---

“They’re mutants! Shoot them!”

The first of the armed men cried out, the blue uniforms with the distinctive armbands carrying the initials FOH singling the armed group out as from the group Friends of Humanity. Each of their weapons rose and began to fire at the three mutants.

“Oh great Creed’s boys. I really didn’t miss these bozos at all.” Iceman shot forward on an ice slide towards the men. Some time before he had gone undercover in the campaign of Graydon Creed who had been very involved with the Friends of Humanity. There were no fond memories of that time. A stream of ice seemed to emerge from his fingers and struck the first man in the large group and sent him flying back against a wall. “Bet I can take more down than you sunny!”

Sunfire sighed. “This is not a game, Drake.” Yet moments later the Japanese mutant shot blasts of flame from both hands and took out two of the men at the same time. “That is two.”

“Ah see I knew you’d lighten up.”

“Do not push your luck.”

Phoenix hovered near the doorway as the men went about taking down the aggressors, her mind not on all that was happening. Instead her thoughts were a short bit away in the next set of warehouses on the large piece or property they found themselves on.

Years ago Bolivar Trask had set out developing Sentinels to deal with the ‘mutant problem’. The government had been on board and sponsored various warehouses to facilitate faster production upon the machines. Over the years the Sentinel program had been stopped and restarted various times, and in the process of shutting down and starting back up a factory just outside Chicago proper had been mostly forgotten about. The main bulk of Sentinels had been shipped from the factory to other one’s and had been used over the years, but a lot of the production equipment had been left behind.

“That’s three plus one, know what that equals Shiro?” Ice encompassed three of the men, literally freezing them right in their tracks.

“Do you ever choose to be quiet?”Fire streams sent another man tumbling through the air, and moments later sent another one hard against a wall.

Recent encounters with the Friends of Humanity had showed that they had set up shop in Chicago which had not surprised anyone with the fact that the X-Men had set up shop there and an entire portion of the city was being re-designed with the new name of ‘Mutant Town’ very soon. It was a perfect target for those filled with such hatred. Intel on their activities had showed that they seemed very interested in the warehouses left by the government, meaning the X-Men became very interested as well.

Jean’s mind drifted slightly as she made a connection with more of the team, a few of which were in the next warehouse.

Kurt, we’ve encountered resistance within the first warehouse. Our suspicions have been confirmed, it’s the Friends of Humanity.

Yes, it seems we’ve found the same thing. They are heavily armed. They are…

Kurt’s thoughts vanished suddenly as did any others, as Jean realized her telepathy was out of commission. A frown grew. “Telepathy dampeners. Clearly they’re more prepared than expected.”

---

Warehouse Two
Ten Minutes Ago

A burst of smoke with the overwhelming stench of brimstone appeared in the middle of the open warehouse along with three figures, two of which were coughing and waving the smoke away. In the middle with hands upon the arms of both the other figures, the blue furred demon appearing mutant Nightcrawler grinned allowing his sharpened teeth to poke through his lips.

“I am sorry my friends, it seems to intensify when I’m porting somewhere I’m not familiar with.”

Siryn coughed and kept waving the last wisps of smoke away from her face. The Irish mutant was clad in form-fitting emerald green leather pants, a yellow and black striped ribbed long sleeve shirt, knee-high black boots, and an emerald green and leather jacket with a large golden X across the chest. It was a variation upon the uniform template that had recently been adopted by the team.

“Ye might want to give us a bit of a warning next time.” Muttering, the red-head glanced around the dark facility. “Maybe our intel was a bit off in this case.”

The third member of the trio, one Meltdown, shrugged. The uniform combination chosen by her fit the template but had the typical Tabitha flare. Instead of a long-sleeve ribbed shirt she had gone with a gray and black striped one with no sleeves and that left her midriff bare with a large gold X across her chest. Along with the black knee high boots she had chosen to go with a black leather skirt with gold trim and black stockings instead of the pants. The look was completed with her now trademark sunglasses with orange lenses and X earrings to top it all off. “Maybe they’re just not home.”

“We should be so lucky.” Nightcrawler spoke as he began to move forward, keeping his eyes peeled. Just like the others he was clad in a variation of the template the team had adopted, going for a full piece that was top and bottom all together. Like many of his various costumes before the acrobatic X-Man had gone with a blue and red color theme but with a darker more crimson like red and black mixed in. Two rapiers were slung across his back in their sheathes, ready for use at a moment’s notice. “Be prepared my friends.”

It didn’t take long for the need for preparation to show itself. A blast of laser fire caused the room to light up some as it flew right past Siryn’s head and struck a metal support beam. “I’m going with not lucky.” The red-head muttered.

More laser fire erupted as the mutants leapt into action. Siryn’s jacket billowed as she rose into the air, sonic scream causing her to lift off. Dodging to the left she missed a few of the beams, coming in and striking the shooters with her fists causing them both to fall back. It wasn’t a hard hit but it was enough to cause them to not be able to fire for the moment.

Rapiers in hand down by his sides, Nightcrawler leapt into battle. His bare four toed feet shot out and struck a man in the chest, sending him doubling over as a puff of smoke appeared signaling the teleporting mutants moving on. The same puff of smoke appeared near another man as one of the swords sliced clean through the man’s weapon, sending the pieces tumbling to the ground. A strike to the face brought the man down.

Kurt, we’ve encountered resistance within the first warehouse. Our suspicions have been confirmed, it’s the Friends of Humanity.

Jean’s voice was loud and clear in his mind as Nightcrawler moved on to take down two of the Friends of Humanity with one kick each before he ported away in just a few moments all together.

Yes, it seems we’ve found the same thing. They are heavily armed. They are…

His thought was left incomplete as suddenly the connection that had been there with the team leader was gone. A frown grew on his face. Something was blocking as he tried to reach back out. “We are on our own, telepathic communication has been severed.”

Meltdown ducked a blast from a laser, hands flung out to send ticking plasma balls right at her attackers and with a snap of the fingers exploded the plasma to stun the attacker. “What’d you expect, their mutant hating bigots? Bet t hey got all sorts of toys to take us down.”

---

Graymalkin Island

Bishop had come from a future that was dystopian in nature back into the past to try and right the world to stop it from ever getting to that future point. In a sense he had come back to ensure that everything he knew to be true along with possibly his own existence ceased to be. Coming back he had accomplished his goal of stopping the X-Men from being wiped out, mostly because the X-Men themselves had dealt with it yet he knew that his presence had changed the game considerably. Since that time he hadn’t really thought too much about the future left behind.

Of course there were thoughts of the time when Shard had come back in a sense and others from the XSE had come back into the past as well. In fact it wasn’t even considered the past in his thoughts anymore. It was his present. His life. His home really. The future that had been his and was either gone or erased or still in existence as perhaps a parallel future, was no longer a concern. Yet there was still nagging thoughts about it.

“I cannot remember the year I was born.” The words came from Bishop as he sat alone within the room that had been provided to him upon the island. His eyes stared forward not blinking much at all. “It was there within my head, but now it is fuzzy. If I were to do the math of my own age and the number of years I came backwards in time to get to this time frame I could perhaps deduce it. I can’t seem to do that though. It’s all fuzzy.”

Around the time that Magneto was defeated and died and the world began to change with the new school and the beginning of mutant acceptance, Bishop had noticed the changes. The changes that had come and affected his memory. One at a time they had slid away as if they had never been there before, his recollection of them empty. The memories were gone yet he knew that he should have them. It wasn’t some case of amnesia, as those that were amnesic weren’t prone to recall that they had memories missing in the first place.

“The memories of the future, my time, elude me. I know there was oppression and depression in the time and that things were not well. I thought that I could get over them missing through my time with the XSE here. It helped for a time. It wasn’t enough though.”

Bishop paused and rubbed at his forehead, a slight pain growing in his head. “Why am I here then? Will this be enough? I’ve come to grips that this is my time. I am from this timeframe now and there is nothing else. I have no birth date and no history to speak of. What am I though? An anomaly? Something to be wiped out when the timeline must try and right itself?”

A small holographic figure wavered slightly upon the desk. The image of his sister Shard stared up at Bishop as he sighed. While the photonic life-form that had been a returned Shard was gone after his encounter with Fitzroy in the future, the small representative figure that was upon his desk was a good reminder of what was lost.

“You were always good at listening.” With the flick of a switch the hologram vanished. “Good night sis.”

---

Danger Dome

“It feels like being on probation or something.”

Electrical bolts hit a target in the middle of the room, as Bolt stood across from it. His words hung in the air as he frowned. The rest of the team was away on a mission and he was among those left behind.

“Get used to it kid. This is like what it means to be an X-Man. Pretty much a lot of like sitting around and stuff.” Jubilee called out as she skated past, finger tips brimming with light as her pyrotechnic blasts were unleashed upon a towering robot that tried to grab for her.

With Jean and the other senior members gone, the red-head had asked Jubilee to take the new members Bolt and Timeslip on a training run in newly finished Danger Dome. Since he hadn’t gone out either, Jubilee had figured it would be rude not to ask Longshot to join. It had nothing at all to do with her crush on the guy. Okay, it might have had a little bit to do with her asking him along.

“I find it refreshing. I had believed every moment with the X-Men and other mutants to be a constant struggle against inequality and bigotry. I am happy I was wrong.” Timeslip offered up as she concentrated on the targets ahead of her.

Time around her slowed down as she rushed forward and slammed a foot into each target, and sent them tumbling away. To the others it looked like she sped past them as fast as Quicksilver or Northstar to finish her opponents off in quick success.

Bolt shook his head. “Yeah I don't get refreshing at all. I get that we were brought in and then benched right away. I mean come on we were with the New Warriors before.”

Flashes hit two targets right by Bolt as suddenly Jubilee came skating past. “That doesn't mean anything at all kid.”

“Stop calling me kid, you're not even that much older than me.” Bolt grumbled.

“Older enough.”

“...that makes no sense!”

Longshot dropped from above; flinging a handful of knives at a robot that was still struggling to attack them all. “Patience Christopher. A warrior must be primed for battle and be patient as well. Besides have you seen what is on the cable? I must watch this Real Sex show on the HBO later it seems intriguing.”

Bolt made a face of disgust. “Okay that I didn't need to know. You promise not to say anything like that again and I'll stop complaining.”

As the young man dashed off, Jubilee came over chuckling. “Good one Shotty, that's how you stop a teen bitching. Nice trick there.”

Longshot tilted his head. “What trick? If you'll excuse me I must go watch this program.”

Jubilee smacked her head as the former member of Mojoworld strolled away. “You sure know how to pick them Jubes.”

---

Sheets of ice coated a few of the walls and one of the long conveyer belts as Iceman dodged behind it, narrowly avoiding a slew of bullets that struck the far wall. Rising up over the machine, hands shot out and a torrent of ice hit the assailants and picked them up off their feet to hit the far wall. “Four more down sun boy!”

The Japanese mutant merely muttered as a blast of heated plasma left his body and struck two more of their assailants, taking them right out of the fight. “There is not much honor in such an unfair fight, therefore you should not be crowing so readily Drake.”

“Yeah yeah whatever. I'm still taking down more than you.”

Jean sighed and hovered above them. “Boys boys, you both are manly men. So do we really need the chest thumping and pissing contest hmm?”

“Oh come on Jeannie, if we don't who will know we're men.”

With a shake of the head, Jean put her icy teammate out of mind and focused on the issue at hand. The rest of the armed men were running away. While they were running away, Jean had a feeling it was not to retreat. Something seemed off.

As if to prove that she was right a blast of energy struck the levitating team leader and sent her flying back into a set of crates. Out of the shadows figures that were at least ten feet tall shambled forward. There were five of them. While the basic bits and pieces could be seen as that of a Sentinel, more like the first few incarnations of the mutant hunting robot, there were various other pieces of technology spliced all around.

If one knew what they were looking and looked closely they would see everything from bits of Iron Man Stark tech to pieces of Mandroids and even some bits and pieces that looked to belong to Ultron. It was as if someone had mashed together the greatest hits of robots and technological suits of the world and melded them into one form.

'Terminate mutant signatures. Mutant signatures detected. Terminate.'

“Well as least they still play the greatest hits.” Iceman called out as he shot forward on an ice slide, hands out shooting a stream of ice right at the chest of the first Sentinel. Staggering some, the machine regained its balance and shot a beam at him. With a bit of deft maneuvering, Iceman avoided the blast and started a new slide to come up around and behind the machine. “Gotta try harder than that to catch me.”

Ice crept up the back of the machine as it solidified causing the Sentinel's movements to become slower and jerkier. AT the same time a blast of plasma, heated to incredible levels, slammed into the frozen machine and shattered it into pieces.

“I had that Shiro.”

“Of course you did.” Sunfire said with a minor focus on the conversation at hand, while the majority was upon the rest of the approaching machines.

There was light as fire suddenly came in and struck one of the Sentinels headed for the pile of crates where Jean landed. Lockheed's purple wings beat the air as the dragon hovered, smoke curling from his snout. The Sentinel stopped and turned and fired at the flying assailant. With ease Lockheed dodged the blast and unleashed more fire right in the robot's face. It made little difference.

“I'll take over form here Lockheed.” Jean's voice rose at the same time that she rose from the crates, the fiery aura of her powers glowing around her. Telekinetic forces moved and began to rend the machine limb from limb. Within moments there was nothing but a pile of scrap left.

At the same time Iceman and Sunfire tag-teamed the last two machines and finished them off much the same way they had the first. Freeze and fry. With a huff, Lockheed landed on Jean's shoulder and watched the pieces of the machine hit the ground.

“I'm glad you boys could find some teamwork.”

Both men looked at Jean and nodded. Then they turned and gazed at one another in silence for a few moments.

“You know I took down more than you did.”

“In your dreams Drake.”

Jean sighed as the two went back and forth. “Children.” Reaching out with her mind she tried to connect with the rest of the team. “Nightcrawler, are you there? We've encountered what seems to be Sentinels over here. Kurt?”

---

Dealing with the armed men had been pretty easy as taking on gunmen was something that every member of the X-Men or any group associated with it did on an alarmingly routine basis. The strange thing was that what lumbered out of the shadows next was something that they also dealt with, but it was never really something simple.

“Mein gott.” Kurt murmured at the sight before them.

Just like their teammates in the other warehouse, the three mutants found themselves facing Sentinels that were cobbled together from various parts of Sentinels and other technology. Five of them to be exact. As the machines came to a stop and eyed their targets, the X-Men gave them no chance to prepare.

Siryn's screams echoed around as she focused the power of her sonic ability straight forward. They burrowed through the ground causing a ditch to grow, building in force before striking two of the machines and sending them falling backwards.

At the same time there was a displacement in the air around them as Nightcrawler had teleported away in his usual brimstone cloud. Appearing behind one of the machines, his swords were in hand quickly and stabbed into the back of the machine as he landed on it.

Mini explosions could be heard and seen as Meltdown flung her glowing balls of plasma at one of the machines, exploding them with a snap of the fingers. Siryn lashed out at the last one as the first two she attacked were tangled up with one another on the ground already.

Above the roof buckled and began to tear, as a hole appearing to allow entrance to Phoenix, Iceman, and Sunfire. The team leader reached out with her powers and finished off the first two that Siryn had attacked. At the same time Iceman leapt in to help Nightcrawler finish off his target, and Sunfire helped Meltdown and Siryn finish the last two.

“What a work out.” Iceman said with a grin as he winked at Meltdown. With a roll of the eyes she ignored him. “Tough crowd.”

“Friends of Humanity and Sentinels, or at least what was partly Sentinel. Not a good mix.” Nightcrawler said as he put his swords away.

Jean shook her head. “No, no its not.”

“They will most likely retaliate on a bigger scale.” Sunfire added.

“Well then they'll have to get through the X-Men now won't they?” Meltdown said with a grin.

“Let's hope it doesn't come to that.” Jean said with a frown, glancing around at the warehouse. “Let's hope this was the end of it.”

---

Epilogue

Deep space was not a friendly place. Races of various shapes and sizes shared the cosmos. Some could travel through space on vast ships, while others were planet bound. One such ship seemed to almost crawl through space inch by inch. Empty corridors could be found within. Not a soul seemed to be stirring. Its path was never changing. If it was scanned by other ships a single life could possibly be detected. The life was closer to the edge than any being should be. Bloody hands pushed futilely at nonresponsive controls. Pain shot through the abdomen of the figure, their groans echoing around the room.

Rustling could be heard against the door of the room, the ships attackers moving ever closer to breaching the last area. They came with a purpose and one purpose only. To spread everywhere and consume all things. With a bloody cough, the figure dropped to the ground and groaned louder. Blood welled up as suddenly the chest seemed to crack open. The screams echoed for a long time as at long last the figure died and something new was in its place. The last thing the figure saw was the control panel blinking the destination of the ship. Far across the universe was the direction. For a small planet called Earth.

---

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Next: In Astonishing X-Men #11: Big Trouble in Little Mutant Town!

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