Upon arriving at work the next morning, Heidi found out that Max was out of the office for the day and she wasn’t surprised. If anything she was relieved not to have to deal with him, and after getting a cup of coffee, she started to work on the days scheduled events. What she was not aware of was that Max was at home talking to Jack about what he had seen the other night.

      “So she does have a like of them. Jack I need to know how much she knows about my plans, and we will start with Jarrod. I think expecting him to keep my secrets might have been too much for the lad. After you interrogate him you know what to do,” he said as his phone began to ring. As he began to speak with an associate of his, Jack left to find the boy and see just how much information he had given to Miss O’Connell.

      By lunch Heidi had everything on her list finished and was ready to submit them to Max for approval. Now she waited in the Lobby to have lunch with Jarrod and see if he knew anything about what Max had planned for his Sentinels. Even though she wasn’t staying at the Mansion, she still wanted to help them in what ever way she could. An hour passed and half of another before the Security guard told her that Jarrod was in a meeting with Max. Not knowing anything was out of the ordinary Heidi went outside, hailed a cab and headed to a small Greek Restaurant a few blocks away.

      While Heidi had lunch, the students of Xavier’s School were told of the danger which might come to pass, and at once all of them began to talk until the adults around them were able to get things under control. 

      Kitty was the first to speak her concerns. “How will we be able to get away from them, even if we do use the tunnels what is going to stop them from coming after us when we get out?” she asked. 

      Scott answered that for her. “If we find a Sentinel we will make sure that it doesn’t get any where near you or any of the other Students. The important thing for you to remember is what to do when you know it is time to evacuate. Colossus will lead one group to the exit tunnels on the west Wing. Rogue you and Iceman will lead the group to the exit on the East wing. When you get out of the tunnels we will have transportation waiting to take you to the Cabin,” he said. Once everyone knew the plan they spent a good part of an hour rehearsing what the students would do. It was almost like practicing what to do incase of a fire, only this threat was far worse. The other rules set up to protect the students were that they could no longer go anyplace other than the protected grounds of the school. They were not to go past the parameter fence surrounding the grounds, and Curfew was to be strictly observed. 

      For the X-men, their training intensified, and today the Professor had something special for them to train with. When they arrive in the workout facility below the school the room was dark, and when the doors shut the lights flickered on and they found themselves face to face with a ten foot Sentinel. It wasn’t as large as the one’s Scott and Storm had seen at the Construction site but it was large enough to allow them time to practice. Charles had come across old blueprints of one that had attacked he and the team just after he established the School and it had not taken long to build it. 

      The Robot began to fire at Jean, and she deflected the blast but it seemed to deplete her energy. While it seemed to be distracted, Logan ran at it as his claws came out of his hand. As he was about to strike at it’s legs one of his large mechanical arms came down and knocked him off his feet. 

      Jean fell back as the beam became to much for her, and Scott began to fire away at it realizing that his beams were being absorbed. 

      From his angle, Iceman through a blast of cold energy at its eye beam and a moment later that part of the Robot stopped working.

      Jean was momentarily knocked back by the blast but when she stood up her body began to glow a Fiery red and with a strong blast she knocked it back against a wall. The robot didn’t seem to be affected but it gave the team time to make a strike. In a matter of minutes the Robot stopped functioning leaving a very exhausted team of X-men realizing that they had a lot to do if they were going to be able to defend the children from this new breed of Sentinel.

      Spending time at the theater was something Heidi enjoyed, and after watching two of them she emerged from the building to find that it was already dark. She hailed a cab and when it arrived she got in and told the driver where she wanted to go, then shut her eyes thinking about a vacation she was going to take in a few weeks. Anna had suggested she go to the Bahamas but tropical climates and the ocean were not her idea of a relaxing Vacation. Something made her feel uneasy, and when Heidi opened her eyes she realized that her driver wasn’t headed back toward the park. “Hey this isn’t the way to my Apartment,” she said.

      Jack looked in his review mirror. “Max wants a word with you,” he said before he looked back at the road. Heidi tried the door and when it wouldn’t open she tried the window. She was trapped and all she could think of was the children in that mansion. Even though she was not terrified, she wasn’t going to give this guy or Max the satisfaction of seeing that and again she shut her eyes.

      A few minutes later Jack pulled up in front of Max’s Estate, a huge complex surrounded by a twenty foot chain link fence. When Jack opened the door Heidi lunged at him knocking him off his feet and began to run when she heard dogs barking. She turned around to find Max standing in between two burly looking gentlemen. Both men were holding the leashes of two pit bulls each, and when Max told her that he would release them if she took another step, Heidi began to walk back to him. She was terrified of dogs, due to a bad experience as a child and had no desire to see be their lunch. When she got close enough Max sent the two men and his pets away and grabbed her by the arm. “You lied to me,” he said.

      “I don’t know what the hell your…” before she could finish what she was going to say he smacked her hard against her left cheek.

      “Letting Jarrod be a part of my project was a bad choice for me, but fortunately where he is, he won’t be giving you any information.

      Heidi’s stomach began to churn as she realized his meaning. Jarrod was obviously dead, and she wondered just how long it would be before she joined him. 

      At the mansion, Xavier wheeled out of Cerebro finding Logan where he had left him. “Heidi has been taken by Max, and we owe her our protection,” he said.

      Logan was angry that the professor had let her go and began to walk away when he called out for him to wait. “This is something I want to handle on my own. If the team comes along and he finds out, she’s not going to make it out of there alive,” he said.

      “Use great care Logan, this man is dangerous. I will tell the rest of the team to be on guard.” Charles watched as Logan stocked off and once he was out of site he called out to Jean to assemble the rest of the team. 

      In a cell in a dark musty basement, Heidi woke to find her face throbbing. Each time she refused to tell Max what she knew he struck her face. She licked her bottom lip confirming what she already knew. It was painfully swollen and sore as a result of the physical abuse he had inflicted upon her. It was dark here, and only one light was glowing from a nightlight he had plugged into the wall. The last think she remembered him saying was that until she talked she would remain there without food or anything else. She stood up and her head spun so she sat back down on the blanket he had left her. Her eyes were adjusting to the dark and as she looked around her sell she noticed something just off to the right. As she moved closer to it she realized it was a body. Heidi shut her eyes when she realized who it was and fought not to start crying. Jarrod had been a sweet guy and he didn’t deserve what had happened to him. She crawled around her cell trying to find a way out of her prison and when she realized that there wasn’t a way she shut her eyes. As soon as she did that she heard a voice in her head telling her that help was on the way, and without being told, she had a feeling she would be seeing Logan very soon. Knowing her body needed rest she settled against the wall against the back of the sell and soon went to sleep. 

      It was early in the morning when Logan reached Staunton Island, and the outer parameter of Max’s estate. He knew the fence was electrical and had a feeling that if he touched it, an alarm would go off. He sniffed the air and sensed someone from the inside coming his way with a dog. Logan hid behind a tree and shut his eyes. The dog Stopped on the other side of where he was standing, then pulled it’s maser along their coarse. In a few minutes, he knew how he would get inside and began to shimmy his way up the tree he had just hidden behind. When he got above the fence he prepared his body for a harsh landing then he jumped forward and in a matter of seconds he landed on the grassy grand. His legs hurt from the jolt but because of his adimantium coating, none of his bones broke. There weren’t a whole lot of places for Logan to find cover and after sniffing the air, he went in a direction where he didn’t smell anyone near by. 

      An alarm went off and Max sat up in his bed and got up as his personal body guard ran in. “There has been a parameter breach,” the man told him as he hurried up to get dressed. 

      “I should have known they would come for her,” Max said as he grabbed his gun of choice, a colt, and followed James out of his room. 

They ran down to the basement and when Max turned the lights on he found that his prison was empty. Two of the bars had been sliced apart, and Max turned around. “Activate Sentinels one, don’t let her get away,” he said, more angry than he had been when Heidi wouldn’t tell him what she knew about his plans. 

      His sense of smell led him to a small window peering into a basement like structure. He knew there would be no easy way of getting Heidi out of there, and with one forceful blow of his fist the window shattered and an alarm went off. Logan had worked fast to get Heidi out of her prison and found some rope which he would need to get them over that fence. Heidi was in great pain but she did the best she could to help him and he admired her for that. Once they were outside he picked her up cradling he in his arms before he began to run for the fence to the tree he had used to get inside the parameter. They had nearly made it there when a laser beam fired and hit the ground in front of them. Logan turned around and found a twelve foot Sentinel on the approach. 

      “Can you run?” He asked the woman he held in his arms.

      “I think so,” Heidi said even though her head was throbbing. When Logan put her down she ran to the right of him and the Sentinel didn’t seem to notice her. It began to fire at Logan and he dodged the laser blasts as he began to run toward it. Logan knew from their practice that running from it wasn’t going to do him any good. When he was close enough the think tried to strike him with it’s mechanical arm just as the other one had, but this time Logan jumped and struck at it with his claws. The metal was strong but not as strong as his blades and he made quick work of slicing through it while avoiding being knocked away by a blast from it’s lasers and its arm. He swung and his clawed hand ripped away the lower half of both of it’s legs sending it falling backward. Logan wasted no time in dismantling it and before he could catch his breath he realized he wasn’t alone. He turned around the way Heidi had run and found Max hold her against him with a blade pressed against her neck. 

      “Thank you for showing me my Sentinels weakness,” he said as he smirked, not knowing he was walking on dangerous ground. 

      “Let her go and take me,” Logan said. He knew that Max couldn’t do anything to him that he couldn’t heal from and was ready to attack him when they both heard a plane approaching above them. Caught momentarily off guard, Max didn’t see the attack until it was too late. Logan knocked him off of his feet while managing to grab Heidi out of his arms. By that time the plane had landed and after picking her up he ran to the ramp and boarded telling Storm and Jean to get them out of there before Max sent more of his pets after them.