Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any characters from this story. All rights belong to Marvel , Stan Lee, and all who are concerned. Please enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 27
Attack on Genosha Part 3
Mt. Wundagore, Years ago
THOK! THOK! THOK!
The wind whistled by as a man dressed in a thick winter coat hacked away at a set of logs nestled on the stump of a tree. Another swing from the axe split the log clean in two, making it easier for the next swing to break the halves into fourths.
"Up so early?" A feminine voice asked from behind him.
The man stopped the axe mid-swing, slowly lowering the tool as he turned to the woman who had nursed him back to health a mere two weeks ago. "You were low on fire would." Erik responded. "And you said I needed to test my body to make sure there were no lingering side affects from the frostbite. I figured, two birds, one stone."
"Very pragmatic."
"It's a good mentality to have."
The woman smirked. "Where was that pragmatism when you climbed the mountain?"
The man's posture stiffened slightly. She had been digging into his reasons for scaling the mountain ever since he had awakened. At first it had just been a mild curiosity, one that had gradually grown with the mysterious answer she had received.
"Buried by a false mound of hope." Erik replied. "I never should've listened to that stupid rumor." He raised the axe up high before dropping it down again, splitting another log.
"The Witch of Mt. Wundagore." The woman mused sitting down on the cottage's porch. A slight smiled tugged at her lips. "A woman of incredible wisdom. They say she made a deal with a demon, but was so clever that she escaped it."
"How does one escape a deal with a demon?" the white haired man muttered, setting up another log.
"Oh, the lore on demons is quite vast and tricky." The woman continued. "They say she asked for great magics, but the demon would only get her soul when she cast her first spell. The demon agreed, not knowing that she had made this same deal with two other demons. When she first cast her spell, the demons came to collect. She tricked all three into fighting for her soul, by the time the victor had emerged, it was so weak even the novice young witch could destroy it."
"Well," Erik murmured, collecting the wood. "She must've been quite the clever woman."
"Mm." the woman smiled, gazing up at the cloudy sky. "Seems the weather is turning bitter again." Her guest looked up at the clouds, seeing them beginning to darken.
"You're quite gifted at meteorology. Did you study it?"
"Mmm…a mere hobby if I'm to be honest. Many villagers have learned to read the clouds and winds for survival. It's almost as necessary as reading here. But it's by no means a passion."
"Unlike your alchemy?" the woman's eyes returned to her guest. "I saw the chemistry set you had. And the books you had around your desk. I didn't mean to snoop, but my curiosity was peeked."
"Curiosity can be dangerous. It did kill the cat after all."
"True. And I am a mere stray here, aren't I?"
The woman smirked. "You're a much more gracious guest than some of my previous ones. Silly fools who came looking for Witch of the mountain in search of power or wealth. Even more came for knowledge. But you're the first to ask something so simple as one question."
"That question…that was everything to me." Erik replied, eyes falling to the ground. "But…at least I know the truth now."
"The truth?" the woman asked. "Half answers…vague replies…you're quite the mystery aren't you?"
"I'm quite simple to understand really." Erik responded, finishing piling the wood in net-like backpack. He hefted the pack onto his shoulders before making his way back into the cottage, leaving the last log on the stump untouched. "But no one bothers to try."
Academy of Tomorrow, Present
Doug Ramsey sat on his bed as Quentin Quire attached another set of cables to the computer in their shared dorm room. "We sure this is gonna work?" Doug questioned watching his roommate attach another cable to what looked like a helmet.
"Not really. But at this rate we got little else to go on." Quentin replied. The telepath slipped the helmet on before holding up two pad-like ends to Doug's head. Said teen took the pads and pressed them to his forehead before securing them with the remains of over-the-ear headphones. "Either that infection keeps spreading until you can't even keep it hidden, or I try to make contact with it in an attempt to see it.
"You think you can talk to it?"
"With your help? Yes. Diseases are basically malignant or wrong codes inside the human body. Cells follow certain blueprints that are stored within their nuclei. Diseases can alter said programming, warping it into creating something definitively wrong inside our bodies. Cancer for example. It corrupts our code, turning it sour like rotten milk. You and I are gonna take that ability of yours, and decode this thing."
Doug gave his friend a questioning glance. "On the…spirit plane?"
"It's called the Astral Plane you dumbass." Quentin placed his hands on his own forehead and closed his eyes. "Ready?"
"Hell no." Doug grumbled closing his eyes. "But we're doing it anyway. Do your thing, bro."
"GRAGGH!" Beast snarled leaping off one wall, only to rebound off another as a beam of plasma sawed through it like a knife through butter, engulfing the plaster in flames.
Hank hit the ground hard, rolling on his back until his feet touched the ground. His muscles tensed before his body leapt from the ground, avoiding a slash from a Sentinel as it sliced through the floor. "Jean! Get the students out of the school! Professor, get to the Danger Room!"
"Hank I'm not leaving you to fight these things by yourselves! I sent a message to the kids to evacuate to the Danger Room! Hold steady!"
"Hold steady?!" Beast ducked under a claw swipe, rolling under the machine's leg before lashing out with a strike to its knee, buckling it enough for the mutant to leap onto its back, delivering a hammer blow to its neck. The machine staggered slightly before its skin began to shift. The black scales of its hide flexed, creating thousands of tiny daggers that pierced Beast's skin.
"GIAH!" Hank fell back crashing to the ground as his hands bled profusely. "Dammit all!" a shadow fell over the lynx-like scientist, blocking his view of anything else. Hank snarled at the machine as its face opened to reveal a furnace of plasma waiting to be fired. "Well McCoy…not how you wanted to die…but then again, when have you ever got what you wanted?"
KKKRASSH!
The ceiling was torn down, burying the Sentinel in a pile of debris. Beast looked behind him, as did the other two Sentinels. Floating at the end of the hallway was Jean grey, eyes glowing a vibrant orange.
"I know you tin cans can't hear me, so I'll be telling this to the ones pulling your strings. Get out of my house." The air around her began to shimmer rapidly. Beast leapt to the hallway walls, pressing himself up against it as hard as he could.
The air around Jean pulsed before a shockwave ripped down the halls, slamming into the twin Sentinels as well as their downed ally, sending all three hurtling past Beast and into the opposite end of the hall.
Hank observed her handiwork with a small smile of relief. "You realize one of us will have to clean this mess up." Jean smirked at her friend before her eyes widened in horror.
"Hank!" she screamed. Beast spun around in time to see a beam of orange plasma smash into a telekinetic shield, courtesy of Jean. The psychic mutant grimaced as the blast pressed on against her TK field. "This isn't gonna be easy…"
The three Sentinels rose to their feet as the first beam died out. Granting the mutants no reprieve, the remaining two opened fire with their own weapons, doubling the attack of the previous.
Jean grunted from the strain. "Professor…I'd hurry to the Danger Room if I were you."
Unknown Location
"The Xavier Institute has been hit sir."
Stryker smirked. "Excellent. Deploy the second wave to target B."
"Sir, we have no guarantee that STRIKE won't retaliate. Should we still deploy?"
"Absolutely." Stryker answered. "It's not American soil. Let London burn. The Revolution should have destroyed its roots when it sank new ones here."
"Yes sir. Deploying second wave."
Academy of Tomorrow
"Well…this is…" Doug mumbled.
"Weird? Unreal? Amazing?" Quentin replied, a smirk on his face as his friend nodded. "Yeah, well…you're not alone in this one man."
The two teens floated in a massive chasm, devoid of any feature save the dozens of golden circuits covering the area in front of them, creating a black and gold mass of moving circuits that moved back and forth like some kind of viscous substance.
"Is this the…"
"Astral Plane?" Quentin finished. "Yeah…its pretty ridiculous…but I've never seen something like this. Doug, use your powers."
"What? Now?"
"No better time. This place…this plane is mental. Telepaths have an easier time materializing their thoughts into this…'reality' is the best word for it, but you should be able to do it as well. Just…I don't know, talk to it. Like you would the machines."
"Uh…okay…" Doug looked towards the mass of black and gold before clearing his throat. "Uh…hello?"
Quentin frowned. "Hello? You're about to speak with an unknown, possibly alien, disease in raw form, and you say 'Hello'?"
"What'd you want me to say?!" Doug hissed. "I've never done this!"
"Declarative: Unknown Presence Detected."
The two teens spun back to the shapeless mass as it seemed to move towards them, its form shifting into a humanoid shape, as if it was imitating them. The mass leaned forward, the golden circuits coalescing on its face, taking the form of two golden eyes.
"Ahem…uh…I'm Doug Ramsey." Doug said, waving to the mass. He then gestured to his telepathic friend. "This is Quentin Quire."
"Declarative: Unknown Entities Identified-Organic."
"Uh…yeah." Doug said. "We're…we are human. Uh…living beings…and you are…?"
"Declarative: Technarch Spawn."
The two teens glanced at each other before Doug spoke. "Uh…what is a Technarch?"
"Declarative: Techno-Organic Entity-Origin Point- Kych."
"Is that your home?"
"Declarative: Affirmative."
"Where is Kych?"
"Declarative: Kych Was Located In The Corus Quadrant-Estimated Distance From Earth: 9.8876 Lightyears."
"L-lightyears?" Doug glanced to Quentin with a worried look. His fears were not comforted by the equally disturbed look on the telepath's face. "So…so you're…so you're an alien?"
"Declarative: Yes. Technarch Are Of Extra-Terrestrial Origin."
"Okay…"Quentin grumbled, doing his best to wrap his head around the new revelation. "I was…I was not expecting this in the slightest…"
"I-I…" Doug muttered. Quentin could see his friend trembling in the void. "I-I have an alien infection?!"
"Okay, Doug…I get that you're really freaked out but—"
"BUT WHAT?!" Doug screamed. "I have an lien living inside of me!"
"I get that man, but you need to remain calm—"
"CALM?! Quentin I have an alien inside of me! A fucking alien! You want me to be calm!?"
Quentin had to take a step back as his friend lashed out. "Dude, I really get it, but being c-!"
"You say 'calm' one more time and I will deck you!"
"Being angry and freaked out isn't helping though!"
"What the Hell else am I supposed to do?!"
"Not freak out—"
VROOMM!
The Astral Plane shook, throwing all its occupants, both the boys and alien infection through the empty space. Quentin braced his mind, holding the two in place while the mass in front of them spread out to stop its movement.
"What was that?!" Doug screamed.
"That wasn't psychic…" Quentin muttered. "Doug, hold on."
"What?"
"Quentin what did you do?!"
Quentin rubbed his head, easing the headache as he tried to stand. Doug threw the head set onto the bed while his roommate braced himself on the bed. "H-had to rush an exit…ooohhh…" he groaned. "Something shook us in real life…it traveled to the Astral Plane…"
"What?!"
RRRMMMBBBLLEEE!
The room shook, throwing the boys to the ground while the sound of explosions rocked the outside. The two boys stumbled to their feet before Doug wrenched open the door, only to catch a plume of smoke to the face.
"GAK!" he coughed, waving the black vapor away from his mouth before Quentin barreled past him, opening his mind to sweep the halls telepathically.
"Ugh…everyone's in a panic now…oh my god!"
"What?"
BBRKKRRSSSHH!
The wall exploded as a lanky, black Sentinel lumbered through the new opening. The machine's gaze swept over the hallway. Its face immediately unfurled to reveal the furnace of energy that powered it.
"Doug?" Quentin mumbled, a cold sweat trickling down his face.
"Y-yeah?"
"RUN!"
The Sentinel fired its weapon, flooding the hallway with a torrent of thermal energy, incinerating anything in its path. The machine stepped into the hallway, turning to face the startled faces of the many other students populating the halls. The killing machine prepared to fire its laser once more before a hard impact struck the back of its skull.
The Sentinel stumbled to a knee before another strike delivered an uppercut to its jaw. The staggered machine's AI quickly analyzed the attack just as another blow collided with its chests, tearing off several scales as the speeding mutant readied another attack.
"You barge into our home?!" Northstar snarled, body vibrating at super-speed. "You attack our students?!" the mutant leapt off the ground, wooden floors shattering from the shockwave.
The Sentinel's form immediately stiffened, scales shifting into a new formation as Northstar's foot collided with its outer shell. The machine only buckled slightly before lashing out with one of its new-clawed hands, nicking Northstar's hair.
The mutant leapt back, skidding on the floor boars before sprinting onto a wall to avoid a narrow laser sweep. "And here I thought this would be easy."
"What the Hell?!" Doug screamed.
"I-I think—Huk!" Quentin burped, doing his best to hold back his lunch from the sudden motion sickness, courtesy of Northstar's quick save. "I think Professor Beaubier just saved us."
Doug looked around to see the two had been deposited in the main lobby of the academy much to the shock and confusion of the many other students currently occupying the massive room.
RRMMMBLLL!
"Again?!" Doug shouted.
"Everyone!" Quentin barked through his telepathy. "Brace yourselves! We have Sentinels!"
KKKRRRSSH!
Right on cue, two more machines burst through the roof, slamming into the ground floor, sending wood and plaster flying as they quickly began to march towards the many mutants crammed into the room.
"Holy shit!" Wing screamed, instinctively taking off the ground as Hisako stumbled back from the black goliaths as they stormed into the room. The murder machines swept over the room, identifying every mutant in the room.
"Mutants detected. Elimination in progress." One Sentinel's face opened to reveal its laser, firing off a burst of energy that slammed into Armor, only being stopped by her titular power. The machines didn't falter as the second Sentinel rushed forward, slamming its now mace-like fist into Hisako, flinging her across the room.
"Hisako!" Wolfsbane screamed, shifting midway through her lupine form before a set of five claws speared through her stomach and leg. "GIAH!"
Wallflower screamed in horror as she saw another one of her friends being cut down. "Rhane!"
Wind Dancer leapt into the air, lashing out with several gusts of wind that smashed into the Sentinels. "Everyone get out of the room!"
Wallflower grabbed Rhane's shoulder, trying in vain to move the Scottish girl away from the fight. "Someone help me with Rhane!"
"Doug help me with Rhane! Get her legs!" Quentin mentally commanded as his linguistic friend raced behind him. "Everyone get out of the room! Anyone with energy powers please hit these mothers with something!"
"No one else in the room has those powers!" Wing shouted grabbing the dazed Hisako and flying them both out of the room and into the crowded hallways.
"Someone get Mrs. Frost or Professor Summers!" Wind Dancer called out, creating miniature tornadoes to further ware down the Sentinels. The machines were pushed back slightly before their feet morphed into clawed talons, digging into the wood, and their torso began to expand before narrowing, creating a plane-like nose where their chests should be.
The Sentinels slowly began to move forward, their new aerodynamic designs helping them to withstand Wind Dancer's twisters as they slowly advanced upon the now fearful mutant.
"INCOMING!"
Wind Dancer barely had enough time to dodge out of the way as an orange comet raced past her, barreling into a Sentinel and sending it hurtling back through a wall, collapsing the structure on top of itself. "C-Cannonball?!"
The remaining Sentinel turned its attention back to its original enemy, only for a blast of pure fire to erupt into its face, pushing it back as the room around it began to burn. Sunspot marched into the room, body alight with fiery plasma. "This is for Rhane bastardos!"
Genosha
Magneto hurled another car into a Sentinel, crushing it beneath the metal frame. Manipulating the magnetic energies around him, Magneto raised a barrier of energy, protecting him from a Sentinel's blast as its brethren encircled him. Magneto could feel the heat barring down on him, even through his force field.
"My lord!" Exodus exclaimed, flying towards the fight, barreling into a Sentinel with a blast of telekinetic force. The impact knocked the robot off balance but it quickly recovered, whipping its head around to unleash a blast of energy. Exodus threw up a force field, blocking the assault even as he was pushed back.
Magneto grunted as he fell to a knee, Sentinels barring down on him as one's arm began to shift into a curved blade. The murder machine marched towards the kneeling mutant and prepared to stab him.
"INCOMING!"
Magneto looked up to see a purple portal, a hundred feet up, dropping The Blob on top of the Sentinel. The impact rocked the area as the machine was crushed beneath the mutant's immense weight.
The remaining Sentinels turned to the new arrival as the ground beneath them began to shift and shake. The machines floated off the ground to avoid the sudden fissures that emerged in the ground. This act unfortunately left them open to another portal opening behind them. Out of it leapt Toad, holding a bag of explosives on his back. The amphibious mutant landed on the machines back, hacking up a glob of saliva and slamming a block of C4 into it.
Toad leapt off the machine before its skin shifted into a set of spikes, failing to impale the Brotherhood member as he fell back through the portal. He reappeared onto the torso of another Sentinel, slamming another block of C4 onto it before leaping back through one of Blink's portals before the Sentinel's laser could hit him.
Toad dropped out of the last portal, landing behind a pile of debris where Blink and Avalanche hid. "There all set!" Toad barked, "Blow 'em!"
Avalanche smirked before pressing the detonator.
BAAABBOOOM!
Magneto hid his smirk behind his metal helm, resisting the urge to chuckle at how his Brotherhood coordinated their attacks. While most of his newer followers were little more than amateurs in the use of their powers and tactics, his original and older members were skilled enough to take on the X-Men. Fitting, as they had been the first to ever face the team.
The smoking remains of the Sentinels toppled to the ground, leaving only a partial one standing, body sparking and popping with various bits of its skeleton being visible from the explosives.
Magneto ripped the remains of a car apart before forging a spear from its wreckage. With a flick of his wrist the weapon impaled the machine's exposed torso, sending it toppling backwards to join the remains of their brethren.
"Dammit!" Stryker roared, slamming his hand into his desk. "We've lost more than we anticipated…how much longer until the new programming can be uploaded?"
"Techs are estimating at least another 10 minutes before the Darwin algorithm can be uploaded into the Master-Mold computer. The attack on the surgical sweet took more resources than was originally estimated."
"You tell them to double time it or I will personally see to it that they are next in line for dissection!" Stryker screamed. "Get me our eyes and ears inside of SHIELD! I want to know what's going on!"
Triskleion, New York Bay
Marvin Flumm stood on the bridge of SHIELD control Hub, surrounded by various SHIELD agents and technicians as they scrambled about the room. "Are we officially being requested to aid Genosha?" the Director of SHIELD asked the massive holograms of the heads of the World Security Council.
"With the UN being the sole operators on the international treaties in regards to Genosha and any request for aid, the current response is inconclusive. We recommend you ready a SHIELD battalion to be sent to the edge of Genosha's coast."
"Understood." Flumm responded as the feed died and the hologram's vanished.
"Ah…the joys of bureaucracy…" a man in a crisp white suit and short blonde hair said lazily, stroking his beard while he looked over the feed from Genosha.
"A boon and a liability, all in one, Gregory." Flumm replied turning to look at Gregory Stark, the older brother of one Tony Stark. "I'm not too upset about this one though…however…"
"It still rubs you the wrong way." Gregory finished. "Your satellite feed is horrendous by the way." The older man grumbled, taking out his cellphone.
"Magneto destroyed all Satellites that orbited over Genosha when he was given control over the country. A way of …'sending a message' Fury called it. Basically there's a blackout over the entire area. No satellite feed with any decent accuracy. Best we can do is hack a camera in the area for short periods before one his lackey bunts us out."
"I have satellite imaging." Gregory replied.
"What?" Flumm muttered. All eyes in the room turned to Gregory a she connected his phone to SHIELD's mainframe, displaying new images on the screens around them. "How the Hell did you get this?"
"SHIELD has access to dozens of Satellites owned by the UN and the US. But where yours focus on quantity, I've found quality delivers best. This is the feed from the Oracle Satellite. One of my own design. Instead of being in geo-centric orbit, it rests just outside of Earth's gravitational field, meaning I can have it anywhere in the world in a few hours."
"And it can give us this much detail?"
"As I said, quality beats quantity." Gregory smirked before it faded. "Enhance image G-7." He said. The image on screen zoomed in, showing a grey and red blur zipping through the air, firing off bursts of blue energy. "Of course you're there." Gregory grumbled.
"Iron Man." Flumm stated. "Dr. Stark, can you enhance those images there?"
"But of course."
Again the computer zoomed in. Images of the Avengers were fed to the SHIELD agents in the room. "And you're brother bought friends."
"They must've been contacted via Quicksilver." Gregory said. "He is an ambassador to Genosha. It would make sense why they're there."
"Aiding a hostile nation. Fury's old friends are quite the pain in the ass."
"I wasn't aware Genosha was considered hostile."
Flumm turned to Gregory before speaking. "It's an island with hundreds of thousands of mutants led by Magneto. Only an idiot would think of its as NOT a hostile nation." He then spoke into his headset. "Get me in contact with the Helicarrier nearest to Genosha."
Indian Ocean
"Agent Masuko." An Asian agent with a thin mustache and square glasses wearing the standard white and black SHIELD uniform looked up from his position at the helm to see one of his agents rushing towards him. The agent handed him a headset, which he gingerly took.
"Agent Masuka, USS Ulysses."
"This is SHIELD Director Flumm."
Masuka grimaced. "Director Flumm, I suspect this is something urgent if you're calling me on a secure line."
"Spare the pleasantries. We have a Code Red situation in Genosha and you're the closest Helicarrier in the area. We need to you to boarder Genosha's water and observe and report."
"Are we to lend support-?"
"Negative. Genosha is foreign soil and under UN regulation. Until they request International Aid, your orders are to remain on standby."
"But what if—"
"You have your orders. Follow them like a good soldier."
The line went dead before Masuka could respond. "Prick." He grumbled, walking to the helm before punching in the new course that would take them to Genosha. "Attention all crew." Masuka said, capturing the attention of the dozens of agents in the room.
"We have received orders from Director Flumm. We are to divert to Genosha to observe and report, but not to interfere in what appears to be a Code Red situation. I want you all to be prepared for combat, search and rescue and emergency medical support and relief efforts in case we are cleared to engage in combat."
"Sir?" an agent asked as Masuka stepped away from the helm. "What's happening in Genosha?"
"We'll see when we get there."
Genosha
Xorn's eyes burned white hot as they swept over the battlefield, blasting several Sentinels with the power of his miniature star, vaporizing two of them while the last one's left side burst into flames. The machine reeled back, face opening to fire one last plasma beam. Xorn reeled back, ducking under the attack as it swept through the building behind him.
Xorn looked back in panic as the debris from the assault toppled towards his patients. "NO!" he screamed. Blue energy washed across the area, warping the gravity around the area until everything was weightless.
This distraction was all that the Sentinel behind him needed, preparing another laser.
"Xorn! Duck!"
BABOOM!
Fire erupted over the machines as a rocket exploded onto its chest, sending it reeling backwards, black scales flying off its body like black rain. Xorn glanced back to see Mystique, perched on a ledge, holding a bazooka over her shoulder, a smirk forming on her face as she observed her handiwork.
"Xorn!" the mutant healer turned back to see Vanisher limping towards them. "Get over here and heal me!"
Xorn let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh joy."
Gambit leveled the rifle onto the ledge, watching as the sights lined up with a Sentinel's head. "Fingers crossed that this works." He grumbled as he held up a glowing bullet before sliding it into the barrel. "Bang…?"
The rifle tip exploded in purple light as the charged bullet ripped through the air, smashing into the Sentinels head in a flash of purple light while a crack echoed out across the area. The Sentinel stumbled forward, targeting array crippled as its head tried to morph into its firing mode. Instead, the result was a broken cave like form with a gaping gash spreading from its left side down to its jaw.
"Damn." Remy muttered, looking down at the rifle. "I liked that." Gambit observed the Sentinel's failed attempt to fire its laser. Instead of a straight beam, the blast became an unruly arc, spraying plasma out the left side of its head, carving through another building behind it.
Gambit cringed a she saw the structure toppled down on itself like a Jenga tower, burying the sentinel beneath it. He looked down at the weapon in his hand with a grin. "Damn, I like this!"
"Maybe don't tell my mom that you toppled a building." Gambit turned to look back at Rogue, standing above him, observing her boyfriend's handiwork. Gambit sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"I won't if you won't." Rogue nodded before pulling out a syringe from her jacket. "Cherrie…I'm sorry about this…"
"Remy…just don't…please…" Rogue muttered, placing the vial to her neck. Rogue steadied herself by taking a deep breath. "This hurts enough as it is." A push of her finger was all it took as the needle pierced her skin.
Rogue felt the familiar rush of power hit her like a brick wall. As the Banshee coursed through her veins she could feel every power she ever absorbed bubbling to the surface. Her skin began to blister and burn. She could feel her muscles hardening and her senses expanding.
Rogue fell to a knee as her hair caught fire. Gambit stepped back as the air around her began to burn. Rogue gritted her teeth as she felt Fever pitch's power come to life, followed by Masterminds and Juggernaut's, her legs began to two twist and snap as her knees bent backwards. Her leg muscles grew as her body adjusted to Toad's powers.
Her hands begin to expand into webbed fins with long six-inch claws that dug into the roof while her burning hair took on a cornrow like appearance. Her skin thickened until she could barely feel the air around her.
"Rogue?" Gambit asked, walking as close as he could to his burning girlfriend only to see her lean back on her inverted legs and she grinned. "You good…?"
"Just Peachy…" she said, a wicked grin spreading across her face, made even more terrifying by the addition of razor sharp teeth. Her eyes shifted towards the battle unfolding just a few stories below them. Flexing her newly mutated limbs, the human fireball rocketed off the roof, smashing into the ground where half a dozen Sentinels surrounded a small group of mutants.
The machines immediately turned to the new threat, only for one's head being smashed into the ground by a leaping fireball. Rogue rocketed off her victim, bouncing into another Sentinel's chest while whipping out her flame covered tongue, seizing another machine by its neck and pulling it down.
Her talons dug into the machine's scales, ripping them off like she was peeling back skin. The machine retaliated with a clawed hand, but it was easily caught by the mutant girl with Juggernaut's strength. Using said strength, Rogue crushed the machine's fist in her grip, only for another machine to kick her off and into another building.
"Rogue!" Mystique shouted, seeing her foster child being hurled across the battlefield. The Sentinel she was fighting took advantage of her distracted state to fire an energy beam directly at her, only for the shape shifter to take the form of a snake and duck under the blast.
The machine chased after its miniscule prey, only for a purple bolt to shoot through its skull. As the machine's head erupted into flames, toppling it. Mystique glanced up at Gambit as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to reach Rogue's crash-site. Mystique scrambled after her, shifting into a wolf to leap over the debris.
A blast of fire erupted from Rogue's crater, blasting a Sentinel back as a lumbering fireball stumbled to its feet. Rogue cracked her back, body alight with orange flames. "Well…that was a wake up call, I'm really out of practice."
Xavier Institute
KKRRSSH!
Jean slammed an attacking Sentinel into the ground, shattering the second floor and sending it hurtling through the mansion's living room. Telekinetic force pressed the mutant-killer into the floor while its redhead assailant floated over it.
"Hank…needed a little help here…" Jean groaned as two Sentinels rushed towards her, arms morphed into long-blades ready to skewer the X-Man. A blue-furred blur bounced off a wall, smacking a Sentinel across the jaw before pivoting around the head of its fellow machine when it tried to fire its plasma beam. Beast swung around its neck, yanking its head backwards until the beam tore through the ceiling while clipping the arm of the first machine.
The second machine wasn't stunned for long as its arms morphed into several long claws that shot towards Beast. Said mutant leapt off the injured Sentinel, slamming his feet into the ceiling and pushing off in an upside down jump, only to rebound off ground, trying to catch his attacker off guard.
However, the Sentinel's skin shifted, the black scales stood erect, creating blade like armor that sliced the mutant's feet as he tried to stomp-kick its chest.
"GAH!" Hank screamed, falling to the ground on his back while his feet bled onto the carpeted floors.
"Hank?" Jean asked, feeling the surprised panic in her teammates mind. Before she could push her investigation, a beam of energy slammed into her. An instinctive force field was the only thing that saved the X-Man as she was sent through the ceiling.
"JEAN!" Hank screamed as the ceiling collapsed. Hank dragged himself off the ground before his enhanced sense heard the air being cut. The X-Man dodged to the side, avoiding three longs nails that pierced the wall beside him. Unfortunately, the remaining two digits had found their way into his shoulder and thigh, skewering his limbs into the ground.
Beast snarled in pain, looking back to see the two previous Sentinels had fully recovered from his surprise attack and were now aiming their lasers at him. The orange glow illuminated the hallway as heat billowed inside the chasms of their head.
BZZZAAP!
An arc of blue lightning flew through the halls, blasting a Sentinel in the face before it could fire its weapon. The second machine turned its attention to the new attacker, only for a wave of orange energy to smash into its chest, sending it hurtling through the hallway walls and down to the ground floor below.
This attack had conveniently torn the two spears that had been keeping Beast immobilized. The now free senior X-Man turned his attention to two people who were not supposed to be roaming the hallways. Surge and Chamber stood at the end of the hall, powers brimming off their hands and chest, respectively.
"W-what are you two doing here?! You're supposs—"
"We aren't sitting on our assess waiting for danger to pass!" Surge roared, hands sparking with blue lightning. "We're fucking X-Men!"
"And this is our house!" Chamber added, releasing a devastating blast of orange energy that swept down the hall. Beast leapt to the side as one of the recovering Sentinels rose from the demolished ceiling only to be blasted backwards.
"Gruh…" Jean grunted, shoving a piece of debris off her as she crawled onto the institute's lawn. The redhead felt a warm liquid travel down her nose and over her mouth, reaching up to brush it; she pulled her hand back to see a red smear of blood. "Well those things hit like a mother—"
THHOOM!
Jean spun around to see the very Sentinel that had sent her flying standing behind her. The injured X-Men staggered to her feet, brushing the rest of the blood off her nose. "Y-you think…you can barge into our home…and start wrecking it…and you'll get off scot-free?"
The rubble around them slowly floated off the ground. But before Jean could fire her makeshift projectiles, a beam of plasma smashed into her force field diverting her attention to defending herself instead of attacking. "Gah!" she screamed.
The Sentinel began to trudge forward, arms morphing into twin blades. Jean pushed back with the force field, trying to levitate off the ground but the force from the blast was too great for her.
Even through the heat and roar of the flames, Jean could hear the Sentinels approaching from the crunching of debris and dead leaves on the ground each footfall was louder and louder. She could feel the ground trembling, her heart pounding, and her knees buckling.
The flames billowing over her TK shield slowly began to creep around her like snakes, whipping over her body as she closed her eyes. She could feel it. That heat. The intense force she had experienced when confronting Archangel. She could feel it welling inside of her like steam threatening to burst from a pot.
She opened her eyes. No longer did they glow purple, instead they burned a bright orange, flames springing from her irises as she felt a renewed strength fuel her body. Steadily, she rose from the ground, lowering one of her outstretched arms as a trail of flames coiled around it like a snake.
"GRAAHH!"
SNIKT!
Jean looked up to see X-23 flying through the air, metal claws outstretched before slamming into the Sentinel, burying her adamantium claws deep into its head. The sentinel staggered as the feral mutant wrenched its head to the side, carving two long claw marks into its scalp.
Jean looked across the lawn to see Rockslide, Mercury, Husk and even Jubilee racing towards them. Realizing that Rockslide had thrown X-23, in their own version of the 'Fastball Special', she noticed a massive sandstorm billowing over the roof of the mansion before it shot downwards like a spear, entering in the hole Jean herself had been hurled through.
X-23 snarled, slamming her foot claw into the machine's neck as she tugged back. The machines beam weapon sliced through the air as it head was forced to the side.
"Oh yeah!" Rockslide screamed, barreling into the robot's side. Mercury and Husk followed close behind. The former's body shifted from its semi-solid state and spiraled up the Sentinel's arm, restraining its limbs before Husk ran up Rockslide's back, skin bursting part to be replaced by steel. A solid kick to the skull knocked the machine's neck backwards.
Rockslide grappled the Sentinel, further restraining it, as X-23 sunk her claws through the rest of her target's neck. Snarling in rage, she back-flipped off the Sentinel before a volley of fireworks exploded into the machine's exposed neck. Sparks popped from its open wound as Rockslide hefted the body into the air before slamming it into the ground face-first.
With its weakened neck and the force of the impact, its head flew from its mangled body which slumped onto the ground.
"Boo-yah!" Rockslide screamed, pumping his fists in the air.
Mercury slithered off the remains of the Sentinel, re-taking her humanoid form as Husk helped to steady Jean.
"W-what are you...what are you all doing here…" Jean panted. Her renewed strength had vanished soon after the teens had arrived on scene, and with the loss of the rush, fatigue set in at a disturbingly fast pace.
"Easy, easy…"Husk eased, bracing her injured teacher against her shoulder. "Surge, Chamber and Dust are helping professor McCoy."
"Back up Professor McCoy!" Surge warned, helping Chamber move the blue-furred lynx out of the way of the massive sandstorm burrowing through the ceiling and into the hallway.
Dust swirled around the Sentinels, obscuring their vision while shredding apart the walls around them. The rapidly moving sand slashed against their black scales, entering through the cracks before going to work on their inner mechanisms.
The Sentinel's lurched forward as their innards were wreaked apart by the sandstorm raging beneath their shells. The two machines didn't fall, however, instead, their heads unfolded, firing off a blast of orange fire into the storm.
The force of the blast sent the sandstorm scattering throughout the hall, causing the resulting mutants to cover themselves a their fellow New Mutant was sent flying past them.
"Soorya!" Surge barked. The remaining sand slipped out the of Sentinel's innards as they stood back to their full height, once more dwarfing their opponents.
The Sentinels immediately leapt forward, flying off the ground and hurtling themselves like javelins at the group of scurrying mutants. Beast saw the incoming assault and acted, grabbing Surge by her waist and kicking Chamber in the back, pushing himself into the air, and the psionic mutant to the ground as the Sentinels barreled through the walls behind them.
"Get out of the hallways! Head for the danger room!"
"We can't just run away!" chamber barked back, picking himself off the ground.
"We can't fight them in the halls!" Beast replied pulling Surge with him as they rounded the corner, Chamber reluctantly followed as a Sentinel climbed back through the walls, tearing apart the foundation in its single-minded pursuit of the mutants.
"We need to get to the sub-basement and into the Danger Room! We'll have the advantage there!" Beast reached out with his thoughts, hoping Jean could hear him if she survived her own attack. 'Jean, we're being pushed back! Regroup in the Danger Room!'
"Dad, we're on scene now!" Captain Britain shouted, flying through the clouds, heading straight for the battlefield that use to be the Academy of Tomorrow. Fires raged over the courtyard while several windows were blown out next to massive holes that were still smoking. "Jesus Christ! Dad, STRIKE needs to get paramedics and rescue crews down here ASAP because this is a battlefield.
"I can make out something on the front lawn!" Captain France shouted, flying in close to the British hero. "What is that?"
"Brian, we have limited Intel at the moment. 911 calls indicated the destruction started here, engage and contain it. I'm sending first responders there as quick as we can."
"Relax Professor Braddock." Captain Italy said, rocketing ahead of the group. "We got half the Excalibur team with us. They won't know what hit them."
"Italy wait-" Captain Germany shouted out. But her cries fell on deaf ears as the Italian rocketed towards the fight on the ground.
FABOOM!
Italy landed on the ground hard, creating a small crater while glancing up at the massive, black-scaled machine looming over him. The Captain smirked, cracking his knuckles in preparation for the fight. "I don't know who you bastards think you are, but this is a school. So get ready to have your asses kicked!"
Rocketing forward, Italy threw a punch that the Sentinel dodged, shifting to the side before surprising the man with a super-powered punch to the face. Italy hit the ground face first, tumbling over the ground.
"Ugh…" he grumbled. He looked up to see the machine's face opening up to unleash an inferno of energy upon him. The beam slammed into the hero whose force field was tested under the attack. "AGH!" he screamed as the heat passed through the shield, scorching his arm, all the while, the Sentinel marched towards him, arm morphing into a blade.
KAABOOM!
A clot of dirt erupted into the air when Captain Britain slammed into the Sentinel at sub-sonic speed. The machine was buried six feet into the ground as the hero, clad in the Union Jack, unleashed a flurry of punches onto its torso. The Sentinel retaliated by, slicing him across the chest.
"GAH!" He cried, leaping back. The Sentinel tried to stand before Germany and France slammed into its front, once more burying it into the ground. Britain floated over the hole, watching as his two teammates continued to batter the machine with super-powered blows.
Turning his attention to the now injured Italy, now being aided by Captain Spain, he floated down. "Anyone else think that thing looks suspiciously like a Sentinel?" Brian asked.
"Are you asking that because this school is known for housing mutants?" Spain replied, glancing at the crater that was still spewing dirt into the air from the super-powered fight raging inside it.
"That can't be a coincidence." Brian replied.
BRROOOM!
A beam of energy shot into the sky. The trio whipped around to face the crater where France and Germany came hurtling out of. They crashed into a parked car and a fountain respectively. A black figure leapt out of the hole, landing in front of the three, maw burning with orange smoke. "Both of you get back!" Britain screamed, rocketing off the ground and into the Sentinel.
A blue blast of plasma hit a Sentinel square in the jaw, staggering the machine just enough for Northstar to race up its side, pulling a set of cables underneath its neck. Using his momentum, he yanked it backwards, pulling the machine down hard.
Another bolt of plasma finally knocked it backwards. The crashing Sentinel broke the floor with its fall, wood splintering beneath it and causing the floor to fully collapse, dropping it into the room below.
"Don't let up!" Havok shouted, running past Northstar and hopping into the floor below, firing a flurry of plasma blast into its chest. "Take it while its down—GAH!"
A spear-like claw skewered the blonde mutant's arm, causing him to reel back in pain. Northstar rushed in, grabbing Havok and ripping him of the spike before ushering him down the hallway and around the corner.
"That's a bad wound, Alex." Jean-Paul muttered, looking at the man's injured bicep. The younger Summers grunted as he tried to lift the wounded limb, only to balk at the pain and blood that spewed forth. Northstar ripped off his jacket before wrapping it around the man's wound. "That'll hold for now. We need to get you to Elixir before you bleed out."
"A-any idea who these guys are?" Alex wheezed out as the French mutant helped him up. "They came out of nowhere."
"No idea. I think we should call your brother and Xavier honestly. This is too much for us to handle on our own."
"We won't be for much longer!" a new voice shouted from further down the hall.
The two men turned to see Psylocke sprinting down the hall. "I called in STRIKE. The EU's Excalibur super-team is sure to get here soon. That'll be all the reinforcements we'll nee—"
KRRSSSHH!
The trio glanced down the halls to see the wall leading outside had exploded, leaving a worn and beaten Captain Italy and France strewn across the hallway floor as Sentinel in the hall rose to its feet. A second Sentinel joined its brother, walking through the hole it had made.
Havok and Northstar turned to Psylocke. "You sure about that?" the Frenchman grumbled.
"GRAAH!" Captain Britain charged into the room, elbowing a Sentinel in the neck before slamming his foot into the back of its leg, bringing it to its knee. Using his own momentum, he pivoted around the machine, pulling down until he could hurl the killer-robot into its fellow weapon.
Both machines crashed into the remains of the wall, decimating it whilst sending them outside into the demolished courtyard. Britain didn't let up, flying after them in an attempt to capitalize on the surprise attack, only to be batted aside by the Sentinel's as they rose to their feet.
Captain Germany rushed down from the sky, crashing into the second Sentinel in a vain attempt to demolish it. The machine buckled under the attack but had managed to block the impact with its arms. Its head opened up once more to fire off a blast of plasma, knocking the captain back where a powerful kick sent her through the metal gates surrounding the courtyard.
"Shit!" Psylocke cursed a she saw her brother and his fellow captain being hurled around like ragdolls. "This is Ag—Intern Braddock." The two men didn't miss the strained way she corrected herself and gave each other questioning glances. "The EU Excalibur team is down four members and they only just got here! We need back up immediately!"
"I—ern Br-ck! Sa—A—n! EU tea—in rou-!" Betsy could barely make out the garbled communication she got in response.
"Say again?" Betsy shouted.
The hallway rumbled as a Sentinel lumbered back into view. "Shit!" Alex grumbled firing off a blast of plasma into the machine's head. "How's that backup coming?"
"I don't think we're getting any soon."
Genosha
"We're inbound team!" Cyclops shouted as the Blackbird cut through the clouds, quickly approaching the now burning Island. "Shit…alright team, game plan is changing. Storm! Upper hatch."
"It will be done." The African goddess replied, standing up from her seat and walking into the center isle where a control mechanism emerged from the floor. Pulling the lever, the floor began to rise, ushering the mutant through an now open chute in the roof of the plane.
"What's happening?" Iceman shouted from the back.
"The whole Island is a damn warzone. No way I can land this!" Cyclops maneuvered the jet high over Genosha. "Bobby, you're with the ground team. Storm and I are on Overwatch and air support. I need you to put out those fires and help where you're needed. Logan, Colossus, same plan as before, tear apart any Sentinel you find and raw fire away from non-combatants. Kurt, Kitty, search and rescue. Engage at your discretion."
"Gotcha, boss." Replied.
"Logan, get ready to lead the charge!" The feral mutant gave a grunt in response, rising from his seat and ushering the rest of the team to do the same.
"Make sure you don't crash this one flyboy. Hank will have a heart attack if you do." Cyclops chuckled as the rest of the X-Men made their way to the boarding ramp.
"Let's go team!" Wolverine barked, hitting the ramp controls.
The roof of the Blackbird opened up to allow the platform Storm was using to lock into place. The weather-bending mutant looked up at the smoke filled sky and her eyes began to turn white. The sky above Genosha began to darken, merging together into one rolling cloud that encompassed the island. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled under its surface. The winds around them began to pick up as Storm focused her powers.
The boarding ramp opened up to the raining skies, allowing the remaining X-Men to see their teammates work. "Grab a partner and jump!" Wolverine shouted as Nightcrawler grabbed his shoulder before the duo leapt off the ramp.
Colossus grabbed Shadowcat by the waist before leaping off headfirst into the war-zone below. Iceman was the last to jump, letting himself plummet towards the burning city as the rain masked his approach. His body shifted from human flesh to ice as he rapidly approached one of the burning skyscrapers.
Iceman braced himself as he threw out his hands, unleashing a wave of ice that connected with the building. The ice blossomed into a massive pillar of ice that the cryo-kinetic mutant slammed into. The ice gave way, letting the mutant practically phasing through the ice until he emerged on the other side.
"One fire down, god knows how many to go." He grumbled upon seeing the rest of the fires raging across the Island nation. Iceman leapt from the ledge, creating a sled of ice sloping down towards the streets of Genosha.
Wind whipped past Colossus face, not that he could feel it through his metallic skin. Kitty clung to his waist as the approached a building headfirst. "Katya, I need you to pha—"
"Already on it, Pete!" Shadowcat replied. The two mutants became intangible before passing through the building. When they exited the opposite side, they saw the battlefield that had once been Genosha's equivalent of Time's Square.
Flames dotted the once bustling streets as various bodies lined the destroyed area. The two X-Men plummeted towards the street where a group of Sentinels were roaming about, burning the area with their lasers. Their sensors picked up on the incoming mutants and turned to see them.
"Katya…" Colossus muttered.
"Gotcha." Shadowcat again turned intangible, but this time in her giant of a teammate's arms, slipping through him until he was falling all by himself. Colossus gritted his teeth before making impact with the machines.
FAABOOM!
Shadowcat floated to the ground, her intangibility giving her an almost weightless quality before she approached the ground, her solid feet connected with the upheaved asphalt before she took off sprinting, literally racing through debris and wreckage as she scoured for any survivors. She gave a brief glance back to her fellow X-Man and he rose from the crater, hurling a Sentinel into the air.
"Good luck, big guy." She mumbled, phasing into a burning building.
BAMF!
Wolverine and Nightcrawler landed on the top of Magneto's citadel. With it being the tallest building on the island, it was the ideal spot for the mutant teleporter to port to in terms of distance. The two looked over the edge of the building to see the fighting.
"The whole damn Island is up in smoke." Logan snarled. "Elf, get to work, clear the area—"
"Of all civilians, non-combatants and injured citizens. I know the drill. Gute jagd mein fruend." He replied, teleporting away in a cloud of smoke.
"Damn kids." Wolverine responded, popping his claws as his eyes fell upon a Sentinel walking through the streets towards a crashed car. "Making me feel old as dirt now."
Wolverine leapt from the ledge, diving down towards the Sentinel with claws at the ready. The machine detected the mutant just in time to look up before its heads severed from its body.
Logan smashed into the ground, grunting as his muscles tore themselves apart on the impact of the ground, his indestructible bones bracing the rest of his body for the shock that would've killed anyone else. "Grah…" Logan grunted, feeling his torn muscles fix themselves. "Dammit…now I do feel like an old man.
BABOOMM!
An explosion in the distance caught Logan's attention. Ignoring the pain from his healing wounds, he charged down the alley towards the obvious fight raging at its end.
BAMF!
A cloud of purple smoke exploded into a room as Nightcrawler appeared form the smoke. The teenaged mutant had seen the demolished building, teleporting into the room through the destroyed walls that would've once shielded it inhabitants. Instead, Nightcrawler saw the demolished debris resting on top of two visible mutants.
"Oh no…" Kurt muttered, kneeling down to touch the exposed neck of one of the former inhabitants. Kurt closed his eyes, "I'm sorry…" he muttered, realizing he was too late.
BOOM!
Kurt's head whipped to the side as the bright light from an explosion illuminated the building next to him, leaving a smoking hole in the building. Narrowing his eyes in rage, Kurt teleported again.
"Right through here!" Kitty exclaimed, pulling to young children through a wall. She had phased into a burning building when she heard screaming. And while she was too late to save the burned corpse that use to be a parent, she was able to grab the children before burning debris could collapse onto them.
Sprinting out of the leveled building, Shadowcat rushed the children across the street, phasing through cars to get them to the safest spot in the area, a leveled subway entrance.
BOOOM!
Another explosion echoed in the distance, lighting up the war-torn street and scaring the children further. Kitty pulled the kids closer to her, going intangible in case stray debris rained down on them. When none came she rushed them through the entrance and into the now dilapidated subway system.
RRRMMMBLLL!
The ground overhead shook, sending small chunks of debris to the subway floor, making the children cower in Kitty's grasp. "It's okay…ssshhh…" Kitty cooed, rubbing the back of their heads tenderly.
The two children sobbed into her arms while the young X-Men looked up at the rumbling ceiling. 'Hope everyone else is holding up okay.'
"Look out!"
CAAKKRSSHH!
A metal body flew through a building wall, demolishing the structure with its impact. Colossus groaned, shifting the tons of rubble off his body with a bit of effort. His fight with the Sentinels was not going well. The lanky models had lost none of the strength their previous incarnations had possessed, and were far more agile, easy avoiding his initial attacks until he had let them get close. While their bladed weapons hadn't been effective against his armored skin, their laser had been.
Using one of the closer Sentinels as a shield had bought him some time, until he let his guard down, where a machine took the opportunity to send him flying through a building and into his current predicament. On the plus side, one sentinel down.
"Bois moi…" he groaned upon seeing three Sentinels floating in the air above him, faces opened to reveal their lasers.
"GRAAAH!" an orange and black blur leapt down from above, tackling a Sentinel by the back and driving three adamantium claws deep into its shoulder blade. The machine fell forward, activating its defense in the form of its skin sharpening into razors blades.
Hundreds of miniature knives embedded themselves in Wolverine's body. "GAH!" Logan thrashed about on its back, further throwing off its flight path. The remaining Sentinels had immediately locked onto the feral mutant, and a quick scan later indicated him as the superior threat.
The machines turned their attention to the X-Men lashing out at their fellow mutant-killer, leaving their backs exposed. A car crashing into ones back reminded them of the second X-Men in the area.
Colossus hefted another car over his shoulder before hurling it at one of the Sentinels. Said machine fired off a laser blast, destroying the car. The second machine opened fire with its own weapon. Colossus took the beam in full, feeling his suit began to burn at the power put behind the hit.
"GRUUAAH!" Logan wailed, burying the second set of claws deep into the Sentinel's brain before tearing it out, rending the appendage in fourths. As the machine plummeted, Wolverine leapt from its corpse, landing on one of the two remaining Sentinels.
Colossus leapt from the ground, grabbing a Sentinel by its ankle and pulling down with all his weight. The machine struggled to stay afloat, only for the second Sentinel to smash into the first, sending them both to the ground where Logan dug his claws into its chest, slicing the glowing core open as the machine thrashed on the ground.
Colossus swung his opponent around by the ankle, hurling it into a parked car that crumpled like paper. Colossus readied himself for the upcoming fight as Logan stumbled up to his teammate, claws at the ready.
"You…" Colossus started. "You know your bleeding, right?" the Russian said, glancing over Logan's blood covered torso.
"Yeah. I figured that when I felt blinding pain in my ribs." Logan snipped back. The two X-Men readied themselves as the downed Sentinel crawled to its feet.
"No need to be rude, tovarish."
The Sentinel opened its head, unleashing a blast of pure energy into Colossus.. Bracing himself, the Russian took the shot head on, letting the blast strike him square in the chest while he dug his heels into the ground.
The Sentinel marched forward, pushing the giant X-Man back with its laser. Colossus grunted, crossing his arms to shield himself as he was pushed further back. "Logan! Now!"
The Sentinel immediately ceased its attack when its sensors detected the mutant leaping from behind. The machine torso spun a full 180 degrees, catching Wolverine by the wrists. Logan snarled in response. The machine's head charged up another laser before an elbow to the skull staggered it.
Colossus delivered another strike to the machine's spine, knocking Wolverine from its grasp, letting the feral mutant rake his claws across the Sentinel's torso. The shallow wound barely slowed the mutant-killer as it backhanded him across the street.
Before Colossus could retaliate the Sentinel spun around once more grabbing the mutant before lifting him into the air and hurling him towards Wolverine. The X-Man quickly rolled to the side before Colossus could accidentally crush him.
"Guh…" Colossus groaned. Wolverine glanced to his teammate as the Sentinel began to fly towards them.
"Rooskie! Fastball special! Give him a distraction!"
Grunting in response, Colossus grabbed the car Logan was hidden behind and chucked it at the incoming Sentinel. Said machine merely blasted the projectile to pieces, flying through the cloud of smoke only to see Wolverine being hurled at it by Colossus.
The Sentinel didn't have time to fire off another laser. Wolverine's claws sliced right through its head, sending its body crumpling into the street.
Logan grunted, landing in a roll before springing to his feet. "That's one down."
"And God knows how many more." Colossus replied, staring up at the burning city around them.
A wave of ice washed over a Sentinel as Iceman slid past it on his sled. A trail of solid ice was left in his wake as he zipped over the streets, raining down shards of ice to pelt the machines as they marched forwards. Despite the strength of his volley, shredding cars and other conventional materials in the street, the barrage barely phased the machines as the icicles merely shattered against their black-scaled skin.
"Okay…ice-missiles don't work…time for plan B…" The teenaged X-Men slid down his ice ramp, heading straight for the marching machines. "Eat this!" A wave of ice erupted onto the sentinels, blanketing them in a torrent of ice and snow, freezing them in place.
Iceman pumped his fist from his success, but his smile quickly faded as an orange glow formed beneath the ice's surface. The steam was the next indicator of his failure before several beams of plasma destroyed the ice, freeing its prisoners.
"Dammit!" Bobby threw up his arm, unleashing another wave of ice that was met by a blast of plasma. "Grr…" he grunted as the blast pushed him backwards. 'Not good! Not good!' he thought.
The remaining Sentinels began to advance on the mutant while the first continued to fire its laser, pinning the mutant to the spot. Bobby frantically looked around for any escape routes. "Okay Bobby…need to think outside the box here…" Bobby's eyes traced up the wall behind him. "And up the wall…" he smirked.
Channeling his powers through his feet, a pillar of ice erupted beneath him, propelling him into the air and away from the beam of fire below. As the pillar crumbled beneath the attack, Iceman leapt from its ledge, creating a cled of ice to wrap around the building's side.
The Sentinels raced after him, flying through the air at speeds that quickly began to overtake the young X-Man. Iceman glanced back as one of the Sentinels readied its laser, only for a flash of purple to erupt over its face, obliterating its skull and sending the body spiraling off to the ground.
Bobby watched as several more bolts struck the fleet of Sentinels behind them, destroying one and damaging another. Bobby traced the incoming shots back to an alleyway where he saw a man in a tattered trench coat firing off a rifle bathed in a purple glow. A young woman with pale skin and red hair was waving at him from the shadowed chokepoint, beckoning him towards them.
Iceman wasn't really one to look a gift-horse in the mouth and raced towards them on his sled. Entering the narrow alley, he leapt from his ice-construct landing with a roll, only to see the Sentinel's flying into the alley.
"Mon ami!" the man in the trench coat called out. "Can you wall up this alley?"
"Yeah, I got this!" Bobby replied, flooding the entryway with a wave of ice, creating a miniature glacier to stall the Sentinels. The tired X-Men reverted to his human form, panting like he'd just raced a marathon. "That won't hold them for long! We need to move! And who are you guys?"
"Name's Gambit, Kid." The man in the trench coat replied, quickly reloading his rifle.
Bobby turned his attention to the redhead. "And you are?"
The woman smirked. "What? Can't recognize me kid? But we know each other so well."
"Um…I know one redhead, you're not her…and I definitely would've remembered one like you."
"Oh right, you never were the brightest of the bunch were you snowjob?" the woman replied before her appearance shifted, her skin turned from white to blue and her eyes changed from green to yellow. Bobby recoiled in fear, instinctively forming an ice-blade on his forearm.
"Mystique?!" Bobby screamed, arm morphing into a blade of ice. Gambit immediately cocked his rifle, leveling it at the teen.
"Hold it…I don't like her anymore than she likes me, but we're on the same side here."
"Are we?!" Bobby snapped raising an arm at Gambit, the Cajun mutant could see shards of ice emerging from the teen's palm. "You're a Brotherhood member, aren't you?!" the teen glanced back to Mystique. " I know not to trust a word that comes out of your mouth!"
"Well someone got smarter over the year. Been listening to baldy lately?" Mystique mused with a shit-eating grin that infuriated the blonde teen.
"Are you with the Brotherhood or not?!" Bobby barked at Gambit who still kept the rifle trained on the teen.
"No. I'll admit I'm not much better, but you really wanna say we aren't on the same side against Sentinels?" a dull orange light began to illuminate the ice barricading the alleyway. Gambit gave a worried look between the X-Man and the wall. "Make your call kid 'cause we don't have a lot of time!"
"We have no time!" Mystique called out, brandishing a grenade-launcher.
The wall exploded as the Sentinels stormed into the alleyway. Before Mystique could fire off a shot, a burning figure hurled themselves into a Sentinel, tackling it into its fellow machines.
"Graaah!" Rogue roared, slamming her fist into a Sentinel's skull. The remaining machine's tried to open fire but were bombarded by a volley of grenades and kinetically charged bullets, courtesy of Mystique and Gambit respectively.
One of the Sentinel managed a crippling blow against Rogue, piercing her side with its clawed hands before blasting her point blank.
"GIAAAH!" the southern belle screamed. The machine tossed her away, readying a second blast when a pillar of ice slammed into its chest, throwing its backwards. Iceman quickly began to resume his Ice-like visage, hurling a volley of icicles into the oncoming horde of Sentinels.
"Rogue!" Gambit rushed to her aid, abandoning his post to Mystique who continued to fire grenades into the small alley. The mutant thief pulled his southern girlfriend away from the crater she had landed in. Rogue groaned as her form started to shift back into her original appearance.
"D-Damn…" she grumbled. Remy looked he rover, seeing a deep gash in her leg that was still bleeding.
"Ah Cherie…" Gambit groaned.
"How bad is it?" Gambit looked up to see Iceman, barely half encased in ice. "I'm not a doctor or anything but I could freeze the wound, stop the bleeding."
"You ever done that before?"
"Yeah…in a lab…it went…I did it is the key thing! " Not waiting for an answer, Iceman knelt down next to the wounded Rogue and held his palm over her thigh. Frost quickly coated the bleeding flesh until a crimson scab replaced the open wound.
"Ugh…who was carrying the ice pack?" Rogue grumbled.
"That'd be the X-Man who makes the damn stuff." Gambit replied with a cheeky grin, pointing a thumb at Iceman who by now had turned his attention back to the Sentinels walking towards them.
"Can you do that flaming wrecking ball thing again?" Iceman asked. "If she can disorient them again I can ice them over! Maybe buy us some time…can she do…whatever its is she did?!"
"Rogue?" Gambit asked.
"N-no…it wore off…I need more…"
"Dammit…" Gambit swore pulling out a syringe from his coat. "Last one, Cherie, gotta make it count."
"Last one of what?" Iceman muttered seeing the Cajun pull a syringe from his coat.
"Banshee." Gambit admitted reluctantly, placing the needle at the tip of Rogue's wrist.
"The drug?!"
"Its what let's Rogue use and control all the powers she's absorbed."
Iceman's enraged protest was cut off by the sudden explosion that erupted behind him, only on instinct was he able to throw up a wall of ice to dampen the blast. The wall held for all of three seconds before a burst of orange light shattered it, unleashing waves of heat and force, sending the X-Man and his fellow mutants flying back.
"Gah!" Bobby exclaimed as he felt his right side burn in pain. "Gruh…" looking down he saw his right arm was scarred bright red with burnt skin gracing its surface.
"Rogue!" Bobby turned his head to see Gambit crawling towards the downed Rogue, syringe forgotten on the ground not far from them. The blonde turned back to see Mystique being impaled through the stomach by a black spear.
"Uh…" Willing himself through the pain. Ice sprouted over the burnt areas of his body before solidifying into living ice. "C'mon frosty…what would Kitty-cat do if she saw you now…Oh god what would Logan say?!"
Mystique screamed as the blade sunk deeper into her abdomen. "AGH!" The Sentinel's face opened up, charging its plasma beam. "You fucking bi—"
CRRSSH!
A massive wave of ice smashed into the Sentinel's side. Spikes of ice crashed against their black scales before ice enveloped them. Mystique turned her head to see Iceman staggering to his feet, a trail of ice connecting him to the makeshift glacier in front of her.
"GRAH!" The shape shifter screamed a she summoned all the strength she could to push herself off the spike piercing her stomach. Her own healing factor worked its way into trying to heal her as she crawled away from the iceberg, leaving a bloody trail in her wake.
"Break through that…" Iceman grumbled.
North America
"Sir! The Mastermold program has incorporated the test subject's gene sequence. We can now apply it in the field!"
"Do it then!" Stryker barked. "Wipe these abominations out with their own tainted genome!"
"Applying the Darwin Protocol now, sir."
Stryker smiled before one of the technicians approached him from behind. "Um…sir, are we sure the Mastermold program can handle the program while engaging the amount of hostiles designated in the mission parameters?"
"We've run the simulations. The AI can handle the strain. Hell, we have two stories worth of servers processing everything through a matter of terabytes."
"But still, the Darwin Protocol is still highly unstable—"
"We have contingencies." Stryker turned his gaze back to the rest of the room. "Darwin Protocol is a go. Initiate."
Academy of Tomorrow, London
FWOOSH!
"Back! Back!" Sunspot screamed, urging a whole group of students backwards through one of the adjacent rooms as a Sentinel struggled to brush off his fire. "RAAH!" the teen roared, increasing the heat of the attack so that even the building around it began to catch fire.
"Darwin Protocol Initiated. Identifying threat…" The Sentinel's eyes scanned the Latino mutant. "Identity confirmed: da Costa, Roberto, File: 227. Pyro-kinetic powers…threat assessment…analyzed…initiating countermeasures.
Genosha
Iceman staggered to his feet, watching Mystique struggle to stand as the wound in her stomach began to heal. "Forgot you had a healing factor." He grumbled.
"Don't sound so disappointed." The blue-skinned mutant hissed.
"You blew me up with a rocket last time we were in a room together."
"You almost gave me frostbite, snowjob."
Bobby glared at the Brotherhood member. "Wish it would've stuck."
While the two mutants argued with each other, the glowing eyes of the Sentinels scanned the young X-Man, transmitting its data across their own network.
"Target Identified: Drake, Robert, File: 07. Cryo-kinetic…analysis complete."
Academy of Tomorrow
Sunspots flames spilled over the sentinel, slowing the machine as its insides began to cook. "You like this, bastardos?!" the teen screamed.
"Analysis complete. Deploying countermeasures."
Steam erupted from the Sentinel's form, flooding the halls with white mist, blinding the fire-wielding mutant's sight. Before Roberto could react, a hand made of ice shot through the mist, grabbing the boy by the neck and hoisting him into the air.
The terrified teen looked down to see the Sentinel's body encased in ice, outlining its metallic frame through the crystal-like substance. The machine hurled the teen into the ground, slamming the boy so hard that it left a small crater in the floor.
"GAH!" the machine lifted the teen off the ground, eyes glowing beneath its now see-through skin. Tightening its fists, the machine began to crush his windpipe.
"Put him down!"
The Sentinel barely heard the words before a glowing fist smashed its face into the wall. Roberto's body hit the ground while Armor smasher her fists into the Sentinel's skull. The machine's icy hide, cracking it beneath the blows.
"You attack my home!" Hisako screamed. "You attack my friends!" The armored teen reeled her fist back, preparing for the blow that would finally down the machine, its laser fired, blasting the teen back.
"Accessing File: 09, Rasputin, Piotr." The machine's skin shifted from ice to metal. Armor threw a punch, only for it to be caught by the machine's hand. The Sentinel, rising from the debris, squeezed Armor's hand, cracking the psionic shield beneath its newfound strength.
"AH!" Hisako screamed. A metal fist slammed into her face, cracking the armor further and sending the teen tumbling backwards into a wall, crashing through it like cardboard.
"RAAAAH!" Captain Italy slammed his fist into the metal titan's face staggering it. The Italian looked down at his now throbbing hand. The Sentinel in front of him slowly turned back, orange eyes blazing in their sockets. "Oh…fuck!"
Genosha
"Pete!" Wolverine yelled as he saw Colossus being hurled across the street by three steel-skin Sentinels. The machines marched down the streets, arms morphing into long blades twice the length of their original arms.
Wolverine ducked to the side, avoiding a stab from one of the machines before slashing at the limb with his claws. The metals clashed, leaving deep gashes in the machine's sword-arm. "Try copying Adamantium, bub."
North America
"Weapon X…after all this time Cornelius's biggest mistake is still giving me headaches." Stryker glared.
"I still remember when that animal rampaged through the base during Operation Roanoke." A scarred scientist grumbled, hand tracing over three scar marks adorning his face.
"I share your rage doctor," Stryker said. "But have patience. The Omega Sentinels will deal with him in time. But say…can the Darwin Protocol replicate the Adamanitum on his claws? The unstable molecules combined with that mutants shape-shifting should be able to replicate its durability."
"Negative sir. The makeup of Adamantium is too complicated to replicate. The materials to make Adamantium are too unstable to be formed in a combat environment." A tech answered. "And besides, the scans of his Adamantium doesn't even match the ones on file."
"Excuse me?' Stryker muttered.
"The scans show the compound has changed…I'm not sure how but—Sir! Massive fluctuation in the magnetic field!"
Genosha
All around the two X-men the ground shook. Wrecked cars and shattered metal levitated off the ground as a caped figure floated towards them. Colossus and Wolverine felt themselves being lifted off the ground as Magneto's power washed over the area.
Wolverine stabbed his claws into the ground to try and get a grip on the ground, only for Colossus to fly back past him before he too was pulled into the air. The two could swear that the man was smirking beneath his helmet as they were thrown away from the battlefield.
The two crashed into the street before seeing the metal-skinned Sentinels being hefted into the air by an invisible force. The machines tried to correct themselves with their thrusters, but were held in place by Magneto's power. Squeezing his fist, he constricted their skins to cave in on the rest of their bodies.
The Sentinels robotic inner burst through the few opening in their bodies like a grotesque sci-fi display. Magneto hurled their corpses to the ground whilst turning his attention back to the two X-Men positioned beneath him. "Welcome, my…'guests', to Genosha." The Master of Magnetism greeted as he dropped to the ground in front of them.
"A little late for greetings…bub." Wolverine snarled.
"I am sooo sorry that my welcome is less than…satisfactory, but" Magneto gestured to destroyed landscape. "I was quite busy dealing with an unwarranted invasion of my country."
"We noticed." Colossus grumbled. "And we are here to help, not fight against you." The Russian sent a cautionary glance towards Logan who merely scoffed at the look.
"How kind of Charles to offer his aide. If he had listened to me earlier about the threat that—"
"Spare us the speech." Logan growled, stepping towards Magneto, hands balling into fists. "We know you called Charles for help, so spare us the 'Human are the enemy' speech cause we aren't listening. The Avengers are here too so spare us the hate speech. Where are the rest of these things?"
Magneto gestured to the city. "They're scattered across the Island. Most are attacking populated areas. The Central Square is where most of my Brotherhood has gathered."
"Then that's where we'll meet everyone. Our comms are rattled, you think you can get a message to everyone doing that weird EM thing of yours?" Logan grumbled.
"I can." Magneto replied.
The roar of engines ripped overhead before the sound of thunder boomed in the sky. The trio looked up to see the blackbird tearing through the sky, Storm riding atop it, lightning arcing around her before lashing out at a squad of Sentinels hot on their trail.
BWAAAHH!
"Shit!" Iron Man cursed, banking left to avoid a plasma beam from one of the Sentinels tailing him. The red and grey hero deployed a set of explosives from his hips, letting the chaff explode behind him to blind the Sentinel behind him.
Instead of wrecked carcass descending from the cloud of smoke, and armored figure dropped. "What the—whoa!" a beam of plasma nearly bisected iron Man before his force field intercepted the blast. "Jarvis analyze that metal!"
"Affirmative." his ever-faithful butler replied.
"I really hope its not what I think its is. Set repulsor levels to 80% power, wrist mounted, 8 cm diameter."
"Sir, scans have confirmed the metal to be of an organic steel compound. The biological component matches the X-Men Colossus."
"Damn…Iron Man to all Avengers! The Sentinels can mimic super-powers! It's the Unstable Molecules!" Iron Man blasted himself backwards, allowing the Sentinel to pass him before he took aim with his repulsors. "They're mimicking the abilities of mutants!"
A beam of solid blue energy erupted from Iron Man's wrist, piercing through the Sentinel's metal hide. Two more blasts ripped through the machine before it exploded from the inside out.
"Tony! This is Wasp! We're seeing them in action! What's the extent of these things?! We talking physical? Psionic? What's their limit?"
"I don't know. Physical powers would be the easiest to duplicate and there's no telling if they have the ability to duplicate Psionic powers, range, information and adaptability could all be a factor. Just be prepared for the worst. I'm circling the Island, keeping the skies as clear as I can but the city is literally burning near Central Square. Lots of Sentinels and mutants."
"Tony, this is Cap! We're making our way their but we have heavy resistance! We need you to get word out to SHIELD! Get them to scramble anything and everything they have for this!"
"My Satellites are detecting a communication blackout here. My Sats are the only thing letting us communicate but getting a signal off the Island is gonna be tricky."
"You're a genius! Figure it out do what ya gotta do!"
"I'll try Xavier too! His X-Men should be neck deep in this now!"
"That should've been implied! Get a signal out now!"
"Jarvis! Give me direct access to the Stark Satellite network! Avengers Channel: Priority Alpha!"
"Connected. Broadcasting across all Stark networks."
"Good, we need to get a call to Xavier's school—"
"Warning! Incoming aircraft!"
"Wha-!"
WHOOSSSH!
Iron Man banked to the side, avoiding the Blackbird as it flew past him accompanied by a small squad of Sentinels in hot pursuit. "That was the X-Men's—Jarvis get me a line to that ship!" he ordered, rocketing after the aerial pursuers.
Storm remained atop the jet, lightning dancing off his fingers and towards the mutant-killers behind her. The machines strafed around the attacks, while the few that were hit shifted their skin to rock.
The lighting fractured their hides but showed no signs of doing any real damage. "That's Rockslide's power!" Storm cringed. The white-haired beauty's eyes glowed white before the winds around her whipped around her.
"Storm?!" Cyclops barked. "I didn't think I needed to remind you that the Jet is not immune to weather like you are!"
"Just keep her steady, Scott." Ororo replied calmly, summoning a tornado into being. Unleashing the act of nature upon their pursuers the Sentinels faltered, being blown aside like sticks in the wind.
One Sentinel righted itself in the air, taking aim at the retreating X-jet, and firing off a blast of plasma into the jet's wing.
KABOOM!
"SHIT!" Cyclops screamed. The jet shook like a freight train. Cyclops could see the fire burning out the window while the cockpit lit-up red. "Storm! Bail out! Bail out!"
Storm grappled with her harness while the jet shook beneath her. "S-Scott! You need to eject!"
"Not yet! Were flying right over the city! I bail now the jet crashes into a populated area! I need to get it over water!"
Storm tore off her harness letting her cape catch the wind, letting her fly behind the jet as it rapidly descended into the city below. "C'mon! C'mon!" Cyclops roared, pulling up on the controls as hard as he could.
Central Square
CRASH!
Polaris hurled another car into a Sentinel, burying it into the street while another one reined fire down upon her. A quick metal shield blocked the attack, giving the Blob enough time to leap on top of the machine.
Polaris panted as she glanced behind her to see dozens of Genoshan citizens scurrying into the mass theatre in the center of the square. The under-ground tunnels beneath the structure would allow them to escape, but until them the Brotherhood had moved back to fortifying the site while the Avengers had spread out into the city to try and turn the tide of the fight in their favor.
RRRRMMMBLLL!
The screeching roar of jet engine stole the green-haired mutant's attention. Polaris saw the burning remains of the Blackbird quickly approaching the square with no signs of slowing down. "Oh no…"
Cyclops could see the square rushing towards hi as he desperately tried to raise the jet. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Polaris's hand shot forward lifting the descending jet, her attempt to physically stop the craft was halted when a plasma blast shot towards her. A quick magnetic shield blocked the attack but the offending Sentinel continued towards her, forcing her to simply guide the jet over the square and towards the bay.
Cyclops could see the losing battle raging beneath as he passed overhead, rocketing towards the island's bay. "Nice one, Lorna." He smirked before reaching for his seat's ejector. Okay, Slim, time to eject." Pulling on the lever, Cyclops expected to be propelled into the air. Instead his seat merely sparked and hissed. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!"
Storm flew over the Island, chasing after the falling Blackbird. "Scott you need to eject now!"
"My release is fried! I can't bail out!"
"What?!"
"Regroup with the others and turn the tide, Ro! Now go!"
"I am not abandoning you-!"
An ear-piercing screech echoed on the weather-goddess's coms before a new voice joined the conversation. "On your left X-Man."
Storm banked right, just as a speeding red and grey blur rocketed towards the X-Jet. "Iron Man?!"
The armor-clad Avenger flew alongside the X-Jet until he was hovering just above the cockpit. "Jarvis, engage mag-boots." In an instant, Iron Man's boots adhered to the jet's roof as he moved towards the front of the cockpit, gripping the hull that comprised its front. "Iron Man to on board X-Men, get ready." Utilizing his suit's strength, Tony tore the cockpit's front off, revealing the trapped Cyclops beneath it. "Hold on!" Tony barked, holding oout his hand for the X-Men's field leader.
Cyclops looked down to his harness, blasting it open with an optic blast before leaping towards the armored Avenger. Iron Man grabbed the mutant before rocketing off the remains of the Jet, watching as it crashed into the ocean.
"Hope that thing was ensured." Tony remarked.
"Would you believe me if I said we have a spare? Where's the rest of the Avengers?"
"Scattered. All around the Island we've got fights and these Sentinels can mimic super powers. We need to get our teams together and come up with a game plan or else this whole island will burn down!"
"Get us to the ground."
Iron Man acquiesced to the demand, signaling Storm to follow him as he flew past.
The trio landed near the destroyed bay. "Please tell me you've got your whole team here." Iron Man asked.
"Most of the team is on the Island." Cyclops affirmed. "Marvel Girl and Beast are still at the mansion to our knowledge."
"So your science guy, Professor McCoy, and your most powerful team member are absent. Mr. Summers that does not inspire confidence."
"Story of my life." He replied. "They'll get here when they can. In the meantime the rest of the team is here. Who'd you bring?"
"Cap, She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Valkyrie and Thor. Quicksilver called us in through the Avenger's network but we're struggling to get any other signals out."
"Our Communications have been spotty as well." Storm added. "Has there been any word from SHIELD?"
"No. And I doubt there will be with someone like Marvin Flumm running the show. Best we'll get from them is an observation crew."
"We're on our own. That's new." Cyclops grumbled. "If you can get your team to shelter as many civilians as they can we can regroup near the Island's square and push them back."
"Wasp, Cap, this is Iron Man. I've rendezvoused with—hold on a minute…I'm reading a massive drop in temperature!" he turned to Storm. "Please twll me this is you."
KKRRRSSSHHH!
The entire Island rumbled when a massive glacier erupted near the edge of the Island, casting a massive shadow over the square and all those in it. Cyclops watched flecks of ice pouring off the new monument like fresh snowfall.
"That wasn't me, Iron Man." Storm murmured, looking up at the glacier.
"Then who-?"
The words tumbled out of Scott's mouth in disbelief. "Bobby?"
Five Minutes Earlier
"Guh…" Bobby hissed. Mere seconds ago the Sentinel's had come to life, igniting themselves with fire so hot that it vaporized Bobby's ice prison. The machines stormed through the group blasting Gambit and Rogue aside before Mystique could shoot them.
A wall of ice was all that saved them from being incinerated. The machines turned to the X-Man who had shielded their targets. Bobby didn't have time to shift his body to ice before the beam carved through his shoulder, slashing his arm off from the shoulder down.
Blinding pain was all the teen could feel when he dropped to his knees, grasping his now smoldering stump of an arm. "Ah…" he gasped. Shock settled in, probably the only thing keeping Bobby from screaming out in pain. A Sentinel approached the downed teen, laser ready to fire until a purple playing card exploded in its face knocking the beam to the side of Bobby.
Still the force sent him backwards, tumbling until he stopped behind Gambit and Rogue, the latter still seemed disoriented, both from the surprise attack and her Banshee withdrawal.
"Light them up, Gambit!" Mystique screamed, firing off a grenade whilst Remy chucked a hand of glowing cards at the Sentinels.
Bobby could vaguely here the Sentinels marching towards them with explosions echoing all around him. But despite their volume, the shocked teen could only register the faintest of sounds followed by his breathing that seemed to drown out all else.
His eyes fell on Rogue who was fumbling with Gambit's burnt coat, searching it for something. Rogue pulled the garment closer to her, causing a syringe to drop from its pocket and roll towards him.
Banshee. A single dose of it had landed near the mutant teen.
"GAAH!" Mystique screamed when a blade sliced open her belly. Gambit himself was hurled aside by a stone covered Sentinel, slamming into a wall so hard that cracks spread across its surface.
Once more Bobby found his eyes drawn to the Banshee Rogue was struggling to move towards. But the vial was closer to Bobby. The young X-Man stared at the vial, a war raging around him, and inside him.
Banshee was a drug. A poison that had flooded both the human and mutant communities, plaguing whole cities at times. And the addiction was as bad a heroin from what Bobby had heard from Scott and Logan when the two had busted up a ring of dealers.
But seeing the desperate situation in front of him, Bobby couldn't help but see an opportunity for saving lives. Reaching out with his remaining arm, he gripped the syringe in his hand before pulling it up to his chest. Taking a deep breath, he slammed the syringe into his chest, injecting the banshee directly into his heart.
North America
"Sir! Massive drop in air temperature around Zone-8!"
Stryker watched the feed die out. A mere second ago they had been watching Iceman and Rogue about to be killed when Iceman had stabbed something into his chest. The next thing they saw was static and a large drop in temperature within a mile radius.
"Get us feed from a unit in Zone-7! ASAP!"
The feed swapped to a flying Sentinel hovering over a massive glacier that reached out towards the ocean like an outstretched hand. Several Sentinels hovered over the frigid area, sensors sweeping over the ground for any sign of life, be it mutant or machine.
Their sensors beeped to life mere seconds before rocketing towards the ground where they crashed landed in front of the glacier's base.
"What's happening?" Stryker demanded. "Where's our visual?!"
"The sudden drop in temperature is causing steam, even the thermals aren't seeing clearly everything hot is gone except…three heat signature. Faint and mutant, 6 O'clock."
"Eliminate them! This I the work of an omega level mutant!"
"Another mutant signature sir! Identifying it now…"
"Cryokinesis on this level…Its Robert Drake. The X-Men's Iceman."
"Sir we have visual!"
The sentinel's marched in, plasma-beams powering up as they came upon four mutants, three of which were covered head to toe in frost, shivering from the frigid air. Gambit hung over Rogue, doing what he could to keep them warm while Mystique merely gawked at the figure looming over her.
The same figure the Sentinels were currently aimed at. In front of the squad stood a roughly humanoid figure composed of solid ice. Jagged icicles jutted out from his body at odd angles, emerging from his shoulders as well as several joint. No visible features existed on its face save two narrow slits that resembled eyes. Spikes roughly resembling hair shot out from the roof of its head.
"Wha…where…" the figure rasped, its voice echoing out softly. "…am…I?"
The Sentinels responded by unleashing a barrage of plasma blasts at the icy avatar, creating and explosion of steam to flood the area, once again obscuring everything from sight.
The machines marched through the fog, approaching the spot where Iceman once stood, only to see a steaming crater. Once more, their scanners caught his signature, this time behind them.
Heads swiveled in place, turning fully around to see the ice-clad X-Man standing before them, although his form was sleeker now and not nearly as jagged as it had seemed before. "G-Ge-no-sha…? S-sentinels…I…"
FWABOOM!
Another volley of plasma beams met a wall of ice as the teen instinctively shielded himself. "I…remember…" glowing blue eyes narrowed at the black-scaled murder-machines as an icey hand rose up to point at them.
BBBRRRRKKK!
Another glacier, considerably smaller than the first, erupted into the air, slamming into the squad of mutant killers, freezing them in place before they could attempt to escape. The machine's ignited, using Sunfire's power to melt through the ice, tearing through the ice.
"Right…you can do that…" Bobby grumbled, marching towards the group. Every step left a chunk of ice on the ground that seemed to be spreading like creeping ice. "Well you Human Torch knock-offs…let me show you what an X-Man can really do!"
And this concludes part 3 of Attack On Genosha. This was supposed to be the final chapter but I ended up dragging out some the fight scenes so I could show off all the heroes in action.
I might take a break from X-Me to focus on Spider-Man as I've realized its been over a year since I've updated that story. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and until next time.
Next: Attack On Genosha Finale
