Disclaimer: I am making no money from this, just enjoying a sense of escapism from an ordinary life

Scene Eleven

The Sentinels had no such problems. Immediately the two that were stood a little way off the building opened up their arsenals and launched missiles at the spluttering teenagers. Earth Guardian Golan was quickest to react, throwing up two of his four arms and raising a barrier of soil taller than him. The weapons impacted harmlessly as Golan, Jubilee and Magma hid on the other side. Iceman followed his friend's lead and created a solid wall of ice in the nick of time before two more missiles struck him, Cyborg and Rogue.

Starfire launched herself into the air and started to throw star bolts at the head and torso of the Sentinel nearest the house. Robin had a narrow escape, rolling to one side then salmon-leaping back to his feet as the Sentinel tried encapsulate him in green goo from its cannon. He launched a rain of throwing stars, but they glanced off without doing any damage. Behind Golan's barrier, Jubilee, Magma and now Boom Boom took up the slack using their ranged attacks to inflict blast damage to the legs of the nearest robot. They had to scatter though as a shot from Cyborg's ion cannon made a Sentinel stagger backwards and stand on the earthworks. Cyborg's war cry of "Boo-yah!" was short lived as the Sentinel recovered and launched another barrage of missiles in the bionic hero's direction, making him dive for cover.

"Aserath metrion synthos!" cried Raven, throwing bits of what had been the Institute at the robot with her magic. Beast Boy lifted Shadowcat into the air as a pterodactyl, trying to drop her over a Sentinels' head so that she could slide through the machine and short out its circuits. No sooner had Beast Boy got in range than the Sentinel suddenly twisted and launched a green glob to knock them out of the sky. Kitty concentrated and used her powers to phase both her and BB out of the goo, and they rolled to the ground in a heap.

Iceman was celebrating freezing a Sentinel's foot to the ground when the Sentinel broke free and knocked the teenager flying with a savage backhand. Nightcrawler ported in and got Bobby to safety. Gambit was throwing cards left, right and centre, but making little headway as he tried to cover the younger recruits' retreat to regroup. Blaze burst past him at a sprint, then slid into a soccer-style two-footed tackle that took her right under a Sentinel. Gambit cried out, certain she was going to be crushed. Blaze ignored all distractions and grabbed hold of the Sentinel's leg. Even as the robot ungainly tried to grab hold of her, she called on her firepower and started to melt its leg.

"Gambit, Magma, get under them where they can't reach you!" she cried out to her teammates. The Sentinel she was fighting staggered and went down to its knee on the one side. Molten metal was a flash flood dangerously close to Blaze, but Robin grabbed hold of her by the collar of her uniform and dragged her clear. There was a sudden boom as Cyborg blasted the damaged Sentinel in the back. It overbalanced, teetered, and then fell. "Yes!" Blaze exclaimed, giving Cy a high-five for helping her out.

"Over there!" Rogue cried out as Gambit copied Blaze and grabbed hold of a Sentinel by the leg. He pumped it full of his power, and then gladly let Starfire fly him to safety before the leg exploded.

"Strong an' belle, Cherie," he praised her, "Not to mention good timin', thank you." Starfire smiled and raced off to rescue Magma, who had done her best with the final Sentinel. Leaving the rest of the X-Men to mop up, Gambit followed Rogue's directions to spy Slade trying to make his escape. In the villain's hand was a shiny silver disk that could only be one thing. "Slade! An' he got the Sentinel plans!"

"After him!" ordered Robin, running by Blaze's side towards the masked villain. Gambit, Rogue and Cyborg followed. Slade made it to the high wall around the Institute grounds, leapt up and landed on top of the structure like a cat. A second later and he had dropped down the other side. Robin and Gambit used their staffs to catapult themselves over the wall, whilst Cyborg took a more direct approach and put a hole in the wall to let him and the girls through. Cupping her hands to her belly as she ran, Blaze formed a fireball that she threw to hit Slade in the back. He staggered and started to fall before somehow recovering and carrying on running. He was headed for the copse, until Gambit cut him off by felling a tree with a single exploding card.

Robin was on the villain in a flash of yellow cape. The fistfight was violent and fast, too fast to stay that way for long. Slade kicked out and caught Robin under the chin, sending him crashing into Rogue. Laughing Slade turned and tried to run again, still holding the DVD. Cyborg opened fire and hit the villain in the shoulder. The pain that Slade cried out with also made him drop the disk. Blaze was on it quickly, diving headlong to grab the disk in her gloved hand and toss it away from Slade. Gambit caught it, and made it glow with his power. Slade meanwhile had recovered and grabbed Blaze by a handful of hair, pulling her to her knees and making her yelp with pain.

"Give me the disk and let me leave or I will break her neck," Slade threatened.

"Try it," Rogue argued. She and Blaze exchanged a meaningful look, and Rogue repeated herself with more ferocity. "Go on, I dare ya. Try an' hurt her. I don't believe you can."

"Rogue no!" Gambit tried to shut the other X-Man up, but Slade was already lifting Blaze up and taking a good grip on her scalp. One sharp twist and he would break his hostage's pretty little neck. So he thought anyway, until Blaze decided enough was enough. She changed into her fire-form and sent a column of fire out from herself to consume Slade entirely. At the same moment as Blaze wrenched herself free, Gambit threw the DVD and it exploded in Slade's face. Slade yelled and clawed at his eyes, turning and running with flames trailing behind him like a comets' tail.

"Aw," Blaze commented, rubbing her now-human scalp with her hand. "That hurt! Cheers Rogue."

"That's nothin'," Rogue snapped, "Compared to what's gonna happen to ya when Beast an' Storm get back. You too Swamp Rat."

"At least Slade has been defeated," Robin said, "Given everything, this could have been a whole lot worse."