Utopia, now, ‘Not yet, you soulless bastards. Not quite yet!’ exclaims Magneto as he keeps several deadly Nimrods at bay.
San Francisco, in the future, where Archangel flies close to a massive future Sentinel, unleashing his razor-sharp wing-knives on it, he exclaims that nothing this big can be light on its feet, and suggests to his teammates that they hit and run. ‘We can take it down’ he declares. ‘Keep telling yourself that’ Wolverine shoots back, before announcing that it is a lot quicker than it looks. ‘Armor’s about a foot thick!’ X-23 exclaims as she tries to claw her way through the Sentinel. Domino asks her to back off so she can try, and tosses six pounds of plastique, pinhead emps and white phosphorus at the Sentinel. ‘A kiss on the cheek from Satan!’ Domino adds - before the device explodes, sending Domino and X-23 careening backwards.
Up above, the Sentinel grabs Archangel by his wings, pulling him backwards. ‘Mutants threat level moderate. Cauterize and contain’ the Sentinel states. ‘Warren!’ Domino screams, before telling Wolverine that they cannot even scratch this thing. ‘We don’t have to. We just have to keep it looking our way’ Wolverine replies, ‘So it doesn’t figure out what Cable and the kid are doing’.
Meanwhile, Cable covers Cypher, who is inside one of the futuristic Sentinel robots, as they enter a complex. ‘You sure this is where we should be going, Ramsey?’ Cable ask the New Mutant. Cypher replies that everything he read indicates that there is nothing important here. ‘So what they hell are we doing here?’ Cable asks. Cypher points out that the Sentinels are doing whatever they can to distract them from this point. ‘This is where they don’t want us to go’ Cypher declares.
Inside, he approaches a computer, announcing that this is why, as the data density here is insane, so it has to be the Master Mold’s processing core. ‘Can you cover me?’ Cypher asks. ‘That’s what we’re about to find out’ Cable replies, weapons raised. Controlling the robot, Cypher points out that the suit he is in should gain entrance without issue. ‘I shouldn’t be -’ he begins, before finding himself inside the data.
‘Mutant point of origin confirmed. Anomalous timeline designate 22554-23. You represent data. Data of tactical and strategic importance. Your mind will be assimilated - and then erased’ the Master Mold announces. ‘Yes. Please proceed’ Cypher replies, adding that it means the Master Mold has to hit him with some machine code, that it cannot assimilate him without building an interface. ‘Talk to me!’ Cypher shouts.
Back in the present, on the Golden Gate Bridge, 1 hour and 27 minutes since the portal opened. Bling and Rockslide are doing what they can to hold back the Nimrods, while up above, Storm unleashes lightning bolts at severeal of the Nimrods, exclaiming ‘You do violence to the daylight, monsters. The sun is ashamed to look at you. But the tempest has no such qualms!’ But, as the Nimrods are struck, they begin to adjust their internal capacitors to teravolt configuration. They build a charge up - then release it on Storm, who falls to the bridge below.
One of the Nimrods lands beside her. ‘Targeting -’ it begins, before several bullets are fired at it. It turns, to see Rogue and Hope guarding Storm. ‘It’s rebooting. Come on!’ Hope orders. Rogue touches Storm’s skin and absorbs her power, creating a gust of wind to knock the Nimrod backwards. Hope crouches down beside Storm, who thanks her. ‘Don’t thank me too soon’ Hope replies, before noticing another Nimrods approach them. She calls out to Rogue, ‘This one’s mine!’ She spins around, remarking that they see an attack once, they reconfigure to block it.
Hope boasts that the rifle she is carrying was built in the year 2712, so she is betting the Nimrods have never seen this cute little “hail Mary” before - and she unleashes the weapon, which literally tears the Nimrods apart. ‘That hurt!’ Rogue exclaims. ‘And it propagates outwards. So imagine how it felt when it got to him’ Hope replies.
On Utopia, Cyclops asks the White Queen who they have over there. But his girlfriend knows what he means, and announces ‘That was Hope’. Cyclops frowns.
Elsewhere on Utopia, a Nimrod hovers over Magneto and exclaims ‘Mutant energy capacity at 32%’, Magneto declares that is more than enough, to which the Nimrod replies ‘Tactical analysis suggests otherwise’ and unleashes a blast of energy at Magneto, knocking him backwards. Several Nimrods descend on Magneto, and he tells them that their analysis overlooked one thing - the fact that he built this asteroid. ‘Primarily out of iron’ Magneto adds as shards of metal rip up through the ground - and through the Nimrods.
Back in the future, the Master Mold exclaims ‘ Brain activity mapped as repeating cycle. Periodicity 6...5, valency level .098V. Peak/trough mapping +/- .17 angstroms in mid-delta band. Presence of methyl para-tyrosine in concentrations of .043/.091...G regulates peak/trough variation. As sorts of cables begin to wrap around Cypher, he exclaims ‘You’re missing the point. There’s more to this than raw numbers’. But the Master Mold tells him that is an erroneous statement, as all things are expressible in digital form. ‘All things are algorithms - predicted and controlled via mathematically derived models. Interface established. Assimilation proceeds’ - and with that Cypher is engulfed completely by the cables.
The battles continue in the future, on Utopia, and in San Francisco, while Cypher decides ‘So, you’re killing me, I get that. Killing me with numbers. Terrible, perfect numbers.’ Cypher announces that he can see the pattern now, and can copy them. ‘Write back in the pieces of my mind that you’re destroying - and then -’ Cypher exclaims, while a Sentinel approaches Cable, and the operator inside it remarks ‘Don’t know how you stayed alive this long, mutie. Must’ve been a miserable, sneaking kind of life. But I’ve got two barrel loads of mercy aimed straight at your brain’. But, before the Sentinel can fire at Cable, they all begin exploding, as Cypher exclaims ‘ - I can start to improvise!’
Elsewhere in the future, Wolverine, part of his body badly wounded, looks up at the massive Sentinel: ‘Come on, you piece of crap! Come on!’ he snarls. The Sentinel halts ‘Unauthorized input - re-routing -’ the Sentinel begin, before collapsing to the ground with a mighty THOOM.
On the Golden Gate Bridge, the Nimrods lose control: ‘Binary’ ‘Scion’ ‘Mutant’ ‘Detect’ Abort’ ‘Abort’ they utter as they crash into each other. ‘What - what’s happening to them?’ Husk asks. Colossus tells her that he doesn’t know, but that it looks terminal.
On Utopia, ‘Look at this. Did Magneto kill them all?’ someone asks. The Stepford Cuckoos are nearby and one of them replies that she doesn’t think so, as one minute they were everywhere and the next they just fell out of the sky and stopped moving. ‘Over there. He’s alive!’ one of the Cuckoos exclaims as they approach Magneto. ‘Just about’ another points out. Magneto rises and tells the girls not to be afraid, as the danger has passed. Wounded, Magneto looks at the girls and asks weakly ‘Did I ever tell you that your destiny is to inherit the Earth?’
In the future, Wolverine and Domino find Cable. ‘How’s it going, old man?’ Wolverine calls out. ‘It’s done. He did it’ Cable exclaims, emerging from the rubble. ‘Yeah, we kind of noticed. Are you okay?’ Wolverine replies, before Cable shouts ‘Never mind me, Check on Cypher!’ Domino finds him and announces that Cypher is still breathing, but that they had better get him out of here. ‘Domino. Let me’ Wolverine orders, and he goes over, and picks Cypher up. Leaving the room, they meet up with Archangel and X-23 - who is badly burnt. Wolverine calls out to her and asks Archangel what happened. ‘She’s alive. She tried to step through the time membrane. Intel was right. Nothing organic can go through’ Archangel replies.
X-23 cowers against Archangel as she replies that she had to try, as the membrane was shrinking. ‘When it closes it is gone for good. ‘Seriously, are we going to stand here and watch it blink out and strand us here forever? Because I don’t think I could take that’ Domino exclaims. Archangel declares that they have to get to cover before nightfall, as there will be other Sentinels out there. ‘Best we can hope to do now is. Cable frowns.
In the present, Cyclops marches towards Rogue and Hope, and addresses the girl. ‘Hope. Thank God you’re safe’. He tells Rogue that he will talk about this with her later, as the priority is to do a final sweep and make sure - but he is interrupted by Hope who snarls ‘You use my name again - I’m going to part your hair with a big piece of your jawbone’ and holds her weapon to Cyclops’ face. Cyclops pushes the weapon aside and tells Hope that Cable did what had to be done. ‘He saved us all. And he did it for you’ Cyclops declares, assuring Hope that he mourns for Cable as well.
Colossus and Husk gather around as Hope exclaims ‘You mourn him?’ Cyclops tells her that he mourns them all, as they were his friends. ‘They were your canon fodder!’ Hope shoots back. Tears roll down her face as she exclaims that Cyclops sent them to do what he didn’t have the guts to do himself. ‘You sent them to die. And now you’re gonna stand there and make speeches about them!’ she screams. ‘Cyclops - the membrane!’ someone calls out. ‘Something is coming through the membrane!’ And at that moment, Cable emerges from the portal.
Standing on a hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, Bastion stands with Graydon Creed and Stephen Lang as they watch the goings-ons below. ‘As you can see, gentlemen, our plans have suffered a serious setback. But there’s still time for us to reclaim the initiative’ he declares. ‘They think they’ve won. But the dome is still closed. The only thing that has changed is who will kill this filth!’….
