Villain: Sentinels, Master Mold

First Appearance: Master Mold, Mr. and Mrs. McCoy (in flashback)

Guest Appearance: Bolivar Trask

Origin: Beast

Cameo: Mr. and Mrs. McCoy

Innovations: Professor X employs his astral image

Gadgets & Technology: Nature Activator Rays, Mental Psycho-Probe, micro-electric blasts

Bolivar Trask is taken to see the Master Mold, the giant Sentinel that reigns supreme over all others. The Master Mold tells Trask that he is to create more Sentinels so that they can rule the world's humans, in order to protect them according to his directive. Meanwhile, the remaining X-Men try to figure out the next stage of their plan. Professor X sends a potent mind bolt into the fortress, knocking out the Sentinels that man the artillery guns. The backup Sentinels have no idea what to do, since they only obey direct orders from their squadron leaders.

The Beast is led to the Master Mold's chamber, where Trask is ordered to study him as a specimen with the Mental Psycho-Probe. Trask initially refuses, but the Master Mold threatens to destroy a whole city if he does not cooperate. Reluctantly, Trask applies the Psycho-Probe to the Beast, who begins telling the the mission of the X-Men: to protect mankind from evil mutants. Trask realizes he was wrong all along- that the X-Men aren't bad! He also realizes what a terrible mistake he made creating the Sentinels.

As for the X-Men, they have taken advantage of the silent ray guns by penetrating the fortress and destroying the guns. They see a Sentinel, but instead of being attacked, they are asked by the robot to follow him, as he has no orders to deal with them directly. Waiting to see how the plot thickens, Cyclops decides the team will follow him to his destination.

Back at the Master Mold, The Beast continues with the story of his origin, relating how he was a young man who was ridiculed for his big feet and his amazing athletic skill which seemed unreal to normal people. Across the facility, the X-Men uncover their teammate, Iceman, and free him from the cage he is imprisoned inside. They manage to disable the Sentinel guarding him, but that sets off a system of alarms which go off all over the facility. The Beast's story goes on, with the tale of Professor X coming across newspaper articles about "The Beast", and his visit with the McCoy family to persuade his parents that Hank would do well to study with him at his school.

Professor Xavier grows impatient outside the fortress, and he turns into his astral self to break into the fortress. He finds the Master Mold's chamber, and sees what they are doing to Hank with the Psycho-Probe, getting him to reveal all the X-Men's secrets. Before he can give away any more secret information, Professor X shuts off Hank's brain waves and then goes inside the mind of the Master Mold to stop him. But the Master Mold senses the attack, and uses his Micro-Electric Blasts to push the unseen force of Professor X away from him. Forced to retreat, Xavier rushes back to his corporeal form.

A cadre of Sentinels track the X-Men down in the base, but Bobby puts up a wall of ice to hold them back for a moment. But one of the Sentinels flies headlong into the wall and headbutts his way through. Cyclops downs him with an optic blast, but the rest are still intact, and the Sentinels employ a Heavy-Grav beam that weighs them all down to the ground. Next, the Master Mold demands that Trask create a Sentinel army without further delay.

(continued in XM #16)

--synopsis and panel images by Gormuu