Manhattan:
Gambit dangles from the ledge of a skyscraper, while a new form of Sentinel merged with stolen nanobots hovers above him. This is why he’s got to insist on getting paid up front, Gambit figures.
The Sentinel says something in binary and kicks Gambit off the ledge (said Binary statement meant, Die mutant, as Kitty tells Gambit later).
Gambit is caught by a flying Storm. He praises her timing and hopes the rest of her friends are here as well. Storm gently chides him. They are his friends too.
Nightcrawler teleports Kitty, Rachel and himself to the epicenter of the explosion, the room inside the skyscraper. They find an unconscious Olivia Trask on the ground. While they are not happy about another Trask, Kitty tells Kurt to get her to the X-jet and help her. She can give them intel on what they are dealing with here. She tells him to get her secured then help Logan. He is dealing with search and rescue.
Logan joins the firefighters in another part of the building, who tell him to leave. One of them calls him grandpa. They find civilians trapped on the northeast corridor but the way is blocked by debris. Logan hack it apart with his claws, then orders them not to call him grandpa. “You guys all right?” he asks the family he’s freed. Thank God, the woman mutters. He’s a bit busy, so he sent him, Logan quips.
He informs Kitty the civilians are clear. What’s next? Kitty replies to let them get back on that. They are a bit occupied. They stare at the Sentinel hovering in the air above them.
The Sentinel says something in binary and Kitty mutters that’s not good. Sentinel programming is in effect, she translates for the others. Protocol: eliminate genetic mutations.
Kitty asks Colossus for a fastball special. Really? he asks. C’mon, he knows how much he loves to do it with her, Kitty retorts. As he throws her, she realizes how wrong that sounded.
She flies toward the Sentinel. According to Gambit, this thing is just a cloud of molecular tech, so she manages to disrupt it with her phasing power. That moment, Rachel screams and falls unconscious. Kitty tells Colossus this isn’t a Sentinel in the traditional sense. They are dealing with something new here.
Later, back on the X-jet, Storm asks if they can track it. Nightcrawler replies the computers are trying. Gambit reminds them they have the unconscious Trask with them. He suggests they wake her up and ask questions.
Rachel has woken up again and admits she is feeling awful, like she got hit by a truck inside her head. When Kitty phased through the Sentinel, she experienced a major psychic backlash. It’s more than a Sentinel. It’s conscious… self-aware. Kitty ask if it’s vulnerable to a psychic attack, because a self-aware Sentinel swarm could be their worst nightmare.
Interviewed on the Fact Channel, Lydia Nance proclaims this a nightmare as well. Five stories of a Manhattan skyscraper have been decimated. This is on the scale of a terrorist attack and those terrorists are the X-Men!
Magma, Armor, Rockslide and Anole are watching the news. Nance blames the X-Men, hanging out with Remy LaBeau, a known criminal. Whatever happens next, the X-Men will be held responsible!
On the X-jet, the team orders Olivia Trask to talk. And say what? she plays dumb. How to find it, how to defeat it, Logan clarifies. Gambit adds that this is her baby. A combo of the tech she wanted and the tech she had. The combo only exists because of his ineptitude! she snaps. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s his.
Nightcrawler announces he has found their target (by looking out the window). Kitty phases downward out of the jet.
Olivia explains the Sentinel AI is sub-luminal. It learns from previous encounters. Outside, Kitty figures the same thing. Phasing through it won’t work a second time. She wonders why the Sentinels attack a baldness clinic and is almost hit. Gambit and Storm take up the attack, while Logan asks if she is all right. Kitty notices something wrong, though. The nanite swarm has become smaller. She informs the others on the jet at the same time as Rachel rejoins them. She agrees with Kitty. She can sense the swarm’s presence. It’s not just down there. It’s all over the city. That’s why it’s smaller. The swarm has dispersed.
Kitty informs Rachel that they could really use her right now. Colossus is hesitant but Rachel agrees. The only thing that can take this down is a psychic attack. She focuses and the Sentinel creatures explode.
Outside, Kitty helps Storm up and praises Rachel. Colossus informs her that Rachel is unconscious. Nightcrawler adds that their adversary is at work all over the city. 911 calls are coming in from everywhere. A cabbie in Hell’s Kitchen. Reality TV star Alexis Denison killed at a nightclub in Harlem. A cancer treatment clinic in Bedford, Stuyvesant. And on and on and on.
It doesn’t make sense, Colossus muses. Olivia Trask opines it makes perfect sense. She suspects, the cab driver suffered from some medical condition. And Alexis Denison is reputed to be colorblind. Nightcrawler realizes that color blindess, baldness, cancer are all genetic mutations. The Sentinel swarm is targeting everyone.
