X-Men: New Class

by Ambaryerno

Set in the Earth-10005 Universe, a new class of students arrives at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Inspired by Agents of SHIELD, X-Men: New Class loosely adapts Kyle and Yost's New X-Men as a hypothetical live-action television series. (Note: This story only accounts for up to X-Men: Days of Future Past, and will not be updated for Apocalypse)

15. 1x13 - Childhood's End: Siege

1x13

Childhood's End Part III

Siege

###

Act I

###

"You know, I expected our transportation to be somewhat more glamorous," Betsy said, as she leaned back in her seat and casually examined her nails.

The team had been loaded into a nondescript black van that, she had to admit, was only nondescript from the exterior. Inside it was loaded with enough sensory and communications gear to give the average intelligence agency a biggie, with more than enough room to spare for stowing field equipment and passengers, who sat on bench seating running down the sides of the cabin facing inwards. The engine was also whisper-quiet, and the ride as smooth as silk. Whatever luxury vehicle it had been cannibalized from, its designer hadn't torn out all of its amenities.

Cyclops sat in the armored driver's compartment with Grey, partly obscured from view by the sheet of steel plating wrapping around the front of the cabin. An infrared overlay spanning the full windshield enabled them to see the way ahead clearly in the darkness with the headlights off, and the countryside zipped past them in a blur of reds and blacks as they sped southwest towards the New Croton Reservoir.

"Were you expecting a ride in the Blackbird?" Scott asked.

Betsy shrugged. "Possibly, I'd heard so many wonderful things about your toys I would have loved a closer look at her."

"There's nowhere to put her down in the area around the reservoir, and if Stryker is as well-equipped as you're suggesting he may have gear that can punch through even Hank's stealth technology. We'll be able to get close a lot easier on the ground."

"How does Maxim 4 go again? 'Close air support covereth a multitude of sins?'"

Colossus regarded her with a raised eyebrow from his seat on the bench across from her. "You read Schlock?"

"I needed something to get me through my day at that office. I can't begin to tell you how bloody dull secretary work is. Bad enough being in that building was like stepping into a sensory deprivation tank. When you spend all your life hearing other peoples' voices in your head, the silence can actually become quite maddening.

"But still, the worst was just sitting all day."

Storm quirked a smile, and shook her head in amusement. "You're an adrenalin junky, aren't you." She made it a statement of fact.

"Just a tad. This whole adventure is some of the most fun I've had in a while."

Kitty Pryde, seated next to Colossus, shook her head. "'Adventure' isn't how I'd describe it. Kids are dying."

"It's harder to feel more alive than the times when someone has a gun to your head," Betsy said, and checked her sword in its scabbard. "But having something to fight for helps put it in perspective. I can't tell you how satisfying it's going to be breaking up Stryker's little army."

"This isn't a war, Betsy," Jean said in admonishment from the front seat. "It's a rescue."

"Your naiveté is truly adorable, you know that? No wonder Logan finds you so intriguing." Betsy just smiled at the wave of irritation from Summers, and Jean's own embarrassment at the remark. "If you hadn't noticed, Stryker has already declared war on us all, by actions if not in so many words, and I have a feeling it won't be long before he's ready to do so openly. He's no coward, and you know it; if he hasn't announced his little crusade to the world yet it's because he's not quite ready to do so. Something is coming, I can feel it."

"If you don't like the way we do things," Cyclops said, "you're welcome to step off the bus and find someone more to your liking."

"Oh, please, don't try to liken me to Magneto. The entire reason I do what I do is to try and protect our relationship with the flatscans. But I don't necessarily believe in Xavier's Dream, or at least his approach in bringing it to fruition. Otherwise I'd be here playing schoolmaster by day and dressing in those charming matching uniforms at night." She looked over the three mutants in the rear compartment with her, and their matching black leather jumpsuits, for emphasis. "I don't believe we're better than the normal chaps, but I don't believe that we'll ever be accepted without having to bloody a few noses in the process, either.

"Your problem is that you react. I didn't buy a word of Stryker's rhetoric with Ms. Garner by any means, believe me, but this school gives him exactly what he wants: You're setting yourselves apart from the human race. No matter the reasons you do it, that only works in his favor. And the more bloodied you get, the more you withdraw from the rest of the world. Those kids you're supposed to be protecting are terrified. Many of them are angry, and a few are even teetering at the precipice of losing faith in Xavier entirely."

"What we want," Pryde said, "is peace."

Betsy grunted derisively. "You've had peace, love," she said. "For ten years or hereabouts. But the problem with enjoying peace is you forget how to fight for it when it's threatened. Peace has seldom been won by words alone." She half-drew her sword to emphasize her point. "If history has taught you anything, it ought to be that peace only comes when backed by the sword."

"That's not a way to live," Rasputin said, and folded his massive arms across his chest with surety. "I hate fighting. I do it if I have to, but I'd rather go back to my painting."

"And that's my point exactly," Betsy said, and slammed her sword the rest of the way into her scabbard. "You fight when you must. Even Xavier realizes that; otherwise you X-Men wouldn't even exist. The question is whether you hold back too much."

"You sound a bit like Logan," Jean noted from the front of the vehicle.

"Maybe, because I happen to agree with him. I certainly hope that you all remember that these men are killers. They had no qualms against murdering children and performing experiments on living human beings. They won't be swayed by talk of peace, and I would be incredibly surprised if they would be willing to lay down their arms."

"They can't be that extreme," Storm said. Betsy lightly brushed her thoughts and could feel the comment was made only out of some misplaced sense of hope that she didn't truly believe; the influence of someone close to her, and she briefly saw a scarred and tattooed blue face with golden eyes.

"They blew up a bus full of children, and one of them walked up and put a bullet through the head of one of your students while calling down hellfire on our people. The laity of Stryker's church may be normal folks off the street who might be fine with rhetoric so long as they don't need to pull the trigger themselves, but these men I saw... I couldn't read their thoughts, but I got a good, close look into their eyes. They're true believers in Stryker's words. What's worse, they're crusaders. They will die to bring his vision of a world without us to fruition. Whether you want it or not, I have no doubts this is going to be very, very bloody.

"I suggest you ask yourself what you are ready to kill for, because they won't give you the time to figure it out once the shooting starts."

###

Jubilee slammed the refrigerator door closed, stumped to the kitchen table, and threw herself down heavily in one of the chairs. She drummed her finger on the top of the can of Diet Coke she was squeezing until the aluminum began to crinkle under her grip, and clenched her teeth so hard the muscles of her jaw began to throb in protest.

She wasn't alone very long. A face peaked around the corner of the door leading out to the dining room as Cessily Kincaid edged around the frame, the lights overhead dancing across the surface of her silver skin. "Jubilee? Are you ok?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm just peachy," she murmured, and popped the top of her soda for a drink. "I am totally, completely awesome."

Cessily made her way towards the fridge and grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper for herself, and slipped into a chair at the table across from her. She watched Jubilee for a few moments as she opened her own soda and took a sip. "It's true what I just heard from Quentin?" she asked, and there was a slight tremble in Cessily's voice.

Jubilee sighed and mopped her face. "Ok, seriously, that dude needs to stay out of people's heads. I know he can't read me ..." She waggled her fingers next to her head for emphasis. "...too much static from my powers. But he's got no business prying into others."

"I know he's kind of a troll, but I heard Dr. Grey and the Professor say that he can't really help it, and that stuff just kind of pops in there if he's not actively tuning it out."

"Yeah, well, he needs to knock it off or I'm gonna tune him real good." She raised one hand and briefly called a ball of plasma to her hand which she dismissed with a sharp paf.

"Jubilee ..." Cessily said, and frowned.

Jubilee sighed heavily and took a drink. "I'm sorry, that's totally wrong of me. But to answer your question, yes, it's true. It was Stryker."

Cessily hugged herself tightly, her normally infectious cheerfulness was gone, and in its place Jubilee could see the same uncertainty and fear that was clinging so thickly to the walls of the mansion it might well have been a fog. "I heard stories about the last time," she said, and gripped her soda can tightly as if searching for something to steady her hands. "I mean, I was like, seven years old. I hadn't even ..." Her voice caught in her throat for a moment. "I mean, I was still normal, before I... God, I still don't even know what to call myself." She sniffled and mopped her face, though Jubilee knew she was incapable of actually crying, and the response was mostly an instinctual reaction.

"Hey, dude," Jubilee said, and reached out to clasp her hand. "It's ok."

"No it's not!" Cessily snapped, and tore her hand away. "I was right there when that guy walked up and shot Laurie in the face. Laurie! Harmless, sweet, compassionate Laurie! And Mark, and Brian, and Sarah. And Stryker is the one behind all of it. Do you know how crazy it is to say that Julian was right? He's like family to me and I love him to death, but he's always been a hothead, and still he was right!"

"I was there, too," Jubilee said, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice at memories a decade old. "I don't like to think or talk about it, but when Stryker came ten years ago, I was there. I was one of the kids he took, and because of him I spent the rest of my time here looking over my shoulder."

She sighed. "It's why I went back home to California when I graduated, rather than stick around and teach. I couldn't even be an X-Man, you know? My powers ..." She trailed off a moment for a drink to steady herself. "I couldn't ever use them, not like that. You don't know what I can really do if I wanted to, and when Stryker came, for the first time in my life I wanted to."

Cessily sniffled again, and took another drink. "Then why did you come back at all?"

Jubilee gave her a smile. "For you guys. I wasn't happy back home. I mean yeah, I was helping make a difference in some kids' lives, but I came to realize I still felt kind of empty inside, and however difficult it was after Stryker, I knew that the ones who truly needed me were here.

"And I guess it kind of made me realize that things can be ok, even after something so bad."

"But it was never this bad," Cessily said. "I mean, I know what he was planning to do then, but it didn't happen, right? The X-Men stopped him."

Jubilee nodded. "They did. And they're going to do it again." She sighed, and with it vented much of her lingering anger. "I know it's hard to believe, but things will get better."

She reached out again and gave Cessily's hand a gentle squeeze. "And I'll promise you this, I won't let anything else happen to you guys, ok? Not without a fight."

Cessily nodded, and the uncertainty and fear in her expression broke Jubilee's heart. But however cold comfort her words, it was all she had to offer as she fought against the doubt and fear gnawing at her own belly. For now, all they could do is wait and hope that the worst was over.

###

Stryker bobbed in his seat as his car raced across New York, the convoy of trucks and SUVs trailing behind him as they hurried to rendezvous with the main body under Matthew's command. He allowed himself a smile at the thought of the battle to come; soon his Purifiers would descend on Xavier's grotesque den of sin with righteous fire, and burn it to the ground.

Everything was going to plan, and God was on his side. And with this bold action, the rest of His faithful would rise up to wash the mutant stain from the earth and reclaim it from the abominations seeking to supplant them.

Thy will be done.

###

Laura clung to the bottom of the Hummer as the highway sped along beneath her back, ignoring the bite of the winter chill against her exposed skin as she was blasted by the wind.

Her discomfort in these circumstances was meaningless. She had a mission, and she made a promise.

Travel speed approximately 70mph. Distance from New York City to North Salem 58.6 miles. ETA 50.25 minutes assuming travel speed maintained. Priority: Elimination of command center and secure objective perimeter. Once perimeter security restored proceed to disruption of strike units.

She had made a promise.

She could not fail.

###

Act II

###

Nori let out a small moan as David's lips pressed against hers, and she hung her arms around his neck. The library chairs weren't exactly conducive to what was on her mind, but so long as her nerdy boyfriend insisted on focusing on his schoolwork rather than her she would make do.

They remained that way for some moments, until the sound of voices approaching prompted him to gently push her away.

Nori made an exaggerated pout as she folded her arms across her chest, and drummed her gauntleted fingers on one bicep. "You're no fun."

David just quirked a grin, and pulled off his fogged-up glasses and wiped them on the tail of his shirt. "Sorry, but any further and we'd need to move this to the Adult section."

She rolled her eyes. The voices that prompted him to break off their makeup makeout faded again as whoever it was passed their quiet corner of the library and went on their way. "I think you're the only one of us who can still focus on schoolwork at a time like this."

He sighed and mopped his face. "I guess it's my way of coping."

Nori pouted at him. "You mean I'm not enough of a distraction?"

"I didn't say that, baby."

"Good, because I would fry you so hard for that."

David smiled again as he replaced his glasses and leaned over the textbook he had been studying until she interrupted him. "I wonder if I could get a doctor's note because my girlfriend electrocuted me ..."

"It doesn't count if you deserve it."

"I'll take your word for it," he said.

Nori watched him work for a few moments as he ran over a passage in his textbook several times, and cross-checked it with the notes he entered in his tablet, and a small smile crept onto her features. The past month had been difficult for them both. Their fight had been largely forgotten in the wake of everything that happened since then, and now it seemed so silly. David deserved to be happy, whatever that meant, and she ought to have been proud from the beginning that her genius boyfriend had earned an all-expenses-paid trip to one of the best schools in the country. It wasn't easy to admit she was wrong — to herself as much as to him — but she couldn't help but feel embarrassed over how selfish she had been.

"So have you decided what you're going to do?" Nori asked.

"I'm thinking I might give Dr. McCoy's extra credit assignment a go after all. It looks a lot harder than it probably is."

Nori rolled her eyes. "I mean about the scholarship."

David paused and glanced up at her. "I don't know yet," he admitted.

She sighed. "Well, I think you should do it. Maybe not, you know, early. I'd like us to be able to graduate high school together, but you should do it."

He smiled and reached out to grasp her hand. "Thanks. But I've got time to decide, so I'm going to use it." David gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Look, I'm going to be tied up here for a while and I'm sure you've got a lot more interesting things to do than sit and watch me study."

"Oh, sure, hang around the lounge, hang around my room. Do you know just how awkward that conversation was with Luna when I told her we had a curfew and I couldn't come to work today?"

"I'm sure Luna understood."

"She did, thank god, but ugh! It's so boring!"

"Well, I'll tell you what; let me finish this chapter, and then we can try and have a little Christmas just the two of us."

Nori grinned, and hung her arms around his neck. "Hm, I think I like the sound of that. Maybe I ought to go wrap your present."

"Maybe you should."

David kissed her, and for a moment Nori held on as his lips moved against hers before slowly drawing away. "I'll be in my room when you're done. Don't take too long, and no peeking, ok?"

"Ok."

She gave him one last lingering kiss before slipping out of her chair, and departed the library with an exaggerated sway of her hips, thoughts of what (or not) to wear running through her head as she made her way towards the dorms.

###

Julian hesitated outside Sofia's room. His stomach churned uneasily, mingling with the frustration and anger that had settled over him since the news had broken: He had been right all along. Stryker had been the one responsible for murdering their friends, but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to say "I told you so." The words felt hollow, and he knew that saying it wouldn't change a thing. But he had warned them, and that just frustrated him even more.

He heard a sound in the hallway nearby, and saw Sooraya appear at the top of the stairs with her abaya brushing the floor, and her expression behind her niqab looked deeply troubled. When she saw him, she paused and inclined her head in greeting.

"Good evening, Julian," she said.

"Hey, Soo," he said. "Are you ok?"

She sighed, folded her arms beneath her breast, and leaned against the wall. "I don't know. Have you seen Jay this evening?"

Julian shrugged, and mirrored her posture. "Maybe for like, a minute when he got back from Salem, but that had to have been hours ago. Why?"

"I don't know." She scrunched her face as she tried to put words to whatever was on her mind, but they were clearly failing her. "I'm worried, Julian. I had a very unusual encounter with Laura earlier, and now she's disappeared as well."

Julian grunted derisively at that. "Every encounter with her is unusual, and I frankly wish she'd stay disappeared."

Sooraya spit him with a glare. "Don't even joke about things like that. After all that has happened, how can you even say it?"

He shrugged helplessly. "She gives me the creeps! And don't you tell me she doesn't ever weird you and Cess out sometimes, too."

"I won't deny her behavior can at times be unusual, but sometimes she seems so perceptive of what's happening, and it has me worried."

"Why's that?"

Sooraya sighed and stared at the floor for a long moment while she tried to order her thoughts. "I don't know, it was just something she said to me earlier. She said I should stay away from Jay, and that something was very wrong. I know she was close to Mark, and while it can be so hard to read what she's feeling I knew she was very badly hurt by his death, even if it didn't show. But what I saw from her earlier ..."

Julian frowned. "What?"

"She was angry, Julian. Visibly angry, and I can't deny that it terrified me. She said Jay smelled of death."

He sighed. "Look, Soo, I think we're all angry. I'm angry my friends are dead, and that no one seems to be doing anything to stop it, but she doesn't even live on the same planet as the rest of us earthlings. I don't know that you can take anything she says seriously."

"I don't know. Something about the way she said it she seemed so certain. I'm afraid that whatever Stryker is doing, that we've not even seen the worst of it yet."

"That I can agree with," he admitted. "So what do we do about it?"

Sooraya sighed and straightened. "I am going to pray. What else can we do but place our faith in Allah that all will be as it should be?"

Julian nodded. "Put in a good word for me, will you?"

She nodded and brushed past him, and her abaya floated around her legs as she made her way up the hall and towards her room. Julian watched her go for a moment, then turned his attention back to Sofia's door and knocked. He heard a muffled voice from inside that he thought sounded like "Come in," so turned the doorknob and stepped inside.

Sofia lay stretched out on her bed with her pillow clutched to her chest, and tears were streaming down her face as she cried. Julian's eyes were drawn to Laurie's empty bed, left untouched since she woke up that morning — the last time she would ever wake in it again — and Julian fought off the queasiness in his belly at the sight. Sofia sat upright as he entered, and crossed her legs with the pillow still clutched like a shield between them.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said.

Julian slowly crossed the room, and dropped next to her on the bed. For a few moments they sat quietly together, before he finally spoke again. "Look, I know I've been kind of distant lately," he began, and stared at his hands. "I just want to say I'm sorry if it seems like I'm shutting you out. It's just after everything that's happened—"

"Don't talk," Sofia said, and her voice wavered as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "Just hold me."

Julian put his arms around her as she collapsed against his side, and for a long time they just sat together in silence.

###

Melita sunk into the chair with the snifter of brandy in her hand and took a long drink, letting it slosh around in her mouth a bit before swallowing.

"Oh, I needed that," she said.

Xavier chuckled softly from his wheelchair next to her as he sipped at his own drink. "So it really has been a long day, then?"

She eyed him wearily. "Ms. Braddock's assurances to the contrary, I think there's going to be some questions about just what happened to my station manager. I still can't believe the dumb bastard tried to sell me out!"

A wistful expression passed across the Professor's features as he considered that. "Sometimes the hardest betrayals we face are from the ones closest to us."

"Oh, we were hardly close. But still, you expect someone you work with to be trusted to have your back, you know?"

"I do indeed. So tell me, how did you come to know Logan?"

Melita tore her eyes away from her brandy for a moment to look at him at the change of subject. Xavier stared back intently and without a word, in a manner that otherwise ought to have made her uncomfortable. But from him she found it almost relaxing — she didn't know if it was his powers at work, or just his nature, but everything about the Professor presented a soothing presence that was almost as effective as the brandy at calming her rattled nerves.

"He saved my life," she said, and returned her attention to her glass and swirled the clear, caramel-colored liquid. "I was investigating a rash of gang killings, and someone took exception to my poking around. Fortunately, Logan happened to be staying at the same hotel I was when a couple thugs decided to take me off the air permanently." Melita took a drink and gave Xavier a significant look. "I suppose I don't need to tell you how that went for them."

Xavier smiled tightly and nodded. "Are you close, then?"

Melita regarded him with a raised eyebrow, and shrugged. "Oh, nothing serious. We some had fun, but never more than casual. Now we're just friends. So what about you? How does someone like the Wolverine come to be a part-time teacher?"

He chuckled softly. "That, Ms. Garner, I'm afraid is a very long, convoluted, and complicated story."

Melita's ears perked up at that, and her reporter's instinct started to get the better of her. "Oh?" she said, and took another drink. "That actually sounds like it will be a good one."

"I'm sure it is. However I would suggest you ask me again in, oh, about eight years, as I don't think it is my story to share until then."

She blinked and studied him for a long moment, but Xavier only smiled at some private joke as he sipped his drink.

###

Scott pulled their van off the road Braddock directed them down well short of the warehouse, and used its bulk and engine power to force a path through the trees. Once he was confident the vehicle was hidden he shut everything down, and popped the rear door. The team disembarked, and gathered together at the side of the van. Only Braddock carried anything in the way of weaponry, with her sword at her hip and an automatic pistol on her waist with several spare clips.

"Storm," he said, as he joined them. "Let's get some cover."

She nodded. "Right," she said, and her eyes went white as she called on her power. A thin mist began to gather among the trunks of the trees surrounding the warehouse up ahead, and quickly thickened into a dense blanket of fog. "Anything short of infrared they won't be able to see us coming."

"Sounds like it works both ways," Braddock said.

"Just tell yourself it will only make it more exciting."

She smiled tightly. "A woman after my own heart." Braddock then turned her eyes on Scott and folded her arms across her chest. "I assume you have a plan."

"Psylocke, you're on the extraction team since you know where the hostages are being held. Take Kitty; she can get you in without drawing attention to yourselves. Colossus will provide you with heavy support, and will help you remove the prisoners once they've been freed."

The towering mountain of muscle folded his arms across his chest and looked to Braddock. "What are we looking at?"

"I only saw small arms," she said. "But they had a lot of them, and I wasn't able to get a closer look at their materiel, so I can't say there won't be other surprises waiting for us."

Scott glanced at Jean. "Do you have anything?"

"Nothing," Jean said, and shook her head in frustration. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and placed the index and middle fingers of both hands against her temples as she concentrated. "It's as she said: At this range I ought to be picking up their minds, but there's nothing there. However Stryker is providing area denial for telepathy, I'm already beginning to feel it. It's difficult just to see you."

"Oh good, that means I can start thinking about what a cute butt Cyclops has in those smashing leather pants and not be ashamed of myself," Braddock quipped, drawing amused smiles from Kitty and Jean, and even Storm hid a chuckle behind her hand. "It only gets worse the closer you get. By the time we cross the fence we'll be completely blind."

"Which means we won't be able to use telepathy for coordination and communication," Jean said.

Scott nodded, and returned to the van. Inside an equipment cabinet were several Bluetooth headsets, and he distributed one to each of them. Braddock eyed the device with some suspicion as the rest settled them over their ears. "Hank assures me the encryption on these is so secure it would take the NSA twenty years to crack it," he said, and she nodded as she put on her earpiece. "Knowing Hank, it's probably got a few more safeguards even on the chance of that actually happening."

"All the same, I think we ought to find out how Stryker is jamming telepathy and shut it down," she said.

"Agreed. Jean and Storm will be with me. We'll be providing a distraction to buy you time to secure and liberate the hostages, as well as locating the source of the jamming. I'd rather not destroy it, though, as I'm sure Hank will want a look at it, and I don't want to be the one to listen to his complaining about not giving it to him intact."

"Right. I remember the layout well enough we can circle around behind to shorten our trip. We'll listen for you to make your fuss and will move in once you have them good and riled up."

Scott gave a short nod, and took the rest of them in. "Everyone clear?" A smattering of "ready's" and "got it's" followed. "Good. Let's move."

"Tally-ho, then," Braddock said, and started off into the fog, with Kitty and Peter vanishing with her. Scott watched them go, and fought off an uneasy feeling in his gut as his teammates went off alone with a woman they scarcely knew, and had only Logan's assurances could be trusted. Jean laid a hand on his arm as she sensed his unease, and gave it a squeeze.

"Kitty and Peter will be fine," she said. "She's powerful, but not so strong I wouldn't know it if she was setting us up."

He sighed and nodded. "She makes me nervous," he said, and started towards the warehouse. The dense fog Storm wrapped around them made the going slow and difficult, with only a narrow swath of lighter cover ahead providing him just enough of a trail to follow. "She sounds a bit too eager for a fight."

"She's just sure of her job," Jean said. "We might not like it, but she's not wrong. We've fought these men once before, and they're willing to die if it means killing us too."

Scott thought back to the fight in Hunts Point, and the man who would have blown himself up to kill them all had Jean not stopped him.

"Besides, she's right about one thing," Storm said. "You do have a cute butt."

He allowed himself a smile and an exasperated shake of his head, but the moment of levity was enough to put him at ease and return his focus to the task at hand.

###

Act III

###

Stryker's arrival found Matthew conversing with one of his infiltration teams on the approach for the Graymalkin gate, while the men formed up in their squads. Others not currently engaged hurried to finish offloading the rest of the assault equipment as the remaining troops accompanying him disembarked from their transports. His driver hopped out of the car and scrambled to hold the door for him as he stepped out himself and leaned on his cane as he made his way through the organized chaos to meet Matthew, while all around him the attack prepared to step off.

"...their security tech is like nothing I've ever seen before," the man was saying. "It's incredibly advanced."

"Can you jam it?" Matthew demanded. He tucked his hands in his pockets and stomped his feet to ward off the biting cold of late night in winter, and his breath misted in front of him. "The Reverend's plan depends on surprise. The longer we wait the better the chance of being seen by someone out in the grounds."

"I think so, sir. One of the trucks coming with the command post has some additional gear that I think we can use to bring down the whole system."

He nodded and, as they were speaking, looked over his shoulder to see take note of Stryker's approach. "Get it done."

"Yes, sir!" the man said, and snapped off a salute before hurrying off to carry out his instructions.

"Ah, Matthew," Stryker said, and returned his salute. "Are we ready?"

Matthew nodded. "The men are in position now. We've encircled the entire estate out of view of their security systems, and will be ready to go as soon as they can be taken down."

"Well done! We'll set the command post here, and disperse the rest of the vehicles. Once we breach the gate I want patrols to watch for anyone trying to escape. As I recall there are hidden tunnels leading out of the basement levels. I want them found and guarded. No one gets out alive."

"Yes, sir," Matthew said, and turned to a nearby aide. "Lieutenant, see to it."

"Yes, sir!" the man said, and hurried off to carry out the arrangements.

"Any word on our diversion?" Stryker asked.

"Yes, sir," Matthew said. "We extended the range of the detectors out into the wood surrounding the warehouse before our departure, and they were triggered about ten minutes ago. At last report a fog was rolling in on the area and visibility was severely reduced. It seems that Xavier's people took the bait."

"Do we know how many are left inside?"

Matthew shook his head. "No, sir."

"Be prepared, then. Xavier and his staff are the priority targets; they will be the biggest threat and need to be neutralized immediately. There's been no word of Howlett being there, but I want each of the squad leaders issued a magazine of carbonadium rounds just in case."

"Already saw to it, sir."

Stryker smiled. "Well done, Matthew. Where is Mary?"

"Here, sir," came a voice behind him, and Sister Mary approached and sketched a salute. Her face wasn't blacked out like the strike teams, but she was dressed in the same dark fatigues as the rest of them, and her blonde hair was tucked out of sight beneath her black cap.

"Mary, I want you in the command post to coordinate the advance and patrols. If the situation changes at any time I want to know immediately."

"Yes, sir," she said.

Stryker checked his own pistol in his holster, and an eager smile spread across his aging features. "Now then, get the men up and ready. Once their security goes down we move in."

Matthew snapped to attention and saluted, and hurried to carry out the order.

Stryker watched him go, and a small thrill coursed through him as the long wait ended, and the war began.

###

Laura silently dropped from the bottom of the Hummer, and stretched herself flat in the shadow beneath it as she watched Stryker's men deploy. She was unable to get an accurate count from her position, but noted at least twelve pairs moving off from the main group just out of view of the Graymalkin gate.

She watched a blonde woman clamber into the back of the communications van accompanying Stryker's convoy, while the Reverend himself met with a large bearded man issuing instructions. Laura strained her ears but even with her enhanced senses she could hear nothing over the cacophony around her, and she could not chance leaving her hiding place until Stryker's army departed. All she could do now was settle in and wait for an opportunity to move in.

###

Betsy crouched low as she worked her way through Storm's fog. Kitty and Colossus followed behind her as silently as they could manage, but she cursed inwardly out of professional pride at the racket they were making. None of them said a word; by now the interference with her telepathy was strong enough that she couldn't reliably communicate with them that way, and despite Cyclops's assurances she wasn't ready to trust Dr. McCoy's work. Stryker's men were too well-trained and equipped, and in fact a small knot worked its way into her belly at the possibility of missing some hidden line of defense they would never see in this damned fog.

Just making their way through the trees was problematic, with only the indistinct darker shadows looming ahead of them in the night to watch for.

But they made it nonetheless, and reached the fence without trouble. Betsy peered through the darkness ahead of her, and saw two moving blurs that might have been guards posted near the back of the warehouse. She silently reached for her sword, and paused when Kitty laid a hand on her arm.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, and the whisper might well have been shouting to Betsy's ears.

"We'll need to deal with them either on the way in, or the way out. I for one would rather we do it now so we don't have them coming behind us." Betsy shook the younger woman's hand off and finished drawing her sword. "We'll wait here for Cyclops to get their attention, but be ready to move."

###

They reached the main entrance to the warehouse, just visible up ahead through the dense fog covering their approach. Scott peered ahead into darkness illuminated only by weak smudges of light filtering through the cloud cover. He couldn't see much of the layout of the facility, but the mental map he had constructed after studying satellite imagery told him they were exactly where they needed to be. The only thing his memory couldn't tell him was the position of any guards.

He glanced at Jean, and she merely frowned and shook her head. When he didn't hear her voice in his head Scott knew they had fallen under the telepathy denial shield, and this close none of them dared speak to avoid being heard by anyone looming ahead in the darkness.

Scott signed a few instructions to Jean and Storm, and both nodded and spread out to either side of him until they vanished into the fog. He brought his hand to the controls of his visor and adjusted the beam, took careful aim at the center of one of the obscure smears of light from the floodlamps illuminating the compound, and fired.

###

"That's it! System is down!"

Stryker looked away from his tablet as he directed the positioning of the assault and towards the men huddled in the shadow of the Xavier School's privacy wall. There was a sharp pop, and all at once the school's exterior lighting shut down. Matthew was moving instantly, signaling the squad leaders to form up and sent them rushing for the Graymalkin gate. Stryker activated the Bluetooth nestled in his ear, and gave the order: "This is Stryker, all squads advance, repeat, all squads advance!"

He stowed his tablet and hurried forward after Matthew as they approached the gate, and in moments it was thrown down and the lead elements were through. Stryker's Purifiers swarmed into the estate and spread out to form a ring around the mansion looming ahead in the distance, its interior lighting a beacon in the night. The patrols securing the grounds disappeared into the shadow of the wooded areas dotting the grassy lawn, or moved to secure the strategic choke-points and secondary gates to prevent escape, or the arrival of reinforcements from catching the main assault by surprise.

A squad of men in heavy body armor and carrying M16A4s formed in a protective circle around him as Stryker hobbled after Matthew, just a few yards behind the main assault force as they approached the school with their weapons up and at the ready. Matthew's lead elements were followed by a demolitions team with breaching charges, and a heavy weapons platoon with M141s. His Purifiers moved with military precision, swiftly and silently stealing across the estate as they tightened the noose, and Stryker felt the familiar rush of battle energizing his tired limbs.

They reached the main door of the school with no sign they had been spotted. Matthew quietly signed to the demo team to approach. As they went to work readying the breaching charge, Stryker touched his headset again.

"This is Stryker: Strike teams report," he said in a low voice, and slowly the team leaders reported in: "We're in position, standing by."

Stryker glanced at Matthew, who had his service pistol drawn and readied. He gave a short nod, and Stryker smiled.

"Blow it."

###

Melody yawned and stretched, a sentiment mirrored by Max next to her on the couch. Megan huddled at the end of the couch while Yana was, as usual, showing no sign she had any desire to turn in any time soon as she flipped through channels. Fabio slouched in one of the chairs. The mood inside the lounge was subdued, and though the news had long ago been turned off, Laurie's death was still foremost on everyone's mind.

"Boy, you said it, Mel," Max said, and his quills rippled as raised his arms high above his head. "I am beat. Bed sounds so good right now."

"I don't know how any of you can even think of going to sleep right now," Fabio murmured, and rubbed one arm uneasily.

"Who's thinking? I can hardly keep my eyes open."

"What's the matter, Fabio?" Yana asked. "Afraid of ghosts?"

Melody turned on her and glared. "That's not funny, Yana," she said. "I mean really not funny."

Yana didn't even look at her, and just gazed levelly at the television. "Who's being funny? You don't see the things I do when I close my eyes. Fabio is right to be afraid."

"I'm not afraid!" he protested, but hugged himself tightly all the same. "It's just... We were all right there! It could have been any one of us!"

"He's right," Megan said, and her voice was trembling. Melody looked at her with sympathy; her iridescent wings hung low at her back, and she had her knees drawn up nearly to her chest. The skirt of her fairy princess costume rode up indecently high the way she was sitting, but the gaudily-patterned yoga pants she had on underneath kept Santo Vaccaro, who was arguing animatedly with Victor over a pinball machine in the corner, from getting a show. "He just walked up and shot her. I mean, why did it have to be Laurie? Why not me, or you? Why not Mel or Jay?"

Melody felt a chill run down her spine, what she once heard momma call the feeling of someone walking on her grave. "It's weird, isn't it?" she said. "I mean first the bus an' now this. It could have been any one of us. An' god, Jay. I don't even want to think about that, after Julia an' all."

"Jay has a healing factor," Yana said, and her offhandedness with that remark only rankled Melody further. "I'm sure he'd have been just fine."

Melody folded her arms across her chest and glared. "Healin' factor or not I don't want to even think about Jay bein' shot again."

"Stryker wants all of us dead," Yana shot back, and this time she tore her eyes away from the television, and narrowed her blue eyes to slits. "And we're all just sitting here waiting for him to kill us."

"Calm down, Yana," Max said, and his bristles rippled nervously in response. "What do you expect us to do about it? I mean we're just kids."

"We're mutants," she said. "We have powers, we should be using them."

"That's easy for you to say," Megan said, and her wings fluttered self-consciously. "At least you can do something useful. Little kids just want to chase me around with butterfly nets."

Max shrugged. "You could always fly above them."

"Not without my helmet."

"The point is," Yana said, and glared at the other two for derailing her train of thought, "we're supposed to be able to protect ourselves."

"They had Ms. Marie and Mr. Drake with them, though," Fabio said.

"And all Ms. Marie did was sap Kevin Ford when he actually did something about what happened."

Melody shuddered. Word of Kevin's attack on Laurie's murderer spread almost as quickly as word of her death, and Quentin Quire seemed to take particular pleasure in broadcasting the gruesome details. Fabio turned green at the memory, and Megan scrunched up her face in disgust. "Even if my powers let me, I couldn't do that," Melody said. "I don't want to kill anyone!"

"Even when it's a matter of them or us?"

"There's no us or anybody," a voice said loudly from behind them, and they all turned on the couch to see Jubilee standing with her arms folded across her chest and glaring sternly down on them. Cessily stood behind her with a troubled expression on her silver features, and everyone else in the lounge stopped and turned their attention on them as her words cut through their quiet chatter. "If you're thinking otherwise, I wonder if you really understand why you're here."

Yana didn't back down, however, and just stood up and glared. "I'm not sure you have the right to say that to me, Ms. Lee," Yana shot back, and balled her hands into fists. "Piotr told me how you ran away to California rather than stay here."

Megan gasped and covered her mouth in shock at Yana's insubordination, and the lounge went deathly quiet. Even Santo didn't manage more than a stifled "Whoah."

"I know you're all upset, ok? I get it. And Yana, you have no idea what I'm reliving right now, because I've been here before, so don't think I don't understand what you're feeling. But if you are thinking for a minute that what Kevin did was right you need to seriously reexamine why you're here."

"And why are we here, Ms. Lee?" Yana said, and her voice was positively dripping with derision. "Because right now it feels like we're just target practice."

Jubilee sighed and mopped her face. "Don't make me have to be a grownup, here, ok? I don't like being reminded I'm getting old, but keep in mind I can totally give you detention if you want it."

"I just want to know what the hell we're supposed to do!" For a moment, Yana's cool affectation of maturity slipped, and Melody was astonished to see her actually acting like the petulant teenage girl she was.

"Dude! Language! Do you really think you guys are the only ones feeling what's happening? All I want you to do is trust the Professor and the rest of us."

Chastened, Yana lowered her head and opened her hands again. Jubilee's expression was sympathetic, and everyone could see now just how exhausted she was; dark circles surrounded her eyes and her shoulders were slumped, and the perpetual cheer she had brought when she first joined the staff as their student counselor was gone. Yana sniffled audibly, and Melody stared at her dumbfounded as tears started run down her cheeks. "It's just not fair!" she wailed, and Jubilee started across the lounge to gather her into an embrace.

"I know it's not. Believe me, I know," Jubilee said, and held her close as Yana collapsed into her. "But we're gonna get through it, ok? I know things look bad right now but it's gonna get better. Maybe not right away, but soon. Just trust us, ok?"

Yana sobbed heavily, and nodded against her shoulder. Melody's thoughts turned to Jay, and his stunned reaction to seeing Laurie's body lying motionless on the ground while paramedics rushed to tend to her and Josh. Tears streamed from Megan's eyes, and she cuddled up against Max as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Fabio just hugged himself tightly. A profound sense of sorrow worked its way across the room, and even Santo and Quentin fell silent and hung their heads. Jubilee pushed Yana out to arm's length and gave her shoulders a squeeze of reassurance, and Yana gave her a small nod of thanks.

"Look, it's been a long and hard day for everyone, and it's really late," Jubilee said as she swept her eyes across the lounge to take them all in. "I'll have my office open bright and early, and if any of you need to talk before then let me know and I'll be here. But I think we could all use some sleep."

No one seemed to be in any mood to argue, though Melody heard a subdued, "Now you really are sounding like a grownup," from Santo as he and Victor started towards the door.

"I heard that," Jubilee replied with a small smile as she watched the rest of the students break up.

Melody heaved a sigh and levered herself off the couch. Yana remained where she stood as Jubilee started away to usher everyone else back to their rooms, and hugged herself tightly. Tears were still rolling down her cheeks and dripping of her chin, and she turned her head away in shame at someone seeing her actually acting vulnerable.

"Yana, you ok?" Melody asked.

She watched a shuddering sigh work its way through her, but Yana nodded and wiped her face. "Yes, I'll be ok," she said. Max, Megan, and Fabio joined Melody in a circle around her, and Yana favored them with a playful roll of her eyes. "You're not going to group-hug me, are you? You know I'm not a hugger. Especially you, Max; your hands tend to wander."

Max just flashed her a goofy grin and shrugged innocently. "We just don't see you do this, it's kind of weird."

Yana just let out an exasperated groan, and started out of the lounge, while the rest of them hurried to follow.

They had just stepped out into the hall and started for the stairs leading up to the dorms when the school was rocked by a series of blasts, and the main doors at the far end of the entry hall exploded inwards. Melody's screams as she covered her ears and cowered to shield herself joined the chorus of voices all crying out in terror at once as splintered fragments of the door tore through the hallway, and as the smoke cleared men in black fatigues and body armor stormed into the mansion.

"What the hell!" she heard Max shout, and she watched in horror as the muzzles of the intruders' rifles snapped up and gunfire ripped through the hallway. The opening volley struck him square in the chest, and blood sprayed from the neat cluster of holes centered over his heart in slow motion.

"Max!" she screamed as his lifeless body collapsed into her and drove her to the floor

Chaos erupted as their classmates screamed and fled from the men with the guns. Fabio immediately lost control of his power as he panicked and bolted, and with a sharp poink! a hail of small golden balls erupted from his body, bouncing wildly through the hallway and knocking over intruders and students alike. Melody could only cling to Max's body and cry hysterically at his blood on her hands and face, as more men swarmed into the school.

"Mel we've got to go!" she heard Yana scream over the cacophony, but Melody could only see blood, and just remained where she fell and screamed uncontrollably. "Damn it! Hold on!"

Melody was distantly aware of Yana grabbing hold of her and Megan, and suddenly the school vanished around them. Melody's lungs burned as if she were breathing acid, and for a brief moment all around her was a burning, twisting wasteland filled with equally twisted shapes writhing in the flame-lit darkness. Megan squealed in fright as something vaulted out of the shadows at her. Yana angrily barked unintelligibly at it, and as if at some word of command the something disappeared back into the flickering darkness.

Then the vision passed and they found themselves in one of the classrooms. Megan vomited on the floor, and Melody could only cry over Max's body cooling in her arms.

###

"Right! Go!" Betsy said, as she saw the tell-tale orange glow through the haze as one of the light standards exploded in a shower of sparks, and bolted for the fence. Her TK-infused muscles powered her up and over in a blink, and as she came down the other side her sword flashed and she quickly cut down the two stunned guards before they could make a sound in warning. Then in one smooth motion she wiped her blade clean and returned it to her scabbard.

Kitty and Colossus followed hand-in-hand, and Betsy did a small double-take as they passed right through the fence without disturbing so much as a wire. "Where to?" Kitty asked as they caught up with her. Colossus scowled in disgust at the bodies lying crumpled at her feet, and Kitty did her best to look anywhere else.

"This way," she said, and hurried across the compound coming alive with the sounds of panicked gunfire as the other team made their assault on the main entrance. Betsy angled for a back corner of the warehouse, and jerked her thumb at the wall as they approached. "It should be right on the other side, if you'd be so kind as get the door, big guy?"

"How about we do it my way and not make so much noise?" Kitty said, and grabbed her by the arm as she ran for the wall with the three of them in a human chain. Betsy cried out in alarm as they were about it smash their faces into the side of the building...

...only to pass through unharmed into the clean room.

"Oh," she murmured, taken aback. "That must come in handy."

"It beats having to go around. Where now?"

Betsy frowned as she swept her eyes around the inside plastic tent. Everything was dark, and the equipment and gurneys were all gone, along with the prisoners. The hollow feeling from earlier was back, and a cold dread spread through her. "This should be it," she said, and turned in disbelief to take the whole room in. "I saw them here in this room!"

Colossus frowned down on her. "Well they're not here now."

Kitty tapped her headset. "Cyclops, come in! Cyclops!" The sudden concern in Kitty's expression only added to her growing sense of foreboding.

"What?"

"I'm not getting through ..."

"Cyclops, this is Colossus, come in!" the big mutant said.

"This is Psylocke, is anyone there?" Betsy was answered by static, and the rapid staccato popping of gunfire outside. Then she heard another series of sounds that sent her hand to the hilt of her sword; the sound of many feet running in their direction, but also a peculiar mechanical whine growing steadily louder, and then a heavy clanking as something rather large moved outside the containment tent. "Oh bugger," she murmured as the three of them rushed through the flap leading out into the warehouse, and froze at the sight awaiting them:

There in the middle of the now-empty floor was virtually an entire company of men in body armor, with assault rifles leveled on them. And flanking them on either side was a sight that made her blood turn to ice in her veins.

"Sentinels ..." she murmured, as the retrofitted Mark I killing machines raised their arm-mounted rotary cannon and readied to fire.

###

In one motion Scott leaned around the try behind which he was taking cover and fired, catching one of their attackers square in the shoulder with a low-powered blast that sent him spinning into the ground. Return-fire from the rest splattered against the telekinetic shield Jean threw up between them and the gunmen, while Storm raked lightning across the front of the formation. The lead elements jerked, twitched, and fell as electricity — just enough to act as a Taser and disable them without killing — coursed through them.

So far everything was going well. In fact, in his mind it was going too well. More and more men poured out of the warehouse to establish firing lines, hampered from breaking out to encircle them by their own security fences, along with Jean and Storm throwing them back whenever they tried to cut through. Worse, there was no sign of Stryker himself nor any of his clergy among the militants engaging them.

"Jean, anything?" he called out over the roar of automatic fire. A few rounds managed to find weak points in Jean's TK shield and zipped past his head, prompting him to take cover behind a tree. He popped out again and sent a hasty blast back into the crowd, and another of the gunmen cried out and went down. "They've had to have reached the prisoners by now!"

"Hang on!" she called back, and threw a squad advancing on the fence with heavy wire cutters back with a blast of concentrated telekinetic energy. "Psylocke, Kitty, Colossus, come in!" Jean called into her headset. "Psylocke, respond!"

Scott snapped off another quick series of shots, each finding their mark, but not in the least discouraging Stryker's militia from pressing the engagement. "Jean?"

"I'm not getting anything! Scott, our comms are being jammed!"

Scott's heart seized in his chest at those implications; Hank had gone through great effort to shield their communications gear from interception and disruption. If they were being jammed...

"Scott, it's a trap!" Storm said, finishing the thought for him.

"It's not a trap," he corrected. "It's a diversion!"

"You mean ..."

"The school! They wanted us away from the school! That's why we haven't seen Stryker or any of his lieutenants!"

"Jean! Get to the van and see if its comms are clear. If they are, warn the school! Storm with me, suppressing fire."

Scott glanced in Storm's direction. Her eyes had gone completely white as she called her power to her. "Just tell me when."

He turned to Jean. She met his eyes, and gave him a short, confident nod. Scott, in truth, hated having her here. No matter how powerful she was, a part of him always dreaded the thought of something happening to her on a mission, but he couldn't in good conscience ask her to stay behind. They had a job to do; it was a dangerous one but it was theirs, and right now if they didn't warn the school a lot of innocent children were going to die.

Scott gave her a short nod in return, and turned back to the men firing on them from the compound.

"G—"

His command died in his throat at the sound of something very large approaching from behind. Jean cried out in uncharacteristic panic at the sight, and Scott spun around as well, and immediately felt his heart leap up in his throat. Even Storm could only gasp in shock as the full weight of their predicament settled over her. Standing in the middle of the road not fifty yards away, with more men in body armor swarming around its feet, was a Sentinel.

They were trapped.

###

Mary watched the monitors from the helmet-mounted cameras of the assault troops, and listened carefully as she sorted through the radio traffic and redirected them. She allowed herself a small, satisfied smile as the Reverend's assault progressed exactly as he had planned. It was only a matter of time before the stain of the school had been wiped from the face of creation.

And then suddenly and without warning, the monitors all went dead.

"What the hell?" she murmured, and the technicians inside the van frowned as they tapped on their controls. "What's going on?"

"Looks like main power failure," one of them said. "Don, check the auxiliary generators, they should have kicked in automatically."

"Right," Don said, and started for the van's rear door.

What happened next came so fast Mary couldn't even register it, but as Don open the van he let out strangled cry of alarm, and a black shadow leapt inside. Blood splattered across the interior as the stroke of a knife tore out the throat of the other tech, and Mary fell from her chair and scrambled back from the figure rushing towards her as she snatched her sidearm from her holster. The report of her pistol was deafening in the confines of the van, and she thought she caught her assailant in the chest.

The last thing she remembered was searing hot pain as her face was slashed in two.

###

Laura casually regarded the carnage of the brief fight in Stryker's command post. Confirmed kills on the male combatants. Female probable. Command and control neutralized.

She quickly searched the van for intelligence, but found nothing of value. Laura stepped back outside and hurried for the Graymalkin gate. She paused at the entrance to the school grounds and sniffed. The air was heavy with the scent of Stryker's main assault group, but nonetheless she distinctly picked out the fainter smell of the patrols securing the school grounds. Primary objective achieved. Proceed to secondary targets.

Laura spun and dove into the cover of the trees.

###

One by one Stryker's patrols were picked apart, and none of them ever saw her coming.

###

The metallic clacking of Colossus armor appearing over his body filled the warehouse, just as the Sentinels opened fire. Betsy hastily threw up a TK barrier between them and the hail of cannon fire shredding the air at thousands of rounds per minute, and muzzle flash and tracers lit the darkened interior of the warehouse and left them bathed in a strange orange-gold glow. The incoming fire ricocheted harmlessly off the big mutant's armor, but Betsy was just a hair too slow, and she cried out as one of the Sentinels walked its fire up her side. Pain lanced through her as she went down, writhing on the floor of the warehouse and watching the five and a half-meter killing machines advance on them. She held a hand to her side in a vain attempt to stem the flow of blood, and gasped for breath, finding it harder and harder to do so.

Kitty crouched over her, a few rounds zipping harmlessly through her, as if she were as immaterial as a ghost. "Psylocke!" she cried. "Pete! Betsy's down!"

"Get her out of here!" Colossus shouted. "Fall back!"

"Can you walk?"

Betsy tried to get her legs under her, but found them frustratingly uncooperative. "Bugger!" she snapped, her voice wavering in pain and as much out of a need to keep herself from slipping into the inviting black oblivion looming up in front of her as any real need for profanity to illustrate her condition. "This is going to positively ruin bikini season for me ..."

"Betsy! Can you walk?"

She panted and shook her head. "You two get out of here, find Cyclops and let him know this was a setup. I'm sure if they were expecting us here it must have been for a reason."

"Whoever you normally work for, you're an X-Man tonight. We're not leaving you behind."

Betsy rolled her eyes. "Oh, bloody wonderful, then we can all die together. Mind sitting me up so I can at least pop a few of them before I bleed out, love?"

"Pete!"

"Hang on!" Colossus said. One of the Sentinels had closed in, and finding its primary weapon ineffective swung one metal fist at the towering mutant standing between them. Colossus caught the punch in his hands, and grunted as it threatened to bear him down. But then with expert precision born of long practice with the Wolverine he stepped to the side and twisted the robot's arm, and drove its entire bulk into the floor with a deafening crash. He was moving again almost as soon as the Sentinel went down, clambering up its back, seizing it by the head, and wrenching until with a squeal of its polymer framework and body panels, and shower of sparks, tore it clean off. Then with a grunt of exertion he spun and launched it through the air at the other repositioning itself to support its fallen partner, and struck the second Sentinel full in the thrust nozzle in its chest.

The machine staggered under the blow, but regained its balance and started forward again.

Betsy watched the display with gritted teeth as she desperately tried to stop the bloody holes in her side with her hands and TK. "Ok, that was impressive," she murmured weakly. "I think I'm getting a tad randy, here."

"At least you have your sense of humor," Kitty said, and grabbed her underneath the armpits. With the first Sentinel down, Stryker's troops surged forward to provide fire support and drive them back into the corner. Colossus used himself as a living barrier of steel between her and Kitty, and as Betsy's mind drifted she found the rattling plink of hundreds of rounds pinging off his massive armored body quite amusing, and giggled dazedly in spite of herself. Any rounds that got past Colossus were harmlessly phased through them by Kitty.

Soon they were back through the containment area. Several of their pursuers broke ranks and charged in, and Colossus turned to fight to buy Kitty more time to drag her clear. His metal fists clanged against helmets as he scattered their assailants and sent them flying out of the plastic tent. With its sensors obscured the Sentinel held its fire, and for a moment all they had to contend with were the troops swarming after them only to be tossed aside like ragdolls by Colossus. He grabbed their guns from their hands and snapped them in two, and wielded them like clubs. He slowly gave ground to keep providing them support as Kitty edged closer and closer to the wall of the warehouse, and then they were there, and Kitty was dragging her out into the courtyard.

The sudden cold of winter momentarily shocked Betsy out of her fog, and she found herself lying flat on her back looking at a clear night sky. The skyglow of New York was distinctly visible to the southwest, and the air was filled with the whiff of ozone, and the rattle of gunfire.

"Stay here!" Kitty ordered, and disappeared back into the warehouse for a moment, before she reappeared leading Colossus by the hand. "Pick her up! We need to get her back to the van and find the others!"

"Right!" Colossus said, and in one smooth motion scooped her up and cradled Betsy in his powerful arms.

"Oh I think I've died and gone to heaven," she murmured as they rushed from the compound. Behind them the wall of the warehouse was thrown down as the Sentinel smashed through it, firing uselessly after them as they passed the fence and vanished into the trees.

###

Scott took aim and unleashed a series of blasts at the towering killing machine marching inexorably towards them. They were beset on all sides, now, with the Sentinel and its infantry consorts approaching from behind, and the mercenaries attacking from the warehouse taking advantage of their distraction to swarm from cover and complete the trap. His optic blasts struck the armored monolith, but none of them penetrated its thick armor.

"We need to get out of here!" Jean shouted over the roar of gunfire. "They're pinning us down!"

"It's no good as long as that Sentinel is blocking the road," he said. "We've got to take it out before we can move, but I'm not even denting it! Storm!"

"Scott?" Storm replied, as she laced the advancing column from the warehouse with directed lightning.

"You heard Psylocke in the van: 'Air support covereth a multitude of sins.' Get above us and see if you can't provide us some cover! Jean, shield her until she can get clear!"

Jean nodded.

"Right. Hang on," Storm said, and around them the wind began to pick up as she called her power to herself. She floated upwards like a leaf on an autumn breeze, a sight that under better circumstances might have been elegant and wondrous to behold. Jean redirected her attention to encasing Storm within a globe of telekinetic energy, as the higher she climbed, the more fire she drew from the troops and the Sentinel. The robot whined as the vector lift engines engaged, and slowly it, too lifted from the ground in pursuit of this new threat.

Thick clouds closed in overhead, and lightning flashed and thunder rolled across New York as the Sentinel rose to face Storm hovering in the wind above them. And then she took off like a gale, and her adversary jetted in pursuit.

"Good luck," he murmured, and returned his attention to Stryker's troops with a determined scowl. "Now let's see how they do without that thing."

###

Storm rolled through the sky as thunder cracked and lightning arced between the clouds gathering around her. She floated from thermal to thermal, buoyed by wind shears as she dodged through fire from the Sentinel's arm cannon. Tracer fire ripped past her as thousands of rounds per minute pumped downrange, the report of the weapon not even sounding like gunfire so much as a horrible buzz, like thousands of bees pursuing her at once. Its powerful jet engines and control surfaces fought to stabilize it as it pursued her, and she slipped, bobbed, and wove through the air, climbing steadily higher and higher.

The Sentinel had raw power on its side, and she knew no matter how fancy her flying it would eventually run her down, so instead she headed for a large bank of cloud. It began to sleet as she called more and more of her power to her, and whipped the storm raging around her into greater and greater violence, and she watched ice begin to form on the Sentinel's armored shell. But still it came after her, driven in single-minded purpose to exterminate her and all those like her.

She climbed even higher, drawing it closer and closer to the clouds boiling high above New York, before reaching the position she was looking for. She was buffeted by powerful shears as she floated on the wind. Lighting continued to flash and thunder roared in her ears, and Storm called it all to herself. Blue-white arcs of energy danced across her fingers. She could feel the power building inside her, screaming and straining to be unleashed, but still she waited. The Sentinel reached her altitude and raised its arm cannon, and she stared it down through white eyes, as her power pulsed around her.

Storm raised her hands high overhead and looked to the sky above, and called down all of nature's wrath on the mechanical abomination. A massive surge of electricity flashed from the clouds and slammed into it, frying circuits, microprocessors and capacitors. It danced along its armored outer shell, sparking and sputtering, sheathing it in an electric-blue shell as an electronic shriek split the air. Its golden eyes flickered and died, smoke poured from its fried chassis, and its lift engines sputtered and shut down.

Then with a low groan its bulk teetered over and plummeted out of the sky.

###

The Sentinel came hurtling out of the sky like a meteor, and slammed into the ground with a sickening crunch, pieces of it scattering across the battlefield. Scott popped up and let loose with a wide-field blast that scythed through Stryker's men as they watched in dismay as the machine of death they had built their ambush around came apart. Sleet fell in sheets, and ice formed at the ends of his hair and frosted on the helmets and rifles of their enemy, while thunder rolled and lightning flashed overhead.

"Go!" he shouted, and broke from cover, firing over his shoulder as he and Jean charged into the trees between them and their van.

The wind picked up at ground level as Stryker's men swarmed after them in pursuit, only to be set upon from above as Storm fell upon them, and raked them with lightning. Jean lashed out with blasts of concentrated telekinetic energy, and Scott paused at times to take aim and fire back. Between the three of them in a rolling retreat the mercenaries were unable to organize a coordinated assault, and soon they were out of view, and rushing back for the van.

Storm alighted on the ground and fell in with them, and soon they found their vehicle just where they left it.

"Jean, are you picking anything up?" he shouted.

"There's a still a lot of interference by however they're jamming me, but I've got them. They're already in the van," she said.

Scott didn't need to say another word, and all three clambered aboard. He was not prepared, however, for the sight that greeted him inside: Betsy was laid out on the floor, stripped out of her jumpsuit as Kitty rushed to bandage the gunshot wounds in her side.

"Kitty! Are you alright?" Jean asked. "What happened?"

"It was a trap!" Kitty said. "Psylocke was hit and hit pretty bad, I'm doing what I can, but ..."

"Alright, I've got her from here. Scott! We need to go now!"

"On it!" he said, already diving into the driver's seat.

He started up the van just in time to see another Sentinel crashing through the wood from the vicinity of the warehouse. "Everybody hang on!"

Scott threw the van into reverse and slammed his foot on the gas. The vehicle lurched and spun its tires as it scrabbled for purchase, then slowly began picking up speed. Outside the Sentinel raised its primary cannon and opened fire, walking shots along the ground and towards the van as he wove backwards through the trees, guided only by the image on the vehicle's HUD. He finally reached a place where he could spin the vehicle around, threw it into drive, and accelerated hard again. The passengers in the compartment behind him yelped as they were thrown off their feet, but soon they were on their way, the sounds of pursuit dying behind them.

###

Act IV

###

Screams of panic mingled with the roar of gunfire echoing through the halls in a cacophonous symphony of fear and terror. Sooraya had just stripped out of her niqab and abaya, and sat in her nightgown at her vanity brushing out her long hair, when the blasts rocking the school had thrown her out of her chair and to the floor. She scrambled to her feet and lunged for her bedroom door, and hijab was the furthest thing from her mind as she stumbled out into the hallway with her face exposed for all to see. Her classmates were screaming and crying down below, and panic at the sounds of battle — distant memories of the militants and fighting of home rising up to the forefront of her consciousness — threatened to overwhelm her.

Julian and Sofia rushed from the latter's room as the sounds reached them, and Noriko soon joined them. They ran to the stairwell overlooking the entry hall and sitting room below, and watched in horror as gunfire ripped through Max Jordan, sending him flailing into Melody's arms as she screamed hysterically, while Fabio Medina's golden balls exploded from his body as he panicked and fled for the back of the school. Swarms of black-clothed men in body armor swarmed through the entry hall towards Melody, Illyana and Megan, firing as they came into the backs of the children trying to flee, though from her vantage Sooraya couldn't see if anyone else was hit. Then Yana, Mel, Megan, and Max's body vanished in a circle of light as Yana teleported them away.

More of their friends fled from the lounge, and Santo and Victor both appeared in the hall below. The gunmen opened fire, but with a roar Santo placed himself in between Victor, the others, and their assailants, and aside from a few dusty chips plinking off his stone flanks, the big rocky mutant weathered the attack without injury.

Sooraya's heart sank, however, as a squad came forward with a large rocket launcher and fired. The missile struck Santo square in the chest, and he vanished in a cloud of smoke, flame, and chunks of rock. Julian screamed in anguish as Santo was ripped apart, and Victor scrambled upstairs, desperate to escape the onrushing black tide. Six of the men broke off from the main group to pursue him, and opened fire.

"Bastards!" Julian screamed, and threw up a barrier of telekinetic energy between them and victor.

"Oh god! Oh my god!" Nori screamed and grabbed Sooraya's shoulder. "David's down in the library!"

Sooraya could only stand transfixed at the sight of armed men swarming through their home. "Merciful Allah," she murmured.

"Merciful my ass!" Julian shouted as Victor joined them on top of the stairs, and more weapons fire slammed into his shield. He gritted his teeth in effort to hold it, but Sooraya could see the strain wearing on him.

"We have to get out of here!" Sofia said.

"Where to?" Victor demanded. "There's no way out from here!"

"Window! Back of the hall!" Julian grunted. "I'll hold them, the rest of you go!"

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself!" Sofia said.

"I'm not planning to stay, either. I'll be right with you!"

"Julian is right," Sooraya said, shaking off her shock at the violence unfolding before her. "Go! Now!"

And with that they took off down the hall making for the window at the end, while Julian brought up the rear and held his shield for as long as he could.

###

David scrambled away from the table at which he was working when he heard the blasts ripping through the school, followed shortly afterwards by the screams of panic and the rattle of gunfire echoing through the halls. Ms. Guthrie and a handful of others were still in the library, and he saw Melita Garner emerge from the Professor's office.

He reached the doorway leading out into the hall in time to watch Santo get torn apart by an RPG, and ducked as fragments of stone ripped with terrifying velocity past him. Victor fled up to the dormitory level with half a dozen men in pursuit, while the rest spread out to clear the halls. A small knot of mercenaries caught sight of him standing in the library door, and before he could even think of reacting the muzzles of their weapons snapped up and they opened fire.

David yelped in alarm as bullets chewed up the door frame. "Everybody back!" He screamed to the other kids, most of them underclassmen or even younger, and rushed into the library to drive them towards cover. Then sudden pain flared up in his side, and he cried out as he lost his footing and collapsed to the floor, taking a couple chairs and tables with him. He clutched his side, and his hand came away smeared with blood.

Ms. Guthrie was moving almost as quickly as he went down, tearing off her skin to reveal a surface like diamond underneath. As the men who shot him approached the door she waded into them, their attempts to bring her down futile as their return fire bounced harmlessly off diamond-hard skin. David's vision wavered, and he was distantly aware of hands under his armpits as he was dragged under cover, leaving a long trail of blood on the floor behind him. The last he could remember clearly was the ceiling of the library spinning overhead as he fought off warm, inviting darkness.

###

"Oh my god," Melita murmured as she watched one of the students go down in a heap as gunfire ripped through the library. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

She spun around to clear the door, and saw Xavier rocking side to side in his chair with his hands clamped over his temples, moaning in agony. "Professor!" she cried, and rushed to his side.

"I'm all right," he said through gritted teeth. "It's the children! So much fear, I'm having trouble ..."

A flicker of motion caught Melita's eye, and in the darkness outside Xavier's window she saw several of the gunmen raising their weapons. "Down!" she cried, and flung herself into him. His chair rolled back a ways before their combined weight tipped it over entirely, just as a storm of lead tore through the office, shattering the windows, smashing his computer terminal, and shredding the furniture and books on his shelf. Melita landed heavily on top of him, and shielded him with her body against the hail of debris as best she could.

Beneath her Xavier scrambled for a button concealed on the arm of his chair. An alarm sounded in the office as he reached it, and heavy steel barriers fell down across the windows. Gunfire rattled against the plates for a few moments like rain drumming against panes of glass, before finally slackening and fading entirely.

"Are you all right?" Xavier asked from the floor beneath her.

"Me? What about you?" she said.

"I think I'll manage."

Melita rolled off him and sat with her back against one of his shredded office chairs, and helped Xavier back to a sitting position. "When this is all over," she panted as the immediate rush of adrenaline passed. "I think I'm putting in for a long vacation."

"I think I might join you."

###

Jubilee shielded herself with her arms when Santo Vaccaro blew apart as the rocket struck him in the chest. Behind her, Cessily cried out in grief at the expanding cloud of rubble, while the other students still with her stood transfixed in terror at the sight. Paige rushed from the library across the hall, her skin glistening like diamond, and smashed her way through the group of gunmen between them, their return fire deflecting harmlessly off of her.

"Jubilee!" she shouted, and Jubilee immediately shook off her shock at what she was seeing as she registered her name being called.

"Paige!" Jubilee cried back, and started into the hall.

"It's Husk right now! Get them out of here! I'll hold them off!"

"What? Are you out of your mind!"

"Do it! Get them out the back door! Go!"

Crap. She's going X-Man on me. "Pai— Husk! You can't hold them by yourself!"

"I'll be right behind you! Just get them out!"

Jubilee hesitated, she couldn't leave Paige behind to face this assault alone. No matter how strong she made her skin, they would eventually overwhelm her. But deep down she knew she was right; her responsibility was first and foremost to the children under their care. She had to get them out.

"Alright! Everyone to the back! Go!" she shouted, and those who didn't move on their own she started shoving until they did. More of the gunmen poured into the hallway, and a few made it past Paige to pursue the children as they fled towards the rear of the school. Jubilee snapped her hands up on instinct, and sparks of plasma erupted from her hands in the faces of their pursuers. They cried out in alarm and shielded their eyes against the dazzling display, and that was all the time she needed. Jubilee followed the kids into the hallway, raking shrieking plasma behind her to hold their pursuers back.

###

Stryker strode into the school behind Matthew and the leading elements of the assault, and smiled with satisfaction at the chaos erupting among the abominations. They panicked and fled towards the rear of the school, where the rest of the assault force was closing in to cut them off. There would be no escape for them this time.

One mutant remained in the entrance hall, her skin sparkling like diamond while bullets skipped off of her. Despite showing little formal combat ability, she was nonetheless doing an admirable job holding off the main assault thanks to her current invulnerability. Thankfully, they had prepared for just such an eventuality as this.

"Carbonadium rounds!" he barked, and one of the squad leaders quickly switched magazines. Two shots rang out, the special rounds pierced effortlessly through her chest, and the woman went down in a heap and lay unmoving.

"Leave her and continue the pursuit of the others!" Stryker commanded.

###

Gunfire slammed into the wall in front of her, and Jubilee only narrowly managed to jerk back as another squad of men burst through the back door, weapons belching a lethal hail of lead. "Oh crap!" she yelped. "Get back! Get back! Everyone make for the classroom! Go!"

Jubilee whipped her hands up and unleashed a barrage of plasma to delay their assailants as they pressed forward into the hallway, covering their retreat back towards the west classroom. Cessily helped direct everyone inside, and Jubilee was the last to slip through the door and slammed it shut behind her. The room was crowded with bodies pressing together, and the students' fear was so thick in the air it was palpable. Melody Guthrie knelt over the body of Max Jordan and cried inconsolably. Illyana and Megan had arms around her comforting her, and Fabio was curled up in the corner, his arms around his legs and rocking back and forth. Quentin Quire's usual smugness was gone, his shock of pink hair a mess, and behind his thick-framed glasses his eyes were wide in shock — not even he could make light of the violence of the assault.

"What do we do now?" Cessily squeaked from beside her, her voice trembling in fright.

She opened the door a crack and peered back into the hall, her mind desperately spinning for any plan of escape.

And that's when Jubilee saw a face that turned her blood to ice. That's when she saw the face that was burned into her memories and nightmares, and as William Stryker rounded the corner behind his men Jubilee saw once again the cages, the tables and instruments. The soldiers with their tranquilizers swarming through the school like rats. She heard once again the terrified cries of the youngest as they huddled in their prison, not knowing what was happening, where they were, or why they were taken. She heard the cracking voices of the eldest vainly reassuring them, promising them it would be alright even though they knew otherwise. She saw the pale, frightened faces and eyes wide with panic in those cold, dank cages.

She blinked and swept her eyes across the classroom, memory giving way to the present and she saw it all again: children cowering in corners, the terrified wails of the youngest as the soldiers bore down on them, the cracking voices of the eldest vainly offering reassurance they didn't feel themselves. Fear and despair hung so thickly in the room Jubilee felt she could cut through it with a knife.

And then the ice gave way and her blood turned molten. Lips accustomed to wry smiles twisted into a scowl, and rage so incandescent she thought she might burst into flames coursed through her. Mark, Laurie, and how many others dead? How many others hurt?

"No more," Jubilee said in a low voice, and Cessily turned to face her in confusion. "No more!" she screamed at the mercenaries moving into the hallway. "Do you hear me? No more of my kids!"

"Jubilee ..." Cessily began, her silver face bunched with fear.

Jubilee cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. "Stay back. Get them all back. Stay as low as you can and stay clear of the door!"

And then she was moving. She felt her power build inside her, and the roiling balls of plasma flickered to life around her hands. Even had she stayed when she graduated school they would have never made her an X-Man. To everyone her power was a joke, a pretty parlor trick for entertaining people on the street corner. They didn't know. They didn't understand the full potential of what she could do. She did. Raw power she feared to call on, the sheer violent destruction she held in her hands. But now there was no time to hold back. Jubilee had no choice. She would not see another of her kids die; not tonight, not ever.

The plasma howled in her hands as she spun into the hallway and faced down the men heading her direction. It screamed, begging to be released, hungry balls of liquid energy churning and boiling as she fed more and more of her power into it, globes of superheated gas so bright it was blinding. And with a primal scream of her own to match it, for the first time in her life Jubilee unleashed the full extent of her power.

It shrieked down the hallway like a banshee, deafening in the confines of the hallway, and the churning ball of super-hot energy landed squarely in the middle of the leading group of four men and exploded. Not with the sharp cracking paf of the bolts she used for showing off for boys or entertaining the younger kids, but with a roar like a bomb, spraying everything in its path, and burning gaping holes in the walls, floor and ceiling. The screams of the men caught up in the explosion were lost in the conflagration. Those at the center of the blast were incinerated in a flash, the rest torn apart by the concussive force and thrown across the hallway, while the plasma splashing across them burned clear through their body armor and down to their flesh.

She quickly spun around to face the men assaulting the hall from the other direction, and instantly Jubilee's hands went up, raking a screaming barrage of energy across the hallway. Bolts of plasma burned through body armor, blew off limbs, and burned everything it struck to cinders. For the first time in her life, Jubilee let loose of her fear of her power, and it responded quickly and lethally.

Acrid smoke mingled with the stench of burned flesh filled the hallway, and fires smoldered where her plasma lit both surroundings and bodies on fire. Jubilee turned back to the main body and prepared another volley, but this time they were faster and a panicked hail of gunfire ripped through the hallway.

The first hit may have saved her from being killed instantly. Pain flared in her thigh as a round ripped through flesh and muscle, and as Jubilee stumbled she cried out as she felt another impact in her side. Had she not been falling away it would have passed straight through her gut. A third shot slammed into her shoulder and spun her into the wall. Her head struck it hard, and she watched the ceiling wheel about overhead in a daze as she crashed to the floor. Her last clear memory was of a silver tentacle-y thing whipping around her wrist and dragging her across the floor and back into the classroom.

###

Cessily pulled Jubilee back into the classroom and dragged her away from the door. A distressingly large trail of blood followed her.

"Shut the door!" she snapped over the roar of automatic weapons fire as it chewed into the wood paneling around the doorway. "Pile up anything you can and barricade it! And someone help me! She's hurt bad!"

Some of the kids rushed to do what she said, and desks, tables and chairs were dragged across the floor and thrown up to barricade the door. Cessily cradled Jubilee's body and slapped her cheek. "Wake up! Wake up!" she pleaded, but Jubilee didn't move. Blood poured from her wounds and frothed from her nose and mouth. Yana crouched next to her, her voice twisted in a mix of anger and fear.

"What do you need?" Yana asked.

"Find Josh!" Cessily said. "We need him now!"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, I think in one of the medical bays." Cessily tore her eyes away from Jubilee's frighteningly pale face and met Yana's. "Go! Hurry!"

"Right, I'll be back," she said, and then she vanished in a circle of light.

###

Laura approached the school with care. Her hunt of Stryker's patrols had led her towards the rear of the building, and finally she had eliminated the last of them. She could hear the roar of gunfire within, and watched as more and more of Stryker's assault teams poured into the rear entrance. She frowned as she observed the scene from the hedges outside the back door; the numbers were not in her favor for a direct assault. If the attack on the school was to be defeated, she needed to maintain the element of surprise a moment longer.

A flicker of light and motion from above caught her eye, and drew her attention to the second floor and the dormitory hallway. From her vantage point she could just make out the silhouette of five of her classmates fleeing towards the window at the end of the hall, pursued by the distinct glare of muzzle flash. Laura considered this carefully for a brief moment, then, with a close eye on the men guarding the back door of the school, broke from cover and hurried for the side wall. Upon satisfying herself she had not been seen, Laura began to climb.

###

The mercenaries rounded after them in pursuit, and as soon as they cleared the corner leading down the student dormitory hallway they opened fire again, attacking together in two groups: Three in front advancing, three more a dozen feet behind them providing cover. Julian's hands glowed and once more he threw up his shield, automatic weapons fire slamming against it as Sofia, Sooraya, Ashida, and Victor sheltered behind him, backed against the end of the dormitory hallway. But the drain of the pursuit was showing, and sweat beaded on his brow. He couldn't hold the shield for much longer, and he sunk to his knees from the effort of maintaining it.

"Will one of you do something?" He shouted in a wavering voice over the roar of gunfire.

And that's when a door from one of the dorms on their left exploded inward.

###

The door shattered as she slammed into it, sending hundreds of pieces of shrapnel hurtling across the hallway. Her healing factor closed the wounds left by the jagged slivers of wood as she smashed through, Julian's shield protected him and the others, and the body armor of the mercenaries spared them the brunt of the hail, but the surprise delayed them a critical fraction of a second. It was all Laura needed.

She knew exactly how she would kill them all the moment her feet hit the floor.

Laura exploded forward in sudden motion, angling for the lead group, and was on the first before he could even think to raise his weapon. She felt the familiar pain of the twin claws in each hand tearing through her skin, and as he turned to face the unexpected assault she delivered a vicious uppercut from her right to the man towering above her. It was the particular irony of Kevlar that, while it could withstand high-energy impactors from gunfire and the shrapnel of an explosive device, it was of little use against something so simple as a knife blade. To the adamantium bonded to her claws he might well have not been wearing it at all. The blow sheared through his body armor and into his belly, her claws tearing flesh, muscle and viscera and ending up somewhere behind his rib cage and doubling him over with a sickening grunt that was strangled as a left hook tore out his throat.

She let him drop and spun around behind his falling body to the next in line, her momentum tearing her right hand free. The close formation that worked so well for massing their fire on her friends was now turned against them. Laura dropped low to avoid the muzzle of her next target's assault rifle, and as she spun past raked the back of his knee with her right hand, severing muscle and tendon and collapsing his leg beneath him. He cried out and grabbed for his wounded leg, and his scream died sickeningly as a left jab to the back of his head buried her claws in his brain.

As the surprise of her sudden assault passed, she found the third much more prepared as she turned to face him. He leveled a vicious blow from the stock of his rifle at the back of her head, but Laura was already moving, tearing free of her second victim and ducking past the blow. A quick falling slash of her claws tore the rifle in two and spilled its inner workings and the contents of its magazine across the floor. Laura slammed her elbow into the man's gut and delivered a sharp backhand to his face as he doubled over, then spun on her heel to face him with a roundhouse kick. To his credit he already recovered from the blows and caught her foot before she connected, intending to twist her leg and drive her into the ground.

Laura did not give him the chance. The instant she felt him seize hold of her she used him as a springboard, and threw her weight backwards and whipped her free leg up. The claw in her foot extended in a flash and tore his belly open from groin to sternum. She used her momentum to carry through the top of a back flip, foot claw retracting mid-flight, and landed clear of his falling vivisected body in a fighting stance and staring down the next group with murder in her eyes.

The muzzles of their rifles snapped up and Laura sprung forward through a hail of gunfire. She ignored a flare of pain in her shoulder as a round struck home, and her small size and gymnast's agility carried her past most of the incoming fire as she tumbled across the space between her and the remaining mercenaries. Then she was among them, adamantium flashing and blood spraying through the air in glistening arcs as they died swift, violent, ugly deaths.

And then it was over and Laura stood alone among ruined bodies, her claws glistening wetly as blood ran from them. More blood splattered across her face and body and in her hair, gathering it into thick, gruesome strings. The burning in her shoulder ceased as her healing factor ejected the bullet from her body and closed the wound. Laura swallowed and forced the feelings threatening to well up at unleashing the weapon back down, smothering them beneath cold practicality, and her face returned to a mask of calm. She relaxed from her fighting guard and retracted her claws.

Laura turned to face her classmates. Noriko's face turned a sickly shade of green and she fell to her knees and vomited. Victor put a hand to his own mouth to stifle the urge to do the same, and Sofia hugged herself and looked away. Sooraya sunk to her knees and began to pray over the dead.

Only Julian continued to look at her, his mouth open and his eyes wide in terror. Not of death narrowly escaped, but of her, of what she had just done.

Laura turned away from them, ashamed they had seen her, balling her hands tightly and digging her nails into her palms to suppress the feeling, and then went to work stripping weapons and ammunition from the dead.

Julian was the first to find his voice.

"What. The. Hell. Was. That?" he said.

She ignored him as she slung one of the assault rifles over her shoulder and belted a pistol with several spare magazines around her waist, while a reserve pistol was tucked into the waistband of her pants at the small of her back. Another bandoleer with ammunition for the rifle went across her other shoulder, and she gathered a few flashbangs and grenades and hung them from the appropriated belt.

She heard Julian approach, slowly and cautiously, and he stopped a short distance behind her. "Did you hear me? What was that?"

Laura just picked up another of the rifles, ejected its partially-spent magazine and inserted a fresh one, then turned and shoved it into his hands.

"M4A1 carbine, chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO." She pointed at the fire selection toggle. "Selective fire; semi- and full automatic. Keep it on semiautomatic. You have a 30-round magazine, plus two spares." She looped a bandolier around his neck and started towards the rest of the group with the remaining weapons.

"What? Hey! Stop!" Julian snapped and stormed after her. She felt his hand on her shoulder, and before she could control herself her reflexes took over and she effortlessly spun him against the wall. Her claws burst from her hand to hover at his throat.

His eyes were wide with panic and his face was white. Recognition finally broke through conditioning, and Laura released him and retracted her claws once again. "Do not touch me," she said quietly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Julian said when he found his voice again. The others approached cautiously, the stench of their fear almost overwhelming her.

"Fulfilling a promise," she said.

"What promise?" Sooraya asked.

"To Jay."

Sooraya blinked in confusion, and looked between the others. It was strange to see her in public without her niqab concealing her face. "What do you mean? Where is he?"

Laura looked away, unable to look her in the eye. "Jay left the school again shortly after we last spoke, and I followed him. He went to Stryker's church."

Julian scowled. "You expect us to believe that Jay Guthrie has been hanging out with Stryker's church? That he was one of them?"

"Jay is dead," Laura snapped. Sooraya gasped and pressed a hand over her mouth, as tears broke free through her usually admirable self-control and streamed down her face. "Stryker's men shot me and when Jay attacked him in retaliation, Stryker shot him. I healed. He did not."

"H-how is that possible?" Noriko stammered. "Jay has a healing factor, doesn't he?"

"I do not know," Laura said. "By the time I regained consciousness it was too late, but there are ways to circumvent it. Stryker has obviously found one."

Sooraya sunk against the wall, and Sofia was immediately at her side pulling the other girl into a comforting hug. Victor stared at the floor, and Noriko just stared at her, like Julian her scent laced with fear over what she just watched Laura do.

Laura ignored their reactions and resumed passing out weaponry. "We do not have time for this. The others are still in danger and I promised to protect them. I eliminated Stryker's command post and the patrols outside, but it will not take long for him to send someone to investigate. We must move quickly."

Noriko stared uncomfortably at the pistol thrust into her hands. "What do you expect us to do? I'm not like you, I can't kill anyone."

"No kidding. You sound a lot like you've done this before," Julian said. The fear in his scent shifted slightly to the telltale of adrenaline-fueled anxiety.

"I have."

"See, I don't like that at all. Why are we even listening to her?"

"Because she's right, Julian," Victor said. "We have to do something."

Noriko scowled at him. "As much as I hate to agree with him, what do we even know about her, why should we trust her?"

Laura flinched back at the distrust in the pair's voices, but Sooraya answered for her. She stood away from Sofia and gave her arm a squeeze of thanks, and snatched the M4 away from Julian. "Because she just saved our lives, and because she is our friend."

Julian glared. "Yours, maybe."

"All of you, that's enough!" Sofia said. "All of our friends are in danger, and if Laura has a plan to protect them, then we follow her lead." Laura felt her look uncertainly at her. "You do have a plan, right?"

Laura finished checking her equipment. A low moan from one of the bodies strewn across the hall caught her ears, and she drew her pistol as she followed it to its source. One of the mercenaries stirred, which she stilled with a bullet through his head. She ignored the shocked expressions of the others when she turned back to them.

"We move quickly. Sooraya up front with me. Those who do not wish to fight stay back. Use cover and corners, fire short bursts and aim center-of-mass. Julian can provide a shield. Where are the others?"

"We got scattered," Victor said. "We came up here, I think the rest headed towards the back door."

Laura frowned. "Stryker has men posted there. They will all be trapped. We need to move."

###

Yana stepped out of her pocket dimension and into the medical bay hallway in the basement levels beneath the school. Unlike the inhabited upper levels, this part of the school was all cold white lighting and metal plating, with none of the rich decorative wood trim and carpeting. It was deserted and silent, except for the distant rumble of the battle raging in the levels above. Not that that was unusual; aside for training sessions with their powers, trips to the medbay, and a few of Dr. McCoy's labs, students were normally not permitted down here. Illyana, of course, paid little attention to such restrictions, and had teleported herself down from time to time to explore, so it took her little time to find exactly where Josh had been stashed after the return from Salem.

She stepped through the door and into the darkened medbay. Josh lay curled up in a fetal position on his side with his back to her, and Yana stifled a gasp when she saw him: His skin had turned a shiny, metallic gold since last she saw him in Salem.

"Josh?" she called quietly as she stepped into the room. "Hey, you awake?"

Yana slowly crossed the medbay floor, and walked around the table so she could see his face. Josh was staring at the wall with tears running down his face. "Hey," she said.

Josh didn't respond, and just continued to lay on his side.

"Look, I'm sorry what happened. But we need you. Jubilee is hurt and Stryker's men are tearing the place apart."

"You want Dr. McCoy," Josh said, and his voice was so quiet she almost lost it in the distance sounds of the fight raging in the upper levels. "Not me."

"Dr. McCoy can't help her."

"Then neither can I."

"Look, Josh, you're the best healer we've got, and she's going to die without you."

"Don't you hear it?" he wailed, and a fresh round of tears streamed down his golden cheeks. "We're all dead! All of us! Mark, Sarah, and now ..." he trailed off as he choked back a sob. "Oh god!"

Josh buried his face in his hands, and his shoulders shook violently as he cried. Yana sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Look, Josh, I know you're—"

He grabbed hold of her hand, and a surge of pain lanced up her arms. Yana cried out and flinched away from him. "Leave me alone!" he snarled, and shot upright on the bed. "Just go away and leave me alone!"

Yana nursed her wounded hand. Her skin was blistered as if she had been mildly burned, and she locked her eyes on Foley and narrowed them dangerously to slits. "You selfish coward!" She waved her hand vaguely towards the ceiling, and the battle overhead. "We're dying up there, Josh! I just watched one of my best friends get shot to pieces! Jubilee is dying, and Stryker's come to kill all of us, and all you can do is lie there feeling sorry for yourself?" She folded her arms across her chest and glared daggers at him. "If Laurie could see you right now she'd be ashamed of you."

Josh's blue eyes narrowed dangerously, and he clenched his jaw so tightly Yana thought he might grind his own teeth into dust. "What did you say?" he said, his voice a venomous hiss.

"You heard me! She'd be ashamed if she could see you. You know who Laurie was; she was afraid to be around the people she cared about because she couldn't stand to hurt them with her power. What do you think she'd feel if she saw you let someone die just because you were moping feeling sorry for yourself."

Josh tightened his fists around the edge of the bed, and lowered his head. He didn't say a word, just squeezed his eye shut tight and gasped as a sob racked his body. Yana just watched him dispassionately, and started away as she called her power to her.

"You want to die? Fine? Go ahead and kill yourself and see what I care. I'm going to at least try and do something, and the options I have are options I don't like. But if it means saving Jubilee and the others, I'm going to do it."

"Wait," Josh called at her back, and she heard him hop down from the bed and make his way across the floor. Yana turned back and glared at him. "I don't know if I can do anything, but if it's that bad, I'll try."

Yana nodded, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hold on, this isn't going to be very pleasant," she said, and they vanished from the bay in a circle of light.

###

"Report, Matthew?" Stryker said, and leaned heavily on his cane as he approached Matthew and the lead formations. There was still sporadic gunfire above as some of his troops swarmed up towards the dormitories in pursuit of a handful of the abominations who sought escape in that direction. So far he had heard nothing from Mary to indicate the situation outside had changed, and everything seemed to be moving right on schedule.

"A group of them have barricaded themselves in one of the classrooms, including one of the priority subjects. The other we haven't seen yet," Matthew said.

"What about the lower levels?"

"We haven't been able to find the entrance yet. The intelligence reports are almost a decade out of date, and it seems they've closed some of those access points since the previous raid."

"Find them," Stryker demanded. "I don't want any of Xavier's students to escape, and I want this building razed to its foundations."

"Yes, sir. What about the ones in the classroom?"

"If you can't break the door down, blast it down."

Matthew nodded. "Yes, sir," he said, and returned to his work. Stryker shifted his weight from foot to foot, and a small amount of frustration worked its way into his calm. Vengeance was so close now he could taste it, and he was not about to be stopped by architects and a bunch of children barricading themselves inside a classroom. This ended tonight.

###

Josh fell to his knees and retched as they emerged from Yana's pocket dimension in the west classroom, and he emptied his stomach onto the floor.

"Told you," Yana said with a smug grin, as he wiped his mouth off on his sleeve.

He found himself in the middle of the room, surrounded by children packed so tightly there was scarcely room to walk. Melody Guthrie clutched Max's still corpse to her chest and cried while his eyes gazed sightlessly at the ceiling, and Josh forced himself to look away as memories of Laurie lying in a pool of blood flooded back to the surface. Desks and chairs had been piled in front of the door, and he could hear the sound of hatchets and entrenching tools beating against it as the soldiers outside worked their way in, and all of them watched with eyes wide with fright, waiting for the barricades to give way and their executioners to swarm through.

Josh pushed himself back to his feet. "Yana, is there anything you can do to get them out of here?"

She shook her head helplessly. "Maybe a few at a time, but there's no way I can get everyone. And just trying to get them through ..."

He waved her off. "I got it, I got it. And I'd really rather not remember it."

Yana gave him a bit of a twisted smile. "So would I. Imagine seeing that every time you went to bed and closed your eyes from the time you're eight years old. Is it any wonder everyone thinks I'm so screwed up?"

Josh didn't answer, and just surveyed the room. Cessily had Jubilee pulled back into the corner as far from the door as she could get her, while Dani and Rahne helped her tear bandages from whatever scraps of cloth they could find in a desperate effort to stop her bleeding. He quickly picked his way through the crowd and made his way towards them, and when Rahne caught sight of him she gasped audibly, drawing the attention of the others.

"Josh! Oh my god!" Cessily said when she saw him.

"Hey, Cess," he said. "How do you like my new look?"

"What happened?"

"We'll talk later," he said, and knelt beside them, trying his best to keep his voice even to not alarm the girls any further than they already were. "How is she?"

Rahne sniffled. "She's in a bad way, Josh," she said in her rich brogue. "I think she's dying."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do, but I don't know how much it will help."

Cessily squeezed his arm. "You can do it, Josh. But just do it fast."

He nodded. "Alright, give me some room."

The girls backed away, and Josh closed his eyes and laid his hands on Jubilee's chest. He concentrated and drew his power to him, and reached out into her body. He could feel her beneath his hands; every nerve, every molecule of her being. And as he probed he sought for the damaged tissue and willed it to knit together. His heart raced and sweat poured from his brow as it furrowed in concentration the longer he held on. He felt the muscles, veins and arteries slowly start to respond to his command. Too slowly. After what seemed an eternity, his hands began to shake, his strength ebbed, and then he collapsed backwards onto the floor in exhaustion, gasping desperately for breath. Rahne was beside him almost immediately helping him up, and Josh mopped his face in despair.

"I'm sorry, I just ..."

"Josh!" Cessily said, and the note of relief in her voice shook him from the grips of exhaustion. He let his hands fall away from his face, and he looked on in wonder as Jubilee took a deep, ragged breath, and her eyes slowly fluttered halfway open.

"Ow," she murmured weakly, before drifting back into unconsciousness, but her breathing remained strong. Elation and relief swelled in Josh's heart; she was alive. She was in bad need of medical care, but he knew that he had done it. She would live.

And as soon as that thought crossed his mind the classroom was rocked by the sound of an explosion, and their makeshift fortifications were blasted apart by tongues of burning gas that flung the bodies of anyone standing nearby aside like leaves scattered by the wind. Children screamed and cowered as men in armor stormed through the breach and opened fire.

###

Sooraya crouched low, mirroring Laura's posture as she hurried back along the hallway towards the stairs. Behind her came the rest of the group; Sofia and Victor awkwardly hefting the guns Laura had given them, and Julian and Nori bringing up the rear. Laura paused momentarily at the corner and carefully peaked around it, then motioned for them to stay put as she slipped along the wall to the other side of the landing and checked down the hall leading to the teachers' quarters. Sooraya gripped the rifle in shaking, sweating hands, and her heart pounded against her breastbone. The fear of battle was difficult enough to manage, but she felt naked and exposed without her niqab. In her preoccupation with surviving the first attack she had not even given thought to the fact that Julian and Victor had seen her face, but now, as her mind warred with adrenaline and sought anything it could focus on to escape the reality of their situation, she found herself puzzling over whether she ought to go and retrieve it, and even how hijab ought to apply in the case of a homosexual like Victor — would his orientation mean she ought to adjust her practice around him as if he were a woman?

She rapidly shook her head to clear it of such distractions, and focus on the task at hand. Men in armor still swarmed through the school, and she could hear a rhythmic banging on the door of one of the classrooms. Across the stairwell, Laura satisfied herself that the teacher's quarters were clear, and stealthily approached the rail overlooking the entry hall and sitting room. Sooraya took her cue and crouched behind the banister railing, gazing down on the men who had come to destroy her home. Laura raised her weapon and held up a hand, and Sooraya nodded in understanding at the silent command:

Be ready. Shoot when I shoot.

Bile churned in Sooraya's gut as she raised her rifle, and peered down its sights, framing the body of one of the men below. She felt sick, and fought to steady the weapon against the shaking of her hands. Her faith was one of peace, and now here she found herself asked to commit murder lest Stryker's men murder her and her friends first. She had killed before; once, long ago when her power first manifested. And her mind subconsciously flashed back to that terrifying moment as the gang of men attempted to force themselves on her, and she let loose with her power in self-defense. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, and said a mental prayer: "Merciful Allah, I beg of you forgive me for what I am to do. But the lives of those I love are in danger, and I must break your laws to defend them from the evil that has descended upon us. I gladly offer up my life to you in turn, if you desire it of me, but I ask of you to shield my friends, and guide my hands. Allāhu Akbar."

Across the landing Laura took aim, her pale face a mask of terrifying calm. And then her finger flexed around the trigger, and with a sharp crack she fired, and her first shot punched clean through the helmet of one of the mercenaries, and put him to the floor with a spurt of blood.

Almost as soon as she fired Sooraya squeezed her own trigger, and the carbine bucked against her shoulder. Her shot went high and caught her target in his shoulder, and the soldiers below them cried out in alarm as they realized their danger. "Contact above! Contact above!" someone screamed, and automatic gunfire ripped into the floor of the landing, splattering against the railing behind which she was sheltered, and Sooraya yelped and fell back under the cover of the wall. Laura switched her rifle to automatic and sprayed fire back, popping out from her corner and firing swift, accurate, controlled bursts with frightening skill and efficiency. At a break in the return fire from below, Sooraya returned to her place at the wall, and fired off a series of shots. Every one missed, but near enough to send the soldiers scrambling for cover again.

They took cover behind corners, popping out for brief shots raking the level above, but almost all of their fire went high, and the angle of the stairwell shielded them from their enemy. Bullets riddled the walls, floors and ceilings as they traded fire; bits of plaster rained down on them, and fragments of the wood paneling exploded around them. Laura emptied one of her magazines and ducked back behind the wall to reload, and Sooraya took it upon herself to fill her silence with more fire to keep their enemy's heads down. Another of the soldiers fell as a round pierced his throat, and then she struck another in his leg, before diving back under cover as they returned fire and sprayed a massive wall of led in her direction.

Then Laura was back in the fight, taking advantage of their distraction, and unleashing a hellstorm of lead at them as they poked around the corner behind which they were sheltering. Men screamed and blood sprayed across the hallway, the roar of the guns' actions rang deafeningly in her ears, and the hot brass casings flew past her ear as her weapon cycled and they were ejected.

Chaos reigned on the floor below as Stryker's men scrambled to counter their sudden assault. Sooraya just gritted her teeth and kept firing, emptying one magazine and fumbling to replace it while Laura provided covering fire. Her hands were shaking madly. She could hear bullets zipping past her head and embedding themselves in the wall behind and above her. Laura popped out and fired a sustained burst to put the soldiers' heads down, they returned fire and she ducked back under cover as the railing and wall around where she had been standing were shredded.

Then one of the men below got off a lucky burst. Laura cried out as his rounds found their mark, and blood sprayed from half a dozen wounds as he walked his fire up her torso. One punched through the receiver of her rifle as she collapsed against the wall. Sooraya finally slammed her fresh magazine home, switched her carbine to automatic, and cut loose with a lethal metal hail that tore through him like a buzzsaw.

"Laura!" Sooraya cried over the cacophony.

Laura coughed and worked herself back upright as her healing factor ejected the bullets from her body and closed the wounds, and as she silently worked the slide and found the weapon useless, she cast it aside and drew the pistol from the holster at her hip. She emptied first one magazine and then another, each shot placed with lethal accuracy, until she was left with only the spare pistol tucked in her waistband.

Sooraya leaned around the corner and fired again, but the soldiers below sensed the slackening return fire, and started to swarm towards the stairwell. The school was then rocked by a small blast somewhere below them, and over the roar of gunfire Sooraya could hear the sound of children screaming. For a moment Laura glanced towards her, and something was turning behind her green eyes, and then she was moving. Laura grabbed two flashbangs off her belt and yanked their pins, then tossed them over the railing.

"Grenade!" Someone shouted, and both detonated with a deafening bang and a blinding flash of light. Sooraya cried out and ducked her head, and the men below then screamed. That was all the delay Laura needed, and when next Sooraya looked back she was diving from the top of the landing with her claws extended.

"Laura!" she screamed, and leapt to her feet, sweeping the muzzle of her weapon across the men below, but she dared not pull the trigger with Laura mixed in with them. The others joined her at the rail and watched with mixtures of shock and horror as Laura tore into them, her claws flashing as she danced through them with terrifying speed. But for every one she cut down more rushed up in their place, and it would only be a matter of time before they overwhelmed her entirely.

"Sooraya, what are you doing?" Nori demanded as she came up beside her, and all the color drained from her face as she watched the grisly display.

"I can't get a clear shot!" she replied.

"We have to do something!" Sofia said. "She can't fight them all by herself!"

Sooraya took a deep breath, tossed aside her rifle and stood at the edge of the landing with her arms raised to her side. "You're right, she cannot."

"Soo, what—" Julian started, but before the words could leave his mouth Sooraya called her power to her, and her body disintegrated into millions of tiny sand-like particles. With a howl like a desert wind she flung herself into the soldiers fighting like mad to bear Laura down. They screamed as she ripped through them, a living sandstorm scouring fresh from bone, pouring herself into their mouths and noses and eyes, blasting from one end of the hallway to the other. She used her power to warp herself around the room, reconstituting herself to deliver punches and kicks to exposed throats and knees, and discorporating to evade their attempts to counter attack as she and Laura worked together to tear them to shreds.

###

Yana shielded herself as the soldiers in the lead opened fire as they charged through the doorway, but to her astonishment the burning pain ripping through her she anticipated never came. She opened her eyes to find her assailants equally bewildered as their bullets froze mid-air. She blinked in surprise, and swept her eyes across the room. Directly between her and the incoming hail of metal was Quentin Quire, cowering behind his arms until he, too, realized that something very odd had just happened.

For a moment everyone — children and mercenaries alike — just stared at each other, and a look of pure astonishment appeared on Quire's features. "Uhm. Did I do that?" he muttered in disbelief, and waved his hands experimentally.

Almost at once, soldiers and suspended bullets were thrown back out into the hallway, and smashed against the far wall.

"Oh that is so cool!" Quire said, and a malicious smile spread across her features.

"Reverend! Contact rear!" she heard one of the soldiers scream, and Yana felt a wicked smile tug at her own lips. Reinforcements had arrived, and now it was time to fight back.

"What do we do?" Megan asked from her side, and she fluttered her wings nervously.

"We're mutants," Yana said. "We have powers. I don't know about the rest of you ..." Yana reached across her hip and into her soul, drew her sword — in the form of a longsword with a long blade that flickered and flashed with baleful pale flame — and took it in both hands. "...but I think it's time we used them!"

All around her her classmates formed ranks. Josh and Cessily remained with Jubilee, and most of the youngest — along with Megan, Melody, and Fabio — stayed with them, but as Stryker's attack broke down and responded to the attack from behind, Yana rushed out to meet them.

She was through with running and hiding; now it was time to show Stryker the true meaning of Hell.

###

Laura danced through them; a black whirlwind of flashing claws tearing out throats and ripping open bellies. From the corner of her eye she watched as Sooraya joined the fight on the floor and blasted across the fray, and quickly marked her as a friendly in the elaborate plan of attack taking shape in her mind. More and more of Stryker's troops rushed in as the fight spilled into the sitting room, but in such close quarters they could not dare to bring their superior firepower into play, so went for their knives and bayonets, and that worked to her advantage as distance and lines of attack limited how many of them could attack her at once.

She and Sooraya worked well together; Sooraya quickly picked up on how best to support her during the firefight, and now they worked in concert to tear Stryker's army down piece by piece. And soon she became aware that they were not alone. A gust of wind blasted across the hallway as Sofia floated above the melee and unleashed a solid blast that swept the mercenaries from their feet, and effortlessly tossed them into the walls and smashed them into the ceiling. Victor joined them on the floor, darting through the soldiers with frightening speed, and casually tossing them aside with strength belying his small frame. A sharp crack split the air, and Noriko sent a blast of electrical energy coursing through great swathes of soldiers, filling the hall with the stench of charred flesh and burnt hair as they jerked and writhed. Julian dropped into the midst of the fight, and threw up a wall of telekinetic energy that tossed the men surrounding him aside, and struck at them with concentrated blasts of his power.

The smell on the air changed, and the fear of her classmates was gone. Now it was their attackers' turn, and panic broke out in their ranks. Those at the heart of the fighting broke and ran, trampling those not yet engaged in their rush to escape. Laura pressed into them, spinning and flipping, bringing both hand and foot-claws into play as she fought her way across the hallway. All she could smell now was the overwhelming cupric stench of the blood covering her, the walls, and the floor in angry red slashes.

And then she was out of targets, all of Stryker's men lying dead in great heaps at her feet, or fleeing the school. "That's quite enough!" a voice cried out behind her as Laura withdrew her claws from the belly of the last of her opponents. She immediately spun around, and froze in her tracks.

William Stryker stood in the hall, his Colt pistol leveled at her face, and a string of demolitions charges on a timer in his hand. Laura tensed, her muscles coiled and ready to spring as she stared the reverend down. He in turn regarded her with a knowing smile.

"Well, now, isn't this a surprise? Tell me, my dear: How is the old man? And Laura Kinney, was it?" he said, emphasizing her surname. "I thought I remembered that name from somewhere." Stryker chuckled mirthlessly, and fixed her with a significant look. "I know what you are. I wonder if the rest of your friends do. And in fact, I know someone who would very, very much like to know what's become of you."

A hollow feeling crept through her gut at that, but she did not make a move, only eyed the string of explosives. "Reverend Stryker," she said instead, "You are ordered to stand down. Drop your weapon now and surrender."

He chuckled softly, and raised his explosives for emphasis. "I think not. You know what this is, yes?"

She gave him a short nod as her mind spun, seeking a way to defuse the standoff. Laura swept her eyes across the room and caught sight of Quentin Quire standing among a group of students who had broken out from the classroom where they had sought shelter. Laura lowered her hands and retracted her claws.

"Very good. Very smart. This is on a five-second timer on a dead-man's switch. And you know it's enough of a charge to level this building." Stryker smiled smugly. "Now I was hoping to bring my benefactor a prize or two from this exercise, but you, my dear, are more than I had dreamed of! We're going to take a little ride together, and maybe I won't leave this behind."

The hollow feeling spread as she sniffed the air, and could smell no sign that Stryker was lying. As Laura looked around the room and took in the faces of her classmates watching the standoff, she knew she must at least consider the possibility of the exchange. But she had options remaining.

"Quentin, shut him down," she said.

"I can't," Quire said, and his features were twisted in a mix of confusion and fear. "I can't see him at all."

Stryker's smile only broadened, and Laura glanced at Julian.

"Julian—"

Before she could even think of telling him to seize the explosives with his power, Stryker interrupted her. "Clever girl. But we can't have that, can we?"

He quickly readjusted his aim and fired twice, and Julian and went down hard as chaos erupted in the hallway. Sofia let out a scream of anguish as she rushed to his side, and Laura snatched her spare pistol from behind her back and opened fire. Stryker shot back, and she felt the burning sensation of a round slamming through her chest, but Laura stood her ground and emptied her magazine. Stryker cried out as she walked her shots into him, and a round passed through his arm and shoulder. Laura threw aside her weapon and rushed forward as Stryker lost his grip on the string of explosives, and watched the timer start to tick down.

She had to be fast. She had to get the explosives clear of the building.

She never made it. Just as she was lunging to grab the bomb Laura felt an impact like running into a wall, and was knocked from her feet and onto her backside. Then it exploded in a violent rush of flame and shrapnel, and it took a moment for her to process the blast had been contained within a barrier of telekinetic energy.

Laura looked behind her, and saw Julian raising himself up on one elbow, the effort of holding the shield despite the severity of his wounds clearly evident by the strain on his face. And just when she thought he would be unable to contain it any longer, the explosion exhausted its energy, and Julian released his grip. He collapsed into Sofia's arms and groaned and panted from pain and exertion, and Laura turned her attention back to the remains of the bomb.

Of Stryker there was no more sign.

###

Act V

###

Xavier slumped in his wheelchair and watched as Jubilee was loaded onto a gurney. Josh Foley had repaired enough of the damage to save her life, but it would be weeks before she was back on her feet again. Scott observed in stoic silence, his arms folded across his chest, but Xavier could feel the emotions churning beneath the surface; the anger and frustration at having been so easily led astray as clear as if he had worn it on his face for all to see. Jean was seeing to the students in Jubilee's absence, doing what she could to provide them with comfort, while police swept through the school, cataloguing the remains of Stryker's assault force and interviewing the survivors. Melita Garner was now at work as well, documenting the assault before others in the media could try and put their own spin on it.

Nonetheless, this time there was no way Stryker could escape condemnation for his actions.

"We found more bodied out in the grounds," Scott was saying. "Looks like it was more of Stryker's people."

Xavier nodded. "As I recall, you had objections to Laura's presence here."

"I did. I'm glad I was wrong. Hank thinks Paige and David Alleyne will pull through just fine. Max Jordan is dead, though, and there's a few other injured."

"What about Ms. Braddock?"

"Hank is optimistic, and Josh is helping out."

"Very good." Xavier sighed and wearily pinched the bridge of his nose. "How could this happen? How could we have allowed ourselves to have been so blind to what was happening?"

Scott laid his hand on Xavier's shoulder, but somehow he could find little comfort in the gesture. "I guess we were caught up in the Dream," Scott said. "We wanted to believe things had changed so much we overlooked it."

Xavier turned his head at the sound of boots crunching on debris, as Kitty and Peter made their way into the classroom. Both were exhausted, and their faces were downcast in grief. "There's no sign of Stryker, Professor," Kitty said as she stopped beside him, and swept her eyes across the ruins of the room. "It looks like he got away."

"Damn," Xavier murmured under his breath, and mopped his forehead. "Give Ms. Garner anything she asks for from the school's internal security feeds. Except anything pertaining to Laura, I want to keep her involvement quiet as long as possible."

Kitty's face paled at that. The truth about Laura had been kept from everyone but himself, Scott, and Jean at Logan's request, and the realization that Laura — diminutive, unassuming Laura — had so easily torn such highly-trained mercenaries to shreds had filled the students and staff with no small amount of dread. Xavier could feel the doubt in Kitty's mind, but he made no effort to mentally still her trepidation, and allowed her to give it voice. "Professor, I don't want to second-guess you, but is it really safe for her to be here? What she did ..."

"What she did," Scott interjected on her behalf, "was save the lives of almost every other student in this school. Which is more than I can say for the job we've done."

Kitty sighed wearily and folded her arms against her chest. "It's just I never imagined she'd be capable of something like this. I mean she's smaller than me, and from what the kids are saying she tore through those men like they were toy soldiers. Peter and I got a good close look at them, too: These men were professionals."

"I know, Kitty," Xavier said, putting as much reassurance into his voice as he could. "I'm sorry for keeping this secret, but I must ask that you trust my, Logan's, and Scott's judgment on this."

She nodded reluctantly, and Peter did the same.

"Professor," she ventured again after a moment. "I thought all of the Sentinels were scrapped after the White House incident. Where did Stryker get his hands on them?"

Xavier frowned. News that somehow Stryker had managed to find three fully-functional Sentinels was a most unwelcome and distressing development. For better than forty years the robotic killing machines were just a relic of the past; a ghost story the kids liked to tell one another on Halloween. And now here they were, walking once more in daylight. The threat to his children, and his race in general, presented by such monstrosities could never be overstated. And deep in his heart he feared it would only presage something worse.

"I don't know," he admitted, and glanced up at Scott. "Scott, I want you to contact Logan. He's more connected to Stryker than any of us. I want to know who this Adam Harkins is. I want to know who Stryker's benefactors are — if Harkins is not indeed who we're looking for — and where they can be found."

Scott nodded. "Yes, Professor." He hesitated a moment, and Xavier could sense that something was troubling him immensely as he weighed in his mind whether to mention it. Xavier waited for him to work up the resolve to speak it openly, and finally he steeled himself and folded his arms across his chest. "I want to give Logan carte blanche on this. Let him recruit whoever he wants, and operate however he needs to, completely independently of us. In fact the more he can distance himself from the school while he does it the better."

Xavier frowned. "Scott ..."

"Stryker has just declared war on mutantkind, Professor," Scott said. "How many of our kids has he murdered already? How many others is this attack tonight going to inspire? Maybe the world will see him for the maniac he is, but if we've learned anything from the history of the past decade, it's that some people are completely fine listening to maniacs.

"And what do you think is going to happen when Erik hears about this? We're about to find ourselves right in the middle of a conflict we hoped to never see in our lifetimes, whether we like it or not. At least with Logan I can sleep a little easier knowing that whatever he has to do isn't just because of dogma. It's because he doesn't have another choice."

Xavier sighed and steepled his fingers. All the work of the past decades was spiraling in front of him. Every victory, every defeat. Everything they had fought for. And now the slightest wrong decision could throw it all away.

"What price peace, Scott?" Xavier said. "Can we truly afford to take such measures, and the fallout that may result?"

"I don't know," Scott said, and sighed. "But I'm afraid that choice may already have been made for us."

###

Yana folded her arms under her breast, and solemnly watched Melody collapse into Dr. Grey's arms and cry into her shoulder. Megan fluttered her wings anxiously as she hovered — figuratively, of course, as she didn't trust her ability to fly that much to do it literally — nearby with Fabio. Now that adrenaline had passed she was finally allowing herself to feel the blow of Max's death, and just as she Yana was coming to terms with that came the news that Jay had been killed as well. Whatever relief Melody had felt at Dr. McCoy's prognosis that her sister would be all right, was dashed by knowing her brother would never be coming home again.

It was an emptiness she couldn't imagine, and deep in her heart terrified her.

"So," came a voice from behind her, and Yana glanced over her shoulder as Quentin sauntered up to her with a smarmy grin on his face, "that was totally impressive the way I stopped those bullets, right?"

"Oh, totally," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"You were awesome, too, you know. That was totally impressive that thing you did with the sword and stuff. Maybe we can, y'know, hang out some time away from the rest of these losers."

Yana jumped as she felt something grab hold of her backside, and slowly she turned to face him. "Quentin," she said in her sweetest voice, and pressed her body against him. "You have five seconds to remove your hands—" she ran a finger down his cheek, and he leaned away from her nervously, "— telekinetic or otherwise — from my ass—" she tipped his chin up, and put her face so close to his she could feel his breath, "—or else I'll 'port you into Limbo and leave you there for my little pets to devour for the next thousand years."

Quentin let out a sheepish laugh, and raised his hands defensively. "Hey, cool no problem!"

"I'm glad we understand each other. Now get lost!"

"So that's a 'no' to hanging out then?"

Yana groaned in exasperation and rolled her eyes as she stalked away, and Professor Xavier emerged from the classroom hallway with Mr. Summers, Ms. Pryde, and Peter. Her brother leaned down to say something to them, before tearing himself away and starting in her direction. Yana hurried to meet him and threw herself into his massive arms, and Peter held her tightly.

"Hey," Peter said as she buried her face in his chest. "It's alright, Yana. You did good."

Yana pushed away from him and jammed her finger in his breastbone. "And you! Next time you think of going a few rounds with a Sentinel, don't. I lost one of my best friends tonight. Melody lost her brother. You're all I have left, and I can't go through that."

"I'll be careful," he said, "I promise."

"I'm serious, Piotr. I already live with demons, don't leave me with ghosts, too."

Peter smiled, and gave her a kiss on top of the head. "My sweet, strange little sister. I won't."

"Good. And you can believe I'll hold you to it."

###

"Hey, um, by the way," Santo said with embarrassment from the pile of debris slowly taking shape into his reconstructed body, while those of the remaining students not interviewing with the police wandering through the halls picked up bits and pieces of rock scattered across the entry hall to help put him back together.

It had come as something of a miracle when, as the maintenance crews sweeping up the debris of the battle gathered enough of the stone fragments together, Santo's face appeared in the rubble and began calling for help. Santo was as confused and astonished as the rest of them, and Julian's heart lit up like the ruined Christmas tree sagging in the hallway as he fought back the tears of joy before the big rocky mutant could start tearing into him over crying. Cessily and Victor had pitched in immediately organizing the students in retrieving as much stone and rock as they could find, and soon they had a growing pile of Santo slowly taking shape again.

"Has anyone seen my... Y'know ..." Santo stammered.

For a moment Julian stared at him in confusion as the big mutant fumbled awkwardly through his question, then realization dawned and he promptly dropped the lump of rock in his hand and backed away. "Woah! Woah woah woah! No! Uh-uh! That's it! I'm done! You're in one piece enough now you can pull yourself back together. I am so not going hunting for Little Santo, someone else can handle your boulders."

"Aw, come on!" Santo pleaded. "Forget my legs! Just give me a wheelchair like the Professor and I'm totally cool, but I've gotta have my—"

Cessily followed after Julian as he fled the scene. "Don't you even finish that sentence, there's not enough bleach in the world to clean that image out of my head. I'm sorry, Santo," she said, "but I'm with Julian on this one."

She hastily left the entry hall and followed Julian to a quieter corner. He grimaced and rubbed his shoulder, and Cessily quickly caught up to check on him.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said sourly. "Have you seen Sofia anywhere? I'm in serious need of pity and nursing, and I love you Cess, but with you that would just be awkward."

Cessily made a face at that. "Gee, see if I ever offer to help you again. I think she's in talking to one of the officers, or maybe Ms. Garner, I thought I saw her and a news crew earlier."

Julian let out a sigh and slumped against one wall. He slid down it until he was seated with his arm hanging limply in its sling, and his legs stretched out into the hall across from him. Cessily lowered herself beside him and pulled her knees to her chest. "Are you sure you're ok? I mean, it sounded like it wasn't bad and Josh was able to mend the worst of it, but..."

"I'm fine," Julian repeated, and leaned his head back against the wall. "Missed anything vital, hurt like hell, and Foley more or less patched it up."

Cessily watched him closely. "What is it, then?" she asked.

"What do you think?" he said sharply. Cessily might have felt the sting of the rebuke, but she knew him well enough to understand he didn't mean it, confirmed by the regret on his features afterwards. She also noticed the slip in his superior confidence, and the anxiety he was masking. "You didn't see what I saw tonight."

Cessily frowned. "Julian, I saw Jubilee almost shot to pieces trying to protect us! God, it's a miracle she survived long enough for Josh to get to her, and I heard Dr. McCoy say it may still be weeks before she's up and around again! Santo was blown up right in front of me, and I don't know how he's even still alive."

He shook his head. "That's not what I mean. You didn't see what she did."

Cessily frowned. "She? She who?"

"Laura."

Now she understood. Cessily had been so focused on tending Jubilee until Dr. McCoy returned from Salem that she couldn't even think about anything else. She'd missed the end of the fight in the hallway, but Cessily had heard the awed and terrified whispers of the other students.

Highly-trained and experienced mercenaries, and Laura had slaughtered them like sheep.

"Julian ..." she started, but he cut her off.

"All this time she's been here," he said, and the anxiety beneath his cool and cocky façade broke through entirely, and she saw fear in his eyes. "She tore those men apart without breaking a sweat. She could have done that to any of us at any time, and do you really think anyone could have stopped her."

"Yeah, but she didn't, right?" Cessily said, and gave his intact shoulder a squeeze of encouragement. "I mean, she saved all of us."

He shook his head. "We've heard the stories about the Wolverine but Jesus Christ, what the hell is she?"

Cessily stared at her lap, unsure what to say. "I don't know," she admitted. "I don't know."

###

Laura sat alone on an isolated part of the grounds along a small ornamental pool, the mansion hidden from view by the groves of trees growing up in places around it. The grounds were still dark, though there was a faint rosy smudge on the horizon in the east as dawn approached. Police and reporters swarmed through the school investigating the night's action, and she did not want to be nearby when questions were asked, did not want to kill them over and over and over again in her mind every time they entered a room with her. She hugged her legs closer to herself and ignored the winter chill — she was dressed only in a corset and jeans, with half-sleeves covering her bare arms from elbow to wrist — and closed her eyes, listening to the silence and trying to force the echoing screams of the dying from her mind.

But they would not be stilled, the dying gasps as blood spilled from slashed throats, the futile whimpering as death reached for them with fingers of ice, she its messenger. The cupric stench of the ugly splashes of red painting her, the walls, and the floors filled her nostrils. She saw the faces twisted and contorted with agony and terror before slackening into still and empty masks of death, their bodies piled in heaps around her as a grisly monument to death and slaughter.

What was worse is that no matter how their dying moments clung to her thoughts she felt nothing for them. She slaughtered them like animals, and even now she could not see them as men, only threats that needed to be destroyed.

Even after cleaning up and changing she could still smell the blood on her. Laura opened her eyes and stared at her palms, then the backs of her hands, self-consciously rubbing the space between the knuckles of the index and middle finger, and pinky and ring finger of one hand. The wounds made by her claws healed immediately upon retracting them, but she could still feel the pain where they tore through her skin.

And worse still was the pain of seeing their faces when the weapon was released; Sooraya, Victor, Julian, everyone. Even if they denied it she could smell the fear on them, the fear of her as they whispered between one another speculating what manner of monster she was, not knowing her keen ears could hear them. She had to get away from it; the whispers, the fear in their eyes and scent that hurt far more than any gunshot or knife wound, knowing that they had finally seen her, the real her, the ugly, violent, terrifying truth she so desperately wanted to escape.

But she could not. She was a thing, a weapon, beaten and forged into a perfect instrument of death. Swift, silent, lethal. No matter how much she tried the killing would never, ever stop. She was adrift in an endless river of blood, unable to claw her way onto the shore and be free of it. They had made certain of that.

Laura felt a tear roll down her cheek. She touched it and numbly stared at her moistened fingertips. Grief and despair choked and buried threatened to surge to the surface once more and overwhelm her, and with effort she forced them back down again.

Instead she rolled down one of her half-sleeves and slipped it off, baring a pale forearm to the cold night air. A metallic ring broke the silence on the shore of the pool as one of her claws extended, and she dragged its edge along the inside of her wrist. A spike of pain raced up her arm as the razor edge sliced effortlessly through her flesh, and hot blood spurted from the wound. It ran in rivers down her arm and dripped off the edge of her claw to quench the ground in front of her.

And for some time she sat alone in the dark and cold, and all she could do was cut.

---

A Note From The Author

And here we come to the end of season one. I knew from the start I wanted to end season 1 on Stryker's attack on the school, and everything has been building up to this moment.

The actual portrayal, however, has evolved in the writing. Originally I opened this episode with Jay's death, but as I noted in the last episode I decided to move that to the end of 1x12. Parts of the story also adhered a little more closely to the Kyle and Yost book, particularly Jay allowing Stryker to cut off his wings, and that Stryker targeted Sooraya as a significant threat, with Laura stealing her niqab and abaya to take her place. However as the story evolved I found those elements no longer worked, so discarded them. The subplot with the attack on the warehouse to draw the X-Men away from the school was also a late addition when I realized I needed some way to leave the school vulnerable, and I actually didn't anticipate how much attention Yana would get. As things evolved I also wanted to give Storm and Colossus some real time to shine since both characters were severely underused in the films, so since both got manhandled by the Future Sentinels, I decided to let them get some revenge on the .

Obviously this episode was longer than any of the others, which owed mostly to just how many different threads were going at once, as well as the fact that action scenes really eat up the word count. One thing I also really wanted to do was use the concept of the series to help expand the shared universe of the X-Films verse. One of the major failings of the MCU is the way Marvel Studios seems to tiptoe around the television division. Apparently Winter Soldier dropped quite a bombshell on the producers of Agents of SHIELD, and they weren't prepared for the fact that, well, SHIELD was technically no more. Nor did Age of Ultron make any mention of events happening on TV. I wouldn't want that to be the case with the Fox-Verse. Sharp-eyed readers would probably note the hook I left for an X-Force spinoff — either film or series — particularly by establishing it with a mission specifically tying into the events of this series.

This and episodes 1x12 are the first times we see the story from Laura's perspective. I knew I wanted to delay doing so for as long as I could, because her thought processes, along with her mutation are incredibly delicate to handle because they are, by their nature, very spoilerific. This is also why I planned to originally use 1x12's ending to open this episode instead, as it would have allowed me to contain Laura's perspective entirely this episode. Regardless, I always planned to have this episode be the big reveal of her claws. Obviously we've left a bit of a mystery for the readers for next season, but this would be a nice taste to whet the appetite.

I'll be beginning "production" of season 2 shortly. I do want to take a slightly different approach and plan out the next season a bit more carefully, and maybe get a bit of a jump on writing the various episodes in advance. Therefore there will be a short hiatus as I start putting things together, but don't worry, it won't be nearly as bad as what you went through between 1x04 and 1x05.

Until next time!