13427/The Prototype Sentinel

The Prototype Sentinel
Date of Scene:	30 November 2022
Location:	Secret Military Base, West Virginia
Synopsis:	Shaw calls Lex asking why the heck there's a Sentinel at a US Military base. When they go to investigate, Lex makes the decision to have it shut down and shipped to Shaw Industries --- when the thing turns on and attacc. Luckily, the X-Men and allies also came to investigate or else there might not have been any survivors, President Luthor included.
Cast of Characters:	Lex Luthor, Sebastian Shaw, Rogue, Emma Frost, Tabitha Smith, Kitty Pryde, Divine, Jean Grey, Roberto da Costa

---

Lex Luthor has posed:
A single blip. That's all it takes to get the blood boiling for many mutants who know what a Sentinel is. One pinged, an older model, and that has lead many people toward a secret US Military base in the mountains of West Virginia. It's an understated base with a large semi-circle entrance in to the side of the mountain. Fences, trees, flood lights, barracks, guards.

There's an unusual unmarked motorcade parked within the fences; a long limousine. There are other cars too, that are not military. It seems this base has visitors today - not just the X-types, but ones who are meant to be there.

Lex looks up at the mammoth machine propped up in the large excavation of the base inside the mountain. The robot is at least 30 foot tall and the military engineers have been working around the clock to outfit it with the latest ablative armor. Lex is impressed, though a touch confused and horrified at the same time.

"Well Shaw, what do you think?," he remarks wondering just how deeply this affects his mutant friend. "Colonel," he calls out and the man approaches with a salute, "I'm shutting this operation down and this weapon will be disassembled and shipped to Shaw Industries."

The Colonel salutes and says, "Mr. President. To confirm this order I will need you to complete a coded challenge." The secret service men nearby glance at each other and then to the colonel. Lex raises an eyebrow - unusual but this did appear in the black budget for the department of defence.

"Agent Clanker. Bring me the challenge box." The secret service man nods, not salutes, and turns to head out of the base and back to the car.

Sebastian Shaw has posed:
Frowning as he looks at the monolithic nightmare of his preferably distant past, Sebastian Shaw looks over at the President. "I think this thing should have been destroyed along with all of its brethren." It seems for a trip to a military base, Sebastian has eschewed his usual Victorian attire, so this is the rare chance to see him in a modern suit. Armani, dark navy, with light grey pinstripes. Tailored well to his physique, contemporary but rarely if ever worn before. "As soon as I found out what the actual purpose was, I worked to get them all out of production."

He looks up at the Sentinel. "They were the dream of a genocidal lunatic, and he did a very good job snuckering the government into being unwitting allies in his attempts to 'cleanse' humanity." Shaw sighs deeply. "Including my own company. They didn't tell us what the tech was being used for, but once I found out..." He closes his fingers into a fist, and then turns his attention back to the President. "This is not just a bad idea, this is the sort of thing that will mobilize mutants worldwide - and those that aren't exactly treading the ground of the world, either - almost immediately. The last thing you want is to unite all of the mutant factions together against you, and that - " He points towards the Sentinel's massive head. "...is the most unifying threat mutant-kind has ever faced."

He glances around to the machinery hooked up to monitor and study the Sentinel. "You need to get rid of it, and everything that the military has been able to gleam from it. Neither it, nor knowledge of it, should leave this room." A pause. "If you are asking my advice, that is, not just my opinion on the matter."

Rogue has posed:
The Blackbird was set down not too far away. The X-Men had disembarked and spread out to gain some information on the perimeter of the situation here.

Once regathering, the team stands not far from the facility, watching that convoy of parked cars outside of it.

Dressed in her green and gold, her hands inside of her leather jacket, Rogue shakes her head softly side to side. "Well, that looks like a presidential caravan if I ever seen one... which I haven't. I mean, I seen them on tv, but yeah..." She glances over at the others. "Our info says the Sentinel sensors were coming from inside this place. But if the ... well... if there's a buncha politicians in there, the President too, I dunno how keen they'd be on us just waltzing up and knockin' on the front door, let alone tryin' to smash our way in."

"So what are our options here? If a Sentinel is inside, we got a duty t'smash it t'bits, I'd say."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would consider over at Rogue and slowly nod, "Quite. However, openly attacking a presidential convoy carries with it quite.. Different risks. We need to get an idea of what we're up to." She would go to focus her mind and reach out across the country.
    <<Divine, I require your presence.>> It's sent along with a location and hopefully Emma's 'muscle' can be there within a short time.
    "I can get us in past anything electronic presuming we don't want to make a fuss, though we have no idea what security is. I can try to scan ahead telepathically.." Not that Emma minded messing wiht a sitting president, but that carried with it a different kind of risk altogether.
    "And if this thing is intact, there are going to be more of them. We need to get some solid information from it -before- we dismember it."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The bombshell turned on up for the jaunt to what Tabby referes to as upper left Virginia, Tabby having heard what was going on. And maybe made sure she came along. There very few things that get her dead serious actual Sentinels for one. Any joking near or around them has usually been in the Danger Room.

Right where she can work on her fears and try and not be the nerfvous and twitchy mess she is on the flight.

Uniformed up, black leather like material, yellow padding up on the arms shoulders back and cchest with boots matching and her raybans in red like the leather jacket. The Genosha survivor can't help but agree with Rogue. "We don't just smash it. We slag it. Melty good scorching the ground. Nothing to piece together and rebuild. And start their.... crap again." nothing like the feeling of a telepath trying to repress her PTSD.

Bad, bad memories.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde is in her place of concealment with the others, chewing her lower lip as she looks over at the base through a pair of binoculars. Lockheed is resting on a tree branch overhead.

"We need to know what's going on," Kitty says, "Before we start slagging things. How many are there in there. What is their intent? Are they planning to make more, are they researching this one? Do they even know it's active?" she says. "And yes, if the President is in there this is probably not a good time for fireworks. What do you think, gather info first and then decide where to go from there? We've got Emma's telepathy. I can work on hacking their network and security. If we figure out the layout we could potentially phase in through the mountain there, but not something we could just do without knowing the layout without risking suffocation."

Divine has posed:
NEW YORK CITY, ABOUT TEN MINUTES AGO

Divine, the half-Kryptonian clone of Kara Zor-L, was loafing around her small loft. Amazingly, she's reading a book while laying on her couch, a grindy industrial playlist going in the background. All in all, she has the makings of a pleasant and low key evening. At least until the message arrives. She starts from her perch and wordlessly thinks an affirmative. She heads for the door, throwing a black hoodie on as she exits.

NOW

High in the stratosphere, the clone cruises at about three times the speed of sound, pushing herself towards escape velocity in short bursts. She uses her telepathic link with Emma to find the Xavier's crew, swinging wide around the base and slowing as she descends. Her boots hit the ground, and she emerges from the trees to stand tall at Emma's shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic's a bitch."

Divine is not dressed for combat. She's wearing knee high combat boots, leggings and a hoodie. Then again, Kryptonian. "I can see through the ground, unless they lined the bunker with lead." She, in fact, tries this, leveling her eyes towards the ground, sweeping her gaze in the search of things underground.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Pace yourself Sebastian," Lex says as he witnesses a full spectrum of emotions on the man's face. "Colonel when did this machine come in to your possession?"

The Colonel looks between the President and his guest Mr. Shaw. "This unit arrived three weeks ago Mr. President."

Lex pauses just for a moment, taken off guard. He doesn't want to tip his hand so he carefully asks, "How many have you previously processed?" But even he can feel the heat under his collar. Shaw is right, this could be an unmitigated disaster. Thankfully Shaw was quick to pick up the phone.

The Colonel tucks his hands behind his back and says with pride, "Six previously Mr. President, all outfitted and shipped off."

Lex slowly nods his head. He can't berate a soldier for doing his job too well even if this operation is completely unsanctioned. "To where..."

The Colonel shakes his head, "Sorry sir, that information was not part of my operation."

In LexCorp, Lex was the dictator. He knew everything going on in every division. The Government though? the left little finger doesn't even talk to the join holding it on. It's a maze, a myriad of secrets and automations. Even he can't find every nook and cranny hiding who knows what. It's infuriating. And it seems like someone is trying to sabotage his presidency by starting a war with the mutants.

The secret service man exits the large semi-circle entrance way and walks over to the largest limousine. His hand keeps going to his ear - so either the President is going to be here, the President is here, or this base has some business to do with the US Treasury. The agent gets a briefcase out of the car and starts to walk back in to the base.

Divine can see in to the base alright - the giant weapon known as the sentinel is hard to see in to as it's well armored, but the President is absolutely there. So is Sebastian Shaw and a compliment of military engineers and guards.

Sebastian Shaw has posed:
Arching an eyebrow as he regards Lex, Sebastian shakes his head. "I am not sure you understand the gravity of this situation, but suffice it to say the fact that you are seeing any of this display on my face should give you enough of an idea." Little else could spook the Black King, but a Sentinel is both a nightmare for his kind and a sin of his past. Even if committed without his knowledge.

He has managed to regain his customary composure by the time the Colonel replies with the count. Six. He turns his attention back to Lex, studying him. Allies, in as much as any of them can be, and friends, with that same qualification, but even so, Sebastian is suspicious. He wants to read from Lex's face the reaction. To think that six of them are out there, in the world...

He looks to the Colonel, and then back to the President. "When we are in more secure quarters, I can provide some additional insight. Nothing I think either of us want to go into now." He looks back to the Sentinel and frowns. "I think you should definitely classify any knowledge as to the quantity that is out there. Should this one arouse any further interest, you do _not_ want to prompt a panicked search for the others."

Rogue has posed:
When Divine arrives at the team's location, Rogue looks the woman over, remembering her from awhile back. She nods once toward her, then over to the others. "If she can help you find the best place to phase in, Shadowcat, use her. Take whomever you think you'll need to get in, figure out what's goin' on, and maybe prepare a plan to destroy it, if it really is in there at all..." The southern belle offers as a plan.

She looks over to the base again to see the figures walking back toward it after leaving one of the fancy caravan cars. "I'm gonna stay out here and keep a watch on the outside'a the place, we'll need some eyes out here, I figure."

Rogue glances up to Lockheed in the tree above, and then back down again, her white and brown hair swept across her face in a wind through the woods around them. "Hopefully we can do this without anya' these suits seein' us. No need t'make this a national emergency..." She adds, with her right hand coming up to pull her hair back out of her eyes that are locked on the base now...

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod over at the others and moves to try and think over, "The president is in there along with an escort.. So that means that if we do anything we're very, very likely toe scalate." She would slowly hiss as well as she sees Shaw through Divine's eyes and her tone goes to raw acid and rage. Oh yes, he's going to have so much explaining to do.

"Katherine, if we get you inside there can you get into the -thing- and obliterate it?" Seh would inquire over and glance at Divine and purse her lips. "Because we don't want to start a huge fight." The risk of even being -seen- acting violently around President LUthor will lead to violence the likes of which mutantkind has not seen since Genosha. "So we have to get in, and get out.." Emma would hiss. "I can try and scan minds but military eqiupment will likely bl ock me to some degree.>" SHe's considering now and tapping at her chin, trying to think of possible weaknesses she could exploit.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby hmms and balls her fists tightly while looking out over the base in thhe direction the sentinel is located. "I can do it. I can blow the thing up. Make it look like a power cell malfunctioned and it self destructed. Kitty and I like totally run in, phase through the armor. I set off a big honking bomb. Phase out, run like goddamn bastards. BOOM!" she makes the appropriate explosive hand gesture after a vigorous arm pumping run like expression.

"Nothing less than slag! Plans kinda out in the wild already. Goddamn AIM cyborg bears using sentinel tech." she points out. Somehow she sounds flippant even now but this is totally serious Tabby. She might just be struggling with some pent up problems all things considering.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean was busy in the plane or something!

She rejoins the rest of the team in due course, in her usual dark blue and yellow lightly 'armored' uniform. The one that basically never sees combat usage before it gets transformed into a very different costume. Still! Gotta think positively.

When she rejoins her teamates, her first instinct is of course to do a quick mental survey, both of the area ahead and of the team itself: <<Situation?>> They only have to think it to fill her in, which really saves a lot of time as briefings go. <<I think recon is a good idea,>> she quickly goes on to tell Kitty. <<And it wouldn't surprise me if they had all kinds of shielding of the interior structures. So that's you, Shadowcat.>> She's always the go-to scout, and this is no exception. <<But high caution. Sentinels pack every sort of tricky tech they can come up with, and power suppression isn't necessarily off the menu, or other kinds of disruptive equipment. Constant contact, and pull out if you get a hint of anything weird.>>

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty keeps looking through the binoculars. "If I can get into its head where the memory and CPU are I can pretty much wipe it out just by passing through them. The difficulty depends on whether it has sensors detecting mutants, and whether it has power nullifiers, and what kind. I've done it before but it can be risky. Usually have someone Fastball Special me through, preferably while someone else is engaging so it isn't focused on me."

A nod is given towards Phoenix as she warns about power suppression. "That's the big worry. Get in and then can't get out, can't do anything to affect it," she says. She looks over to Divine and Emma and says, "Can you tell how active it is? At the last I can go get a tap into their network. Much easier when I can phase over to it and tap in directly into the wire. And that might give us more data on what's going on," she says. "And I can continue to recon the rest. Phoenix and Queenie, let me know if anything is moving in there."

If that works for the rest of the team, then she begins making her way forward, pulling a full balaclava over her face to help hide her identity should be spotted. By ducking underground to travel and just coming up to get her bearings and catch a breath of air, she can cross to the facility rather stealthily.

Divine has posed:
"There's a lot of people down there. The president, Mister Shaw, and a bunch of nerds and guards," Divine shares for the benefit of those who aren't in her head. The girl isn't dumb, but she's a little short-sighted.

"I could just go smash the hell out of it."

Not a great idea. The idea of recon is bandied about, and the tall woman shrugs, stuffing her hands in her hoodie pocket. She squints down again, looking. "The robot isn't moving. It's slumped in a corner."

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa pulls on his ear and shakes his head, "Everyone, I know I'm the last one anybody expects to be saying this but... A government is much bigger than a corporation, even Brazil compared to DI. It's possible that this is a mothballed project they discovered and they're trying to cover it up to avoid bad PR with mutants, or that it was a left over. It wouldn't be the first time Hydra targeted mutants. Remember the previous cyborg sentineels were all AIM, not a divsion of the government." Roberto sighs and shakes his head, "Listen I know from bad guy business men but... don't we have to give him a chance?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
The Agent approaches the president and places the brief case down on to the desk. Lex places his thumb to the lock and types in a code. It opens and inside is a computer. Another code is entered and he looks to the colonel. "17 822 Ape 713 Teahouse."

The colonel reaches in to his breast pocket and takes out a sealed envelope, letter sized, then rips it one. He looks over the code and frowns a moment. "Authorisation challenge has failed Mr. President."

Lex glances side long at Sebastian Shaw. Forget worrying about classifying this disaster if he can't even shut the damn thing down. He taps again on the computer, "5050 Bonsai 317 Golf Brave 44."

The colonel reaches in for a second envelope and repeats the process before looking nervously to the President and stating, "The authorisation challenge has failed again Mr. President."

Several of the military guards on duty take notice at two failed attempts and hands go to weapons. The secret service people with Lex and Shaw each place a hand behind their back to their strapped on uzi in preparation too.

Lex lifts up his hands to calm the moment down, "People, I'll contact General Baxter and we'll sort this out immediately." Lex is starting to look pissed. They cannot have messed with -his- codes but someone has given the Colonel of this base the -wrong- codes.

The Colonel frowns a moment, "Fetch the President a secure phone." They all know what is going through his head - is this _really_ the president or a shapeshifter pretending to be? The only thing that keeps the trust of the military from falling apart are these challenge codes.

Just as Kitty gets in to the network there's a blip on the connection and it gets cut off. Externally, not internally, the base has been forced in to dark mode. A staff sergeant whistles and calls back to the Colonel, "The secure lines are down sir." The colonel looks extremely perturbed by this.

Lex glances at Shaw. It's clear his patience is being tested and he says wryly, "This is beginning to feel like a trap."

The mammoth sentinel, seventh of its number, outdated 90s technology being retrofitted with modern armor and likely weaponry, is meant to sit dormant. It has no power supply of its own. The circuitry put in it to commit genocide supposedly gone too.

But from orbit, a quiet satellite activates. Its exterior ports open and it begins to spin up; a beam of invisible energy shoots down from above and through the mountain.

The eyes of the sentinel turn red as it awakens with a bellow of energy.

Sebastian Shaw has posed:
A wrinkle of his nose is the only reaction that Shaw has to the failed challenge codes. "It's like that time that you kept asking for the Cheval-Blanc 47 and they kept bringing the..." He snaps his fingers a few time. "What was that vintage they were trying to pass off again?" He chuckles softly. To the rest, the witty banter of an old friend, perhaps. To Lex, Shaw's own form of challenge code. He knows well enough how capably one can imitate a friend, or an enemy. Or both.

A glance back to the Sentinel. "If it is a trap, Mr. President, then who is the target? I doubt anyone expected either of us to arrive with such alacrity." He pauses for a moment of thought. They would not be the only ones who would make haste at the first sign of a Sentinel. "Perhaps you should make your way..."

And then Sebastian Shaw's worst nightmare begins to stir. "It might be worth praying right about now that this _has_ attracted the wrong sort of attention." Does he consciously inch over to the side to prepare to place himself between the Sentinel and the President? Either way, Shaw decides that taking the five minutes to do several rounds with the brick wall of the Hellfire Club before he joined the President was time well spent...

Rogue has posed:
With Jean making it out of the Jet, Rogue nods her head to the redheaded team leader. She shows a faint smile before looking back to the others. "Emma's powerful buddy is gonna make this a cake walk, I think." She says with a sly grin before she floats up to the tree branch that Lockheed was on. Her right hand dips in to her jacket pocket, and she pulls out a little bag of Cheesy Poofs that she pulls one out of. She tosses it at Lockheed while letting her feet dangle from the branch. With her hair flowing around her face in the wind, the Belle just perches and watches the base from a little higher up... being that she can't just fly freely around, less she alert those down on the ground.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma's gone to take a few moments to try and scan some minds of the military personnel inside, once the others are discussing a plan. Her patience has limits, particularly where Shaw is involved. She's given her quick thoughts and she's going to try and dig out something useful, even just surface impressions.. While paying attention to the quick planning being done by the group that she goes to pay attention to.

Tabitha and Divine are given a nod of agreement, "Yes, we'll see what we're up again--" right as the sirens go off and she picks up the eyes of the Sentinel going to activate. Emma can't make out at any point now what's going on from the individuals inside with the Sentinel - it's all too easy, however, to pick up the thing coming online as Emma goes to give a harsh swear.

<<That thing's operational.>> That's all she has to say now. <<Divine, do what you're instructed to coordinate with the rest of us, please>> A gesture is given to Jean. <<And take care, we don't know what sorts of countermeasures this thing will have to use on you>> Even as Emma's bracing. There's preciouslittle she'll be able to do against that Sentinel with her mind. But oh -yes- she will fully enjoy the explanation she gets from Sebastian as soon as she can see him. Presuming that both of them live that long of course.

And Emma's going to quickly pull the rest of the team together into the group meld. <<I do think that it behooves us to try and get the president out of there.>> No mention is made wahtsoever of Shaw, of course.

Jean Grey has posed:
It doesn't really look like the President knows what's going on either, and we're going to respect HIS take on this situation," Jean states with a certain authority. "Because right now, all of this," and by this she clearly means the monstrous robots they're here to investigates, "is something illegal, or at the very least off the books, not an active government policy. Let's not give anyone a reason to reconsider that position."

She pauses, taking a breath, and her expression makes it clear she's obviously not happy here. "These aren't the first of these things we've dealt with, and no doubt not the last time we'll find someone playing with them. A few we can handle, maybe even trivially." This is perhaps a nod to Divine's bold viewpoint. "But we're not concerned with a /few/. We're concerned with the who and the why and any chance that someone might end up making a lot more."

All of that said... well, this one does the predictable thing, and goes ahead and turns on.

Does Jean sigh? Maybe she sighs. Why does it always have to be like this. As for orders? She gives one, clearly, by mental communication so there is no chance of it going unheard: <<Protect the President.>> It's sort of a no-brainer, and she's not going to complicate it, in the first few seconds, where everything is most at risk, with lots of extra details.

Indeed, she immediately takes to the air herself, streaking forward, aimed toward the Sentinel but most focused on raising a telekinetic field between it and Luthor below.

Sigh. Fine, and Shaw too.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There's a pretty forlorn look as plans are made and Tabitha might be feeling annoyed. She has views on how to handle destroying evidence of something she personally watched kill millions of people. "I remember the cyborgs 'Berto. And the dinosaurs! I was there!" she deadpans and starts stretching out.

Kitty goes to do her stealth haxxor thing. The expectation is something will go sideways and the X-men gonna have to step up and, well it depends on perspective for.

Of course it goes sideways. That sentinel stands up. Eyes glowing and all that. <<So should have just gone for telepath ninja stealth and slagged the thing first. Old ass looking robots busting themselves totally would a let us be sneaky and no one woulda know!>> Grumble grumble.

Of course nows she's got to worry about random collateral about soldiers and other base staff, and a president. And she hasn't even thrown a bomb yet. But they are charging like a swarm of giant fireflies.

Basket balls sized fireflies. And a mind psionically directing them to the giant robots joints to knock it down and back away from anyone that the X-Men might give a damn about protecting when it decides to move from it's spot instead of just getting up off it's own mechanical butt.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde has found a network trunk capable after peeking her head around here and there in the base. She attaches a hardware device to it, essentially bypassing their external firewall and putting herself on the network itself. There's still a lot that it has to do in order to communicate with the computers on the network, but the security from this side is much easier than hacking through from outside.

<<Ok, I'm into the network. Found a nice crawl space I can work from for a few minutes while I get into their security systems. I'll have the cameras on a loop soon and- huh. That's odd, their external connectivity just went down completely,>> Kitty sends back to Jean and Emma. She keeps working though, infiltrating the computers that run the base security first.

And then everything starts to sideways. Kitty lifts her head from her small screen as she hears the messages send out on the groups telepathic link. "Aw nuts," she mumbles under her breath. <<I'll start heading that way. Worst case I'll try to get the President out if he's in danger.>>

Divine has posed:
Divine might have a fraction of a second's lead on the Sentinel activating. her senses picking up on the burst of energy before it triggers the activation. Granted, she has no idea what that means until the robot starts moving underground, but she -will- remember it for next time. If there is a next time.

Not that she's worried, this thing probably doesn't have specific countermeasures to her, but still it might be able to hurt her.

"It's coming," she says, and thinks at the same time, broadcasting it in a weird stereo to those within earshot. You'd think she'd be better at the telepathy thing, given who she hangs out with, but. With a thought, her feet leave the ground, sending her to hover about a foot off the ground. She's like a coiled spring, ready to launch.

Lex Luthor has posed:
In a facility far away sits a technician in front of a computer terminal. His boss places a hand on his shoulder, "This will be a good test. Kill them all." With a smirk the technician says with the joy of expected victory, "Hail HYDRA..." and presses enter on his command.

Lex smirks at Shaw. He knows what he's doing and he can't fault him for checking, "Whispering Lizard Estate Western Australian... utter junk. Did they really think they'd fool us?"

The Colonel turns around and stares up at the machine. "Shut it down now. Cut that power source." -- The Chief engineer yells back quickly, "There's no power supply hooked up Sir. We're not doing this."

The secret service draw their weapons and gather around Lex, "Mr. President we must evacuate you immediately."

Lex has to agree with the secret service assessment and with Shaw's judgement on this too. "Let's go." The team begin to shephard Lex back out of the facility.

The sentinel rises. Not like some lumbering behemoth - no, it moves like an athlete. Its left arm falls away through, as it was still disconnected when the machine was activated. The eyes sweep around the room and it belows with authority, "MUTANT SIGNATURE DETECTED"

The words are hollow though, this machine has been repurposed by HYDRA for maximum casualties. A beam of energy blasts from its chest and sweeps over the room. Soldiers begin to dive out of the way, some getting blasted by the energy weapon. Machine gun fire is returned to the machine.

As the alarm rings out across the base the guards outside turn and point their weapons inward. Two tanks are repositioned with turrets pointing inward too.

As Lex and his crew rush out of the building, the large doors explode open and the giant robot steps out in to the daylight. A shimmering blue energy field surrounds it as tank shells explode harmlessly off of it. The psionic fireballs too meet a similar fate. The shimmering blue field flickers on and off though. This machine is not fully operation - thankfully.

Sebastian Shaw has posed:
"Not everyone has the distinguished palette that we do," murmurs Shaw in response. "Someone is out to get you, Mr. President." He looks to the officers with a certain degree of suspicion. But he know that it would take more than a few corrupt guards to take out Lex. A giant machine? That is something else.

As the machine comes to life and begins its attack, Shaw moves quickly, placing himself between the retreating President and his men, slowly backing away. "Clearly that thing has been tampered with, it's identifying everyone as a mutant!" He decides not to mention that maybe it is just aiming poorly at the one mutant he knows to be in the bunker. Not about to give away that tidbit.

As the Sentinel blasts its way out of the hangar, he looks back to Lex. "Unless you feel strongly otherwise, I'll leave you in their capable hands. Someone has to make sure that thing doesn't fall into the very, _very_ wrong hands."

Unless instructed otherwise, Shaw starts to give chase. It is a bit easier to be brave BEHIND the thing, after all...

Rogue has posed:
The crinkling sounds of the Cheesy Poofs bag up in the tree continues. Lockheed bites another one, and Rogue takes one for herself. She's listening to the team inside, and as things start to pick up in intensity, the Belle is raising a bright orange powdery cheesy poof up to her lips when then the Sentinel is there, bursting out of the base and out in to the light of the day.

"Aw crap." Rogue states, dropping the Poof, she takes to the sky, but stays within the branches of the tree.

Rising up to its peak, Rogue bursts through the canopy, and just hovers there, her balled-up fists held out at her sides.

"We got some serious shit goin' on out here."

Rogue inverts and flies right down in to the tree line again, and a moment later, one of the trees itself starts to lift up in to the air. At its base, around its trunk, the Belle clutches the tree against her body, guiding it up away from its bretheren, with chunks of dirt and falling leaves trailing behind, and below, as she takes to the sky, with a bit of 'cover' and a 'bat'.

Emma Frost has posed:
Jean's instructions ring in her ears, and Emma Frost is irritated. Well, it's a fair one. She goes to narrow her eyes as she gets the sense of a general retreat and withdraws her mind from surveying things. The White Queen goes to maneuver towards cover,w hile she maintains the group link wiht the rest of the team and is ready to give backup and coordination. It's an old hat for her by this end as she goes to ready to relay things amongst them.

<<Try to cripple it's mobility in the first strikes. It's bulky and slow so that gives more time to respond. It's primary thrusters will be in the feet. Aim for knees, legs, and ankles. It's primary weapons wil lbe turret based so don't presume just as you're not directly facing one it can't target you. The optics are vulnerable but most of it's major sensor clusters will be in the torso where they'll be more protected. The armor will be thinner around the joints and where teh weapons modules deploy from.>>

Emma's tone is clinical in nature as she relays thoughts, memories, and tactics. Memories are pulled from the rest of the group (if they let her) on previous fights with Sentinels, weak points, and analysis of the design as they get a better view of it. Emma's doing her best to try and make sure they know how to hit it, where to hit it, and how to take it down.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean's defensive effort isn't early, it's just... pre-emptive! Yeah, that's the ticket.

Anyway, those fields serve their purpose in preventing stray fire, and catching some of the debris as the building is blasted open, impacting against nothing and then either falling harmlessly or in some cases diverted away or even torn into smaller pieces. A particularly large girder falls with a metallic groan of over-stressed steel, but 'lands' mid-air, hovering harmlessly in the air. And while Luthor is no doubt the most important to protect, the other soldiers quickly come under her aegis as well. She is confident, given their numbers and abilities, that they can take it down, and so the minimization of casualties is the greatest priority.

As she does this, she mentally checks on the others, confirming positions, lines of attack. Ah, Rogue fetching a 'bat.' That's a favorite of hers.

<<I'm not sure what's happening with the shield, but time attacks when it flickers out,>> she projects over her mental channel, while still staying on defense.

Well, mostly.

That hanging girder? She hasn't gotten it out of the way quite yet, and so she decides it might enjoy a new 'home' in the towering robot, launching it like a massive javelin.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby watches her plasma bombs flicker off what seems like a forcefield, making the thing glow and turn off and on as far as visibility goes.

<<Bastard's moving like extra fast Emma,! It ate my bombs! Dialing it up, gonna blow out the shield emitter like in Star Trek technobabble!>> she mutters and curses in her head. There's some pretty graphic memories of Genosha in there of what theses things could do. If she did swear aloud you'd hear nothing but a long single drawn out censor beep.

Joints and stuff were the plan but that kind went out the window when it seems the old ass junker got some upgrades.

Thankfully Tabby also has been working on herself. And she's overloaded on sugar, carbs and caffiene. And now anger.

So maybe she's doing something extra Tabby. Like charging as much of her energy as she can, timing be damned. If it's looking old and busted she might be able to do what she wants.

In her hands the glow is bright and her eyes even start shining with energy behind those sunglasses. "Tick, tick, tick!" she yells out.

BOOM!

It's a stream of plasma this time. Like someone married a flamethrower to a tank cannon. The stream flies from her hands like a guided Tabithadoken. to chase the more mobile robot It'll hit the shields, eventualy but she's planning on that and seeing how much they can take. If it goes to plan, no more forcefields and the others can rip the mechanical monster of her nightmares to pieces or shove girders in like giant lawn darts and she can enjoy the show.

Of course the charge time and wind up does mean concentrating and not moving herself.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Shadowcat sticks her head out of a building just in time to see the Sentinel burst through what had looked like very, thick and secure doors. It takes her a second or two to look about with all the bustle of running people and that energy ray sweeping across the soldiers for her to spot President Luthor and his Secret Service detail running for the vehicles, while other agents are hopping in the armored limo and accompanying vehicles to meet them.

"They aren't going to make it!" she says, springing forward out of the wall and hitting the ground running. She doesn't have all that far to go, thankfully, but then the Sentinel fires that beam off to its left of the President, taking out a jeep and a few soldiers, and then beginning to sweep it across the tarmac towards the running men in suits.

President Luthor looks back over his shoulder, seeing what the energy beam did to the soldiers, and now it's sweeping towards him! The pavement crackles under the powerful blast of energy as it draws near.

Suddenly a young woman in a black and grey uniform and a black mask is in front of him, passing through through one of the Secret Service men who tries to stop her. She grabs him by the back of the suit and pulls him with her. "Quick, grab hold of me, it's your only chance!" she yells. She reaches out to grab the President, and has that Secret Service men as well. Two of the Secret Service go to tackle her, which saves their lives.

The energy beam passes through them all, taking out the rest of the Secret Service detail who didn't reach Kitty. It moves on towards more soldiers as the limo pulls up. "Quick, get out of here!" she yells, unphasing everyone but herself then as she takes off at a run again.

Divine has posed:
The Sentinel bursts from the underground, and Divine smiles. It's not a pleasant expression. It's eager. Hungry. She craves conflict at a genetic level. Rogue grabs a tree, Emma runs overwatch, and Divine charges. The air ripples around her as she goes from still to nearly top speed in an instant, crashing into the massive robot's flickering shield. She bounces off of it, laughing.

Somebody is having fun. She doesn't often get to truly cut loose in a no consequences environment.

She zips around its legs, loosing directed blasts of heat vision at the thing's knees. (Scott's not here, somebody has to optic blast.)

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa leaps into the air, his clothes going vanta black as he ignites thrust and heads down towards the base. He follows the terrain using it for cover but still popping up to take pot shots from far too far away, and with far too little power to hurt the massive robot. It seems clear that Berto is trying to draw its attention, we all save the president in our own way after all.
     He does target that arm specifically, his powers leaving him hard to detect against the night sky and of course he has no thermal signature. He keeps on the speed, closing fast, moving in to harry the Sentinel directly <<It's weird the last time I actually fought one of these I couldn't fly. We'll concentrate on cover and evade.>>

Lex Luthor has posed:
Lex gives Shaw a stern nod. A small look of 'be careful' because running the Hellfire club without him would take a lot of the fun out of it. But he is ushered beyond and to one of the secret service SUVs instead of the limousine. With Kitty's intervention he makes it there in time. Those are eyes he'll never forget - Kitty Pryde. Lex knows you now. But even sweaty from his racing heart he has a job to do, he immediately pulls out the tactical command suitcase and opens it up.

The phone within connects him to strategic command, "This is the President." He looks at that half operational weapon and remembers the colonel telling him there are 6 more fully functional, "Take us to DEFCON2. We're expecting domestic attack imminently." There can be no other explanation for this. Take out the president, start a war with the mutants, it's all the same thing - disrupting the stability of the nation so that someone can benefit. It's how he'd do it.

His eyes glance at the mutants who just happen to be here in their spiffy uniforms. Shaw was right, it was like a candle to the moths drawn to the danger and the mess that would come from that Sentinel existing. Shaw can have whatever slag is left over when they're done with it. His motorcade burns on the ground and begins to race away from the base.

The giant robot repeats its warning. The detector certainly works but its instructions are overriding what it wants to do. Kill the mutants. "MUTANT SIGNATURE DETECTED" as its beam sweeps back and forth, exploding one of the tanks. It picks up the second tank as the girder spears it right in to the chest. The modern ablative armor peels away and the girder and the scales fall to the ground. The tank is thrown back at Jean.

When the intense burst of plasma strikes the machine the shielding seems to be taking it - the heat is immense and the glow is blinding. A fist strikes out at Tabatha even as the shielding flickers and fails. A plasma burst burns through the chest of the machine exposing some of its machinery. But the thing doesn't stop.

The machine dive rolls to the side but it is no match for the speed of the Kryptonian. One of the knees is sliced away and it drops to a stub. Its own beam of energy fires out at the flying black blur.

Roberto gets his wish though as that robots arm lashes out in to the air and tries to grab at him. The body turns and it rises up on to its one good leg seemingly adapted to being a mono-leg creature all of a sudden without missing a beat.

Sebastian Shaw has posed:
There is a slight smirk on Shaw's face as he sees the phasing hero attend to the President. Of course. But once the homo inferiors have departed the scene, either by car or shuffling off the mortal coil, the Black King no longer needs to hold back.

Continuing in his pursuit of the Sentinel, Shaw turns on the jets, making use of the energy he built up and stored before undertaking what he thought was a technical consultation to enhance his speed. Leaping from the ground as the Sentinel flails around, he takes up a perch on its shoulders for a brief moment before doing his impression of the mean green Doctor Banner. With two open palms he slams them together on the Sentinel's head, squashing the armor and circuitry with in.

Certainly, he could not know that it would almost no effect on the murderbots vicious rampage. But is Shaw more concerned with stopping its death march, or of destroying any evidence of technology within its robotic brain?

As it continues to lumber without having any of its processing, Shaw manages to look duly surprised and concerned. "Uh oh," he says, gripping the squished remains of that head tightly to avoid falling off. Not that the fall, or the likely stomping afterwards would hurt him. But the Armani would never be the same.

Rogue has posed:
Jean's throwing a giant metal beam. Divine is pew pewing with Kryptonian laser eyes. Kitty is saving the well dressed Secret Service people. TAbitha is doing what Tabitha does... there's so much going on!

And amongst it all, a flying tree gains speed, toward the Sentinel. Upright, the tree just flies faster and faster, coming right up on it just as the Kryptonian laser slices through one of its legs..

That's when the tree falls horizontally and is swung right at the Sentinel's head. A thousand to two thousand pounds of dense Elm tree is repeatedly swung at the Sentinel's metallic dome head.

Rogue, at the tree's base, grips it with gloved hands, a snarling expression on her visage as she works her muscled arms to manuever the much larger tree trunk, and all its leaf-shedding-branches, to hit again, and again, maybe not striking true with every swing, but the bulk majority are aimed well enough, since she maxes out in weight basically seventy times the weight of this tree, making it no heavier to her than a rolled up newspaper to the average person.

Whack. Whack. Whack. Rogue's working hard to whack that Sentinel's head off! (Shutup!)

Emma Frost has posed:
There's another few swears from Emma Frost. It's definitely had some upgrades done to it. Emma continues to play relay race amongst the minds, passing along where the thing was damaged, the sensory input from the others with how it was reacting, where it seemed to be more durable.. And from the minds of each, where the weapons on it were. From each member of the team, Emma is generating a three dimensional picture of it. It flashing in the minds of the team with each passing moment more and more data. Undamaged areas flashing green, moderatley damaged ones yellow, and red for systems crippled.

A sphere aroun dit representing the shield, ona nd off as it was damaged or coming back up again, then the lbasted off limbs.. Emma goes to send a warning as well.

<<Don't dismiss those, we've seen these things able to remotely manipulate their extraneous ends with weapons before>> So just as they were ripped off didn't mean they were no longer factors. <<Suggestions?>> Emma's down behind cover even as the President goes to scurry away. Oh yes, Emma Frost will remember this if only for her personal amusement. NOw to see where Shaw scattered off to.. And there he is, trying to play hero. Emma's not particularly visible from her position, but she immediately notices him.. And goes to update the res tof the team - ut of course it's likely after he's finished his little game of whack a mole.

Jean Grey has posed:
As the motorcade peels away, Jean takes one last precaution: she finds a mind inside, and keeps tabs on it. Not Luthor. She's not even going to risk the idea of someone thinking she might be 'violating national secrets.' But she's not convinced that an attack here doesn't mean another ambush further down the line.

Whoopsie, tank incoming.

The flying hunk of metal is caught mid-air, although not trivially (at least, not like this): Jean sails backward in the air pivoting away from the trajectory just in case she -can't- stop it, while holding up her hands and gritting her teeth as she concentrates on ALL that matter, that flying mass, decelerating it over a few seconds versus simply stopping it abruptly. Phew.

She doesn't throw it back; instead it's gently set down on the ground again.

Afterward, she looks to the metal monolith again.

It is missing a piece of armor now, which isn't nothing. <<I made a bit of a hole, it looks like,>> she advises others, in case anyone wants to exploit that weak point. At the same time, Rogue returns with her weapon of choice and starts pummeling it. While Jean has her doubts (it feels like that between Rogue's strength and the Sentinel's armor, the tree is probably the weak link), she knows the force behind those blows will put it at least somewhat off balance. She starts spinning up another chunk of debris, planning another attack...

And then she sees an unlikely ally in a perhaps useful spot: "Shaw! You're close, see if you can't hit it somewhere delicate." She knows enough of how he works, opening the possibility of focusing some BIG energy down into a small point.

And so she lobs her next big heavy object not directly at the Sentinel, but at the man clinging to it. Alley-oop?

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Hey the plan worked. It was extra loud and bright and Tabitha is actually wiped now. There's some weird tech left in it's chest after the blast gets past those failing forefiends.. And as the intense flash of light from Tabby's plasma discharge fades and this is why she wears prescription tinted lenses. Everyone else can see the opening.

All the worn out Tabitha can see is an oncoming fist. With Tabby's hands hanging in the air she can really only give back one more thing.

A pair of birds!

This comes in and cleans her clock. Throwing her back like she just got hit with a car at high speed. There's a loud swearing and pain in the mind link. To the X-Nen this is nothing new. But with the shields down the crumpled blonde landing in a furrow of dirt mentally chuckles.

<<Worth it! NEVER AGAIN!!>> she mentally yells while she starts trying to crawl her way to cover. This is slow going for her now.

Divine has posed:
The problem with being nigh invulnerable and powerful is that you sometimes forget that pain is a thing. Especially when you gloat. Divine severs a leg on a pass with an eye beam, and she spirals to a stop to gloat a bit.

"Take that you stupid tin can! Not so tough, are y--"

The half-Kryptonian eats that retaliatory energy blast right to the face. She goes tumbling through the air, flailing a bit until she can right herself. Her sweatshirt smokes and she frowns. "This is my favorite hoodie, you asshole!"

Rogue uses a whole ass tree like a bat, Emma feeds her tactical information, Jean engages in trolling, and poor Tabby gets clobbered. Divine starts to draw in a deep breath. Impossibly deep, honestly. If she wasn't wearing a hoodie, Shaw might get distracted by it. She is though, so when she zips closer and exhales, the only show is the frozen hurricane. It's like the Arctic has arrived in West Virginia in this single spot. Ice begins to form on the ground and on other hard surfaces in the cone of her breath weapon. The Sentinel is right there. Wonder if it's cold shielded.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa cuts thrust and twists in the air with a dancers grace, avoiding the outstretched arm and landing in a three point stance on the ground sliding to a stop next to the sentinel as he moves into a modified judo throw. Grabbing the behemoths foot and lifting it in a smooth cleaning motion. Trying to destabilize the sentinel in its mono-footed stance

Lex Luthor has posed:
The thick ring on the enigmatic man's finger taps against the hardened glass of the tumbler filled with whisky. The monitors tell an interesting story. Casualties are high, destruction is high, but mutants were not anticipated. The president got away. The whisky is sipped and he pats the technician on the shoulder again.

"Good Enough. Don't give them the satisfaction. Shut it down. Adapt the predictive algorithms. How much battery left in the projector?"

The technician checks and replies, "99.993% sir" The boss turns away from the command center of the sentinel. His eyes fall down to the marble floor beneath him embedded with gold in the shape of a skull, tentacles reaching out of its jaw. "Hail HYDRA."

The two guards at the edges of the room stiffen and salute, "HAIL HYDRA!" The technician swivels around in the chair and adjusts his glasses, "Hail HYDRA sir."


The sentinel has taken too much damage now - shields down, frosted, limbs removed, judo thrown. It goes inert for a moment with its head crushed and battered. It seems like may be it's done. But then, then it rises back up.

The energy beaming down from space ceases. The satellite goes quiet, dark, cold once more. Black on black, it moves in its orbit away from the scene of the crime. The sentinel ceases its operations; not merely because the energy was turned off but because of the significant damage dealt to it by the heroics of the mutants and the half-Kryptonian.

The military base is in ruins. The few remaining soldiers are tending to their wounded - the fallen can come later. Not a one of them bats an eyelash at the mutant team that came out of no where. They all know without them they'd all be dead. Nods are given in their direction. A few salutes too - some soldiers aren't quite sure how to address them after all.

What each of them know without a doubt though - these people are heroes. Those amongst them with anti-mutant sentiments feel may be their unnecessary anger was misplaced after all. Those with pro-mutant sentiments feel a swelling of pride that these people are on their side.

Sebastian Shaw has posed:
If one had "Jean Grey and Sebastian Shaw collaborate" on their list of expected outcomes this year, they would get laughed out of the betting parlor. But be laughing all the way to the bank.

After Shaw squishes the head beyond recognition, he sees the tree hurtling his way courtesy of Rogue. While he does actually enjoy getting punched in the face, decorum demands that he avoid the arboreal projectile, and so he leaps up to allow her the full chance to tee-ball the head from the Sentinel. It is only then that he spots what is coming right for him. Debris, courtesy of Jean Grey! He manages to twist slightly in the air, not exactly an acrobat but enhanced agility will help, and grabs Jean's contribution and swiftly pivots around, redirecting it back down at the Sentinel below him. Or more specifically, at the hole in the torso left by Rogue's cleaving of the head and neck. Hurling it down with all of his strength, he calls back to the X-Men leader. "How about some indigestion?" Clearly, his heroic one-liners need a bit of work.

As the Divine wind kicks up, Sebastian is left without perch, and his attention goes towards the Kryptonian. Is that a sly smirk of appreciation? Ah, even amidst a melee Shaw's mind is always able to go back to its comfort zone. Even if the ice patch and Roberto's efforts to trip up the Sentinel mean that there is literally nowhere for Shaw to fall back to.

As he plummets to the ground, passing over the spot where the Sentinel's chest had been, he looks upwards, a strange expression coming over his face. Not exactly the look of a man potentially falling to his death, however.

Rogue has posed:
When the 90s Robot Giant goes down, Rogue just hovers there with what is left of her tree trunk in her hands. She holds it for another few moments, her green eyes looking around the area down below, then, unceremoniously, she tosses what is left of the tree out toward the edge of the base where it fwumps down amongst a bunch of shrubs.

The Belle swoops down to the ground then, her wedge-heeled boots impacting upon the pavement, her eyes once more scanning the area as she walks toward some of the injured personnel. She helps a pair of soldiers get a wounded brother up off the ground, then walks on toward where Jean is. "Was that the only one?" She asks, her hair all wild, all a mess, filled with leaves and twigs, but she doesn't seem to mind a bit. Pulling some of the white bangs from in front of her eyes, Rogue once more regards the others close by.

"Where's Kitty? Did she get all the super secret files on what the hell this thing was doin' here?"

So many questions!

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would pause for a moment <<Ensure that we get the head of that thing to take with us. Divine, please retrieve it quickly>> She would ask her employee. <<Don't make much of a fuss about it, we can get out while they're distracted>> There's a look of half exhaustion on her face. <<But we have a great deal to learn from this..>> And hte more bits of Sentinel they have with them, the more that they can figure out what it was.

<<Jean, I have a warehouse we can put the thing in storage until the team is ready to investigate it>> She's very much presuming that they're not going to take it to the school, presuming there's enough left to analyse of course. Emma's ready to telepathically shield the team as they fall back and scramble things in minds if there's the opportunity. <<Good job darling>> That is sent to Divine with Emma's approval. <<This is exactly why I have you on hand.>>

Shaw is given a glance from Emma, even as the group withdraws and Sebastian has played 'hero'. SHe'll be -talking- with him later. Oh yes, she'll be having a conversation at some point. But to be fair the man has done his share here and didn't play a game of it. He did step in. Or smash in. Eve nif simply for his own survival.. He at least was doing more than making a show of it. So perhaps thier coming conversation wouldn't be so harsh. But.. That conversation would not be now.

Even as the mutants go to fade away. Fighting the good fight another day.

For a world that fears them.

Jean Grey has posed:
When the Sentinel finally stops operating, under considerable assault, lack of power, and even cooperation with an oft-times foe (his line gets an arched eyebrow at best - the facial equivalent of a 5/10 score card), Jean at last drifts down to the ground of the hangar.

With all the chaos and rubble, she first glances side to side and then -looks- further, gathering a broad sense of the condition of the soldiers in a single moment. It's a grim picture, to be sure. <<We'll assist with first aid until they can get medical personnel on scene,>> she directs, broadly, since the group has scattered a bit in all the mess of combat. For all they spend time training in the Danger Room, X-Men train on these more basic and yet important life-saving skills as well, and it's time to put them to use. Jean herself moves to the nearest injured, crouching down to see what she can do.

Of course, it helps that she can multiask considerably, bouncing thoughts back and forth. "I think so," she answers Rogue in the more immediate, proximate sense. "Well, at least, the only operational one. Things look like they were seriously mothballed, so who knows. She's on it."

After fashioning and applying a quick, makeshift tourniquet, she rises back up again, thinking off toward Emma. <<This thing just attacked a government base. I'm pretty sure there's a long list of people who are going to be asking questions, and I'm pretty sure they have first dibs. But I'll get in touch with SHIELD, and maybe we can collaborate on the analysis.>> She pauses. <<That is if they haven't left me 10 messages by the time we get back.>>

Divine has posed:
Divine gets the message from Emma and just nods to herself. Shaw gets squinted at, but that's pretty standard. She skims closer and peers at the robot bits and makes a decision. In one hand, she grabs the squashed head. In the other, she picks up what's left of the torso.

<<I'm gonna head back north with this stuff, just tell me where to deliver it.>>

Then Jean talks sense. Divine swivels in the air, looking between Emma and Jean and just sighs, dropping the parts. Of course the -government- wants this stuff. She snorts and folds her arms across her chest.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby is going to need a heap of ice. Cold ground and stuff around here is probably not a good idea in case someone gets it in their head to arrest her. So she might need to wait till she gets home. <<I frigging hate those things. Melt it down Emma. No screwing around. Please!>>.

She'll probably also need a long nap on the flight home. The girl an exhausted walking bruise but considering how much she really truly hates sentinels. It probably won't be the last time she does something silly and get hurt to take one or more of the things out.

For now though it's just a fight to get enough energy to make it back to the Blackbird. Worth the beating in her opinion. She did what she set out to do. It's not closure cause when genocide happens, you don't get over that.