A Force Unleashed

by darkstorm5000

The X-Men Past, Present, and Future band together, as the government-sanctioned Project: Wideawake goes online with it's ultimate weapon-The Sentinels! (Contains both classic couples, and unlikely pairings). Final Chapter Added.

12. Showdown

A Force Unleashed

Written by Darkstorm5000

Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Comics and Marvel Enterprises.

………………………………………..….

Chapter 12- Showdown

At Xavier's School for the Gifted in Westchester County, New York, the members of the student body that were still on campus were now wide-awake in the early morning hours. And just like the rest of the country, they were also waking up to see that the fight to stop the Sentinels and take back Washington D.C. from them had begun in earnest, as they watched the battle in living color on nearly every television channel.

"…In an apparent pre-dawn raid, military forces have finally moved against the giant robotic Sentinels currently in control of Washington D.C, reportedly luring them into a confrontation mere blocks away from the White House, all while warships from the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet are rumored to be amassing along the Eastern coastline in anticipation of a larger military offensive.

Keeping in mind the threatening ultimatum that the Sentinel's leader made regarding action being taken against them, it is unclear as to the status and/or whereabouts of President McKenna at this time, but there are currently no reports of hostile fire in the immediate vicinity of the White House or about there being any damage to…hold on…I'm being told now by our production room that we've just received exclusive GNN footage of the skirmish captured moments ago, and that we will be bringing that to you at any moment now..."

As the camera feed switched from GNN anchorwoman Trish Tilby to the footage that had minutes ago been submitted to the network from its correspondent team on the ground, Siryn, Cannonball, Mirage, Warpath, Circuit, Wolfsbane, Rictor, Magma, Sunspot, and Multiple Kid were all watching the news in the main living room of the mansion, with a few of them having some very vocal reactions to it.

"Droga! We should be out there too, using our powers to help the X-Men and those soldiers fight the Sentinels." Roberto DaCosta ardently articulated, as he stood up from the sofa that he had been seated in.

"You won't get an argument from me, but you heard what Professor Xavier said. He doesn't think we're old enough, or have enough control over our powers to go out on missions yet." Danielle Moonstar replied from a close by chair.

"Yeah, but Kitty gets to go. And she's the one that freaked over the Sentinels in the first place." Jaime Madrox pointed out next.

"Ye know it's because she's the Professor's favorite. If we had an IQ of a million, we'd probably get t'do whatever we wanted too." Theresa Cassidy remarked next, as she sat on the sofa with Jaime and Roberto.

"Well, I don't care what ye say, Kitty's never been anythin' but nice t'me. And I won't be sittin' here t'help ye badmouth her either, especially when she's not here to defend herself. Right now, all I'm hopin' and prayin' is that they bring Miss Moira back home safe from wherever those Sentinels took her." Rahne Sinclair told the entire room, as she sat on the floor by the sofa clutching one of its pillows close to her, as she less than eagerly took in the violent images of the fighting in D.C. now being broadcast on TV.

"Nobody's trying to put Kitty down, we're just trying to make a point, that's all." James Proudstar responded to Rahne's statement, as he stood close by in the room.

"And my point is I'm sick of being held back for no good reason!" Roberto passionately asserted to his classmates.

Even though Roberto was referring to his desire to learn how to fully use his mutant abilities, his statement summed up the sentiments of most of his classmates. Despite the fact that a couple of them were still fairly New Mutants to the school, most of the others felt that the time had come for them to join their peers, and to at least begin the training and preparation needed for the day when they themselves would be counted amongst the ranks of the X-Men.

It was a point that resonated with those inside of the room, but also with one other individual right outside of it. Not that he had been eavesdropping on his students, but Professor Xavier had happened to be wheeling by the room out in the hallway and couldn't help but overhear the conversation taking place within. He also couldn't help but realize that perhaps his students had valid grievance with him as well.

Professor Xavier had never intended to make it seem like he favored Kitty over the rest of them, but there was no denying the fact that Kitty was unique in the way that she so greatly excelled in so many different areas, academic and otherwise. Still, his students' had voiced their honest feelings about how they felt that they were being treated unfairly, and he knew that there was no ignoring the rift that was apparently building between his students.

Professor Xavier then continued wheeling down the corridor to his study, so that he could ruminate about everything that was going on with his X-Men and their fight to oppose the Sentinels, and to also let his students continue their conversation in privacy. But, he knew that he would have to find resolution to this situation at the school, and that he would have to do so very soon.

"Hey guys, why don't 'cha check out what they've got on the TV now." Samuel Guthrie said to the rest of the group gathered in the living room, as he drew their attention back to the TV, "Jones, turn it up a little."

"It's 'remote-control boy' to the rescue." Jones Davidson humorously responded, as he sat on another sofa in the room with some of the other students, and proceeded to use his mutant ability that allowed him to manipulate electronic devices to adjust the volume on the large-screen television in front of them.

"…I'm being told now what we are seeing in this piece of footage is of the famed Captain America, now aiding the military forces in Washington D.C., along with what can only be described as some kind of man covered in ice. At this time, we are unable to confirm whether this 'Iceman' is part of some new super-powered agency working under the auspices of SHIELD or the US government…"

"Alright, go Bobby! Show those Sentinels and everyone else what a mutant can really do!" Amara Aquilla excitedly said, as the brownish-blonde haired girl watched her classmate transport one of the most popular figures in the world with him, via his ice-slide.

"Bet that'll put a big, dirty sock in the mouth's of those guys that say mutants are nothing but a public menace." J.E Richter now remarked, as the very brief shot of the two now came to an end.

But since that same clip was also being broadcast around the country, the image of the Iceman instantly caught the attention of two distinct parties, both of whom by happenchance were currently in the state of Massachusetts.

The first was one of the students at the prestigious Massachusetts Academy located in Snow Valley, Massachusetts, where Angelica Jones had been watching everything on a TV in the campus' student center. Angelica sat riveted by this Iceman, whose true identity she had no earthly idea of. She found herself captivated by the brave soul that would take it upon himself to use, what she could only assume, were mutant powers to risk life and limb to help stop those robotic monstrosities.

It was the very kind of thing that Angelica dreamed that she would one day be able to do herself, to use her own powers to help the world. Little did she know, however, that some of her very own classmates had gone to interject themselves into this situation, although an argument could be made as to just how altruistic their motives for going there really were.

The second party was a couple watching these historic events unfolding from the bedroom of their large suburban house located right outside of Boston. The couple instantly recognized their own son, covered in ice or not, when they saw him in the brief media clip alongside Captain America.

"Well, you should see what Bobby can do..."

Nearly one year after their son's then-girlfriend spoke those words to them, Mr. And Mrs. Drake were getting a televised demonstration of what exactly their son Bobby could use his mutant powers for, and they now saw it was to do a lot more than just cool a cup of hot tea. His abilities, which they had thought were simply a freakish mistake of nature, were now being used to help to save the rest of the world from the peril that the Sentinels posed.

But little did his parents, nor the rest of the viewing public, know that the fight in Washington was merely a warm-up, a prelude to what would prove to be the main event in this definitive showdown.

…………………………..

A fantastic aerial battle was now taking place over the skies of New Mexico, pitting the Sentinels against the combined aerial forces of SHIELD and the USAF. The Sentinels certainly had an unquestionable advantage with their ability to cloak themselves from the fighter jets radar, while the warplanes had a distinct tactical upper hand of their own by possessing far greater maneuverability in the sky. As their titanic clash waged on, another quarrel was brewing on the abandoned air base far below. But unlike the air battle, this contentious dispute currently taking place on the ground was of a decidedly different nature.

"I should have you under arrest right now!" General Jake Fury loudly laid out for Magneto, as they, the SHIELD strike force, both X-Men teams, and the Brotherhood had all went and gathered inside of one of the nearby abandoned aircraft hangars, "On top of the Liberty Island incident and the numerous other criminal activities you've been involved in over the years, you're also wanted for your escape from the Triskelion Maximum Security Facility. Those guards you killed were good men, some of them with families back home."

"Then, we obviously have a widely differing opinion on what constitutes 'good men'." Magneto smirkingly replied, as he stood a few feet from Fury amongst the eclectic group.

By this point, Magneto had put his helmet back on and had drawn his lengthy grayish-purple cape around himself, all while his Brotherhood consisting of Pyro, Blob, Toad, Avalanche, Roulette, Boomer, Frenzy, and Empath stood steadfastly behind him. Magneto's tone was as unimpressed by Fury's indictments, as it was defiant of those laws that SHIELD had sworn to uphold.

"Like you'd even know what it means to be a good man!" An unusually vocal and angry Rogue now said, as she stood alongside Gambit and the rest of the X-Men inside of the hangar and inserted her own opinion of Magneto into the conversation, "There're some of us on the mutant side of the barn that wouldn't be bothered in the least if they went and tossed ol' bucket-head there into the deepest, darkest hole you can find."

"And there are some of us that'll make damned sure that never happens!" An equally vocal and emotional Pyro retorted to Rogue's statement, as he then used one of the flamethrowers attached to his wrist to shoot a flame directly up into the air, forming it into the shape of a hand holding a long broadsword.

"That's enough, all of you!" Storm demanded with a startlingly thunderous boom that could be heard from outside of the hangar, as she went and stepped into the middle of the circle that the group was standing in and immediately took control of the conversation," We have neither the time, nor the luxury of debating any of this at the moment. If we don't do something, and do it rather quickly, the Sentinels will ensure that your discussion is little more than a moot point!"

"Storm is right, stopping the Sentinels takes precedence over any of our personal differences." Captain America added, as he and Storm helped to quell the situation, preventing an already volatile alliance from literally blowing up in their faces.

"Fine, I'm in agreement." General Fury replied, as he now acquiesced.

"Don't look at me, I'm not the one who started this particular debate in the first place." Magneto snidely stated to the group.

"In that case, let's move onto the business currently at hand." Agent Sharon Carter now said to the group.

"The key to defeating the Sentinels will be eliminating their leader Mastermold. But, destroying it won't be easy, it's going to take all of our combined powers and efforts to do it." Cyclops stated, as he addressed the small crowd.

"Well, let's stop talking about and get to it." Agent Clay Quartermaine eagerly said, as the SHIELD agent made sure that the dark-blue bandana that he had around his forehead was securely tightened, and also made sure that the large semi-automatic firing weapon in his hands was fully loaded. Then, everyone started moving out to go face the Sentinels and their towering leader in the underground base.

As the group left the hangar and made their way over to the massive entrance of Project Wideawake, one member of Magneto's Brotherhood took distinct notice of one of the X-Men and decided to make small talk with her.

"Aren't you a little young to be out here playin' superhero? I mean, I know girls start doing certain things way earlier than guys, but come on." Avalanche said when he caught up to Shadowcat, as she walked towards the access door alongside Colossus, Havok and Jubilee.

"No, actually I'm not! And what's it to you anyways?" Shadowcat sharply replied, as the expression on Colossus' steel-armored face after hearing the off-hand comment could figuratively, and literally, rip a hole right through Avalanche.

"Nothin', I was just makin' an observation is all." Avalanche told her with a huge grin, as they all continued he went ahead to walk alongside Frenzy and Empath.

As the group moved on, their number suddenly increased by one when a loud 'Bamf' sound was heard. It signaled the arrival of the last X-Men, who had been left behind on his team's Blackbird jet.

"It looks as though I am just in time for my close-up." Nightcrawler jested, as he had finally recovered enough from his teleportation jump in Washington D.C. to now come to the aid of his teammates.

"It's about time you decided to cut nap-time short and join the rest of us." Wolverine jokingly responded to Nightcrawler.

"I see that we also have some unexpected company." Nightcrawler now commented to Wolverine, as he took notice of Magneto, the Blob, and the rest of Brotherhood with the group.

When the troop finally made it to the entrance of Project Wideawake, they stood outside and instantly saw that it would be little trouble for them to get inside. When the Sentinels had blown the thick steel doors away, so that they could take to the sky and launch their aerial attack against the military planes above, they left the secured checkpoint wide open. But in all honesty, what had many in the group in pure awe was the fact that the entrance and its adjoining corridor measured in at an immense one hundred feet in height and in width, making it large enough to accommodate large transport vehicles along with numerous Sentinels entering and leaving the base. The assembled group proceeded to descend down the diagonal passageway, which cascaded downward at a vertical angle. The floor, walls, and ceiling of the corridor were all constructed from top to bottom with dense steel tiling panels, just like the rest of the facility's entire interior, and it was lit by a seemingly endless row of fluorescent rods.

After a somewhat lengthy walk, the opposition strike-force now found themselves in the very heart of the enemy stronghold. They also noticeably had their guard up, as they moved extremely cautiously through the winding labyrinth. They did so to make sure as to not unwittingly fall into any kind of booby-trap that the Sentinels may have laid out for them.

Soon, they came across an auxiliary computer terminal in one of the innumerable passageways, and Shadowcat instinctively went over to it. She then started typing on the terminal, hacking her way inside to see what interesting and useful information that she might come across.

"Are you able to attain access into their system?" Beast asked Shadowcat, as he was more than prepared to lend her a hand with his own computing expertise.

"Piece 'a cake, I had a tougher time getting those files from Stryker's computer. Right now, I'm looking at a map of this place. It says that the Mastermold chamber is here, that the central computer hub is about two levels below here, and that the detention center is over here." Shadowcat replied, as she pointed out the various areas to Beast, General Fury, Cyclops, Magneto and some of the others that were closely watching her from behind.

"It appears that they are holding most of the staff in the eastern end of the detention area, but they have conspicuously incarcerated Dr. MacTaggert and the director of this facility, a Dr. Stephen Lang, in the opposite western end." Beast said, as he read the detailed layout on the monitor before them.

"Then dat sound like a job for your's truly. If anyone can break them outta those jail cells in no time, it be me." Gambit said, as he volunteered to go rescue Moira MacTaggert and the rest of the individuals being held prisoner in the complex.

"Ah'll go with you, and give you a hand." Rogue added, as she also volunteered.

"Then that will make three of us." Magneto surprisingly announced, as he revealed his intention to join Gambit and Rogue.

"And what makes you think we're gonna turn this into a trio?" Rogue asked him in an annoyed tone.

"Because Moira is an old friend. She, Charles, and myself go back a number of years, and I think it only fitting that I help to liberate her." Magneto explained.

"Hmmph, Ah didn't think you'd even bother to care." Rogue replied, far from convinced of his sentiments.

"Well, while they're taking care of that, I'll phase down to the main computer room and see if I can delete the override on the heli-carrier." Shadowcat now stated.

"And I will be going with you." Colossus offered, as he stood close by her.

"Thanks, but everyone needs you up here to help deal with Mastermold. Plus, I can get down there a whole lot easier and faster without having to phase another person with me." Shadowcat responded, as she convincingly looked up at Colossus.

"Then, be careful, Katya." Colossus told her, as his pet name for Kitty inconspicuously caught the attention of Avalanche.

"Don't worry 'Tin Man', I learned to watch that first step way back on Muir Island." Shadowcat smiled, as she humorously reassured him.

"Then, the rest of us've got a date with one hell of a robot!" General Fury now proclaimed, as the SHIELD agents, the remaining X-Men, Brotherhood members, and all others in the group began heading down the corridor in the direction of where the Mastermold chamber sat. Meanwhile, Shadowcat, Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto all set off to go tend to their separate engagements in the facility.

………………………………..

"I am certain that this is it. I am not picking up any emotional thought patterns, save from those of us standing here outside of the chamber." The Brotherhood member codenamed Empath detected, as he stood with the group and used his mutant power to scan the immediate area inside of the Mastermold chamber for any traces of human emotional signatures.

Empath was wearing a silver and black uniform, with a matching mask that completely concealed his identity. Since he knew that his mutant mental abilities would be of little use in fighting against the Sentinels, Empath had brought along a semi-automatic assault rifle that he had borrowed from the Hellfire Club's security detail at the Massachusetts Academy, a weapon that the young, but expertly-skilled marksman was now loading and preparing for use.

"Get ready, I'm going to open the doors now." Forge said, as he had cracked open the security keypad right next to the huge doors of the chamber, and connected a small device to it. In less than a minute, the device had decoded the lock combination and the heavy blast doors were opening up, beckoning the group inward.

As they proceeded inside, the group saw that the room was completely dark, with the exception being a narrow pathway of white lights on both sides that ran down the center of the floor and ended at an enormous throne. Sitting on the throne was none other than Mastermold itself, with the self-sufficient Sentinel factory's gargantuan size making it appear to be as large as a building, all on its own.

Unexpectedly, the doors to the chamber abruptly slammed shut behind the group, sealing them inside. Then, the Mastermold spoke to them, with its thunderous and bellowing voice reverberating throughout the expansive room.

"Insolent fools! In spite of your best efforts, you have unwittingly walked into the very machination of your own destruction." Mastermold now said to the group, as the rest of the insanely huge chamber, which was probably about an acre or more in size, lit up and revealed the more than one hundred Sentinels standing in there with them.

"Well, it looks like you've finally got that fight you were wishing for." Polaris remarked to Wolverine right next to her, an instant before the Sentinels began firing at them and the group was forced to scatter and prepare themselves for the fight of their lives.

Let the games begin…

……………………….

Meanwhile, another game that had begun between its two participants back at a small train station in Westchester County was playing itself out as well.

"Ah don't much like you. At all." Rogue said, as she now told Magneto her feelings regarding him in no uncertain terms, while the two of them and Gambit made their way down another corridor, heading towards the facility's detention area.

"How ever will I recover?" Magneto sighed in reply, as he didn't even bother to turn over to look at Rogue and acknowledge her remark. His tone was so pre-occupied and unphased by her remark that it served to make Rogue just that much more angry at him, as they continued venturing forward.

Even though he had saved her and her teammates lives now on more than one occasion, Rogue still found it hard for herself to forgive, let alone forget, what Magneto had done to her. She kept thinking about how Magneto had literally ripped that train apart that night, how he had hurt Wolverine, the only friend that she felt that she had in the world at that moment, and how he had drugged and kidnapped a defenseless teenage girl, so that he could sacrifice her for his own twisted cause.

Rogue also remembered begging and pleading with him for her very life on the torch of the Statue of Liberty, and how those appeals fell on deaf ears as the Master of Magnetism proceeded to transfer his mutant powers over to her, and forced her to power a device meant to mutate the world's leaders gathered nearby. Every time that Rogue thought about the entire scenario, and about how she and Wolverine almost died up there, it made her blood boil and only increased the contempt that she held for Magneto.

While Colonel Stryker's attack on the school had been the primary motivation for her fellow squad-mates' decision to petition Professor Xavier to let them join the X-Men, Rogue's desire to never again feel as helpless as she did when Magneto and his Brotherhood spirited off with her was just as much of a factor for her wanting to join the X-Men, as was what Stryker had done.

But, the fact that she still harbored such a deep level of hatred and animosity towards Magneto was something that had also started to bother Rogue as well. Rogue's parents had taught her from an early age that it was wrong to hate another human being. They had told her that part of being a good person was learning to forgive those that may trespass against her. And it was a principle that she generally tried to live by, with the exception of this one particular case.

At any rate, as they journeyed on the trio spent the rest of their trek in silence. Eventually Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto did make it to the detention area, where they were met by a pair of Sentinels guarding the exterior entrance.

"Halt mutants…" Sentinel Unit 0574 said to the trio, as it and its counterpart scanned them for identification.

"You know, y'all startin' t'sound like a broken record wit' dat merry greetin' o' yours." Gambit playfully replied, as he held his metal fighting staff in one hand and swiftly pulled out a fistful of cards from his leather trench coat in the other, charging them before tossing them at one of the robots.

As the cards connected with the side of the Sentinel's head and heavily damaged its CPU unit, it soon fell to the ground deactivated and left the lone remaining unit to deal with the invading mutants. But, Magneto chose to make short work of the second unit by use of his magnetic powers. He quickly ripped one of the massive ten-foot by ten-foot steel ceiling tiles from its secure mooring and brought it down on top of the second unit, crushing it underneath the tile's substantial weight.

"Dis is almost startin' to be too easy." Gambit cockily said, as he gave himself a small pat on the back.

"Don't go gettin' over-confident 'Sugah', we still got alotta work left to do." Rogue reminded him.

"She is correct, there may be more of them in this area." Magneto said to the couple, as he turned his attention to Gambit, "I suggest that you head down to the eastern end of this detention center and free those imprisoned down there. Rogue and myself will go liberate Dr. MacTaggert."

"Why me and you?" Rogue very curiously questioned Magneto.

"Let's just say that the last meeting between Moira and myself was not a joyous occasion, and it ended tragically. She may not believe that I have now come here to rescue her." Magneto replied, as he put one of his hands to his side and slightly pushed back his cape.

"Gee, Ah can't understand why she'd have trouble believin' that." Rogue sarcastically remarked, as she and Magneto went ahead and started down to the western end of the corridor, while Gambit headed down to the opposite end.

But unbeknownst to Rogue, and true to her suspicions of the man, Magneto's conspiratorial plan was coming together perfectly. He was mere minutes away from fulfilling the real reason that he had come down to Project Wideawake's detention area.

And it was a plot whose precise nature had little to do with ensuring the safety of one Moira MacTaggert.

………………………..

Two levels below the Mastermold chamber and the detention center deep in the heart of Project Wideawake, Shadowcat had slowly and carefully made her way to the level where the central computer nexus was located. But in phasing down such a distance so quickly, she had somehow gotten disoriented. Shadowcat now unexpectedly found herself in another section of the facility that she had not intended to go to. She did recognize where she was, however, and set about the task of making her way out of the room that she was in, heading towards the exit and her ultimate destination. But, before Shadowcat was able to leave, something in the room managed to catch her attention.

Shadowcat realized that she was in some kind of research lab, with hundreds of strange and unusual looking animals in there. They were locked up in metal and glass cages in varying sizes in there. Then, Shadowcat walked up to the specific cage that had caught her eye, it was sitting on a row with dozens of others just like it in the dimly lit room.

"Poor fella." Shadowcat said, as she looked into the cage and saw that a cute white and black bunny rabbit was inside. She also saw that the glass cage had a sign on the outside stating that the bunny was as an experimental specimen, and that its origins were unknown.

Shadowcat felt bad for the adorable creature, and wanted to do something to help it. She proceeded to phase her hands through the glass door of the bunny's cage, so that she could pick it up to take it with her, setting it free once they were back outside.

But, just as she was about to take hold of the creature and pick it up, the bunny surprisingly growled at her and revealed its large fang-like teeth, as it hunched itself up into a semi-attack position. Shadowcat was so shocked and startled by the animal's actions that she impulsively jumped backwards, and fell right into another auxiliary computer terminal in the lab.

Since she was still phasing when she passed through the terminal, Shadowcat shorted out the electronic machine and accidentally caused all of the doors in the room, including the main door that led to the corridor directly outside, to open. Now free, the various mammals, reptiles, and birds, large and small, began to fly, flutter, and scurry in every direction in the lab as many of them left the room to venture out into the corridors of Project Wideawake.

Eventually, Shadowcat emerged from beneath the lab table that she had taken refuge under during the cacophony caused by the animals' flight for freedom. After helping to instigate such upheaval in the lab, Shadowcat figured that it was probably a good indicator for her to get going as well. She now briskly walked towards the room's exit that would take her to the central computer room, so that she could hopefully reclaim control of the heli-carrier back from the Sentinels.

But, little did Shadowcat know that as she left the room and headed down the adjacent passageway outside, some unexpected company was now trailing unnoticed a few yards behind her…

………………………

In the Mastermold chamber, the battle, no…the WAR raged on as the X-Men, SHIELD, and Brotherhood were proving to the Sentinels that they would have to overcome a great human obstacle in their bid for global dominance and control.

An excellent case in point was Iceman and Pyro.

It could be said that no two people could be as different personality-wise as Robert Drake and John Allerdyce were, almost to the point of being complete opposites in this and many other ways. Yet these two young men, who had each sworn themselves to fight for the dream and cause of Professor Xavier and Magneto (who they themselves were in essence polar opposites) found themselves working in tandem together.

"I hope you know what you're doing. I'm corralling as many of these Sentinels as I can from the others." Iceman said to Pyro, who was right behind him, as they traveled together on his ice-slide that was winding its way around the giant chamber.

At Pyro's request, Iceman was using his ability to freeze the moisture in the air by instantaneously dropping its temperature to sub-zero levels. He then began to create large and immense ice barricades throughout the immensely spacious and expansive chamber, blocking the robotic Sentinel units off into smaller groups from one another. Thus, the Sentinels were left in smaller sections separated from each other, as they were forced to face various combinations of the X-Men, SHIELD, and Brotherhood, and in a few cases found themselves at a great disadvantage against their flesh and blood adversaries.

But, what had Iceman worried was the fact that Pyro had him leave roughly about thirty Sentinels in their immediate vicinity, and he was having serious doubts as to whether just the two of them could handle such overwhelming odds.

"Don't worry, I've got everything under control." Pyro reassured Iceman, as they continued traveling on the ice-slide to avoid making themselves easy targets for the Sentinels.

With their section now barricaded off by ice-walls more than twenty feet high, Pyro then turned his wrist flamethrowers onto full blast. He then carefully shot small balls of fire on the floor of the chamber around the Sentinels in their section. In a matter of seconds, the balls of fire started to grow in size and in intensity, and began to take form. Not just any form, but to the Sentinel's horror, if cold mechanical constructs could feel such emotions as fear or pain, the fireballs grew to resemble giant Sentinels made of fire. Even though they were made from flame, with Pyro's telekinetic control they possessed a type of tangibility, and were capable of physically interacting with objects around them.

Which they did, as the dozen Fire Sentinels that Pyro had created began attacking the robotic Sentinels, both by punching them and also by hitting them with powerful blasts of flame. As the Fire Sentinels downed one foe after another by Pyro's mental command, the robotic Sentinels fought back by firing the energy weapons built into the palms of their hands. Although their energy bursts simply passed through the Fire Sentinels, the effect of their barrage did take a toll on Pyro. The Sentinel's counterattack caused enough disruptive feedback in the telekinetic fields he used to control the Fire Sentinels that it immediately resonated back to the brain of their pyrokinetic master.

Seeing this, Iceman suddenly stopped the ice-slide that they were traveling on and used his powers to create huge ice-spikes on the ground around the robotic Sentinels, positioning them to point up at a diagonal angle. With all of the sheer willpower that he could muster, Pyro was able to command his Fire Sentinels to push the robotic Sentinels onto the spikes, impaling them on the sharp ice creations. Pyro then mentally reformed his Fire Sentinels, dispersing them back into pure flame and having them engulf the robotic Sentinels pinned on the spikes.

Once their Sentinels were melted into slag, Pyro then collapsed and fell off of the ice-slide. He hit the ground about two feet below unconscious, having pushed his pyrokinetic abilities to and beyond their limit.

"Pyro, can you hear me?" Iceman asked, as he jumped off of the ice-slide and onto the ground.

"Uhhhnn…" Pyro moaned in response, as he still laid face down on the steel floor.

"Are you gonna be alright, man?" Iceman inquired of his former classmate and current ally, as he knelt down next to Pyro, all while the flames that Pyro had conjured up in their immediate proximity dissipated into thin air.

"Yeah, I'll be fine just as soon as my ears stop ringin'." Pyro replied, as he was now able to pull himself up enough to sit up on the metallic floor.

The strain of pushing himself was obvious, as Iceman saw that a small trickle of blood was running out of Pyro's nose, which he wiped away with his reddish-orange leather glove. Then Pyro looked up at the frozen ice-figure before him, looking through the orange-tinted lenses of the goggles that he was wearing.

"You know, we make a pretty good team. It's just too bad we can't do this more often." Pyro happily commented, as he spoke to the one person that had probably been the closest thing to a best friend he had ever had.

"Well, I'm not the one that took off for greener pastures with Magneto." Iceman grinned with his frozen smile, as he facetiously reminded Pyro of that fact.

After a few minutes, Iceman proceeded to help the fire-wielder back to his feet once he had managed to regain his bearings. Then, the two of them took off on his ice-slide to continue the battle with the Sentinels, and to help their friends. Together, Pyro and Iceman represented nature's two most extreme elements. But instead of standing opposition, Pyro and Iceman, Fire and Ice, managed to compliment and in a way complete each other's abilities, as they worked together towards a common goal.

Meanwhile Pyro's better half, although she would tell you in a second that she was the better-looking three-quarters, was also working towards a common goal with those individuals immediately around her.

Just to stay alive.

"So, Boom, you like plan on havin' any more of those grenades ready anytime soon?" Jubilee asked, as she plasma-blasted a Sentinel that she was currently dodging energy fire from.

"First, the name's Boomer. And second, I'm workin' on it, so quit actin' like I'm just bein' totally slack over here." Boomer firmly replied, as she continued to mentally conjure time-released plasma bombs in her hands with her mutant power.

Boomer then took off running towards one of the ten Sentinels in their barricaded section, dressed in a pink and white form-fitting leather uniform. She proceeded to toss the handful of small orb-shaped explosives, detonating as they landed around the Sentinels and inflicting some damage against them. But, the damage done wasn't enough to completely halt the robot's attack.

"Don't worry ladies, I've got you covered." Agent Quatermaine now told the girls', as he activated and then threw a thermite grenade device in the Sentinels' direction, watching as it leveled a couple of them when it exploded. Quartermaine then resumed firing the large machine gun that he was holding in his hands, as they continued fighting and dodging the Sentinels' blasts.

"Hey Boomer, I've got an idea before you toss anymore of your time-bombs in their direction." Roulette said, as the fourth person in this hastily put together sub-group spoke to her fellow Brotherhood teammate.

Like her namesake, Roulette was wearing a leather jacket and leather pants as her uniform, designed in a black and white color-scheme of a roulette wheel that cleverly wrapped itself all around her outfit. Roulette's mutant ability allowed her to produce small black and red poker-chip sized discs that affected probability fields in their immediate vicinity, and determined whether the recipient of the disc would receive a stroke of good luck, or would be beset with a bout of bad luck. The influence of Roulette's powers may have played a distinct factor in explaining why Jubilee, Boomer, Quartermaine, and herself had remained completely unscathed in their battle with the Sentinels thus far.

"Okay, so tell me what's this big idea you've got?" Boomer asked, as she now ran over to Roulette with another handful of small time-bombs.

"Just toss those time-bombs at 'em, and this time we'll see what happens when a little extra luck is put in the mix." Roulette explained, as Boomer proceeded to aim her time-bombs at the Sentinels just as she had done before. Then, Roulette threw a psionically-forged disc along with the explosives, and the two blonde girls watched as their teamwork paid off.

The explosive power of Boomer's plasma bombs had been made infinitely more destructive by Roulette's disc, and they, Jubilee, and Agent Quartermaine witnessed the complete obliteration of the remaining Sentinels' in their area.

"Now, THAT was kewl!" Boomer elatedly stated, as she raised her green-tinted frames up to make sure that she saw what she really saw, in regards to what her powers had just done.

"With the way you're able to swing odds in your favor, you should take your little trick out to Vegas and make some real cash with it." Jubilee humorously remarked, as she walked over to the two girls, while Agent Quartermaine stood and busily reloaded his weapon.

"Been there, done that. It's the reason why I'm not allowed within a hundred feet of a casino back home in Atlantic City." Roulette replied, as Boomer now saw that Quartermaine was ready. She used a well-thrown time-bomb to blow an opening in one of the far off ice-wall barricades, so that the quartet could go aid another group of their friends still fighting Sentinels.

In another non-adjacent section of the manufacturing chamber, Polaris and Havok had managed to reunite in the underground chamber, right before Iceman came sliding by and used his powers to separate everyone into smaller groups. He did so based on spur of the moment recommendations from Storm, Cyclops, and General Fury through their headset communicators that had been linked into everyone else's, and also by Pyro guiding him from behind through the chamber.

"This is starting to feel just like the old days again, you know, back when we were students and full-time X-Men." Havok said, as he blasted one Sentinel after another with the cosmically-charged energy bolts that he shot from of his hands.

"Uh-oh, 'surfer-boy' is startin' to sound a little nostalgic." Polaris playfully replied, as she also used her magnetic powers to short-circuit some of the Sentinels that the pair had been given to fight against.

"No, nostalgic is you calling me surfer boy, even though I haven't surfed competitively for a few years now." Havok stated, as he and Polaris continued to dodge and fight the Sentinels, all while managing to cover each other's back.

"Then, I take it our little talk isn't making you wanna go wax off your surf board as soon as we get back home?" Polaris inquired, as she stood back to back with Havok.

"Wax off? It looks like I'm gonna have to take you to the beach with me, 'Mr. Miyagi', so we can spend some time together ridin' the waves when the wind is blowin' offshore." Havok responded, as they continued a conversation that the casual observer would think to be a major distraction in such a high-pressure situation. But, talking in such a relaxed manner during combat felt completely natural to the couple, considering the fact that they had been trained for hours on end as teenagers to deal with hazardous circumstances such as these.

"Well then, it's a date. But, right now we need to move, and move now!" Polaris now told Havok, as she used her electromagnetic powers to manipulate the gravitational fields around them, and quickly levitate the both of them up into the air. It allowed Havok to blast the group of Sentinels from up above, and finish off the entrapment strategy that he and Polaris had employed against their robotic foes.

Just like Havok and Polaris, another pair also involved in this fray was strategically combating their opponents. But unlike their blonde and green-haired counterparts, their approach was a more straightforward tactic consisting of swift and blinding violence.

"It's like these guys're movin' in slow motion, especially if you compare them to what we went up against every day during our trainin' sessions in the Danger Room." Wolverine commented, as he used his adamantium claws to furiously shred through the lower sections of a pair of Sentinels with his up-and-close attack style.

"It seems that perhaps these inhuman monsters should themselves have been in training to face us instead?" The armored Colossus brashly replied, as he continued his own physical assault alongside Wolverine's, bending, ripping, and snapping in two any part of any Sentinel that he could get his organic-steel hands on.

"Speakin' of trainin', why don't you and me use that move we were workin' on in the Danger Room, before you took off to head home to Siberia?" Wolverine said, as he now stopped slashing at the Sentinel in front of him and quickly ran towards Colossus, "Pete, load me up for one of those Fastball Specials?"

"It would be an honor to oblige you, Tovarisch!" Colossus enthusiastically replied, as he grabbed Wolverine and picked him up. Then, Colossus spun around a couple of times almost like an Olympic discus-thrower, releasing his teammate with such momentum that Wolverine sailed at a high-speed through the air into a group of Sentinels. He hit them with his fists out in front of him and claws extended, easily slicing his way right through the mechanical constructs.

"That looks like fun, what do you say we try it?" Frenzy, the tall, athletic, super-strong, and nearly invulnerable member of the Brotherhood now asked, dressed in her sleeveless dark-blue tank-top and dark-blue leather pants. She had been using her formidable fighting skills to physically manhandle the Sentinels, in a fashion very similar to the one that Colossus had utilized.

"Sure sweet 'ums, anything to make your day." Blob replied in a slightly lecherous tone to her request, as the bulbous and unmovable mutant stood close by her, wearing his customary black tank-top and shorts that were trimmed in yellow.

Frenzy and Blob then mimicked what they had seen Wolverine and Colossus do just moments before, with Blob now launching Frenzy through the air towards the remaining Sentinels like a teenaged human wrecking ball, and watched as she demolished everything that was in her line of flight.

Meanwhile, the remaining X-Men, SHIELD, and Brotherhood members fought on, as they amazingly turned the tide of devastating numerical odds that had been stacked against them at the beginning of the battle with the Sentinels.

In one area, Nightcrawler, Toad, Agent Kate Neville, and Angel were working together and were able to best the group of Sentinels in their area. Nightcrawler used his teleportation powers, Toad used his powerful legs and agile leaping ability, and Angel used his soaring capability to all plant explosive discs on the Sentinels that had been provided to them by Agent Neville, and then they simply watched when the fireworks went off destroying their adversaries.

In another section, Beast, Avalanche, Thunderbird, Quicksilver, and Agent Sharon Carter along with a couple of SHIELD agents used a one-two combination of strength, speed, guile, and the ability to quake the very ground beneath the Sentinels to keep them off guard, while they took them down.

Lastly, Storm, Cyclops, General Fury, Forge, Captain America, and the remaining members of the SHIELD strike force thoroughly took the fight to the bulk of the Sentinels' number, which they had requested be left for them to handle. The Sentinels were showered in a hail of optic-blasts, lightning bolts, uranium-depleted bullets, a rifle that looked like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie, and an indestructible star-spangled shield, all promptly and efficiently decimating the robotic foes around them.

As the fighting in the cordoned off battlefield neared an end, the collective group would soon be moving on to its next main objective, destroying the Mastermold. Just then, General Fury received a call from one of his agents through his comm-device, but it wasn't from anyone in the processing chamber with him.

"General Fury, do you copy?"

"Fury here. What've you got for me Sitwell?" General Fury replied, speaking to the seasoned and senior agent who had been with SHIELD for decades now, and was currently still aboard the heli-carrier.

"We remain unable to alter the course of the heli-carrier from here, and we've just received word from NORAD that the President has authorized a tactical missile strike against the heli-carrier, once it reaches the proximity surrounding Project Wideawake." Agent Jasper Sitwell informed him.

"Yeah. I hate to see the heli-carrier meet an ending like that, but I'd sure as hell rather see it crash and burn before letting Mastermold get its clamps into it. Hopefully, the young lady we've sent to disable the Sentinels' override control'll come through for us, at least before they can re-arm the heli-carrier and turn its weapons against us." General Fury replied, "Sitwell, you and the rest of the agents onboard go ahead and begin evacuating the heli-carrier. In case we don't succeed here, at least there'll be no reason for that airstrike to be delayed."

"Yes sir." Sitwell replied, as he confirmed the order and then signed off so that he could set about the task of getting all of the SHIELD agents on the heli-carrier to their escape crafts.

By this point, the fighting with the Sentinels was wrapping itself up as everyone moved in and surrounded the dwindling number of Sentinels in the chamber, soon making short work of them. Once the last of the Sentinels were defeated, the group turned their attention to the Mastermold sitting high above at the other end of the spacious room.

As the allied team now made a swift dash towards the Mastermold, Cyclops suddenly stopped in his tracks and placed his hand up by his visor. He then unleashed the most powerful optic-blast that he could, aiming it directly at Mastermold and heavily damaging the upper-torso of the Sentinels' leader, as he punched a hole deep into it. The group thought that victory was now easily within reach, as they drew closer to the Mastermold and prepared to use their combined powers and abilities to deliver a deathblow to it, to the Sentinels, and to their dreams of world domination.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

The damage that Cyclops had inflicted on the Mastermold unit suddenly and inexplicably began to repair itself, akin to a robotic healing factor successfully doing its job. Mastermold then spoke, as it boomingly addressed its aggressors.

"Repair sequence now complete. By coming here, all you have done is merely stall the inevitable. Designate unit: Mastermold cannot be destroyed, I CANNOT BE DESTROYED! You will now be shown the folly and futility of any who dare to oppose us." Mastermold told them, as it stood up from its huge throne, displaying its staggering eighty feet in height, and started blasting massive energy beams from it's palms at them. Mastermold then slowly started marching towards them, coming down from the apex in the chamber where it had been perched.

The group was left with no other choice but to fall back in retreat from the Mastermold's fire. But, with the huge and thick blast doors of the chamber securely sealed, they were all unsure of just how far or how successful that retreat would be?

……………………………

Back in the western wing of Project Wideawake's detention facility, Rogue and Magneto had traveled the length of the corridor from the entrance, where they had faced the Sentinel guardians, and were now in the cellblock where Dr. Moira MacTaggert was being held.

"Any ideas on how to open it?" Rogue asked Magneto, as they stood directly in front of one of the cells, and she paid notice to the technologically sophisticated lock on the door.

"One comes to mind." Magneto calmly replied, as a casual wave of his right hand opened all of the cell doors on that row.

Then, the woman who hadn't been seen by her friends and family since her abduction from Muir Island, now appeared before them in the fluorescent-lit hallway.

"Dr. MacTaggert, Ah know we've never met, but Ah'm here to rescue you." Rogue said, as Moira MacTaggert stepped out of her cell into the corridor, dressed in a navy-blue, long-sleeved prisoner's jumpsuit.

"Och, even without seein' the bold, white streak in yuir hair or the uniform, I'd still recognize one of Charles' students. Ye're Marie, I remember readin' over the file Charles sent t'me when ye first arrived at his school." Dr. MacTaggert replied, as she surprised Rogue by instantly recognizing the X-Men's deputy leader. Then, Dr. MacTaggert took notice of the other party that had come along with Rogue.

"Now, I certainly din'na expect to have ye of all people comin' here t'my rescue, Erik." Dr. MacTaggert said, as she shifted her eyeglasses on her face and looked up at him.

"Just consider it a good-will gesture on my part, especially after what happened with your son." Magneto responded.

Then, the conversation was suddenly interrupted by a fourth person, who now came out to join them in the hallway of the detention area.

"All of the good gestures in the world won't influence my opinion of you people in any way." Dr. Stephen Lang now interjected, as he walked out of the cell that the Sentinels had locked him in, which was next to the one that Dr. MacTaggert had been held in, "Just the fact that I have to be rescued by mutants is at the pinnacle of my personal embarrassment."

"Why Dr. Lang, you're under the misguided notion that I've come here to rescue you. Quite the contrary." Magneto said, as he turned his full attention to Dr. Lang and finally revealed the real reason that he had come down to the detention area.

"Earlier this morning, I had a very interesting conversation, with a very interesting woman." Magneto continued, "You see, she is a gifted clairvoyant with the ability to foresee all possible futures for us. A great many of the potential timelines revealed to her had you, and your by that point in time vastly improved upon Sentinels, hunting down every homo-superior being world-wide, attempting to exterminate us all wholesale. As a child I swore that as long as there was still breath in my body that no such horrors and atrocities would ever befall my people again! I've come here this day to make good on that pledge, and to ensure that you never have the opportunity to fulfill that ultimate destiny."

Then, Magneto turned his attention back towards Rogue's direction.

"If I may borrow this for a moment?" Magneto rhetorically asked her, as the Katana blade strapped to Rogue's back started to quiver and then quickly shot straight up from its sheath, all before its owner could respond.

"Hey, give that back!" Rogue loudly demanded, as the sword now hovered in the air above them. But, before Rogue could react fast enough to try and grab the sword.

Schhllacckk!

In less than the blink of an eye, the sword sailed through the air plunging itself deep into the chest of Dr. Stephen Lang, as Magneto wrenchingly drove it right through the heart of the director of Project Wideawake, and the man that had also secretly revived the Sentinel program.

"You…you just killed that man in cold blood!" An outraged Rogue said to Magneto, as Lang fell hard to the ground.

"Come now, don't tell me that you are surprised by such brutal, but necessary measures. You do, after all, keep yourself in close association with the Wolverine. And, I do believe that this belongs to you." Magneto scoffingly replied, as he magnetically retrieved the blade from Lang and returned the now bloodied sword through the air to Rogue, "Now, onto the business of destroying this Mastermold abomination."

As Magneto then turned around and left, leaving Rogue and Dr. MacTaggert with the dying Dr. Lang laying on the floor, he passed by Gambit and the research staff that had just been freed by the Cajun X-Man down at the other end of the detention area. Gambit and the staff were met by the sight of Rogue holding the bloodied sword in her hand, and the gory scene next to her.

"Merde, Cheré! What'd you do down here?" Gambit asked her, stunned by the sight before him.

"What Ah did was act like a total idiot, and let that asshole find a way to use me, again!" Rogue angrily replied, as she threw her sword to the ground, which made a very loud clanging sound as it forcefully hit the steel-tiled floor, and displayed her rarely-seen fiery temper.

Not only was Rogue upset that she had been unable to stop Magneto from executing Lang, but she was also disgusted by the sense of violation that she felt from Magneto's tainting of her sword. The blade had been a heartfelt gift given to her by Remy and was something that she had come to deeply treasure. Today's events had simply added one more reason to a growing list of Rogue's for her to hate the man known as Magneto.

……………………………

Having left behind the chaos and disarray in the animal research lab, Shadowcat was back on track in her journey and had at last made her way over to the central computer hub in Project Wideawake. But, she was so focused on getting into the main computer room that she didn't see the four Sentinels stationed outside of the room's entrance, until it was too late.

Suddenly they appeared, surrounding Shadowcat in the open area outside of the computer room and blocking her entrance into it. If she had been nervous about facing the Sentinels again because of the anxieties that they seemed to rouse in her, Shadowcat unfortunately now found herself confronted with a scene that was hauntingly similar to the one that she had originally encountered on Muir Island.

Back on that night just a few weeks ago, the Sentinels ambushed and completely ransacked the Muir Island research facility. Shadowcat had come across a Sentinel while on a search inside of the island's research complex, amid the chaos of the attack and the battle taking place outside, and was trying to locate Professor Xavier and Dr. MacTaggert. By chance, she ran right into the very Sentinel that had just moments earlier located and captured Dr. MacTaggert in her laboratory, and was now carrying the unconscious doctor with it.

Upon seeing this, Shadowcat staunchly ordered the Sentinel to drop Dr. MacTaggert, with all of the posturing and bravado that she could muster. To which the Sentinel responded by lifting its hand, and firing a powerful energy blast at her. Luckily, Shadowcat phased herself through the floor just in the nick of time to avoid the shot, but ended up falling some thirty feet down to the facility's basement, injuring herself in the process.

When asked later by her fellow classmates about the gash on her forehead resulting from the fall, Shadowcat recounted her experience of running afoul of the Sentinel. But, whether it was because of a feeling of guilt or shame, Shadowcat completely concealed the details about Dr. MacTaggert being in that particular robot's clutches.

She had already seen first-hand how greatly Moira MacTaggert's kidnapping had affected her mentor Professor Xavier in the days following the attack, and how it had so traumatized Rahne Sinclaire that Moira's adopted daughter went into an emotional shutdown. Shadowcat felt that she had, in a way, failed in her responsibilities as an X-Man by not doing more to stop the Sentinel, and felt embarrassed because of it.

"Halt mutant…"

As the Sentinel now delivered, what had become a familiar and almost redundant order, Shadowcat briefly thought about fleeing from the situation and phasing through the floor to escape from these metal monsters. But, then she thought once again about her inaction on Muir Island, about the pain that it had caused those close to her because of Dr. MacTaggert's abduction, and about the nightmares she had of that night, which continued to haunt her long after she had returned home. She also thought about her conversation with Peter before they left this morning, and about how she knew that she couldn't live the rest of her life being afraid of the Sentinels.

So, Shadowcat decided that she was going to make a stand here and now, and face her trepidation about the Sentinels, win, lose, or draw.

"Alright buster, let's see what all of you are really made of." Shadowcat said in a low-tone, which was more for her benefit than for the Sentinels. She then prepared herself to run and jump at the Sentinel that was standing directly between her and the computer room's entrance. She hoped that her phasing power would be enough to shield her from the Sentinels' energy blast, and to ultimately get her past all of them.

But, before either she or the Sentinels could make a move, an admirer of Shadowcat's that had been following the young girl through the complex, now repaid a favor owed to her ten-fold.

"Rooaaaarrr!"

"What the…" Shadowcat asked in a puzzled tone, as she saw the Sentinel right in front of her go up in an intense burst of flame that came from up above. Then, she watched as the other three Sentinels surrounding her were also enveloped by fire, as all of them soon fell to the ground in smoldering heaps.

Automatically assuming that Pyro had caught up to her, and had used his firebird to decimate the Sentinels, just like he had done outside when he and the rest of the Brotherhood first arrived, Shadowcat intently looked around the open area outside of the computer hub for him. But, she didn't see her former classmate anywhere in sight.

Then she saw, IT.

Circling in the air above, Shadowcat saw perhaps the strangest creature that she had ever laid eyes on. If seeing a purple-hued lizard overhead wasn't bizarre enough, the fact that said purple lizard had wings and apparently had the proclivity to produce a fire-flame that measured in at the 'ten-second barbecue' range of the temperature scale, probably took the cake.

"So…uhm, thanks for helping me." Shadowcat now said, as the winged lizard that she had inadvertently freed from the research lab flew downward and hovered in front of her, slowly flapping its wings as it looked directly at her.

"Pfui!" The creature muttered in response.

"Look, I'd like to stand here and continue this really deep conversation with you, but I gotta get into that computer room and stop the Sentinels from using the heli-carrier to take over the world." Shadowcat told the creature.

Then, almost as if it understood what she had said, the creature started flying towards the computer room door, pausing in mid-air and waiting for Shadowcat to catch up and join it.

Which she, of course, did.

…………………………….

Down where the Sentinel production chamber was located, Magneto had traveled the length there from the detention area and now stood outside of the chamber's huge blast doors. All while an extremely desperate battle waged on inside between the X-Men, SHIELD, and his Brotherhood, all going up against the Mastermold.

Magneto immediately observed that the code-breaking device built by Forge had been connected to the security keypad next to the immense doors, and it had been used to open what was now a sealed entrance. But, rather than waste time in trying to decipher how to use the decoding apparatus, Magneto decided to once again use the most direct method that he could think of to gain entry into the chamber.

The foot-thick steel doors were within seconds pulled back like a peel on a ripened banana, as Magneto used his magnetic powers to separate them and reveal to him the fight going on inside. But, even the self-proclaimed savior of mutantkind was astonished at the sight of the Mastermold unit slowly marching towards everyone inside, firing its very destructive energy blasts at them as they were driven backwards towards the blast doors. They were fighting hard and threw everything that they had in the way of weapons and mutant powers back at the Mastermold, but it appeared to be to no avail. All that the now united humans and mutants were succeeding in doing was merely slowing the giant down, while they tired themselves out.

They were so busy with Mastermold that none of them had noticed Magneto's entry into the chamber, so he decided to announce his arrival with a powerful electromagnetic pulse wave aimed directly at the gargantuan robot. While the E-M blast was so acutely disruptive that it shorted out a majority of Mastermold's essential function circuits, due to its advanced repair capabilities, the behemoth unit immediately set itself to the task of fixing the damage that Magneto had caused.

Which meant that the group had precious little time to come up with a new course of action, before Mastermold would be back on the offensive yet again.

"It appears that my assistance and leadership is greatly needed here." Magneto sardonically said, as he walked down the small staircase into the chamber and over to where Storm, Cyclops, General Fury, and Captain America were.

"Leadership hell, what we need is to know how to destroy this thing." General Fury replied, as he continued firing off round after round at the Mastermold.

"Hey, Cyclops, Storm, General Fury, um…somebody, this is Shadowcat. Do you read me?"

"What news do you have?" Storm was the first to say, as she answered Shadowcat on her comm-link, while she continued casting bolts of lightning at the currently stunned Mastermold.

"I made it into the computer room, and I've hacked control of the heli-carrier away from the Sentinels. What do you want me to do?" Shadowcat replied, as she sat in front of the humongous computer terminal, with her newly found friend perched on the back of the large chair that she was sitting in.

"Good, turn it around and send it as far away from here as possible." General Fury immediately told her through their interlinked communication channel.

"Why turn it around? A vessel with the firepower that the heli-carrier possesses would come in very handy indeed in dealing with this Mastermold." Magneto pointed out, "And yes before you even ask General, despite the secrecy that surrounds its complete offensive capabilities, I'm well aware of what your vaunted ship can do."

"Kitty, just stay put. We'll give you further orders momentarily." Cyclops now told Shadowcat, as he continued firing his optic blasts at Mastermold.

"Then, we need to think of a way to use the heli-carrier's weapons against Mastermold, while taking into consideration that we're still extremely far underground." Captain America stated to the assembled leaders, with his star-spangled shield securely on his forearm, "We definitely can't fly it down here."

"Yeah, but we can bring Mastermold to it." Cyclops answered, "Havok, come with me and let's make a quick exit out of here. Storm, get ready to use your powers to create the most powerful wind current that you can."

"And you, I will need your help if we are to survive this day." Magneto now told Polaris, as he walked over to where she was standing.

"Okay bro, let's go to work." Havok said to Cyclops, as the two of them stood side by side and aimed at the ceiling up above. The combined impact of their optic-blast and cosmic energy bolts quickly burned through the ceiling and burrowed a hole, as they cut through solid earth all of the way up to the surface.

As the passageway out of the chamber was finished fairly quickly, Magneto had Polaris combine her magnetic powers with his and told everyone in the room to huddle closely together.

"You don't have to strain yourself. Allow the magnetic fields, the raw power of the very Earth itself, to flow around and through you. Feel it, then seize it and bend it to your will." Magneto said to Polaris, as he gave her a quick and impromptu lesson on the advanced use of her mutant ability.

The Master and Mistress of Magnetism both levitated into the air facing one another on opposite sides of the assembled group, as their powers fell in synch together. Then they went to the task of ripping up and reshaping the steel floor underneath everyone. They promptly reformed a tremendous chunk of the metal flooring into a protective spherical-shell, which they used to envelope the entire group with.

While Magneto and Polaris proceeded to lift the huge metal orb up into the air with them, Storm now used her weather-manipulating powers to create a gale-force wind current. With the breathtaking sight of the weather goddess' white hair and black leather cape flowing all around her, Storm increased the power of the upward draft exponentially and channeled it through the exit that had been provided by both Cyclops' and Havok's formidable powers.

The effect of Magneto and Polaris lowering the gravitational pull to near zero in the chamber combined with Storm's powerful air updraft, created a vortex effect that began to funnel everything not bolted down in the chamber upward. This phenomenon also affected a giant robot within the chamber that was nearly finished repairing itself, when it found itself now being sucked up to the surface of the New Mexico landscape.

After being shot out of the tunnel with tremendous force as a result of the vacuum effect, Magneto and Polaris safely guided and landed the steel cocoon hundreds of yards away from their exit point, and with Storm also landing close by. Meanwhile, Mastermold had been yanked out of its lair, but used the huge vertical boosters in its legs to slow its descent and allow it to land on the desert environment, not too far from the vast breach in the earth's surface where it had come out of. Then both parties looked skyward and saw the few remaining Sentinels battling with military jets in the air, and more importantly, saw that the fast approaching heli-carrier was nearly upon them.

"Alright Shadowcat, it's now or never. I radioed SHIELD high-command on our way outside as to what's going on, now I want you to reactivate the heli-carrier's weapons grid. Target every available gun-turret and missile-launcher on Mastermold." General Fury ordered her, as Magneto and Polaris had magnetically unfolded and opened up the metallic spherical ball that the group had used to ferry them out onto the desert landscape.

"You got it!"

With those words, Shadowcat typed the commands into the central computer terminal, and almost immediately unleashed a barrage of weapons fire against Mastermold, fire that was as lethal as it was destructive in its intensity.

Mastermold fought back, however, firing intense energy blasts of its own against the heli-carrier. But, Mastermold had reached a point of diminishing returns, as it was no longer hooked into the constant power source that was provided it inside of the manufacturing chamber, and now its repair systems were unable to compensate with the incredible amount of damage being inflicted on it by the heli-carrier's impressive armaments.

Within a few minutes of the beginning of the climactic firefight between the massive war-bird and the great giant, the flying fortress known as the SHIELD heli-carrier had been heavily damaged but was still very much operational in the air, while Mastermold now laid broken and shattered across the New Mexico desert.

As the last vestige of life flashed through Mastermold's cybernetic brain-circuits, the seemingly living personification of those that believed that all mutants should be eradicated from existence to ensure a safe world for normal humans, was no more.

…………………….………

The assembled SHIELD agents, X-Men, and Brotherhood members all stood in the desert together about a mile outside of the abandoned airbase, and watched as the last of the Sentinels fell to Earth, defeated by the combined airpower of SHIELD and the U.S. military's fighter jets. The significance of what they were bearing witness to hadn't been lost on any of the battle-weary observers. They knew full well that they had walked to the brink of having life as they knew it end, but they had taken upon themselves the challenge of stopping their robotic aggressors and had done the impossible against insurmountable odds.

They had won.

As a celebratory fervor began to encompass the entire group, a few of them felt that they still had some unfinished business to take care of before they could join in the revelry. Such as Iceman and Pyro, who were now walking off from the rest of the group to finally have a talk, which had been almost a year in the making.

At the same time Rogue and Gambit had left the underground complex of Project Wideawake along with Dr. MacTaggert through a secret hatch exit shown to them by the staff of the facility, and now themselves walked over to join their victorious companions. As they approached from the distance, Rogue, Gambit, and Dr. MacTaggert were taken aback by the spectacular sight off in the horizon of Mastermold laying in defeat, and also by the fact that all of these disparate factions had worked together to accomplish such a feat.

Rogue almost immediately spotted Iceman and Pyro walking off by themselves, watching two of her best friends immersed in what appeared to be a deep conversation.

"Ah'll be back in a minute Sugah, there's somethin' Ah need to go do." Rogue said to Gambit, as something came over her as well and she felt the need to go join them.

"Sho' nuff, Cheré, I'm gonna escort de good Docteur here over t'where de party's at." Gambit understandingly responded, as he also saw Iceman and Pyro off in the distance. He and Dr. MacTaggert then went over to where Beast, Angel, and Nightcrawler were standing, while Rogue went over to join the two young men that had each played such very important roles in her life.

At the same time, other various conversations were taking place amongst the assembled group.

"It's almost uncanny how well we were able to use our powers in unison, and seemingly compliment one another." Magneto now said, as he and Polaris stood together staring out at the remains of the defeated Mastermold.

"It shouldn't be. I mean, you control the E-M spectrum, I control the E-M spectrum, it's just one of those co-inkeedinks that life throws at you." Polaris nonchalantly replied.

"The tremendous power that you have come to possess is by no means mere chance, or accident." Magneto told her, "Once you are able to master the intricacies of your abilities and refine them, you will find yourself able to completely manipulate and control this planet's very electromagnetic field. Had I discovered you before Charles, your talents would have already far surpassed mine by now."

"Well, I'm still getting along pretty well on my own. And if it's all the same to you, I for one am glad that the Professor was the one who found me first." Polaris somewhat coldly replied, as she didn't turn to look over at Magneto, but instead stood with her arms folded in front of her and continued looking out across the arid scenery, while her lengthy green hair flowed in the soft breeze.

Meanwhile…

"So Wolvie, what's the matter with you?" A curious Jubilee asked Wolverine, as she adjusted her yellow-tinted sunglasses and the two stood together amongst the sparse desert shrubbery.

"I'm just wonderin' why red, white, and blue over there keeps starin' at me like I owe him a twenty-spot. He's been doin' it off and on since you and the rest of Storm's half of the team got here." Wolverine replied, as Captain America was within earshot and heard Wolverine's comment.

"I guess it must seem pretty rude of me, and that's not what I had intended. It's just that you look a whole lot like a guy I knew once, a long, long time ago." Captain America explained, as he strapped his star-spangled shield to his back, and stepped off of the remnants of the steel-floor tiling that had been used by Magneto and Polaris to transport them out the Sentinel chamber.

"I doubt it. Even considerin' the mess that my memories are, I still think I'd remember runnin' into a guy walkin' around in a get-up like yours." Woverine stated, as this was the first and only time that he could ever remember meeting the famed hero face-to-face.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Captain America ceded.

But, Captain America couldn't shake the feeling that the man standing before him was the very same man that he had fought alongside during World War II, when he and the Canadian soldier had worked together to put a halt to a top-secret Nazi weapons experiment. The only thing putting doubt in Cap's mind was the fact that the soldier he had fought with would have to be much, much older by now than the man standing before him, and he was positive that particular Allied soldier didn't possess mutant claws that shot out of his hands.

"Speakin' of guys that you used to know a long time ago, Dad was asking me about you last time I went home on leave." General Fury now interjected and said to Captain America, as he had been approaching Cap, Wolverine and Jubilee, while overhearing most of their conversation.

"How have Nick and the Contessa been doing?" Captain America inquired.

Captain America was referring to Nick Fury, who during World War II had led an elite and one of the most decorated fighting squadrons called The Howling Commandos. He was also referencing Countessa Valentina Allegra De La Fontaine, who at the time was just a teenager aiding the French Resistance effort opposed to Nazi occupation of their country. Together, the three of them fought side by side at various times during the war, and even went on a few missions together battling the likes of Baron Heinrich Zemo, The Red Skull, and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker.

After the war was over, while those close to him believed that the first Captain America to have died on his final mission at the end of World War II along with his partner Bucky, Nick and Val were to reunite years later in the early 1960's during the formative years of the newly commissioned SHIELD organization. The pair worked well together, as they were kept busy helping to defend freedom against the new and varied threats that the world faced.

"Mom and Dad are fine, busy enjoying retired life splitting time between their home here stateside, and the chalet in France." General Jake Fury informed him, and revealed what else Nick and Contessa Valentina Fury had been busy doing during Cap's decades-long absence.

"Next time I have some free time, I'm going to have to pay that old war-dog a visit." Cap responded.

"I'm sure he'd like that." General Fury told Captain America, as Wolverine and Jubilee had already left to join some of the other X-Men, while another party came up and joined Cap and Fury's conversation.

"And where exactly are planning on running off to?" Agent Sharon Carter now asked in a very serious tone, as the blonde assistant director of SHIELD came up and faced Captain America, with the both of them standing close to a small cactus bush on the ground.

"Nowhere, at least not without getting clearance from you first, Agent Thirteen." Cap remarked to her, and did so in a surprisingly playful tone.

"You can dispense with such protocolic SHIELD formalities, and just call me by my name." Agent Carter now told him.

"I'm sorry, Agent Carter." Captain America smirkingly replied.

"I guess that's as relaxed as I should expect to hear from you, at least while you're on duty, Captain." Agent Carter sarcastically replied.

"Then, I promise to be more relaxed over dinner tonight." Cap told her.

"Is that a date then?" Agent Carter now inquired, with a slight smile.

"Only if you say yes. And hopefully this time we can at least make it through our appetizer, before duty calls and has us dashing off out of the restaurant to save the world once again." Captain America said, referring to a previous rendezvous of theirs.

"One can only hope." Agent Carter whimsically replied, as she then went on to the business that had originally brought her over to them, "General, our reinforcements are beginning to parachute in now."

"Good, the first thing I want is for them to do a clean sweep of the Project Wideawake complex, and make sure that there aren't anymore stray Sentinels lurking around. Once that's finished, I want that Mastermold unit completely dismantled and scrapped." General Fury responded.

Elsewhere, but not too far away….

"You're a long way from New Orleans."

"And you, you a long way from…wherever you come from."

"To be honest, you're the last person I'd expect to see here, especially in an X-Man uniform." Toad commented, as he and Gambit now stood off talking by themselves, "I knew the Thieve's Guild has dealings world-wide, but I didn't know they had anything as far north as Westchester."

"You know what they say, life it just full o' surprises." Gambit remarked with a smile, as he took out a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket and lit one, "Like de fact me and de Guild ain't on none too good o' terms at the moment. Plus, they got nothin' t'do wit' me bein' wit' de X-Men."

"You know, I didn't say nothin' earlier, but it seems to me that at some point it'd become a real conflict of interests for you to be workin' all of these different sides." Toad told him through his British-accented voice, as he sat semi-crouching on a rather large rock nearby.

"Get offa it already! I did one lousy job, a single pinch with you and Sabretooth, and you make it sound like we been close since we was knee-high. 'Sides, I didn't know what y'all was really up t'anyways." Gambit replied.

"Or maybe you di'nt want to know?" Toad posed, as he looked up and stared Gambit in the eye.

"What's dat s'pposed t'mean?" Gambit inquired.

"Just think about it. And think about what your new 'friends' are liable to do to you, if they find out what kinda games you're playin' with 'em." Toad answered with a sinister smile, as he then athletically leapt off of the rock.

As Captain American and all of the SHIELD agents began leaving the landing zone and heading back towards where Mastermold had fallen, so that they could join their parachuting compatriots, Quicksilver now found himself in a father/son reunion a few yards away, one that he could just as well have done without.

"Pietro." Magneto said, as he walked over to him.

"Erik." Pietro replied, with a very frosty reception for his father.

"I'm glad to see you again. I know that things have been…difficult between us ever since--." Magneto was saying, before he was quickly interrupted.

"You mean ever since the day that you were willing to sacrifice your own children to achieve your twisted ideals!" Pietro snapped back, as he looked over at his father, "Now, you have the nerve to ask us to come back and help you again. Wanda told me all about your little visit to her home."

"I've been very curious since I saw you as to why you are here, and without your sister here to aid you?" Magneto inquisitively stated.

"Wanda's gone back to Xavier's school, carrying out duties that are just as important as anything that we did here today." Quicksilver revealed to him.

"At Charles's school, is that so?" Magneto slowly continued to inquire.

"Yes, I believe that you said something to Wanda during your visit about us having to make a choice about the future. I think it to be obvious from her current location, and from the uniform that I'm wearing, what our response is." Quicksilver said, as he delivered the answer to his father's ultimatum, both for him and for his sister Wanda. Quicksilver then turned his back and swiftly walked away from his father.

Having been rejected by all of his children, Magneto knew that he would now turn his full attention to his Brotherhood, which was becoming an almost surrogate family that he was forging with a constant influx of new recruits.

And not to be forgotten…

"But, Ah still don't understand how you could follow someone like Magneto. You know the kinds of things he's done, both to me and to other folks." Rogue said to Pyro, as they continued a conversation that had been taking place simultaneously with all of the others.

"I'm with him for the same reasons that you guys are at Xavier's, we're trying to make the world safer for us mutants." Pyro replied, with his orange goggles now once again raised up above his forehead in a resting position.

"It's not the same, and you know it. Magneto's methods are totally different from Professor Xavier's." Iceman pointed out.

"Yeah, and I'd say they're a lot more effective. Professor Xavier just wants us to learn to control our powers, Magneto actually lets us use them." Pyro retorted, "And he doesn't mind it if we show them off either, as a matter of fact, he encourages it. Besides, Magneto's methods must not be too far off, we showed up here just in time to save half your team's asses."

"No, the difference between the Professor and Magneto is the same as the difference between right and wrong." Iceman continued.

"And you used to know what that meant." Rogue added.

"Whatever. After what happened in Boston with those cops, I decided that I'll be damned if I'm going to sit around and wait for someone else to put a bullet in my head before I stand up and fight back. I started to see that maybe me and Magneto were more alike than I ever realized, and that I wasn't cut out to be an X-Man like you two." Pyro told them.

"That's not true, you're nothin' like him." Rogue said to Pyro, "You can still leave the Brotherhood, and come back home with us."

"I know the Professor'd want you to come back." Iceman also told him.

"You guys aren't hearing me." Pyro responded to both Rogue and Pyro, "I don't want to come back to Westchester. My place IS with the Brotherhood now."

Then, someone emerged out of the desert ground a short distance away, catching the attention of Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro as their conversation came to a sudden and abrupt halt.

"What's that thing sitting on the back of Kitty's neck?" Iceman pondered aloud, as they all saw Shadowcat emerge from the lower levels of Project Wideawake to the ground level with them, and with a peculiar purple winged-creature positioned across the back of her shoulders.

Once they were topside, the creature took off into the air from Shadowcat's shoulders, breathing small bursts of fire as it flew in a circle right above her.

Shadowcat then went to slowly raise her forearm up in front of her.

The purple lizard immediately stopped the revolutions that it was traversing in the air above her and hovered there for a moment, hesitantly flapping its wings. Finally, the creature flew down and landed on her arm, almost as if there was some kind of unspoken bond between it and Shadowcat, which was as much instantaneous, as it was unexpected.

"C'mon dragon, there're some friends of mine that I want you to go meet." Shadowcat said, as she spoke to the purple dragon on her arm, and then the two of them went over to where Colossus and some of the other X-Men were standing.

"It looks like Kitty went and found herself a pet after my own heart." Pyro said, as he stood observing his former classmate and the fire-breathing animal interacting together.

As they watched Shadowcat walk off with her new friend, another party now came up and joined Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro.

"So, this is where you disappeared off to? I've been looking all over for you." Boomer remarked to Pyro, as the blonde-girl with thin red highlights in her hair came up and turned the trio into a quartet.

"I didn't disappear, we were just over here talking." Pyro replied, as he looked into Boomer's hazy-blue eyes after she removed her green-tinted shades.

"And what were you talkin' about that was so important?" Boomer amusingly inquired, as Pyro wrapped his right arm around her waist, and the two stood close together in an affectionate embrace.

Which, Rogue and Iceman took particular notice of.

"Tab, this is Bobby and Rogue. Don't you remember me telling you about them, and how tight we were when I was still going to Xavier's?" Pyro reminded Boomer.

"It's really nice to meet you." Rogue said, as she stuck her hand out to shake Boomer's.

"Um, yeah. I've just heard SOOO much about Westchester's most popular couple." Boomer replied, as she didn't bother to return the amicable gesture to Rogue, and continued standing with her arms wrapped around Pyro, before she then spoke to him again, "Mags said that we're about to leave. Not that this whole experience hasn't been really bitchin' or anything, but he wants to go before the time-limit on this truce with the SHIELD guys runs out."

"Alright." Pyro said to Boomer, as he saw the Brotherhood members starting to gather in the distance by Magneto, and knew the time had come for him to say his good-byes to Rogue and Iceman."

"I guess I'll be seein' you guys around." Pyro told them, as he made his departing statement, and then he and Boomer turned to go join the rest of the Brotherhood.

"Yeah, Ah guess we will." Rogue replied, as both she and Iceman wondered if their next meeting with Pyro would be as an ally and teammate like they were this day, or in battle with each other as an enemy and foe.

Close by, as things were just about wrapped up…

"…So, after I saw Mastermold get his butt kicked on the security cams, we came to join you guys up here." Shadowcat said, as she finished recounting for Colossus and Thunderbird how she met her new winged friend in the Project Wideawake facility below them.

"It sounds like you've just found a new sidekick for yourself." Thunderbird musingly remarked to Shadowcat in regards to her detailed account.

"Which means that you will have to find a name for your newly formed super-tandem." A currently unarmored Colossus also jokingly said to Shadowcat.

"How about Ghost-girl, and her incredible, marshmallow-roasting companion?" Shadowcat was able to humorously reply.

Just then, another observer of Shadowcat and the purple creature that was sitting perched on her right shoulder, came up to insert himself into their conversation.

"Looks like you got some pretty weird tastes in pets. Wonder if that goes for other things too?" Avalanche now commented to Shadowcat, as he was walking towards where the Brotherhood was and decided to make one last parting shot to her.

"If you have something to say to the lady, then I suggest that it be of an appropriate nature. Else, the two of us will have a VERY serious probl--" Colossus now shouted, his cheerful demeanor instantly gone as he loudly responded to Avalanche's comments, and started marching towards the Brotherhood's ground-breaking member. But, Shadowcat quickly stepped in front of the incensed Russian, so that she could find out for herself just why Avalanche felt the need to continue making off-color remarks to her.

"What is your deal anyways? Just because Storm said we had to work together, doesn't give you the right to make fun of me whenever you want, 'Chrome-dome'." Kitty stated in a perturbed tone, as she referred to the silver-colored helmet that Avalanche was wearing.

Avalanche's helmet covered the top half of his head, hiding most of his face and leaving just two eyeholes for him to see out of. This, along with a black and red leather outfit, made up his Brotherhood uniform.

"You used to didn't get all bent out of shape when I'd say stuff to you, 'Kitty Bo-Bitty'." Avalanche replied, with a huge smirk present on his face as he came and stood in front of her, Colossus, and Thunderbird.

"Wait a minute, how the hell do you know about that nick-name?" Shadowcat emphatically wanted to know.

"Easy. I mean, since I am the guy that gave it to you." Avalanche revealed, an instant before he removed his silver helmet and also unveiled his true identity to her.

"Ohmigod, it can't be! Lance…" Shadowcat gasped, as she put both of her leather-gloved hands up to her mouth, and felt as though she had, ironically, just seen a ghost.

Although it had been more than a few years and both of them were much older now, Shadowcat instantly recognized Lance Alvers' raw facial features and knew that it had to be him.

"Be seein' ya around, Pryde." Avalanche said to her, as he then put his helmet back on and turned to continue his brief jaunt over to where the rest of his Brotherhood teammates were waiting for him.

"Katya, do you know him?" Colossus came over and asked of her.

"Yeah…yeah, I know him." Shadowcat replied, obviously still shocked by the revelation, as the purple dragon remained perched silently on her right shoulder.

With the entire Brotherhood now assembled together, Magneto proceeded to use his awesome magnetic powers to levitate the entire group into the air by the ferrous fibers that had been specially woven into their uniforms. Then, Magneto, Pyro, Roulette, Empath, Toad, Avalanche, Boomer, Frenzy, and Blob made their exit to an awaiting helicopter parked on the other side of a nearby hilltop.

"I'd say that's a cue for us to get going too." Cyclops stated, as he stood by Beast, Nightcrawler, and Angel.

"And I'd better get back soon, because I'm gonna have a whole lot of explaining and sweet-talking to do once Candy gets a hold of me and wants to know where I've been for the last twenty-four hours." Angel remarked.

"Then let us depart from here." Storm agreed, as she came up and gave the command over the comm-link to the rest of the X-Men.

…………………………..

The X-Men crossed the distance from the empty grassland where they had been to the runway on the abandoned airbase where both of the team's Blackbirds were parked in seemingly no time. As they went to board the planes, Cyclops, Beast, Havok, Dr. MacTaggert, Polaris, Angel, Thunderbird, Quicksilver, and Nightcrawler got on one jet, while Storm, Forge, Rogue, Iceman, Gambit, Colossus, Jubilee, Wolverine, and Shadowcat-plus one got onto the other.

"Well, dat had to be de most interesting morning I t'ink I ever had. Y'all really know how to show a fella a good time, 'Stormy'." Gambit said, as he, Forge and Storm approached the ramp of their Blackbird.

"Then, you have a very peculiar notion of what makes up a good time. And, again I ask you, must you insist on calling me by that ridiculous name?" Storm replied, as she and Gambit walked behind Forge.

"Yep, I must insist." Gambit happily answered, as Forge suddenly came to a stop in front of both of them at the bottom of the ramp.

"After you…Stormy." Forge teasingly added, as he stepped aside to let the lady go up before him.

"Forge, one of him is quite enough." Storm smiled and responded, as she then went up onto the plane, followed by Forge, Gambit and eventually the other half of the X-Men.

Once onboard, both planes closed their entrance ramps, and their engines soon fired to life in preparation of their flight back home.

As Shadowcat sat down in one of the seats in the plane's middle section with her purple companion, Wolverine soon came walking by down the aisle, sans his cigar this time.

"I figured you'd be flying back on the plane with all of the grown-ups, instead of us annoying kids." Shadowcat remarked to him.

"When you really get down to it, all of you are basically annoying kids to me, 'Short-stuff'." Wolverine smirkingly responded.

"Pfff…" The creature sitting in Shadowcat's lap now snorted, as it looked up at Wolverine.

"Say, there're already enough big mouths in here. We don't need none of your lip, 'Bub'." Wolverine gruffly said to the purple lizard.

"Hey, don't talk to him like that! He's just trying to be friendly to you." Shadowcat protested in the creature's defense.

"So was I, Short-stuff, so was I." Wolverine smiled at her and at the fire-breathing lizard, "As a matter of fact, I was just about to invite that flyin' cigarette lighter to join me back in the smoking-only section. That is, unless you're plannin' on startin' another anti-smokin' campaign, and gettin' the both of us booted offa this flight."

"Ha-ha, very funny." Shadowcat responded in an unimpressed tone, getting Wolverine's reference to her earlier chastising lecture about him smoking his cigars on the plane.

"Have you decided what you are going to name that creature?" Colossus now inquired, as he came to sit down in the seat next to Shadowcat and give her a small kiss, while Wolverine continued on to the rear of the plane where most of the other passengers were. Meanwhile, Jubilee came up and took another seat across from the couple.

"I don't know. Any suggestions?" Shadowcat replied.

"How about 'Puff the Magic Dragon'?" Jubilee not unexpectedly proposed.

"GRRRRR!" The creature loudly grumbled, and showed its obvious disapproval for such a name.

Then, the answer suddenly came to Kitty.

"I know, I'll name him Lockheed." Shadowcat announced, to which the dragon in her lap seemed fairly receptive to.

"Just like in your fairy-tale." Colossus responded, as he let out a very loud laugh.

"Huh? What fairy-tale?" Jubilee now asked him.

"The one that Katya told to my little sister while we were in Siberia. I must say, it was quite imaginative." Colossus explained to her.

"Well, he looks and acts sorta like a dragon. And, he definitely rescued this damsel in distress." Shadowcat pointed out to them, "So, Lockheed it is."

"Uhm, I've got another question." Jubilee now brought up.

"What's that?" Shadowcat responded.

"How're you so sure that Lockheed is a he?" Jubilee raised an eyebrow and posed.

To find out, Shadowcat didn't hesitate to take the miniature dragon in her hands, and raise him up above her head.

"I guess I at least have a 50 percent chance of being right." Shadowcat jokingly smiled, as she inspected the lower torso of the creature to try and discover a definitive answer, but found none, "Besides, boy or girl doesn't really matter anyways, we're buddies now."

"Then, take a piece of advice from someone who used to have a chihuahua that was about the same size as your 'buddy' there. You keep holdin' him up above your head like that, and he might just give you a little surprise. Of the wet variety, if you catch my drift." Jubilee hinted to Shadowcat, as Shadowcat now didn't hesitate to put the dragon back down on her lap, and keep him there for the rest of the trip home.

Meanwhile, the collection of individuals on both planes continued on their trek home. This day, the X-Men had proven that they were heroes, and had shown that they were willing and ready to defend a world that still had a lot to learn about how to be big enough to accommodate ALL of its people.

Having guaranteed that they, both human and mutant, black and white, and every other way that people found to try and separate themselves, instead of looking for the common threads that bonded them together, would have at least have one more tomorrow to try and finally get it right,

Now came the hard part…

………………………………….

Next chapter: Things to Come…

………………………………….

A/N: Special thanks to everyone that reviewed the last chapter-

El Varon- Glad you liked the update and the use of Machiavellian. I guess I'll have to see what other big, fun words like that I can pull out of my special grab-bag.

Episodic- Glad you made it through the long chapters. The format for the stuff coming up in future chapters should mean much shorter reads. But, I say long live the never-ending cliff-hanger!

Montana Magic- Thanks for the review and compliments, and I'm glad that you like things so much. And I do intentionally try to write in a way that anyone can follow what's going on, regardless of how much knowledge of the Marvel universe they may have, and still enjoy it.

LucreziaNoin86- Wow, two reviews in a row! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and the bar fight too, that was one of my favorite scenes also.

Lucas'sgirl- Sorry for all of the exorcist-type maladies I've caused in your life, but at least I hope that you still find this story entertaining. Yeah, with the Shadowcat/Wolverine, Shadowcat/Quicksilver, and the other various interactions, I wanted to display some of the pairings and meetings that may never take place anywhere else, and show how these characters might react to one another, so I hope you got a kick out of them.

Independent Fire- I know the last few chapters have been long, even to me, but I'm glad you stuck it out and am even happier that you liked them. As far as Pyro, I thought it was time for him to show just what he can really do in this fic too.

TheDreamerLady- Don't let the school work get you down, which I guess you've already figured out by partying a little on the side. Anyways, I appreciate the reviews whenever I can get them.