We arrived at the X-Mansion in twenty minutes to find much of the Mansion destroyed. A gaping hole was torn into the East Wing, with the ceiling collapsed partially onto the study hall, leaving the parlor exposed to the open air. Several fires were burning on the grounds, including a large conflagration that engulfed the hedge maze. The double doors of the main entrance had been blown off their hinges as if by a great force, and looking inside I could see that the entry hall was completely wrecked, with broken furniture and demolished interior walls. The fight had clearly ranged all over the grounds, judging from the damage not just to the mansion, but also the various outbuildings and structures. There were also clearly casualties.
Leaning up against a broken statue was the still form of Sabra, beaten and bloodied. Sabra was an incredibly powerful mutant, she'd once held her own against the Hulk. She was also incredibly well-trained, being a Mossad Agent sent to assess the situation in the US by Mossad to see if they were dealing with a potential second Holocaust. Not only was she in the fifty-ton category for strength, with commensurate speed and durability, but she also had a limited healing factor and was able to transfer life energy to and from herself and others. She also was highly trained in Krav Maga, Firearms handling, Espionage, Stealth, and Small Unit Tactics. If she'd been flattened by whatever had hit the mansion, we were in trouble.
I bent down to check on her, checking for breathing rather than a pulse, since the last thing I needed was for her to wake up in a panic and begin draining life force from me on reflex. She'd give it back as soon as realized what was going on, but for someone who utilized Chi as one of his primary tools, I was extremely wary of any amount of time with diminished reserves while still on a battlefield.
"Who's that?" Questioned Husk as I checked on Sabra.
"Sabra. A mutant working for Mossad. I'm going to try reviving her. One moment." I responded,
"Whatever you're going to try, do it quickly. The Fight is still going on down below, I can sense it. If we want to have any chance at arriving in time to save whoever's left we'll need to move quickly." Ordered Emma.
"This will only take a second." I promised, reaching into my bag of holding and pulling out a stoppered red vial.
I uncorked it, put the mouth to Sabra's lips, and pinched her nose shut while tilting the vial upward. The Unconscious Mutant swallowed on reflex and the healing potion went to work immediately. It wasn't the highest grade ever, since I couldn't make that at my level, but I had a hunch that any healing potion would kickstart Sabra's regeneration. My hunch panned out as within moments, Sabra bolted upright, back in the land of the living and looking about wildly for potential enemies, even as her bruises and cuts faded away as her regeneration took care of the most immediate problems.
"Easy, we're the reinforcements." I said, holding my hands up in a placating gesture.
"Reinforcements? For who?" Queried Sabra.
"If we were the reinforcements for the Government, you wouldn't be awake right now. You're welcome by the way." I snarked.
"Right, there isn't a lot of time. Jono led the young ones out into the Morlock Tunnels when the fighting started, but the Techno-Organic Golem your government created was too strong for me. Sam and Bobby were with me, but I don't see them here, which means they must have retreated further into the Mansion. Hank put out a call for help to Rogue, Psylocke, and several others, but I have no idea if they even received it!" Insisted Sabra.
"That sounds like our cue." Grinned Jubilee.
"Quite right. Let's head in." Agreed Emma.
As we headed into the Mansion, it was easy to figure out where we needed to go. All we had to do was follow the trail of destruction. Past the demolished robotic guard statues guarding the front doors, through the destroyed staircase, past the empty elevator shaft, and through the wrecked formal sitting room. Out of the sitting room, we took a right past the broken remnants of a transport tube and through the razed portrait gallery, part of which was currently on fire, necessitating a mystical shield be conjured to avoid flames. We entered into a ruined library and past that into the day room where a functional transport tube lay.
All around us as we went, we saw broken furnishings, smashed masonry, fire, ice, and blood. No bodies yet, but I wasn't holding out much hope that anyone in the sub-basement levels would be in any way fresh and ready to keep fighting. Not with how much blood I spotted. That much blood meant that some serious wounds had been taken in the fighting. I got into the transport tube first, hit the switch, and was immediately teleported down to the first sub-basement to see a sight that definitely hadn't been in the canon event. I remembered the X-Mansion being stormed by regular Prime Sentinels plus Bastion in the Canon Timeline. That wasn't what was happening here, though.
Hank McCoy was laid out on a Surgery Table in the med bay being worked on by Doc Reyes, the Mutant Trauma Doctor who had been at the Mansion during this period. Beast had part of his right arm turning metallic thanks to being stung by Sentinel Transformation Nanobots. The only thing keeping Doc Reyes operating on him and stalling the Sentinelization Process were the battered, broken, but still fighting, forms of Cannonball and Iceman. Cannonball was bleeding from a dozen wounds and scorched raw in places by energy discharge, while Iceman had his right arm shattered off by sheer force and was keeping in the fight by abusing his Ice Form.
Facing them both, looking barely even scratched, was the metallic, red, white, and black form of Karima Shapandar, the Omega Sentinel. That wasn't supposed to be right, though. The Omega Sentinel Project should be shelved until Bastion somehow came into possession of Technarchy Nanogear which made it viable. That should have taken at least a few more years to happen, and Karima should have been able to resist the programming and retain enough of her personality to not be Bastion's Tool. Something had happened, not only to give Bastion the technology to advance the Omega Sentinel Project but also to speed Karima's transformation to the point where she couldn't resist the programming.
That could only mean one thing, somehow, someone had fucked about with time and given Bastion the tech he needed. Unfortunately, my entrance onto the scene meant that I didn't have much in the way of time to ponder on the implications of that. Omega Sentinel turned its head to look at me and began scanning me.
"Unknown threat detected. Engaging." It intoned unfolding a massive plasma cannon out of one arm and firing it at me.
Immediately I put up a mystic shield, however, I was forced to use the split second that bought me to throw myself into a dodge rather than try to counterattack because my shield buckled almost instantly under the wash of high-energy plasma. I struck back with an Amber Spear, throwing the conjured Ghur energy at the Omega Sentinel only for a metallic shield to fold out of its other arm and allow it to easily bat the mystical javelin aside. It responded with a second plasma beam that I was forced to dodge, only succeeding thanks to an Aeromantic assist allowing me to leap over the beam, which melted a hole through the super-tech alloy of the wall into the Gymnasium.
"Threat Classified as Mystical in Nature. Priority termination recommended." Stated the Omega Sentinel, unfolding an electrified spike out of nowhere.
"I don't think so!" I spat.
I pulled my Wan-Shen out of my bag of holding and drew upon the force to utilize a Matukai Defensive Parry, striking out with my Wan-Shen at the exact moment that the Omega Sentinel struck out with its spike. The simultaneous attack and parry interrupted the Omega Sentinel's attack as force-forged, mystically enhanced, Valyrian Steel met Adamantium Nano-Composite and rebounded off it. The Omega Sentinel was quick to recover, snapping out a kick that smashed into my torso and blasted me through the hole in the wall and into the Gymnasium, where I landed on a pile of barbells, sending them scattering over the floor. The force of the blow had enough power to snap one of my ribs and crack two others and I tasted blood and bile in my mouth. Alakhestry revealed that the damned thing had ruptured my Gallbladder.
I'd be dead in minutes if I didn't do anything. Fortunately, I had stocked up on healing potions and proceeded to down several of them in the space of a minute, the accumulated effects healing my busted ribs and ruptured gallbladder. As I shoved myself up off the floor, I made a mental note not to get into melee range again. I only had so many healing potions made up, after all. The damn thing hit like a truck, easily in the seventy-five-ton range and well above what I could currently handle. I stepped back out through the hole into the main area of the first sub-basement level to find that Emma was using her Brillstone Amulet to fight evenly with the Omega Sentinel. The Amulet wouldn't last long under that rate of use, though. Thankfully, Jubilee came down next and began firing at the Omega Sentinel using the Fireshrieker I'd made her as a conduit for her plasmatic blasts.
That bought Emma some breathing room, as the Omega Sentinel was blown sideways by the tiny, directed, nuclear explosions that were the primary form of Jubilee's powers at close to her full capacity. The Omega Sentinel's shield folded out of its arm and took the hits, glowing cherry red as the nuclear heat of the sun contained within such a tiny blast was almost enough to melt through the adamantium of the shield. Almost being the operative word, though if this were Jubilee from a few years into the future, I'd be willing to bet that it absolutely would have. As it was, though, the Omega Sentinel unfolded a kinetic impact projector cannon from its right shoulder and fired over the shield rim at Jubilee. Thinking quickly, I moved to push Jubilee out of the way of the blast, Conjuring a mystic shield as I did so that shattered on impact but slowed the blow enough for me to flatten myself against the floor and avoid it.
As I stood, the Omega Sentinel regarded me and intoned, "Calculated Force insufficient to kill Mystical Threat, engaging new calculation."
Both of its arms unfolded out into plasma cannons and then merged into one, larger, more deadly plasma cannon that then fired a beach ball-sized burst of extremely dense high-energy plasma at me. I couldn't block it or parry it aside, my only option was to dodge hastily. I threw myself to the side frantically, moving out of the way of the ball of plasma just in time for it to pass by me, melt through two walls, and bore its way through the rock beyond for a good twenty yards before detonating in a blast that washed pure killing fire back up out of the hole and shook the very foundations of the X-Mansion. Paige was deposited into the sub-basement just in time for the explosion to rock the sub-basement enough to render the Transport Tube System offline, trapping her down here with the rest of us.
"That thing's gonna bring the damn mansion down on us!" Exclaimed Jubilee.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Scowled Emma as she renewed her assault on the Omega Sentinel.
"Mutant Threat Identified, Emma Frost, Psionic. Deploying Countermeasures." Rumbled the Omega Sentinel even as it was blasted backward through another wall by Sheer Telekinetic Force.
As it flew backward, however, a Saucer-shaped grenade flew out of the Omega Sentinel's chest cavity, erupting into an explosion of purple-colored bolts on nearing Emma. The bolts all homed in on Emma and struck her, forcing her to cry out as she was wracked with pain. I knew what that was, it was a Psi-Bomb. That was Shi'ar technology they used for dealing with enemy psychics. The Technarchy equipment whoever had mucked with time to give Bastion a leg-up on the Omega Sentinel project was one thing, but he'd been given Shi'ar tech too? Who the hell was his time-traveling backer? And how did they get all this tech?
It didn't matter, as Emma went down, we only had one option. We needed to run. First things first, I handed Jubilee a Purgative Potion that was supposed to deal with all infestations, diseases, toxins, and rots and told her to give it to Beast. It should be able to take care of the nanites. I then gave Paige four healing potions and told her to give two each to Iceman and Cannonball.
"What are you gonna do?" Asked Paige.
"I'm gonna do the best I can." I said as the Omega Sentinel entered through the hole in the wall.
"What?" Demanded Paige, confused.
Instead of answering her, I engaged the Omega Sentinel, trying to buy time so that Jubilee and Paige could get everyone up and ready to move. We'd only have one shot at this and it had to be flawless or we were all screwed. I blasted the Omega Sentinel back through the hole in the wall with a Phonomantic blast, the sonic attack smashing into it as it climbed through and blasting it back into the other room. As it moved to climb out once more, I hit it with another, and another, just trying to stall for time more than do any actual damage. After the third time, Jubilee had managed to get to Hank, and Doc Reyes was administering the potion to him via IV Injection. That was when the Omega Sentinel stopped screwing around and destroyed the rest of the wall, ensuring it had any number of paths back into the main room.
Instead of hitting it with Phonomancy again, this time, I coalesced a series of tendrils of water out of the moisture in the air with Hydromancy and lashed them around the Omega Sentinel's arms and legs, rooting it in place while I hit it with as much magical power as I could in the precious moments that bought me before the Omega Sentinel dispersed the tendrils by main strength. Blasts of Phonomancy, Bolts of Pyromancy, Icicles, Aeromantic Wind Blades, Amber Spears, Telekinetic Strikes, literally everything I could throw at it to try and pin it down and buy time. It was even doing damage, chipping away at the Omega Sentinel briefly before it dispersed the tendrils, unfolded its shield to ward off a trio of icicle strikes, and charged into me, smashing me aside with a powerful bash of its Adamantium Shield that broke more ribs, ruptured my spleen, and collapsed a lung.
"Prior calculations indicate that should be enough force to terminate Mystical Threat. Employing redundancy strategy to eliminate potential errors." Intoned the Omega Sentinel.
"Get away from him!" Snarled Jubilee as she hit the Omega Sentinel with enough Plasmatic Force channeled through her Fireshrieker to smash it back away from me, making the armor glow cherry red in the process from heat.
That bought me enough time to down four more of my healing potions one after the other in rapid succession while Jubilee distracted the Omega Sentinel. As my wounds knit back together, I rushed to Emma, feeding her the last of my stockpiled healing potions to get her back up and ready to run. Paige had gotten Iceman and Cannonball up and ready while Doc Reyes got Beast ready to run as well, everyone was gathered near the tunnel entrance to the Hangar as Jubilee kept smashing back the Omega Sentinel with her powers. Emma, now free of the aftereffects of the Psi-Bomb, telepathically contacted Sabra, M, Penance, and Husk and had them get to the Generation X Blackbird and head to my Island using the coordinates in the flight computer. We'd be taking the X-Men's Blackbird ourselves and would meet them there.
Finally, Jubilee fell back panting and the Omega Sentinel got back up, battered, a bit dented, but still very much willing and able to kill us all. It was honestly like fighting a damned Terminator and not in a cool way. As it stalked forward, ready to end us, I turned and nodded to the others. We fell back into the Hangar Tunnel while I utilized my magic to literally close the tunnel by bringing the roof down on the tunnel opening, sealing the Omega Sentinel off from us with a telekinetic and Geomantic assault on the roof of the tunnel entrance. It collapsed just in time to block the Omega Sentinel off from killing the rest of us.
"We should run now, I don't believe for a second that will hold it for long." I insisted.
I proved to be right on the money on that count, as, by the time we were taking off from the now-empty ruins of the X-Mansion, I could spot the Omega Sentinel just making its way up out onto the grounds. With one last surge of mystical effort, I drew upon my Holomantic abilities to weave a spell that bent the light around the Blackbird, shrouding us in invisibility for just long enough that the Omega Sentinel couldn't tail us. The effort of doing so, on top of the recent spate of high-intensity combat finally exhausted me and I slumped into the crash seat, drifting off to sleep as we flew off toward my Island. I would wake up hours later, having been carried to bed by Sabra, safe for the moment. For the time being, we could plan, re-equip, train, and hopefully, figure out who had mucked about with time to make things worse this time around.
The answer wouldn't be found until forty-eight hours later when I received a midnight visit from the Beyonder in my dreams. . .
XXXX
AN: So yeah somebody mucked with the timeline and this version of Operation: Zero Tolerance has just switched to Hard Mode. Karima Shapandar AKA the Omega Sentinel shouldn't be a thing yet and even if she is, should still have her mind and personality more or less intact. Instead, we have a mysterious time traveler who hates mutants and gave Bastion not just the Technology to complete the Omega Sentinel Project, but do it in such a way that it's far more dangerous and that Karima couldn't resist the programming. There is no Karima Shapandar left in there, it's literally just an Omega Sentinel version of the T-eight-hundred now. It's honestly a miracle that they even managed to get away with everyone more or less intact and sane.
At any rate, the next chapter will have the Beyonder give Jan a peak behind the curtain for exceeding his expectations as regards to the attack, and we'll get a bit of a Villain POV as well in there.
Stay tuned. . .48