HOSTILE TAKEOVER

Part II

By Brent Lambert

with a plot assist from Dino Pollard

Maverick shot the Sentinel in the shoulder and sent wire and oil catapulting into the air. He ducked and rolled on the ground as another Sentinel tried to attack him from behind. Maverick quickly pulled his arms back behind him and shot the Sentinels in the chest. It wasn’t quite down yet, but a stomp to the head was enough to finish off the mechanical monstrosity. Stepping in the gooey brain matter was enough to make David North go up to Shaw and shook his brain out on the floor. Who would be this damn sick to create Sentinels using human brains and who had sold them out to allow Shaw to test these puppies on them? Before he could ponder this question any further a large rock flew by his head and knocked down a group of six Psi-Sentinels like bowling pins. North looked to Rictor and gave a nod of approval.

Rictor walked over to Maverick, “Mimic says these things are telepathic. He’s holding them off as best as he can, but he can’t last much longer.”

Looking around Maverick saw that the base was swarmed. There was no way they were going to be able to fight their way out of here, “Rictor can you make a tunnel for all us to get out through?”

Julio’s throat and chest tightened up at North’s request, “It would take a ton of concentration mi amigo and even then I could probably only make a tunnel big enough for two.”

“Take you and Shatterstar then. Get to our other outposts and warn them. If they’re already under attack then help them,” Maverick ordered.

Rictor seemed hesitant to move. He couldn’t stand the thought of leaving everyone else behind. He would have felt like a coward, but Maverick’s cold stare was enough to get him moving to Shatterstar. Before he could get too far Maverick said one last thing, “Make this building rumble like hell before you go!”

Rictor nodded gravely and was on his way.

Cable was blowing up the heads of Psi-Sentinels left and right. He wasn’t a premier telepath for nothing, but attacking these machines was nothing like attacking a sentient mind. He couldn’t just overload. With these machines he actually had to put a great deal of telepathic power behind his attacks. The ones he wasn’t able to take down with his telepathy he finished off with his Psimatar.

Watching Cable at work was like seeing Rambo move with the grace of an acrobat. He ducked and he dodged and he stabbed at all the right moments. Meltdown was putting some of those same skills he taught her to use as she narrowly dodged the energy blasts of a group of Psi-Sentinels. A plasma globule began to form in her right hand and she flung it forward at the group of approaching enemies. Destructive light rained down upon the robots as they were ripped asunder by the blast. Two of them still remained fully functional and continued their charge towards Tabitha. Fortunately, a large hand from Juggernaut swiped them away like flies across a windshield.

“We been sold out,” Juggernaut grunted.

“Any other brilliant revelations for today?” Northstar asked as he flew overhead his two teammates in pursuit of a Psi-Sentinel.

“No Sentinel runs away from a mutant,” Tabitha said.

Juggernaut nodded, “He’s setting the kid up.”

“Watch out!” Tabitha yelled out, but it was too late. Northstar couldn’t hear her. He just continued chasing the robot until he ran right smack into a rain of energy fire. It wasn’t from any Psi-Sentinel that he could see, but his fast speed allowed him to dodge most of the blasts. One struck him in the forehead though and he was sent tumbling through the air unconscious.

“Where the hell did those blasts come from?” Juggernaut asked.

“Looks like thin air,” Tabitha replied still managing to get out a snide comment despite the tense situation.

Bedlam walked on the two mutants sweaty, tired, and out of breath, “Those bastards were cloaked! These things can fucking cloak!”

Tabitha looked over to Juggernaut and winked, “Don’t have time to explain what cloak means hun! Let’s just get the hell out of here!”

“Agreed,” Xorn said carrying Northstar in his arms. His gravitational abilities allowed Xorn to mimic flight and he had caught Northstar in his arms.

{ That’s a negative people! We’re not leaving. At least not all of us. }

“Don’t be cryptic Cable. Get to the point already,” Meltdown winced in anticipation of what Cable was probably going to say.

{ Xorn you take Northstar and get the hell out of here! Get to the America Branch and let them know what the hell is going on! }

“Yes sir,” Xorn replied ready to do whatever his duty was for X-Corps. These mutants had taken him in and given him a home when no one else would have. He owed them a great deal and it would always be that way.

Pounding his fists together Juggernaut smiled, “Goody. I felt like bustin up a few more heads before I vacated the premises anyway.”

“Vacated? What did I tell you about reading the dictionary Juggs? The idea of you rubbing two brain cells together is horrifying,” Meltdown exclaimed.

Bedlam caught a chuckle in this throat, but it quickly died out with a glance from Juggernaut, “Real funny broad. I’ll remember that next time you get yourself in damsel in distress mode.”

{ Cut the bullshit and let’s get to work! }

“Yes sir,” all three said in varying tones of seriousness as they went off into battle against the Psi-Sentinels.

“Ecstasy duck!” Havok ordered as he blasted a Psi-Sentinel who was creeping up on his teammate. That was the 20th “brain” Sentinel he had blasted away so far. He kept feeling a strange numbing feeling in the back of his mind and he couldn’t quite explain where it was coming from.

“These things are trying to take us down mentally!” Ecstasy exclaimed as she ran up close to Alex. He looked down at her and he could see she was actually shaking. In all his time spent with the woman he had known her to handle herself under fire pretty well, but something was truly bothering her about this situation.

“What do you mean?” Havok asked a bit more strongly than he had intended to.

“Those brains attached to them aren’t for decoration Alex! They’re all telepaths and they’ve been trying to dig at all of us. I’ve been doing my best to make use of the hormones in our brain chemistry to keep us erratic and out of their reach, but I can’t do it forever,” the scaly woman explained the effort beginning to show on her face.

Havok turned to Fantomex who had been protecting Fixx and the new mutants that X-Corps had saved from The Neo, “Fantomex I want you to leave and warn the other branches about this attack and if they’ve already been hit find survivors.”

“I will not leave all of you,” Fantomex said plainly as he shot another Psi-Sentinel in the head while Sunpyre turned it into slag from above.

“You leave and you do it now! That’s an order!” Havok commanded knowing that Fantomex would ultimately respect his authority.

Fantomex scowled at Summers from under his mask, “Fine I’ll go but make sure everyone else gets out alright. I except nothing less from Cyclops’ young brother.”

That last remark was purposely meant to sting Havok and it had worked, but Alex shrugged it off, “Just do your job Fantomex and I’ll do mine.”

After the white-garbed product of Black Womb had left Alex turned to Fixx who was keeping the Psi-Sentinels away from the teenagers, “Fixx I need you to do something big. The biggest fairy you can muster! Think you can handle it?”

Fixx had sworn off combat, but in times like these she had no choice but to fight, “Havok I can do it. Just give me the proper amount of cover. Where the hell am I aiming this thing?”

Havok pointed up, “At the roof. You’re going to head underground and protect those kids, but first we need a proper distraction. Then I’ll make sure the Sentinels stay off your tail.”

“I’m not a big fan of that plan,” Ecstasy replied.

“Get it over. I run things here and what I say goes.”

“I’m not running Havok,” Ecstasy growled.

“You will run because you’ll protect them kids with your last breath!” Havok yelled to the point drops of spit hit Ecstasy’s face.

The mutant woman could see the veins coming from Havok’s neck and she finally gave up, “Fine, but don’t you go and get killed.”

Havok laughed, “I’m a Summers. I’ll either get sent to the future or outer space. Possibly another reality…again.”

“Remind me never to marry you,” Ecstasy smirked.

“I think we’d be too difficult for each other. Ask Lorna Dane,” Havok replied.

“Just take care of yourself alright?”

“They’re Sentinels. How hard could it be?”

“These bastards are hard as hell to blow up!” Sunspot yelled as he grabbed one of the Psi-Sentinels by the ankles and flung it into a crowd of his fellows. There was a decent enough explosion and Roberto flew through it to punch another robot in the jaw and send its head flying through the air.

Psylocke ducked the blasts of two Psi-Sentinels and jumped up into the air with her katana. She slashed the arms off the robots and kicked them in the chest. The two robots fell backwards into more of their allies and Betsy threw magnetized ninja stars into the crowd of robots. The magnetic charge scrambled the circuitry of the robots and many of them fell inactive.

Sunspot was busy knocking Psi-Sentinels around like bowling pins, but despite his efforts the robots were beginning to pull him down and create a dog-pile he’d be unable to escape from. Tiny shocks of electricity began to course through his body bit by bit and he finally succumbed to the attacks. All of the Psi-Sentinels that had covered Sunspot like the plague were suddenly gone along with the robots that had been giving Psylocke hell.

Warp Savant was at the door holding onto the edge of it with his other hand on his knee. He looked up at Betsy and weakly grinned, “You would think they would know how to knock.”

“Where is everyone else?” Psylocke asked.

“Bishop and Nightcrawler are getting swarmed. I don’t think we’re going to be able to get to them. We need to go. Warn the others,” Warp Savant said his voice full of exhaustion.

Psylocke looked behind Warp Savant, “I’m going to head in there. See what I can do. You leave. Think you can take Roberto?”

“Yea I can transport him in my head. Stick him in a nice spot,” Warp Savant smiled.

The telepath nodded, “Good. Now go. We got to stop whatever Shaw is up to.”

“The attack on X-Corps has proven to be very successful. Unfortunately, a large bit of the European branch managed to get underground. We’re pursuing them at the moment,” Ahab reported to Shaw who was seating at his desk with his back turned to the cyborg.

“Well, I’ll trust that you find them. I have confidence in your abilities,” Shaw said coolly.

“Oh believe me…I have our first Hound in pursuit of the European escapees. He’ll prove to be very effective,” Ahab said with a hint of malicious glee in his voice.

“Good. Mr. Espinosa will finally have his talents put to good use for a change,” Shaw replied.

The Sentinels blew away the door to Wisdom’s office to take away the leader of X-Corps. They knew they would meet some resistance, but their objective was to take him in alive. So whatever challenge he might put up he had to taken in alive. Scanning the office the Sentinels could find no life signs of Wisdom.

One Sentinel noticed a piece of paper on the wooden desk and it took it up to read. In big bold letters the note said…

STUFF THIS FOR A LARK!

Looking down at the spot where it had found the note the robot it saw a timer that was on four seconds. It didn’t even have time to address its compatriots before the explosion rocked the entire building.