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Bethany watched as Lance started to shift into the Hulk and he started to rage like usual as he picked up chunks of the ground and started to throw it at just about everyone who was there. A chunk nearly missing her as she looked at Lance, even though he probably couldnt even hear her. "Watch where you are throwing stuff there Hulk Jr, we are on the same side!" Bethany complained, as her shadows around Rogue's leg were shaken off while she had been distracted. She noticed the large dome around where Annie was she wasnt sure what her counterpart was actually trying to do with that.

She quickly made her way towards it and started to concentrate on it trying to dissipate it, but she couldn't and tried again, but the same result happened. Bethany groaned as it started to shimmer slightly, and quickly tried again and managed to get rid of it. She looked over at Annie. "You alright there Annie?" Bethany ended up asking Annie as she turned to face the others once more, they needed to finish the fight as quickly as possible.

---

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Nightlocke was still really fearful and annoyed with the bees flying around her, even though she knew that they were fake illusions she still hated them regardless. "There that should keep you busy for awhile now while the adults continue to fight." Nightlocke said satisfied that her little dome prison around Annie would keep her contained. She watched as Lance turned into the Hulk and started throwing chunks of the ground at just about everyone luckily none of it hit her.

Her eyes turned towards Runa, seeing her as being the bigger threat out of the group along side with the Hulk now hulking out everywhere now. She then quickly held out her hand as she tried to summon some shadows around Runa, but failed to do it, and quickly tried again and managed to send one around Runa and flung her into some nearby trees.

---

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Nightlocke’s power enveloped Antoinette and it immediately caused her to lose concentration and drop her illusions and guard. Antoinette’s breath became shallow briefly as darkness took over her every sense. She could hear some of the sounds happening around her but they were muffled as if she were underwater. ”You’re fine, breathe,” she muttered to herself and focused on her breathing.
The shadows around Antoinette faded and she looked to see her attacker, but Bethany quickly spoke which allowed Antoinette to pause and take in who she was looking at. Nightlocke style was quite different from Bethany’s. She sighed and nodded in response to Bethany.
”I’m fine but maybe we should tag team a villain?” Antoinette looked around, sizing up who they could attack together.

---

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Mystery’s eyes widened in surprise as she felt the tickling in her head. The beginning of sensory overload. Mystery’s original illusion projected onto Guin had lost some of its power, so it didn’t affect her quite as badly. Besides, Mystery was used to a little mental manipulation and pain. Aiming to retaliate, Guin beat her to the punch. Literally.
Mystery’s head snapped back as Guin landed her hit to her face. Just as Mystery was looking back at Guin, she landed another hit and Mystery fell flat on her ass. She started to laugh. Mystery sat up, blood dripping down from her nose onto her upper lip and she licked it off before smiling.
”I haven’t had this much fun in years.” Mystery shifted her weight into a crouch before sweeping her leg out, knocking Guin to the ground. Mystery scrambled over to try and land her own punch to Guin’s face, but she failed both times and only succeeded in hitting the ground; apparently, the punch to her own face caused more than just blood to flow.
Mystery started to laugh again at her failed attempts and stood to her feet. She stepped back, giving distance between Guin and her so she couldn’t hit her again physically.

---

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Guin was really hoping that evil Annie would just stand down and be nice and full unconscious, but luck didn't seem to be on her side. Annie swept her leg and Guin fell to the ground, no doubt bruising her ass somewhat in the process. She rolled from side to side as Mystery tried to punch her in the face, the punches narrowly missing and connecting with the ground instead. "You're actually insane. Like clinically. Have you considered medication? Or psychiatric help?" Guin asked.

She got up to her feet, aching all over, and swung a punch, hitting Mystery in the face. Guin swung again, this time specifically getting Mystery in the eye, and Guin knew from experience that Mystery would end up with a black eye from that blow. Two more blows landed, one just bruising, and the other definitely breaking whatever cartilage was left holding together of Mystery's nose. Her own head wound was still bleeding, but Guin didn't feel light headed, thankfully. She was just tired and annoyed and was hoping that when she finished Mystery, everyone would have magically taken care of the rest of these Brotherhood assholes...

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Haze raised an eyebrow, noticing that the ginger was seemingly struggle with fulfilling the commands she had given. She really wished that this was all over and done with already. While she wasn't invested in this fight, Haze did care about securing the artifact. And she didn't like all of the time they were wasting here with these people, if they came back to Magneto empty handed... Haze tried not to think about that, as she used her gift to reinforce the hold she had on Mary's mind, and she judged that she had been successful.

She then turned her head in the direction of the roar, looking pale. "... They brought a Hulk..." she murmured.

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Runa might have been physically sparring with Klara, but verbally she had her sights on Mage. She believed she could sense the conflict within him, and that if given sufficient motivation, he might be made an ally. "If your family dies with you, Edus, then why let your family's death be in desecration of their beliefs? You would not only kill your family legacy physically, but spiritually as well. Flesh can be healed, the dead raised, but the metaphysical? That's a trickier thing altogether," Runa warned. Runa was a strong believer in resurrection and reincarnation - death was simply part of a natural life cycle, whether taken from the perspective of the Phoenix and its rebirth, or that of Asgard and the destructive crucible of Ragnarok. Death was never the end, just another beginning.

Had Runa not been more focused on Lance's transformation, perhaps she would have heard Klara proclaim Runa was a light goddess. And had Runa heard that, it would have been a delicious, melancholic irony - to know that at least in one world, she was a worthy legacy of her father Baldur. Instead, Runa was focused on Lance, placing a hand on his arm for a moment. "Lance, do what needs to be done. Smash," she requested, hoping that he was enough present to listen to her, and that she hadn't just made everything so incredibly much harder for everyone else.

Runa swung her staff at Klara, aiming to hit her in the head and ideally knock her unconscious, but Klara blocked with her sword. Runa swung again, this time landing a decent blow to Klara's head. "Cousin, lay down your weapons," Runa counseled, only to then be sent into some trees by a wave of shadows sent by not-Bethany.

---

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Ed didn't trust that Quicksilver wouldn't be able to escape his bubble. He needed to get him away from the fight. He also knew that just sending him off wouldn't keep him from rejoining the fight. So he flicked his hand up, and the bubble went up a bit, but not enough to keep Quicksilver from being able to rejoin the fight. Ed flicked it again. He knew that if Quicksilver escaped the bubble or if he lost the bubble, then it was likely Quicksilver would fall to his death. But he was out of the fight for now.

He focused on Phantazia. He didn't know what she could do, but distracting her might help. He threw several force blasts at her trying to knock her out. He knocked her over. She'd probably focus on him now. Maybe she knew that Quicksilver's life was in his hands; maybe she didn't care.

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The woman said some sharp words. Mage was briefly frozen. His counterpart had to have told the group the laws. There was no other option. And she wasn't wrong. His sister's face played in his mind. The Hulk was an issue, though. He couldn't allow this being to keep throwing things at them.

With Rouge's help, he was able to dodge most of it. And the rest, he throws up shields to protect them. When a gap in detritus was available, Mage threw force blasts at the Hulk backward. That gave them a bit of reprieve. He took a moment to respond to the woman.

"Maybe the Edus you know has been able to avoid breaking the laws, but in this world, it is impossible. The laws were written in an older time for a better world. They were optimistic."

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"VERLASSEN SIE MEINEN KOPF," Mary ended up shouting out loud, as she ended up falling somewhat onto her knees, her hands on either side of her head. The ground began to shake, as roots and vines started shooting up from the ground all over the place. Her powers were seemingly going out of control, not going for any specific person, the vines were just seemingly attacking anyone in their path.

This was not going to end well, not at all, considering the fact that it was a rather large wall that shot off in all the directions around her. Which meant it ended up hitting just about everyone, well, except for Pyro and Exodus, for some reason the vines didn't seem to hit them, though it might have had something to do with Pyro using fire constantly and Exodus just sort of stood there and got lucky about it. And the damage that she caused? It was not pretty. There was a very good reason Mary usually held her powers back, and it was typically because of instances like this where she might completely lose it.

The first one who ended up getting hit ended up being Pietro, and because he was sort of trying to fight with Exodus, he didn't notice until it was too late and he ended up getting thrown into a very large tree with enough force to break it with a loud crack and he ended up hitting the ground with a thud afterwards. Guin wouldn't be on her feet again for very long, as the vines slammed into her, sending her flying backwards about 50 feet, and hitting the ground hard. She'd hear a loud crack as she ended up landing on her right leg wrong, and now it was sitting at a very odd angle, along with sharp pains in her chest from what likely was broken ribs and her entire body would be in pain as she moves from bruises and other injuries all over her body. The one good thing was her head injury at least didn't seem like it was getting worse.

Mystery would get thrown backwards as well, and landed close to where Guin was (only about 10 feet away from her), and she'd also hear the sounds of something cracking as her right arm snapped. The other thing mainly for her was she ended up with her other arm impaled on a branch that was lying on the ground, hitting it with enough force the decent sized stick went straight through. Ed's turn, as when he got knocked back, his focus would shift, and Quicksilver would start to fall as the bubble disappeared (just in time to also get sent backwards). Of the group, he seemed to have gotten the least of the injuries, as he got slammed into the ground, his chest hurting from the sharp pain signaling several broken ribs, and unfortunately the area he had landed was just completely covered in brambles, sticks, and other bits of underbrush on the forest floor, so by the time he ended up sliding to a stop at the base of a tree, his entire body was somewhat covered in small cuts and bruises from it.

The other members of the Brotherhood also were sent flying and being knocked around (save Pyro and Exodus) and so did Klara. Creating about a 30 foot diameter circle around from where Mary was now alone at the center of it. "Jemand helfen, es tut zu sehr weh..." she ended up muttering under her breath as she fully collapsed and seemed to pass out on the ground from the chaos going on in her head.

"I will not stand down, I never do, if you knew anything about me, then you would know that. But clearly you didn't think of that now did you?" she responded to Runa, before seeing her get sent knocking backwards due to the attack that Nightlock had done to her. Her attention was partially diverted though because of the issues that were arising around them. There was the giant green monster now attacking the group, and now they were having issues.

If Lance had heard Runa at all, he didn't seem to acknowledge her. Or what Bethany had said to him for that matter, and his attention turned towards the pesky little wizard that had decided to attack him. This was definitely a good thing for the group though, since it meant that he wasn't throwing anything at the side he was supposed to be on. For the moment anyway. He started yanking up more chunks from the ground and started chucking them at Mage.

One of his boulders hit it's mark, as Mage was knocked down, blood starting to come from his head and he'd start to feel a bit dizzy and light headed from the injury. More rubble was constantly being thrown at him still, though none of the other rocks hit him again. So that was a good thing for the moment for him at least. The ground over where they were would begin to shake almost like an earthquake, but it was difficult to tell if it was because of Lance or something else.

This group didn't seem to be fairing much better then the other group is, and Klara turned her focus towards Bethany and Annie instead, holding her sword in her hand as she charged right at them. Bethany would feel the blade slice into her arm, right before Klara slammed into her, throwing her to the ground and now there was a large gash on her left arm, which was starting to bleed quite a bit, blood starting to cover it entirely. She then flipped over and slammed her foot into Annie, throwing her aside, and now she had her sword to Annie's throat, but she didn't move to potentially kill her.

"What exactly are you and your group trying to accomplish here really? What purpose could it possibly serve you?" she ended up asking, not moving her sword away from Annie's throat. Though her question was a bit open ended, as she didn't ask anyone in particular or anything. It was meant for everyone in their group it seemed like.

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"Yeah we can try and team up on her." Bethany said to Annie as she turned her attention towards Klara again, just as she charged towards her, Bethany cried out in pain as she felt a deep cut going through her left arm. She then felt the wind getting knocked out of her as Klara knocked her down to the ground. She could feel blood sliding down her arm as it was practically covered in it now, Bethany slowly stumbled up to her feet and looked at Klara as she pointed her sword directly at Annie's neck.

She couldn't outright attack Klara as she could easily slit Annie's throat, she thought for a moment on what to do, and quickly held out her right arm aimed at Klara and quickly shadow traveled Klara off of Annie. "We are just trying to get home, we aren't even supposed to be here in the first place." Bethany said as she held her left arm trying to stop the bleeding. She could feel the ground shaking as she looked at Lance Hulk who was throwing chunks of dirt at Ed's counterpart.

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Nightlocke glared at her counterpart after saving Annie as her attention quickly went to Lance Hulk who started attacking Mage by throwing chunks of the ground at him. One of them managing to get a good hit on him, but the rest of it missed him however as Nightlocke sighed and turned her attention to Lance Hulk. "You should have just focused on the others instead of the raging green roid monster." Nightlocke said to Mage.

She extended her hand out to Lance and tried to bind him and restrain him from attacking the others, she let out an annoyed groan as she tried again. But she wasn't really able to as she stared at Klara. "Mind helping out with the big green guy?" Nightlocke asked her seeing that she was dealing with her counterpart and Annie still.

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Antoinette was glad Bethany decided to team up with her. That would at least give them a fighting chance. At least she thought it would. Klara came after them both, barely pausing as she took Bethany out and then Antoinette. She landed on the ground and didn’t have time to stand when she felt the point of Klara’s sword on her throat. Antoinette swallowed, feeling the sharpness of her sword.
”Please. We are just trying to get home. We don’t belong here,” Antoinette added on. She pulled back from the sword a bit so it wouldn’t be so straining to talk but Antoinette didn’t dare move more. She could barely think past the sword being pointed at her.

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Mystery merely grinned at Guin when she called her clinically insane. Mystery had spent some time in a lab so maybe she was. There wasn’t much time for Mystery to come up with a comeback. Mystery admired Guin’s spunk and her ability to throw a punch. In that same sense, Mystery could also take a punch. Guin punched her three times, but Mystery was still standing. She was laughing, broken nose and all but she was still standing.
Mystery went to set her nose when she got thrown sideways. It took Mystery completely by surprise and she shouted in alarm before she landed on the ground. Her right arm snapped under her, and she cried out as a chunk of wood went through her left arm. Tears filled Mystery’s eyes and her breathing became ragged. She sucked in a shaky breath as she moved carefully.
”Haze,” she called out shakily. ”Haze, I need you!”

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Guin hardly had time to cry out before Mary's vines had flung her. The next thing she knew, pain like she had never experienced before had blossomed throughout her body. Her leg felt like it was on fire - and each breath brought a searing sharp pain, like her ribs had been replaced with knives. The wooziness of her head wound was only compounded by these injuries. She couldn't move, even if she had wanted to. H-h-help... I think she's going to kill me Guin frantically whispered to Pietro. Her heart was pounding furiously. Never before on a mission had she felt this close to death, as if the reaper were already descending upon her. I'm scared I'm going to die Guin admitted. She had always assumed she'd be a Final Girl. Maybe she was wrong.

She then noticed that Mystery had stopped coming - she had expected to see the psychopath looming over her, taunting her. But instead, she heard Mystery cry out for Haze. Guin didn't want to unpack what that might have meant. Instead, her survival instincts kicked in and Guin attacked the only way she could - telepathically. It was like trying to kill a bear in the middle of a snowstorm with a butter knife. Guin was mentally flailing around, struggling to get a hold on Mystery's mind. But in the end, just when she was about to lose hope, she did it. She felt Mystery slip into unconsciousness.

Guin didn't even realize she was crying. She tried to attack the nearest mind she felt - Phantazia - but to no avail. The pain was making it too hard to think. Her breathing was ragged. All Guin wanted to do was close her eyes and let the darkness take her away...

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Haze had picked herself up from the forest floor. She hadn't cried when Bloom's attack had sent her flying, breaking her arm in the process. She had had worse injuries thanks to Magneto. She had stopped crying a long time ago. Pain was a constant companion now. It didn't mean it didn't hurt however - and she responded because of it somewhat slower to Mystery's cries for help than she otherwise would have liked to. They had a special bond, the two psychics.

"Your tears won't help, you know," Haze told her counterpart. Even as she looked at Guin on the ground, it was more like she was looking past her. She tried to pull out Guin's darkest fears from her mind, but her alternate self blocked her, seemingly aware enough for basic psychic defenses. She went to kick her in the ribs, but Guin somehow rolled away, crying out in pain from the action. Haze's eyes flared in anger. "Fight harder, you coward!" she screamed, the first time she had raised her voice this entire time. She telepathically thrashed Guin, causing Guin to scream in pain, but she didn't manage to knock her unconscious - not yet.

"Pathetic. No one is going to save you - so FIGHT HARDER!"

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Despite the evening of their odds, their situation was getting more and more desperate by the minute. Runa made a quick decision. Both this Klara and Edus seemed amenable to talking. Klara held Annie's fragile life in her hands. Runa picked herself up from the ground, carefully sliding the sling ring Doctor Strange had leant her onto her fingers. "Make a better world, then," Runa told Magus. But she couldn't spend too much time reasoning with him - and he seemed to be the more resistant of the two.

"Cousin, do not harm her - you do not want her blood on your hands," Runa warned, her voice steady even as her heart was pounding. Carefully, she used the sling ring and opened a portal underneath Klara, sending Klara falling into the mirror dimension. Annie was safe - for now. But Runa wasn't going to just leave Klara in the mirror dimension to rattle around there, no, Runa could sense the conflict in her multiversal cousin. Maybe she could be reasoned with. "Do not kill him, unless you have no other choice - I will return, with Klara," Runa swore to Bethany and Annie. For a moment, she thought about kissing their cheeks to seal the promise.

Instead, Runa jumped through the portal and sealed it behind her, entering the mirror dimension.

Her hair fluttered behind her, as if propelled by an invisible wind. Dark energy swirled around her staff, though Gandr immitted its own bright white light ever still. Here in the mirror dimension, they were closer to the dark domains - where creatures like Dormammu would lurk. "I swear to you cousin, what my companions said is true. We are lost, attempting to return home. The crystal in the woods is of the Phoenix and has the power to send us back to where we belong. I know not what has become of you here... but I feel your pain... and would comfort you, if you would allow it." Runa hesitated for a moment, before embracing Klara. She knew, in that moment, that she was a fool - that this Klara could easily slay her - but Runa was trying to be optimistic, to be hopeful.

She was trying to do what she had advised the other Edus - to build a better world.

Runa's staff dropped to the ground - a sign of her intentions that she hoped Klara would accept, if the embrace would not suffice.

---

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Mary had caused some serious destruction. Ed thought as he tried to breathe through clenched teeth. He was pretty certain he had blacked out for a second too. He didn't know how he had ended up in the brambles. One moment Mary was saying something in German. The next, he was in the bush, trying to remember how to breathe.

He heard Guin's voice. But he knew it wasn't her. This Guin sounded broken. And was trying to break their Guin. Of course, they had their differences. And Ed wouldn't admit it normally, but he liked Guin. He stood up shakily and touched the precious shield charm reaching out to protect her. The first time didn't work. Understandable. But the second time, a dome of orange light surrounded Guin. "Wrong." He said, looking at Haze.

---

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"Who is to say I am not trying?" He asked rather rhetorically since Runa was gone through the portal. The Hulk was kicking his ass. "I was focusing on him because he was throwing shit at me before this!" He shouted at Nightlock. It was harder to concentrate now. Mage had a feeling he had gotten a concussion. That boulder had hit him hard enough he was bleeding. Headwounds were always worse than they looked through.

He pulled at his magic, wrapping it around himself to heal. It wasn't very effective, but it would do for now. Then he focused on the green guy again. He was throwing more force blasts at the hulk. It seemed to damage him some. But unless they got the hulk down quickly, they would be in a world of hurt.

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Nope, no dying, though honestly I think we're all going to die here in the alternate reality that we're in, except you, nooo dying. At all. I'm serious... Though ow I think I broke a few things besides just the tree I got thrown into. Though based on what Mary was saying guessing someone was messing with her head telepathically and that's why she lashed out like that... Pietro responded to Guin, basically giving a very very quick and basic translation of what the German words were. Not to mention, wasn't it that the last time someone really messed with her head caused her brain to kind of get seriously messed up? Anyway give me a minute, takes a little bit for things to potentially heal enough for me to maybe... You know... Move...

Things were starting to look really bad for the group. The Brotherhood, while Mystery had gotten knocked out, still massively outnumbered them, both in just as a group, and in how badly injured they were. Exodus and Pyro hadn't gotten hit at all from Mary's attack, which meant that they were still free to basically try to kill them. Which Pyro very much decided to take advantage of most of the group being on the ground, and decided to start a forest fire which instantly sparked to life despite the area still being a bit damp from the rain Klara had caused.

The fire started swirling around the entire area, and getting very very close to everyone. The heat was starting to become overwhelming. Guin was a bit better protected from the flames because of the shield that Ed had created to protect her. Everyone else on the other hand would start to feel a bit dizzy from the heat and the smoke. If they didn't manage to move and get heading around off the ground, they likely were going to burn to death right where they were.

Well, seems like we're going to just burn up to a crisp and die yaaaaaay... Ow moving still hurts... Pietro added, but she'd be able to see him kind of managing to get up off the ground a ways away, though he was very unsteady on his feet, and looked like he might collapse again at any moment. He looked upward, and looked to be a bit confused. So... I know that smoke and heat cause dizziness and we're dealing with Pyro so he can make anything out of flame. But what is with the flaming bird?

As if on cue, the flaming bird that had been seemingly circling in the air directly above, slammed into the ground, before seemingly dissipating and not being in view. The heat seemed to die down suddenly, though the effects of it (the dizziness mainly and a few burns on everyone) were still there, and the fire itself was still there too. Though whatever just happened or something seemed to have cause Mary to wake up from her feinting spell, and she got up off the ground, almost in the direct center of where the fireball had just landed not to long before.

She was a bit unsteady on her feet for a moment, but after a second she easily was stable again and glanced around at the destruction that was partially caused by her, and partially cause by Pyro. "Oh... Uh... Sorry about that..." she apologized, mainly to Guin, Ed, and Pietro about it. Her head was hurting a little bit, figuring probably from a telepath trying to mess with her a bit. She thought she heard a voice say something, when suddenly Pyro decided to attack again, but this time, the fire just sort of missed her entirely, which was a bit strange considering that she was standing there like nothing had happened.

Over with the others, chaos also decided to go a bit haywire once the two Asgardians seemed to be out of the picture for the time being. Lance was still throwing just about anything that he could get his hands on at people. The rocks he was throwing just barely missed Mage before he ended charging forward and punching him directly. Mage would hear a loud crack and feel several ribs break as he got thrown straight into the ground about 30 feet away. Things weren't exactly going too well as both sides sort of seemed to be able to accomplish some things to deal with the other. But truthfully there was only so much that was going on.

Without Klara and Runa there though, things weren't exactly going to lean in the team's favor. As while Klara could be considered one of the Hellfire Club's powerhouses, she wasn't the only one there, and Runa had more or less disappeared after her.

Rogue seemed to decide that they needed to be reminded a bit that she was there, as she went flying forward and slammed her fist into Lance, managing to knock him off a ways away, as he had been a bit distracted by the pesky little bug that was Mage who kept sending blasts of magic at him. This fight was a bit lopsided, as Bethany and Annie were by themselves now, well technically not if you counted Lance, but currently he was kind of not in any place to be overly helpful, since he seemed to be more of attacking anyone who angered him more. Case in point, he promptly started throwing things at Rogue, managing to pick up a tree at one point and throw it at her, however she was rather easily managing to avoid whatever he threw at her.

In the mirror dimension, Klara instantly went towards potentially being on the defensive, her sword raised a bit, not sure what she was expecting Runa to potentially do. Her body was a bit stiff and rigid though when Runa had hugged her. This was a bit confusing, and well. Unexpected really for her. Klara had been expecting them to be fighting, not for anyone to seemingly hug her.

"What are you doing?" she asked her instantly, though the circlet on her head began to glow with the colors of shadows and darkness a bit, and suddenly, images would go through Runa's head that weren't from her own memories, but seemingly the swiss cheese memories that swirled in Klara's mind, images that the enchanted object was showing her. A lot of the images didn't make sense, they swirled together and were completely dark and hidden. Others however would stand out to her. She'd see one of the Bifrost Bridge on Asgard, her hitting the ground somewhere on Earth creating a large crater, a few others here and there of her with the Hellfire Club, and the last one seemed to be... A jungle of sorts that looked strangely familiar to Runa, but it wasn't anywhere on Earth or Asgard.

"Let go of me already and let me out of here," Klara then said, managing to seemingly push Runa away from her, the glow on the circlet seemingly dying down now.

---

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Bethany looked at Runa and nodded towards her. "Just don't take to long." Bethany said to Runa as she took herself and Klara out of the picture for now into wherever it was that they had gone to now. Hulk Jr, of course wasn't helping things to much as she watched him managing to punch Mage she winced slightly as that happened and Rogue suddenly turned her attention to Lance and started to attack him, she quickly used her shadows and flung her as hard as she could slamming her into some trees nearby.

"So any bets on how long they are going to be wherever they are?" Bethany asked as she looked at Annie for a moment, hopefully it wouldn't take them to long and they needed to find that stone thingy as soon as possible as well to. Of course their counterparts werent helping things much either right now as Bethany held her bad arm wincing slightly as she touched it.

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Nightlocke watched as Runa and Klara disappeared into a portal and groaned slightly, they really could have used Klara's help against the Mini Hulk right now. "Great she leaves us with a Hulk." Nightlocke muttered to herself, she watched as Lance landed a rather good punch on Mage knocking him down pretty good, as Rogue decided to take him on. She decided to help her out to after Rogue managed to get a few good hits on him.

Nightlocke extended her hand out as she used Lance's shadows and suddenly shadow traveled him further away from the group. He was still within eyesight of them all, but they still needed to deal with him. "You alright there?" Nightlocke asked calling out to Mage to see if he was alright or not, she watched just in time to see her counterpart deciding to attack Rogue.

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Guin was incredibly out of it. She was barely coherent, as Pietro's words slammed through her mind and a force field appeared above her, protecting her from Haze's next attack. Fire roared to life all around them and it felt like the world, at least her world, was ending. She couldn't even string together words to really say to Pietro, beginning to suffocate from the smoke and her skin felt like it was boiling from the intense heat. She didn't get a glimpse of the creature shooting down from the sky, nor could she really process what Pietro mentally whispered to her about it.

It took all of her concentration - but mostly an unconscious instinct, an urge to survive, to fight a little harder - for her to telepathically center herself. She hadn't really absorbed what Pietro had said, but something about Mary being attacked by a telepath got through to her. And the strongest telepath present was Exodus. Guin psychically raged against him, managing to cripple him, but she couldn't knock him out. It had taken all of her strength to just do that much.

Piet... Guin's thought cut off, as her breathing slowed and she sank into the welcoming oblivion of unconsciousness...

---

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Haze raised an eyebrow, seeing the rather well dressed man leap in to save her counterpart. Somehow, this disgusted her even more. Perhaps this was why her other self was so weak - maybe she had never been forced to stand on her own. She had never been transformed in a fiery crucible. That felt wrong to her. Haze didn't recognize the girl in front of her. Their similarities were only flesh deep. "She'll never be strong like that," she said simply to the man.

And then, fire rained around them, as Pyro swept up a forest fire. The smoke got into Haze's lungs and she coughed. The heat was extreme and Haze knew that if this wasn't controlled, it would spread throughout the entire forest and kill them all. Survival was more important than showing a united front. Haze was about to tap into Pyro's mind and force him to smother the flames, when something odd happened. The burning image of a bird appeared and crashed down into the ground, the fire dying down soon after.

At first, Haze assumed it had been some of Pyro's theatrics. But then, Bloom rose from ground. Haze briefly reached out telepathically, in order to see how much of the brief mind control remained and perhaps re-establish it. But instead, she sensed something new inside Bloom's head - something that was telepathically protecting her. Haze paused for a moment, debating raising this to the others, but instead she placed a hand to the side of her head and tapped into Pyro's mind, forcing him to smother and douse the somewhat flames. The smoke was really irritating her throat.

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Klara pushed Runa away, ending the embrace - but in the process, Runa found some clarity. The circlet had appeared identical to one she had made for Klara and enchanted with a protective charm. Somehow, this circlet had shared with her glimpses of Klara's memories, most of which seemed familiar to Runa. There was the jungle that Loki had trapped them inside of, the BiFrost Bridge only this time Klara fell, and the Hellfire Club... Runa stared at her cousin as the theory crystallized in her mind and she became certain without a doubt. Somehow, this was her Klara. The one they had been traveling with since the BiFrost Bridge was an imposter.

Runa had three guesses as to who that person might have been - when it came to problems in Asgard, there was one person who was usually responsible.

"I am so sorry I have not been there for you, cousin," Runa whispered, a single tear falling down her face. She reached into her pocket and grabbed the rune she instinctively felt she would need, pressing it between her fingers as she whispered a spell. It was the same one she had used to enchant the circlet originally. Hopefully, drawing a protective enchantment further might be able to reverse some of the damage done and restore Klara to her true self...

Yet as Runa cast, it became clear to her that the spell was not entirely successful. Somehow, her eldritch senses told her the cause of Klara's fractured psyche - the strange way that reality had been overwriting memories, injuries from Klara's nasty fall, and another cause that Runa could not quite comprehend... "I have failed you," Runa apologized, bowing her head slightly. More tears were falling now, as Runa wept for Klara.

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It was a relief when Runa took her cousin to the mirror dimension. Antoinette relaxed a fraction, rubbing her sore head and body. She turned her attention to the fight that continued it. It seemed Lance had a handle on things in Hulk form. All her and Bethany had to worry about was staying out of the way.
Antoinette looked at Bethany and pondered the question for a moment. ”Ten minutes. Give or take two minutes,” she said seriously. Antoinette looked back at the fight ahead and rotated her neck around a couple of times. She was desperately tired but they were far from done.

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Haze was what Mystery would call a friend in this missed up, every person for themselves world. Normally, Mystery would simply laugh through the pain. She had fought with broken limbs before, like the nose or an arm, but her pain was overwhelming her at the moment. Both arms and a nose. It was not an ideal situation.
And then she was thrown into darkness. If anything, Guin had just done Mystery a favour by attacking her telepathically. The pain was gone. Everything was gone into blissful nothingness.

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"Trauma doesn't make people strong. It makes them brittle." Ed said. He tried not to breathe in the smoke that was filling the air. He thought of the phrase 'what doesn't kill me makes me strong' and how much he hated it, especially since almost his entire family had been wiped out.

The air was getting hard to breathe. But Guin was still safe in the bubble he had created for her. And something had fallen out of the sky. He needed to know what it was. But Mary was standing where it had fallen. He frowned. Had it hit her? What had the thing been?

"Mary, are you okay?"

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Mage knew something was broken. That last hit from the hulk had done some damage. Breathing was rough. He blinked black stars that were threatening to take him into unconsciousness away. He held up a thumbs up for Nightlock. It wasn't totally true, but he wasn't dead. He could take care of himself, though, since he didn't have the green guy continuing to beat up on him. Nightlock could focus on the two from the other group while he focused on healing himself.

Orange light surrounded him and darkened, pulling in close to him before disappearing. He took a deep breath. His ribs no longer felt like they were broken. He still hurt. There was no getting around the pain that easily. But at least he could breathe. He considered staying on the ground for a moment longer but decided that would be a quick way to get stepped on. Or worse. So he stood up.

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"Wait what? Oh, uh actually feel perfectly fine, the headache that was a constant pain in the back of my head at this point is gone but honestly? I feel a lot better then before..." she responded to Ed. Though after a moment, the thought crossed her mind about how that was possible considering the fact that just moments ago she had been passed out on the ground and surrounded by fire. Now... Well now it actually was a bit more reminiscent of how she typically felt before, no annoying voice in the back of the head, just nothing.

"Something seems a bit... Off in general really, not sure what though..." she continued, before she ended up getting hit by a fireball that Pyro had sent flying at her. Though she seemed to be... Fine? Wait that wasn't quite right. Physically she was perfectly fine, actually she felt better then ever, mentally for some reason Chrysi was silent, but she felt like there was something else there.

Exodus decided to stop standing around and sent random things from the area flying at her at this point, but she easily seemed to dodge out of the way, moving fairly quickly. She moved her hands to send out vines flying at him, but instead of vines, there was a massive blast of heat as flames went shooting out slamming into both Exodus and Pyro as neither one of them had been prepared for a massive amount of heat flying at them. She was just as confused as they were as to what the hell just happened. "Uhhhh... That was unexpected?" she said, before turning her head suddenly, as if she was hearing someone talking to her.

A different idea got into her head though now, and she instantly started sending vines everywhere, centering around from where she was, fire seemed to be swirling around them, though the group would notice that the flames this time weren't warm, actually they didn't seem to do much of any sort of attacks at all. They went up to each of the members of the team, and just sort of wrapped very loosely around them, and a few moments later, they were healing them, and Guin would be able to regain consciousness in a moment.

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen ever," Pietro commented, before he raced over to where Guin was and was mentally freaking out a bit, and still incredibly sore at this point. Guina are you okay? Wake up please this whole situation is incredibly weird and insane and just wake up noooooow. Yup, Pietro was definitely panicking.

Mary sent another burst of flames out, and this time it hit Quicksilver as he tried to figure out what was going on and knocked him onto the ground, managing to knock him out. Her attention turned once more towards Pyro and Exodus, blasting them once more, and took out Pyro, Exodus was just seriously injured but still awake, and now her attention turned towards Haze. "Recommendation is that you stand down and don't do anything stupid," she said directly to her, "The only reason we were looking for the crystal was so that we could get home, and right now you are a bit outnumbered."

Over with the others, Lance was still going a bit crazy at points, and the ground shook as he pounded on the ground, sending a shockwave that created rather large cracks in the ground and rubble popping up and flying everywhere. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the most accurate of attacks, as things went flying towards everyone. This time when rubble went flying towards Bethany, she wasn't that lucky, as the rubble slammed into her, hitting her with enough force to knock her over and cause some bruises.

Annie would get hit by some rocks too, but she'd manage to stay on her feet overall from the attack, just be incredibly sore from the ordeal. Mage maybe should have stayed on the ground, as a rock would end up hitting him in the head cause some blood to come from a head injury and he'd stumble backwards. While Nightlock this time managed to just avoid the attacks all together.

Rogue flew forward and slammed into him though, managing to send Lance backwards again, and she managed to land a few more punches, seemingly managing to injure him a little bit at the least. This was getting to be ridiculous in her mind. As they had better things to do then to deal with these people since they really needed to find that crystal in order to stop others from getting to it first.

With Klara and Runa, the former looked at her with a brief hint of confusion wondering what was going on with her. She easily recognized magic being used, and went to partially dispel it, but something prevented her from doing so. Her head was spinning and she instantly raised her sword pointing it at Runa. "What... What did you just do? My head you did something. I... Why does it hurt so much?"[/color] she started to say, before her sword completely dropped and fell out of her hand, hitting the ground in front of her. "Why does it hurt so much..." she asked again, as she soon fell to the ground. Her head was really hurting a lot at this point, and she was trying to figure out what fully was going on now, and she was insanely confused.

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Guin wasn't sure how long she had been unconscious. She didn't really have a great sense of time at the moment - not that she really had for a while, space travel made timezones somewhat of a fiction and incredibly hard to keep track of. There was a weird magicky bubble surrounding her - Ed's shield - and while her body was incredibly sore, she was fairly certain she wasn't dead. Guin shifted ever so slightly and the majority of her pain came from her ribcage - her ribs must've still be cracked. No stand-up specials for a while - laughing would be painful (and risk potentially puncturing something important).

"Urgh... Inside voices, babe, please," Guin murmured. She wasn't making any effort to get up - the shield would've prevented that anyways. And again, broken ribs were no laughing matter. Looks like my ribs are cracked, otherwise somehow the rest of me is more or less okay... What about you? She figured Pietro would've wanted her to give a detailed list of her own injuries before checking in on him - he was a bit overprotective that way.

Haze, meanwhile, stared at Mary for a silent minute. Her eyes flickered around, darting between her companions. And then Haze let the device she had created to track the crystal drop and hit the forest floor. She raised her hands slowly, and put them behind her head. "How could I do anything stupid? You're taking all the stupid with you," Haze said simply, but it was clear that she was surrendering.

God what is with the fucking quips from her... She's psycho.

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Runa didn't make any moves to defend herself, as Klara raised (and then dropped) her sword. She stared at her cousin, completely brokenhearted. She hated seeing Klara in so much pain. Growing up, she had always viewed Klara as invincible, as unbeatable - her protector, her knight in shining armor. To see Klara be brought this low... Runa bit her lip, before renewing her magical efforts, trying to restore her cousin's mind. She would do whatever it took, no matter the price. Runa would gladly trade places with her.

Her conclusions were much the same - that Klara's mind was besieged by different forces, different than what had happened to poor Lance. Runa's heart ached for him as well. If she couldn't help Klara, could she help her love? And even if she could, was it right to force these memories back upon them? But she didn't have time to dwell in self doubt. She continued weaving her spells, focusing on her runes, until she felt that Klara's mind was mostly pieced back together.

"Cousin...?" Runa asked softly.

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Things were increasingly moving from bad to worse. No one was directly after Antoinette and Bethany at the moment but that didn't stop the other attacks. Lance for one was not in his right state of mind and was simply smashing and throwing anything at everyone and everything. Antoinette got hit with some scattering debris but Bethany got the worst of it.
"Bethany!" Antoinette rushed over and knelt to the ground by Bethany to check on her. Covering her, Antoinette reached out and sent a blast of fireworks at Nightlocke to keep her away from them. She didn't want to hurt Lance because she knew she wouldn't be able to and that it would only anger him more.
Antoinette's first attempt failed and so she tried again. This time Antoinette was able to hit Nightlocke with such a force that it knocked her back.
"Come on Bethany, we have to get out of here." She started pulling on Bethany, trying to get her to her feet.

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Bethany stumbled slightly as she could feel the ground shaking violently as Lance Hulk slammed into the ground, seeing the ground starting to break and crack under Lance's force. He then decided to throw more rocks and dirt at just about everyone, both friend and foe alike, she tried to get out of the way but she ended up not being as lucky as a rock managed to hit her and she was sent flying backwards hitting the ground rather hard. Bethany laid down on the ground every part of her body was hurting, her entire arm was bleeding pretty badly, and her stomach was hurting quiet a bit now as well to as bruises started to form.

She heard Annie's voice as she ran up to her and helped her back up to her feet letting out a slight groan as she held her sides looking at Annie. "Thank you.." Bethany said as she watched Rogue slamming into Lance Hulk, she didn't want to leave Lance alone even if he was the Hulk right now. "We can't leave him like this right now." Bethany said to Annie as she looked over at Mage, who also had been hit by Lance Hulk.

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Nightlocke stumbled slightly as she felt the ground shaking as Lance Hulk started tossing rocks at everyone again, and slamming into the ground as well, she quickly rolled and dodged out of the way from the oncoming boulders that were being thrown at them, being the only lucky one to not get hit which was a good thing as well. She was getting really annoyed right now as she turned her attention towards her counterpart who had been knocked down by Lance Hulk's attacks and was about to target her, when Annie decided to attack her.

She was sent flying backwards landing on the ground rather hard as well to. "Not cool." Nightlocke said as she started to slowly stand up staring at her counterpart and Annie with a really annoyed look as she tried to send some shadows out directly to the two of them she was getting really annoyed with them all in general right now.

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Mary looked at Haze and rolled her eyes slightly. Yeah she didn't very much care a whole lot what it was that she was doing, but she seemed to have stood down for the moment. She walked over to where Guin was as Ed removed the shield allowing for her to get up now, and she offered her hand to help her up off the ground. "Just go, you likely might want a headstart or something I think from the Brotherhood if I had to guess," she ended up saying towards Haze.

"Okay would someone explain to me what the hell just happened???? Because it feels like only 5 minutes ago we were getting beaten to a pulp and losing horribly. And now suddenly they are all out cold and we're fine? Even I couldn't keep up with what happened. I am so confused." Pietro said instantly, looking at everyone in the group, Also please don't pass out or whatever again Guina it freaked me out considering I thought we all were going to die not that long ago.

"...I don't really know what happened, that was a bit weird..." Mary started to say, before her eyes seemed to dart around a bit, as if she heard something, but sort of fell silent at this point.

"Well that ended a bit unexpectedly," Klara commented, walking over to the others, she looked like she had been thrown around a bit, but now she was rejoining everyone else a bit worse for the wear. "Anyway, weren't we supposed to find the crystal, maybe we can use the device or whatever that they had to track it, make it so we can get back home that much quicker?"

Pietro instantly raced over and picked up the device off the ground from where Haze had dropped it, starting to look at it a bit now. "Well I have no idea how this works," he said, before handing it over to Guin so that she could look at it.

"I would ask if anyone else is hearing a weird voice in their head but then again I usually am the only one so not going to." Mary was looking around the area, before she ended up pointing her hand in one direction, away from the area they had initially come from. "The crystal is that way."

"...Okay how could you possibly know that?" Klara asked her.

"...I don't know, just do," she continued, before she took off at a run.

"Uh... Anyone else confused by this? Hey Guina, want to see if that device still works and if Mary's heading the right direction before we race after her to go catch up to her?"

Well things seemed to be going alright for Annie and Bethany. At least Bethany seemed to have gotten a good grasp of sorts on Mage with her powers and sent him flying directly at where Lance was. Though despite his rage of sorts in general seemed to get an idea of playing baseball! When Mage was thrown at him, Lance swung his fist and slammed it into Mage, sending him flying and crashing into the ground with a rather loud thud. The injuries didn't seem overly bad, as in he was still conscious and able to function, but still, he would be incredibly sore over all.

Nightlocke's attacks took a moment to actually solidify and cause some issues for the pair, as she would manage to throw the pair of them around a bit. Both Annie and Bethany would end up getting pretty badly bruised from the attacks, and both of them would hit the ground hard, and both would end up a bit dizzy from the landing as they'd have hit their heads on the ground.

In the mirror dimension, Klara's eyes seemed to go out of focus for a moment, before refocusing on Runa. She had an incredibly confused expression on her face, and stood up, looking at Runa. "So... Cousin mind telling me where we are? Because I don't know... Also where is my armor and what is it that I'm wearing? This is weird..." she said, as she picked her sword up off of the ground, still looking at her.

"Um... What happened? Because last thing I remember is the two of us spending time together and running around or something after Apollo broke up with you..." That would ring a bell for Runa, as that had happened almost a hundred years before.

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Haze stared at Mary for a moment, looking like she was debating saying something, before she took off at a run away from them all. Guin hadn't used her power to penetrate Haze's mind, so what she was going to do was anyone's guess. However, the battle was over and Haze's fancy metal detector had been left behind. "Let's not question it, I'm still hurting way too much to want to question why we aren't being murdered," Guin suggested. There wasn't imminent danger, so she wasn't going to try to move with broken ribs. Nope, the forest floor was rather comfy.

Sorry, next time I'm on the verge of death and passing out from pain, I'll just not, Guin replied to Pietro somewhat sarcastically. Pietro handed her Haze's device and it was somewhat chilling for Guin to look at it. She recognized her own handiwork. It was built the way that she would have built it. Yes, she already knew that Haze was a version of her - but this just made it sink in, seeping into her bones. Haze was her. There was a part of her that was that psychopath, that victim.

"Uh, yeah, Mary's... right." Her eyes widened. "... I guess the Phoenix has a thing for gingers..."

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Runa's eyes widened, as Klara brought up her disastrous break-up with Apollo - although break-up was putting it somewhat more amicably than it had been. She had been deeply in love with Apollo and he... well, he simply wasn't one day and he dumped her for a prettier goddess, one with less emotional instability. Runa still wasn't certain if she could really blame him or not. "You seem to be missing some time, cousin," Runa said, "but not much thankfully - only about a hundred Midgardian years," she added. Runa wasn't being sarcastic. She was almost seven hundred years old after all.

Runa didn't wait for permission, pulling Klara into another hug. "I failed you. Name my penance and I will do it," she swore. It was the very least she could offer. She should have been better. She should have noticed something was wrong with Klara. It was pure dumb luck that she had managed to save her cousin - Runa shuddered to think of how much worse things could have been, had Klara not been wearing the circlet she had crafted for her... Runa then released Klara. "Come, our allies in this fight are the X-Men - and the large green monster," she said, before using the sling ring to open up an exit from the mirror dimension. She then stepped on through, motioning for Klara to follow.