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J1NX wrote:"Sensors are picking up a full array. All sorts of dirty business going on underground." The quiet voice came from inside his ears. "Jinx....this is bigger than the last hit. You've taken on one of these things, but there's no telling what will happen with more than that. Maybe you should wait for backup." Jinx felt the wind in his hair as he slid the visor down over his eyes. The technological wonder came with the trade, kill the machinists but keep the best parts for yourself. "Ease up Scar. It's only a bunch of bucket heads. Besides, if I let anyone else take a hit at these guys, I'd never live it down. I'm supposed to be the technopath after all." SCAR was his internal computer, the one that linked together all of his nanoprobes. SCAR was more an acronym than a name; Systems Control and Automated Robotics unit; the mind behind the mind. "If you wish to continue taking such risks I would like you to leave me out of it." Jinx chuckled lightly as he made his run towards the gates of the compound. "You know I couldn't do this without you always nagging in my ears." The voice wasn't in his ears at all though. It was a vibration caused by nanoprobes that had locked onto his inner ear and transmitted responses from his brain. "First check point coming up. You'll have a six second window." That’s all the encouragement he needed as he dug his feet in deeper as he ran. He saw the gate and the search lights in the tower, Far too insecure. he thought as the lamps began to flicker and fail and the keypad near the gate powered down. He picked up speed and leaped at the gate digging the spikes on his feet into the door. He made quick work of the ascent and flipped down to the ground as the security system powered back on. "Scar...that was more like 4 seconds." The voice in his ear buzzed a little as it retorted. "It was six...you are just becoming slower Jinx." He didn't like the sound of that, but it may have been the truth. Staying in the care and control of S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't done anything for his agility. "Forget about talk let’s get my head in the game. Pull up the schematics we were able to get." The heads up display in his visor brought up a three dimensional map that seemed to hover about a foot in front of him. "You sure this is right, Scar? This says that the entrance to the facility is through that small building over there." "Of course it is correct, the information I obtain is flawless." SCAR chirped into his ear. "If you say so." His sensors scanned the area constantly as he sprinted towards the building.

"No guards....no dogs....hell not even any sentinels in sight. What's the deal?" As he reached the parking area in front of the small building a light in the window flipped on. "Never mind, I guess I was too fast to speak." He watched intently as he waited for the door to open. "Disturbance ahead...23ft." Disturbance, what disturbance? Jinx thought as his thoughts were silenced by the sound of gigantic bay doors opening in front of him cleaving the building in twain. They collapsed in upon themselves, opening as wide as a football field. The whirring sound of machinery broke through the night air. Jinx grinned wide and turned off the map. It was a team of sentinels, 25 to be exact, newly built and ready for battle. "I think I found them, Scar. Initiate battle scenario Alpha." The electronic chirp in his ear told him it was done as he walked around the remaining cars and casually strolled towards his 25 new play mates. "A bunch of Mark IV's....I didn't think anybody was still making these things. Oh well, I hate to bust up such beautiful toys, but business is business." As he approached he began accessing their technical data and syncing with their core processors. One by one the sentinels walked to the wall of one of the hangers and sat down, powering off. "Too easy?! Where is the challenge?" The ground began to shake beneath him, the tremors working their way up his spine. "Scar, what the hell is that?" An angry blaring noise hit his ears. "Something we hadn't prepared for. They have a Prime."

Jinx looked hurriedly around, not trusting his scanners to do the work for him. "Where? Where is it coming from?" His words were answered by a swift kick to his midsection. A feminine looking robot had somehow evaded his notice and gotten inside sensor range. Jinx reeled back and flipped out of range to give a more prospective view. "A Mark XI?! Where the hell? Never mind, get working on finding its entry port, I'll stall it." As he spoke Jinx drew his sidearm and fired a blast where the humanoid sentinel stood. The bot didn't move, taking the whole blast of the weapon. "Surrender or be destroyed!" Came the metallic voice from the robot. It had lost some of it's sheen, but aside from that it's armor wasn't even cracked. "Come and get me bucket head! You don't know who you just picked a fight with!" Jinx was more cocky than confident in that statement, he had dropped a lot of sentinels in his time, but never a Mark XI. He made a dash at the sentinel, unloading his clip into it's optical sensors. The damage was visible, both optics were destroyed and the Mark XI seemed to stop moving. "Am I too much for you, scrap metal?" The sentinel's answer was simple, so simple it didn't need words. A blast was fired from Jinx's blind spot. It knocked him off his feet into a building. He raised his head shakily and saw that the Mark IV's were beginning to power back on. "Scar, where are we on that schematic?" "Approximately two minutes until it is uploaded." The computerized voice chimed back. "Scar, you may be looking for a new head to crawl into in two minutes. Work faster!" Jinx felt the weight of his body more fully now as he pulled himself up from the ground. "SURRENDER OR BE DESTROYED!" The combined voice of all of the sentinels was enough to make his blood run cold. "This may get messy; I have to start taking them out now." He switched his sensors to movement based activity and ran wide around the Mark XI towards the horde of Mark IV's.

He holstered his gun and pulled his blade digging deep into the control servos for the first one's legs. It dropped like a stone giving a perfect ladder to the upper torso and head. Stabbing quickly into the optics he severed the link to the processor. The group unleashed a devastating barrage of blows and blasts into the fallen unit's head region. "You aren't playing nice. Time for a time out." Jinx said as he dodged the attack and latched onto the head of another unit. Slashing deep into the back of its neck he severed the control cable to its main weapons leaving it easily accessible to the skilled technopath. Grabbing hard on his sword with one hand he used his other to splice the wires back together and begin wildly firing its beams into the rest of the group. The battle raged on like that for what seemed like hours to Jinx. For every one he would kill, another would kill twice as many trying to stop him. Finally all that was left standing was him in a pile of sentinel parts. "Schematics uploaded." SCAR chimed in his head. Jinx turned back to the smaller sentinel and was amazed to see it not just standing, but running at him. "What is it's primary weakness, Scar?" The chirp in his ear was over shadowed by the crash of metal on flesh as the sentinel pinned him against the hanger. "Known weaknesses, full system failure from electrical discharge. It seems you will have to shock it from the inside." Jinx gasped for air as he slashed back and forth across its torso, but it kept pushing, intent on crushing my larynx. "Scar, initiate migration code Zeta now!" "Are you sure that is wise? That would....I understand. Migration ready."

The sentinel reached towards his face and ripped the visor off tossing it aside. "Surrender or..." Jinx inhaled deep and spit into the unit's open optical ports. "Be destroyed." The attack would have been useless against an organic enemy, but a machine like the Mark XI was a prime target for the nanoprobes in his blood. They latched onto the circuitry of the sentinel's eyes and uploaded themselves into it's processor before sending a surge of power through it frying it's circuits. The unit sizzled and popped as it fell to the ground. The mechanical hiss that came from it sounded all too much like a death rattle to Jinx. It was a welcome noise. He walked to the pieces of his broken visor and sighed. "Scar, can you scan the area for other activity." The mechanical voice sounded almost relieved. "Negative. Still signs of a plant below street level, but it's running quiet. This must have been a reserve of sorts." Jinx nodded and made his way back towards the gate. "Can we access the mainframe?" "Affirmative. Would you like it shut down?" Jinx smirked. "Yeah....the hard way." As he walked back out of the base the silhouette of fire and smoke was a welcome sight that filled the night sky. The explosion was nearly unnoticeable because of the remote placement of the base; it would take days before anyone noticed it was in ruins.