It didn't take all that long before the sleek, obsidian Talon fighters sliced through the clouds, their engines a silent hum of raw power.
Though while it hadn't taken long to get them, it also hadn't been easy, because if Prince T'Challa had been unwilling to give in to the Illuminati's demands, then the rest of the royal council had been dead set on stopping it.
In the end, it had been impossible to solve this issue without using force, and while no one had died, it did leave plenty of bruised egos behind.
Something that would no doubt make future talks far more difficult.
But that was for the future, and they truly didn't have time to waste right now. Because while it hadn't taken long for them to set off in these sleek and fast crafts.
That little amount of time was more than enough for the situation to escalate.
Trask had been fully intent on making an army that could bring about his dream world, one without mutants, and to achieve this dream, he had spared no effort.
While he hadn't been able to further increase the abilities of each of his Sentinels, he could compensate by making more.
Quantity is, after all, a quality of its own.
"Pure madness!" Tony's voice came over the radio into the Talon fighter Steve flew in. "There are at least 20,000 of them now, and the number is still increasing! Where did he get the resources for this?"
"There is no shortage of people who would want something like this, Stark. Don't forget that you planned on taking them for your own back when we first learned about it, before Wakanda distracted us," Doom commented.
"We all agreed that it was a good idea, but how could I have guessed he would be able to finish them so quickly, and make so many?" Tony shot back.
Steve didn't join the conversation; he just sighed.
The more he learned about the situation, the worse he felt, and the more he felt he had already failed Arthuria's expectations.
The Illuminati, humanity's shield, had already failed, and why?
Because he had been too focused on the wrong kind of threat.
With aliens and secret nations, with powerful mutants and demons and mages, with Gods and devils... who had time to pay attention to small groups of hateful individuals like Friends of Humanity or the Purifiers?
Trask had seemed so harmless...
He had looked for the stars, thought the worst would come from outside humanity... Only now did he realize that the worst might come from within...
This was the reason Arthuria formed the Illuminati; he knew that now, he could see it now.
Only now did he understand why they needed to be above all laws, why they had to be accountable to no one. Something he had once disagreed with, now seemed more important than ever.
Were mutants dangerous? If someone asked him that, he would say yes, he wouldn't hesitate, but if someone asked him if normal humans were a danger to humanity... he would not be able to say yes with the same conviction.
Wasn't that the root cause of this problem?
Those with power were dangerous, but those without it were only ever in danger?
As he looked out the window at the clouds that zoomed past outside, he couldn't help but sigh again.
"Ignorance... Hate... Greed..." he whispered.
Wasn't this what gave birth to Hydra? to Red Skull? To the Second World War and all the horrors it caused?
Millions of innocents had died, and not because of powerful mutants, not because of aliens or Gods... no... the most dangerous thing had always been the countless normal people, who for any reason, could turn into the real monsters.
Alone, they might not be as big a threat as Magneto or other mutants, but when had evil been something that would only appear in one person at a time?
He suddenly felt a spike of pain in his hand and quickly unclenched it. Only now did he realize he had been gripping the controls so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and forced himself to focus.
This wasn't the time to get lost in thought; he had a mission to complete. He had to protect the innocent.
This would be the second time he came to Italy to beat up bad guys and save people, the second time he came here to end a war, once against man, now against machines.
There were simply too many places needing help all at once for them to move together.
All over the world, people were suffering, and every moment only brought more senseless death.
Steve knew that among the Illuminati, he was the weakest; he didn't have Tony's suits, Reed's abilities, Doom's strange powers, or Erik and Charles' mutations.
He couldn't try to find a way to interfere with the robots using technology; he couldn't do many things, but what little he could do, he would do.
"I'm about to reach Rome," he finally cut into the endless chatter, "What about the rest of you?"
"Magneto is already back in Ireland and is leading the fight there," Fury's second in command, Maria Hill, spoke up.
"Other than him and Xavier, you are the closest one to your target location," she continued.
"Having a bunch of teleporters on payroll really makes life a lot easier, honestly, we should have used them as well," Tony spoke again, clearly sounding jealous.
"With how often you make fun of Erik's mutants, it would be a miracle if you didn't end up at the bottom of the sea... by 'accident'," Natasha made herself known.
"Nat, how is DC?" Steve asked, ignoring the banter once again.
"Bad, I'm really not equipped to deal with these things, it's all-out war over here," the spy said, her words making the others frown.
Yet they didn't blame her; these Sentinels were meant to deal with Mutants, with superhumans and whatnot.
While Natasha was skilled, there was only so much she could do against heavily armored machines meant to resist tanks.
Even Steve didn't know how much of a difference he would make once he landed.
-----
Far from Steve and his worries, across the world, another man had his own set of worries.
Charles Xavier had returned to the school as soon as he heard about the trouble, and that they targeted mutants, it was only thanks to his quick decision that he made it back before anything happened.
But even now that he was back, he was worried about just how much he could really do.
He was, without a doubt, the greatest telepath in the world. This was something he would accept without pride or humility because it was the truth.
Should he desire it, it could steal the secrets of millions, or kill any one person on Earth.
He was far clearer about his own danger than anyone else, which was precisely why he always spoke of restraint.
Why he dared to lecture Erik time and time again.
If he, with this great power, chose not to use it for the greater good, why couldn't others also take a step back?
Yet, even with this power, he could do little to machines, because they didn't think, not the same way a human did.
He could shut down a human mind with a thought, but a machine? He would still need to press the power button like everyone else.
And he had already determined that there wasn't any power button to be pressed on the Sentinels.
Trask hadn't made such a mistake.
That would have been too easy, wouldn't it?
In fact, he made sure there was no real way to shut them down, not even he could do it... Something he had already paid for.
He himself had the X-gene, something his Sentinels hadn't missed once they started on their far more extreme path.
"Chuck, all the kids are in the shelter," Logan said as he came running over.
Charles couldn't help but faintly smile. The man had come here empty and broken, and while he was still missing a lot of his past, he had moved on from it and found a future.
Even if he didn't want to admit it.
"Have Kurt start moving them to Albion," he steeled himself, and made his choice.
Logan froze at the order, "Is it that bad?" The normal carefree and annoyed tone was gone from his voice.
"I'm afraid so," Charles said with a sigh, "Too many of them are coming, and we can't be sure if we can stop them... It's better if we don't have to fight while protecting them."
Charles knew that this action of his was an acknowledgment of defeat, but he wasn't a prideful person; he knew what was most important.
He loved his school, he still firmly believed that with proper education, with care and attention, with enough time, that the bridge between human and mutant could be crossed.
But he also knew that the truly important thing wasn't the school itself, nor was it himself, it was the children.
They were the hope for the future... No, they were the future.
"You know a lot of them don't wanna go, they want to fight, just getting them down there was hard enough," Logan said, clearly not liking having to leave this place behind either.
"Then use force, Logan, do what you have to do," Charles commanded, "This isn't the time to be willful."
Logan looked down at Charles, surprised by the order. He knew this was one of the hardest things he would ever have to do, to turn against his own people, even for their own good.
But he also knew that Charles was right. He had to do what he had to do.
"Alright, Chuck," Logan said with a heavy sigh. "I'll get them out of here. You just focus on not getting yourself killed."
Charles nodded, a weak smile on his face.
With that, Logan turned around and headed towards the shelter, leaving Charles alone in the office. He looked out of the window, at the others out there, his friends, those who would risk their lives to protect this dream of his.
But far more of his attention was far from here.
He might not be able to feel the minds of the Sentinels, but by stretching his reach out, he could feel countless other minds, and he could borrow their eyes.
That was why he didn't need to rely on SHIELD's updates to know the current situation.
Normally, he wouldn't do something like this, but these weren't normal times.
(End of chapter)
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