---

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Ed's fingers twitched instinctively toward his tiny shield in his pocket, ready to cast a shield if necessary. He didn't want to be sucked into the vacuum of space. He had been playing around a bit with ideas on how he could twist the shield spell since the fight with Loki. He was certain he could make it non-permeable and it could theoretically protect people from space, at least for a little bit. With the power back on he felt a little better. But the alarms were...unsettling.

Runa had cast her own protection spell, which reassured him. He kept his hand near the shield though. Ready to cast if something happened to the hull of the ship. He couldn't help figure out the tech side of things. He wasn't computer illiterate...just woefully inept compared to Guin or most of the others. Computers just hadn't been his focus. He could use a laptop or a PC no problem, but once it got into the higher technical aspects he was useless.

---

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"I mean we probably have something to throw at the area, and right now Annie we can't tell if there is another ship, since the sensors are going haywire but based on looking out the window right now the answer is no," Lance commented, still incredibly confused as to what had exactly happened. He was about to see about doing that, when the sensors decided to stop going haywire, and just died out entirely for a moment, then going back to normal. "Okay then, things are starting to get weirder and weirder at this point..." he muttered under his breath. Things just were not making any sense, and this being in the crazy universe that they already lived in, nothing was adding up to him.

"Whatever it was seems to be gone now..." Mary commented, not too sure what the hell even just happened. "Though it could come back, we need to keep an eye out for it, since who knows if it'll come back anytime soon, whatever it was..."

Yay for whatever that was going away for the moment, Pietro said mentally to Guin. He typically felt better in instances where he could race around and not have to worry about a hole popping in the area that would result in their deaths in an unpleasant way. It was moments like that that definitely made him regret agreeing to actually go off into space on a glorified metal tin can in the first place.

"...Well something is popping up now," Lance instantly said as something popped up on the sensors now that everything seemingly had calmed down. Something was headed their way rather quickly that hadn't even been in the area. To everyone who was looking out the windows, now they'd be seeing something heading towards them rather quickly. It was another ship, and as it got closer, they'd be able to see an insignia on it that stood out.

They wouldn't have time to wonder who these people were, before the other ship opened fire on them.

The blast that rocked the ship was powerful enough to bypass Runa's protection spell that she had used, and that was more then a bit problematic. The shock wave that caused was not pretty as most everyone who was standing on the ship would be knocked off of their feet. And the two people who had been messing with the sensors and computers, that being Lance and Guin, would see sparks of electricity start flying before slamming into the both of them throwing them backwards and onto the ground too. Both of them would feel the shock, and it would end up leaving some electrical burns on them, ouch.

Guina are you okay????? Pietro instantly asked, going over to her.

The problem was that most ships with their weapons could easily fire off more shots, and the ship would be shaken again as two more shots from it slammed into their ship. Sparks would continue to be flying from the consoles, meaning that they might not have too many systems left running on board of the ship, it would take someone going over and maybe looking at them.

"Everyone okay?" Mary asked as she stood up back on her feet, looking around at everyone else.

"Electrical burns hurt... But think I'm alright, we've got bigger issues," Lance responded as he got up onto his feet and went over to the consoles towards the front of the ship, somehow managing to avoid being electrocuted again. "Um... Okay looks like we lost control somewhat, can't steer at all. A few other things got hit but nothing totally is destroyed aside from steering which might prove to be a bit of a problem. Though this thing does have a weapons system so who wants to see about firing back since they attacked us first, there should be a computer or something back there that allows you to shoot back, gonna see if maybe we can get control of this thing again and get steering back... Since otherwise we are kind of sitting ducks," he said, though the burns he had gotten from the initial hit were hurting quite a bit, but his brain was more focused on the idea of not dying.

---

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Guin shook her head at Bethany. "We'd see a solar flare. Kinda in the name and all," she answered dismissively. She was more or less the team's science expert, with Lance being her intellectual rival although his knowledge tended to be based more in radiation and radiophysics. Everything seemed to be calm for the moment and Guin wondered if maybe just there had been some sort of bug in the ship's programming - although that on its own was a worrying thought. She didn't want to be remembered like the Challenger had been.

But just as everything had gone quiet and still, the sensors started picking up a ship coming near. Maybe they were coming to check out the anomaly as well - or maybe they had been the ones who caused it. Before she could even make a cheesy Star Wars reference though, the ship suddenly lurched! Electricity shot out at her from the consoles, throwing her backwards and slamming her into the ground of the ship. Her body felt strangely cold and hot at the same time, like she was a piece of toast that had been shoved in a furnace and a freezer all at once. Urgh... I feel like a frozen eggo that just got blasted out of a volcano... Guin grumbled, picking herself up off the ground despite the immense pain. The ship was shaking again as they took more impacts, and Guin steadied herself against the wall.

That isn't good!!!!!

I'm fine, really, Guin protested, checking the console quickly. "Life support is chill, but steering is shot. We're not going anywhere until that's fixed," she told everyone, wishing slightly she could be in more than one place at a time so she could fix everything faster. But the number one priority was to save the ship and from countless hours of playing video games, she was a pretty good shot. She went to the back and sat down in the chair in front of the gun, locking onto her target and pulling the trigger.

BOOM! It was a direct hit. The other ship's shields had been knocked down and they were sparking. "Now this is podracing," Guin said with a smirk, not really thinking about the fact that she was firing a weapon at a ship with the goal of blowing the ship up, as she fired again. She hit, but it wasn't nearly as powerful as before, and she fired again, hitting once more.

"Now is not the time for jokes!"

"Look, if you want to fawn over me like I'm a wounded bird, that's fine - I'm just going to blow this ship up while you do it," Guin told Pietro. Her hair was sticking up slightly, like she had just rubbed a balloon all over it. Gotta love that static, right?

"Seriously Guina you need to be more careful..."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "How exactly was I supposed to know that we would be attacked and it would cause the consoles to zap me like Pikachu?" she couldn't help but ask him.

"We knew something weird was going on at least."

"Yeah, so I was making sure the life support was still working, so that way we didn't all suffocate and die," Guin replied, feeling a little bit angry with him now. It was like he didn't trust her to be able to take care of herself, and she didn't see anything wrong with what she had done. She wasn't a child. She was a competent and capable member of this team.

"You still got zapped which is not good..."

"I don't see you getting on Lance's case," Guin pointed out.

"...And you act like in all honesty I care a whole lot about everyone else on this ship," he muttered so only really she could hear him.

Guin hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure how she felt about that sentiment exactly. But she also didn't want to get into it at the moment. "I'm fine, trust me. Now, can you man this while I go start working on some repairs?" she asked him, gesturing towards the controls for the guns.

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Runa tilted her head slightly at Bethany, thinking over her request for lessons on rune magic. She had been doing some studies with Edus, largely in order to learn from the different magic systems. Asgardian magic was not the same as that used by those on Midgard. However, she couldn't think of any rule that said she couldn't teach the Asgardian ways to Bethany. "Of course. We'll begin with crafting a set of runes for you," Runa said, smiling slightly. The smile then vanished as she went back to the task at hand. Her protection spell was holding for the moment, and everything was calm, so she relaxed.

Relaxing turned out to have been a poor choice. A ship was nearing them and Runa frowned, recognizing the insignia. It belonged to the Nova Corps, a peacekeeping force based out of Xandar. She assumed that they were coming here to deliver aid perhaps, assuming that their ship had been damaged by the anomaly. Before she could share this knowledge though, the ship fired, ripping through her protection spell and causing their vessel to rock.

"Lance, are you well?" Runa asked, as Guin told them all that the life support was still working and rushed off to fire. Runa's eyes widened as she glanced out the window and saw the shots being taken. This was not good at all. It must have been a misunderstanding to cause the Nova Corps to fire on them. She dug into her bag of runes and threw the ingwaz rune up into the air. "In the name of Freyr, let there be peace," Runa cast. Her spell, she thought, took. It would essentially prevent either side from launching weapons.

"They're the Nova Corps. They're peacekeepers. This must be a mistake," Runa told her companions. "Lance, can you hail them? I would speak to them."

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Bethany looked at Runa and smiled towards her giving her friend a nod, she was a bit interested in learning something from Runa as she looked at Guin and gave a slight shrug. It really wasnt her area of expertise at all really, but something weird had happened, her attention turned towards the windows seeing another ship coming out and opened fire. She stumbled and fell onto her back just as the enemy ship opened fire on them. Letting out a slight groan as Bethany slowly stood up and looked towards everyone else, just as Guin immediately returned fire on the other ship.

"If they are a peacekeeping force why would they start opening fire then?" Beth asked she more or less would have expected the ship to hail them rather than instantly open fire on all of them. She thought about shadow traveling over to the other ship, to see what she could do but they were in the middle of space and she didnt like the idea of miscalculating and just be floating in space or something. "So, what should we do then?" Beth asked looking over at Mary.

---

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"Just let me know if you need any healing." Ed offered to those who had been electrocuted or tossed around by the ships shaking. He was glad he was sitting down for that whole ordeal. He concentrated, twisting the spell he had been preparing anyway just a little bit. A shield appeared around the ship. It was based on his idea of keeping them safe from the vacuum of space but reversed sort of. Things could pass out of the shield but not in.

So if Runa's peacekeeping attempt didn't work with the space cops and they fired on them again the ship should have a little bit of protection. And they could fire out at the Nova Corps. He didn't have anything else he could offer to help at this time, unfortunately. Maybe it was time to learn more about computers. Well, he supposed it was a little too late for that. He should have tried learning about computers more before this moment.

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Antoinette nodded at Lance’s explanation and decided to keep looking out the window just in case. Eventually, the sensors leveled out but they weren’t in the clear. After Lance saw something on the sensors, Antoinette saw the ship approaching. It had a beautiful insignia but Antoinette thought it was less beautiful when they started firing on them. The ship rocked and Antoinette fell back, landing rather hard on her butt. She shifted a bit but when the ship got hit again, she decided to stay on the ground for now.
There seemed to be problems arising within the cockpit again as Lance regained his balance after being thrown. They had lost steering but life support was still good so they could manage for a time. Antoinette stood up again after the ship stopped rocking and she looked out the window again. She saw their ship fire upon the other ship and Antoinette watched them get it. Her eyes reflected the explosion of the hit and she smiled a little.

”Wonderful shot Guin!”

After Guin’s shot, both ships seemed to stop firing and then Runa spoke up. Antoinette had never heard of the Nova Corps but if they were supposed to be peacekeepers, why were they firing first before hailing them? It was all rather strange. Hopefully they would be able to make contact and work out this misunderstanding.

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"I'm fine Runa, a little electricity is nothing new," Lance responded to her with a shrug as he listened to what it was that she was saying about the ship. Okay, so a peacekeeping force or race or whatever, so why the hell were they firing first? "Okay, so long story short they typically don't fire first unless they are given a reason then... Okay, so what is that reason then... Since we kind of didn't do anything."

"Who knows but them firing first is probably not a good thing. Which means we have a million problems to deal with... Though nice shot Guin," Mary responded, glancing over at her friend.

"It looks like that we might not need to if we can potentially talk things through Guina..." Pietro said to her, but he didn't really say anything else about it.

Shrugging slightly, Lance started messing with the computer to see if he could potentially get in contact with the ship and open up some sort of communications channel. Of course given the fact that the ship had been shot at and somewhat damaged in all of the chaos, he was surprised that they still had communications, and he wasn't so sure given how hard of a hit Guin had landed against their ship that they would even want to talk to them. "Okay, looks like we've got a channel open," he said to the group.

It didn't take long for there to be a response though from the Nova Corps.

"This is the Nova Corps, you are in an unauthorized area of space. Identify yourselves or we will fire again," came a bitter response from the other ship. It sounded like they weren't exactly in a very talkative mood. Something about the way they spoke made it clear that they were more or less not in the mood for idle chit chat. "If you do not comply and give a reasonable response we will open fire once more."

"Okay Runa, you wanted to try talking to them... Not sure what to do since it sounds like they don't really want to talk and are looking for an excuse to fire at us, no matter what we do... So recommendation you might want to choose your words carefully, otherwise we might be in worse shape then before..."

"Wow, so doesn't matter if they are space cops or cops on Earth, every single type of cop seems a bit trigger happy," Pietro commented with a bit of a shrug. "They are looking for a reason to shoot, we just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This sort of thing happens all the time if anyone paid much attention to how the criminal system typically works. Then again usually they were always right to shoot at me since most of the time I was doing something I technically wasn't supposed to..."

"Pietro how is that supposed to help us right now?"

"I'm just saying that if these guys are space cops don't be surprised if they fire again to disable the ship and then arrest us or something cause then we wouldn't have anywhere we could potentially go. That of course being if they don't just decide to blow the ship up with all of us on it."

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"They may have assumed that we were responsible for the anomaly," Runa proposed. "I do intend to ask, however," she then added, trying to reassure everyone. She was confident in her peace of Freyr spell, especially given the damage Guinevere had caused to the Nova Corps ship was extensive and may have disabled their weapons systems anyways. Once Lance had the channel open, Runa nodded and stepped forward, pressing the button to allow her voice to be transmitted - sort of like a glorified radio. "This is Princess Runa of Asgard. We mean you no harm. I repeat - this is Princess Runa of Asgard."

"You are in an unauthorized part of space." came the response again, still not sounding like they wanted to talk.

He wasn't lying. "I apologize. Our ship was temporarily shut down due to an anomaly. We will leave as soon as permitted," Runa replied, hoping that the officer would calm down slightly. Her brother was always better at these diplomatic situations.

"Stay where you are," came the response, she'd vaguely hear what sounded like multiple voices conversing on the other end.

“Acknowledged.” Runa bit her lip, taking her finger off of the button that transmitted her voice. She couldn't help but feel uneasy. They had done nothing wrong, the Nova Corps should have no reason to delay them. And while they had fired on the Nova Corps' ship, it had been in response - they hadn't been the ones to instigate the fight.

---

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"I'm good, thanks, Edus," Guin said. Despite Pietro's opinion, she really did feel fine. If anything, she just felt nervous about this entire situation. She had never been arrested before. Yes, she had done drugs, but she was famous and Iron Man's kid - they'd never gotten close to putting handcuffs around her wrists. They'd just take her to a hospital or release her into the custody of her father. It was probably a little ironic, how little she was afraid of cops, but how greatly the thought of incarceration scared her.

But then again, was it really that odd? She had watched Oz by accident as a little kid and it had been in her nightmares ever since. But with the lack of consequences she faced from the police due to her privilege, the fear of incarceration never grew into a fear of cops. "No, no way are we going to space prison," Guin said, her fingers twitching slightly. Runa was talking to the space cops at the moment and Guin scratched at her left wrist ever so slightly. "She's apparently a princess, so it'll all be chill, and we can fly away from here. You'll see."

"We'll see Guina..."

Guin wasn't totally in love with Pietro's pessimism at the moment. So, she decided that it wasn't against any moral codes if she just took a quick peek into the minds of the space cops. She closed her eyes and concentrated, but she wasn't able to get any information from a quick sweep. Guin pushed her mind a little harder, trying to tease out the information, only to recover nothing. Maybe she shouldn't have blown off telepathy lessons with X. Another attempt got her nothing. She didn't know why this didn't come easily to her. Everything else in her life did.

She pushed against the mental walls one last time, and finally, had a breakthrough. "They're going to board us," she said. She dug a little more. "...to arrest us."

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Bethany turned to look at Runa for a moment since she probably knew more on the Nova Corps then anyone of them actually did, and then Guin mentioning that they were going to board them. "So, whats the Nova Corps policy on people with powers, do they more or less shoot first and ask questions later or something?" Beth asked, as she tried to think of a way that they could potentially get out of this if possible she wasnt sure if these people were like the cops back home who were more trigger happy with mutants or people with powers in general or not.

She didnt really like the idea of going into prison for simply being on a ship at the wrong place at the wrong time. She shook her head slightly at Pietro for a moment, that didnt help their situation to much either really and there probably wasnt anywhere for any of them to hide either from getting arrested and then prison breaking everyone else out later either.

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Honestly, Ed was unsurprised by the turn of events. Of course, there were space cops. And of course, the group had somehow ended up in some unauthorized part of space that the space cops took offense over. Had there been a sign? How were people supposed to know? He kept his concentration on the shield. He wondered if he could keep the Nova Corps off the ship with it.

Guin telling them that they were going to get boarded and arrested was not a great thing. One, that meant she had read their minds and he tried to not be annoyed with her for doing that. Two, that meant they probably were going to get arrested. Resiting arrest never ended well. Maybe they could talk their way out of it? Runa probably could convince them to not arrest them.

He wished he had had a chance to smoke a bit of his vape pen, which was an unexpected change for him since he hated the damn thing but it was safer than trying to bring a lighter on a spaceship.

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Waiting was always the hard part. It allowed the mind to wander far too much. Antoniette continued to look out the window at the strange ship that was watching them, There wasn’t generally a reason for firing first on an unknown ship other than fear. Finally though, noise came through and Antoinette turned to look at the speakers.
Runa seemed to have it well handled as she spoke calmly. They didn’t seem to care that she was Asgaridan but the person on the other ship did give pause when the anomaly was mentioned. Perhaps that meant they knew of it? Antoinette looked back out the window, watching the ship. It had fallen silent again, other than the idle conversation happening on this ship. Guin spoke up and Antoinette finally walked away from the window and stood by Edus.
”They want to arrest us?” Surely she heard Guin clearly but she couldn’t quite believe it herself.

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"Wait if they want to arrest us they probably have a reason. Though what it is we have no idea..."

"Maybe they just thought we caused whatever that anomaly was or whatever, I mean there probably is a reason that they attacked if you say they are typically peaceful."

"Wait, you actually need a reason to attack people?" Pietro asked instantly, clearly a bit confused by that sort of thinking.

"Typically yeah, most people don't attack for no reason at all."

"...I did not know that."

"Well guess we wait for their response then..." Mary commented, before suddenly there was a surge of heat that seemingly was coming from the back area. Glancing over, her eyes grew wide as Iris seemingly decided to spontaneously combust and lit herself on fire. Aside from the fire, there was a horrid smell that smelled like something burning. It didn't take too long for Mary to figure out that it was because Iris was literally burning herself alive like she was a witch or something. "Iris you need to calm down!" Fire on a ship was not a good thing.

"Let me try something," Pietro said as Iris was clearly not calming down and the fire wasn't going away. Facing her, his arms started moving rather quickly as he tried to essentially create a vacuum around Iris, no oxygen, fire should die out right? Unfortunately, didn't seem like Iris' powers got the memo as she was still on fire. Now the air was starting to smell like burning flesh which was not a good smell at all.

She stumbled backwards, flailing about now and she ended up slamming her arms that were still on fire into Ed, which ended up breaking his concentration on the shield, causing it to fall. Oh, and it had the nasty other effect of lighting his arm on fire, so now he was getting burned a bit from that too.

They were running out of options, as Iris kept flailing and the smell kept getting worse. She was lighting a few different things that weren't made of metal on fire that were around the room. Pietro's mind was racing as he knew that Iris was dying and that there wasn't much that they could do, the smoke in the room was making it rather hard for everyone to breath at this point. Unless they could get rid of the source, they were dead, and that's when Pietro made a difficult choice.

He raced over, grabbed Iris, opened up the door to the ship in a split second and threw her out it.

Pietro managed to do it quick enough and slammed the door shut so that there wasn't much of an effect on the oxygen levels for the rest of the group and no one ended up getting sucked out into space aside from Iris. The nice thing was that it did put out the fire that had become Ed's arm, so his arm had more then a few burns on it, but at least his long sleeves had given him some protection from the fire, but they were still pretty badly burned. Pietro's own hands were clearly severely burned and blistered from having directly grabbed onto Iris and having not had anything to protect him from the flames, and they were bleeding somewhat, even with his typically accelerated healing. His hands were more or less shaking and he just stood there not moving or saying anything for a moment before he held out his arm and moved it around, putting out the rest of the fires. He still wasn't saying anything, just standing there.

"...Did that really just happen?" she couldn't help but ask, her eyes wide before there was the crackle of sound from the other ship.

"Prepare to be boarded." came the response as there was a blast that rocked the ship, and now their engines were disabled.

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"Well we did fire back at them, they could easily just blame us for that and that would be their reasoning to arrest us whether it was for self defense or not." Bethany said turned to look at Mary for a moment that was her reasoning for why they would arrest them right now, Beth really didnt like the idea of going to jail at all right now. As Beth went to sit back down for a moment when she started to feel heat coming off of Iris and quickly turned around her eyes going wide as she watched Iris literally lighting herself on fire. Beth knew that the girl was eccentric but she didnt think that Iris would actually set herself on fire.

She watched Iris moving towards Ed and winced as she caught his sleeve on fire, before Pietro instantly took action and went to remove Iris putting her into an airlock and then ejecting the girl out into space. Bethany wasnt sure how to actually react at all as she stood there speechless and all. Just as the ship shook again as the Nova Corps fired on their ship again destroying the engines.

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"Yes, arrest us, put us in horrible orange jumpsuits and make a major Netflix series about us fucking each other in prison, the whole deal," Guin clarified for Annie. She didn't mean to sound so harsh, but she was under a lot of stress. Their situation was getting worse and worse by the minute. At least Runa had explained that the Nova Corps didn't have any prejudice against people with powers - so that was a win for space, as they didn't need to worry about being killed in prison for being mutants. They just needed to worry about being killed in prison for... whatever reason prisoners killed each other. "Oookay so... From what I can tell, we're more or less just in the wrong place at the wrong time and that's all the reason they need," she explained, having done another quick mental sweep. "So hooray, Lance, you win space cop jeopardy. Your prize? Hopefully not dropping the soap in prison! Yaaaay!" Guin then laughed nervously.

Her nervous laughter died abruptly though, as she felt an immense source of heat in their fragile little tin can, pressurized with gases and whatnot so they could breathe and fuel sources to power everything. In hindsight, they shouldn't have brought Iris along with them at all. It was horrifying and traumatic to watch, seeing Iris burn herself alive. It all happened so quickly - she blinked and saw Pietro trying to put out the flames, she blinked again and saw Edus was on fire, another blink and Iris wasn't there any more. Pietro put out the rest of the flames in the room. Guin's eyes were wide, as a memory she had almost succeeded in repressing came to the front of her mind - the way Pietro had killed all of those guards at the Baxter Building in Wanda's false world. B-babe, are you okay? Guin asked.

In all honesty? No...

Guin was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They were about to be boarded by space cops, and Pietro had just had to mercy kill Iris. She wanted desperately to comfort him, and at the same time, she wanted to put on her suit and get ready to blast anyone who tried to take them away. But her love was stronger than her fear. Do you want to talk about it? she asked him, going up to him and pulling him in for a hug, even as she was shaking.

No, I don't.

Then with your consent, can I sooth you? Guin asked, sick with worry over Pietro and the space cops. "Guys, Piet is going to sit this confrontation out I think, so I recommend getting ready with your magic things for a fight." His hands were still badly burned, barely even healing despite his powers accelerating his body's repair processes.

Okay...

Guin nodded, taking a breath. It was hard to calm someone down telepathically when she was feeling horrible and scared herself. She wanted so badly to take away Pietro's pain, but she was also scared that the more she tried, the more she'd make them vulnerable to the space cops. She wanted the world to slow down. They didn't have enough time. She was only able to calm Pietro slightly, and trying again and again didn't change that result. We are out of time... Her eyes were watering slightly.

---

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"No, the Nova Corps holds no ill will towards those with powers. Many species across the galaxy have extraordinary abilities. Midgardians are not unique in that regard," she explained. Just about everyone on Asgard could be considered superhuman per Midgard's standards. She knew that the Kree also tended to have a large amount of abilities, and of course there were the skrulls and the super skrulls too. Even the Shi'Ar had some powers. But before she could properly consider how best to deal with the Nova Corps, given Guin's confirmation of Lance's explanation that they were simply after them because no one else was near the anomaly, tragedy struck. It was a calamity of epic proportions, and a tear slid down Runa's face when the sad affair was done.

"May her soul find peace in Valhalla," Runa prayed. She had her head bowed for a moment, before turning her mind back again to what they were going to do. The Nova Corps had announced their intent to board them. She didn't know if the Nova Corps were capable of holding them, although she supposed that perhaps they had prisons designed for those with extra abilities. At any rate though, she tried to have confidence that the truth would prevail - an ironic sentiment from the goddess of lies. She didn't want to hurt the Nova Corps - they were peacekeepers, simply doing their jobs, trying to protect the galaxy. There had to be a peaceful resolution. "We should try to resolve this peacefully," she urged. But even then, she was prepared with her staff at the ready for a fight.

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Wrong place at the wrong time was plausible. How many times had that happened to them before anyways. Antoinette worked on easing herself into the idea of being interrogated when she felt heat behind her. Confused, Antoinette turned around to see her friend on fire. Shock filled Antoinette as the smell of burning flesh hit her nose. This wasn’t some show of force, Iris was really burning alive.
”Iris!” Antoinette took a couple steps closer before Iris started to fail around, clearly in a panic. Was Epsilon doing this or did the Nova Corps have something to do with this? But Runa had said they were the good guys.
Antoinette didn’t have much time to process as Iris hit Ed accidently before Pietro ran over and threw Iris out into space. Antoinette couldn’t help but cry and run to the window. She knew not many liked Iris and to be fair she could be too outspoken at times but she was also a friend to Antoinette.
Even after Iris was gone, the smell of burning flesh stuck with Antoinette and made her feel uneasy. She had a feeling this memory was never going to leave her. While Antoinette tried to process, the voice from the Nova Corps came over the intercom and told them all to prepare for their arrival on the ship. Antoinette would have to compartmentalize for now.

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Could he have used his shield as a fire suppression? Ed didn't know. He hadn't time to think about it. To react. To do anything. Iris was dead. He focused, closing his eyes for a moment. Another person is gone. He hadn't considered a friend. He hadn't gotten close. Hadn't allowed it. This reinforced it. Built another wall. Slammed down between him and the group. Death could come for them at any moment.

He took a slow deep breath and then focused his magic onto his arm. He knew he had to look like an ass. Not reacting to Iris' death. He thought of Mira and wondered what she would think when she found out what happened. They had to focus on the task at hand though. They were about to be arrested for a crime they hadn't known they were committing. They still had to find Dr. Banner. Could they talk their way out of the arrest and continue or would this be drawn out?

Orange light surrounded his arm weakly. His burn soothed, but it was still there. Hopefully, it would keep it from getting an infection at least. Ed knew that was the best that could be done for now.

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"I'm fine Guina, really," Pietro said simply to her, though he wasn't really looking at anyone when he spoke, more or less just looking at his hands.

"Well, there isn't really much we can do about it now... The Nova Corps are going to be coming up soon," Lance said. As if right on cue, there was a rumbling sound and the ship jolted slightly as the Nova Corps ship docked with their own.

"If we're lucky we can talk our way out of this, but knowing our luck that isn't going to happen, so probably preparing for the worst might be the best idea..."

The hatch that Iris had just been shot out of opened up again, this time there were a group of people in some sort of military uniforms staring right at them as they somewhat marched into the area. Guns were pointed in their direction though. "Stand down," came the response from the person who seemed to be the leader of the group said, before a few cannisters got blasted into the area. Now that it looked, the group was wearing helmets that likely would protect them from the gas. Which was starting to make the entire group drowsey.

Then out of nowhere, Pietro started shaking violently. And then all of a sudden he snapped completely out of his trance, and started moving at super speed. Within an instant there was a loud crack as his fist hit one of the Nova Corps soldiers in the head at super speed, sending him flying backwards into the side of the ship, blood immediately pooling as soon as he hit the ground. With a whirl, his hand instantly went through the chest of another soldier, causing him to drop to the ground.

[b]"Open fire!"[/color] the leader said, as all of the soldiers turned their guns onto Pietro now.

"Good luck," Pietro managed to mutter, but it was clear that what had happened with Iris caused his brain to freak out and snap entirely, at least at the moment anyway.

"Pietro stop," Mary managed to say, coughing from the gas as she tried to create vines to potentially restrain Pietro, but that wasn't seemingly working. She tried again, but still to no avail, and eventually the gas that was clearly a knock-out gas caused her to pass out entirely.

The speedster managed to knock out another soldier before the group opened fire on him. Their weapons weren't actually bullets but more of energy shots like blasters from Star Wars. The first few shots didn't seemingly do anything, they missed him entirely, kind of like Storm Troopers. The last few however hit their target, hitting Pietro squarely in the chest and sending him backwards onto the ground. His powers that usually helped with healing weren't seemingly doing much, partially from his severe burns that were still on his hands combined with the knock out gas. It was already going into over drive to try and heal him, now it was completely shot, and he was out cold.

"Damn it the speedster is an idiot," Lance mumbled half asleep himself. Of course if he shifted the gas likely wouldn't do much to him, but then again, they were in a giant metal tin can that likely would pop open if he did anything like that. So trying to use his light powers it is then, as he sent a ball of light that managed to slam and throw backwards a few of the other soldiers. There had to be a small army on their ship though, as no matter how many they knocked down, more would take their place. "It's no use, there are too many," he added, sending out another ball of light that smacked a few of the other guards and knocked them down, before he too passed out.

Everyone will have 1-2 possible actions that they can do before they pass out. Runa since she is Asgardian can have up to 3. Next update will be a slight time skip.

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Guin never really took the time to make a list of the traumas she had experienced in her life, but even then, some small part of her was able to recognize that therapy would be a really good idea if they got out of this situation alive. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the twisted version of Pietro from Wanda's world killing the soldiers - and when she opened her eyes, she saw the bloody remains of a few space cops. She felt sick to her stomach, unable to speak or make a sarcastic comment. As the cops then fired blasts at Pietro, when she closed her eyes she could see Muscles' limp body. She could see the gigantic hole in the sky that her father had flown up, almost dying in order to defeat Loki.

She wanted so desperately for the pain to stop. She wasn't thinking clearly. She wanted everyone in the room to stop. She wanted meth, heroin, cocaine, LSD, anything to make it all stop. She wanted all of the space cops to be gone, she wanted this dream space trip to stop being a nightmare. A small part of her wanted her dad to show up with the Iron Legion and handle everything for them. Without consciously realizing it, she had tapped into the minds of three of the soldiers, sending them psychic pain. The soldiers grabbed at their heads, clearly unaware of what was causing everything. Guin could feel her head swaying from the gas. Her heart was about ready to burst out of her chest, she was so scared.

"Go... to... hell..." Guin spat out, before collapsing to the ground.

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Runa sighed slightly, more annoyed than anything else as Quicksilver committed an actual crime - murder. Now he likely did belong in a cell with the Nova Corps. She doubted that his wife would take too kindly to that idea, but it would be the just action to take. Perhaps they could call it self-defense? She'd have to consult Forseti about that. She had been preparing to attack the Nova Corps in defense herself, but with the gas in the air she realized that they wouldn't be able to win this fight. Her companions were collapsing all around her and she didn't have enough time to pull off a reality warp via deception. She did, however, have time for a quick spell.

She whispered the words of power, before sending an SOS to her cousin on Asgard. Klara's name was the first one that had come to mind, and it wasn't like Runa had the time to think through all of the options carefully. The gas was starting to effect her as well and she coughed, going down onto her knees, before wheezing and collapsing entirely, unconscious. She just hoped that no matter what happened, Lance would be safe.

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Beth felt the ship shake slightly as the Nova Corps ship docked with their own, and a few seconds later the Nova Corps soldiers appeared and then told them to stand down. Just as they released some some of gas, Beth started to feel a bit drowsy as she tried to fight and stay awake she close her eyes getting an idea. If she could smuggle herself onto their ship, then she could try and find a way to break out everyone else. But when she looked around the ship, there were a lot of them on the ship and now real place to actually hide. Then Quicksilver snapped and killed two guards before they opened fire on them.

Bethany used all the strength that she had targeting the captain by the looks of it who had given the orders and sent a tendril of shadow and managed to smack the Nova Corp Captain before collapsing onto the ground and started to get even sleepier and then eventually lights were out for Beth a few seconds later.

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Shortly after the Nova Corps boarded their ship, everything went for hell. Some sort of gas was fired towards the X-Men and then Pietro went off. Antoinette stared in confusion from the Nova Corps firing on them, even if it was gas and Pietro attacking violently. Other than in battle, she had never seen Pietro act so out of character. They started firing on him and soon he was knocked out. No one could get to Pietro though because the gas was starting to cause people to fall asleep.
Antoinette turned her focus back to the Nova Corps and followed the rest of her teammates as they tried to regain some semblance of control before being knocked out. She didn’t estimate they had high chances of getting out of this but she could take a few more of them out along the way at least. Slipping into two of the Nova Corp soldiers' minds, Antoinette managed to manipulate their minds enough to get them to fire their weapons on each other. Before Antoinette passed out, she managed to see that she had slightly injured them.