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Carolina closed her eyes as she tried to tune out the arguments going on within the room, as she let Beast hook her arm up to Allison's she was tired and her head was pounding more despite laying down on the bed. She looked over towards Dean as he got up and blushed slightly when he kissed her on her forehead. "I'll still see you around." Carolina said towards Dean and gave him a slight smile, as she watched him leave the room behind. Letting out a slight sigh, she didn't want to see him leave but she could understand why he wanted to as well. Being in the X-Men team or at the mansion attacks were certainly bound to happen as well, and he had his own family to worry about as well.

Carolina would occasionally stare at Bethany, she knew that she was under Mesmero's control but still just couldn't get the things she had down to her and Annie out of her head. Everyone started to file out of the room, those that weren't really injured or aren't as bad right now. It was getting much more quieter now, as she let out a slight sigh and reached over to hold onto Annie's hand she wanted to go out and attack Mesmero as well. But she knew that her injury was really bad right now and it would take awhile for her to recover as well, as she yawned a little bit. "I'm going to rest I guess, or as much as I can." Carolina said quietly as she looked towards Banner and Lance.

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Bethany nodded slightly she could understand, she felt really guilty for what she had done as well seeing Carolina staring at her a few times. "I'm really sorry.." Beth said towards Carolina only for her to turn her head away, and looked down letting out a slight sigh as she laid back down on the bed resting her head down. The arguments going on in the room were getting a little bit annoying now for her as well, and was glad that Beast had told them to get out. She watched Dean as he got up and said he was leaving as well, and nodded slightly towards him. Bethany wanted to get ready and attack Mesmero as well, and they had twenty four hours or so to find out where he is and attack him.

Bethany nodded towards Cyclopes telling to get some rest, she was in a lot of pain, but she would be ready in the morning when they were ready to attack. Bethany rolled over onto her side, and let Beast do whatever he needed to do, she was hurting and didn't want to move to much while he treated her. She also felt bad for the others who were really hurt from the attacks from the others, she was getting tired now as well to and started to rest now.

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Antoinette sat there a moment, smiling at the little girl she created as she stared up at Dean with wide eyes and a brilliant smile. She truly seemed to love her big brother. Slowly the girl faded away, much like the last scene of a movie would. With her gone, Antoinette looked back at Dean who went over to say his goodbyes to Carolina personally before he truly did leave. The painter sighed and leaned back onto Carolina’s bed. While she had created the illusion, Beast had hooked Carolina and Allison up for the transfusion and it was well under way. The yelling in the room escalated but then diminished just as quickly and Antoinette was thankful for the previous distraction.
People were now filling out of the room so Antoinette turned around and looked at Carolina. She also spotted Bethany who kept looking at them every few seconds before she finally apologized but Carolina didn’t want to hear it it seemed. Now Antoinette wasn’t the vindictive type but it had been a long day for all of them. She simply nodded at Bethany before she looked at Carolina when she took her hand and squeezed it.
”Of course,” she said when Carolina mentioned getting some sleep. ”I will come check on you in the morning.” She too, kissed Carolina’s forehead before she left her friend and followed the steady stream of people leaving.
She paused beside Lance and his father, watching the former for a moment. She had no right really to say anything or intrude but well, she was going to.
”Dr. Banner? Thank you for coming as quickly as you did. I’m sure there will be consequences,” she said, glancing at the discarded blood transfusion tools. ”But we are all pretty good at problem solving here.” She smiled softly at Lance before she scampered from the room, following the people so she wouldn’t get lost. Again.

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Allison remained silent as she let Dean and Carolina have their moment. She thought briefly that it might have been her, but she knew deep down she had no feeling for Dean. He was a friend and that was all. She felt a pang as her mind went back to Oshea briefly before she let it go. She clenched her fist, but grinned and bore it. "All right, let's get some blood in her. Ready when you are Doctor."

Sara would have spoken more, but it seemed everyone had gotten their share. And if anyone could bring Lance down, it was Guin. She squeezed Neil's hand again before letting it go. He would need to rest and she had to be out of the room for beast. Even though his words were kind, she still felt guilty. She had hurt people. And now she would do what she could to make that right.

As the others trickled out, she eyed the two new people. She had only met Bobbi briefly, but she had gone out of her way to help them. She didn't have to stay. She could have left and Allison would not have blamed her. Past history be damned, she was good in her book. Once she was out of here, Allison would find her and talk. She had a feeling the two of them would be good friends.

Sara, meanwhile, took out her phone and put in her earplugs. She let the music take her as she made her way towards the stairs, past the destruction of the sitting room. They had only just gotten it all fixed from last time. Was this what she had to look forward to staying here? Maybe her parents were right. Maybe it was too dangerous.

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"Hello everyone! It's me! Everyone's favorite narrator! I'm back but this time I get a less than stellar job for narration... Honestly I do not get paid enough for this! This is low budget stuff and boring jobs I'd expect to get in some B-list movie or something! Well, have to make ends meet someway. Anyway, back to why I'm here, talking to all of you lovely people. Well, that is because you had a very boring and uneventful night! Except for the people who were working to track down the mind control guy, whatever the hell his name is. Whoever he is, he is a very forgettable person. Well, you've all tracked him down to Warehouse 23 at the Waterfront in New York City and have been divided into teams to storm through the warehouse to find him! And hopefully take down the giant Cerebro replica he's been building, since you know, that could end the world as we know it if it is finished and he uses it. Though some of you are a bit, well, special, due to the serious head injuries that you have, so you all get to stay behind and hope nothing horrible happens!"

"Anyway, to the cases that you all have been waiting for! For those that don't know what a case is, I get to give a quick boring explanation. A case is essentially a big collab with a specific goal in mind, each group will have 10 days from the time this update gets put up finally in order to complete it. We get to move on much more quickly if you all are really fast with responses and stuff. Anyway, the cases are as follows! And guess who got to name the cases! This guy!"

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Case Name: Team I Hope Professor X Has Insurance For Your Medical Bills!
Reason: You all get to stay behind at the mansion due to either extensive injuries or not being too much of a team player.
Player Characters: Lance Banner and Carolina Reed
NPCs: Tony Stark and Bruce Banner


Case Name: Team Blowing Shit Up!
Reason: Destroy the Cerebro Wannabe!
Player Characters: Guinevere Stark and Antoinette McCarthy
NPCs: Beast, Cyclops, Storm, Pietro Maximoff, various civilian NPCs


Case Name: Team KILL ALL THE MINIONS! Wait no killing? My bad - Team gently maim all the minions!!
Reason: Try to knock out as many of the civilians that Mesmero has under his control and get them to safety.
Player Characters: Neil Spellman, Allison Andrews, Shelly Diggby, Richard Laine
NPCs: Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, various civilian NPCs


Case Name: Team Get Francis! I mean Mesmero! But really I mean Francis....
Reason: This one is fairly obvious. Stop the big bad villain of the arc.
Player Characters: Marygold Isley, Ayita Dyrkin, Sara Grey, Bethany Bell, Bobbi Hobbes
NPCs: Jean Grey, Mesmero, a few civilian NPCs

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Lance was still in the medical area, less than thrilled with still being stuck there. He was even more annoyed that when everyone had left to deal with Mesmero, his father had basically decided to stick around at the mansion. Probably to keep an eye on him he suspected, but that was the main thing that bugged him, he glanced over towards where Carolina was still, glad at least somewhat that he wasn't the only one stuck at the mansion still.

Carolina laid on the bed she hadn't gotten to much sleep despite everything that had happened, her head was still hurting a lot and every time she did try and fall asleep she would get dizzy or nauseous. She was on her phone a little bit as she had a small drawing app on there and was just doodling for now. She really wanted to get out of the bed and try to help with Mesmero, she stopped for a moment and turned to look at Lance and smiled a bit. "How are you holding up?" Carolina finally asked.

"I'm alright... Bit annoyed being stuck here... How are you doing?" Lance asked her in response.

"I feel like my head is still in a meat grinder, and I cant really sleep at all." Carolina answered and shrugged a little bit as well and sighed a little bit.

"...I know that sort of feeling... At least the part about the head in the meat grinder," Lance said, before he moved his arm slightly from where it had been as he tried to sit up, but he was finding it really difficult to move his arm to the point where he could get up. It was really weird to him, but he couldn't really focus enough to figure out why.

Carolina tucked a few strands of hair out of her face, luckily her faces wasn't covered in blood anymore and looked down at what she had been drawing a bit then over towards Lance. "It's the second time I got a really bad head injury really.. Try and not move your head to quickly." Carolina said softly and looked back towards Lance. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"...Anything works really... There isn't really much to do while we sit here... I also know about the whole don't move your head too quickly... It does tend to make the world spin, a lot..."

Carolina started to think for a moment, she thought about asking about his father but seeing their interactions earlier and decided to not ask. "We could try playing a game or something instead?" She offered holding out her phone.

"...I'll be honest Carolina, I don't think my hands would cooperate enough for me to be able to play any sort of game on a phone..." he said, as he found it difficult to really get his hand and arm to move in anyway at the moment, so he didn't think that sort of thing would be a good thing for him to try and do at the moment.

Carolina looked towards Lance's arm for a moment, and nodded slightly as she tried to think of something else to do in the meantime she was pretty bored. "Well, we could play Marry, Fuck or Kill? You don't have to use your hands for anything to play that."

"...I would prefer to not play that game... I never cared much for any sort of game like that... They are kind of boring in my opinion if you ask me..." he muttered. Those sorts of things just didn't interest him at all, and he usually found them boring. He never understood what was the appeal of them, and Guin tended to like playing those games on occasion, but he usually opted out whenever possible.

Carolina looked down and nodded slightly, as she tried to think of something else to do in the meantime and rested her head back down on the bed. Games like that she always did have fun playing, but she guessed it wasn't for everyone and sighed a little bit as she looked back over towards him. "Well, are there any cute girls you like?"

"...Um... Not really sure..." he muttered, looking away now. He didn't really want to talk about that sort of thing either, especially considering last he checked he technically had a date or something planned with Annie, which would be interesting probably to say the least. That of course assuming he gets to leave the dumb medical area any time soon.

"C'mon you have to think Annie is pretty cute." Carolina said, as she looked over towards him and laughed a little bit she really hoped that they would be discharged as soon as possible as well. She didn't want to spend more time than what is needed either she wanted to get out, her phone then slipped out of her hand as it fell down onto the floor.

"Are we really having this sort of conversation right now?" he asked with a slight laugh. Though he did not want to talk about this sort of thing when his dad could probably walk in at any moment. That was definitely not something he wanted to happen at all. He knew that the day before he hadn't exactly been acting the best, knowing that attacking his father in the middle of the medical area was bad, but he hadn't been able to help it. Almost like his anger had been getting the better of him and had caused him to ignore any sort of consequences.

The universe seemed obliged to make Lance's paranoia warranted. "...I thought you had a thing for Guin? What happened to Tony and I's dream of a super genius baby?"

"Hey, we have to have something to talk about. And you didn't specify what we could talk about." Carolina said with a slight laugh as she looked down over at the floor as her attention turned towards Bruce for a moment. She rubbed her arm a little bit feeling a little bit weird talking to him, and mentioning Guin as well. "I think she's pretty much in love with Pietro though."

"...I got over that a little while ago..." Lance mumbled, not too thrilled that he was standing there talking.

"Also gave up that slight dream of mine a bit ago too, you really need to pay attention and keep up with things Banner," Stark's voice said as he came into the room as well.

"Yeah, well you giving up on a dream is hardly surprising, Tony," Banner teased him with a slight smile. He wanted his son to be happy and he was disappointed that he hadn't ended up getting the girl that he wanted - especially since he and Tony had maybe picked out the names for their super genius babies one evening while drinking and playing video games.

Carolina looked between both Tony and Bruce as the two of them spoke and giggled a little bit as the two of them spoke, her attention turned back towards Lance getting a feeling he was a bit uncomfortable talking about girls in front of both Tony and his father as well. "So, any kind of video games that you are looking forward to?" Carolina asked, figuring that it would be a better subject to talk about now.

"Not really," Lance said with a slight shrug, glad to have the subject changing. That definitely was not a conversation that he wanted to be having anywhere near his dad right now. He was not too thrilled with his luck at the fact that his father had walked in right when they were having a conversation about girls.

"Ouch, that one hurt," Tony said, faking a slightly wounded expression towards Banner.

"Anyways... You kids hungry or anything?" Banner asked.

Carolina started to think for a moment what she could have for something to eat and thought about pizza, but then she shook her head slightly. She puked out pizza in the elevator earlier. "McDonalds or something?" Carolina asked.

"Anything really works for me," Lance muttered in response, it wasn't just that he didn't care, he didn't want to really talk with his dad at all. That probably wasn't a good thing, and he knew that his relationship with his father was in tatters and likely would never be fixed. A small part of him wanted to fix things, but he wasn't going to admit it, and definitely not talk to his dad about any of this.

Tony noticed that there was a slight awkward silence in the room now, and he glanced over at Carolina with a smile. "I think we can manage to get you some McDonalds pretty easily."

"I can go get it," Banner said, moving to leave the room. He glanced back at Lance and said something he instantly regretted. "I don't need to be a mutant to tell when I'm not wanted," he said, before leaving to go get the kids some chicken nuggets.

Carolina watched as Banner turned around and left, biting her bottom lip for a moment and looked towards Tony and then Lance as well feeling a little bit uncomfortable. "He's not going to hulk out on me or anyone right now right?" Carolina asked.

"Don't worry, he won't... Anyway see you both later," Tony said, before he followed Banner out of the room.

"...I didn't mean to do that..." Lance said softly, feeling really really bad about that. He couldn't even really remember the last time that they had talked in a normal tone that wasn't yelling. "...Is it sad that I don't remember the last time we had a normal non-yelling conversation?" he asked Carolina, looking over at her.

"He could have ordered off of Uber Eats App or something." Carolina said, as she nodded slightly and watched as Tony walked off as well leaving just her and Lance again. She turned her attention towards Lance and thought for a moment, she really didn't know what had caused a lot of their arguments. "I mean, maybe I don't know the history between you and your father did he do something really unforgivable?"

"...Not really... Truth is I didn't know who my dad was until that incident with Loki and the Avengers in New York... At first things were great, then well... Things went downhill in high school... I still went by my mother's last name, actually that technically is my last name and not Banner... I might have been more than just a little bit bullied once people found out that he was my father... Ended up in the nurse's office more than once because of that... Had no friends really either because people expected me to freak out, to turn green like him..." Lance admitted, and he was a bit surprised at this. These sorts of things were generally only stuff he talked with Guin about, so he was a bit surprised that he was finding himself talking to anyone else about this.

Carolina listened to Lance as he started to go in a little bit more depth to what his problems were with his dad, and she was pretty surprised that he didn't shut her out either. Carolina looked down a bit, she didn't have to many bullies to deal with except for maybe Beth which. "I haven't had to deal with to many bullies, at least in the past. I kind of get the feeling that he is an overbearing parent you two can try and talk it out at some point?"

"That's just it, I don't even know if we can fix the problems between us anymore... Especially considering the major anger issues we both have... Got to the point where I got afraid of getting into an argument with him and instead I just shut him out instead to not risk it... Since we tend to get into shouting matches... A lot..."

"Try not shutting him out, from my experience shutting people out never really turns out to good for anyone. I mean it's really up to you if you want to be more open to him.."

"...I think that might end badly... Not too sure that would work out..."

"You never know until you try though really. I could try and help maybe?"

"...Maybe..."

"And if he hulks out I can possess him, and get him to calm down as well to." Carolina said as she scratched a little bit at the head bandage feeling an itch coming on and sighed slightly. "I really hate head bandages they really itch and are uncomfortable."

"...You wouldn't be able to, the Hulk is immune to any sort of telepathic people, including astral projections and stuff like that I'm pretty sure... And I definitely agree with the bandages being uncomfortable..."

"Well then that's going to be hard then." Carolina looked up at the ceiling as she stopped itching and started to get a little bit bored again now. "So, do you want to go out to the movies with Annie?"

"Uh, yeah..." he said nodding his head slightly at that. He decided not to mention the fact that it was Guin who had stolen his phone to message Annie asking her out and it wasn't actually him. Though he had told Guin no matter what he'd go, so he was willing to do go. It might be a little weird, not to mention he'd never actually really been on a date with anyone before.

"It will be a lot of fun." Carolina said towards Lance and smiled towards him, she remembered that Annie had shown her the text the night before everything had happened as well. "Just, you know be yourself and stuff like that to."

"If you say so..."

As they stood outside of Warehouse 23 along the New York City waterfront, Guin was a bit nervous. She never had really tried to blow up a machine that could end civilization as they knew it before - and although she did have experience blowing up a power plant, that had been an accident. She still blamed Pietro for distracting her - he had fallen on top of her and flirted with her. It was totally his fault that the Hanson Power Plant had to be rebuilt. She had a bag filled with various charges she could set up, designed to destroy the machine but hopefully not knock down the building with it. "... Guess we should just head on in, then."

Things all seemed to move rather quickly the next morning. Antoinette got to say a quick goodbye before she climbed into the plane and flew with everyone to this warehouse location. There were many seagulls in the area, all vying for attention it seemed. Antoinette watched them fly over head, swooping and diving this way and that when she heard Guin speak up. Bringing her attention back to the present task Antoinette looked at the big building and nodded. "Seems we should." They had quite the group on their team. Antoinette had no doubt that they wouldn't be able to get the job done.

"Odds are that they will dedicate the largest area of space for Cerebro, as I'm sure you both know, it isn't exactly that small of a structure. So that will be where we'd want to focus our efforts, and it likely will do the most damage. You can cast illusions right?" Cyclops said, turning to look at Annie, "See if you can hide us from view with them so that we hopefully don't run into any trouble."

"Piet, do you think you can do a quick scan of the building?" Guin asked Quicksilver. She could have hacked in to look at camera feeds, but she didn't know if they even had any inside of there and besides, using her boyfriend's super speed would be faster. It would also keep Pietro from jumping around like an impatient teenager - he did that sometimes if he had to stay still too long.

Antoinette blinked at Cyclops but nodded. "I can only affect small numbers so I'll have to target our opponents specifically," Antoinette explained. "You might not be able to see what I am doing but hopefully it will work." She moved forward so that she could go into the building first; however, she did wait for Pietro to give them information on how many people were inside and their location hopefully. Once she had that information, then Antoinette would know where to look.

Pietro went racing off, zipping around every which way that he could think of in order to get a decent perspective on how many people were in the area. "So... There is good news and bad news... The bad news is that there are quite a few people, I'd estimate around 30 or so, working on the Cerebro wannabe right now. The good news however is that the main console and power area has not too many people around it, less than 10 or so I'd say..."

Guin grimaced. With that many people working on Cerebro, they'd have a difficult time getting in there to set up the charges. It also meant that the progress on the machine was likely further along than she would have liked. "Annie, would you be able to handle the people around the console area? Pietro can get us there... Or we could purposefully cause some sort of commotion out here, draw the workers out, and then me and you go inside to handle the explosives?" she suggested to her friend. She wished they had more time for plans but she knew that people in her own family did their best thinking at the last possible second. Hopefully Guin would fall into that pattern at the moment.

Antoinette mulled the problem over in her head. Her power was equipped to handle the small amount of people, if the people themselves were of simple capacity but if Memsmero was controlling them at all, that could pose potential problems for her illusion casting to work properly. Still, with forty or so people, not all of them would go running to one distraction. Not when they were working on something so big as Cerebro. At least, that was Antoinette's thinking. "How about two distractions for the price of one? I can handle the ten or so people in the main area, while some commotion is caused out here, distracting the workers around Cerebro. Even if half of them retreat outside, those numbers are easier to get past and set your charges. I'm thinking rats. Who knows, maybe with everyone running around complaining of rats, we won't need another distraction." Her right eye started to glow a little as she tunneled into the idea of an illusion.

"Would make sense, if need be we can see about causing some sort of distraction rather easily out here. Or perhaps cause a distraction within the building itself. We know that they likely are aware that we are coming, so that isn't too much of a problem."

"I can get us in and out of there no problem," Pietro commented, looking at everyone else. So far they were lucking out and no one had heard them talking or anything like that, so it would seem that they had a little bit of time.

"Alright," Guin said, taking charge even though Cyclops was technically leading this mission. "Annie, Piet, and I will go by the console area. Annie'll cast the illusion on those by the console so that way they don't see us. Cyclops, Beast, and all can then cause the distraction to get the majority of the worker bees to go engage with them. If they think you guys are going in there to destroy Cerebro, then they'll probably be instructed to stop you, clearing the way for us to actually destroy the machine."

"Brilliant!" Antoinette agreed with a smile. She stepped closer to Guin so it would be easier for Pietro to gather them up. "Shall we then?" Even though this was Antoinette's first mission she was more than ready for this.

Cyclops nodded in agreement with Guin, before Pietro walked over to the two of them. It wasn't going to be too difficult for them to get in, at least for the most part. He proceeded to fire off a laser at a nearby pole, causing a loud bang as the pole then proceeded to fall over with a loud boom. It definitely was loud enough to get anyone inside's attention. Pietro picked up Guin and Annie and raced them inside. Somehow, the entire area ended up clearing out. There wasn't a worker or anything left in sight by the consoles or anywhere near the main area.

"Pinch me, I have to be dreaming, we are never this lucky," Guin said softly. She still had her bag of explosives slung over her shoulder and she went up to the console, quickly getting into it and doing a search to see if there were any online back ups of the Cerebro plans. "Okay, now this makes more sense - they're not entirely dumb, they backed up the plans," she explained. "However, they were dumb enough to think that this could keep me out," she added, typing rapidly as her fingers flew across the keyboard. She wiped the plans and then made a virus to boot that would delete the plans if they were stored anywhere else online. The only place safe would be the computer systems at Xavier's.

Antoinette took a moment to stabilize herself after Pietro set them down. She was not quite accoustomed to the fast speeds that he and Guin were. Once she felt a little less dizzy she walked up to Guin and watched her fingers fly across the keyboard. Numbers and words popped up onto the screen in rapid succession but with Guin's words, all seemed to be going well. Antoinette turned around, leaving her computer genius of a friend to her task and looked about the vast warehouse. Her left eye started to glow brighter as she tried to pick up on anything that might suggest all was not well but things seemed to be just fine. Swinging her arms by her sides lightly, Antoinette smiled.

"I was rather looking forward to creating rats. They like to chew through wires. I thought it would cause quite the alarm," she explained.

"You might still get to use your powers yet," he said softly. Currently he was playing lookout while they were messing around with things, and he heard footsteps nearby. They weren't too close to where they were, but they sounded like they were getting closer at least in his mind.

"Guess you do get to make Master Splinter appear after all, then," Guin told Annie, figuring that Pietro would have only said that if someone was coming. She took the charges out of her bag and began to discretely set them all up at various points around the structure. There was a slight danger that one of them could go off early and blow up in the face, but fortunately that didn't happen. All of the charges were synced to a little remote of sorts that she had with her, meaning that they would be able to control exactly when the explosion occurred and make sure the civilians were clear of the area. "Okay, charges are set. We just need to clear out and then we can take down this hunk of metal."

Antoinette turned and looked back at Guin and quirked an eyebrow at her. "Master Splinter?" She looked back in the direction Pietro was looking and shook her hands out, she was starting to get a bit nervous now. Guin however said that the charges were set so they could leave if needed, still, there was someone coming and if they were going to avoid casualties, everyone had to be out. "I need to see them before I can do anything."

"Yeah, well fairly certain you're going to get your wish on that one" Pietro muttered, as a group of about 7 people came walking around the corner and into view towards them.

"You got this, Annie," Guin told her softly, keeping her voice low as to not attract the group's attention.

Antoinette scanned each person who came into view and blew out a breath, thankful for Guin's encouragement. She shook her hands out, taking a second to think of her dad before she switched to thinking of medium to large size, plump rats with long tails and little sharp noses and teeth. Her lavender eye glowed as she focused on the seven people, bringing forth the projection of hundreds of rats scurrying across the floor towards the intruders. They would see them exactly and hear them as they scuttled across and made their sounds of fight.

Annie was lucky, as the group seemed to be made up of the wimpiest people around. The instant that they saw the rats, all 7 of them turned around and ran away, screaming from the rats.

"... Wow, that is pathetic, not gonna lie," Guin snickered, looking at the people who fled the area quickly. "You'd think Mesmero would hypnotize better help."

Antoinette smiled a little, the illusion fading as the last of the people disappeared. "Well rats do carry all sorts of diseases. Still, we best be off now."

"So... This our cue to exit or what? Thought I'd ask this for ahead of time or whatever..." Pietro asked the two of them.

Guin nodded. "Yeah, we're good here. I can remotely activate these charges. Right now, I have them set up to go off five seconds after I hit the detonator - which should be plenty of time for Pietro to get us to the minimum safe distance. The building's structural integrity should hold up as well, and we can shift to helping the others taking out the worker bees Cyclops got to go outside," she explained. She never wanted to be a leader, always feeling that she was more of a rebel, but it seemed she had gone full on Han Solo and ended up in a role she never imagined for herself. "When you're ready, I'll hit the button," she told Pietro.

Antoinette smiled gratefully at Pietro for the question that for her, was a warning so she could prepare a bit better for the sudden speed change that would follow. She listened to Guin, smiling and nodding along. Leadership, at least in this situation seemed to suite Guin well. "Well let's get a safe distance away to watch the show and then be able to help where needed."

Pietro nodded before he picked up both Guin and Annie and raced them back outside. The group outside was about half down now, since they did have to be a bit careful about injuring them in any severe way. "We should probably see about helping them knock the rest of them out."

The Stark Industries heiress had hit the button not more than a millisecond before Pietro whisked them off outside. It was one of the most boring explosions in the history of the universe in her opinion. It destroyed the Cerebro machine, yes, but it wasn't spectacular or anything like the Hanson Power Plant - which Guin had to remind herself was probably a good thing. The Hanson Power Plant explosion would have killed the entire team if Pietro hadn't had his sudden change of heart back then. "Could make it into a game - whoever knocks out the most civilians safely wins," Guin said cheekily, trying to keep the mood light rather than fearful. It was partially for Annie's sake, but also for her own.

Antoinette watched in awe of the mild explosion. Sure it was lame to Guin but it was wonderful to Antoinette. She hadn't seen such a thing before and it was nice to not be in the middle of it. It was even less intense then it had been when Antoinette first found the team. She grounded her feet once Pietro let them go and she felt more stable then she had the first time. Breathing out a sigh of relief she looked to the rest of the party and nodded, her eyes glowing a bit. "Oh, what do we win?" Antoinette was rather intrigued and excited with the prospect of a little competition. Although she wasn't much of a competitor, she couldn't turn down the offer.

"Eh, fairly certain we could come up with some sort of a prize," Pietro said with a smile at Annie, before he went charging into the fray of people.

"I think for now, bragging rights," Guin said. She put up her hood, wearing her all red combat attire and she dove into the fray as well. Her bow was out but rather than using it in order to shoot people, she used it as a weapon in hand to hand combat. Bobbing and weaving, she took advantage of her small stature and agility in order to knock out individual after individual, moving with an epic grace that would have made Black Widow proud. She flipped one of the civilians onto their back, knocking them out cold and she stood up, turning and firing off a taser arrow at another, similar taking them down for the count. "That's nine!" she called out, announcing her score.

Antoinette scanned the crowd, seeing where she could jump in. Turns out, she didn't have to look hard as someone came after her. Luckily Anotinette was able to get this one knocked down but when she tried to create another illusion, using a high pitched sound to disorient several people, it didn't go so well. She sighed but did not become deterred. "There should be a prize for littlest take down. Or perhaps number of rats created." Antoinette mused as she moved around, keeping her fighting stance ready to take on any others that she could.

"It doesn't matter how many you take down Annie," Pietro called to her, several of the civilians were trying to attack him, but they kept missing by a mile, made it easier for him to keep up his own count. He basically went bowling it would seem, except with more people acting as the pins and he was the bowling ball. "I got 14 down Guina," he said with a slight smirk.

"Piet is right - all that matters is you try your best," Guin told Annie. It was funny, how calm she felt now in a real fight compared to the terror she had felt the day before in the Danger Room. Something about having someone there with practically no combat experience was helping Guin to put things into perspective a bit. She had to stay calm for Annie, she kept on telling herself. She then saw four people coming at her, all from different directions and she waited until the last second, before jumping out of the way and they comically all collided, crashing to the ground. She sent taser arrow after taser arrow flying, hitting her targets as if she had been born to use a bow and arrow.

Spying some coming towards her, Guin went at them at a run and kicked off the ground and slammed her feet again them, doing a flip and landing on another foe. She NEVER had this good a day when it came to combat. It helped that these were just civilians, but still, she was feeling the adrenaline rush of success. "I'm at twenty!" she called out to her boyfriend.

Antoinette nibbled on the bottom of her lip, watching as her comrades took down person after person like they were standing still. She was starting to get that familiar itch to run. She was of no use here but she also didn't feel in any immediate danger, which was a strange concept considering all the fighting that was going on. Antoinette tied her hair back and shook out the desire to leave. With the amount of people that Guin and Pietro took down, there weren't that many left and Antoinette tried to think of it as a training session.

She focused on one trying to sneak up on Guin. Antoinette was positive Guin knew the assailant was there but still, Antoinette used the element of surprise to get the jump on this person. She ducked from getting hit and drove her hand into the civilian's stomach, knocking the wind out of them before she actually did knock them to the ground. Well, two plus seven equaled nine.

Pietro managed to knock down 6 more, before the fighting essentially ceased. Cyclops walked over to them, "Guessing mission accomplished then? Cerebro's been destroyed? Or at least their makeshift one anyway."

Guin took a moment to catch her breath, putting down her hood and she looked at Annie, glad to see that she was fine. Combat wasn't always something people looked forward to - especially if they didn't really have any experience in it beyond being abducted by O.M.E.N. agents. She then returned her attention to Cyclops and nodded. "Yeah, we're all good. Plans were erased and their fake Cerebro has been blown up."

Antoinette shifted, relaxing. She still had some adrenaline pumping through her system though she she bounced on the balls of her feet beside Guin, looking around them every once awhile as her eyes shifted. "It was quite the brilliant explosion," Antoinette complimented.

"Now we wait to hear back on how everyone else has done with their parts of the mission," he said simply in response, nodding his head at the girls.

---

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---

---

Bethany looked over towards the others for a moment she had been pretty quiet up until now since they had left the mansion, everyone was separated into two three different groups. She really wanted to hurt Mesmero right now as well, she regretted what she had done to Carolina at least she was safe for now. "So, whats the best way to take him out without killing his human shields?" Bethany finally asked.

Ayita padded along with the group, her amber eyes alert and there was no sense of mercy in them. This was nothing but a hunt. As brutal and serious as any she had done before and perhaps more so. Mesmero was plotting mass control which would not bode well for her family, or the rest of the world. That Mesmero was using human shields was a nuisance and she was sorely tempted to count them as part of the cost. "We may not have a choice." Ayita pointed out, her lips tight with distaste about that fact. "We avoid them best we can, take him out." And if taking him out meant killing him? Then she would make damn sure he would not get back up. It was brutal but sometimes that brutality was necessary. Nocking an arrow to her bow, the wild woman sighed. "Or knock them out, disable them... Joints are a excellent place to hit."

"Ayita, we are not going to kill any sort of civilian alright? Even if they attack us and get in our way, we always have that choice. It shouldn't be too difficult to just knock them out, smack a few heads around if need be to do that, but that should be it I would think... Odds are the civilians who are with him likely will be the ones attacking us. That's the thing about the way he works, he doesn't have any powers that are useful in a fight on his own, and just controls everyone else in order to defend himself. That's the other thing... Jean, think you can I don't know, protect our minds or something so that he doesn't get control of us or something with your telepathy?"

"I believe so, it shouldn't be too difficult..." she said simply, using her powers to hopefully protect the minds of everyone else.

"So, do we have any sort of a plan going into this," Bobbi asked, hands tucked into her jacket pockets. She was used to fighting blind - not knowing much of anything about her opponent. In those cases, it had been life or death. Here they wanted her to make sure people stayed alive which put a twist on how she usually dealt with the enemy.

Sara remained quiet while the others talked. They were right, of course. Protecting innocent people caught under his control was important. But her thoughts raced to only one thing: Mesmero's death. He had caused her to nearly kill the people she was close to and see others attempt the same and she would not come to him in the hopes of capturing him. The old X-men team handled him and look what happened. He came back. No, a sure death was the only way to prevent this in the future. She hated that she was thinking along these lines now, but she could only see red.

"Yeah, well i'd rather not kill anyone right now. I did nearly killed Carolina at the mansion." Bethany said giving a slight shrug as she looked towards Marygold and nodded towards her. "So some headbanging sounds easy enough then." Beth said, and started to make her way down the hallway to try and find Mesmero, she looked over towards the others for a moment before continuing forward.

Ayita stiffened noticeably, her fingers tightening about the arrow and pulling it back slightly. While they had been resting up in preparation for this hunt, Ayita had been forced into a talk with Marygold. It had turned out well enough, both women admitting their flaws and apologizing. Despite her brother sharing information that she hadn't wished Marygold to know Ayita had been thankful for the truce. It was uneasy, but she had thought they had come to a understanding. Ayita did not kill for enjoyment or because she was a blood thirsty animal. Ayita had always held killing off as a last resort when going against another predator, humans especially. Her mother, that horrid bitch, had drilled into the shifter's mind that it was her fault her father had left them. Her fault that her brother had left them to supposedly die all those years ago. Her fault a sister she had never met had died shortly after they moved to the furthermost reaches of society for her father's whims. She was a killer, a beast. A beast that kill a human was always labeled as dangerous and put down. So while Mary may have said those words before in misunderstanding, Ayita had thought she had explained herself enough that those cruel words would stop. Whipping her head around faster than was probably healthy, the younger Laine-Dyrkin bared her teeth and her voice whispered out in a all too quiet and warning growl. Her amber eyes looking wounded and there was no shortage of fury in them. "And here I thought we had reached an understanding, human. I am not a killer." Ayita's voice held a unusual shakiness to it, as she whirled and followed after Bethany on quiet feet. Not sparing another glance towards Marygold. Her back stiff even as her eyes burned. Now was not the time for this. They had the bastard Mesmero to hunt.

"That isn't what I meant Ayita at all, it was more of to everyone too. Killing is not going to end well, at all. So no killing, got it? And I am talking more than just deaths of any civilians..." she said, glancing around at everyone. Her eyes had shifted back the night before to her typical green, so it at least her gaze wasn't strange or anything anymore. "As for plan, pretty straight forward... Take Mesmero down, and even though Jean is using her telepathy, as a precaution, if you end up getting really close to him, do not make eye contact, as that likely will result in him controlling you, alright?" she continued, as she followed along after Bethany.

As the group makes their way along the hallway, they will eventually find their target. Problem is that there were probably around 25-30 people in the way between them and him. That likely was not going to end well and Mary glanced back at everyone else, "Yup, there are definitely a lot of civilians in this building... At least we aren't dealing with the bulk of the civilians like the group downstairs, be cautious, just knock them out and don't do anything else, once he runs out of civilians it should be easier to hit him..." she said softly to the group.

There was a small quibble again. It seemed that perhaps things were not as over between the two girls as they had been led to believe. She just hoped it wouldn't interfere with their objective. Bobbi reached her hand into the void and pulled out her trustiest of weapons, Captain K.O. She hefted the hammer experimentally and joined others at the front line. Maybe Marygold wouldn't be too mad if she broke some bones. No killing. Got it.

Without many commands from anyone, Bobbi figured it was better to start sooner rather than later. There wasn't a plan in place. So her plan was, "Bobbi Smash!" She swung the hammer first down and then to the side. It seemed she misjudged the position of her hammer and the person's legs, whiffing miserably. "Fuck me, cock blocked," she stated grumpily as she swung the hammer up into a more defensive position to prepare for the counter-attack.

Sara ignored the fighting. Mainly because she had already resolved herself to ending Mesmero. Regardless with what Mary thought or said, this battle would end with him gone. She followed them inside, coping Mary's power as she moved. It was the best crowd control option she had at her disposal. With it, she saw the one girl, Bobbi, whiff it and almost chuckled at her comment. She could see herself liking her. She moved and summoned vines from the ground, grabbing rougly 5 of the civilians and tying them up on the spot. "Got some of them. Keep moving."

"Well so much for being all quiet like." Bethany said as Bobbi decided to move forward and take out her hammer and failed miserably at hitting one of them. Sara took Mary's ability and managed to tie five of them up and smiled towards her friend, before turning her attention towards some more of the civilians. She extended the shadows forward and started to fling them across the room, watching as some of them hit the ground but they were still alive, and well as well as still awake to.

Ayita pointedly ignored Mary's words, wounded past words despite Marygold's intent. Eyeing the large group of humans, Ayita raised a brow as Bobbi charged forward with a giant hammer. Sara and Bethany following with their own contributes to the fray. It was going to be a pitch battle and such a shame. Eyeing the distance between herself and Mesmero, Ayita stored the arrow away in her quiver. It was too crowded to risk shooting him, but then her bow was not her only weapon. Making her way towards the threatening figure, Ayita whirled towards one man and slammed her bow into the man's head and her knee into the poor fellow's groin. He wasn't going to get up soon.

Mary was pissed off now, Honestly why don't you just kill the little bird girl, honestly she's so annoying and no help, she's only causing problems for you in the long run and you know it! a little voice in the back of her head started saying. She knew that the voice was the same one she had heard the day before, the one that she hadn't been so sure was not something strange in the back of her head, but this was a bit ridiculous. She shook her head slightly, ignoring the words of the little voice. Instead she shot vines out from her pocket and sent them flying. They wrapped around five more people, knocking them to the ground, and a second later she had run up and slammed her foot into another one's stomach, knocking them down as well.

Jean knew what it was that Sara was thinking as she was partially connected to all of them in order for her to protect their minds, and let out a bit of a sigh, before telepathically conversing with her niece, Death and killing is never the answer Sara, it will just result in more pain for you. Killing someone will change you as a person, and it is something that you can never take back. No matter how much he might seem to deserve it, you can't kill him.

Sara flicked both Jean and Mary from her mind. They did not know what was going on with her even though her aunt tried. She had been forced to almost kill those she cared about. Surely her aunt understood that having dealt with Mesmero before. If you kept him alive, the chances of this happening again increase. They would be in danger constantly. She was fine with protecting humans who continued to hate her, but it was beings like Mesmero that caused them to be targeted. It was better he be put down.

Bethany started to move forward more as she extended more of the shadows around them, to make them more solid and looked around seeing three of the people there. She then hit them as hard as she could while not killing them, and watched as the three bodies fell down onto the ground. She smiled a bit to herself as she really wanted to get close to Mesmero and knock the guy around a little bit, she started to wonder how the others were handling things right now as well.

Ayita growled as she looked at the mass of humans between her quarry and herself. She did not want to shoot at the bastard and accidentally hit one of the humans, but there was no room in her for mercy towards Mesmero. He was a threat to her family, what she had now and what she hoped to build. Magneto? Scarlette Witch? Even Jakobsen! They all had walked away alive and she did not begrudge them of it. But Mesmero with her ability to work someone to his will? How could he be allowed to put what she cared about at risk? All he had to do was control her and then unleash the beasts within as he had done. Unintentionally, but he had done it. Her hand tightened about a her bow stave. He would not get another chance. Not again, never again. Whirling into a group of humans she lashed out with her bow and kneeing them where it hurt again. Three of them falling to the ground. Just a few more, just a few more then she could finish off the threat.

Mesmero glanced over at the group, and he waved his hand slightly, the civilians with guns turned and started firing on them. Most of them were horrible aim, that much was obvious. Except for the last one, who fired off his shot and it slammed into Ayita's shoulder with enough force to knock her backwards. Mary saw this happen and sent vines flying once more, wrapping around the man and knocking him easily to the floor. The size of the group between them and Mesmero was shrinking, and she knew that this was going to end soon, one way or another, no matter what happened really.

Sara was having none of this, seeing Ayita get shot. She used the powerset she got from Mary to spawn a spore field around the remaining civilians in front of Mesmero. The spores, once up, unleashed a powder into the air, quickly entering into their airwaves. Inside, it would put them to sleep almost instantly. As one after the other fell, all that remained in front of them was Mesmero himself. "Big guy is left!"

Bethany watched as her friend Sara started to make some kind of field of plants, and watched them all launching various kinds of spores into the air. And one by one they all fell to the ground asleep and looked towards her friend and gave her a smile, that was pretty useful and she looked towards Ayita who had a bullet wound in her shoulder and winced slightly. She then tried to again use her ability, twice as both times she tried to make him hit his head on the floor nothing happened. "Well this sucks really." Bethany said mostly to herself.

Ayita gave a shrill yelp of pain as a bullet ripped into her shoulder. Falling to the side, Ayita gripped the wound and gritted her teeth. First rule of survival was silence. If they couldn't hear you whimpering in pain, they would have a harder time finding you. Regaining her feet slowly after what felt like hours, Ayita looked at her blood covered hand and up towards Mesmero, careful to avoid his eyes. Her shoulder felt like someone had set it on fire. Worse than her ear had after the hunter had shot her, though it was not her first time getting shot Ayita chided herself as she staggered forward using the momentum of each step to give strength to the next. "He. Is. Mine." Pulling an arrow free she nocked it to the string and pulled it back with practice, though the wound in her arm ached and screamed in protest. Her own voice raising a keening noise of pain. The bow clattered the the ground seconds later as the arrow slammed into Mesmero's own shoulder and she was a tiger that was upon him and clawing him with a single intent. His life. It was lucky that Mesemero got his arm in the way else she could have let him see what his innards looked like.

"That is enough Ms. Dyrkin," Jean said, finally speaking up and using her telekinesis to pull Ayita off of him. She still firmly believed that killing Mesmero was not going to solve any problems, and currently she was holding Ayita up in the air far away from Mesmero now. "Killing him will not make you feel any better about everything that he has done, trust me there was a point in my life where I have thought like that once or twice. It will not solve anything."

Mary was being quiet as all of this was happening, just watching Jean pull Ayita away. Her eyes were a spiral of colors before settling on the red that they had been the day before once more. As well as something else, and it would be a smell that Ayita was able to detect that the others wouldn't, and it was a smell she'd recognize. It was the same weird scent of sorts that she had picked up on yesterday before she had been controlled by Mesmero in the first place. "Killing isn't the answer alright? The guy disappeared last time and was never actually arrested, so," she finally said with a slight shrug.

Bobbi did her best, knocking legs out from under mind controlled idiots. In the end, they were left with Mister Messy Toes and some self-righteous speeches about not killing. She rolled her eyes but used them to her advantage. She snuck around the unconscious bodies and swung her hammer up to blindside and knock the motherfucker the mother fuck out. Instead, she misjudged and hit the wall just over his head as he moved just barely out of the way. "Oh come on," she growled at him. "Sit still so I can hit you."

Sara had red in her eyes. Her aunt was holding Ayita back and she couldn't understand why. Hell, even Mary said it best. He disappeared and wasn't arrested last time. She looked at her aunt and copied her powers, feeling the change inside of her. With Mesmero in her line of sight, she ran at him, holding her hand out and feeling the force from it. However, the figure before her shattered like an illusion. She started to get angrier before she realized she still had someone in her hand. Mesmero was hidden behind his illusion and she managed to latch on to him, pinning him to the wall.

She had him there. What prevented her from just snapping his neck? "You controlled me. Made me hurt people. Give me a reason to end it here and now!" Part of her really wanted to, but she could hear Jean and Mary' voices of reason. And they were right. It would not make her feel better.

Bethany looked over towards her friend Sara and started to make her way over towards her to try and comfort her friend just so that she wouldn't do something that she'd regretted. Sure she really did want to maim and kill the guy for having her nearly kill Carolina and Annie back at the mansion. "He's made us do a lot of bad things, but it will make us just as bad as he if we ended up killing him. Just knock him out and then we make sure that he's put behind bars for good this time."

"A cage is temporary. A cage will not hold forever." Ayita thought coldly having shifted back to speak. She did not trust anything to do with the mind around this bastard. He, Mesmero, had attacked the school which was bad enough. That he took control of people with the intent of using them to kill each other. "He would have us kill our friends, family. He tried to do that. And you think locking him up will solve things? You failed to do so the first time. You want to try again? To risk him escaping or Magneto helping him escape? Or someone else?" Turning her amber gaze on Jean, Ayita bared her teeth. "Killing him will only make me feel worse, I do not hold the illusion it will make things better. His death will prevent more bloodshed. I greatly dislike killing, it is a waste. But if that is what I must do to protect those I care about? So be it. For if he kills again, let it be known their blood is on the hands that let him live." Struggling she shifted through several forms. Tiger to hawk. Hawk to her arguably greatest form of all, the orca. Shifting back to her human form, she continued the struggle.

"Then we would be no better than him." Jean responded, still holding her up.

"Ayita, if anyone here has a good argument for wanting him dead it would be me!" Mary snapped at her, glaring at her. "Because if it wasn't for me we wouldn't have really had to come here and he wouldn't have gotten what he had wanted! You were made to try and kill people, but so was I! But unlike you I was also used as a pawn in his game to make it so that he could take control of the minds of everyone in the world. You think that you are the only who gets to want to do that? You think that you are the only one who has problems like that? So just shut your mouth Ayita, because you honestly act like you don't even WANT to be here!" she took a deep breath now before turning to look at Sara. "Sara, we would be no better than him or people like him, so please... Don't kill him, okay?" Mary said, sounding a lot calmer now.

At this point, villains tended to monologue. Messy Toes had been oddly quiet. Everyone else seemed endlessly distracted with this kill don't kill thing. Really now, someone should just DO something. So, Bobbi took it upon herself to fix it. She swung back the hammer and continuously slammed it against his legs. She was going for maximum damage - knee caps, femur, ankles. Everything broken. Each time the hammer fell against flesh there was a sickening thud and crack. She hoped the sound would shut up her team.

Satisfied that Mesmero would likely never be able to use his legs again, Bobbi heft the hammer over her shoulder and looked toward the group. "We should probably get him to a hospital or something before he bleeds out." That should fix everyone's concerns. Bastard was going nowhere. Aaaaaaand he was not dead.

Sara stared the man in the eyes. Even after Bobbi came and broke his legs, the man was oddly quiet. Still, she wanted to be the last thing he saw before she closed his windpipe and knocked him out. She unleashed her hold on him as he crumpled to the floor. "There. He's out. Let's get them to pick him up before I change my mind." She turned to face Mary and her aunt. She was still angry, but they did have a good point. She would be no better than him. And she still cared about human lives, even bastards who didn't deserve it.

---

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Neil was having a hard time staying calm, fidgeting a bit with his hearing aids. He knew that they would be fine - they had the majority of the old X-Men with them and they had a few other heavy hitters, like Allison, there as well. They'd be mostly fighting civilians too, meaning that it was unlikely that they'd be going up against anyone with powers or experience. But after the disasters from yesterday... he was just scared that Mesmero would get back inside of their heads. What if he killed someone this time? His hands shook slightly and he glanced at his teammates. He wished Sara had been with him - someone he knew - but he wasn't that lucky. "... What's the plan?" Neil asked softly.

Shelly massaged her forehead. They were in charge of crowd control when everyone else was completing objectives we were preventing them getting swamped in hordes of bodies, some of which had to be mutants. But we didn't know anything, where they were stood relative to other objectives, how many there were, what they could use to their advantage.

"To start, we need to know what we're fucking with exactly," Shelly suggested in a hushed tone, "and then we need to make our mind up quick before another team get their attention instead. Who wants to take a peek?"

Allison wasn't too keen on the team she was assigned. She barely knew Neil, Richard was more of an annoying older brother, and she couldn't stand Shelly. This was going to be an interesting mission. Granted, it was important. Mesmero will have a lot of people under his control and they were innocent. "The plan is no killing. These people, like we saw already, have no control of their actions. I know Jean is the expert on breaking it, but I could try my hand at it provided they are knocked out."

Richard gave a slightly annoyed sigh. He was already done with Mesmero and mutants who could and, for the sake of excluding the Professor, would screw with someone's mind. Ayita had practically taken off his head when he suggested she not go after Mesmero. Privately, but she still had tried verbally. "What we are 'fucking with exactly'," The Adder stated in a cold tone, Shelly was still not in his good books by any measure. "Is a bunch of pedestrians we can't exactly hurt too badly. They most likely don't have any extensive training in combat and this should be easy. The problem will lie with the fact they won't have the sense to stay down, and their superior numbers." Nodding to himself, the Adder gave a quick look about. Hoping to spot a lone civilian on their own. "But let's get on with this so that way the others will have a clear shot towards the two-point-oh version of giant world ending computer and the poor sod who riled my sister."

"No killing, only disarming and knocking out. That's it, clearing the way for just about anyone else. You kill anyone, even on accident, you have ta deal with me," Wolverine growled at the group, before heading into the Warehouse now. That was when the group was in for a bit of a surprise. There had to be over 500 people or so, just in the main area that they ended up in.

"Holy shit, that is a lot of civilians.... Guess that's what ya get when your villains are all based in NYC!"

"Keep it down Swamp Rat, they haven't seemed to notice us yet."

Neil took a deep breath, trying to imagine the civilians they were facing as nothing more than roaming monsters in Dungeons and Dragons. Whenever there was a mob this big, he'd toss aside the figures to represent them and put out pieces of candy instead. People got to eat the candy when they took out a monster. If he imagined all of these people as just Hershey Kisses, it was a little less terrifying. He looked at Allison, hoping to take some sort of cue from her as to how to use the telekinesis with these people, though his telekinesis tended to manifest mostly in terms of ripping things apart.

Fortunately, he had watched plenty of movies and shows with his cousin. He was scared to use his powers on the civilian themselves, but he spotted some pipes running up above them. Twisting his hands slightly, he caused the pipe to burst, sending down a large volume of smoke at the civilians. It would hopefully scatter them, but also might provide them with some cover of sorts.

Shelly rolled her eyes quietly, like she was the one that needed to be told "no killing", and followed in behind the guys. Shelly thought they were being hasty even if they were a lot more experienced and time was of the essence. Shelly caught a glimpse of the crowd just as the fog decended, it was terrifyingly huge. Could she really disable her fair share of the horde of civilians with just her bare hands? Shelly imagined knocking out the umpteenth innocent with a simple choke hold for their own good, whispering apologies as they strained and writhed, their body desperately fighting her grip for a gasp of oxygen. She wouldn't be able to sleep after doing it that many times, she'd still do it for them and the safety of her team if thats what it came to, but Shelly knew it would be tough to soothe the soul after that.

She had to think smarter than that, smart like bursting the pipe. Perhaps there was more stuff in the Warehouse they could use to their advantage. Obscured from sight by the smoke and footsteps shrouded by the noise of work that echoed from deeper in the warehouse, she began her hunt for something, anything.

Taking a cue from her chat with Bobbi before, Allison paused and attempted to get a vision. She managed to latch on to something, seeing them get inside the building just fine. However, she noted some cops there and a large group of civilians. And then she saw and heard a gunshot. She came back and followed the others. "All right, just had a vision. We can make it inside easily, but there are a lot of people inside and Mesmero isn't afraid to lose any of them. I saw cops there and I think they may have shot one of the controlled civilians. So we need to get them out and helped as fast as possible."

Richard studied the crowd as Neil's little pipe dream came down to earth. It was a rather splendid idea and something he could use on a few people, but on this many? He was an assassin that generally targeted people based in far smaller numbers than this. "It'd be worse if he got the brilliant idea to do it down in New Orleans during Mardi Gras." Richard retorted to Remy with a groan of amusement. "Though there is an idea. Could just get a rave going. Til then... I need to find a cardboard box. The perfect camouflage." The Adder noted as he slipped into the cloud and slowly worked to get close to some poor outlying fool. Quick as a flash he wrapped an arm about the man's neck after plucking the weapon from the man's hands. Shoving it into his belt, Richard covered the man's mouth and slowly lowered him to the floor as the civilian lost consciousness.

"Ya stay the hell out of my city, Snake Man," Gambit said, shaking his head. He threw a hand of cards at the fire alarm, intending to trigger it to add to the chaos on this floor. It would at least make it so that way Mesmero would have a harder time directing his minions and figuring out what was going on. His aim was a bit off, but he did succeed in activating the blaring fire alarm. However there was the slight problem of a few of the civilians being in the blast radius of the explosions and it injured several of them now.

"Damn it Remy, thought we were trying not to injure everyone else!" Rogue said, managing to be heard over the blaring fire alarm.

Nodding a bit at Allison's description of her vision, Neil started looking for cops amongst the crowd. He was able to spot a few of them and he focused on the barrels of their guns, using his powers to twist and bend them out of shape, preventing them from being fired. That would hopefully at least prevent the future Allison had seen of people getting shot - he didn't want to think about anyone getting seriously hurt or dying. There had been way more than enough tragedy the day before. "Few of the cops I spotted are disarmed," Neil told his teammates. He hoped that Sara was alright. He really hoped that she was.

Shelly was losing her patience, she had to start releasing people soon. Thats how she had to think about it, I was taking them out of danger by doing it. Shelly commited to taking down the next person she found.

A young girl, might have only just started middle school. Her parents must have been worried sick, unless they were in the crowd as well. Shelly was more disgusted than she could put in words, her Diary entry would be unusally distant and objective tonight. Shelly steeled herself, she was vulnerable and most in need of saving from Mesmero. She breathed before, wrapping her right arm round, braced it with the other and tightened. "You've been so brave, well done super star," Shelly whispered, trying (and failing) not to cry herself. The girl was out like a light, it was precise, clinical. Shelly lifted her unconcious body, carrying the limp, defenceless creature back out to safety.

Allison had talked to Jean before this and asked her how she broke them out of control. They had little time to crash course it, so Allison figured it was now or never. She closed her eyes and let her conscious go out of her body, entering the minds of the few civilians in front of her. Once inside, she fought the mental cage that surrounded their minds and broke it. She had only gotten through three of them before she felt weak and came back. Still, three of them were out of danger. She quickly ran over to them. "You were being controlled by a powerful mutant but you're free now. Quickly! Get out of here. The exit is that way." She pointed and directed them towards the exit before she followed the others forward.

It seemed things were getting a little messy, no thanks to Remy. While he did enjoy the man, and honestly wanted to see how well a man who could blow a card up could play poker, it was a bit irritating to have an explosion go off. It was positively aggravating to have the fire alarm blare out, though Richard had to admit it was adding to the confusion. Slipping up behind another figure, his hand covered the woman's mouth as his arm wrapped around her throat and he slowly lowered her to the ground. Two down, and far too many more to go.

"We need ta hurry up, none of this taking down a few at a time, there too many!" Rogue said, before an idea crossed her mind, and she noticed the large doors of the warehouse. "Hey Wolverine, mind gettin' one of those doors open for me?" she asked before she flew outside. Wolverine proceeded to pull one of the larger doors open, and finding a way to prop the door open so he didn't have to stand there. A moment later she came flying back inside carrying a very large shipping container and proceeded to scoop up about 20 people before she flew the container back out and locked it so they wouldn't wander off to try and stop them. She had been nice though and had found a drill to poke holes in it so that there was air able to circulate within the container.

"That's my wife!" Gambit called out with a cheer. "She really knows how ta fill a hole!" He proceeded to pull out his his bo staff and charged in, knocking out several other civilians.

"We aren't actually married first of all!"

"Well, what do ya say we change that chère?" Gambit asked, stopping for a moment, jumping back over to where she was holding out a diamond ring.

"Now is not the time for that sort of thing Swamp Rat!" Rogue said with a slight eye roll before she knocked out 2 more civilians.

Trying his very best to aid with the entire idea of getting more civilians out sooner rather than later, Neil got a bit of an idea once more. He used his telekinesis to suspend one civilian into the air, before he started moving them around through the air like a bowling ball taking down pins, managing to knock ten civilians unconscious before his "weapon" lost consciousness as well and he had to set him back down. He was sweating from the exertion that had took and Neil wiped his brow, hoping that the group fighting Mesmero would hurry up and take him out. He didn't know how long they'd be able to last here. There seemed to be an endless tidal wave of foes to go up against.

Allison tried again to break more people free, but she could feel herself getting weaker. She managed to latch on to one person's mind and shatter the cage. She moved them onwards towards the exit. There was still a lot of them to go and she didn't know if she could go on.

"Speaking of propositions..." Richard called out to Remy as he attempted to put another civillian in a sleeper hold. "Remy, was it?, can you happen to play cards without making them explode? I wouldn't mind another smart-assed bastard at the table. Call it an olive branch if you will." He chuckled and tried to leg sweep another civilian.

"I ain't always a good man, Snake, but I ain't stupid. I play cards with my friends. And that ain't you," Gambit responded, and Richard would be able to knock another civilian out. However, something else strange seemed to happen, as if the spell was broken and now several of them looked really confused.

"Looks like ol' Mesmero's down for the count," Rogue commented, landing on the ground once more, befor Gambit turned to look at her.

"So mon amie, what do ya say? Wanna be Mrs. Rogue?"

Rogue seemed to think about it for a moment, before she took the ring from him, covered his mouth with her hand and kissed the back of her hand, stepping back again. "Does that answer ya question swamp rat? Though next time, pick a better time for asking these sort of questions."

"Ya really think I'm gonna need to propose to ya again, Mrs. X?" he asked with a smirk.

Rogue smacked him over the head with an eye roll. "Let's get everyone outta here."

---

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---

---

She had blacked out, again. Appearing somewhere that she hadn't remembered going to, and it was starting to terrify her. There wasn't anything she could do about it, one minute she'd be in her room, next thing she knew she'd be in a tree in the garden or in the parlor on a couch. None of it was making sense to her, and it didn't help that she was hearing a voice in her mind, one that wasn't going away. Some of the things it was saying made her worry, not for herself, but for everyone else around her. She went to Xavier's office to speak with him, about to knock on the door, but she found that she didn't need to as the instant she reached the door a voice came from the otherside. "Enter Marygold."

"So you were expecting me then?" she asked as she walked into the room, taking a seat in the chair that was right across from where Xavier sat at his desk.

"Yes, I've been expecting you to come by for quite some time now actually..."

"...So you know why I'm here?"

"Yes I do."

"...I think there is something seriously wrong with me. There's this voice in my head that sounds like my own... But it's saying things that I don't think and I don't know what to do about it... Then there are the blackouts... Professor I don't even remember us knocking out Mesmero. I remember Ayita charging at him, and the next thing I know we were back at the mansion and he'd been handed over to SHIELD... Nothing is making sense to me anymore... I got really angry with Ayita for not listening to me, and then nothing. Now she hates me more than before, and I don't even know what I had said to her! I don't know what to do anymore..."

"I can understand your fear Marygold, adapting to any sort of new situation is not exactly a situation one would want to find themselves in. It is your choice how you want things to go from here, but we can talk about what might be the best options..."

"Please Professor, I need to know... What do you think, or likely know, is wrong with me?"

"It is a bit complicated..."

It had been a few hours since they had taken down Mesmero, since everything that had happened at the warehouse. Pietro had almost forgotten about something that he had originally been planning on doing the night before, but the whole situation with Mesmero caused problems for them. It hadn't felt like the right time for it, so now he went to go find Guin. "Guina?" he said once he found her.

Guin glanced up from what she had been working on. She was improving the security of the laboratories, namely the highly sensitive information that they wouldn't want to get out again. Her idea had been to attach a dormant virus to the files that would have to be disabled using a second authorized individual, in order to prevent Mesmero from repeating this stunt to get the Cerebro plans hopefully - or at least make it more challenging. "Did I work through dinner? Shit, sorry..."

"It's okay Guina, don't worry, it isn't quite that late, so no, you didn't work through dinner," he said, chuckling slightly that she had lost track of time so much that she automatically assumed that she had.

"Oh," Guin grinned, a bit proud of herself. "Cool. So what's up, Silver Balls?"

"I need to talk to you about something."

She nodded a bit, wondering what exactly Pietro wanted to talk to her about but she assumed it had something to do with Mesmero. Understandably, loads of people were shaken up after everything that had happened, so she quickly saved her progress on her work and turned off the computer she was using. "What is it?"

"Want to know what I had been doing before Mesmero messed with my head? After I had talked to older X-Men people I mean..."

"...Okay, I am curious, not going to lie," she admitted. Pietro had been the first one Mesmero controlled. Given his speed, she had to wonder how exactly Mesmero managed to slow him down enough to catch him in the first place. She had assumed initially that Mesmero must have caught him while talking to the pair of old X-Men closest to the Mansion - but Mesmero had been in New York City and no ex-X-Men lived there.

"I was going shopping actually, but leaving the store before I could take off running I literally bumped into him, turned to apologize since I didn't recognize who it was I had run into, and boom, that's when he got control of my head... So much fun..." he said, giving her a slight smile.

Guin giggled slightly. "Okay, so several strange things in that story besides Mesmero - one, that you were shopping and not shoplifting and two, that you apologized," Guin teased him, sticking her tongue slightly out at her boyfriend playfully.

"Actually with what I was getting I wanted to make sure wasn't stolen or stuff like that..."

She was smiling at him. "And just what were you getting? I assume not those Department of Defense hats you brought back since those definitely were stolen - epic, but stolen." The hat he had given her was sitting on the table next to her computer in fact.

"This..." he said, pulling a little box out of his pocket and setting it next to her.

Guin looked at the box, her eyes widening a lot and her heart started pumping quickly. "You know, one of the theorems of quantum mechanics states that things aren't the way they are until we act on them... So until I open that box and observe what is inside of it, there technically is exactly what I think will be there and something else, coexisting at the same time until the wavefunction collapses," she told him, rambling a little bit as she picked up the box.

"Theories are so boring though, so why not open it and find out already? Suspense is over rated anyway."

She nodded slightly, opening up the box to reveal an amethyst engagement ring. Even though she knew that her future self had married Pietro, she still didn't know how to react to this. Neither of her parents were married. In fact, her father had more or less been a revolving door when it came to partners when she was growing up, only settling on Pepper a little after she was ten years old. Her paternal grandparents had been married but she never met them, as they died in a car accident. And her mother's side of the family? She liked to pretend that they didn't exist.

"Was going to ask last night, but things got a bit um... Messed up to say the least... Anyway, so Guina, will you marry me?" he asked her, not really caring to be all formal about it.

Her eyes watered slightly and she quickly tried her best to dry them. Although marriage had never been in her life plan... she loved Pietro and never wanted to be with anyone else. Guin knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. "Of course I'll marry you," she told him, grinning.

"Yay!" Pietro said with a smile, before he picked the ring up and slipped it onto her hand.

She started giggling a bit, looking at her fiancé who had just said yay. She then reached into her pocket and took out Muscles' wedding ring, before she slipped it onto Pietro's ring finger. "I think this fits you nicely?" she commented, hoping that he wouldn't be upset she had given him Muscles' ring or anything like that.

"Wow, still a little surprised you carried this thing around for a while... But it doesn't matter, it works for me," he said, before he gave her a kiss. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him back. Bedroom? she suggested through the mental link. Sure, he said with a grin.

---

---

---

---

Guin was feeling more and more like her old self. Everything that had happened with Mesmero had been awful, but she couldn't help but smile slightly looking at the ring on her left hand. She never was much into diamonds, but she did love the color purple and beyond having to take it off when working in the lab, it didn't get in the way too much. Knocking on the door to Mary's room, Guin had two things of Dr. Pepper and a bag filled with assorted candies with her. She also had a variety of movies, including Mary's favorites. "Mare?" she called out. "It's Guin. Your annoyingly amazing best friend."

"Come in Guin," Mary called through the door. She was currently reading a book, having taken to being a bit by herself lately since the Mesmero incident. She didn't really tell anyone why that was the case, but she seemed to just prefer being by herself, though it wasn't too hard to figure out the reason for those who know her. Mary hated the idea of hurting anyone, and the fact that she could have caused a lot of damage still freaked her out a little.

Opening up the door and heading inside, Guin set down the junk food and movies in front of Mary. "I'm here to eat crow... I pushed you away, Mare, after Muscles died and... that wasn't cool of me," Guin said softly, deciding to just get this over with. She fidgeted a bit with the ring on her hand. "I'm sorry... I'd like to go back to that sister like friendship we had before, if you're willing," she then asked.

"...I can understand why you pushed me away Guin, it was hard on you, that much was obvious... And I'd be perfectly fine with things going back to the way they were before that whole incident... Things were better then than they have been, I can tell you that..."

She nodded, sitting down next to Mary and giving her friend a hug. "Yeah, it was rough but... That doesn't excuse me shutting you out. You're my best friend and I didn't treat you like one for a while..." she trailed off, figuring the next thing she had to ask Mary would come a bit awkwardly after this, but she didn't know how else to say it and she wanted to know Mary's answer already. Only her father knew so far about this - Mary was the second person she was telling. "...Would you be my maid of honor, Mare? Piet asked me to marry him yesterday and I - I said yes."

"...Congratulations on that Guin," Mary said with a smile. She was happy for her friend, not sure what else to really say about that one as she returned her friend's hug. Hearing the other part, Mary couldn't help but smile at he, "Of course I would be happy to."

"Thanks," Guin couldn't help but smile, looking at the ring and showing it to Mary. "I kinda have no idea what I'm doing, since it's not like my parents were married at any point in their lives so... I honestly have no idea at all what to do or what needs to be done, but I know that you are definitely a type A personality and you made that amazing little swirly flower and you're my best friend so... I need you so hearing that you'll be my maid of honor is a huge relief."

"I'll happily help you out with anything Guin... Don't worry, if you need anything I'm here for you, I always have been. And that ring is beautiful, not too surprised that he didn't go for a diamond or anything, amethyst definitely suits you."

"You really are the best, Mare," Guin told her honestly, giving her friend another hug. She promised herself that she wasn't going to shut Mary out if she went through another trauma like that again. Mary had never done anything like that to her, always being open and honest and being there for her if she needed it. Grabbing the sodas, she handed one over to Mary. "Do you want to just keep on talking and watch Jumanji maybe?" she asked, pulling out the DVD and showing it to her. She preferred the original movie over the sequel. "Also, fun fact, he actually paid for the ring. It isn't even stolen."

"Now that is surprising. Your future husband is a bit of a kleptomaniac... Let me guess, he went to your dad to ask for the money for it so he didn't have to steal it? As for Jumanji and talking, I am all for that, works for me."

Guin nodded, getting the movie and putting it in the DVD player in Mary's room, before getting the TV all ready to go. "This feels so retro, watching on a little TV," she commented as she worked. Back home at Stark Tower, they had a private theater. She got to see movies about a month before they were released to the public. Sitting down next to Mary on the bed, she grabbed the bag of prepopped popcorn she had brought up with her. "And yeah, apparently he went to talk to my dad to get his blessing two days ago - bit old fashioned but he is from Serbia so I'm not too surprised."

"Well not all of us come from rich families or whatever you know. And sure, he's a bit old fashioned, but honestly that isn't that bad all things considering you know."

She giggled slightly. "I know - but think about it... What if he wants me to change my name to be Mrs. Guin Maximoff?"

"I don't think he will, especially if you tell him you don't want to or whatever."

"I've honestly never thought about it," Guin admitted. She knew that some people liked to dream about getting married one day and they already had an idea as to what name they would take, if any. Some of the girls and boys at her boarding school had picked out names for their future children and knew what style dress or suit they wanted to wear. Sure, she knew there was a good chance she and Pietro would get married thanks to Muscles, but this stuff hadn't been what she spent her time thinking about. She didn't even know if she wanted to get married in a dress or not.

"Well, knowing Pietro I'm pretty sure that he'd be fine with no matter what you did."

She nodded again, having a bit of a silly/dreamy smile on her face. "I am really happy that he asked me... My dad, not sure how he feels about it."

Mary giggled slightly, seeing the expression on Guin's face. She felt better and happier than she had in a while ever since the stuff with Mesmero had happened. "Well clearly he's accepted it otherwise odds are he wouldn't have given Pietro the money."

"What's the giggling for?" Guin asked Mary, nibbling on a handful of Goldfish.

"No reason Guin... Just glad to see you smiling and all happy."

Guin rolled her eyes at her friend. "You are such a Hufflepuff sometimes, Mare. I know you want to be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor - probably Gryffindor, knowing you - but you just can't help but be a little gooey marshmallow on the inside," she teased.

"Whatever you say Guin," Mary said with a slight laugh, shaking her head at her.

"Oooh can weddings have themes? We could do a Harry Potter wedding!" Guin suggested excitedly.

"Okay, saying this now, fairly certain that Pietro would not let you have a themed wedding."

She paused for a moment. "He'd probably say yes if it was Star Trek themed," Guin mused. It was her boyfriend - well, now fiancé's favorite show to watch. She fell on the Star Wars side of that rivalry, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy watching Star Trek episodes with him and pointing out that she would be considered a red shirt.

"He's a bit old fashioned as you pointed out before, so I don't think even then he'd go for it."

"True... Oh well, a girl can dream about wearing Harry Potter robes since dresses aren't really my thing..."

"He's going to make you wear a dress whether you want to or not Guin."

She wrinkled her nose at that. Her dad had made her wear dresses to Stark Industries events before, despite her insistence that she would be a lot more comfortable in a power suit instead. "Bleh, I hate dresses. They're the worst. My legs are always freezing in them and I feel like they're just designed to show off people's boobs."

"Yeah well, pretty sure you'll survive wearing a dress Guin. It's kind of generally what is worn by the bride you know."

"...Fine, as long as there are no heels," Guin rolled her eyes, taking some more GoldFish.

"You might need them because of the height difference," Mary teased.

"He's not that much taller than me!"

"He's like, 8 inches taller than you!"

She shrugged. "Then he can just lift me up for the photos, I hate heels!"

"Ever heard of wedges? They add the extra inches but are more like flats than heels and don't have it so you are like, walking on a spike or something."

"... See, this is why I want you to be my maid of honor. You've got good ideas. Oh, and don't worry... I am not asking you-know-who to be a bridesmaid, so you don't even need to get stressed out about that," Guin told Mary. She wasn't friends with Ayita, but she wanted to make sure that Mary knew she wouldn't have to be in that sort of situation at all. Guin had heard some of the things Ayita had been saying to Mary lately and it was horrifying, to be honest, that someone could be that cruel. She thought Ayita had been a better person than that.

Mary smiled at that, really glad that Guin wasn't going to have Ayita be a bridesmaid. She had tried to patch things up between them, but it didn't seem like Ayita was letting her do that. Though she started getting a slight headache now, but she wasn't going to let Guin know that. "Good..."

Guin nodded. "If you need me to do anything regarding that entire mess... Let me know. Richard owes me a favor."

"Honestly Guin? I don't think you can do much about that entire situation."

She grimaced slightly. "Yeah... It's just really shitty. But I know what I can do is offer you some of this variety of junk food I have. I can even get Piet to go grab us some deep dish pizza from Chicago if you want?"

"That sounds like it would be amazing," she said, smiling slightly at Guin.

Piet, can you get Mare and I some deep dish pizza from Chicago? Guin asked him, using the mental link. She had gotten the idea from the Flash TV show, since the Flash was always running off to Keystone City to get pizza for his friends back in Central City. "Okay, I asked him, so I hope you are hungry."

Alright, came his response. Mary nodded her head, glad that they were going to have pizza and such. Watching movies, probably talk about the wedding maybe, it was going to be fun.

Yay! I love you. Guin grinned, giving Mary two thumbs up to indicate that Pietro would be playing pizza delivery service for them. "Okay, so what else should I know about the wedding stuff...We talked about how I have to wear a dress or whatever, and then the not heeled flat things... wedges, right, that's what they're called..."

"I think I have a pair of wedges here somewhere..." she said, before she got up and went to her closet, looking around. After a moment, she pulled out a pair of shoes to show Guin what exactly they were. "These are the sorts of shoes I was mentioning, they are much easier to walk in than heels."

Guin put aside the junk food, getting off the bed and going over to Mary. "Those are actually kinda cute," she said, a bit surprised. "Of course never tell anyone I said that. I have to keep up my reputation as dressing like a street rat," she added with a bit of a giggle. She knew that Pietro would love it if she wore nicer clothes, but a large part of it was she wanted to be comfortable and she was stubborn as hell.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Anyway they are a lot easier to walk in then heels by a mile." she said, before there was a knock at their door. It was Pietro with their pizza.

Guin headed over to the door and opened it up, beaming at her husband-to-be. "You are really the best," she told him with a grin. "I'm assuming one of those pizzas is ours and the other ten are for you?" she giggled a bit, knowing that Pietro's metabolism required him to eat a lot.

"You know me too well Guina," he said with a smile as he handed her a box of pizza.

"I don't know if that is possible," she told him, giving him a kiss.

"Have fun you two," he said with a slight wave, before there was a gust of wind and he took off.

Guin then shut the door and put the box of pizza on the bed, opening it up. Thankfully, Pietro had included some plates and even some forks if they needed them. Deep dish got messy super easily. "Okay, so what's next to chat about? I'm assuming you don't have anything going on in your love life which is a shame - though Gambit did ask me if you were still dating Folly..."

"He's ridiculous about that and won't believe me when I tell him that we were never dating!!!!"

She cackled slightly, getting a piece of pizza for Mary and putting it on a plate for her, before getting herself a plate. Jumanji was playing in the background and it was about halfway over. "Why does he think you two are or were dating, anyways?" Guin asked. Mary never really struck her as someone that swung that way, so to speak. She had her own life and career and her plants - not really much room for a relationship and people didn't need those to be happy.

"Just because when Folly first came to the mansion and everyone told me to stay away from her I didn't and instead befriended her. I don't swing that way at all... Is that the only thing he mentioned about Folly?"

"He mentioned something about some corporate job he had and the CEO wanting to recruit her... He, obviously, gave a hard no to that," Guin told Mary. She didn't really know Folly, but she knew that the girl was insane. Her mutation also prevented any medication from really helping her, meaning that Folly's sanity was just going to get worse and worse as time went on. "I think he said he's working for Serval Industries - they're having some sort of private superhero team, which is interesting, but also will never kick ass as much as the Avengers."

"...Remy working for some company? That's a shocker, though I can totally understand why he'd say no to Folly being on any superhero team... She's too unstable... Last time she was here at the mansion she might have stabbed Remy..."

She raised an eyebrow at Mary, taking a bite of her pizza. "So I'm taking it she most definitely did stab someone then? Good to know."

"Yeah... Um, can we talk about something else now, just about anything else will work."

Guin paused for a moment, before she started snickering. "Okay then. Marygold Isley, Fuck, Marry, Kill? Your choices are Wolverine, Hawkeye, and Magneto." She used to love playing these sorts of games with Lance - MASH was always her favorite and she tended to have better success getting him to play that, rather than Fuck Marry Kill. But hey, they were pretty much having the semi-stereotypical female hang out session - they might as well lean into it.

"Yeah no, especially given those choices of yours!" Mary said, before she threw one of her pillows at Guin. She generally didn't mind the game, but was not going to pick from those three no matter what happened.

Guin narrowly managed to get her pizza out of the way, before the pillow hit her in the face. "Fine, fine - how about... Jakobsen, Loki, and Xavier?" she asked cheekily, throwing the pillow back at Mary.

"Nope, not happening."

"Okay, but you know the rules. You can't skip on the third set - Mr. Fantastic, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man," Guin posed to her friend.

"Yeah, no, I'm passing on the game entirely."

"Lame!" Guin giggled. "Okay, how about MASH? I used to play it to keep myself entertained whenever Dad made us fly to Europe so he could watch someone race one of his cars. Honestly, I totally approved when he decided to drive one himself - much more macho than just owning one and not doing anything with it really."

"Alright fine we can play MASH," Mary said with a laugh, shaking her head.

---

---

It had been roughly a week since the team had gone off to fight Mesmero. Neil had adjusted surprisingly quickly to life with hearing aids, with Beast explaining to him that the damage had been permanent. They were fairly discrete, a shade of blue reminiscent of Cerebro - which Neil had become increasingly convinced was Beast's favorite color. He had his sketch pad with him as he knocked on Sara's door, hoping that she was there and not off somewhere else, but he could have understood her going to stay with her aunt and uncle for a while.

Sara had been, more or less, alone for the time after dealing with Mesmero. She hadn't talked much to anyone. Partly because she felt guilty still, but because she had not acted like herself during the mission. She saw red and that was unlike her. So when there was a knock on her door, she was not surprised. She expected it to be Mary or her aunt. She opened it and saw Neil there, the last person she'd expect. "Oh, Neil. Can I help you?"

"...I made this for you..." he said softly, before pulling out a drawing he had done just for her. It was a sketch of Sara with the flames of the Phoenix Force behind her. He had taken a lot of time on it, working on it practically since they had gotten back from dealing with Mesmero. For him, showing his artwork to another human being was a huge negative - but here he was, not only showing it to Sara but gifting it to her. "...Do you like it?" he asked nervously, a slight blush to his cheeks.

Sara was taken aback as she stared at the drawing in Neil's hand. She remembered their talk before and how he was not comfortable showing his art to anyone. So the fact he was doing this was big. "Oh wow. Neil, it's beautiful. I love it." She took it from him to inspect it closer. She had never been the subject of a drawing and this was well done. "I don't know what to say. Thank you."

Neil nodded a bit at her, feeling slightly uncomfortable with her complimenting his art... but she had been both the intended recipient and the subject of it. It would have been a bit awkward if she had just taken the drawing and walked off without saying a word with it. "You're welcome," he said softly, tempted to run away in terror since he had given her the drawing, but he made himself take a breath. There was another reason he was here. "... H-how are you?" he then asked, fidgeting a bit with the hearing aids nervously. "I-I mean since... y'know... trying to plan D&D..." he lied hastily.

Sara could tell the boy was struggling, so she would make it easier on him. "Well, eager to get back into D&D since our last session got interrupted with this Mesmero nonsense. So you let me know when you're ready and I'll be there." She could tell he wanted to say more, but she didn't want him to pressure himself to put it out there.

He eagerly nodded - perhaps a bit too eagerly. "Yeah! I uh found some cool new adventures online, been thinking about working them back into the campaign... And Mira I think is out of medical, but..." his voice trailed off slightly and he accidentally turned off the hearing aids out of nervousness, having to reactive them. Thankfully Sara hadn't said anything during those moments of deafness. "Actually if you wanted to, you could tell me about your character and I could draw her for you?" he offered, his ears bright red.

"Oh yeah, that would be cool. So she's an assassin. Was thinking of her having a dark red hood as opposed to black. And leather armor. She has icy blue eyes and long, red hair. She uses dual daggers too. Been pretty excited to play her. Haven't had a chance to play anything like this until I started coming here." Truthfully, she only ever had her music. It was nice to branch off on other creative endeavors.

He took out his sketch pad, jotting down in shorthand notes on everything that Sara was telling him. It would take him a few days to get a sketch he didn't completely hate done, but he was already starting to get a vision of the character... and then he realized his vision's face was Sara's. Neil had had a few crushes before, but they weren't anything compared to this. They usually ended as quickly as they began. "She sounds badass," he agreed, giving her a slight smile.

Sara let off a small laugh. "Yeah, she is. She's kind of what I want to be. More sure of herself, doesn't care what people think of her. She has her own moral code she follows and doesn't waver from it. She has few friends and many enemies. I dunno, that's all there is. Hoping to flesh her out more as the campaign goes on."

It was always interesting to hear what people thought about themselves - hearing that Sara wanted to be someone who was self confident and didn't care about the opinions of others... It surprised Neil, since he already saw her as that kind of person. It was a part of the reason why he drew her with the Phoenix Force. She was a force of nature, someone with confidence and a good head on her shoulders. "... I think that already sounds like you - I mean, except for the part with the few friends and many enemies. I don't really know how many enemies you have or friends..."

Sara shrugged. "Think of it like Robin Williams. He was beloved by all, always seen as happy, but truly he was dealing with hard times. That's not to say I'm suicidal though! God I did not mean that. Just that the image we broadcast to others isn't always what we feel. Really the only thing I am confidant in is my music. Other than that, I am just trying to get by, same as anyone else. What about you Neil? You rarely talk about yourself."

His eyes widened for a second before he calmed down, realizing that Sara wasn't confessing to him clinical depression and suicidal behavior. For a second there, he had been worried that the attack with Mesmero had shaken her so much that she would need to be hospitalized just in case she tried to hurt herself or something. As she then turned the conversation on him, Neil was at a loss for words for a moment. He didn't really like talking about himself. "... I really like drawing," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "I was raised by my aunties and they're... well, for lack of a better word they're witches. Drawing was the form of magic I could do."

Sara knew he liked drawing, she was hoping for a bit more. Though hearing that he had aunts who were....witches? Well that was new. Sounded like a TV show to her. "Like..actual witches? I mean it's not so hard to believe. We have someone names the Scarlet Witch after all. Are they mutants too?" That was the best way she would be able to justify it, otherwise there she would have to wrap her head around real magic and she couldn't do that now.

Neil nodded. "Yeah, so... Well they aren't mutants. Scarlet Witch I think does know some real magic but she uses her mutation to power it..." He paused for a second, feeling a bit awkward standing in the doorway. He also never really talked to the people at X-Mansion about his upbringing. "My parents work for the Sorcerer Supreme...I don't know if you've ever heard of Dr. Strange...? Well, they're technically wizards or warlocks or whatever you want to call them, the terms are interchangeable. My cousin, she's basically my sister since I grew up with her, she's a witch too. I'm the only mutant in my family."

Sara was prepared to believe anything really. The universe was big, after all. She realized she, more or less, had Neil just stand there. "Oh how rude of me. Please, come in Neil." She led him inside her room. She had a desk chair, but that was it. "Take a seat anywhere." She sat down on her bed before she continued. "I've heard of Dr. Strange. Cool that you're related to him. Never knew that about Witch though. So magic is real? Are they good witches or like....Wicked Witch of the West types?"

Neil followed her into the room, sitting down on the desk chair. "Oh, I'm not related to him - he's kinda my parents' boss, if that makes sense?" he explained. He gave her a nod as she asked him if magic was real. "Yeah... It's like how in D&D, people can fall into different alignments. Some witches follow what's called the Path of Night - that's what my aunties do... It's not really pure evil, more of a range I guess? Like... the Path of Night is chaotic on the neutral, lawful, and chaotic spectrum. Then there are some who draw power from what's called the Dark Dimension... Or even that worship gods of chaos, like Chthon..."

Sara nodded like she understood, but she didn't. Not really. "Fascinating. Sounds like an interesting way to grow up. So are you chaotic? Or a different alignment? Never really took you as the sort to be chaotic, but then again I never really knew magic was real and I am having my mind blown at the moment."

He gave her a slight smile. "I think I'm neutral good," he told her honestly. "Since I got my mutation, my aunties kinda... didn't really know what to do with me? So while my cousin got her Dark Baptism and everything, I came here to learn about my own abilities... I never came into my magic anyways, so I didn't really mind it. But it's definitely a bit weird being around here... Like you guys celebrate Thanksgiving, right? I've never celebrated that in my life. I've always gone to visit my parents around that time for Feast of Feasts."

"You know, I think that is the most I've heard you talk without pausing or anything. I like it. You're cute when you smile." Sara added that last bit because partly she knew it would make him blush, another cute feature, and also because he was, in her opinion, pretty adorable. And it was nice seeing him talk about his family. "Thanksgiving, yeah. Fairly common. It's usuaally my mom, dad, and me. My aunt never really comes since ties between my parents and hers are strained."

His face turned practically pure crimson as Sara succeeded in getting him to blush. "... Do you mind if I ask why things with your aunt are strained?" Neil asked her, a bit curious but he also felt bad just talking about himself and not giving Sara a chance to share her story too.

"Well, you know my aunt is Jean Grey right? Well, she went a bit...evil I guess is the best word. She got consumed by the Phoenix Force and it controlled her. She hurt a lot of people. The world looked at her like she was an enemy, even though it wasn't really her. Humans don't necessarily need a reason to hate us, but that kind of gave them credence. And my parents, while they love her, didn't want her around me. But eventually I started showing mutant abilities and they got worried. Jean wanted to come visit and talk to me about it, but they were skeptical. But eventually gave in. That's partly why I am here. I want to learn to control it and be closer to my aunt and show people that we are good."

He had heard about the Phoenix Force before, not here at the Mansion but back home with his aunties. They made sure that he and his cousin were well aware of the ~who's who~ of cosmic entities and the dangers in working with them. Neil had always been a lot more cautious when it came to those stories than his cousin, Rebecca, had been. There were moments when he wouldn't have been surprised if she was asking their aunties questions in order to figure out exactly how to summon something like Dormammu. "That's tough..." he said softly. "Do you see your aunt more now, though?"

"She comes around here often enough. Plus we talk on the phone. I want to focus on learning here mainly. Learn how to use my powers and control them. She's been a big factor in that." Sara didn't let it show that she had been harassed before. Especially at school, taunted that her family was a bunch of freaks. I think she remembered the word terrorist being thrown around too. It's why she wanted to be better. "Guess we're not so different. Interesting family lives."

He nodded again - she was here for just about the same reason he was, to learn how to control their abilities. "If you wanted to... I can teach you how to do this," he offered softly, pulling a paperclip out of his pocket. There was a bit of strain in his fingers and it blew up. "It's a neat little trick, not one I do very often... Since my powers are kinda just... destructive..."

Sara eyed the clip and its destruction. "Oh cool! Yeah, that would be awesome. Been meaning to learn about everyone's powers here in case I ever needed to copy them." And she really wanted to blow something up. Good way to let off steam.

Neil smiled at her again. "If you want, I can raid the recycling bins for cans and we can go outside... Blow stuff up and talk more?" he offered, a bit nervous. This was the closest he had ever gotten to asking someone out on a date.

Sara grinned. "Did you just ask me on a date?" Again, she knew the blush was coming. "You're opening up more. I like it. And, I accept." She stood up, walked over, and pecked him on the cheek. "Thanks for checking up on me. And for the drawing."

He blinked rapidly, wondering for a split second if he was hallucinating what had just happened, before he gave Sara a bit of a big grin - and yes, his face was about the complexion of a cherry tomato. "You're welcome, Sara Grey..."

Sara let the poor boy leave without much effort. He did something no one else had ever done before and she knew it took a lot for him to even show up to her door. She found herself growing excited to learn more about him. And maybe tease him some more. He really was rather cute when his face turned red.

---

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Bobbi followed the others up into the main area of the mansion. Most seemed ready to check out but she was still at quite a bit of a loss. What was she doing here? Was she going to get a room? Would she sleep outside like some sort of vagabond? She would need to cancel her accommodations at the hotel as well. Pick up her things. It was too late to do that right now though.

She cleared her throat once she was at the top of the stairs. "Sorry to be interrupting and such, but... Is there a place I should be going? A thing I should be doing?" She hoped someone, anyone, would have an idea of what was supposed to be happening with her.

Mary had heard that Bobbi was coming to the mansion by Xavier, so she had known to have expected her to arrive. There, of course, was the one problem of Mesmero that had sort of stopped her from really talking to Bobbi much before. She walked up to Bobbi, giving her a smile, "Hey there, guessing you don't know where your room is right?"

"Right O' babe, I walked in and it was all hell here. So, I do got a room, huh?" She young woman stuffed her hands in her pockets and grinned at Mary. "Bobbi, you are?" she inquired, removing a hand to reach out for the customary handshake. Or fist bump. Or whatever it was kids did these days.

"Marygold Isley, the Professor had let me know that you were coming, sorry for the sort of chaos that ensued when you showed up... Sadly that sort of thing occurs more often then you think... Honestly some of us have taken to placing bets on the next time the mansion will explode. It happens way too much, but we're pretty sure it won't happen for another year at the least," she said, shaking her hand, though now Mary was wearing a pair of gloves on her hand, as opposed to earlier when she wasn't. "Anyway, your room is set up in one of the dorms, think you lucked out and don't have a roommate or anything."

Bobbi raised her eyebrows. "Roommate? Shit, like rehab all over again. A twenty something with a roommate. Damn straight I lucked out. Lead the way Boss Lady," she said, holding out her arm to indicate the way forward. She tucked her hands back into her pockets and followed along beside Mary. "Professor must be loaded if he can keep fixing up this place then. A year until it explodes again? I guess I was lucky twice, coming right when things got hinky." Her tones were jovial and full of jokes. She wasn't about to take all of this too serious just yet. Not until she needed to. And it wasn't like she knew anyone here anyway. "So... what is it we do anyway? I mean... What am I gonna be doin' here, I guess."

"We generally work to keep most normal humans safe from people like us who tend to use their powers for personal gain or to take over the world. That tends to kind of be a full time job almost, we've got the Danger Room which is sort of our training grounds of sorts so that we can learn how to use our powers, and teach the younger students who come here how to use their abilities as well... Actually you might have seen the Danger Room AI who was walking around at one point, not sure if you saw her or not... Anyway generally our most common enemy is a mutant by the name of Magneto, he generally tries to go to war with normal humans with his Brotherhood, either that or wipe them out entirely..." Mary said, leading her towards where her room was.

Whistling in appreciation of the depth of their commitment to humans, Bobbi responded, "Sounds like a fuckin' comic book. Or a movie franchise." She elbowed Mary conspiratorially. "So, the dude we're fighting now. He ain't this Magneto character, right? This is some other dude? How many enemies y'all got?" It was hard to believe so many people could want to go around being mega dick waffles to others. Then again... Super people were probably just as shitty as regular people. That sent shivers through her spine.

"...Trust me, you don't want to know the answer to how many enemies we've got... Though it is technically not just us... The team now, is kind of the next generation in a way, the first team ran into a lot of people. I was 16 years old the last time we ran into Mesmero, hadn't been on the team too long, the guy disappeared afterwards and was never caught, guess we all just assumed he'd disappeared... But yeah, the amount of enemies this school has... It's a lot... Anyway, this is your room," she said, opening the door to an unused room. There was a bed, nightstand and dresser, as well as an empty closet.

"Cozy," she said lightly as she stepped into the room. It was bigger than any she'd had in her life. The young woman turned and smiled at Mary. The girl was a bit bland, didn't seem to laugh at any of her jokes. But she seemed calm and helpful. Maybe it was just the recent attack making her out of sorts. "My bike is still out front. Is there a garage or something I can put it in?"

"Definitively, got a garage over on the side of the mansion, sometimes I think that the garage is almost as big as the mansion itself half the time. Then again it does have a weird elevator sort of thing that can get you anywhere in the mansion you need to go... But yeah, don't worry too much about that... Oh, and one more thing," she said, before she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to her. "That's the security code at the front gate. Usually the security system is turned on except when we know to expect visitors, then it gets turned off briefly and such... But just type the code in at the front gate if the gates are closed and you should be fine. Trust me you do not want to see the security system this place has from the position of someone trying to break in."

Bobbi accepted the paper gladly. "Thanks, doll! I'll bet it would kick my ass to kingdom come." She looked the code over and then stuffed it into her pocket for safe keeping. Before Mary could leave her, the curiosity that bubbled inside of Bobbi could not be contained. "Sorry to ask, but I was just wondering... What's the beef between you and that girl? You almost seem more like enemies than teammates. If you don't wanna talk about it of course... It's just odd to be on a team with people so... out of sorts with each other, you know?"

"You mean between Ayita and I? Well, we've got some major differences when it comes to thinking if it is okay to kill someone or not... Not to mention she was comparing a hallucinogenic drug to catnip of all things, that was pretty weird too... And she was blaming me for saying a bunch of things that I never said, but the other person in the room had said, that's all really annoying..."

Bobbi nodded solemnly. "Ah, I get it. A great big misunderstanding of feelings it sounds like. Well, I'm sure it will resolve! Thank you for sharing. I should likely get my bike put away and hit the hay. Thanks for the help." She winked at Mary and closed her room door for the pair to stand in the hallway. "I hope you sleep well."

"I seriously doubt that sleep will come very easily to me," Mary said with a shrug, "As for the Ayita thing, I seriously doubt that it is going to end well at all... Anyway, you're welcome, guess I'll see you around then," she said with a slight wave, before heading down the hallway again.

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Carolina was making her way over towards her bedroom carrying a few bags for some art supplies that she had recently bought while going off campus for a little bit. She stopped for a moment and yawned slightly she hadn't gotten to much sleep lately since the whole thing with Mesmero. Carolina usually crashed whenever she could, but usually it didn't last to long either and it always took her forever to fall asleep. As she got up to move again she felt really dizzy as well and nearly fell over.

Guin got to the top of the stairs, having been working in the lab for a better part of the day, just in time to see Carolina stumble and nearly fall over. "Woah, hey, Lina are you okay?" Guin asked, hurrying over to her. She grabbed the art supplies that Carolina was carrying, figuring that she shouldn't be carrying them if she was nearly collapsing and all. Guin knew that both her and Lance were having some long lasting injuries from the head wounds they had received - and she had to wonder if this was coming from that. "Let me help you with these."

Carolina turned her head a bit as Guin came over to her and offered to help with carrying her things and smiled towards her friend. "I've been better and thanks." She said towards Guin, she had four bags as she let Guin take the other two from her and started to make her way over towards her bedroom which wasn't that far and then entered her room. "How are you doing by the way?" She asked.

"I'm good, been working in the lab on some nanotech," she explained, following Carolina into the room and setting down the bags she was carrying for her on the desk. "You should probably lay down or something... It's the head injury, isn't it?" she guessed.

"That sounds pretty cool." Carolina said and gave Guin a slight smile as she set down the other two bags where Guin had laid hers down, then Guin mentioned about laying down and her head injury. "Yeah, I've been having some trouble lately.." She said, and took her friends advice and went to sit down on her bed.

She shrugged a bit, sitting down on the chair at Carolina's desk. "Are you doing any sort of physical therapy regime?" she asked. Guin wasn't a doctor by any means, even though her degree did involve biomolecular engineering - didn't mean she knew about how to help lessen the longterm impact of severe head trauma. She had to imagine that Beast was helping Carolina and Lance a lot with the recovery process - which was great, since not every doctor treated mutants these days despite what the hippocratic oath said.

"Yeah, usually after school I have them after classes and stuff with Beast it does help." She answered it did help a bit but the dizzy spells she got always happened whenever she least expected it do. "Sometimes I have short term memory loss to which is a bit difficult to.."

Hearing that, Guin thought for a moment. "...What if I made you a pair of glasses that recorded what is going on and saved the footage pertaining to about the same time span as your short term? So if you ever forgot something, you could just replay the footage until you remembered what it was," she suggested, already thinking through how to make something like that. It'd be user friendly if she included some sort of AI as well, that way Carolina didn't have to watch 30 minutes of footage every time she couldn't find her shoes.

Carolina looked at Guin and gave her a smile, and nodded. "I'd like that, like this morning I forgot where I had left my cellphone and it was just inside my bedside drawer after finding it just before I left to get my shopping done." She smiled awkwardly she hated that she couldn't remember things very well so much.

She grinned. "I'll see what I can do. Would you like a male or female AI programmed in?"

Carolina sat up for a moment and started to think for a few seconds. "Female I think would be a lot better."

Guin nodded, thinking for a moment. She liked picking out acronyms that would make some sense at the least. "Hmm... I love naming the A.I.'s but I always want it to make sense so... Glass Enabled Neurological Executive? G.E.N.E.?" she suggested.

Carolina gave her a friendly smile and nodded towards her. "I like the name sounds perfect to me." She said, it did sound pretty good and useful for her as well to.

"Cool, I'll draw up some designs for it and then discuss with Beast, since he knows a lot more about medicine and all than I do. Hopefully it'll make your life a lot easier," Guin told her friend. "How is your sister, by the way? I miss having Cass around the place..."

"Thanks Guin, it means a lot." Carolina said, as Guin brought up her sister she had talked to her a little bit but mostly she got texts from her whenever she could. "She's been pretty busy with her new assignment, I miss having her around to actually. How are things with you and Piet?"

Guin nodded. She had been trained by Cass when she first joined SHIELD and it felt like it had been a lifetime ago. From what she heard, SHIELD had managed to come out mostly intact after the HYDRA uprising - which was for the best. She knew the entire idea of the Nazi organization freaked Pietro out a lot, as much as he didn't want to admit it. "Really well," Guin told her, before she smirked a bit and held up her hand, revealing an amethyst engagement ring.

"I'm sure she'd love to hear from you, she misses you as well." Carolina said to Guin, she remembered that her and Guin were really good friends since Cass had trained her if she remembered correctly. Then Guin revealed the engagement ring and then looked over at her friend and couldn't help but smile even more. "When did he propose to you?!" Carolina asked as she got up and went to hug her.

She couldn't help but giggle slightly as she hugged Carolina back. She never imagined herself to be one of those girls that got engaged and became giddy whenever it was brought up in conversation, but here she was. The universe had a sense of humor. "That evening, after we took down Mesmero," Guin explained. There was a slight blush in her cheeks. "I was actually wondering if you'd want to be a bridesmaid? Mary is the Maid of Honor, and I'm asking Annie and Allison to be bridesmaids as well..."

Carolina couldn't keep from smiling and when Guin asked for her to be one of her friend's bridesmaids and nodded towards her. "I would totally be honored to be one of your bridesmaids." Carolina said as she backed up again and went to lay back down on her bed. "You should invite Cass to, i'm sure she'd love to join." Carolina was really happy for her and was glad that they were actually getting married to.

"I probably will invite her - not quite at the invite stage of planning things since he kinda just proposed to me, haven't even figured out a date for the wedding yet," Guin explained. The Maid of Honor and bridesmaids had been the first things she had started working on - mostly because she wasn't exactly the picture perfect girly girl and she knew she'd need a LOT of help planning a wedding.

Carolina smiled a bit and nodded, it would take a lot of time planning as well. "If you need any help at all i'd be more than willing to pitch in as well." Carolina offered just in case she needed some help, she couldn't help but be excited as well to and then she realized that Mary and her sister didn't get after she got transferred to her current assignment.

Guin nodded. "I will probably end up taking you up on that offer. There's so much to plan and Piet wants a real wedding - so I can't just ask to go down to New York City Hall and get married there," Guin shrugged her shoulders. She knew that her dad wanted it to be a real wedding too and she didn't mind too much. Sure, she hated dresses but Mary had found a type of shoe to help make up for the height difference that Guin actually found to be appealing.

"Yeah I heard courthouse weddings are like really the worse, standing in front of a judge in a courtroom or something like that is a bit weird with random strangers, and convicts in there to." Carolina said with a sight giggle, and having an actual real wedding was always better having friends and family there to witness it all was always really good to. "The bridesmaids dress shopping will be a lot of fun I cant wait for that."

"Aww, but the convicts are what gives the wedding its charm!" Guin giggled slightly, before getting up from the chair. "I'm gonna let you rest. I'll text you the details for bridesmaids stuff soon, yeah?" she told her friend, giving Carolina a bit of a hug before she left the room and closed the door behind her.

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Allison had been going back and forth with this. With Mesmero being taken care of, she wanted to talk to Ayita. She knew her friend was going through the wringer. What really upset her though was that Ayita took to Guin first before her. Hadn't she always called her a pack sister? Why didn't she talk to her? If anyone knew about Psychic power play, it would be Allison surely. She had to admit, her feelings were hurt.

But she knew it was best not to bottle them up. So she came to Ayita's door and knocked. "Ayita? It's Allison. Can we talk?"

There was an almost mental glance towards Allison's mind before the door opened slightly. "You do not need to ask," Ayita stated softly. Her arm in a sling at Richard's request. On her bed was a small pile of things AMD an array of neatly laid out tools. A leather satchel resting between the two. Clothes were already tightly folded and stuffed into the bag. Ayita looked like hell. A mix of pain and anger in her amber eyes. "You are always welcome." Implying that some were not.

Allison forgot that Ayita had her own set of mental powers. She entered the room and closed the door gently. "Wanted to check if you were all right. Planning a tip somewhere?" Though it looked like more than just a simple vacation. Is she truly leaving? She wouldn't just...jump ship? Even with everything going on.

"No." Ayita sighed after a long minute. "I am not alright." Looking at the supplies, she absently tossed a shirt onto the messy pile. "North. I need some time to think away from..." Cutting herself off from saying something rude she shook her head. "Marygold. I talked to her only to have her disregard everything. She cares more for herself than her 'team'." There was disgust in her voice like a puffed up bird's feathers before it settled.

Allison knew of the heated arguments between the two girls. Hell, she had her fair share of tiffs with Mary. But they worked it out. Perhaps the two of them just couldn't get along. "Well, maybe some time away will clear your head a bit. Give you both some time to cool off and think about things." There was more to say, but did she bring it up? Ayita was already angry, she didn't want to upset her more. "Are you doing all right with the whole Mesmero thing?"

Ayita shifted and there was a deep-throated growl of hatred. Something Ayita never really dwelled on. She disliked people but hate was, according to her, a waste of time. "I should have killed him. For that, Mary..." The woman gave Allison a pointed look. "He was and still is a threat. He turned my instincts on the others. Not intentionally, but he influenced it. I lost control." There was a long pause before she sat down on the desk that took one end of the room. "What if he does that again? And I attack you, or Richard? Damon, our children? How can I risk that?"

Allison had figured it was something like this. She hadn't heard too much about what happened other than Mesmero was carted away. "I am sure you've heard this before, but it bears repeating then. It would not have made you feel better. Mesmero used others and didn't care about the consequences. He put real people's lives in jeopardy. If you had killed him, you would have been like him. He used others too. Sara, Neil, Bethany.....Mary." She felt the last name would hopefully cement that in her head. "We live in a dangerous world with or without him. All we can do is strive to be better. You and Damon, your eventual family. I've no doubt you would do anything to protect them and if Mesmero is ever at your door I believe you would end him then and there. But we aren't there. He is taken away finally. Last time that didn't even happen. It may not feel like it now, but we won Ayita. The good guys won."

Ayita's face hardened as she glowered at Allison. "I did not do it to 'feel better'. I would not have felt better and I know that. I did it to keep those I care about safe from him." Her voice was firm but there was a lack of heat behind it that would be anger. Rather it was irritation that Allison was bringing up a point that was moot. "I well understand I was not the only one under his control, and I do not pretend otherwise." Sighing Ayita slumped in defeat and exhaustion, though there was still a stiffness to her form that was her irritation. "And what if I don't end him next time? What if he takes what I care about and I lose them? I need to go North. I need my mate and the open spaces of the wilds." Wrapping her arms about her shoulders, Ayita sighed. "People here to do not understand me, nor do they care for me. Rather I think if given half a chance Mary would toss me to the hunters and be done with it. I tried to talk to her, and I thought we reached an understanding after we were both possessed. But... Merely a day later and she calls me a killer again."

It seemed walking on eggshells was not the way. So it called for tough love. "You know something Ayita. You're right. What if Mesmero attacked people you loved. God, what if huh? What if he controlled people you cared about, made them attack each other and you had to go in there and stop them, worried you may even have to kill them to get them to stop. Did you ever think about that Ayita? No, because you'd rather sit there and throw a pity party for yourself because one person in the house doesn't understand. Want to know who does? Me! Yet for some reason, you felt the need to reach out to Guin, who is Mary's best friend I might add, and confide in her rather than me! What was the term you used? Pack sister? Well I don't feel very sisterly. You are not a killer Ayita, but Mary isn't entirely wrong. I had to stand there and watch those I love nearly kill each other. You don't think I want Mesmero dead? I do! I want him gone, but that is not how it works. We aren't the morality police. We don't get to decide who lives and dies. We protect each other and the world because if we don't, that's it! Then everyone you care about will be gone."

Allison took a breath and continued, more calmly. "Sorry. Got heated there and I am not here to fight. I'm here because I love you and want you to know that. Someone here knows you and cares about you and would hate to see you leave over this. I think you do need to go be with Damon for a bit. And in the fresh air. God knows we could all use it."

There was amusement though faint in Ayita's eyes as she watched Allison yap. "I asked after Guin because Richard would want to know she was alright. You were fine. Physically at least, none of us are fine mentally." Crossing one leg over the other, Ayita rubbed her shoulder and winced. "I owe you an apology, I did not think of what you risked trying to stop us all." It was muted and soft, but none the less meant. Ayita did not say what she did not mean after all. Patting the space next to her on the desk in invitation, the woman seemed to debate with herself for a bit before coming to a conclusion. "Would you want to come? The trip is not an easy one, but when my shoulder is stronger I could carry you. It's rough living, but there's nothing out there but Damon and myself. Well, aside from a few others who live in the brush. We generally look after each other and keep a respectful distance of 'friendly neighbor that's about five to ten miles down the road'."

Allison sat down next to her. "I'm not much of a nature girl, you know. I don't do the whole "roughing it" lifestyle. I need my Starbucks." She giggled a bit, before she continued, her face going down a bit. "It was hard. I thought that you all might die. If Jean hadn't have been there, I don't know what would have happened. And no one talked to me about it. Instead, we went from healing the injured right into taking him down. No, if anything I may go stay with my parents a week or two. Get out of the mansion for a bit. It's almost the holidays, after all."

There was a short chuckle as Ayita leaned her head on Allison's shoulder. "I don't think there's a Starbucks in a hundred miles. Can't have you suffering deposits? Is that the saying?" Though she fell silent as Allison detailed her plans about the holidays. "Los Angeles? I'll travel with you then head North. It's not so far and..." Ayita hesitated before closing her eyes. "I need to travel North for another reason that just my mate. I want to speak with the orca pods and wolf packs up North, or try to. When- I was able to talk to the ravens when I called them to aid me in the fight."

"Sure you can come, though I will be flying there on a plane. And the saying is withdrawals." She leaned her head on Ayita's now. This is what she missed. "Do you think something is wrong with the orca pods or wolf packs or just checking on them?"

"I love them. I always have loved them." Ayita stated simply. "They draw me, and I simply wish to speak with them. The orca though... I want to learn. The sea is wonderful and terrifying. The orca are the wolves of it. They are far more intelligent than what humans think." Giving a sigh she grumbled under her breath. "I will never care for those planes humans enjoy flying in. If you were meant to fly, you'd fly."

Allison laughed at her friend's reasoning. "Well we can't all be blessed with flight, though I have been practicing. Definitely not able to make a cross-country trip though, so flying will have to do." She patted Ayita's thigh before moving up. "Need help packing?"

Ayita shook her head. "My shoulder needs to heal first. I'll only be a burden on Damon til it's somewhat better. It's a bit of a flight to get there." She arched a brow with a wane smile.

Allison stood up and let Ayita have room to relax her arm. "Well if you need help, let me know. I've got nothing but time now that Dean left and we don't anything major looming over our heads."

"I- Actually, do you want me to get you anything while I am up North?" Ayita inquired, giving a small smile.

Allison thought a minute. "I don't think North offers much that I can't get in LA. Besides snow and cold and I don't really want that."

Ayita snorted, and gently brushed against Allison's mind. "Stone and bone. Wood and hides. The North offers plenty more than snow and cold. May I?" Ayita offered softly, hesitantly.

Allison grinned a bit. "You know, if you are about to offer sex, you should know you're not really my type." She played that off though. "I trust you. Go ahead."

Ayita blushed and stammered. "That's not- I wouldn't- Allison!" The taller woman squeaked her voice pitching before she gave a huff. Shaking her head, Ayita's mind brushed against Allison's giving her the images of mountains and the forest through the eyes of Ayita in some winged or four legged form. The dense forests, a mother bear playing with her cubs while Ayita circled above, waterfalls during lovely sunny days. The ocean as it clawed at stone banks and then the water washed over them both and they were beneath the ocean's surface. The thrumming heartbeat of the waves and the singing croon that slipped from the memory's lips. A cottage covered in snow and smoke rising from the chimney, and a man in the door way before Ayita pulled away mentally with a small smile. "Home." She answered simply.

Allison cacked at her friend's stammering before she was whisked away to what could only be described as the most peaceful place she ever saw. She could see why Ayita loved it so much. It was serene and calming. Definitely still nature though, but one she wouldn't mind spending a week in. "Fair enough. That does look beautiful. Still prefer my city life, but I could see myself retiring to a place like that when all is said and done. Looks very cozy."

"Plenty of reason to snuggle up at night." Ayita smirked slightly. "Well worth all the work it takes." Hesitating Ayita chewed her cheek absently. "Do you need help with anything?" Her eyes slightly pleaded with Allison to need some help, the distraction and being around her helped to ease the discomfort of multiple pains.

Allison could see this was more than just a friendly ask. "You know what? Sure, you can help me figure out what clothes to bring to LA. Wanna be cute in case I meet my own Damon." She winked before heading to the door to wait for Ayita to follow. She knew Ayita probably would not like a fashion show, but she did offer.

Ayita smiled softly. "When you do, you'll be nothing but beautiful to them."

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Carolina woke up, she tried to get back to sleep but couldn't really at all as she looked over towards her roommate and hoped that she wouldn't wake her up. She took out her phone and made sure that the screen wasn't bright at all, and decided to just read while putting on some music and some earbuds into her ears. Carolina gently scratched at the head bandage she had just left the medical ward as well and it was her first night back in her room with Annie.

Antoinette was over the moon when Carolina returned to their bedroom. She fretted over her friend though, ensuring that she had absolutely everything she needed within reachable distance before she went to sleep for the night. Antoinette slept fairly well, feeling better about being back home and what had transpired on her adventure with Guin and Pietro. Of course they had help from a couple other X-Men but she had learned much from the former two.
Antoinette was near the end of sleep when she rolled over, facing the main portion of the room and opened her eyes. She blinked a couple times, seeing Carolina was awake. She watched as her friend scratched her head bandage and Antoinette waited half a breath more before sitting up.
"Is it alright? Does it need to be changed?" She spoke normally, not seeing that Carolina had headphones in.

Carolina was grateful Annie had made sure that everything she needed was close to her when she was finally free to leave, she just had to go back and get changed every once in awhile. "Just itches a little bit, I had gotten it changed before bed though." She said, as she took off her headphones, luckily she had them low enough so she could hear her friend. "Did I wake you at all?" She asked.

Antoinette shifted, pulling her legs from underneath the blanket and set her feet on the ground. She shook her head, loose hair falling out of the bun she had secured before going to bed.
"Oh no. I felt the need to wake," she assured her friend. "Itching is good. It means you are healing."

Carolina smiled she was glad that she hadn't purposefully waken her up at all, as Carolina turned off her music and set her phone back down she turned towards Annie more now. "How are you doing anyway?" Carolina asked, since the whole thing with Mesmero she hadn't had to much time out of bed. "I just wished that I was with you guys."

Antoinette shuffled her feet back and forth on the floor, thinking on Carolina's question. It wasn't a hard one. She was simply thinking of wording. She smiled and looked back at her friend before she stood, took the couple steps across the floor to Carolina's bed and promptly slid into bed beside her.
"I am well. More so really. Although I did miss you on our little adventure I learned a lot. I'm hoping Guin will help me train some. She is fearsome on the battlefield," Antoinette informed her best friend.

Carolina moved a little bit to let Annie have a little bit more room on her bed and smiled towards her mentioning their little mission together. "Well Guin did get training from my sister Cassandra who was Guin's former Supervising Officer while Guin was with SHIELD at the time i'm sure Guin could easily teach you a thing or two." She said as Carolina gave Annie a slight hug, there was a time she did do some work with SHIELD and did play with the idea of actually joining SHIELD but ultimately joined the X-Men.

"Really? Antoinette was amazed by Carolina's confession of her own sister having taught Guin most of what she knew when it came to combat fighting. She wrapped her own arms around Carolina and cuddled with her friend. "What do you think of SHIELD?"

"Yep, they are pretty close as well to." Carolina said smiling a little bit as she hugged Annie a little bit more, and then thought a little bit. "I briefly did some work with SHIELD it was how I met my girlfriend October.." Carolina paused for a moment mentioning her she still blamed herself. "I wasnt an official agent or anything, but they were good."

Antoinette rubbed her friends' back and arm at the mention of October. They had spoken briefly of her before, but nothing in to great of detail. She thought about SHIELD and the work they did here. They were good but Antoinette wasn't sure if they were better than the X-Men. Perhaps they had a few more resources but that just meant more power and responsibility.
"Would you go back in a full time capacity?"

Carolina shook her head she didn't really feel like she'd make a good SHIELD agent anyway, and she had made a lot of friends with the X-Men as well so she didn't want to leave at all. "Nah then that would mean i'd have to leave and we wouldn't be roomies again either. I have made my home here anyway as well." She answered.

Antoinette beamed and kissed Carolina's cheek. "Good." She grabbed her friend's sketch book and pulled it onto her lap. She looked at Carolina, smiling and opened up the book. "We need a new art piece for our room I think."

Carolina watched Annie reaching over for her sketch book and smiled a bit seeing some of her older and more recent drawings that she had done, mostly they were just things she randomly just drew. "Besides if I left who could I bond over art with?" Carolina asked Annie and nodded in agreement as well. "Sounds great to me."

"And a world without friendship and art would be a sad one," Antoinette agreed. "I think we need to do something to symbolize the battles we have recently overcome. Antoinette merely started sketching out things at random, things that her hand wanted to draw. She started with a bird, as was he usual. This time it was a Loon, a bird she felt was equally isolated as it was a fighter. There was a sense that everyone here had their own fight but there was a community and comfort enjoyed by all with that simple thought.

Carolina smiled and nodded to Annie as she reached for some drawing supplies and started to draw alongside Annie as well, although she wasn't really there to begin with, she started to do her best to draw the team standing together. She stopped for a moment, and eventually she started to draw Bethany in the picture as well, she knew it wasn't really her fault she had gotten injured anyway either, while watching Annie drawing a Loon there as well.

Antoinette smiled as her friend started to draw along side her. Once she had the Loon perfected, she worked on a portion of the school. Even though Carolina and Lance were not physically there, they were still part of the team. They were still part of the heart there. She paused a moment as she noticed familiar black hair. It shocked Antoinette to see Carolina drawing in Bethany and doing such so well. Antoinette still had her reservations with Bethany. Not for what she did to her personally, but for what she did to Carolina.
Still, if Carolina seemed to have forgiven or accepted what occurred, then Antoinette could as well. It wasn't completely Bethany's fault after all. She had been mind controlled.

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Bobbi felt that it might be a good idea to chat with the girl from the night before. She had been quite emotional and had no support for things she may not have been able to control. She had to admit she did not know the whole of the story. However, she had a tidbit from Mary last night as well as the blow up in the med unit. All she knew was the girl might need someone to unload upon. The effects of drugs, especially on the unwary, could be a damaging thing.

As she moved around the mansion in search of the young woman whose name she could not remember, she paused at an open doorway amongst the dorms. There was the sound of rustling and her curious nature caused her to poke her head inside. What she found was the girl she was looking for but... what exactly was she doing?

"Heyo, wassup lil' lady?" she called out as she pushed the doorway open.

Ayita had been rifling through her brother's wardrobe. Several of his shirts buttoned down dress- for travel and not when she was home- were resting on the bed. Most were in tones of green, black or brown. Darker colors rather than anything flashy. Her talk with Allison had put some things into perspective, but it still irked her. Absently she considered her actions towards Mary and turned them over in her mind. There was no way that little yappy woman and she would ever get along, and Ayita knew if Marygold ever set foot in the Northern territory Ayita considered home as a wolf she would hunt Marygold down and thrash her. Then toss her out of the brush into a city with the clear message of 'get the hell out of my state'.

Hearing a voice call out, Ayita sprang towards the bed and hissed as her shoulder was jarred. Gritting her teeth she looked over at the strange newcomer to the manor. Her amber eyes narrowed as she considered Bobbi. "Lil' lady?" She echoed slightly, her hackles raising as she remembered the way the woman had talked down (up) to her in the medical room in the basement. "Is there a reason you are barging into my brother's room?" If Richard was into this woman, she would strangle him while he was a python.

"Well," she said a bit teasingly, "I could use a button down or two. Seems like a free for all in here." She gave the girl one of her charming, lopsided grins. She was a bit used to strange behavior such as this. Hanging out with drug addicts meant hanging out with all sorts. This animalistic side that Ayita showed as not something to be afraid of but should be used to help her understand the girl better. For starters, it meant she tended to wear her heart on her sleeve. "I kid, I'm not here to take your brother's clothes. I was actually looking to chat with you. I meant what I said back in medical. I want to make sure you're okay. You went through something really tough. And I know it So if you don't wanna talk this second I can at least help you with a bit of thievery. Ain't nothing like a good purloin."

She moved from her position leaned against the door and into the room. Just a little. She touched nothing. Her stance was easy and cool. Not afraid and also non-threatening. Her hands were where Ayita could see them and her vital points obviously unprotected. This wasn't Bobbi's first round with a child who had not learned the manners of the world. Hell, it had taken her years to learn what little she knew. "I'm Bobbi if I never said. Nice to meet ya, by the by."

Ayita raised a brow with a bored look on her face, a look that Richard shared at times. "I may take what I please, you would find him rather irksome." She stated simply, turning back to her task. "Ayita." She replied, her one arm in the sling as she began looking through her brother assortment again recalling Bobbi before. "You said something about my brain and an altered state, do you have a problem with it?" The amber eyes turned to stare at Bobbi, the pupils looking like a cats. "Some do. You would not be the first, but you would be the boldest to take up the issue here."

Ah, that was right. Ayita. Such a pretty name. Bobbi watched for a bit, listened, and nodded. "Yes, I did talk about brains in altered states. From what I understand something happened wherein you were affected by something like a drug. I have a rather sordid past hun and I know all too well what drugs can do to a person. I've been that person. I've babysat that person. You aren't yourself, not really. So I just wanted to let you know someone understands what that is like. Because not everyone does."

Ayita's actions and the near relaxation of her task made it easier for Bobbi to approach the bed. She did not necessarily approach Ayita. Instead, she sat at the exact opposite end, near the head of the bed where the pillows lay. She took one and lay it over her lap, fluffing it so she could rest her chin lazily upon it. A blockade of sorts. Not for herself, but for Ayita to see she was not going to move toward her without further invitation. "So, I guess what I am trying to say is I have absolutely no issues with it what so ever. You know," she said with a small laugh, "In my younger years I was practically a feral just scraping by in the streets of many a city. Life tends to hand us some rotten cards sometimes." Her smile became something more gentle, calm and open.

"It was not a drug. The mutant Wonderland's power was a hallucinogenic ability when others touched her." Ayita stated, her tone cold as she eyed Bobbi. Not turning her back to the woman. "I took a mouthful of it." Tilting her head slightly, Ayita appeared to be listening to something as she studied Bobbi. "You can stop moving as though I will attack you. I am not the predator you should be wary of." Amused Ayita raised a brow. "I'm sure you were a feral. I, however, kept myself civil compared to what your human cities will turn people into." There was a pointed tone in that as though she was placating a child who thought they could fly. "Yes, the rumors are true in some sense. I was raised in the wilds, though not by any one beast."

She wondered how that made it any different from a drug. Something created, something consumed, mind altered, drug. She had not known about this Wonderland and still did not fully understand. But what she took from it was that the girl had experienced something like her first tab. And then came the mention of her movements and Bobbi laughed - a light and slightly embarrassed one. "You seem a flighty gal is all. I apologize," she replied softly but so as to not interrupt the girl's train of thought.

Bobbi nodded in response to her comment about cities and the wild. The difference between herself and Bobbi. "Let me ask you - how differently does the hawk who hunts on the side of the highway and the one who hunts amongst the trees act?" Her eyes were now curious, wondering what two entirely wild people thought of the biomes in which they had been brought up. "What smarts are used? Tactics? What winds do they use?" She sat up, letting the pillow become snug against her stomach. "How about the raccoon when he forages for food? I would reply that I was also raised in the wilds and not by any one beast." Her heart pounded in her chest, wildly interested in what this girl who seemed to greatly deny herself what she was had to say. This girl was wild and Bobbi would love to see her pride herself in that. For there was nothing wrong with being a bit wild.

Ayita sighed. "I wouldn't know. I would never touch road kill. There's no knowing if you are eating tainted meat or if it could make you ill." She stated firmly. "As for the rest... That is too complicated to explain. Why are you asking me these things?"

"Mmmm, to get a sense of you I think," she replied offhandedly. "And don't knock roadkill til you try it. Roasted over an open flame, can be pretty nice when you haven't eaten in a week." She leaned forward and lifted one of the many shirts. "Anyway, what are you looking for among all of these clothes?"

"Because she enjoys them." Stated the man from the door way, looking annoyed. Richard slid into the room and Ayita shrugged as though saying 'what did you expect'. "And my sister prefers her meat walking." Shrugging, Ayita leaned her forehead agianst Richard's shoulder. Not bothering to deny the fact. Raising his brow like his sister, Richard sighed. "Why are you in my room? I mean, if you are looking for a interesting time..." The Adder chuckled before wincing as Ayita punched him in the gut.

Ayita found great comfort in her brother, that much was made abundantly clear in their interaction. Further supported by shirt stealing. However, the moment the wild child punched her brother for a... lewd (?) comment, Bobbi her to keep herself from laughing. So, she did the next best thing she could. "Well," she replied, cool as a spa cucumber. "Theme of the day is button ups it seems." She stood, shrugging off her leather jacket and grabbed the nearest shirt. It happened to be of a soft, mossy green which complimented her eyes. She pulled it over her shoulders and buttoned it up about halfway. The general height difference between herself and Richard made the shirt rather comedic on her body. The sleeves were far too long and the shirt came down to her leather clad knees. She stood before the brother and sister pair, hands under a length of cloth. She flapped them a bit as if they would allow her to fly. "There, what do you think? Am I fit to go to the ball?" She winked.

Ayita gave a snort and flicked her amber eyes towards her brother. "She is a fool. Though a honest one." The younger Laine sent. Ayita's last name was always in question and with an engagement to Damon it was more so. Not that she really cared. Ayita's name was what she was called and that was the end of it as far as she cared. "If you want a sense of me, then take me by your own merit and not what that woman says." Ayita stated softly a undertone of snarling rage in her voice.

Richard narrowed his own snake eyes at both women and muttered something that could have been 'women' or 'woe is me'. "If you are looking to go to a ball, then you'd need a escort." The Adder smirked with a slight bow, ignoring the thought his sister casted his way. He was quite aware of things. "And do you want me to deal with her, Sister dear? You do not deserve her slander." Ayita merely shook her head, her eyes however speaking a different story. "So be it. Her irritating little friend doesn't care for me either way." Richard chuckled.

"You tried to be nice to him and bury the hatchet. He is too like you and ready to hold to the fact you and Mary have issues." The 'because of me' went unspoken, hanging in the air between them.

"You are not at fault for that." The Adder hissed with surprising venom as his arm gently wrapped about his slightly shorter sister. "Go North when you've healed enough to fly with some luggage, and take a break. I do hope you will consider returning." Ayita shrugged absently though Richard looked satisfied.

It seemed the siblings had a habit of just speaking to each other and falling into personal chat. So Bobbi naturally set about looking through the clothes on the bed. She pushed the sleeves up as she sifted through the things, curious what it could be that Ayita was looking for. After a moment there was a mention of leaving and a chance of not returning. She raised her eyebrows and pulled out a tie from within the pile on the bed. "Oh? Are you planning on leaving for good? I just got here though. I hope you return." She gave another, brief lopsided smile before going to dig about in the closet to see if she could find anything more interesting than what was on the bed.

"I have considered it." Ayita stated and walked towards the door, giving Richard a raised brow. "I need to talk to my mate first."

Richard sighed and shrugged. "Are you done feeling up my clothes? I'd rather you do something else." Richard grinned winking as Ayita shot him an annoyed look.

Bobbi poked her head out of the closet. "Well, I can't be the only one dressed up to go to the ball." There was some rummaging sounds and then out she came with some sort of belt/tie/hate contraption and a blazer. She placed the blazer over Ayita's shoulders. "There, a cape for the princess." And she tugged lightly at the front of Richard's shirt to pull him down. She placed the decorated hat on his head and said, "A crown for the prince." She took a few steps back to view her handiwork. "Very nice. Well, for my part I would enjoy it if you returned. Don't let someone else's opinion of you cloud that. I know there are many people who care about you here." She was all smiles as her attention was on Ayita.

Ayita shrugged out of the blazer giving Bobbi a look like she was trying to figure out the way the woman's mind worked. Richard however took the distraction Ayita seemed to cause the woman and scooped Bobbi up over one shoulder. "Well, since you have the energy you might as well come train with me. Perhaps talk about relearning some old rusty skills." He chuckled walking out of the room. Ayita just watching them go as she shook her head.

Quite suddenly the ground was getting further away and that didn't normally happen. Like a sack of potatoes, she was flopped over Richard's shoulder. She squeaked out in delight. "Oi, just who do ya think you are, Mister Big Tough Man. Buy a girl a drink first!" She braced her hands against his back so she could push herself up and look over her back to where they were headed. "I've been here like a day. What do you mean training?" She turned her attention to the sister. "Ayita, you just going to let this brute manhandle me?" But the sight of the sister was quickly disappearing as she was taken away. And so too were her shouts and jovial protests becoming quieter as she was kidnapped away.

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Ayita had been dwelling in the forest more than the manor of late. Only going among those she considered 'humans' when it was necessary. Which was when her brother was about ready to drag her from the sanctuary that was hers. Richard had come to her practically on his knees, begging her to go North. To speak to her mate and get things sorted out with herself. "Find your center. You got your head messed up since Mesmero was in it, and Mary was being a bitch to you. And you to her." She didn't quite agree with that. Marygold and her had issues, but it was born of a mutual lack of understanding. Which irked when Richard called her on it. Which was why she was out here. Shuffling her black feathers, the hawk-Ayita considered the rabbit that was munching it's lunch in the clearing well off the beaten path. She wasn't one for killing when there was a freezer full of meat, but a bit of hunting didn't hurt... Not when it was rabbits and she had no plans to let the spoils go to waste. Her talons shifted as she prepared to swoop down and take a bit of irritation out on the poor cottontail.

Bethany walked along the woods just outside of the mansion, she sometimes would go there when she didn't have anything else to do really and if she wanted to have some time to herself the woods were the most relaxing for her. As Bethany looked around she eventually found a spot and sat down and stretched out a little bit as she relaxed as well.

Launching herself from the branches, Ayita paused and shifted to her human form as she caught sight of Bethany. The rabbit scampering and thanking it's luck that the hawk had found something else of interest. Tsking her tongue after the young buck, Ayita looked at Bethany with a wary expression on her face. Her should hurt, still and flying to begin with wasn't a good idea. But she needed to test it. It was the fastest way to get to Damon in the North. "Why have you come out this far?" Ayita asked in her quiet voice, though her eyes were nervous as they flickered about the woods.

Bethany jumped slightly and looked over and she noticed that it was just Ayita seeing her moving over towards her and gave a slight shrug. "I just wanted to come out here for some fresh air is all." Bethany answered as she stood up and dusted herself off a little bit. "What are you doing out here?" Beth asked.

"Hunting." Ayita responded automatically, before flinching away from Bethany. Actually taking a step away as though she didn't mean to say that or expected a bad reaction. Bethany's response had been reasonable enough, and Ayita cringed at her own reply."That- I didn't mean... I am what I am." Ayita stated softly, her body tense as she took another step away.

Bethany looked at Ayita seeing her flinch when she got up and raised an eyebrow slightly she wasn't sure why the sudden reaction, and felt like she had done something wrong. She rubbed her arm slightly and looked down at the ground she still regretted her actions when she hurt Carolina and Annie during the whole Mesmero thing. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you or anything."

"No, I-" Ayita fumbled for a second before sighing. "I'm more worried about scaring you." She admitted softly with a nervous glance towards Bethany. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

Bethany gave a slight shrug as she went to go and sit back down where she was and looked up at Ayita for a moment. "Nah you didn't disturb me I was just sitting here for a bit." Bethany said.

Ayita nodded, rubbing her shoulder. "Bethany, I- The entire thing with Mesmero..." She looked off into the distance looking unsure how to continue as she massaged the healing wound.

Bethany looked down at the ground for a moment mentioning Mesmero and nodded slightly, she regretted what she had done and Carolina was currently suffering still from it as well. "I know I did somethings as well to Carolina and Annie.."

Ayita nodded shortly. "I lost control of my instincts." She studied Bethany. "Not when we hunted him, before that. I= Perhaps I am wrong to ask. Humans are confusing, but I hope you do not think ill of me." Ayita ran a hand along a braid, looking unsure. "I know I am not easy to approached."

"I don't, we both didn't really have control over what had happened either, I just hope that Carolina and Annie forgive me." Bethany said as she rubbed the back of her neck slightly.

"You were not yourself. Why would they hold that against you? They are aware of that." Ayita stated simply. "You are worried about this." The woman leaned against a tree, slumping against the tree.

"Well yeah, I nearly killed Carolina, Beast said she's going to be having problems for awhile." Bethany said as she sat down again and rested her back against the tree.

Ayita winced, she really needed to pay more attention to the others in this group. Perhaps she had been isolating herself, but it hadn't been intentional. She just was, if she was honest with herself, leery of people and with good reason. "I did not know." Falling quiet she stared up into the leaves. "I tried to kill Jean, Scott, and Shelly. I pulled the ravens around here into the fight and put them at risk. It is not the same- you know Carolina. I am distant to the others." Her amber gaze moved down to study the shadowy girl. "She will heal. Carolina, I mean."

Bethany turned to look at Ayita for a moment, she knew that Ayita was controlled as well but they had more experience, Carolina and Annie were both pretty easy pickings for her to attack. "Yeah, but I don't know if she will forgive more or not." Bethany said as she looked down at the ground and sighed slightly.

"You are welcomed out here either way. Though I doubt I have the right to deny you." Ayita admitted with a sigh, moving to lay a hand near where Bethany sat. "I hope they do forgive you. I'd bring you something fluffy since that seems to help with most things, but none of the rabbits will let me in their burrows. With good reason." Ayita admitted.

"I'm not really into anything cute and fluffy to be honest." Bethany said as she gave a slight shrug and looked at Ayita again and smiled a little bit, she hoped so but right now she decided to keep her distance from the two of them for now.

Ayita nodded. "I prefer feathers or the skin of an orca. Walking can be... limiting at times." She admitted standing and offering a hand to Bethany after a bit of hesitation. "If you ever want to talk, I can listen."

Bethany accepted Ayita's hand and pulled herself up and looked towards her for a moment and gave the woman a slight smile and nod. "I'll keep that in mind. I should probably get going now anyway." Bethany said as she started to head back to the mansion.

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The world as you know it has changed, nothing seems to be right. Everyone you knew, is living entirely different lives, one in which instead of mutants being the minority, they are now the majority. In the year 1984, there was an attack over the city of New York, involving large robots, whose origins were unknown, at least at first. Magneto fended off the attack, and in the process revealed a large international anti-mutant conspiracy led by the President of the United States at the time, Ronald Reagan.

This was just the beginning of Magneto's rise to power, and by the present day, he'd become a king, the ruler of the entire world, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

No one has the power to oppose him, and now, humans are being oppressed, and anyone without powers is seen as a lesser being. Even some of those who do have abilities are seen as lesser powers than mutants, with Inhumans and other mutates not having the best of time.

This is the world in which we all live in. The World of today, and who knows if the old world will ever resurface again.

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All of the members of New York's elite are expected to attend just the first of the King's extravagant parties. He throws several around this time of year, though not because of Christmas as many would think, but in celebration of Hanukkah. There were going to be parties all week in celebration, and it was expected that anyone who had an invitation was going to attend. If they didn't odds were one of the princes would show up on their doorstep, and not for a social call.

The king and queen are currently nowhere in sight, however, all four of their children were there at the moment. Prince Pietro was currently somewhat off to the side with his fiancee, Wanda was being a sort of loner, as was Lorna. Flynn actually was making a conscious effort to converse with the guests, since he was probably going to be the king one day.

"...So how are you Allison?" Oshea asked Allison as the pair were sort of in the middle of the ballroom surrounded by people. He figured he might as well make some conversation with her.

"...These parties are so boring, I kind of wish that I could just run off and not have to deal with this sort of thing..." Pietro muttered under his breath to Guin.

"How much longer do you think this'll take, love? I've got a body on ice," October whispered to Carolina with a pleasant smile. She was wearing a rather old fashioned blue dress and had a vibrant flower in her hair. Carolina's pyrokinetic wife worked in a morgue - she wasn't a serial killer or anything, just very calm around corpses.

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Down in the basement of the Thieves' Guild, a meeting was set to start. There was a red head sitting in one of the chairs at the end, leaning back in her chair and her feet propped up onto the table. She didn't really seem to care too much that her feet were on the table or anything. Chrysi was incredibly bored at the moment and hoped that the meeting or whatever would start soon. That way she could move on to better things to do, like threatening people who were being idiots and didn't listen.

"Hey Remy, you seen little Ms. Goody Two Shoes anywhere? Fairly certain she's going to be late at this point..." she said with an eye roll at her brother as he walked into the room.

Just about everyone who was a member of the guild were there by that point, but one person didn't seem to be there quite yet. Mary was usually the twin who was on time, as opposed to her sister who usually was late. It was a bit on the strange side to say the least.

"Nah, can't say i have mon amie. But don't worry, she'll turn up."

"You say that now, but watch, she's not going to show up on time like she usually does. It would definitely be a first."

"Well maybe she finally got laid Chrysi, if ya are so worried about it, go and find her will ya?"

"Nah, there would be no fun in doing that at all, besides, she's way too boring and nice to be helpful."

There was a six year old girl, her gleaming blonde hair done up in French braids, sitting at the table in her father's lap as she colored. The box of 128 different crayons was tipped over on its side, with all of the different shades of pink in her hand at once as she colored with about ten crayons at a time. Her coloring book was all about dinosaurs and she was giggling happily. "Voilà, Papa! Un petit dinosaure rose!" she exclaimed.

"C'est génial Lexi, ça a l'air incroyable," Jack said with a smile at her.

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Currently, the Red Guard were en-route to Sydney, Australia. They had been flying in the Quinjet for most of the night, or is it day? Timezone differences make things confusing, but nevertheless it is morning now for them. Their mission is to track down Dr. Banner and bring him back to SHIELD, as they wish to learn the secret to the Hulk and how to potentially recreate him. This could prove useful in the research to potentially give normal humans abilities of some sort.

Agent Howlett was pacing back and forth somewhat, thinking about something, that much was obvious. Mystique was in a seat as well, looking over at him. "Something the matter?" she asked him simply, watching as he kept pacing back and forth it seemed.

"Just wondering when we'll get there."

"Well stop pacing, we'll be there in another half an hour or so, we're almost there, and we've been careful to ensure that they don't know we're coming, so this should be rather simple."

"You ever been punched by the Hulk? There ain't many around who can describe what it feels like to get hit by the Hulk. Simple fact bein' there ain't many around who can survive to tell the tale. There ain't no pain at first. It's like he hits ya so damn hard ya actually leave yer own body. It's when ya come back that ya feel the pain. An' ya realize yer goin' toe-to-toe with a walkin' earthquake. So forgive me for being a bit skeptical that this will be a walk in the park."

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"And you'd leave me alone here by myself? Rude," Guin teased him softly. She had her medium length brunette hair in a partial up-do, with an elaborate diamond necklace around her length and a matching bracelet on her wrist. She had her amethyst engagement ring on her left ring finger, the stone slightly breaking up the color scheme of her outfit but she didn't care. She loved it anyways. The dress was a navy tulle cutout gown and she had a pair of black wedges on. Now of course, given that she was marrying into the Royal Family, the Stark Industries heiress also had makeup on.

She glanced around the room, picking out her fiancée's brother going around talking to everyone. She couldn't help but be disappointed that Demetria had had to leave for a Red Guard mission. Lorna was always off working on her dissertation and Wanda assisted Magneto on most matters, meaning that Demetria was the closest thing she had to a female friend - one that she could often see, at any rate. Her best friend lived states away and Guin rarely got to leave New York City these days. "Buuut you could tell me what you got me for the first day of Hanukkah?" she asked him, before feeling an odd sense of déjà vu. It was something like that or a daydream - as if she and Pietro had discussed these sort of things before recently.

Guin however reached behind her back and pulled out a little box. "This is yours," she told him with a slight smile. She had designed it herself over at Stark Industries. It was a dreidel that could withstand the kinetic energy of a speedster - meaning that if Pietro gave it a proper spin, it wouldn't burst into flames from the energy and friction.

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Casper didn't remember what he had been doing before he found himself in a basement - there was booming music coming from up above, so he was likely underneath a club or casino or something. Over at the table, his brother was holding some little kid in his lap as she colored - and that kid was definitely not his. "Uh, Ben? What was I doing like... ten minutes ago?" Casper asked his friend. His ability allowed him to see ghosts and ever since Ben died, his best friend had been haunting him. It was rather sweet and helpful.

"Watching makeup tutorials on YouTube..." Ben replied, the confusion evident in his voice. "Casper, I don't think this is you hallucinating... I'm pretty sure the drugs you take can't make me see weird shit too, right? I'm dead. I don't have a body to process them..."

He pinched his arm, trying to tell if he was dreaming or not, but it didn't really hurt. It also didn't help that he couldn't remember the last time he used or what he had done. Sure, Ben would know but he didn't want to rely on his ghost friend entirely. He liked showing that he had a little bit of independence in his life. "Okay then..." he mumbled, before smacking himself as hard as he could across the face. "...Oww..." Casper whispered, his face stinging and full with pain. He definitely wasn't dreaming then and this wasn't fun enough for it to be a high in his opinion.

This meant then that somehow... this was real. Maybe his brother David had done something? The poor kid was in a mental hospital, but he had so many powers that Casper had lost track. He then looked at his brother again, doubting that Jack would believe him if he explained that nothing here was right and that Jack had definitely kidnapped some blonde child. He'd need to try to convince Jack that he knew what was going on and then... as much as he detested the thought... he'd have to go visit his old man in order to figure this one out.

"There's a candy bowl, Ben!" Casper exclaimed happily, grabbing a handful of lollipops and then a can of Dr. Pepper. He shoved the candy into his pockets, before going down next to Jack and sitting down next to him. The kid looked a little bit familiar, but he couldn't place it. "So uh... What's goin' on, little brother?" he asked, smiling at Jack.

"Dude, there is something seriously wrong here..."

"Sssh, shut up Ben!"

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It was a weird sensation and not one that Novikova could ever prepare herself for. Her powers were unique - while she could move earth and metal, she also could see alternate realities just by looking at someone. One moment, she had been taking care of business as usual at the Playground, relieved that there wasn't anything too serious going on... and the next, she was on a plane headed to Australia, with a parallel but contradictory set of memories in her head. She could remember both worlds at once and she realized why. It wasn't too hard for the nuclear physicist / SHIELD agent / now a Red Guard member to figure out. Her dimensional energy perception was allowing the two realities to coexist in her head.

She turned her head, looking at Maria through her ruby tinted glasses. It seemed that her power finally had a use, though Novikova couldn't decide if she wanted to know what was going on. She had memories of this life - memories of holding Maria again, kissing Maria, and... Well, the rest isn't proper for polite company. Novikova smiled slightly, but then her eyes fell on Tinley and her face fell a bit. She had memories of saying terrible, awful things to her, just because Tinley wasn't a mutant like the rest of the Red Guard. But she also had memories of the real world, where Tinley was her commanding officer - someone she both respected and betrayed. Sparky wasn't here and she felt a little bit of pain. They had worked so hard to bring Sparky back from the Quantum Realm...

Novikova sighed slightly. Was this world the better one? She didn't know. All of the thoughts about realities and dimensions were starting to give her a headache and she tugged on her hair slightly, only to notice that it was back to her natural silver shade. She wasn't hiding being a mutant here. "...How are you, Maria?" Novikova asked her partner, deciding to factor Maria's response into her next move.

If she did decide to go rogue, it wouldn't have been the first time she disobeyed her commanding officer anyways.

Niah glanced at her phone, pretending to check the time, instead, she took a few extra seconds than needed to look at her lock screen. A picture of herself with her sister Dalisay. Easily her best friend. The picture had been taken their younger brother at a fair and Dalisay was laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face. It caused a small smile to spread. It had been such a wonderful day. She pocketed her phone and glanced at the other Red Guard members.

Novikova was asking Maria how she was doing. A completely reasonable question considering their mission. Niah was not intending to get anywhere within punching range of The Hulk. Sure, Bruce Banner was fascinating, but that monster terrified her. She wasn't a fighter, well no more than what she had to be. While Niah was reasonably concerned with the mission she also knew she had earned her spot there. Agent Howlett wasn't helping with the nerves that were starting to creep into her stomach. If he had an issue with being hit by The Hulk... She let the thought trail off. She couldn't let that get in the way of what needed to be done.

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Carolina stood next to her wife October, she wore a dark blue dress she was holding a drink in her hand. When she turned her attention over towards October and smiled towards her and leaned in and gave her a loving kiss. She knew that her wife didn't really like going to these events to much, but she always did enjoy having her company, the events were always fun to her. "I'm not sure really, you know how long these things last. But once this is over we can head back to the morgue as soon as the event is over." Carolina promised as she leaned forward and gave her another loving kiss, as she looked around those in the room.

There was so many people there, and everyone that was anyone was here for these things as her eyes scanned the room and wondered where Annie was as well. She noticed Princess Lorna, as well as Princess Wanda both in their own corners of the room she did think about going to them and talk but decided against it, then there was Prince Pietro talking with his fiancé Guin it looked like they were having their own conversation with each other, and Prince Flynn was going around making small talk with the other guests. "Would you like anything to drink, or eat?" Carolina offered her wife if she wanted something.

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Cassandra looked around completely and utterly confused at what was actually going on, she wasn't even sure why she was on a Quinjet in the first place either. The first thing she noticed was Wolverine walking back and fourth in the Quinjet, but the next thing she didn't expect was Mystique sitting there talking to Wolverine like they are old buddies. Why was a member of the X-Men and the Brotherhood working together in a SHIELD Quinjet. Then she eyed the more familiar faces that were inside, Agents Abercrombie, Smith, Novikova, and Bautista. Cassandra tried her best to try and remain as calm as possible, she wasn't even sure where they were going either aside from the mentioning of the Hulk.

[/img]"So, hate to butt in but, why are we going after The Hulk again, and where are we going and what is the mission again?" Cassandra asked, she didn't want to say that she didn't belong here, or make herself sound like she was a crazy. She eyed the other faces that she didn't recognize at all, then over to her teammates that she personally knew and thought about approaching them, to find out what they know exactly she didn't have any idea what was going on at all.

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Maria sat next to Novikova as she was taking the time to tend to her bow, making sure that it was in fully working order, even though she pretty much knew that they could be useless against The Hulk, she was still a good shot and could distract him if needed. As she ran a hand through her hair. Maria turned her attention towards Novikova and smiled towards her girlfriend and leaned forward and gave her a kiss, it took her a really long time to but she was able to control the side affect of her powers. She was glad that she could make human contact again.

"I'm doing pretty good, how about you?" Maria finally asked, Novi while occasionally looking as Agent Howlett paced around while Agent Darkholme tried to calm him down, she didn't really fancy the idea of getting punched by The Hulk to much either. Then Agent Reed spoke up, she was surprised that one of the Leaders of the Red Guard was confused, and she looked pretty confused as well, and decided to speak up. "The mission to take in the Hulk, and try and possibly replicate him if I remember correctly." Maria answered Cass, as she looked around at everyone else in the team she was ready to get the mission started.