"Raven was here," Hank says bursting into Logan's room. "I screwed up."
"Shit," Logan mutters quickly getting to his feet.
Hank and Logan go wake Charles and the three all go down to Cerebro to find it ruins wires and debris everywhere.
"We can't track her now," Hank says picking up the broken helmet.
"She's cut her ties," Charles replies as an idea pops into Hank's head.
"Hey, I saw on the news last night there's going to be an announcement in Washington this afternoon about a new protocol for mutants," Hank explains.
Logan and Charles then follow Hank back upstairs where he shows them his room filled with TVs and recording devices.
"I set the system I designed to record any news about Paris over all three networks, and PBS," Hank explains.
"All three? Wow." Logan replies in surprise having forgotten he was in the 70s.
"Yeah, and PBS," Hark replies. "Look what I found."
Hank turns on one of the TVs showing a reporter standing in front of the white house.
"Tomorrow, in front of the White House, the President will make his announcement. He will be joined by Secretary of Defense Laird and has even sought the help of renowned scientist
Bolivar Trask his special advisor to combat this mutant issue." The reporter explains.
"Raven and Felicia don't realize that if they kill Trask at an event like that, with the whole world watching..." Charles trails off.
"Then I came a long way for nothing," Logan mutters.
"And there's more bad news. I saw in a report they found traces of their blood in Paris." Hank frets. "For all we know, they already have their DNA which is all they'd need-"
"To create the Sentinels of the future." Logan interrupts.
"There's a theory in quantum physics that time is immutable. It's like a river. You can
throw a pebble into it and create a ripple, but the current always corrects itself." Hank explains. "No matter what you do, the river just keeps flowing in the same direction."
"What are you trying to say?" Logan asks.
"What I'm saying is... what if the war is inevitable? What if they're meant to kill Trask? What if this is just simply who they are?" Hank explains.
The room goes quiet for a moment all disheartened by Hanks words until Charles remembers what his future self told him the night before.
"Just because someone stumbles, loses their way... doesn't mean they're lost forever," Charles says before looking up at Hank. "No, I don't believe that theory, Hank. And I cannot believe that is who Felicia is. She saved Americans and Soviets alike all those years ago... She's a protector at heart."
"Ready the plane. We're going to Washington." Charles orders
~
Meanwhile in the future Warpath crouches on a roof using his powers to see if any sentinels or other unwanted visitors are nearby.
"There's 12 carriers inbound, 10 miles!" Warpath yells alerting the others of the incoming sentinels.
"They've found us." Professor X says as Logan still lies in the past.
Without saying a word Magneto turns and walks outside to help the others fight.
~
"Can I see your invitations, please?" A guard asks as Hank pushes Charles through a metal detector causing it to beep due to the wheelchair.
"Yes, you may." Charles answers using his powers to let the guard think they're invited. "These two are with me."
"Go ahead." The guard replies.
"Thank you," Charles replies as Hank helps wheel Charles away.
Logan then steps through the metal detector waiting for it to go off but it doesn't to Logan's surprise before he remembers he didn't have an Adamantium skeleton in 1973.
Charles wheels himself over to where the other wheelchair-bound people are, Hank and Logan following him over and standing behind him.
"Fourth infantry. Took a Bouncing Betty." A wheelchair-bound man in uniform says to Charles. "What happened to you?"
Charles thinks for a moment trying to come up with a nicer way of saying 'I got shot in the back by my dramatic metal-bending friend who was deflecting bullets that a girl I used to like was shooting at him because he was trying to kill a bunch of people with missiles he was controlling but thankfully my fiance who wasn't my fiance at the time and who I thought had just died burst out of the water and shielded them with her powers.'
"Friendly fire." Charles answers.
"The worst kind." The man replies shaking his head.
"Yeah." Charles sighs.
Charles turns his attention back to the crowd in hopes of Raven and Felicia.
"I haven't found them yet, but they have to be here," Charles says as he searches for Raven and Felicia.
"The President of the United States." A man announces as everyone stands and cheers.
"My fellow Americans today we face the gravest threat in our history... mutants." The President speaks as Charles searches the crowd for Felicia and Raven. "We have prepared for this threat. In the immortal words of Robert Oppenheimer... Behold. The world will never be the same again."
Patriotic music begins to play while the crowd cheers and salutes as the first-ever sentinels are revealed.
'This is for you, brothers and sisters.' Raven thinks as Charles finally locates her disguised as one of the guards.
'Raven?' Charles says to her taking control of her body stopping her from moving.
"I have her," Charles informs Hank and Logan
'Let me go, Charles.' Raven grunts inside her mind.
"There. You see? Secret Serviceman. Left of the stage." Charles says pointing at Raven.
Suddenly the sentinels begin powering up causing everyone to cheer and whistle while Trask turns to Stryker.
"What the hell are you doing?" Trask berates. "I didn't tell you to activate them."
"I didn't." Stryker repliers looking down at Trask.
'Raven, please, listen to me.' Charles pleads. 'We've been given a second chance to define who we are. Don't do this.'
The Sentinals being to levitate as the crowd cheers even louder but the cheers quickly turn to screams as they being firing on the crowd.
Charles looks up to see Erik looming over the event holding up an entire baseball arena.
"Erik!" Charles screams in anger as the crowd runs for their lives.
Raven uses the moment of panic to blend in with guards and servicemen escorting the president down into a safe and secure bunker
"Mr. President, we are Code Red." One of the servicemen says as the president takes a seat in the bunker.
"What the hell happened out there?" The President yells as Trask.
"I will fix it," Trask replies slightly out of breath.
"You said that before." The President berates. "I wanted to make a statement. Now the whole goddamn world knows we can't protect them."
"I will fix it," Trask repeats.
"You damn well better." The president grunts.
Meanwhile, Erik begins lowering the arena over the Whitehouse trapping everyone inside.
"Charles!" Logan yells out, alerting Charles of the oncoming arena.
Charles quickly pushes himself from his wheelchair moving out of the way of falling debris only to end up pinned under metal scaffolding.
The arena lands with a thud as Magneto glides to the ground alongside a sentinel while the other surround the arena keeping the police at bay.
Logan and Hank climb up onto a pile of debris to the left of Magneto getting ready to attack.
"Probably not supposed to ask this kind of thing but..." Hank pauses. "In the future, do I make it."
"No," Logan answers with zero hesitation earning a look of disgruntlement from Hank. "But we can change that, right?" Logan adds.
"Yeah." Hank nods, not quite convinced it'll all work out.
Hank removes his glasses as he begins grunting and groaning as he turns blue and furry taking on his beast form. Magneto turns hearing Hank's grunts becoming aware of their presence.
"Do what you were made for." Magneto orders the Sentinel by side.
The Sentinel scans the surrounding area identifying Logan and Hank as mutants before its arm turns into a gun and begins shooting them allowing Magneto to continue his plan without distraction.
"Where are you?" Magneto mutters under his breath as he uses his ability to find the metal bunker the president is hiding in.
As Logan distracts the Sentinel, Hank jumps up onto it from behind and begins ripping it to pieces.
"I got this! Go!" Hank roars.
Logan quickly turns his attention back to Magneto and begins running at him while Magneto sends various pieces of metal flying at Logan all of which he dodges. Getting fed up Magneto sends a slab of concrete, riddled with metal bars flying at Logan's back hitting him from behind knocking him to the ground. Magneto pulls the metal bars out of the concrete and slowly forces them into Logan body causing him to scream and groan out in pain. Magneto then uses those metal bars to levitate Logan above the ground
"So much for being a survivor," Magneto says to Logan before sending him flying away out of sight and out of mind.
Meanwhile inside the bunker tension begins to rise as Trask starts to hear a familiar beeping coming from his pocket and pulls out his mutant detector.
"One of them is in here," Trask informs the guards who all immediately pull out their guns.
"How do you know it's not the twins?" Stryker asks.
"Because they haven't mutated yet." Trask answers.
Quickly Raven, still in disguise pulls out her gun to shoot Trask but the guards all quickly apprehend her.
"No, no, no! Don't kill it! I need it alive." Trask yells.
Suddenly all the guns rise to the roof of the bunker as it begins to shake and rumble. Stryker pulls his gun out to shoot Raven only to find she's disappeared in the panic.
"What the hell has happened?" The president asks as shaking gets worse.
Raven quickly takes the opportunity to knock out Stryker before going back to blending in, in the bunker.
Suddenly the bunker hits the ground with a thud causing all inside to fall over groaning in pain.
Magneto rips a hole in the side of the bunker revealing all who's inside before quickly pulling all their guns away aiming them at the men in the bunker.
"You built these weapons to destroy us." Magneto bellows gesturing to the sentinels. "Why? Because you're afraid of our gifts. Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different. Well, I'm here to tell you... to tell the world... you're right to fear us. We are the future. We are the ones who will inherit this earth and anyone who stands in our way will suffer... the same fate as these men you see before you. Today was meant to be a display of your power... instead I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours. Let this be a warning to the world... and to my mutant brothers and sisters out there. I say this... no more hiding, no more suffering. You have lived in the shadows and shame and fear for too long. Come out. Join me. Fight together in the brotherhood of our kind. A new tomorrow. That starts today."
"Please don't hurt them." A young blonde girl with crystal blue eyes pleads walking out of the bunker. "They're just scared."
"Enough Raven, you can't fool me," Magneto says cocking the guns at the little girl.
"She's not Raven!" A little brunette boy comes running out pushing the little girl behind him. "And we're not gonna let you hurt these people."