The Jungle…

James landed with a thud on the hard rock fifteen feet from his starting point. He slashed at the cable which was still fastened to his leg and quickly made a dive towards the undergrowth.

A laser blast exploded against the granite where he had been lying. Magma’s work at attacking the Sentinels was not making it any easier for Jimmy in his fight. He was searching for his lost knife and the giant Sentinel was searching for him.

He caught a glimpse of it’s shiny blade and lunged for it. He grabbed the dark leather handle and gripped it tightly in his hand. He felt complete again. He tugged on the handle while another shot went wide past him. The knife tugged back.

James turned and glimpsed at his knife. Two little pincers from what looked like something of Robot Wars was clinging onto the blade end trying to integrate it into it’s own system as the wild sentinels did.

James smiled. He plunged the knife forward before ripping it back up towards him. The Vibranium tore through the tiny robot sending sparks and wiring scattering through the air.

James turned as he felt a coil snake around his leg again. He swore as he was yanked through the undergrowth and into the air upside down by his leg.

He dropped a few feet shuddering as the ground shook beneath the feet of the Sentinel which held him.

Magma was doing her best against the tiny wild Sentinels which were crawling everywhere. She couldn’t use her flame powers because of their current location surrounded by plants and trees. She was therefore relying solely on her geokinetic powers communicating with the earth and making it do her bidding.

She could feel the earth and stones beneath her. Hard solid masses of matter which she felt connected too whenever she accessed her power. It made her feel strong and invincible. She however knew she wasn’t.

She jumped back as a six legged Sentinel which looked like a toaster with tiny legs and a large spinning pizza cutter attacked her. She thrust out her hands in front of her causing a thrust of rock to explode from the ground below it. The sharp precipice thrust through the bottom of the machine.

She dodged as another which looked like it was made from a remote control plane swept towards her through the air. While Amara leapt back she could see others already dismantling the one she had just destroyed.

The small robots continued to scuttle forward towards her as she ducked the flying one. They were like wild animals swarming towards her, their only goal was to get to her and kill her. They had taken various forms throughout their ‘evolution’ and nothing was going to stop them.

The brown furry form of a half transformed Rahne leapt through the air from a jut of rock that Amara had conjured from the earth a few minutes earlier to knock some sentinels away.

She snarled wildly as he clawed foot slammed into the wings of the ‘plane’ as she drove it into the floor. It sparked as it connected with one of the rocks and Rahne bounced away.

The three mutants had fallen quickly and easily into their roles in the battle. James being the strongest tackled the largest and strongest of the sentinels. Rahne was quicker than Amara and so might have been better off fighting against the smaller and quicker sentinels but there was little she could do against their solid shells. This was why she was currently fighting the Omega Sentinels which had appeared.

There were two of them against one as Wolfsbane fought but the fact was she was quicker than they were. Even with their mechanical parts and reaction speeds boosted by the most cutting edge technology she was faster than they were.

She continued her roll as she landed before shifting her body weight and sprinting back past Amara who was busy causing more rocks to jut through the ground into and through wild sentinels.

Rahne let out a growl as she leapt over a blast from one of the Omega sentinels and came down with her claws slashing across the female one’s face. She didn’t respond in any way other than to change the position of her arms in a hope at blasting again.

Rahne dropped down as low as she could and flung out her foot trying to sweep the leg of the sentinel but instead simply slammed her foot into it. It didn’t budge.

The male Omega Sentinel swung it’s arm forward and into the ground just as Rahne dodged it. She growled deep in her throat and leapt upwards directly into the path of the female’s metallic leg.

Rahne felt one of her ribs crack as she hurtled backwards. She turned a flip in the air and landed on her hind legs. The momentum of the kick however made her stumbled and fall backwards.

The two Omega Sentinels had obviously had the same training and programming as now that they had the distance between them and Wolfsbane they swung their arms forward and stared to unleash rapid bursts of fire.

She launched into the air as quickly as she could. A blast caught her leg knocking her off balance. She caught the wood of the tree with one hand and used it to stabilize herself before launching up it as quickly as her momentum would carry her. She leapt clear of the tree and span in the air as the two followed them with shots of energy.

Warpath growled nearly as loud as Rahne had seconds earlier. He span in the air and gripped onto the flailing half of a cable he had just freed himself from. The Sentinel automatically began to retract the long strand of flexible metal and Warpath found himself yanked up towards it.

He let go of the cable and thrust himself forward slamming his fist into the robot’s chest. It clanged and a slight dint was made in it’s hard casing. He brought his arm back ready to punch again.

He let out a shout and convulsed. A small wild sentinel which appeared able to fire had shot what looked like a taser into his arm. He swung his arm around behind him and caught the wire before swinging it hard into the chest of the large sentinel.

The tiny robot exploded against the chest tarnishing and blackening the metal. The arm of the larger sentinel swept down it’s chest swiping Sentinel clear from his body.

He thrust out his right arm and sunk the blade of his knife into it’s leg carving up the metal as he went down. He slammed into the foot of the Sentinel after a moment causing the outer shell of the robot to split open.

The leg swept up away from it’s discarded casing and swept down towards Warpath. Jimmy tossed himself sideways. It was now that he noticed despite the pain in his body and the fact he was fighting for his life he was smiling from ear to ear. He was enjoying this.

He turned on the spot to face the sentinel as he skidded behind it and tossed both hands forward releasing his blades.

The two knives span through the air and sliced into the back of the robot. It began to turn quickly towards him shifting it’s weight by moving both feet. James moved as fast as he could (which was incredibly fast due to his super speed.) he made sure to stay behind the sentinel before launching into the air, he soared up twenty feet before gripping onto the handles of his knives.

He brought one back and then thrust it forward followed by the next as he began to hack at the back of the robot’s shell to get to the wiring inside. He grinned as he peered through the hole in the robots back at the wiring and cables and thrust his knife forward.

He sentinel stumbled forward and James for a second caught a glimpse of Rahne over it’s shoulder as she crouched on the shoulders of an Omega Sentinel before launching up into the air to avoid it flailing it’s limbs towards her.

She landed between the two and hit the floor as both fired a blast at where she had been a second before. The two blasts hurtled past each other and hit the Omega Sentinels square in the chest and sent them hurtling backwards.

Rahne inhaled deeply and took the moment to catch her breath and her thoughts. One of the downed sentinels didn’t wait till he stood up before blasting his weapon. The ground beneath Rahne’s feet exploded causing her to stumbled sideways and to the ground.

Rahne smelled her own blood. She was groggy but that scent managed to bring her to her senses enough to know that she had just hit her head. She opened her eyes as she rolled her body and glared up at the two Omega Sentinels as they towered over her. Their weapons glowing.

A large piece of purple metal slammed hard into both of them sending them flying sideways. The hand of the giant sentinel bounced and rolled once after it collided with them. “You looked like you could needed a hand,” James smiled at his own joke.

“If you two have nothing else too do I’m not resistant to some help.” Magma yelled as she skidded near them. She thrust out her hand again and let a ripple of rock streak towards a group of sentinels splitting them like skittles.

A tree screamed as it collapsed across the front of them separating them from the wild sentinels for the moment. It took only seconds for the metal robots to leap or scurry over the trunk of the tree.

It was enough for them to prepare as the three launched forward braving the blasts of energy as one cohesive wave of violence. James slashed at the tiny robots whenever one of them came within reach of his long arms.

Rahne dodged the tiny metal killing machines dispatching them with kicks which sent them into the rocks, trees and each other. They were the majority of the time surviving her attacks but they were giving her other chances to destroy them.

Magma despite having the most effective power for this fight was still struggling because of her hands being tied by the surroundings. The rocks weren’t striking with enough power to destroy most of the sentinels and were instead just knocking them out of harms way.

She let out a shriek and ripped her hands apart so her arms stretched out as far as she could. She had had enough of this fight, fighting against such annoying and deadly little toy robots.

The ground shook below them both Rahne and James had to steady themselves for a second. Amara didn’t move fixed hard to a stead and unmoving rock. The ground roared and cracked like thunder as it ripped in half. Rocks and plants tumbled into the crevice which was opening wider with the second followed by the tiny sentinels which scampered and tried to cling as the ground ripped open. She slammed her hands together bringing the two halves of the land smashing together.

The shaking suddenly stopped and she leaned forward to her knees breathing in deeply. “Jesus Magma…why couldn’t you have done that before,” James shot her a sly smiled. Rahne shot him a disgruntled look for his choice of words.

“I dinnae really think it’s made much difference,” Rahne nodded at a shiny glimmer above their heads. James noticed a few more in the bushes around them.

One by one figures stepped through the brush. Omega Sentinels and Mark I human sized sentinels walked out in their droves until the mutants found themselves outnumbered 10 to one. They trained their laser cannons on them.

“Come with us and you will not be harmed.” Commanded one of the Sentinels. It was not a sentinel voice but rather someone speaking through the robot. He had a Brazilian accent.

The three mutants shot looks to one another and raised their hands in unison.