Protect And Defend: The Sentinel attack mini-series

[pyro-by-nature.livejournal.com]

Make sure you read part one and two first:

Part Thre of Three


The Sentinel swayed precariously on its feet- its stability was still being attacked by Amara and Lance. Nori screamed and staggered backwards as one foot came dangerously close to stepping on her. She and Remy were trying to get to Rogue, who had been knocked unconscious by the overload.

“Go, get out of here before it falls!” Piotr yelled, running into the fray, heading for Rogue, his organic metal skin glinting with the reflections of Jubilee’s plasmoids. He punched the right foot when it came too close, leaving a huge, fist sized dent in the material. Remy grabbed Nori and they ran, waiting to see what Piotr had planned.

“Look out!” Nori screamed, as the giant’s right foot moved towards Rogue. She sat up and tried to roll out of the way, coming to the horrifying realisation that the machine knew she was underfoot, as was trying to step on her. Piotr ran and slid beneath the foot, grabbing hold of Rogue with one hand. She instantly imprinted him, painfully transforming her body into organic metal. With his free hand, Piotr punched upwards, smashing a hole into the underside of the monster's foot. The foot came down upon them with a sickening crunch- but it was the Sentinel that had made the sound. The weakened, melted underside of the foot now bore the uneven impression of two human figures, plus a massive gouge where Piotr had smashed his hand through.

“That gives me an idea,” Rouge said, still imprinted. She made a fist, and using the unbreakable organic metal body and super strength she now bore, she began to pummel the foot. Piotr leapt up and followed suit. Rogue then reached inside and began to tear at anything she could get her hands on.

“Hey, Lorna” she called. “I think I found what you were looking for…” she held up a handful of metal innards that had, until now, been carefully shielded inside the machine.

  

“Dat’s no way t’ treat a lady” Remy said, glaring up at the Sentinel with blazing red eyes. “Remy’s done wid de card tricks, and he’s gon’ teach you a less’n”

The Cajuns’ hands began to glow red, and he ran at the machine with an uncanny speed and grace. He leapt upon the smashed foot of the Sentinel, steadying himself briefly against the machine’s broad ankle, before reaching forward and grabbing the top of the foot. The air around him seemed to warp and crackle with red-tinged static, and a sharp, vibrating hum began to emit ominously from the foot.

“Stand back, amis!” He called. A second later the entire foot detonated with a blinding flash of crimson light. As the smoke cleared, Le Beau strode away from the maimed machine, eyes and hands still glowing, a look of grim satisfaction on his swarthy, handsome face.

“Dat” he said to Rogue “Is how we do on de Bayou”

Rogue grinned.

 

John was slowing down. He was dripping with sweat, his clothes soaked through. His arm, where the dart was still protruding, ached like mad, and he wasn’t packing as much punch with the flames.

“Stupid, stupid Legacy virus” he sighed. He was about ready for Bobby to take over.

The Sentinel was doing everything it could to stop the attack, but its attention was being drawn in far too many directions at once and its left foot had been superheated and glowed dangerously red.

“Okay, man. Your turn” John said, almost doubled over with exhaustion.

Bobby’s face was set into an expression of determined anger when he whooshed forward on his ice slide, and blasted the super hot foot with a solid wall of ice. Steam exploded off the foot, but Bobby gritted his teeth and pressed forward, heaping ice onto the extremity. His mouth was dry, and he could feel his icy armour beginning to evaporate from the strain.

Bobby could ‘see’ the wildly uneven patterning of hot and cold with his thermal vision as the material began to break down. He gave it one more shot of ice, waiting for the foot shatter from the stress.

“C’mon!” Amara urged, ready to see the pay off from her efforts. She had powered down, but still seemed to glow with energy in the low light.

“Maybe ye need me to sing it a lil song?” Theresa suggested, landing next to Bobby. She’d been airborne for most of the conflict, using sonic shockwaves to attack the machine.

“There’s a Guinness in it for you if you can blow the bastard’s foot clean off” John said weakly. Theresa grinned at him. Then she turned back to the machine, drew in a great breath, and directed a scream at the weakened foot. The frequency of the scream was so high no one present could even hear it, but the effect was instantaneous. The material of the foot began to vibrate immediately, and within a few seconds the whole external casing had shattered.

John and Amara stood back while she worked, throwing jets of flame and molten lava bombs at the machine’s head to distract it. Sweat was rolling down John’s back, and fingers of blackness closed in on his vision. He was swaying on his feet.

Theresa continued her assault, and pistons, gears and circuit within began to crumble like crackers. When she was finished the entire left foot had been reduced to little more than a stump.

“Sweet” John said, breaking off his flaming attack. Then he passed out cold.

“It’s your shout, then” Theresa said, turning to grin at John, only to find him slumped on the ground.

 

Warren arrived at the battle, his eyes going over the scene, taking in the position of his teammates and the damage to the Sentinel. Right beneath the creature was Lorna; she was busily tearing innards piece by piece from the monster’s legs. Warren noticed how the machine clanged and clanked awkwardly on its stumps, hardly able to move anymore. He took to the air and swept down to her.

“Hey Cupid” she said, her face set in a look of grim satisfaction.

Warren smiled. “I can’t believe you started the party without me!” he joked.

“Where’ve you been?”

“Helping rescue some children”

Lorna tore her eyes away from the task at hand just long enough to glance at him, smiling.

“Aww, are they okay?” Lorna asked.

“They will be. Looks like I got here just in time. Any longer and I would’ve missed out! So do you think my Danger Room tactic against the Hulk would work on this hunk o’ junk?”

“Worth a try” Lorna said, gritting her teeth as she tore a particularly large actuator from the machine’s leg.

Warren flew upwards, and began ducking and weaving around the Sentinel’s head, far too fast for the crippled machine to keep track of, but close enough to confuse it.

 

 Celeste tilted her head to the side.

“You really shouldn’t do that,” she said.

“Do what?” Meg asked, alarmed. “The kids are free, I’m just trying to find a way out of here for us!”

“I’m not talking to you” Celeste said.

Meg looked blankly at her. “Well… who are you talking to?”

“The missing children. The ones by the lake. They’re trying to get back up to the school.”

“No!” Meg cried. “Tell them to stay where they are! It’s not safe out in the open!”

“They’re frightened” Celeste told her.

“I know they are! But please, tell them to stay put! Tell them… tell them I’ll come get them!”

Celeste shook her head sadly. “They’re far too frightened to see reason. They’ve already started back.”

Meg swore enthusiastically in Welsh.

Celeste rolled her eyes “I may not speak your quaint language, but I understand what you mean”

Meg’s narrow shoulders heaved with emotion. “Stay here” she said crisply to Celeste.

“Where are you going?” Celeste demanded.

“I’m going after them!”

She ran back upstairs, bursting into the nearest room. She ran to the sash window and threw it open, then climbed out onto the ledge.

“Well, here goes nothing” she whispered, flying off the ledge.

She beat her wings furiously, speeding out across the grounds. The battle was raging to her left. She didn’t know exactly what was happening, but the other students seemed to be giving the machine a run for its money. Then, for the first time, she caught sight of the Sentinel. Her heart seemed to stop beating for a moment, and dropped into her feet. She’d never seen a real one this close before, but the mere sight of it stuck terror into her heart. Meg drew in a deep breath and tore her eyes from the terrifying spectacle. She began looking for movement between Breakstone Lake and the mansion. She moved closer, and after a moment she could just pick out four small figures moving the low light. She flew closer, and then out of the corner or her eyes she saw something.

The Sentinel had spotted the children, too.

It had begun to swivel its upper section towards the lake, raising its hand in the children’s direction. Meg looked over at the other students who were engaging the machine- from their various positions they almost certainly couldn’t see the Sentinel’s new targets, and Meg had no way of letting them know what was going on.

There was only one thing she could do.

“Hey!” she screamed, flying hard at the monster. She got right up in its face, shaking a fist in anger. “'ch dadogi ydy a Beta 'n fideo chofiadur a 'ch fam was a 'n rhydlyd bibo!” she swore in Welsh.

The she made a terrible mistake. She looked down. She was thirty feet in the air.

She had no idea how she’d flown so high….

 

What’s it doing?” Jono called.

“It’s… it’s seen something. Near the lake?” Tabby said, gesturing to the Sentinel.

“Wait! Meg! What are you doing?!” Piotr called.

Jono looked up to see the pink-haired little Welsh girl going straight at the Sentinel’s head, screaming something unintelligible.

“What the hell is she doing?” Julian yelled.

“Meg, no” Jono whispered.

 

Meg had stopped mid-air, and was looking down at the ground, an expression of shock on her face. She didn’t see the Sentinel move its hand towards her.

“Meg!” Rogue screamed, “Look out!”

 

Meg froze, her eyes wide as she stared down the laser-emitting point on the Sentinel's palm. A light flared from inside the weapon.

Meg closed her eyes and screamed.

 

There was a great pulse of light, a flash, and then nothing but empty space where Meg had been. Time seemed to stop for all the other students who had witnessed the incident, and they gaped wordlessly at that patch of empty air.

Rogue felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and energy crackled in the air behind her. She turned around to see Jono; the chamber of psionic energy in his chest seemed to be engulfing him, the burst of energy he had let out was enough to take apart his jaw and chest- just as it had the first time he used his power. His face was nearly obscured by the field, but from what little Rogue could, his features were transformed. Bathed in the hard light, his face seemed almost demonic.

 

Jonothan Starsmore was mad as hell.

Rage consumed him in a way it never had before. And he let it. He let it fill him completely, until the chamber of energy in his chest felt like a cannon, primed and ready to explode. He rose easily into the air, and came to eye level with the monster

“I’ve had quite enough of your rubbish, mate” he said.

 Its hand was still raised in the position it had been when it had hit Meg-

“Jono! Are you fuckin crazy!” Julian yelled at him.

The Sentinel locked onto him, and began to move its offending hand towards him.

Jono clenched his fists, drew back his shoulders and unleashed hell upon the Sentinel.

Golden energy engulfed the entire arm, and Jono himself seemed to glow. Then with a great flash and boom! the arm exploded into a million microscopic fragments. Smoke and powdered debris filled the air, and for the second time in a minute everyone watching was struck dumb with shock.

Jono hovered in the air by the crippled machine, ready to unleash a second burst. But his body wasn’t quite ready to co-operate. He looked down at his chest, which now seemed to smoulder feebly.

Bloody hell he thought, as he began to tumble downwards.

  

He felt a strong pair of hands catch him under the arms, and heard an “oof!” of effort as Warren laboured against gravity. Fingers of blackness were closing in on his vision as his winged friend flew him towards the ground.

“Great work, man. But what in the name of god were you thinking, going up there like that?” Warren demanded.

“Let me back down,” Jono said weakly, struggling against Warren's grasp.

"She's gone, Jono. There's nothing you can do - get some rest, okay? We can't lose any more of us."

Suddenly this fired up Jono again. "She's not gone. Don't you say that!"

"Jono! Calm down! What do you think you're going to do, huh?"  

Jono wriggled himself free of Warren and broke his own fall by boosting himself with his powers. He stayed levitated beside Warren, who was flapping powerfully with his wings. "I'll go find her, War. You'll see. She's not gone."

 

Warren looked up from his friend to see Kitty running towards him.

“I think I know how to end this” Kitty said. “But I need your help”

She quickly explained her idea to Warren, whose eyes went wide with concern.
”Are you sure?” Warren asked.

Kitty nodded. “I just wish I’d thought of it earlier.”

“All right then” Warren said. He scooped Kitty into his arms and pushed off from the ground.

“Get me as close to it as you can” Kitty said, the wind whipping through her hair.

“The top of the head, right?” Warren confirmed. Kitty nodded. Warren smiled at her, closing in on their target.

Below them, Bobby was busy on his ice slide. He was systematically spearing the remaining arm through with ice darts, trying to incapacitate it. Piotr was perched on the monster’s shoulder, pounding at the side of its head with his metal fists. Ali and Keller swept through the air, alternatively distracting and confusing the nearly blind machine.

“Thank you for flying Worthington Air. We hope you enjoyed your trip with us today.” Warren said cordially to the girl cradled in his arms.

Kitty giggled and looked down. “Now!” she cried.

“Bombs away!” Warren said, and dropped her right on top of the Sentinel. He banked hard to his left, his eyes staying on Kitty as she disappeared into to machine.

He didn’t even see the blast coming.

 

“Warren!” Ali screamed, seeing what was about to happen.

The Sentinel’s arm, though weighted down with ice, still had enough manoeuvrability for the machine to swat at the gnat that had been bothering it. Warren banked as hard as he could, but couldn’t get out of the way in time.

The blast clipped his left wing. White-hot fingers of agony shot into his body, and he yelled in surprise and pain, his face splattered with his own blood. His vision clouded immediately, and he began to drop like a stone.

There was an awful stench of burned feathers in the air. Julian broke away from the machine, catching the unconscious angel with his TK. He lowered him gently to the ground.

“Mother. Fucker!” Ali screamed. She turned back to the Sentinel, her eyes blazing. Blood pounded in her ears and the rest of the world just faded away as she came to bear on her target.

She focused completely on blinding the Sentinel, and then she thought, I’m going to take it apart with my bare hands.

She didn’t see the machine make one more shuddering twitch, moving its hand in her direction. From his position on the machine’s shoulder, Piotr did. He swore in Russian, and dove from the machine, catching Ali around the middle just as the beam hit. Ali’s expletive of shock dissolved into an “ugh!” as Piotr’s huge organic steel arms closed protectively around her. He took the full brunt of the blast on his massive back, but Ali felt the searing heat of the laser all around them. And then suddenly they were falling.

“Julian!” she called weakly, winded and concussed, but the telekinetic was still busy on the ground, tending to the fallen angel. She reached out with her powers, trying to gain purchase, to do anything that would cushion their impending impact. She looked up into Piotr’s face- he’d been knocked unconscious, his metal exoskeleton reverting to flesh.

“Ah, crap” Ali said, just as they hit.

 

Meg was screaming.

She broke off suddenly, and stood in relative quite, not moving at all. Then she vomited quiet enthusiastically into the lake.

The lake? She thought.

Her senses seemed to catch up with her. She was breathing shallowly, her heart pounding in her chest. When she turned slightly, towards the mansion, she realised she could hear the battle still raging.

“Oh my god!” she cried in Welsh. “The children!” She turned to run back towards the mansion, but as soon as she moved nausea hit her again, and she dry heaved. She stood doubled over, trying to assess the situation.

“How the hell did I get here?” she wondered aloud. “What happened to me?”

Somewhere from back towards the mansion, Meg heard a terrible scream. She stood up again, drawing in a deep, steadying breath. “Right. I’ll figure it all out later. Maybe” she hurried off to join the fray again.

 

Kitty only partially phased as she sank into the Sentinel. She reached out, grabbing, ripping, tearing every piece of circuitry she could get her hands on. She didn’t fall smoothly- and staying substantial in order to do damage was taking toll on her body. She was being cut to pieces, snagged on wiring, caught on mechanical innards as she went. She kicked and twisted, disrupting energy signals and overloading circuits.

 

Finally she dropped free of the machine. She was standing between its crippled legs, and looked upwards at it.

“Eugh- it pooped me out!” she said to herself.

The cold night air made the multitude of cuts on her face, hands and body sear with discomfort, and she was very aware of the blood trickling down her back and legs.

 

All around her the fight raged on, though it was increasingly obvious that the machine was finished. Tabby and Jubilee continued to bombard it; Remy was out of playing cards and had taken to charging and hurling rocks; Bobby had finally weighted down the machine’s remaining hand enough to bind it to its side with ice.

 

The Sentinel was malfunctioning- sparks flew, joints groaned ominously. Whatever Kitty had done to it was clearly the final straw- it simply no longer worked. It shuddered to a stop.

At its feet, and in the air, everyone held their breath.

Slowly, it began to topple over….

Right towards the school….

 

Keller touched down, and Rogue rushed to his side, firmly taking his hand. They reached up together, using every last bit of power they had, combined, to hold the damn thing up.

With excruciating slowness, it stopped falling, mere centimetres from the roof. Keller was so exhausted he couldn’t even manage a smart-ass comment. He glanced over at Rogue. She was smiling, looking relieved and astonished, and he followed her eye line.  Standing on the edge of the roof was Piotr, armoured up again. He was reaching up, helping them to hold the dead machine.

 

Bobby came rushing up behind them, his eyes glazed and his face pale as he built ice struts under the machine as fast as he could.

 

Rogue broke off from Julian, swaying unsteadily on her feet.

“All right, sugah?” she asked him weakly.

Julian swallowed. His heart was hammering in his chest. Blood dribbled freely from his nose. His shoulders and back ached like he’d gone ten rounds with a prize-fighter.

He nodded, just managing a smile, and then he passed out.

 

Bobby could finally stop. His mouth was almost painfully dry. He stood with his hands on his legs, doubled over from exhaustion. His shoulders heaved as he struggled to flood his dry lungs with cool, fresh air.

There was a noise and a commotion from behind him, and wearily he turned to see the senior team members standing in a group at the side of a mansion.

 

The look on their faces was so priceless he found himself desperately wishing he had a camera on him. Logan looked satisfied, almost proud; Kurt openly horrified; Ororo shocked and angry; Hank mournful; Emma pleasantly surprised and Scott was shaking his head in disbelief, his eyes unreadable behind his ruby quartz visor.

Bobby sighed and turned back to the scene of the crime.

He wasn’t looking forward to writing up this report…. 

 
The End