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Luna started to shiver from the decrease in temperature and she watched as her fingers started to shift to white at the very tips. She started to worry when they started to feel warm again. She had never had frostbite before but she knew it was a bad thing to have. She grasped her arms and shivered a bit. Leather didn’t keep you warm in the cold. She ducked instintively when she heard glass shatter and then Sapphire left as did the cold. They would all probably have to have James look at them now.
”I can call James,” Luna offered Veil, if she didn’t want to bring Max to the new hideout, which Luna was fine with not doing. She looked back at Max and walked over to him. She knelt down in front of him. ”How are you feeling? Think you can hold on until James gets here?” She had some in-field first aid training so she could help him if he needed it. She stripped off her jacket so she had more freedom and examined his wound.

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Cayden settled onto his bed, resting his arms on his knees and watched his friends, eager for a good story. He smirked a little as Casper called him by his new nickname but listened in on Casper's story. His eyes widened and he leaned against the wall, staring at his arms and hands a moment. ”So anyone not on Magneto’s side was hunted? Human and mutant a-like?” He trailed off and looked around their slim room. It wasn’t much but it was home and it was theirs. He frowned, looking angry and shook his head. ”That’s just awful. How did you guys get her to turn it back? A casino? Now that sounds more realistic,” he teased Casper. ”Thieves hmm? So kind of pirates then!”
He shifted, crossing his legs and leaned his elbows on his knees. ”I hope Ben comes back. Then I can tell him Nutella is not the be all and end all but Doritos on the other hand… I still wish I had a bag. Maybe I should call Veil…” Hopefully Ben did come back soon. They all knew Ben but of course Sunshine was still a kid. A tough kid of course but still a kid and didn't see things the same way. Sometimes Cayden wished he still saw things as simply as children did but life was messy and complicated. Especially as a mutant.

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A small, tense smile reappeared on Waverley's face as Veil praised her, her head lowering, allowing her grubby purple locks to fall down in front of her face. As much as she constantly yearned for validation, she was shit at responding too it. So instead, she simply gave a grateful nod, mumbling something that was likely a 'thank you'. While it was true that the small gesture wasn't enough to sooth her tired and chaotic mind, it was nice to have some outside affirmation that she'd made the right choice. She turned her gaze back to the window, but just as she did, she saw a massive dome form around them out of thin air. Her eyes shot over to Warlock, narrowing in anger. She stood up, her rebar in hand, and began to walk towards the door of the van, but before she could get out, Sapphire exploded out into an icy terror. Waverley flinched backward, her sudden movement quickly giving way to intense shivering. She pulled her jacket closer to herself, dropping her rebar and instead moving towards the front, reaching her arm up to turn the van's heater up to full blast. When she looked back out to the others, she noticed Sapphire speeding away from the group, and Warlock with a devastating ice-wound in his chest.

"Everyone should get in the van before we all freeze to death," Waverley called out to the rest of the team, who she mentally labeled then as Team Witchfinders. Though she hadn't voiced it verbally, she did not include Warlock in her definition of the word 'everybody'. In fact, when Callie offered to bring him with them, Waverley's face contorted, a look of annoyance on her face. She didn't speak out loud immediately, instead shaking her head slightly, and leaning in to whisper to Veil. "I...I don't think I can be in the same car as him."

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Leighton felt the snake coiled around her, pinning her to the ground. She couldn't move and she cursed Pyro, the fucking maniac. She tried to form ice in her center to freeze it off to no avail. Her injuries were getting the best of her. She kept trying, but it was of no use. She could feel her energy draining away. With what little strength she had, she formed ice on her hand and reached for the snake. She managed to touch it and freeze part of it, but everything else was still fire.

Ana shook her head in disbelief. Jinx feeling he was in any way useful amused and surprised her. He was the one who had previously fucked up. If anyone was in danger of being on Reeva's radar, it was him. She let it slide though. She needed him, as painful as that was to admit, especially as the police had arrived, much like she said they would. Pyro was acting hysterical and his wound was opening back up. Ana tried to send her control out to the officers, to no avail. Whatever Jinx had done must be affecting her. Idiot.

She turned to Pyro, using her TK to close his wound. She managed to close it off easily this time. "Do try to be more careful. You have a wound that needs to be patched up. We should take care of the officers outside. Not like she can do much in there." Ana faced the outside, seeing and hearing the explosion of one of their cars. This could have all easily been avoided, but she supposed it was bound to happen as she was paired with two incompetent individuals with a knack for destruction.

Leighton, with all she had left, sent out a mental message to Max. She hoped she could get it out in time. "Max, I'm sorry I'm not there. The Hellfire Club found me and Desiree at the Dunkin' Donuts we stopped at. She's been killed and I am greatly injured. If you check police scanners, I am sure you can get an accurate read as to which one we are at. If I don't make it out of this, it was wonderful meeting and working with you." She struggled again to no use. This felt like it was the end. She hoped for a hail Mary but figured her luck had run out.

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Outside the Dunkin' Donuts -

One of the cop cars had exploded, a huge fire roaring despite the snow falling down heavily. There were two more cop cars, but the fire spread wildly, both of those cars beginning to burn now. Sirens in the distance were continuing to sound, either back up or the fire department or both. Civilians were running screaming from the area. The cops had their guns trained on Jinx and they opened fire. There were six cops in total.

Someone in the background screamed, "NO!"

Six bullets went off. Three of them missed Jinx completely. Two of them just grazed him. One bullet hit him in the forehead, killing him instantly. The police then moved forward, heading into the Dunkin' Donuts.

Dunkin' Donuts -

The cops had entered the store. The bathroom where Pyro, Anastasia, and Leighton were was located at the back of the store. None of them knew that Jinx had died. The only one who could potentially figure it out would have been Anastasia, from the sudden silence of his mind (her power, after all, was a sort of telepathy).

"Ugh, but careful is for losers!" Pyro chided Anastasia. He kept his gaze trained on the fiery serpent surrounding Leighton. She had sustained several broken ribs already and now, she was being strangled to death by fire. It wasn't a pretty or kind way to go. Her death wasn't painless like Jinx's - but at the very least, she had gotten the mental message off to Warlock before the connection ended... forever.

"Two dead girls, check!" Pyro cackled. He didn't really pay attention to his wound at all as he went and picked up Desiree's corpse, throwing her over his shoulder. "Do you think Reeva will want the Ice Queen too? I can put out the fire," he offered. The fiery serpent was gone, but the fire remained, burning Leighton's body.

He heard the sound of the cops coming towards the back and he siphoned off the flames from all around the bathroom, before sending them out as a gigantic flaming elephant to fight the cops. "Also, I need to get my bike. Can we put the corpse - or corpses - in the limo with you, sweetheart?" he asked Ana.

"What's taking Jinxy so long?"

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Instinctively, Veil didn't want to risk bringing Warlock to their hideout. Their last one had been destroyed by hounds the Hellfire Club had sent. Even if Warlock meant well, disclosing its location to him just put everyone who lived there in jeopardy. Could she justify risking everyone's lives just for James to treat Warlock's injuries? Logically, she knew that his wounds had been their fault, a combination of Spark Plug's carelessness and Sapphire's extreme phobia. The Hellfire Club was rich and well connected, they ought to have some sort of medical treatment and care for him.

"No, I'm sorry, but no. Warlock cannot go to the hideout," Veil said firmly. "He's a member of the Hellfire Club. I know he's screwed up and made mistakes and he seems sympathetic now but... We can't afford to risk it. It wouldn't just be our lives we'd be gambling, but everyone who depends on the Underground for help and shelter, even the other Underground Stations would be at risk."

She listened to Feedback's whisper and she nodded. She wasn't going to ask Feedback to share a car with Warlock, much less bring Warlock back to her place of safety and shelter. Veil's first priority was the health and safety of the Underground, second was that of those who might need their help. Warlock's wellbeing was at the bottom of the ranking. "You said a lot about the resources the Hellfire Club has - I'm sure healing is one of them. Summon some bandages if you need to, teleport yourself back to your penthouse building, you could even contact your teammates. I'm sorry you got hurt, but we can't stick around. We came here to help save an innocent. Maybe you didn't mean to stall us, but at this rate, the innocent is likely dead."

Veil concentrated, turning everyone and their vehicles (except for Warlock and his scooter) invisible. "Come on, we need to go," she ordered her team, getting back into the van. Once they got back to the hideout, she could contact Sage and try to figure out this mess - and have a heart to heart with her brother. She felt horrible that she hadn't been able to properly comfort Echo after the loss of his girlfriend so far.

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"Babe, maybe Glimpse thinks of your as her daddy," Casper suggested seriously. Glimpse had reached out for a telepathic connection to James, the only other person she had done that for had been her father and it had been while she was dying. It was concerning since that strongly implied that Veil's team was in big trouble. "I have nothing against polyamory, but I'm not big on sharing. You're my daddy, so Glimpse is going to have to find someone else to fill that penis shaped hole in her life."

His shoulders slumped slightly as Ben didn't appear, having been almost certain that his words would have brought the morose mutant out of hiding. No other ghosts were appearing either, so he supposed that he should consider himself lucky. There were worse ghosts floating around than Feedback's mother - ones far more hostile and gruesome. "I have noooo idea where he is. I was pretty sure he would've popped up at the penis thing, he's kind a perv sometimes." Casper darted around the room. "Damn it, Ben, you won't even defend yourself from being insulted?!"

Silence.

Casper did his best not to get frustrated. His fingers were shaking a bit, like he needed a drug fix. "Aaaanyways... I was on Team Fuck Up Magnet Boy and Girl! So me, Sapphire, James, and Jackie teamed up with these SHIELD agents and X-Men to fight Magneto and Polaris. Other people handled the guards and then one team went after the Scarlet Witch and... honestly I have no idea what they did. Oh, Sapphire killed Polaris and Havok was there, that was messed up...."

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"Huh, so you look ugly by choice," Negasonic quipped. She gave Jack the middle finger before leaving the training room, her sack of supplies slung over her back as she headed on up after her mentor, Colossus. The supply mission had been moderately successful, though Magik had dropped a few human security guards into Limbo and had to be persuaded by Colossus to free them.

Sunshine snickered. "Boom, roasted," she teased Jack. She was still feeling upset and raw about everything, but she had learned from living on the streets that at a certain point, feelings just had be to shoved aside. Life had to go on. People who couldn't hold it together ended up going mental, forced into asylums or killed by cops in "self defense." There was a reason songs went fuck the police and not fuck the firefighters after all.

However, an idea then popped into her head. There was one thing she wanted dearly. "Hufflepuff... If you get me a bow and a quiver of arrows, then we'll be square. That's all I want of fatherly duties from you." She had only gotten to try out archery once, when she and her runaway family had ended up living in a cabin at a summer camp during the off season. She had loved trying out the archery range, largely because her mutation gave her perfect aim. She always hit bullseyes. "I'm an adult anyways, so it's not like I need to be parented or whatever... Though Fred wouldn't mind food. He likes Flintstones vitamins."

"If you hurt her, I will cut your throat as a sacrifice to the Green Man," Illyana threatened Jack. She gave Sunshine a hug before walking out of the room as well, going in the same direction Negasonic and Colossus had.

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George Washington University: Streets -

The lone marauder had followed Andy with his gaze for a moment, noting as she entered the Lisner Auditorium. He then returned his gaze to his original target. His heads up display had finished rendering a DNA analysis on her. She wasn't just an ordinary mutant - that grabbed his curiosity. He gripped his knife a little tighter, before unsheathing a second knife. They were both glowing a strange blue, the blades jagged like a lightning bolt.

He turned and kicked his feet up into the air, his body moving down in a complicated acrobatic affair. When his feet were as high as they went, he threw the knife at Zarina. The throw was powerful, the knife going right through Mr. Eyeball. The rogue held his hand up and the knife flew back, ripping Mr. Eyeball in half, as the knife returned to his grip.

He threw his blade again, this time missing widely as the blade impaled itself into the pole of a streetlamp.

George Washington University: Lisner Auditorium -

Lisner Auditorium could seat hundreds of people at a time. The entrance lobby had a long table with white cloth upon which platters upon platters of food were placed. There were several containers of fresh coffee, as well as lemonade and water for those who would rather do without. A chest of ice had Coke products also. The bathrooms were off to the left and relatively tidy, the sort you would expect to see at a five star hotel. There were even little seashell shaped soaps provided and bizarrely, all of the towels had a pineapple embroidered on them.

The talk was already underway. Dr. Maya Hansen was leading a Q&A discussion, although she wasn't alone. There were several professors from GWU up there on the panel, as well as some scientists from industry. One of them was ex-superhero and current Research and Development lead at Serval Industries, Dr. John Watts.

"Hello, I'm Tillie Soldati, a third year student in biomedical engineering. Dr. Hansen, do you believe that your work on hacking the genetic code could be applied to the inhuman problem?" one student asked, standing up at the microphone set up at the end of one of the aisles.

"Great question - as I'm sure you all know, there have been reports across the globe of rapid onset of terrigenesis. Now can we apply Extremis to this? Yes. In principle, all we would need to do would be to isolate the inhuman gene and use Extremis to repair the damaged DNA. The same thing could be done for mutants - an elimination of the X-gene, as well as other mutations in genes that code for unwanted or harmful occurrences in humans, like Down Syndrome."

"If I might cut in here," Dr. Watts interjected. "It's fucking disgraceful to even consider inhumans and mutants as wrong. The Extremis project is just eugenics, dressed up and given a new name with advertisements of better living."

Dr. Hansen rolled her eyes at Dr. Watts. "Not all inhumans and mutants want their abilities. Some of them can't even touch people without killing someone - I think they deserve the choice to decide whether or not they want their powers. Extremis gives them that option."

"How long will it just be an option?! How long until it becomes legislation, policy, to erase the things that make them special? Any time some sort of mutant cure is discovered, it falls into the wrong hands, period. Now you can be a fucking adult and realize that or you can live in a fantasy world where everyone holds hands and sings about bunnies jumping in a meadow of pixie dust and love."

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Sapphire was working on trying to remain calm, and she just wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't exactly possible considering everyone around her was still talking about what had just happened. She just wanted everyone to just go away, since today was definitely not the day to mess with her emotions at all or whatever. This was just not the time to do it, and everyone really just needed to go away and shut up about things. Overall, she just really wanted to get the hell out of there right at that moment.

When Callie came over at apologized Sapphire more or less just shrugged. "Yeah well whatever, whose are we to figure out how people are going to react to just about everything? All you can do is make a best guess and go with it, so it's just whatever," she muttered to Callie with a shrug as she got up off the ground and headed over towards the car when Veil made them turn invisible again. She really didn't want to talk about it, she has had enough of talking about her emotions and feelings to last her a lifetime.

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"Based on how you act sometimes I'd question the whole, you being an adult thing," Jack commented with a bit of a laugh, shaking his head somewhat at Sunshine. He knew that yes, technically she was an adult (he wouldn't really call her a real adult since she couldn't drink alcohol legally yet) but considering how she tended to act she didn't real fall under the category of being an actual adult yet. She tended to act a bit childish in his mind, but what could you expect given her personality and all?

"I could get you a bow and arrow, that actually probably wouldn't be that hard, but why do I feel like that would be a bad idea considering the fact that not sure if I should trust you with a weapon that could potentially kill me, so maybe I will, maybe I won't, jury is out on that one so you'll just have to wait and see," he told her simply with a bit of a shrug, not really too sure what else to say to her on the subject. Giving Sunshine a weapon just seemed like a really bad idea, so why would he give her one when he wasn't entirely sure she'd be responsible with the weapon?

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She was a bit taken aback when suddenly she saw a dagger of some sort go right into Mr. Eyeball and ripped the poor robotic eye in half. Of course, she knew that she could probably easily fix the robot, but that didn't mean that it pissed her off to no end! Why did this guy decide to stab Mr. Eyeball? It suddenly occurred to her that maybe the guy hadn't been aiming for the robotic eye, but maybe he had been aiming for her. That didn't make much sense in her mind. She had just gotten to the area, so why did the guy want to try and hurt her? Zarina knew that tensions between humans and mutants in this time era were high, but she wasn't even obviously using her powers, so what the hell was going on?

"You broke my robot! Why the hell did you do that? Why are you attacking me or whatever!" she yelled out loud at the guy, before she stood up, holding Mr. Jaws in her hands before she threw the robotic head at the stranger (who she hearby dubbed Mr. Stabby Stabberson) and using her powers caused the robot to fly at the man and managed to get the robot head to bite the man's earlobe. "Bullseye!" she said gleefully with a smile before she reached into her bag and pulled out something that was a bit unassuming, at least at first. It was a flashlight of all things. During the daytime.

"Come on Glowstick, we've got this," she said, before she flipped the flashlight on, or at least that's what it appeared to be, but the flashlight turned into a hilt, and suddenly there was a full length longsword in her hand that was glowing, and she charged at the man. Her sword strikes were being blocked each time by the man's dagger, but she seemed to be doing alright all thing's considering, he appeared to be on the defensive for the moment. "No one get's away with destroying my robot!"

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Andy was impressed, and honestly a little off-put by the bathroom in the college hall. It was a lot. What public restroom, even limited public, had actual bars of soap? And real towels instead of paper ones? With embroidery. She looked around the bathroom to check if there was anyone else with her in the bathroom. There were a couple of university looking kids, but they didn't seem super interested in her. Once she finished using the bar of soap, she shoved it into her pants pocket. No one said anything even if they had seen her pocket it.

It didn't seem like knife-y dude had decided to follow her into the ladies' room, which was very courteous of him. Or he had a more important target in mind. As far as Andy was concerned, that wouldn't be hard. Or maybe he just had been staring at her. He might not even know she was a mutant. Not every knife-wielding weirdo was out to kill mutants, right? She fixed her make-up, holding onto the hope that knife-y dude wasn't going to chase after her. Maybe she could blend in here, even if it was for a little while.

When she finished cleaning up, Andy went out to the lobby area, drawn in by the sweet smell of coffee. Ah, it was like a piece of heaven on Earth. She poured herself a full cup of black coffee and grabbed a muffin. Out of a desire to not be near knife-y dude, Andy stepped into the auditorium itself to listen to the lecture that was seemingly open to the public.

She almost instantly regretted as the conversation turned quickly to the 'inhuman and mutant problem.' But with her options being knife-y dude outside or an argument of whether she deserved to exist or not. At least here she could drink her coffee undisturbed. Andy took a seat a few rows from the very back and tried not to listen too carefully. She did agree with the angry guy in glasses.

Jamie and Ash had tried to teach her to live peaceably with humans, and she liked to think she'd be capable of it if the humans could act peaceably and stop murdering people she loved. When humans tried to control mutants, it ended badly for both parties. People got hurt, people died. There was enough of that on the television that she knew her story was repeated over and over. Yeah, the lady was right; there probably were a fair amount of mutants that didn't want their powers. Andy wasn't one of them. It had saved her life, even if she knew several of those times, it had been the reason she had been in danger in the first place. Andy didn't trust humans enough not to keep the powers. Heck, she didn't trust mutants enough.

Andy blew on her coffee a bit before sipping at it carefully, trying not to burn herself, and then started pulling apart the muffin. Eating the base first and saving the top for last.

]

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Max chuckled slightly as Glimpse asked him how he was doing. He coughed out a few words to her, the pain and cold both sinking in further as the ice lodged in him continued to pierce his chest. "Heh. I've got a bit of a chest cold, but other than that I'm alright." Max coughed again, pain filling his abdomen with the sudden movement. He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to just nestle in the strangers arms as he awaited for help, the calmness of Callies powers overtaking any panic he should be feeling about his potential death. After a few quiet breaths he heard Leightons voice, his eyes shooting wide open as he finally heard back from her. "Its Leighton." he coughed out, speaking through pained words. "She said they're in trouble, Hellfire Club caught them and is attacking them. She wants us to check police scanners. If we hurry maybe we-" Suddebly the connection cut off and it was as if Leighton hadn't existed. It didn't feel like a failure or mishap from his end, just...a cut connection.

Harry held onto Max, allowing the blonde boy to use him to support his weight. The tears from earlier felt cold against his silk shirt, feeling Maxs ragged breathing against his chest as he awaited for help to arrive. The dropping dome allowed for the cold air to disperse into a wider area, the cold day of December still biting at them but with less force than what Sapphire had unleashed. Harry couldn't tell if the joke the kid had made was due to hysteria, or if he was doing ok given the circumstances. He watched him closely and noted him closing his eyes, he hadnt thought that today he would hold another dead mutant in his arms as they passed. Just as he was about to tear up he watched Warlock spring to life and ramble on about an attack. Harry nodded for Barry to make his way over to them, asking him to hold onto Max while he went to speak with his sister.

As Max exchanged arms, he felt empty. Hardly noticing the switch as he tried to process the fact that Leighton may have just died. Thick cold tears streamed down his face as the cold helped accentuate each individual one on his cheeks. Unable to handle much more his lip began to quiver as his hands began to shake. Dark clouds forming over the group but under the tree line as a heavy downpour came underway. Thick cold droplets began to splatter amongst them as Max sobbed into Barry's arms. "Shes gone. She...shes gone. I can't go back there. I WONT GO BACK THERE! They murdered her..." He gripped Barry's shirt tightly as he felt pain coming from more than just his physical injuries. "I would like to come back, if you will have me. You can supervise me all you want, I just...i can't live with the people who murdered her." His heart ached and he knew there was a chance he wouldn't be able to live with them. It would be the same pain he felt but inflicted onto Waverly instead. "I can stay outside if need be, keep my distance from Waverly I just...i just want to do whats right."

Harry nodded at Max, taking in what had happened and making his way over towards his twin. Luckily they were all invisible so no one had to see how the rain was effecting his white pants. He placed on hand on Veils shoulder as he looked down and shook his head solemnly. "Twinny, the kids hurting bad. He just lost someone he deeply cared about and I know he may have done some bad but...im sure we could all sympathise with how he is feeling. His injured by one of our own, hes hurting by the one he's lost from a group who supposedly cared for him. He seems to have raw power and i would rather have that be on a side that will nurture and care for him than one to abuse it. He said he won't go back to the Hellfire Club, which means he either comes with us, or is out there left to his own devices with a greivous wound and raw power and anger. Waverly, I know this is extremely hard on you, after what he's done. He said he'd stay outside and try his best to avoid you if need be, but if you wabted revenge...im afraid you just got it. Think it over and let me know, I'll take him with me if need be."

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Waverley could feel herself relax when she heard Veil's words, allowing her more relief than any spa treatment ever could. She gave Veil another grateful nod. She moved with the intention of crawling back into her place in the far back of the van, but she stopped when she heard Warlock suddenly ceased his speaking. She turned her head to look out the open door of the van, seeing the look of shock and anguish descend on the boy's face. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, her stern frown turning into an uncertain one. She watched as tears began to pour down the murderer's face, and she didn't know what to do. She glanced over to the others, as if she could find an answer on their faces, but she found none. She wasn't even sure what she wanted an answer to. She faced back to Max when he began to speak again, and when she processed what he had said, her jaw dropped.

Deep down, Waverley knew that it wasn't her fault. But she couldn't help but feel...guilty. Every time she wished for something, it came true in the worst possible way. She always wanted to be special, and she wound up being a mutant with a power that left a defenseless target of the purifiers. She wanted to be a superhero, and here she was, a member of the least funded, least connected, and possibly most in danger superhero group of all time. Even her mom's death fit the category. She'd always been scared of her mom finding out about the Underground, and now that wasn't a problem. She couldn't help but feel like her desire for Warlock's suffering had somehow lead to the death of an innocent woman, especially when Echo voiced this thought. Waverley gulped, eyes cast to the ground. This wasn't justice. It was murder. And if somehow, in some cosmic, unfathomable way, it was her fault, she had to do something.

So she reached out her mind, mentally gliding through the waves that traveled throughout the city, the ones that most were unaware of. There was a lot; there was always a lot. So she narrowed in, feeling for transmissions from police scanners and radios, listening for any hint of a mutant attack. After a few seconds of tuning in, she caught mention of something, a mutant attack on a Dunkin' Donuts. She listened for details and an address: after hearing word of a mutant who'd been gunned down, Waverley gulped. That must've been her. It had to be. The initial horror almost made her forget to commit the address to memory. Once she had all the information she needed, she popped her head back up, immediately noticing the Underground had been Veiled. It seemed like they were getting ready to go.

"There was an altercation at a Dunkin' Donuts downtown," she called out from her position at the Van's open door, her voice catching in her throat as she spoke. She didn't make eye contact with Warlock, instead gazing at an empty spot a few feet above his head. She quickly recited the address, before it had the chance to leave her head. "A mutant was shot down. I...I think it's your friend...you should get her body before the coroners do. If you don't, she'll probably go to Emma. I don't think the ones who murdered her should be the same ones to bury her." With that, she backpedaled into the back of the van, taking a seat in the corner.

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Callie looked towards Sapphire and nodded slightly, she still felt guilty as she watched her getting up and making her way back over towards the others. Callie started to make her way over towards them, though she kept her distance from everyone else while looking over at Max, his injury was really bad and they needed to fix it right away. Veil did make a good point it was still really risky for having Max there in the first place, and that was a security risk for the DC cell. When she remembered about the friendly mutant clinic that managed to save her life a few months back after getting shot by some purifiers, she still had the scar from that encounter.

"Theres that friendly mutant clinic that patched me up a few months ago, the least we can do is take him there and have someone look at him." Callie suggested and then looked over at Max when he said that Leighton was dead, though she didn't really know her well and her opinion of the girl was low at best with the way she had left with Max to join the Hellfire Club.

"I can go with your brother and take him to that clinic and show him where it is. And if you have a place here in DC and doesn't mind let him crash there for a few days, that way he doesn't know the new location of the Underground. That can give us time to see what we should actually do with him then, would that be a good compromise?" Callie suggested, and turned to look at Feedback suggesting that they retrieve Leighton's body, that was really risky though the girl did deserve a good funeral in her opinion it would go bad. "It's to risky, but it's up to you Veil."

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Kristina looked around before finding a spot to sit down in the auditorium, she started to take off her jacket setting it down in her lap, while listening to the talk. Seeing some of her teachers there as Dr. Maya Hanson started to talk about the Extermis thing, she didn't like it at all. She was comfortable with her powers after all, so long as she avoided stores with mutant detectors she would be completely fine as well. Kristina's eyes started to scan seeing a classmate here and there as they listened, she looked over at Dr. John Watts as he spoke up, hearing him making his own points as well.

Kristina remembered hearing the MRA being touted around, before it was taken down in the news after the disbandment of OMEN as well, she was pretty sure that Congress would try and bring up something new or similar at some point as well. Though Kristina could understand some mutants didn't want their powers, her sister Maria's powers weren't good either having made accidental contact with her. Kristina took a sip from the coffee as she listened in a little bit more, thinking about just leaving now to, she did have some studying to do as well.

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“Even if she did see me that way, I’ve got the best catch in the Underground. She’d have to pry me away from you with a crowbar.” James said, laughing at Casper’s joke. James worried as Casper’s shoulders slumped as he looked around. It was strange Casper wasn’t qiuping back at Ben. It was odd for the first bit. Adjusting a conversation around someone you couldn’t hear or see was… an experience but now it was just part of the package. He remembered when he first met Casper. He kinda thought he was crazy. Hot but crazy. “Maybe your powers are just exhausted? They’re normally just an extension of your normal senses but manifesting him may have exhausted you.”

The mention of Polaris’ death brought a thoughtful frown on his face. “I wanted to get Veil up to speed before they ran off because of it. It’s going to cause way too many issues if we just ignore it. Sapphire, as much as I respect her skills, is volatile on a normal day. Having that much guilt eating away at her is going to turn her into a ticking time bomb.” James sighed. There was so much to dissect from the other world, so much to consider, and James was already tired. He still felt disoriented from the reality reversion, he was still struggling to come to peace with his other self, Max was doing something, Luna could reach him from wherever it seemed, and Sunshine and Jack dropped a bombshell on the group. He just wanted to not deal with it for now and he leaned on Casper.

“I’m taking a nap when the team comes back.” James decided. “Maybe if you take one too babes, you’ll get that restart you need so join me please?”

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Luna looked over her shoulder at Veil when she explained they couldn’t bring Max back and Luna couldn’t help but agree. He couldn’t keep switching sides, waiting for the one team to fix him up before he got bored or annoyed and switched to a different team that was doing something exciting. She chuckled when Max spoke up but if he was in good humor, even painful humor then he would make it.
Luna sighed as she saw herself fade out a bit and stood, knowing that Veil had just made her and everyone but Max invisible. As she stood, Max seemed to come to in a lively way and started talking about how Leighton was dead. From the look on his face, Luna was hard pressed not to believe him. His story however, was confirmed when Waverley spoke up about there being an altercation at some local donut place.
Luna walked away from Max, over to Veil and Callie, hearing her offer to take Max to the local mutant friendly clinic. ”I can go with your brother and Spark Plug to take Warlock if you want,” Luna offered Veil. ”As for Leighton, it is tragic that she has died but that place will be swarming with cops right now. Unless you can remain cloaked and carry her out completely unnoticed, it might be too much of a risk.” Luna hadn’t known Leighton well enough to be hurt by her death but she was sad at the death of yet another mutant. Luna had a feeling the Hellfire Club had gotten to her before she could get out.

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Cayden sat there, listening to the story with wide eyes. ”Whoa, that’s pretty intense. Sapphire killed someone? Well no wonder Veil had her cloaked earlier. That’s crazy man but thank goodness things are back to normal. I mean well, we still have mutants fighting mutants and humans out to get us as well so, still a lot going on,” Cayden said and leaned back against the wall. It would have been an interesting world to see but as someone who had been on the revieving end of discrimination and rascism for years before even becoming a mutant, Cayden knew that it didn’t matter who the victims of a genocide were. It was still bad and needed to be stopped.
A nap sounded excellent to Cayden as well but once the team arrived, he would leave to give James and Casper their privacy. They had gone through hell and had just come back to this reality it seemed. They needed time and the ones who didn’t remember the alternate universe needed time to process as well. "I think James might be onto something with that Cas, and not just because he has an ability to heal people."

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With Leighton dead and burning on the ground and the other target dead, all that remained was getting the cops off of their tail. Killing them would be easy, but it would leave witnesses. However, if she got cops on their side, it would mean there would be people left to tell of what happened, leaving them blameless. Pyro was being his usual childish self. "One, let's focus on the authorities first before we go further. Two, no we are not putting corpses into my limo. I say leave them here as a warning, but check with Reeva on that. For now..."

The cops entered and Ana trained her eye on them, sending her mind into theirs where she shifted their allegiance. It was almost painfully easy to get two of them on their side as the ones she controlled leveled their guns at the others, taking two out. The remaining two would be easy. She picked one of them up with telekinesis, sending him flying to the window where he bounced off and landed on the table below, knocking him out. She tried to pick the other one up to no avail. She had exerted herself.

She called out to the two officers on her side. "You two, take care of the remaining officers and any witnesses. If anyone asks, you do not know what happened here." She would let it play out, but one officer could not hope to last.

What did happen to Jinx though?

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Jinx's body was on display at the funeral home in New York City on December 20th, 2020. He didn't have any living relatives. Pyro had been the honor guard of sorts for his body, sobbing along to Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time as he drove Jinx's corpse from D.C. to New York City. The viewing hours started at 9 AM and concluded at 5 PM. Pyro had stayed there for an hour at the start, delivering an impassioned and thickly Australian eulogy for Jinx. He put a cinnabon on top of the coffin, as that was one of the few things he knew Jinx liked.

At noon, Emma Frost and her girls, the Three-in-One arrived fresh from vacation. They stared at Jinx's body in silence, before placing black roses on the coffin. The next visitor was Magneto at roughly 3 o'clock. He dropped the crumpled badges of the officers who had shot down Jinx inside of the coffin, blood staining the brass.

The last visitor for Jinx arrived at 4:50 P.M. Her hair was tucked underneath a baseball cap and she had sunglasses to hide her eyes. She wore a hoody and frayed jeans, looking like any American college student. "Ti glupi dečko, kako si mogao biti tako neoprezan? Ti si mutant ... Trebao bi biti bolji od ovoga! Prokletstvo Jink! Zašto si morao umreti i napustiti me? Da li je to zato što sam bio zao? Uh, ako je ovo neka vrsta trika, poželećeš da te policajci ubiju!" the Scarlet Witch shouted. The pieces of furniture in the room went flying as she took a stick of gum and placed it inside of Jinx's cold, stiff fingers. "Rest in power."

He was buried next to his mother, his mother's ring inside the coffin along with the other trinkets left behind by his friends.

Leighton's body was taken to the morgue in Washington D.C. and held there for a week. The official report ruled her death as due to asphyxiation. Anastasia's crooked cops declared that Jinx had been the murderer. The report leaked to several news stations, with right-wing newscaster Benedict Ryan using Leighton's death to increase anti-mutant rage in the country. The medical examiner hadn't run a DNA test on her and Leighton's parents fed into the narrative, hiring lobbyists to push for another consideration of the MRA by Congress in Leighton's name.

She was cremated and then buried at her family's home in Boston. Her mother did not invite her sister, Emma Frost, to the funeral, blaming Emma for her daughter's death.

There were other personnel changes for the Hellfire Club. Warlock left to join the Mutant Underground. Sage was exposed as a spy, fleeing before Reeva and the others could capture her. In early February, Emma Frost invited Selene from the New York City Hellfire Club to come and work on the Genosha Project with the DC branch.

Of course, it wasn't the best time to be a mutant. A mysterious disease had emerged on February 11th, dubbed M-Pox by the media. The disease only afflicted mutants and the symptoms ranged from ordinary to bizarre. Hives, rashes, failing powers, headaches, vomit, internal bleeding, and more - all refusing to go away no matter what medicine was administered. The death toll continues to mount and while S.H.I.E.L.D. supposedly has a cure in progress, it has not been made available to the public.

Anti-mutant newscasters such as Benedict Ryan have been calling for the movement of mutants into controlled quarantine camps, worrying that M-Pox may mutate and be transmitted to humans. Hate crimes against mutants had spiked. The news reported on them hourly, showing horrifying footage of two young children in Arkansas hanged on a swingset, all because they were mutants. In D.C., mutants were vanishing and later found turned into stone, with an X carved into their forehead.

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Shaw Industries Building: Penthouse Suite -

For once, Magneto was on site at the Hellfire Club Headquarters. He didn't show up very often, usually busy running the Brotherhood. However, the Hellfire Club was nearing completion with Genosha. The infrastructure had been set up, supplies were being transported to the island currently, leaving only a few tasks left. They needed to first establish the government of their new nation and who would be its leaders. They also needed to get international recognition of Genosha. So far, Reeva and Emma had been entertaining key members and officials, although creating relations with some of the more steadfast anti-mutant ones was difficult.

Selene, Reeva, Emma, and Magneto had taken over the main area of the penthouse. Emma wore dark shades to mask her eyes and she wore a rather modest outfit, rather than the usual revealing pieces she favored. "Thank you for coming, darlings. Magneto is in charge of this operation, so I'll let him take the floor," Emma said. Her voice sounded a bit tired.

Magneto had the shapeshifter Mystique at his side. "Serval Industries invented a device in 2017 that could be used to artificially give the X-gene to a human. We need it. We can use it on political hold-outs to ensure their support for Genosha, as they themselves will become mutants," Magneto explained shortly. "Dr. John Watts invented the device. Mystique believes that the device is currently owned by Advanced Idea Mechanics. Polaris will lead the White Queen and Pyro on this task - Dr. John Watts and an AIM scientist are at George Washington University. Bring them back here alive. Emma will then use her mutant abilities to have them build the device for us." Sinister wasn't present. He spent most of his time in his lab working and while he had a position within the Hellfire Club, he wasn't a mutant. No one fully trusted him. Magneto and the others would rather steal a device than ask Sinister to build one and be further indebted to him.

Polaris was standing near the door ready to go. She had on a leather jacket with metal cuffs, with boots that had metal toes. Her entire ensemble looked like it came out of Hot Topic, but with all of the metal on her, she could effectively fly. "And if something goes wrong?" Polaris asked.

Pyro was chewing bubblegum as he lounged on the couch. He wasn't part of the Hellfire Club, since he was actually part of the Brotherhood. However Magneto had brought him to D.C. for this job, trusting him and Polaris to get things done. He didn't know Anastasia well enough.

"Cause a panic. Invoke my name - the humans will think that the Brotherhood has come for them," Magneto explained. It was easy to forget that he wasn't all brute force and violence - he was calculating too.

George Washington University: Streets -

With Mr. Jaws biting the earlobe of Mr. Stabby Stabberson, Stabberson's hood fell back. He was bald with an eagle tattoo on the top of his head. He was wearing some sort of mask and special goggles, the sort that Iron Man or one of the Avengers might have had. Horrifyingly, he only had one ear - there was a vicious scar where the other one should have been, looking like it had either been cut off or burned off.

Zarina had driven him back slightly, forcing the much larger and physically imposing man to take a few steps back. He tried to disarm her blade with his strange knives, but it was to no avail. Stabberson then ran backwards, causing Zarina's blade to fall down. He threw one of his knives at her, missing pathetically. He threw the other knife and hit the hilt of Zarina's sword, sending it clattering down to the ground.

Stabberson held his hands up and his knives flew back to him, as he advanced on her again silently. Sirens were wailing as the police arrived on the scene. A bystander must have called them after Stabberson started attacking Zarina.

"DROP THE WEAPONS NOW, MUTIE!" the cops shouted at Stabberson. Six of them opened fire before Stabberson even had a chance, four bullets hitting him. They didn't phase him though. He must have been wearing kevlar or something.

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Life was never calm for the Mutant Underground. James and Sunshine had gone with those afflicted with M-Pox to the mutant friendly clinic in order to get them some medicine. Sapphire's skills and James' healing weren't enough for the disease. After each healing session with James, the disease would simply return with a vengeance. Their only hope was one of Sapphire's old friends from Serval Industries, an egotistical yet brilliant bioengineer named Dr. John Watts. S.H.I.E.L.D. continued to claim they had a cure in progress, but it could be months before it was available to the public... And Warlock, Glimpse, and Jack didn't have that long.

The group with her consisted of Sapphire (as she was friends with Dr. Watts), Moonwalker, Havok, Feedback, and Echo. She was sitting near the back of the auditorium with the others, one hand tangled in her own hair as Veil listened to the Q&A panel. It was nice to see a woman in STEM, but Veil couldn't also help but be disappointed with Dr. Hansen. If a cure for the X-gene was ever created, it wouldn't be long until it was forced on mutants unwillingly.

"Take a shot every time a human talks about mutant issues like they're some sort of authority," Havok murmured under his breath to Sapphire. He leaned back in his seat and accidentally kicked the chair of the girl in front of him. "Oops, my bad," he apologized to Andy.

"I think we should move on and take another question," the moderator interjected, cutting off the brewing argument between Dr. Hansen and Dr. Watts.

"Franklin Sykes, fourth year, public health," the next student introduced themselves. "With the M-Pox crisis killing hundreds of thousands of mutants across the globe, what solutions are there to prevent further loss of life?"

Veil sat forward in her chair. She hadn't ever attended college. She hadn't particularly liked taking classes at Xavier's school, finding them boring, slow, or just filled with annoying people she didn't care for. She was a hands on learner, always doing better when she was moving and actually doing something rather than reading about it. However, as the conversation turned to M-Pox, she couldn't help but listen. Her people were suffering. That was the entire reason they had came here - to get help from Dr. Watts.

"Honestly? The FDA needs to waive their usual procedures and allow Extremis to be given to patients now," Dr. Hansen said bluntly. "Extremis works. It cures everything, from the common cold to cancer. It's the key to better, healthier living. Imagine, if you will, how much better the world would be if we could lace the water supply with Extremis... We could become effectively immortal."

Dr. Watts chuckled. "Yes, let's just get rid of all precautions and start injecting people with your untested breakthrough. That's one way to save mutantkind - just kill them all with medical malpractice."

Dr. Hansen glared at him. "Sometimes, you need to take a leap of faith - and my serum works. The results from human trials are incredibly promising."

"I'm sorry, are we here to talk science or religion? If it's the latter, then I'll leave you to your hokum."

"Dr. Watts, let's keep things civil," the moderator told him sternly. "We'll take another question now."

Veil raised a bit of an eyebrow, before elbowing Sapphire slightly. She was sitting on Sapphire's left, whereas Havok was on Sapphire's right. "Your friend is a bit of an ass, isn't he?" she whispered to her. She hadn't really met Dr. Watts and she already knew that he thought he was the smartest person in the room - and that an idea someone else had was automatically horrible as it hadn't popped into his brain.

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Sunshine couldn't help but be skeptical of the mutant friendly clinic. Humans rarely had pure intentions when it came to mutant outreach. The building was relatively unassuming and as she stared at the doors, the van they had taken parked out front, she expected a trap. She had the bow Jack had gifted her for Christmas slung over her shoulder and her quiver of arrows was hooked onto the loop of her pants with a carabiner. The wild child actually had her hair braided back out of her face and while there was some dirt on her nose, she looked stronger and more confident. "I still don't like this. Purifiers could be hiding here. And the nurses and doctors could call the cops on us," Sunshine pointed out, turning around to face the group.

James was the only other person there who wasn't sick. Casper had a mild case of M-Pox which he continued to deny, insisting that it was just the common cold or the flu. He was actually clean at the moment, though Sunshine doubted his sobriety would last long. He was a bit of a fuck up. Spark Plug and Magik weren't too hot, but the bad cases were Jack, Max, and Glimpse. Sunshine figured Max was being punished by the universe for being a complete idiot. Glimpse likely was getting some karma for how privileged she was her entire life. Jack, maybe the universe was mad at him still for abandoning his only child. "I say we send Max in first as a test - if he comes out alive, it's safe. If he doesn't, well, it was just Max," she suggested with a shrug.

Casper stepped out of the van. He was wearing pink flip flops, a skirt covered with sequins that went down to his knees, a black fur coat, and a Betty White tank-top. His fashion sense was definitely hobo-chic. His nails were painted pink and he had applied a sparkly eyeshadow, claiming it made him look like one of the fae. On his cheek was a splotchy red mark that he had tried to cover with glitter to conceal it, only making it more noticeable. "Don't worry so much, Sunny-shine," he said, shaking his head. He regretted it as it only aggravated his headache.

"I know everyone there - they're good people! Like Doctor Chan? She pulled a toy soldier out of my asshole once and didn't even ask how it got there," Casper testified. He hesitated for a moment, leaning up against the van. "I don't even remember how it got there, actually..."

Ben was sitting on the hood of the car. Only Casper could see him though - it was super taxing for Casper to be constantly channeling Ben. Ben had sulked and pouted for being yelled at by the others back in December for about a week. He only returned when Casper made him an offering of waffles with nutella, refusing to let anyone in the Underground touch it despite their low food supplies. (Sunshine had eaten the waffles later when Casper wasn't looking and said another ghost must have taken them). "I do. I'm trying to forget, but ghosts can't have alcohol which makes it harder," Ben grumbled.

"Anyways, come on, you guys are gonna love everyone here!" Casper gushed. His face looked a little bit gaunt as he opened the doors to the clinic and walked up to the receptionist. "Hiiiiii, Linda. Six M-Pox treatments, please?"

"Casper, we thought you had OD'd and died," Linda, an older woman with smile wrinkles and coarse hair said. "I'll see if Dr. Chan can come and see you all - you remember where the back room is, right?"

Casper nodded. "How could I forget the secret mutant only spa?" he quipped. He kissed Linda on each cheek. "Thank you for not being a Karen," he told her earnestly.

"Are you stupid on purpose?" Sunshine asked Casper. He must not have heard her though, as he headed to the back of the clinic. There was a large examination room back there with enough seats for everyone. Ordinarily, people would've been seen individually but the Mutant Underground weren't ordinary visitors.

Magik took a seat, her eyes bloodshot. She was resisting the urge to vomit, even as the room seemed to be spinning around her. Like Sunshine, she didn't trust this place at all. She hated institutions. It reminded her of the detainment center she had been kept in when she first came to the United States. "I don't like this," she muttered. She shot a glare at James, as if her having M-Pox was somehow his fault.

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"Oh please, anyone who has been within 10 feet of Watts could tell you that. He's got a major ego, but unfortunately he's got a brilliant mind to back it up..." she whispered to Veil. She was in her more or less standard "disguise" of sorts, her normal brown hair and hazel eyes as opposed to the bright white and blue. Hearing the conversation and what was going on, Sapphire had a bit of a crazy idea. It would let Watts know that she was there (and probably wanted to talk to him) and would help her to blend in somewhat anyway. "I'll be right back..." she said to the others as she got up from her seat and hurried along out to the main staircase, and headed down to where the microphone was, as well as the line of 10 people ahead of her. She decided to try and get the attention as she didn't really care about whether or not there was a line. "Excuse me Dr. Watts! I have a question!" she called out as she ended up getting the microphone so that she could address the pair.

"Can I first start off by saying it is totally an honor to be here in front of you, your work is amazing. I also agree with you on what you said regarding what Dr. Hansen said, and might I point out Dr. Hansen that things that work on normal humans from my understanding don't always work on mutants, it depends on the person, and trying to just throw something out there that you are advertising as a sort cure almost without having any sort of real hard evidence for the group it's meant to help, that kind of goes against the way science typically is done if I remember correctly... Oh, I'm Marissa Clarkson by the way," she said, sort of rambling a little bit, slipping in a compliment to Watts while also somewhat going against what Hansen was saying. She hoped that Watts would go along with her little lie regarding her name. "So Dr. Watts I was wondering, what do you think needs to happen in order to effectively fight against M-Pox? What sort of solution do you propose if you don't mind me asking."

"Marissa, at AIM we have been conducting tests of Extremis on mutants. The results are unpublished, but we have been successful in regrowing limbs and repairing scar tissue. There's no reason the science couldn't work for M-Pox or the elimination of the X-gene," Dr. Hansen butted in. It was, after all, her panel.

"I'm sorry, are you Dr. Watts? No? I didn't think so. What we need to fight M-Pox is to understand M-Pox. This disease is less than a week old. We need to have rigorous experiments and tests to characterize it first, to understand how M-Pox is operating before we can even begin to think of a cure. The longer we put off running these simple, important tests, the more lives will be lost."

"That does make some sense I suppose," she started to say, before there was suddenly the loud blaring of the fire and emergency alarms blasting throughout the auditorium. She glanced back towards the others in the audience, and then thought to hell with it. If there was actually a fire or something her powers would probably be fairly useful, and she knew someone else who could be helpful. Instead of heading to the exit doors instead Sapphire went right up to the stage and looked right at Watts, her eyes shifting to the familiar ice blue. "Hey Watts, I know you're retired and all, but mind helping out a little it, superspeed would be so helpful right now, so please tell me you actually still carry your damn fancy serum around. Since don't you find it a bit odd that you all are having this talk about M-Pox and mutants and whatever and suddenly the alarm starts blaring? Or is it just me. So you gonna help out or not?"

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Zari was startled when the guy with a knife throw had managed to disarm her, knocking her sword Glowstick off to the side. Now this was definitely not a good thing. Never losing your weapon in a fight was practically rule number one when it came to how the world worked, which didn't really help out all too much that she seemed to be breaking it. Glancing over at the guy, and over at her sword she instantly darted for it, when suddenly she heard the sounds of knives being thrown at her, and she barely managed to roll out of the way and avoided them, snatching her sword back up in her hand as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the cell phone that she had with her.

She knew it was a bad idea to take her eyes off of her opponent, but she also was seriously starting to wonder if she truly could win this fight. Her next best option was to try and blast the alarms and get as many people in the area as possible and maybe slip off into the crowd if she was lucky. Tapping away rather quickly, as well as aided by her powers, she managed to pull it off, as the sounds started blaring throughout the university. The noise was rather loud, and not really something she was entirely used to. Hopefully more people would enter the area to let her slip away maybe.

That's when she noticed the cops show up and have their guns pointed at Mr. Stabby Stabberson, and she had more then a bit confused look on her face. Who were they? And why were they here? Where she grew up, there wasn't a semblance of law enforcement, you just had to be the person who punched harder. "...Uh, who are you? I'm confused..." she said softly towards them.

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Things were like hell it seemed like, at least when it came to dealing with M-Pox. The past few months hadn't been too eventful, aside from him giving Sunshine a set of bow and arrows for Christmas, and Max deciding to rejoin the Underground. "Purifiers could be anywhere you know, but why should that stop us from living Rookie," Jack said towards her, his head was pounding and he was fairly dizzy as they reached the Mutant Friendly Clinic. Of course, it was no surprise to him that Casper had been here before, since his brother was (at least hopefully it was past tense) a drug addict, so it probably was pretty frequently.

He went with them to the back area of the clinic and he took a seat in a chair, managing to do so without falling to the ground, just barely though. Unfortunately he had one of the more severe cases, and that made it difficult to walk around or even really move. "You know this place isn't so bad you know, could be worse, could have people not even willing to help us out at all," his words were a bit slurred as he wasn't exactly thinking straight, hopefully the doctors at the clinic would be able to help out. Otherwise hopefully things wouldn't take a drastic turn for the worst. "Be nice Sunshine, insulting people never ends well you know..."

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Saying the past five days fucking sucked would have been the understatement of the year and it was only two and a half months in. James had no idea where this illness came from but suddenly having six people bedridden―yes, that included Casper stubborn as he was through the whole thing―with five of them vomiting and struggling for breath and three of them bleeding spontaneously was not good for the nerves. He felt like he was pulled taut like a wire. He’d be the first to admit it was his own doing; sleep didn’t come easily to someone who was watching people who were like his family at this point succumb to something they could fix. He thought he could for a little while. His powers seemed to work for a bit but after a while, it just came back worse. So he was resigned to taking care of them best he could while they did it Sapphire’s way, the proper way really, but even then, they hit a dead end. There were definitely bags starting to show under his eyes and there was a seemingly permanent ache in his neck and a tightness around his temples. It had only been five days but the statistics weren’t inspiring. James couldn’t help but wonder what kind of timer they were working on.

“You’re right. This kinda sucks but we’re resourceful. We’ll figure it out if we need to.” James said to Sunshine as he helped Max and Luna out of the car. Jack seemed intent on maintaining his independence but James still kept a sharp eye on him. Sunshine’s concern had merits after all. With the illness induced violence, this clinic could quickly become a target if word got out it was mutant friendly. “We’ll see if they have a fire escape plan. It should show all the exits and we can put together an exit strategy.” James followed Casper in, supporting Max and Luna as best he could. Callie and Magik could still walk mostly on their own thankfully because he didn;t have enough arms to help everyone. He was tempted to get Max to whip up some wheelchairs but he put that out of his head quickly enough. Poor guy was sick as a dog and they didn’t need to announce their presence to any Purifier sympathisers.

Of course, Casper had a story about this place. James gave his boyfriend an incredulous look as he locked up the van. On one hand, James was absolutely not surprised. It was very Casper to have accidentally done something crazy and then forgotten about it. On the other hand, Casper what the fuck? But neither of those things came out. Instead, the knee jerk reaction that, had he been working at full, would have never escaped in front of the team escape his filter.“Babes, you never told me you like a guy in uniform. Think of all the fun we missed.” James deadpanned, not really registering the words came out as they headed inside.

“Sweetheart.” James groaned as he past Linda, thanking her sincerely as they did. Getting Max and Luna settled into seats, James looked around for that fire escape plan that should be posted on the wall somewhere. He returned Magik’s glare with a sympathetic look. Hopefully, it was just the regular suffering and not a sigh of it worsening.

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Andy was doing her best to keep her leg from shaking. She was holding her coffee between her knees so she could pick at the muffin. Andy tried to resist a grin when the man behind her cracked a joke about drinking games. Then he kicked the back of her chair. She looked back, irritated at him. At least her coffee hadn't been spilled, and the guy apologized. So, though annoyed by it, Andy let it drop. She didn't think punching some random dude would go over well, especially with the tension in the room. And if he wasn't a mutant, at least it seemed he sympathized, and had good humor. So she stopped the glare, gave a shrug, and turned back to her coffee and muffin.

Andy divided her attention between her muffin, the increasingly uncomfortable lecture, and the conversation behind her. The conference moved to M-Pox. The mysterious disease that she had somehow, blissfully avoided catching. She popped a bite of muffin into her mouth, her shoulders tensing as the female doctor brought up the 'magic-cure-all' that would eliminate the x-gene. Extremis might be able to cure all manner of things. It sounded like genocide to her.

If Extremis was put in the water, there would be no way to avoid it. Andy didn't know how much of it would take to take away her powers. Like fluoride in the water, it might not require much.

One of the women from behind her went and cut in line to ask a question of Dr. Watts. She didn't get the science that was being batted back and forth since she hadn't been to school for anything beyond the ninth grade, and everything before that was lacking. Between foster homes and her inability to focus, school had never come easy, nor had she particularly cared for it, especially Northwood, which she had attended two weeks before running away. Andy took a daring sip of her coffee and decided it was cool enough to risk a gulp.

The fire alarm sounded. Andy's stomach twisted fear clawing at the back of her mind, but she was able to control it. There was no fire. The hot coffee reached her stomach and warmed her up. At least the partial muffin meant that her stomach wasn't empty. She looked around, and the nearest exit was the one behind her that she had come in. She gathered her coffee, what was left of her muffin (just the top), and headed for the exit.

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Max felt the van stop as his body jostled slightly. A slight groan of protest escaping him as he readjusted himself. He reached up towards his ears as he felt the stickiness of old blood begin to thicken before crusting over the dried portions. He sat up slowly, dropping some of his weight onto James, feeling bad for using him, but also thanking his stars that it appeared he wasn't infected even with the days worth of healing he was admistering to everyone. His brain felt muddled and it became hard to focus on what was being said around him, words failing to form in his mouth as his tongue lazily attempted to form them. "I'm'n...I'm'n." He cleared his throat, the taste of iron splashing on his tongue as he did. He didn't like the idea of Sunshine being their main line of defense against an attack. Max wouldn't use his powers so close to people in this condition. They had been proving to be unreliable and spotty since he became infected. The last thing mutants needed was another disaster headline if they went awry.

Max chuckled at Caspers anecdote, pointing lazily as his bum as he walked off. "Hey Casper, how big was the soldier?" He managed to snort out in a slur that was almost incomprehensible. He had his arm wrapped around James, using his free hand to nudge him in a playful manner. His stomach began to churn, a pain he knew all too well as a sign that he may be vomiting soon, though as to when it would happen was anyone's guess. Once he was sat in the chair, Max turned and faced Casper for a moment. Allowing his eyes to focus. "Hey Casp...Ca...Caspian? Prince Caspian heh that's funny. If I die, will you keep me company and talk to me?" He quickly turned away to cough into his arm, blood splattering on his shirt before he leaned back to wait and relax.

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Echo was sitting to the left of his twin, listening intently as the two doctors grabbed away on stage. He knew why they were there but couldn't help but wonder if they could've just saved everyone the time and came after the lecture had ended. Once the conversation turned to M-Pox however, he leaned forward in his chair almost mirroring his twin. It appeared that Dr. Hansen believed that some test drug known as Extremis was the answer. A cure all to any problem, and by their words, a cure to the X-gene. Echo tensed his hand, his leg shaking nervously at the turn in the discussions. "Can you believe Hansen? A cure for the X-gene? We aren't a disease and we don't need to be cured. Sure as hell don't need to have it forced upon us in the city water supply. If Hansen's super drug really can cure anything, then perhaps it can cure the racist bigots outside who believe we are a plague." He spoke in hushed tones so only those near him could hear.

The alarms began to blare, as if perhaps the good doctor was hiding something. Either that or it was a perfect coincidence. Echo looked around at Veil and the others, watching a depressingly dressed emo kid make for the exit like a sane person would. Harry thought to use the Soundwaves of the alarms to help locate the fire or hazard around them. But there was so many sources, bodies, and noise that the chances of him seeing anything would be difficult. He got up out of his seat and held the exit door open for others to follow out as he looked towards Veil. "Whats the plan here sis? We don't exactly have a way to locate the fire, and it'll be hard to put it out with all these people stampeding to safety." Sapphire still seemed to be up with her friend conversing, even with all the alarms sounding around them.

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Callie stumbled out of the back of the van, doing her best to take a deep breath it was really hard breathing ever since she had contracted M-Pox, she cracked her neck slightly in an attempt to relive the dizziness that she had been having. "Just stay close as possible, and get back to the van if anything does happen." Callie said coughing slightly as she made her way into the clinic, letting Casper do all of the talking since he had been here before apparently. "Thank you ma'am." Callie said as she followed the others towards the back of the clinic where the large examination room was and sat down in the closest chair to her.

She had to agree with Magik and Sunshine she didn't like this at all either and things could turn bad the moment any kind of Purifier showed up. Callie wore long sleeves to hide the clearly visible veins on her arms, and a pair of glasses as well to hide her bloodshot eyes. She watched Luna, Max and Jack as closely as possible knowing that their conditions were the worse out of all of them her attention turned towards Casper and shook her head slightly. "Okay that is a little to much information there I really don't want to know what has been shoved up your ass right now." Callie said laughing slightly, waiting for the doctor to show up.

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Kristina listened to both Dr. Hanson and Dr. Watts as the two of them started to bicker about the supposed cure for everything, she had to agree with Dr. Watts though he was being a little bit of an ass right then on stage. She took another sip from the coffee and got up to leave for a moment as she eyed the cooler of coke, and got up and made her way over to grab one as well before. Kristina grabbed one slipping it into her coat pocket before going back and sitting down. Kristina continued to listen to them seeing one girl cutting through the line to ask Dr. Watts a question about M-Pox which caught her attention as well and Watts answered it.

That's when she started to hear the alarm going off, Kristina quickly started to worry that it might be some Purifiers or something, as people started to file out of the auditorium. She made her way towards the exit as well just as the other people were and looked towards the guy holding the door open for everyone to leave. "Thank you." Kristina said as she quickly exited the building itself and looked around the area. Thinking of just flying off right then and there, but that would instantly draw attention to her which she didn't want at all.

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The last week had been hell, not only for Luna but for the six mutants that had started developing symptoms of this mysterious M-Pox. For Luna, it had started out simply, a bit of a headache and she could never get a full night’s sleep. But everyday after it got worse and worse. Luna didn’t have much of an appetite anymore. Not with the seemingly permanent taste of iron in her mouth from all the vomiting of blood. Luna knew it was bad when she woke up with her pillow soaked from blood coming out of her ears and maybe vomiting in the middle of the night. She didn’t know anymore. She could barely keep her thoughts straight. And being a telepath, that didn’t really help things.
She was leaning heavily against James by the time they walked into the clinic, even though she had started off trying not to. It didn’t take much to tire her out these days. Just simply sitting up from laying down was a struggle. She felt a trickle down the side of her neck and wiped away the blood that was coming from her ears. It seemed to come and go, like a nose bleed.
Luna had never truly feared death but she always thought she would go out in battle. This sickness, it instilled a fear in her and she didn’t want to die. Some nights she woke up crying, calling for James as he seemed to be the only one she found comfort in. That and wanting to call her parents but she couldn’t figure out how to do that. Even though she had a phone and their numbers.
Luna looked around the mutant friendly clinic. Not really realizing where they were. ”Are we here to adopt a puppy? I always wanted a puppy,” she said dreamily.

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Cayden was glad to be out of the Mutant Underground, as awful as it was he needed to get out. The people who had developed M-Pox had hit Cayden hard over the week. Their symptoms were getting worse and there was nothing that any of them could truly do. Sapphire and James had been exhausting all of their resources but for nothing really and it was hard to see the defeat and sadness in James when he couldn’t help.
Cayden sat in one of the desks, writing away as the speakers spoke. He wanted to write down what they were saying so he could remember it for later. It also helped to keep him distracted and not from standing and expressing his outrage. A cure for the X-gene. How could they even call it a cure. It made Cayden think cynically on how the Euopeans would have felt if there had been a cure for the “savage natives” they all hated so much. Then again, hard alcohol and European disease seemed to be the cure they preferred. That and watching them kill each other for territory and stay on the White Man’s good side so they themselves didn’t get slaughtered. All though it never worked out that way.
Cayden listened closely when the conversation switched to M-Pox, scribbling down what he could but it was more just him writing down the constant, “no, I’m right” gibberish that the speakers were going back and forth on. The Extremis that Dr. Hansen was pushing to be released, claiming that it would make people effectively immortal, confused Cayden. Aside from this M-Pox affecting just the mutants, being a mutant was an advancement to humans. A jump to being immortal. Was it because this X-Gene developed on it’s own the reason why it wasn’t okay? But this Extremis would be?
Sapphire stood and Cayden watched her approach the microphone, thankful for the distraction from his thoughts and listened to her until an alarm went off. Cayden stopped and looked around the auditorium, looking for the source and maybe someone trying to quickly get away. ”So I guess that’s the end of that fascinating conversation,” Cayden noted. He folded up his notes and tucked them away before standing. He ran a hand through his hair and watched the speakers.

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Dr. Watts' hair had a lot more grey in it than the last time he had seen Sapphire. The abuse of the speed serum had taken its toll on his body. "I don't have a working serum at the moment," he admitted bitterly. He was a very proud and vain man - the fact that he hadn't been able to fix his serum to be safe for him to use again annoyed him to no end.

"I can help," a voice popped up. A young girl in a jean jacket stepped out from back stage, standing next to Dr. Watts. She had his same calculating blue eyes. The sirens in the auditorium were blaring and everyone was rushing to get out, with all of the panelists already having joined the rush to evacuate. None of them were present to see as the girl let out a breath and suddenly, rainbows were dancing all over her body as she floated up gently into the air.

"Leda, no!" Watts snapped. "It's too dangerous here in D.C.! Damn it! LEDA GET BACK HERE OR YOU'LL BE GROUNDED UNTIL THE SUN SWALLOWS THE EARTH!" His threats didn't do anything though - Princess Rainbow Unicorn had flown above the heads of the crowd and shot out into the street to save the day. "She's only seventeen, god fucking damn it!" Watts screamed. He punched the table in front of him and then threw the chair aside. "Get us out there now!" He was looking at Sapphire, knowing that with an ice slide she could easily get them out there in time before Leda got hurt.

"Come on, let's see if we can help," Veil told her companions. She got up from her seat and headed out of the auditorium, through the lobby - she did snatch a can of soda and shoved it into her pockets for Sunshine - and then out into the street. Havok followed her, grumbling, "Since when are we firefighters too?"

Now that they were outside and Veil could get a good look at what was going on, this wasn't about a fire at all. "Does that look like a fire to you, Havok?" she asked him bluntly. She made force fields like stepping stones in the air, jumping from field to field as she soared over the heads of those fleeing. Veil then dropped to the ground right in front of the young blue-green haired girl, throwing up a force field in front of them just as Stabberson threw his knife at Zarina. "Kid, run!"

"YeS iT ToTalLY lOOkS liKE a FIre!" Havok mocked. He weaved his way through the surging crowd, though fortunately no one besides Zarina and the police were out in the street (and Stabberson, of course) so it made it easier. He rocked his hips and a gigantic blast of red energy went off, slamming into Stabberson and knocking him backwards.

"Havok, now is not the time!" Veil snapped. Stabberson had rolled back up from his fall and was on his feet again. His strange blue knives were back in his hands, but he wasn't stupid. There were too many people there. He also figured with the outright display of mutant powers, the police would kill the mutants for him, so he turned and began to run, fleeing the scene.

A girl then soared out from the auditorium, glowing with rainbow light. She was flying after Stabberson, trying to catch him when a gun fired. She fell to the ground, clutching her chest in shock, blood pooling. The police hadn't been the only ones to notice the alarms and emergency sirens. Purifiers were on the scene. Three of them rushed over to Leda, tying her hands behind her back with zipties as she struggled and tried to break free. She couldn't summon a rainbow glow.

The police didn't care that purifiers were there shooting teenage girls. They turned their guns on Havok, hitting him thrice with their bullets, although they didn't hit anything fatal. One bullet went into his thigh, two of them grazed his arms. "I knew I hated college for a reason!" Havok shouted.

It was complete and utter chaos - police, purifiers, civilians, and mutants. The perfect cover for Stabberson to slip away.

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"He's not a people though - he's just Casper," Sunshine pointed out to her father. She didn't like Casper. He was weird, stupid, and probably just minutes away from relapsing. It was mostly his drug abuse that bothered her. She had seen friends on the streets start using and they were never the same again. A few of them had died because of their addictions - others had gotten reckless and ended up being arrested, sentences to mutant super-max or worse. "Also, Hufflepuff, you sound stupid right now. Might want to work on that."

"Hey, I am a person!" Casper protested. He was grinning a bit eagerly though at James' mention of a guy in uniform. "We haven't missed out anything babes - we just need to make a stop by the GoodWill on the way back... I bet they have a uniform in your size." He couldn't help but be excited at the thought of James dressed up in a uniform - would he be a cop? No, James was more of an EMT sort of personality. The cop thing was probably too close for comfort to everything that had happened with Wanda's world.

The fire escape plan was posted next to the door - it clearly labeled all of the possible exits. In fact, the back room had an emergency exit inside of it. There were also windows marked everywhere and the plan gave the general street layout. It wouldn't have been the first time that the clinic's patients had needed to use the plan in order to bolt.

Casper winced, holding a hand to his head as he tried to stave off the headache. "The toy soldier or the soldier who put it up there?" he asked Max innocently. He refused to look over at Max though, keeping his attention focused on James. There was the flickering form of Waverley's mother hovering over Max and Casper didn't want to speak to the ghost. The dead cop was covered in her own blood and she (understandably) was enraged that her murderer was living with her daughter. Casper much preferred Ben's company - or even the purifier that tended to float around near his brother from time to time. Casper was pretty talented at tuning out anti-mutant hate speech. "Sorry, my ghost best friend position has been filled - also..." Casper trailed off. He had been about to tell Max that they weren't really friends, but he thought better of it and shut his mouth.

Sunshine, however, sensed an opportunity to insult Max. She wasn't happy at all that he had joined the Mutant Underground. She never liked him, especially after he abandoned the Morlocks - and then again abandoned the Mutant Underground to join forces with a group of Nazis. "Why would Casper want to torture himself by talking to you, idiot?" Sunshine asked. "Casper's dumb but he's not that dumb."

"She does have a point," Ben chimed in. "Casper, would you mind opening up a magazine or something to the puzzle section? I'm bored. Listening to Glimpse be loony is fun and all, but it's getting old."

Casper nodded, plucking one of the magazines off of the wall - Teen Vogue. He flipped to the article about boys, bullies, and Ariana Grande's breakout. "Remember when she was on Victorious, Ben? I always said she was way more fun than Tori," Casper commented. Ben went and hovered over him, reading the article.

"Honestly, Tori was so boring..." Ben agreed.

The door of the back room swung open, revealing Doctor Chan. She was dressed in a white coat, blue scrubs, and she had an N-95 mask on. Her hair was pulled back with a neon pink scrunchie and she had pink latex gloves on. "Alright Casper, what do I need to pull out of where this time?" Chan asked. "... Linda didn't mention you brought friends. I'm not judging, but I'm judging. Some of these girls are waaay too young for your bullshit orgies."

"He should be so lucky as to have sex with me," Magik deadpanned, before lurching forward and vomiting all over the floor. Doctor Chan took a step backwards, that way the puddle of vomit wouldn't get on her shoes. They were LL Bean boots and looked to be fairly new. They had hardly any scuff marks on them.

"They have M-Pox. Can you cure them?" Sunshine asked bluntly. The sooner the doctor treated her family, the sooner they could leave and get back to the safety of the Underground. She didn't trust Doctor Chan, but she also knew if they did nothing, her family would die from this disease. Sunshine had never been able to manipulate a disease she hadn't caused and James' powers didn't seem to do much.

"Oh," Doctor Chan said, looking at them with sympathy. "I don't have a cure, but I have the next best thing. Steroids. I'll get you all topical steroids, just smear them on the splotches on your skin, it'll clear that up."

"We are vomiting blood and some cannot walk," Magik pointed out.

"I can give you antiemetics for the vomiting and nausea - and the good stuff for the pain, except Casper can't have those," Chan explained. "I'll be back in a hot sec. Try not to die, okay?"

"No promises."

Chan then hurried out of the room to go grab all of the medication she could - it would all be for treating their symptoms. She didn't have anything to fix the underlying problem. Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. claimed to have a cure in progress, they hadn't told the medical community any details about it. They didn't even know what was causing M-Pox in mutants or how it was attacking the body.

"Awww, I want the good stuff..." Casper pouted, turning the page of the magazine for Ben.