Protect And Defend: The Sentinel Attack mini-series

[pyro_by_nature]

Make sure you look here first: Part One

Part Two of Three

“That thing is way too close for comfort,” Lance said. He started striding towards it.

Amara was hot on his heels.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked him as they both looked up at it.

“Much as that reminds me of various fruits in sleep clothes...I say we make it dance,” Lance said, mischief obvious in his tone.

He stretched his arms out at chest level, hands held palms down, and began to push with his powers. Amara felt the ground begin to roil and tremble in waves that Lance neatly directed towards the Sentinel’s enormous feet. She moved away from him, and spread out tremblers of her own, directed at the machine. It stopped moving forward and started to sway under the assault, so they redoubled their efforts trying to bring it down.

Amara started to detect weaknesses in the ground directly beneath the machine. She reached out with her mind, digging deeper into the earth, reaching down, down until she felt the hot pulse of molten material deep beneath the ground. She summoned it upwards, pooling as much as she dared around its feet. The machine clearly wasn’t shielded underneath its feet, and acrid fumes of melting polymer began to waft into the air, making the other combatants eyes water.

“Phew! You stink like you need a diaper change!” Lance yelled at the machine.

The Sentinel continued to wobble on the spot, and slowly it started to turn away from its assault on the mansion.

“That’s it! Draw it away!” Rogue yelled; while Lance and Amara had been shaking it up, she’d continued her telekinetic assaults on the shielding using powers she’d ‘borrowed’ from Julian.

The hulking machine turned, identifying and locking on to the source of the tectonic disruption. It brought its laser-palm to bear on Lance and Amara.

“Oh crap!” Amara cried.

“RUN!” Lance shouted.

“Hey, ugly!” Jubilee cried. She ran at the machine, sending huge bursts of plasmoids straight at its face. They cracked and rolled off the shields, sending bright golden sparks for dozens of feet. The machine was all but blinded as Jubilee relentlessly bombarded it, doing everything she could to overload the shielding around its face.

In her determination, Jubilee danced closer and closer to the machine. She was so focused on its head that she didn’t see the creature blindly raise a hand in her direction….

“Jubes!” Kitty screamed.

Jubilee stopped firing, and at that second she realised what was about to happen. Time seemed to slow down as she turned and began to run away from the Sentinel.

Kitty ran flat out, harder and faster than she’d ever run before in her life. She covered the distance in record time, all the while her eyes flicking between Jubilee’s terrified face and the Sentinel’s deadly hand.

A white-hot beam lanced out of the monster’s palm. Kitty felt a crackle of electricity in the air all around her.

She reached for Jubilee, and Jubilee reached for her.

They grasped each other, and Kitty phased them just as the deadly bolt of energy ripped into the ground around them. The energy beam dispersed through them, the massive burst making every atom in their insubstantial bodies vibrate. The beam shut off just as quickly as it started.

“Go!” Kitty yelled. “I don’t think I can do that again!” and hand in hand she and Jubilee bolted out of range of the Sentinel.

“Oh god, god, god” Jubilee breathed, trembling from head to toe. “I think I peed my pants!”

“Lucky you’re wearing yellow, then” Kitty said, hugging her friend.

“You saved my life” Jubilee whispered.

“You can buy me a Coke later” Kitty said.

“Celeste, can you let Warren know we’re missing some students. I… I don’t know what to do” Meg said in a shaky voice.

“Are you missing four students?” Celeste said conversationally.

“Yes! Do you know where they are?” Meg asked.

“They were playing outside, near the lake when the alarm went off. They couldn’t make it back, so they’re hiding in the woods,” Celeste said in a matter-of-fact voice.

“Tell them to stay put!” Meg cried.

“They don’t listen to me” Celeste scoffed.

“Well, persuade them” Meg snapped.

Celeste pouted.

"Come on, let's make this thing sorry it was ever born... created... born? Fuck it." Tabby cried. She generated plasma bombs, charging them up as hard as she could, and then flung them. They detonated on impact, sending great rippling disruptions through the shield, like a stone dropped into a lake.

“Nice, ma’moiselle . Do it again” Remy called. He was charging up playing cards and dashing them at the Sentinel with almost lightening speed. Though he seemed to be flicking them at random, the precision with which he hit the machine was astonishing. Magenta flashes of energy were given off every time a charged card collided with the hulking machine, and Remy was quite content to bide his time, knowing he’d wear the damn thing down eventually.

Tabby took Remy’s advice to heart, and continued to pummel the Sentinel as quickly as she could make her plasma bombs. A sudden movement caught Tabby’s eye, and she turned just in time to see Nori race up, holding her gloved hands high.

“I’m gonna barbecue your ass, mutant-hating moron!” she yelled, letting loose and incredible stream of crackling electricity. She broke off when her charge ran out, then circled around the machine gathering static energy again.

“I can smell you up here” Keller said, as he continued buzzing the machine’s head, drilling relentlessly into the shields with his TK.

“Watch out, wouldn’t want to zap you by accident” Nori returned. This time she put her gauntlets directly onto the shields and let loose a burst of energy directly into them. They flickered and for a split second seemed to waver, but then with a zap! they came back again. With a startled, painful cry, Nori was blown backwards by the feedback. Remy ran over to her, helping her to her feet.

“A’right, petite fille?”

“I think so!” Nori said, dazed.

“Hey, stink! Do that again!” Keller yelled.

“Screw you! It’s not funny!”

“No, The shields are weakening, and I think you almost overloaded them. If we synchronise our attack, we might be able to drop them completely. Can you handle that?” he taunted.
Nori grinned defiantly at him and set off to charge up again.

Theresa flew over to Julian.

“That circuit configuration on its chest. I think that might be the shield generator. If we can concentrate our attack on that spot-”

“Without it blowing the shit out of us” Julian said, frowning and glaring at the circuit.

Theresa nodded. “We need to hit it while they’re giving it everything they’ve got.”

“Hey, Sparkles” Julian called out to Jubilee, who was bombarding the machine again, but this time from a much more cautious distance. “Think you can distract it a little more?”

Jubes looked nervous at the suggestion, but nodded grimly.

“Okay, losers. On three….”

One- Tabby powered up two glowing plasma spheres. Remy flipped open a packet of cards in each hand and charged them, his eyes glowing red.

Two- Nori built up the electrical energy until her gauntlets glowed a wicked shade of blue

Three- Jubilee fired a continuous string of firecrackers all around the machine’s head, effectively blinding it, while Julian and Theresa swept in, pinpointing the shield generator with their combined powers. Momentarily blinded, the machine swiped at them like they were gnats, and they ducked and weaved to avoid it, not breaking off their attack.

Nori had pushed her hands up against the shield, releasing a slow but powerful discharge of sizzling energy. The shields thrummed angrily, making her entire body vibrate. The teeth rattled together painfully, but she gritted them, determined not to let go this time. Remy and Tabby dashed around behind her, throwing plasma bombs and charged playing cards faster than she could count.

“Need a hand?” Rogue asked. “I’m not much of a card shark, but I can deal”

“Don’ tink your boy will like dat too much, chẻri” Remy said with a knowing smile.

“He’ll just have to suck it up, this here’s a battle!” Rogue said.

Remy reached out and touched her face; his fingerless gloves left his fingertips bare. He cringed slightly at the sensation of being imprinted, but Rogue was more in control of her ability than she’d ever been before, so the process was quick. Remy broke off, blinking and trying to clear his head, and he reached inside his pocket and withdrew several packs of cards.

“Faisons la!” he told her.

Rogue charged up the cards and started flinging them. The first few went nowhere near their mark, and she frowned as several nearby trees exploded into flames.

“Oops!” she said

Bobby whooshed past them on his ice slide and quickly extinguished the fires.

“Thanks” she called meekly. She turned back to the machine, and flicked a card in a short, sharp arc. It collided with the foot and discharged spectacularly. She gave a cry of delighted surprise and flicked another one.

“Dat’s de spirit!” Remy called encouragingly.

The Sentinel’s shields crackled and began to pulse, and Nori dug her heels into the ground, pushing hard.

“Here, sugah, let’s really shake it up!” Rogue cried- she was all out of cards and in a fighting mood. She placed a hand on Nori’s forearm, imprinting her abilities, then pushed her own hands against the shields.
”Careful, Rogue- it’s powerful stuff!” Nori warned.

“Nothin’ I can’t-” she broke off with a startled cry as she discharged a huge pulse of energy directly into the shields, and was blasted backwards. Nori ripped her hands away as the shields overloaded. Tabby gave a great whoop of excitement.

The shields were disrupted, and Julian and Theresa moved in for the kill, cutting into the generators with their powers. The generator exploded outwards in a shower of sparks, and the shields died completely.

“You needed help?” Piotr asked kindly.

“Finally, a big, strong man” Phoebe said.

Behind her, Warren rolled his eyes at Piotr.

“I heard that” Phoebe said lightly.

Piotr hurried over to the site, prodded various bits of the rubble, quickly assessing the damage.

“I can remove some of this easily. When we come to the heavier pieces of roof, I’ll have to hold them up, while you dig in.” Piotr instructed.

“Let’s do it.” Warren said.

In his armoured form, Piotr was infinitely stronger than Warren, so the winged boy let Pete take care of the heavy lifting.

“Are they doing okay under there?” Warren asked Phoebe.

“Yes, but Mindee is terribly bored. She says if she knew you’d take this long she would have put a book in her pocket.”
”That’s gratitude for you” Warren muttered, digging back in to the rubble.

“Stand back” Piotr told Phoebe. She frowned and took several steps backwards.

“All right. I’m going to hold this piece of roof up. See if you can reach under and pull the children out.”

“Tell them to be ready” Warren informed Phoebe.

“On three” Piotr said, bracing himself and preparing to lift an enormous slab of the roof, which had landed diagonally in the hallway.

Piotr counted and hefted the concrete as though it were little more than an over-packed suitcase. Warren began to scrabble through the remaining bits of broken brick and debris that the children were trapped behind. He could hear the sounds of someone sniffling, just in front of him, so he crawled in as far as he could. Suddenly, a small hand caught hold of his. Carefully, gently, he pulled, crawling back out, dragging one of the young girls with him. She let out a terrified wail and hugged him around the neck as soon as they were free.

“I know. You’re okay” he soothed, quickly looking her over for injuries. Her face was quite bloodied up, but probably just from a bleeding nose.

“I have to get the other girls out now,” he explained gently to her when he realised she was in no hurry to let him go. He looked up expectantly at Phoebe.

“Come here” she told the little girl. “See, I’ve got Dilbert. He’s not dead either,” she said reassuringly. The girl continued sniffling and very hesitantly let go of Warren.

He dove inside the wreckage again, and found the other young girl already trying to crawl out. He grabbed her under her arms and dragged her out. She had a large bloody gash on her scalp, which was oozing blood.

“We’ll get you cleaned up, don’t worry” he assured her, before handing her over to Phoebe.

“This material isn’t going to hold up much longer, tovarisch.” Piotr warned him, and sure enough, at that moment part of the roof section Piotr was holding up broke away and crashed down on him. He wasn’t injured, and shook his head sharply to shake the dust off.

“Okay, just a couple more minutes” Warren said, diving back under the wreckage. He crawled in as far as he could manage, his wing brushing scraps of dust onto his face and into his eyes.

“I see my sister sent an angel to save me,” a faint voice said from the darkness.

“Mindee! We have to hurry- this is going to cave in at any second.”

“Be careful of my leg, please,” she said weakly. “I think a bit of the bone is sticking out.”

“Ouch” Warren said, slipping his hands under her arms. He began to slide her out of the wreckage.

“Look out!” Piotr called suddenly, and Warren froze, covering Mindee as best he could with his wings. There was a rush of dust as the section of roof Mindee had been pinned under suddenly collapsed inwards. Mindee gave a startled cry, and Warren knew their time was running out.

“Sorry if this hurts-” he said, and with one last yank, pulled Mindee free of the wreckage. As soon as they were safe, Piotr let go of the crumbled bits he was holding, and the roof slab finished collapsing, blocking the hallway completely now.

Warren looked down at Mindee’s leg. She had an open compound fracture, and a jagged, bloody bit of bone protruded from her left shin. She was white as a sheet and bloodstained, and trembled in her sister’s arms. Warren tore his eyes away from the fracture and willed himself to not lose his dinner.

“Okay we need to get these girls down to the infirmary.” Warren said. “We’ll have to patch them up as best we can until Hank gets back.”

“Josh Foley is in the Infirmary. He went there instead of evacuating.” Phoebe said.

“Can he make my leg heal without a scar?” Mindee asked quietly.

“We’ll see, won’t we” Warren said. He carefully picked her up, a movement that was not aided by the fact that Phoebe was gripping her sister’s hand, and refused to let go. Piotr easily picked up the little girl with the head wound, cradling her in one arm while he took the other little girl by the hand.

John rushed up to Amara “Ready for some pay back?” he asked her, smirking.

She shot him a shocked, almost disbelieving glance. "Duh!"

“Okay, just give me something to work with.”

Amara conjured a ball of flame in the air in front of them.

“That’s hot” John said, his face lighting up. Amara saw the hungry look is his eyes.

“Hey, blue” John called to Nori, his eyes not leaving the flames before him; Nori was carefully strafing the machine with bursts of electricity. “Think you can distract it while we work?”

“As long as you don’t get my butt fried!” Nori answered back.

“Lance, keep it on shaky ground” Amara instructed. Lance nodded.

“All right. I say we go for it.” She told John.

John grinned and shot massive twin plumes of fire directly at the machines’ face.

“Careful what you’re burning, flamer!” Julian yelled. He’d had to duck out of the way to avoid getting burned.

“If you can’t take the heat, pretty boy…” John said with a grin. He focused the flames into one column, wrapping them around the machine like a giant burning boa constrictor, then he amped up the intensity of the heat. Beads of sweat formed on his top lip and forehead, and he distractedly brushed them away with his forearm as he focused his energy on frying as much of the machine as possible.

“John!” Amara cried. “Break off. If you attack it directly, it’ll come after you. We need to be more subtle!”

It took him a moment to ease back, and for one frightening second he thought the flames were out of his control. He finally broke off, irritated that the machine was only scorched and not smouldering. Just as he did, a deadly cluster of darts fired right at him from a port hidden on the side of the Sentinels foot.

From a position behind John, Bobby had seen the port open, and he was at John’s side before the other boy even knew what was coming.

He sent a blast of ice at the foot, sealing off most of the port, but a couple of the darts escaped. One speared John right through his right forearm. He looked at it incredulously. “Mother of fuck!” he swore.

“You all right?” Bobby called, icing the port solidly shut.

“No, I’m not all right! The fucker just shot me!” John cried.

“Don’t pull the dart out” Bobby warned. “You’ll start bleeding badly.”

“It can stay put while I kick the bitch’s arse!” John said. “Remember what we learned in science about super-heating then super-cooling materials?”

Bobby and Amara grinned.

Amara let loose with another bundle of flame. She and John directed it at the Sentinels left foot. They would heat it for several seconds, then break off and run for cover, while Tabby and Nori did their damage.

Josh Foley was standing in the entranceway to the Infirmary, looking anxious. When the lift doors opened and Warren, Piotr and the children came rushing towards him, his face fell.

“I was wondering when people would start rolling in.”

“This is nothing you can’t handle, Josh” Warren reassured him. The two older boys got the children settled.

“If you think you’ll be okay, we’re needed upstairs” Piotr said kindly.

Josh nodded distractedly, already working on Mindee’s leg.

Mindee closed her eyes as her leg began to heal. "My sisters... they're worried about me," she said.

"They won't have to," Josh assured her. "I'll fix you up so you're good as new."

Ali heard the whine of the wind as she sped through the skies, over the border into New York, powering through the air as fast as she could, careful to keep her speed just below the speed of sound. It felt like eternity, but it only took a few minutes for the landscape of Westchester to come up below her. She could see the silhouette of the Sentinel in the distance and steeled herself as it came up faster and faster in front of her, slowing only slightly as she shifted the direction of photonic energy, sending it out in front of her, her arms outstretched.

Almost before she could register, she slammed into one side of the giant's head, her body following close behind the photon blast, her arms instinctively coming up to shield her face, sharp edges of the giant’s inner workings slashed at her body, her flight jacket taking most of the damage. As she tumbled from the head in a rain of shrapnel her music suddenly stopped, with a white hot pain searing through her left thigh as what was left of the left visual sensor sliced through her flesh.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck..."

Free falling, feeling the world suddenly all too quiet as she saw the severed cord of her headphones fluttering amidst the debris. Ali braced herself, curling up as best she could just before she connected with the roof of the mansion, skidding across the hard surface, her fingers moving from her head to claw at the shingles. She connected with what was left of the chimney, the collision stopping her skid. Glancing at her leg, she cursed again, immediately going to work to tear away strips of fabric from her pants to fashion a tourniquet above the deep incision.
She glanced up a moment too late, not noticing the blast heading directly for her, "Fuck" she hissed, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes waiting for the impact. It never came.
Opening her eye only a slit she saw the world awash in cyan, blinking as she twisted her head to see Julian Keller hovering behind her, trademark smirk on his face.

"Not even back five minutes and already you need me to save your ass."
"Good to see you too, Keller." Ali tried to smirk, but the pain in her leg allowed only a grimace as she turned her attention back to her attempts at patching herself up.

"Gimmie a hand here, willya?"