A mechanoid rants while others wordlessly attack folks throughout San Francisco. Later in this issue they will be referred to as
Biosentinels who are transformed members of the
Humanity Now! Coalition. And
DAv#8 will reveal that the ranting 1 is
Simon Trask, as you can tell by the shape of his speech bubbles (see the end of
DAv#7) and the exhortation to mutant genocide.
Cyclops has a plan which directly involves 4 females he has called together in his
Graymalkin Industries base:-
Dani Moonstar, mutant
Mirage depowered by
M-Day;
Domino of Cyke's secret black ops team
X-Force;
Mindee, 1 of the mind-linked
Stepford Cuckoos;
Psylocke in a wetsuit. Dani is to go to Las Vegas on a secret mission. Scott will borrow
X-23 for the morning, but after that Domino should take her team to to an arranged rendezvous point and wait for
Wolverine to arrive (from New York where he left the
New Avengers in
DAv/UXM: Utopia). Psylocke says *her* team is already at work and should be done in 2-3 days (Cyke wants it quicker). Mindee should go get arrested.
In Alcatraz there's an uneasy face off between the DAv and the
Dark X-Men.
Hawkeye (
Bullseye) and
Daken are the only ones to fight, and they wound each other with knife and claws. But DXM leader
Emma Frost returns (from being shown in
DAv#7 a sanitised version of the treatment of mutant prisoners by
Norman Osborn and
Dark Beast) and breaks them up with help from
Mimic and
Sub-Mariner. She leads her team out to fight the mechanoids.
As they head to Northern Park
Black Queen explains to the others that some of Trask's followers have mutated into these mechanoids called Biosentinels. It seems he is controlling them telepathically, and
H.A.M.M.E.R. is trying to track his location. The Biosentinels mainly just use brute force, however it also seems that they can emit an energy blast from their hands - but this also kills the blaster.
When they land she sends
Cloak and
Dagger to get civilians to safety, and Daken and
Weapon Omega to hit some attackers. Mimic is already flying with
Angel's wings and shooting with Cyclops' optic blasts. Emma keeps Sub-Mariner by her side while she mentally scans their opponents - and discovers that they have been completely taken over by the technovirus. They are no longer alive so she authorises her team to use destructive force (and they do seem to break into metal bits with no flesh and bone). Then she turns diamond and she and
Namor join the fray.
Back at
X-Men HQ Cyclops leads
Armor,
Colossus,
Dazzler,
Iceman,
Northstar and X-23 with
Pixie who teleports them to the battle site.
Emma Frost has switched off her organic diamond body to broadcast a calming message to the population, and then goes diamond again to continue the fight. Dagger's light knives seem to affect the robots. She and Cloak know they're fighting evil enemies but don't like the company they have to keep. Daken slashes humanoids to pieces but regrets that it's no use taunting the mindless mechanoids. Mimic takes 1 into the sky and tries to persuade it that it's a mutant now, so, it should stop attacking mutants. But Weapon Omega blasts its head apart and tells Mimic to stop arguing with the dead - and worryingly continues that everyone (in San Fran?) is dead and in hell.
In Las Vegas Moonstar enters the
Inferno Club where she has an appointment with the boss. A sign on the wall has the Italian original of "Abandon all hope, ye who enter", the opening line of Dante's Inferno.
Cyke's team have ported to the top of a
Worthington Industries building (ie owned by Angel) where they can safely watch the DXM in action. He tells his people that they have been hand-picked to take out Emma's gang if necessary. But for now they'll study their fighting techniques. However if the DXM start to lose the fight then they will risk arrest by helping them.
What they see is the DXM destroying this batch of foes. But Emma Frost knows they have to get to the controller to stop them all. She contacts Norman Osborn who says HAMMER have located Simon Trask at the St Francis Hospital (big deal, that's where he was taken after his injuries in
DAv/UXM:U and held a press conference). Cloak teleports them there.
The DXM's performance was good but
Scott Summers says *his* team will beat them with teamwork. Iceman worries that if they defeat the DXM they'll have to face the DAv. But Cyke says he's got another team poised to do that.
In the Bay of Oakland
Magik is waiting with Domino and
Warpath when X-23 joins them from her 'study session'. No-one knows about Scott's secret X-Force, so
Illyana Rasputin doesn't understand how the others are a team. Then Wolverine emerges from the ocean (he came this way to avoid HAMMER's surveillance) and says they're "going to get our people back".
Finally we join Psylocke in the
X-Sub with
Dr Nemesis,
Kavita Rao and
Madison Jeffries of the scientific
X-Club. They're going to install some tech in something on the ocean floor.
To be continued in
DARK AVENGERS #8.
Excelsioring your collection