Bishop #2 - Road to Nowhere

Bishop#2 - "Road to nowhere"

By Mike M

The Road was screaming by as Bishop rode down the highway on his Motorcycle. He'd been driving for several hours now, his original plans to fly cancelled due to funds, and the fact that the other X-men were out using the Blackbird.

As the very thought of jets crossed his mind, three F-15 Fighter jets strafed overhead, blasting a nearby truck to pieces. The burning remains of the Driver flailed out of the wreckage, screaming madly.

Bishop was sickened. He looked up at the Jets, returning for another attack. He saw no symbol that he recognised, but the one thing synonymus among them was a purple insignia, not unlike an angular face, on each wing.

Another missile fired, the explosion throwing him off his braking motorcycle. He landed off the road, and plowed into the dirt. Drawing his weapons, he checked himself for any serious injury, and ducked behind the partial cover of the mound of dust he'd ploughed up in his fall.

He heard the awful sound of jet engines at low altitude, and rose, fireing both blasters at one jet. They both struck one wing of the blue jet, but amazingly, it stayed flying, as if it were floating, rather than driven than by the jet engine. He heard a noise that sounded almost like a voice cursing, and the blue jet broke off from the v-formation the jets were in, and fired at Bishop.

Bishop was blasted backwards, but, amazingly, stood back up, albeit painfully.

"Concentrate" He told himself, harnessing the Mutant power he posessed to redirect energy offensivly. He let a blast off at the blue jet, which had probably not expected Bishop to survive a plasma energy blast. He hit it head on at the nosecone, and like a trail of the destruction he had just wreaked, smoke erupted from every hole and orifice on the fighter.

Suddenly, the jet dissapeared with a flash of purple of light and a strange sound. Bishop was startled. It was like sentinels of his time, self destructing or activating their personal teleporters when heavily damaged.

What mystefied him equally was the blast that had hit him. He was expecting to be killed by a hail of bullets from what he had assumed was a vulcan cannon on the jet, or maybe a laser, but an energy blast was completely unexpected. Not that he would have prefered the hail of bullets, but most nations had signed pacts with the UN agreeing not to use high powered energy weapons, along the same lines of reasoning as Nukes, and Biological warfare.

Still, in his time, most of the perps had used self-recharging energy weapons, and he wondered when someone would break the rules in this time.

He was brought back to the battle around him by the sound of sirens. A large police van had drawn up to a large crowd of survivors, who had fled their vehicles at the first sign of trouble. The back doors of the van opened, but instead of the SWAT team he expected, he saw a squadron of sentinel-like robots emerge. A large chaingun on the shoulder of the largest started spinning, and it was almost too late that Bishop realized the gun was not aimed at the jets. A few in the crowd noticed this too, but it was too late. The fire if a slew of depleted uranium slugs left the crowd a bloody mess. One of the robots fired at the two remaining jets, but the jets just thundered off in a blaze of yellow flame.

"HUMANS. DO NOT HIDE. REISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM US."

A shotgun sounded. One of the robots was thrown backwards by the blast, but it retaliated with a precision laser shot. The target was a big, butch looking redneck , probably one of the truck drivers Bishop had seen. The gun was slagged in an instant, and the Driver was evaporated, not even a skeleton remained. This lead to some retching from nearby. With cold, calculated precision, the unfortunate was weeded out with a Frag missile.

No more screams. Bishop guessed that the robots were scanning the area for any other people left. He cautiously looked around the dust bank he'd been hiding behind, and decided he had a fighting chance. He rose, and fired at two of the robots simultaneously. he hit one in the head, and the other in the chest. Both had holes blown in them, and went down.

He fired at the lead one, with the gatling gun. It struck him, but it only caused a burn mark on it. He gave it both barrels, and it blew away the frontal armour, exposing the delicate circuitry underneath. another shot to the chest, and it went down. the other two robots were drawing guns on him,and he fired again. This time, an energy shield sprung up, blocking the hit. Bishop surmised that the other would defend itself the same way, and he decided to run. He was caught in the back by a laser bolt, but he absorbed the energy and directed it back behind him, missing the robot, bu striking the van. To his astonishment, the van made a whirring noise, and parts flipped round, blocks moved, and pieces connected, leaving an immense robot standing there in the van's stead.

"SURRENDER MUTANT. YOUR POWERS ARE USELESS AGAINST US. OUR OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE CAPABILITIES ARE FAR SUPERIOR TO OUR OWN. UNITS 23/25 -TRANSFORM"

The other robots sudenly transformed in a similar manner to the first, and a pair of tanks started to track Bishop with their main armament.

Bishop looked around. He saw he didn't have many options. He shot at the larger robot, attempting to sever any link that it might have with the other two. Both shots from his rifles hit home, and blew it's head off.

However, the attack did not have the desired effect, as he had triggered some kind of failsafe mechanism. All the weapons on all of the robots, even those Bishop thought he'd dealt with, opened fire. He instantly ran for cover behind the nearest car, when he realised his mistake. The two tanks,which were still functional, both fired at the car with their main cannons, which instantly made the car's fuel tank explode, and those around it suffered the same fate, which started a chain reaction, destroying the whole area, tarmac, vehicles, robots, bodies and all. Everything except Bishop, who was blown clear as the first car had exploded, and his neglected bike, which had ridden out on the force of the blast.

"Need a hand?" A voice said behind the badly beaten Bishop.

Looking over his injuries, Bishop guessed that he had a cracked or broken rib on each side of his chest, various degrees of burn in assorted places (* author's note: prevented from being too serious by the fireproof properties of the X-men's costumes).

"Yeah..." he croaked, turning over to see -

"Death's Head!" (*AEiC Note: See we listen! Demand More! Yes, it is DH2;)}

He recognized the mechanoid from Cerebro's files, chanced upon when seeking information about the mechanoids and robots of this time.

"What are you doing here?" Bishop croaked painfully.

"Saving your life it would seem, yes?" grated the mechanical voice, as Death's Head fired at one of the robots, who had risen from the debris. The robot spun back as it's arms separated themselves from its chest violently.

"Now we should leave, yes?" Death's Head said, while lifting Bishop onto his shoulder and throwing a small device onto The Bike. "Transport two, destination - Los Angeles" Death's Head commanded, as they faded away into thin air.