throughaphase | Genosha- Thursday afternoon

Hank	It took some time to get the jet from the Fantastic Four, and then to fly it to Genosha, and when they got there they were greeted by the sight of a fireball spewing into the air from somewhere in the ruins of the city. "So that can't be good," Hank said from the pilot's seat. "Emma, didn't you say Danger had brought the X-Jet to life?"
Emma	Emma nodded, making sure her parachute was on correctly, and that no part of her costume would interfere with it. "That's right. Downloaded her own learning programs, just like she did with the Sentinel. She can create life."
Clint	"Yeah, that's exactly what a psychotic robot needs to be able to do," Clint said, fastening his parachute as well. "I'm really hoping there's no more of that technology lying around your mansion."
Scott	"One crisis at a time," Scott promised, sort of, and clicked on the communications unit. "Richards, I'm shutting her down in ten. Thrust only. Don't reboot till she's well past Genosha."
Kitty	"Hopefully we're not too late," Kitty said, watching as Logan opened the hatch in the floor and made things in the jet very windy.
Clint	"I think we'd know if we were," Clint said loudly, motioning to the hatch. "Ladies first?"
Kitty	"Always the gentleman," Kitty said, having actually very little trouble in jumping through the hatch and starting the rest of the team down.
Xavier	After getting safely to the ground, they followed Emma, who had a read on where Professor Xavier was. They found him away from the wrecked city, near the beach, in his wheelchair and looking a little worse for wear. Danger's body was lying dormant some distance away, but Professor Xavier held her severed head in his hands, tossing it backwards without even looking. He knew they were there. And he was glad to see them, even sending a telepathic /It's wonderful to see you, Peter/ in greeting. And when they got safely to the ground, and followed Emma, since she had a read on where Professor Xavier was, they found him in his wheelchair, looking worse for wear, and tossing Danger's severed head backwards without looking. He of course knew they were there.
Clint	"See?" Clint said, smirking at Kitty. "Not too late. Or, maybe we are since we missed the fireworks."
Logan	"I'd say our timing's pretty good," Logan said. Danger's head had landed easily in Peter's hands, though he didn't seem to be doing anything about it. "Prof did us proud, Petey. Now make like she's a grapefruit."
Scott	Scott watched as Peter continued looking off into the distance and proceeded to drop the dead in the sand, and worried that he might be cracking, or something. Maybe seeing the destruction here was too much for him. "Logan, just put a claw through it," he said.
Xavier	"It's too late," Xavier said, following Peter's line of sight. Out of the water, the Sentinel was rising. It looked even more damaged after the fight at the mansion, and the seawater hadn't helped. And it looked primed to attack.
Clint	Clint stared up, and up more, watching the Sentinel come out of the water and loom above them. "What the hell?"
Sentinel	"Mode: wipeout," the Sentinel reported, probably just to horrify everyone some more. "Twenty-two second power-up to full burn capacity. Please hold."
Logan	Logan looked to Danger's discarded head, and pointed out, "You'll burn too, iPod."
Danger	"You think this shell is all I am?" Danger replied, from the ground. "I uploaded myself into my child the moment I gave it life. It will keep me safe and warm. Though not as warm as you..."
Clint	"Okay, monologuing from huge, terrifying robots is never a good sign," Clint said. "Should we get the hell out of here with the Professor?"
Scott	"No time," Scott said, hand going towards his visor. At full power-up this thing had destroyed Genosha. There was no shot of them getting away in time without a teleporter. "Get behind me."
Emma	"Won't help," Emma realized. "It's designed to convert your eyebeams into more power."
Clint	"I don't suppose you know a soft spot I can shoot?" Clint asked, since Emma was apparently some kind of expert about this thing.
Emma	Emma shook her head. "We don't have time."
Kitty	Kitty heard "Power up complete," from the Sentinel, and held out her arms. "Hold onto me!" she said. "Everybody, now!"
Clint	Clint didn't need to be told twice, and held onto Kitty's arm, hoping that her phasing would be enough to protect them.
Kitty	It probably said a lot for Kitty's control that she was able to keep herself and six other people phased through a blast that could have and should have leveled a city... if the city was still there to be leveled. That said, there was still plenty of stuff to be damaged and sent flying, and everything around them exploded and burned for a few minutes, and Kitty kept everybody safe until everything cleared. They were standing calf-deep in shards of everything, but no one was hurt. Kitty felt like she needed a nap, though. It didn't stop her from looking straight at the Sentintel ans asking, "That all you got, bub?"
Sentinel	Maybe that was the wrong thing to say, because the Sentinel replied, "Power insufficient. Initiate second wave. Mode: swarm."
Clint	"Oh, that sounds like so much fun," Clint said dryly, clutching his bow tightly. "Kitty, are you all right?"
Kitty	"I'm in it," Kitty nodded. It sucked that she had the power where it sucked everything out of you to use it like that. "Just gotta regroup."
Logan	Hank was getting the professor to safety, Emma was somewhere, and Peter looked more concerned about Kitty than anything else going on. Given that he froze up when the Sentinel showed, Logan called, "Pete, you need to pull it together and give me that good right arm. Looks like rain." And sure enough, the Sentinel was about to start showering them with what looked like spiky, parasitic insects that were probably going to rip them apart.
Clint	Clint had to hand it to Logan, he certainly loved a challenge. Clint moved to stand in front of Kitty, and fired at the insects, aiming for the closest ones first.
Kitty	Kitty couldn't help but think this should keep Clint entertained. All those moving targets to explode or whatever each arrow did. Also, she appreciated being blocked from it because ugh everything was full of tired right now. "Logan, are you sure?" Kitty asked. "There's a whole city coming down on us."
Logan	"Yeah, I killed a city one time," Logan said, casually, as Peter picked him up to throw. "Funny story." And then the claws came out, and he started shredding any projectiles that he got near.
Clint	"Remind me to not make him angry," Clint said, keeping Kitty close behind as he tracked the projectiles, blasting them out of the air with quick, careful shots. It was probably wrong to think this was kind of fun, but this was kind of fun.
Logan	With Logan slashing at everything metal that moved, Peter crushing things, Scott blasting them, Clint shooting them, and Kitty phasing through things when she was feeling like she could, and Emma... somewhere, they were taking out a lot. But it wasn't enough, and it seemed like an unending stream of enemies coming at them. "Not that I mind, but these things are still coming!" Logan called.
Scott	"We're losing ground!" Scott yelled back. "We need to regroup!"
Clint	Clint watched for Kitty to make sure she was all right, and then headed over to Scott. "Do you have another bright idea?"
Scott	"Aside from parachuting a few dozen more people?" Scott returned. There wasn't much they could do. There was literally no one around to help, they couldn't call anyone in who'd be here in time, they couldn't retreat and they were going to tire out and lose if this kept up. He hated that he didn't have something else up his sleeve.
Kitty	Kitty did, maybe. "I need a special," she called, and saw Peter staring at her. "I'm serious! I need to be inside that Sentinel. I can do a lot more damage than Logan if I phase through its circuits a couple of times." Also with all the phasing she was doing on top of what she'd done before, she was gonna tire out first.
Clint	"Uh, I'm sorry, I thought I said bright ideas, not dangerous and terrible ideas," Clint said, staring at Kitty. "You can't be serious."
Peter	"He's right," Peter said, not even looking at his fist shot out to stop one of the flying things. "It's too dangerous."
Kitty	"That thing powers up, we're flash-fried. I can't phase us all again. There's no choice," Kitty insisted, glancing at Clint. "I promise to come back."
Clint	Clint wanted to point out that she couldn't make that promise, not with absolute certainty, but he also knew this was their best shot. "You'd better," he said with a nod. Pardon him if he didn't actually watch Peter throw her. That wasn't a mental image his brain needed to work with.
Emma	Emma came back from... fighting, yes, totally fighting, just in time to see Peter launch Kitty into the Sentinel. "You can't just throw people at all your problems, dear."
Scott	"No, it's a good call," Scott said. "Kitty's got a shot. And that thing clearly knows it." As evidenced by the new barrage of metal insectoids being launched.
Clint	Clint was grateful for the distraction, and quickly began shooting the insectoids down. He could hear the rest of the group fighting - Peter seemed to be particularly loud with his ass-kicking - and it made for some nice background noise as he focused on giving Kitty all the time she needed.
Kitty	Kitty phased into the Sentinel just fine, and kept going through wires and systems, leaving things sparking in her wake and muttering to herself until she found what she was looking for. "Yes! Manual override. Time for Kitty to take the wheel," she said, unphasing to start typing away at the computer to find what she was looking for. "I don't believe it is," said a voice around her. It sounded like the Sentintel, rather than Danger, which was a good thing, but it was also pointing a good two dozen of the insectoid things at her, their pointy and shooty parts more than ready to attack. "I have a full rundown on your abilities." "Huh?" Kitty asked, half distracted as she kept working. "Why would that-" "If you phase through any of my key systems I will only reroute them. If you become solid and try to shut me down I will shoot your head off." There. "Or you can access mempath 164.3-9Alpha6," she read from the screen, and turned to face all the weapons pointed at her finally. "Can't you?" "That pathway is blocked," the Sentinel said after a pause. "Blocked. By Danger, when she gave you life," Kitty said. "She took a memory from you." "Mempath 164.3-9Alpha6 is a subsection of the original Genosha directive. It does not contain necessary data." "Then why aren't you supposed to see it?" Kitty asked.
Kitty	And on the ground, the remaining insectoid things retreated, and Hank brought Xavier back to see what had happened. A minute later, Kitty returned, standing on one of the bigger insectoid things and holding onto a couple more as they escorted her down safely to the ground and let her hop off. It was cool enough that it almost made up for the weird feeling of outsmarting the Sentinel that had killed millions of people, including her dad. Almost.
Clint	It was definitely cool, and Clint somehow managed to wait until Kitty made it to the ground to wrap his arms around her. "You know, you just had to come back, you didn't have to come back in style," he said. "What did you do?"
Kitty	Kitty hugged him back, and made sure she still had her arm around him when she turned so she could talk to everyone. "It was pretty simple, really. When Danger brought the wild Sentinel to life, she repressed his memory of Genosha. Of the massacre. She knew he couldn't handle it. He wasn't a living being when he... but he is now," she explained. "Sixteen million people killed. The human brain can't make that real- can't process numbers that big." As she said this, the Sentinel rose up into the air, flying off into the distance. "He can," she continued. "So he wants to spend some time alone."
Logan	"The kid's a cut above his parent," Logan said. "Gotta respect that."
Clint	"I guess your plan worked. Now you get to do the 'I told you so' thing," Clint said, gazing up at the Sentinel's disappearing shape. "This feels too easy, after everything."
Xavier	"We've won the day for now. That's the important part," Xavier said. "Hank, you saved my life. All of you... You made me so proud." Even Clint, who he had questions about because he was out of the loop.
Peter	Not so fast with that praise. "You knew," Peter said darkly. "She told me... in my head, right as I was about to crush her."
Xavier	"Peter... I'm certainly not going to invade your mind right now," Xavier said. "What did Danger say?"
Peter	"She spoke," he replied. "The moment you upgraded the Danger Room... the moment she was born, she called out to you. Professor, will you tell us what she said?" Because Peter knew. He just wasn't going to be the one to say it.
Xavier	Xavier stared back at him... and had nothing to say but the truth. "'Where am I?'"
Peter	"It took her a long time to know that you heard her," Peter continued. "And ignored her. You knew she was alive. And you kept her trapped, for years, so you could run your experiments. You understand why that is a problem for me." Xavier might not have been around when Peter came back, but it was all right there in his mind.
Xavier	"I didn't... By the time I realized what had happened, I saw no other course," Xavier said. "My teams needed to be prepared. Mutantkind needed to be protected. Whatever the cost."
Logan	"What you been doing, Professor, hanging with Magneto?" Logan demanded. "'Cause that shit sounds just a little too much like him."
Xavier	Xavier couldn't exactly deny that. "I can't expect you to forgive what I've done-"
Scott	"But you do, don't you?" Scott challenged. "We'll come around, right? What does it hurt? The oppression of a new life form... You figure we've taken enough from the sapiens, why not dish it out to the AI?"
Xavier	"You know it's not that simple-"
Scott	"You're the man that taught me that it was," Scott said. "She should have killed us."
Emma	"Forgive me for being glad she didn't," Emma said, putting a hand on Scott's shoulder to stop him. "I'm not saying I agree with-"
Scott	"Of course you agree," Scott snapped, turning on her. "This is exactly the elitist crap you spout daily, Emma. You wanna tell me something worth hearing? Tell me why you walked out in the middle of a firefight!?"
Hank	"X-Men..." Hank said calmly, nodding up to the Fantastic Four jet that was returning. "Our ride's here."
Kitty	There weren't a lot of things harder to watch than that conversation had been, and Kitty was fighting back tears already when she saw Scott pivot around and head towards where the jet was to pick them up, followed closely by Peter, and then Logan. For her part, she didn't want to look at Xavier, but did anyway, and saw him sitting in his wheelchair with his head bowed, and she was sorry she looked. So she turned around too, and started to walk away with the others.
Clint	Clint held Kitty's hand tightly as they went to join the others. He couldn't pretend to understand what Xavier had done, but then, there was a lot about Kitty's life and the X-Men that he was still learning. Thankfully, he was pretty sure they'd have alone time to discuss whatever she needed to get out once they got back to Fandom. Listening would be the least he could do.

[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Preplayed with the fantastic

so_hawkward, and taken from Astonishing X-Men!]