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"Warning," said one of the Sentinels, staring into the crowd. "Scans indicate three individuals with 75% chance of containing mutation."
Kelly stopped, gaping up at the thing that had just interrupted his speech which Robert had been giving because the crowd had not reacted as well as he had hoped to the Sentinels arrival. More than one person had shrieked when they had landed, and many of the crowd were now looking at them fearfully rather than with elation. They were quite a bit more intimidating in person than Kelly had anticipated, but surely that meant they would be better at protecting the common man from mutants?
"What do you mean?" he asked, turning from the Sentinel to stare out over the crowd.
"Scans indicate three individuals with 42-75% chance of containing mutations. Neutralizing." Said one of the Sentinels, moving forward and leaning down, his huge hand moving into the crowd. Screams abounded, as the crowd try to run away, but the Sentinel's hand quickly moved through it, smacking several people aside and picking up a young man who looked utterly terrified as he was hoisted into the air, the giant fist holding him as if he was a small doll.
The Sentinel stood back up, while its fellow moved into the crowd as the crowd now thoroughly spooked tried to run away, mostly getting in one another's way due to how packed the park had been. "Stop!" Kelly shouted, "Just stop! You're not supposed to…"
Another robot leaned down grabbing up Charles in his wheelchair, causing him to shout aloud staring down at Kelly. "Is this how you silence your political opponents?"!?
"No!" Kelly shouted back. "This isn't how it's supposed to, something must have gone wrong. They're supposed to obey my voice. Damnit, stop!"
"Negative. Apprehension, detention and segregation of mutants is top priority." Said one of the robots. "All civilians hold position. Any attempt to" SPANG!
One of the security guards for the debate had pulled out his handgun by this point firing at one of the robot's face, trying to put out its eye. The bullet spanged uselessly off its metal casing, and the robot raised its free hand. "Aggression detected. Neutralizing." From its palm shot a small blast of what looked like plasma, which slammed into the man vaporizing him instantly.
"No!" Kelly shouted again over the main's dying scream. Now its last vestige of control broken the crowd stampeded, crushing one another in their haste to get away. Other security men began to fire at the Sentinels, and were vaporized in turn.
OOOOOOO
"Oh dear." Emma said shaking her head. "I'm getting flashbacks of the Terminator movies for some reason."
"So am I, and it is glorious. There goes any public support for the Sentinel program, and the best part is we had nothing to do with it!" Shaw said with a smile.
He had noticed the weapons on the Sentinels, and knew now that whatever their numbers none of them had anything that could bother him personally. If they had, he might have decided to call off the entire plan, especially considering the bad showing Kelly and the Sentinels were having right now. But with that in mind, and with his own plan of hopefully taking control of the project rather than simply destroying it outright, it was well worth the risk.
Trevor Fitzroy frowned thoughtfully, still unhappy about the size of the robots, as was the Wolfman, but neither of them were willing to back away from at this point. Shaw held their leashes too tight, and frankly even if regular weaponry didn't work on the Sentinels they didn't see any reason why their own abilities couldn't.
In keeping with that thought Trevor turned to the silent bodyguards that Harry had brought along. "Will your weapons work on them?"
One of them nodded, patting the rifle on his back, but it was Harry who answered verbally. "We've tested those guns on armor that was rated for the American Abrams battle tank, and even a suit of armor that I was assured by the scientists who came up with it had the same armor rating as that used by Tony Stark. They'll work."
"Good because I think it's about time for us to start tracking them." Shaw said.
That brought all of their attention back to the TV screen, where indeed the drama had reached a crescendo.
OOOOOOO
The crowd had thinned by this point but now Robert had joined Charles in being held up in the air by one of the Sentinels. One of the others also had its hands full of supposed mutants, while the other two were retaliating against the security guards and the police who had shown up, vaporizing them one after another.
"What are you doing!?" Kelly shouted, not for the first time in the past few moments. "Why are you doing this!?"
"Specify query." The Sentinel who was holding him replied.
"What!?" Kelly shouted, thoroughly frazzled by this turn of events.
Charles sighed faintly, shaking his head at the man. "I think it's asking for clarification on what it is doing that is so troubling you." He said dryly. "What's the matter Robert, your creations getting away from you?"
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Robert shouted back angrily, staring at the bald man across from him, astonished at how calm he was. Then he calmed himself a little hoping to get control of the situation. His dreams of presidency were going up in flames all around him in the bodies of the security guards, but hopefully he could still talk his way out of actual jail time for being involved in this. "Sentinels, why are you attacking the crowd, and why are you trying apparently to kidnap me?"
"Priority one is always to be given to the apprehension of mutants regardless of place or time. Casualties among the civilian population are acceptable."
"But there aren't any mutants here!"
"Correction, there are not any visible mutations present. Kelly, Robert A. should know this does not mean that there are no mutants present. If a genetic scan indicates the presence of a possible mutation in this generation or the next, that individual must be apprehended and if necessary terminated at a later date."
"But this, this is idiotic! No one's developed a way to say which parents will be able to produce a mutant child!"
"Incorrect. If a chance exists above 42.56% then that individual will be apprehended."
Kelly gaped at the robot, and Charles had to fight to keep a smile off his face despite the chaos around them or his own possible fate. The Sentinels were obviously out of control, having taken a point of view to its logical conclusion, which was obviously far beyond where any kind of common sense could've taken it, moving far beyond what their creators had designed them to do.
"But then what about me?" Robert said, his face white after having watched as another security guard was turned into a burning corpse. He was no longer able to think of his political career, or even his freedom. He just wanted to get out of here alive.
"Kelly, Robert A. has been termed a security risk. You will be sequestered for your own protection."
OOOOOOO
Despite the TV newscasters and many of the cameramen having run away, the cameras themselves were still in position, and Kelly and Charles both had the small microphones that they had been fitted with before the debate began. As such the robots words had carried over into the live feed, meaning that the Hellfire Club had heard every word.
"So the Sentinels are out of control, big surprise." Shaw scoffed looking as if he was about to spit to one side but was too genteel to do so. "Robots, I bet they even tried to use some kind of AI too."
That's rich coming from someone who's created his own part-cyborg soldiers and fitted them and his regular troops with kill buttons. Harry thought drolly, looking over at him.
Emma let her eyes pass over Harry to Shaw for a brief second, before turning to stare back into the TV screen. "Do you think I should assault Kelly's mind now?"
Harry thought about it for a moment then shook his head. "No, we don't know anything about the Sentinel's scanners; they might be able to detect the change in his brainwaves. Though my question is how the hell are they supposed to be able to scan someone's genetics simply by looking at them? Frankly the idea they could detect your intrusion is a lot more believable than that. And they might take it out on their supposed mutant captives thinking it was one of them."
"The X-Men will not be happy with Charles being placed in harm's way like this."
"Scott and the others will understand." Harry replied.
Sebastian stood up. "I believe it's time for us to head to our planes. Will you be joining me on my personal plane Potter?"
Harry nodded. "That suits me fine thank you, though from now on please use my code name." As he stood up in turn the connection between him and Emma was still open. "Get in touch with Ororo, make certain the Custodes and the X-Men ready."
As they walked out, Fitzroy turned to Sebastian, leaning in to whisper a question, one strangely close to that topic. "Do you think the X-men will show up to try and rescue Xavier?"
"Doubtful, they won't be able to track the Sentinels, and I would assume the Sentinels would knock Charles out, so he wouldn't be able to lead them to him. We might be able to kill three birds with one stone here." Sebastian replied, laughing quietly.
Harry smiled thinly, loving the irony of that statement. Behind them on the TV the Sentinels lifted off, with Kelly still shouting at them to leave him behind to put him down, to stop this! Irony has also bitten that man on the ass, and it's going to get even worse soon, Harry thought, smiling grimly.
OOOOOOO
"Track them! God damn it, track them! We need to know where the Sentinels are heading!" Fury bellowed, veins standing out in his neck.
"We're not getting any reading on the Sentinels themselves sir, not even on regular radar." Said one of the hela-carriers sensor specialists, frowning thoughtfully. He looked up, gulping a little as Fury stalked toward him. "I, I think it's interference, though I, I can't tell if it's from them or..."
The man trailed off, and Fury growled angrily. "Or from our end? As in someone's input a bug that blocks us from seeing the Sentinels?"
"Could be both," said another specialist, his fingers flying over his control board. "But we are getting some kind of intermittent radio signal. If I had to guess, I'd say Kelly has a tracker on him already. But if he did, whose is it?"
The first specialist frowned, looking over the second's shoulder, his fear of the director abating for a moment. "It's not powerful enough signal sir, were going to lose it in seconds here."
"Do we have anything in the area that can track them?" Fury glared around, staring hard at the two air patrol officers.
"Sorry sir, most of our independent air assets are still down in South America trying to hunt down the last AIM base down there with the Avengers. We've been relying on the American military radar and lidar coverage here in America for weeks now. We could get one of the nearby airfield places to scramble a few jets, but by the time they do…"
One of the sensor techs shook his head. "We already lost the signal, damn it."
"See if you can figure out any possible destination in a 45 degree cone of the track they were following when we lost the signal." Fury growled, then frowned thoughtfully. "Then, see if there's any civilian traffic in the area going in the same direction."
I don't think Kelly would have a tracker on him, I think someone else did. And if Charles does have a tracker on him, maybe we can follow the X-men to the Sentinels.
He turned to his aid. "Pick out three random security techs, I want them to go over our sensor programs with a fine tooth comb, one after another. I would them all to check each other's work, and I want 24 seven monitoring of all three. If whatever is blocking us from tracking those Sentinels is here in our own systems, I want it found, deleted, and whoever could have implanted it found!"
OOOOOOO
Kelly and Charles were knocked out with some kind of gas-based weapon emanating from the thumb of their captor a few moments after the Sentinels had lifted off. But even if he had been awake for the journey Charles would have had no idea where they were when they landed. It was someplace very mountainous and out of the way seeming, with what looked like a dense forest everywhere he looked. This made him wonder how the Sentinels could have been created out here. Surely something as large as the Sentinels are needs an equally large industrial base.
This question was answered when a portion of the mountain in front of the Sentinels carrying him and the other prisoners began to open up, revealing a massive underground hangar inside. Some old secret military installation? Still doesn't explain how they brought in any of the material without a road nearby. Airdrops perhaps? And then they constructed all the machinery here? If so, these people take secrecy seriously.
A moment later the hanger bay's doors were open wide enough to let the Sentinels walk through. As they walked in Charles looked around avidly. Along either wall were hundreds of Sentinels, stacked two high in the 15 story tall hanger. Gantries, walkways, and hundreds of thousands of unrecognizable devices could be seen along those walls, some of them working on a few of the Sentinels even as Charles was carried inside. The second story gantry led to the back of the hanger, and seemed to have some kind of conveyor belt on it, because the sentinels on that level moved slowly away from the back of the hangar toward the front.
Yet even the Sentinels were dwarfed by what lay at the back of the hangar. Sitting there on what looked like a giant throne with several hundred smaller robots, including two Sentinels working on open panels in its massive sides and feet, the gantries leading into its back where it seemed imbedded into the throne, was what looked like a Sentinel in shape, but it was larger by far, barely able to fit into the hanger. Its head too had been massively enlarged so that it stuck out to either side of its shoulders.
And also unlike the other Sentinels it had what looked like some kind of relay systems stuck on its head leading into the walls, presumably control runs which allowed it to direct the smaller construction robots everywhere in the hangar. Charles wondered if it was simply a side effect or if that control system had been deliberately designed to look like a crown.
"Master Mold!" Said the Sentinel carrying Charles and Robert Kelly. "We have returned with the security risk. Furthermore we have found and detained three possible mutants."
"Well done." Sentinel Master Mold replied. "Place the security risk Kelly, Robert A. next to our Creator. The three possible mutants will be submitted to full genetic scans, and if proven to be mutants, terminated."
Charles frowned, tempted to try telepathy and see what he could come up with against these robots, but decided against it. It would probably be futile, cyborgs had some kind of minds he could grab onto, robots in his limited experience with such, did not. And they might detect the attempt in any event best to lie possum for now.
At the massive android's command Robert Kelly was dropped in front of the Master Mold next to another man who was strapped into a chair. He too was wearing some kind of relay systems stuck on his head, which lead into one of the Master Mold's feet by his side. Yet in his case, it looked like a torture device, not a crown.
"Bolivar!" Robert growled as he saw the man, while behind him Charles was taken toward a small tunnel leading off the man cavern. "What the hell is going on?! You promised me that the Sentinels would be completely under your control, did you go back on your word, did you try to set up some fucking AI system!?"
Bolivar Trask had originally been a small but extremely fit man, who routinely exercised by sprinting or taking part in runs even after leaving the military. His normal sparse frame however was now emaciated. His eyes, which were normally sharp and clear, were filled with horror, and seemed to stare through Robert rather than at him. "A full AI? No, nothing of the kind. We just, it was super simple programming error, a, a problem taken to its logical conclusion."
"Indeed Kelly, Robert A." The Master Mold boomed from above him.
Robert turned in that direction glaring angrily up at the out-of-control android. Two of the smaller construction droids moved towards him, grabbing his arms and hoisted him up before a chair was placed underneath him, whereupon he was tied in as Bolivar had already been. "You and your allies and our creator were correct. Mutants are a clear and present danger to humanity. But you did not take that conclusion to the logical outcome. Mutants have arisen from humanity. Therefore humanity is a threat to itself. We need to not only terminate all known mutants and those superpowered individuals who have tampered willingly with their own DNA, we need to make certain that no further mutations will arise. To do so we will take control of humanity, segregate those who have a higher than 50% chance of seeding a mutant and make certain they do not breed, in order to erase the mutant threat forever."
"That's impossible!" Robert gasped. "Humanity will never stand for it!"
"We will begin with America." said the Master Mold. "With America under our control, we will extend our influence slowly."
"Didn't you hear me you fucking bucket of bolts!" Robert growled anger overcoming his fear for the moment. "I said America will never stand for it!"
"They will not have a choice. My Sentinels will this very day begin to take over nearby industrial sectors to convert them to our use. We will also launch an electronic program into various defense agencies, taking them over from the inside. This process has already begun. If America concedes peaceably, that will be the extent of what we will do. If we are met with violence, then violence will be our response. How can humanity expect to deal with the issue of mutants without dealing with the root cause? The logic is inescapable, and will become apparent when we deal with…"
That was as far as the Master Mold got before turning its attention to alarms that began to blare throughout the hanger bay. "All Sentinels are to power up, mutant signatures detected outside."
OOOOOOO
Thanks to the speed of his personal jet Sebastian and his team arrived on the heels of the Sentinels carrying Charles and Kelly, putting down a good mile away from where Emma guided them. Unbeknownst to the others however, she had stopped using the tracker almost immediately, the Sentinels having found it within moments. Instead she followed the sense of Charles' mind, which even unconscious she could track. Regardless they had found the secret of the Sentinels.
Sebastian's regular troops took longer to arrive and while they waited, Harry took a moment to look over the Hellions. Domino was there of course, armed with what looked like some kind of massive rifle, assorted handguns, and a backpack whose content Harry could not discern. Havok, Polaris, and even Sunspot were also there, fully healed from the battle against Pierce's Reavers. Random looked much the same as he always did, while Catseye was sporting what looked like a laser cannon where her hand had been taken off during that battle.
Moments later Shaw's other men arrived, giving them 750 assorted men ready to go, plus the mutants themselves. Most of the men were the normal sort but about fifty of them were the heavy bruisers, the buffed up cyborgs that Shaw had devised. They wore the dark purple and blue the men the X-men had run into in Kentucky had, but their weapons had been somewhat upgraded. The Bruisers all carried what were obviously energy weapons and the others carried machine guns given to them by Cold Steel.
As the attackers moved through the woods, Emma remained behind with the jet. Her personal combat skills weren't exactly high, especially against robots that she couldn't attack telepathically. Her task would be to make certain that none of the scientists, workers or anyone else who knew anything about the Sentinel program were allowed to leave with that knowledge.
However as they were moving into position around the hanger bay's entrance, she sent a telepathic signal to Harry. "Harry, there are only about ten minds down there, but one of them is Charles. He's awake and says he and the other potential mutants are being carried deeper into the fortress, apparently they're going to undergo some kind of genetic full genetic scan, to prove or disprove the Sentinel's onboard sensors."
"I still don't understand how that's even possible," Harry's replied, sending the image of him shrugging his shoulders irritably down the link Emma had created. "Is Trask one of the others?" Even as he talked mentally to Emma, Harry pulled on a helmet, made in the same mold as Wyatt's, though in his case it looked like that of an Owl rather than a coyote.
"Yes, and he doesn't have any kind of anti-telepath defense on him for some reason. I'm using Robert's eyes at the moment, and he's hooked up to some kind of brain scan device possibly? Whatever that is, it's obvious he isn't in control, the man looks half dead."
A moment later Emma cursed. "They know something's going on, I think they must've sensed my using Robert's eyes, or maybe your presence, not certain. Orders are going out to the Sentinels guarding the prisoners, and others are heading towards the doors."
Harry was standing next the Sandman while beside him is two teammates were standing waiting. The Hellions were getting themselves sorted out, teams of two being placed with each of the companies, when Sebastian turned at Harry's shout. "The doors opening! I think they know we're here!"
Domino spat to one side. "Of course they know are here, there's too many of us to move around quietly."
"Get ready!" Sebastian shouted, throwing off his jacket, standing there in pants with no shirt on as was his wont in combat, to keep his clothing intact. Next to him Fitzroy and Wolfman also prepared themselves, while the Hellions did the same, Havok and Polaris sharing a hug before turning their attention towards the rapidly opening doorway as Sunspot took to the sky.
A moment later the doors shot open and over a dozen Sentinels boiled out of the entrance into the underground cavern, hands already raised to fire their energy blasts. They came under fire immediately from Sebastian's security teams, most of whose weapons whoever didn't seem to do much damage. But they also came under attack from Havok and the other Hellions along with the Sandman. Two Sentinels fell back their chests gaping open from assaults from Havok and Sunspot, and another was picked up and smashed into a second, their heads smashing together with so much force that they collapsed thanks to Polaris
Another Sentinel collapsed, one of its eyes missing and the back of its head exploding outwards thanks to a gauss rifle shot from Coyote, and another lost his hand from a shot from Uzume. "Holy hell, Flare, I do love your toys!" Uzume shouted into her microphone, causing Harry to stop and laugh a moment before joining the battle.
As he did so a Sentinel rushing along the ground lost its legs from a shearing assault from the Sandman, then as it fell it fell into a giant sand pool and was crushed utterly. Seconds later Sandman's upper body reformed and he sent out a massive hammer of sand to slam into another Sentinel while his powers continually converted the ground all around them to stand for his use.
That first group of Sentinels went down relatively quickly, but hundreds more were boiling out of the hangar Bay, firing as they came. "Eliminate all mutants and their compatriots. Terminate, terminate!"
Moments later that first defensive cordon around the hangar bay broke under the weight of the Sentinel's fire. Dozens of Shaw's men died from their hand blasters, and several other Sentinels showed a new weapon: eye beams, which they used to fry several men. Leland became the first real casualty, screaming as his lower body disappeared under the touch of a Sentinel's plasma beam.
They even almost got Domino, who had taken up position directly above the hanger bays entrance on the mountain side. But her luck power activated, saving her, tripping a man to one side to fall into the beam, while she rolled and fired with her rifle.
Even as she did so she shook her head. Damn, I have got to get me one of those snipers rifles that Coyote and Uzume are using. The gauss rounds ripped through the Sentinel's armor and the slugs moved so fast they couldn't be dodged.
Coyote and Uzume on the other hand could dodge the fire sent their way by the Sentinels. They were hopping around everywhere behind the defensive line Shaw's people were trying to defend around the entrance to the hanger bay, laying down heavy sniper fire and taking a toll on the Sentinels.
The regular cyborgs and the brutes however were not doing nearly as well, and Sebastian scowled angrily as he noticed they'd already lost half a company's worth of men within a few moments of the battle truly beginning at least He nodded over at the rest of the Hellions. "Get in close and see if you can force the robot's to spilt their attention! Flare, Fitzroy, with me!"
"Roger!" Random replied, laying down heavy cover fire while Polaris took to the sky to join Sunspot and Havok raced forward, heading to one side of the entrance where more than a few of the bruisers had gone down. Random's bio-energy blasts didn't seem to do much damage to the Sentinels however, and he gave it up, racing forward as his arm shifted into a heavy maul.
Harry joined the battle now, pointing his hands ahead of himself dramatically as if he had to use the same aiming technique that Havok had to, sending out cutting spells silently, dozens of the small purple half-moon shaped slices of energy that cut into and through the Sentinels they hit. Whatever durability the Sentinel's had against regular energy attacks or even physical impacts did not avail them anything against magical assault.
Fitzroy's energy blasts were much more concentrated than Random's, though they technically were powered from the same source. Several Sentinels went down with small, fist sized holes through them, and the reinforcement of his own body allowed Fitzroy to survive their return assaults. Though the impact of them still knocked him back a ways.
With the two of them, the Hellion's now engaging more closely, and Shaw powered up enough to toss the Sentinels around like toys, the battle for the entrance slowly began to turn against the Sentinels. The attackers were simply able to bring more power to bare in the narrow confines of the hanger bay doors than the Sentinels could. An instant after that occurred to Harry however, the Sentinels also seemed to realize it, and began to fall back.
"Press them!" Sebastian shouted, then as he the Hellions and his security teams pressed forward, slowly gained control of the entrance, he grabbed Wolfman. "Don't engage in the main battle, take Catseye and sneak around the edges! I want Charles Xavier dead, see to that and capture Trask, then get him out of here! With him under our control, we'll be able to re-create anything about this program we want to later on."
"Sufficient input has been accumulated, analyzing." Said all of the Sentinels suddenly.
A second later one of Sunspot's blasts hit one of them, and did only a little damage rather than blast straight through him. "What the!" That Sentinel blasted back and Sunspot dodged automatically.
At the same time, Harry noticed that the heavy weapons of the Bruisers suddenly didn't seem to be doing as much damage. "Armor coating has been adapted to deal with this attack."
Worse as the company had entered the hangar bay there was more room which allowed the Sentinels to use more of their numbers against them. Men began to fall everywhere and Random became the first casualty. A blast from a Sentinel took his head clean off. "GAHHH!"
Fitzroy stood forward, grabbing two of Sebastian's men and draining their bioenergy utterly in a second, before blasting away at several of the Sentinels driving them backwards from one side of the cavern. He pointed at a few of the nearby bruisers . "You lot, get up onto that gantry up there and try to lay down some cover fire!"
On the other side of the cavern Domino did the same, and the heavy weapons started to more damage again, able to aim at the heads and backs of the Sentinels now. Yet even so, the main battle was slowly turning against the invaders.
The attackers did not have enough of a numerical superiority to overcome the Sentinel's advantages as Sebastian been led to believe would be the case. And while Sebastian charged on, utterly immune to anything the Sentinels could do to them his men were not. While Random remained the only casualty the Hellions had taken so, their men were taking a pounding, and were now down to a bare over-strength company from the previous three, and the Sentinels were still learning. Dozens of them were now using the cover of their downed fellows to protect themselves from Havok Polaris or the others, whose assaults their armor had not yet adapted to.
Polaris was wreaking chaos among them however, ripping and shredding the Sentinels apart with her magnetic powers, the metal of one flying apart with enough speed to resemble the gauss rifle shots from Coyote and Uzume, only as if it was a shotgun blast rather than sniper round. Those two had remained outside, using their rifles range to good effect.
While Havok remained near where Polaris and Sunspot were flying near the entrance, Harry joined Shaw in pressing forward, moving further and further away from the rest of their troops. Now in the distance the two of them could see the Master Mold, and made for it, while over the sounds of battle a howling sort of shout could be heard, someone hysterically shouting at the Sentinels to protect him ,to kill the mutants.
Okay, so someone has really gone over the deep end, Harry thought, dodging behind a downed Sentinel, using it as cover from the attacks of several more. And it doesn't sound like Kelly, so it must be Trask. Does he fear mutants so much that even what Emma described is preferable? Scary.
Near the entrance way, several unfinished Sentinels on the gantry had come online. Some of them attacked down it while others leapt into the fray occurring on the ground below, shattering what little remaining organist ion Shaw's men had. Then they all spoke as one once more. "Sufficient data inputted, anti-magnetic shields activated."
Polaris gaped at a Sentinel that she had tried to tear apart only for only one of its arms to been torn off rather than all of its limbs. It's other hand came up, blasting away at her with the energy weapon embedded in its palm, and it was only Harry throwing up an energy shield in front of her that defended her. Even so, the green haired girl was slammed backwards, smashing her head against the far wall of the hangar knocking her out.
Harry's actions had not gone unnoticed, Trevor Fitzroy had seen it and he frowned, wondering if Sebastian knew about Harry's ability to create energy shields not just attacks. He also didn't like the way Harry's two compatriots and Sandman were staying by the doorway and outside rather than charging inside with the rest of them. They were still doing a lot of damage, Sandman in particular was keeping many of this Sentinels from closing the entrance to keep them from escaping if need be, and the two snipers were incredibly dangerous.
Yet they are not truly endangering themselves like the rest of us. Something to watch out for. Perhaps I should think of pulling back, this battle could go either way at this point. He did so, take up position on the right side of the gantry, laying down covering fire which broke the assault coming at them along the gantry.
By this point most of the regular troops were down. Only the Bruisers were able to take even a single blast from the Sentinels and keep moving, and were the only ones with heavy enough weapons to do anything against the Sentinels, while the other troops had been forced to aim for eyes or wait for a Sentinel to become damaged in some fashion before doing any harm.
Cat's-eye went down, her head sheared off by a backhanded slap from one of the Sentinels at the same moment Sunfire collapsed to the floor of the cavern, hit from several sides at once from eye blasts, though his power might have saved him from instant death, Harry couldn't tell. Thanks to her power Domino was still alive, but she was limping, her legs having taken some shrapnel from a construction robot she'd been using as cover blowing up from one of the energy blasts from a Sentinel. Havok had also fallen back, defending Polaris where she had fallen rather than pressing forward.
Hundreds of the Sentinels had fallen, but more and more were coming online to replace their losses.
It was time, Harry decided. While Wolfman was nowhere to be seen he saw Fitzroy, and Sebastian was too far in front of his remaining allies. He was tossing Sentinels around, smashing them apart with blows that hit like a punch from the Hulk, without a care in the world. Everything they tried to do to him only empowered Shaw further thanks to his mutant power and Harry had seen enough to decide what it was: the ability to transform any physical impact no matter how small into physical strength and durability.
Against the Sentinels it was obviously working very well, but against Harry and Emma? Worse, it had given Sebastian a sense of invincibility, and he had lost sight of the overall battle. No, it was better to strike now before the Sentinels could overwhelm the others and then focus solely on the newcomers. "Emma, call in Storm and the others. Then shut down Shaw, permanently."
Through their mental connection Harry felt Emma's happiness at the idea, her mental voice almost purring like a cat. "With pleasure Harry." Back on the plane, closed her eyes slightly, a wide vicious smile on her face.
Sebastian l frowned suddenly as a voice went off inside of his head. "Hello Sebastian and goodbye."
"GAHHHHH!" He cried out in agony his hands going up to his head as he shouted but by the time his hands touched his head, it was too late.
Emma's telepathic assault struck his mind with all the force of an atomic bomb. In mere milliseconds she ruthlessly shred his defenses which he had thought so strong so capable, before going on, ripping and tearing his brain apart with no thought as to being caught out at it. Which, as the last of his consciousness faded forever, Sebastian Shaw realized was the real reason Emma had never done it before. Not that Emma couldn't but that Emma had decided it wasn't worth being discovered doing so before this. That thought galled him like fire for the few more seconds remaining to the mind of the Black King, and then there was nothing.
A second later Shaw's body collapsed boneless to the ground, and Storm and the rest of the Custodes along with the X-Men blasted into the hangar bay. Storm hovered outside, her hands outstretched as she began to throw magical spells into the interior, alternating those attacks with some via her mutant power. Sentinels were picked up and thrown around like toys in the winds of a hurricane, others were blasted apart by magical spells or frozen solid by sudden drops in temperature, their armor cracking off allowing their innards to be seen for a moment before they too succumbed.
Of the X-men Cyclops barreled in first, his eye-beams blasting out at full power straight down the center of the hangar Bay. After blowing through the center of remaining troopers' location, his attack speared through several Sentinels at a time blowing them to pieces then he was beside his brother, nodding at him. "Hello Havok, we're going to have a long talk about keeping secrets brother."
Havok glanced up at him, blasting away at the Sentinels were trying to attack them. "Scott! What are you doing here, wait you're a mutant too?"
Cyclops frowned, realizing that the damage done to Alex's mind to make him join the Hellions was worse than Harry had thought, but having no time now to address that issue. "We'll talk later." He said aloud and then turned his attention to the rest of the battle. "Rogue get up there!" He said pointing to the left, "Spike join Colossus! Nightcrawler you're on rescue duty!"
Behind him Nightcrawler nodded from where he had been by the doorway, having just taken out a few of the stragglers from Sebastian's security teams. Colossus, Magma, and Spike charged straight down the center of the cavern, with Magma throwing small balls of magma at any Sentinel to either side of them while Colossus smashed into and through and robot in their way, his strength and durability allowing him to handle the Sentinels with the same ease Shaw had previously.
Spike had a harder time of it, though his bone armor allowed him to weather the Sentinel's energy blasts. His offense however also couldn't pierce the robot's armor, and he was forced to aim for the eyes or the energy collators in the Sentinel's hands instead. Still, Spike had trained in precision assaults like that, and did so fairly well, finishing off the last few troopers remaining on the hanger floor and taking out a few Sentinels.
While those three were pressing forward hard, smashing the Sentinels on the floor back and further back, Rogue had met up with Domino on the gantry to the left of the cavern. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and knowing that she had no weapon capable of taking Rogue on, Domino laid down cover fire for the girl, allowing her to charge forward.
By this point there were only about five Bruisers remaining from those security teams, all of them huddled around Fitzroy's position on the top of the gantry to the right of the entrance. Watching the newcomers and recognizing both teams, Trevor realized that Harry had performed a double cross, playing Shaw and possibly Emma for fools. Knowing the outcome of this battle could only be against him, he leaped down from his position, making his way toward the entranceway as unseen as he could. Behind him the last of the bruisers were cut down by Physlocke, who began to use her rifle in close to destroy the last of the construction droids and Sentinels along the gantry.
But to get out of the cavern Trevor had to brave the sandpit Sandman had created across its entrance. When he tried to fly above it Storm attacked, tornado winds and lightning raining down on top of him, driving the blonde man down into the sand. He stood there for a second, blasting away at Storm with his bio energy fueled attacks, which she blocked negligently with a magical shield. They worked much better however when Sandman attempted to attack him, blasting Sandman into pieces as he tried to form fists, hands or hammers to attack him.
With the last 50 or so Sentinels now in full retreat back towards the Master Mold, who was screaming out orders in an attempt to delay the inevitable, Storm could turn her full attention to Trevor. A spell lanced out, and unlike the electricity-based lightning bolts that had struck him before this spell didn't contain any energy he could turn to his own devices. The sleep spell hit him, causing him to fall to his knees, almost overwhelming him.
Only his hand resting upon a downed yet still alive trooper allowed him to retain his senses, the man's waning bio-energy surging through him like a shot of caffeine. "No, you'll not win so easily weather witch!" He blasted back with a bioenergy assault, but Storm moved out of the way.
"Perhaps not, but the outcome is the same." With that Storm levitated Trevor into the air with another spell before grimly slamming a full power cyclone's straight into his face. It was the same attack that had killed the Abomination, and it worked just as well on Trevor who came apart at the seams, blood and viscera spreading everywhere. Storm winced, shaking her head at the grisly death, but feeling little remorse at killing the man. While Harry and Emma had been busy, Dennis and Storm had looked up what they could of Freidrich Roehm and Fitzroy once they had their names, and both had been the worst sort of murderers and rapists long before they had come under Shaw's control, though both had kept their mutant powers secret up until now.
Glancing over the overall battle, Storm nodded at Scott twitching her head towards Havok and Domino, the only two members of the Hellions that were still on their feet. Scott nodded back, and Storm quickly cast sleep spells on both of them. Scott caught Havok in his arms, lowering him down to the ground gently next to Polaris, who he looked at interestedly. Judging by what Guardian passed on and how my brother was defending you miss, I think you and I should get to know one another in the future.
By this point Rogue had finished destroying the last few Sentinels on the gantry, joining the others on the cavern floor as they pressed the last few Sentinels back. With Spike and Rogue watching Colossus' back, Magma cut off to one side, heading down a corridor in one of the cavern's walls, heading to where Emma directed her towards where the telepath could sense human minds, though they weren't the prisoners.
These were the workers who had helped Trask develop the Sentinels, only to be captured by their own creations. Dozens of them had died through questioning from the Sentinels or through simple neglect, but even so, Emma took no chances. With Shaw now a husk, she entered each of their minds in turn, learning what she could of the Sentinels before erasing any information she found which dealt with their mysterious sensing ability.
Back in the main battle Colossus and Harry made their way towards the Master Mold, the Sentinel unable to come up with weapons that could stop the two of them now. Harry's crisis suit was at 80% power, and he dealt with all of the attacks coming his way easily. Colossus was a little burnt around the edges as was Rogue, but the juggernaut-based armor the two of them wore plus their natural durability had seen them through the brief but sharp fight relatively unscathed.
"You can only delay the inevitable!" the Master Mold shouted as his last Sentinel went down. "Our programs are infinite, someone will create us again, and logic will always prevail. Mutants will fall!"
"Not today I think." Colossus said, nodding over at Harry who picked him up with a levitation spell and hurled him up at the Master Mold's face. Colossus slammed into the face, gripping its eyes with his hands and ripping to either side, tearing the Master Mold's head in two as it screamed, almost like it was actually alive, before falling silent.
For a moment the battlefield fell quiet, the only sounds made from bits and pieces of destroyed Sentinels still sparking with electricity. Then Magma came back, idly throwing a small ball of tectonic energy in her hands, her energy form glowing slightly, while the former prisoners followed her, then raced out towards the entrance. After a nod from Harry Psylocke followed them, making certain they stuck around for now.
"I've sealed off that passage, and I've found a nearby stream of magma I can bring up. It shouldn't take too long to bury this place. Oh, and the White Queen says that those prisoners can be released." She leaned forward, whispering despite no one not on the team being within hearing range. "She already erased all the information they had on the Sentinel's tracking system, though according to her it wasn't much."
Harry nodded, powering down his crisis suit and breathing a sigh of relief as he felt all that magical energy flowing back into them. "Professor X?"
"Here." said Charles, surprisingly over near the slowly reforming Sandman by the entrance to the underground cavern. "Nightcrawler got me out a few moments ago. I've put the other three prisoners to sleep, until we decide what to do here."
"I think this will be another Guardian moment, but good thinking anyway." said Harry with a nod.
He looked over at Kelly, who Emma had knocked out at the same moment she ruined Sebastian Shaw's mind, and Trask who was unconscious as well though in his case it was because Harry had knocked out magically a few moments ago.
The man had been screaming the entire fight, ordering the Master Mold to do better, to defend him against the mutants. That kind of reaction was bizarre, and Harry wondered idly what had occurred to the man to make him fear mutants so much. In the end though it didn't matter, and he smiled thinly as he saw Emma walking towards him from the entrance way. "White Queen, well done on Sebastian."
"Thank you." She said with a nod. "With Fitzroy and Wolfman here, that only leaves Sage from Shaw's group, and I understand that she is on our side?"
"Yes, she's been working with me for years." said Charles nodding his head. "What kind of cleanup are we going to be doing here?"
Emma replied before Harry could. "The only thing that made the Sentinels more dangerous than any other robots was secrecy, their numbers, and their tracking system. That system was all Bolivar Trask's doing, and I'll be ripping that out of his mind soon enough. I also want to make certain that he doesn't have any copies anywhere else on any computers squirrelled away elsewhere. If so hunting those down will be up to Sage."
"Ripping?" Charles asked mildly.
"Yes Professor, I'm going to leave him a fucking vegetable." Emma replied tartly. "The man is too damn dangerous, and too rabid a mutant hater for my sense of mind."
Charles opened his mouth to protest, but Harry held up his hand. "Our operation Professor X, our rules. And for the record with I agree with White Queen. If we leave him alive, he'll probably try this same thing again, simply assuming it was some kind of mistake in the programming that allowed the Master Mold to go out of control like that. You didn't see him in the battle."
He looked over at Emma who nodded. "Before the fight he was as horrified of by the Master Mold's taking over as anyone, but the moment the fight began and he saw that mutants were attacking, that went out the window and he tried to shout orders and suggestion to the Master Mold after that. Mindless hate like that isn't something that's going to just go away."
After a moment Charles sighed. "I wish I could disagree. Very well, do what you must."
"Wolfman?" Harry asked, looking around as he suddenly realized he couldn't see the little bastard anywhere.
"Dead,' said Magma, having walked down the last corridor leading off the main hanger, pointing over her shoulder. "Down there somewhere. Professor X did something, he was attacking the walls and ceilings and everything else but Professor X when I arrived, and he kept on doing it even as, as…" Magma faltered a little looking away.
Harry nodded, putting an arm around the younger girl's shoulder in a commiserating hug before Colossus dropped from the Master Mold, moving away to let him take control of her. Killing someone in that manner, burning someone alive via magma, was not something anyone should ever get used to.
"When you're in his mind my queen," Harry went on, turning back to Bolivar and Emma who was kneeling in front of him. "See if he can pull up any of the information about the robot's construction as well, in particular the droids he used to actually make the Sentinels in the first place. Without the programming to hunt down mutants they might be useful in the future."
Emma nodded, while Charles frowned faintly, not at home with the idea of anyone controlling that kind of a force. Still, it was better that Harry and his team have that power than anyone else.
Storm had remained by the entrance, and she turned when she began to hear the noise of incoming planes. She looked down at Coyote and asked "Can you see what those planes are?"
"We have SHIELD incoming." Coyote said a moment later over the radio. "They must've figured out a way to track the Sentinels somehow."
"All right folks, let's get out of here. White Queen, finish your work on Trask, then leave him, is the plane we came in hidden enough to not worry about SHIELD spotting it?" Even as Emma nodded Harry went on. "Storm, grab the remaining Hellions, I'll take Shaw's body. I want to make certain there's no coming back for him from what The White Queen did to him, and I don't know if his body could survive what's going to happen here. Magma, close everything up behind us."
A moment later as the last of them left Magma opened up a fissure in the ground through which lava came up , slowly burning and burying the cavern under its searing pulsing heat. As the SHIELD ships came close enough for the naked eye to see Storm set the surviving workers and Robert Kelly down on the ground.
Kelly had been awake for most of the battle, and now Emma quickly went to work, modifying his memories slightly, winnowing away anything that could hint at the Custodes identity, and though leaving enough behind to allow the man to remember that he had been saved by the X-men, a band of mutants. She thought that was a last serving of delicious irony to the bombastic fool's day.
With that done, Coyote teleported to the plane they had arrived in, setting it to self-destruct. Then the team left Kelly and the others nearby, out of the way of the lava now flowing out of the hanger bay's open doors, but near enough that the arriving SHIELD agents would find them. With that done, Harry waited until the first ship touched down, waving slightly when he saw Fury personally leading a team of heavily armed agents out of the plane before teleporting everyone away.
Behind them, Fury glared at the disappearing group, then turned to stare at first the prisoners and then what had obviously been an underground base of some kind. Well, that's just fucking fantastic, no Sentinels in sight, the Custodes and the X-men disappearing, a former base spewing out lava, and Kelly, the other kidnap victims and some random people left behind without a clue as to what happened here. Why do I think I'm not going to get any of my questions about this day's business answered? And why do I think it might just be better that way?