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Andy winced as Zari killed the astronaut suit person. Not that she felt bad for them, but because more electricity shot out around them. Zari ended up on the ground too. "Are you okay?" She asked Zari, then stood up and took stock of their surroundings. There were a bunch of injured around. She sighed. They'd have to get them to help.

"We need to get these people to Hellfire Manor." She frowned. She didn't know how they could do that. Andy knew sometimes moving injured people would make it worse. Was Hellfire Manor, two of the places Reeva had sent people had been dangerous. It was possible that other places were too. Was Reeva compromised?

Andy tried to reach out mentally back the link that had been previously used to let the Three-in-One know what happened at Akademos. Then she looked at the people and said loudly. "If you're able to help someone, please do. Be careful and let's head to Hellfire Manor." Then she turned to Zari and offered her hand. "Think you can walk?"

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Callie could feel the area around her shaking a bit as her feet landed on something solid and the water quickly started to recede now and they were all now standing on what looked to be a flying saucer of some kind. And then suddenly her ears started to pop, and she was able to hear again. Callie closed her eyes for a moment she was glad that she'd be able to hear again, as the remaining clones suddenly started to attack all of them except for her for some really weird reason.

Callie got a better look at Marrow's attacker seeing the Bowser wannabe easily now she wasn't sure if he was the one responsible for the clones attacking the others. But Callie held out her hand and started to shoot out a bolt of electricity at him, only for her to miss, she clenched her fist and groaned as she got a bit annoyed and started to shoot another bolt, but yet missed again. "Really?" Callie said to herself wishing that she had Sunshine's ability to aim as she fired off two more shots, only for one to miss and then the Bowser wannabe dodged the last one with ease.

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Kristina could hear the Tic-Tac man's screams as he ended up falling into the hole that she had made with her lucky shot, she then proceeded to land onto the roof again, she was about to aim another shot at the Gravity man. Just as Veil went invisible, and then a few seconds later the Gravity man suddenly collapsed into a heap as the new woman suddenly shot up into the air. "Well that was a bit anticlimactic." Kristina said looking over at Jack and Veil.

She approached Perro's body and lightly tapped him with her foot looking between Jack and Veil, she could see all the scrapes and bruises that Veil had and when Jack turned into a weird puddle like mess moments ago by the Tic-Tac guy. "Are you two alright?" Kristina asked she wasnt sure if the building would be able to stand much longer but it seemed stable for now. She also hoped that the other woman was alright, as she tried to see where she was up in the sky.

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'Welcome aboard, Captain Watts' the voice rung through her head as the levitating craft rose from the bay, water dripping down its sides. Everything was happening so fast that she barely even registered the telepathic greeting, and even when she did, she made no attempt to respond. Instead she stood in the midst of the chaos, watching as the army of clones closed in around them. She stood amongst her friends as they lashed out at the thick cloud of clones, lightning and green mist flying outward through the air as they stood their ground.

Waverley raised her remaining hand and prepared to send out a soundwave of her own, but before she could, one of the clones leapt forward and grabbed her by the throat. Her eyes bulged, her outstretched hand instead finding its chest as she struggled to push it away, to release its grip on her. Her struggling was in vain; she couldn't get good leverage on him to get him off. As she felt her vision begin to dim, she turned to her powers, but in those last moments, they betrayed her. They turned inward, forcing her to feel every sound wave rippling through her as her body as she slowly died, making her feel as her muscles went tense, making her feel the desperate pulsating of her empty lungs. Making her feel as her heartbeat went faster and faster and faster.

Until it eventually stopped.

This was always how it was going to happen. This was always how Waverley Watts was going to die: a casualty of a war far greater than herself. She was never going to get married, she was never going to have children, she was never going to grow old. That was never in the cards for her. Not with world she was born into, not with the choices she made, and not with the way she loved. Especially not with the way she loved.

When Waverley was a little girl, her mother read her The Giving Tree on nights she was off work. That book taught Waverley what love was, that love was giving oneself up piece by piece to those they held dear. So from the beginning, that's what she did. She gave herself to her ever-squabbling parents. She gave herself to her brilliant little sister. She gave herself to her manipulative friends at school. By the time she realized that this was not what love should be, it was too late; she'd already given too much of herself away. So she continued on with the only love she knew. She gave herself to the Mutant Underground. And for the first time, she felt their love in return. And through them, through this homeless, ragtag band of misfits trying to make the world a better place, she gave herself to the world.

This was the only way she was ever going to die because this was the only way she was ever going to love. Deep, selfless, with everything she had.

To the very end.

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Max watched in horror as his hydra began to shrink in size. Was his connection not strong enough? His magic too weak? He couldn't figure out why it had started to decline in size until he finally caught a glimpse of what was happening. The barrier that Cripta had erected was siphoning the magic out of his creation and into himself. The orange aura that now surrounded Cripta gave him a menacing
glow. If magic isn't the answer, then he would need to get creative with his powers to defeat this being.

As Max worked to come up with an idea, a large fiery blue kraken appeared, wrapping its tentacles around Max. The flames never quite reached him however as tunes began to encircle him and Max shot a look towards Selene that both said Thank You and I'm Sorry. How many mutants were now paying because of Max's mistake? Pixie called out to him, shaking him out of his mind and back to the task at hand. He placed one hand to his side, conjuring a sword and grasping its hilt and stabbing it forward in an attempt to kill Cripta. But where Max expected flesh and resistance, he instead found an empty void.

If this body wasn't real, then he would have to find some part of him that is. Max tried to rake the sword upwards, wishing to hit something, anything, but he found himself locked in place. A pain began to course inside of him that erupted into a burning sensation. His blood felt as if it was burning him from the inside out. Max grit his teeth and stared Cripta dead in the eyes as he bore the pain. "You won't get me so easily Squidward." His hands finished his own sigil as brilliant golden light washed over him and removed whatever it was that was ailing him. His breath began to regulate again, and he was ready to take another stab. "He can siphon magic and his body seems to be an illusion. Find his source and snuff it out."

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Harry was used to being flashy, used to staying in the spotlight and having all eyes on him. To an extent he supposed that was a good thing. A majority of the clones began to rush towards him, encircling him as they scratched and kicked at him. Aside from that, there appeared to be no real set of powers at play here. It was difficult to watch what was happening outside of his fight. The fog of war being made manifest by a swarm of bodies that assaulted him with no break in sight. Harry needed to see what was going on, to see who he could help. He let out a scream akin to Aerosmith's shout during a performance.

The sound reverberated off of the ones bodies as each collision caused pockets of light to become tangible and explode on impact. Seven of them dropped dead in the initial blast, while the remainders seemed to be more resilient to his attacks. Did the clones learn and adapt as battles went on? Or were these just a stronger batch? Harry didn't have the luxury of time to figure it out as he snapped his fingers and dropped 2 more clones, leaving only the one left to go up against him. He cracked his neck and knuckles as he simultaneously pulled out one of his own clones who mirrored what he'd just done. "Let's see if we can even these odds shall we?"

---

James let out a sigh of relief as Casper enthusiastically greeted Ben. "Good job, Ben." James congratulated the ghost, dutifully ignoring the eyes currently rolled back to show just the whites. He turned his attention to the room as he walked in, eyeing the other mutants warily. They didn't show any discernable signs of independence but with Ben in control of their captor, they should stay out of their way. Hopefully, it would stay that way.

For now, they needed a more permanent solution to their telepath problem. James had no way of knowing anything about her other than she was covered in (or composed of) metal of some kind and that she could control other's somehow. Problem number 2 had been taken care of and he doubted a few punches would do much in the way of knocking her out but if she was anything like Colossus, maybe electricity would do the trick. They'd just have to time it so Ben could get out in time.

"Ben, are you able to tell anything about her or are you just in control of her body?" James asked as he looked around the room. His first instinct was to find a power cord and strip the insulation, wrap it around her, and plug her into an outlet right after Ben got out so they'd have a good chance of knocking her flat on her ass before she figured out what the fuck was going on.

But the designers of the Hellfire Manor clearly didn't consider a metal telepath attacking it because James couldn't see a single power cable to strip which meant he'd have to hunt one down and that left Casper woefully undefended. "Okay, babes I need you to find a place to hunker down that if shit hits the fan, you can stay out of the line of fire while you manifest Ben if he gets kicked out. Not that I don't trust you to hold her," He reassured their possessing friend. "But back up plans are important. Meanwhile, I'm going to find a power cable to strip or a metal fork so we can plug her in and light her up like a Christmas tree."

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Veil nodded, noticing that Jack seemed a little bit quiet, but she figured he was probably just shaken by everything that had happened. "Is everyone out of the building?" she asked. It didn't seem structurally sound at all. If there was no one left inside, then it was probably for the best for them to abandon it. She was also pretty certain that other people would need their help. This attack, it was never ending. She didn't even have time to comprehend how tired she was or admire the beauty of the sun rising above the horizon, flooding their surroundings with morning light.

Aurora touched down on the roof. "I'll look, cherie," she said, before dashing off faster than the eye could see. She returned only seconds later. "There's no one else inside."

"Then we should get out of here - before this building kills us," Veil advised grimly. They already had more close calls than she would care for. They were lucky to have made it out of this in one piece so far and she didn't want to push that luck, as she had a feeling that their fight was just beginning - that they'd have to combat more and more of these invaders as time went on. Whoever they were, they were powerful, powerful enough to challenge an island full of mutants.

Had they made themselves easy targets by gathering all together?

Was there really safety in numbers?

Or had they condemned everyone on Genosha to die?

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"What if she's Jewish?" Casper asked James, referring to his plan to deal with Miss Colossus by lighting her up like a Christmas Tree. He felt a little tired, more so than usual, and then Casper glanced at his hands, seeing the soft blue glow. He must've been powering Ben so he could possess Metallica or whatever her name was. That was waaaay too much responsibility for him. He really liked James' idea of hiding basically until this was all over. That seemed much safer. Of course, he would've preferred for James to hide with him.

"I don't think that matters, Cas," Ben pointed out. While Casper was feeling drained, Ben seemed to be more or less a natural at this - to Casper's annoyance. Ben had been dead for ages and he was still a natural when it came to saving the day - not that Casper really cared about saving the day, he just didn't want to be the weakest link. "....I think her name is.... Serafina? And she's.... She's from something called the Vault," Ben then told James, Serafina's face scrunching up as if she was deep in thought.

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Sunshine turned her head just at the right (wrong?) moment to watch Waverley's final moments. Her eyes widened as she let out a scream, instinctively running towards her friend. Yes, she wasn't always the nicest to Waverley, but Waverley was more or less the closest thing she had ever had to a best friend. The clone who had killed Waverley unceremonious dropped her to the ground, and Sunshine swung a punch at his chin, her fist cloaked in the green smoke of her disease powers.

This clone must've been smarter than the others. He caught Sunshine's fist and twisted it, forcing Sunshine to bend her knees and lower her body to keep her wrist from snapping like a toothpick. But all of that brain wasn't enough to change the fact he had grabbed her fist, the fist covered in disease. The infection spread rapidly throughout the clone's body, as every inch of skin erupted into gruesome hives and blood filled his lungs. "You killed her, you fucking flatscan!!!!" Sunshine screamed.

More clones were appearing - somehow, they were multiplying. One of them punched Echo in the throat, temporarily preventing him from being able to speak or sing (for one round). Bowser clawed at Callie, leaving a nasty gash on her shoulder that would definitely scar. Marrow was currently surrounded by clones, doing her best to fend them off.

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Akademos...

Zarina was more than a little bit out of it, dazed due to the electricity. While Andy was doing her best to contact the Three-in-One, there was radio silence - it wasn't like Andy wasn't doing it correctly, rather, it seemed that there wasn't anyone listening on the other end. Had something happened to the Three in One during the fighting? Her first-aid training would tell her that Zarina was in excellent shape all things considered and it looked more like she had been tased than anything else.

"Come on everyone, follow me!" a younger mutant squeaked out. He looked ordinary, except for her had a beak where his mouth was. The other young mutants started to follow him nervously, until a gigantic ball of flame slammed in front of them. A ghastly, almost spectral form had appeared in front of them, riding what looked like a motorcycle made out of pure smoke.

"Which one of you is the leader?" the smokey woman asked, before sending another ball of fire slamming into the crowd, hitting poor Beak.

Blackstone...

"Squidward?" Selene asked, visibly confused. She took in a breath, about to cast some complex enchantment, when Cripta conjured an athame and flung it at Selene. It would have hit her in the heart, killing her instantly, had one of the Coven members not jumped into the way of the blade - just a child, easily no older than ten years old. So many of them had already died because of Cripta, there were only a handful of them left now, each of them conjuring up their own magic defenses. Pixie made a glowing dagger, others were sending the elements to attack Cripta, lightning bolts circling around Cripta's head.

Cripta cast another enchantment on Max. "FEEL THE VOID," Cripta commanded, before a pervading sense of nothingness would begin to overcome Max. It would feel like everything about him was being erased, as if he was being unanchored from reality, as if he was becoming nothing. His fingers would appear translucent.

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There was a moment of relief as Max noticed Selene begin to cast what appeared to be a more complex piece of magic. Whatever it was she was attempting to cast had caught the eye of Cripta. Forcing him to Conjure some form of dagger and launch it towards her, hitting another student in her stead as they fell down dead. Max was struggling to come up with ideas on how to best this lovecraftian horror, figuring for now he just had to trust that Selene knew what she was doing. He was about to blast Cripta when suddenly a strange sensation overcame him. His hands began to turn translucent as he felt his being slowly decay. "Uh. Selene, I don't feel so good."

There were a lot of emotions running through Max at this time. But fear prevailed over all of them. He had no idea what to do, how to fight, and all he could think of was having to bide time and distract Cripta long enough for Selene to finish her spell. "I'll keep him busy" he said, leaving the I hope out of the sentence. What they needed were more magically savvy people, ones that could also fight with weapons and not just spells. So he tried his best to conjure up Klara, feeling his spell fizzle out and again when he tried for Runa.

"Concentrate Gray. Strange taught you better." He took a deep breath in, focusing on the task at hand, thinking of Maria Novikova. The mutant who was capable of siphoning abilities and in turn weakening those she took from. He felt his magic stick, and a portal opened up moving towards the ceiling before it closed and revealed Maria. "Got a bit of a massive problem on our hands here and I could really use your help. Also hi how've you been?" Max said, motioning towards Cripta and the dead bodies and gore that now littered the room. With help underway, Max focused back on the sensation he was having and realized just what Cripta had done to him. He turned to look at Selene and Pixie with pleading eyes. "How do I reverse this? He's...he's erasing me from existence."

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Harry caught a motion towards his right, turning in time to see as Waverly was unceremoniously thrown down and her body lay lifeless on the floor. He was about to scream, letting out a pitch that could pierce any armor had he had the time to weaponize it. But before the sound could even leave his throat, he was hit by one of the clones right in his throat. Harry grasped at his neck, coughing and gagging as he gasped for air, feeling the pain from the impact. He turned to look at Barry, giving him a nod to have him continue the onslaught on his behalf.

Light dazzled and shot from every direction, but the clones all seemed to move just in time to be out of danger. Barry tried once more, this time with more direct blasts, but still they dodged and weaved through the show as if they were anticipating it now. Harry looked incredulously at the display in prowess and in a fit of desperation and anger was able to pull out the rest of the band. All five of them were out, circling Harry and weaving back and forth in an attempt to confuse the enemy from who the original was.

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Callie looked in time to see the clone that was attacking Waverly had dropped her body to the ground she dropped her guard for a moment staring at Waverly's body that laid on the ground. But before she could have a second to mourn she felt a sharp pain going through her left shoulder causing her to cry out in pain and stumbled backwards. Feeling blood sliding down her shoulder seeing the deep gash that the Bowser wannabe had done to her.

She held out her hand and sent a bolt of lightening at him again this time managing to hit him, but didn't have any kind of effect on him. When he charged forward and rammed into her causing Callie to be knocked backwards even more she looked down seeing the water below. Callie didn't want to end up falling as she quickly moved away from the ledge and held out her hand again sending another bolt of lightening directly hitting Bowser in the eye causing some serious damage to him. "Take that Bowser." Callie said as she watched the others stuff fighting off the clones, seeing Marrow was still getting pummeled by the clones getting a bit of an idea she wasn't sure how Marrow's powers worked really or how many she can produce at a time. "Marrow, if you can use your body to make as many spikes like how a porcupine can!" She told her, hopefully she'd get the idea.

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Kristina looked towards the guy that Veil had knocked out with one of his own rocks. "Maybe we should take him with us and maybe interrogate him?" She suggested, as Aurora came flying down glad that she was alright and landed back down safely as Veil asked if there was anyone else in the building. The new woman beat her to it and headed off to see if there was anyone else in the building, when she confirmed that there wasn't was a relief to her. "I'm fine with getting off of here." Kristina said as she looked towards Jack for a moment. "Lets get going." Kris said as she lifted him up, and started to fly.

As she tried to carry him he found that Jack was a whole lot heavier than she thought he was. "You really need to loose that weight!" Kristina said between heavy breathes, before loosing altitude a lot quicker than she wanted to and they were now plummeting towards the ground and fast. She quickly let go of Jack as she hit the ground, hearing and feeling a sickening crack as well as landing awkwardly feeling the wind getting knocked out of her as she laid on the ground completely dazed her head and neck started to hurt badly.

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After the whole Skrull Invasion and being kidnapped and held prisoner by them along with a few others, Maria had put in a request for a vacation she of course also wanted a new pet and decided to adopt one of the flereken kittens that the others managed to find. The kitten was perched up on her shoulder naming her Tauriel from the Hobbit a tentacle came out of her mouth as Maria opened up a small bag of cat treats and mewed happily as she ate it hungrily. She had gone shopping to get her some cat treats and other supplies. "There you go little one." Maria said gently petting the kitten on the head when she noticed something glowing in the window of her car.

She quickly grabbed for her bow and arrows just as the random light sucked her in, Maria looked around finding herself in the middle of a battle going on Tauriel quickly jumping down and hiding inside of her purse. When she heard a familiar voice and turned around to see Max being held by something and looking really confused she hadn't seen him since House of M reality. "Oh, you know just on vacation after saving the world from shapeshifting aliens. Who wanted to take over the world I was also was held prisoner by them. Oh and also killed their empress to. It was Max right?" Maria said as she looked towards the others. "Mind telling me why I am here?" She asked looking at everyone else there.

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She really didn't want to get up off of the ground. It was so comfortable, and she was a little tired at this point, not to mention the major electrical attack she had been hit with initially with regards to Cadena and her whip made of electricity. Zari glanced up at Andy and nodded her head slightly, "Yeah, I can... Just give me a moment okay?" she said rather calmly. One thing stuck out to her, and that was that out of her, Andy, and the other kids from the Akademos, she seemed to be the one with the most actual combat experience. The perks clearly of growing up in a place where people tended to fight a lot to solve all of their problems and disagreements really.

Zari snapped up to a sitting position though when she heard the words of someone else coming nearby and attacking them. Jumping to her feet, she picked up her sword just in time to see the newbie attacking the group of students. "Andy, I can take a bit more of a beating, so don't worry about it, get them out of here, okay?" she said to her, nodding her head towards the group that had just gotten attacked, before racing towards the person and swinging her sword at her, "That would be me," she commented, as her sword went right through the cloud of smoke person. Thinking a bit, she decided to change up her strategy, and instantly started whirling her sword around in a big circle, creating a gust of wind that caused the smoke person to start wavering, so it clearly was doing something, just not too much. Now she was wishing that she had super speed or something.

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Jack wasn't too sure what to make of everything, especially considering his very uncomfortable experience as little more than a puddle. At least they had some breathing room, for the moment anyway, as everyone else was more or less dealt with as Veil took out the last one. The building was a bit unstable though currently, and them staying on top of the building was likely not a good option. It had taken more than a bit of a beating during all of the chaos. When Kris more or less offered to fly him to the ground, he sort of shrugged, alright, that would get them to the ground quickly right?

He regretted this decision the instant they were off the rooftop.

Instead of Kris flying them along, they plummeted instantly, and to say that he was more or less really glad to essentially be made of rubber as he escaped the fall unscathed. Of course, unfortunately Kristina didn't exactly have that luxury and ended up getting hurt a bit. "...You also do realize I am literally a foot taller than you right? So not sure how much you expected me to weigh," he said to her with an eye roll as he got up off of the ground, dusting himself off. "Though not sure if falling to my death would be a fun way to die," he mused a bit.

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The thing with the entire situation, was that Miranda had more or less grown up knowing how to craft illusions, that's more or less how her powers worked after all, she essentially was in a way an illusionist. So she knew that voices she was hearing weren't real. Her mind wasn't exactly paying much attention to what Magneto was doing, as she started trying to focus on actually getting her mind to clear, breaking out of whatever it was that was going on. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to, the best that she got to was causing the voices to fade a little bit, which wasn't much.

"Alright new plan... Let's play along with this and see where it goes..." she muttered to herself, as she headed towards the rubble, walking over and looking into any sort of opening in the rubble that she might be able to find. Eventually, she saw her children down below, though they looked to be trapped and both of their legs were broken. "Are you alright? How did you even get here?" she asked them, even though a part of her knew for certain that all of this wasn't real, but a small part of her brain did believe in it.

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Andy gave up trying to contact any of the telepaths. If none of them had heard her by now, they weren't listening, which didn't bode well. She looked at the group gathering and was glad that they were helping each other. She couldn't get everyone. Zari also seemed, mostly, fine. At worst she had been tazed. That was good. Especially considering how close Andy had been to dying.

Another enemy, this one could throw fire and hit the dude who had a beak for a mouth. Andy's stomach twisted and it felt like her mouth dried out. She focused on the fact that Zari was okay, and that the others needed help. She closed her eyes for a second trying to keep herself centered before turning and yelling, "Run, get to..." She trailed off, nowhere on the island was safe. A part of her wasn't surprised. Her heart sank and then anger boiled over.

"You know what, fuck this. If any of you have long-range attacks and can fight. Do it." She didn't though, but she could pick up the chain the other attacker had used. She looked it over and figured she might have a good chance with it since she had the same power and the chain seemed to be made of electricity itself. After testing it for a second she swung it and hit the ghostly lady with it. For the moment that it was there, the woman seemed solid, and in pain. Andy got an idea.

"Z I'm going to do that again. Attack her at the same time." She said. Hopefully, with a coordinated attack, they could take this woman down.

---

"The Vault?" James repeated, trying to think if he'd heard of anything called the Vault. It was a wasted effort with really nothing else to go on because he didn't know anything about any vaults besides banks and Disney and somehow he doubted it was connected to either of those. He stewed on that as he continued to look around, trying to find anything that would help at this point.

Unfortunately, he was met with only a solid door made of dense plastic. Locked, of course. He gauged his chances of breaking it open and decided he was probably just going to waste precious time. He'd already wasted plenty trying to make this plan happen but he concede that ultimately, shocking Serafina was probably out of the question. They could always have Ben shove her hand in a socket but he wasn't sure how that would affect Ben. Poor guy was already dead; they didn't really need to make him suffer on top of that.

He needed a new plan. What did they have? Nothing really, other than a ghost controlling a telepath who was controlling an entire room of mutants. When Ben and Casper lost control, Casper and him would either join the zombies or end up like the person thrown at them through the door. James didn't really like either of those endings. So they hand nothing and knew nothing other than if they don't figure something out, they're toast. Oh goody.

"Babes, that's a really good point. We don't know anything about Serafina except her name and where she's from. We don't know why her and her friends are slaughtering people who, before now, probably didn't even know they existed. I'd certainly like to know why killing other mutants is necessary." James said, coming up next to Casper. Whenever Ben did anything, Casper was always the one to pay the toll and pressed a kiss to his boyfriend. "Thanks for getting us all this time, babes. I know it takes a lot. Just let us know if it's too tiring okay?" James said before turning his attention back to Ben.

"Ben, I need you to try two things. One, try to get her to release everyone. I need them gone and out of the way to tell people to avoid this place. Two, can you see if she's willing to talk with us rather than fight us?." James asked Ben. "I don't want to fight her if we don't have to. I just want to know why they're killing us and if there is a better way to solve whatever problem they have with us."

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Veil nodded. Kristina had a solid idea - they really ought to bring that last one in and figure out what exactly was going on here. "Erm, would you--" Veil began to ask. Kristina and Jack had just jumped off the roof, Veil assuming that they made a pleasant descent down. Aurora nodded, scooping up the man and flying him down to the ground, only to scream out in alarm.

"Mon dieu!" Aurora exclaimed, looking at Kristina. Jack didn't seem to be hurt at all, but Kristina looked like she was in pretty bad shape. People weren't supposed to just walk off of buildings and fall after all. "Can you move?" Aurora instantly asked, skipping the usual are you alright or what happened? She had seen young mutants drop like this before, usually while they were still young and getting a hang of things. "I don't suppose you have a healing factor?" she then added hopefully.

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Casper swooned at the kiss from James. It was such a simple thing, but it really gave him the energy to keep on going - as well as the energy to do something else, although that special thing would have to wait for later when they had some privacy. "Awww, babe, you really know how to make a fella feel special," Casper said playfully, his hands trembling a little less. His eyes were still unnaturally blue and there was a blue fog of sorts around his hands, as he continued helping Ben cross from one world into the next.

Ben rolled his - well, Serafina's eyes. A moment later, it was like everyone in the room came to life again. People were crying, some of them looked angry, others were just afraid. And all of their eyes fell on their captor, Serafina. No one had made a move yet, aware that Ben was inhabiting her body, but doubtlessly waiting for a chance to kill her and get their revenge.

"... She says she'll talk. She says," Ben pauses, "they're what comes next."

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"Been - trying - that!" Marrow shouted back at Spark Plug. Marrow wasn't brand new to using her powers, she had been in plenty of fights. The main issue was that her bone marrow spikes were breaking off into the clones and new clones kept on taking their place. She could only make so many spikes at once, her body was beginning to fatigue, running out of material to use.

The clone Sunshine had been fighting - the one who killed Waverley - had collapsed onto the surface of the Mercury, little more than a living boil. Sunshine didn't hesitate before raising her foot up and stomping down as hard on the clone as she could, the boiling exploding and pus raining everywhere, getting on everyone. But Sunshine didn't care. The clone had killed her friend. He deserved that. Hell, he deserved more than that.

Bowser went to swipe at Spark Plug, but now blinded, he wasn't able to get anywhere close to her, just clawing at the air! Echo was lucky too, as the clones seemed to be incredibly disgusted by what Sunshine did, momentarily distracted. Marrow benefited from this as well, finally managing to break free from the little circle she had been forced into.

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Akademos...

"That almost tickled," Smokey taunted, before chucking fireballs at random. She wasn't aiming at anyone in particular, but the fireballs were large enough that when they impacted, everyone in a five foot radius was at best mildly burned and at worst roasted. Some of the students screamed, until Rain Boy made a cloud of rain appear, dousing the flames that were threatening to spread. Cosmar started warping reality as well, making a shield of sorts to keep Smokey's fireballs at bay.

House of M...

"Why did you abandon me, Mommy?" the little boy asked, as he started to cry. Only instead of crying tears, he was crying blood. In the blink of an eye, a thousand cuts appeared on his small body and his clothing was soaked in his own blood. "Did you hate us, Mommy?" the girl asked - only she didn't look like a girl anymore. She looked like living charred remains, as if she had been burned at the stake but somehow did not die. "Do you love him more than us, Mommy?"

Someone was standing right behind Miranda.

Roll a d20 in Gifted chat - a 10 or lower and she doesn't notice them. 11 to 15 and she has the feeling of being watched. Higher than a 15, message me.

Blackstone...

"Anchor yourself, Warlock. Sink your soul and essence into this plane," Selene advised.

"Be careful, Max!!!" Pixie then shouted. She had no idea how to do anything that would help Max in this situation, her wings fluttering behind her nervously. Pixie waved a bit sheepishly at the newcomer, figuring she must've been Max's girlfriend or something. Hopefully she was an immensely powerful witch, someone who could help them defeat Cripta before Cripta killed them all!

Cripta waved their hand and suddenly, a wave of daggers, crafted from pure energy, flew at our heroes. The dagger flew through Max harmlessly. Maria was hit in the stomach, which'll hurt a fair deal. Selene shielded herself and Pixie with a quick spell of her own, before launching into a counter-hex to attempt to shut off Cripta from their own magic.

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Callie took a step back from Bowser as he tried to take another swing at her, she was glad that he ended up getting blinded by her, as she took a moment and stared at Waverly's body. They needed to finish this fight as Callie turned towards her opponent again and glared at him, before shooting another bolt of lightening at Bowser's head. Seeing her aim hitting in the same spot as before he ended up falling onto the ground with a thud.

Callie flinched as she felt some blood splattering onto her, and stared at the body that Sunshine had killed Waverly's killer was now dead, though it might have been a bit overkill. "Are you guys alright?" Callie asked looking over towards Echo and Marrow who managed to escape her attackers who all were stunned at what Sunshine had done.

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Kristina turned her head slightly and winced at the movement as she slowly started to sit up. "Maybe lay off on them twinkies or doughnuts whatever fatty snacks you like would be easier." Kristina said jokingly as she winced in pain, and started to lean back as Aurora came flying down asking if she was able to move. Kristina shook her head slightly as she tried to move one of her legs feeling a surge of pain going through her lower body. "I think one of my legs is broken.." Kris said she winced as she moved her head slightly, feeling like it was sprained. "Maybe a sprained neck to." She said softly at least she wasnt paralyzed or worse dead.

"I wish I had one, sadly I don't my sister has a healing factor though." Kris said, letting out a slight sigh she still needed to give her a call, after being frozen for several months she hadn't had any contact with her sister or her family at all since then. She felt really exposed and vulnerable right now she just hoped that no one would show up either.

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"So is no one going to tell me whats actually going on here?" Maria asked looking at everyone there, before taking off her purse where Tauriel was hiding in now. She didn't want her new pet getting hurt at all really, after she had done that Cripta fired off some energy daggers. Maria winced and stumbled back slightly as she looked down at the dagger in her stomach and then quickly pulled it out, staring at her attacker.

"Now that was really rude." Maria said sounding really annoyed as she started to take off her gloves, stuffing them into her pocket and then she quickly drew out her bow and grabbed for five of her arrows and quickly fired them off in quick succession. One of them missed, but four managed to make direct hits hitting Cripta two explosions causing a lot of pain towards him by the looks of it.

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The chaos that was happening everywhere was just getting totally insane, as the smoke cloud person was attacking them a lot. Thankfully, one of the other kids made it rain, so that put out most of the fires, which was a good thing hopefully yay! Andy had decided to fight too, so that was a good thing, at least she wasn't really alone, despite the fact that she had told Andy to take the kids and leave or something like that. Andy had seemed to do some decent damage though, and a combined attack just might work. It definitely was better than waving her sword around at nothing.

"Alright, it's worth a shot," she said, taking a deep breath, before timing her attack with Andy's next swing and swung her sword directly at the smoke person. Both of the attacks would connect at the same time, and the combined attack seemed to do a lot of damage. The smoke person wasn't down for the count though, but it was fairly obvious that she was hurting a lot. So she at least was severely injured. "Alright, once more?" she said towards her, preparing herself for another attack, and if the second attack failed, she was prepared for getting hit by Smokey again.

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Jack rolled his eyes, "I mean I could have sort of shrunk down I suppose, but when I do that no matter what I look like I still for the most part retain my body weight. And once again, not my fault," he said to her, "Are you alright though?" he asked her, before hearing what people were saying with regards to her injuries and wincing slightly. Personally, he typically didn't have to worry about broken bones or anything, but he did figure that they were fairly painful.

Looking at the others, he wasn't too sure what all to do at this point. He wasn't the best when it came to figuring out the best way to deal with injuries, he didn't really know how to potentially help in this situation. Jack only really knew vaguely that any sort of neck or back injury were no joke and needed to be taken care of carefully since you could cause even more of an injury. "Think we should probably get her to someone that can heal her," he commented, looking at the others to hear their suggestions or something.

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Miranda took a few deep breaths, trying to remain calm as she saw the illusions. She was trying to ignore them, their voices just hurt, reminding her that they were all grown up now, and she hadn't been able to see them grow up. However, she was starting to get a strange feeling, besides the one she already had with regards to her kid. That someone else was there, aside from herself and Magneto. Someone who was watching her, but she wasn't sure why. Whoever it was, they likely were the ones causing this illusion or something.

Then she made the mistake of turning around.

She turned to look behind her, and the figure was staring right at her, not too far away from her face. Miranda let out a small scream, startled by the thing, before she took a few steps back away from whatever it was. "...Who the hell are you?" she managed to say, still looking right at the creature. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to see him again if she looked away, since he might just disappear and mess with her head again, then where exactly would she be with everything? Probably be in a worse spot and all.

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James let out a sigh of relief at Serafina’s agreement. It wasn’t much but that was where resolutions started, even if he was putting a lot of blind faith in someone he’d never met and was responsible for at least one death. But if this went well, maybe they could get a handle on this whole shit show. James chuckled at Casper’s tone despite the tense situation. Trust Casper to keep his priorities right. “When we make it out of this, I play to show you just how special you are.” James promised with another kiss.

He took in the surrounding mutants as they woke out of their stupors. He couldn’t blame them for how they felt; he couldn’t imagine being trapped in their own bodies was a particularly pleasant experience. That being said, this was the wrong time and place for it. James turned to address them, hands up placatingly. “Guys, please listen. I know you’re all pissed off but right now, people who expect this place to be a safe haven are coming. I need you guys to go intercept them and head them off, help them find somewhere on the island to hide.” James pleaded earnestly. “And I know you think that returning the hurt you did will make you feel better but please, take a moment to breathe and think about it. She got you all once. As soon as Casper and Ben let her go and you attack, she’ll trap you again. Let us handle it and get out. You guys just let everyone know what’s going on here. Serafina’s agreed to talk; I have to trust she’ll stick to that.”

“Casper, Ben, as soon as everyone but us are out, let her go.” James instructed.

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Max wanted to chat more with Maria, explain better about what exactly was going on. But in all honesty he wasn't entirely certain. He heard Selene's words of warning, telling him that she had no true way of helping him and that he was on his own. Anchor Yourself. Max immediately thought back to an old book he had read when he was younger. A hero who wished to tether his soul and how he must focus on a certain point of his body where his soul would now be bound. Max thought of the spot he had in mind and began to think of why he was here. The Underground, Pixie, Sunshine, James, and even Casper. Every mutant that had looked up to him during that ceremony.

Max needed to survive, to make it past tonight. He felt something click, a weight dropping on his body as he became anchored and bound back into the plane, saving himself from being wiped from existence. But there was a sense of emptiness to him. As if a part of him was lost in the process. Max locked eyes with Cripta, anger fueling him. "I don't know what you did to me, but it's time I repay the favour" Max wiped his hand across the air as dozens of daggers began to form, holding firmly in place in the sky. With a quick gesture of his hand they launched towards Cripta, searching for the location where he was corporeal and most vulnerable.

There was a shit eating grin on Max's face as he saw the slashes across Criptas tentacles. Gotcha. He held the sword in his hand to the side and ran towards Cripta, taking a massive swipe as he chopped off one of the tentacles that adorned his face. "His tentacles are the key. Focus your aim there and let's destroy this asshole. Hopefully after I can give you some semblance of an idea as to why I summoned you here."

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Harry winced for the slightest of moments as pus and blood splurged across everyone. But his focus was clear and he saw the distraction that now held all their enemies. The Boys began to sing in chorus around Harry. Matching beautifully The Duel of The Fates. Lights began to form and shift as they peppered the field. They all seemingly missed their marks at first. Harry shook it off, as he began to let go of his anger and allowed himself a moment to breathe before trying again. He waited, striking at the moment when the chorus was more intense and disposing of five more clones.

Harry found it fitting, using a song from a scene that conveyed patience while striking at opportune moments. The chorus beautifully reflecting that, as he too was waiting for the right beats to lash out at. Once they hit the fast paced notes once more he let out another barrage of lasers that had been building up and dancing above everyone's head. They struck down like flashes of lightning, killing ten more clones where they stood as it drilled from head to toe through them. The lights held once more and Harry waited for them to strike back, for one wrong move to keep wiping them out. "Better and Better. Let's finish them off"

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Andy sighed relieved when the combined attack worked. She grinned. "Yeah, again!" It was clear the woman was being defeated by the combined attack. Andy didn't know how else they would have been able to fight her. She flicked the lightning chain again. And Zari attacked at the same time. It worked again. But the smoky lady was still there.

Andy frowned. Okay, this was working. They just need to do it again, hopefully, that would be enough. "One more try." She looked at Zari and prepared to attack the woman with the lighting chain again. There was a whole lot of other stuff going on. She really hoped that all the others would be okay. The rain might actually help.

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"We'll have to get James - I guess, any healer, really," Veil decided. "I think it's too dangerous to move you, we'd end up making things worse..." she bit her lip. She wasn't used to having only a limited knowledge of where her team was. She didn't know where James was at the moment - and she didn't know if there even were any healing mutants available on the island at the moment to help Kristina. At least in the Mutant Underground, even with their limited resources, she had been in control of every situation - she knew where everyone was and could strategize around it. But now, she felt almost as helpless as Kristina - stuck in place, uncertain as to whether or not she could make a move without making things worse.

"I'll go find someone," Aurora said, before running and leaping into the air faster than the eye could see, effectively vanishing.

Veil nodded slightly, again feeling vulnerable and out of her depth, just waiting for an (admittedly gorgeous and powerful) woman she didn't know to save Kristina's life. Fortunately, there was then a blur as Aurora re-appeared, carrying someone with her. "Elixir here is going to heal you, ma petite," Aurora said. Elixir had pure golden skin and wore what looked like an X-Men uniform, as he crouched on down next to Kristina. He concentrated and slowly but surely, her body began to stitch itself back together, repairing her injuries.

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At first, it looked like the majority of the mutants had listened to James - they were leaving the manor, going to find somewhere safe on the island to hide. One of them though, a short girl with purple skin and spikes instead of hair, was staring at Serafina/Ben as if mesmerized. She then raised her hand and pointed at Serafina. "No more," the girl whispered. Like ink, darkness rushed out of her finger, enveloping Serafina/Ben. The ink then exploded, as Ben fell out of Serafina.

Serafina was unhinged and unleashed. Her anger was directed first at James, as she knew he was the one with the brains. She delved into his mind and smashed everything that she could, determined to break him - and in some ways, she did. She then turned on Casper, and Casper screamed, backing away until his back hit the wall. He wasn't seeing what everyone else saw.

He was trapped inside of a mausoleum, the only living figure he could see was a man, seated in a wheelchair, with a strange blue and silver helmet obscuring his face - a Cerebro unit. The man had his hand outstretched, trying to comfort Casper, but when he opened to speak, his tongue was forked. Casper screamed for his mother.

And in the real world, Casper's powers went into a horrific meltdown, as not just Ben but dozens of ghosts popped into being, all of them channeled and tangible, confused and wailing, begging for others to feel their pain. They circled James and Serafina like vultures.

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Marrow spat blood at the floor of the Mercury. "Just peachy," she said. She flexed her arms and more bone spikes sprouted, as she weaponized her body once more. The singing dupes were doing a number on the clones and Marrow joined into the fray, hacking and slashing and killing as many as she could. Eventually, she got lucky - she killed the original and the rest of the clones suddenly became lifeless, dropping to the ground. The Mercury's top was ever so slightly curved and the clones slowly slid off, before falling into the waters below with a series of splashes.

Sunshine took a breath. They had won, but it didn't feel like that. She felt empty and scared and angry and sad all at once - she didn't feel happy. She crumbled down to her knees, taking another deep breath, before she couldn't help it anymore and she let out a heartbreaking wail. Tears ran thickly down her face and she didn't know what she could do beyond just feel. Genosha was supposed to be a safe place. It was supposed to be somewhere they didn't have to worry about being hunted. She had told Waverley she was safe there.

Her best friend had died.

Marrow gingerly approached her wife, putting a somewhat bloodied arm around her and holding her close as Sunshine cried.

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Akademos...

Smokey could feel it in her bones(?) - she wasn't going to win this fight. But it didn't matter to her if she survived. If she didn't return, the Vault would make someone to replace her - someone better to fight off these halfbreed mutants. Her eyes locked on Zarina, before Smokey charged at her, going straight through Zarina. In that moment, Zarina would have a splitting headache and her body would feel as cold as ice, as if she had been violated on some deep, spiritual level. Smokey continued on through, passing through Andy as well, and Andy would have a similar experience.

What had Smokey done to them - what trick had befallen our heroes?

House of M...

The figure didn't speak, merely raising their hat as if in greeting to Miranda, before they vanished. She would sense that they were still there, merely invisible, watching eagerly. There had to be something more to their plan, right? Were they just planning on jump scaring her the entire time? What was the end game?

The rubble then began to move, as metal creaked and groaned, supernaturally propelled up into the air - and suddenly, a field of metal shards flew at Miranda. Magneto's face was obscured in shadows, giving him an almost demonic visage. "You killed my daughter. You killed Anya. You will pay for your sins with blood!" Magneto shouted.

Blackstone...

"Max..." Pixie whispered, her eyes growing wide. Something shimmering had appeared in Max's hand, growing larger with every minute until it was a tall, occult staff. It was blindingly bright and seemingly made of pure magical energy. She recognized what it was, as she had something similar herself. She had a souldagger, thanks to a series of unfortunate events that had happened to her. "What did you do to yourself?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

Selene created a magical whip of sorts, lashing it out and wrapping it around Cripta's tentacles. Her eyes glowed a strange dark black as she began to feed, sapping away at his magical power, and leaving Cripta vulnerable to an attack - perhaps one with a newly formed weapon...

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As the last of the clones finally were dealt with, and their bodies slowly sliding off of the Mercury and into the water Callie started to lower her arms slightly and closed her eyes letting out a slight sigh. She rubbed her shoulder where she had been hit by the Bowser guy, things were eerily calm now. As Callie heard Sunshine letting out a wail, and slowly made her way towards Sunshine and knelt down next to her gently resting a arm on Sunshine's shoulder. She looked towards Waverly's body for a moment and bit her lower lip for a moment, she knew that Jack had died when they all were frozen, and Sinister was the one to bring him back from the dead.

She thought about mentioning it to her, but she did promise to keep the whole thing a secret from the others as well to for Jack she thought about bringing it up to him this was his secret after all as well and not hers to tell. Waverly was a good person, and hoped that she'd live a long life. "I'm sorry Sunshine." Callie said to her.

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"Just a lot of pain in my leg and neck right now, at least thats a good thing though right?" Kristina said towards Jack, as Aurora went off to get someone to try and help her out. She remained pretty still, she would ocasionally let out a slight groan in pain the slightest movement to her lower body hurt especially her broken leg. A few seconds later Aurora came back carrying someone as she looked up towards the gold skinned boy he was kind of cute actually and gave him a slight smile. "Thank you." Kristina said looking at both Elixir and Aurora as well to.

Feeling her body slowly being stitched back together, and the pain slowly leaving her, she slowly started to move her formerly broken leg as the pain was completely gone now, she slowly sat up her neck was slightly stiff as she cracked it slightly. She turned to Elixir and extended her hand towards him. "I'm Kristina by the way."

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"You also are going to buy me dinner, I was in the middle of grocery shopping to." Maria said towards Max, as he started to break free of whatever was happening to him, seeing a staff forming in his hand. Pixie seemed to be worried about him, as she turned her attention towards Cripta. Selene summoned a whip of sorts and held down one of the tentacles, getting an idea Maria quickly ran forward and grabbed onto one of Cripta's tentacles and started to absorb some of his power.

When the ground suddenly started to turn into lava Maria quickly released her grip and jumped and rolled out of the way until she was a safe distance away from it. Feeling something weird in her mouth she opened up her mouth as some tentacles came out and quickly closed it, as she looked at the others for a moment.

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The prepared swing never followed through. Andy's bones went cold and her head felt like it was splitting in two. Everything went black.

Andy opened her eyes and looked at Smokey. "You've made a mistake." She said reaching out with her mind and pulling at the very electricity that flowed within the woman's synapsis. And took it away. Humans, or humans adjacent, still needed electricity in them to keep their brains firing. Andy had removed it, ended the woman instantly.

She looked around, taking in everything. "Are you alright? Did she hurt you too?" Andy asked. She didn't look as anxious as she normally did. There was some extra confidence than Andy normally had. Worryingly she didn't seem upset about having just killed someone.