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Summary: Prime Sentinels attack Xaviers, a group of students protects the Quad.
Date: December 1, 2012
Log Title: Prime Sentinels in the Quad
Rating: R
Xavier Mansion - Quad
There is a square side walk of pavement with a nice grassy area in the middle with a few stone benches and trees along the corners. The pavement leads to the paths to the grounds of the school, the Dining Hall in Xavier's and the Ramsey Dormitories. It's not particularly large but it's a nice place for students and teachers to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
This scene occurs at the same time as Prime Sentinels In the Courtyard
With the school being on lock down the atmosphere has been two things, quiet and tense. Most of the students have been holed up in the basement between the Danger Room and the Emergency Living Quarters. The teachers and the X-Men have been taking patrols of the area and advising the students to stay indoors. Not all of them are listening. It's cold outside and the predictions of possible snow have been reported. The time is now reaching eight o'clock at night and the sun has long since set. The artificial light brightly illuminating the area.
Shane has been spending every possible moment since the boys were rescued, mewed up in either the gym or the Danger Room. Her grades have slipped noticeably, her sewing projects all but abandoned, but any attempt to convince her to fix these things, either ignored or brushed off. So when the notice comes to hole up in the basement, it's only natural that the pink-haired mutant ignores it entirely. Instead, she sits on one of the benches facing the outer edge of the property, armored boot tapping audibly against the concrete walk.
Nigel paces the quad, either annoyed at being confined to the school ground or simply anticipating the coming fight everyone is bracing for. In the weeks since the church's emergence and the mutant town lockdown he's become more agressive, more militant. The goofball he was when he first came to the school very quickly erroding away revealing a darker side to the young mutant. It's getting harder to tell where Nigel ends and Wildcard begins. He mutters to himself as he walks, the two personalities either planning or bickering.
Most of the day Nicholas has been inside just waiting for the attack. Waiting for the Purifiers to come. He's decided that he's going to fight back no matter what. Instead of being directly outside, he's been hiding in the stables. Nick's spent the entire day with Orion and dressed in his Xavier's training uniform. He's been cold, he's been hungry but he can't let them destroy his home again.
Taylor has also decided to ignore the instructions to stay in the basement, but the feline student unfortunately fell asleep while waiting for things to occur, concealed in the branches of a tree. It is a feline's sleep, however, and any suspicious sounds will likely send Taylor to their feet.
If one of his friends is going to get into the fray, and then two of his friends are going to be in danger… Ahmed is also there, currently in his un-shelled self. His tail lashes in anticipation and irritation as he flicks his eyes over the horizon and back. Huffing a couple times through feline nostrils, he's dressed in his new Training uniform… which is a sleeveless version of the top and pants that end at the calves to give him the most freedom of movement with his new claws. The feline every so often allows some ectoplasm to generate from his hand and he forms it into several shapes as a warm-up, one of them being a rather wicked looking curved sword.
Truth be known, Theo has been waiting for the attack since the lockdown with baited breath. Truth be known, Theo has a dark part of him that wants to be attacked. He has been thickening the armor that Proto has, careful never to leave Proto in an unusable state. He doesn't know when the attack will come. He steps out into the quad, patrolling in a way that most aren't. His senses pick up the perimeter security, and he can hear and see what they see. "I hate this waiting," he mutters toward the others. "So much for us supposed to stay in the basement. Are you all feeling as cramped as me in there?" He has taken to wearin Proto as a pack at all time. He's a little heavy, but if the school is on lockdown, it's probably for a reason. If they attack, he will be ready to kill as many of the Purifiers as he can. Truth be known.
A sound similar to a jet Engine, a lot of jet engines, fill the air and soon it's apparent why. A large number of humaniods fly into the area, all with blue bodies, a pink sort of mantel that runs up the side of the face. There has to be a few dozen of, for those who recognize them, Prime Sentinels. They aren't the large, twenty foot plus forms that are usual for a Sentinel, they're not much bigger than a human. A dozen of them break off and fly towards the quad, they don't touch down but just start spraying the area with a barrage of force blasts. Aiming for anyone and anything.
"No, I just didn't fuckin' feel like sittin' down there," Shane grumbles, cracking her knuckles, "not when th'assholes that got Nick'n'Q're comin'." The tiny mutant takes a series of deep breaths, attempting to push down the fear that the felines near her can smell, it hangs so thick about her. She opens her mouth to say more, but the sound of droning engines cuts her off, head snapping toward the noise's source. "*Fffffffuck*… Shit, meet fan…." As the Sentinels touch down, she scrambles across the quad, diving for the cover of a bench whose back faces the attack front.
<OOC> You say, "Prime Sentinels - http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/3/36894/851574-sentinel1.jpg"
Nigel looks up as the engine roar heralds the arrival of the prime sentinels. Nigel's skin already turning green as the pack break off and converge on the quad. A pair of force blasts slam down where he's standing and as the dust settles Wildcard stands fully manifested and grinning from ear to ear. "IT'S PLAYTIME!! Ahahahahahahahaaaa!!" Reaching up his sleeve he produces an oversized Cartoon Bazooka with an audible *pop* and fires a barrage of red acme-style rockets at the hovering bots.
Nicholas peaks out of the Stables just in time to see the Sentinels' light up the area and takes off running. Other Prime Sentinels are attacking other areas of the school but he runs towards the Quad where he knows a few people were hanging out earlier. Nick puts his hands over his head, palms up, so he can form a shield above his head as he runs towards the area.
Taylor's ears perk up and the teen is nearly instantly out of the tree, landed on the ground with wide eyes and a panicked expression. Oh yea, Sentinels. Taylor glances about and says, "Well shit." Taylor hides behind the tree in response to one of the force blasts, grimacing slightly, and reconsidering whether this was a good idea.
When the Sentinels cross the horizon, Ahmed immediately begins to generate as much ectoplasm as he can, closing his eyes as his furred fists clench, and his tail goes still. Eyes closed, the mass of viscous stuff is almost a pool around him before it then curls up back against him once more… making his form rise off the ground. It rises higher, until he's a full eight feet of hugely muscled, thickly clawed beast. But it doesn't end there… more ectoplasm forms around that, until the huge, demonic-seeming snow leopard is clad in rather ornate-looking dark red armor with horns and filigree right out of some of the more classic video games. The last of it flows down his wrists, and forms into a pair of much more intimidating curved blades. The basso rumble of the beast comes as he snarls out, "Thing say best… Is Clobber Time!" And those big snow leopard legs send him leaping into the air to attempt to slash at one of the Prime Sentinels.
Theo arches his brow, "Yeah, I hear — " He pauses the distant sound of the jets growing closer. "Yeah, that would be our cue," he says. The Sentinels come into view, and he stretches out his arms. Around his body Proto unfolds, wrapping him in the steel casing. The helmet clamps arouns his head, and he watches as the Sentinels touch down. "That…was not exactly what I was hoping to see attack us. They…they are human, but… There's something electronic inside of them. Be careful." He starts getting what technology readings that he can on them, looking for a way to disable the empowerments. He technopathically hits the alert on his phone, just in case there's anybody that doesn't know it's happening. No use in assuming.
The wood of the bench explodes in front of Shane as it takes a direct hit and continues to fire on the pink haired mutant. The Prime Sentinels dodge out of the way of Nigel's cartoon bazooka and the projectile goes blasting off into the night. One of the Sentinel's lands on the ground and aims a few rapid paced bolts at Wildcard, trying to adjust to anticipate where he'll be dodging and firing there. Two of the Sentinel's detect Nicholas running in the area, one flies behind him and another in front to sandwich him between a barrage of blasts. Taylor hears the foot steps behind her before the Sentinel gets in eyesight to blast her from behind. When Ahmed grows into a giant snow leopard beast, two of the Sentinel's go to meet him head on with their fists instead of force blasts. Theo's arm folds around him in just the nick of time as a volley of force blasts from two different Sentinel's are headed his way.
Shane yelps as the wood of the bench explodes, knocking her off onto the ground, exposed skin peppered with tiny cuts. Shaking her head, she pulls herself to her feet, ducking behind the remains of the bench. As a pair of the Prime Sentinels close on Ahmed, she lets out a sharp cry, her own hands beginning to flush crimson as she charges to his side. "The fuck *are* these guys?!"
Nigel blinks as his attack misses "Crap these things are faster than the bigger models.." As one lands and blasts him with several rapid-fire bolts the attacks blow holes in his toon body, though the holes close back up just as quickly. "Not any smarter though…" Reaching into the tube of the bazooka he pulls out a large cartoon mallet and tosses the other weapon away. Charging the now grounded sentinel and swinging for the fences "Batter up!"
Nicholas finds himself being a monkey in the middle between two Sentinel's firing at him. He uses his powers too try to lift one up then telekinetically throw him into another Sentinel. "Theo! Incoming!" He says to try to warn the other mutant. "What the hell are these things!" Nicholas doesn't have much more time say anything else as one of the force bolts hits the ground in front of him and and cause him to stumble backwards to the ground.
"Oh, shit!" repeats Taylor, spinning around and dodging out of the way of the force blast in the same moment. The teen jumps forward to counter-attack, swiping at the prime sentinel with all the strength they can muster (which is actually a lot, as Taylor is about as strong as a heavyweight boxer would be), dragging claws across its face with the smack.
The leopard-demon's mid-air assault is cut short by the two Sentinels who end up knocking him to the dirt once more, but since in this form he's provided with many enhanced abilities… durability included… all that happens is some fresh furrows are dug into the sod. One is thrown off to one side, but not before it destroys the 'sword' in that hand, Ahmed's will-sharp blade turning to ash-scented ectoplasm sticking to it's outer armor. But with the hand free, the eight foot tall monstrous thing snarls out the word, "Bad!" And then he attempts to pin the blonde-haired Sentinel in his grip to impale it with his one free blade.
Theo braces himself, taking the full force of the blast. While his armor protects him, it still sends him sprawling backward his armor landing hard on the concrete, giving it a massive crack as he rolls over it. "Ungh," he grunts, planting his hand on the ground and popping back to his feet. "That's not the best way to start." He picks up the nanotech, isolating it in his technopathic view on one of the two attacking him. He answers Shane, "I don't know, but I say we beat the hell out of them and find out later!" He attempts to lock onto the nanotech in the sentinel he's located, and disable the sentinel all together. This isn't a system that he is familiar with, so rather than play around, he chooses to simply cut it off rather than manipulate it.
Force bolts continue to strike randomly from four of the airborne Sentinel's. Explosions and blasts from other areas of the school can be heard as well. The mallet that Nigel wields connects on the Sentinel and it stumbles back a bit, a large dent on his chest. He'd feel something softer yield underneath the blue armour. Ahmed's blade does goes through the Sentinel but it doesn't destroy it. Just injure it brutally as red blood starts to flow from the wound. Since the Sentinel isn't destroyed though, it tries to send a point blank blast at Ahmed. The Sentinel that Nick throws with his telekinetics knocks down the other one but both are getting back up. Taylor's claws rake against the flesh on the face of one of the Prime Sentinels who sends a punch the Ocelot's way as a thank you. Theo isn't having much luck against the nanotech, it's providing to be very difficult for the technopath and shutting it down isn't something easily done. He either has to focus all his attention and several minutes shutting it down bit by bit or find another way.
Shane stumbles to one side, throwing up an arm to shield her face as a force-blast digs a deep furrow in the dirt with in front of her. Still she runs forward, however, charging the Sentinel wounded by Ahmed, her right fist bursting into crimson luminescence. The punch is wild, aimed generally at the Sentinel's chest, the explosive energy blasting forth just before the punch connects, with a sharp *CRACK* of tortured air as the explosion lights off.
Nigel steps back a moment "These things are part human? What kind of sick joke is this!?" Holding the hammer in front of him the flat part opens and a boxing glove on a spring fires from within the hammerhead aimed at the face of the staggered sentinel. "This is really screwed up.. even for me."
Having been knocked on the ground, Nick stays down there for the moment since he knows it'll take too long for him to get up right away with his still healing leg. He puts up a shield around him that gets pummeled by force bolts so quickly that it doesn't last for long. "Let's try this." He growls out as he uses his telekinesis to grab a hold of one of the Sentinel's and hold him there in the air. "Someone hit this guy before I can't hold him anymore!"
Taylor is struck by the punch, and with a loud *CRACK* the feline is sent rolling into the tree behind them. Taylor coughs softly, trying to crawl around to the other side of the tree to get some cover from the sentinel while trying to catch their breath again.
Being as close as he is to Shane, when her punch hits and the explosion goes off, it causes the big beast to get tossed off, armor cracking from the force of the explosion, and making him land in a crouch a foot away. With no contact with the blade he impaled the Sentinel with, it immediately dissolves back into goop. However, the huge cat is still not considered unarmed. His claws getting a glimmer as they shift to something blue and metallic, and when Nick calls out, the big feline beast LEAPS! A raging snarl comes from it's mouth as Ahmed's beastial form comes down on the bound individual with ten scythe-like strikes, followed with the equivalent of a ton of beserker anthromorph!
Theo, no, Hardline curls his lip behind the armor mask. "These blasted things are complicated," he says. "It'll take some time to shut one of them down!" He continues to focus on the one that he has his attention on, trying to shut down the force rockets first, followed by the force blasts. It's time to see how well he can multitask. The blade on his wrist opens out, revealing the long serated edge. "If they bleed they can be killed. I'm on it Nick!" He charges the sentinel Nick has held in the air, making a slash for the face of the technological nightmare. His objective is to kill in as few blows as humanly possible. "Funny how they create these monsters and then call us the abominations!"
The sentinel that explodes with Shane's punch falls to the ground, blood pouring out from a few wounds. It twitches a bit making it hard to tell if it's down for good or not. Nigel's boxing glove hits the Sentinel and similar to with Shane, it falls to the ground twitching but it's hard to tell how long it'll stay down. The Sentinel that Nick holds for Ahmed to hit is crushed and quite the mess then Theo makes it so it's impossible for the Sentinel to ever get up again. The nine conscious Sentinel's stop their attack momentarily and a weird sort of vibrating thrum emits from them. The nine are activating their dampening fields to which the six mutants will find their powers becoming weaker and harder to use.
"*Stay down,* bitch," Shane snarls at the downed Sentinel, turning to look for the next opening… then staggers back as the energy fields kick up, looking down at her dimming hand in confusion. "…THe fuck…?" Clenching the hand into a fist, she shakes her head. "Aight, y'cheating assholes… let's play hard." With that, she shakes her head again, launching into a run toward the nearest of the remaining Sentinels.
Nigel staggers a moment as his toon form flickers and sputters a moment "What the hell… oh crap they're trying to jam our powers. Ok.. time to stop being mr Nice Mutant. Nick! Team powers training lesson 5, the fastball special! Throw me at them while you've still got the juice!" Wildcard focuses, pulling all the energy he can muster and starting to charge up his toon form with as much unstable molecular energy as it can hold. His eyes wide and instead of an iris his left eye shows a number zero and the other going 9….8…..7…. should Nicholas (or somone else) listen and launch him towards the hovering robots He cackles maniacally and explodes.. a massive wave of unstable energy ripping through the area tearing apart any non-organic matter in it's path on a moloecular level.
Nicholas takes Nigel's direction and uses his powers to try to launch Nigel. He grunts as it takes a lot more effort than it should and results in Nigel being thrown with not as much velocity as he'd like. "When did you get so heavy!" He uses his time to try to get back to a standing position on his feet.
Taylor scrambles to their feet and blinks a few times, ears perking up and says, "Are they doing something to my ears?" Taylor has become accustomed to not listening so closely, because the amplification of volume makes up for the lower amount of attention, and thus does not hear Nigel's comment on power jamming. Taylor climbs up the tree before the Sentinel makes it back around, crawling on the branches to try and find a good position to ambush.
There's no finesse in the snow leopard beast's assaults, nor is there any sign of logic, or sounds tactical judgement. At the sensation of that power seeping into the ectoplasm, the armor being worn by the great catbeast falls away into the grass and begins to evaporate. Claws and teeth lose their dangerous metallic sheen, but this doesn't seem to spot the creature. Ahmed seems to take a cue from the Book of Smash. When not enough smash, Hulk Smash More. Until nothing to Smash. Once more those big and muscled legs bunch and leap, sending some grass and dirt to land on Nick's chest, staining his uniform as claws dig up the grass. Landing in the middle of the pack, the titanic cat starts just flailing around blows madly, snarling and roaring, but each blow that connects leaves behind a little bit more of his impressive mass. Droplets of ashen blue goop spatter now and again, droplets of it falling from him to hiss at it leaves the core.
Hardline has hardly a moment to enjoy the death of the Sentinel before he receives a jolt from the sentinels' systems. What acts as a dampening field for most mutants is acting as feedback to him. He lets out a shriek, his own powers seeming to turn on him from the technology, and he drops to his knees, gripping his head. His ability to filter the nanotechnology information kicks in a moment later, and he tries to quiet the noise. "That… hurt." He glares at the machine. It's too much feedback for him to be able to use his powers effectively at the moment. It takes all of Theo's remaining power just to keep it from giving him a massive headache. He shoots a glare at the nearest sentinel, and reaches out with his right arm, and spotting Shane's charge at it, he fires the tazer in an attempt to disable it's ability to respond, if only for a moment.
The two Prime Sentinels that Shane and Nigel took down earlier start to beep rapidly before they self destruct with a small explosion. It seems when they are heavily damaged self destruction is an option. Nigel's explosion of non-organic matter tears apart through a lot more than it should, benches, clothing, some of the structure of the dorms but as for the Prime Sentines, only three of them are affected as they instantly drop to the ground and twitch for a bit but they don't seem to be town. Ahmed jumps on one and he blows on the one Sentinel start to cause him to beep before activating the self destruct and exploding. The other six start blasting again one at Shane, another at Theo, Taylor and Nicholas and the final one just firing sporadically at anything that moves. Now that Nigel is nowhere to be seen, he's free from getting hit.
In the distance explosions, yells, smoke and combat can be heard from people fighting in other areas of the school grounds. Parts of the dorm building and mansion aresmoking from damage.
Shane is not, and has never been a fighter of real skill or finesse. Ideally, she'd spend her days in front of a sewing machine and a computer screen, playing with design and fabric, far away from anything like combat. Thus her charge is a stumbling, ungainly thing, the mutant ducking now and again as blasts wing by, one catching her on the shoulder and slamming it back, threatening to send her bowling over. It's only because her boots are as heavy and large as they are, that she manages to keep her feet. As she closes on the Sentinel, her stride changes. One, two, three long, leaping paces bring her right in front of her attacker, her back foot swinging forward with all the force she can muster, the heavy boot heaving upward between the Sentinel's legs. And apparently just for spite, her foot doesn't explode until *after* it hits.
One of the bolts his Nicholas in the back and he lets out a cry of pain as he finds himself on the ground once more. "I should just stay down here." He groans as he uses his telekinesis to grab a hold of another one of them and this time he notices he has to struggle to hold him. "Ahmed, Theo, I got another one for you two to take down." He's realizing that teamwork is going to be the main thing that will get them through this.
Taylor leaps down from the tree towards the nearest Sentinel, hopefully the one that punched them in the first place, trying to take it down for good this time, using the force from the drop to make up for the lower amount of strength for them to draw from.
The detonation of the Prime under the biggest of the current defenders is unfortunately the end of it as well. With his cohesion compromised, Ahmed's shell bursts, absorbing most of the blast and sending the internal flesh and blood feline man inside flying several feet and landing in a tumble next to Nick. Groaning a bit, he pushes himself up, and mumbles out, "Mind if I join you?" Pushing himself up to stand, the dampers have stopped him from generating any more ectoplasm… so he holds his hand out and gathers as much that's left as he can, turning it into a basketball-sized lump in his hand. Panting a bit, he gulps one, and then thrusts that into the air, towards the Sentinel that Nick has in his TK grip. The spear of goop resolves into a dagger on a chain that flies with the force of a bullet. The entire time he glares intently at the foe, unable to focus on anytihng else.
The tazer retracts, and Theo looks for the target Nick has picked. He starts to charge, diving in a roll to one side as he does, narrowly avoiding getting struck by another blast. His metal form rushes forward, blade still extended from his wrist. Theo's one advantage in this fight is that most of his offensive ability is not focused in his powers, rather in his technology. Another strike for the head is in order, as Theo attempts to neatly sever the head form the body. Might even make a good trophy if he does it right. "Nice, Wildcard. Think you can do anything to help Nick keep them down with that cartoon arsenal of yours?"
Shane's boot connects with the Sentinel and the explosion sends him flying. He's not sending out any force bolts this time around. Taylor would find it hard to take down the Sentinel on their own but they are at least doing some damage to it. In return though the Sentinel is throwing it's own superstrong punches and strikes at Taylor. Ahmed's spear strikes the one being held by Nicholas but it is still up as it lets off a few more blasts before it's head is sliced off with a shower of blood. The remain Sentinel's, to which there are about six of, don't slow down on their attacks. If anything they are adapting to the students tactics and they're trying to predict their moves to attack before the students do.
"FUCK OFF WILLYA?!" SHane cries after the Sentinel she sends flying, turning to glare at the remaining half-dozen. The one facing Taylor is her next target, it seems, but she doesn't close to punch-trading range. Instead, she finds a large chunk of concrete next to her foot, and narrows her eyes. Backing up a couple steps, she lunges forward to impact the masonry in a soccer-style kick, the explosion lit off from her foot a good deal weaker than normal, but enough to launch the heavy chunk with the force of a thrown shotput.
"You know, I'm sick of this!" Nicholas growls out and he doesn't care if he doesn't have much left in the tank, he'll still do everything he can. It's not easy but he uses his telekinesis to grab one of the Sentinels, sending it's force bolts in random directions before turning him on one of his companions hoping the force bolts hit one of the other sentinels.
At getting struck again by the very strong sentinel, Taylor is once again slammed back into the tree with another squishy sort of crunch sound. The feline teen stares out blankly for a few moments and says, "Fuck, I'm dizzy as all shi-…" Taylor's head rolls forward, hanging limp, the teen's body having as much rigidity as a sack of pudding.
Drawing his only construct back in, Ahmed attempts to reshape it back into a blade, but at this point he can only keep it in the current shape. Panting some, he turns and whips it out once more. With direct control, and some of the training provided by Christopher, he launches that into the back of the Prime making it's way towards Taylor. In this state, he only has his normal strength, his felid shape only that, cosmetic, but still he yells out, "SHAAAAANE! SHANE! HELP! PLEASE!"
Theo notes the change in the sentinels' behavior, and calls it out. "They are trying to adjust to us!" He announces. "Change your combat tactics!" The blade retracts, and Theo chooses to use the grappling hook on his right arm. He flings the arm toward one of the other sentinels, hoping to drag it forward with the grappling hook, preferrably across the ground rather than still on its feet. "Man down!" Woman, technically, Taylor. "Kiloton, double team with Nick. Ahmed, keep it together! You and I still have work to do. We'll see if we can take them on a two to one, stick with your teammates, watch their backs!"
The chunk of concrete hits the Sentinel causing it to do into a daze, which just happens to be the one that Nick aimed the other Sentinel's blasts at which promptly causes one Sentinel to blast the other one to bits. The plasma ball hits the Sentinel but it doesn't do much except get it's attention. Turning it flies right at Ahmed to try to hit him with a flying punch. For the other two remaining, as they're down to three from the original twelve, the remaining three all dive towards Taylor, the middle in attempt to grab the Ocelot while the other two shot more force bold defensively at Nick, Theo, Shane and Ahmed.
"Cover me, Nick!" Shane cries, lunging toward the trio. All her exposed skin begins to redden, and just before she's about to make her leap, a force bolt strikes hard into her back, launching her further than her own legs could carry her. Her focus remains on Taylor, however, and as she gets close enough to the Sentinels to affect them with her diminished blast radius, she looses an agonized scream, letting go of a full-body explosion.
"Got it!" Nicholas says to Shane as he throws out his hands so he can shield her instead of himself, though he gets the shield up a bit late after Shane gets hit. "Shane! Taylor!" He yells as he does his best to keep the shield up and push himself to a standing position again. "I don't know how long I can hold this up…" He says. Since his powers are dampened, they're putting more of a mental strain on him and as Nick fights to use them to a fuller potential a trickle of blood starts to run from his nose.
Taylor's eyes open for a few moments, and the feline puts up a hand towards the charging sentinel, trying to push it away mentally. Lacking telekinesis to begin with, Taylor does little but manage to fall out of consciousness again.
When the Sentinel charges Ahmed, he freezes, and the flying punch takes him square in the chest. The only thing that keeps him from being killed on the spot is the training uniform's protective underweave. But still he goes flying back and ends up smacking hard into the Mansion's exterior, falling in a mostly boneless heap right there. For a long, deadly moment he's still, and then coughs once, some blood coming from his mouth and nostrils as his last ectoplasm falls away and evaporates into the air. There's a small whimper from him before he says in a rasp, "S-sorry… hurtss… hurtsss…" Tears beginning to run down his cheeks as it overwhelms him a moment and a mewling moan creaks out of him.
Theo growls at the hook as it misses the target, striking the sentinel in the chest rather than wrapping around it. It looks so easy in the movies. Theo retracts the right arm grappling hook, rushing to intercept the sentinel which strikes Ahmed. "Not a good time to come unglued!" he mercilessly shouts at Ahmed, unsympathetic to his pain or mental state. He reaches the sentinel, catching it in a grapple and attempting to tackle and pin it to the ground. From the back of the suit, Proto's smaller arms reach out to assist, giving him more points of contact. The suit offers Theo increased strength, though he doesn't know how strong he can expect to be in comparison to the sentinel.
Shane's blast radius is enough to send one of the Sentinels flying and it lands on the ground in a heap before blowing up a few seconds later. Theo slams the Sentinel to the ground and pins him here but while Theo is holding it down, the Sentinel explodes, leaving just one left. The final Prime Sentinel looks around and starts to speak. "Bastion, I'm the last one here of my squad. I can destroy the target." It sends a series of blasts towards Nicholas since he's one of the ones the Purifers want dead more than the rest in a last attempt before it knows it'll be taken down. At least it can be taken down killing one of the mutants its boss wants dead.
As Shane lands, a sickening *pop* can be heard, and she screams as blinding agony, for a moment, completely overwhelms her. The final Sentinel's speech, however, pulls her back to herself long enough for her to lunge at the Sentinel's ankle, a horrified "NO! NICHOLAS!" Should she find a grip, the blast that follows might not be enough to do serious damage, but will almost certainly either badly burn or break its ankle, should any sort of luck be with her.
Nicholas goes to put up a shield but it only lasts for one hit and he gets hit by two of the energy blasts, causing him to get hit backwards. It would have been a lot worse and he might not have been so lucky if it wasn't for Shane gripping the ankle of the Sentinel and the blast he'd have probably been hit a lot more. "Ahmed, Tay, hang in there." He groans. "Shane…thanks." He reaches up a hand feebly and uses his powers to hold the Sentinel in place. "Theo, one more." He's not going to ask Ahmed to do it in his state.
Taylor is still down, though still breathing at least, quick shallow breaths for now.
Ahmed pants out the words, "Screw… h-you…" Rubbing at his chest, and feeling the strangeness of cracked ribs for the first time in his life, "Who… died… and made you l-leader…" Looking up with dazed eyes at the last Sentinel. His hand whips up in a clumsy throw, which is all he can muster before rolling over on his side, and clutching at his sore chest as a handful of ectoplasm, about all he could muster given everything going on splats in the face of the Sentinel like a mudpie, stinging and steaming, and otherwise smelling like the ash from a crematorium for the Prime Sentinel now forced to deal with it.
Theo blinks, protected from the explosion by his armor, though it will need a good cleaning from that mess. He gets back to his feet, and looks over his shoulder at the last sentinel, who has taken his attention away to Nick. His eyes narrow, and he grabs the Sentinel by the throat. "He's not the one you need to be afraid of, I will kill every last one of you," Theo vows straight into the eyes of the last offender, but to those who are behind the attack more than to the weapon. With that, Theo's fist comes up, clad in metal, and extends the blade, which he makes a stab straight for the head of the soulless doll.
With the final Sentinel being held in place by Nicholas and it's view obstructed with goo thanks to Ahmed, Theo would find it very easy to take down the final Sentinel. As it dies the dampening field is lifted. Even though the battle is won, they're still not without their casualties. It seems that some of the Sentinels from other ares of the school are retreating. Things are a mess, parts of the mansion and dorms are destroyed and the quad doesn't look like much more than rubble.
Shane starts to push herself up, but collapses as she tries to move her leg, tight mewling noises of pain heard between short breaths. "Nnn… Can't… can't get up…" Lifting her head, she looks back and forth. "We… got'm?" Her bodysuit is wrinkled oddly at the hip joint of her right leg, the leg itself seeming shorter than the other.
Nicholas just lies there groaning. All he know is his back hurts, he's got a migraine and nose bleed, his leg hurts and there's a lot of soreness. "Is everyone okay?" He says from his spot on the ground. "I need a bath." He mutters. "Yeah Shane, we got 'em. I can't get up either, but we won." He closes his eyes and and breaths deeply, fighting to stay awake just in case.
Just barely managing to get up, Ahmed limps slowly over towards Nick, and helps him up off the ground, almost letting go twice as his pain runs up and down his torso, "No, ow… jerk, lose some weight." Looking to Shane, he just mouths the word 'Thanks' and then begins to work him over towards where Taylor is, those few, painful steps, "How about this… we like… sit here… until someone from the medical side shows up, 'kay? Because really…" Tears beginning to form, "This kinda sucks." And depositing himself on one side of Nick, Taylor on the other, they make quite a threesome. He motions for Shane to join, "By the way… you kicked butt."
Theo lets the last sentinel go, and the blood soaked armor approaches Nicholas and Shane. "See how much more effective you can be when you're not a pussy?" he offers to Nick. "Good job." Maybe that was intended as a compliment. Proto retracts, revealing Theo, who has but a little blood on his face. He's bruised here and there, but for the most part he came out uninjured from this fight. "Proto, get that head, I want the nanotech out of it," he instructs the little robot. "Clean it up. Then freeze it. We may need to have one of the teachers look at the brain to see exactly what happened to their minds." Rather utilitarian? That's Theo. He watches the others limp about "Don't start crying," he says to Ahmed. "Please? We just kicked butt, lets not ruin it by being too sappy. I'm hungry, you guys want something to eat? I'm going to go raid the cafeteria." He reaches up to wipe the blood from his face. "But maybe I'll get a shower first." Proto hops over to the severed head, and just as in structed, collects it and takes it to be cleaned. "By the way," the technopath adds. "Anyone know what happened to Nigel? Is he dead?" He knows that his powers were dampened. "Maybe he'll be able to pull himself back together now that the dampening field is gone."
