While driving his truck through the rugged terrain of the New Mexico desert, Marr tried to find a way back to Vista Verde. He glances at the rearview mirror to check on the younglings. Most of them seemed relieved but still shaken from their ordeal, he noticed the girl he first rescued was comforting a smaller boy in the corner, at first there was nothing strange about the sight before him until something caught his attention. As a Miraluka, Marrs' vision allows him to see through the Force, granting him insights that can go unnoticed by most other races. He could even see the aura of the Force radiating off of living beings, which is normal, considering the force is in all things. However as he observed the boy, he swore that he saw his aura flickering a little stronger than the others. Marr thought that maybe his sight was playing tricks and returned his attention to his task. He asked Icon to watch over the children while he concentrated on putting as much distance as possible between them and their pursuers. Unfortunately, his efforts proved to be unsuccessful.
Icons noticed something following them through the rearview mirror. He attempted to inform Marr, but suddenly their vehicle was attacked with energy projectiles by their new pursuers. The Jedi team managed to dodge the incoming fire with evasive maneuvers, while the terrain exploded around them. They needed to get out of the open as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Marr noticed the mouth of a narrowing canyon coming up on his left. He took a chance and turned into it, in the hope of losing their pursuers. It seemed to have worked as the barrage of energy blasts had stopped. However the children in the back of the truck were still panicking, so Marr shifted his attention from the road to reassure them, causing him to miss something directly ahead of them.
Out of nowhere, the truck crashed headfirst into an unknown obstacle, bringing it to an abrupt stop. Suddenly, two metal hands appeared, gripping the sides of the driver's carriage and lifting the entire truck off the ground. The children inside screamed in terror as their captor easily tore open the roof of the truck and flung them several yards away, just as a Wookie would rip into a Kashyyyk flame beetle. The truck landed with a crash against some boulders and although his ears were ringing, Marr could hear several heavy footsteps approaching them. After regaining his composure, the Jedi checked on the children and was relieved to see that they were alright. He ordered Icon to help them out of the vehicle before blasting open the damaged door using the Force and climbing out to face their pursuers.
He found himself face to face with a colossal droid, towering over him at 20 feet. Its deep red eyes glared down at him as several more of its kind landed beside it and began slowly approaching the group. Marr quickly scanned his surroundings and noticed a narrow opening in the canyon wall. Hoping it would lead into a cave, he called over to Icon, who was helping the last of the younglings out of the capsized truck and instructed him to shelter the group inside. As he did so, the enormous droids moved closer and an emotionless voice boomed out from one, "Surrender the mutants! You are interfering with the M.R.D. Operations." Without any hesitation, Marr stepped in front of the cave entrance and stood firm against the droids. "If you want these younglings, droid, then you must first deal with me."
"Count me in too!" Marr was surprised to see Icon emerge from the cave and stand beside him. "Did I just say that?" he asked, bewildered by his behaviour. Marr responded with a grateful smile and a reaffirming nod. However, the giants were undeterred and the closest one attempted to grab hold of Marr with its open hand. With lightning-fast reflexes, the Jedi removed several of the giant's metallic fingers with a single slash of his now-ignited lightsaber. The droid recoiled as the rest of them extended their arms and fired energy blasts from their fingertips. Icon activated his lightsaber and, along with Marr, began to block and deflect the incoming fire. Although he doesn't possess the Force like his Jedi counterpart, Icon is equipped with a predictive algorithm software that helps him anticipate and deflect each attack.
Marr patiently waited for an opportunity before dashing towards the nearest droid. He swiftly used his lightsaber to slice into the droid's ankle, causing it to stumble. Using the Force, Marr then toppled the droid over onto its back. Meanwhile, Icon skillfully deflected one of the droid's energy blasts back towards it with his lightsaber, hitting it in the eye and causing it to stagger. Marr continued to swiftly manoeuvre beneath the towering droids, targeting their legs while evading their attacks. He narrowly avoided being struck by their heavy legs as they attempted to kick him away. At times, the droids fired high-impact projectiles, but the Jedi were able to use the Force to redirect the projectiles back towards the droids, inflicting serious damage.
Meanwhile, inside the small cave, the children were huddling in fear away from the entrance. They could hear the battle raging outside, with explosions echoing around them. They hoped that their protectors would prevail, but none of them wanted to check outside. That was until... "Zack, no! Don't go!" the older girl called out to the boy she was comforting back on the truck as he carefully crawled his way towards the mouth of the cave. He edged closer until he could see what was going on.
Although the pair were able to hold their own against these mechanical colossi, the droids proved to be far more resilient than they appeared. Some may have been missing their limbs, but they continued to relentlessly attack both Marr and Icon. One of the droids raised its single remaining arm towards Marr, and a string of metal tendrils launched from its hand and managed to ensnare the Jedi's leg. Fortunately, Marr managed to sever the line with his lightsaber in time. However, several of the other droids started to adopt the same strategy. The Jedi attempted to fight them off, but it wasn't long before his limbs were restrained by the droids. With only one of his arms free, Marr's options were limited. He looked over to see that Icon was now surrounded by several of the droids. One of them smashed its foot onto the ground and the shockwave knocked Icon to the ground, dropping his lightsaber in the process. Another one however had broken away and advanced upon the cave. More of its tentacles emerged from its hands and it was able to ensnare the youngling hiding near the entrance. The boy cried out and tried to cling to the ground as the droid bellowed out, "Prepare for termination".
This sight shook something inside of Marr and the Jedi let out a powerful cry and used his free hand to call upon the full power of the force to unleash a powerful kinetic wave that pulled the surrounding droids off their feet and collapsed onto the ground and releasing their hold on him. Then in one quick motion, he reached into his robe and threw his master's lightsaber towards the boy. Its spinning yellow blade sliced through the droid's tendrils, freeing the boy and giving him the opening to scatter back inside the cave. Knowing this wouldn't stop them for long, He called over to the startled Icon to take the younglings and run. "I will hold them off for as long as I can", he reassured his companion, although he doubted that he would last much longer. "But, Master!" the droid responded, "The odds of you successfully surviving this encounter by yourself are precisely 3800020 to…"
Before the droid could finish its calculations, one of the damaged droids was suddenly hit by a powerful red energy blast, causing its upper half to explode into pieces. Marr looked upwards and noticed that the blast had come from above their position. He saw a ship hovering down towards them. Its sleek, smooth exterior reminded him of the Nubian designs, but this one was painted completely black. As it continued to descend, Marr noticed that its boarding ramp was open and a single figure stood on its edge. Suddenly, another energy blast erupted from the figure's eyes and struck one of the other droids.
"Sentinel activity confirmed! X-Men, move out!". On command, several more of the ship's occupants had lept out from the ramp and dived towards the ground. The first one landed just ahead of where Marr was standing and his impact created a small crater beneath his feet. This large hulking figure looked like another droid to the Jedi, with its sliver metal skin shined brightly. But as soon as it landed, it charged towards the Sentinel nearest to him and tackled its leg, knocking it to the ground. Meanwhile, Icon was once again being beseeched by more Sentinels. Just as he clambered to his feet, a mysterious blue-skinned creature with a pointed tail appeared from a puff of smoke behind him. "Hold tight, Mein Freund." the creature said just as he placed his hands on the droid and the two disappeared instantly, right as another red beam struck the area around the attacking giants, destroying some and damaging others. Suddenly a being, clad in yellow and black, leapt onto the damaged sentinels and began ripping them apart with claws that extended from each of his hands. He unleashed a bloodcurdling yell as he tore off the head of a sentinel. "Which one of you tinker toys is next?".
Marr was amazed by what he saw, never before had he seen individuals with abilities quite like these. He deactivated his lightsaber before his attention was directed towards the last member of this group; a rather beautiful young woman wearing a blue leotard, thigh-high boots and a red scarf around her waist. At first, Marr believed that she too wielded a lightsaber, but soon realised that instead, she was emitting a magenta-coloured energy around a steel blade. While standing on top of a downed Sentinel, she sliced off its arm with ease as it attempted to grab her and she finished it off by impaling her blade straight down into its face. "Why should you boys have all the fun?" she called out to her teammates, before turning around to face Marr, who could tell that he was watching her. "Not to worry, darling," she spoke in a flirtatious manner. "We've got this Sentinel business down to a…"
Just as she was about to finish, the head of the Sentinel stirred upwards and fired an energy blot with its only functioning eye. Catching this in the nick of time, Marr raised his hand which alerted the swordswomen to turn to face the Sentinel. This time it was her turn to be amazed. The bolt of energy was frozen still in mid-air, only a few feet from the woman's head. She looked back towards Marr and judging from his expression, it was taking all his concentration to pull off this stunt. Suddenly with a flick of his wrist, Marr redirected the bolt back towards its source, blowing up the head on impact.
"Now, that's a neat trick", the woman commented with a soft chuckle. Just then, the ship landed down a little away from them and the woman hurried over to join the rest of her teammates, followed closely by Marr. "Looks like the Professor was right, the M.R.D. Is operating in this area," the leader of this group said as he walked down the ramp, flanked by two other individuals; a young woman with long red hair and another that resembled what Marr could only describe as a blue Wookiee. "Indeed, Scott. I will begin scanning the area, hopefully, we can determine the location of their base from the flight paths of these Sentinels," Marr was taken aback by the blue-furred creature speaking so articulately. "Where's Kurt?" The red-haired woman asked and as if on cue, the blue demon-looking man reappeared along with a very perturbed-looking Icon. "Speak, and ye shall appear fraulein," he let go of Icon and the droid stumbled over to Marr, who rushed over to help his friend. "Icon, are you alright? What happened to you?" Icon looked up at Marr, struggling to find the words and just settled with a frank, "I don't rightly know?" The Jedi was relieved that Icon was ok and looked over to face this most unusual ensemble of beings.
"Thank you, my friends." The Jedi graciously said, "Your timing was most fortunate, I doubt we could have held out for much longer had you not arrived." The shabby, gruff-looking man in the yellow suit grunted out, "I'm surprised you held out at all against Sentinels, Bub. These things aren't easy to take down unless you know which wire to rip out." He spat on the ground, a very uncivilized action, Marr thought. Their leader stepped forward towards Marr and offered him his hand, introducing himself as Cyclops and proceeded to do so with the rest of his team; Colossus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Jean, Beast and Psylocke. The latter, being the young woman Marr had assisted earlier, offered him a sly smile which he returned with a respectful nod. Marr went on to introduce himself along with his companion Icon before recounting the events that led up to their meeting. Upon hearing about the younglings, Jean and Psylocke immediately followed Icon as he led them to the nearby cave where they were hiding.
"I cannot express fully how thankful we are for what you did," Beast said as he shook Marrs hand profusely. "It was my pleasure," Marr responded. "I cannot understand what they would want with these younglings anyway." though puzzled by his strange term, Beast went on to explain how they were probably most likely going to be used as experiments because of their mutant abilities. When Marr inquired further as to what he meant by mutants, his new friends were astonished by his ignorance. They went on to explain how mutants are people born with unique abilities and some on this planet wish to see them imprisoned or destroyed. Their team; the X-Men, are a group of mutant activists who protect the rights and safety of their kind, and recently they have been getting reports that the Mutant Response Division; a former department of the United States government went rogue sometime ago, had been operating in this area.
"Oh, then perhaps this can assist you in your efforts," The Jedi reached into his robes and took out the drive that Icon had given to him earlier. "I had my friend download what information he could from their database and stored it on this." He offers Cyclops the drive, which he takes eagerly. "If this information is straight from their database, then we might be able to shut down M.R.D. operations permanently." He said with excitement. As the X-Men continued to thank Marr, Icon reappeared beside the Jedi and he looked over to see the two women helping the younglings towards the ship. "Where will you take them?" Marr inquired, "We have somewhere safe for them up at Westchester, New York." Beast informed the Jedi, "They will be well looked after, I promise we. They can stay there until we can track down their families."
"See that you do, and with that, it seems we must part ways. May the Force be with you, my friends." Marr bowed to them and the X-Men began to head towards their ship, confused by the strange farewell. After overhearing Wolverine's comment on why someone would wear sunglasses this late at night, Icon remarked on what a peculiar group of organics they were. Marr agreed and continued to watch as the ship began to ascend up into the air once more. It remained to hover in place with Its ramp still open and the Jedi could see several of the younglings leaning out to wave him goodbye, calling out that they would never forget them. Marr smiled at them and gave them a wave. Just then he sensed something onboard the ship and realised something he overlooked and before Icon could ask him what was wrong, the Jedi called upon the Force to leap up towards the ship and land feet first onto the edge of the ramp, startling some of the amazed younglings.
"Just one thing before you go." He walked past them and into the exterior of the ship. He examined his surroundings and quickly found who he was looking for. The young boy whom he rescued from the Sentinel before was sitting beside Psylocke and concealed on his lap with his hands, was his master's lightsaber. "I'll be needing that back my young friend." He said smiling before gently opening his hand to summon the weapon to him. The lightsaber leapt from the boy's lap, as he tried to reach out with his hands to grab it.
It was only for a moment, but Marr could feel the lightsaber resisting him as if it was being pulled back towards the boy. However, the Jedi was able to command the lightsaber back into his hand. Marr continued to look at the young boy and just like before, he thought he saw the boy's Force aura flicker a little more brightly than everyone else's. Marr took the opportunity to ask the boy for his name, "Zack" he answered sheepishly. "Then, until me meet again ... Zack." He turned around and proceeded to leap out of the ship and land feet first onto the ground. He looked up to see the ship as it fired its thrusters and sped off into the night sky, leaving him and Icon alone amongst the scattered remains of the once imposing Sentinels. "What is it, master?" Icon asked. "I'm not sure," Marr responded, "perhaps nothing." He began walking away, before the droid called on to him, "How exactly are we supposed to get back?" The Jedi looked over his shoulder and responded with a simple, "We walk."
For the next 10 minutes, the two of them continued to make their way out of the canyon. By the time they reached its mouth, the sun was beginning to rise, revealing the massive desert terrain lying before the pair. Just as Marr was starting to regret not asking a lift from the X-Men, he sensed something approaching them. Suddenly, descending down right on top of them, several jump jets encircled around them and a booming voice echoed from above, "Freeze! By the authority of the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, you are under arrest," Marr merely sighed before placing his hands over the back of his head, much to Icons surprise. "Out of the Sarlacc pit and into the desert."