Shifting Sands -- The Lone Wolf And The
Goddess
Part Nine
character by D. Briganti written by Valegra
The explosion that followed caused both Sid and Ororo to turn their heads from one of the sentinels, the one possessing the speaker. Dust flew from the ground as the huge machine toppled backwards to land with a large crash, shaking the earth beneath them. As if this were a silent signal, three of the other machines, began to fire upon them. But before any of them could get a round off, each of their cannon nozzles exploded, staggering them and knocking each back a step. From there, two more explosions sounded at the last machines neck. The combination of the two was enough to take the things head off.
Surprised and confused by the series of explosions as well as the noise each caused, Sid pushed Ororo to the ground wanting to protect her from the rising, falling dirt, rocks and foliage. When some of the dust cleared, he looked through the gloom and what he saw was the shadow of a tall man coming in their direction.
“Gambit suggest you get your self out of here, homme. Tis ain’t no place for a civilian,” the man stated just before throwing two glowing objects up at one of the
machines that had managed to catch himself and was now once again preparing to fire, however this time the gun was aimed at the intruder. The two small missiles
exploded upon impact and the heavy machine staggered back once again, but did not fall.
“Remy,” Ororo asked, breathlessly, rising from beneath Sid to see the man that he saw.
When Sid heard her voice, he tensed and all of a sudden he felt his anger rising, but this was a different type of anger. A type he knew too well, a type he didn’t
like. Ororo’s voice when she said the other man’s name had been breathless, awe-filled. The way she looked at him, as if he was her world, had Sid narrowing his eyes. There was love in her eyes for this man. This man that’d called him a ‘civilian’ as if he was in the way.
“Angel,” Sid said trying to conceal the tightness in his voice. Around his hands a thin light began to grow. Ororo looked from the silhouette of the man she called brother, down to Sid’s hands, then eventually to his silver eyes. “Stay here, Angel. Don’t move, promise me,” he commanded. Behind him another one of the machines had opened fire from a gun in its other palm. The ground was taking a beating where the large bullets embedded themselves.
Ororo gave him a look so sincere, Sid could not doubt the honesty of her reply. “Of course, Sid.”
Squeezing her hand one final time, Sid rose to his feet, faced the closest of the robots, raised his fist and let loose a long blazing trail of white fire. The fire connected with the sentinels shoulder and sliced its arm off as if it were made of nothing more than butter and Sid had just fired a spit heated eating knife. After that, he ran and tumbled out of the fire of several more robots to land in a ready stance beside the man, he’d thus far hadn’t been able to see fully, effectively drawing all attention from Ororo.
Facing the two men, with smoke rising from their metal parts, were four giant sentinels. One, the leader, with a hole in one of its legs courtesy of the new comers
missiles. Two more of them, badly disfigured in the front yet still appearing in top-notch condition, and the last of them missing an arm.
“Scanning, new arrival. Mutant designate male. X-man. Name Remy Lebeau: code name Gambit. Instructions... Terminate...”
* * * * *
Bishop watched the radar with growing interest as five large red dots flashed ominously onto its view screen. The five bleeping dots were located several miles north of their present course. "Cyclops? There seems to be some activity in route several miles from the F.O.H. town. The mini Cerebro unit is flashing an urgency signal."
The field leader of the X-men returned to the helm area to investigate whatever it was Bishop spotted. When he saw the red tented, blinking dots on the scanner,
he raised a brow behind his thick quartz visor. “Though this disturbance is not our number one priority, people, we should investigate the area, just in case. Lower the Blackbird into the area in stealth.”
The Blackbird curved in a wide arc as Bishop turned the autopilot off and took control of the jet to follow the radar trace.
* * * * *
“Got any ideas how to take these things out?” Sid asked of the man beside him throwing charged playing cards at the row of advancing robots. He figured since the X-men had experience handling these things, the man, Remy Lebeau, would know the quickest way to take them down.
Chuckling, the man flipped out another card and did a back spring out of the way of a row of laser fire. “Gambit say hit em at the knees and watch the chips fall.” As if he were demonstrating, the Creole accented man let fly three cards one after the other at one of the machines knee. The explosions staggered the robot and when the smoke cleared there was a large hole where metal used to be. Moving along the machine stepped forward on its injured leg only to have the top cave into the hole with a teeth-grinding pressing of metal. With a creek it plummeted over and fell flat on its face.
Sid roared with renewed courage as his inner energy returned to run freely in and out of his body. With a powerful jump, he reached a second robot's knee and
Discharged all the energy he had stored with a mid-air spinning kick. The robot’s armor plating was blown away like paper. Sparks flew as its complex system of hydraulic joints and circuit wiring caught fire. Landing on his feet, Sid ignored the shaky unstable sentinel as he dodged a line of laser fire from yet another. Balling his fist, he closed them together and let loose a thinner stream of light energy up into the things face. Multi colored sparks flew as the machine raised his one hand to block the light ray.
Prematurely congratulating himself, Sid did not see the large hand falling into his direction. He did however see the two streaks of light heading to his head.
Ducking and cursing he barely missed the Cajun’s cards as they flew over his head at the large hand that would have crushed him. Glancing in the direction the cards had come from, Sid glared at the man who’d thrown them, though he was sure the man could not see the look. Son of a Bitch! Whipping his head around, he rolled out of the way, just as a massive metallic foot came flying in his direction unearthing the head of an object long buried.
When next he rose to his feet, Sid saw that there were still three of the four machines standing and from the weaponry they were pulling out, they had little intention of trying to crush them. They meant to execute them.
Barely breaking a sweat, Sid leapt to his feet and attacked one on the robots with his fist. The contact of his fire heated flesh with the machines cold exterior staggered him, but only dented the robot. Falling, leaping and punching, Sid was able to break open the metal shell until the robot wasn’t firing anymore but was instead jerking backwards as it tried to protect itself from the onslaught. Each contact of Sid’s fist and feet sending him one more step back.
Good, okay, I can do this, Sid thought confidently, as he was finally able to topple the robot mountain.
Gambit fingered the few cards he had left in his jacket pocket. The sentinel approaching him raised a hand and fired a thick green laser beam. Pulling his hand from his pocket, Gambit rolled out of the line of fire. As he rose, he flipped out two cards, charged them and sent them flying at the machines back. As before the machine did not fall. Deciding that he needed something larger to throw at the thing, Gambit ran to the pile of rubble that’d been the guys house and picked up a piece of lumber in both hands. Tensing, he gritted his teeth and charged the beam with energy. As he charged the wood a large shadow fell over him. Looking up through his shade lenses, Gambit rose to his feet, the glowing beam in his hands.
“Gambit tink you move too much, homme,” he told the machine drawing the heavy beam back somewhat. The glowing wood pulsed in his grip. Winding back, he stepped forward and released the bomb into the air between the sentinel and himself. “Better take a seat for you fall down,” he finished just as the beam made contact with the massive weapon of death. The sentinel prepared to block the projectile managed to raise a hand just as the wood exploded in its face, knocking it off its feet.
Ororo had risen to her feet, the moment Sid left her side. Wanting to get out of harms way, knowing there was little she could do, she made her way to a grove of trees several feet away from both the fighting and the burned remains of the house. Not expecting to find anything sinister lurking within the branches of the trees,
she was surprised to feel a hand shoot out of the dark and wrap its filthy palm around her throat, another of them taking one of her forearms and twisting it behind her back. The stress on her side made her gasp.
The owner of the hand upon hearing the sound relentlessly forced her arm further up her back, until Ororo thought he meant to break it.
“Thought you’d get away, didn’t ya,” the owner of those hands questioned. Ororo recognized his voice immediately.
The man didn’t wait for an answer before pushing her forward in the direction of the three remaining sentinels and the two men trying to destroy them. “You
mutants think you’re so smart. Think ya can just come down here and sneak around and expect us ta just ignore you,” Rex sneered in her ear tightening his fingers around his throat briefly until she was gasping for breath.
“Release me at once,” Ororo ordered in what she hoped was a hauntingly authoritative tone of voice. Unfortunately, she suspected that the order came out weak as she had barely caught her breath before saying the words.
“Them two, think they can draw the fire from you, but I ain’t about to let that happen.”
Even as he spoke one of the sentinels disengaged itself from the other two and began to move in their direction. Ororo dug in her heals hoping to slow Rex’s progress. Rex, as he topped her by several inches and was twice her breath, wasn’t phased a bit. Increasing his effort, he forced Ororo forward.
When the sentinel’s shadow fell over the both of them, he stopped. “When your dead, bitch, that pretty boy mutant lover is next,” he promised shoving her to the ground and backing away, chuckling. Ororo fell to the ground hard, her hand connecting with something round and smooth. She didn’t waist time finding out what it was, rising to her knees, she faced the retreating local leader of the F.O.H. with fire in her eyes. The stream of lightening she released in Rex’s direction was weak but it did knock him back to fall on his rear on the shaking dirt ground.
“Preparing to initiate prime directive,” the sentinel stated causing Ororo to turn frantic eyes in its direction. Gasping loudly, Ororo was helpless to fight the hand that reached forward and lifted her from the ground. Above her the sunny day was overshadowed with fast gathering gray clouds. Blue fire coursed a path through the charcoal covering to intertwine with a stream of white fire. Ororo watched in awe until a drum of thunder sounded rocking the earth, vibrating so that she felt it even as she was held in the sentinel’s large fist. There was a power within it that she’d never felt before; something she’d never before had to manipulate to her bidding. She’d never seen or heard anything like the storm raging above them. It was uncanny.
Ororo was fascinated by the fire in the sky. A hunger grew from within her to explore its depths, but when the sentinel’s grip tightened around her, she knew that that may not happen. The machine meant to crush the life right out of her. Suddenly, her pain filled scream rent the air overshadowing even the massive quakes of thunder. A trail of lightening called down from the Goddess herself split the heavens heading in her direction.
* * * * *
“Scott!”
“I know Jean,” Cyclops stated simply viewing the scene below them. “Bishop target the sentinel and fire,” he commanded.
Grunting his agreement, the big man from the future positioned the blackbird over the solitary sentinel holding, Ororo. After setting a series of controls, he pushed a thick red button. A twin trail of red laser fire shot through the cloud filled sky.
* * * * *
Gambit and Sid heard the scream and reacted just the same. Sending one last barrage of power at the sentinel they faced, they waited for just the right moment then turned and made a dash in the direction of the third of them, the one that they’d neglected to face. The one that had Storm.
Reaching into his pocket, Gambit pulled out the last of the fifty two card deck. Charging them all with kinetic energy, he dashed forward and leapt into the air. Swinging his fist he released the six cards.
Pissed more than he could ever remember being before, Sid wrapped his white fire around himself, tight. He didn’t notice when the white of the fire began to
shift until it was a light blue. It would be later when he learns of the great power that the other emotion he felt could give him. Feeling more powerful than he’d ever felt, Sid assumed a ready stance just before dashing across his lawn at the last sentinel. Several feet in front of the thing, he leapt into the air. With both hands before him, palms out, he released the white blue fire.
What happened next would be forever imprinted in the memories of the four members of the X-men team still within the Blackbirds cockpit.
Five beams of power streaked forward and connected with the sentinel holding Ororo. A Goddess sent beam of lightning, a twin trail of red plasma, a staggered energy of six stream projectiles, and a white blue river of fire all collided upon the robot exploding in a mix of power so bright the four members on the ship had to turn their heads away. When next they looked to the scene it was to see the poor sentinel’s parts flying in a hundred directions, the ground where it stood dented in as if a great mass had settled on the thing, and the sky above filled with a thick black smoke.
When the dust settled, there wasn’t a mutant or human in sight. Two of the sentinels still stood, looking comically as if they did not know what to do with themselves.
Around the area was a stillness.
“Scott?” Phoenix asked shakily very much afraid that they’d just incinerated her best friend along with Gambit.
“Bishop,” Cyclops asked as confused as his wife and just as worried.
“What the hell just happened?” Wolverine asked in his less than tactful way.
Bishop ran a scan of the area. “Scan shows the combination of power created some sort of tear similar to a gateway into the astral plane. Same flux, untraceable, definitely not of the same substance. Vital signs for both Storm and Gambit are no longer in existence.”
“English, bub,” Wolverine demanded frustrated.
“Logan,” Phoenix said in a near whisper stunned by what she’d just heard. “They’re gone. Storm and Gambit are gone and Cerebro hasn’t a clue as to where they are.” Returning to her seat, Jean Gray Summers sat heavily letting free a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Oh, God, Storm, Gambit where are you?
“Cyclops, neither of the remaining sentinel has picked up on the Blackbirds signature. They’ve both taken flight and are heading in the direction of the village. Do we follow?” Bishop said into the silence filled with nothing more than Wolverine’s faint curses.
“We do. We can only assume the film was lost with Storm and Gambit. We also know that there are, in fact, sentinels in this area, and some of them are active. Contact Psylocke at the mansion, inform the professor of what’s happened. We have to get to the compound where the sentinels are being held and either cripple or destroy it. For all mutants sake.” For Storm and Gambit.
* * * * *
"Unidentified craft approaching compound airspace, Mr. Trask," a buzzing voice resounded over a speaker on top of Bolivar Trask’s main display panel.
Pressing a red button, the large half human half android drew up a radar schematic of the area. As was stated previously there was a large air craft fast approaching. “Distance, speed and altitude,” the man machine asked.
On the screen the craft stopped becoming stagnant. “Approach speed four hundred kilometers an hour. Present distance from the compound two kilometers.
Present speed; zero. Present altitude; zero. Craft has landed.”
"Computer, have any of the sentinels returned?” Trask asked tense now.
“Two sentinel registered Beta class serial K60M237 and K61M237 have recently returned to holding. Status heavily damaged but still operative.”
Slamming his fist on the control panel, Trask growled angrily. “Return all operative units to base. Seal the compound and alert all available personnel.
Prepare to repel the intruders!”
From behind Trask, Jonathan Rand stepped forward. "Boss, what’s with the security? Me and some of the boys can head out and take care of the intruders,” he offered fingering the trigger of the gun he always carried.
"They're the X-Men, you idiot! The sentinels sent out this evening have obviously failed. The X-men have come for me! They must be stopped once and for all and I plan to make sure none of them leave this area alive. Now leave me and organize a defense around the compound. Do not allow them to enter!”
"Yes, sir,” replacing his gun, Rand turned on his heals and left the room.
When the man had exited, the cyborg stood. He walked over to a painting that depicted a war scene, the particular war was not noted, of the Medieval Era.
The moment has come, he thought, feeling his blood rushing fast through his veins. It was a feeling that brought him great pleasure as he rarely felt anything human in his present form. "All these years of suffering in this mocking parody of a body... but now, the blood of those mutants will wash away the pain." Reaching for a hi-tech rifle on a nearby weapon rack, he fingered the trigger in the same manner his commanding officer had just moments ago and stepped out of the room.
When he entered the command center of the compound every human stood at attention. One such human, an elder garbed in gray addressed him. "All personnel ready as you’ve ordered, sir. Shall we start the procedure?”
"Yes. Bring the base to the surface!"
Turning to the display panel the man pressed a series of buttons. Overhead a red light began to flash and a loud siren pierced the tense gloom of the room. "Warning: all personnel report to Secure Rooms 3, 7, 8, 12, 20. Procedure S initiating. Repeating: all personnel report to Secure Rooms 3, 7, 8, 12, 20. Count down T-minus 3 minutes and counting. Procedure S initiating.” As the computer operator continued her repetitive warning, from below the compound a deep rumbling began. It grew from a noise to a violent quake shaking the walls of the control room. Outside of the compound the ground began to fall away as the building lifted from the earth to hang suspended several feet in the sky.
Three minutes after the process began, the red lights ceased flashing and the tremors ended. "Procedure S terminated. All personnel exit Secure Rooms and
report to assigned work areas. Procedure S terminated. All personnel exit Secure Rooms and report to assigned work areas ...”
* * * * *
The four members of the X-men exited the Blackbird and faced the hovering compound. Phoenix was the first to see the large humanoid robots heading in their direction. The mid-evening sun gleamed threateningly off their metal plating.
Sentinels, she told the rest of the group telepathically. Of course, by then the three men had felt the machines approach through the slight vibrating of the ground. And even if they couldn’t feel the machines approach, they could hear the deep humming that signified their presence in the proximity.
“It's now or never, Jean!” Cyclops stated. Beside him, Wolverine released his metal claws. And beside him Bishop checked the energy level of his large gun.
“Take us through one of those openings!” Cyclops finished to his wife.
Nodding, Phoenix closed her eyes briefly. Around the group appeared a large pulsing psychokinetic bubble. From within the bubble, Phoenix lifted them all from the ground. With a deep breath, she sent them all shooting between the approaching sentinel straight at an open launch ramp.
Cyclops’s plan had been simple when he hatched it out on the way to the compound. There was very little to it in fact, which is why Jean initially thought it simple.
There were only three essential elements to the mission.
One, penetrate the compound.
Two, track down the centrally located command.
Three, blow the compound to kingdom come.
Now if only they could pull it off without getting blown up themselves.
authored by David altered by Valegra
Valegra2@aol.com David Briganti renegade@ipsnet.it
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