The "doctor", as he called himself, looked nothing at all like a doctor. He was tall with super pale skin, and dark blue, but not quite black hair. He was wearing a uniform of some kind of blue metal and it was from here that the tentacle had formed. Before the X men's eyes the tentacle melted back into the suit and the man laughed in their faces.

"Mr. Sinister you may call me, but Dr. Nathaniel Essex be my name. And it is your doom I've come to create." Mr. Sinister stepped forward and began to order the others behind him to attack. He himself drew an odd looking gun and began to fire at them.

"Must they always be, like, SO dramatic?" Piotr heard Kitty mutter to herself before running into action with him. He kept close to her during the fight, not wanting the small mutant to be hurt. At the same time, he didn't want anyone to know of their fledgling romance. After that scene with Lance yesterday, he'd thought it would be best to stay away until she felt better but apparently it didn't take long for her to get over things like that. He wasn't sure whether this was good or bad.

"Like, look out Peter!" Colossus heard Kitty shout at his left. Turning he barely managed to block the energy blast that Mr. Sinister had aimed his way. Mr. Sinister began to focus on him, aiming for spots he believed to be weak. It was only when he noticed that Colossus was sneaking anxious glances at the girl fighting behind him that he realized where the real weakness lay.

"Well, well. The Russian has a serious weakness." Mr. Sinister murmured to himself. It had exasperated him to no end not being able to defeat someone he believed to be lesser than himself.

Shooting to the right, Mr. Sinister got off a shot that came very close to Kitty, then shot in succession three shots at Colossus as he turned to see if she was alright. They hit Colossus in the back and effectively knocked him out. Kitty, seeing him fall, ran to his side and began to call his name.

"Peter! Like, wake up! I mean now, you big oaf!" Kitty feared she was going to cry. She didn't want him to be hurt. She liked him, and had for a long time. Sure, she'd still dated Lance, but a girl had to have something to do while the man of her dreams was out being evil henchman to a maniac!

Kitty looked up in time to see Mr. Sinister bring the butt of his gun down onto her skull, and then all there was was black.

Mr. Sinister gestured to the man Kitty had been fighting. "Abyss, good job. Now go take out the blonde with the explosions. She's giving me a headache." Abyss nodded and walked away. Mr. Sinister turned to look at the chaos his special made mutants had wrought. Azazel had taken over attacking Nightcrawler and was currently controlling his mind, keeping him from transporting away. Jeffries was taking on both Iceman and Sunspot and was using his technomorphing abilities to take them both out. The rest of his lesser agents were spread out within the crowd of mutants.

Behind Mr. Sinister, a twig snapped. He turned to see one of his lieutenants, a beautiful woman by the codename of Dazzler, step out of the woodwork that bordered the X Men property. Though he had indulged in several nights of passion with the mutant, she was nothing to him. She could never replace the love of his life, the woman he had lost many years ago at his own fault.

"What is it?"

Dazzler oozed sexuality as she walked over to stand and look at the scene before them. "Nothing. All is well."

Something was off with her, some set to the face and movement didn't fit. This was not Dazzler. Even as he started to raise his gun it was too late. Mystique morphed her hand into a long steel knife and slammed it up between his ribs. "Mystique, one. Hellfire Club, zero."

"Don't be so sure, Raven." A voice called from within the bushes. "I see all sorts of things, and I foresee you dying…NOW!"

"Destiny?"

Scott was losing ground and he knew it. The attackers were beating them and they needed to gain their advantage back. Scott started to call for back ups when he saw that they had already arrived. Emma Frost dived into the battle and immediately began to kick ass. Scott knew it was her, but it appeared that she had a secondary power other than her telekinesis. Emma Frost was a literal diamond girl. It appeared to be that she had morphed into a diamond, but she was moving and fighting as if she was still just a human!

Behind her, appeared several other mutants, including Magneto, the professor, Rogue, John, and Sean. They all decided that enough was enough. Sean immediately let loose with the sonic blasts, even as Rogue began to use hand-to-hand combat with John at her side. They were steadily taking down the other mutants who seemed to fear Rogue for some reason.

Magneto was using scrap metal to mete out punishment, even as he slowly built up his power in an attempt to create a magnetic pulse to disrupt the sight (and powers) of their attackers. Even as he let the pulse loose he was flying down to check on the status of his children, one of whom had already been taken out of the fight.

"Pietro! Wake up you foolish boy!"

"It's not going to work father. He's out. That was a strong blast from the queen bitch over there." Wanda said as she took advantage of the blinded opponents and began to throw hex bolts at the trees, causing them to uproot themselves and begin to sideswipe people. One of whom was Nightcrawler.

"Oh, damn!" Wanda ran to where he fell and checked out his injuries. He was only unconscious and nothing seemed broken. "Kurt! Kurt!" Wanda slapped…hard. Kurt woke up with a jolt.

"Vow! Dat hurt."

"I bet." Wanda turned back to her father who was still trying to wake Pietro up. "Kurt…I got an idea."

Rogue did not give in to the urge to annihilate them all. She must conserve all her mutant strength for the coming battle. She gave a judo chop to her opponent's neck and blocked his breathing. Within seconds he would be dead.

Turning Rogue twisted the neck of the assailant who had overpowered John. "Need help?"

"Damnit, I could have handled him."

Rogue smiled. "No, ya were getting' ya ass kicked."

John straightened his clothes and glowered at Rogue. "No, I was handling it."

Rogue began to disagree when a large explosion stopped her. She turned, fully expecting Phoenix to have joined the fight, when instead she was faced with a very large Sentinel. "Wha' the hell?"

Part Three: Are you ready?