Domino hunched her brows at Wolverine and shook her head, her nerves slightly ruffled. “This sure has gone to Hell quick, yeah?”

“Ya can say that again, darlin’,” Wolverine huffed. Cyclops turned back to the two of them and motioned down one direction of the corridor.

“Both of you head back to the armory, pronto,” he said, tossing them the last bag of C4. “I know you just sealed it, but you need to blast it back open again and find anything you can to take those Sentinels down.”

“To hell with that, Summers!” Wolverine barked. “You need us up there!”

“With bazookas and grenade launchers, not claws and rubber bullet guns. Go!”

Domino was inclined to agree, taking off into a run back towards the armory without another word. Wolverine growled to himself and followed suit, leaving Cyclops to head in the opposite direction toward a stairwell leading to the top of the deck.

In moments time, Cyclops had reached the top of the stairs and a door leading topside, swiveling the door’s valve handle quickly and opening the door. The deck of the tanker was a virtual battlefield, pounded by the fierce wind and hailstorm generated by the X-Woman known as Storm, as over a half dozen Sentinels fired energy blasts from their hands and flew after his teammates on boot jets.

Storm was flying high above the tanker in a whirlwind of air, doing her best to repel the mechanical beasts with blasts of lightning and large gusts of wind, but she was making little headway in actually destroying the Sentinels. She knew that she had to keep them occupied and keep her teammates safe until reinforcements arrived or that all would be lost.

Rogue took a more direct approach in the battle, sprinting across the deck towards the nearest Sentinel and leading up into the air at it. She vanished in a burst of smoke and brimstone, and reappeared and disappeared in a frenzy all over the Sentinel, her tactic to confuse its sensors a success. Her final reappearance was on the back of the neck of the Sentinel, her skin transforming into organic steel the moment she appeared, and she drew her fists down on its head hard.

The Sentinel’s head cackled with sparks and electricity, its mechanical joints turning limp as it was decapitated from the blow and lost power. It began to collapse onto its knees, Rogue gripping the shoulders of the headless killing machine and riding it down to the deck of the tanker. When it slammed down onto its chest, she rose to her full height - still in metal form - just to be scooped up by the hand of another Sentinel from behind, its grip crushing her underneath it.

Rogue attempted to break free from the Sentinel’s iron grip, but to no avail. That’s when a wide and thick, red stream of energy erupted from Cyclops’ visor and struck it at the wrist. The hand’s grip loosened on Rogue as it became detached from the arm of the Sentinel and Rogue fell back down to the deck, free.

Before the Sentinel could react, Cyclops bombarded it with several optic blasts, causing it to double back away from his teammate and towards the edge of the deck. Rogue flexed her arms outward, shrugging the lame mechanical hand from around her frame, and looked to the X-Men’s leader.

“Rogue!“ he yelled out to her as he continued blasting the Sentinel. “Are you okay? Where’s Iceman?!”

“Got thrown overboard in the attack,” she said as she shook off the initial shock of the Sentinel’s ambush. Her skin transformed back to its natural state and she turned around to face the Sentinel, her eyes glowing a ruby red before erupting with force beams that joined Cyclops’ in repelling the Sentinel.

At the edge of the deck, the stub of one of its arms sparking and smoking wildly from having its hand blown off, the Sentinel was only feet away from being blasted overboard. Cyclops and Rogue kept the optic blasts coming, but the Sentinel wouldn’t budge those last few feet. Activating his radio, Cyclops yelled over the sounds of battle, “Beast, get Cannonball down here, now! We need support!”

Before Beast could reply over the radio, a loud Southern accented voice boomed from the skies accompanied by the roaring sound of what sounded like a jet.

“GERONIMO!”

Cyclops and Rogue shot their heads towards the sound of the battle-cry, just in time to watch a streak of smoking orange energy cross the sky and slam into the chest cavity of the Sentinel that the two of them were blasting. The force of the attack was more than enough to send the flailing Sentinel overboard and into the tumultuous ocean water rushing by, disappearing in the darkness below.

Reinforcements had arrived.

In the communications and observation bunker of the Byron Agency’s base of operations, Agent Sean Cassidy stood stoic before a collection of monitors transmitting scenes from the X-Men‘s battle with the Sentinels on the U.S.S. Avenger. The footage was coming directly from the Sentinels themselves, each equipped with surveillance cameras in their heads.

Sean knew that the battle could go take a turn any way at the moment. The Sentinels were resilient as usual, but his former friends and teammates were slowly making headway and there were only so many Sentinels. Of course, he knew that it wasn’t the battle that was important. They could defeat the robotic killing machines, but if all went according to plan then they would be dead, regardless.

At that moment, the door to the bunker opened and a dark haired man with a goatee walked in, a cigarette dangling from his lip. The first thing he saw on the monitors was a Sentinel swatting away the X-Man known as Cannonball and then blasting him out of the air with an energy blast, causing him to crash into the deck of the tanker.

“They’re doing better than we thought,” Agent Philip Layton observed.

Sean nodded quietly. He balled up his fist and touched his chin as he watched the battle. “Was the ship’s crew able to escape?”

“It looks like it, sir,“ a technician answered as he typed away at his computer console. “We’re getting tracking information in from seven of the ten escape pods and it looks like the last three are preparing to discharge.”

“That’s a blessing then,” Sean commented as he began pacing slowly about the room. “Let me know when the final crewmembers are off the ship.”

“Yes, sir,” the technician replied. Agent Layton took a drag off of his cigarette and glanced to Sean, brow furrowed.

“Do you think the Sentinels can really defeat them?” he asked with skepticism in name. “I mean, there are only seven units out there.”

“Aye, that’s because we didn’t need any more than that to blow up the ship,” Sean said, his voice cold. The technician stopped what he was doing and turned around abruptly. Sean stopped his pacing and looked down to him, eyes narrowed. “You heard me. Move each unit into position and activate the self-destruct protocols when the crew‘s off of the ship and out of range.”

An aerial battle was ensuing high above the deck of the U.S.S. Avenger between the co-leader of the X-Men, Storm, and the three Sentinels assigned to remove her from battle. They had taken equally offensive tactics against her, firing enormous energy blasts - one after the other - at her as she flew through the air on the powerful winds at her disposal. Despite being several stories tall and weighing more than several tanks combined, the purple and red machines hell-bent on genocide and propelled by their boot-jets like bullets were more than a match for the speed of the wind goddess, more than capable of giving chase and closing in.

However, as Storm would attest to, the intent of her flight was not to flee but to take the Sentinels off guard. With the aid of the winds at her command, she made an about-face and turned around to the Sentinels. Three tornados of razor sharp wind violently manifested underneath the legs of each respective robot, throwing two of them off-balance and whirling out of control, but the third one broke free of the attack and rocketed past her for what would be no doubt a rear-assault.

Storm had no choice but to continue commanding the tornados to assault the two Sentinels, driving them back down towards the tanker, before she turned around to confront the third Sentinel. To her horror, it was already poised for attack with both palms aimed merely feet away from her and igniting with energy.

As the immense attack was about to be unleashed, a pillar of ice shot out of the dark ocean beside the sinking tanker like a rocket, water exploding in all directions. The Sentinel’s mechanical head twisted towards the port bow of the ship just in time to see a frozen figure propelled from the pillar and sent sailing through the air towards it. Before it could react, Iceman had landed on its back and began freezing the robot’s outer shell, ice not only rapidly spreading over and covering its entire frame but seeping inside of its cracks and washing over the innards of the robot.

The Sentinel shot upwards as if on instinct and spiraled through the air in an attempt to shake off the mutant, but the freezing of its internal mechanisms and computer cores caused it to quickly lose motor control. In mere seconds it arced downwards into a nose dive, continuing to spiral through the air in the process… only this time trapped in a turbulent freefall instead of acting in a defensive maneuver.

“Robert!” Storm cried out as she watched her teammate ride the back of the Sentinel as it crashed face first into the sinking tanker, bouncing and skidding across its deck.

Pieces of the Sentinel’s armor plating, as well as chunks of ice, were ripped off of the robot’s form as it slid to stop. Iceman moved up into a crouch position, looking up to his teammate with an aggressive nod. “Light this sucker up, ‘Ro!“

Storm returned the nod as her eyes lit up in a flurry of electricity and outstretched her arms, summoning a hail of thunder from the heavens down upon the fallen robot. Iceman stood upright on the Sentinel’s back and took off into a run across its broad shoulders, leaping off of it as the barrage of thunder bolts struck it. The bolts of thunder ripped its shattered frame apart, but the unexpected happened when the Sentinel suddenly exploded with devastating force, powerful enough to send the fleeing Iceman flying two-dozen feet across the deck and into a bulkhead.

“Oof!” he grunted as his back struck the bulkhead and he slid down it, his body of organic ice nevertheless wracked with agony. Storm shielded her eyes as the force of the explosion drove her back, but she was able to catch herself with a gust of wind and balance out her flight.

She could hardly believe that her attack was powerful enough to ignite the Sentinel in such a way, and when she looked down and saw what had remained in the wake of the explosion, she was positive that it was not her who had done it.

The Sentinels on the deck of the tanker, as well as the three X-Men who were defending themselves from their attacks, were thrown about as the explosion rocked the U.S.S. Avenger. While the Sentinels were able to stabilize themselves by adjusting their extremely heavy stances or take to the air on their boot-jets, the X-Men collapsed to the deck like rag dolls.

Cyclops gritted his teeth and was the first to move to his hands and knees, looking in the direction of the explosion as the fierce rain and winds ravaged the tanker. He saw a gaping hole in the deck where the Sentinel that Iceman and Storm had downed once laid and a large portion of the tanker’s side had been torn apart by the explosion. With numerous, massive breaches in the bulkheads of that side of the tanker, ocean water quickly beginning to fill the ship’s lower compartments.

Before he could react, the ship began to dip up on the end that Cyclops and his teammates was on, and sink down on the end where the explosion had taken place, noticeably quickening the sinking of the tanker. It would now only be a matter of minutes before the ship was overwhelmed by both the terrifying storm and tumultuous ocean waters.

“Everyone up on their feet, hurry!” Cyclops ordered his teammates as he fought through the pain of battle. Rogue and Cannonball did as they were told, equally if not more-so strained by the elements and the ongoing fight. The Sentinels were unrelenting, phased by neither the elements nor combat. They had ceased their advancements for the moment, but were forming around them in a sort of attack pattern, leaving the X-Men only able to fall back into defensive stances.

“Cannonball, go check on Iceman and Storm. Rogue and I will keep the Sentinels off you!” the X-Men’s leader said. Cannonball said nothing as his blastfield surrounded him and he rocketed away from the two, heading for his fallen comrade. With him gone, Cyclops swallowed the lump in his throat and muttered, “I hope…”

“Whatever they’re waitin’ for, we gotta break their formation!” Rogue said as she unleashed a powerful optic blast not unlike her leader’s, striking a Sentinel as it hovered within range of attack. Cyclops took a similar strategy, choosing to instead repel the now passive-aggressive Sentinels instead of attempt to destroy them, by sending broad optic blasts into their chests as they attempted to move into position over them. It was as if they were attempting to smother the X-Men.

“Cyke!” Domino’s voice called out as her and Wolverine ran up to the fallen X-Men, both lugging long, fat metallic suitcases with them as they approached.

“What’s happening with those escape pods?” Cyclops asked as he continued bombarding the Sentinels closing in on them with optic blasts.

“The last one was ejected a couple of minutes before we got up here,” Domino said as she and Wolverine began unpacking the missile launcher. Cyclops nodded.

“Good to hear,” he said before opening his mind up and projecting his thoughts out to his wife and teammate. “Are we good to go, Jean?”

“I’m not detecting any more crewmen on the ship, so you should be,” Phoenix replied over the X-Men’s telepathic web. “We were able to lose the Sentinel on our tail, so we should be able to extract you all in a moment.”

“Alright then,” Cyclops said to himself, looking to Wolverine and Domino and nodding to them. They nodded back.

“Now for the Sentinels…” Domino said as she knelt down, drawing the missile launcher upright on her shoulder, closing one eye, and taking aim. The Sentinel in her line-of-sight suddenly paused before she fired, as if internally processing a new stream of incoming data, then its boot jets flared to life and propelled it into the air.

“The hell…?” Wolverine muttered in confusion as all of the remaining Sentinels surrounding them did the same. Domino opened her eye and looked around her, noticing the other X-Men similarly confused.

“What are they doin’?!” Cannonball shouted as he shot across the tanker from the other end in his blastfield with Storm and Iceman behind him, flying and ice sliding respectively. It quickly became apparent as the Sentinels began humming loudly and their mechanical eyes light up brightly.

“Wuh-oh,” Iceman muttered as he touched down in front of his teammates, looking up to the Sentinels along with them. The woman crouched down beside him responded with equal alarm, however more harshly.

“Shit!” Domino cursed, dropping the missile launcher in her hands and moving back up to her feet, slowly backing away from the Sentinels.

“EVERYONE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SHIP!” Cyclops shouted as he pointed to the rising end of the tanker. The X-Men scrambled in horrific realization, Storm and Cannonball leading the charge away from the Sentinels by air with Rogue transforming into organic metal and taking off into a sprint alongside Domino and Wolverine, with Cyclops carrying the rear. “ICEMAN, COVER US!

“YOU COVER US!“ Iceman yelled back at Cyclops as he took off on a sled of ice after his teammates, erecting a massive wall of ice between the Sentinels and the X-Men without even looking as he fled to the other side of the tanker.

The wall of ice exploded only moments after it had went up as two of the Sentinels crashed into it, activating their self-destruct mechanisms on impact. The resulting explosion was enough to shatter the wall of ice into millions of pieces and destroy nearly half of the tanker’s upper deck, and the remaining Sentinels flooded in behind the explosions in pursuit of the X-Men.

But the Sentinels didn’t open fire on the fleeing X-Men. Instead, they dove down around them at all sides, activating their self-destruct protocols as they struck the deck of the tanker. The explosions engulfed the deck of the ship, ripping the tanker apart as the X-Men continued to run across what remained of the deck.

“They’re dive-bombin’ us!” Wolverine grunted as the ship shook even more violently than before and its incline raised as the tanker began sinking further into the pacific ocean on its opposite end. They weren’t even a dozen feet away from the edge of the tanker when they were struck by a large gust of wind blowing downwards.

It was then at the end of the sinking tanker they saw the Blackbird Jet descend on its vertical boosters from the storm high above in alignment with the ship. It rotated around so that its loading hatch faced the approaching X-Men and that very loading hatch slid open with Phoenix standing on the other side of it, yelling out to them.

“HURRY! GET IN!”

Each of the flying X-Men grabbed hold of another teammate to carry them over the gap between the tanker‘s edge and the Blackbird‘s hatch. Storm with Wolverine, Cannonball with Domino, and Rogue with Cyclops as Iceman followed behind them on his ice bridge. In moments they had all loaded up into the Blackbird and Beast, from the cockpit, rotated the jet away from the tanker before quickly flying it away.

On their feet, the X-Men collapsed onto the floor of the passenger area of the Blackbird. They gasped and heaved in exhaustion, believing themselves to be free and clear from the dangers of the suicide-bombing Sentinels.

When the jet shook wildly and system alarms began blaring throughout the cockpit, they knew they were wrong. Dead wrong.

“Report!” Cyclops yelled as he stumbled up to his feet and ran to the cockpit. Phoenix followed close behind him.

“Remember that Sentinel that Jean told you we were able to lost?” Beast said as he gripped the steering mechanism of the jet and tried to balance it out. “Well, it looks like it found us!”

Cyclops looked up to the windshield of the cockpit as a Sentinel, firing energy blast after energy blast upon the Blackbird, flew straight for the nose of the jet. There was no time for the team to react, and in only seconds it collided with them and activated its self-destruct system, engulfing them in an explosion.

“That was a direct hit to their jet,” the technician in the Byron Agency’s communications and observations bunker said as the main monitor display went blank.

“Was that our last active Sentinel?” Sean asked with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Yes, sir,” the technician answered. “But each Sentinel’s self-destruct device was more than capable of single-handedly ripping through the haul of the tanker, as you saw. I’m certain that -- “

“Certain that nothing!” Sean shouted. “Damnit, we need t’ verify the kill or else…” he trailed off and shook his head. “I’m sorry, mate.”

Sean stepped passed the technician and leaned into the console next to the him using his arms to support himself, head hung lowly as he quietly contemplated what had just happened. After a moment, he turned his head just slightly to speak to the partner at his back to the room.

“Layton, can ye assemble a team and inspect the crash site? We need tae be sure beyond all doubts of their deaths…”

“Will do, Sean,” Agent Layton said with a half-hearted now. He unfolded his arms and stood up from the wall he was leaning up against, directing a thumb over his shoulder to the door. “C’mon everyone. Let’s leave the man alone for a bit.”

The technicians reluctantly began to deactivate their stations and take off their headsets, leaving everything behind as they filed out of the room quietly. Sean didn’t have to look to see that there was still someone left in the room, staring a hole into his backside in all likelihood.

“What is it, Layton?” Sean asked quietly.

“How come you didn’t just blow up the ship when you had the chance?“ Agent Layton asked, his voice a mix of disappointment and pleading. “When the Sentinels were first in position and the X-Men had no escape?”

“Are ye mad, Layton?” Sean remarked as he turned around to face Agent Layton, taken aback by his words. “You know damn well that would’ve killed everybody on board. We had t’ give our people a chance to escape!”

“No,” Agent Layton said bluntly, “No, we didn’t. Not if it meant stopping your old friends. You knew that…”

Sean paused, slowly beginning to realize where Agent Layton was going with this. The door to the bunker slid open and Sean watched as several of the Byron Agency’s enforcers in assault gear walked in, rifles at the ready. The Irishman then looked back to Agent Layton, narrowing his eyes.

“That’s why the Hierarchy, or what remains of them anyway, have had me babysitting you these last couple of weeks,” Agent Layton continued. “They’ve quickly become convinced that you either don’t have the stomach for this or that you may just be too loyal to your old lifestyle to get things done.”

“What?! But we dunnae even know if they survived…!” Sean tried to reason with him. Agent Layton just shook his head.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, waving a hand towards Sean. “Let’s just make this easier on all of us and give up quietly, okay?”

It was as if fire erupted in Sean Cassidy’s eyes. He already hated himself enough for siding with the Byron Agency and taking more drastic measures to put an end to the chaos the world was in, but now he had possibly killed his former teammates and friends and was being betrayed by the very people he did it in the name of.

That alone was enough to make him scream.

“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Sean let out a powerful screech, causing the monitor screens around him to shatter. Agent Layton dropped to his knees and covered his ears in agony, but the enforcers were equipped with sonic nullifiers in their helmets and were barely phased, even as Sean continued his sonic wail.

{{ The Hierarchy wants him alive to strip his mind of any more information on the X-Men if possible, }} one of the enforcers said over the team’s radios. {{ Use non-lethal force if possible. }}

Sean relented in his scream as he saw the enforcers begin to rush him. The first enforcer drew the butt of his assault rifle down at Sean’s face, but he caught it quickly and kicked the man in the groin. As the enforcer dropped to his knees, Sean wrenched the rifle out of his hands and brought it in the side of the neck of another enforcer rushing him, causing the second to cry out in pain and collapse.

Though he had dispatched the first two enforcers quickly, the others were on him in a moment, swinging batons and rifle butts into his body. Sean grunted and heaved as he was knocked to the floor of the bunker beside one of the fallen enforcers, then repeatedly struck over his head and back by boots and blunt weapons. His vision was bombarded by stars and flashes as the assault began to wear him down, but then he saw the underside of the fallen enforcer’s helmet - specifically the microphone inside of it - and knew he only had one chance at survival.

“ARGH!” he screamed out as he used all of his strength to push off the ground and dive for the fallen enforcer. The other enforcers continued to beat and bash at him, but the former X-Man managed to reach the fallen enforcer. Sean ripped at the buckle of the enforcer’s helmet until he was able to pull it off completely, exposing the microphone inside, and he buried his face inside and used all of the strength he had left for one final sonic scream.

The piercing cry was picked up by the microphone and sent into the receivers of the surrounding enforcers, causing them to all end their assault and stumble about the bunker, screeching in agony and left at his mercy. Blood began pouring out of their helmets as their eardrums were busted by Sean’s attack, and when he was sure that the damage was done, he ceased his wail. The enforcers collapsed to the ground, groaning and crying out in pain as he moved to his feet.

Agent Layton was still huddled on the ground against the wall, disoriented from Sean’s initial attack, allowing Sean to weakly approach him without a struggle.

“Ye betrayed me, boyo,” Sean said as he prepared to let out one final sonic attack. “That was your last mistake.”

Before Sean could open his mouth, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the room lit up at his back. He spun around on the heel of his foot, preparing to defend himself against any movement, only to see a hard-laser hologram resembling that of Cerebro standing over him. His eyes went wide in shock, and then it let out a burst of electricity that caused Sean to cry out in pain and drop to his knees, his skin sizzling and his form prone on the floor of the bunker.

{{ Snoochie boochies, hoochie. }}

NEXT ISSUE: The X-Men are left for dead out in the Pacific Ocean! The Byron Agency has betrayed Sean Cassidy and re-activated the rogue Cerebro program as the commander of their army of Sentinels! The end is almost here…

Only one review for last issue. I’m a little disappointed that my recent arc of X-Men hasn’t garnered more attention, but I’m glad that I’ve made at least one new fan in Anthony Crute. Everyone go read Doc Samson! Oh, but wait until you read his review and my reply to it first…

Great to hear from you again, Anthony! I think X-Men #33 may have been a bit deceptive in regards to the overall tone of this arc. I originally planned to juxtaposition the scenes you saw in #33 with #34, but then the issue would have came out to be about 25 pages long and twelve scenes. Would have been a tad bit overkill, but it was still important to get every scene out.

Suffice to say, the rest of this arc is going to be much more similar to X-Men #34 than #33. Hopefully that's a good thing for you and all (three) of the other readers.

Just so you know, yeah, that was Rogue in the previous issue. She’s absorbed Mystique in the past, and as I mentioned last issue, she can recall previously absorbed powers and personas one by one as a new mastery to her powers. Also, I hope you continue to like what I’m doing with Banshee. His status quo at M2K (as you see) is as more of a villain, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some interesting things to say about him.

Next, we’ve also got a by-line of comments from David Golightly (Editor-in-Chief and author of Ultimate Avengers and The Vault).

Thanks for the good words, Dave. Just wanted to be a smart ass, but wouldn't the opposite of a slow burn be something that sorts of starts off with a bang and then gradually fizzles out? I sure hope that wasn't the case with X-Men #34.

It looks like the action and Banshee were the strong points for last issue. Hopefully this issue has given you all more of the same! I should be back in a couple of weeks with X-Men #36, which will be the penultimate issue of “Land Of Confusion!”

See you all then.

- Cory Wiegel
  March 23^rd, 2008