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Copyright: This work of FanFiction is the intellectual property of K-NICE and her IRL persona. No copying, distributing or editing of this material is permitted without the express permission of the creator, K-Nice, under United States copyright law.
K-Nice, 1999

Taking Prisoners
by K-Nice

Part 3

Sentinels. Eight of them, just standing there and constantly spouting their digitized rhetoric. The three escapees and their hired help were less than pleased. Rogue was terrified but hiding it well. Destiny was a bit put out. She wasn't used to being blindsided so completely. Gambit saw dollar signs.

Mystique swore out loud. "Stinkin' lousy luck. I bet this never happens to Domino."

Raven was more angry than she was afraid. The Sentinels were not something she had figured on in her plan. She had assumed that there was no room for the hulking metal monsters since there were no in-ground silos like there were at Trask Industries. However, the Sentinels she saw were not physically imposing. In fact they were the only little larger than your average football player. Your average steroid using cyborg football player.

Raven didn't let that keep her from understanding the danger they posed. She tapped Destiny on the shoulder, handing her the knife. "Get to the transport. Stay close to the building. It's about 50 feet away on your left."

"Yes, I know. I can hear it."

"Well, you won't be able to hear it in a second. Be careful, Irene. We're going to get out of this alive." Raven gave her a parting kiss on the cheek and threw herself into the fray.

She grimaced as she realized they only had a matter of minutes before the suppression field would come crashing down again. She saw Rogue grappling with one of the robots in the air. Rogue wasn't gaining any ground so Raven morphed into her daughter's form and attacked the Sentinel from behind. Raven grabbed one arm and Rogue took the other. They pulled and the thing exploded in a shower of sparks and blood.

"They bleed now, Mama?" Rogue was incredulous and disgusted. She had nothing against killing in self-defense, but bleeding robots was a little much. Raven couldn't comfort her at all as she broke away and attacked another Sentinel.

Raven morphed into a Sentinel and began to fire at them with their own weapons. Her grimace became a grin as guards fled in confusion.

Suddenly, she was surrounded by other Sentinels who knew she wasn't the real deal. She spun around as they hovered, encircling her. Rogue was still engaged with one Sentinel and she couldn't spot Gambit.

"Surrender mutant. Your powers have been compensated for. You will be defeated."

She reared back and hissed as she began to morph rapidly. "Oh yeah, compensate for this, Tin Man."

Gambit saw the Sentinels as just one more thing to charge extra for. He didn't doubt that they would be able to avoid recapture even if his watch read "00:09:32". They were professionals and Sentinels were basically walking computers. He had confidence in their abilities.

What he did doubt was the overall fitness of Raven's plan. He saw her take Destiny aside and whisper instructions to her. When Destiny moved toward the transport truck that had been loading soldiers to defend the main gate. Those soldiers were all filing out of the truck and rushing towards them to support the Sentinels' attack. There were seven of the machines, as far as he could tell and they had seemed to erupt from out of nowhere

He swung his bo staff out to it's full length as he noted that Rogue was taking the fight to the Sentinels. She struck one and pushed it high into the air, probably intending to drop it and watch it go splat. However, it got a hold of her and she was forced to wrestle it for control of the flight.

Seems like she's got that under control, he joked to himself. Sentinels may be programmed to search and capture but soldiers like these are programmed to shoot to kill. He turned his attention to the men and their guns. He charged a fistful of cards and rushed the guards with his hands and eyes glowing with unhallowed energy.

Some of them recoiled. They had been trained to deal with all kinds of mutants but this guy looked like he had crawled up from the belly of hell. Most of them rallied, though, and Remy found himself in the middle of a firefight. He took refuge behind the rubble of a Sentinel that had fallen from heaven, and tossed charged cards and scrap metal at the guards.

Abruptly, one of the Sentinels began to fire on the guards. At first Gambit ducked too, figuring the energy blasts were meant for him. Then he realized that this Sentinel was carefully aiming at the guards only. He wasn't one to question gifts of fortune.

Remy sprinted to the transport truck, where Destiny was holding the young driver by knife point. What she couldn't see was that the fledgling guard was reaching for his own weapon. Remy stuck his bo into the boy's throat through the truck's window. "Now, now petit, that's no way to be treating the nice lady." He snapped his wrist hard and fast and the boy slumped forward.

He opened the door and snapped at Destiny, "You wanna tell me whachu t'ought you was doing 'ere? You could have been killed and we would have had no way out of 'ere."

He turned to Irene as he pulled the unconscious body out of the cab, expecting an answer. She sat there with a smug look on her face. "I knew you would come. I Saw it."

He could tell what she meant by the way she said the word. "Hmm. Handy power." He then braced himself as a shock wave rocked the truck. He reached out for Destiny, who was staring out the window.

"This, I didn't See."

They both stared out of the window, mouths agape. Magneto was outside surrounded by a blue nimbus of magnetic energy. He stood triumphant above the wrecked Sentinels that struggled to pull themselves back together. The nimbus pulsed and the Sentinels went still.

Gambit was distracted for a moment as the alarm on his timer went off. He felt a wave of energy pass over him as his powers were suppressed again. He shook it off and forced himself to focus. He finally got a clear few of what was going on outside.

The nimbus disappeared. Then, Magneto fell out of the sky.

Raven shifted through her repertoire of mutants quickly, firing optic blasts, then coating them with ice, then slashing them with claws. She kept this up, morphing before the Sentinels could recover and counter her attack, until she came upon a better idea. She swept her eyes around a made sure Destiny, Rogue and Gambit were out of range. She then shifted into the scarlet cape and helmet of one of the most powerful mutants on earth. The Sentinels took a moment to react, to readjust and prepare for an electro-magnetic attack. They took to long.

"Sorry suckers! We've come to the end of this little love-train and this is were you get off." She pushed his powers outward, shredding the Sentinels were they levitated. As they fell to the ground and began to reconstruct, she let out another blast, a far weaker one, but it was effective. The Sentinels were scrambled. Permanently.

She was about to congratulate herself when she felt a wave crash over her. "The power-dampening field!" She was thrust back into her own form as she fell from the sky. Miraculously, Rogue swept in to save her. As the field began to affect her, Rogue was able to do little more than fall with style, but it was enough to save them both from serious injury.

They rolled to their feet running as a new wave of guards began pouring out of the Center. They were in full riot gear, fully prepared to deal with a few mutant escapees. The truck was already in motion as first Rogue and then Raven launched herself into the transport area. They were bounced toward to front of the truck, which saved them from the hail of bullets ricocheting off the back of the truck.

A few weapons had been left behind and Rogue and Raven returned fire until the truck exited the Center's main fence. Out of the range of power suppressing field, Gambit was suddenly hurling charged objects behind them. Raven climbed into the cab and Rogue grabbed him under his arms.

As Raven and Irene drove out into the night, Remy and Rogue made good their escape. Rogue fended of the guards until Remy had charged a large chunk of the road leading away from the Center. Rogue again lifted him into the air and they flew away just as the asphalt exploded, shutting down any chance of pursuit. The fireball reached out to grab them but Rogue kicked in some extra speed and they managed to avoid getting scorched. Now all they had to do was catch up with their ride.

The ground shook and Raven watched a blast roll up behind them. "That takes care of anyone following us but that still leaves us with a couple hundred miles to our destination."

Raven and Destiny burned down the road, jumping to side roads and speeding through towns until they found the road they were looking for. I44 would take them straight to California, their intended target.

Raven tuned the CB radio in the truck to the police band and listened carefully for any sign of road blocks ahead. This was the most difficult part of the plan. They had to figure out a way to get the Los Angeles International Airport without running across trouble.

"We will not be able to leave as planned." The certainty in Destiny's voice rang out.

"Why not? Does something happen?" Raven was anxious. If one more thing went wrong she'd probably have to kill that thief instead of just shorting him. Either that or he'd kill her. Or, he'd get sick of the whole fiasco and abandon them.

Raven knew she, Destiny and Rogue would have a hard time of it alone. The months in the Center had taken their toll. She was already worn out by having to fight their way to freedom. She doubted she would be of much use in another encounter. As much as she hated to admit it, she would need to keep the thief around to ensure their safe passage out of the country.

So, she really didn't need anymore bad news.

"Yes. When we get to the California border, we will be apprehended by a police road stop set up for our benefit."

"You Saw all that?" Irene's visions were rarely so detailed.

"No, it's on the radio." Destiny wore a little smile as she turned up the volume on the CB.

". . . All NST units report to the state line on I44. Repeat, all Nevada State Trooper units report to the California State border at I44. Nevada National Guard is in route as support. Immediate apprehension of three female patients, escaped at 6:23 from the Agee Center for the Criminally Insane. Consider them armed and dangerous . . ."

Raven and Destiny were startled by a voice. "Criminally Insane! Ah don't believe this!"

Rogue was hovering outside the window. The thief in her arms looking quite nauseated at the prospect of travelling that way indefinitely.

Rogue flew to the rear of the truck and deposited her cargo inside. She touched down gratefully and sat down across from Gambit. He took her all in as she moved around gracefully. She was strong but still gentle. Definitely pretty, definitely smart, definitely forbidden by his employer. He still couldn't help looking.

"So, what do we do now? Ah mean, we can't go to California."

"Wha' I wanna know is, how'd dey figure we was going to Cali. Mystique figured dey'd assume we was heading to Vegas. Dat's de nearest airport. I guess dey out smarted us."

Rogue watched him as he furrowed his brows, obviously trying to think of a way to fix this latest problem. He was very handsome. And much younger than she had thought at first. He was only a year or two older than her, at the most. He was obviously good, or Raven wouldn't have gone through so much trouble to hire him. Rogue found herself staring at him and blushed.

He wasn't oblivious to her attentions but he didn't respond to them. He was trying to find the chink their plan that had let their pursuers know were they were headed.

He had it! "The truck. Dat's how dey know what direction we goin' in. The truck must have a homing device or somet'ing. I gotta tell Raven." Remy grabbed the canvas sides of the truck's covering and climbed out onto the roof.

Rogue flew out and hovered next to him as he crawled along the soft roof. "You could've just axed me, I would have flown you up front."

"No t'anks, petite. I like my feet on solid ground." He grinned but he really didn't want to fly with her. Those belly rolls were a trip.

She grabbed him anyway and they went to the cab.

After relating what he had devised, Remy asked "So what we gon' do about it?"

Just then, they saw the lights of a truck stop ahead. Raven looked at them and sighed. This was still her show. Their lives were in her hands. Destiny and Rogue were her family and the thief had done right by them, even if he was a greedy little frazem tazem.

"First, we get a new vehicle. Then, we get a new plan."

Continued in Chapter Four.

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