After much blood, more pain, and far too many hard choices, seven Sentinels still remained. And worse yet, they were only getting better. Each exchange, they learned, each exchange consumed the X-Men's stamina, but only empowered their enemies.
The truth was that the X-Men were tired.
And the Sentinels were not.
That was the true horror of them.
Not their weapons. Not their armor.
Not their hatred, because they had none.
No, what made them truly dangerous was the fact that they did not slow, they did not tire, they didn't hesitate because a friend was hurt, because a home was burning, or because blood rained down onto the grass.
They simply recalculated.
And kept coming.
Ororo remained in the sky, but even she was beginning to descend. Her breathing had grown heavier, her arms trembling faintly as she held the storm in place. The weather around the school was no longer a natural system being guided by her will; it was a beast she was wrestling every second.
And the beast was vast.
"Ororo," Scott said through the communicator. "Status?"
"I can continue."
That was not a real answer.
"Ororo," he asked again, hoping for honesty.
"I said I can continue."
Her voice cracked with thunder as she spoke, but beneath the divine fury of the storm goddess, Scott heard the strain of a woman pushing herself past safety.
Then one of the Sentinels adapted again.
Thin rods launched from its shoulders, firing high into the clouds. They vanished into the storm, then unfolded like metallic flowers.
Hank, watching from the mansion steps despite his injuries, understood before anyone else.
"Lightning rods!" he shouted. "Ororo, disengage!"
The rods pulled the next strike away from the Sentinels.
Ororo's own lightning was dragged off course, grounded, captured, and dispersed through the devices blooming across the sky.
For a heartbeat, her control faltered.
And the Sentinels surged forward, taking full advantage of the opening.
"Damn it," Scott whispered.
"Language," Logan growled over the communicator.
Despite everything, Scott almost laughed.
Then the mansion wall exploded.
One of the flanking Sentinels had bypassed them to attack the building directly, its massive frame tearing open the walls with ease.
Logan met it inside, taking advantage of the crowded space, or at least trying to, but the machine cared little for walls as it tore through them like paper.
"Mutant signature detected," the machine announced through its hidden speakers as its sensors locked onto Logan.
"Detect this then," Logan roared as he jumped at the machine monster with his claws.
The legendary metal Adamantium, which had cut through everything before, now left nothing more than shallow scratches on the robot's body as it swatted him away with a single backhand.
The old mutant crashed through a wall, landing hard on the ground, but was back on his feet without missing a beat.
Outside, Scott was forced to watch this happen, unable to help, because the others were still pressing their attack, forcing him to hold the line.
Logan was well aware that he wouldn't get much help, but he was fine with that; holding back one of these things on his own was already plenty.
"I got this one," he said into his communicator. "You guys hold out until I'm done, then I will show you all how it is done," he said with a grin.
Even as he spoke, he lunged again, this time aiming for the knees, trying to find a weak spot that he might be able to exploit.
He found it.
The joints were indeed weaker than the rest of the body, but it was still far from easy to damage them, especially given how these machines moved, always making sure to keep their weak spots protected.
"Come on, you tin can, fight me like a man!" he roared.
The Sentinel did not respond, it simply aimed its weapons at him, but Logan was already moving, using the tight space to his advantage.
The machine might not care much about the walls, but the walls still offered him cover, forcing the machine to break them down, wasting time and blocking its line of sight.
"Surrender," the machine commanded as it fired its plasma weapons into the wall, reducing it to rubble and molten slag.
"I don't think so, bub," Logan responded as he slashed a metal limb with his claws, only to once more face resistance.
"Damn it, what the hell are you made of?" he cursed as he jumped back, just barely avoiding a sweeping arm.
He honestly didn't like fighting machines; they were annoying, as taking them down was so much harder than taking down humans.
Few people could keep fighting after a good stab, but a machine? They didn't know pain or fear.
Almost like himself.
Though, he knew that even if those plasma weapons didn't kill him, they would for sure take him out of the fight for a bit, and without anyone to back him up.
Well, he doubted the machine would give him time to recover before finishing the job with another few shots of superheated plasma to the face.
So the only way out of this was to take it out before he got hit.
And he had no idea how to do that.
"Charles, what's the plan?" he couldn't help but ask.
"I'm sorry, old friend, but I can't help you much here. Just try to be careful; help is on the way," Charles said directly into his mind.
Logan scoffed at those words. "Who is coming? Old metal head?"
Logan had no love for Magneto, but he did admit he wished the old fucker was here right about now. After all, when it came to dealing with metal, that guy was the best in the business.
Then again, given what these machines were made to do, he was sure the maker of them had done everything he could to make this particular metal as hard to control as possible.
Just their hardness alone was something else.
Once more, he threw himself onto the ground, rolling left to avoid another shot from the machine, and then used every bit of strength and skill he had to jump up vertically to avoid another.
The machines really weren't messing around, but thankfully, they clearly weren't designed to operate inside.
It was simply too big, and while it could treat the walls, floor, and ceiling as a joke, it still gave him room to breathe.
So the question was, how to kill it?
The ones outside had proven it wasn't impossible to take them down, but it wasn't easy.
Their defenses were beyond impressive, and their firepower wasn't far behind.
Yet, so far, he had managed to do little more than scratch the paint off this one.
His claws simply couldn't find a weak spot to exploit, or rather, the blasted machine was protecting the weak spots and not giving him a chance to target them at all.
"Damn it!" he cursed as he ducked under a sweeping arm, not even daring to block it, not because he was afraid they would break his bones, but simply because he worried that if he was knocked back, he wouldn't be able to avoid its follow-up attacks.
The blasted machine was learning faster than he would have liked.
Tricks that worked one moment ago no longer did.
Feints it had fallen for at first were now seen through right away.
It honestly felt like he was training this thing and not fighting it.
"You know... for a machine that's supposed to be smart... you are really stupid," Logan said as he kicked a pile of rubble towards the machine, only for it to ignore it, as if the trash wasn't even worth its attention.
"Your momma didn't teach you not to play with your food?" he couldn't help but say.
"Mutant detected," the Sentinel said, its voice as calm and unbothered as ever. "Threat level, none."
Despite its voice being the same as always, Logan was damn sure it said that just to piss him off.
The cursed thing was mocking him!
With a roar of anger, Logan once more threw himself towards the machine. This time, he ignored the idea of looking for a weak spot and just aimed at what he could reach.
He wasn't dumb enough to think this would be enough to take it out, but he hoped that maybe he could damage it enough to make it reveal a weak spot.
His claws dug into the armor. This time, he managed to leave a few deeper cuts, but it still wasn't enough to make it break through.
The Sentinel didn't even bother to try and shake him off this time.
Instead, it brought its other arm back, and then smashed it forward, aiming to crush him against its chest.
Logan's eyes widened as he saw this coming, and he didn't even hesitate as he pushed off with all his might, jumping away.
And just in the nick of time, as the arm struck where he had just been, the two arms collided, and the sound of metal hitting metal rang out.
The force of the impact caused it to s
tumble, leaving an opening that allowed him to hit its weak spot and take it down in one go.
...
Or that was the plan, but plans are beautiful like a redheaded biker chick in tight leather, but reality was a cruel mistress indeed.
The Sentinel wasn't so crude that it would hit itself. The moment Logan moved away, the arms stopped, and it continued its attack.
It was a never-ending barrage of death and steel, one that he could only barely dodge.
"Mutant detected. Threat level, none."
This time, Logan was sure it was mocking him.
But as much as it was mocking him, it wasn't just toying with him, no, it was also learning.
It was adapting.
The more he fought, the more it learned, the more it adapted, and the less he could do.
It was a cycle of death.
And he was on the losing side.
He had been in plenty of fights in his life, more than he could remember, and he had lost plenty, but he had never felt so helpless.
Not because he was afraid of losing or dying, but because he knew that he couldn't afford to give up, but he also couldn't afford to fight.
Because it wasn't just this Sentinel that was learning; if one was learning something, they all were.
Every trick he allowed this one to learn, the others would use against his friends, or against other people fighting them.
But it wasn't like he could stop fighting, that would be suicide.
He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the only way out was to break both, but he didn't have the strength to do that.
But he had to try.
He had to keep fighting, not for himself, not for the school, not for the Professor.
He had to keep fighting for the kids.
For the future.
He had to keep fighting for Rogue, for Bobby, for all the other kids he had sworn to protect, to give them a chance to live a life he never had.
He had to keep fighting even if it was for nothing, even if it was a losing battle.
He never wanted to be a hero.
Never saw himself as one.
But the children, despite how hard he tried, still saw him as one.
And heroes don't quit.
(End of chapter)
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