Feb. 24 - The last stand of Genosha?

[Michael Asters]

The sirens had been going off for the better part of an hour. Jets from the Genoshan Defense Force were scrambled, and all around the Capital and the outlying cities, defense workers fought to preserve order, get people to safety, and set up defenses.

The capital, right along the coast, was clearly the intended destination of the Sentinels. Military workers had set up defensive cannons, and the Accolytes had been dispatched in full force... and then the waiting began.

Finally, a telepathic call went out, powerful in the minds of all of Genosha, although all the Accolytes would be able to recognize that it was significantly weaker than any other call that he had put out. Still, it seemed to cut through the panic like a knife, bringing a sudden calm to the nation, and steeling their resolve.

"People of Genosha, now is our time to rise!"

"I will not lie, my friends. Our situation is dire. An hour ago, extremist forces launched nearly four hundred Sentinels at our island home, and sabotaged the recent attempts the government had made to provide a foolproof defense. Lord Exodus and I met them in battle off the coast of Africa, and we destroyed more than a third of their numbers. But though we have been laid low by this cowardly attack, we fell knowing that our people, the people of Genosha, were equal to the threat that was set before it!"

"So rise up, People of Genosha! Those who can, rise up and fight! Step forward, my Accolytes, and serve your duty to your people! Fight true, Defense Force, and guard our homeland! This is the hour of blood, the hour of fire. This is the hour that we show the world that NEVER AGAIN shall we be laid low by the weapons of our enemies!"

Gunfire could be seen in the distance, as the Genoshan air force began engaging Sentinels. "People of Genosha, this is our hour!"

Somewhere, in the capital building, Exodus and Cassiel finally fell to the floor, battered and bloodied, and completely exhausted with the final effort of making this nation-wide message possible.

[Kyle Riordan]

On a street in the formerly busy market district of the Capitol, things were predictably chaotic..

Stepping out of the relative safety of the sidewalk cafe he had been sheltered in, a young man looked up to the sky.

Wearing sunglasses and a well coordinated ensemble that was nowhere near battle ready, he squinted, trying to get an idea of the attackers positions...

[Ryan Gabriel]

All of the arriving X-Men were fliers. This had, of course, given Ryan an idea for an entry, one that he was bound and determined to take advantage of.

In a flash, the X-Men appeared in mid-flight. "Boxing formation!" Ryan shouted. "Kyra and Rick on one side, Aiden and Nick on the other, drive them together from the sides! We've got one chance to take out a chunk of them before they reach land, and we're going to use it!"

"Kyra, connect us with Genoshan command. Relay this message: The X-Men are here to assist."

[Kyra Raphael]

X-men are here to assist. Kyra said, even as she got into formation Repeat: X-men are here to assist. We'll take out as many as we can.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden took his place in the formation, and began his advance towards the sentinels.

"Understood Seraph," Aiden said smoke rolling from his mouth.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan waited until his teammates were in position, then charged at the Sentinels headlong. "NOW!"

And, as soon as they drove them into a tight enough grouping, he opened up with his full power, washing energy right along the advancing Sentinels, unleashing power in a torrent unlike anything he'd let out before.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden inhaled as he swooped in for the attack and then let loose a torrent of flame to engulf the sentinels in front of him.

[Rick Ferguson]

"You've got it," Rick responded to Seraph. A spiralling stream of wind flew around and behind him as he cut through the air, shifting his position into formation on the side where Kyra was flying.

When they were close enough to strike, Rick's method of domaging something in the air wasn't too far off from what he did on the ground; he would crash into the Sentinels, usually with glancing blow. He could strike with quite a bit of force, but thought it better to not try to hit them head on, instead trying to nudge the Sentinels into crunching into one another now that they were corralled in tight formation.

[Narrator]

"Acknowledged, X-Men. Patching you into the mindlink now."

The first group of Sentinels didn't stand a chance. Some were slagged by Aiden's fire, several torn up by Rick's winds, a few others smashed by Kyra and Nick's telekinesis. Those that remained in the middle of the group took the full force of Ryan's blast and, their systems scrambled, fell with the others to the ocean. In all, about a dozen Sentinels fell in that one attack.

"Initiating attack formation delta." The Sentinels coming up behind them spread out, not about to get caught in the same maneuver. The air was suddenly alight with energy blasts as the Sentinels attacked the X-men.

[Kyra Raphael]

Kyra dove and spun to avoid the blasts, all the while using her telekenisis to rip off any Sentinel chunk that she could remove.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden let out a deafening roar as he flew towards the approaching sentinels doing his best to avoid being blasted from the sky. He flew in at the formation behind an initial blast of flame, and then tackled one of the sentinels.

[Kyle Riordan]

From the capital, a red laser shone upon one of the hands of one of the outlying robots. And a second later, a young man appeared in the robot's palm, looking up at the owner of the hand with a look of grit.

"Say goodnight, dear."

[Rick Ferguson]

Rick took a near miss from a Sentinel's hand-blaster. The field around his body absorbed the damage, but it surprised him and sent him off course. To reward it's effeort, Rick made as sharp of a turn as he could pull off and crashed himself into the Sentinel's head.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Pull... back toward the... shore!" Ryan called, obviously dizzy after letting out that much energy. He fired over his shoulder as he led the team to group up with the forces on the shore.

[Narrator]

And then the Sentinels were upon Genosha.

Aiden managed to take a few of them out, and the one Rick crashed into fell, with its head ripped off and hurled in a different direction, but those stopping to fight the X-Men were simply overtaken by those still heading toward the shore.

The guns opened fire from the shore, blasting a few of the Sentinels out of the sky. The Sentinels, however, opened fire on the guns, those behind the ones that were shot down picking the gun placements off before they could shift their aim.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden growled in frustration as he saw the Sentinels begin to make it to shore, and turned back towards shore. As he approached the line he let loose another gout of flame before regrouping with his teammates.

[Julia White]

Julia is taking cover behind one of the gun enbankments, diving to the side and running for the another one as a blast takes it out. As she runs she lets loose a cloud of motes that zip through the air to serve as flares to her and the remaining gun nearby.

[Kyle Riordan]

Kyle played a game of keepaway, teleporting in and around the sentinel bearing him, taking a little bit of machinery here and there when he did so, only teleporting away when he managed to separate somthing critical.

[Narrator]

Julia's motes managed to distract the Sentinel long enough for the last gun emplacement to take it out, but it was soon blasted apart by the next Sentinel in line. The Sentinel turned its attention next to Julia, raising its arm to fire.

The Sentinel bearing Kyle started swatting at him, trying to clap a metal hand down on him with the force of a crashing car. It didn't seem to want to fire, though, for risk of blasting itself.

A great fire-breathing dragon, though, made a rather noticeable target. Three Sentinels converged on Aiden, aiming to catch him in the crossfire between each other.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden attempted to dodge out of the way of the blasts, but unfortunately he isn't the most agile creature. Hit by more than a few blasts of kinetic energy he spins out of control before crashing through the side of a building.

[Andre Jacquard]

Julia would suddenly find herself swept off her feet by Andre.

"Bet you're glad to see me this time," he smirked as he swung them to cover.

[Julia White]

Crossfire opens her mouth to complain but is quickly shut up by the Sentinel pulverizing the area where she stood just a moment ago.

"Just get me to that one over there."

[Nick Varkan]

Nick, telekinetically hoisting a Sentinel head, clubbed one of the robots with it as he flew by. He then used his power to reach into the damage and tear its head apart.

[Andre Jacquard]

"On it," Andre said as he cast another line, grabbed her again, and jumped into a flying swing.

[Julia White]

As they're almost at the apex of their swing she looks at Andre with determined smirk and pushes herself away from him to throw herself at the nearby Sentinel shoulder amidst a cloud of hundreds of explosive motes that swarm the Sentinel's head as she lands, zipping into any open cracks and joints she can make out.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Somewhere, in the capital building, Exodus and Cassiel finally fell to the floor, battered and bloodied, and completely exhausted with the final effort of making this nation-wide message possible.

Some time later a Jezabelle approached the pair dressed in her Acolyte uniform and carrying a first aid kit. She knelt down beside the pair and opened the kit.

"You are injured." She said somewhat coldly. "A medical team is on standby for you arrival at the medbay. I will assist you until then."

[Andre Jacquard]

"Nice moves Crossfire!" he cheered.

Spotting another Sentinel, he whipped out a glowing red and blue bola and flung it at one of it's limbs. If it connected, he'd detonate it.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan shook his head to clear it, then was aided by an adrenaline rush as a blast nearly hit him. Growling, he rolled in the air to reorient himself. "One thing... these bastards should have learned by now," he growled, looping around and unleashing a blast through the Sentinel's head. "It takes a bigger robot than this to kill a Genoshan!" he shouted.

[Michael Asters]

"No," Cassiel said woozily. "Help me make sure I'm not bleeding, but there will be people who need the medbay more than I do soon. If my people are going to be out fighting these things, I'll be out there with them."

[Rick Ferguson]

Rick saw what happened to Aiden, but reasoned that it would be too risky to shut off his power right now to go down and help him. Instead, he aimed himself at one of the Sentinels who had shot him and crashed himself right into the joint where an arm attached to the body.

We're not taking them down fast enough...

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jezabelle took her boss' pulse and checked his pupils with a pen light before sitting him upright. She wasn't being rough but she certainly wasn't asking his permission before she did things.

"The sooner you are tended to by doctors the sooner you can join the fight. I will not allow you to limp out there just so you can get stomped on. Do not worry, I do not intend to let them keep you for very long."

She paused in her actions for a moment before picking out some bandages, swabs, a pair of scissors and other items she would need.

[Narrator]

Even as he tore another Sentinel apart, Rick would find that he was right. Even with the Sentinels falling dead from Ryan and Nick, and the one Andre blew up and the one that was rocked by explosions all inside its head that left it a hulking wreck courtesy of Julia, the Sentinels kept coming. A pass of the Genoshan Defense Force jets gave them a little breathing room, but not much.

Sentinels were converging on them, but other waves were bypassing the overwhelmed defenders, raining fire down on the capital city itself.

[Aiden Mitchell]

With another deafening roar a wall exploded a bit further down from where Aiden had entered the building. Dust and debris trailed behind him as a rather pissed off looking dragon flew straight at the nearest sentinel, and exhaled a blue tinged gout of flame.

[Nick Varkan]

Nick flew towards Kyra's position.

"Hey cuz whaddya say you and me put our powers together and fuck up some Sentinels?" he thought loudly.

[Rick Ferguson]

Feeling helpless, in a way, but knowing that he could only work on bringing down one at a time, Rick breathed a quiet prayer for Genosha before tackling another Sentinel in midair.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"No!" Ryan shouted, and started blasting at the Sentinels that were passing them. "We can't... X-Men, regroup! Rick, help me get Aiden clear!" he called over the radios, pulling into a dive to blast a Sentinel trying to land on Aiden's back.

[Michael Asters]

"There's no time for that... and there's a better way," Cassiel grunted, pushing himself into a sitting position. "We need more medical staff around, and you can be a medical staff all on your own. Open your mind and trust me," he said.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

Jezabelle stopped and looked at Cassiel.

"Very well my Lord." She said, not resisting in the slightest. When he connected with her he would find her mind... wasn't there. Or rather this wasn't the original. She was however one of many puppets the original was controlling, a few of which were still in the building. He'd get a glimpse of just what she was up to, the senses of fifty separate sets of eyes and ears. Several were wielding energy rifles, firing at specific points on specific Sentinels at once to make the relatively weak arms pack as much punch as much larger ordinance. Still most were doing aid work, assisting injured away from the fighting and even a few acting as triage nurses and conducting first aid.

The link between this puppet and Jezabelle herself was the strongest of all of them, the girl concentrating and creating a very stable bridge for Cassiel to work with.

[Kyra Raphael]

Sounds good to me. Kyra said, flying over after the Sentinel that she'd been fighting fell smoking into the ocean.

[Michael Asters]

"This will be disorienting, but only for a moment," Cassiel said.

The doctor was, for the moment, in a break room, forcing down a cup of coffee before getting back to the injuries that awaited him. With the slightest nudge, he dozed in his chair... and Cassiel tapped his brain into Jezabelle's.

It wasn't exactly instant, but it was close enough that it didn't matter. Jezabelle found that she had fifteen years' of medical experience to pull from, right in her short-term memory where she needed it. "Don't decrease your number of bodies yet... The sheer volume of knowledge you're getting is using all of your minds as auxiliary memory. When you re-absorb, the information will compress and vent what it can't keep... I'm sorry that I'm too weak to do a more elegant job of it right now," he said, his voice wavering for a moment.