Feb. 24 - The heart of the matter.

[Gideon Rede]

"Better not be a let down after all this," Gideon said entering the cart.

[Narrator]

The cart, once the button was pressed, took off down the hall at an even clip. The reason for the cart was obvious at once... this was a long-ass hall. As they traveled, they picked up speed, fast enough that if they attempted to jump out, they'd definitely be injured or worse. It was difficult to guage the distance, or even the speed, really, but Tommy would be able to tell after a while that the hall they were in was underwater.

Another car passed them at the halfway point, as they started descending down a (evidently underwater) hill at a stomach-lurching rate.

Eventually, though, the path leveled out, and the car started slowing.

[Nina Madaraki]

"This is going to make the place difficult to burn," Nina says.

[Gideon Rede]

"This mission keeps getting stranger and stranger," Gideon said as the cart began to slow down.

[Narrator]

The other end of the track opened directly into a large work area, complete with many controls, monitors, and passages off to other underwater facilities (or at least that was a good assumption). There was a large viewport through which they could see, from their vantage point, that they were well out at sea now, and well beneath it.

Also, in this work area, were people. People with guns, who were pointing them at the slowing car.

[Nina Madaraki]

"Hello," Nina says pleasantly, waving at the gunmen.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Gid, check out the viewport." Rachel said, as she froze the gunmen's hands so that they couldn't fire.

[Tommy More]

"We're underwater, by the by," Tommy said, drawing his own pistol.

[Nina Madaraki]

"Then how are we breathing?"

[Gideon Rede]

Gideon looked out the viewport, and readied himself for what might be about to happen.

"At least they aren't robots," Gideon said walking over to the viewport to see what was going on.

[Narrator]

Stretching across the floor of the ocean around them, there were small domes of (apparently disposable) clear material, as far as the eye could see. Beneath the domes were, literally, an army of Sentinels, ready for launch according to the displays on the monitors around Gideon.

Also, according to the monitors, they'd tripped a security alarm, and the Sentinels were now due to launch in five minutes.

[Gideon Rede]

"Shit," Gideon said taking in the situation.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Holy fucking shit." Rachel swore "Is there any way to disable these thing?" Even as she spoke, Rachel reached out toward the school, screaming to every telepath that could listen what was going on.

[Tommy More]

Tommy didn't appear to hear Rachel, as he began sweating, profusely.

The ground outside would begin to rumble, as he tried to form a large sinkhole.

Truth be told, a large enough on was likely outside his power range at the moment; he was near the trough of his powers, but maybe he could do SOMEthing.

[Gideon Rede]

"I don't know," Gideon said, "Maybe if we can find the control center or something, but even then it might be a long shot."

Gideon reached out towards one of the gunmen to try and dig out directions, a layout, anything that would guide them in the right direction.

[Narrator]

The guards, at the touch of Gideon's mind, seemed to panic and break free of Rachel's hold. The five of them spun, firing wildly (and pretty ineffectively) at the group (and also showing that yes, the viewport was bulletproof.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel finished passing on the information, and then, doing much the same as Gideon, ran over to the control panel. "This is the one." she said "Lets see what we can do."

[Gideon Rede]

Gideon nodded, and did his best to help with the process using what he'd garnered from the guard's mind.

"Let's hope they don't have something heavier," Gideon said as bullets bounced off the viewport.

[Narrator]

Rachel would, of course, finally find a console that looked like she'd be able to find a way to abort the launch. Unfortunately, right as she found it, a bullet crashed into it.

The guards panicked, and finally just fled the room into another tunnel.

Checking various options and panels, the X-Men could come across a few various important facts. Sentinel production was only 80% complete, meaning that the launch was proceeding early. There were 377 Sentinels prepared to launch in one minute, sixteen seconds, none of them had been fitted yet with bioweapons, and every single one of them was set to launch at Genosha.

At Tommy's effort, the ocean floor shifted, and a sinkhole began to form. It really was an impressive effort, even viewed from this distance. However, it'd be obvious to him within a few moments that the sheer size of what he was trying to do was incredible, and in the end, he could only manage to jar on launching platform to an angle before he was exhausted.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"This just keeps getting better." Rachel remarked as she kept working at the console. "Gideon, can you reach the school from here?"

[Gideon Rede]

"Shit, there's gotta be something" Gideon exclaimed, "I can give it a shot, maybe they have some kind of surface contact radio in here we can use to contact Genosha."

Gideon began questing for the school searching for somebody, anybody who could give them a hand.

[Tommy More]

"Blast, whoever was in charge of this certainly needed a lesson overkill," Tommy said, exhausted. "Can you call the RAF? Have them blow this base out of the water while we strategically retreat?"

[Narrator]

Being miles out to sea, there really wasn't any hope of contacting the school, and whatever was lining the tunnel they were in was fouling up their gear.

Security monitors showed armed personnel hurrying to converge on their point, and from the sounds coming from behind the sealed doors the panicked guards had run through, they were getting close.

Outside the viewport, the Sentinels began to come to life, preparing to take off.

[Tommy More]

"There has to be a self-destruct mechanism or something---if this base creates a large enough explosion, it will take the robots with it--it's a construction facility, there HAS to be a reactor or SOMETHING!" Tommy said, starting to randomly jam on the controls.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel kept looking for a way to stop the Sentinels.

[Gideon Rede]

"If there isn't a self destruct maybe there's a launch door control," Gideon said, "Or maybe they can be shut down once they are in the air."

[Narrator]

The Sentinels ended the discussion by launching, jetting through the water up to the surface, where (unseen by the X-Men) they soared high into the sky, flying south.

In the halls adjacent to this security room, footsteps were extremely close now, and they could hear voices.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Its too late." Rachel said "We have to get out of here get them some warning."

[Tommy More]

"Blast! I can cave in the room after we go if we go VERY FAST."

[Gideon Rede]

"I think I can clear the guards in front of the door," Gideon said readying his powers.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Good." Rachel said, hopping into the car "Lets get out of here."