(no subject)

[kanedax]

See Previous Chapters Here

Title: The New Mutants II, Volume XXII: Prison Break
Author: kanedax
Fandom: X-Men movieverse, plus other Marvel 'verses
Spoilers: X3; The New Mutants I & II
Rating: R for violence, gore, and language
Summary: The X-Men and their new colleagues make a final assault on the Baxter Building, and one teammate falls in the process.
Notes: Almost over.  Might be done by tomorrow night, depending on this snowstorm.  As usual, I don't own em

Previous Chapter (The Build-Up) / Next Chapter (A New Beginning)

“Big building.”

“That it is,” Susan Richards said to Peter Parker as the group of six stared up the side of the Baxter Building.

“Shouldn’t there be some big gaping hole somewhere?” he asked. “I mean, how did Banner escape?”

“Banner wasn’t being held here,” said Susan. “He was in another Stark-owned facility a few miles away.”

Peter Rasputin looked around the alley in which he stood with what was being called the Upstairs Team. “Where are the others?” he asked nervously. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

“They’ll be here,” said Ororo. “They have to be a little more covert than we are. We don’t have anyone who could stick out in a crowd.” As she said this, she toyed with her once silver-white hair, now dyed brown. She had decided that, for this mission, silver hair would draw attention. “Jono doesn’t have that luxury,” she continued.

“They did a good job wrapping him up before we left,” said Theresa. “I wouldn’t worry about him.”

“Come on, guys, we’re on a mission,” said Jones, rolling the metal object in his hand. “It’s Chamber, not Jono. Anyway, maybe they just couldn’t find a place to park.”

“Maybe,” said Ororo. They had found a tunnel in Magneto’s lair that linked up with an underground garage on the mainland. They weren’t too surprised when they saw it, or the cars, motorcycles, and SUVs parked within. Like Forge had said, you can’t really travel by illegal government helicopter all of the time. The two teams had traveled into New York City separately, and planned to converge on this spot.

Poof. “We’re here.” Poof.

The six members of the Upstairs Team jumped and spun around to see Jono and Remy standing behind them, still looking slightly disoriented. Jono was wrapped up tightly, a trench coat covering his glowing chest up to his neck, a scarf doing the rest.

“Rogue?” Jones asked them.

Remy pointed to the sky. “Logan wanted to go rooftop to rooftop to keep us from being seen.”

Jones gasped. “Not Logan. Wolverine. Wolverine!”

Ororo shook her head and looked up, where she saw three heads silhouetted against the night sky. “Man has some ninja in him.”

Poof. “That’s everybody,” Rogue said, her gloved hands on Logan and Reed’s shoulders.

“Do they have codenames yet?” Jones asked, pointing to Reed and Susan.

“Yeah, we do,” said Reed, annoyed. “I’m Reed, she’s Susan.”

“Ah, ppht, not good enough,” said Jones anxiously. “She’s Mrs. Glass, and you’re Stretchy.”

“Those would be great,” said Theresa, “if they didn’t absolutely suck.”

“Our project codenames were Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman,” said Reed. “They don’t exactly roll off the tongue. I’m Reed, she’s Susan, deal with it.”

“Everyone have their roles straight?” asked Ororo. “Logan?”

“Wolverine,” Jones whispered, and received the eye from Ororo.

“We all blast in as hard and fast as we can,” said Logan. “Elevator down if we can, stairs if we can’t. If stairs won’t work, Rogue phases me and Richards down to the basement, and Remy and Jono go with you guys.”

Jones cleared his throat.

“Sorry,” said Logan wearily, “Gambit and Chamber go with you guys.”

“As annoyingly as he’s putting it,” said Ororo, “Jones has a point. Mission’s on, codenames on. Especially now that we have two Peters on a team, as well as a Storm and a Strom.”

“Glitch says ‘thank you’,” Jones replied.

“Blasting in is okay?” asked Theresa. “I mean, shouldn’t we be a little sneakier?”

“They’ll be expecting us either way,” said Reed. “There’s enough security on this place that we’ll be seen whether we’re sneaky or not. If we blast right in, that won’t give them enough time to react.”

“Besides,” said Susan, “This place runs twenty four seven. If we blast in, we’ll have enough people lolling around that it might throw the guards off for a few minutes.”

“There’s going to be people in there that aren’t guards?” asked Peter. “Isn’t blasting a bad idea?”

“It’s figurative blasting,” said Ororo. “Everyone ready?”

Remy grabbed Theresa’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Good luck, cher.”

Theresa kissed him on the cheek. “Stay safe.”

“Anyone else feel the need to say goodbye to loved ones?” said Logan sarcastically.

Peter and Rogue exchanged a glance, and then looked away. Susan and Reed exchanged a brief hug.

“Jeez, I was being sarcastic,” Logan said. “Let’s not get all soapy here.”

“Rogue, are you ready?” Ororo asked. Rogue nodded in reply, and Logan and Reed put their hands on her shoulder.

“Susan,” Ororo continued. “Shields up?”

Susan lifted her hands, and they watched as the air between them and the building shimmered. “Shields up.”

“Elevators are straight ahead,” said Reed as Logan’s claws popped. “Once you’re in, keep moving. Hopefully we can get to them before they’re shut down.”

“Upstairs team move on my mark,” Ororo said. “Gambit and Chamber follow behind. Rogue, after you’ve opened up our path, and can see inside, teleport in.”

“Stop over-explainin’, Storm,” Rogue said, a touch of no-nonsense Logan coming out in her voice.

Ororo nodded, and turned to look across the street. “On three. One, two, three!”

Susan and Ororo ran forward, Susan’s shield leading the way, followed closely behind by the remaining members of the teams. When they were halfway across the street, Rogue raised her hands, catching the glass and metal doors with her magnetic power and pulling them off their hinges. The group entered the open doorway as the doors fell to the sidewalk with the crash of glass, and Rogue, Logan, and Reed vanished from the spot in a black cloud. They appeared in the Baxter Building lobby with the others, only to find themselves surrounded by…

A dark, empty lobby.

“I thought you said this place was supposed to be running IHOP hours?” said Parker.

“I sent everyone home for the night,” came a voice from the lobby’s security desk. The group turned to see Tony Stark sitting in the chair normally filled by a security guard. His metal-covered legs were thrown casually up onto the desk. “Figured it’d be safer if our best and brightest weren’t around to get hurt. Oh, and I wouldn’t try going for the elevators. They’re shut down.”

“You’re expecting people to get hurt?” asked Parker.

“Oh, I’m counting on it,” said Tony. “Do you have any idea how big of a favor those two did me by going turncoat? They saved me the trouble of having to manipulate them into becoming the enemy.”

“How do you mean?” asked Reed.

“Oh, you know how it is,” said Tony, standing up. “Give people back that old-fashioned fear of mutants after Radio City. Plant that little seed of doubt in the public’s minds about good old Project Defender when one of their own goes nuts and tears up half of downtown. Thankfully, you two had that change of heart. Saved me weeks of trying to come up with some other convoluted scheme to make Reed and Susan Richards look like the bad guy, while I come out smelling like a dozen roses.”

“Convoluted scheme?” asked Susan. “This has all been a setup? Radio City? Banner?”

“Well, Radio City wasn’t so much a setup as it was taking advantage of an opportunity,” said Tony. “But, Banner… Of course it was a set up. Do you think I would have let that psychotic lunatic live after what happened at Radio City if I didn’t need him around for something else?”

“Why?” Ororo Munroe asked, putting her hand on Jones’ shoulder. He flinched as she did so, and looked up at her, doubt and panic in his eyes. She looked down at him, and he nodded, his eyes turning to the ground. “Why would you betray your team like that? Why would you let a monster like that loose in the city, knowing the danger you were releasing?”

Tony looked up at the ceiling and scoffed. Ororo could tell that he was rolling his eyes beneath his mask. “Geez, I feel like a Bond villain here,” he said. “But, why not? Bruce is dead, but Reed and Suze should at least hear. I owe them that much. Unlike Stryker, I’ve never been much of a fan of Project Defender. It was flawed from the beginning. Don’t misunderstand me, I love the idea that you can go in and deactivate a mutant’s powers permanently. But activating the X-Gene in a normal human allows too much trial and error. Too many useless or uncontrollable powers, too many flaws in the human brain that can lead them to noble or criminal actions with their new abilities.

“Unfortunately, Weapon X didn’t agree with my view. They insisted on putting most of their funding into Richards’ project, leaving the others that were suggested and offered to fend for themselves. I played nice, and was able to convince them to give Project Iron Man a chance, in case they decided to change their budgets down the line.”

“So, you’ve, what?” said Reed. “You’ve been sabotaging our project from the beginning?”

“Nah, didn’t need to sabotage,” said Tony, waving his gauntleted hand. “I just hung back. Showed off Iron Man’s capabilities, while highlighting the flaws and inadequacies that come naturally in mutants and in genetically enhanced humans. Just waited for you all to fall far enough in the eyes of America for me to jump in with my new project.”

The building shook as an explosion ripped through the air high above them. Seconds later, they heard crashing noises outside, and saw chunks of cement and steel girders fall to the street.

“Fuck,” Jones breathed. “Wrong one.”

Tony Stark hissed between his teeth. “Ouch, destruction of private property,” he said. “That’s not helping your case much.”

“Why?” Ororo Munroe had asked, putting her hand on Jones’ shoulder. He flinched as she did so, his mind going back to earlier in the evening, before they had left the Brotherhood’s hideout.

Plan B, he thought.

“If we get captured or held up from the mission,” Ororo had said, Reed Richards standing close by, “I’m going to put my hand on your shoulder. That’s your cue to activate Plan B.”

“What’s Plan B?”

“If things go according to our plan, we’ll be getting upstairs and getting our kids out,” Ororo explained. “If not, they’re going to have to be on their own. But Plan B is going to be their nudge.”

Reed handed him a neural inhibitor. “There are no differences from one inhibitor to another,” he said. “Get a feel for what you’re looking for, because you’re going to have to shut them down from forty stories down.”

Jones turned away from Ororo, and looked down at the floor. His fingers tightened around the neural inhibitor, and, like a bloodhound, he followed its “scent,” searching floor by floor until he found a matching electrical signature. At last, he found six: Three in one room, three in another.

“You shouldn’t try to deactivate them all at once,” said Reed, “because they’ll probably take a few seconds each.”

“Besides,” interjected Ororo, “once one is free, they’ll deactivate the others by hand.”

Which one? Jones asked himself. There was no way to tell which inhibitor was on which mutant. He figured he could probably patch into a security camera to get a better idea, but time was ticking away fast enough as is.

Eenie Meenie Mieney Moe, he thought, grabbing on to one. My mother told me to pick you.

He tugged.

“Tick tick tick tick tick...”

Sam’s eyes widened as he watched a trail of glowing yellow energy crawl across the air between the blonde girl’s finger and the door. He turned to Bishop, who was sitting against the side wall across from the blonde and watching with the same interest.

“…tick tick tick boom.”

The prison door flew from its hinges and slammed against the far wall. Sam Guthrie didn’t see this, though, because the back wall blasted out into the night from the force of the explosion, and carried him with it.

This is weird, he thought dully as he began to fall towards the earth hundreds of feet below. He closed his eyes and felt the wind against his face. He smiled calmly, serenely. He felt the neural inhibitor as it fell from his forehead.

His eyes opened in shock as his neurons snapped back into place. He saw the sidewalk below him. One hundred feet… eighty… fifty…

Oh shit, I’m falling, he had time to think before he activated his power. He felt the waves of energy surround him, and he ground to a halt thirty feet from the pavement before launching himself upward, toward the gaping hole that had been created in the side of the Baxter Building.

“Shit, wrong one,” Jones said.

Tony Stark hissed between his teeth. “Ouch, destruction of private property,” he said. “That’s not helping your case much. Ah, well, enough chit chat.” He pulled back a cover on his wrist and punched a few buttons. “You’re all under arrest, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to fight back, cuz it’ll make my project look so much better, blah, blah, bliddy blah, allow me to introduce Project Sentinel.”

They heard grinding noises from all around them. Sections of the walls pulled open. Sections of the floor opened beneath them. They heard particularly loud mechanisms from outside, and saw the fronts of two buildings slide down.

“I thought those were office buildings,” Susan breathed, thinking of nothing else to say.

“Nah, they’re ours,” Tony said as they heard a rumbling noise and watched a gigantic foot come from the building. “Top secret projects are cool, aren’t they?”

Within seconds, the X-Men were surrounded by dozens of Iron Man suits. Jones tried to count them all, but his panicking mind lost track at fifty.

“You might not want to try to escape, either,” Tony explained. “The big guys outside will flatten ya.”

They saw the legs of two giant suits outside the lobby doors, and Jones guessed they were probably thirty or forty feet tall.

Tony Stark cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen of Weapon X,” he said, as if speaking to an audience. “I give you Project Sentinel, by Stark Industries. Composed of a non-magnetic alloy that can withstand the impact of an atomic bomb, these upgrades of plans generously given to Stark by Oscorp are fully computerized, fully armed, and come in three different sizes: Tall, Grande, and Venti.”

“No one move,” said Ororo.

“Awww, come on,” said Tony. “Move. Please? I want to give them a good show.”

Ororo and Jones exchanged a glance. Jones turned to Susan, who nodded.

“Computerized, huh?” Jones said as Susan disappeared. “That’s funny.”

A decelerating whirring noise came from the robots. Jones smiled as, one by one, he shut them down with a thought.

“Ahhh, you can control electronics, huh?” asked Tony to Jones.

“Bill Gates is my bitch,” Jones said, chuckling. “Wanna be next?”

“Probably not,” Tony said, punching a few more buttons. “This suit’s programmed with thousands of over-ride systems. It’d take you an hour to shut me down.”

“Stand down, Stark,” said Logan. “Your machines are worthless against us. Jones can eventually turn your suit off, why not make it easier for everyone?”

“Because it’s more fun this way,” said Tony, looking just to the left of Jones. “Isn’t it, Suze?”

He lifted his arm and fired a blue electric pulse. It stopped next to Jones and wrapped itself around Susan Richards’ invisible body, which collapsed to the ground. Jones looked down in panic.

“Aww, force field go bye-bye,” said Stark.

“Susan!” Reed yelled, running toward her body. A gunshot broke behind them. Jones looked down at his stomach. His shirt was tattered, red blood surrounding the edges that framed the hole in his gut. He tried to speak, but his mouth was full of blood.

“Looks like you missed one behind you, kid,” Tony Stark said as Connor Jones fell to the floor.

“What happened?” Lucas Bishop asked as he pulled the blonde girl to her feet.

“Tick tick boom,” the girl giggled.

Lucas turned to the hole in the wall, realizing that Sam wasn’t there anymore.

“Oh, no,” he said, running towards the gap, hearing the wind howl. He looked down, then dropped back, vertigo overtaking him.

“He fell,” Lucas breathed. “Oh, no, oh shit, he fell.”

They heard a roar and watched what appeared to be a rocket fly past the hole, then loop back and fly toward them.

“Get out of the way!” Lucas yelled, falling on top of the girl as Sam Guthrie blasted past them and into the hallway, eventually coming to a screeching halt (if there were any screeching, Lucas thought) after slamming into the room across from theirs.

“Sam!” Lucas yelled as she and the girl ran out of their room. Sam crawled over the shattered remains of the office door and shook his head.

“Ahhhh, fuckin’ headache,” he groaned, rubbing his skull. “I thought Superman was just being cocky when he flew with his arms out in the comics, but it probably wouldn’t hurt if I tried it.” He looked at Lucas’ head. “What happened to your… your thing?”

“The explosion knocked my head into the wall,” explained Lucas. “Must have broken it.”

“Christ,” said Sam. “And you’re still awake?”

“Probably would have killed less indestructible people,” shrugged Lucas, grabbing the girl’s arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

The girl paused, her eyes wide with fear. “Where are we going? Where are you taking me?”

“Out of here,” repeated Lucas. “You can follow us, okay? We’re the good guys.”

“I probably shouldn’t leave,” the girl said quietly. “I blew stuff up at the concert. They probably wouldn’t be happy if I left.”

“Don’t worry,” a booming voice came from down the hall. “They understand the situation.”

The girl screamed and jumped behind Lucas, clutching his arms. Ben Grimm stood at the opposite end of the hall, a look of anticipation crossing his rocky face.

“It’s about time you guys broke out,” said Ben. “I was gonna do it myself before long.”

“You…” Sam stumbled. “You what?”

“Reed and Suze are downstairs,” Ben said. “They’re with some of your buddies. My only regret is that I couldn’t escape with them the last time. Hopefully I can help out now.”

“Tick tick tick tick tick…” the girl whispered from behind Lucas. He turned around and put his hand on hers.

“Don’t make him go boom,” he said quietly. She turned her wide eyes to his, and nodded. “He’s going to help us.” He turned to Ben. “Right?”

Ben shrugged, and slammed his fist against the door next to him. It crumpled like tissue paper. “There’s your friends,” he said, pointing into the room. “Let’s get them up.”

“Jones!” Three voices screamed in unison, but Connor Jones was too far gone to recognize who the voices belonged to.

“That’s too bad,” said Tony, reactivating the Sentinels through his wrist computer. “I’m normally not a mutie lover, but I would have given an internship to that kid.”

Jones felt the cold tile pressed against his cheek, and the hot fire in his belly. His left hand was trapped beneath him, but he felt too weak to pull it out.

“Take ‘em out!” he heard Wolverine howl. The world exploded around him. Feet shuffled in and out of his vision.

Damn it, he thought. My first mission and I can’t watch it.

He closed his eyes, patching himself into the lobby’s security cameras. He smiled as he watched his friends and teammates battle the horde of robot soldiers. He watched a half dozen heads fly as Gambit threw glowing playing cards at their necks. He watched Siryn and Storm fly around the room, blasting high-pitched frequencies and lightning bolts at their enemies. Spider-Man had grabbed a hold of one of them with his webbing, and was spinning it around the room like a flail.

This is so awesome, he thought weakly. His weary smile brightened when he saw Chamber open his coat and blast Tony Stark across the room with an energy pulse.

I didn’t know he could do that, he chuckled. That’s fucking sweet.

Connor’s vision slowly filled with static. He realized that he was losing control of his power. That he was too weak to watch through the security system anymore.

I want to help, he thought. Everyone else is helping, why can’t…

He opened his eyes. Rolling himself onto his back felt like he was pushing over the entire Baxter Building. He tried to use his legs to help with the roll, but discovered that they weren’t listening to him anymore. Turning his head, which suddenly felt like it was filled with lead, he saw Reed Richards leaning over his wife.

“Stretchy,” he coughed, blood pouring from his mouth. “Is she okay?”

Reed looked up, his eyes wide with shock. “You’re alive,” he said quietly.

“Is she okay?” Jones repeated.

“She’s unconscious,” he said. “We need to get both of you out of here and to a doctor.”

Jones chuckled, and felt his stomach scream at him. He coughed, and more blood came pouring out of his throat. Just when you thought there wasn’t any more, out it comes! his mind announced wildly.

“No doctor,” Jones said. “I won’t… where’s Rogue?”

“I don’t know,” said Reed. “She’s mixed up in here somewhere.”

“Find her,” he said, his voice fading. “Bring her.”

Reed nodded. He stood up, and Jones watched as a bullet entered his chest. His back stretched like a balloon being pushed on by a finger, then pushed back into place. Jones watched as the bullet bounced harmlessly at Reed’s feet.

“I’ll be here,” Jones said. “I need to rest.” Reed ran into the crowd. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Jones felt his eyes closing. His vision fading.

Not yet, he thought fiercely. You can be the hero, so don’t you fucking leave yet!

His body wasn’t listening to his brain. He felt something warm on his hand, which was closed around the wound. He pinched it, and felt a surge of exquisite pain roar through his body.

So what if that was an intestine? he thought. It did the trick.

“I didn’t meant to do it,” the girl, Tabitha, said to Lucas as she lifted the neural inhibitor from Kitty’s head. “There were too many people, too much screaming, and I got scared, and boom.”

“That’s okay,” Lucas replied, as he removed Tike’s. “I blew a hole in the wall. So we’re both in the same boat.”

“Where am I?” Bobby asked after Sam removed his inhibitor. “What’s going on?”

“Baxter Building,” Ben said from the door. “And we’re getting you out of here.”

“Where’s Jimmy?” Kitty asked. “He was with us before… at the concert.”

“He’s in the basement,” Lucas said. “We’ll have to go down and get him.”

“Don’t worry,” said Ben. “He’s fine. No harm.”

From outside, far below on the street, they heard gunfire and explosions. Bobby and Lucas ran to the other room, and looked out of the hole torn open by Tabitha.

“Holy shit,” said Bobby as he looked to the street below. “Are those robots?”

“Robots, hell,” Lucas said from next to him. “Those are fucking giant manga mechs.”

“Sounds like it’s broken loose downstairs,” said Ben as he pushed the ‘down’ button on the elevator. “We should be able to slip out the back, though.”

“We’re not slipping out,” said Kitty. “If that’s the X-Men down there, then we’re going in.”

“Yeah, I kinda had a feeling you’d say that,” Ben said. He pressed his ear against the door. “Fuck. Stark turned off the elevators. We’ll have to take the stairs.”

“Screw that,” Sam said. “I’m flyin’ down and blowin’ up some robots.”

“Kitty, can you phase us down?” Lucas asked.

“Not from this high up,” Kitty said. “Sorry.”

“Sam, are you okay from here?” Bobby asked.

“See you downstairs,” he replied, jumping through the hole and launching towards the giant Sentinels.

“You guys go,” Bobby said to the others. “I’ll meet you on the ground.”

“Wait, what?” Kitty said, grabbing his arm. “You’re coming with, right?”

“There’s a thing I’ve been practicing,” he said, smiling. “Figured this might be as good a time as any to try it.”

“The thing…” she replied, her grip tightening. “From this high up?”

“Sure.”

“Well, then I’m not leaving,” she said. “Lucas, get downstairs with the others. I’m going to make sure my man doesn’t kill himself.”

After what felt like hours, Jones saw two faces standing over him. He felt a moment of dizziness as they both dropped quickly, to within inches of him.

“Jones?” Rogue gasped. “You’re okay?”

“Fucking robots,” Jones said. “Stark ain’t no Asimov.”

“Jones…” Rogue repeated, grabbing his bloody hand.

“More like As-hole-imov,” Jones said, coughing up even more blood. He could feel the back of his head, the sticky pools beneath him on the floor.

Rogue stared back at him, too emotional to reply.

“I need… to do something…” Jones said. “There’s not much… time… not much energy left…”

“What do you need?” Rogue said, her voice cracking. “We can get you out of here.”

“Absorb me.”

“What?”

“You have to…”

“But it’ll kill you.”

Jones closed his eyes. “I’m dead anyway.”

“No!” Rogue screamed, grabbing his arm. “You’re not going to die. I won’t let you.”

“I don’t think you… have much choice, sug,” Jones said. “I’m holding onto my guts. I’m not in good shape.”

“Connor…” she said, tears rolling down her eyes.

“I’m not going to force you,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to rape you. I want your consent.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s more coming,” Jones said. “I can feel them. Marching down the street.”

“We can fight them…”

“You can end this,” breathed Jones. “We can end… this…”

Rogue stared down at Jones’ face. Despite the fact that his body was feeling colder, he could still feel the drops of her tears on his face.

“Please…” he repeated.

She looked around the room. Saw Remy fall to the ground. Saw Logan slam through front glass window of the lobby.

She took Connor’s hand.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“We’ll always remember you, Connor,” Rogue said quietly. “I promise you won’t be leaving us any time soon.”

“We’re on a mission,” he said with his last breath as she pressed his hand to her cheek. “Call me Glitch.”

And, as the battle raged around him on the floor of the Baxter Building lobby, Connor Jones, the X-Man known as Glitch, died.

The giant Sentinel (Venti-sized, as Tony would put it) looked up just in time to see a bullet the size of a sixteen-year-old Kentuckian boy plow through its mechanical skull.

“Yeeehaw!” the bullet, which went by the name Sam Guthrie, screamed as it exited the back of the Sentinel’s head and continued into the chest of the other. It slowly raised its hands to the sizzling hole as Sam burst out the other side and skipped across the pavement.

“Ah, fuck,” he grunted as he watched the two Sentinels fall to the ground. He lifted himself up to his knees, and looked at his prison garb, which was tattered and road-burned. “I gotta work on my landing.”

“That you, Guthrie?” came a voice from beside him. He turned to see Logan leaning against the building across the street, brushing glass from his shirt.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Sam said, running towards him.

Logan held up his hand. “Not to me,” he said, pulling a shard from his forehead. “Inside. We’re gonna need…”

He stopped in mid-sentence, and turned slowly down the street. Sam turned in the same direction, and groaned.

“Fuckin’ shit.”

The street was lined with human-sized Sentinels, automated Iron Men like Tony Stark’s suit. Sam and Logan turned behind them in unison, to see others coming from the other side.

“How many?” Logan asked. He estimated at least one hundred on one side.

“Does it matter?” Sam said, looking up at four or five more of the giant Sentinels behind the army.

“Probably not,” Logan said, tossing aside a blood-covered glass fragment. “Where are the others?”

“Luke’s coming down the stairs with Kitty, the rock guy and the two newbies,” Sam said, glancing up toward the hole. “Bobby said he was gonna come down another way, but I don’t know how… Holy shit.”

Logan looked up at the building. He saw a blue-white line circling around the tower, working its way closer to the ground.

“What is that?” he asked.

“Looks like the coolest damn waterslide I’ve ever seen,” Sam chuckled as the first bullet flew past him and struck Logan in the arm.

“Son of a bitch!” he cursed, grabbing Sam and ducking between the two downed Sentinels.

“Are you alright?” Sam said anxiously.

“Yeah, I’m just peachy,” Logan growled, clutching his hand to the wound. “It’ll take a minute for the bullet to work its way out. Wanna go bowling?”

Sam looked up over the top of the Sentinel, and smiled. “Thought you’d never ask. Give me a boost?”

Logan put his good arm down, his hand extended. Sam stepped onto it, and Logan pushed up as Sam jumped on top of the Sentinel and launched himself at one line of Iron Men. Logan looked up just long enough to see Sam blast through the line like they were tenpins, then ducked back down again.

He felt a body pass by him and into the ground, and seconds later Kitty Pryde pulled herself back up, looking down confused.

“Someone should have warned me that there’s a sewer down there,” she said grumpily. “I barely caught myself.”

“Good to see you, too, Sprite,” Logan said.

“I told you…”

“Shadowcat, sorry,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Where’s your boy?”

“He’ll be down in a second,” she said. “He needed to find a safe place to land his slide.”

“Think you can do anything?”

Kitty smiled evilly. “You don’t remember what my phasing did to the robots in the Danger Room, do you?”

Logan thought back. “That’s right,” he said. “Had something to do with interfering with electrons, or whatever, right?”

“See you in a bit,” she said, phasing through the downed Sentinel. Logan heard and smelled circuits sizzling as Kitty ran through the crowds of Iron Men on one side, while Sam Guthrie decimated them on the other. He sighed as the bullet dropped into his hand and the wound healed back to normal flesh.

“Damn it,” he grumbled, dreading the healing that would accompany a dozen bullets in his bones, “What I wouldn’t give for some adamantium again.”

Rogue stood up from the body of Connor Jones. In the distance, she heard Theresa Cassidy shriek as she saw Remy LeBeau rolling on the ground, clutching his leg in pain. She barely heard two thunderous crashes outside as Sam Guthrie took out two Venti Sentinels.

She closed her eyes and focused. She drowned out all outside interference, not even noticing when a bullet, aimed straight for her heart, passed through her phased body harmlessly.

She closed her eyes, and listened to the memories of Connor Jones. She told her what to do, and how to do it. She chuckled under her breath.

“Fucking robots,” she said. “Stark ain’t no Asimov. More like As-hole-imov.”

Rogue focused on her feet. Pushed herself to leave the ground without the fire. Focused on that more than anything, because it would make it all so much easier. She smiled as her days of practice paid off. She felt her feet leave the floor.

“We’re flying,” she said, her grin broadening. “See that, Jones? We’re flying. Let’s end this.”

She pushed her hands out to her sides, and focused on her newest power. Her breath was taken away as she saw a whole new world in her fingertips, her brain buzzing with 1’s and 0’s.

It’s easy, said Connor inside her. Just do this… she saw a series of numbers flash across her vision. And it’ll be over.

She nodded, and repeated the series, which had become engrained in her memory, throwing out into the air and towards the Iron Men.

Within seconds, the sounds of gunfire ceased. She heard a whirring noise as the two dozen or so remaining robots lowered their arms, holstering their built-in weapons.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Tony Stark yelled, rapidly pushing the buttons on his keypad. “I didn’t tell you to stop. Why are you stopping? Keep attacking!”

As the X-Men looked around the room at the now completely motionless robots, Rogue looked outside.

There’s more out there, said Jones. Go tell them the news.

Rogue flew through the air, passing over the robots blocking her path, and exited to the street, where she saw Logan, Kitty, and Sam fighting an uncountable amount of robots. To her right, she saw Bobby Drake, covered in his ice armor, run from the side of the building to join the fray.

“Hey, boys!” Rogue yelled to the robots. “Guess what?”

She threw her hands out and repeated the code. As happened inside, the robots, of sizes great and small, lowered their weapons and stood silent.

“Go tell your friends!” she yelled as she landed on top of one of the dead Sentinels. “Hell, why don’t you just bring it back to your source, tell any robots that are still being made by Stark!”

As the other four mutants looked around and at her in shock, she jumped from the top of the robot and calmly walked back into the lobby.

“What did you do, you bitch?” Tony Stark screamed from the other side of the room. “What did you do to my project?”

“I taught them a lesson,” Rogue answered.

“You ruined me!” Stark wailed. “All of my money went into this project, and now it’s dead! Because of you!”

“Well, shit happens,” Rogue shrugged. She looked down at Tony’s arm as it rose up, pointing its built-in machine gun at her.

“Yes,” he growled. “Shit does happen.”

Before he could pull the trigger, Rogue disappeared in a puff of black smoke, only to appear moments later, inches from his face. She lifted her hand, and her fingers disappeared into his mask.

“You humans and your guns,” she said sardonically. “Make one move and I phase my fingers into your brain.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” he said, his voice trembling.

“I have a healing factor,” she said calmly. “My fingers will grow back. You won’t be so lucky.” She looked to her sides. “Storm, Colossus, mind taking this guy’s armor?”

“It would be my pleasure,” Storm said darkly, pulling Tony’s gauntlet from his left hand. Peter Rasputin pulled off the other one, and crushed it in his hands before tossing it away.

“Where are the controls for the elevator?” Susan asked Tony as she pulled herself to her feet.

“On the security desk’s computer,” Tony said, his voice thoroughly defeated. He fell backwards as Peter pushed him to the ground, pulling off the legs of his armor.

As Susan and Jono walked over to the desk, Peter pulled off Tony’s helmet. As he reached for the chest plate, Tony backed away in fear. “No, please!” he pleaded. “Not that! Don’t take that!”

“The Iron Man suit was originally designed by me to help Tony with a terminal heart condition,” said Reed, who had bent down beside Theresa and Remy. “If you take that off, he’ll die.”

“You’re kidding me,” Parker said. “You’re telling me he took a life-saving device, and turned it into a killing machine?”

“That’s what I’m telling you.”

“Well, maybe I’m not that surprised,” Parker said.

“Yeah, and maybe we should take it off anyway,” Rogue said bitterly, kneeling down at the shaking man. “After all, he killed Connor.”

“No, please,” Tony begged. “I don’t want to die.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you,” Rogue said, standing up. “That’s not what the X-Men do. But be thankful I’m having a Logan Moment. If this were a Pyro Moment you’d be cooked in your own can.”

“What did you do?” Bobby asked as the group from outside walked in. “Why did they stop?”

“Connor gave me a history lesson,” said Rogue, “and I taught it to the robots. Programmed in a little something by Isaac Asimov.”

“The Three Laws of Robotics,” Reed said quietly. “’A robot may not injure another human being.’”

“Yup,” Rogue said. “As soon as they had that in their programming, they couldn’t attack us. Even if Tony told them to, since that would go against the second law.”

“’A robot must obey orders from a human unless it conflicts with the first law,’” said a breathless voice from the stairwell door. The group turned to see Lucas Bishop standing there, with Ben Grimm, Tabitha Smith, and Tike Alacar standing behind him.

Rogue pointed her thumb at him. “See?” she said. “Sci-fi nerds everywhere. I told them to transfer the Laws back to their source. So even if Stark Industries continues to build any more Sentinels, their main system will have Asimov burned into its core program.”

“Brilliant,” said Reed. “How’d you think of that?”

“I didn’t,” Rogue said sadly, looking toward Connor. “It was his idea.”

Kitty and Bobby cried out and ran to Jones’ body, and Lucas walked slowly forward. “Is he…?”

“Yeah,” said Rogue, swallowing. “He’s gone.”

Bishop sniffed, feeling tears at the corner of his eye. “Fucking bastards,” he whispered.

“We’re not done,” she said. “Watch Stark, make sure he doesn’t do anything funny.”

“If you want to check on Johnny,” Ben said to Susan, “he’s still upstairs in his bed. Safe as houses.”

“We should have brought Franklin,” said Storm. “He could probably help him.”

“He’s holding steady,” said Grimm. “I’m sure he won’t slip into anything in the next day or two. Franklin can come visit him then.”

“Thank you, Ben,” Susan said, putting her hand on his craggy orange arm. “I’m sorry we left without you.”

“Aw, don’t worry about it, Suze,” Ben said, waving her off. “You did what ya hadda do. Just so long as your boy’s safe.”

“What floor are we going to, Doctor?” Rogue asked Reed.

“The lab’s in the fourth basement,” he said. “It’ll take some time to get the files out of the computer, then we’ll have to contact the news agencies.”

“No need,” she said, picking up Tony’s helmet. “There are files on this, too, right?”

“Yes, but that will take time to get them off of there, as well.”

“It’ll be quicker than you think,” said Rogue, putting her hand on Reed Richards’ shoulder.

“Why would you say that?”

Rogue smiled, and a line she didn’t recognize, one of Connor Jones’ favorites, came to her lips.

“Can’t stop the signal, Mal,” she said cryptically as the two sank through the floor to the basements below.

Previous Chapter (The Build-Up) / Next Chapter (A New Beginning)