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At Selene's first words spoken aside from the spell, Max couldn't help but instinctively flinch back as if it was all his fault. He was used to being blamed for the failures of magic, so why wouldn't he be this time? His gaze was averted from her as he thought about the potential of why it was failing. Was it his anxiety that was messing with the spell's design? Was the wording too specific? Did they even know that humans were the ones attacking them? Mutants had fought each other before, there were attacks by aliens from space, and a new breed of superbeings called inhumans had been born after the terrigen gas. Perhaps their bias was clouding their minds and that's what was happening.

His eyes snapped back to attention when Selene called his name. Worry filling him for a second as the pause seemed to stretch for eons to him. But finally the words followed and he realized she wasn't upset with him, rather seeking his advice. His eyes went wide with shock as he tried to think of other reasons as to why the spell could've failed. Something more mystical than generic bias and wording but nothing came to mind. "My only thought is the wording. We live in a world full of Inhumans, mutants, mutates, aliens, any one of them could be attacking us right now. It's not necessarily humans." Max put a thoughtful finger towards his chin before wavingnhis hand across the air. "Show me our assailants." There was a brief image, a man made of water, one of Rock, another teleporting around. There was a massive person, a tic-tac, someone made of fire, the list went on. But most importantly…"They are human "

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Harry wasn't certain as to how well he could maintain his concentration on Sangre's manipulation while simultaneously creating clones of himself to deal with Horador. Watching as Sangre was now attempting to create more bubbles in some odd effort to combat them. What they were meant to do he wasn't sure, but he knew that it couldn't be good. So he focused his power on him more, dropping it down just enough to finally freeze him solid. Harry had a bead of sweat roll down his forehead, creating two clones to help deal with the bombing imp.

Before he was able to get out any commands, Sunshine flung a well placed disease at him and knocked him out, leaving the clones with nothing to do. "Ok, new plan. You two go towards the Maurauder, use your powers to help freeze the water and patch up the holes that were caused by the bomb." Harry turned to look at Sunshine with a smile. "Nice shot. Also, don't mention it kid. Think your powers can create non-organic diseases? Say...giving the big ol rock man PTSD or some mental disease to occupy them for a moment?"

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Callie watched as the others started to take on the invaders, they seemed to have things under control now by the looks of it, she wasn't sure who Waverly was talking to exactly as Callie turned her attention towards the giant rock troll man. Marrow seemed to get a good slashing in on him seeing the stone man bleeding gravel by the looks of it. It was really weird to see, as she started to charge up another thing of electricity in her hands.

She released another bolt of lightening at the rock man, which sadly didn't even do much at all to him, groaning a little bit. The giant hammer wielding person tried to take a swing at Sunshine luckily missing Sunshine as she turned towards Waverly and Echo. "You two do your sonic stuff or something." Callie told them, as Sunshine was able to take off the Leo Valdez wannabe down without to much of an issue.

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"Welcome to the party." Kristina said sarcastically towards Jack and gave him a slight wave as she watched the Tic Tac Man just took out the forcefields that Veil threw at him dissipate just like her eye beams did. "Really that isn't fair." Kristina said as she noticed that Veil was having trouble and noticed that the floor was starting to cave in as well. "Help her if you can!" Kristina said as she was about to try and attack the Tic Tac Man again, only for her to get the wind getting knocked out of her and she started to go into a freefall and started to fall to the ground.

Kristina closed her eyes as she tried to stabilize her fall, but she couldn't at all which wasn't good at all seeing the ground getting closer a lot quicker now as soon as she opened them. She tried again, but continued to fall, until she was just barely able to save herself from becoming splatter arc on the ground just mere inches from the ground. "That was close.." Kris said to herself sighing in relief.

---

“If Magneto had a twin, I just kind of assumed―”

James’ reply was cut short, courtesy of a shitty piece of rock hurtled haphazardly into the building. It slammed barely a few feet away from the staircase with a deafening thud and James stumbled a step even as his skin shifted to metal, protecting him from the worst of the impact. He whipped around at Casper’s pleas and he swore under his breath as he rushed to where his boyfriend hung preciously from the railing. If Casper fell, there was a good chance James wouldn’t be able to heal that right away so he latched onto Casper’s arms and pulled hard, dragging him back over the railing and back onto the landing. He did a quick check over Casper to make sure there wasn’t anything else wrong and upon finding nothing else, gave him a quick kiss.

“Okay, your near death experience quota has been reached. No more, please!” James laughed, a little hysterically at the fact they were dodging massive space rocks, as he grabbed Casper’s hand again and bolted for the stairs. The night had gone from frustrating to awful in less than five seconds. If Casper weren’t here, he’d head up to the roof to figure out what the fuck was going on but Casper was and Casper needed to be somewhere safe. Ben would probably be incredibly helpful against whatever the fuck could sling asteroids but with little funcional cover, Casper would be a bright ass target for those rocks and then Ben and Casper would be out for the count. It would be better to get them to Hellfire Manor and have them help defend it while James and the others patched everyone up as quickly as possible.

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"Children of the Vault?" Waverley repeated aloud as the words echoed through her mind in the voice of Reeva Payge. She didn't entirely understand Reeva's explanation, or how some sort of time vault was supposed to grant superpowers. Artificial evolution, perhaps? And Desiree...had she heard that name before? It didn't matter; they sounded bad, so she'd fight them. Hopefully she wouldn't have to kill them. That was a line she hadn't crossed yet, and one she didn't much want to cross, even if she had been shoved into the unfamiliar role of soldier. She shifted her attention back onto the fight at hand, watching the rascally bomb guy flop to the ground after an attack from Sunshine and Echo finish off the water guy. She gave a firm nod to Callie, eyes already on the stone guy. But they then flicked to the fallen bomber and got an idea.

"Gimme a sec and I'll be on it," she said, before taking off towards the fallen body. She kneeled over him, beginning to rummage through his things, looking for the source of his bombs. She smirked when she felt cold, cylindrical metal. She pulled it out, her movements quick, and she could feel her thumb slip over some sort of button. And that was the last thing she felt with that thumb. The flash of bright light drowned out her vision, and her mind emptied of everything except her powers going into overdrive, amplifying the waves of the explosion and those of her screams, turning them into one horrifying sound that deafened all those close enough to hear it.

When she came to, she was on her back, ears ringing, vision blurry. Her face was sprinkled with dark smudges of soot, and she coughed as she pushed herself into a semi-sitting position. It was only then that she saw her hand - or rather lack thereof. There, where her right hand should've been, was instead a stump of bleeding flesh, a gnarled and broken bone sticking out the end, reaching for something which was no longer there. She could feel her heart thundering away inside her chest, and her breath start to come in short, unsatisfying gasps. Her body began to tremble as her head began to whirl, growing dizzy as she laid there. On top of everything, she could feel herself being pulled harshly into a panic attack - a bad one.

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She was really really glad that she was half Asgardian and had enhanced durability because of what happened. Zari felt like she was getting burned to a crisp from the electricity that wrapped around her and started burning her severely. The amount of volts she took directly would be enough to kill most people, but because she wasn't fully human (or mutant technically), she was able to take it and still be alive, just severely burned. Parts of her skin were completely blackened from the damage, and it stretched over a lot of her body and creeping part way up her neck even.

It was getting to be difficult for her to even really think straight from the pain, she didn't even really notice what was going on with Andy, as she moved to try and free herself from the chain. It took her a few moments to do it, mainly trying to fight through the pain that was coursing through her body as she fought to do it, but she finally managed it. As soon as she was freed, Zari swung her sword again at the person in the spacesuit, her attack got blocked by the chain, and she wasn't too sure how all of this was going to work, since glancing over she noticed now that Andy seemed to have gotten badly injured or something too. This might not end well.

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He had to consider himself lucky that he didn't seem to get injured or hit at all with any sort of asteroid that was sent flying. Though not so much once he noticed that now he was the only one of the three of them still on the roof, with Kris getting knocked down and Veil getting pinned by an asteroid. Well, this wasn't a great thing, since now he didn't know if Veil was seriously injured, or what, since at least he knew that Kris likely could catch herself since she could fly.

Jack decided to start trying to lob a few more of the asteroids right back at them again, and his first attempt was less successful than he'd have liked, since he let go too soon and the rock landed right next to him. At least it hadn't landed on him really, that was good. Of course, moments like this also made him wish somewhat that he had super strength since he ended up straining his back a bit trying to move another one with his noodle arms, but because of his powers that didn't cause many problems as it instantly fixed itself. His third attempt was much more successful as it went towards the person seemingly disrupting the building or messing with it or whatever, since the asteroid seemingly disappeared from near him, but it was enough to distract him from what he had been doing. So the building was stable for now.

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She was a bit concerned, since when she looked back at what was left of the building they had come from, she didn't remember seeing Lorna at all, however her attention was drawn back to what all was going on around her with Magneto rather easily taking out the frog person (whatever he had been) and the other person who was causing the earthquakes that were around them. That made things better in the long run for them at least. It was the last one who caused the problems, as he sent the metal shards that Magneto had sent towards them right back at them.

Instantly Miranda stepped forward and a wall appeared in front of them, the metal shards seemingly dropping now from hitting the wall harmlessly. "Where is Lorna?" She asked Magneto now, glancing back for a moment towards the House of M, before turning her attention towards what was going on. She sent a blast of something, kind of just decent sized rocks, that shot off from the wall and ended up not really injuring the one causing problems, but it at least caused him to get knocked back a bit and it seemed to have stunned him for a second.

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Veil was gasping for air, struggling to breathe as she fell through the roof of the building and was somehow pushed by an invisible force through floor after floor. The first floor she felt her arm snap - the second floor her ankle twisted. Each floor brought on a new injury and Veil couldn't bring up even a flickering force field to protect herself. Was this how she was going to go out? Her eyes watered slightly. She'd see Sapphire and Moonwalker and all the others soon, then. At least she'd go out helping people, protecting mutants....

She closed her eyes, waiting to feel the impact against the ground, for her spine to shatter - only to instead feel a secure pair of arms grip her and the gravitational force vanish. "Faire attention," a woman's voice said. "Vous êtes bonne?" the woman asked. Veil opened her eyes, seeing lengthy black locks fluttering in the breeze.

Veil turned bright red. "Grâce à vous," she admitted.

The woman smiled, before she flew back up to the roof, holding Veil bridal style.

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"We were supposed to be keeping track? Awwww," Casper whined. He was pretty sure he had plenty of other near death experiences that James hadn't been present for and Casper didn't want to live with his number being unnaturally small. He didn't want to die or anything, he just wanted truth in his records. For example, every meal with his father had been a near death experience as it forced Casper to contemplate whether or not impaling himself on his fork was a good way to go.... Okay, so maybe sometimes he wanted to die, but it was just to get away from Professor X, so who could blame him?

He was very happy to not be dangling anymore, his legs shaking slightly from adrenaline as he dashed down the stairs with James, and they finally made it out of the building. Outside, others who lived there were screaming and running in the direction of the nearest shelter, even as chunks of asteroids fell on them. Some of them were using their mutant powers to deflect the asteroids, so luckily barely anyone was getting hurt. "Which way?" Casper asked James. "I have zero sense of direction here."

"Again, you aren't even going to try to help?!"

"Ben, shush, it's loud here and I can't hear James over you!"

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Sunshine raised an eyebrow, looking at Echo like that was the dumbest thing she had ever heard of. She hadn't had any formal education, she didn't think of mental illness as an illness. She was pretty certain that she couldn't make people mad with one of her disease orbs - she more or less believed that mad people were just born mad, even if it wasn't obvious at first. "Uh, no," she told Echo. "That makes no sense at all. How would you catch being sad?"

Unfortunately, Echo's clones were unable to patch any of the holes in the ship, as they weren't able to freeze the water. It had been difficult enough for Echo to do that alone by himself when he wasn't divided.

There was then the sound of a bomb going off - and suddenly, no one on the Marauder could hear a thing at all. They were all stricken with temporary deafness. Sunshine swung her head around, trying to figure out what had happened, and she winced as she saw Feedback. Feedback, her former roomie, had lost a hand. "Don't worry, the healers can fix that!" Sunshine shouted, but no one - not even herself - could hear her.

Piedra Dura tried to defend himself against Marrow, but Marrow sent another of her body spikes into him, managing to embed one in his eye, killing him instantly. It looked like Marrow had let out some sort of yelp of happiness or surprise, but no one was able to hear it. Martillo though had accomplished one critical goal - sinking the Marauder. He had missed Sunshine with the swing of his hammer, and his hammer ended up going into the side of the ship. The ship had taken on too much water, the water was now ankle deep on the top deck. The ship was going down.

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Akademos...

Cadena smirked slightly, before shaping some of the electricity coming off of her suit into a sword, and taking a gigantic swing at Zarina, aiming for Zari's neck. Her swing was perfect and would've been lethal, but Zari would be able to react quickly enough to block. Aguja, the energy manipulator, started firing blasts upon blasts of energy at Zarina, but Zarina was apparently incredibly nimble and would be able to dodge them all.

House of M...

"I don't know," Magneto answered Miranda. "I'm certain she can fend for herself. The place is made of metal, after all." He was a bit hot and cold when it came to his children. He cared about them the most when it was convenient to him and his plans - and when they were kept from him. He had been so fiercely passionate about retrieving Lorna when Havok had taken her, but now, he wasn't going to go look through the rubble for her.

"Now you, power thief, will be dealt with!" Magneto snapped. He had put metal shards in Terramoto's arm and he manipulated them, throwing Terramoto at their teammate, Olvido. Olvido managed to redirect Terramoto, and Magneto sent the metal shards embedded in Miranda's wall flying back at Olvido. He sent Terramoto flying at Olvido again and this time, it was too much for Olvido. Terramoto and Olvido were both impaled by metal shards, their bodies stuck together, and they died together.

Blackstone...

Selene studied the image that Max had conjured, shaking her head ever so slightly in disappointment. "Stolto," she muttered, before taking a breath and plastering a false, almost wicked smile on her face. "Those aren't humans, Maximilian," she corrected him. "Let us begin again, Coven." She then took another breath, drawing her magic back into herself, before suddenly the black magics pulsed out from her body like a wave, forming a thick ring around them all.

"Percussores nostros interficite. suffocant fontes sanguinis. Uteri eorum steriles, et segetes earum. Displicuerunt tibi, Mater Dea. Ignis super eos pluat," Selene chanted. She needed more power. She drew upon the strength of her Coven, siphoning a small bit of energy from each of them, channeling it towards the defense of Genosha against those who would do them harm. As Selene drew upon her Coven, all of the Coven's eyes would turn a frightening dark shade of black as they enacted the curse - even Pixie's.

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Andy kept falling. This was what Alice felt like. Andy knew she had to be dying. She knew well enough the dangers of electricity. Her heart ached. Andy couldn't tell if that was emotion or the electricity that had probably stopped her heart. This was dying. She had done this to people.

Surprisingly she wasn't getting cold though. She was getting hotter. It felt like she was surrounded by fire and Andy knew what that felt like well enough. She opened her eyes and saw that she was indeed surrounded by fire. She screamed. Was this hell? That seemed appropriate. She knew a little bit about what Christians thought about hell she had had a foster parent who had insisted she go to Sunday school.

It wasn't hell though. She realized as she saw Purifiers. Unless hell was really perverse. It was one of the worst moments in her life. She had almost died here. She lost the only adults she had loved. Tears that fell evaporated in the heat almost instantly.

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Callie turned to hear an explosion going off, seeing that Waverly had fallen to the ground seeing that her hand had gotten blown up made her wince in pain. Before Waverly let out a loud scream in pain Callie, held her ears as she could feel them ringing really badly, causing her to groan out in pain. As she looked around, she couldn't hear anything really at all as her attention turned towards the hammer wielding man, Marrow managed to take out the stone guy without any issue.

She held out her hand and quickly sent a bolt of electricity at him, which she managed to hit him but it didn't seem to have an effect on him, Callie groaned in frustration and then sent out another bolt of lightening at him. This time he sent him to the ground taking him out as she quickly went over towards Waverly seeing the injury. "We need to get you treated." Callie said, though she couldn't hear her own words, she wasn't sure if Waverly could hear really either.

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Kristina looked up she was glad that she wasn't killed as she started to slowly float off of the ground for a moment, she wanted to get back into the fight. And quickly flew back up into the air, seeing that Jack was still there and some woman who was carrying Veil she was glad that she was alright as Kris turned her attention towards the rock throwing man.

"Hey you know your aim is shit right? You aim is a lot like a stormtrooper's which is shit!" Kristina taunted, hoping to get him to turn his attention towards her. She shot an eyebeam at him, but sadly missed she focused again aiming for the man's chest and fired off another one this time hitting and injuring him pretty good.

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"I-I'm fine, I'm fine," Waverley mumbled, the words inaudible in the plague of deafness she'd accidentally brought down on her team. She was lying, of course; she'd just lost her hand, of course she wasn't alright. She could still feel the heat on her cheeks, and the distinct absence of a part of her masked only by the pain caused by its departure. Still, she waved away Callie's worry with her good hand, struggling to get up to her feet. In the end, she had to grab onto Spark Plug's wrist, using the woman for support as she pulled herself up.

"P-Payge, I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, we took care of the Children...b-but we lost the Marauder," Waverley shouted with both her voice and her mind as she held her bleeding nub, forcing herself to take deep breaths. It was odd. Even in such an drastic haze of pain, in such an intense situation, she had an absurd realization: even in a world where radio waves weren't the primary form of communication, she still played played the part of human telephone. Funny how one can get so used to something like that.

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Well, to say she was happier with Cadena deciding to create a sword instead of the more long distance whip and all made her feel a little better, since at least the playing field was a little more level. Well aside from there being two of them and only one of her and all. She in a flash brought her sword up to block Cadena's first attempt at an attack, and she whirled around, rather easily dodging the attacks that were being sent towards her by Aguja. "Wow, and here I was actually concerned about you two teaming up against me. You can't hit a damn thing anymore."

Zari was giggling a bit, before she brought her sword around to try and hit Cadena again, but she blocked it and Zari ducked down out of the way and swung again. Unfortunately, things weren't going well as they seemed to be relatively evenly matched, as her next swing just connected with Cadena's sword, and again with her third swing. This was really really starting to get annoying to her, since she wasn't able to actually do any sort of damage. "You are actually better than I thought, impressive," she commented specifically to Cadena, ignoring Aguja entirely now.

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Jack wasn't too sure what all was going on with the other two. Veil had gone through the floor and Kris had fallen off the edge, and he lucked out, as none of the asteroids seemingly hit him at all, which was lucky and all. Though a small part of him had actually hoped that he'd get hurt or something. Just because at this point he didn't know how he'd feel about getting seriously injured, or even dead. Before... Well before everything he tried to avoid it whenever possible. Now, he just wasn't too sure about it.

Seeing the opportunity, he launched an asteroid directly towards the person throwing them. Kris and Veil were both back on the roof, though someone else was up there with them now who he didn't really recognize. After his first throw missed, he looked at Kris and Veil, "You two alright?" he asked them, before launching one more asteroid back. This time, his aim was right on target as there was a loud thud (and a bit of a crunch) as the guy throwing the asteroids went thoroughly splat. "Well at least that one is down."

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She frowned slightly when she heard Magneto's words with regards to Lorna. Of course, Miranda knew he did have a slight point as to the fact that the building (or what was left of it) was completely made out of metal. That didn't necessarily mean anything though, since if she had gotten surprised or knocked out in the head or something, then she could have easily gotten crushed. There was the downside after all with regards to everyone's powers, despite what he seemed to think about things. She knew that things could go horribly wrong very quickly in the right circumstances to mess with everyone.

"Erik, that means absolutely nothing, if Lorna got injured or something in the initial attack or something, she wouldn't have been able to defend herself and might be trapped," she argued to him, clearly not too thrilled that he didn't seem to care. With the group dealt with though, she dropped the wall that she had created and turned to look at the mob of rubble that was there. "Lorna?" She called out, looking around, wanting to make sure that she was alright. Of course, there were several things running through her mind making her wonder if Lorna was alright.

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Max stood with halted breath as he muddled over Selene's words. In his shock from what he had seen, he didn't get his words out, making it appear that he believed the assailants to be human. He held hands with everyone once more as Selene seemed to regain her process and began to encant. Max listened as she spoke, a knot forming in his stomach from her words. He wasn't one to kill, Waverly's mother being an unfortunate exception. With Casper around… Max didn't need anymore ghosts following him around.

Max's went to channel his magic into Pixie, attempting to allow her to understand the words being spoken, but the strain from Selene's siphon was too much and his spell didn't find any purchase. Max grit his teeth as he tried to think of what to do next. How would she react if he simply said no? If he left her stronghold and went to help on a different front? Max wasn't sure how well that would play out, but he did know one thing, breaking away from this bind would be a herculean task. The dark magic encircled him now, making hard for him to escape. How well would stealing the spell work? How would it play out? Were these invaders truly so dangerous that they needed to he killed?

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Harry wasn't exactly sure where to begin with Sunshine. How would you catch being sad? as if Depression was just something that you were born with and not something one could go through after a traumatic event. He didn't have the time to explain to her about mental illness as suddenly the sound of a bomb went off and then pure silence. He was sure he wasn't close enough to the explosion to have caused hearing loss, but yet there were no audible sounds anywhere. Harry closed his eyes and tried to feel the vibrations around them, noting the distortion but feeling their presence still. Whatever happened up there with Waves may have caused the sudden rupture in sound.

Harry bit his lower lip, unsure of what to do next as he watched Callie take down the hammer wielding intruder who had just punched a large enough hole to cause it to sink. Instinctively he closed his eyes again, trying to find the vibrations of the water and match pitch with them in an attempt to freeze it. If he could make a large enough sheet of ice, hopefully he could keep the Marauder at float and repairs could go underway without needing to fish it out of the ocean. Sheets of ice were beginning to form as Harry moved from section to section. But the longer he strained the more he could feel the veins in his head beginning to bulge. He opened his eyes and saw his arms, the veins showing signs of stress as he struggled to take on more than he could do alone. With a final breath, he exhaled and fell back flat on his ass. Taking in sharp deep breaths as he stared helplessly for a moment, releasing his power before it took too much of a toll.

---

“Follow the crowd. Everyone is headed for shelter.” James replied as they escaped the building, swept up with the others running for their lives. Thankfully, people with mutants more suited to mitigating damage than fixing it were able to keep most people safe. JAmes could keep himself alive through this well enough but he was only really helpful after people were down and no one had the luxury of stopping right now.

That being said, James turned his attention to something else that was bothering him. Several heavy hitting units were launched in an unexpected attack against a mutant colony with a massive amount of variation. It could simply be that they wanted to kill as many people as quickly as they could but James thought that was an unlikely primary objective. It was a happy coincidence for them, James was sure, but ultimately, it’s likely a diversion. Their goal was to create as much chaos as possible to keep the island’s more combat savvy mutants occupied and while James has no idea as to what they could want, he certainly could draw some conclusions about their next move.

If James was involved in an incursion like this, James would have made his first move as soon as the island was available to them. Evaluate defenses and identify high population targets but more importantly, determine where the island’s shelters were. From there, he’d have it infiltrated, place explosives or operatives in the operations of the shelters, and when the attack forced all the non-combatants into place, slaughter them all to cripple the opposing force’s morale. Hellfire Manor would be a good target for such efforts. James swore as he considered the possibiliy.

“Casper, Ben, when we get to the Manor, you two have a job. Ben, you have to sweep the premises in its entirety. Look for anything that might be explosive, people who are behaving unusually compared to everyone else, anything that might mean the location is compromised. These people sent an asteroid flinger at one of the most populous places on the island while everyone was asleep, I’m not going to trust they aren’t down to kill non-combatants.” James yelled as they ran, hoping Ben was paying attention. “Babes, you need to find two or three places you can hide in if shit goes south. We’re going to need Ben for as long as you can hold him and I don’t want a stray anything to fuck you up while you’re concentrating.”

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"I'm fine!" Veil shouted at Jack, hoping to reassure him as the dark haired beauty set her down. "... Comment vous vous appellez?" she then asked quickly, wanting to know the name of the woman who had stopped her from becoming a splat in the pavement.

"Aurora," the woman answered, before moving faster than the eye could see. Jack had taken care of the combatant chucking asteroids, but there were still others that they had to deal with. There was the one who seemed to be able to disrupt anything and the other who had increased the gravity on Veil so much it nearly killed her. Aurora swung a punch up at Perro's chin, but Perro increased gravity so much that it was all Aurora could do to remain up in the air.

Then, something horrific happened. Veil's eyes widened as she saw one of the combatants point at Jack - the one who could disrupt anything - and suddenly Jack's powers would begin to go haywire, as he continuously stretched and stretched, losing a solid form and becoming something more liquid. It looked like he was still alive, but Veil couldn't be certain. They had already lost Jack from his powers once. She made a small force field in her hand and chucked it like a frisbee at Merbavon, but it vanished as soon as it touched Merbavon. Veil threw another one, only to get the same result.

Anything they threw at him disappeared - so how the hell were they supposed to fight him? How could you fight someone you couldn't touch? "We need a telepath!"

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"Finally, something I'm qualified for!" Casper exclaimed after James gave him instructions on looking for places to hide. Casper used to hide wherever he could in the X-Mansion when he was with his father, doing his very best to be out of the telepath's reach. Unfortunately, the telepath part made that more or less impossible to accomplish. His father had always been there whether Casper liked it or not. Even here on Genosha, Casper could feel the edges of his presence, like a ghost that he couldn't shake no matter what. He wasn't just haunted by ordinary spirits - his father haunted him too.

When they made it to Hellfire Mansion, located in the central hub of Genosha, it was eerily quiet. "Shouldn't there be more... I don't know, screaming?" Casper asked. He couldn't see anyone running inside. He didn't see anyone shepherding people to safety. There wasn't even a single person who was just standing around trying to look important. The place felt eerie.

And then, a minute later, the body of a young woman was thrown out the front door, skidding to a halt at Casper and James' feet.

"She's..."

"Dead," Casper finished for Ben. The woman's throat had been slit - no, it had been burned open. It was like someone used a lightsaber on her.

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Echo's efforts had been valiant, but they weren't enough. The Marauder was entirely submerged under water, forcing everyone to tread water. Sunshine struggled to stay afloat, having never been lucky enough for swimming lessons, only going swimming recently on Genosha. Her head was going up and under the water, but luckily Marrow came over and assisted her dear wife, keeping Sunshine from drowning in the water. Martillo wasn't so lucky. His giant hammer weighed him down and he refused to abandon it, going quickly beneath the water and sinking like a rock.

There was still no sound, everyone continuing to be rendered deaf by Waverley's pain and injury. It wouldn't have changed what happened next though. One second, they were all treading water, trying to think of what to do next - and the next thing they knew, a targeted explosion occurred. The attack hit Echo, burning him severely in the upper chest while simultaneously plunging him into the cold, icy water. It wasn't morning yet - while it was summer, the temperature was bitter, helped in part due to Echo's own powers.

There was something in the water with them - something with sharp claws, Marrow would learn, as blood blossomed from her stomach.

And then suddenly, they were surrounded by easily fifty enemies, all of them looking exactly the same like clones.

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Akademos...

"Cadena, I don't-," Aguja blurted out, before vomiting up blood. She stumbled forward, her knees buckling and giving out from underneath her as she couldn't remain standing. It was like the island itself was killing her, leeching her and draining her of life. Her hair and teeth were beginning to fall out and her skin looked like it had begun to decay, but she was still alive, just kept in immense pain.

"What?" Cadena snapped, turning her head to look at Aguja. Cadena's eyes widened in horror, before she turned and pointed an accusatory finger at Zarina. Andy would finally wake up. "YOU DID THIS!" she screamed at Zarina, before lashing at her with her electric chain, only to miss wildly. Cadena didn't slow down though, getting sloppier with each attack out of anger and rage. "I'LL KILL YOU, PRIMITIVE TRASH!"

House of M...

"She's my daughter. She's a survivor," Magneto said confidently, although Miranda would be able to notice the slight defensiveness to his words. He expected a great deal of his children and did not visibly worry about them often. Only those who had been around him for decades would recognize the slightest touch of concern, worry, and fear. Of course, Magneto wasn't the only one grappling his fear.

A bright flash of green light went off in Miranda's eyes, coming from seemingly nowhere. And the next thing she would know, she'd hear the screams of a child, trapped inside of the rubble. "MOMMY!!!!" the child wailed, probably no more than six years old from the pitch. A young boy was screaming as well at the top of his lungs, as if he was in mortal peril.

Blackstone...

Selene's spell was reaching a crescendo. The distinction between each member of the Coven was becoming less and less, as their minds and souls blurred together. There was no sense of pervading evil or wickedness though, through the connection they each would know the true intentions of one another - Selene wished to protect the people of Genosha. Pixie wanted to be a hero. And Max... He was a disharmonious note in the chord, an inexperienced musician attempting to play a melody that would not work, that could not work. "Do not be afraid, Maximilian," Selene said - or was it someone else, speaking through her? It was hard to say. The words were echoed around the circle by others, making a strange sort of music.

The music was then disrupted, as the entire symphony was blown backwards, landing on the ground roughly. The Coven was dazed and disoriented as everyone assumed their own forms, only to see a tall cloaked figures with tentacles coming out of where the face was floating ahead of them.

"Whoever you are, you know not who you are dealing with. Genosha's coven--" Selene threatened, only to be cut off.

"means nothing to me," the creature growled, yet it was silent. Its voice was echoing in everyone's minds, as it spoke telepathically to them all. "I am Cripta, rightful Sorcerer Supreme of this realm - and you are but rats scurrying beneath my feet," the creature boasted. The creature traced a complex sigil in the air and then shoved the floating magic towards the Coven. Three members were hit directly and in moments, they were inside out. Their skin was on the inside and everything else... well, it was on the outside.

"Oh my god...." Pixie said, looking like she was about to vomit. "That's so gross..."

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She had to get out of here. Had to escape. But could one escape hell? We get what we deserve. She thought. She took a deep breath, it burned and caused her to cough. This all felt so real. It couldn't be a dream. She opened the door that she knew would lead to where the Purifiers were.

"We know what you are." A voice said. Her stomach twisted. "You've been hiding here and we don't want your kind here."

"Purifiers." Ash hissed between her teeth. Andy's eyes went wide, her stomach twisting more than it already had. The men's attention was on Ash. "Run Andy," Jamie said and pushed Andy past them. One of the Purifiers grabbed her by the arm and twisted it behind her back.

"Not so quick, kiddo, are you a muttie?" The man asked, his voice was harsh. Andy shook her head.

"She works here. We rent the room in the basement to her." Jamie said. The Purifier didn't let Andy go. "She's not part of this. Let her go." Jamie was trying his best, fear crossed his features. Andy struggled against the Purifier's grip but couldn't escape.

"Kill the woman. She's the mutant we came for." The man who held Andy said. One of the other men shoved Ash back into the burning building. Jamie tried to fight back, but he was ineffective, and both were gone, pushed into the building. Andy screamed and struggled again, almost breaking free. "Make sure they stay inside till they're dead."

Andy could hear them screaming. Ash was trying to put some of the fire out with her water power, but the building was already too far gone. Their voices and screams ended.

"NO!" Andy yelled. She lashed out with her electrokinesis, but the man seemed unphased. However, she was able to break free of his grip finally. Andy threw a right hook and overestimated missing the man completely. He grabbed at her arm and caught it, but Andy pulled free quickly.

She knew better, this was playing out exactly as it had before. Changing it seemed impossible though. Andy spun around going through the door back into the gym. That was suicide and she knew it, but it was different. Instead of the heat of the fire and the gym burning down around her she was back on the field near Akademos. She was on the ground and in a whole lot of pain.

Something horrifying was happening with the people attacking them. One of them was fall apart in front of them. "She didn't do that." Andy yelled at Cadena. She didn't dare reach out and try to touch her again though. Somehow she had survived and Andy wasn't going to repeat that mistake. She'd have to find another way to fight.

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Callie still couldn't hear anything at all as she felt the water suddenly coming over her, as another explosion happened knocking Echo into the water. She looked towards Waverly and gestured for her to get back to shore, as she noticed Marrow as some claws hit her in the stomach, her eyes going wide as she started to swim over to try and help her and Sunshine out. She couldn't help everyone as Callie started to think of a way to get everyone to safety.

She started to think of a way and tried to create a tornado to try and suck up the fifty or so enemies coming out of the water, they needed to get out as quickly as possible. Callie groaned getting annoyed as she could only fee a light breeze going through, not what she really wanted to do Callie had turned to look where Echo had fallen and hoped that he was alright.

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Kristina looked towards Jack asking if they were alright and nodded slightly. "Yep, just peachy after nearly falling to my death really not a fun thing to experience honestly." Kristina answered Jack, she was just glad that she was able to fly and not end up becoming a huge splatter mark on the ground. Kristina turned towards Tic Tac Man as Veil attempted to attack him after noticing what he was doing to Jack, she hoped that he was alright.

"Let me try something!" Kristina yelled towards Veil, as she focused on Merbavon's feet aiming just between his feet on the floor, hoping to break the floor under him to break his concentration. She fired off a focused eyebeam which worked like she had planned as she watched the floor around him break from her shot.

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As the water began to spill onto the deck of the Marauder, Waverley had no choice but to turn her attention from her injured arm to the flooding, rising up around her legs. She did her best to keep her bleeding stub above water, but as the ship sunk, she found herself unable to focus on anything but staying up. She let out a hiss of pain as the salty water touched her nub, but forced herself to focus on using her remaining limbs to keep herself up. Even with the stinging of the salt water on her nub, she enjoyed having a second of peace to breathe.

And a second was all it turned out to be; an explosion sent Echo under as all at once, more enemies appeared, an army of what seemed to be clones, as well as some mystery beast swimming through the water, striking out at Marrow. Waverley caught sight of Callie nodding her back to shore, to which she responded with a shake of her head, not hesitating. She wasn't going to leave, not without the others. She thought about what she could do: she could send a sonic blast out, but who knows how effective that would be against the creature swimming under them. Her radio wave manipulation was never all that useful in a fight, not without something she could tap into-

The Marauder, the thought rang through her mind for a split second before she closed her eyes. The deafness almost helped her focus, allowing her to focus on the feeling of the radio waves without the interruption of outside sounds. Her mind went downwards, feeling for any receivers the ship might have. She found one alright; something major. Like a lock waiting for a key she had. She turned it and opened her eyes, waiting for a missile or torpedo or laser to come launching out of the water. Nothing. She waited a few more seconds...and that's when she felt it. Something solid below her feet. She almost fell as a metal platform rose from the water, lifting her and her team out of the water. As the platform rose completely out of the bay and into the air above it, the craft was revealed in all its glory: a shining, metallic flying saucer, the words 'The Mercury' written along its side. Waverley's eyes went wide, staring down at the thing as it lifted them into the air.

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Zari wasn't sure how Andy was doing, as her attention was entirely focused on Cadena and her fight with her. She hardly noticed anyone else, that is... Until Aguja started saying something and seemed to start dying or disintegrating or whatever right in front of them. "...What the hell is going on?" she muttered, before her attention was dragged back by Cadena accusing her of being the one responsible. "Something tells me that you have no idea how my powers work, cause I sure as hell can't do that sort of thing." Of course, Cadena didn't believe a word that she said and proceeded to lash out and attack her anyway.

"Wow, so kind, I'm not primitive," she commented to Cadena, before she whirled around with her sword and stabbed Cadena right through the chest, mere inches from her heart. "To think you'll never learn the lesson of never underestimating your opponent," she added rather coldly, before yanking her sword out and slashing at Cadena again, striking her dead. Unfortunately, that released a large electrical discharge of energy that slammed into her, injuring her even more than she already was, and Zari collapsed to the ground, her body aching. She moved her hand over the severe electrical burns that blackened her skin along her neck for a moment, before flopping her hand onto the ground, "...I'm just going to lie here... Don't mind me."

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He was definitely glad that Veil and Kris were alright from their falls, and he wasn't too sure who Aurora was, but was glad that she had shown up to help. Things were a bit chaotic, but at least the guy who had been chucking asteroids at them was dealt with (with a very resounding splat of a noise of course) so there wasn't anything actively being thrown at them. Tic Tac was a bit of a strange one, and he wasn't entirely sure how all his powers worked, aside from he more or less had turned the building into jelly. So he was a little confused when the guy pointed at him.

That's when everything went wrong.

The feeling at first was really painful, as he felt himself lose complete control over his body and powers, and eventually he seemed to fall into a puddle of sorts. After that initial burst of pain, everything went numb, but he was finding it fairly hard to breathe and he wasn't entirely sure what all was going on with the other two. This was an interesting way to potentially die, it just was super uncomfortable. Something must have happened though, as after a few moments he managed to find that he could reform and be back to himself, and he basically took a big gasp of breath, "Okay, that was the weirdest thing and also that made it really hard to breathe..." he commented, before going over to see what was going on with Tic Tac, and seeing the ground by him collapsing for the most part. He was definitely mad, and he instantly put his telepathy to good use, as he focused on Tic Tac, which resulted in him getting put in so much pain, that he ended up passing out. "I hate that guy..." he muttered.

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"Erik, that doesn't always mean what you seem to think it means, we need to find her, okay? She could be seriously hurt..." she said softly, knowing that he seemed to at least be starting to show that he might actually somewhat care about her. Sometimes it was difficult to tell, even for her, and she's known him for decades. Of course, she suddenly was a bit confused when she heard what sounded like children screaming, coming from the rubble. It took a moment for her mind to potentially recognize the voices of the children, and it confused her to no end.

She knew that her own children were grown up by now... But those definitely were their voices coming from the rubble. Taking a few deep breaths, trying to calm down, she closed her eyes to try and focus on reality and not the children screaming like crazy. Unfortunately for her, whatever was messing with her head seemed to be stronger than her mind, as when she opened her eyes and listened to the chaos around her again, the screaming was still there. A small part of her instantly thought about how it could be real, that it really was her kids. But the more rational part of her brain pointed out otherwise, and that it was completely impossible, but she wasn't too sure what to do.

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Max could feel himself slowly being lost amongst the others in the spell. Resisting with what he had left, even though he felt no malice from the coven. He could feel Pixies desire to be a hero, but what kind of Hero was willing to kill their enemies? The world wasn't as black and white as some people would say. Morality was grey, and even the strongest among us (like Wanda Maximoff) could fall prey to darkness only to be reasoned out of it. Max didn't know who these assailants were, but he didn't believe they deserved death. The voices of the coven spoke out, urging him not to be afraid. But his only fear was that he would make the wrong choice. His indecision led to a backfire, causing everyone to return to who they were as a cloaked figure made their way into Selene's sanctum.

Max's eyes darted back and forth between Selene and Cripta. Trying to gauge which of the two truly meant their words. But something Cripta said struck a chord with Max. The rightful Sorcerer Supreme of this realm. Before Max could say anything in protest, Cripta chose to show a measure of their strength by turning some of the coven inside out. Max's eyes went wide in horror as he choked back bile. He placed one hand behind his back, the other arm stretched forward, palm to the side in a readied stance for both martial and mystic arts. The hand behind his back tried to Conjure a small portal. Just big enough to reach into his room. But the spell failed. He concentrated, letting the moon's rays touch him as he took slow and deep breaths and tried once more, feeling something working against him actively, and growing frustration inside of him.

He was supposed to be some hero. Something this island could look up to. A savior of mutantkind or something like that. Yet here he was unable to do the most simple of tasks. Max centered himself once more, choosing to ask for aid from a master who had told him before he needed to work things out on his own. "What do you know about a creature named Cripta, claiming to be the truthful sorcerer Supreme? How can I stop them? What should I do?"

“… I’ve never heard of such a thing. Normally I would urge you to remember your basics and compose yourself, but if the situation is dire… I would advise you let loose.”

Strange's reply was a welcome change. Not because of the advice given, but the familiarity of hearing him again and having a voice that wasn't Selene's in his head. Let loose. Ok Max let out a slow exhale. His body now wreathed in cosmic energy as his magic spiraled out of control. His eyes appeared to be a void as he stared down at Cripta. Magic burst forth from him and large flames began to coalesce and become a massive hydra. It began to lash out towards Cripta, watching as the supposed 'Supreme being' managed to erect a shield just in time to defend himself.

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Harry sat there kneeling on the deck of the Marauder as he felt the ship sink much to his dismay. The icy water began to climb up his legs, quickly hitting his upper thigh before reaching his midsection. But Harry was still out of it. Staring off and collecting himself from the massive strain he had pulled off. There was no sound, and in an eerie way, it fit the scene perfectly. Harry was rapidly brought back into the fray as he felt white hot heat pressed against his chest, burning a hole in his shirt and barely missing the three tattoos that circled the area on his chest. His body was flung backwards, plunging him into the frigid waters and sending shock through his body as the heat immediately dissipated and was replaced with a biting cold.

Harry gripped his chest, lunging forward out of the water and gasping for air. He moved his hand carefully, cautiously, as if afraid to witness what would lay beneath it. There was no red, no stains of blood. And his sharp gasps slowed slightly as he tried to regain focus. It was moments like these he was glad that the sound was still put out. Knowing full well the ringing he would be experiencing had he heard the blast. Harry's eyes began to focus around him, noting Marrow was bleeding out profusely, and having no way of knowing if he should cauterize the wound.

He went to go stand, when suddenly the world began to shake and shift. Harry thought it was an after effect of the explosion, before noticing the ship was lifting into the air as Waverly began controlling it in some way. If she could get the ship towards the medical center, her and Marrow could get looked at by James. Harry tried to establish a connection to Waverly, but he couldn't navigate the sounds. It was a wonder how Waverly did it so effortlessly, seemingly picking up each radio wave as if it was like picking an apple from a tree. While Harry stood here lost in a maze of radios not knowing which way to send it.

Frustrated, Harry decided that he would just have to trust her to do what was needed while he, Callie, and Sunshine took care of the clones. He'd thought about saying a witty one liner. Something inspiring to help pick up morale after such a defeat. But he figured there was no point as it would fall on dead ears. So he decided to do what he did best, perform. Harry used every sound he could feel vibrating in the air. The water sloshing off the ship as it rose into the air, the grinding and creaking of the metal, the sounds of pain from his friends, and the footsteps of his enemies.

Everything was now a weapon for him to use. And he used all of it. With a simple snap of his finger, dozens of lights began to shimmer and shine into existence. Ranges of colors from reds to blues, all the way to violet. Beams danced across the ship, cutting down the clones and reducing their numbers by half. He needed to stay focused. There were still 25 to their 4 and Harry needed to try and even the odds. But the blast still left him weak, and duplicating just wasn't in the cards yet.

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Well, fuck.

Their attackers hadn’t bothered with the waiting part apparently but he’d think about that later. Casper was right that it was eerily quiet and in the midst of an attack on their home, it felt misplaced. Maybe the abruptness of asteroids made for a poor comparison but James expected something on a similar scale. James held his finger to his lips for Casper to stay quiet and crept his way up to the door, peeking around the frame to try and keep himself from being seen.

James barely stopped himself from banging his head on the door frame at the scene inside. A silver woman stood amongst several others, each clearly under her thrall. A telepath. Just what the god damned doctor ordered. James backed away from the door, a pit of unease growing in his stomach. Telepaths on a normal day made him wary. Telepaths actively interested in harming him downright terrified him. And Casper, jesus. This could either be incredibly therapeutic or James needed to get his boyfriend away from here as fast as possible.

“So, lots of people in there but it looks like they’re all under the fuckery of a naked, silver telepath in the middle. I didn’t see Reeva or the Three-in-One so either they escaped, they’re dead, or they’re hiding. Either way, they aren’t going to be used against us.” James explained quietly, sighing as he finished. James’ first instinct was to tell Casper to run but he wasn’t confident anywhere on the island was safe right now and he’d admit, he’d feel a lot better walking into this shit show knowing he had someone with him. “So, I don’t have a plan because frankly, I don’t know how to take down a telepath short of a bullet between their eyes or a tranquilizer round and that terrifies the shit out of me so any fantasy about how to render your sperm donor useless would be very much appreciated.” Because truly, James was out of his depth here. He could take a bullet, an energy beam, or an explosion but he had no idea if he could protect his mind in the same manner. Fuck, he hated telepaths. Having someone else possess your mind like…

An idea sparked in his head and James gave Casper a questioning look. “I don’t know if it’s even possible but can ghosts possess people, like in horror movies? Just keep her still long enough for us to knock her unconscious or walk her into something violent and deadly?”

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There was only one enemy left on the rooftop now - Perro, the gravity manipulator. Veil had tried her best not to feel nauseous or disgusted when Jack lost his form, only to regain it after some quick thinking from Kris got rid of Merbavon's threat. Merbavon screamed in pain and fell unconscious almost at the same exact time that Kris destroyed the portion of the roof beneath his feet, likely condemning him to death. But truthfully, Veil didn't care. They had been attacked, their home was under attack, and these people, they weren't going to stop. These were the sort of people who only wanted to kill.

And Veil always believed in treating people the way that they treated others.

The structural integrity of the building was holding, but just barely. Perro was still locked in a battle of wills with Aurora, increasing her gravity as she put more and more effort into maintaining her flight. Both of them were strained, sweat beading up on their forehead. Veil thought for a moment, before turning invisible. It took more effort than she would've liked - she needed sleep, coffee, and a doctor, preferably in that order. Veil made her way around Perro, until she was right behind him. She looked on the ground for something to use as a weapon, finding only a chunk of asteroid. Veil gently picked it up...

And then SLAMMED it into Perro's head. Perro crumpled to the ground, and with his hold gone, Aurora shot way up into the sky.

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Casper really wanted to take a peak inside, so rather than stay behind, he quietly followed alongside James, craning his neck to try and get a better view. The silver woman looked more like a robot modeled on Britney Spears than a person to him. He was about to make a comment about that, when he remembered that James had motioned for him to be quiet. Ben though, Ben didn't need to be quiet at all.

"Doesn't she remind you of Britney Spears?" Ben asked.

Casper gave him a pleading look, as if to scream - Beeeen, I'm doing my best here to not taaaaaalk! Ben smirked in turn, enjoying the slight bit of revenge. Ben's revenge didn't last long though, as James asked Casper a question - and Casper quickly reminded himself a few times of the need to be quiet. "My main fantasy to kill my father is putting him at one of those landings between floors, where you can only use stairs to go up or down," Casper admitted, with a malicious twinkle in his eyes. "He'll be trapped for ages up there. And you can't telepath stairs."

"...Really Casper? Stairs is your plan to kill Professor X?"

"I don't hear you having a better plan, Ben!" Casper whispered, although his volume rose a bit at the end.

"How about James' plan?" Ben asked.

"I dunno Ben, can you do that?" Casper asked. He was pretty sure that Ben was capable of it, mostly since it sounded weird enough to work, and Casper was very easily persuaded to believe that all horror movie concepts applied to his powers. It was one of the reasons he was so terrified of ghosts - he didn't want them all up in his body!

"I'll do it," Ben told Casper. "Be back in a few." Ben then walked into the room, heading straight up to the silver Britney. "He's going now," Casper whispered to James, since James couldn't see Ben.

A moment later, it was like an evil chill or a shudder went down Silver Britney's spine. "Who's there?" Britney accused, looking around defensively. "Get out of my body!" she then snapped, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head, revealing just white pupils. "Hey guys. It's me - Ben," she said.

"Hi Ben!" Casper shouted, waving at his friend.

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The ship they were all standing on wasn't anything like the Marauder - the Mercury looked like a UFO to Sunshine. It was sleek and smooth, humming as well. She couldn't see a single line on the ship to indicate an entrance or a window. If it hadn't been for the name scrawled onto it and the fact that it looked like a UFO, she wouldn't have known it was a ship at all. It was strange and alien. Her ears then popped as Waverley's deafness field finally ended, allowing them all to hear.

"OH MOTHERFUCKER!" Marrow screamed, cursing from the pain. She had one hand pressed up against her stomach, doing her best to stem the bleeding. Right next to her was what could only be described as Bowser from the Mario Series. The creature's claws were stained red with Marrow's blood. And Sunshine, realizing that was the thing that had hurt her wife, saw red in turn.

"You hurt my wife!" Sunshine lobbed a ball of disease at Bowser, and as always, her aim was perfect. In another life, she could've competed with Hawkeye, maybe even beat him. Such was the nature of her secondary mutant gift. The disease crawled inside of Bowser, ensnaring his organs and bringing out the mother of immune responses. Bowser was feeling feverish and coughing up a storm, his throat feeling like sandpaper.

Echo had killed half of the Dupes, but there were still twenty five left standing. Ten Dupes rushed at Echo, seeming him as the majority threat. They didn't seem to have any special powers, mostly just hitting and kicking at him. One of them scratched Echo beneath the eye. Another one kicked him in the small of the back. Three of them went up to Sunshine, pulling at her hair to attempt to force her down to the ground. None of them bothered Spark Plug. Ten of them went for Waverley, one of the ten putting hands around her throat. And two went for Marrow, attempting to kick her in her wounded stomach.

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Akademos...

Cadena was dead by Zarina's hand. Aguja died soon after her, killed by an unknown hand. For the briefest of moments, no one was attacking the Akademos. However, the young mutants who studied there were completely terrified and a fair number of them were injured, some of them critically so. Zarina and Andy's work was far from done. They were just getting started.

House of M...

Magneto's eyes flashed green as well. Whatever he saw, no one else knew. But by the way the blood drained from his face, the Master of Magnetism was truly scared. Metal began to whip around him like snakes... only to then go flying towards... Miranda?!??!?!

Meanwhile, Miranda would still hear the screams of her children. Her son was begging for her to help him, screaming that he was stuck under the rubble and his leg was broken. His daughter's cries had turned into wails, the desperate pleas just pure emotion.

Blackstone...

Cripta (or perhaps better named Cthulu?) seemed to enjoy the hydra Max had sent their way. All of their magical focus was going into what looked like a shield, but within moments, it would be clear that it was more of a siphon. The hydra was decreasing in size the longer it rammed up against the shield, until it was so small that it could scarcely be seen, and then, it was nothing at all. Cripta had acquired a strange orange glow and their tentacles wiggled. "Mm, I was a bit peckish," Cripta taunted. "Thank you for the snack."

The tentacles then went taut, as a fiery beast of Cripta's own design flooded into being. It looked like a kraken, its flames blue. The kraken ensnared Max in one of its tentacles, and he should've been burnt alive, if not for some quickly placed purple runes wrapping around him - Selene's magic!

"Max!" Pixie screamed.