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"You didn't wanna do it though, so I'm finding a friend who would," Guin told Pietro with a shrug. She liked spending time with other people anyways. Sure, a lot of people probably thought that she and Pietro were joined at the hip - and sometimes that was true - but Guin also liked having time where she wasn't with her husband. It kept things interesting. And sometimes, the speedster just wasn't at all interested in the activities she wanted to do, largely because of the handicap posed by his powers. Guin popped another bit of pretzel bite into her mouth, finishing off the container, as she glanced down at her phone as they walked to GameStop.

"Who... Oh shit, I do remember this guy," Guin muttered, talking to herself. "Do you remember the guy who was, like, kinda obsessed with you? From Wanda's big moment. Curly haired guy named Max? Apparently he's at the mansion, Mare just texted." Guin was doing her best to try to focus and remember what she could about Max, which honestly wasn't very much. There were other things from the House of M reality that were more permanently burned into her mind. She did remember that she hadn't particularly liked him. "I forget, why don't we like him again?"

She shot off some quick texts, first to Mary and then to Lance -

---

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Neil warmed up ever so slightly to Max at his apology - 500 years old or not, he seemed to at least a kind wi- Neil's thoughts then abruptly derailed, his blood chilling as Max clearly recognized Neil's surname. As Max snapped his fingers, Neil instinctively braced himself, ready to get hit in the face with a fireball or something by the gorgeous wizard. He knew this day would come, that someone from the magical community would show up to take him out, that his family's legacy would -

"...What?" Neil mumbled, completely shocked to find that he had not been burnt to a crisp, and instead, Max was rambling on about different fictional magical families. "...I'm from Ithaca...," Neil then added, not adding on the New York State part of the location, because who could possibly assume he meant the Greek island? He felt incredibly flustered and tongue tied, and a bit weak in the knees, if he were being honest, as it became clear to him that Max had no idea about the real Spellman family. So he would have no reason to want to burn Neil alive. Not yet, at least. And Neil could operate under not yet. He could live with that.

"Uh, y-yeah," Neil answered Bethany. "Um, I've been working on Curse of Strahd some - thinking we could adapt that... You haven't played it before, have you?" he asked her. It occurred to him that it might've been stupid to start putting in work on that, without checking to make sure his players hadn't played it before. It was a pretty popular adventure, a lot of people liked to use it in their campaigns. "It's spooky and stuff, some horror elements, I think it'd be pretty wicked."

They reached the kitchen, and Max had asked them about their powers. "Um, I can move things with my mind - and briefly reanimate dead bodies..." Neil mumbled. He had gotten some more practice with his newer power of necromancy with his family, but it had clear limitations to it. He couldn't do anything with ghosts or spirits - the most he could really use it for was to make zombies. He was quiet as Max then tackled Ed basically with a tight hug, wincing slightly in sympathy. He guessed that Ed and Max must've known each other - Max seemed to already know half of the team anyways, so Neil wasn't too shocked.

---

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"Mums the word." Ed agreed. He considered asking why she wasn't in class but figured everyone deserved the right to play hooky occasionally. Jaclyn explained that someone new had joined the Mansion and made a scene about it. Ed wasn't totally surprised. The mansion was never truly quiet. It was eerie when it was. He imagined the abandoned mansion from the other world.

A distraction came in at that point someone Ed had never seen before, but clearly thought they knew Ed. Edus' arms were pinned by the hug, something he wasn't ecstatic about even with people he knew. Ed was confused. He tried to pull out of the hug.

"Uh, I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about. We haven't met." There was nothing familiar about the young man. He was well dressed. Maybe they did know each other? But if someone reacted like that to seeing him again they either had attachment issues or thought he had died in the attack on Cardiff.

"Were you a friend of the family? There are a few other survivors. I wasn't in Cardiff." For anyone who knew where the family compound was and knew what happened to Cardiff, that'd be enough information. Maybe this guy was a friend of a cousin and thought the whole family was wiped out. "I'm afraid most of the family perished, but maybe your friend survived."

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"Pretty sure he won't like any nickname you come up with. And just going to be blunt, probably best not to, either use full name or whatever," yup, this girl seemed like another Iris, which meant they were going to end up with a bit of an issue from that sort of thing. This was definitely going to be fun, but as long as Peregrine decided to not overly push any boundaries that others set or something, then there shouldn't be any issues. Since that had been the main problem that she had had with Iris in the first place.

Attention shifting slightly towards Peregrine once again rambling a bit. "I'm fine either way. As to stories not sure how helpful I could be with that. I mean I didn't go with the rest of the team on their trip to space, um there was an instance where we helped deal with a giant planet eating guy, that was fun. Or when an organization basically tried to kill us, that was also fun and ended up with a few unexpected things slightly happening. Or when a person basically was mind controlling a bunch of people in the mansion which also resulted in a few sort of long term injuries. So I mean could elaborate a little bit on any of those situations, or we could just wander around and talk about anything else, up to you," she ended up saying, before looking over and seeing Annie and Carolina waving a little bit at them, and she waved back in response to them.

---

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He hadn't seen Annie or Carolina, sort of caught up in his own thoughts, but he looked at his phone one more time as the next message from Guin came to his phone. He wondered who it was that had decided to pop by the mansion for a visit and all. There was a long list of possibilities as to who it could be. But he figured if Guin knew who it was, he could just ask her, since he was heading off to the Gamestop to meet up with her and the speedster. Since it was just easier to ask in person as opposed to sitting there texting the entire time.

It was pretty easy to spot Guin and Pietro, namely because of the speedster, and Lance walked over to meet up with the pair. "Hey there," he said with a slight wave as he met up with them, "So who exactly is the guy who popped by at the mansion or something like that?" he asked, a bit confused.

"Max... Hmmm... Oh wait, now I remember him, he was a bit of a weirdo and seemed to be trying to hard to make friends with everyone. Except at one point he decided to attempt to use chains and all on us to stop us from moving, and failed a bit at that. He then apologized to me and then not to you so yeah. I remember him." Pietro responded to Guin's question, making a bit of a face. "Obsessed is putting it lightly if you ask me."

"The random magic user from that weird reality your sister made? I mean my interactions with him weren't that bad, but honestly I wasn't exactly around him very much to form an opinion."

"He was just a bit weird honestly, not too sure why he's decided to suddenly hang around the mansion now. He's weeeeeeeird."

"Well if he's still at the mansion later we can ask why he decided to show up or something."

"Well Guin's been messaging Mary so we probably could just wait for what her response is."

"That also would work."

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"Yeah you know a bit about what I can do, the poison thing which is still there seems to be the main thing you noticed apparently based on what you said. Though as I stated, I don't do that, and thankfully if something happens where it does result in someone getting poisoned or something I can make the antidote in a few seconds because of my main power set. That being the ability to manipulate all forms of plant life, even creating hybrids or customized plants if I wanted to. But I typically stick with vines and all when using them in combat since that's simpler and easier to manipulate in general in a fight." A part of her did wonder whether or not Max actually thought she had a twin sister who was a psychopath, or whatever his brain came up with to explain that sort of thing.

The thing that confused her the most at this point was the fact that Max acted like he seemingly knew Ed, but Ed's reaction said that the feeling was not mutual. It made her wonder what exactly Max thought had happened between the pair of them or something like that. "Am I the only one seemingly confused? Max how do you two know each other?" Truthfully there was a million different possibilities, all of which they had dealt with. The two biggest potential ideas were time travel of some sort, or the issue that had popped up more recently but (hopefully) had been fully dealt with, that being alternate reality shenanigans of some sort. It was a bit hard to tell what it was.

"It's getting a bit crowded in here. Bye!" Tatl said, before she took off out out of the kitchen, leaving the now decently large group of people be there. Though she did end up taking the cookie jar along with her.

This was a bit weird to her, and she saw the message that Guin had sent her now, and she was thinking of how best to respond to her question. It was a bit difficult to figure out the best way to word it out to make some sense.

---

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Max slowly pulled himself away from the now awkward hug. He was so excited to see Ed that he didn't take the time to actually look at Ed. He appeared a bit younger than he remembered and clearly either had no memory of what had transpired or he pretended not to know for the sake of the others. Max tried to think of the best way to remedy this situation, pull himself out of the awkward put that he'd created once again. "Sorry about that. My powers, well my magic, can be very unpredictable at times. Sometimes I can see things that haven't happened yet, but are so incredibly vivid it feels as if they have. So to answer you Mary, I guess we havent yet." He was lying of course. The only precognition he'd ever dealt with was the supposed prophecy that was handed down by the future in the form of Zari.

Max had two working theories as to what had happened with Ed. The first was that he was resurrected, Neil mentioned he could animate dead bodies, but if he'd unwittingly entered a circuit then perhaps he was able to bring Ed back to life. However, if the spell was botched in some way or had some form of mental barrier in order to protect the subject from recalling their own death…He thought further on this as he leaned against the counter before switching to the other possibility. Runa hadn't been as young as he recalled either, she was clearly from a distant future, and according to the black book of demons, Limbo existed outside of time meaning any one of them could've come from a separate point than his own. Either way, he couldn't let Ed know the truth.

Max tried to put a smile on as he placed his hands on the kitchen counter behind him, pushing himself up to sit atop it. He crossed his ankles and eyed the charcoal board sitting a little whiles away. He tried to move the conversation away from the previous subject, hoping to find less awkward ground. "So we have a Druid, Shadowmancer, Necromancer who uses the force, and a Cleric." He said looking towards Ed when he mentioned the last class. His gaze then shifted towards the woman he'd seen in the hallway moments ago. He waved towards her. "I saw you earlier in the hall, kinda missed introductions back there. I'm Maximillian, but I usually just go by Max, or Warlock."

Max had overheard their previous conversation on Dungeons and Dragons, but he didn't want to simply intrude on a campaign that may already have set players. So instead he opted by dropping hints that he himself likes D&D in the event they wanted an extra player. He partially hoped that it was 3.5, only because his time on the run had prevented him from being able to read and learn the newest edition. "Oh and I supposed I should answer my own question too. My powers are…well, let's say magic and teleportation, with a focus on creation. Though others have claimed I can 'bend reality which honestly is kinda just what any mutant power is really."

---

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Well this was an interesting turn of events.

It appeared Max knew Edus from a vision, but...somehow that didn't explain things entirely for Jaclyn.
Sure he might know somebody from a precognition, but Max seemed to have very real feelings towards Edus.

Max had described the visions appearing so vivid it was as though they actually happened, and Jaclyn could for sure understand that.
She supposed it could also be like watching a movie and getting invested in the characters.

But even still...it actually seemed to mean something to Max, like he had genuinely felt a loss instead of merely witnessing one.
If he were an empath, too, that would explain it.
But he hadn't mentioned that he was.

Jaclyn wasn't about to be that "hey, wait a minute" person - what bearing did it have on anything now, anyway? Plus, Max seemed to make a conscious decision to move on.

And move on he did, to her.
"Oh -I didn't want to but into the conversation you were having," Jaclyn explained why she hadn't introduced herself before, with a genuine, calm smile, gesturing with a flat, upturned hand at everyone else who'd been in the hall. "I'm Jaclyn. More known as OfAll, as my powers let me use anyone else's powers that I've witnessed. If I can make sense of them enough," she stated, as she brought her hands to the back of her hair to collect it and tuck it down the back of her shirt collar.

She preferred it that way when she was in crowds.

"Also only one at a time, for a span of time," she added, finishing with her hair adjustment. She raised her brows at his powers. They sounded like a pretty interesting combination. And by her following expression she seemed to think he had an equally interesting point RE: kinda just what any mutant power is really.

"Oh, by the way," she now turned to grab a certain something out of the fridge, then turning a small grin on Max, "I think you mentioned something about this," she handed him a bottle of sparkling water. "Great refreshment, I agree." In fact, she turned back to the fridge to grab one for herself.

---

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Peregrine had already created a mental Rolodex of potential nicknames when Mira suggested not. "Fair enough. I'll speak to him and make sure he is aware of my ghost friend and we can devise a system to avoid confusion." Peregrine bit her lip a bit, unsure if this interaction was painting her in a good light. She had hoped to get to know the others quicker and see who gelled and who didn't. Mira seemed put-together, at least. If anything, Peregrine was the one royally fucking this up.

Thankfully Mira saved her and spoke about some of the missions the others had been on. All of it sounded fascinating. "Whatever you feel like sharing is fine with me! Honestly, I would love to hear it all, but I imagine each person has their own view on the missions and how they went. So whatever you feel comfortable sharing with me is fine!"

As the two of them walked over to the food court, they came across two more members. Peregrine tried to put names to faces. She knew one started with a C, but couldn't.....Cassidy? No it was like a movie. Caroline! That was it. And the blond girl was Annie. Okay, she could handle this! "Hey! I know we met already, but to formally introduce myself, my name is Peregrine. You can call me Perry if that is easier. Me and Mira were heading to the food court if you wanted to tag along? Otherwise, maybe we can meet up later?"

Peregrine was totally killing this friendship thing.

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”Hi, Perry! Say hi, Arnold,” she nudged her pet Tribble, but he didn’t move much. He gave a companionable purring noise but didn’t do much beyond that. ”A tribble of few words,” Antoinette said with a smile.
Antoinette’s stomach grumbled a bit, and she looked at the food court. ”Carolina and I were thinking of getting some Chinese, actually. We could all sit together, catch up,” she said and smiled at Mira. It was good to see her again back at the mansion and good to see her out and about.

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Carolina looked over towards Perry and gave her a friendly smile, she did meet her briefly at the mansion before they all decided to go their separate ways once they had gotten to the mall. "It's really nice to meet you then Perry, like Annie said i'm Carolina Reed." Carolina said as she extended her hand out towards the girl, she had heard a little bit of their conversation on the way over and some of their past missions that they had been on together as well to.

"Well Annie just came back from space, and an alternate reality, sadly I wasnt there with them though Mira and I were helping Neil with some zombie issues with his family." Carolina told Perry, it was an interesting way to meet Neil's family as she looked at Mira seeing the drink she had with her. "What did you order from the food court anyway?" Carolina asked her.

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Bethany looked at Neil and shook her head slightly. "Nah not really familiar with it, but it does sound pretty interesting though." Bethany said to Neil giving him a friendly smile. her attention turned towards Max and Ed as the new guy basically gave him a hug like he knew him from somewhere Ed clearly didn't know him by the looks of it. "Well that seems like an awkward reintroduction or something like that." Bethany said with a slight laugh as she grabbed some of the cheese that was there and started to eat it.

Her attention then turned towards Max she was still curious why he decided to randomly appear at the mansion in the first place. "So what brings you over here exactly anyway, you planning on joining the team or looking for a place to crash, or are you like looking to be a student here or something?" Bethany decided to ask him.

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Guin raised an eyebrow, reading the text that had come back from Mary. With the additional context Pietro had given (since honestly, if Guin remembered every person who was a bit weird around her, she wouldn't have much space in her brain to remember much else), it seemed like pretty much everyone had a negative opinion of this guy overall. "That... vaguely rings a bell, I think," Guin said. She couldn't really remember what Max looked like, but she did remember being moderately annoyed about things. It felt like a lifetime ago that they had been trapped inside Wanda's poisoned House of M reality, and while they had been there, Max hadn't been at the top of Guin's mind.

Meeting her murdered grandparents had probably been the highlight; but the memory that inevitably crawled to the surface, that she saw sometimes in her nightmares, was the murders Pietro committed gladly. While she loved him, she knew that there was a darkness to him, a madness that was lurking just beneath the surface, even here and now in this mildly depressing ghost of a mall.

She took a breath for a moment, reminding herself to focus on the present moment and not dwell on the nightmares of the past. "Mare says he might be there to, like, join the team. Which I guess we have an opening for another magic person with Runa back on Asgard and all. But the weird thing is, he knows Ed but Ed doesn't know him?" Guin reiterated. "So knowing how things tend to go with us, that's going to turn out to be some sort of fucking huge ass problem," she said with a sigh.

Guin then quickly shot off another text -

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Neil didn't really know what to make of Max spontaneously hugging Ed, acting like the two of them were long lost friends. At first, he figured that maybe Max had known Ed when Ed was a small boy, given that he suspected Max might have been far older than he appeared. Instead, Max explained that his magic sometimes caused him to experience vivid premonitions, ones that he could confuse for reality at times. While others might've been suspicious of that explanation, it sounded perfectly reasonable to Neil. "I have a great uncle who has that - or had," Neil offered. "He died in a car crash... The visions never had convenient timing from what I was told." He stared at Max, wondering if he'd go into a trance when a sentinel attacked or something, and give him a similar fate to Augustus Spellman.

His shyness didn't prevent him from all social interactions - and Max, as weird as he was, had a comforting presence to him. Neil had no intentions on talking about his curse or his family to him, but there was a playful, almost stupid chaos to Max's aura that felt safe. Of-All, one of the newer mutants on the team who Neil didn't know very well yet, seemed to Neil like she might've had a crush on Max. She struck him as somewhat giddy to hand Max a bottle of sparkling water.

He was curious about the answer to Bethany's question - if this newcomer was here to join the team, or maybe he was supposed to be a teacher? Maybe Xavier had decided to have a formal magic program now, with more mutants popping up with connections to the occult. Neil was fairly certain that Edus would've refused to teach the class had Xavier asked - and despite his family being comprised of Satanic witches and wizards, Neil knew very little magic himself. He was the normal one of the family.

---

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Ed was thankful to be free of the hug. But it left him more confused. Max said he had seen him in a vision. Well, that was something potentially terrifying to look forward to. Just great. Ed picked up a small bunch of grapes and started pulling them carefully off the vine. Once he had gotten all of them he started eating them. One at a time. Chewing over what Max had said and the grape.

Ed finally decided that if Max knew how he died then that was for Max to know and not Ed. If Max decided to let him know what happened with the hope of preventing it...maybe it would matter. But premonitions were a tricky thing. Ed had family who had had premonitions before. They tended to die young for various reasons. Ed didn't like to think about it.

He put his attention back on the conversation, which seemed to be an odd mix of DnD nomenclature, and asking if Max was joining the team. Might be useful to have someone with premonitions on the team. Though, it was unfortunate that they were that vivid. Max clearly wasn't completely able to separate reality from the premonitions.

---

"You all left me in the dust when you took off to space! Honestly I couldn't even try to take over the update from the GM or anything all because of the fact that you all decided to go to space. How rude and inconsiderate of you, honestly, I should just be on the team already at this point. Anyway... I came here to do something, now what exactly was it."

"Wade go away."

"No, I don't want to, especially since you didn't let me do an update for so damn long. You know what, fuck it, we're going to see what chaos was in store for everyone! Now let's just look at those notes about what's supposed to happen and get on with it. I mean I love wandering around malls as much as the next person, and the drama of sorts going on with the wizards over there is hilarious but honestly let's get going already!"

"Stay away, the notes I write up for arcs is not for you to just decide when you want something to happen."

"Nope! They are mine now! Now... Time for the chaos to begin. Eh hem..."

"Get back here!"

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"See. I can do headers all fancy too! Now we're in business!"


"Honestly you are all nuts if you think I'm going to write in the third person as if I'm just narrating things going on, only thing close to that is when someone who is not me is talking, let's get that straight real quick. So, there is this one group over by the mall. Ooooh one of the new people is in that group! That works out, so they can be introduced into the chaos that is how things happen. This will work beautifully. Let me just try to eavesdrop a bit on this conversation before all hell breaks loose. Wow the new girl really is sort of rambling, starting to make Zari over in Avengers Academy seem like she doesn't ramble in comparison at this point, we're getting there anyway, not quite though. Poor Screamer over there, having to deal with that sort of thing already. Then again I think she started the conversation herself so her own fault. Ooh looks like she's actually going to respond. Let's hear what she says."

"Wasn't really hungry all too much, still not, I just got a drink which honestly is just about done at this point anyway."

"...Well that was boring, and all she's doing otherwise is tossing the cup in the nearest trash can. Things seem to be going alright, slow and all, but sure, we'll fix that really quickly. In about 5. 4. 3. 2. 1... Oh look. There it is! Over the food court the ceiling literally comes crashing down! As 4 giant orbs or something come crashing in without issue! Wonder if they landed on anyone. That wouldn't be a pretty sight, but back on with the chaos. Honestly got to love the dramatic entrance there. Really well done, I'd rate that at probably about an 8 out of 10 there."

"Now who are the four people that seemingly climb out of the weird flying things? Well looks like trouble for the group, we've got an interesting group here. Amelia Voght, Lorelei, Mortis and Mastermind. Not sure how effective Lorelei will be, but who knows, maybe she'll just hypnotize the random people around the area. And oops, that seems to be exactly what she's doing. Wow look at those few people she's managing to drag into this, better be careful of the civilians there, you are the heroes after all right? Also they can't aim to save their lives, since they seemed to be picking up random objects and throwing them at Mira, which surprise surprise, she manages to dodge. Right before she lets off a sonic screech aimed at Lorelei. Well this is interesting, two people with voice based powers, wonder how that's going to go. The scream seems to have been a bit toned down though since it doesn't seem to do much aside from knock her backwards a bit.

Oooooh this looks to be interesting. Amelia is almost smirking at the slight amount of chaos. Well what are you waiting for? Cause more chaos so we can have some fun with things! Well it seems like she's going to comply. Where'd she go? I swear she was there just a second ago! Oh, there she is, right behind Carolina, where she then proceeds to grab her arm and yank her backwards, damn nice fighting there. But once again not much damage! What is wrong with you people we aren't here to go for a walk in the park or play Twister or something! Maybe one of the other two can do more? Mortis how about you! Your powers are weird but also kind of deadly right? Yeah, probably. I think? Actually I don't remember what her powers are. Let's find out then. There she goes aiming at the new girl. Here is the chaos that I was hoping for! Dang that's going to hurt a bit, as Mortis manages to throw Perry the New person (sadly not the Platypus) sending her flying backwards and hitting the ground her with a blast of some weird dark energy. That looks like it's going to hurt... Wait, I think I remember can't she maybe disintegrate someone without too much effort? You better hope that the dice are nice to you or something like that. And now we're back to kind of boring old Mastermind. Honestly I swear this guy is kind of overrated, well I can't actually see what he's doing. Buuuuut thanks to this notes sheet I've got here I know what he's doing to Annie. She's going to end up mentally trapped in a box. The walls seem to be closing in around her, but that's all she'll see, won't hear anything going on around her either. Sounds a bit boring and continues to add to the situation of Mastermind being overrated."

"Now over to the group by the Gamestop! They'll hear the commotion going on from the food court, including the lovely and familiar screech that is Mira over there using her powers. People all over are running, probably trampling more then a few people who aren't very quick about moving around. Then there is something else. That being nearby they'd notice that the roof of the building is also a bit broken up. Yeah yeah I know, you need context in order to get the whole chaotic scene. But just wait for probably the most dramatic entrance of the seemingly bad guys! That being, flying up in the air with a bit of light behind him, his cape billowing in the wind, was Exodus. Wow smart move dude, purposefully staying up in the air when none of those three can fly. Well he instantly seems to be going all out on the dramatic thing as he decides to speak dramatically too, "The stain on the House of M is mine. Prepare to meet your end, false progeny of the messiah!”

"The guy next to him, looming overhead with his giant frame, kind of hard to miss who the hell that is. That person is the one, the only, Juggernaut. Yeah his entrance? Not as cool about everything. Exodus gets a full 10 out of 10 score, Juggernaut, probably closer to like a 5. Only reason he's got that is because he kind of his a bit of an imposing figure. Who also just so happens to apparently not like Exodus and all of the dramatics. But oh well, he's deciding to talk too! “This ain’t nothing personal, runt - but I ain’t letting my man go to paradise without ME!”

"Wait what?"

"Yeah, he should be happy he's got his own strength and all, because that punch that Juggernaut just threw is definitely going to be hurting in the morning since he managed to hit Lance directly in the head, throwing him backwards into, well more of through, a nearby wall. Well, at least he seems to be preparing for a fight himself now given the circumstances, since he seems to be shifting and going a bit green over there."

"Now onto the other member, the lovely as always Phantazia who seems most interested in Guin over there and oof, that's going to be a bit painful, as Guin seems to have been hit by her powers, well whatever that exactly means, it's a bit confusing at times really. But she'll likely be having to deal with a shot of pain shooting through her body from whatever that was."

"To the most important thing now, ranking those sort of villain and dramatic entrances. Easily the winner for best entrance is Exodus, perfectly timed with the lighting and everything, just real great. The probably goes to the group in the food court, followed by Juggernaut, with Phantazia of sorts just being at the bottom. Don't blame those last two though, since it is near impossible to follow Exodus for that one."

"Okay, next group!"

Now to interrupt the awkward tension between Wizards

"As much as I hate to interrupt this whole situation and the awkwardness going along with the wizards over there, which is really weird. But oh well, we've got to do that eventually anyway. Feels like a quick earthquake or something and all, but whatever it was seems to have disappeared now. Aaaaand there goes the alarms blaring around the mansion. Hey, who knows, maybe it's all just some random coincidence and the alarm is just now realizing that The Chaos Child over there, Max or whatever his name is, technically just randomly popped up. Or there could be actual trouble. They can't see anything outside from where they are, but doesn't look like a lot is going on outside. At least not immediately anyway."

"Ok, what was that?"

"Okay so what is she doing now? Ohhhhh, looks like she's starting to wander outside through the front door. Wonder what she's going to see there? Oooooh, this should be interesting. Since damn the entire garden and front area not visible from the kitchen seems to be on fire. That is probably not something you want to do considering the the person with the flaming space chicken just walked outside to find the one responsible. That being Pyro who is just grinning wickedly at her. Well this might be one of the most interesting fights to say the least coming up, and oooooh Pyro's response to seeing her walk out is just brilliant! “Honey, I’m hoooome~”

"You just messed with the wrong person."

"What is she going to do with that threat? I mean all the flowers are dead and that's what her powers are right? Wait, here comes another round of earthquakes, but seems like she's the one responsible. And there goes vines that seem to knock Pyro back a bit in general, but damn it not much more damage or chaos then that! Though looks like she's now noticing what is going on around her aside from the obvious fire nearby. There are a few other figures seemingly heading towards the mansion, but she seems a bit more focused on Pyro, so who knows who they are! Well at least until people have the rest of the cast of characters come outside, then we'll find out easily whose there and all. More eyes can see more things, just ask Eye Boy!."

"So how'd I do with the update? Personally I don't know what all is going to happen now that the ball is finally rolling. But hey, maybe I can pop back in a little later see what chaos you've all gotten yourselves into. Or I could just keep doing the updates for now, but pretty sure Blue over there would smack me over the head to kick me out and away. So I will see you all later! Have fun and try not to get blown up! That is a very not fun way to die!"

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Max mouthed the name OfAll silently to himself as she explained her powers before turning around to fetch him something. A smile tugging at the corner of his lips as she produced a bottle of sparkling water. He couldn't help but chuckle at himself as he uncapped the drink halfway, letting the carbonation seep out slowly before fully opening the bottle to take a sip. "Oh so you saw that. Not my best display at my powers but…pretty on par when you consider what it is I'm trying to do." He laughed again before taking another swig, listening to Bethany's burning question. He was about to reply to her when Neil had brought up his uncle. Suddenly Max didn't feel so thirsty.

He set the bottle down onto the counter, looking towards Neil with sympathy. "I'm sorry to hear that Spellman, I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories." Ed seemed to be quiet during all of this. Max couldn't tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing. There was the chance that Ed had already pieced it together, and that was one conversation Max wasn't ready to have. He went to grab his drink once more when the mansion suddenly began to shake. Max slid off the countertop trying to remember if New York got Earthquakes. "Sorry Bethany, gonna have to take a rain check on that question." He said with a flat smile before following Mary out of the mansion.

What he saw shocked him. The garden was set ablaze, Pyro was standing there quoting 'I Love Lucy' loosely, and Sabertooth was just around the- wait Sabertooth was what? Max felt the wind knocked out of him as the hulking beast ran into him, tackling him to the ground while clawing at his shoulder. He turned his head to the side as the heat of Sabertooths breath grazed his skin. "Awe come on! Pyro, it's barely been a year! You'd think you would've taken a vacation or something!" Max yelled, past his assailant in an annoyed tone before looking back towards him. "Sorry buddy, I'm taken and you're not my type." He said as his body suddenly disappeared from view, leaving only a black swirling void surrounded by a golden ring for a brief moment before it collapsed in on itself. The area around would feel cold, all heat sapped from it as the same dark sphere reappeared where Max teleported. Only…inches away from Sabertooth and buried shoulder deep into the ground.

For a moment Max had thought he'd somehow shrunk himself, everyone else was towering above him until he realized he couldn't move his arms or legs. Great. His second mutation wasn't the most trusty of things, using it only in situations he found difficult to weave his magic, and unfortunately for him being buried underground was one of them. He gave a silent curse towards himself, hoping the others hadn't seen what had happened before finally disappearing and reappearing several feet away from Sabertooth. Looking around and trying to find the best approach to dealing with these two.

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Jaclyn reverted to the quiet observer while she uncapped her sparkling water -she really should remember to keep a Cap Snaffler in her bag, some caps were just stubborn and hurt you for it - ah there we go. She took a sip.

She was always a girl of two souls in social situations:

• The present, ready friend.
• The in-her-head wallflower.

They seemed contradictory yet they were really more of a blend; it depended how and what the interactions were, who was involved, and Jaclyn's own frame of mind at the given time. In this case it depended on if she was being spoken to, or was speaking, or not. She was still getting the lay of the land in the sense of everyone and their dynamic, and both "souls" served her - that was something she had observed earlier in her life: there was often more to be had when things weren't "one or the other", but both.

She was just taking another sip when the earthquake happened.
It was a thing that could in this region of the world, but she felt a bad sense about this one... Not in any precog way since she didn't have those powers, just that regular human way where something doesn't feel right -- and sure enough the Mansion alarms started going off.

The shaking had caused her to slosh her water some, but a few spatters on her shirt and the floor were of little importance at the moment.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and that was about as much as she reacted to it, noticing Marygold now leaving after questioning the quake, and Max following soon after.

Just doing it without really deciding to, Jaclyn recapped her water bottle -tightly- and stuffed it in her bag, then exited herself -- though she didn't join them outside right away.

First she went back down the halls to check on her sister.

Assured Imogene was safe and confident in her knowledge of Mansion alarm protocol -same for any other younger students who Jaclyn may've passed along the way- Jaclyn reverted attention to what was going on.

She could hear voices and altercation sounds coming from outside as she made her way there -and then stepped out. . . . .

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It was going so well.

They had all met up with each other and were about to enjoy the delicacies of the world right in the middle of the mall when the roof came crumbling in. Before Perry could look to see what the heck was happening, she felt herself lifted right off her feet and thrown back. She hit the ground behind her with a thud. Perry glanced up to see who did that and was met with Hot Topic Wannabee. Ugh, typical. Perry stood up and faced her new foe while the others dealt with their own headaches.

"I don't know who you are, but you messed with the wrong bitch!" Perry quickly sensed around her for any lingering spirits. She connected with one and looked to see....some old, fat security guard. Hey, she liked Paul Blart as much as the next person, but she doubted he would prove any help.

Detective Ed though leapt into action, running right towards Mortis and grabbing hold of her, sending an icy spread to her, injuring her. It was something, at least.

Perry tapped into her empathy know and tried to get a read on Mortis. It was hard, but Perry felt she was going to blast her again. If she could dodge that, she'd have the advantage.

She hoped the others were fairing better than her. Who the hell were these clowns raining on their parade?

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Carolina was enjoying the time at the mall with the rest of the team and her best friend Annie in the middle of the food court when all hell started to break loose. Carolina looked up at the ceiling as some strange orb like things came crashing down through the ceiling when several people started to come out. The group started to attack, one of them quickly disappeared from sight until she felt her arm suddenly being grabbed and Carolina was yanked backwards causing her to stumble back slightly.

Sometimes Carolina really wished that her powers were more combat oriented as she focused on Amelia Vought standing before her, she quickly got into a fighting stance and tried to land a punch on Amelia which she missed miserably which was slightly embarrassing to her. Carolina then tried to punch Amelia again one for her to stumble forward and fall face first. Carolina quietly cursed herself as she quickly got back to her feet again and this time managed to land a punch on Amelia causing her to stumble backwards.

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Bethany quickly stood up when she felt the ground starting to rumble like an earthquake was going through the entire mansion, a few seconds later came a rather loud crashing sound along with the mansion's alarm system going off. The last time there was a major attack at the mansion was when Mesmero was messing with everyone. Bethany quickly decided to follow along behind Max and Mary until they were at the front of the mansion. Max was quickly tackled by Sabertooth, and Pyro was burning Mary's garden when she heard a familiar voice.

Beth's attention turned to Black Tom Cassidy which she remembered encountering him in another reality he suddenly sent a bunch of vines, and quickly started to strangle her with them she quickly started to try and think of a way to get out of it. She closed her eyes and attempted to shadow travel herself out of them, but she couldn't which annoyed her. Bethany tried to do it yet again and the same result ended up happening. Bethany couldn't do anything really as she looked at Mary. "Mind getting these things off of me Mary please?" Bethany asked Mary, hoping she'd use her powers to get the vines off of her.

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Antoinette wasn’t expecting much, or perhaps she had. She had been hoping for an easy trip out, getting reacquainted with Carolina and some of the new people from the mansion. Then the food court ceiling collapsed. Antoinette jumped and stepped back, arms going out to protect her friends. Four people appeared out of the orbs and instantly went on the offensive. Antoinette gasped as the three people around her were quickly thrown into action as she was taken out of it.
Alone. In an empty room, Antoinette turned a complete 360 as she tried to get her barriers. She was just in the mall a second ago. Wasn’t she? So where was she now? Out of her periphery, the walls started to shift and push in on her. Antoinette’s breathing hitched as she turned around and around again, looking for a way out.
She shut her eyes and tried to breathe, bringing to mind some of the exercises Guin and her were trying to center herself, but nothing was working. Antoinette opened her eyes again, and the walls were closer. She hunched over, hugging her middle as she started to cry and scream.
”Stop it!!! Just stop it! Wake up, WAKE UP!” she cried.

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Guin probably should have been more freaked out by the sudden appearance of the antagonists of the week, but honestly, she was more intrigued / perplexed by Exodus' entrance. "We get it, you accepted Jesus as your lord and savior, but somehow mixed up Jesus and Magneto?" Guin shouted. It was a little bit over the top, the way Exodus was floating up above them, and she hated the way he talked about Pietro being a stain on the House of M. Not that she had real good feelings about her father in law anyways. He always treated Pietro like shit, and that was before Guin considered the fact that Magneto was a terrorist. And had tried to kill her entire family.

And then Juggernaut - what the hell was he talking about??? Guin couldn't even be properly confused about it, because then the weirdest dressed member of Magneto's crew, Phantazia, showed up. She looked more like a Dr. Seuss character to Guin than a super villain, but whatever, it takes all kinds right? "Like the fit. Who's your designer - the Hamburglar?" Guin mocked. Maybe she shouldn't have mocked Phantazia. Maybe she should have been sincere in the compliment instead. Seconds later, pain erupted through Guin's body, no doubt caused by the spooky lady in purple.

Guin screamed in pain, reflexing reaching out with her telepathy and trying to pull an Uno Reverse on Phantazia. Instead, she managed to just shut down Phantazia's attack, which was good enough for her, as relief flooded her body. "Okay, bitch, you wanna go? LET'S FUCKING GO!" Guin screamed, putting a hand to her head as she concentrated. She had been getting better and better at her telepathy, and she had a new trick she had learned. She concentrated, creating a blast of pure psychic energy that she shot off at Phantazia, her anger fueling her...

And she missed.

Twice, even.

"... That was a fucking warning shot, so back off! Why the hell are you all even attacking us? We were having a nice day!"

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The mansion shook, a mysterious earthquake - but probably something worse, knowing their luck. Neil rushed outside with the others, only to be caught unaware. There was so much chaos happening already, the garden was up in flames, and they were under attack by people he didn't really recognize - but apparently Max knew? Was this from another vision or did Max just sorta know everyone? Neil was becoming more and more certain that Max must be a centuries old mystic of great skill and power, and that --

The next thing Neil knew, strong, muscular, and buff arms had scooped him off of the ground. He heard his attacker mutter something about fucking collaborators, the whole lot of them, before slamming Neil back down to the ground with their body weight, performing a perfect suplex. The wind was knocked out of his lungs and he saw stars - or rather, a gorgeous but blurry face peering down at him. "Wha..." he mumbled. He didn't even know why they were under attack. Or who was attacking him, for that matter!

His entire body was aching and groaning, and he knew he was going to likely be a gigantic bruise for a little while if he got through this. There weren't any dead bodies under the dirt of the Mansion that he knew of - not that he wanted to disturb them if they were there - so he fell back on his telekinetic gifts. He just needed to get this person away from him, before they started to do something like kick the shit out of him. He didn't bother aiming or looking, he just felt as he launched the person back away from him with his telekinesis, sensing them with his gift as they were thrown back away from him.

"What's going on here?" he muttered.

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Ed took a few bites of his food. It was good. He liked charcuterie boards. Any bite was never quite the same. If you put the right things on the plate too it would always be a good bite too. Then the earth shook. He paused mid-bite. And everyone started heading out. Ed looked at the plate and sighed.

Stepping out the front door into chaos. Ed didn't have a chance to really take it in, because a tongue hit him directly in the face. It stuck there. His face started to burn slightly. Ed threw a small blast of force. The tongue was removed from his face. The attacker was Toad. Ed touched his shield icon in his pocket and tried to bubble him. It took two tries, but he was able to get Toad into a bubble.

He sighed again and looked around the room trying to understand what the hell was going on. What was going on, was mostly chaos. Ed frowned. He had no clue why they were being attacked like this.

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She had no idea why these loons were attacking them or anything. Not to mention each one seemed to have targeted each one of them specifically. Why was anyone's guess. Though she did find it amusing how she ended up in a one on one fight of sorts with someone else with sound based powers. Of course she was noticing that Lorelei's powers weren't exactly great for combat considering who they were near at the moment. The most she could potentially get was a few civilians who didn't have any powers and could only really throw objects at her. Nothing too special about it.

She instantly let out another shriek, aiming it directly at Lorelei and this time it was enough force to send her flying backwards into a wall nearby. Lorelei jumped back up onto her feet and came back over rather quickly, almost effortlessly really. And ended up taking a few punch swings at Mira, despite Mira's dodging, she did manage to hit her and knock her back, knocking the wind out of her and making it a bit difficult to catch her breath and let out another shriek. It hurt a lot, and she was now sort of coughing, trying to catch her breath, but managing even still to avoid another one of Lorelei's attempts to hit her.

Amelia seemed a bit unamused by Carolina's attacks, before she rushed forward and delivered a few attacks of her own. She moved surprisingly quickly as she managed to slam her own fists into her. The attacks would cause a few bruises on Carolina, and after a second, she would stumble backwards a bit from the attacks. "Well this is certainly going to be interesting."

"Who I am? I'm known as Mortis," she responded to Peregrine, deciding to at least introduce herself. She glanced at the ghost but didn't seem to mind him at all. Instead, she fired a shot off at Perry again, but thankfully it missed. Though Perry would be able to see what would have happened if it had hit her. That being a chair directly next to her completely disappeared, having gotten disintegrated entirely. Her second shot had less power and just once more knocked Perry back, though she would likely start feeling the pain from the shots at this point.

As for Annie, well, the walls and all weren't seemingly going anywhere. However she'd hear a voice speaking to her, "No one is going to help you. No one is going to let you out," the voice in her head said, and the walls would appear to start moving in closer. Making it likely very hard to breathe for her at this point. This was going to be a problem very quickly for her if she didn't get out of there soon.

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To say that Pietro was also confused was a bit of an understatement. However he did know the whole idea of Exodus and how things worked for him in general. "Still following my dad around like he's god or something Exodus?" Pietro asked him, more then somewhat prepared for whatever dramatic response and attack that Exodus would throw at him.

"Not only are you the failed prodigal son, you are a heretic as well. You have tarnished your father's legacy and will do so no longer! With his blessing, I shall strike you DOWN!" was Exodus' response, before he ripped metal beams out of the walls using his telekinesis and made a sort of X symbol with them, before sending them straight at the speedster.

To say this wasn't going to be pretty was a bit of an understatement. Despite being prepared for an attack, he still wasn't fast enough to avoid Exodus' attack, and it really was one he'd want to have avoided. The beams slammed back and pinned him to the wall, but that wasn't the worst part. Exodus was very much going towards the religious sort of imagery, and proceeded to essentially crucify the speedster. The nails from the beams were still in them, and proceeded to get shoved directly through both the speedster's wrists and ankles, causing a lot of pain, and blood. "“Even now, I cannot help but see what a poor mockery of the messiah you truly are, Quicksilver.”

"Shit," Pietro managed to mutter under his breath, as he managed to phase through the beams and nails and basically fall forward onto the ground. "You are kind of crazy Exodus, seriously when are you going to learn my father isn't exactly a god or anything like you think," he managed to say as he got up. In a blur, the speedster managed to run partially up a wall (leaving a trail of blood as he went) and launched off, but he just barely missed hitting Exodus with a punch.

Lance meanwhile had shifted forms, and when he stood up off the ground this time, he was now almost the exact same height as Juggernaut was (only very slightly shorter). Well this was going to be an interesting fight considering both were fairly strong, and both could be considered almost indestructible, depending on how things could go. Juggernaut was the one who took the first swing yet again with regards to their little skirmish of sorts. He managed to land a punch with enough force to knock Lance backwards a little ways away from him.

Though that really only succeeded in making Lance mad as opposed to actually causing any damage to him. Having regained his footing once more, Lance instantly charged at Juggernaut and tackled him, landing a very strong punch to the side of his head with enough force that he'd feel it through his helmet. Juggernaut would be able to knock him away, but yet again, wasn't enough to actually do much damage.

Phantazia seemingly smirked a bit at Guin, though it was a little hard to tell with her mask, "Now that's just plain rude. And warning shots are only for people who don't know how to use their powers or how to aim them properly. That's just sad really," she said to her, before the pain through Guin's body would seemingly return. This time though it was bearable. It wasn't enough to overly cause her issues. At least that seemed to be the only thing that Phantazia did, almost like she was daring Guin to try again to do something at this point.

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“Oi mate, it’s good ta see ya! No hard feelings, just getting my spot secured in paradise. I’m sure you’ll make it eventually! Also, you should read my book - my agent says it’s going to be a smashing hit!” Pyro said towards Max, before using the fire around him to create a phoenix looking silhouette with the fire, and having it charge directly at her.

"...Well this is just being a bit dramatic," Mary commented, before she seemingly got engulfed in the flames. Though it would only appear that way for a moment, as there was a streak of fire that shot straight up into the sky. "Honestly maybe you should see what real fire is and the damage it does," she responded, before more vines started shooting up from the ground, except this time, several of them seemed to be engulfed in flames. They charged directly at Pyro, throwing him backwards before starting to wrap around him now, causing some burns and such on him now.

Mary had no idea what the hell was going on, but she dropped bac down to the ground, the fire surrounding her dispersed, and she turned to look over at Bethany as she had called for help with the vines. "I've got it Bethany," she responded, just sort of waving a hand her direction, and the vines started retreating.

“Fucking collaborators, all of these assholes.” Frenzy yelled out, before she raced over and grabbed Neil around the throat, before proceeding to slam him into the ground. The amount of force that she had used would definitely cause Neil to be in some pain. However it seemed like she didn't have a whole lot of strength behind it. Where the attack would hurt and Neil definitely would be a bit bruised from the encounter. This was definitely not going too well for him though.

"Now dahn't get me wrahng, friends, I appreciate a chance to fight de X-Nen as much as any ahther fellow - but fightin' dese keddahs? It just ain't de same as fightin de real X-Men. Dough... Now dat does give ahle Black Tahm an idea!" With those words, Black Tom created seemingly out of plant life versions of a few familiar people. Those people being none other then Wolverine, Cyclops and Beast. The copies he had made didn't seem to have any of their powers (which was definitely a good thing) but that didn't mean they were weak! The three copies instantly went after Bethany now that she was freed from the vines. And two of them managed to land solid hits on her, and they were all just sort of pounding on her a bit, definitely going to be bruises from this encounter.

Sabretooth seemed to find Max's whole situation with his teleportation powers more then a little bit amusing and laughed a bit at him, before instantly charging forward and clawing at him. He managed to hit Max across the face, causing a large gash across his face, and easily knocking him to the ground again. This was just amusing to him. He then proceeded to grab him by the neck, and slammed him down into the ground yet again, causing more damage and bruises, and a crater to form from the impacts.

Toad seemed more then a bit annoyed at what Ed was doing. "Hey let me out of here!" he complained, before he started banging against the bubble trying to get free. An idea then crossed his mind, and he proceeded to just lick the bubble with his giant tongue trying to weaken the bubble. Well somehow that genius thought of his worked enough, and Toad tumbled out of the bubble free once more. He then proceeded to hit Ed in the face with his tongue again! This time, the acid seemed to be burning a bit more and kind of painful at this point. "I'm not that easy to take down!"

When Jaclyn stepped outside, she'd see a blur of movement, before she'd get thrown backwards into the side of the mansion, hitting the wall. Nekra was there, smirking slightly after having thrown her. Jaclyn would hit her head hard on the wall, so there was some blood coming from it, and Nekra was looking at her a bit. "Honestly, is this supposed to be a challenge or something? You don't seem to be that hard to deal with at this point." she commented, she didn't seem to be expecting much of a challenge from her or something.

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"You wrote a book? I'm so proud of you man! What's it called so I can pick up a copy?" Max replied as he attempted to dodge Sabertooths attack. He quickly ducked down, unfortunately giving him ample space to claw right at his face, leaving streaks of red dripping down. He let out a sound that was like releasing steam before grunting as he was pushed back onto the ground. "What paradise?" was all he managed to get out between pained words just before Sabertooth gripped his throat and lifted him up. He tried to kick and punch at the hand grabbing him to get him to let go but the hold was too strong. Instantly the world around him blurred as he was slammed back down, the air rushing out of his lungs as he was now surrounded by a small crater.

Max grit past the pain, placing both hands around Sabertooths arms before sweeping up with his foot as it made contact with the brute's stomach and gave Max the leverage he needed. He used Sabertooths own weight and momentum to help flip him over, throwing him onto his back far away from Max. "You're. Being. Rude." he said in between huffs before finally catching his breath. He twirled an imaginary weapon in his hand until it finally solidified. "I'm trying to have a conversation here dog breath, so why don't you just back off." He said calmly as he jabbed the bottom of his staff into the ground. Cosmic dust began to swirl around Sabertooth until a portal opened up, a secondary one opening next to Toad as an exit. He watched as the lumbering mutant fell through and landed further away, annoying as he was hoping to help knock Toad off of Ed. There was a sense of urgency in wanting to help him, knowing now wasn't his time to die.