The Scott and Jean Archives
Four weeks ago, Larry Trask commands his sentinels to destroy all mutants. His father’s friend, Judge R.C. Chalmers tries to stop Trask. In the process, Chalmers reveals a hidden secret (unknown to Trask himself) that Trask is actually a mutant when he removes the medallion from Trask’s neck that suppresses Trask’s mutant powers. The sentinels immediately identifies Trask as a mutant and proceeds to destroy him as programmed.
Two weeks ago, the X-Men destroyed the sentinels and their base of operations, but one sentinel is still functioning and manages to repair itself.
Back in Illinois, the sentinel has Ashley in its grasp. Xavier observes as the sentinel mysteriously complies with the girl when she commands it to stop what it was doing at once. As Hank regains consciousness, he attacks the sentinel yet again, and the sentinel responds back with a punch. Xavier informs Hank that the situation is under control for now as Ashley commands “Big Bot” to stop. At this time, Ashley’s mom returns home to find her house in ruins.
In the Savage Land, Magneto is recovering from his near-death experience.
Meanwhile on the freight ship, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Candy find Warren’s friend, Avia, pinned to the wall of a room. Cyclops plans an escape, but is discovered by the ship’s mutant crew led by a man named Krueger. Cyclops’ optic blast “washes over [Krueger] like rainwater”. Krueger has been tracking the X-Men since they’ve made their public appearance.
Cyclops demands Krueger to tell them where Angel is. Krueger declines to reveal Angel’s whereabouts. Krueger mistakes Candy for Marvel Girl. Cyclops plays along with Krueger by calling Candy Marvel Girl as the real Marvel Girl telepathically tells Candy to play along with it. Cyclops misinterprets Krueger’s words when the latter said they did not call themselves mutants, but are comfortable with the term freaks, and thinking that Krueger isn’t a mutant, they are caught off guard when Krueger uses his powers to render them unconscious. He then takes a call from the Blob, and informs his business partner that he has more X-Men for the Blob.
At Ashley’s home, Xavier talks to Mrs Martin about the high probability of her daughter being a mutant. And the presence of the sentinel affirms that. Xavier asks Ashley to ask the sentinel how it managed to track her down.
The sentinel explains that after repairs, it set out on a random course and happened to fly into the vicinity of Dunfee and discovered a mutant presence. It proceeded to investigate as programmed, but failed to carry out termination. Xavier confirms the secondary signal that interferred with Cerebro came from the sentinel. Unfortunately, Mrs Martin voicing out her thoughts overwritten Ashley’s commands and the sentinel resumes its original programming. Angry that the sentinel doesn’t want to be her friend anymore, Ashley’s powers surface and destroys the sentinel in a thought.
At the edge of the Savage Land, an amnesiac Bobby Drake follows his saviour, “Joe Smith”, running wildly and in pain into the jungle. Bobby is astonished that Smith knew his name when he doesn’t remember who he is. Smith warns Bobby not to touch him, but Smith himself cannot resist as his “energy reserves have sunk too low” and absorbs Bobby, turning himself into Sauron.
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