Feb. 24 - The last stand of Genosha?

[Rick Ferguson]

"Understood," Rick replied to Ryan, waiting until the Sentinel he was fighting was also sufficiently trashed to descend and help clear the area around Aiden.

[Erik Lehnsherr]

There was a flash, which even seemed to distract the Sentinels, followed by a shockwave. Anyone who looked would see that a magnetic bubble had formed over the city... not over the palace, but over the residential area to protect it from attack, and a mass of Sentinels were thrown off, smashing into each other and soaring into the sea. Over the defense mindlink, all of Genosha suddenly heard another voice.

"People of Genosha! Many years ago, I was powerless to prevent the annihilation of my nation, your forebearers, when death came upon us wearing this same face! And on that day I swore, that never again would Genosha suffer while I drew breath!"

"Defenders of Genosha, fight bravely, and know that Magneto stands with you!"

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden used the break Magneto created to rejoin his teammates.

"What is the plan?" Aiden asked flying alongside them.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan pointed to the magnetic bubble, which was encasing most of a neighborhood. "Civilian population. We're getting between the Sentinels and the civilians, and we're going to use the crossfire as well as we can. We won't get a big hit like we had before, but between the three of us we should be able to make some mass destruction."

[Aiden Mitchell]

"Lead the way Seraph," Aiden said gaining some speed, so he could perform the maneuver.

Aiden also began preparing himself for producing the more prolonged gout of flame he planned on unleashing on the sentinels.

[Rick Ferguson]

Rick nodded to Ryan and followed his lead, rising up and bracing himself to fly between the groups of Sentinels and praying once more, this time that they could avoid taking many hits.

Still, he felt a little twinge of hope. Given the situtation, knowing that Magneto was there to help them at least in some capacity was...comforting.

[Julia White]

As the Sentinel she's riding is rocked by explosions she takes a short running start, leaps on it's head and with a desperate jump lunges for another Sentinel passing above, barely managing to grab a hold in the thing's knee-joint as it takes her towards the city. Hoping it won't notice her right away she climbs on the Sentinel's back and dashes over to it's neck, hoping that if she damages enough connections it's flight will go out of control and maybe crash into one or two of the Sentinels flying next to it.

[Nick Varkan]

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

"Time to kick off the show then," Nick grinned, focusing and gathering his strength in order to destroy as many Sentinels as possible.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"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.

The look on Jezabelle's face was probably priceless. Luckily a camera wasn't really needed as the one in Cassiel's office wasn't the only one making that expression. She rubbed her head, looking utterly stunned.

"... I... am wicked smart." She said softly. She looked at her boss and Exodus, then at her supplies.

"Right. Time to get to work!" She said enthusiastically. Somewhere else some clones who were assisting first aid staff pushed them out of the way and took control of the operations.

[Michael Asters]

"I thought you might like that," Cassiel mused, wincing at his bruised ribs as he shifted. "Now... check me out so we can get back out there."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Break left!" Ryan called to Aiden as they flew toward a squad of Sentinels. "Rick, you come in right between us and tear through the middle!"

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden broke to the left, and as they closed he exhaled blast of blue tinged flame intent on incinerating his targets.

[Nick Varkan]

Nick and Kyra had reached out to the fight and suddenly, with a flex of their combined telekinetic muscle, one of the Sentinels just... tore in half and exploded. The debris stopped midair and hurled into another nearby Sentinel until it too exploded. The process would repeat until one failed to explode, and then the chain would start again.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Jawohl mein Herr." Jezabelle said in a thick German accent. He probably should have picked a doctor that had been born on Genosha rather than one who immigrated there. She quickly set to work giving Cassiel a quick looking over as she tended his wounds before moving on to Exodus.

"Here, these will dull the pain." She said, passing Cassiel some pain killers while she worked, his bandages secure and perfect.

[Rick Ferguson]

Rick grunted an affirmative and positioned himself between Ryan and Aiden, aimed to smash and crash his way through the middle.

[Narrator]

The results of Ryan, Aiden, and Rick's maneuver wasn't as spectacular as the X-Men's first hit when they'd arrived, but they still managed to take out the cluster of Sentinels. The next wave, though, was coming up behind them fast.

Julia's Sentinel suffered small explosions that threw it off course, where another Sentinel slammed into it, throwing it down into the path of another... all in smashing up a handful of Sentinels, leaving the lot of them falling toward the ground.

The capital's lower district, the most heavily populated portion, was being defended fiercely by Magneto and a handful of Accolytes, but the northern district and the government section were soon aflame, with the onslaught by the Sentinels razing the city, despite the best efforts of its defenders.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden looked at the new wave of incoming sentinels, and cursed.

"Same plan of attack?" Aiden asked as he moved back into formation with the others.

[Rick Ferguson]

"They just won't stop coming, will they?," Rick muttered, awaiting orderds from Ryan. "There are so many..."

[Andre Jacquard]

For the second time in less than an hour, Andre scooped up Julia in Spiderman fashion and delivered her from impending doom.

"Why Mary Jane, this is getting to be a universal constant."

[Julia White]

Julia was just in the process of entering a (sort of) controlled fall towards another airborne Sentinel as Andre scoops her up.

"Good lord, shut up or just drop me again."

[Michael Asters]

It wasn't much longer before Cassiel made his way out into the fray... not fighting, but definitely assisting, his ever-valuable assistant('s clone) close behind.

"Reinforce the northern district! Oversight, monitor the evacuation of all districts, we need all of our people to safety. Demolition crews... start seeding a section of the districts with high explosives. By the time the evacuation is complete, I want enough patches of explosives planted that we can lead corral the Sentinels into them!"

[Jubilation Lee]

"I'll set the explosives." Jubilee replied "Its kinda my thing."

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"We can assist." One of a handful of Jezabelles said as they approached Cassiel and Jubalee. All couple of them were wielding blaster rifles and all looked a little worse for the wear. "We can help draw them where you need them. We are expendable."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Cassiel hesitated at Jubilee's offer, then hesitated again at Jezabelle's offer. Then he nodded. "Be careful. Both of you."

_________________

Ryan nodded to Rick, then pointed to the upper district, where Magneto wasn't fighting things off. "Rick, you stay here and help fend things off. If things go to hell here, I need someone to be here now and not just 'as fast as we can fly back.' Aiden, you're with me. We've got a city to save."

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden growled in acknowledgment and followed Seraph.

"How exactly do you plan on saving the city?" Aiden asked after a moment.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan shot him a wry smile as they streaked away from Rick. "The city? I don't. I'll call it a win if we can hold them off to cover the evacuation, though."

[Aiden Mitchell]

"The plan is for us to make a noble sacrifice for the greater good then?" Aiden asked with a slight smile.

[Jezabelle Sherlock]

"Yes my Lord." The five girls said in unison. They gave Cassiel a brief salute, utterly ignoring their counterpart who was assisting the wounded telepath.

"Consider us at your command, Jubilee." One of the duplicates said as they turned away from Cassiel.

[Kyra Raphael]

"I thought the plan was for us to kick their asses." Kyra said as she flew up.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"All of the above. We go there, we kick their asses, we save the city, and for god's sake, live through it. Now let's GO!"

[Narrator]

The Sentinels were overwhelming. In the lower district, even as Rick helped fight them off, they were close to overrunning the resistance. In a final, desperate move, though, there was a magnetic shockwave as all of the Sentinels in that lower district suddenly froze in the air, then smashed together into a huge ball, crunching together so hard that the metal fused, then were flung out to sea. There were, however, no shouts of victory from the defenders on the ground, the air over the northern district was eerily, frighteningly silent.

Jubilee and Jezabelle would be whisked away by emergency teleporters, Jubilee taken to assist the demolition crews at a still-intact portion of the city, where several buildings were literally being filled with explosives and wired up, and Jezabelle taken to the rear of the blockade where the defense was making their stand before they had to pull back again. The Sentinels were being held back tentatively, but with them advancing from the air and on the ground between buildings, the order to pull back seemed inevitable.

[Aiden Mitchell]

Aiden followed Seraph then dove down and strafed the ground between the buildings with flame. He kept the torrent of flame going as long as he could to catch as many sentinels on the ground as possible.

As soon as the maneuver was finished he regained altitude heading back to the fight in the air having done what he could to help the beleaguered ground forces.

[Kyra Raphael]

Kyra and Nick followed, they couldn't take out Sentinels out in job lots like Aiden could, but they managed to send two falling towards the ground. As they fell, Kyra tried not to think about the fact that they were landing on her elementary school.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan wasn't content to short the Sentinels out. He was practically glowing red-orange, and was strafing the Sentinels, melting holes through their heads as he swept past them, flying frantically to make sure he stayed one step ahead of the giant robots.

[Nick Varkan]

As an eye blast flew their way, Nick tossed up his disruption shield to block.

"Ooh, whoever shot that is toast," he commented, reaching out to pop the offenders head like a grape (with Kyra's help of course).

[Kyra Raphael]

"Nice work, cuz." Kyra said with a grin. She looked like she was about to say more, when a message got to her from the telepathic net "They've gotten everyone out of the north side." she said "They want us to run the Sentinels in there, and then they're gonna blow the place."

[Jubilation Lee]

They hadn't quite got everyone out, the demolition crew was finishing up laying the charges.

"Ok, ready to rock and roll?" Jubilee asked the head of the demolition crew.

[Narrator]

"Another five minutes." was the reply from the head of the crew "I've started moving my people out."

[Nick Varkan]

"Nothing solves a problem like high explosives. Let's go."

[Jubilation Lee]

"Awesomesauce." Jubilee said with a grin "Get them out, and its just you and me to set things off. Well, you, me and the teleporter." she said, nodding at the teenage girl who was standing near by. "You need to be here to set off your charges?" she asked Andre.