The year is 2023 and home isn't quite the same as it was before. Gwen could remember a time when her family... the X-Men had to deal with all manner of threats to worldwide acceptance of mutants by humanity, but they could at least be a family at the Xavier Institute and know that despite all the adversity, they were working toward a better tomorrow for her and her future children. She remembered Professor Xavier telling her that she had more potential as a mutant then anyone he had ever seen. She remembered his pride in her and his warm smile, like a kindly grandfather. That all changed with the institution of Operation: Zero Tolerance. The Sentinels were unleashed upon the mutants of the world under the mechanical control of Master Mold. No one expected just how many of the monstrosities had been built, and were being built every day. The X-Men fought back. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four fought back against the new threat, defending old friends. For a moment, the world's superhumans seemed united in the battle against the Sentinels, but despite the great power of the superheroes, there were simply too many of the damnable things. These were different, too. They had a hive mind-like programming that told each unit exactly how to take down every hero. They knew everyone's strengths and weaknesses. Someone it seemed, had been taking notes. They were well organized and equipped to take down a variety of superhuman threats, and one by one, they fell. Gwen was eleven when the first attack came right at the mansion. She watched as friends and family were "neutralized" right before her eyes. Her mother and father fled with what survivors they could scrape together and they went into hiding as the world went to Hell.<br/><br/>For four long years she moved from place to place, scrounging a meager living, but at least she had her parents with her. They would inevitably be found by their new steel tyrants and have to flee once more, each time with less friends and family members to bring along. Hank had been killed on one of those incidents, but Scott had insisted on lugging around his portable lab even after his death.<strong>"You never know"</strong>, he had said. The camp was in the blown out remains of the space needle in what was once the city of Seattle. Gwen had been sent out to see what kind of supplies she could find. She had found an entire box of frozen steaks in the still-working freezer of a restaurant and was excitedly running back to the Space Needle when she saw energy flashes in the night sky, coming from the top of the space needle. The camp! Her mouth agape, she found herself taking to the air as fast as she was able to, flying up to help her family.<br/><br/>She arrived just in time to hear her mother cry out in agony and the cold mechanical voice of one of the eight Sentinels say<strong>"Mutant Designate: Neutralized".</strong>Her heart sank as she flew into view, seeing only a charred skeleton fall to the ground. She saw her father blasting one of the Sentinels with his ruby red force blast. She heard him cry out in a pained voice as his wife's death registered with him.<strong>"EMMA!!!"</strong>He spotted Gwen and pointed to the doorway that led deeper into camp.<strong>"Get back, Gwen! We'll handle the Sentinels! Get to the lab"!</strong>He seemed scared for her, but his voice was authoritative and she heeded his words, her eyes still teared up, her mother's death still fresh in her mind. She flew down the hallway, narrowly avoiding a deadly energy blast from one of the mechanical monstrosities. She looked back just in time to see her childhood friends, Ashley and Kenneth die. That meant her father was alone out there! She stopped, about to turn to go back and help him when she felt her father's death via her telepathy. She dropped to her knees in the hallway and began sobbing, breaking down... suddenly snapped out of it by the sound of a Sentinel's voice.<strong>"Mutant life signs detected. Neutralization to commence".</strong><br/><br/>She gasped and began running down the hallway, plowing into the room where Hank's lab was set up, smacking into all manner of equipment. That kind of hurt. As she heard the booming sounds getting closer, a device landed on her lap. It looked vaguely like a gun of some sort, but had the words "Mutant Intensifier" written on the side. She vaguely recalled something about Hank telling her never to touch this when she was younger, for it would intensify a mutant's abilities a thousandfold, and possibly make them uncontrollable in the process. As she contemplated what to do, the roof and ceiling of the room she was in was torn away with a loud whine and screech, revealing the gigantic forms of three of the Sentinels.<strong>"Target found"</strong>, it's cold mechanical voice said.<strong>"Neutralizing mutant threat"</strong>.<br/><br/>This was it.  Do or die.  She didn't know what would happen if she used the device on herself, but she knew exactly what would happen if she didn't.  She held the device out and activated it just as one of the Sentinels held a giant mechanical hand up to deliver energized death to her.<br/><br/>Pulse.<br/><br/>Nothing seemed to happen.<br/><br/>Pulse.<br/><br/>Oh no.  She was dead... the Sentinel's hand seemed to glow as it charged up, the smell of ozone in the air as it was ionized.  Gwen shut her eyes and prayed it would be quick.  She couldn't believe it was ending like this, though it was what she had always feared.<br/><br/>PULSE!<br/><br/>Suddenly the area was enveloped in a blast of energy, directed outward from her own being.  She vaguely registered the destruction of the mutant intensifier and the complete atomization of all the Sentinels.  Eerily enough, there was no sound and as she opened her eyes fully she saw that she was aglow, hovering above what was once the Space Needle... the top part of the structure completely gone, the "stalk" part below fused on an atomic level by the power she had just unleashed.  The power... oh god, it was incredible.  She could see... no, not see.  That was too mundane a way to describe it.  "Feel" would be the closest thing she could think of.  She could feel the very cosmos, the universe... she saw that she was being watched from somewhere, a being with a massive bald head and white eyes was observing her from across the fabric of her very dimension.  She could sense him as she felt the power build within her... she knew more Sentinels were on their way, and panic began to set in.  So... much... power... she was having a difficult time not unleashing it on her world in a very negative way.  So, when that power reached a crescendo of uncontrolability and she heard herself scream, she heard the distinctive sound of a tear from somewhere.  With her heightened awareness, she knew that the barriers between dimensions were being torn asunder.  She felt a lurch... this was all happening so fast.  She felt herself being drawn through the tear and as she unwittingly traveled to what would be her new home, it took every bit of control not to lose herself completely and be absorbed into the energies that were already repairing the dimensional rift.  She closed her eyes again and when she opened them she felt solid ground beneath her.<br/><br/>As she opened her eyes she saw that she was in a place she had never seen before.  All manner of alien architecture surrounded her... it was beautiful in a way, the most awe-inspiring part being a huge window of sorts which showed a breathtaking lunar landscape, a very familiar green and blue planet looming off beyond the horizon.  Her power seemed to have died down considerably, she noticed... she could no longer feel the cosmos, no longer felt the maddening gnaw of needing to unleash too much power.  She felt more like herself again.<br/><br/><strong>"Welcome, child".</strong><br/><br/>The voice might come as startling.  It was deep with a slight echo to it... if she cared to look she would see the being who had been watching her before.  An underdeveloped body clothed in a blue and white alien toga contrasted to a bald and overly large head with those same white eyes.  He held up a hand to her.<br/><br/><strong>"Do not be alarmed.  I am known as Uatu... the Watcher.  You are most welcome in my home".</strong>