Having stayed in contact with Caliban who was back in the control room at Genosha, Magneto learned the exact location Mystique was being held inside of the Pentagon. They needed to deal with her situation first before they could do anything else. Hopefully, Mystique had learned where the exact location to find the CPU of the Sentinels. Peter sped ahead of all the security in the front of the building, with them only feeling a slight breeze and seeing a quick flash. Peter made it to a bank of elevators just in time to come across a guard carrying a lunch plate. He made it in just before the door closed, knocking the guard's hat off him from the gust of wind he made.
The guard bent down to pick it up, not noticing Peter right behind him until he saw his reflection in the elevator. Turning around, he looked at Peter, startled.
Peter grinned as he took out the duct tape he had carried with him, quickly taping the guard all up against the wall, right after stripping him of his uniform. In a flash, Peter dawned the guard's uniform. It was slightly big, but he was able to make some quick adjustments to the suit, so it was able to fit almost perfectly by the time the elevator doors opened back up.
Carrying the lunch tray, he calmly made his way down the hallway of guards even though his stomach was now a jumble of nerves. The security here was heavier and stricter than any place Peter had previously stolen from. He then noticed the guns in the guard's holsters and saw they were plastic instead of metal. They were pretty serious about this no metal policy. No doubt it was put in place due to the possibility of Magneto coming to break out his second in command.
Peter then took a deep breath and held it as he stopped and stood still. They scanned him for any metal he may have had.
Clear.
Peter was then let to continue on, walking forward until he reached the end of the hallway. How could he get in? Peter looked to the guard down the hall behind him, watching the guard hit a button on his end. The wall before Peter slid back, revealing an opening in the room. He walked inside. It was dark except for the light coming from the room below the glass windows on the floor. As he made his way to the shaft where he would drop the tray in, Peter looked down to see the prisoner he had come to break out. It was a woman.
Her skin was blue and scaly...and she was naked.
That caused a slight grin to come to the teenage mutant's face. Bending down, Peter dropped the tray down the shoot. Mystique had been laying in her cot with her eyes closed ever since she had been thrown in there. She hadn't moved a muscle when suddenly she felt the lunch tray hit her pillow. Opening her yellow eyes to look at it, Mystique noticed something different about this one. There was a piece of paper inside it. Sitting up, she bent to take a closer look.
'Mind the Glass.'
Mystique looked up and was surprised to see the face of a young boy in a guard's uniform. The boy smiled down at her. Then kneeling down, the boy placed the palms of his hands on the glass. Getting to her feet, Mystique continued to look on as she tried to figure out what he was doing. Then a rumbling was heard, which caused Mystique to look all around her. The glass was starting to violently shake as Peter was charging up his power of speed while crouching down and staying put. It was the human equivalent of revving up a car engine. Peter was now smiling in excitement when suddenly...
CRASH!
Mystique was barely able to cover her face in time as the glass shattered and poured down upon her. Luckily, she wasn't cut. An alarm was then set off and the door closed, sealing herself and the boy inside. Mystique grabbed the frame of the cell and pulled herself up out of it.
"In ten seconds, those doors are going to open, and twenty guards will be here to shoot us." Mystique explained to the teenager, glancing behind her before turning back to face the door. Mystique felt a breeze and instantly tensed when she felt his hands on her wrist and the back of her neck.
"I know. That's what I'm waiting for," Peter eagerly responded.
Mystique looked at him through the corner of her eye. "What are you doing?"
"I'm holding your neck, so you don't get whiplash," he explained.
"What?"
"Whip-Laaasssshhh!" Peter repeated in a much slower tone. "Why do I have to keep repeating this?" He complained. The door opened right before Mystique could snap back at him, and just like she had predicted, multiple guards came in pointing their plastic guns at the both of them.
"Don't move!"
Mystique felt her insides push back as all of a sudden, she was whisked out of the room and brought to the elevator in a blur. She suddenly felt nauseous, leaning against the elevator wall as she tried to regain her bearings. Peter, once seeing that Mystique was not going to collapse from their trip, quickly changed back into his street clothes that included a silver leather jacket. Mystique did a double take when she saw how in just a split second the boy had changed his clothes. Peter then looked Mystique over more carefully. This was a lot of security just to keep one woman locked in.
"You must have done something pretty serious. What'd you do?" When Mystique didn't answer, Peter asked again, this time in a sing-song voice. "What'd you do?"
Mystique rolled her eyes, sighing in annoyance as the teen continued to pester her.
"What'd you do?" Peter repeated in the same tone. "Why'd they have you in there?"
"For killing government officials." Mystique finally answered.
Peter felt his eyes widen and his mouth slightly drop open. He turned to look at the guard still duct taped to the wall and mouthed the word 'Shit!' to him, causing the guard's eyebrows to raise and even a smile on his taped-up mouth. The silence didn't sit well with Mystique, who suddenly felt the need to defend herself.
"The only thing I'm guilty of is fighting for people like us."
The boy was a mutant. There was no question about it after what Mystique had just seen what he could do. It was important that the teenager knew the significance of his own kind.
"I assume that Erik sent you?" She then asked.
"The creepy old guy? Oldneto?"
"Magneto." Mystique sharply corrected as she felt a slight smirk come to her face. There was something oddly familiar about this boy.
Meanwhile, the jet that Magneto's group had taken to get here was in stealth mode as it sat right in front of the Pentagon. They needed to make their next move quick because over a dozen Sentinels were perched on top of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium that was located right across the street. Inside of the jet, Magneto pushed a button and out raised something from underneath the center of the jet's floor. Magneto pulled off the tarp that covered whatever it was, revealing it to be a bomb. And not just any bomb. It was the size of a truck's engine.
"Jesus Christ!" Wolverine shouted upon seeing the size of the thing, then quickly grew angry. "We've been flying with that on board this whole time?!"
"How else were we supposed to get it here?" Magneto demanded. "By osmosis?"
"That could have accidently gone off and killed all of us!"
Pyro then looked over at Gambit and nudged him with his elbow as Wolverine and Magneto continued to argue.
"Not me." Gambit turned his head to look at the smirking pyromaniac. "I can survive an explosion."
"Good for you." The Cajun muttered, rolling his eyes.
"It is good for me." Pyro responded.
"You think so?" Gambit asked.
"I know so."
"I'm glad."
"So am I." Pyro finished as he placed his mask on. Finally, they all began to exit the jet, one by one with Magneto being the last one out as he levitated the bomb, carefully setting it down on the ground. The jet was then taken off of stealth mode so it could be seen to anyone. As they all got themselves ready, Wolverine gently but firmly took Storm by the hand.
"We're all gonna make it through this." He promised as she looked into his eyes. "We're gonna stop any of it from happening."
Storm nodded wordlessly, hoping that he was right. In a fit of passion and fear, Wolverine then took Storm's chin and gently pulled her face up to his for a deep kiss.
Back inside the Pentagon, the elevator doors rung as it finally came to a stop. Mystique and Peter both exited into a hallway and pushed open the doors that led to the kitchen...and even more armed guards. They didn't even bother to yell at the mutants to freeze as they automatically opened fire.
"No!" Mystique yelled as she tried to shield Peter from the incoming bullets, but for the silver-haired mutant, everything was starting to go in slow motion. Placing his goggles on and earbuds in, Peter tuned out everything around him, and did what he does best.
Run.
It was like being in his own little world as Peter ran across the wall to his right before pushing himself off and landed in-between two guards. He smacked one in the back of the head and poked the eye of the other. Peter pushed the third guard down and then kicked another guard in the crotch before continuing his run. Peter grabbed a plate and threw it in the face of the next guard then set his sights on rushing in front of two more. Peter simply tossed the plastic gun out of their hands before making the guards hand into a fist and positioning it to punch himself in the face. He ran over to the last two guards and positioned their arms so that they would hit each other in the face. Peter was having so much fun that he almost forgot about the plastic bullets.
Peter sped back over to them. They were coming close to hitting Mystique, but they were moving at a slow enough pace for Peter to simply move them. He moved the ones heading for Mystique's chest and neck away, so they stuck the wall behind her. He smiled in accomplishment before running to the front of the kitchen, letting time speed up.
In a sudden burst of everything coming together, the bullets shot safely past Mystique and all the guards collapsed to the ground. Some unconscious, some injured, but they were still alive. Mystique looked across the room, staring at the boy who must have done all of this, speechless.
Peter just shrugged, taking out his earbuds that were playing of all things, Jim Croce's song, 'Time in a Bottle'.
"That's two I owe you." Mystique complimented while walking towards him, patting Peter's shoulder on her way out of the kitchen area.
XXXXXXXX
Flying over the Mediterranean Sea, eight Sentinels were flying in a tight formation as each one held an important figure in their grasp. Amongst them was the President of Russia, the President of China, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the King of Saudi Arabia. Setting down upon a cargo ship they had commandeered, each world leader was placed inside a separate shark cage. Their next targets were the President of Algeria and the Prime Minister of Israel when suddenly their radar started going off like crazy.
'LARGE GATHERING OF MUTANTS DETECTED.'
The words flashed through all of the Sentinels as they began scanning the region.
"Unit 0927 initiating scan for mutagenic anomalies: Multiple signatures confirmed." A Sentinel said through their internal communication system.
An island that was no more than ten miles from their current location showed the presence of at least several hundred mutants in number. The unit was continuing its identification procedure. Re-assessing the threat. All available units were then instructed to begin heading towards the island. Then, the Sentinels paused as they studied the information now at their disposal.
Mastermold was taking all of this in as well.
"An army of mutants is being built." Mastermold surmised. "They are preparing to wage war against us."
"HOW DO WE PROCEED?" One Sentinel asked.
"Eliminate the threat." The robotic voice of the giant machine echoed throughout the chamber as it gave out its order.
XXXXXXXX
The sky was a mix of orange, yellow, and red as the sun shined down below on Genosha island. It glowed off the metal buildings, giving an incredible shine to them all, as the bright lights of a carnival that had been set up in what could be considered Genosha's town square. It was a nice distraction from the hell that had been the last week of their lives. It was a bright and fun atmosphere with cotton candy, popcorn, and caramel apple stands. Standard carnival games were set up. Darts to break balloons, ring toss, spitting clown, and so on and so forth.
Caliban had just told Xavier that the last he heard from Erik, they were landing right in front of the Pentagon.
The Professor tried his best to put on a poker face and watched his students enjoy themselves for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. At the moment, the game that was getting the most attention was the "Test Your Strength!" game. It was funny because of the reactions it got when Marrow gave it a try. It was obvious the oversized hammer was too heavy for most people to lift, let alone a little girl.
The little mutant ran up to the large Russian holding it for him and asked if he could give it a try. Pitor lifted the hammer over his head as though it weighed nothing. He slammed it down on the lever, sending the puck rocketing upwards to ring the bell at the top of the tower, hitting the puck so hard, it flew clean off.
"Well, last night wasn't quite what I had pictured our first night sleeping together would be like." Kitty said to Warren, as the couple stood together watching the children play.
"I assume that you are referring to the fact that we actually slept?" Warren wittily replied, his arm wrapped around the girl's waist.
"Something like that." She giggled.
"There'll be other nights for that."
"There won't be other nights for anything. Not if the Sentinels have anything to say about it." Kitty responded, as her cheery attitude now lessened considerably.
"Hey." Warren said as he took her hand. "We're going to stop them."
Of course, Warren couldn't know that. Kitty tried to put it out of her mind when the sound of what she thought was jet noise was overheard from the clouds above. The others were back? That was Kitty's first thought before she looked up in horror to see the same mechanical monsters that had attacked their school. She didn't even have time to scream as one Sentinel open fired. The hail of bullets came raining down upon where Pitor stood, his back to them. The bullets began cutting through the tent that was set up and hitting more mutants nearby.
Pitor collapsed to the ground as everyone began screaming.
'God, no.' Xavier thought before an explosion went off as a Sentinel fired a missile towards a nearby building, the thing that saved it from certain destruction was the metal it was made from.
"We're under attack!" Sabretooth yelled as he was standing in a watchtower. He suddenly hit an alarm that began to blare throughout the entire island. "Everyone get inside! Now!"
As more Sentinels came down from the sky, two of Genosha's forces, Berserker and Maverick exited their towers and began firing at the robots with their respective powers. Cyclops and Havok were able to turn Pitor over and saw that he was dead, his body littered with bullets. Shadowcat covered her mouth in shock. If only Pitor had been metaled up he would have been fine.
Thinking quickly, Nightcrawler began teleporting kids safely away. Xavier looked up as more ammunition began to fire down upon him, Shadowcat grabbed him and phased the both of them so it passed through harmlessly. For a moment, the Professor was sorry that it did. Archangel looked up at the sky with a pure venom as he extended his metal wings. He shot up into the air and made a sharp right that cut a Sentinel in half at the mid-section. Now deactivated, the Sentinel simply fell to the ground of the island with a loud clang, while a few of its fellow units turned their attention and fired on the mutant that had brought it down.
Archangel shielded himself with his wings before firing back at them with his sharp projectile feathers.
Cyclops and Havok now stood back-to-back, firing their respective energy blasts which nailed one Sentinel after another. Havok unleashed three separate blasts at once from his chest before centering them all back to one giant blast, instantly turning one Sentinel into junk.
Emma Frost quickly turned her body to diamond form.
"Shoot me, darling." The White Queen said to Cyclops.
"What?"
"Do it."
Cyclops fire an optic beam at Emma which ricocheted off of her, hit one Sentinel, bounced off it and nailed another. The next Sentinel landed on the ground but before it could do any damage, Siryn let out an ear-piercing scream that threw the robot off focus. Boomer released two yellow orbs that exploded right on either side of the same Sentinel, knocking it further backwards. Finally, Cannonball came racing towards it while encased in an impenetrable force field.
Once Cannonball connected with it, the Sentinel was destroyed and deactivated.
"That was for Jamie." He seethed.
Shadowcat ran forward, grabbing a Sentinel's legs and pulling it down through the ground, leaving it stuck in place. Cyclops focused his attention on it, removing his visor so the Sentinel could feel the full force off his optic beams which blew up the Sentinels head.
Meanwhile, Berserker had just finished firing up the last Sentinel with electricity, electrocuting it until he was completely fried. The atmosphere around the island began to finally settle back down.
"Well, that wasn't too hard." Maverick commented.
"That was only the beginning. Now that we've gotten their attention, this island will be crawling with more Sentinels," Sabretooth responded as he reloaded his machine gun. "Since they have the element of surprise, I suggest that everyone get down to ground level and prepare themselves."
While the danger was momentarily subdued, Shadowcat had her head on Pitor's chest, tears rolling down her cheeks as Archangel sadly placed his hands on her shoulders.
Xavier's heart couldn't be any heavier. He felt a pain like nothing he had ever felt. Something told him that Colossus wouldn't be the last.
XXXXXXXXXX
After getting the bomb safely inside the building, the group of mutants all waited at the entrance of the Pentagon.
Upon sensing the presence of mutants at the Pentagon, all of the Sentinels that had placed themselves at the stadium slowly started to lift up into the air and began making their way towards their location. The eyes of Storm then rolled in the back of her head as she began to manipulate the weather around her. The air around Storm crackled with electricity as she lifted herself up while Magneto concentrated on the jet with his powers, activating it until it hovered in the air. Magneto himself levitated up in the air. He began to make rotate, spinning it over and over again as he held it in place, faster and faster before hurling it right towards the Sentinels' way.
Storm fired off lightning bolts in the jet's direction, causing it to haywire and short circuit until it exploded magnificently in a fiery display, the dozen of Sentinels were instantly taken down.
The X-Men dropped into cover from the flying metal and plastic polyester shrapnel that whizzed and whistled through the air like bullet shards. Iceman quickly formed a thick ice shield for himself, Pyro, Rogue, and Gambit to take cover behind while Bishop ran behind a pillar for protection, as did Storm and Wolverine.
Magneto extended his arms in front of him, the palms of his hands opened as he strained to stop all the small fragments of metal coming towards them all. After about a minute, it all died down and Magneto let all the metal fall to the ground.
"Is everyone okay?" Storm asked. After a few moments of silence, they all stand and look out. Not a Sentinel in sight.
Magneto let out a gasp of pain as the adrenaline wore off. He looked down to see a piece of metal stuck in his chest. In near disbelief he gently lowers himself to the ground and pulled out the Sentinel part, examining it morbidly.
Dark red blood dripped down from the shard as it began to pour from Magneto's wound. Pyro's eyes widened in shock as did everyone else's. The all wondered if the wound would be fatal. The irony that the master of magmatism being killed by a piece of metal.
Then from out of nowhere, a Sentinel lunged towards the group and impaled Storm from behind with its arm that it had formed into a stabbing weapon.
"NOOOOOO!" Wolverine let out a scream of primal rage.
It threw her dead body like a rag doll behind it.
Prime Sentinels had arrived. The ones that had either killed or enslaved the entire world.
Bishop shouts; "Gambit!" He held out his hand, gesticulating it wildly. His other hand holds his energy gun that is connected to him. Energy was required for him to fight in this battle. Gambit thrusts out a hand out and gave the other mutant kinetic energy from his fingertips. When Bishops eyes glowed orange, it was a sign that he had enough.
The final battle for the future of the present had begun.