"I have to say, perfect timing!" Charles said cheerfully to the newly returned group.
"Yeah, I can see that..." Eric said, looking at the approaching sentinels. There must have been dozens of them.
"How did it go?" Charles asked about the rescue mission.
"It went well, no casualties," Jean smiled.
"Good," Charles nodded. "Do you all remember the plan?"
"Us gettin' the suckers away from the school, and then Jean goin' all Phoenix on their asses?" Logan looked as if he couldn't wait for it to go down.
"Something like that," Charles chuckled.
"Got it," Logan said.
Ororo noticed that Raven was holding knives. "What a coincidence, I just had a knife fight!" she said.
Raven looked at her, a big question mark on her face.
"I'll tell you later," Ororo said, waving her hand.
"Are ya joinin' in this time?" Logan teased Eric.
"I just might," Eric said mysteriously. He seemed like he had a plan.
The sentinels were getting closer and closer. "Let's go meet them halfway. That way, we'll already have some distance covered, and won't have to drive them that much farther away," Hank said.
"You're right, Hank," Charles said. "Off you go! Jean, you're staying with me. Help me get all the people in the area out of reach." Out of Phoenix's reach, he thought, but didn't say it out loud.
Jean nodded, and walked over to Charles.
"Ya got this, Jeannie," Logan encouraged her.
"Give them hell," Jean said, touching his face. Logan pulled her close and kissed her passionately before he ran off with the others.
Charles and Jean concentrated, trying to connect to as many minds as they could. Her telepathy must have evolved, for she never felt the presence of so many minds at once. Maybe it was the pressure that made her do so well. She hoped that she would display the same kind of control when it came to her Phoenix powers. For the sake of everything around her, that would better be the case.
Ororo took off in the air, unleashing a mighty storm. "Starting early, I see," Pietro said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah! Didn't get to use my powers in a while," Ororo said.
"Jubilee, I'll cover you the whole time," Kurt said.
"Why, you worried I'll get in trouble again?" Jubilee said, remembering how he had to move her out of harms way.
"No, I just wanna watch the fireworks!" Kurt said, smiling.
Eric started to create a magnetic field around him. "What do you plan on doing with that?" Raven asked.
"You'll see soon enough," Eric said, sounding confident.
"Storm, let's take the ones on the left! Same approach as in training," Scott said.
The sentinels were very close now. Some formed a row on the ground, and others stayed up in the air, towering over the rest of them. They formed a mutant killer wall.
"Enough talkin', let's have some fun!" Logan popped his claws and ran straight at them.
The X-Men tried to spread out. They didn't want to give the sentinels a chance of attacking them in a double envelopment. Scott move to the left, and blasted them without hesitation. He moved away quickly, as he saw energy beams forming in the sentinels' chests. Ororo flew in, and shot electricity at them from the top. Scott came in, and blasted the same ones yet again. Him and Ororo would follow the same pattern, driving them back, step by step, until the sentinels picked up on it.
Raven's agility, quickness, and flexibility helped her in avoiding the attacks, and much like in practice, she was distracting them so Hank was able to strike. She tried to stab one of them, but it wasn't effective at all, and she barely avoided getting hit by another one as it drew sharp objects at her. "I'm okay! Keep going!" she told Hank as he stopped fighting to go check on her. Hank nodded and got back to work.
Kurt kept grabbing the sentinels, and quickly transporting them into the path of Jubilee's fireworks. She kept aiming right on the chest, where they were able to form their own plasmoids. "Here's another one!" Kurt yelled as he put another sentinel in front of her. This one threw fireworks as well, and Jubilee jumped to the side. Sentinel missed, but he threw another one right at her. Kurt grabbed her and got her out of danger. "Thanks again!" she said.
Logan took on the right wing with Pietro. Logan's power and Pietro's speed was a deadly combination. Pietro was able to run around them quickly, and hit several of them in seconds. Logan got caught with just about every kind of attack there was, he got hit, he got stabbed, he got blasted...but he healed, again and again, mercilessly stabbing and clawing away at the sentinels. His healing ability made it easier for him to go on without resting. A sentinel stabbed him in the arm, mirroring Logan's previous attacks. He waited till his arm healed and said, "That's all ya got?" and went on another clawing rampage.
Some sentinels weren't getting up anymore, they seemed to be spent. But new ones behind them took their place. They were pushing them back successfully, but only little by little, and it was costing them a lot of energy. Hank looked behind him, Jean and Charles were doing well with getting people into safety. But they weren't far enough from the school to be able to bring Jean out, and end it all. "Not far enough," he sighed when Raven looked at him.
Ororo and Scott had their hands full, as more and more sentinels started to come their way. There were so many, that they couldn't avoid being blasted. Or they wouldn't be able to avoid it, if it weren't for Pietro. He stepped in quickly, taking Ororo and Scott, and placing them safely next to Jubilee and Kurt. Then he grabbed two sentinels, and placed them where Ororo and Scott stood before. They all watched as the sentinels energy beamed two of their own. Unfortunately, part of the blast hit the school, and damaged a portion of it. "That was my room!" Jubilee yelled, furious as she threw fireworks at the one that did it.
Raven was very tired. She wasn't able to move as quickly as before, and she absorbed a direct hit to the chest that sent her flying back. "Raven!" Hank yelled. She was unconscious. He saw a sentinel drawing something that looked like knives on some sort of a chain mechanism, aiming right at her. He ran to her as quickly as he could. He picked her up and tried to get out of the way, but a couple of those knives got him in the back. He held Raven in one arm, as he drew the knives out of his back with the other hand. He felt a sharp pain, and then nothing, everything slowly turning back. More sentinels approached them, they were about to get hit with more energy, when Eric stepped in front of them with his magnetic field. A strong magnetic field was able to influence the movement of electrons from the energy beam. Not only he was able to shield Raven, Hank, and himself, he was able to redirect the energy at the sentinels. He took out several of them at once, and gained more ground. "Hank!" Raven screamed as she woke up, finding Hank bleeding and unconscious. "Come on, Hank, wake up! Wake up! I love you!" she sobbed. "I'll take him to safety," Pietro said. He literally had to pry him out of Raven's hands. She didn't want to let him go. "I'll take him over to Charles, don't worry!" he said calmly.
"Oh my God!" Jean covered her mouth in shock when she saw what shape Hank was in.
"Will he be okay?" Pietro asked.
Charles examined him quickly. "Hopefully, he's just passed out from the pain. Take him to Moira, she'll take care of him."
Pietro did just that.
Logan nearly cleared the right wing, and moved in to the left, where most of the sentinels were now concentrated.
"We gotta push them back just a little bit more! Come on, we can do it" Ororo tried to motivate the tired X-Men.
"Here, I'll show ya how it's done!" Logan said, stabbing a sentinel with his claws, picking him up, and slamming on the ground.
The sentinels switched from energy beams to electricity now, and they seemed to have focused on Scott.
"Cyke, watch out!" Logan yelled at Scott, who was helping Jubilee, and didn't realize he opened himself up.
"Dammit, move!" Logan yelled as he pushed him away, but received a direct shot of lightning. He was still recovering from everything else that hit him earlier, and this shot finally dropped him.
"Logan!" Jean cried out in anguish. She was about to run towards him when Charles stopped her. "No, Jean, not yet! He'll be okay, he'll heal!" he tried to assure her.
Jean felt a wave of rage rise inside her. She stayed in place, but she telekinetically punished the sentinel that hurt Logan. She directed electricity back at it, sending it tumbling back. Flames appeared in her eyes.
"No, no, no, no, no, control it! Hold on for just a little longer!" Charles pleaded.
Scott dragged Logan out of immediate danger, and helped him up as he slowly started to recover. There was barely anything left of his uniform.
"Wolverine, are you okay?" Scott asked.
"Yeah...or more like I will be..." he said.
"Thank you," Scott said with as much affection as he could possibly muster for Logan.
"I told ya you can count on me," Logan said.
"Duck!" Eric shouted. Logan and Scott looked behind them, and saw a car flying in their direction. They barely made it on the ground in time as the car, controlled by Eric, hit two sentinels square on.
"Thanks for the heads up," Logan said. A touch of scolding noticeable in his tone.
Ororo, Scott, and Jubilee managed to drive back a few more. Kurt grabbed two sentinels and dropped them off far from school.
"That's it, they're far enough!" Charles said, excited. "Phoenix, you're up!" he told Jean. "Everybody pull back!" he told the group telepathically.
Ororo took Jubilee, and Eric took Raven, and flew away from the sentinels. Logan and Scott held onto Kurt, who took them over to Charles.
Jean sprinted towards the sentinels. There were still a lot of them left untouched, and some of the ones on the ground started to get up as well. Her heart was beating out of her chest. All the pressure was on her. The lives of her friends and innocent people were in her hands. "For Logan, for professor, for Scott, for Ororo, for Jubilee, for Hank, for Raven, for Pietro, for Kurt, for Eric..." she thought as she ran forward. The sentinels moved towards her, and she stopped running. She stood there all alone. One against an army. She spread her arms, and let out a deafening scream. Flames shot out of her eyes; they formed all around her body. She unleashed hell. A light brighter than a thousand stars carried feet and feet across. She released a force greater than anything anyone's ever seen in this world. And she released all of it. The tough, durable, improved sentinels started disintegrating like everything else that the Phoenix force touched. Piece by piece vaporized, vanished, gone. Nothing would remain of them. Jean was erasing them from existence. The mutants and humans watched in awe as a miracle was happening in front of their eyes.
"Magnificent!" Eric gasped, as he's never seen anything like this before.
The sentinels were gone. Gone to the last one. The work wasn't over for Jean, now she had to contain her amazing powers. Jean closed her eyes and thought of the man she first saw in that godforsaken place. She thought of the troubled man, struggling to control his temper, a man that altered time for her, a man that put himself in the line of fire to help her control her powers, a man who gave her hope, and peace. She thought of Logan, her Wolverine. The man she loved more than anything.
Her scream has faded. The flames have disappeared. She did it. She saved her friends, the school, and possibly stopped a war from breaking out. Jean felt dizzy, lightheaded, exhausted. She slowly squatted down, and touched the ground with one hand to support herself.
"Jeannie!" Logan ran up to her.
"Jeannie, are ya okay?" he said, kneeling in front of her, rubbing her arms.
Jean barely had the strength to raise her chin and look at him.
"Logan?" she said, sounding very tired. "I saw you on the ground when..." she mumbled as she remembered the terrible image of him getting dropped with electricity. "Are you okay? I thought..." she squeezed his hand with what little strength she currently had.
Logan took her in his arms. He let her rest on his shoulder. "I'm okay, Jeannie. I heal, did ya forget?" he said, and kissed the top of her head.
"Ya did it, Jeannie. Ya did it. I'm so proud..." Logan whispered to her.
The group came over to them.
"How is she?" Scott asked, worried.
"She'll be fine," Logan said.
They all sat down, giving their aching muscles and minds a rest. It was over. It was all over. They could take a breath, and not worry about anything. At least for a while.