---

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The Waiting Grove -

Bob Banner nodded, a chilly feeling then coming over him. He knew now why the universe had brought Lana here. It wasn't so that way he could see his daughter again, so that way he could know that she was safe and loved - no, it was so he could lose her all over again. He would have to cast her away into the multiverse, sending her far away. He would have to be the one to do it; he was the first one, to his knowledge, who had cracked the code of multiversal travel. "I'll get you home to her," Banner swore. "It'll take me a day or two to get the machine running again, but... I'll make sure it happens."

Raynor was grateful to hear that Bob would send them all back to Earth-666. His cousin had summoned an immense amount of dark magic in order to send him to Earth-666 last time, back when Sparky was just a little baby. He knew his cousin must've paid a dear price for that, one that he could never repay, no matter what he did. "Thanks... Bob," Raynor said. He wanted to let Sparky do most of the talking - this was her father, after all.

---

Flynn -

Bonnie turned to look at Flynn again for a moment, an amused smile twitching on her lips. "No. You didn't cause my burns," Bonnie said. "The fire had started long before you arrived on the scene, Agent Flynn. It wasn't your fault," she then finished, turning her attention back to her work. There was a flash of light, and an engagement ring appeared on her finger - but then it was gone as soon as it had appeared.

"My pain is not your burden," she said again, breaking the silence. "It's mine," she stressed. She then turned her attention to him again. Suddenly, Flynn would see manifestations of burn wounds and scar on his own body. "What burdens you, Agent Flynn?"

Bonnie -

"What choice do I possibly have to make?" Bonnie asked, the question coming out harsher than she had meant it. She hadn't asked to have a goddess inside of her head - she hadn't ever been consulted as to whether or not she wanted these gifts from Athena. Part of her was grateful to not be dead, particularly on behalf of her unborn daughter - but at the same time, Bonnie couldn't help but be angry. Her autonomy had been violated. She didn't have agency in these godly affairs.

Athena's bright eyes flashed for a moment. "I saved you from death in Cardiff. And I have done so again. I gave you my blessing freely," Athena said. "But now, the choice is yours - become my champion and accept my quests. In return, I will give you more than just my blessing... I will give you my power."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes for a moment. She couldn't help but feel suspicious. Why would a goddess give away power, unless desperate? "What sort of quests?" Bonnie asked bluntly. "I find it hard to believe an immortal goddess would need me to do anything she couldn't do herself."

"I am the goddess of heroes," Athena chided. "I cannot undertake tasks that make and shape a heroine. I can make my will known through my chosen - through champions like you, Bonnie. If you accept, then you will have the power needed to save your friends... and to save the multiverse. I will not offer it again."

Amelia -

Captain Marvel got off of her feet. Something had been knocked loose in Amelia's mind - a stray memory, not from her life in the Blue, but from growing up in Australia. It was such a random memory too, not one that would be deemed important or significant to anyone else, but important to Amelia all the same. It was her going to a bookstore in her late teens, buying the new St. John Allerdyce novel. She had always loved those romance stories - which she knew seemed silly, as Amelia never cared about romance for herself.

But it gave her a moment of clarity - Amelia felt that life. And she couldn't bear to lose it. She couldn't bear to lose a single bit of herself. "Right, sheila, if it's a fight you want, it's one you'll bloody get," Amelia promised. Captain Marvel began to glow, flying at Amelia.

And Amelia flew right back at her, unflinching, focused. Her head was clear and her heart was certain. She wanted to remember - to remember all of it, this world and that world.

Cass -

"Your thoughts are scrambled and slippery, Cassandra - I need you to focus, focus on one thing, something important to you," Professor X's voice said, echoing around her. If Cass looked around her room, she would see the walls were rippling and morphing. At one point, she was in her childhood bedroom, then, a moment later it had turned into her college dorm, and then it kept shifting and shifting, flickering between different rooms that Cass had called her own throughout the years.

If she focused on it too long, it would become incredibly disorienting. If she listened, she could hear different people's voices calling out to her - Carolina, Matt, Bonnie, Tinley, her mother, her father, Guin.

Maria -

Things would begin to crystallize inside of Maria's mind. There was the strange red glow in her own hands. Slowly though, the glow began to solidify, until Maria was holding what looked like a gigantic ruby in front of her. Her memories of Earth-257, she somehow knew, were contained inside of it. Leaving the ruby behind would mean throwing away those memories, locking them up essentially. But if she kept the ruby, if she accepted the memories, then they would be hers forever.

The choice was now hers - to become a Maria of two worlds or to stay a Maria of one.

Oliver -

Niah -

"Isn't that why you're here?" a Niah chided. "To murder us?"

"Psychic surgery - just a pretty way to dress up sororicide," another Niah chimed in.

The Niah holding onto her had burst into tears, her grip loosening. Sometimes, love and compassion was the best way to address an issue - especially when arguing with fragments of your own psyche. By comforting this Niah, Niah had put an end - at least for now - to the violence. "I matter - we all matter," the Niah said hoarsely. "Don't let him kill us."

Matt -

The kid didn't seem too happy to hear Matt explain that he didn't have a son. His eyes narrowed a little bit in anger. "Wow, real mature, Dad," the kid said, rolling his eyes now. The tentacles continued to pound over and over again against the walls of the submarine. "And of course I know where the bridge is, duh," the kid then added. The submarine wouldn't be able to take much more.

The kid walked off to Matt's right, heading in the direction of what must've been the bridge. The kid climbed up a ladder of sorts to go to one of the higher levels of the submarine. Matt would hear the glass crack - rather than him instantly dying though, as physics would likely deem, Matt would have a chance at outrunning the violent gush of water sweeping into the submarine.

Or the tentacle reaching inside...

---

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Oliver Sullivan

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The Aerie
Skills: N/A

---

Oliver filched visibly as the changes overtook him, and he dropped the sword quickly to the ground. This was wrong, and he knew it was, but he had to do what he did in the moment. He knew he had to but... maybe that was the thing that was supposed to be different between him and his father. Oliver wasn't the person who did what had to be done, no matter what the cost might be. He'd been at a crossroads for awhile now, he could be a person that killed and enacted his vision of what a moral and just universe would be, or he could set rules for himself, stick to them, and try to do good within those.

It was now the saw where the former option would lead him, to ruining the world, and becoming the thing that made him. He wouldn't let that come to pass, and instead, he looked down at his father's body, and exhaled. He felt true regret, he killed something, and without much thought to it. This would not be who he was, it wasn't who he was raised to be, and maybe most important of all, it wasn't who Niah loved. He was Olive Sullivan, Agent of S.H.I.E.l.D, and on top of all of that, he was a hero that would make the world better, not more rotten.

---

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Cassandra looked around the room as it constantly shifted and morphed into various rooms that she had called home throughout her life, she heard Professor X's voice. The room shifted from her childhood bedroom, growing up, then to her college dorm at MIT, and then her bedroom back at the Playground during the team's early days, and finally her room within the HUB before the shifting continued again. It was really disorienting, as she could hear the voices of her loved ones and friends, her parents, Carolina, Matt even Tinley and Guin as well.

She nodded slightly as she started to think of a memory that she enjoyed the most, before finding one she chose to focus on her first date with Matt. It was a memory that she loved they were coworkers at first and became something more that night, but she always did find Matt attractive. Going to the Chinese place in downtown San Fransisco, and them just talking and then going out for a walk afterwards and the date ending with them kissing was the memory she enjoyed the most, she smiled just thinking about that. Cass remembered how happy and giddy she was after the date, and telling Bonnie all about it the next day.

---

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Maria looked down to her hands as she noticed that her hands were starting to glow red, as things around her started to slowly crystalize when she looked down at her hands feeling something solid forming into her hands. She noticed that the glowing had turned into a rather large ruby within her hands. Just holding it within her hands she could feel the memories of her counterpart of Earth-257, all of the things that Syphon had done, though she didn't agree with the sterilization of the Iron at all, she knew that Syphon in her mind was doing the right thing for Earth-257's mutants. Daiana was alive and well here as well as with Novikova and they were really happy together which made her happy knowing that they were safe here to.

Even Kristina was alive and well in this universe, she closed her eyes for a moment as she remembered her dying in her arms after being yanked to Genosha by Max. She had a lot of memories with her sister here as well to, as she thought about keeping the memories both the good and bad. She looked back at the ruby in her hands once more, knowing that it would most likely be lost forever after having experience both for awhile now she felt like that they were apart of her now deciding to keep the memories of Earth-257.

---

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---

Niah chewed her lip, thinking. She couldn't erase the other versions of her. She just couldn't lose herself to them. She needed to accept them because, without their experiences, she wouldn't be the person she had become. Niah turned to the closest other Niah, "You don't have to leave. We just have to be one."

The two hugged. It was a strange sensation, but after a few seconds, it was just her, but she could remember both of their lives. She was complete. Niah continued the process. Moving to each of the other versions of herself. Combining with them. This felt right. She wasn't losing who she was, who she had become.

She didn't care if this wasn't what Professor X wanted. This was what she wanted, and she felt whole.

---

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---

Matt sighed. He couldn't have kids so he didn't know why this child thought he was his. But whatever. He followed him and started up the ladder. "Faster!" He shouted as the water started gushing in.

Matt started to dash to grab the kid and pick him up to run with him, but it was too late. A tentacle grabbed him. He was pulled from the submarine and was now in the water. Panic gripped him, but the water wasn't crushing him. His ears weren't being destroyed. He had to get free. He started to struggle. Tried grabbing for his gun. Praying it would work under the water.

---

---

"Oh, so I didn't cause them... Okay then good to know..." he commented, looking at her. He still wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do in order to get out of the loop that he found himself in. Though her next words after the explanation did confuse him a bit, and he looked down to see all of the burns and scars that appeared on him. And to say that made him even more confused was a bit of an understatement. Nothing was making sense to him, so what better to do then to ask then?

""Uh, so what exactly do you mean by what burdens me? I don't know what you mean by that, and figured I'd ask before giving any sort of answer."

“What is your pain, Agent Flynn? What trauma has settled in your heart?”

""Yeah... Still don't know what you're talking about. Seriously, what trauma, there's nothing. Nothing at all."

“If that was true, you wouldn’t be here.” A memory then flashed across his mind, one that he both recognized, and also didn't, it was a strange feeling.



The memory faded from his view, he shook his head, trying to clear the memory from his view, trying to ignore it's existence entirely. But the more that he pushed for it to disappear, the more it pushed its way back to the forefront. "That... That wasn't me, that was never, me. I didn't do that, nope. I tried hard to do the right thing, that was not me." He said to Bonnie, clearly not wanting to continue even talking about that sort of thing. Flynn was not too sure what he was even really talking about, and the memory was still sticking out in his brain. One thing he did know for certain, was that he knew that he had never told anyone about what had happened there, and aside from maybe one of two higher ups, no one did know. That whole situation had been swept under the rug, or something like that, it was hard for his mind to focus more potentially on it.

---

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---

She wasn't too sure what else to say, though the fact that apparently Banner still had the machine that had been used to send her off someplace else was a bit intriguing to her. That was definitely something she was interested in seeing, since inventions and such like that were kind of right up her alley so to speak. Sparky's brain was running a mile a minute, thinking about that, not to mention the other sort of thing that crossed her mind. Namely the thought of being able to use it as a basis for potentially a two way communication across realities.

"Um... If you don't mind... Can I see the machine? It actually sounds kind of cool and I always did enjoy tinkering with things..." she said, giving him a smile. "Though, another thought that crossed my mind is that since you already have the basis for traveling across dimensions... Couldn't you find a way to take that knowledge and create something that would act as... Oh I don't know... A multiversal phone or something like that? I mean if you can send people through to other realities, it wouldn't be too much more of a leap in order to try and make it so you could communicate and talk with someone on the other side right? Sorry... It's just a sort of thought..."

---

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---

The Waiting Grove -

"It's not much to look at right now - it got pretty damaged when the X-men retrieved it for me about a decade ago," Banner explained. "But sure, you can take a look at it... And if you want, you could even help me fix it... But no pressure, I totally get it if you want to help your friends instead," Bob added, his words a bit rushed. He was clearly nervous and wanting to win over his daughter - there was a certain amount of guilt in the way he carried himself as well. At least he wasn't turning green.

"And... Honestly, I hadn't thought about that. But... I think that sounds like a brilliant idea," Bob said with a smile. "A multiversal phone... Maybe then you could, uh, you could give me a call? Once you go back home."

---

Flynn -

Flynn was doing his best to convince "Bonnie" that he wasn't the one at fault - but really, the person he was so desperate to convince was himself. A drawer slid open behind him with a gigantic thud - and when Flynn turned to look, he'd see that it was a body drawer, with a cadaver on the slab. A woman with a frosty complexion and snow white hair was laid out, with sickening burns around her neck.

"Bonnie" was suddenly standing next to him, a clipboard in her hand. "Hmm, Sapphire - her chart says that you killed her, Agent Flynn," Bonnie said, turning to look at him. "There's so much pain in you," she added. "Maybe it is better for you to disappear - to let someone else be Agent Flynn."

Bonnie -

Bonnie paused, considering Athena's offer. She was uneasy about this. She had never wished to have powers - to be a superhero. But then again, she had never imagined she'd end up being a SHIELD agent - her original dream had been to work in animation as an artist. "I need your word that if I want out, this all stops," Bonnie requested. "I won't take this deal otherwise." Athena hadn't let onto what it was, but Bonnie knew that there had to be a catch here.

"Ten years of service," Athena countered - the length of time that poor Odysseus was away on the Odyssey, not including time in the Trojan War.

"...Deal," Bonnie said. And then everything went grey.

Cass -

As Cass focused on that memory of Matt, her mind anchored itself on it. Her surroundings would change until she was back at that day, sitting down at the Chinese restaurant in San Fransisco. Matt was telling her a joke, laughing and smiling. The waiter brought out the food, setting it down in front of them. Matt's food was fairly ordinary fair, but Cass was served a plate with two brains on it - human brains. She was given a single fork and knife to use.

"Are you going to try your food or what?" Matt asked, taking a bite into his meal.

The brain on the left had what looked like hot sauce in the shape of the SWORD logo drizzled onto it - the brain on the right had what looked like the SHIELD logo drizzled onto it.

Oliver -

As Oliver became resolute in who he was - deciding what sort of person he wanted to be, free of the chains of fate and destiny, choosing to be someone good and righteous... he would find himself waking up in the Healing Gardens. His mind would be restored, clearer than it had been since he had arrived on Earth-257 - maybe even clearer than it had been for a while. The personality bleed and memories from Earth-257 were locked away for the moment, tucked away in a corner of his mind where they couldn't dictate what he did.

"How do you feel, son?" Professor X asked. Had Oliver been able to peer behind the Cerebro helmet he wore, he'd be able to see the beads of sweat trickling down Xavier's face. Xavier was nearing his limit.

Maria -

Maria's mind would integrate itself into a single identity - part Maria of Earth-666, part Syphon of Earth-257. The two would bleed together, becoming one person - a sort of marriage of the two, in body and soul. Where did one stop and the other begin? Did it even matter? Maria would then open her eyes, finding herself in the Healing Gardens. She would see Professor X standing over Oliver, looking concerned.

Niah -

Niah's selves also integrated into one coherent person - a mixture of all of the Niahs who had been from Earth-666 and the one from Earth-257. She had become her own multiversal amalgamation. When Niah opened her eyes, much like Maria, she would find herself in the Healing Gardens. Professor X was standing over Oliver, his posture clearly projecting that he was concerned. Niah would also now find that she had complete memories of Earth-257 - she remembered everything.

Matt -

Matt's mindscape was really doing its very best to avoid the laws of physics. He reached for his gun, but he fumbled it, the gun coming unclipped and then floating off into the water. If he tried to grab it again, his fingers would miss - and the tentacled monster soon pulled Matt up higher and higher and higher, until he broke the surface of the ocean, finding himself face to face with the upper half of a gigantic kraken.

Only this was no ordinary kraken. No, the kraken had the face of a human - someone that Matt remembered, someone Matt would recognize instantly. It was his own face. The kraken Matt sized him up, almost tilting his head as if waiting to see what Matt would do next. And then, because none of this made any sense, the kraken started to speak, its voice echoing in Matt's head: "Just give in. This'll all be over soon."

Amelia -

Amelia opened her eyes, her head spinning slightly. Much like Maria and Niah had chosen to integrate themselves, rather than shut a part away, Amelia had done the same. She was both Amelia and Aero, ex-SHIELD agent and Avenger of the Blue. But at her core, she was the same - a thrill seeking free spirit, someone who jumped before looking, who screamed with delight at a sudden drop. "Damn, cunt, that was intense - and weird," Amelia said with a slight whistle. "Oh, sorry, my b - I keep forgetting you can't say that word here."

She hopped off of the bed, noticing that Professor X was standing next to Oliver, looking worried. Amelia considered Oliver to be one of her best friends - and now she remembered him properly. She walked on over. "Mate, you alright there?" she asked.

---

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---

Cassandra took a moment as she looked around seeing that they were inside the same restaurant that they were in when they took their first date together. She turned her attention towards Matt and leaned forward as she listened to him talk which made her smile as their waiter came back with their food, handing Matt his food first. Then her plate of food was set in front of her, she stared at the two plates of human brains on the table in front of her. Which made her feel a little bit queasy it wasn't something she had actually ordered on their first date.

She took a moment to look at the plate, seeing a SHIELD symbol drizzled in some kind of sauce in the plate on the right, and a SWORD symbol on the left. She knew that she was an agent of SHIELD and grabbed the plate with the SHIELD symbol drizzled sauced brain pushing the SWORD one away. "I will, just uh give me a moment.." She said as she looked at the brain contemplating if she should actually eat it or not as she shifted uncomfortably with it in front of her she was probably going to go vegan after all of this.

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Maria slowly opened her eyes as she started to sit back up, her eyes scanning the room for a moment she thought that she was still in her own mind but when she saw Amelia, Oliver and Niah starting to come to they all were alright. She cracked her neck slightly looking over at the others. "How are you guys doing?" Maria asked as she started to get off of the bed, it still felt really weird having a lot more memories than she had before remembering both Earth-666 and Earth-257 as well.

"Are you guys still like you or whatever?" Maria asked the three of them, she wasn't sure how their little memory surgery went she could see that Professor X was standing over Oliver and got the feeling that he was concerned as she looked over at Amelia as she went over to check up on him.

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Niah wasn't surprised by what she remembered now. She had gotten fairly used to having extra memories shoved into her. She was glad she could differentiate herself from 257!Niah though. That girl had issues. Niah opened her eyes and sat up. She saw Professor X looking worried about Oliver. Her heart skipped a beat. She knew as it did that all of her was worried about him.

"Professor, is Oliver okay?" She stood up, her one leg unsteady for a moment, but then she remembered how to walk with it again. Of course, she was worried about him. She loved him. More than one of her loved him. She'd have to be careful not to let 257 get too clingy. But it'd all be okay if she let things blend the way they were before (keeping certain aspects from being unhinged).

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Matt screamed. Really facing a strange Kraken version of yourself was not something you could get through without a little screaming. He had lost his gun. At least he was above the water now. And hadn't died from pressure sickness. He wondered briefly if this was something Lovecraft had seen in his nightmares.

Matt didn't know what to do. But he sure as hell wasn't going to give in. Matt slipped his way out of the grasp of the Kraken and dove into the water. He swam trying to get to a spot where he could touch the tentacle. He had figured doing this while being caught would be a bad idea, but as he reached to touch it, he wished he had done it while still being held. Because the tentacle turned into a bunch of needs.

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Cass -

Nothing about the scene was changing - Matt was eating his food, and the two brains were in front of Cass, even though the SWORD one had been pushed away slightly. If Cass had ever seen Umbrella Academy, she would be reminded of the scene where the White Violin had amnesia and had to eat her own brain inside her mind in order to regain her memories. Here, the brain that Cass chose to consume would determine what person she would be - the SHIELD agent of Earth-666 or the SWORD agent of Earth-257.

Of course, she could always eat both - but who knew what sort of person she'd become...

"Do you not like that one?" Matt asked, nodding towards the SWORD brain. "We can always send it back."

Matt -

Matt's mental landscape resembled something of a bad trip - (that or the GM running this RP was just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks). First, he had met someone claiming to be his son in a sinking submarine. Then, they were attacked by a kraken with Matt's face. And now, the kraken had turned into bees as Matt tried to use his paralytic touch. Everything was slippery, warping and twisting and changing, going wildly out of control.

"Matt, I need you to focus - I'm losing you, son," Professor X's voice echoed, seemingly coming from all around him. "Concentrate on a memory where you found yourself - a moment where you realized who you truly are."

Healing Gardens -

"Doing fine, mate - and yourself?" Amelia asked Maria. Her mannerisms hadn't really changed much in the integrations of herself. The real difference was just a doubling down on her devotion to freedom and individuality, to chasing her dreams - she wasn't going to return to SHIELD after all of this. Amelia was going to go higher, further, and faster; she wasn't going to be a government suit again. Besides, SHIELD reminded her too much of SWORD and the Iron, leaving a bad metallic taste in her mouth.

"I do not know, child," Professor X answered Niah, his voice strained. He sounded like absolute shit to Amelia - like he had just finished his first week at bootcamp and it wasn't getting easier, it was getting harder. He sounded like he had just chain smoked a box of cigarettes and then went straight to playing the trumpet, barely able to squeak out a pleasing sound.

"Kinda weird to be calling her a child, she's an adult," Amelia told Professor X with a slight bit of irritation. She hated it when people belittled others - especially old white men. But she didn't press it too much, as she was also concerned about Oliver. They were besties - and Oliver hadn't said a word just yet.

Bonnie opened her eyes, finding herself in the healing gardens - her body hadn't been moved. She expected to feel... different after making that pact with Athena, but she felt the same. She just felt like herself. There was no shimmering silver aura or anything special. She was Bonnie - just Bonnie - like she always had been. And while others may have been disappointed, Bonnie was glad.

Her eyes fell on Flynn, wondering who was going to be waking up - if it would be the man she loved... Or his shadow.

---

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Oliver Sullivan

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The Aerie
Skills: N/A

---

Oliver jumped to his feet upon getting out of Cerebro. He coughed out loud, and looked down at his normal skin, and clear mind. He seemed to dance on the edge of madness a lot these days, and the clarity itself was kind of jarring. "I am... me." He said, uncertainly, placing a hand on the side of his head. "I seem to have a habit of making people doubt who I am, at least now I know how it feels." He said dryly, looking over Professor X. "Thanks, I'm fine, I promise. Sorry for the hassle." With that, Oli quickly pulled Amelia into a hug, and said, "I'm really" glad to have you back. Don't scare me like that, okay?"

And shortly after that, Oli was right by Niah's side once more, "Question, and I promise this one is very important." He said, in a not at all serious voice, "If my skin were purple and cracked, you'd still love me, right?" He had a wry smile, and wasn't totally sure if she'd get the joke, but pretending that it was merely vanity and a care for Niah's attraction to him that kept him from becoming a galactic space tyrant and slaughtering countless. Obviously, it was not, but this sort of engagement helped remind him that he was not that, he refused to be afraid anymore of such things.

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Cassandra took a moment and stared at Matt as he continued to eat his meal as she looked back down at the SHIELD brain in front of her, she picked up the fork and knife. "Yeah that one can be sent back, this one is good enough." Cassandra told Matt as she took a moment to play with the food on her plate. She had seen Umbrella Academy once before, and remembered the scene where Vanya had amnesia and she was stuck in her own head, with a plate of her brain in front of her.

After meeting her counterpart in this world she didn't want to become that one at all as Cass started to cut off a tiny piece at first before closing her eyes letting out a slight sigh as she brought it up to her mouth and started to eat it. Doing her best as she quickly started to eat the rest of it cutting away pieces as she could.

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Maria turned her attention towards Amelia and nodded towards her and smiled. "Yeah i'm good, better actually." Maria told her as she watched Oliver starting to wake up and hugged Amelia which made her smile slightly as she looked towards him. "And where is my hug?" Maria asked Oliver jokingly. Seeing Oliver then going over towards Amelia was actually pretty cute as she turned her attention towards Bonnie as she started to wake up.

"You alright there Bonnie?" Maria asked her, as she looked at Cass, Matt and Flynn the two of them haven't woken up yet really. Which was either a good or bad thing she really wasn't to sure as Maria shifted slightly, Professor X seemed to be really taxed out by the looks of it, as she looked at Amelia. [color=lightgreen]"He usually calls everyone younger than him that way, you'd get used Earth-257's memories of herself.

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"I didn't kill her, I don't even actually know how she died," he really didn't know what had happened to Sapphire, that was definitely the truth. "That was not my fault. And I am not a killer." Of course that wasn't entirely truthful, and deep down he knew perfectly well that he had killed a lot of people in the past, but that wasn't really who he was now.

“You left her to die,” Bonnie said. “It doesn’t matter whether you swung the sword, you left her behind and she died.”

"It wasn't my fault, I did not leave her to die. Things like that happen, you run into someone, you end up parting ways later on, and then something could happen that causes one of the two of you to die. That was unavoidable, and that wasn't my fault."

“Yet you blame yourself. Why?”

"What makes you think that I blame myself?"

“Because we are inside your mind, Frederick. I’m just a part of you.”

"Right keep forgetting we're inside my head, kind of hard to keep that part straight sometimes. But I do not blame myself despite what you think."

“What do you blame yourself for then? What’s keeping you from leaving this place?”

"I did try to leave but I got caught in a loop or something and kept reentering this room or whatever!" He didn't get a response or anything more from "Bonnie". Nope, she seemingly disappeared, leaving him in the room alone. Still with the keys to that other door in hand, he cautiously stepped through the doorway, finding himself thankfully back in the hallway that he had started in. It didn't take long for him to reach the locked door again. He opened the door slowly, and found himself face to face with another version of himself. This version was a bit different from him though, and that was probably not a good thing.

"Well this is weird..."

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"Not that surprising that it would have been damaged over time, it was initially made what, over 20 years ago? Most machines aren't exactly built and made to last forever long term without some work and upkeep. But I would like to see the machine, it definitely sounds like an interesting thing, a little curious how it got made too," she ended up saying with a shrug. Sparky was interested in seeing a machine that could be used to actively jump between realities, that sort of thing hadn't seemed possible really in her mind before this whole mission really.

Her attention then turned to the idea of a phone or some form of communication between realities. It seemed like a pretty logical jump to her considering the fact that Banner had already figured out how to travel between realities. "I mean, you could make it in a few different ways. Make it so that each reality has a numerical designation which then could act almost like an area code when you dial in. You'd need at least a pair of them though to probably work correctly... And of course I'd call considering you can't test the devices out here, you'd need one person here and the other person in another reality. But yeah even after that I definitely would." Her mind was instantly focusing more on the whole building the machine and all, since that was more familiar territory for her compared to everything else that had been going on.

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The professor wasn't certain, but once Oliver started talking she was. He was himself. Everything would be okay. Others had woken up too, and so far, they all seemed back to themselves. She smiled at Oliver and hugged him. "I don't care what you look like. Don't get me wrong. You're pretty attractive the way you look now. But I fell in love with you." She considered a joke about keeping the murder to a minimum, but since that was a little close to home with the 257 people, she figured that'd be a little too dark.

Once she pulled away from the hug, she looked at the others. "I'm okay. Everything that makes me me is still there." She couldn't imagine herself without the alternate realities. It was nice they were all organized now. "And that isn't meaning that Oliver is the thing that makes me me. I'm not co-dependent." She could live without Oliver. She'd be sad, but she wouldn't be broken.

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Matt was confused by everything that was happening. Why were there bees? But he heard Professor X's voice. Telling him to think of a memory of when he found himself. That was obvious to him. He knew exactly what to think. He thought back to when he was in high school. There had been a very specific conversation with his sister, Lisa. She was older than him by a year. And at this point, Matt hadn't come out as trans yet. He had done everything he could to fit into society's box. But it never felt right.

Lisa and he were chatting about something girly, and he was trying to care. Trying to make it mean something to him. When finally, he said, "I don't know, I just feel like I'm lying all the time. Like Mindy isn't a real person, but I have to be her."

Lisa tilted her head at him and said, "Remember Laureen?" Matt had nodded. Understanding where his sister was going. The conversation had shifted after that, but it stuck with Matt, and by Summer break, he started to transition socially.

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Cass -

Cass would open her eyes, finding herself only able to remember her life of Earth-666. The memories of Earth-257 and personality bleed had been locked away inside of her mind.

Matt -

Matt would open his eyes, finding himself only able to remember his life of Earth-666. The memories of Earth-257 and personality bleed had been locked away inside of his mind.

Flynn -

Flynn will have a choice - to fight this other Flynn, the victor then becoming the dominant personality. Or he can embrace this other Flynn and become an amalgam of the two identities. Either way, please have him make this choice in your post, and he will wake up to join the others.

The Waiting Grove -

Bob Banner was having time not getting positively misty eyed at what Sparky was saying. It probably was a testament to the fact that he was in desperate need of therapy, but he had never dared to hope that his kid would want any form of a relationship with him after what had happened. "Yeah, I'd love that - Lana... Um, do you want me to call you Lana? Or..." Bob trailed off, realizing they probably should've started with this earlier. "You can call me Bob, by the way - if that's easiest..."

Raynor had been more or less quietly supportive throughout this conversation. However, he could hear voices drifting now from the spot in the Healing Gardens where Professor X had taken the others for psychic surgeries. They must've been waking up. "I think the others are going to be ready for us soon, provided Chuck hasn't accidentally fucked their brains up beyond recognition," Raynor said, interjecting.

To be honest, Raynor wasn't sure if it was more or less awkward for him to be here with Bob Banner and Sparky, or to go check in on the others. He knew that the rest of the team wasn't exactly his biggest fan - he was a rude pretentious asshole, and he would be alive long after most of them were dead and gone. If he were one of them, he'd probably hate him too, if not for his personality than for the sea of blood he had spilled.

Healing Gardens -

Amelia was a bit surprised as Oliver pulled her into a hug, and she hugged him back tightly. She couldn't help but ruffle his hair affectionately. "I know ya missed me, the rest of this lot is right mad," Amelia joked. "As for scarin' ya... I'll do my best, but it's good to get the blood pumping every now and then - let's us know we're really alive." She let him go though, as he moved on over to Niah. Amelia was a little surprised he hadn't started with Niah, the two of them were thick as thieves lately. She raised an eyebrow at Oliver's question. She hoped he'd at least do a decent skin care routine if he were to suddenly turn purple - maybe she'd have to drag him shopping after this was over, get him the supplies he needed before his skin did crack and turn spotty and ugly.

Bonnie nodded at Maria's check-in. "I'm fine - just had a chat with a goddess," she said, aware that it was cryptic but she also couldn't help herself. There was a reason she was attracted to Flynn - Bonnie liked to be a little bit dramatic from time to time. But beyond the drama, she was also focused on staring at her lover - or at least, the person who had once been him.

"Herc does that shit all the time - same with Moonie and Scarab," Amelia said nonchalantly. The person she had been before coming to this world would've had a million questions about Bonnie and her goddess, but now, she was the Amelia of this world and the old one. She knew three people with connections to the divine from the Blue, and then bloody Raynor was a god as well. Gods and goddesses were getting to be as common as roaches.

"If you all wouldn't mind, I need quiet and solitude to continue," Professor X said, his voice tired and drained, as he continued his work.

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Bob Banner's Home -

Once everyone had recovered from their psychic surgeries, Bob Banner volunteered to host them all during their time on the island. Professor X was concerned that these psychic surgeries would only be a temporary measure, and that while he had managed to largely correct the damage, the process rewriting their personalities and memories was bound to continue if they were not careful. Professor X and Magneto then agreed to task X-Force, Genosha's spy agency, with tracking down Doctor Doom. They promised to let the Secret Warriors know the minute there were any leads.

For now, they were left inside what basically looked like a beach house on the sandy western coast of Genosha. All of the furniture was sized for a Hulk, making everyone look like tiny kings when they sat down in chairs. Bob served up what food he had - American classics, like cheeseburgers, hot dogs, salads, and so forth. For drinks, he had water, lemonade, and a lot of beer. If anyone was ready for bed already, sleeping bags were pulled out and spread all over the living room, enough for everyone.

"So uh... Help yourself and dig in, everyone," Bob Banner said awkwardly. "Mi casa es su casa."

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Cassandra sat at one of the chairs as she looked over at Bob Banner and gave him a friendly smile as he allowed them to stay at his place for the time being. "Thank you for hosting us." Cassandra said to him as she grabbed herself a bowl of salad, even if the whole mental surgery thing wasn't real it still felt real after eating a brain. She leaned back slightly as she looked over at the other members of her team, it was actually nice for once where they didn't have to be fighting. They could just take a little moment like this to rest and figure out what to do next.

Cass leaned back slightly as she took another bite out of her salad, she wasn't sure what they would actually expect when they did find Doctor Doom. She was pretty sure that he would end up putting up a fight though, as well as Luminous as well she looked over at Matt and Bonnie. "How are you guys doing?" Cassandra asked the two of them, as she moved closer towards Matt gently reaching for his hand and smiled at him.

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Maria sat herself down with the others with a bottle of beer in her hand as well as a plate with two hotdogs with ketchup and mustard as well. "Yeah thank you for letting us crash at your place." Maria said to Bob as she started to take a bite out of her hotdog and leaned back looking over at the beach. She watched the ocean for a moment, she felt pretty comfortable here as this was also her home, a little bit.

She thought about visiting her sister but then realized that her real sister was dead back home, and she knew that there was a possibility that she wouldn't see her again. Maria then took another big drink of her beer, looking over at everyone else in the room, she wasn't sure how confronting Doom or Luminous in this reality would turn out to be like. She was just eager to go back home to her wife and daughter as well to.

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Niah smiled. A true genuine smile. There had been some rough times when that smile had disappeared, but any of them that had known her since before Ultron would recognize it. She was happy. Yeah, things might be bleak, but she was happy. Happy with who she was and what she was doing. Even though she knew she would be leaving SHIELD after this. She couldn't take it anymore. It was time to find a lab job.

At Banner's house, which made some memories play through her head, she settled more into the conglomerate identity. She munched on food and had a beer. "Thank you." She said in agreement with Maria. It was good to have space to breathe. She wanted to ask the others about their experiences, but it also felt incredibly personal. She decided she wouldn't be the one to start. She'd put in her two cents about the psychic surgery if someone else talked. She had the feeling that the Professor probably was disappointed with her outcome. But she couldn't have gotten rid of the rest. She needed it for perspective.

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Matt snapped out of the memory. For a disoriented moment, he didn't know where he was. He saw several others huddled up talking. Relief washed over him. He wasn't 100% what had happened, but he felt like himself. He couldn't say what was different. Other than he didn't have the urge to solve some serial killer murders. That had been strange, especially since he had been completely convinced that Oliver was to blame for it. Oliver was a bit too much of a disaster to be able to be that good of a serial killer. He joined the others, placing one arm around Cass and relishing in her presence.

At Bob's house, a name he didn't feel right about using, he had filled his plate with food and gotten a beer. He had debated drinking it, but it felt right. Like they had something to celebrate for even if their mission wasn't complete. If you thought about it, though, their mission wasn't actually to bring back Dr. Doom and Luminous. Their mission had been to investigate what happened. All well, they might as well be through. He sat near Cass.

"Should we try to figure out a game plan or just eat and sleep? Both sound good to me." He was beat. It had been a weird and long day.

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He had no idea what to really expect from this version of him that he was currently facing down. One thing was for sure though, and that was that he wanted to have nothing to do with him, and really just wanted him gone. "Well guessing you aren't going to just go away and leave me alone are you?" he ended up just sort of asking, and his counterpart just sort of shook his head. "Yeah didn't think so..."

The other him instantly burst into flames, charging at him and sending him flying backwards into a wall. This was definitely not the sort of thing he was expecting really to have to fully deal with, but okay then. Flynn jumped back up onto his feet and sent a fireball straight at him, but the guy seemed to just sort of dispel it right in front of him, and he was smirking a bit at the attempt. This was the sort of thing that he was not sure about how to deal with it. This was getting a bit annoying to say the least for him.

He jumped out of the way as he almost got hit with a fireball, since he didn't have much time to otherwise attempt anything. Right now, he really needed to find something that he could use. Any fire he threw his counterpart seemed to absorb, clearly a bit better at using his powers then he was at the moment. Which was not a good thing. Maybe he could find something that he could use? This building did seem like a SHIELD facility or something right? There had to be weaponry or something like that somewhere.

Flynn bolted down the hallway, narrowly missing more fire, before heading into another room, and he started looking around for anything that might really be helpful. Eventually, he did find what looked to essentially just be a pistol or something like that, it would work. He wished he had something a bit better, and with more ammo, but currently it was all that he had right now. There was blast of fire that managed to hit him, but he managed to put the fire out easily that time. Before he pointed his weapon and pulled the trigger, and his counterpart hit the ground, though it wasn't a killing shot, it was enough to knock him down.

"Stay down... and I think I win right?" he commented, before everything shifted around him, and he found himself waking up in the Healing Gardens. That was not exactly an experience he wanted to repeat, but at least this time, he seemed to be himself again. At least, the real him from their original reality, not this one.

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"Uh yeah, Lana was not the name I was raised with... Not to mention I don't exactly use the name I was raised with either anymore... Everyone just calls me Sparky. The last name I have being Sparks, a doctorate in electrical engineering and electrical powers, it did kind of seem fitting really," she commented with a shrug, figuring to answer his question well enough. Sparky was a perfect nickname for her in her mind, and no one else ever actually called her anything but that, so why start now?

Her attention turned towards Raynor when he commented about everyone seemingly waking up and being done with whatever it was that was going on in there, and she figured it likely was a good thing in general that they were all waking up and hopefully back to normal. Some time later, she was at Bob's house with everyone else. Personally, she had just sort of decided on referring to him by that as opposed to anything else. Made the most sense since she was still a bit confused and not sure what to think of the whole other reality thing still. She was kind of quiet again, wanting still to speak with Raynor when she had the chance, just not right now.

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Oliver Sullivan

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Bannner's
Skills: N/A

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Oli smiled at Niah, he too, didn't need her around, or at least, not in the codependence sense, but he absolutely wanted her to be with him as much as possible. Between the two of them, she could probably handle herself better, but he was at the very least endowed with the ability to escape most any situation, so he rarely felt fear of not being able to make it back to her in their fight against injustice. They had, he considered, a kind of inverse Bonnie and Clyde relationship, and hopefully that meant that they'd be staying alive and well together far into their twilight years.

Oli shot a grin back at Amelia. He figured she might not get the joke, the appearance of that galactic tyrant was probably not a well known thing, even among the Secret Warriors, and he was less than public about the fact that he was technically Thane (Save for the occasional threat.) He waved a hand to her, and said, "I'll explain another time, promise." Once they'd arrived at Banner's, Oli dived into food without much of a thought. He'd run so much today, and it was a minor miracle that he hadn't passed out up until this point. He really had to eat more, or run less, and one of those two really wasn't an option.

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Bob Banner's Home -

"I don't know about you all, but I'm hungrier than a pregnant lady," Darcy said, stacking three patties onto a bun and taking a gigantic bite into her cheeseburger. With her mouth full of food, she continued - "See? She's eating a tiny salad and there's an entire baby inside of her!" With her gigantic cheeseburger, Darcy pointed at Bonnie.

Bonnie rolled her eyes slightly at Darcy. She wasn't planning on just eating a salad. She had a small salad in front of her, and then another plate with a truly horrific combination of toppings, hamburger patties, and hot dogs pressed between two buns. "Happy for you," Bonnie told Darcy. She was a little bit on edge. She still wasn't quite sure where things stood with Flynn at the moment - he had been one of the last to wake up at the Healing Gardens, and then they had quickly made their way to Banner's place for food and lodgings, meaning the two of them hadn't gotten a chance to properly talk.

Bonnie wasn't even sure who would be talking back at her - if it would be the Flynn she knew or someone new. But ultimately, all that mattered was the safety of the unborn child she was carrying. Bonnie just hoped that Flynn still wanted to be a part of that, that his experiences here and Xavier's psychic surgery hadn't taken that away. "I'm fine, Cass - you don't need to worry about me," Bonnie then answered.

"It's no problem, really - I could use the company anyways," Bob said with a shrug, cracking open a beer. "Sparky, huh? Bit on the nose - but then again... Not much better than Hulk, right?" he joked. He was starting to calm down and relax a little bit more, the initial shock of being reunited with his daughter wearing off.

"Yeah, she's a dead ringer for that name, mate," Amelia chimed in, agreeing completely. She was nursing a beer herself and had put an exquisitely "topped" hot-dog on her plate, along with a small bit of salad, as she was trying to make sure she got her greens. "Almost a bit cliché even, like that's the sorta name that you find in comic books. Tho I s'pose Doctor Strange isn't much better, he's a doctor and he's super fucking weird, so Strange works out for him. Or who else is there that has a fun one... I'm blanking, but you get the idea anyways."

"Personally, I'd be into taking a nap after eating and figuring things out in the morning - I'm fucking dead tired," Amelia admitted. She figured that any plan they came up tonight would be just as good as one they'd come up with in the morning, so it didn't really matter to her when it happened. But sleep, sleep was important. Every part of her body was aching from exhaustion and her brain was fatigued from the psychic surgery. All Amelia wanted to do was curl up in one of the sleeping bags and go to sleep, preferably helped along by a food coma.

"Bob might have a way to get us all back. If he doesn't... New Asgard will," Raynor said. He hadn't bothered going for a beer. Midgardian beer always tasted like absolute shit compared to what was available on Asgard. And it wouldn't get him drunk anyways or even lightly buzzed, so he didn't see much of a point to it. Raynor didn't relish the idea of going to New Asgard, but he knew that odds were, his cousin was still alive. She had used dark magics to send him through realities before - she ought to be able to do it again.

"Are we even going to bother with Luminous and Doom though, really?" Raynor then asked bluntly. Yes, it had been their mission to investigate the anomaly that Luminous and Doom had escaped through. As far as Raynor was concerned at the moment, Luminous and Doom weren't their problem anymore. He just wanted to get Sparky home safe to their daughter.

"You can't just leave psychopaths on the loose in... wherever in the world they are," Darcy protested. "They're from your reality, they're your problem - that's only fair!"

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Cassandra looked over at Matt and gave him a loving smile as she leaned up against him, taking this moment to actually relax as her attention turned towards him, asking what the plan was for Doom and Luminous. "We don't have any intel on where they are at, or whether or not he managed to find some allies here." Cass told Matt, if she had the intel on the location on where they were then she'd probably be able to work out a plan with how to deal with it. "So lets just take this moment to rest." Cassandra said as her attention turned towards Raynor she had to agree with Darcy. Cassandra stared at Bonnie for a moment, she wasn't to sure but she wasn't going to push her friend on the issue and let her approach her if she wanted to.

"Doom is as much as our problem as well as this realities, we know what he is capable of doing and we might have to deal with his counterpart here as well to if he is the same person here or not he'll be a major threat to this reality as well as ours." Cassandra told him, even though their mission was to just investigate the strange portal that brought them all here. Cass then turned her attention over towards Bob, if he had a way for them to get back home she was curious and Raynor seemed to have a backup plan as well to. "I'd like to know how you are able to get us back home." She said to him.

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"Well it was probably either Sparky or Pikachu as a nickname to." Maria said looking over towards Sparky teasingly as she took a bite out of her burger and listened to the others as they started to talk. She took another sip of her beer as she leaned forward she was fine with taking the moment to just rest and relax here. They had been fighting constantly since they had gotten here, and Maria wasn't really in the mood for another fight either at the moment.

"I think we kinda deserve a little break here and we can come up with a plan once we know where Doom and Luminous are here in this reality. We have pretty much been fighting constantly since we had gotten here anyway." Maria said giving a slight shrug, she turned her attention towards Bob she was curious how he was able to get them all back home actually.