trask smirked. "Right away."

Creed pulled himself out of his chair and walked around the desk. "I think that I would like to see this."

"Of course, sir." Trask said. "I have a helicopter waiting to take us to the Castellum."

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"They are magnificent." Creed stated as he leaned against the railing of the balcony, looking across the ranks of Sentinels arrayed in groups of twelve, the leader of each group instantly recognisable in its armoured shell of red and purple. At the front, surrounded by Sentinels with reddish-gold highlights, a single titan of red and purple stood motionless.

"Trask…" Creed began and Trask nodded.

"Enhanced Sentinels. Due to the fact that a Centurion is more valuable than a Decurian, the Sentinels assigned to it have been upgraded and provided with a greater data-bandwidth to allow them to be deployed more effectively by the Centurion. If need be, they can also act as replacements for the Decurians, although their command abilities aren't as good."

"And have they been programmed with their mission yet?"

The Centurion seemed to straighten as its optics swivelled upwards towards them.

"MISSION HAS BEEN ACCEPTED. LOCATION GENOSHA. MISSION AIM, TERMINATE ALL MUTANTS ON ISLAND. SPECIAL INSTRUCTION, ANY HUMAN WHO ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT IS TO BE DESIGNATED TRAITOR AND MAY BE TERMINATED IF THEY POSE A THREAT. SPECIAL INSTRUCTION, ANY NON-MUTANT META-HUMAN WHO ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT IS TO BE DESIGNATED TRAITOR AND MAY BE TERMINATED IF THEY POSE A THREAT. SPECIAL INSTRUCTION, ANY NON-HUMAN WHO ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT IS TO BE DESIGNATED TRAITOR AND MAY BE TERMINATED IF THEY POSE A THREAT. PLEASE CONFIRM ORDERS AS STATED, SIR."

"Confirmed." Creed grinned.

"ALL UNITS HAVE BEEN EQUIPPED WITH TURBINE PACKS." The Centurion declared. "DEPLOYMENT AWAITS YOUR COMMAND."

"Bolivar, they are your soldiers, you should have the honour of sending them on their first true strike against the mutant scum."

"Thank you, sir." Trask said, then he turned to face the robotic soldiers. "Soldiers of humanity, confirm systems check!"

"ALL UNITS REPORT ALL SYSTEMS FULLY OPERATIONAL." The Centurion responded a split-second later and Trask nodded with a proud smile.

"Then go forth and strike this blow for humanity!" He shouted as the roof split and started to open above them. "Humanity will prevail!"

"HUMANITY WILL PREVAIL!" The massed Sentinels responded and then they activated the turbines attached to their backs, lifting off slowly but accelerating quickly until they vanished into the night sky.

"Magnificent…" Gayrdon Creed whispered.

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"Ah, Magneto." Sinister purred. "I have refunded half of the money you paid for the first clone as I am afraid there were a few… issues. Rest assured, the next one will be far superior now that I have determined the main problems."

"What issues?" Magneto demanded and Sinister gave a mirthless laugh as he motioned for a figure to step out of the shadows.

"This is Bizzaro. He is as strong as Superman, just as fast and damage-resistant, but his intellect is… somewhat lacking, I'm afraid, and he really enjoys fighting just a bit too much."

Magneto stared at the grey-skinned near-human, noting the protruding jaw, the raw, almost jagged planes of his face and the purple-and-blood-red bodysuit with the S symbol reversed.

"The next one will be far closer to the original. I'm afraid that the QNA was… somewhat more of a problem than I thought. Oh, you might like to know that a covert group has launched an attack on Genosha using more Sentinels, those robots you saw attacking that mutant a few days back. If you hurry, you might get there in time to save the Genoshans."

"And maybe recruit a few new Acolytes." Magneto mused. "Bizarro!"

"Me Bizarro." The hulking figure rumbled and Magneto nodded.

"Come with me. I will lead you to some enemies you can fight, and then I will lead you to a truly worthy adversary."

Bizarro blinked a few times and Sinister patted him on his shoulder. "He said if Bizarro follow Magneto, Bizarro can smash big metal enemies."

"Bizarro like smashing." The clone smirked. "Bizarro follow Magneto and smash big metal enemies."

"Excellent." Magneto said as he levitated himself towards the lift shaft. "Excellent."

Sinister watched the duo depart, then he sighed and turned back to his worktop. Tapping a control, he looked up as the far wall retracted to reveal several angled three-meter transparent cylinders, each containing a clone in a different stage of growth.

"So." He said as he walked over to the first one. "Let's see how things are going. Hmmmm, this is looking very promising… yes, very pronising indeed…"

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Clark pulled his datapad off his belt and blinked at Fury's sober expression on the screen.

"What can I…"

"Get to Genosha, fast! Cap and Supergirl are already on their way, as are over a hundred giant robots with instructions to kill every living thing there! I've already sent a message to Xavier and scrambled the rest of the… what the…?"

The pad landed on the ground as Clark accelerated out of the nearest window, the resulting sonic boom sounding barely a hundred meters from the mansion and waking everyone else up as the reinforced windows rattled in their frames. Several people were already getting up when Xavier's voice echoed in their thoughts.

*All combat-ready X-Men report to the hangar immediately!*

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The Blackbird sliced through the night, the Kryptonian-enhanced turbines howling as they hurled the aircraft through the edge of the atmosphere, the plane quivering almost at the very edge of its tolerances.

"Status on the Avengers?" Logan growled as he dropped into the co-pilots seat after getting changed into his uniform in the back compartment.

"The Quinjets were too slow, especially since the Helicarrier was on the wrong side of America, so Thor is taking them to Asgard and back." Scott said. "However, due to the recharge time needed for the Bifrost Bridge, we'll still be able to beat them to Genosha. Captain America and Supergirl are almost at the island, though, with Superman catching up."

Logna looked back at the other members of their impromptu defensive force.

"Colossus, Storm, Bezerker, Sunspot, Rogue, Havoc, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Iceman, Magma… we grabbed most of the useful ones, didn't we? Shame Peter chose this night to patrol."

Scott nodded. "Although I can't say that I'm personally happy about my bro coming, he is almost as powerful as I am and we'll need him."

"Relative ETA's?"

"We'll get there slightly before the Sentinels, but only just. We're talking less than ten minutes." Scott said. "I've contacted Juggernaut and his people are evacuating as many non-combatats as possible. It seems that the universe has a sense of humour, he's using Magneto's old base as the primary shelter."

Logan barked with laughter. "Magneto's base being used to save non-mutants? I'd love to see his face when he finds out."

Scott briefly smiled, then slightly adjusted course, earning a quizzical look from Logan

"Jetstream. May cut another minute from our ETA."

"Good thinking." Logan admitted. "You think the others will be okay back at the Institute while all us heavy-hitters are out here?"

"They should be." Scott shrugged. "I mean, this must be the entire production run of these things. If they had more, they'd send them, right?"

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"By now, all the mutant-lovers will be heading for Genosha." Creed said softly as he looked over the motionless figures awaiting orders. "You have been given your targets, the mutant school, the mutant house. The order is given, deploy and eliminate your targets. Humanity will prevail!"

"HUMANITY WILL PREVAIL!" The massed robots echoed before they began rising into the night sky.