Fortune Favors the Bold - Part 2
Posted on Mon Dec 9th, 2024 @ 10:15pm by Charles Xavier & Scott Summers & Connor Bruin & Bobby Drake & Hank McCoy & Kurt Wagner & Shinobi Shaw & Hayden Davis & Ethan Hale & Aurora Summers & Jean Grey & Kennedy Kelly & Maeve MacKenna & Meja Vikström & Jennifer Bryant & Kayleigh Marshall
7,970 words; about a 40 minute read
Mission:
Episode 5: Days of Fortune Past
Location: Detroit, MI | Prime Sentinel Factory
Timeline: November 15th, 1990
Under the cover of night, the sprawling industrial complex loomed against the dark skyline, a grim silhouette of rusting steel and cold concrete amid Detroit’s aging urban landscape. Once the heartbeat of American auto manufacturing, the derelict buildings now served a darker purpose, reborn as the heart of Prime Sentinel production. The air was thick with a lingering metallic scent, tainted by the faint, acrid odor of industrial chemicals and lubricants, while the whirring of machinery echoed faintly, punctuated by the occasional clang of metal striking metal, like a pulse under steel skin.
Floodlights cut through the shadows, casting stark white patches onto the cracked pavement and skeletal steel structures. Heavy cables and pipelines snaked between buildings like the twisted veins of a mechanized beast, while sleek, towering Sentinels awaited activation along abandoned production lines visible through shattered windows. Further within would be the Prime Sentinel line where the bulk of the activity would be found and where their objectives led.
The vast facility, once alive with the roar of assembly lines and the voices of laborers, was now silent but for the hum of robotic sentries patrolling its perimeter, casting red laser lines across the deserted grounds. Broken chain-link fences and weeds that had taken root in the pavement offered little barrier to the X-Men or their X-Factor allies, though every shadow and flickering light added an ominous sense of surveillance, as if the factory itself were watching them.
Connor crouched low behind a rusted, overturned vehicle, his haptic gloves faintly glowing as he signed instructions to the team.
"SENTINELS ARE FOCUSED ON THE OUTER PERIMETER. AVOID DIRECT ENGAGEMENT. WE TAKE OUT JUNCTION POINTS AND CRITICAL POWER SOURCES TO CRIPPLE THE INFRASTRUCTURE. CYCLOPS, YOUR TEAM LEADS THE WAY."
Cyclops nodded, his visor glowing faintly red as he scanned the facility through the shadows. His voice was steady, calm, but laced with the gravity of the mission ahead. "You heard him. Keep it quiet. Jean, cover our flank telepathically. Quicksilver, scout ahead but don’t engage. Iceman, freeze junctions in place to neutralize power output. Beast, stay alert and let us know if you identify any structural vulnerabilities."
Connor’s hands moved again, the voice device translating seamlessly. "MY TEAM WILL FOLLOW AT A SAFE DISTANCE AND DESTROY ANY SECONDARY SYSTEMS. MARA AND WARREN'S LOCATIONS REMAIN THE PRIORITY, AS THEY WILL BE NEAR THE CENTRAL CONTROLLER."
Cyclops placed a hand on Connor’s shoulder, his own resolve reflected in the younger mutant’s posture. "We’ll find them, Connor," he whispered. "Trust me. Let’s move." Before taking his own advice, Scott stole a kiss from Jean in a pre-mission ritual that had almost always served them well. ~Good luck and be careful~
With a silent and graceful push, Jean lifted up into the sky to hold her aerial position for support and surveillance. On her command, five security guards marched out of an emergency exit on the side of the building. Almost robotic in their march, they ignored the looming Blackbird and the combined mutant teams.
~* ‘All civilians have exited the building, you are free to enter and attack without fear of injuring a bystander.’ *~ Jean’s silvery voice passed through their minds. ~* ‘I’m also clearing out the city blocks surrounding the facility and keeping police patrols at bay. This should minimize any additional interference.’ *~
“I’ll attempt to locate the control room for Beast and Caveman. If I see Mara or Warren, I will alert Jean,” Pietro said before disappearing in a blur of silver.
As the two teams moved out under the cover of darkness, Pietro darted ahead and ran a lap around the perimeter before stopping near the main gates. He gestured with a wave and two fingers pointed to either side, signaling the path was clear straight ahead but not the flanks. Cyclops signaled the rest to follow in staggered formation, slipping through gaps in the broken fencing and creeping into the facility’s shadowy perimeter.
"FOCUS ON INFRASTRUCTURE FIRST," Connor’s device intoned as he signed. "MAKE IT HARD FOR THEM TO RETALIATE IF WE'RE DETECTED."
Bobby reached the first power junction, the old panel sparking faintly as cables hummed with energy. He pressed his hands against it, ice creeping over the surface and locking the circuits in place. The lights above flickered ominously before dimming.
"Well done, Iceman," Hank said from over his shoulder. "That should disrupt the local circuit."
“Let’s see if it holds,” Bobby muttered, already eyeing the next junction box.
Kurt bamfed back to the group. Few had noticed him slip away until the wisp of smoke heralded his return. "Two sentries to ze north und south sides of ze main building. Zhey are not moving and are perhaps inactive."
"Noted," Cyclops replied, his tone crisp. "Stay in low cover, everyone. We’ll converge once we’ve taken out the remaining circuit panels and junction boxes."
Just as Jean had done, Aurora took the air watching the movements of her team ready to warn them of danger, and shield them if needed. She could easily fool the minds of guards so they didn’t notice the team, but not all mutants were easy to fool, so she continued to be on her guard.
“Enigma, you volunteered to shield Beast and Caveman while they worked.” Jean said with a furrowed brow while glancing at Aurora who merely copied her moves, perhaps pregnancy brain was a real thing? “We don’t need you performing telepathic attacks on guards that are gone from the premises, there are no more civilians in the area. Stick to the plan as outlined in the briefing and follow Caveman and Beast in order to shield them.” There was a firm tone to Jean’s voice that matched what was often heard from Cyclops.
Aurora silently cursed to herself shielding her thoughts from Jean as she did so, the whole reason she had taken to the air was to protect Beast and Caveman, she could see threats coming better from above than from below. Landing back on her feet she stayed within range of Connor.
Turning her green eyes back toward the factory, Jean received a telepathic notification from Quicksilver inside.
~* ‘There is a restricted access area inside the building on the second floor that is still locked.’ *~ Jean provided a brief mental map that had been created by Pietro’s exploration to all of X-Factor and the X-Men. ~* ‘This area most likely contains the Sentinel Control Room and the Mother Mold.’ *~
Based on Kurt’s observations of sleeping sentries at the north and the south entry points, Kennedy decided to head towards the north end of the building. Selecting an oversized sentinel, Artemis created a kinetic arrow and let it fly. Upon impact with the sentinel it exploded, heralding their arrival.
Ethan reached for a monitor pulling it off the table and flinging it against a tower of servers. He then flipped his talons out and began tearing into the servers. Though not as effective as they were against flesh, they nevertheless did their job.
Meja's footfalls where quiet and measured as she took in what was happening around her. A dark smirk grew on her features as she watched Ethan slash into servers. As he slashed, she stepped toward him, "Lemme help." She offered with clear malice in her tone, inhaling and readying searing heat to expel passed her lips to intentionally melt the wiring and computerized systems in front of them both.
"This is fun," Ethan replied giving Meja a fist bump. "Wonder Twin powers activate."
Meja chuckled mirthfully as her fist bumped Ethans. The next moment a stream of flame expelled from her mouth and fell on the ruined openings of the servers. Twitching and sizzling as the wires, chips and boards quickly melted under the incoming heat.
Ethan moved to the next row of servers and began to rip into them. "No offense, I love my job, but this is a lot more fun than being an intern."
Hayden doused the fires as quickly as she could once the destruction was complete and the electronics were off, producing no more electrical current. No need to burn off all the oxygen around them or have a lot of smoke in the air. She kept her eyes darting around the place, looking for anyone or anything that might come calling once they'd heard the commotion.
Ethan was about to move to the last row, to play havoc again, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He'd picked up on a different scent. He wasn't sure what, or who it might be, but it was a distinct odor that didn't align with the smell of of burning ozone, or any of his teammates.
Two towering Mark II Sentinels approached, their movements faster than the lumbering gait of their Mark I predecessors. Jetting past their feet were ten Prime Sentinels who flew just off the ground, their force directed toward speed rather than flight.
"Ve haf incoming!" Nightcrawler alerted the team. Disappearing in a puff of smoke, he reappeared throughout the outer factory space and seized the flying Prime Sentinels in mid-flight before teleporting them into the path of the two gigantic Mark II models. The redirected air traffic led to collisions of the Prime Sentinels into the legs of the larger ones, creating a temporary bottleneck. "Zhat should slow zhem down a little..."
"X-MEN, WE ARE SPOTTED," Connor signed. "WE MUST LOCATE THE CONTROL ROOM. CLEAR A PATH FIRST, ENGAGE ENEMIES SECOND."
Understanding the assignment, Kurt first surveyed the environment before taking action. He saw the scaffolding that led up to a remote second floor. That must be the room Jean mentioned. As he turned back to look for Connor and Hank who needed to get inside, he saw a profound sight.
X-Factor, consisting of three First Class X-Men and one of their oldest adversaries, had taken to battle against the giant Mark II Sentinels.
Cyclops stepped forward, his hand hovering over the side of his visor. "X-Factor, focus fire!" His ruby-red optic beam sliced through the dimly lit factory, carving a line across the chest plate of one of the Sentinels. Sparks erupted as the beam melted through metal, exposing the intricate circuitry beneath. The Sentinel staggered but didn’t falter, redirecting its attention to him.
"Over here, tin can!" Quicksilver taunted, darting in and out of the Mark II’s field of vision in a silver blur. His rapid strikes were aimed at its vulnerable joints, causing the massive machine to stumble forward awkwardly.
Iceman followed up, creating a slick layer of ice beneath the stumbling Sentinel’s feet. "You’ve got no traction now, big guy!" The Sentinel faltered, struggling to regain balance on the treacherous surface. Ice extended upward into sharp spikes that lanced through the machine’s exposed circuits.
The second Mark II raised its arm, a massive cannon whirring to life and focused on Iceman. Cyclops adjusted his aim, firing another precision blast that targeted that Sentinel’s exposed neck joint. ~Jean, bring them down!~ he called out in his mind.
~* ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ *~ The corner of Jean’s mouth turned upwards into a faint smile as she brought her fingers to her temple to better focus her mental energy on the towering, metallic Sentinels. The air around Jean rippled with the invisible force of her psychic power, her mane of scarlet hair subtly lifting as the pressure starts to build. With a sharp, focused gesture, Jean’s free hand sweeps outward, and the ground beneath their feet trembled.
The Sentinel with its hand cannon raised is unable to defend against the unseen force. It suddenly jerks backward as though an invisible hand had grabbed it by the chest. Jean’s power surges through the robot’s systems, its massive frame crunches and snaps from the pressure being placed upon it. With metal limbs flailing, Jean crushes its internal mechanisms with her telekinesis until the Sentinel’s arms and legs bend unnaturally and the robot resembles a crushed soda can.
Another flick of her wrist and Jean sends the second Sentinel up into the air, shaking it like a ragdoll before slamming it down with explosive force into the previously crushed Sentinel. The force of impact of the two metal Sentinels causes the ground to crack and the air to shudder. With a dismissive wave of her hand, the second Sentinel's head twists violently and snaps off to the side. With internal circuits sparking and short-circuiting, the machine begins to collapse and implode upon its self.
“Shit, Jean.” Pietro chuckled as he watched the Sentinels topple like toys in the middle of the assembly room floor. “Remind me to stay on your good side.”
Behind them, the Alternate Class held the line at the stairwell, standing off against the Prime Sentinels that rushed them. Though these models were no bigger than an average person, they packed all the firepower of the gigantic models and were twice as swift.
Kennedy maintained her distance from the others, choosing to linger by the door so she might get a better view of the entire production facility rather than running into the middle of it. As the Prime Sentinels appeared she created kinetic arrow after kinetic arrow to shoot at them as they descended. Most of her shots aimed true and she managed to damage or at least slow the Prime Sentinels that came down from above.
Hayden was quickly using as much of the water as she could create to try to push the Prime Sentinels back. Any sort of fog or mist wouldn't work like it did on the Beat Street Sentinel. And their sensors would probably see through it anyway. She hoped that the water puddling on the stairwell would be slick enough to maybe have a domino effect on their enemy.
Jennifer checked to make sure no one was directly in harms way when she tried her move. Her teammates had done a pretty good job tearing apart the electrical systems in this place. Her power wasn't so directly useful through insulating rubber wire, but there was a lot of torn wires and broken circuits now. It shot into her body in quite the light show, even as she raised up off the floor. She grinned and shot a lot of it right back out in a bolt aimed right at one of the attacking Sentinels.
The Sentinel that Jennifer had blasted took several steps back, which gave Ethan an idea. He didn't have a lot of height to use, but he didn't need a lot with his plan. He leaped into the air and launched himself full speed into the damaged Sentinel hoping to drive it back into the one behind it.
Meja concentrated on the floor right under the Prime Sentinels, drawing in a deep breath and exhaling a broad wave of fire at the feet and lower legs of the Sentinels. Hoping within her that the heat she generated would be enough to overheat their casing and cause issues for their inner workings and wiring.
Maeve closed her eyes and felt the earth beneath her feet. It vibrated with it's usual strength and her confidence grew in her ability to control it. Being at the mansion and with all the training she had been doing was paying off. Small stones from the ground began to levitate beneath her hands, rising with purpose. Moving her fingers Maeve fashioned them into stone bullets and with a sharp eye fired them upon the Sentinels.
Nightcrawler appeared in a puff of smoke, the acrid brimstone scent filling the air as he placed a hand on Connor’s shoulder. "Hold tight, mein freund."
Before Connor could respond, another bamf echoed through the space, and the three mutants—Nightcrawler, Connor, and Hank—reappeared outside the locked control room at the top of the stairwell. The door was a heavy steel slab reinforced with bolts, its surface gleaming faintly under the flickering industrial lights.
"Locked, of course," Hank muttered as he inspected the obstruction. He glanced at Connor, who stood tall beside him. "Well, there’s more than one way to knock."
Connor nodded. The two exchanged a knowing glance, each stepping back in unison before charging forward, their combined weight and momentum drop-kicking into the door with bone-shaking force. With a deafening crack, the frame buckled under the impact, and the entire assembly—door, frame, and hinges—collapsed inward, clattering to the ground in a twisted heap of metal.
As the dust settled and the remnants of the doorframe clattered to the ground, Connor and Hank stepped into the control room, their silhouettes imposing against the harsh glow of the monitors. Bolivar Trask cowered behind a console, his face pale and drenched in sweat, his wide eyes darting between the two mutants.
“P-please! You don’t understand!” Trask stammered, his voice trembling with fear. “I didn’t want this! They… they made me do it! I was compelled! You have to believe me—I had no choice!”
Hank’s sapphire fur bristled as he took a step forward, his brow furrowed in controlled rage. “Compelled, were you? Compulsion did not seem to dampen your enthusiasm for genocide in the past, Mr. Trask,” he said coldly, his baritone voice heavy with disdain.
Connor, standing tall beside him, signed quickly, his gloves translating his words into a stern, mechanical voice. "THE LIVES DESTROYED BY YOUR MACHINES SAY OTHERWISE. YOUR PLEAS FOR MERCY SOUND HOLLOW."
Before either could continue, a slow, mocking clap echoed through the room, cutting through Trask’s blubbering like a blade. The sound reverberated, and a familiar, arrogant voice followed, smooth and dripping with malice.
Shinobi Shaw stepped into the light with an infuriating calm, his polished shoes clicking against the floor. His impeccably tailored suit gleamed like dark silk, and his helmet rested on his head. "Bravo," he drawled, his tone oozing malice as he changed his density to phase, "Bravo! You've found my little toy factory. Congratulations. And I see you've also found the toymaker to the King," he added, gesturing to Trask. "As hollow as he seems now." His smirk was sharp enough to cut glass, and his dark eyes danced with amusement as he surveyed the room. He paused, letting the tension build, before spreading his arms theatrically.
"Truly a stunning display of... well, something. Heroism, perhaps? Or is it merely desperation dressed in nobler robes?" He chuckled, low and cutting, before clasping his hands behind his back. Shaw’s smirk deepened as he paced in front of the trio, his every movement deliberate, like a predator savoring its prey. He stopped abruptly, his gaze darting between them. “You see, the three of you represent everything that keeps the strong chained. Hope. Restraint. Morality. Noble qualities, yes, but pitifully outdated. You’re relics of a dream that died long ago, clinging to scraps of ideology while the real world grinds on.”
He gestured to the factory around them, his voice rising with a chilling fervor. “Look around you. This is the future. Strength. Power. Domination. Evolution." He flicked a hand toward Trask, "You see a cowering, stuttering, weakling, But I see him for what he truly is: a necessary step. Tools like Bolivar Trask will pave the way for something far greater, once they’ve outlived their usefulness, of course.”
Shinobi turned sharply, the light glinting off the polished surface of his helmet, and looked at them with disdain. “You can fight it if you want. Stand here and posture, preach, or resist. But resistance is futile, my friends. You’re clinging to a world that has forsaken you, that wishes you were dead.” His lips curled into a cruel smile. “And if you survive what’s coming... well, perhaps then, you’ll understand what it means to evolve.”
Before Hank or Connor could reply to Shaw’s monologue, the control room’s wall exploded inward with a deafening roar. Shards of metal and concrete flew across the room as Omega Sentinel burst through, his massive, gleaming wings spreading wide like a harbinger of death. His red, glowing eyes locked onto the occupants of the room, devoid of emotion, yet filled with calculated menace.
Shaw phased instantly, his body shimmering briefly before he stepped backward, intangible and untouched by the chaos. Bolivar Trask wasn’t so lucky.
With a sharp swish, Omega Sentinel’s left wing sliced through the air like a guillotine, cleanly cutting Trask in half. The toymaker fell in two gruesome pieces, his final, terrified scream abruptly silenced.
Connor and Hank moved instinctively, their enhanced reflexes barely giving them enough time to avoid the deadly arc of the second wing as it sliced through the space where they had stood. The air sang with the sound of metal slicing through the air, and Hank grabbed Connor’s arm, pulling him back toward the doorway.
"Not today, Warren," Hank growled, his voice low and filled with pain and determination. "You’re not taking anyone else."
Omega Sentinel retracted his wings with a metallic snap, his towering form stepping toward them. The deadly flechettes embedded in his metallic appendages bristled as they prepared to fire again, their soft whir building to a shrill crescendo.
Then, with a crisp bamf, the room filled with sulphurous smoke as Nightcrawler appeared between them and Omega Sentinel. Without a word, Kurt wrapped his arms around the hulking machine, his tail curling tightly around one of its legs. Another bamf, and they were gone.
The acrid scent of brimstone lingered as silence fell over the shattered control room. For a moment, only the faint crackling of damaged electronics and the hum of distant machinery could be heard. Hank turned to Connor, his fur matted with dust and debris, and exhaled heavily.
Connor, his expression grim, signed swiftly. "WE MUST FINISH THE MISSION. NO MORE DELAYS."
Hank nodded, his voice steady despite the storm of emotions roiling within him. "Agreed."
But there was still a cocky Shinobi Shaw between them and the control terminals. The hole made by the Omega Sentinel began swarming with armored Hellfire Knights, charging in Warren's wake to secure the Lord Imperial.
“I do wish you guys hadn’t disappeared without me” Aurora gave Connor a brief smile as she flew into their vicinity before landing firmly on her feet. “Let’s get you where you need to be.” Without further ado she concentrated on raising a telekinetic shield around them. “Let’s do this.”
Blaster fire rained down on them but Aurora's psychokinetic shield held up—for now.
From the factory floor below came the unmistakable sounds of battle—optic blasts, the crackle of ice forming, and the shrill hum of mechanical joints. They knew Omega Sentinel had re-joined the fray, and X-Factor would need all their skill to keep him contained. Another squadron of Prime Sentinels joined his flanks, presenting an aerial terror which would've put the Luftwaffe to shame.
The X-Men, gathered at the stairwell landing, stood frozen in the face of the chaos below. The Prime Sentinels descended in their formations with crimson optics scanning the factory floor with surgical efficiency. From their position, the young mutants could see Omega Sentinel cutting through X-Factor’s defenses with lethal grace. Fear and uncertainty hung thick in the air.
For a moment, no one moved—until a familiar burst of brimstone and smoke heralded the arrival of Nightcrawler.
BAMF!
Kurt appeared amidst the group, crouched low, his yellow eyes gleaming with urgency. Without hesitation, he teleported onto a nearby catwalk and addressed the team from the higher vantage point.
"Komm jetzt!" Kurt called out, his voice sharp and urgent as he reappeared. "Ze time for hesitation is over! X-Men, to battle! Show zhem vhat you are made of!” With a graceful leap, he somersaulted down to the factory floor, narrowly avoiding a Prime Sentinel’s laser beam as he disappeared in another puff of smoke. He reappeared behind the Prime Sentinel with a reverse slash of his rapier below its firing arm.
Meja lunged forward as she exhaled through her nose lightly, taking a measured deep breath and craned her neck forward as she exhaled. A plume of intense flame caught the Prime Sentinel at the base of it's torso and began to warp the metal casing. A moment longer and the flame ceased but Meja was not out of breath yet.
Kayleigh stepped up alongside Meja, they’d worked well together in the danger room. “How’s about we do this together? Just like we did in practice. There’s plenty of heat sources here I can draw from as well.”
Meja had paused not a moment before Kayleigh joined her. With a dark glint in her eye, she nodded curtly and smirked just as darkly. Her breath in was deep, measured but she could feel the intense heat rising at the back of her tongue. With her next outward breath, she diverted it to Kayleigh, a large wave of heat ready to be targetted.
Hayden had abandoned the stairs when she heard Kurt's speech. She dodged as much of the laser beams as she could as she ran from monitor to console to manufacturing equipment. She tried to create as many diversions as she could by dousing the working electronics with water in the hopes of sparks and fires. In between, she turned her attention to Prime Sentinels with a pressure washer style of water jet.
Meanwhile as the X-Men battle inside the factory…
~* ‘Warren is returning to factory’ *~ Jean informed X-Factor as her eyes turned towards the sky and the previously created hole in the roof. ~* ‘We can’t let him back inside, it’s too dangerous with this many people in confined quarters.*~
~Jean, take us up~ Scott’s thoughts flowed between them easier than words. “Iceman, make a barrier! Quicksilver, counter his feints!”
The team reacted instantly to Cyclops’ orders, years of experience making their movements seamless despite the chaotic battlefield. As Jean focused her telekinesis, Scott grabbed her wrist for balance while they both levitated through the jagged hole in the roof to intercept Omega Sentinel mid-air.
Meanwhile Bobby’s hands shot forward as jagged columns of ice erupted from the factory’s roof edges, forming a shimmering barricade against Warren’s potential return. The cold mist from the ice hung heavy in the air as Bobby pushed his powers further, reinforcing the barrier with thickened layers and icy spikes.
“Counter his feint?” Pietro muttered, rolling his eyes as he darted toward the perimeter. “Sure, boss. I’ll just keep pace with the flying death machine, no problem.” The blur of his motion streaked around the factory’s exterior, positioning him to intercept Warren before he could change his trajectory.
Jean and Scott rose high into the night sky, their eyes locked on Warren. His once angelic form was now a horrifying amalgamation of man and machine, his metallic wings gleaming in the faint light as he spiraled upward to gain altitude. With a metallic screech, his wings flared outward, unleashing a deadly barrage of flechettes toward Jean and Scott.
“Get clear!” Scott shouted, blasting away the sharp projectiles with a wide beam.
Jean raised a hand and the barrage of projectiles intended for her stopped mid-flight before they harmlessly dropped to the ground.
~* ‘I don’t want to hurt him.’ *~ While her psychic attack was countered Jean could have easily ragdolled and crumpled him like one of the sentinels inside the factory.
“Funny, I don’t want to be hurt by him.” Quicksilver quipped as he managed to slam in the Omega Sentinel when he swooped down low across the rooftop.
~* ‘Hank, any updates on the countermeasures?’ *~ Jean asked their teammate who was being shielded in the building below them.
~We’re a little busy, Jean~ Hank’s thoughts were terse and heated, engaged as he was in concentration. Rather than explain the situation, he left Jean to glean the details. It turned out that interface was secured by an onboard artificial intelligence which was powered by Mara herself. Every time he thought he accessed an open socket, the system would recursively reset itself with new programming logic. If not for Connor tag-teaming with the input commands to keep pace with the systemic changes, Hank’s attempts would have been futile from the start.
~We need to deploy them~ Scott interjected through the psychic link. ~Find us a vulnerability~
~That… is what we’re doing~ Hank turned his mind away from them. ~If you would leave us to it~
Scott’s visor loosed a widebeam arc that Omega Sentinel somehow evaded with a corkscrew barrel roll. Telling Hank to hurry would be counterproductive, so he didn’t. Instead he torched the sky with an unavoidable blast. Warren’s only saving grace was that it wasn’t at full power, otherwise he would’ve been obliterated. Even so, the Omega Sentinel found his wings again and made a fresh charge.
“Warren!” Jean’s tone was one of annoyance as the Omega Sentinel continued to dodge and parry their attacks. Lifting both her hands up she tracked Warren’s bullish charge and created a telekinetic wall that he slammed into. Like a bird into a window, the impact stunned him for a moment.
~* ‘Bobby, can you slow him down or encase him with some ice?’ *~ Jean’s telekinetic wall warped into a bubble that encased the now enraged Omega Sentinel ~* ‘He’s hard for me to hold onto like this because he’s so fast.’ *~
Bobby heard Jean’s telepathic request and immediately shifted his focus from reinforcing the factory’s defenses to the task at hand. His breath misted in the cold night air as he raised his arms, channeling his power.
“You got it, Jean,” Bobby called, his voice tense but determined. “Time to put him on ice!”
With a sharp thrust of his hands, a stream of sub-zero air shot upward, spiraling around the telekinetic bubble holding Omega Sentinel. Frost shot around the bubble as if using it as a mold and spread across the surface as the icy tendrils crept inward. In mere seconds, Warren’s struggling form was encased in a thick block of shimmering ice, his furious mechanical screeches muffled and distant.
Bobby exhaled sharply, his breath forming a white plume. “That should cool his jets for a bit.”
The massive ice block, now carrying the weight of Omega Sentinel, lost its aerial equilibrium and began to plummet. It dropped like a meteor toward the rooftop.
“Uh… a little help?” Bobby squeaked.
~Jean! Can you catch him?~ Scott held his hand to his visor, ready to blast the ice block apart if need be.
Jean didn’t respond to Scott but instinctively reached out and telekinetically grasped the now frozen Warren. She seemed to struggle to slow then hold him, causing a rather dramatic fall for several dozen feet. Eventually, the ice bricked Omega Sentinel stopped its fall, now floating in mid-air several feet above the roof and the barrier Bobby had created. ~* ‘He’s heavier than I thought he would be.’ *~ Jean mentally sighed.
“I don’t know if we can keep him like this for an extended period of time,” Jean said out loud as she examined the trapped Warren. He fought inside the ice but any headway he made was quickly thwarted by Bobby adding more. “He’s still a person and I worry about his body temperature dropping too low.”
“Well, Beast better get his act together and figure out those computer systems then,” Quicksilver said while finally coming to a halt. He had taken down and destroyed a few straggler Prime Sentinels that risked interfering with the Omega’s takedown. “I thought he was supposed to be smart.”
Shinobi descended through the ceiling of the factory floor with two Hellfire Knights in tow that he'd phased along with himself. The battle in the control room had become too heated with the telepath shielding two of the invaders. As they touched floor, Shinobi released them so they could do their jobs. He looked at the damage they'd already wrought and shook his head. "Well, well, well, it looks like they have all joined forces. The X-Children and X-Men...it takes all them combined just to do this."
Kennedy had managed to stay busy with a barrage of arrows that she fired at Prime Sentinel after Prime Sentinel. The projectiles shimmered and glittered through the air inside the factory. But her attacks came to a grinding halt when Shinobi entered the room.
He looked so different from his time in the mansion, now dressed in rich black silk and a helmet that reminded her of Magneto’s, it was a far cry from the ripped jeans and band shirts Jace had once worn. Shinobi was cold and ruthless, his presence inspired dread. That feeling of heartless brutality made it easy for Kennedy to draw a normal arrow and put him in her crosshairs.
Artemis waited and lined up her shot, it only took patience until Shinobi was distracted and the arrow would have struck him in the heart, a lethal shot that was often discouraged by the X-Men. Then she caught the light in his blue eyes and suddenly she saw Jace again. At the last minute, Kennedy raised her arm and the arrow merely flew past Shinobi’s head. It was an intentional miss, despite everything that had happened she couldn’t hurt him.
Shinobi heard the whoosh of the arrow as it flew past his head. He quickly turned to see where it hit, but it was gone. There was only one X-Man he was aware of that shot arrows and that was Kennedy. But he also knew that she was a better shot than that.... Shinobi looked around the production floor, between the individual battles, until his gaze fell upon her.
He didn't smile or nod his head. He didn't beckon her to approach. He just stared as the sounds of battle seemed muffled for a moment. Then he held up his hands in a non-threatening way and started walking towards her. He was curious. Curious as to why she had missed.
Like a doe in the woods, Kennedy stilled and froze in place as she sensed and observed the threat that approached her. She had brought this on herself, she allowed her heart to get in the way of her choices and now the wolf stalked. But in that moment she realized she that she had missed because it was love that guided her hand and she would never regret making a choice like that. So Kennedy didn’t flee or cower, her head remained high and her gaze regal as looked at him like the queen he had once imagined her to be.
His countenance remained neutral as he closed the distance between them. There's who he'd hoped she'd have been; head held high with confidence and authority. Alas.... Once upon a time, he thought. "You missed," he said. "You never miss. What's Connor, or even Cyclops, going to say when they hear you failed to cut off the head? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you missed. For whatever reason."
“They’ll understand why I missed, you know why I missed too.” Kennedy’s eyes narrowed in indignation as her thoughts returned to that tacky hotel in SoHo. “I can’t forget what you once meant to me, what I shared with you.” She shook her head in denial as she thought about him returning her personal effects. “And you can’t say you still don’t feel it too.”
"I don't deny that I once loved you," he said. "What you shared with me, what we shared together, means a lot to me. And that is why I could never harm you. I'll always miss when I aim, too." He paused. "But I can no longer protect you. That vanished when you went with them as they stole you away." An explosion on the factory floor caused him to turn his head and see a squad of Prime Sentinel's attacking his old classmates.
"Xavier invaded my mind after we left New York," he continued, turning to face Kennedy once again. "He told me that you can see through what he called a façade. Then he gave up on me, called me lost, and compared me to Magneto living in exile on his asteroid. He's never given up on his lifelong friend, but apparently everyone else is a different story. Tell me Kennedy, what do you see? A lost evil worth giving up on and remanding to destruction?"
"The fact that you won't hurt me means that you aren't a lost cause." Kennedy dared to reach out and touch him, a single hand placed on his chest. "But you are hurting other people, so many other people." She looked out at the factory and the chaos playing out before them. "Stop this Jace. Come home with us, with me." In a bold attempt to sway him, Kennedy leaned forward and kissed him with all the conviction and absolution she could offer. Just like with her arrows, Kennedy hit her mark with the same lethal accuracy and Shinobi found himself a victim to her advances.
Shinobi winched as she placed her hand on his chest and listened as she pleaded with him, the old him. His mind briefly went back to SoHo as she kissed him; the memories, the feelings, the passion. He inhaled sharply and let it out slowly as he whispered, "You could have been so much more." He placed his hands on her shoulders and made the same declaration that Selene had heard that day in his quarters, "Jace Adams is dead, my dear. Only Shinobi Shaw is left." He sighed and then let her go, turning to face the factory floor again and the devastation. "There is no home for me there. That was made perfectly clear. And they destroyed mine in New York. I'm a survivor, Kennedy, always have been, and so are you. The difference is that I'll do whatever I need to in order to be the strongest, the fittest, to survive."
"Good. Then you will understand what I'm about to do." Shinobi had gotten close to her, he had stopped phasing so that she could touch him and kiss him, then he turned his back on her to survey the battle below them. Kennedy saw her opportunity and lunged for him pulling the helmet from his head and throwing it as far as she could.
~JEAN, NOW!~ Kennedy screamed her name through the channel of telepathic communication that had been provided and hoped that would be enough for the redhead to take action.
On the rooftop, Jean visibly winced as the blaringly loud voice that called out to her. With a lightening fast moment of mind reading, she saw what Kennedy had done and what she had hoped to do.
Without hesitation, Jean unleashed a psychic attack on the Lord Imperial.
Shinobi was suddenly crippled by the most intense and invasive headache he had ever experienced. His mind felt like it was in a vice grip that squeezed him from all sides. It made his vision blur and his thought devolve as he was reduced to a whimpering and vulnerable state on the factory floor.
Kennedy took a few steps back from Shinobi as he crumbled. While she had confessed that she would never hurt him, she wasn't above someone else doing it. Especially when he unleased such destruction without remorse. As Shinobi's nose started to bleed, she took a few more steps away from him. The two massive Hellfire Knights that served as his body guards began to descend on Kennedy and she began to scramble for a way out from their retaliation.
A bamf interrupted their advance with Nightcrawler appearing in a puff of smoke. His body was horizontal, landing simultaneous attacks against the Knights. Dropkicking one, shoving another, he made space to grab Kennedy and teleport her out of reach.
Chaos erupted inside the sentinel manufacturing plant as the industrial space filled with Hellfire Knights and Prime Sentinels.
A squadron of Prime Sentinels breached the perimeter of the plant by air. Their polished exoskeletons gleam with an almost otherworldly sheen as their mechanical forms moved in perfect synchronicity. The low hum of their power cores was drowned out only by the deafening sound of thrusters.
Behind them, the Hellfire Knights emerged —elite enforcers clad in fiery-red, obsidian armor. Each one a walking juggernaut with their faces hidden behind sleek, helmeted visors that glowed with a deep, molten hue. Their weapons, massive and destructive, held the power to level walls and obliterate mutants as they entered on foot.
The Sentinels and Hellfire Knights worked in tandem with one another, following the directive provided by Shinobi Shaw, to destroy any and all X-Men.
Hayden had found it difficult to deal with the Sentinels, but the Knights were a different story. She formed heavy mist around some in the hopes of soaking into cracks and crevices. She put spheres of water around the heads of others and continued soaking the random electronics she hid behind.
Kayleigh was using whatever sources of heat she could draw from, using them and directing them against the sentinels and the knights. With Aurora protecting Hank she had to step up and prove she could handle herself in the field as a main member of the team.
Brimstone burst into space overhead. Kennedy and Kurt appeared, looking each other eye to eye. "Just as ve practiced, ja?" Kurt said as they began to free fall.
Kennedy mewed in surprise as she found her bearings high above the battlefield. She hadn’t been expecting Kurt to appear and she was anticipating this move even less. Rather than think about how fast she was falling, Kennedy focused on the Sentinels below her and let her instincts take over. She drew her bow and created an explosive arrow while her body moved from the hollow position into an acrobatic somersault. As she leveled out in her fall she took aim and fired arrow after arrow in the Sentinels. The vantage point from above and the aerial moves she had learned with Kurt allowed her to deliver twice as much damage as she would have on the ground. As her window of opportunity diminished she reached out for Kurt who reappeared by her side in a bamf of brimstone. Taking her arm they flipped and cut through their air until Kennedy’s feet landed on solid ground.
Stepping back over to Kayleigh, Meja clapped a hand on her friend's shoulder and grinned, "Here to rain fire... you ready?" The mirth in her voice was clear, she'd begun to revel in the utter destruction her powers had wrought on their enemies, even here in their home.
Every member of the team came together in the heat of battle, a testament to their recent training efforts. It wasn't a series of individual efforts as with past missions. Today the Alternate Class X-Men fought as one. Try as they might, though, they were unprepared for events that followed.
An explosion at the heart of the facility echoed outward to the factory floor where the X-Men were battling for their very lives. All combatants paused, even the Prime Sentinels froze for a moment, their sensors and processors temporarily glitching. And then all hell broke loose as the Prime Sentinels turned berserk with indiscriminate attacks in every direction.
“Why are they going crazy?!” Kennedy asked out loud to any member of the X-Men or X-Factor whose would listen. She could barely keep up the rapid fire needed to keep the Sentinels at bay. “I thought they were just supposed to stop working?”
"If only," Hayden said. "Why can't anything ever go the way we think?" she asked, dodging another attack. She finally resorted to just water cannons, but even that was tiring her out quickly. "I need to find some cover so I can strengthen up a little.." She looked around until she found some smoking manufacturing equipment that had been toppled and made a run for it.
Maeve did her best to shield her teammates, her new friends, by making the ground rise to form makeshift walls, temporary barriers for them to regroup under and take a breather. This did take a lot out of her as each time something hit the walls and knocked stone free she replaced it quickly so it wouldn't lose it's density and the protection of her friends remained.
Meja grunted as she was pushed back against a wall but freed of the crushing weight that would have surely squished her to jelly. Frowning in concentration, she remembered to keep her 'cool' and continued to watch her breathing as she then saw a small gap, grimacing and spewing a plume of heat at an incoming Prime Sentinel.
Ethan had taken many mostly superficial wounds, but even with his natural, or not-so-natural healing powers, they were taking their toll. He was saved by one of the walls that had been erected. He was down on one knee trying to catch his breath.
Seeing Ethan was pinned down, Connor threw himself between his teammate and incoming Prime Sentinel fire like a human shield. The energy blasts were absorbed without damage, but they still pushed Connor backward. His heels dug into the floor and squealed with the friction. Eyes weeping a turgid, glowing red fog that extended to his fists, Connor presented his rebuttal.
The attack on his mind had been brutal, savage even. Blood still trickled from his nose and a pounding headache throbbed behind his eyes, but the oppressive presence was gone. Wiping the blood with the back of his hand, he barked, "You four, find my helmet!" His voice was steady despite the pain. The Knights around him nodded sharply and scattered, combing through the chaos.
The Lord Imperial gritted his teeth and grasped the arm of a nearby Hellfire Knight, using it to pull himself off the ground. Once on his feet, he steadied himself, surveying the battle. "That's not right," he said, watching the Prime Sentinels. His voice grew sharper as he turned to the Knight who had helped him. "Something's wrong. What happened?"
"They froze, my Lord," the Knight replied, still catching his breath. "Right after an explosion deeper in the facility. Then they just...it was like they lost their minds." Before the Knight could continue, the search party returned with Shinobi's helmet. He snatched it from their grasp and slid it over his head. As the familiar weight settled, the Knight's words hit him like a punch to the gut.
"Oh, god," he breathed, realizing what had to have occurred and that there was nothing left here. Or at least wouldn't be soon. His eyes narrowed as dread settled in his chest, there was no salvaging this. Not now. Not ever.
He turned to the Hellfire Knights, his tone sharp and commanding. "You four, with me. The rest of you, cover our escape. Spread the word, every Knight is to get the hell out of here once I’m clear. No exceptions. Let the X-Men fight this battle. If we're lucky, some of them might not survive."
With his orders given, Shinobi phased, leading his guards as they disappeared into the shadows of the facility.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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