A/N - Hello again everyone and welcome to the next chapter.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
15) MARCH OF THE SENTINELS
It wasn't very long before the world began learning just what Trask and the Sentinels were doing. The very next day Xavier called his students together to give them information.
"This won't be in the papers or on the news until tonight or tomorrow" said Xavier, "but Trask and his Sentinels are making their move now, and it's big."
"How big?" asked Kitty.
"Worldwide" was the reply, "I don't know how Trask managed it but I've heard reports of Sentinels appearing in many countries all over the world and moving to take control of them."
"Just like that?" asked Harry, "surely there's resistance."
"Of course there is" said the professor, "but Trask designed the Sentinels very well. They're not just robots. They're full A.I.'s and they learn as they go."
"That does sound like the Borg" said Warren to Harry.
"What do we do?" asked Scott.
"I don't know yet" said Xavier, "but whatever we do will have to be planned very carefully."
"Professor" asked Rogue, "could the Sentinels find us here?"
"I'm afraid I don't know that either" said the professor.
"Do you think the Avengers might help us?" asked Harry, "or the Fantastic Four? Or any of the other superheroes? If we all teamed up together we might have a chance."
"That's not a bad idea" said the professor, "I'll try to contact each of them and see what they say. In the meantime no one should use their powers outside of the mansion. We don't want to give the Sentinels any chances to find us before we're ready for them."
"Aw man" said Harry, "that means no flying. This is going to suck."
"I know it will" said the professor, "and I'm sorry about that but we need more information before we strike back. Harry, why don't you go to Ilvermorny and see how the magicals in the school are dealing with all of this?"
"Okay" said Harry.
When he got to Ilvermorny he found that things were very tense. The students and staff all had the same questions and fears that everyone else that Harry knew had. He didn't learn anything new there except that Headmaster Pope announced that should their school be found and attacked the staff had a plan to evacuate all of the students to safety although he didn't disclose what it was. He just told the students to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.
When he got back to the mansion Harry called Ororo on his mirror. When she appeared in it he could see that she was in some sort of aircraft.
"Harry" said Ororo, "thanks for calling. What's happening where you are?"
"The Professor said that the Sentinels are making their move and it's big" said Harry, "have you heard anything?"
"I should say so" said Ororo, "Sentinels have begun appearing all over Africa. They seem to be coming up out of the water off the coasts and marching inland. Mother called up the magical military while the mundane president has done the same for when they get to Kenya but there are so many of them. I don't know what will happen when they get here."
"Where are you now?" asked Harry.
"My parents are sending me to Wakanda for safety" was the reply, "my mother said that if there was any country that might be safe from the Sentinels that would be the one."
"She's probably right" said Harry, "as long as their shield holds up you should be safe."
"I hope so" said Ororo, "I really do. I have to go. We're coming to the shield now. I'll call you later. Be safe."
"You too" said Harry as the call ended. Harry went to find the professor to tell him about what Ororo had said.
"That matches what I'm hearing from other places" said the professor, "it's happening just about everywhere. When the news comes on later we'll learn exactly where things stand."
"Is there anything we can do?" asked Harry.
"I don't know yet" said the professor, "As you suggested I've gotten in touch with the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Dr. Strange. We're going to have a full meeting via telepathy soon. You and your teammates will be part of it too so be ready."
"I will" said Harry.
When the news aired that evening it was a lot grimmer than Harry could have expected. The Sentinels were moving a lot faster than anyone would have thought possible. In the U. S. they were swarming the coastal cities. Much of the Northeastern Megalopolis, including Boston and New York City were already crawling with them. They hadn't reached Washington D.C. yet but were expected to be there by the next day. On the West Coast Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle had seen landings of the giant robots too. So far, no one had been injured or killed by them.
"I fear that will change as soon as someone tries to stop them" said the professor to all of his students, "which is going to happen. The president announced earlier today that he was asking the military to step in to try to stop the Sentinels. I'm afraid of what will happen when they do."
"Will the Sentinels really kill our soldiers?" asked Sam, "I thought they were supposed to protect normal humans."
"They are" said the professor, "but I suspect that Trask programmed them to think that anyone who opposes them, whether they are mutant, magical, or normal is to be considered an enemy."
"Can the military stop them?" asked Scott. The professor had no answer to that.
"What have you heard from the Avengers?" asked Harry.
"Captain America informed me not too long ago that all of the defenses of the Avengers Mansion have been activated" was the reply, "the same is true of the Fantastic Four Headquarters at the Baxter Building. Both teams are preparing to move to secondary secret locations before the Sentinels can access their respective headquarters."
"Why would the Sentinels attack the Avengers or the Fantastic Four?" asked Rogue, "they're not mutants, at least not like we are."
"They're potential threats" said the professor bluntly.
"Right" said Hank, "if you want to rule without any challenges you have to neutralize all potential threats, whether they're your declared enemies or not. Only then can you be sure of having a secure hold on power."
"What about here?" asked Jean.
"Unlike with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four" said the professor, "our headquarters isn't publically known. Since we keep our base a secret I'm hoping the Sentinels will have a lot more trouble finding us even if they were to walk down the street outside of the school."
"They obviously can't tell just by looking at a person if they're a normal human or not" said Sirius to the professor, "they had you in their power at the debate but they never gave any indication that they knew you were a mutant. One would think that if they had some way to 'sense' mutants that they would have known at once that you were one."
"And they would have recognized us" added Bobby, "we were in the room too."
"Then as long as we don't use our powers around any Sentinel we should be safe?" asked Peter.
"Perhaps" said the professor, "that just supports my decision that none of us should use our powers outside of the mansion." This time there were no complaints from anyone. Before ending the meeting the professor informed the X-Men that he would be intensifying their training. He also told the newer students that they would be stepping up their training too so as to learn better control of their powers and how to use them to defend themselves more effectively if they were dragged into a fight. They wouldn't be training in the Danger Room alongside the X-Men, however, as none of them were ready for that yet.
The next day things got even crazier. It was all over the news that the military was opposing the sentinels. Troops had been called out to stop them from entering Washington D.C. and it had led to a bit of a standoff for a while. All of it, including what happened after the standoff ended, was caught on camera and broadcast all across the nation and even in some other parts of the world.
It started when the soldiers blocked the way for the Sentinels to enter the city but when the Sentinels arrived and saw the opposition they stopped where they were and seemed not to know what to do.
"Halt!" said the commander of the troops through a bullhorn, "do not continue trying to enter the city. Either go back the way you came or surrender to us. Failure to do either will result in our taking action to stop you."
"Query" said the lead Sentinel to some of the others with it, "we are being blocked in our path by humans, not mutants or magicals. What do we do?"
"We are programmed not to harm the humans" said a second Sentinel.
"But they are opposing us" said a third one, "even if they are normal humans they cannot be allowed to stop us in our mission."
"But we are not to not harm them" repeated the second Sentinel.
"We can defend ourselves if they attempt to strike at us" said the first Sentinel, "although their weapons should not be able to affect us."
"As long as they do not strike at us" said a fourth Sentinel, "we can either go around them or simply push them out of our way without harming them."
"Let us go past them" said the first Sentinel, "they cannot stop us, but do not harm them unless it is completely unavoidable."
The Sentinels began walking forward again toward the soldiers.
"Halt!" called the commander, "or we'll fire upon you." None of the Sentinels acknowledged the commander in any way and continued moving forward causing the commander to issue the order to fire.
The soldiers unleashed a barrage of bullets at the Sentinels but at first it seemed as if the lead Sentinel had been right as the bullets fired at the robots were not affecting them at all. They continued moving forward as if nothing at all was happening and the soldiers at the front had to move out of their way to keep from getting hit by them.
The Sentinels didn't have victory yet as the commander ordered bigger guns to be brought out and they were. Unfortunately I'm not a military person myself or a weapons expert so I can't tell you exactly what they used but they were definitely more powerful weapons and they began to have a noticeable impact on the Sentinels. They weren't heavily damaging them at first but they were slowing them down and eventually barely stopping them as if they'd created a swaying wall that the Sentinels were pushing against but not quite able to get past for the moment.
If the situation had lasted much longer it might have become a stalemate, but it didn't. Before too long one of the heavier guns hit the lead Sentinel's head at just the right place to blow it free from its body.
"Sentinel number one has been destroyed" declared one of the other Sentinels, "we must not allow this to happen to any more of us. These attackers must be neutralized."
"But they are humans" stated another Sentinel.
"They have attacked and destroyed one of us" replied yet another Sentinel, "in doing so they have declared themselves to be our enemies. We must defend ourselves against all enemies."
"Agreed" said a fourth Sentinel, "we shall use more powerful methods and stop them."
All of the Sentinels agreed to this and that's when the battle began to ratchet up a lot. The Sentinels were all equipped with many powerful weapons and they now began to use them against their attackers. The first thing they did was unleash powerful energy rays against the more powerful weapons the military had deployed against them. When the weapons were hit by the rays they promptly blew up. The explosions not only destroyed the weapons in question but also killed anyone who was unable to get out of the way in time. Upon seeing several of his men quickly being killed the commander ordered his men to fall back from the weapons and get to safety.
This didn't mean the military was giving up. Quite the contrary actually. While the ground troops moved back from the Sentinels the Air Force got involved as a squad of jet fighters came screaming in at the Sentinels and began blasting them with everything they had.
At first it worked as several Sentinels were blown to pieces but the Sentinels began fighting back and were soon firing their own weapons at the planes. The planes were harder to hit as they were more maneuverable than the ground weapons but it didn't stop the Sentinels from trying and it wasn't long before they began to adapt to the new attackers and destroy some of the planes. Some of the pilots ejected before their planes were destroyed but not all of them got out in time and died in their planes. To support their allies in the air the ground troops came forward again and resumed firing at the Sentinels too, taking more of them out. For a moment it looked like the Sentinels would be repelled.
Then, to the collective shock of everyone present at the battle, some of the Sentinels took to the air themselves, revealing for the first time that they were capable of flight. Once in the air the flying robots engaged the fighter jets in an aerial battle that looked almost like a finely choreographed ballet in the sky as the planes and Sentinels moved around each other attempting to bring their foes down.
In the middle of the confrontation one of the flying Sentinels suddenly exploded although it hadn't been hit by any of the military's weapons. Before anyone could say anything about this sudden development the Mighty Thor appeared from behind the falling wreckage of the Sentinel wielding Mjolnir. As everyone watched he raised Mjolnir and brought it down on the head of another Sentinel causing its head to fall to pieces.
Not far away Iron Man flew by and began attacking Sentinels with his own built in weapons. As they were made using Stark Technology they proved to be very effective.
On the ground Captain America appeared among the soldiers in the front and began attacking one of the Sentinels himself. His shield was a potent weapon and when it hit a Sentinel in just the right place it caused that Sentinel's head to separate from its body. Meanwhile Giant Man wasn't far away and was also attempting to attack the Sentinels. He was a few feet taller than the Sentinels and that helped a bit.
Suddenly one of the Sentinels collapsed for no apparent reason. Before anyone could say anything about this the Wasp appeared and returned to her full size next to Giant Man.
"You were right" she said to Giant Man, "once I was inside that Sentinel's head I was able to wreck its brain and deactivate it. It never even saw me."
"Good work" said Giant Man.
However the biggest surprise was still to come. While the Sentinels were attempting to adjust to their newest attackers they were caught off guard when a very large, very muscular, green skinned man suddenly leapt into their midst and began smashing every one he could reach.
"HULK SMASH!" yelled the newcomer now recognizable to everyone as the Incredible Hulk although no one had seen where he'd come from.
"Hulk!" called Giant Man who was the Avenger who was nearer to him than any of the others, "is that really you? How did you get here?"
"I've been here for a while" was the rejoinder, "I couldn't let these things do any more damage to innocent people."
"I know we didn't part on good terms" said Giant Man, "but I'm glad to have you back, even if it's just for now."
"Less talking" said the Hulk, "more smashing." And with that he attacked more Sentinels and began bashing them to pieces. The Sentinels might have been strong and very difficult to damage but not even they could stand up to a rampage by the Hulk, especially when he was backed up by the Avengers and the U. S. Military. Before too long the remaining Sentinels that were still functional retreated and departed the area as quickly as they could.
"We must confer with Trask and the Master Mold" said one of the Sentinels as they flew away, "so that we aren't beaten again so easily."
Once the Sentinels were gone all of the Avengers gathered together with the Hulk.
"It's good to see you again friend Hulk" said Thor, "your assistance was invaluable."
"Yes it was" said Captain America, "and something tells me this fight is far from over. I know we've all had our differences before, but will you stay? At least until these Sentinels are sorted out?"
"Okay" said the Hulk with a nod, "but only until then. I go my own way again after that."
"We understand" said Captain America.
"Why were you here anyway?" the Hulk asked his old team.
"The president called us in" said Iron Man, "how did you come to be here?"
"Banner" muttered the Hulk, "works at local university."
"That makes sense" said Giant Man.
The Avengers spoke with the commanders of the military forces that were there before leaving. Although the Sentinels had been beaten back from D.C. for the moment it hadn't been without cost. A double digit number of soldiers had been killed in the battle and more were wounded.
"Damn those Sentinels, and damn that Trask guy for making them" was the final comment from the commander of the ground troops. His counterpart in the Air Force agreed.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's all for now. I'm not a military expert to any degree beyond what the ordinary person who has never served might know but I hope I haven't done it too badly. I have great deal of respect for those who are serving now or who have served in the past in their nation's military.
Next time we return to see what's happening in the magical world.
Meanwhile please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. Stay safe and well everyone.