The essence of the creature that had named itself Onslaught was able to successfully travel from China overseas to the United States. It was drawn to one area in particular—New York. It could sense the vestiges of one of its creators’ students. Mutants who needed protection, now more than ever.

But first, it needed assistance. That was where Project: WIDEAWAKE, housed in the Colorado Rockies, was the perfect start. It traveled along the electromagnetic wavelengths, eventually worming its way into the installations computer systems through satellite connections.

Once inside the mainframe, it was simple child’s play to reprogram the deadly Sentinels housed in the hidden government installation. Several hundred omega-model Sentinels—giant robot killing machines equipped with the very same Cerebro technology developed by Charles Xavier. The purpose being to track down and destroy mutants.

Onslaught simply altered the programming. Instead of hunting mutants, the Sentinels were now programmed to target anyone who did not possess the X-gene.

Those who worked at the base could not explain how the Sentinels were suddenly activated or how their programming was being altered. They had no way of preventing the base’s hangar doors from opening and now all five hundred Sentinel units rocketed into the sky, set on a course for New York.

The only thing they did know was a single word which kept repeating itself over and over again—ONSLAUGHT.

CLASH OF THE TITANS

Part V: Onslaught

By Dino Pollard

Cold Lake Regional Airport

Not far from the Weapon X facility was a small airport that provided Wolverine, Cyclops and Captain America with exactly the means they needed to get to New York and the Triskelion. Sneaking onto the grounds was simple and once that was accomplished, it was just a matter of quietly incapacitating some of the ground crew and hijacking one of the small planes.

Wolverine took the pilot’s seat with Captain America sitting beside him and Cyclops sitting behind the two. Logan started up the plane’s engine and taxied it down the runway. Some of the ground crew ran after the plane, but to no avail. As soon as he picked up sufficient speed, Wolverine pulled back on the stick and the plane rose into the air.

“Do you know anything else about this Triskelion Wisdom mentioned?” asked Cyclops.

“Not a thing,” said Wolverine. “But seeing as how it’s SHIELD and beneath the ocean, I’m guessing security is pretty tight.”

“So how are we going to get down there?” asked Cyclops.

Wolverine offered no response.

“Well?” asked Cyclops.

“…we’ll cross that bridge once we come to it, Slim,” said Wolverine.

“I don’t suppose you have access to a u-boat,” said Captain America.

“Nope,” said Wolverine. “But they’ve gotta have some method of transportation between there and the surface. We just gotta find that an’ we’re in.”

“You make it sound so simple,” said Cyclops.

“That’s because it is simple. But simple don’t mean easy,” said Wolverine.

Triskelion

SHIELD Agent Alexander Goodwin Pierce entered the office of Colonel Nick Fury in a huff. Fury eyed him suspiciously before he asked, “What’s wrong, Pierce?”

“We have a problem, Colonel,” he said. “Actually, we have several problems.”

“The X-Men?” asked Fury.

“That’s just one of the problems,” said Pierce. “They’ve escaped.”

“Wolverine and Cyclops somehow get in?” asked Fury.

“No… it was apparently Thunderbird and Dazzler.”

Fury instantly sprung up and drew his Desert Eagle, checking to see that it was fully loaded. “Dammit, get the Avengers assembled to take them down right now!”

“It gets worse.”

“What was the other problem?” asked Fury.

“Project: WIDEAWAKE, sir,” said Pierce. “Someone activated the Sentinel Protocols and they’re en route to New York.”

“How’s that make things worse? If anything, it’ll help us detain the X-Men.”

“No… the Sentinels were released by some unknown, external force. Their programming has been altered and they’re not targeting mutants anymore. Instead, they’re targeting anyone who doesn’t possess and X-gene.”

Fury cursed under his breath. “I knew that damn operation would come back to bite us in the ass eventually. Just didn’t think it’d be so soon.”

“Your orders, sir?” asked Pierce.

“Have the Avengers take care of the Sentinel situation and find out what the hell caused this problem,” said Fury.

“And the X-Men?”

“No one is permitted to engage them.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me. Divert all SHIELD personnel to evacuating New York as quickly as possible and I’ll handle the X-Men.”

After Dazzler left Brent Jackson incapacitated, her and Thunderbird freed their teammates Colossus, Nightcrawler and the Beast from their cells.

“I’m telling you guys, you should’ve been there,” said Thunderbird. “Ali kicked ass, went all Wolverine on the guy.”

“All these powerful females bailing us out is going to start to give me an inferiority complex,” said the Beast. “Bad enough that Logan is the closest thing we have to a role model.”

“Them’s the breaks, furball,” said Thunderbird.

“What’s the plan?” asked Nightcrawler.

“…we didn’t think that far ahead yet,” said Dazzler.

“I’m all for tracking down Fury and bashing his head in,” said Thunderbird.

“For once, we’re in agreement,” said Colossus.

“No,” said Beast. “The last thing we should be thinking about right now is revenge. We need to get out of here and find out where Scott and Logan are.”

“How will we do that?” asked Nightcrawler. “Even if we could get back to London, I’m sure SHIELD already confiscated our Cerebro unit.”

“Take it one step at a time, Kurt,” said Beast. “First we get out of the Triskelion, then we figure out how to find our absent teammates.”

The Beast took the lead as the group made its way out of the prison wing. Alarms blared throughout the base, yet for some reason they hadn’t encountered any resistance, a fact which all of them found strange.

“You’d think we’d have SHIELD agents all over us by now,” said Nightcrawler.

“Maybe something else is going on,” said Dazzler.

“That’s exactly what’s happening.”

The X-Men stopped and got into defensive stances as Fury rounded a corner and met them face to face, his Desert Eagle clutched in his hand. Thunderbird moved like a bullet and wrapped his hand around Fury’s throat, lifting him off the ground.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t snap your goddamn neck,” he said.

Fury gagged slightly and allowed his gun to fall to the ground as his hands tried to free him from Thunderbird’s grasp. It was to no avail. Speaking was difficult, but he strived to choke out his words.

“Sentinels… attacking New York…”

“Let him go, John,” said Beast.

“You crazy?” asked Thunderbird.

“Did you hear him? We’ve got bigger problems,” said Dazzler.

Thunderbird hesitantly released his prisoner, dropping him to the ground. Fury gasped for breath and pulled himself to his feet, taking his gun with him. “Someone’s reprogrammed the several hundred Sentinel units stored in Colorado and now, they’re targeting humans. They’re en route to New York and I have every available SHIELD agent trying to evacuate the city while the Avengers engage the Sentinels.”

“What do you mean engage them?” asked Nightcrawler. “I thought the Sentinels were microscopic?”

“That was just phase one of WIDEAWAKE,” said Fury. “Phase two is the release of giant robots. We’re talking walking WMDs here.”

“Serves you right,” said Colossus.

“I could tell you anything right now and it wouldn’t matter. How I’ve avoided releasing the full force of SHIELD on your collective asses, how I was just following orders, how I’ve done everything possible to prevent an all-out war between humans and mutants, but it wouldn’t mean a damn thing to any of you,” said Fury. “So instead, I’ll just tell you this: a lot of innocent people are going to die. I don’t care what you think about me, but are you really willing to sacrifice potentially millions of people ’cause you’ve got a mad-on for me?”

The X-Men remained silent for a few moments. Fury in turn holstered his gun as he awaited their response. Thunderbird was the one who broke the silence: “I hate to say it, but he makes a good case.”

“That’s an understatement,” said Nightcrawler.

“Okay, we’re in,” said Dazzler. “What do you need us to do?”

“Follow me,” said Fury. He led them through the corridors as he spoke. “You’ll be assisting the Avengers with the Sentinel problem. Meanwhile, I’m getting on the line to everyone I can to find out how this happened and who’s behind it.”

He led them into a hangar area where a submarine sat in a pool of water. SHIELD agents stood by, saluting Fury as he entered.

“You’ll take this sub to the surface and that’s where you’ll rendezvous with Cap and the Avengers. They’ll be contacted about your participation,” he said. “You should know this is gonna be dangerous. These things were designed specifically to kill mutants. So some of you may not come back.”

“We know the score, always have,” said Thunderbird.

“Then welcome back to SHIELD,” said Fury. “Now get your asses in gear.”

The small plane entered New York airspace and Cyclops was surprised to look out the window and see giant robots laying waste to the city.

“What the hell are those things?” asked Cyclops.

“Dunno, but it don’t look good,” said Wolverine.

“We have to stop them,” said Rogers.

“You outta your mind?” asked Wolverine.

“I’m not going to let innocents die,” said Rogers.

“He’s right, Logan—the others will have to wait,” said Cyclops.

“Let Fury deal with it, we got problems of our own,” said Wolverine.

Rogers reached over and grabbed the stick from Wolverine, causing the plane to suddenly swerve and veer downward.

“The hell are you doing?!” asked Wolverine.

“The right thing,” said Rogers. “And you know I’m right.”

“Cripes muttered Logan as he regained control of the plane. He took the plane down towards the city. “If I get outta this alive, I’m retiring.”

Thor hovered in the air, his hammer glowing brightly as he rained down lightning from the skies. The Marvel and Iron Man streaked through the air, firing their respective energy signatures at the Sentinels and drawing their fire from the departing innocents.

The Hulk similarly raged through, seemingly the only one who could match the Sentinels in terms of sheer strength. Captain America did his part by covering the fleeing citizens. The only one absent from the battle was the Black Panther, who was with Fury trying to determine the cause.

The SHIELD transport carrying the X-Men emerged from the bay and landed in the midst of the battle. The X-Men instantly went to work. Beast and Thunderbird worked in conjunction together, combining their strength to topple a Sentinel as Dazzler utilized her own light powers to destroy their visual receptors. Colossus relied on his own sheer strength, greater than the combined strength of Beast and Thunderbird. Nightcrawler was fairly ineffective against the Sentinels, so he focused on aiding Captain America with the evacuation.

“I see Fury let you guys off his leash,” said Captain America.

“You have a problem?” asked Nightcrawler.

“With you genejokes? Definitely,” he said. “But gotta do what I gotta do. When Uncle Sam says jump, my response is how high.”

“Spoken like a true puppet,” muttered Nightcrawler.

Captain America was too focused on the evacuation that he didn’t notice the Sentinel unleash a powerful repulsor blast, one which struck him directly in his back, killing him instantly.

“That’s… not good,” said Nightcrawler. He noticed something else. There was a large influx of energy and it all seemed to be pooling in one, central location. “And I’m guessing neither is that.”

The Sentinel that killed John Walker towered over Nightcrawler, prepared to deal him the same fate. The Sentinel fired while Kurt was focused on the energy surge, but before the blast could reach the young mutant, he was knocked to his feet and the blast was deflected by the shield.

Nightcrawler looked up to see a hand being offered to him by a tall man in a dress shirt and slacks who held Captain America’s shield on his arm as if he were born to wield it.

“Need a hand, son?” he asked.

Nightcrawler watched as the Sentinel was attacked on two fronts. One of those fronts was a series of well-placed crimson energy blasts and the other was in the form of a man with wild hair who drove adamantium claws into the Sentinel’s back. The Sentinel plunged to the ground and Cyclops and Wolverine came up to Nightcrawler’s side.

“You guys have great timing,” said Nightcrawler. “Who’s this guy?”

“Steve Rogers, the original Captain America,” said Wolverine.

“What? How? Shouldn’t you be ancient?” asked Nightcrawler.

“Long story,” said Captain America.

“What’s going on here?” asked Cyclops.

“Sentinels unleashed, targeting humans, Fury let us go so we could help the Avengers,” said Nightcrawler. “That’s pretty much all you need to know.”

“Any idea what’s causin’ it?” asked Wolverine.

“Fury and the Panther are trying to figure that out right now, but my guess is we’re about to find out,” said Nightcrawler. He pointed towards the energy surge which was now beginning to take the form of some sort of being. It was large, but still humanoid and it seemed to be clad in red and purple armor. The Sentinels instantly came to the being’s side, standing behind him as he hovered in the air before the assembled teams.

“X-Men, join me.”

The booming voice echoed in the heads of the mutants.

“Your government has betrayed you. Mankind continues to hunt you. Join me in eliminating their scourge from the planet and creating a utopia for mutantkind.”

“And who would you be?” asked Cyclops.

“I was created by the very same government that hunts you as a final solution to mutantkind. Created by combining the genetic structures of two of the world’s most powerful mutants—Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr.”

“Magneto and the Professor?” asked Dazzler. “How’s that possible?”

“I gained sentience, rebelled against my captors, and now I plan to unite mutantkind together as my fathers would have wanted. I am Onslaught.”

“Xavier never wanted extermination,” said Wolverine.

“If you side with our enemies, then I will view you as traitors to our race,” said Onslaught.

“Bring it on,” said Thunderbird.

“Very well. People of New York—behold my mighty hand!”

Onslaught raised his arm and a massive surge of energy swept across, entirely blacking out the city.