Pre-Chapter Note: I meant what i said before about new reviewers...if i get even one, i'll post a new chapter immediately instead of making you all wait three days...:)

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Chapter 15.

(Angela)

Mid-June saw the end of the regular school year and those few students who could went back home to their respective families. It shouldn't have come as a surprise when more than half of them were back within a few weeks, but apparently their parents felt they would be safer at the school. They were probably right, but it didn't make things much easier for the kids. However, thanks to the President and his growing anti-mutant agenda, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep their fears at bay. To make that job even harder, Sage and Buzz came to Charles, Logan and I with bad news.

"We lost Project Wideawake." Buzz stated without preamble as he flopped bonelessly onto the couch.

We all reacted much as one would expect: Charles' eyes widened as his mouth thinned, I gaped openly and Logan scowled. "Whattaya mean, you 'lost' it?" Logan growled.

Sage shrugged and sat down with more grace in an armchair. "For the first time I can remember, I don't know. Last night we were compiling new data, analyzing the reports from the Red Riding Hood incident and waiting for messages from our contacts abroad. Today, the only messages they had for us were variations of 'Wideawake no longer exists anywhere'."

"Way I see it, that project was so widespread, it would have taken years to purge every bit of info from every computer that held the files." Buzz added. "Instead, the whole thing just vanished like it never existed overnight." He set a thick file down on the coffee table in front of him. "If I didn't have this in my hands, I'd think was going crazy."

"What's that?" I asked as I reached for it.

"Our best guesses based on the information we do have." Sage replied. "Our contacts in Russia, China and Australia are still working on it. They think it was all moved to new computers as opposed to a complete purge, but we can't wait around and hope they're right."

"I don't want anyone to put themselves at further risk for the sake of data we may never be able to recover." Charles said. "We'll have to go with what we've got right now and hope for the best. Please, tell your contacts thank you, but there's no need to continue down this path."

"Already tried, already turned down." Sage took the file from me and flipped to the back. "This is the last email we got from Australia." She handed me the printout.

Buzzkill-

Wideawake is nowhere to be found. I don't know what that means, but there's something…interesting going on in the Outback. Got a look-see from above and saw things that looked like those Sentinels, only a lot smaller. Will try to get a cap for you.

Cya!

Jazz

"That was three days ago." Buzz said. "We know she's ok, because she's still posting to the message boards. But nothing personal since then."

"What do you think that means?" I asked, frowning.

"Dunno. Either she's waiting til she has something for me or else it's not really her doing the posting so we don't catch on that something's happened to her."

"Was…is she a mutant?" Logan asked.

"Actually no, but her older brother is. But he's in New Zealand for school and she's in Sydney."

"I'll see if I can track her down with Cerebro." Xavier offered. "Do you know anything about her other than her hacker name?"

"Yeah, it's all downstairs on the secure machine."

"Fine. We'll get to that later." The Professor steepled his fingers. "We need to know how much smaller these new Sentinels are." We all nodded in agreement. "Buzz, Sage, do what you can to contact this friend of yours by any means necessary. If nothing else, see if you can hack into her computer and extract the information that way." He sighed, his expression grave. "If I have to, I will send a team on the jet to do reconnaissance of their own and retrieve her if it's still possible to do so." Buzz nodded and he left the study with Sage close behind.

I turned to the Professor apprehensively. "When you said 'send a team', you meant Omega, didn't you?" I asked and he nodded. I swore softly. "Charles, I know I don't have to tell you what these things are capable of. You could be sending them on a one-way mission."

"I know." He said gravely. "However, we are quickly running out of options here. I hate the thought of losing any of you, but this is truly a war now and has been since the destruction of the safe house."

"It's been a war a lot longer than that, Chuck." Logan added. "It wasn't so bad when there weren't that many of us. But there's more mutants born every year, almost like someone's tryin' to tell us somethin' and we're missin' the message."

"It is that exact phenomena that's the bulk of Henry's research. We fear that this war is going to be nothing more than a distraction from the true threat to humanity, if only we could figure out what it is."

"Too bad we don't have any precogs 'round here. I'm sure they'd be able to figure it out."

"Well, we do, kind of, if Hank's right about Little Wolvie." I pointed out.

"Sure darlin', but he ain't gonna be able to help us out til he's older an' there's still no guarantee he'll be that powerful anyway."

Xavier nodded. "Logan's right, I'm afraid. I have spoken to a few people in the underground with that particular ability, however none of them are powerful enough to get a clear picture. All they've said is that there are too many variables and there is no way to tell which outcome is the most likely." He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. "One thing they do agree on is that there is something much larger than the current threat on the horizon, they just don't agree on what it is."

"But obviously mutants are the key to that future." I stated plainly. "Otherwise there wouldn't be a need for so many to be around right now, when it seems like they're most needed."

"And most feared at the same time." He sighed again and thumbed the control on his chair. "I'll be downstairs if anyone needs me for anything. My first priority is finding Buzz's friend. Everything else will have to wait."

Taking that as a clear dismissal, Logan and I walked out of the study and made our way to the lounge. Little Wolvie decided to make his presence known by kicking me soundly in the ribs and I absently rubbed my belly to calm him. He always knew when I was even a little distressed and chose those times to be the most active. It was almost as though he knew that rubbing my stomach to calm him was just as calming to me. Logan wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. "Lover, you know that if he deploys Omega, he'll send you."

"Yeah, I know." He replied, not looking at me. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I would!" I cried, whirling about to face him. "Logan, I can't lose you!"

"I'll make it darlin'. I always make it. It's what I do."

"And what if this is the time that you don't? I'm tired of saving your ass."

He chuckled and stroked my cheek. "You won't have to save my ass this time, I promise. I have too much at stake to do anythin' too stupid." He placed his hand on my stomach and Little Wolvie kicked it in response. "I didn't think there was anythin' in this world that would make livin' worth it. Then you came along an' I couldn't imagine there was anythin' that would make me happier than lovin' you does. But now we have this an' hell itself won't keep me from you for long."

"I love you." I whispered and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him. He enfolded me in a protective embrace and kissed me back hard enough to take my breath away.

When we broke apart, his eyes were bright with emotion. "I love you too, darlin'. When this is all over, no matter what happens, we'll take off to that little cabin again an' just get away from the world for awhile, all right?"

"Oh, that would be so lovely." I sighed. "But we both know that something else will come up and we'll be needed."

"Maybe. But even if we only get one day up there alone, it'll be worth it."

I nodded and he kissed me again, promising without words that we'd take this up again later. Right now, we both had work to do and we could feel time running away from us. I only hoped we'd find a way to catch it.

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Twelve hours later, Logan and I were dozing in each other's arms after a particularly passionate evening. I was just falling over the edge of sleep when our internal line trilled softly on the nightstand next to my head. I groaned and Logan growled, but he let me go so I could roll over and answer it. It was the Professor.

"Angela, I need you and Logan in the security room in five minutes." He said, his voice tight.

"We'll be there." I replied, instantly awake. I returned the phone to its cradle and rolled over. "Come on lover, I think it's time."

Logan was immediately alert and we dressed quickly. My heart was thumping so hard in my chest that I knew Logan could hear it. I tried everything I could to calm down, but deep inside I knew that Charles was mobilizing Omega and my lover was going into the very heart of danger. He held my hand on the whole trip to the lower level and didn't let go once we got there.

We'd moved the security office to a larger room some weeks before to accommodate the additional equipment that Buzz had ordered. We felt that it was important for him to be able to conduct his projects and be ready to call a security alert immediately if his information dictated the action. When we entered the room, I saw that Bobby, Inferno, Alex, Chasca and Jubilee were all already there along with the Professor. Buzz was typing furiously at terminal in the corner, his brow furrowed in concentration beneath his shocking blue hair. Logan and I sat down in the two remaining seats.

Charles took a deep breath before he began and looked at each of us in turn. "Some of you already know why you've been called here so late." He said with a slight nod to Logan and me. "As you know, we have several teams of X-Men to perform different functions or to combine as a single unit when needed. However, we have recently instituted another special team that is only mobilized in the most dire of circumstances." He thumbed the control on his wheelchair and turned to the computer next to him. He punched a few keys and a message appeared on the large display screen behind him. "Buzz received this message twenty minutes ago from one of his contacts in Australia." We all turned to read it.

Buzzkill-

Got those screen caps you were waiting for from the overhead look-see. Resolution sucks, so I hope you can enhance them. I'm rabbitting after I send this, so if you have any way to get me a hidey-hole, I would appreciate it. Too much to explain to trust to an email, no matter how secure you say it is. Wish me luck.

Jazz

"Our best guess is that someone traced her through the systems she hacked into to get us other information. I've managed to track her with Cerebro, but she's still on the move." He turned his chair again to face Buzz. "Do you have the image yet?"

"Almost boss." Buzz replied without looking up. "It's still pretty shitty, but it'll get the point across." He typed in some commands and a large picture appeared on the overhead. "Ok, this is the wide shot she sent me. According to the coordinates that came with it, this is as far into the Outback as you can get and still sustain human life." The image was dark and grainy, obviously taken during the night. Had he not told me this was supposed to be wilderness, I would have assumed it was an overhead shot of a small town from all the lights that were arranged in neat rows. He clicked something else and the picture changed. "Ok, this one was taken at four thousand feet. I want you to look at this in particular." He clicked something else and a red circle appeared around a shape in the lower right corner. "It's still kind of hard to see, but I had the computer analyze it and it confirms that this is a Sentinel." He clicked again, a new picture appeared and I gasped. "This one was taken at one thousand feet. Again, concentrate on this area." He circled the lower right again. "As you can see, that is a giant Sentinel there. But if you zoom in a little more," he clicked again and the image enlarged, "you can see these are smaller Sentinels."

"How much smaller?" Jubilee asked with a slight tremor in her voice.

"Well, if the giant ones are about three stories tall, then the smaller ones are just over man-sized, about eight to ten feet I'd guess." He clicked once more and the image changed again. "But that's not all. The little ones can attach to the big ones on the legs and torso. And the big ones fly." He indicated a streak near the top of the picture and sure enough, it was a giant Sentinel with a jet trail behind it. "I estimate about a dozen small ones can attach to a big one, which can fly to any location and deploy them." He clicked again and one more picture came up. "Last, but certainly not least, is this." He typed in some commands and the picture brightened a bit. "This is as good as I can get it, but according to the computer, this is the Master Mold. We couldn't find it on infrared because it's already so hot in the Outback that the heat signature was being masked. It also seems that they never run it at night, because it's too much cooler than the Master Mold's core temperature."

"An' no one really lives out there anyway, so no one would ever know it was there." Logan growled. "Son of a bitch."

"I second that." Inferno added, scowling. "So is that why we're here? Are we going after that thing?"

"Yes, you are." The Professor stated. "You are going as the Omega team."

"Omega team?" Alex asked, clearly confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means there's no other way to do this." I replied, standing up. "It means the Professor here doesn't want to take any chances or any prisoners. You're going in to take that thing out and anyone who's with it."

"Why the Professor? Why not Scott? I thought he was the leader of the X-Men."

"He is." Charles said, turning to Alex. "But I have discretionary control over Omega team. I am the only person with the authority to mobilize it."

"So how come Scott isn't here?"

"Because I don't feel that he's the right choice for this particular job. Each of you have talents that, when combined, give us the best chance to take out the Master Mold. Inferno and Iceman can work together to weaken the metal, Jubilee has a most unfortunate effect on electronics, Echo can fly silently and get close enough to set charges in places the rest of you can't reach, Logan is virtually unkillable and you can use your blasting power to destroy the exterior power cells on several at a time. You are the best team to send for this mission."

"Scott's power is exactly like mine, Professor. He would be an asset to the team!"

"Scott's power is also unidirectional, whereas yours can be used in other ways. And there are other factors that facilitated my decision. I assure you, I have given this a great deal of thought and you are the team I wish to send. If you do not feel you are the right man for the job, tell me now and I'll find someone else."

"No, it's all right. I'll go."

"Very well." He turned back to Logan and me. "Logan, as senior X-Man, you will be the field commander. Angela, I know better than to try and leave you out of this, so you will remain here as base command. As soon as Omega team has lifted off, I want you to mobilize the rest of Alpha team as well as Beta and put them on patrol around the mansion. After that, it is in your hands."

"Roger Professor." Logan said and stood up. "Ok team, get suited up! We leave in five!" The rest of the team rushed out of the office and he turned to Charles. "I want Sam or Colossus to come with us too." He stated.

"Logan, I don't think that will be necessary." Xavier replied.

"I do. I'll need someone there with a good arm an' they're the only ones for the job."

"Very well. Take Atlas, the two of you work well together."

Logan nodded and the Professor left the office. I got on the internal phone and found Sam in his studio. He agreed to join the mission without briefing. I secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Sam may not be indestructible, but he was relentless and knowing he would be there to watch my lover's back made me feel a lot better about this whole thing. There's also the fact that he was a better pilot than Logan, which would make the rest of the team very happy. When I got off the phone, Logan was still standing in the doorway.

"Lover, you're going to be late." I whispered, not trusting my voice just then.

"I know." He said and pulled me into his arms. He kissed me deeply, his hand gripping the back of my head. "But I have rules 'bout bein' able to kiss my woman before a mission."

"That you do." I replied and kissed him again. "You be careful, ok? If you come back dead, I'll have to kill you."

He smiled at my ironic statement. "Don't worry darlin'. Remember, hell itself couldn't keep me from you."

"I love you."

"I love you too." He spared me another quick kiss, then he was gone.

About ten minutes later, I heard the rumbling that indicated the hangar bay doors outside were opening, followed by the roar of the jet as it sped off into the night. I hit the silent alarm that would mobilize Alpha and Beta team, then got on the radio to the jet. "Base to Omega, frequency check."

"Omega here." Logan said. "Will use standard frequencies til we get close, then switch to secure frequency Delta." Good plan, since it wouldn't be used by anyone else. "Takin' the bird sub-orbital, call ya back in an hour."

"Roger that. Base out."

Buzz sat down in the chair next to me and took my hand. "You know they're gonna be all right." He said.

I nodded. "I know. They have to be. The people we love best are on that jet."

"I'll get us a good look-see from above so we can watch them, all right?"

"Good. Put it on the overhead, maximum enhancement."

"Roger that." He said with a touch of sarcasm as he wheeled back over to his computer. "I still can't get used to you being all military at times like this."

"It's what I was made to do." I replied simply, then Alpha and Beta entered the office. I briefed them on the situation and Scott was smart enough to keep his mouth shut about not being sent with Omega. Naturally, there were questions and I answered them as best as I could.

"So why are we being mobilized if the threat is in Australia?" Rogue asked sleepily.

"Because the big ones can fly and we have no idea where they might be flying to right now." I replied. "We have to assume the worst and protecting this school is our number one priority. We also have to be ready to evacuate in case Omega team has to retreat and they could have Sentinels on their tail when that happens."

"Do you think they'll be able to stop those things?" Kyle asked, sounding nervous.

"They'll take them out or die trying." I said and swallowed hard. "Just like I expect all of you to protect this place or die trying. This is war, the real deal. We have run out of time."

"Angela, how did this happen?" That was Kitty talking, a catch in her voice. "How did it come to this?"

"I don't know Kitty. I wish I did, but I don't." I turned back to my computer and checked on the position of Omega team. "Now get suited up. Scott's in charge of the lot of you unless he assigns a squad leader for Beta. Check in with me if you find anything so I can start the evacuation."

They all filed out except for Scott, who sat next to me. "Angela, are you sure you're up to this? Hank's having a fit over you being here."

"I know. But do you really think you can keep me out of this?"

"Not without sedating you, I'm sure."

"Exactly. Now go on, do your thing. I'm just the base command here. You're the real guy in charge."

"I couldn't do it without you, you know."

"Flatterer. Now go."

He patted me on the shoulder and went to the door. He paused there a moment and looked at me over his shoulder. "He'll be all right." He murmured. I just nodded and he left.

Buzz finally managed to get the satellite image he wanted and the view there now was much worse than the night shots his friend had sent us. It was weird to be sitting in the mansion in the middle of the night while looking at a current image of the middle of day halfway across the world. Intellectually I know that's how it works, but the conscious mind doesn't have to like it. Still, the sight was enough to make a cold ball form in my stomach.

Row after row, rank after rank, hundreds if not thousands of Sentinels were standing there, unmoving. Behind the smaller ones stood several dozen giant ones with men swarming over and around them. I heard Buzz curse under his breath followed by frantic typing. A moment later, an icon appeared in the lower left corner of the image. "There." He said. "I've set it up to record everything as it happens."

"Good." I replied softly. "I'd hate to think that we wouldn't have a physical record of the demise of the Omega team." I swallowed back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"Hey, Ang, you know they'll be all right. Logan won't go in unless he thinks he has a shot, you know that."

"Can you tell if any of those things are operational?"

He frowned, then went back to work. I simply stared at the scene on the overhead, my mind still not grasping the enormity of this mission. Even with all my training and experience, I had nothing to compare this to. I had never seen anything like this in my life and if I live to be a thousand years old, I hope I never have to see it again. A few minutes later, Buzz yelled "aha!" and the overhead display split down the middle.

"What's all that?" I asked, confused.

"That's the main file system for the central computer down there." He said proudly. "There's no power that far into the Outback, so they have to rely on solar powered battery packs and microwave transmissions. I just told the satellite to route any communications it picks up to me, but not to tell anyone." He moved to the seat next to mine and started typing again. As he did so, the display showed his progress through the file system as he looked for the information we needed. After a few tense moments, he found it. "Ok, let me see." He skimmed the files and looked at me with a smile. "Negative operation. They're still working out the bugs in the Sentinel's main systems. Looks like the one that got Red Riding Hood was the only one operational at the time, they took the safe house as a test. But when others came off the line, they started having problems."

"What kind of problems?"

He skimmed further down. "Uh, looks like their central system is supposed to act kind of like a hive mind, what one knows the others will know. But they can't get it to function correctly. They rolled all those things off the line and now they can't keep them under control in groups over three."

"Three big ones?"

"No, three TOTAL. Now, we already know the big ones can do a lot of damage alone, but if they wanted to send theses things out all at once, they'd wind up destroying more normal humans than mutants. It's a quirk in the programming they can't seem to fix."

Before I could ask him to elaborate, the radio sprang to life. "Omega to base, come in." Logan said.

"Base here. Switching to Delta." I tapped a button on the console and continued. "Base to Omega, report."

"We're approachin' the area. Any new intel?"

"Affirmative Omega." I gave him the rundown on what we knew and Logan swore softly.

"Base, remind me to tell X when we get home that this damn bird needs some missiles." He said.

"Copy that. What's your plan?"

"Well, that night shot didn't show nearly as many of those things as you say are down there, so I guess we'll hafta play it by ear."

"Wolverine, you can not go in there with that small of a crew and expect to come out alive!"

"Darlin', I never expect to come out alive, I just always do. Besides, didn't you just tell me they can't control that many at once?"

"What's your point?"

"Hide an' seek. Might take a little longer, but I think I got just the place. Omega out."

"Logan!" I cried, but he'd already cut the connection. I swore under my breath and turned to Buzz. "Can you get a lock on the jet with that look-see of yours?"

"Already on it boss." He replied and the overhead display split again. The X-Jet came into view, settling down in between a couple of large rock formations about three klicks from the Sentinel staging area. "Found a weather satellite in the area that looked like it needed a break from its regular routine so I didn't have to get rid of the other view." He explained.

"So what do the real people who own that thing think happened to it?"

"Primary system reboot. Takes about a day, so we have all the time in the world with it."

"Excellent." I said. He typed in a few more commands and the picture zoomed in until it looked like we were only a few hundred feet above the Omega team. He frowned in concentration, then typed in a few more commands until the two images blended into an almost seamless whole. It didn't give us the best view, but we could see everything and that was what counted. After a few moments, the jet opened and Omega team stepped out into the glaring sun. I watched as Logan conferred with the team briefly before Chasca took off into the sky. I watched her progress closely as she flew towards the staging area, high enough that even the sensors in the Sentinels wouldn't pick her up, but close enough that she could pick and choose her target. It took her a little while to make the flight, but once she got to the edge of the field she swooped low enough to brush the top of one of the giant Sentinels. She reversed her dive into a tight spiral back into the sky and I saw her wings straining to gain more altitude as she left the scene. Fifteen seconds later, the head of the Sentinel exploded and all hell broke loose.

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Post-Chapter Note: Hehehehehe...now you know why i reminded you about the update on demand:) Me and my evil cliffies...:) Special thanks to Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel for beta reading...Extra Special thanks to DBK(tm) for the puppy dog eyes and extra begging for more...Super Special thanks to my readers just for sticking with it...and Extra Super Swanky Special thanks to my reviewers, who were sela103 and reeltreble1031 this time around...reeltreble - sorry no one granted your wish! sela - Angela has til August (story-time) til she's due...in update terms, that's about 21 days away! (Unless i get a new reviewer!)

So go ahead and review! If three days is too long for you to wait, YOU could be the one to make it happen sooner!