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"...Runa?" Lance said, a bit confused almost before the next thing he knew, all of the air was out of his lungs and he could feel himself suffocating. No matter how hard he tried he could not catch his breath, and he was starting to get dizzy due to lack of air. Falling to his knees, he was still trying to breath, but nothing was working. An idea formed in the back of his mind regarding a possible solution, and eventually, after a few tries (probably took a while due to his problem of not really being able to breathe) the darkness mixed with a ball of light shot out of his mouth and hit the ground. With the darkness gone, he gasped for air a little bit, coughing on the ground.

"...Well I suppose that this shouldn't surprise me. Believe it or not you don't have to worry too much about the darkness manipulation so much as one of her other abilities, since like many Asgardians she has more then one, like for me, I can tell who someone's soulmate is just by looking at them... What I'm trying to get at is... She is known as the Goddess of Lies for a reason. Whatever you do, do not contradict her lies. Any lie she tells you, you contradict her, she snaps her fingers and the lie becomes truth, so no matter what you do, since reality warping is very powerful!" Klara said instantly as she twirled her sword around in her hand, staring at Runa. However, something was bugging her a bit, given how easy it had seemed for her to be broken free of Loki's spell, however she kept those thoughts to herself for the moment.

"Alright, so be careful about contradicting her, got it, anything else we should know?" Mary instantly asked as vines wrapped around her arms as she prepared to send out an attack at Runa.

"Don't try to grab her staff, that will likely hurt you immensely, unless you are her soulmate, then it won't but eh, that's about it." she responded with a shrug.

"Alright then, thanks for the info," came the response, before she sent a few vines slamming into Runa, knocking her sideways and to the ground, though it wasn't really doing all too much to injure her at the moment.

Mira glanced over at the chaos going on around her involving the new threat it would seem, and she shrugged her shoulders slightly, "Well this is going to be fun then it seems," she said, before she let out a rather loud sonic screech aiming it directly at Runa, but it didn't really seem powerful enough for her to cause any major damage. Mira was swaying a bit, unsteady on her feet for some reason, and a bit light headed, perhaps from screeching at Iris and the girl's annoying voice and headache that she caused by existing.

Lance had no idea what to do as he managed to catch his breath and stand up entirely now, and he looked over at Runa, since the problem was he really really really did not want to fight Runa, at all. He wasn't actually moving to fight her, or moving from the spot where he was standing at all, as if more or less stuck with his own thoughts for the moment. Truthfully he was trying to figure out a way to fix this or stop Runa *without* hurting her.

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Iris' head popped up from it's position lazily resting on her shoulder when a loud thud sounded from one of the hall's walls, the sound of something slamming into the other side of it. It caused Iris to let out a sigh. It sounded like the team was in another little fight, which meant her break was over, a fact only solidified when she heard a banging on the door in front of her, followed by Annie's voice. It caused a small smirk to creep onto her lips. Of course the X-Men's resident fluffball was the one coming to check on her. That girl couldn't do anything wrong if she tried, at least in Iris' book. It was enough to get Iris back onto her feet. She took a deep breath, the shakiness practically gone at this point, and she wiped her eyes one more time. They remained red, but with her weed cigarette held between her thumb and finger, she had plausible deniability. She looked to Upsilon, standing by the door, and she gave him a nod.

"Chin up, smile on, let's fucking go, my dude," she said, forcing her lips back into her trademark dopy grin. She opened the door just enough for her to slide through, and promptly shut it again when she was out. The last thing she needed was for anyone to see the charred hallway and start asking questions. She gave Annie a nod. "Yeah, I'm all good, just taking my vitamin C, if you know what I'm saying," she assured her fellow blonde, holding up her lit doobie so there was no doubt just what she was saying. She absentmindedly tugged at the charred ends of her sleeves as she turned her eyes to the scene in front of her, namely the new person, dressed all in black and wielding some sort of fancy antique stick with a little hula-hoop at the top. Waverley looked at her, lips pursed with confusion.

"Okay, sooo, two questions...who is she, and what does a hot goth chick have to do with the jungle?" she asked, using the end of her cigarette to point at Runa. Having come in late, she'd just missed the entire briefing, and had no clue what was going on.

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As Klara's healing washed over Elizabeth, she gave a relieved exhale, feeling her leg return to normal, "I owe you one, thanks a bunch hun." Shortly after, she smiled at Antoinette and nodded, "Much better, now, let's-" She started to say, before the game spit out a person. A familiar person, one whom Elizabeth had scorned not a minute ago. "Oh, I guess she found her way out, Hey Runa!" She said, before noticing that while Runa has returned, she was not herself at the moment. This, she surmised, was not good, a hypothesis which was confirmed by the assault on Lance.

This was of course, not good, and as Klara hopped on explaining her powers, Elizabeth mentally made a note. Had she not said that, Elizabeth may have let some snarky hero-esque line escape her lips, which would have ended poorly for all of them. However, she did get another idea from Klara's exposition, one that was terrible in all the possible senses. She had one advantage over the rest of them, she had a robot arm. So if she went to grab the staff, it shouldn't hurt her, since she wouldn't be touching it. That sounded logical enough to her, and as such, she rushed the girl, and ripped it out of her hands.

Shortly after, she realized that this was what some may call a mistake. A stabbing pain shot through her body, and she let out a cry. Thinking on her feet, she tried to transmute the staff, but found her powers unable to do so. This was of course, not good, so she settled for the more obvious solution; chucking the damn thing. Giving it a hurl away from both of them, she put about five feet of distance between Runa and her staff, and interposed herself between them. "Hey, if it makes you feel better," She started to say, the aftershock of the pain reverberating through her body, "I am sorry if I wasn't the nicest to you in the jungle. Turns out, you coming and choking my friends really makes me see you in a different light, you know?" She snarked, hoping the others would be able to keep the staff away from her.

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Neil's cheeks flushed with embarrassment as Carolina asked him whether or not something had happened. He wasn't ashamed of what he had done - it had made sense, it was necessary in order to get Carolina and Elizabeth back safely - but he still didn't want Carolina to know about it. He was worried that she would start to see him in a different light, just like Sara had when she met his family. He had similar fears about everyone on the team - that, say, if Stark found out he had been raised by Satanic witches, she would demand he be kicked off of the team. Bethany was probably the only one who could truly be cool with it, as that entire thing was basically her aesthetic. "Uh, no idea what Banner's going on about. He's not exactly sane you know..." Neil lied to Carolina.

Runa turned her head, distracted by what Neil had done. It gave Bethany enough of an opening to send her flying backwards and she hit the wall, denting it. Fortunately, her Asgardian constitution meant she didn't sustain any serious injuries. "I'm the original gothic teenager, I'm afraid your entire aesthetic has been based on me," she told Bethany seriously. While she didn't look very old - maybe about fifteen or so - that didn't mean much for Asgardians. Her slight distraction gave another opening, resulting in Marygold hitting her with some vines and then Mira unleashing a sonic screech.

Elizabeth managed to wrestle her staff away from her. Runa smirked slightly, holding out her hand. The staff flew back into her grip. "Children shouldn't touch things that don't belong to them," she chided. "You understand nothing of what is happening here. You are all weak and fragile. Your powers are nothing against me."

"No one say anything to contradict her or her lies become true," Neil said, echoing Klara's earlier instructions as Iris had missed them. He winced as Runa seemingly vanished, only to appear behind Elizabeth and stab her twice, the second stab rather deep. Runa then spun around and whacked Lance over the head with her staff, sending Banner to the ground. He was bleeding profusely and Runa then went for the groin shot with a kick. Neil winced, but the sympathy wasn't needed. Lance kicked Runa in the knee and knocked her to the ground, catching the staff as it fell with her.

Neil frowned, having expected Banner to burst into flames or something, but nothing happened. He saw an opportunity though and he concentrated, trying to make her eyes explode so that way she couldn't see. He failed. But as a trusty DM for his group of adventurers, he knew how to improvise. Neil telekinetically flung Runa up at the ceiling, his movements so quick that she had to let go of the staff as she went flying upwards - only to fly back down, hitting the ground and leaving a dent.

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Guin raised an eyebrow at all of the Asgardian mumbo-jumbo going on. She didn't see how it made any sense that someone could warp reality by having people call them out on lies. She preferred science and logic over magic and trickery. Still though, Runa was a bit of a beast when it came to fighting, having stabbed Elizabeth and really hurt Lance. People were making some progress against her, but apparently Edus couldn't do magic without getting one of her hairs. Guin was outside of her suit and she took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she reached out. Her telepathy skills were rather undeveloped.

At first, she couldn't latch onto Runa's mind at all. But then she eventually managed to hear her, the thoughts in some ancient tongue and she could tell how old the girl really was. Guin manipulated Runa's mind, sending the Asgardian girl to the realm of unconsciousness. She opened her eyes, a bit of blood trickling from her nose due to the use of her powers. She then walked on over to Runa, bent down and plucked a bit of her hair, and then held it out to Edus. "Here you go, Harry Potter. One bit of hair, taken without consent. I believe it's virgin hair too, doesn't feel like it's ever been dyed or bleached."

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Carolina stared at Neil for a moment as he answered her, and then stared at Lance she was friends with him, and they had spent sometime together while they were dealing with their head injuries back when Mesmero had attacked the mansion. And his little Hulk condition as well to, kind of made sense to her Carolina nodded slightly. "I wont pry further then." Carolina said as she watched Elizabeth going in and knocking out the staff from Runa's hands as Klara explained her other powers to. "So, we pretty much have to agree with whatever her lie is then?" Carolina asked.

The others started to attack Runa, until eventually she was knocked out by Guin she let out a slight sigh seeing Runa was out now, she liked Runa as a friend and hopefully Edus would be able to do something about whatever made Runa attack them. "Hopefully she will be okay." Carolina said as she looked at the others. "Whos turn is it now anyway?" Carolina asked, her and Elizabeth were out of the game for awhile and she didnt know whos turn it was.

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"So, if she lies and says that she's a man and we contradict that then it becomes reality or something?" Bethany asked looking at Klara mainly more as a joke as she turned to stare at Runa as she spoke to her and gave a slight shrug. "Sure you are the original goth teen then." Bethany said sarcastically as Runa suddenly attacked Elizabeth doing something similar to her and stabbed Elizabeth, wincing slightly, and then Runa attacking Lance and kicking him in the nuts. She was never into men but she had a feeling that getting kicked in the nuts did really hurt.

Guin managed to knock her out as she crossed her arms slightly over her chest and looked at everyone else in the room she had to agree with Carolina who's turn it was next. But first they needed to go and heal the others who had been injured by Runa, Elizabeth looked like she would need the most help right now as well as Lance to.

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Ed sighed, well that was one solution he figured. He rolled his eyes at Guin's comment calling him Harry Potter. He limped over to Lance. Ed raised an eyebrow as he saw that Lance was holding Runa's magic staff with seeming no issues. Interesting. He glanced at Klara, shrugged, and with a bit of blood that was on Lance cast his healing spell again. They weren't be actively attacked and Mira or Iris hadn't rolled yet so for a few moments they had a respite.

The spell seemed to work this time on Lance. Go figure. Who the heck knew what was going on? Of course, until Runa woke up there was no way to tell if his healing spell would work on her mind as it had with Klara. He still didn't quite trust that it had worked completely with Klara but she did seem to be on their side at least.

"Well I targeted her mind with my healing spell. Hopefully, it worked as it did with Klara." He put a gentle hand on Lance. "When she wakes up, you're the one who should speak to her."

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Iris opened the door shortly after Antoinette knocked. When the door opened, Antoinette got a peek in behind Iris to see the charred hallway and yet Iris was completely unharmed, other than the burns on her clothing. Antoinette blinked at Iris a couple of times and noted the joint in her hand. Antoinette smiled and shook her head in mild amusement. Iris then asked who Runa was and Antoinette turned to look at the girl.
”Her name is Runa and she’s Asgardian like Klara, like Thor,” Antoinette explained, remembering how earlier, Iris didn’t realize Thor was truly a god, not just playing one. ”She was in the jungle and has reappeared after Lance and Neil rolled.” Runa was well on her way to attacking everyone now but they were all making a good effort. Antoinette moved forward, ready to help but after Neil and Lance tried their hands at her, Guin managed to knock Runa out and get a hair for Edus to use.
Antoinette gestured for Iris to follow and went to go stand near Edus, but not so close to be in his way and watched him work, while glancing at an unconscious Runa and Lance, holding Runa’s staff. According to what Klara said, only Runa’s soulmate could hold the staff and remained unharmed. Antoinette glanced at Lance curiously before looking back to Edus.

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Guina are you okay? Pietro instantly asked her mentally, going over to her. He did not like the idea of her hurting herself over that sort of thing.

"Well that was a lot simpler then it should have been," Mary said as she glanced at the others after Runa had been knocked out. She would have expected the fight to last a little bit longer, but it didn't, but that was a good thing since it meant that they could move on and hopefully get this game over with.

"Most likely since everyone heeded my warning. If someone had contradicted her when she said we were all powerless, then that fight would have been entirely different. Though to be fair my cousin wasn't much of a fighter, at least when compared to most of our other relatives," Klara commented. Though there was a slight glint of pink once more in her one good eye, and she started smirking slightly, but she likely wasn't going to say what about.

Also quick question, didn't that staff injure Elizabeth even with her robot arm? So how come Lance has it right now and isn't getting hurt by it? he couldn't help but comment as well.

Lance got up off of the ground, before realizing that he still had the staff in his hands, as he then dropped it to the ground, backing away slightly from it and glanced at Ed, "Uh... Why me when Klara over there is her cousin?" he pointed out, though his brain was at the moment just glad that he hadn't really had to hurt Runa at all, but he had no idea what he'd even say to her when she woke up.

Klara rolled her eyes at Lance, before water surrounded Runa's staff and she more or less used her powers to throw it at him, and he proceeded to catch it by reflex again, once more not getting injured by it. "How about you hold onto that at least until she wakes up. And oh dear you've gotten yourself injured again haven't you?" Klara said to Elizabeth as she walked over. Water swirled around her hands, as just like before she hovered her hand over her injury, and it proceeded to seal up.

"I don't want to mess with this thing!" Lance said in response to Klara, before tossing the staff once more off to the side towards the wall. The idea of messing with any sort of Asgardian weapon was not something he wanted to deal with at the moment. Not to mention messing with something or even holding it when you didn't have a clue how it worked probably wasn't a good idea either.

"Well, if maybe we can sort of rush things along and hopefully not have too much longer to go with the rolls and whatnot, after Lance and Neil it's Mira and Iris' turn," Mary said, before glancing over at Iris. "You alright Iris?" she couldn't help but ask her after Annie it sounded like more or less explained who Runa was to her.

Mira was still leaning up against the wall, and instantly started glaring at Iris when she came back into the room, "Iris can roll the dice, let's just get this stupid thing over with," she commented with an eye roll. She personally didn't care which of them rolled the dice, as long as someone did it. If Iris didn't want to, she'd have to do it herself then.

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Yeah, I'm fine - better than fine, actually, I finally did something with my fucking powers! Guin replied cheerfully. She did a quick psy-scan of the unconscious Asgardian, noting that Runa still hadn't woken up. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to decipher the thoughts to determine whether or not Edus' magic had actually worked. Had he not just brought her husband back from the brink of death, she probably would have teased him for his performance issues - 2/3 isn't too uncommon.

Just don't hurt yourself or something that would be bad. She nodded, brief flashes of the horrific scene from just moments ago echoing inside of her head. Pietro's broken body was merging with Muscles' and she shuddered, the tension rising in her muscles. It was easier to focus on his next question at least - though she didn't have the emotional capacity to appreciate the answer. He has to be her soulmate.

Oh fun.

Yup, looks like he's going to get space herpes! Guin snickered ever so slightly. Lance had never really been the type for relationships, despite her many attempts to set him up. He hadn't gotten with Carolina or Annie or anyone else she had tried to get him to date. Awkwardly, he had been in love with her. It was probably for the best that he fell in love with someone new, since Pietro tended to be the jealous type.

Wow you clearly find that sort of thing incredibly amusing, Pietro responded with a bit of a laugh.

You won't need to be all pissy and jealous around him anymore you know, she couldn't help but point out. They were waiting on Iris or Mira to roll anyways to start the next round off, so she was allowing herself some time to just breathe and telepathically chat with her husband. They didn't get a lot of space to do that during fights, but this fight was clearly a marathon, not a sprint.

I was not pissy and jealous around him, Pietro protested somewhat.

You realize you can't really lie to me, right? Guin mentioned, verbally giggling a bit.

I know that.

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Neil felt a little bit guilty about lying to Carolina, but she seemed to believe him. The sense of relief for not having to come clean to her about his less than stellar actions was more than enough to outweigh the guilt. He chuckled a bit awkwardly at Bethany's joke, hoping that it really was something okay to laugh at - he didn't want a bunch of people on the team screaming at him if he laughed for the wrong reasons. He was jumpy as Banner threw the magic Asgardian staff around the room. He knew that some magical items could have distinct personalities and he didn't want to see if the staff could attack them without anyone holding it.

They needed Iris or Mira to roll so that way they could continue on with the game. He really hoped that they were nearing the end. Everyone was safe and accounted for. He wanted them to be declared the victors so this nightmare could end and they could call the Avengers and let the adults handle Loki. They weren't equipped for this. They had almost lost a few members - if it hadn't been for Edus, their speedster could have been dead.

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It didn’t seem like Lance wanted to hold the staff though and Antoinette watched him throw it around, even after Klara gave it back to him and told him to keep a hold of it. Antoinette folded her arms, resting her cheek in one hand, watching the whole thing unfold. ”Will Runa be... normal when she wakes? Or should we bind her?” Antoinette asked, looking to Klara for advice. Antoinette simply didn’t want another fight to occur, especially with Iris about to roll for them.
Antoinette looked at Edus and rested a hand on his arm. ”How are you feeling?” He had been using a lot of his power in the last few rounds and Antoinette wanted to make sure he was still doing okay. She didn’t have any idea how long this game was going to last and they didn’t have many healers in the group. Hopefully, Klara would be able to stay around and help them out in that area.

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"Uh, wasn't planning on it. Mainly because I do, in fact, understand nothing of what is happening here," she replied when Neil warned her against contradicting the goth girl. She watched, slowly nodding, as the others fought the woman, taking a more supervisor-like role as Runa and Lance fought amongst each other. She brought her cigarette to her lips, breathing in the smoke as she listened to Annie gave her the rundown on who the goth was and why they were fighting her. "Asgardian? Ah...so we just...we fight gods now, that's a thing we do." She nodded her head, though she seemed more tired than shocked or afraid. Her voice had a certain doneness to it, as if she were saying 'this is my life now.' After a second, as Runa crumbled to the ground, something behind Iris' eyes seemed to click, and she raised an eyebrow. ”Wait, did she just get into a fight with Beth about who was the gothier goth, and then proceed to call us children?” She followed behind Annie as she walked over to Edus, standing a few feet away from the two. She looked to Mary when she asked her question.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awesome, I'm cool. Never been better," Iris responded, widening her smile just a little too wide to be genuine. She broke off from Annie and Ed, beginning her way over to the board. But when she felt Mira's gaze burning into her, seeing the girl out the corner of her eye, she froze up. The way she stood there was unlike Iris. Almost child-like. Now admittedly, Iris was often childish, but not like this. She stood tense, shoulders shrugged up around her neck, looking stuck in a flinch. She didn't look at Mira, not even when she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Mir...for making you...do that to me," she mumbled out. She knew how this little dance was supposed to go, though she hadn't needed to do it for a long time. She'd done it with her dad all those years ago, before her mother swept her away to Oregan. All she had to do was apologize to Mira for making her hurt her, let that stew for a while, and eventually everything would be normal again. She stood still for a few seconds, before taking another huff of her cigarette and letting her body relax. She continued forward, scooping up the dice, and tossing them onto the board. She continued to medicate even as words began to appear on the bubble thing.



Iris read the riddle aloud, before raising her head. This riddle was pretty clear, so she scanned the room for monkeys. At first, there were none, but after a few seconds, monkeys began to poor from the cracks and crevices of the room, spilling into the hangar. As they did, three dropped from somewhere above Iris, and knocked her to the ground, beginning to pull at her long blonde hair. She dropped her joint, beginning to try to knock the array of monkeys off of her. Oddly enough, though, it was just an absurd enough happenstance to cause the tension her body had been filled with upon seeing Mira to completely disappear.

"You made me drop my weed, you adorable sacks of shit!" she explained, cackling with a much more real grin as she continued to try to knock the monkeys off.

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Carolina watched as Lance started to freak out about Runa's staff as it seemingly didnt hurt him at all as she looked between Lance and Runa. As she started to put two and two together that Lance was somehow Runa's soulmate, she remembered that the two of them were really close in the House of M Reality. "It looks like Lance is Runa's soulmate or something." She said as she looked at everyone else in the room as Iris came back into the room. She gripped her stick tightly again as Iris rolled, she started to get a bit paranoid and started to expect another fight to breakout.

She would occasionally look over at Neil for a moment and gave him a smile, as she stood close to him she didnt really have any combative powers like the others on the team had, so she relied more on other skills to. "I'll watch your back if you watch mine." Carolina said to Neil as she looked at Annie waving her over. When monkeys started to suddenly appear in the room, she looked at all of them, she kept her guard up when a monkey got to close to her Carolina swung the pointy stick she brought with her from the game world and wacked the monkey hearing a sickening crack as it injured the monkey.

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Bethany looked around at the others in the room and Lance as he freaked out about holding Runa's staff, she wouldnt have held it like Elizabeth did. She crossed her arms over her chest as the turn was now Mira's and Iris' turn to roll the dice as she started to prepare herself for what was to come next. Just was the next riddle appeared in front of them an army of monkeys appeared and started to attack, a group of them focused on Iris. Seeing the girl starting to laugh she shook her head slightly Iris was really weird and she couldnt even understand why.

Bethany closed her eyes and focused on the shadows surrounding Iris and then held out her hand as she forcefully took the monkey's off of Iris. "You should probably pay less attention on getting high and actually start fighting the monkeys? Also you are welcome by the way." Beth said as she watched more monkeys starting to appear.

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Elizabeth keeled over after being stabbed, clutching her side. "And fuck you too." She choked out, before curling up into a fetal position. She really really needed to learn how to handle herself in combat, or her insides would end up being her outsides. In a way though, being stabbed was a blessing, it kept her from making any snarky, contradictory comments. Though she wasn't looking up at the situation, she gathered from the noise around them that, in fact, they had managed to take down Runa. That was good, since it felt like she could be coup de grace'd at any moment.

As blood trickled through, he shirt, she coughed, and sat herself up, keeping pressure on the wound. She gave an annoyed look to Mary as she pushed the game along, hoping they could, at least for a moment, take a second to breathe, but apparently not. As Klara healed her up, she smiled at the Asgardian woman. Heals were always nice, as dying would severely throw off her plans for the future. Standing up shakily, she rubbed the blood off her skin, and winced. Her shirt felt gross now, as the blood stains began to cool and get sticky.

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"I'm doing okay. Tired though. I feel like a headache is considering starting. I've never done this much healing." He gave Annie a sad smile. He didn't tell her that he hadn't cast healing spells much because his sister had done it for them. With Klara there at least they had someone else who could help. That meant he could focus on controlling the field a bit more.

Ed reached into his pocket and touched the small shield that he kept there. He summoned a couple of shield bubbles missing monkeys as they moved around. He frowned and did a few more in quick succession ending up with his last one catching four of the monkeys. That was a waste he thought, but at least he had a few caught now.

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"I don't know, it'll be hard to tell until she wakes up, but I could speed that up a little bit to see what happens," she mused, before water surrounded her hand and she waved it over Runa's head, "Though I am more then a bit curious to find out what happens."

"Uh, maybe that isn't the best idea to just wake her up like that without doing something first to ensure that she doesn't attack us," Mary couldn't help but point out to her.

"Oh I'm sure we'll be fine."

"I don't like you, you never listen and just leave me the hell alone," Mira fumed at Iris, clearly still really annoyed when the monkeys showed up. There had to be dozens of them surrounding the area, and they seemed to be going crazy. After they were tossed off of Iris and whatnot, they seemed to let out a screech before for some weird reason they suddenly had knives in their hands. "Okay, going to be blunt, that right there is definitely not normal, at all..."

"Well looks like we have something else to deal with, why the hell do the monkeys have knives and where the hell did the knives even come from they didn't have them a few moments ago," Mary then said as vines shot out from her pockets and slammed into a few of the monkeys throwing them against the walls. "Anyone else have any sort of ideas for the monkeys? Since my first thought is to have Bethany try to get them out of here again with her powers, or just knock them all out no matter what."

"I mean knocking them out would probably be easier and less of an energy drain on Bethany," Pietro pointed out, before he charged directly into the group of monkeys and slammed 5 of them to the ground. Of course, he did exactly escape the problems of the blades, as his left arm got slashed up a bit and now there was blood dripping down his arm again. He really wasn't having an easy time avoiding getting injured it seemed like.

Mira let out a shriek as a few of the animals went straight towards her, sending them slamming into the wall as well, "Either we beat them up to no end or while we are doing that someone else rolls and we try speed rolling until we reach the end in which everything will disappear again."

A few of the monkeys were not happy with Ed, as 4 of them went straight for him. One of the monkeys missed him entirely with its blade, the others however managed to hit him. Two only managed to slash his arms causing deep cuts to appear, but the last one got a rather lucky stab and slammed its knife into his side, before ripping it out and causing a bunch of blood to start flowing from it.

Another group tackled Carolina to the ground, slashing at her and causing blood to start flowing from her arms and legs, and another few attacked Annie and sliced at her causing a few injuries to her as well. "...Are we really losing to freaking monkeys? MONKEYS???" Pietro couldn't help but say as he managed to tackle a few that had been headed towards Guin, before in a whirlwind Guin would find herself back in her armor. Armor is safer from the killer monkeys that we are somehow losing to! Several monkeys then tackled him to the ground and would not get off, and several others tackled Guin, but thankfully her suit protected her, so she was only a little bruised from the thud of hitting the ground.

The monkeys were apparently ruthless, especially with sharp pointy objects as a few then turned towards Neil and managed to get on him and pin him to the ground, one managed to stab him in the stomach, causing him to start bleeding heavily from it.

Lance was prepared to send out a blast of light but it wasn't seemingly wanting to work quite right, and one leapt heading straight for his head. "Here catch!" he heard Klara's voice call out before once more the staff was tossed to him, and he sent a large blast of light from it, sending the monkey into a wall with a rather loud crack as blood pooled on the ground where it ended up landing.

"Uhhhh..." was all he managed to say, still holding the staff in his hands. Suddenly he got tackled to the ground from behind and managed to blast the monkeys off of him, before he created a bit of a shield of light around him that the monkeys were starting to climb on top of the shield. The staff had been knocked away from him and was currently lying in the sea of monkeys.

Klara was soon knocked backwards, as one of the monkeys had managed to find a weak point in her armor and stabbed her in the side, causing her to stumble as she ended up with a knife stuck in her side. "Well that isn't very nice..." she said, before a few tackled her with enough force to knock her down and she was pinned now too.

Another group of monkeys ran and tackled Mira to the ground, slashing at her body and causing a lot of issues for her. However she managed to avoid getting pinned and got several of the off of her, but not without getting her arms sliced up from the experience, and more then tackled her and essentially buried her.

Bethany was tackled down to the ground by the monkeys, and much like everyone else she was getting slashed at quite a bit, and started bleeding quite a bit from the cuts, and much like Neil, she was seemingly pinned to the ground. The monkeys that had been knocked off of Iris tackled her once again, now with blades in hand and a few others to join them as one stabbed her in the left leg and another managed to cut her right shoulder open. Elizabeth meanwhile had it a little bit easier then most of the group, getting knocked to the ground and getting a few cuts, but none of them seemed too serious especially compared to many of the others. But both of them, like most everyone else was buried by a bunch of monkeys.

Mary was sending vines out everywhere and either that was the stampede, or the ground was shaking from her powers and a few vines seemingly shot out of the floor and started throwing the monkeys around. "Okay, these things are really starting to get on my nerves!" she said, throwing several of the monkeys around, and despite how things might seem, Mary was firmly in control and it wasn't the other personality, she truly was working to use her full strength, and at this rate there were dozens of monkeys surrounding her, all over the ground surrounding her. Her eyes registered on just about everyone else and she managed to rip the monkeys off of Ed, Bethany, Iris and Elizabeth. "Get on your feet and help me out quickly please not sure I can keep them off of you by myself for much longer!" she called out to them, as she started whirling around, vines throwing the creatures around in a bit of a whirlwind.

There had to be over a hundred of these things now, and for some reason they just kept appearing out of nowhere, all of them with knives of some sort. She was starting to get a little tired, and every so often she'd send out vines in a circle around her to keep any of them away. However, because of the noise, and her starting to tire, she didn't even notice the one that managed to sneak up on her, and the next thing she knew, there was a knife poking out of her chest before it got ripped out. Mary reached over her shoulder and tossed the monkey off of her, but she was definitely stumbling a bit as a lot of blood came gushing out of her injury. "Ow that one smarts..." she muttered, glancing up to see the rest of the monkeys. Another one managed to slice her knee and she went to the ground, but she was still managing to create a sort of circle around her to keep anymore from coming near her. One thing was clear though, she was starting to look insanely pale, probably from blood loss since having a knife go straight through the center of your chest is never a good thing.

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Carolina watched as the monkeys then suddenly had knives in their hands they all let out a loud screech as everything started to breakdown into pure chaos as the monkeys attacked again. They tackled members of the team, before feeling the wind getting knocked out of her and slammed to the ground. Carolina felt sharp stabbing pains going through her arms, and legs as the monkeys started to stab her groaning out in pain as she felt blood sliding down her arms and legs.

She started to use as much strength as she could, as she pulled off some of the monkeys off of her, as she started to feel some of the weight going off of her. She yelped out in pain as another monkey stabbed her arms, as more blood started to go down her arms she didnt think that they would end up loosing to a bunch of monkeys. She watched as the monkeys had tackled Neil and they started to stab him, seeing a knife going into his stomach. "Hey get off of them!" Carolina yelled, hoping that the monkeys would focus on her rather than Neil.

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"Whats next the monkeys are going to start talking and wielding guns like they are from Planet of the Apes?" Bethany asked as the monkeys pulled out knives and started to attack the group. She looked over towards Mary for a moment asking if she could shadow travel the monkeys out of the room. "I dont know if I can do that many but I can try." Bethany said, just as the monkeys tackled her to the ground as well, yelling in pain as the monkeys started to stab her arms and legs. She curled up into a ball hoping that would at least protect her somewhat, when the weight came off of her.

She quickly got back up to her feet groaning a little bit as she watched blood sliding down her arms and legs, she looked around at everyone who were still being dogpiled by the monkeys. She watched as Mary got stabbed she turned to look at Ed, the only other person who could heal was Klara and she was under a pile of monkeys right now. "Ed go and heal Mary if you can!" Bethany yelled as she moved her arms over using the shadows around the monkeys surrounding Klara and pulled them all off of her.

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Antoinette squeezed Edus’s arm when he told her how he was doing and smiled sadly at her. She could feel they were all starting to get tired and short with each other. Mira did not like Iris at all and that bothered Antoinette a bit. They all had their strengths and weaknesses but what made this team always work so well, was the fact that they could play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Where one failed, another would excel and by that, help each other. This game was tearing them apart.

Iris rolled and Antoinette looked around as the monkeys started to appear from small cracks and crevices in the wall. The magic amazed Antoinette but that was short lived as they appeared to have knives and started attacking. Antoinette gasped and reached out to punch and kick the monkeys before they came at her but they got to her first and made a few cuts on her but Antoinette was still managing.

Not all of them were managing though as Edus was losing a lot of blood and the others were all being surrounded. Antoinette remained near Edus, seeing Carolina and Neil working together so she didn’t worry too much about them.

She returned her attention to the monkeys that were trying to keep cutting her. Antoinette’s eyes started to sparkle and sparks flew from her hands and around her as she shot off multiple fireworks at the monkeys attacking her. She managed to fling most of them off them, sending their knives with them but there were still two being overly aggressive. Antoinette switched tactics to her fighting skills, something her father had trained her on long ago. Antoinette used her skills in hand to hand to knock the last two monkeys unconscious and she even managed to avoid getting further cuts.

Antoinette returned her attention to the others, focusing on Edus mainly since he was so near her. She watched him with worry as he bled profusely from a major stab wound in his stomach. ”Sit down Edus,” she coached. They needed to try and stop the bleeding and he was in no condition to heal others. Not when he was already feeling weak and tired.

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Oops. Guin had forgotten to verbally report the results of her telepathic investigation to everyone else. She had gotten accustomed to Pietro just learning what she had going on in her head instantly, especially since they had just gotten back to New York after a lengthy honeymoon. Her honeymoon had been uneventful, which was surprising given the events happening for the superhero community - with her father battling Captain America in a civil war, only for the shocking reveal of an alien race called the skrulls. From the photos Tony had showed her, they looked a lot like the little green aliens from Toy Story.

She frowned, hearing what Iris said to Mira. That wasn't right. She was about to verbally scold Mira, but she thought better of it, instead using her telepathy to speak directly into Iris' mind: You didn't make her do shit to you. You're a cool person, Iris. Don't let Mira kick you around, okay? She made a mental note to keep an eye on Mira and Iris after all of this was over. Iris' behavior was uncomfortably similar to a victim of abuse. And as much as Guin was constantly cracking jokes, she really did care about the others on the X-Men - she didn't want to be part of a team that just tore each other down like that.

Before Guin could dispense any further Older Sibling(TM) wisdom, though, Iris rolled and their next threat appeared. Monkeys. She wasn't too worried about them at first, figuring that they'd be pretty easy. That all changed though as their situation went from mildly annoying to horrible. The Asgardian had woken up the goth chick and somehow, the monkeys now had knives. Guin had been expecting them to throw poop around, not cutlery! The monkeys were crazy and formidable, cutting up Pietro's arms and quickly overwhelming them - Guin blinked and found herself safely back in her armor just in time, before the monkeys tackled her and her husband to the ground. The monkeys were apparently limitless in number as more and more were coming.

"We're the X-Men, we're not losing to monkeys damn it! We'll be the laughing stock of X themed superhero teams!" Guin exclaimed, before unleashing her suit's uni-beam. It blasted the monkeys off of her, letting her fly back on up to hover above them. She was a little bit worried about them trying to grab at the feet on her suit. "What do monkeys like? Bananas?" The ones she blasted were already getting back up and everyone seemed to be drowning in chimps. She blasted the ones on Pietro with her repulsors, managing to chase them off of him.

She then got an idea. She loved reading the Percy Jackson books. If violence couldn't get rid of all of these monkeys, maybe horrible music would! "F.R.I.D.A.Y, play the worst song in the world full blast!" Guin instructed her A.I. She couldn't help but snicker when she saw the song F.R.I.D.AY. started to play as loudly as possible in the Hangar: Baby by Justin Bieber.

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Neil nodded, accepting Carolina's offer of mutual protection. He liked the arrangement, as she was one of the people on the team that he trusted completely. He mostly trusted pretty much everyone in the Dungeons and Dragons group, but the older members of the team were a bit weird at times. Case in point, he was pretty certain that Quicksilver wouldn't hesitate to kill everyone if it meant saving Iron Star. He didn't have much time to think about the weird dynamics of the X-Men though, as Iris rolled and killer monkeys with knives appeared. He half expected to hear them in a thick New York accent proclaim what borough they came from as they slashed and stabbed.

One of them knocked Neil to the ground, the world spinning as he felt a sharp and sudden pain in his stomach. It felt like being stung by a thousand angry bees at once and Neil tried to whack the monkey off, only to feel something wet and sticky. He pulled his hand away, dazed slightly at the sight of his own blood. He had been stabbed in the gut by a monkey - one of the most dangerous spots for a wound like that. He tried to use his powers to fling the monkeys off of him, but he couldn't quite manage it. It was only one the second time with all of his focus that he managed it and Neil slowly stood to his feet, clutching his wound with one hand. His head was spinning as he inched towards Carolina, trying to get back to back with her.

... Why was Justin Bieber music playing???

Runa's eyes snapped open and she rose to her feet. There were monkeys everywhere, strange creatures that she did not quite recognize. She reached her hand out and her staff, Gandr, flew to her. She closed her eyes and opened them again, seeing the world in terms of magic. The monkeys she realized had been summoned and enhanced with magical abilities. She took a breath, planting her staff in the ground in front of her as she began to cast. Her staff glowed a soft black. The spellwork was intricate, but she attempted to dispel it in order to cause the monkeys to revert to normal.

"I require the aid of another mage in ending this spell," she said calmly, as if the room was not being overrun by monkeys and horrible music.

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"I think you'll find that I'm quite the multitasker," Iris replied to Beth as she watched the goth girl's shadowy tendrils wrap around the monkeys on top of her, forcefully yanking them off. As soon as her hands were free from the monkeys, she began patting the floor next to her, until she eventually found the half-smoked joint that had been knocked away from her. As she shuffled back up onto her feet, she took another huff and looked towards Beth, giving her a thankful nod. "Thanks for-" she began as she got back up on her feet, only to be interrupted by another small group of monkeys yanking her to the ground. There was something different about these ones, though, something Iris only noticed as she saw light glinting off something in their hands.

"They have fucking knives now?!" she exclaimed, doing her best to avoid getting stabbed. Her efforts weren't entirely successful, and she let out a shrill screech as she watched a knife slice into her shoulder like a birthday cake, followed by a sharp pain sliding into her leg. "God, what kind of maniac would give monkeys knives?!...Right, a trickster god would." Then, out of nowhere, she felt the monkeys get roughly pulled from on top of her, causing her to blink in confusion. She quickly scrambled up to her feet, grimacing as she put weight on her injured limb. When she was upright, she caught sight of Mary just as a monkey plunged a knife into her chest. It caused Iris to gasp. She quickly scanned the area, looking for anyone she could help. The X-Men seemed to be worse for ware, with many having grievous wounds.

Gods, she wished that she had an ability that could help them instead of the inherently destructive fire she was cursed with. She wished she could heal people like Ed and Klara, or at least do something she could control. Her eyes finally fell upon Mira, covered in monkeys. Guin's words from minutes before filled her head once more, this time in memory. She wished she could say that saving the girl was an act of pure altruism, that saving the woman who had hurt her was the truest form of good. But in actuality, she felt like she somehow had to make it up to Mira, that saving her would mend their friendship, the friendship that Iris had somehow ruined. Her eyes flicked over to Upsilon, standing unshaken amid the crowd of monkeys.

"Upsilon, get the knives out of their hands!" Iris commanded. Even from how far away he was from her, she could see him furrow his bare, burned-up brow. He looked confused. "Please?" she added. With that, he disappeared and reappeared next to Mira, holding out his hand and causing the knives being held by the monkeys to burn bright blue. Within seconds, the knives clattered to the floor. Upsilon seemed eager to help Mira, likely for the sake of how capable she was at bringing out the negative emotions that Iris so often hid behind a mischievous grin and a joint. Iris stumbled backwards, trying to avoid the monkeys as best she could. Hearing the Goddess of Lies sounding as though she had a plan, Iris stumbled passed her, taking up a position in front of Annie and Ed, tossing the stub of her doobie to the ground and raising her arms to defend the pair.

"Ed, this guy, he's a wizard! But he's also dealing with a stab wound. Quick, tell me that none of the X-Men are injured so I can tell you how wrong you are!" she called out to Runa, speaking quickly.

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As monkeys overran them, Elizabeth almost felt embarrassed. Take down scary robots? Silver Men? Gods the size of planets? No problem, but throw a group of angry monkeys at them and they floundered. Two of their team members had stab wounds, and they were blaring terrible music. This was hell. Looking at the battlefield around them, Elizabeth thought for a moment; as long as Edus was injured he wouldn't be able to help Runa, or at least, that was what she had to assume. It was at that point, that she got an interesting idea, as long as she understood Runa correctly.

"No you don't!" She called over to Runa, "You can end the spell all on your own!" She hoped that that would work, but also it felt like a risky gambit to try to alter the fabric of reality with a few quickly conceived words. It was like performing surgery with a machete, she considered, but that was essentially what the monkeys were trying to do to them, so turnabout was fairplay. Shortly afterwards though, she facepalmed. She was actually pretty certain that that wasn't how Runa's powers worked, and now she looked like an idiot. Runa's statement would become truth, not the contradiction, so that attempt was pointless.