3

As the brief disorientation from teleporting cleared, Bobby iced up and looked around. He and Kurt were not trapped in a wall as feared, but standing on the lower level of a large cargo hold. Above them was a grated catwalk, creating a second floor around the edge of the tall room, and along the walls of the two levels were holding cages that utilized some sort of energy to create the bars. Most of these fields were off, but he could see many on the second floor were occupied.

"Zhis place is seriously creeping me out dude," Nightcrawler whispered. "It's way too empty."

"Yeah, tell me about it, and it's like a bad sci-fi show with all the weird panels and energy fields," Iceman whispered back. "Some of those cages upstairs are on, that's probably them."

"Ja, let's go." He grabbed Bobby and they appeared on the second floor. The started to look through the cages, and found most of the Institute was there. Inside they were all still inside the capture gel fired by the sentinels, suspended a few feet off the floor of the cell. "Looks like everyone is here but I don't see zhe Professor!"

"Okay," Bobby said, more to himself then to Kurt. "First thing we need to do is get the cages off, then we need to find a way to get them out of that gunk. Then we need to find the Professor and figure out a way off of this thing."

"Zhere is a control panel over here, I zhink," Kurt called, "can you hack into it?"

"Maybe, I'm no where near Kitty's level when it comes to computers, but I know a few tricks."

"No one's at Kitty's level. But I have faith in you."

"Thanks, hopefully that's enough."

Bobby shifted back into his normal form and looked over the control panel on the wall. It was a flat, touch screen monitor that seemed to link to a great number of the systems in the, was it a plane or a Sentinel? Bobby wasn't sure. Each in turn seemed to be linked to another, but none on the menus appeared to directly deal with the security cages. There didn't appear to be any encryption or security measures on the console itself, so Bobby felt he had been given a bit of a break. Not knowing where to start, Bobby clicked the lock icon marked Security.

The graphics on the screen changed to show a list of security features, including alarms and internal weapon systems. He was about to look for a back button when he noticed one called "Mutant Countermeasures". Curious, he clicked this one. The graphic changed again, showing a table listing out known mutants by their entry number, if countermeasures existed, if they were tested, and whether they were activated. There was also a list showing which mutant was in which cage.

An idea formed in his head. "Kurt, is Kitty with them?"

Kurt ran up and down the catwalk looking for her. "Ja, she's here! Cell 15," he called from almost directly across the square.

"Thanks!" He found Cell 15 in the far right column, next to the information for Mutant 7. The countermeasures were in effect. "Come on lucky number 7," he muttered to himself and began clicking on different parts of the row. He brought up a profile, complete with a picture from the first Sentinel battle, a rundown of her powers, and a very long description of how the anti-phase field they created worked. Each time he brought one of these new windows up he would scan it for a moment and then close it again.

"Vhat are you looking for?" Kurt asked, coming to stand next to Bobby.

"I'm looking for a way to turn off whatever they're using to block Kitty's phasing power. Then she can hopefully break out and help us out with the computer in finding a way to get everyone else out."

"Good plan, any luck?"

"Not really, I can't find a way to shut it off."

They continued to search almost randomly through pages, not finding anything helpful for either releasing Kitty or the rest of the team until Kurt spotted something. "Vait, go back, vhat was that? Zhat might have been it."

"Maybe," Bobby said, going back to what appeared to be some sort of control mechanism for the cell's secondary defenses. After a bit more poking around he felt that he had it. "Nice catch there Kurt, didn't even see it. Well, here's hoping this works," he said to Kurt as he pushed down on the button.

The screen flashed in acknowledgment of the command and returned to the main countermeasures menu. They held their breath.

Nothing happened.

"Now vhat?"

"I dunno. At least nothing exploded."

"Small comfort."

They heard a groan coming from behind them and turned to see Kitty falling through the bars of her cell, holding herself for a moment on the railing of the catwalk before tumbling over the edge. Bobby dove over the edge, icing up and making a slide down to the floor. He turned over in the air onto his back, sliding head first down the ice, catching her just as they were reaching the ground. He held her close to protect her as the momentum carried them into the far wall with a crash.

Kurt 'ported right next to them. "Gott im Himmel, are you two all right?"

"I think so, Kitty, you okay?"

She groaned again. "Oh God, am I dead? I feel like, like,"

"Like you just got out a car you vere driving after eating some of your cooking?"

"Ha, real funny fuzz ball." She opened her eyes, saw Bobby and smiled a bit. "What happened?"

"Everyone but Kurt and me were captured, so we're the rescue team."

"Ja, how does it feel to be rescued by zhe two most dashing and daring men in zhe whole Institute?"

She laughed a bit. "I feel honored. Thanks guys." She smiled again at Bobby. "I see you're making a habit of saving me."

He knew his face would be red if he wasn't iced up. "Guess so, maybe you should stop getting in trouble."

"Where's the fun in that though? Okay, I feel like I could stand... so you can let me go now… 'cause you're kinda freezing."

"Oh, right! Sorry." He let go of her, and with Kurt's help they both stood up. Bobby unfroze and made an apologetic smile at her.

She looked unsteady for a moment and Kurt held onto her shoulders. "I'm okay, just still a little woozy. It's passing." She rubbed her temples and ran her hand through her short hair and stopped when she found a bit of the gel stuck in it. "Oh this is just great! This stuff better come off, I've already had to cut my hair once this month!"

The three started to make their way back upstairs to the control panel, Bobby filling her in on what was happening as they went. "Basically, we're in a Sentinel cargo plane, or a cargo Sentinel, not really sure, it's pretty weird looking. We got you out by turning off whatever's blocking your phasing, figuring you could either phase the others out or figure out the computer better than we can."

"Okay, how are we getting out of here once we have everyone out?"

"Vell, we haven't gotten zhat far yet. We didn't want to explore too much in case zhere were guards or something near zhe cockpit. If zhere is a cockpit."

"Besides, with everyone powers we could probably figure out a way to get either the plane or everyone in it to the ground."

By this time they were at the panel and Kitty cracker her knuckles. "Okay computer, let's see what you can do for us in the hands of a professional."

In less then a minute she had opened a panel on the wall that revealed a keyboard and was diving into the computer system with a command line terminal. "I can't believe how easy this is. You think there would be more security."

"Maybe they never expected anyone to be awake back here."

"Maybe."

She continued to work for few minutes when suddenly the bars on the cages turned off. "Okay, cages are open, that's the easy part. No idea how to get them out of the gel."

"Can't you just phase them out?" Bobby asked.

"I could, but I have no idea how safe that is. The gel puts them into a sort of suspended animation. I was trying to phase through it when they got me, so the process wasn't complete. I just kinda fell out when you guys turned off the blocker, and felt like puking my guts out. I have no idea what would happen if I tried to take them out when they're fully suspended. And I can't figure out how whoever captured us would get someone out. Maybe they don't have a way here on the plane."

She kept searching, until Bobby remembered something. "Wait a minute, back when I was sliding in to rescue you outside the mansion, the hit some of that stuff back at the Sentinel, and remember seeing it use some sort of gas to get it off."

"Gas? I think I saw something about that. Hold on a minute."

While they waited Kurt and Bobby took a closer look at the nearest cell. Sure enough, near to top of the cell there was a type of nozzle. "Looks like zhere is a way for it to come out if zhey have any."

"Okay, found it. I didn't recognize they type of gas so I figured it was some sort of knockout or nerve gas. Every cell seems to have a dispenser, should just take a minute or two to get around the overrides."

Just as she finished speaking the entire plane suddenly lurched, and they could feel their stomachs go up into their chest.

"Feels like we're going down!"

"Hurry Kitty, vherever ve are going ve are here!"

"I'm trying I'm trying. Oh crap!"

Alarms ran out through the cargo hold and they could feel the plane touch down on the ground. Kitty franticly searched for something to do, to either shut off the alarm she tripped or keep the cargo hold sealed long enough to wake everyone up, but she couldn't find anything.

"No time, come on!" Bobby grabbed Kitty away from the console and pulled Kurt with his other hand. They jumped over the railing and slid down Bobby's previous slide to the bottom floor, and dove behind the ice just as the doors to the cargo hold snapper open and a barrage of energy weapons fired into the room.

It didn't take long for the energy bolts to melt their way through the ice slide turned shield, and Bobby couldn't patch up the holes fast enough. Soon the shield was too damaged to work as cover and the teens were forced to scattered. Kurt was hit first as he teleported away to the second floor, which became covered in firepower before he had a chance to teleport way. Blasts hit him in the chest and legs and he went down. Kitty fell next, her body still not fully recovered from being suspended while phased. She was hit several times in the back as she dove for more cover.

Iceman was the last standing, and sent out waves of ice shards and freeze beams at what he could see now were soldiers in full combat armor. A few went down or were frozen in place before a beam hit him in the right shoulder. He spun out as he fell, and dazed himself as he landed on his face. He shifted back into human form as the soldiers rushed into the room, covering the downed mutants. He felt his arms being pulled behind his back and secured together with some sort of gauntlet cuffs. He groaned in pain as his shoulder was pulled.

"This one's still awake!" a soldier behind him called.

"I want to know how these mutants escaped containment! It does us no good if they can run amuck during transport."

"Sir, scanners have identified this one and the blue freak as mutants 35 and 6, the two who escaped the ops containment area. 6 is a teleporter."

"And they staged a rescue attempt. They're loyalty is commendable. They even managed to release the one who can walk through walls."

"Yes sir."

"Take those two to the labs with the others. Patch them up if they're alive, find out what makes them tick if they aren't. Bring him to me."

Bobby felt himself being pulled to his feet and pushed forward to a tall man in a lab coat. He could see Kitty and Kurt being carried off the plane. Bobby attempted to ice up and freeze his restraints to a point where he could break them, but was met with an electrical shock. He fell to his knees in pain.

"Ah, you found our manacles other use. We can't block all powers like the girl's, but we've found that a nice jolt when power activation is detected deters most. I have to admit, for a boy made of ice you have a lot of fire in you. It makes me wish some of our soldiers here had that same fire, but no matter." He nodded and the soldier behind Bobby pulled him to his feet again. He looked the scientist right in the eye. "Yes I think you'll do nicely. We hope to send your pet Wolverine back into test eventually, but no need to let you go to waste when you're so eager. Send him down to the test range."

The guard behind him shoved Bobby forward again. The next few minutes were a blur to him as he was dragged along windowless concrete corridors, passing the occasional closed door, and finally thrown through a small door into a large room with a ceiling too high to see. There were no distinguishable doors, even the one he had come in closed and looked like the rest of the wall. The room appeared to be oval in shape, but the room was dim enough that he couldn't tell for sure.

After a moment there was a clicking sound and the manacles fell off his wrists. He brought his hand up to massage his shoulder as his body iced up. It wasn't a Logan level healing factor, but his ice form helped the healing process. He looked for something to attack, something he could use to escape, but saw nothing.

There was the slight feedback of a speaker turning on and the scientist's voice echoed in the room. "Now 35, we are going to test our new model of close quarters combat Sentinels, used in clearing out buildings or sewers or other areas a full sized Sentinel couldn't enter. You are to combat it so that we can judge its capabilities."

"How about I just sit down here and not play your game?"

"You may of course choose to do that. However, I have just learned that 7, the girl, is still alive. If you choose not to fight, the Sentinel will kill you and I will put a bullet in the girl's head myself. If you fight, regardless of the outcome, she will live. For now, of course."

"You've left me with so many options to choose from, I don't suppose I get some time to think about this, do I?"

"I'm afraid not." There was a sliding sound as a piece of the wall opened to reveal a Sentinel that looked a great deal like the full sized version, but about seven feet tall. It immediately launched an attack of laser fire from both of its wrists. Iceman formed an ice wall in front of him that absorbed the shots, then took off with an ice slide around the room. Using one hand to guide the slide, he shot ice spikes at the Sentinel, aiming for the exposed areas around its joints. A few lodged into the cables holding the right elbow together, shredding them apart and making the limb useless. Another burst of lasers hit slide he was creating in front of him. Bobby tucked his head into a shoulder roll, forming a spear out of ice as he did. With a new slide, he picked up speed and threw in at the Sentinel, impaling the neck and severing the head. The robot fell backwards with a clang that echoed in the large stone room.

"I don't suppose this means I get to go home?"

"Nice try 35, but you've merely confirmed that our initial designs were flawed. We will now move on to more recent models."

"What do you have against mutants anyways? Why are you putting so much effort into killing people when you could be helping them with this technology?"

"I am helping. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fanatic like Trask who wants them dead simply for living. I recognize that some mutants might be innocent, but with too many of them taking the Magneto route, or maybe worse, fighting a vigilante war against him, the problem needs to be eliminated."

"And those innocent lives mean nothing!"

"Acceptable casualties."

Another panel in the wall slid open and two new Sentinels appeared. These appeared to be better armored, the exposed cables covered by metal plates. But Bobby saw a different target, one he had to take regardless of the risks. Before the door could close, he created a pillar of ice to jam it. The pillar cracked under the strain, but he slid by it just before it shattered and the door slammed shut. Alarms began to sound in the complex, and he quickly scanned for an exit. He was in a large manufacturing plant and he could see smaller Sentinels in various degrees of construction. Across the room was a door to another part of the facility.

Continuing his slide, Iceman blasted as much of the room with freeze beams and ice shards, hoping to do as much damage as possible. Machines grinded to a halt, while other shorted out, and a few small explosions peppered the room.

Just as he neared the door, it and the wall it was built into exploded outward, sending the mutant flying back to the other side of the room. Through the smoke, more Sentinels entered the room, too many for him to count. From his spot on the ground, he sent ice beams towards them, freezing them from the ground up. Using this slight distraction, he hit a button on the wall that reopened to way to the test range, figuring two would be easier to fight then a legion at this point.

The two Sentinels we waiting for him and fired another volley of energy at him. He ran as quickly as he could toward them, freezing the air in front of him to block the incoming bolts. He could feel himself get hit a few times in the chest and arms, but ignored them, continuing to attack until he ran between them. The Sentinel on his right tracked him with his shots, hitting the other Sentinel and destroying it in a shower of exploding metal. Bobby propelled himself upwards and around the robot, grabbing onto its neck and dangling behind it. It tried to reach him, but its arms weren't flexible enough to grab him from his perch. As it thrash about, he held his hands to the side of its head, gripping along the ridge or its helmet design, and began to channel his power.

"Gotta get it colder, gotta go colder," he muttered in concentration, forcing the temperature of the metal between his hands beyond anything he had ever managed before. The Sentinel eventually stopped moving, its body frozen from the inside. He let go, falling to through ground, temporarily exhausted from his efforts.

"Impressive, I'm detecting unprecedented temperatures created by you. I must say your tenacity is astonishing. I admit a part of me regrets what is inevitable here today. Please, for your sake, surrender."

He looked up to see the Sentinels from the other room had entered and surrounded him, weapons pointed at him. He stood up slowly and they tracked him, but did not fire.

"It really is pointless to continue, and I feel I owe your for what you have displayed here. You have been trained well. I hope you realize this is not personal at all for me. I don't take any pleasure in it. But what has to be done must be done."

"Oh good," Bobby said, "I was worried about our friendship there for a minute. You realize X-Men don't give up. I'll get out of here and rescue them, and we'll take you down."

"Optimism is as futile as resisting. And by all accounts you are not on Xavier's elite team."

"Maybe I've been promoted."

"Posthumously? I suppose it could be possible, if not for the entire school being captured."

"Posthumously then."

"Last chance 35."

"Then I'll take it."

Thrusting his hands downwards, he propelled himself into the air on a pillar of ice, knowing full well that no matter what he did at this point, he was going to die.