Thank you for the favourite and follow!
CHAPTER SIX
The restaurant was elegant and expensive, as were most of the people there. It was just the sort of location that the man by the bar had wanted. He was of Indian descent and his name was Neal Shaara. He turned to the barman. "You're ready?" The barman smiled and nodded.
Neal returned to the table where Karina was waiting for him. She smiled at his approach. "Did you do what you had to do?"she asked innocently.
"Yes." Neal took a deep breath, reached into his pocket, and took out a ring. "Karina, will you marry me?"
He wasn't sure whether she'd anticipated it or not. But the smile on her face was genuine. "Neal, of course I'll…"
A moment before his world was complete, it was torn apart.
The Sentinel ripped the roof off the restaurant, towering over it. It fired blasts wildly through the resulting hole, causing the staff and patrons to scatter. Neal knew he should run too but something told him that they were there for him. A mutant.
"Get down!"he shouted to Karina. He stared defiantly up at the Sentinel then unleashed a charge of super-heated plasma. It burned into the giant robot, but not enough to make it fall. The robot reached out a hand towards him.
"No!"shouted Karina, running out of cover. Neal tried to push her out of the way but the Sentinel had turned on her. Whether it identified her as a threat or as a part of its mission, he wasn't sure. But the end result was the same. It fired a blast and vapourised her on the spot.
Neal stayed rooted where he was. There didn't seem to be any reason to move. He offered no resistance as the Sentinel tied him up with a long cable and dragged him away.
Wolverine and Storm were with Beast in the facility where the Sentinel test had been carried out. The wrecked nature of the building was a testament to what had occurred. "Did you see who did this?"Storm asked.
"A glimpse only,"Beast replied. "He appeared to be encased entirely in armour. Red and purple."
The two X-Men exchanged a glance. "Sounds familiar,"Storm noted.
"You've met him?"Beast asked.
"We haven't. Rogue and Jubilee did."
"Got a name too,"Wolverine added. "Onslaught."
Beast raised an eyebrow. "A colourful if not particularly insightful sobriquet."
"He's taken Harmony,"Storm explained. "And maybe the Professor too."
"Taking over the Sentinels the way he did would require great knowledge or great power,"Beast mused. "Perhaps both."
"The kids said he managed to absorb Harmony somehow,"Wolverine pointed out.
Storm picked up on his train of thought. "You think he did the same to the Professor?"
"Yeah, and used it. The things he can do…sounds like the Professor. Like he's got his powers somehow."
"There's something else though,"Beast pointed out. "The way he looks, it's like…Magneto."
"We are sure Magneto's dead, right?"Wolverine asked.
"As sure as we can be. There wasn't much left where he was."
"If this Onslaught has got the powers of both Charles Xavier and Magneto,"Storm considered,"then he'd be virtually unstoppable."
Angel was lying on his bed in his room. Something about recent events was disturbing him greatly. Not least of it was that glimpse of Kitty he'd had across the field. He knew it couldn't be her but with everything that was going on he couldn't help wondering…
He felt a hand stroke his hair and turned over with a start. And there she was, lying next to him. Kitty.
"Hello, Warren,"she said quietly.
Warren scrambled off the bed and looked at her suspiciously. "Who are you?"
Kitty sat up. "Come on, Warren, you know who I am."
Warren shook his head. "No, that's not possible."
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But you need to listen to me all the same. About Onslaught."
Warren looked at her suspiciously. "What about him?"
Kitty stood up and took his hands. Her touch felt so real that he couldn't help going along with it. "He's not what you think he is, Warren. He wants to help mutants, all mutants. He wants to bring us together, make us one. And if you accept him, we'll both be rewarded."