ISSUE #118

The New X-Men had gone on a crusade against the purifiers and Ian and Julian both paid for it. Poor Julian is on the verge of death, and Ian is injured.

Thankfully, however, it didn't take Bobby long to get to Ian's location to pick them both up.

" Finally." Ian groaned as he watched the X-Jet fly overhead and land on a building. " Come on, Julian. We're gonna get you home and get you patched up." Ian told the boy.

Julian had long since passed out from the pain. But Ian felt that talking to him would help keep the boy alive.

Ian picked Julian up and flew straight to the top of the building, landing on it as Bobby and Noriko came running down the ramp.

" Ian!" Noriko yelled as the boy approached.

Ian ignored Noriko and continued running to the jet.

" Come on, we don't have time. He's hurt bad." Ian told Iceman.

" Right! Get strapped in fast." Bobby told the boy. He returned to the front of the jet and started it up again.

Ian on the other hand, brought Julian to the front of the jet and placed him down on his back. Cessily rushed to check on the boy, while Ian plopped down hard in one of the seats.

" You alright, man?" Victor asked.

" No, I need to get back and have Hank stitch me up, that cyborg bitch left some deep gashes." Ian told the boy.

" Dude, we're sorry. We didn't know." Santo told Ian.

" Save it Santo. I don't want to hear it right now." Ian told the boy.

" Look man, I get it you're mad. But... But dude, we had to try. We wanted to help. We just thought that we could handle this." Santo explained.

" I told you, I'm not mad, Santo." Ian looked at the boy and spoke. He then turned to Noriko and looked her straight in the eyes. " I'm just disappointed." Ian spoke.

Noriko felt his words, she knew he was speaking directly to her. The look in his eyes said all the words he hadn't. She messed up. She didn't say a word. She simply hung her head in shame.

" It's my fault. I should have known this would happen." Ian stated. This time he turned his gaze to Laura. " But you... I'm more disappointed in you, than anyone else. You're different than they are. You know better than this, Laura. Or at least I thought you did." Ian muttered.

Ian leaned back in his seat and rested. He needed it. He knew things were going to get more dangerous from here on out and he couldn't risk being too tired or too injured to help.

.......

Back at the mansion, things were just as tense. Emma had been distracted by Pixie when she casted her spell and sent out a telepathic scream. And in that Instant, she lost track of Logan's team for quite some time and was desperately trying to get it back. Thankfully, Logan managed to get a message out to Emma

" Emma.... Come in! Come in if.... You can hear me." Logan gasped for breath. He was struggling to speak and every moment it got worse. But thankfully his message was received.

" I'm hearing you, Logan. Where are you, and how did you do? Did you retrieve the baby?" Emma asked the man.

" Negative. The marauders don't have the baby. One of our side has her." Logan replied. " An X-Man took her from Cooperstown. Cable." Logan told the woman.

Emma was shocked when she heard this as it was believed that Cable had long been dead.

" What is it, Emma?" Scott asked.

" One problem after another Scott. Neither the Marauders nor the Purifiers have the baby, Scott." Emma told the man.

" Then who does?" Scott asked.

" Cable." Emma replied.

" WHAT?!" Scott yelled.

He and Hank were in complete disbelief. Neither of them could believe it.

" That's what's Logan found out from Gambit." Emma stated.

" That makes no sense!" Scott exclaimed.

" It's what Gambit told Logan. And Logan believes it." Emma told Scott.

" But he... He would have contacted us." Scott muttered.

" Would he?" Emma asked. " Only if we shared our agenda, Scott. And if he did, wouldn't he have been in touch already? To tell us he was still alive?"

Scott sighed. He couldn't believe Cable was alive. For so long he thought he was dead. But he knew he didn't time to worry.

" Tell Storm to pull out." Scott told Emma.

" I can't reach Storm." Emma stated. " But Wolverine says he and Nightcrawler are- Argh!"

Out of nowhere a Giant sentinel hand came crashing down through the roof of the institute. The hand knocked Emma out of the way and grabbed Scott.

" Priority objective=Changing. New Priority! Target Mutants! Terminate."

Scott wasted no time, lifting his vizor over his eyes and absolutely laying into the Sentinel that had a hold of him. The resulting optic blast blew the arm completely off of the machine, freeing scott.

Scott landed back in the office and the first thing he did was grab Emma. Meanwhile Bishop and Hank tried fighting back against the Sentinels.

" EMMA! Damn it!" Scott yelled. " HANK! EMMA'S DOWN! I didn't even see what hit her!" Scott yelled.

" Me either!" Hank yelled. " But it's not hard to figure out!"

" Damn it! What's wrong with these fools?!" Bishop asked. The sentinels attacking them belonged to the O.N.E. A group of sentinels dedicated to protecting the mutants. And yet here they were attacking them.

Scott and Hank, just barely managed to avoid getting crushed by another Sentinels hand as they leaped out of the way with Emma.

" I'll get her to safety, Scott... And get us some help from my lab!" Hank yelled. He scooped up Emma in his arms and left Scott and Bishop to fight the Sentinels alone for the time.

Though it wouldn't be long.

Exploding from the top floors of the mansion, with nothing but a pair of orange pants on and his vibranium knives, was Warpath.

" I knew it! I knew it was just a matter of time til, you Assholes turned!" Warpath yelled. He landed on one of the Sentinels and jammed both his knives into the machines shoulder.

Behind him, still Naked and clutching a blanket to her chest, was Hepzibah. She quickly got dressed and joined Warpath in fighting the Sentinels.

" The O.N.E. Must have a way to shut these things down, Bishop!" Scott yelled to the man.

" I can't get a signal to them! The sentinels are blocking all the channels!" Bishop yelled back.

" Then we've got to get them away from the institute!" Scott told the man.

" Right, who's our fastest flier that's still here?" Bishop asked.

Bishop and Scott were being bombarded by the sentinels, and for a moment they were almost crushed by one. Thankfully, Nezhno, arrived and pushed the Sentinel back. Using his power to enlarge his size and knocked the Sentinel back.

" Nezhno, Stop!" Scott told the boy. " Stupid kid!"

" He knocked back a sentinel... Give him that." Bishop told the man.

" Yeah, but if he tries to keep that size for too long, he's gonna kill himself!" Scott exclaimed. And he was right, that is the reason Nezhno usually refrains from using his powers. " Stay behind me, Nez! You can't do this!" Scott told the boy.

" Let me help, Cyclops! They're trying to kill us all, anyway!" Nezhno asked the man.

Up above, Warpath and Hepzibah managed to take one of the Sentinels down, by tearing open the repulsor on one of its hands and using it to destroy itself. But there were still many more sentinels to deal with.

" Hey, anytime one of you wants to jump in!" Warpath yelled as he pulled Hepzibah to safety.

" Hang on, Warpath!" Bishop yelled.

" Dust, you up for this?" Scott asked the girl. " We need to know what's going on inside this thing." Scott told the girl.

" I believe so, Cyclops, sir." Sooraya replied.

" Hey, I don't want to be that guy! But a little help would be appreciated!" Warpath yelled to Cyclops.

" James... We can't keep this up." Hepzibah told the man.

" I know, but.... Maybe we don't have to." Warpath stated. A smile dawned his face. " Get behind me, now."

Hepzibah did as she was asked and took cover with Warpath, just as the X-jet came crashing through the face of the sentinel that was attacking them.

" Awesome! He's gonna topple!" Santo exclaimed.

" He might topple, but that hit took out our forward thrusters." Bobby told the boy. " Hang on kids, it's gonna be a rough landing!"

Ian shook his head and sighed.

" Never-ugh- A moments rest." Ian spoke. He got up from his seat, with Laura behind him, and opened the hangar door to the jet. " Get Julian to whatever's left of the damn Medbay, Cessily." Ian told the girl.

" Ian, Laura, what are you two?" Cessily started to ask. She didn't get to finish as Ian and Laura both jumped from the Jet and landed, together, on top of a Sentinel.

Ian and Laura crashed straight through it, tearing it too pieces on the way down.

With Ian and Laura helping to take down the army of sentinels. Scott found the opening he was looking for.

" Okay, the Calvary's arrived, Dust, so, let's do it. I'm counting on you." Scott told the girl.

" I shall find what I can." Sooraya told the man. She then turned into sand and funneled herself inside the cockpit of one of the fallen Sentinels, to find out what was happening inside.

Scott on the other hand, was still busy trying to help the others.

" Bobby, good move using the blackbird." Scott told the man.

" Just desperate... I've got wounded students, Scott. What's happening here?" Bobby asked.

" I wish I knew. They just turned on us. We don't know what happened to the pilots yet." Scott told the man.

" Well, at least now it's just like the good old days. Everyone against us, and giant robots to fight. Let's do this!" Bobby exclaimed. He jumped in on a slide on ice and tried to help the others.

Though it wouldn't be long before Sooraya returned.

Sooraya funneled her way into the cockpit of the Sentinel, but what she found only further terrified her.

" What... What are you?" Sooraya asked.

" Terminate all mutants." The man inside the cockpit had suddenly been turned into a full-on machine. A man-sized Sentinel.

" NO!" Sooraya yelled. She slammed her fist on the eject button and came spewing out of the machine in a panic. " CYCLOPS!!!"

Her screams got the attention of nearly everyone fighting.

" Dust, what's the-" Scott was asking.

" It's not Human!" Sooraya yelled.

Everyone turned and looked at the man-sized machine in shock.

" What the hell is that?!" Ian exclaimed. The moments distraction left him open, and one of the sentinels swatted him down to the ground. Though Ian remerged a moment later and blasted a hole through the machine with his heat vision.

The man-sized Machine, closed in on Sooraya, and just as it was about to blast the girl, Laura leaped onto its back and drove her claws into it. And though it did help in taking the machine down, it also caused Laura to be electrocuted by the machine's power core.

" LAURA!" Ian yelled to the girl. He rushed from his spot and caught the girl as she plummeted towards the ground. " Laura are you okay?" Ian asked. He placed the girl down on the ground softly, but only got a groan as a response.

" Damn it! Onsluaght! Laura!" Cyclops yelled to the two as he ran towards them.

" She's fine. But Scott, what the hell is that thing?" Ian asked the man.

" I don't know." Cyclops replied.

" Mutants!" Ian and Scott, along with everyone else turned their attentions towards the machine and listened as it spoke. " Mutants will be terminated... In due time." The machine stated. It then turned in the air and started flying away.

" Like hell, you will." Ian summoned a ball of energy and started spinning it around like a saw blade. He then threw it at the machine and cut the entire thing in half, only for it to reform moments later as if nothing was wrong. " What?!"

" What the hell was that?" Warpath asked.

" That's a problem." Ian stated.

" For later. For now, I need field reports. Ian, why were you with Bobby? What happened with Logan and the others?" Scott asked.

Ian sighed and clutched his stomach.

" Follow me, I need Hank to stitch me up." Ian told the man. " I seared the wounds shut as best I could, but I couldn't get a good angle on them.

" Alright." Scott replied.

.............

A little later.

" You actively disobeyed my orders." Scott yelled at the New X-Men. He then looked at Noriko specifically. You brought your teammates into the field, without anyone's permission or knowledge. One of my heavy hitters is injured, Lady deathstrike hit an artery, had he not seared his own wounds shut, he would have bled to death. And another one of your teammates, Julian, is on the verge of dying. He has a punctured Spleen, a destroyed rib, and a shredded diaphragm. Not to mention internal bleeding. Congratulations, all of you. You got what you wanted. You will not be doing this again! Dismissed!" Scott yelled at the New X-men and watched as they all turned and walked away in shame.

Scott then turned to the man waiting in the shadows behind him.

" Guess ya got yer butts handed to ya too." Logan grumbled.

" It was a surprise attack.... A blitz. According to Hank, the sentinel pilots were somehow infected with the Nano-Sentinels cassandra Nova created. it turned them into human-sentinel hybrids... Into monsters. They destroyed everything." Scott explained. He looked around at the destroyed remains of the mansion and sighed.

" Not everything." Logan replied.

" We're hurt bad, Logan... You've got wounded, the kids went against the Purifiers and took Casualties.... And we're all out of telepaths. They were all taken out. On top of that our only healer right now, Elixir, was injured by a falling wall. He's unconscious and probably will be for days." Scott spoke.

" Unleashing Nano-Sentinels like some kind of virus? You really think Cable'd go that far?" Logan asked.

" He had access to the Nano-Sentinel Samples... He's a capable scientist... And we have no idea what his agenda is here, Logan. We have to assume the worst." Scott replied.

" I guess so." Logan stated.

" Bishop's on his way to O.N.E. headquarters to brief them on what happened. But regardless of what they decide to do... It's time for us to up the stakes." Scott exclaimed.

" What do you mean?" Logan asked.

" Our backs are against the wall. The future of our race is in the hands of a mutant who just turned on us... Who could have killed us all." Scott stated.

" Yeah, I know....Just never thought you'd have the stones to pull the trigger..." Logan spoke. " Chuck never would've come up with this plan."

" I know, but these are desperate times, Logan. The kind you're at your best in. We can no longer afford to hold back. It's time to take the gloves off. It's do or die time. You know what to do. That target is Cable. You're to take him down and get the child back by any means necessary." Scott exclaimed.

" You mean-"

" Yes, Logan."

ASSEMBLE THE X-FORCE!!!!!!