Sentinels

[un_gloved]

The fact that the school was locking down as everyone in a colorful uniform rushed toward whatever was causing it to do so held no irony whatsoever for the young mutant known as Rogue. This was, after all, kind of their shtick. She came up through the gaping hole in the basketball court and stopped when she was about eye-level with the security breach. That put her about fifty feet up in the air.

"I know I should be surprised," came a familiar, well spoken and, at the moment, angry voice from over her shoulder, "but it's getting harder as the years roll by, you know?"

"Tell me 'bout it, Angel," she called back, arcing out of the way of bright and lethal looking beam of light fired from one of the giant purple robots' palms. There was the slick metallic sound of feathers sliding against each other as Warren released a volley of missiles toward the Sentinel. One of three.

Don't make no sense. Gyrich ain't in the picture, government's even got their own X team right about now, even if they are on hiatus due t'a tragedy, one who's probably joyridin' in my car already. So where th'heck did these come from, then?

A very good question, Rogue, one we're looking into as swiftly as possible. Take care, my X-Men.

Of course, the second thought hadn't been hers. Didn't seem to phase anybody else, but Rogue just about fell out of the sky, not just distracted but shocked. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

"Look sharp, Rogue!" Angel shot past her with a sound like a knife cutting through air.

"Ah am," she shot back, whipping around and slamming bodily into one of the Sentinel's heads, then dodging its arm as it came around to swat her.

It seemed to be moving awful quick. It nicked her in the back and she crashed into a wall, huffing as she pushed herself out from under the rubble. Psylock stood next to her, eyes narrowed and fingers at her temple.

"Somethin' got ya worried, Bets?"

"Tell me someone's got an eye on Sabretooth."

"Uh," Rogue said, made a bewildered gesture, and flung herself back up into the sky, carrying a sizable chunk of the brickwork with her. The last thing they needed, maybe, but someone else would have to be on point.

[Sentinels and Sabretooth. Go.]

Comments

[howmanylives]

I don't know why I'm surprised. There is no such thing as a clean getaway when it comes to the X-Men. I'd just hoped I'd be stopped by Xavier putting on a mental whammy and not...this. X-Factor didn't deal with giant robots. X-Factor dealt with mysteries and betrayals and other things readily found in a mutant version of a Bogie film.

I could really go for a mystery right about now.

Madrox had fully intended on getting the hell out of Dodge -- he'd had his fill of coming back from the dead over the years -- but that plan was unfortunately derailed when the red convertible he was driving was picked up by a Sentinel, and promptly thrown back onto the ground. The force of the impact created a veritable flood of Jamie Madroxes, and they spilled out onto the road, growing exponentially in number within a matter of seconds.

"Ow!" "Ow." "Ow." "Ow!" "OW!" "Ow!" "Ow." "Ow." "Ow!" "OW!"

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

There was a thunderous boom as a Sentinel fired its repulsor a blast which was deflected from the Madri by way of a giant chunk of concrete being thrown in front of it. As it crumbled, Rogue paused, aghast.

"Mah car!" Even knowing it wasn't real, it still sucked to see the beautiful cherry red two-seater demolished on the road side.

[howmanylives]

Madrox -- Prime presumably, but it was hard to tell given they were all identical -- rubbed his head and glared up at Rogue.

"I just got thrown. By a Sentinel. Onto the ground. Not all of us are nigh invulnerable, you know! And you're concerned about your CAR?!"

[exweapon]

This didn't happen.

I remember what was going on when we are, and this sure as hell wasn't part of it.

Which means something smells, and it isn't just Sabretooth.

Who I'll have to deal with later, although not too much later; if this is different, who knows if he's going to reveal his true colors sooner rather than later.

But no point hunting him down to protect the school from him if it means letting some oversized robots tear it apart.

I pop my claws and look around for Petey.

Time to get thrown at something.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Those things look right t'you?" Rogue asked, touching down behind him, watching an optic beam lance through one of the sentinels' shoulder joints.

[exweapon]

"Nothing about this looks right to me," I say. "They're moving wrong. Not to mention, they shouldn't be here. Timeline's screwed up."

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Oh, goody," Rogue muttered, "mah favorite. Timeline disruptions. Where's Petey?"

[exweapon]

"Yeah, like we haven't had enough of those," I add.

I look around. "He should be around. Our guests are making enough noise to get everyone's attention."

He better hurry up. I've got no desire to run around stabbing these rustbuckets in the foot.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

"Cuz I c'n offer ya a hand," she said, grinning brightly.

[exweapon]

A few months on an island and I'm slipping. Should've thought of that.

"Well, what are you standing around for, then?" I say, standing up. "Let's learn these dopes some manners."

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

Cable was refusing to move from the kitchen. He'd found himself some food and Alcohol and was happily ignoring any signs of panic and fighting.

None of this was real. None of it mattered. And he refused to run around like someone's puppet.

When he heard a wall fall down, he didn't so much as blink.

[un-gloved.livejournal.com]

Rogue was beginning to remember why she hated sentinels. Not that she'd ever stopped, but the refresher was hardly appreciated. Not to mention that these ones moved weird. They were more fluid, somehow, and had fast response times. It was killing her edge.

She barely had time to cry out when one blasted her with the repulsor in its palm, although crashing through the subsequent layers of ceiling, into the kitchen, and through the kitchen table, effectively shattering it, afforded her a few more opportunities. She groaned a little and pushed herself up to sitting, and found herself staring up from the floor at Cable, seated in one of the chairs that had, before it was made into pulp, matched the kitchen set.

Cable with a beer.

She glared at him with the kind of fury that actually choked her. She pushed herself unevenly up to standing, wiped some cornflakes and rubble off her jacket lapel, and said, "Nice."

Then she huffed and flew off through the convenient three story skylight she had just created.

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

Cable gave her a nod of acknowledgment in reply.

And then he watched her fly up and away for a moment, before taking another sip from his beer. It was nice and cold.

[exweapon]

The buckets of bolts are really starting to piss me off.

Mostly by not letting me cut their #@$%ing heads off. I'm stuck on one of their shoulders, courtesy of a fastball special, introducing its neck to my claws. They're not cutting right, this should be a straight chop job.

It isn't.

And before I have time to think about why it isn't, one of the others has grabbed me. If I didn't have unbreakable bones, they'd be broken. As it is, it just breaks a whole lot of other stuff, including a path from the outer wall through to the kitchen.

I land by the fridge, so at least the tin can had decent aim. I stand up, flex my neck. Flesh is already starting to knit back into place, so no sense standing around here.

"If you drink all of those, you're gonna wish the Sentinals got you," I tell Cable, and exit by the tunnel I made coming in.

[mutant-gi-jesus.livejournal.com]

"Goodbye Logan," Cable told Wolverine's back as he ran off.

He was beginning to wonder if he should have picked a spot further away from the main action. The X-Men never could manage to contain a fight properly.