Sokovia.
A massive Blackbird jet hovered silently high in the sky. Because it was in full-spectrum stealth mode, its sudden arrival drew no attention from this remote little country.
Off to one side of the aircraft, Magneto stood suspended in midair, his right hand repeatedly reaching down toward the ground below.
Subtle fluctuations in the magnetic field spread rapidly outward from him in all directions, quickly covering an area several hundred kilometers wide.
A moment later, Magneto opened the eyes he had kept shut the whole time, his gaze locking onto the underground depths dozens of kilometers away.
"Did you find the base?"
Inside the jet, Cyclops, seated in the pilot's chair, immediately caught the change in Magneto's expression.
"Yes. It's underground, less than a hundred kilometers from Sokovia's capital."
Even though he wore no communication device at all, Magneto's voice still came through every headset clearly.
The next second, an exact coordinate had already been marked on the Blackbird's radar. "This is your first real deployment, so be careful. Those big things won't go easy on you."
"Everybody hold on."
Having taken off the obstructive ruby-quartz visor and already adapted to the surge in his own strength, Scott looked especially fired up.
After warning everyone behind him, Scott shoved the control stick forward hard. The Blackbird's engines let out a low growl as it shot toward the target at high speed.
Behind him, inside the jet's spacious cabin, the X-Men's elite forces had all deployed, fully armed.
Every one of them had changed into the newest vibranium battle suit, and each of them carried a silver-white blade across their back.
Even though they had already fought those Sentinel robots countless times in the training grounds, and every combat formation had long since been drilled into muscle memory, the thought that the enemies they were about to face were no longer Hank's toned-down practice models still made the young X-Men tense up.
"Relax. I already tested them. These adamantium blades are damn near indestructible. Cutting through those big guys is no trouble at all."
Pyro drew the long blade from his back with a sharp metallic hiss. "Just treat this fight like our regular training."
Once exposed to the air, the blade quickly began radiating intense heat, along with a low-frequency vibration, pushing its cutting power to a frankly absurd degree.
After Hank's careful tuning, this batch of blades in their hands could easily split open a Sentinel's outer shell.
"Easy for you to say. These are real Sentinels..."
Even so, some of them still could not help feeling nervous.
"Heart-Shaped Herb, vibranium armor, and all that training. If you're still scared, then you might as well go home. What are you doing calling yourselves X-Men?"
Beast Hank's merciless snort instantly silenced the cabin.
"Hank, this is their first real battle. Being nervous is normal."
Storm, Ororo, quickly spoke up to comfort them.
"The enemy won't go easy on them just because they're kids."
In the silence, a calm male voice sounded.
Logan was sitting quietly in the corner. One of his steel claws kept striking against a long blade, producing harsh metallic screeches.
But as the blade grew red-hot under the rising heat, Logan tilted his head, thought for a second, and ultimately decided not to let them clash any further.
"We're here!"
The Blackbird was incredibly fast. The nearly hundred-kilometer distance vanished in an instant. Once they reached the target area Magneto had indicated, everyone piled out of the aircraft at once.
A gentle force arose out of nowhere and lightly held them aloft.
Only then did Magneto's figure finally drift over from the distance.
"Magneto, did you find something over there?"
"Nothing much. Just a few interesting little things."
Magneto smiled faintly. He had no interest in explaining things to these juniors. If it had been Fenris asking, he might have said a little more.
Sokovia, where they now stood, looked like nothing more than a small country, but during his earlier sweep, Magneto had discovered another secret base hidden extremely well.
And inside the city, he had also vaguely sensed two life-signatures with a strangely familiar magnetic signature.
Since those discoveries had nothing to do with the matter at hand, he had temporarily set them aside.
"Once this fight is over, I'll go into the city and have a look..."
Magneto withdrew his gaze from the distance.
Beneath them stretched a vast forest. If nothing unexpected had happened, the base was hidden directly below it.
"We've been here this long, and those rats still aren't showing themselves?"
Dozens of X-Men lined up across the sky.
They had appeared over the base without making the slightest effort to hide themselves, even brazenly drawing their weapons, practically telling the people below that they had already been exposed.
"If they still don't come out, I'll drag them out of the ground myself."
Magneto's eyes narrowed as he led the group downward from the sky.
But just as he bent slightly and prepared to press his right hand to the ground, a rustling sound suddenly rose through the surrounding woods without warning.
The next moment, a mechanical hum familiar to everyone swept toward them from all directions. Before they could react, countless towering Sentinel robots stepped out from the shadows of the forest.
"Only nineteenth-generation Sentinels. Perfect for target practice."
Magneto let out a cold snort, spread his arms, and began rising swiftly into the sky.
In the next instant, the magnetic field across the entire world around them erupted into chaos. Countless currents burst out of empty space itself. Within moments, a power grid blazing with harsh white light had covered the entire sky.
Heavy black clouds gathered at once. Rolling thunder crushed across the cloud layers with deafening booms.
The air pressure in the forest dropped so low it felt hard to breathe. In an instant, the scene of an approaching apocalypse had taken shape.
"This..."
"Who exactly is the one with storm powers here?"
Sentinels rose into the air in dense waves, but before they could even get close to Magneto, they were casually knocked back down.
On the ground, watching Magneto wreak havoc overhead, Storm slowly lowered the arms she had just raised, her face full of stunned disbelief.
"Stay focused!"
A thick optic beam shot out, effortlessly blasting back the Sentinel hiding in the dark and preparing to ambush Ororo.
"Teacher Fenris may not be here today, but we're going to prove with our actions that even without him, we can still wipe out these robots!"
As countless Sentinels closed in from all sides, a pillar of fire several meters high suddenly erupted around Pyro, lifting him straight into the sky. At the same time, the long blade in his hand began humming and vibrating, its body glowing with a crimson sheen.
"Kill!"
Driven by powerful momentum, the sharp blade sliced through the massive robot with almost no resistance at all, leaving behind two neatly severed halves of mechanical wreckage.
In the sky, lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and the storm rose.
On the ground, Wolverine and Colossus, without question, held the front line. Cyclops, having finally shaken off the burden of being a glass cannon, roared as he charged right in after them.
At the same time, frost spread through the woods over a wide area. Every time Nightcrawler flashed from place to place, his sharp blade would carve cleanly across a Sentinel's neck.
And there was Kitty Pryde, Beast...
After their enhancements, everyone's powers had advanced dramatically. Combined with their new equipment, they could easily withstand wave after wave of the robots' attacks.
As one side rose and the other fell, the number of nineteenth-generation Sentinels rapidly dwindled.
At the same time, while the battle raged on, far out in the Pacific, on a small island that looked peaceful and untouched by conflict, the atmosphere had quietly grown tense.
Inside one of the island's few concrete buildings, the Brotherhood's senior members were gathered in a circle around a table, staring wide-eyed at Mystique's grim face.
(End of Chapter)
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