19. War Zone
Waking up to a blurred world, Miguel found himself hanging above the ground with his seatbelt keeping him in the driver's seat. Broken glass fell to the asphalt as well as blood from his injuries with the most severe being a piece of metal sticking through his left shoulder. The pain was excruciating as he freed himself from his safety belt and fell the few feet to the ground with the metal sliding out of his body. He instantly put a hand over the wound to help stop the bleeding as the radio softly relayed what the others were saying in the middle of their battle.
"Miguel…Miguel, what's your position?" Cyclops yelled over the radio.
"These blasted fools are usin' everything they got!" Rogue hollered through a bit of static.
"Just enjoy yourself, petite!" Gambit told her. "How many times do you get to cut loose in an urban war?"
"Including when you nearly blew off mah hand?"
"That was flirtin."
"Guys," Pixie yelled at the southern couple, "Radio's for field mission's, not flirting! The van must be close. I'm almost done getting communication's back up and getting a stronger signal."
"This is Colossus, we need back up, now!" The Russian broke in. "Cyclops is injured, I'm pulling him out!"
With his vision becoming clearer, Miguel looked out of the shattered windshield and saw a multitude of armored soldiers like the ones from the mansion close in around him with weapons drawn. Letting out a grunt, he made his way to the back of the vehicle to buy himself some time as the soldiers continued to surround the van. By this time the hole in his shoulder had stopped bleeding and was sore more than anything else. A day or two later and it should be fully healed given how large the hole was and how much damage he took.
"S#$t," he said as he looked out the back window and saw over a dozen of the soldiers had already assembled behind the vehicle.
Reaching into one of the packs on his belt, Miguel took out two smoke bombs and pulled their pins. One was tossed out the front of the van with the other thrown into the group of advancing soldiers behind the vehicle. Upon seeing the canisters, they scattered at the fear of them being explosives, buying the pinned down mutant time to crawl out while using the thick smoke as cover.
It was almost instantly as he came into view that the soldiers opened fire. Miguel's claws flashed to life as he began attacking them, first one at a time then in groups. Bullets flew through the air with those striking him bouncing off and falling to the ground. Some of the soldiers were caught in a crossfire with each other and fell to friendly fire while others went for the more hands on approach. Blades were unsheathed and sliced into the mutant but only did minimal damage to his uniform. Those that managed to land lucky shots were soon lying on the ground in a spasming heap from being put into comas.
"Grenades!" One of the soldiers yelled.
Before Miguel could react several grenades were launched his way, forcing him to abandon the soldiers he was confronting to dive out of the way. When he came out of his rollout, he saw several explosions occur and kill those who were unfortunate to be caught in the blast zone.
"You kill your own?!" he said as he went back to attacking the others.
"Only if they can't get the job done." Another of the soldiers took a swipe at him with a two foot long electrical blade that sparked when it came into contact with a damaged street sign pole. "Stand and fight like a man, mutant!"
"Show me one and I will!"
Miguel was the first to attack as he went directly for the soldier's head with his claws. The armored man sidestepped and brought his electrical blade up but was blocked by the mutant grabbing hold of his forearm. Kicking the clawed man away, the soldier went for his side arm and jammed the muzzle in Miguel's throat. Just as he pulled the trigger, a set of blue claws sliced through his chest and head, making the once confident soldier fall to his knees as his body shook from a seizure.
With the rest of the soldiers down or retreating, Miguel pressed a pair of fingers to his ear in an attempt to contact the others through his communicator. "Anyone, come in. What's your position?"
"Chupa?" Pixie came in over the radio. "Where are …doing here?"
"Pix? Pix, come in, I can't hear you!"
"Chu…Se…all back…of here."
"Pix, where are-" As he tried to get a clear connection to his fellow mutant, an ear splitting scream filled Miguel's ear followed by several shouts that sounded like Rogue and Gambit.
"Pix?! Pix, come in! Rogue, Gambit!"
Over the sounds of gunfire from further in the city, several explosions erupted with balls of fire reaching into the sky. It was then when he saw the giant robot from earlier as it turned its bullet-like head and unleashed a volley of gunfire from its shoulder mounted cannons. A cold shiver ran down his spine at the thought of the machine targeting and hitting the pink haired girl.
"Pix," he whispered.
Heading to the back of the van, Miguel ripped the doors off with his claws and dove back in. A bright light shot out from the damaged vehicle as an engine roared to life and he came bursting out on his motorcycle, heading to where the Sentinel was currently on its mutant hunting rampage. Pieces of the destroyed street flew into the air behind him as he sped off toward the chaos. The remaining soldiers he ran into fired upon seeing him with those in his path being struck down from a claw strike. None gave chase as the ones behind him made their way to the subway entrances, their job already completed.
In the middle of the Sentinel's rampage further in the city, Pixie found herself pinned behind a large slab of turned over asphalt with dozens of purple and black armored soldiers firing vollies of gunfire on her position. She let out a scream as she dropped the small radio amplifier she was working on to cover her head as bullets and concrete exploded around her. A sharp pain radiated from her arm as a flying piece of glass embedded itself in her bicep. She quickly reached up and covered her right arm as blood flowed freely between her fingers.
"She's behind there, get her!" a soldier ordered before another one told him to look out.
Three streaks of magenta colored light streaked towards the armed men and exploded, sending them crashing into those behind them. The origin of the lights came sliding down a hill of broken asphalt, dirt, and cars as Gambit pulled out several more of his trademark playing cards to kinetically charge and throw once again. Rogue soon made her presence known as she landed on the other side of the street with her body being entirely encased by the Bio-organic metal she had borrowed from Colossus. Her arrival sent a shockwave into the group of soldiers and tripped them up enough to buy some time for the three to regroup.
"How's the arm?" Gambit asked as he kept an eye out for any advancing soldiers.
"Glass is in deep. I'm losing too much blood." Pixie cringed at the pain she felt. Despite pulling out a field kit to bandage what she could, blood continued to seep freely from the wound.
"Remy!" Rogue yelled from a few yards away. "The soldiers are pullin' back but the Sentinel's about to-"
A high volume of gunfire tore up the street around the three X-Men. Cement went flying in the air as with pieces of cars and trucks. Gambit did his best to shield Pixie as much as he could from the kicked up debris as Rogue went ahead and shoulder tackled the giant machine's leg, causing it to tilt slightly off balance. She landed a solid hard punch to its ankle joint before being batted away. Landing a block from the battle, Rogue shook her head and stood up just in time to see the machine fire an electrical net from one of its hands and incapacitate her with electrical pulses designed to keep her down.
"Hold on, tovarich!" Colossus yelled. Arriving where Rogue was, he ripped off the netting just as Cyclops got there with his knee wrapped up and a slight limp.
"Who else is down there?" Cyclops asked as he fired an optic blast at the Sentinel's head.
"Remy and Pixie," Rogue replied. "Pixie's hurt bad and Remy's holding them off."
"She got the comm units back up but they're only good for short range. Miguel's here in what I can guess is the van but since communications are still mostly down, it may be damaged."
"Well Ah'm goin' after Remy and Pixie, Cyke. You two can keep dealing with Mr. Rock em' Sock em'."
"No, Rogue. You and Colossus handle the Sentinel, I'll go help Pixie and cover Gambit."
Before the team could move out, a high pitched whistle could be heard from the sky. The three looked up to see two rockets heading their way. It was too late to move as the first one struck several feet in front of Rogue and Colossus. They were banged up but uninjured due to their metallic bodies. Cyclops took out the second one with a blast but was knocked back by the pressure wave.
"Go!" the field leader yelled. "Take the Sentinel out!"
"Guys, we could use some backup here!" Charging another card, Gambit threw it at the giant machine where it exploded on the joint of its left arm.
The robot made a groaning noise as it recoiled from the hit and lowered its arm. Sparks flew out of the joint along with oil and other fluids necessary to keep its parts moving properly. The remaining soldiers were firing until they ran out of ammunition for their weapons in which case they would head underground. Those left were letting the two pinned down mutants have everything they had left as they never let up on their assault. One or two of them would breach Gambit's defenses and tried to take the Cajun on hand to hand but were quickly dealt with as Pixie, although still bleeding pretty steadily, stuck them with her soul dagger to paralyze them. The two often had to duck to avoid being hit by the combined fire power of the soldiers and the Sentinel from time to time.
"Again," Gambit yelled into his communicator. "We could really use some damn help!"
"Gambit?" came Miguel's voice from over the comm unit.
"Miguel? Where are you?" the Cajun asked as he threw three more explosive cards.
"About three blocks from the robot and coming in fast."
"Hope you have a big bomb with you. We've only been putting dents in it."
Miguel swerved around several burning cars as he drew closer and saw the machine fire another round of gunfire. "Ah've got a full tank of gas in mah bike."
A grin crossed Gambit's features. "You get that bike up high enough to reach its left arm and I'll make it go boom."
"On mah way."
Picking up speed, Miguel shot through the streets and came up to the machine. An overturned car provided the perfect ramp for the maneuver to be carried out. Gunning the engine to get the motorcycle up to speed, he hit the makeshift ramp and took off into the air. As the bike riding mutant sailed toward the machine's lifeless limb, he leapt off it just as Gambit charged a card and hurled it ahead of the vehicle. The moment it came into contact with the Sentinel's shoulder joint, the card hit it and caused the bike to explode. The force of the blast was just enough to damage the arm further to where it ripped off the main body and fell to the ground. As for Miguel, he landed atop a truck and crashed through its cab.
"Miguel," Gambit said as he ran up to the once airborne mutant. "You okay?"
"Yeah," he said as he popped his neck and allowed Gambit to help him behind the asphalt slab he and Pixie were using as cover. "Ah had my claws out. Where's the others?"
As if to answer his question, a bright red blast streaked towards the damaged machine and managed to knock one of its shoulder cannons off. Cyclops, Rogue, and Colossus soon joined them as rifle fire continued to whizz through the air around them.
"Pix, you okay? What happened?" Miguel asked. He quickly made his way to her side and looked her over. He slightly panicked when he saw the amount of blood she had lost.
"Struck by a glass shard. Really not feeling too good." Pixie's face had begun to pale and her speech was getting slower.
"Alright, Cyke, so what's the plan?" Rogue asked as she and Colossus helped to provide cover for the others.
"It'll take all of us to bring the Sentinel down. You two need to take out its legs. Gambit, you and I have to concentrate on taking its other arm off. Miguel, think you can hold off the remaining soldiers?"
"No problem," Miguel said as he took off his hooded jacket and wrapped it around Pixie. "How much time do you need?"
"All you can give us."
"Consider it done."
As the others got ready to move out, Miguel turned back to the injured woman. "I'll be back, I promise. And we'll get you out of here."
"You better." She gave a weak smile. "There's still other things we need to do together."
He gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Yeah. There are."
"Chupa," Pixie said as Miguel formed his blue claws and got ready to head back out into the battle. "Don't get too angry out there."
He gave her a nod then joined the battle.
As one, the small group of X-Men attacked the lumbering Sentinel. Rogue and Colossus went to work attacking its legs, throwing it off balance as Cyclops fired several blasts to keep it from targeting the group. Gambit charged up his bo staff and dug it into the machine's ankle joint. The result was a kinetic charge being sent up the robot's leg and causing it to groan from being damaged heavily.
The impaired machine fell to the side and crashed into a nearby building. Brick, mortar, and glass showered the street as the mutant team dove out of the way of the falling debris. Their attack resumed as Rogue took a flying leap and landed an overhead ax handle chop on its knee in an effort to keep it down.
"Bring him down!" a soldier yelled as Miguel sliced his way through the dozens of soldiers remaining.
Another crossfire was created by the mutant as he weaved in and out of the militants. Many fell to their compatriots own rifle fire as others were put in comas or seizures. Ducking a swipe from one of the blade wielding troopers, Miguel kicked the weapon out of his hand and landed a round house kick to his helmeted head hard enough to knock it off. Another solder had his face busted from a hard elbow to the face while another was knocked out from a vicious uppercut to the temple.
Over behind the asphalt barrier, Pixie worked on trying to stop the bleeding while keeping an ear out for the others over her communicator. All but Miguel's came in clear, evident his was damaged. She had managed to pull the sliver of glass out, risking it bleeding out more so she could properly tie a tourniquet and bandage it up when a pair of booted feet landed in front of her.
"Freeze, mutant freak." A soldier who had managed to sneak around the fighting mutants raised his rifle to the injured girl's head.
Pixie's eyes went wide as she scooted back but was stopped by the wall behind her. As he cocked his rifle, Pixie closed her eyes in the hopes it wouldn't hurt. The kill shot should have come swiftly but it seemed the soldier enjoyed seeing her squirm. The sound of the rifle shot came and went along with the thud of the man falling to the ground. Opening her eyes slowly, she saw Miguel standing over the spasming man with his claws threatening to turn black. He was breathing heavily and tried to get himself to calm down.
"Chupa…"
"Can't Ah leave you alone for one minute without you getting into trouble?" His claws returned to their regular blue color as he flashed a grin at her.
"What did I say about getting angry?"
"Ah Pix, Ah was agitated, not angry."
Making sure she was okay, Miguel went back to holding off the rest of the soldiers only to see the remainder retreating from the battle. As for the Sentinel, it was being brought down by the combined efforts of the X-Men. A loud groan and the sound of gears straining came for the massive machine as it struggled to keep itself up with its only good arm. Colossus succeeded in ripping apart the joint to its right leg while Gambit targeted its remaining shoulder cannon. Rogue had resorted to using its fallen arm to batter the other leg while Cyclops went to work on its remaining arm by firing his optic blasts at its elbow joint.
As it came down, the machine's chest jutted out and separated down the middle. Gears screeched as the chest panels rose to reveal a barrage of missile tubes. Several white lights lit up as they began to power up. With what was left of its energy, the Sentinel raised its torso up enough to aim the projectiles at the group of mutants who didn't have anywhere to run to.
"Rogue, Colossus, knock it back!" Cyclops ordered as he fired upon the shoulder of the automaton.
Both silver plated mutants tackled the damaged Sentinel in an effort to use their combined weight and power to bring it to its back. Gambit was directly behind it with his hands on a car, charging it with explosive kinetic energy. Seeing what the others were doing, Miguel charged the back of the faltering machine and imprinted Colossus' strength as he leapt up and dug his claws in the metal back of the Sentinel. His added weight and borrowed strength was enough to tip the machine's center of gravity just enough to fall back just as its barrage of missiles launched into the sky.
Getting clear of the impending explosion, Gambit and the others took cover as the Sentinel fell on the charged car and exploded. A shower of metal fell over the destroyed city street as the mutants took cover.
"Cyclops!" Pixie yelled. "The missiles!"
Looking up at where the missiles were, Cyclops ripped his visor off and unleashed the full power of his optic blast. Every missile was destroyed once the red energy struck them with none being missed by the wide arcing field. The remnants of the projectiles were burned up before they reached the ground, leaving no danger of falling debris.
With the mutant hunting machine erupting in small explosions and the others moving out from their cover spots, Miguel quickly made his way back to Pixie with his claws shredding through pieces of the Sentinel to create a path. Rogue emerged from under a slab of concrete as she retracted her metallic skin with Gambit coming out from behind an overturned over El Camino with half of his trench coat burned. Cyclops was fitting his visor back over his eyes and Colossus kept an eye on the retreating soldiers as he picked up one of the left behind helmets and looked it over.
"Now that's how you paint the town red," the Cajun said as he spotted Miguel run past him.
"Pix?" Miguel called as he neared where she rested.
Hearing her name called, she moved from her spot with her wound bandaged and free of bleeding. "Chupa?"
"Pix, stay there, I'm-"
"Miguel look out!" Cyclops yelled.
Coming to a quick stop a few yards before reaching Pixie, Miguel heard something reminiscent of a generator powering up. The decapitated head of the Sentinel was looking right at him as its eyes began to glow yellow. He moved back only to see the eyes re-center on him as they continued to increase in brightness
"Oh, f #k."
Faster than he could form his claws and become invulnerable, a bright yellow light fired from the Sentinel's eyes and covered him from head to toe in energy. He didn't have time to let out a yell before being struck with the beam with his name being yelled as Pixie screamed at the top of her lungs.