---

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---

Jaclyn exited the Mansion with one thought in mind: Where am I needed?
She looked around for the others -- she was seeing a lot of fire and had just thought she saw some bizarre, make that unreal silhouettes of the X-Men but had no time to form a full thought on that as a she was positive something just blurred past her vision.

Something much nearer than any of that other stuff---suddenly she was SLAMMED back against the Mansion.

Naturally Jaclyn raised a hand to the part of her head that had collided with the stone.
There was blood on her fingers.

Head wounds were notorious in the bleeding department however, and she had to focus to avoid another knock.
While OfAll processed what just happened her -now stationary- opponent jibed her. They seemed to be waiting to see if Jaclyn would actually put up a fight which gave her time to think fast, though she felt more jumbled doing so after that knock.

What would work?
Due to the nature of OfAll's powers, she had to be thoughtful. Once she mimicked a mutation she couldn't mimic another one until an amount of time had passed - time enough the battle would surely be over. Whatever she chose she would essentially be locked into it.

So what was she facing: a mutant who hit hard. But the hit involved contact...if she could keep away from them...
But this mutant was also a speedster. How to keep away from that?

!
It might work!

They wanted to jibe, OfAll could jibe: "You had the wall do the damage. Why don't you show me how challenging you can be when it's just you, me, and the open air?" Her tone held more controlled calm than attitude. She placed her hands on her hips.
But more towards her back. It would look just like some cocky stance, but she was actually holding tight to the hem of the back of her shirt -glad she didn't wear form fitting clothes- ready to give her wings some space.

She was actually banking on being thrown again.
OfAll didn't figure she'd have a chance to get off the ground on her own speed considering her adversary's speed.

But if she was already in the air with velocity...

---

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Carolina started to back up as she was being attacked by Amelia, feeling the wind getting knocked out of her as she was stumbling backwards with each punch that Amelia had landed on her. She was doing her best to try and defend herself from the attacks, everyone else seemed to be busy with their own fights right now. She watched Annie for a moment seeing that her friend was standing still, and she wanted to help her friend but Amelia was keeping her busy.

Carolina thought about using her powers. "Why are you all even here in the first place and attacking us?" Carolina asked wanting to know wht they were here to Carolina decided to attack Amelia again using her hands. She managed to get up close and personal with Amelia and started to land a few good decent hits on Amelia now leaving a few bruises on her as well to.

---

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---

Bethany took a few deep breaths as Mary managed to get the plants off of her that were trying to strangle her. "Thanks Mary for the assist." Bethany said to her, as Beth turned her attention to Black Tom Cassidy once more. "Well you are stuck with us now, and you all decided to attack us first." Bethany said to him as he started to create plant constructs of Cyclops, Beast and Wolverine, and the three of them started to attack her landing a few good hits as Bethany started to back up slightly trying to defend herself from the attacks.

"Really three on one? Thats really unfair!" Bethany said sounding really annoyed, she looked down seeing that the plant knockoffs had shadows themselves, and decided to use that to her advantage. Bethany then managed to create three shadow constructs of her own using her powers as the three started to attack Tom's X-Men knockoffs. "There that evens the odds a little bit." Bethany said as she turned to focus on her opponent.

---

---

While Phantazia sent pain rippling through Guin, with both her powers and her read, Guin's attention was more focused on the horrific scene going down with her husband. The crazy pink guy, Exodus, was crucifying him. It was absolutely terrifying and horrendous. Tears sprung in the corners of Guin's eyes out of sorrow, but mostly, righteous fury. She wasn't going to let anyone do that to Pietro and just get to laugh about it. Get back to the mansion, you need to heal, now! Guin urged Pietro. It wasn't a request. She didn't care about Phantazia right now, not at all.

She put a hand to her head and concentrated, sending off a psy-blast of purple-pink psychic energy rocketing towards Exodus. However, the psy-blast wasn't very strong and didn't even hit him. Even in her worst days at practicing this skill, she usually could do better than that. And then she realized why, the person preventing her from protecting Pietro, was Phantazia.

Ugh.

Guin really did NOT want to let Exodus just get away with this.

She wanted to wipe that stupid smug grin off of his stupid pink face.

And probably rip off his dorky white cape and donate it to GoodWill or something where it belonged.

"Fine then, bitch - you want my attention? You've fucking got it," Guin growled, before darting towards Phantazia and punching, aiming for the throat, but she had telegraphed too much and Phantazia dodged, meaning Guin only punched her in the shoulder. However, Guin took advantage of the momentum and used Phantazia's own body against her, flipping her over onto the ground. "Now stop this and go back to your guest judge spot on Drag Race, okay, asshole?"

---

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Neil was beginning to wish that he had gone to the mall with the others after all.

Despite throwing Frenzy away from him telekinetically, that didn't do much to slow her down. And hearing her call them all collaborators - what was that supposed to mean, he had no idea - stunned him temporarily. The next thing he knew, her firm hand was gripping his throat and he found himself slammed onto the ground, gasping for air. In a blind panic, he did what was (unfortunately?) instinctual. He could sense when there were dead things around, things that he might reanimate and bid to serve him. He didn't like doing it - mostly because it was difficult to get consent to turn something or someone into a zombie. But right now, things were dire. This woman was going to kill him. And Neil didn't know how many times he could just shrug off death.

Unfortunately(?) though, there were no dead things in the Mansion's front lawn for Neil to work with. Necromancy wasn't an option here.

So he did what had only somewhat worked for him last time - he telekinetically flung Frenzy off of him, hoping this time to knock her into a tree or something. Gasping for breath, Neil clutched at his own throat, feeling the bruises already forming. "Does anyone - wheeze - know why - wheeze - they're kicking - wheeze - the shit out of us?" Neil asked. He tried to put his hands up in a rough imitation of a boxing pose, to try to preemptively brace himself for Frenzy's next attack, but his form was poor. Still, he was doing his best to not be killed outright. He was so focused on keeping his eyes on Frenzy that he didn't really look around at the others for more than brief glimpses, seeing that the new girl seemed to have sprouted wings, and the old wizard now had an ancient looking weapon on him.

---

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Perry managed to avoid the oncoming attack that vaporized the chair in front of her. Too close for comfort. "Peregrine. Am I supposed to know who you are Mortis and why you all are attacking us? By the way, Hot Topic called, they want their entire catalog back." As Perry spoke, Detective Ed made his way over and, with some effort, froze one of the nearby chairs. Perry quickly picked it up and threw it at Mortis, but it missed.

Damn, she needed to go to the gym....

Perry then thought to try something. She had not done it before, but she knew her empathic powers allowed her to read other people's emotions. She assumed Mortis' would be full of angst and Coldplay lyrics, but she had never bothered trying to control other people's emotions. She reached out her mind, but each attempt felt limited. She would have to practice more. Perhaps when she and her friends weren't being randomly attacked.

"Ok, cool. We each got some licks in. Want to call it a draw and get some froyo?"

---

---

Priorities, Ed had to get Toad off of his face again. His face was starting to hurt enough that he wanted to heal it. Ed gave a good force blast at Toad, who flew back several feet. Orange light then surrounded his face, healing the acid damage that Toad had done to it so far.

"Pyro said something about securing his spot in paradise. Not sure what the heck he is talking about." Ed answered Neil's question as best as he could with the information he had.

Ed had yet to get a strand of hair from the newbies so he would have to get into touch range to heal them. Since OfAll had been tossed into a wall, Ed moved over to where she was.

"Have some healing." He said reaching out and touching her hand. The same orange light that had just covered his face now spread over her healing some of her wounds.

"Sorry we haven't had the conversation about this yet, but uh...Later can I have a hair from you so if I need to heal you from farther away I can?" Ed asked quickly, watching Toad.

---

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The voice that started in her head was not helping matters. Antoinette truly did start to cry as she dropped to her knees. The walls began to move in, but she noticed tiny flickers as they moved. They were subtle, but she could see the shimmering if she didn’t look directly at the wall. This was an illusion. Just an illusion. Come on, Annie, you love illusions. She started talking to herself, reminding herself that Carolina was near. That they were in the mall and had a great day shopping. She wasn’t alone. She was never alone. She had Arnold with her!
With all these thoughts in her mind, she tapped into her telekinetic ability to block her mind and ground herself more in reality. It barely worked the first time, but Antoinette could hear Mira’s sonic scream and used that to remind herself she was in the mall and she wasn’t alone. She tried again and was able to break the vision up to the point of seeing Mastermind.
”There you are,” she said. She quickly switched gears to throw a ball of fireworks at him. The ball landed short, but thankfully she wielded fireworks. The residual spray from hitting the floor flew up and danced around Mastermind, hitting him in the face a bit to distract him.

---

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"Were would the fun in that be though? It wouldn't be enjoyable to just not fight or try to kill you in general," Mortis responded to Perry. She was not super thrilled with the jokes that Perry was seemingly trying to do or something like that. In response to that, and the clear attempt to throw a chair at her of sorts, Mortis instantly sent another blast directly at Perry. This time she did have a bit of power behind her blast. Or maybe it was her annoyance with Peregrine that caused the blast to have more power, as this time she'd be sent flying backwards and slamming into the ground hard. Perry's head would hit the ground with a loud crack, and blood would start coming from her head at this point.

Mastermind rolled his eyes a bit seemingly at Annie. He was known more for using his powers over the mind in general, but his illusions and mental powers could cause others to actually feel the injuries they sustained from them. Which included what it was that he was about to do. A spike seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and he sent it directly at Annie, stabbing her in the leg with it straight through. The spike seemed to pin her leg down, and pain would shoot through her body from the injury, and it didn't seem to be going away anytime soon at this point.

Amanda shook her head when Carolina seemingly asked why they were attacking them. "Now give me one good reason to actually tell you why we're here. Since you know, that would involve a monologue and most people hate monologues," she ended up responding to her, before she swung around to send a few more punches and such towards Carolina. This time her attacks definitely hurt a whole lot more in general. There was enough force behind them to easily knock Carolina over, and she was seemingly getting a little bored with this fight in general at this point.

Mira was looking at Lorelei, sort of glad that she wasn't even really using her powers or something like that in general. Then again, her opponent also wasn't even seemingly able to do a whole lot to attack her, it made her wonder if Lorelei actually was good at combat or something like that. Her powers were literally her essentially being a bit of a siren and controlling those around her with her voice. While Mira's own powers were more along the lines of doing more damage in general with her own voice.

Speaking of which, she then proceeded to let out another rather loud shriek, though this time Lorelei managed to keep her footing and actually managed to get close enough to slam her foot into her, and caused Mira to fall to the ground, but she rather easily flipped back up onto her feet again, not really one to stay down for very long. This was not a good situation to end up in at the moment, since no one around here seemed to be having an easy time to defeat their own opponents.

---

---

Pietro's vision was starting to go blurry as he heard Guin's voice in his head. Guina, I don't think I'll make it to the mansion, I might just pass out in the middle of the road or something like that, Pietro responded to her, though she'd be able to hear the shakiness in his words, and he likely was going to go down very soon. Whether it be from blood loss or from Exodus punching or throwing him again.

This was when he came up with what was probably going to end poorly for him, but still, he had to do something since he figured if he didn't do anything Exodus was going to continue to try and kill him at this rate. "Guess what Exodus, I still think you're crazy," he said, before he once more raced part way up the wall and when he jumped at Exodus. This time though, he managed to land a very solid hit on the floating Exodus. He managed to hit him in the side of the face with enough force to send him falling to the ground.

Of course, Exodus was not happy about this development as he got back up off the ground. "You dare to put your hands on me, unclean one?!" he snapped, before he used his telekinesis. The speedster having to deal with a whole bunch of other things currently, wasn't able to fight back or avoid it at all. He got sent flying directly into a trashcan, well not really into it, more of through it. There was a loud crack as the metal broke, and several bits of metal ended up stabbing into Pietro, and now he was very much not moving from there, though the amount of blood starting to pool around was not a very pretty sight.

"I would say that I would see you again in the afterlife, Pietro - but I will not be joining you in the fiery pits of damnation. Perhaps you and your whore will burn together, if you are so lucky." Exodus commented as he seemingly headed back and away, towards the orb contraptions that they had initially arrived in.

"I don't even believe in hell," Pietro muttered in response, though he didn't manage to say anything else as he seemingly passed out completely.

"I can do this all day, kid - but I ain't wanna hurt ya, Cain just needs to be with his lover, something you'll understand when ya get older, pipsqueak!" Juggernaut said, before he tried to punch Lance again, though he didn't seem to deal too much damage and only succeeded to knock him back a moment.

Lance though had taken notice to the issue with Pietro, namely the fact that Pietro was at this point passing out from both just overall damage and blood loss. Not to mention the internal injuries that he likely had from Exodus. There were so many issues with this situation and Pietro even with his accelerated healing was probably going to die real quick if he didn't do something to help him now. Since out of the three of them there, he was the one who was more easily able to provide some medical aid in some way.

After a moment, he shifted back to his normal self and looked straight at Juggernaut. "You just said you don't want to hurt me fine, I don't want to fight and give up, because I'm more concerned with your pal there having just tried to kill someone and he needs help right now," he said to him, really hoping that Juggernaut wasn't going to attack him again, and he raced over to deal with the speedster's injuries in general.

“Yeah, Im sorry about him he’s… he’s fucking insane,” Juggernaut said, somewhat abashedly. “I hope your friend is okay.”

"Yeah well we agree on him being insane that's for sure," he commented before more or less glancing over Pietro to assess his injuries. The obvious issues were his wrists and ankles, since that was where the veins got hit and was the main thing that was causing the blood loss. He didn't even notice the pods or whatever that Juggernaut and Exodus had both gotten into and shot off back through the roof of the mall. He was more focused on Pietro's injuries, and he first needed to at least slow down or stop the bleeding. The most he was used to doing was cauterizing the injuries, even though he likely could actually heal if he tried. Right now before trying to do that, he needed to stop some of the bleeding. "Well at least your unconscious because otherwise this would hurt like hell," he muttered under his breath, before his hand started glowing and he essentially was starting to burn the holes in his wrists and ankles to cauterize the injuries to try and slow down the bleeding.

Phantazia seemed annoyed at a few different things. One thing being that Guin had knocked her to the ground, the second thing being that the other two had taken off already having won their fights. Well, to her Juggernaut didn't really win his opponent chose not to fight. She instantly jumped back up onto her feet, "And people think I'm the dramatic one," she commented, before she knocked Guin backwards, kicking her in the stomach enough to cause her to stumble. She tried to use her powers on Guin again, but they didn't seem to really be working to cause her pain or anything, though she was still managing to disrupt her powers a little bit.

---

---

"It's called Man Overboard, and you can find it at your local bookstore, mates! Under a pen name, so don't get too shocked when ya don't see St. John on the cover," Pyro informed Max gleefully. "It's actually my tenth book published - ya boy is a prolific romance author, I'm fascinated by like gothic bodice ripper stuff, nice and pulpy!" He instantly started to use his own powers to try and get the vines off of him. All he really managed to do was to get the fire to go out, so at least he now wasn't really being lit on fire or anything like that anymore.

"Well that doesn't answer any questions but at this point, I don't think any questions would actually help out in this situation, we'll figure out what's going on later that's all that matters," Mary said, more or less directing her comment towards Max. There wasn't really time in the middle of a fight to be sitting there asking a million questions with regards to what was going on. Though having conversations in the middle of a chaotic fight was the most idiotic thing someone could be doing right now.

She instantly looked at Pyro as he basically turned the fire off but stayed wrapped up in the vines themselves. With the flick of her wrist, Mary sent Pyro flying off to the side, causing him to hit a tree rather hard with a bit of a loud crack. He had landed pretty hard and was definitely injured during the entire fight so far, but he was still conscious and standing. Though Mary was getting a little annoyed with him at this point for the most part. This whole fight seemed a bit strange to her, but she didn't know what had caused this attack, but asking them before they dealt with it and in the middle of the fight was not a good thing.

"Where were you when Genosha was burning, boy?" Frenzy sneered at Neil as she managed to pick herself up off the ground, before full on charging at him. She managed to grab him around the neck, but wasn't really doing a whole lot of damage to him when it came to attempting to choke him, as by sheer dumb luck her grip wasn't overly strong, so it wasn't a whole lot of pain. He'd mainly have to worry about needing to catch his breath a little bit at this point.

"All's fair in love and war, my dear!" Black Tom retorted towards Bethany, before he used his glorified walking stick and sent a blast of energy from it. His first shot seemingly missed her in general, but his second shot did managed to hit her in the head, knocking her backwards and onto the ground. Then he sent his little plant minions out to try and fight her off, but they were still sort of tangled up with Bethany's own sort of shadow minions, meaning it was not exactly something he could go continue to hit her with or something.

Sabretooth was not happy about being teleported around everywhere at this point. So he easily picked himself up off the ground from where he got sent, and once more, he charged at Max. Thing is, the speed and the charge just sort of added to the amount of strength behind his next attack. This time didn't have any sort of claw attacks or anything at this point. Nope, it was an old fashioned punch. Problem was of how strong Sabretooth is. Max would get sent flying backwards and there was a loud crack as hit the ground, having landed on his left arm, and that crack would likely explain why it was now at an odd angle, having clearly gotten broken from the landing.

Yeah, Toad was going to continue to be a pain in Ed's side, and will likely continue with that unless someone knocked him out at some point. Toad managed to yank Ed away, this time instead of hitting him in the head with his tongue, he instead wrapped it completely around Ed, and threw him. Managing to slam him a bit away from where the others were, causing a few bruises. "You think you can stop me and knock me out that easily?" he asked Ed, clearly annoyed that Ed was basically swatting him away like a fly or something.

Nekra seemed a bit annoyed at this point with Jaclyn having sprouted wings, and this was just fueling her powers at this point in general. Seeing Jaclyn sprout wings, she decided to shift tactics slightly and went racing forward, but before reaching Jaclyn, Nekra jumped up into the air, and came crashing down onto her, using the momentum and her strength to cause some damage, ending up slamming into Jaclyn and hitting her pretty hard. Creating a bit of a crater on the ground that they were currently in for the most part, and luckily though the damage wasn't overly severe, it did hurt a lot, but currently no bones were broken, but her body would be really really sore.

---

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---

"What..?" Jaclyn said nearly under her breath -an expression of surprise more than a question- turning to look at Edus who had just touched her hand. She hadn't been quite sure what he said, but her headwound wasn't stinging in the air so much, and she felt she'd gotten more on top of her aches - rather, he got her there.

"Sure, it's yours," she quickly answered his question regarding her hair. So that's what he could do, eh? It was handy.
Unfortunately, with the speed of Jaclyn's opponent, even partial focus on Edus was too much away from Nekra.

OfAll also hadn't been successful, it seemed, in hiding her sprouted wings beneath her shirt.

In any case, OfAll realized her opponent had moved again but didn't see where -- she braced herself for the next throw.
Which wouldn't come.

PFURGGGRRRRHHH

More than seeing, OfAll was aware with her now freshly aching body that she was in a minor crater. It was a wonder she didn't feel worse - but it took a minute for her muscles to want to work again. Whether her opponent had considered her beat already, hadn't anticipated the impact for herself or was otherwise occupied, Jaclyn didn't take time to figure out - speed was not on her side so it was act first assess after.

She managed to get up onto the ground proper and work those wings -who ever said fairy wings weren't durable?- getting up and away.

However, she wasn't used to flying -all the muscles involved and balancing. Liking riding a bike for the first time in the air!
Honestly if anyone was looking, it was a wonky sight.

She managed to get stable enough to get an aerial view of things and decided the best course of action was not to continue fighting Nekra, but to get herself some help by giving it - she saw Edus's opponent. OfAll was fit, but the guy looked too stocky for her to lift -even if he were slight, extra weight probably wouldn't be wise to take on before she could manage her own in the air- but she could dive bomb him.

That's exactly what she did.
Or rather, tried.

She'd gotten so close but whether it was her aim, his agility, or both, impact didn't occur and she was just able to pull up again afterward. Maybe she hadn't committed enough to the assault...

OfAll was starting to feel anxious about when next her initial opponent would catch up with and slam her. She didn't know if she could get up from another hit of that calibre, and looked around -partially for that blur, partially for any other ideas already feeling manifesting flight hadn't been a good one.

If nothing else, maybe she could assume a coordination role if she could get a bird's-eye-view of the battlefield; lend assistance more mentally than physically.

However, much as she tried, she was too beat to get adequate altitude - she was only a bit higher than a standing adult.

---

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---

Sabertooths temporary displacement had awarded Max with time to take in the fights. Able to see how badly they were all doing in this random pit fight against people he's never even met, some of whom he's never even heard of. It made Pyro's presence there all the more pleasant. Sure they'd always been on opposing teams when a fight broke out, but didn't seem to harbor any of the darkness most of them did. If anything he was a misguided mutant looking for a place to belong, and Max could sympathize with that sentiment. Magento wasn't all bad just as Charles wasn't all good, Casper and Ben had seen to showing Max that.

"I'll have to get myself a copy when we're done here. Maybe you can sign it for me?" Max replied as he continued to scan his surroundings. He watched as Mary flicked Pyro clear across the ashen garden, slamming into a tree. He didn't deserve that, he just wanted the paradise that was robbed of him thanks to Selene and the X-cutioner. He balled his hand into a tight fist, his knuckles white before watching as the strange mutant began choking out Sabrina's hot brother. He was a necromancer, he needed bodies. Max went to summon some, slamming his staff into the ground just as aarge blur sideswiped him with a fist. The world turned upside down as wind rushed past him and he inevitably hit the ground with a loud SNAP.

Pain seared through Max's entire body, pulsing in waves of heat from his arm down. He needed James, he missed his crew, and hot tears streamed down his cheeks as he forced himself up, using his soul staff as support. He clung to the shaft, grip tight as he poured his magic through it and into the ground. Cosmic colors rippled through the grass towards Neil as they stopped just short of him. "Spellman! Here's some ammo" Energy burst forth from the ground as three corpses erupted from below, displaced from where they once rested as Max brought them to Neil. He needed to find a way to get healed and fast, but it appeared Ed was being removed further and further away from the ground. A great strategy if it wasn't being used against them.

Max needed to find a way to keep Sabertooth at bay. He didn't want to distance himself, clearly it allowed for him to gain momentum for even larger bursts of power. What's worse, his opponent wasn't one to talk, making it harder for him to find an angle on the guy. He needed time to think, heal, and regroup. Hopefully this would be enough. Max's eyes went pitch black before spots of color began to dance inside them. Mini galaxies spiraling within. The same inky cold darkness bled into the surrounding area around Sabertooths body, thick tendrils spidering across the grass until they joined together and a sphere of pure darkness erupted within its area. Whispers could be heard coming from within, soft and maddening words barely intelligible. Unfortunately for Max he'd missed his target by a smidgen, put perhaps it was enough to obfuscate himself on the other side.

---

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Carolina tried her best to try and fend off Amelia's attacks against her, but she wasn't able to as she managed to land several more punches against her, and even managing to knock her down onto the ground. Carolina let out a slight groan as she tried to get back up to her feet and stared at Amelia as she spoke. She really wanted to know why the group had suddenly decided to attack them all, they all were having a good day up until now.

"Well it's always nice to hear what a villain has plans during a monologue thats kinda their thing." Carolina said as she decided to try and use her powers now against Amelia. She closed her eyes she wanted to help her friend Annie seeing her closest friend was in danger right now which was a really bad thing right now.

---

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Bethany was glad that she was able to keep Black Tom's plant minions at bay with her own, as she tried to stay away from the three of them when one got to close her shadow minion pulled them back into their own fight. Beth's attention turned to Black Tom as he pointed his staff directly at her, and sent a blast aimed at her. Feeling the blast hitting her in the head which easily knocked her down onto the ground letting out a slight groan.

Her vision was blurry for a moment as Bethany slowly started to get back up to her feet again she stared at Black Tom's shadow and held out her hand as she tried to manipulate it. The others right now were all busy in their own fights, and she had to deal with Black Tom before she could help anyone else.

---

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Mastermind seemed utterly unimpressed with Antoinette, which she felt was fair. As of right now, Antoinette was seriously overpowered by this man. She couldn't play fair with him. Guin always told her to look for a weakness, but it was different in a "real world" combat situation. For instance, there were no safe words. Pain filled Antoinette’s mind. A fire erupted from her leg to invade her mind from the spike now residing there.
Antoinette dropped to one knee, hands shaking as they hovered over the spike in her leg. She bit her bottom lip to keep from screaming and bring concentration to a different stimulus. Once that was achieved, Antoinette concentrated on reflecting the pain to Mastermind. He deflected her easily enough, and Antoinette cursed her small-mindedness. Of course, he deflected it; his main thing was mental manipulation. Remember what Guin said, she reminded herself.
Getting back to her feet was challenging, but she managed it. Antoinette kept reminding herself that whatever he was doing wasn’t real. The spike in her leg and the pain with it was an illusion. She needed to focus. Her blue eye sparkled as Antoinette looked within Mastermind to search for his weaknesses. As she thought, he only had one thing. He could deflect her mentally, but could he deflect her physically? Stealing herself against the pain, Antoinette moved forward. She launched her left hand forward, aiming to punch him in the face but at the last second, she shifted her weight to make a right hook. She felt her hand connect with his rib cage with such force that it set him off balance and tumbling backwards. Antoinette was pleased with herself but didn’t let the momentary victory pull her focus.

---

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Well Perry guessed Mortis didn't want to call it there and go get a manicure as she unleashed another blast at Perry, sending her back again. Perry felt blood trickle down her forehead now. She would not be able to handle much more. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Perry checked to see if the security guard ghost was still around. To her surprise, he was. "Hey, you! Security guard! We need help over here. Don't you have a duty?"

The security guard glanced up and over. "Oh no, this is out of my jurisdiction." Perry rolled her eyes. "An active threat in the mall isn't your jurisdiction? What is? The food court?" The guard chucked, "Fat jokes. Like I haven't heard the multitude of them over my career. Now, even after death, I have to deal with them." Perry mentally chastised herself. She should have been better, but it was hard to be positive when you were getting your ass handed to you. "Look, I'm sorry. Getting blasted over and over again will do that to you. Can you please help!"

The guard looked at Mortis. Perry could tell he was weighing his options. He looked back at her. "Sweetheart, how do you expect to beat that?" Perry could admit, the odds looked bleak. "Teamwork, babes. It's why I joined the X-men." That got the guards attention. "Always liked those guys. Stood up for everyone regardless. Fine." The guard stood up fully now. "Name's Barry."

Barry quickly (or as quickly as he could) sprang into action. He pulled out what looked to be a taser and aimed it at Mortis as a black of shocking energy shot out. It hit Mortis and send the woman back. Good, how does it feel?!? Detective Ed also sprang into action, aiming for Mortis' heart. He missed though and managed to grab her arm, freezing it.

This was all well and good, but Perry wondered how the others were doing.

---

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Ed had barely healed OfAll a tiny bit and she was being tossed around again. He really needed to get hair from her and Max. But now was not the time to be thinking about that. Because Toad had decided to rip him away from the rest of the party and slam him into the ground.

Ed saw stars. He blinked a few times, sure he had gotten a concussion. He needed to get back to the others since now he was a significant distance away and he could swear he heard a loud crack of someone breaking a bone. Shit. But Toad was too focused on him. Fine so be it. If Toad wanted to remove Ed from the rest of the team he'd remove him from the fight too.

With a flick of his wrist, a sad orange light flickered and faded, telling Ed his head really was a little too messed up. He took a deep breath and focused this time a bubble formed around Toad. Ed sent it flying off toward the woods, it didn't go as far as he would have liked, but it gave him some room to move. And move Ed did, back towards the others. To see who had broken a bone.

---

---

"Pietro!!" Guin cried out, her eyes wide as Exodus threw him into a trashcan more or less, and then made sure to put on a healthy heaping of anti-semitism as part of his exit. Her fear for her husband let Phantazia get an opening on Guin, kicking her in the stomach and sending her flying backwards. But even then, Guin's attention was still mainly on Pietro - she was extremely glad to see Lance going and helping him, and she knew that he was going to be okay, but her mind was still having flashbacks to the time Pietro's future self had died in front of her. She couldn't watch Pietro die again.

Hang in there, babe, it's going to be okay, I promise! Guin urged Pietro, hoping his unconscious mind could hear. She then turned her mutant gifts to Phantazia, and it took a lot of effort thanks to Phantazia annoyingly disrupting Guin's powers. Once she managed to break inside, Guin went diving through her mind, looking for her intentions - if Phantazia would just leave if Guin held her hands up, then fine, that was good enough for her. Pietro was dying. She had bigger priorities than kicking this woman's ass. As best as she could tell, Phantazia just needed a win - for whatever reason.

"Okay, bitch, you need to win so fucking badly? Fine," Guin spat, before swinging and clocking Phantazia in the jaw. "There. I surrender. You win. Now leave us the fuck alone!" Guin gave Phantazia the middle finger, before rushing on over to Pietro and Lance. "How can I help?" she asked Lance, kneeling down next to her husband.

---

---

Neil didn't know what Pyro was talking about either - paradise? What even? And what did that have to do with fighting the X-Men? Had Pyro gotten one too many concussions during superhero brawls? Neil couldn't voice these questions though, as Frenzy was upon him yet again. She asked him about the ill fated mutant nation as her hand gripped his throat, squeezing tightly enough to make it difficult to breathe. "I - uh - here?" Neil choked out.

Unlike the other X-Men who had been off in space, Neil had been at the X-Mansion when Genosha was founded. He had been curious about it, if not somewhat wary - Magneto was a part of its government, as were other foes of the X-Men. He had meant to go and check it out, probably with Mira and Carolina, but that just... didn't end up happening. He stayed in Westchester. He saw on the news when Genosha was attacked - when its population was decimated. And he did... nothing. He did X-Men things. He didn't go to Genosha. He regretted that. He should have gone. He should have... he should have done something. He should have been there.

Neil couldn't help but come to the conclusion that Frenzy was right.

Was this why they were being attacked - for not being there when mutants were massacred?

Neil was taken out of his guilty thoughts as the cosmos seemed to vomit up three corpses - three corpses summoned by Max. They were a horrific and ghastly sight. Two of them were clowns - one of them decapitated, cradling its head like a basketball, and the other bent up in weird pretzel like knots. The third body wore a police officer's uniform, a gaping wound in their chest that looked like a tree must have impaled them or something. Somehow, Neil knew that Max had killed these people.

His heart twisted in terror - what had Max done over his centuries long life? And what would he do to Neil if he knew the truth?

Neil's eyes glowed a bright yellow, with bits of smoke of the same color almost emanating out of them. The corpses rose stiffly, bones and joints snapping audibly - and the same yellow color shone from their empty eye sockets. The zombies advanced upon Frenzy, moving much faster than popular culture would have had you believe. And the three of them were enough to surround her, forcing her to drop Neil as the zombies pushed Frenzy, cornering her and advancing upon her. The decapitated clown held his head out, the jaw opening up to show menacing shark-like teeth.

And then the zombies began to feast, ripping and tearing and shredding her flesh.

"Thanks," Neil said to Max, his voice strange and distant - as if Neil wasn't really there, as if upon animating the bodies, something else possessed the young Spellman... "Why'd you kill them, Max?"

---

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---

When Carolina tries to take over Amelia's body, it doesn't really fully seem to take hold. Actually it seems like Amelia is trying to fight back against Carolina's possession immensely. To those nearby, it would seem incredibly weird, as Amelia would seemingly be standing still frozen in place. Carolina would definitely be having a bit of a difficult time even seemingly trying to remain in her body to begin with.

Mastermind definitely did not seem too happy with what Annie had managed to do. He managed to get up off the ground, and he looked pissed off at this point. "Well that was a bit foolish," he commented, before he started using his powers once more. He didn't seemingly try to trap her in a box or anything like that again, instead he seemed to lean more towards the causing her pain aspects of it. That seemed to be working out for him, so why not continue along with it. Instead of throwing anything at her now, using his powers, Annie would feel a sudden stabbing pain in her foot, and if she looked down, her foot seemed to have gotten nailed in place, and she'd see blood coming from her foot, and it was incredibly painful for her to move her foot, since it seemed to have gotten impaled on the ground.

Mortis was definitely a bit pissed off with Perry and her growing gang of ghosts at this point. "Well this is not what I've been expecting," she commented, though clearly a little bit pained from the tazer shock at this point. She instantly sent another blast of energy at Perry with her free hand, but her aim was a bit off at this point due to the pain it would seem, and her blast went a bit wide, missing her entirely. Her second attempt to hit her wasn't much better, and also seemed to miss her entirely.

Mira was getting annoyed with Lorelei at this point, and while she was more then prepared for an attack, she couldn't help but wonder what all of this was about in general. This was a weird thing, and it didn't help that it was obvious that the group had specifically been targeting them. Actually now that she thought about it, the group who were attacking them seemed to each be targeting one person. They weren't just fighting the entire group, it seemed like a one on one fight for each person.

"Okay, anyone else find it weird they're only attacking one of us at a time and not all at once?" she couldn't help but comment to the others, right before Lorelei slammed her foot into her, sending her falling backwards onto the ground. "Well, this is getting to be a little ridiculous don't you think?"

"Well, you could just give up," Lorelei responded.

That made her think a bit more. What was the whole point about this? It sounded like she just wanted to win, not actually beat her. Considering the fact that she was giving her a chance to stand down instead. "Yeah, not happening, you attacked first anyway," Mira responded, before jumping up rather easily, running up and sending a flying kick straight into Lorelei sending her flying. Though she wasn't done as a rather loud shriek soon followed while Lorelei was still in the air, which sent her even more flying off into a wall. Mira had held back on the shriek a little bit, so she was pretty sure that Lorelei wasn't dead or anything, plus she was starting to move a bit again and slowly starting to get up.

---

---

Well, to say Lance was kind of freaking out a bit at this point was an understatement. He really should start carrying around a first aid kit or something at this point. Since this was just proving that they can't always just rely on one person to fix or heal someone, and while he had medical skils, right now he did not have anything with him that could potentially fix this situation. The speedster was currently bleeding out, Guin was now asking him for ideas on what to do, and he had no ideas aside from at least trying to stop most of the bleeding.

Phantazia looked like for a moment she was going to attack Guin again, but stopped when she decided to stand down, "Fine, little less fun this way, but oh well," she commented, before she ended up back at her own pod, and it took off into the air and away.

"Well. Uh, this is not a good situation. Guin what he needs is a hospital and with all the chaos not sure an ambulance and paramedics would want to come in here to us to get him on a stretcher and out of here," he said to her, trying to think of what to do. That's when a thought crossed his mind. A lot of places this big had first aid stations or something like that, it might have the tools needed to maybe at least get him somewhat stable, but then again. Without more blood going into his body, Pietro likely would die even if they bandaged up all of his injuries. Now he was remembering something, namely way back during the whole incident with Mesmero when a few different people needed blood transfusions, and they had been going through all the options of who could be a donor for who. "Without a transfusion he's not going to get out of here. Guin, how do you feel about a blood transfusion? He's A positive, you're A negative, you can be a donor for him. I probably can do a makeshift one if I can find a first aid station, give me a few moments, just stay by him and don't move," this was definitely going to end well.

He raced away from where Guin and Pietro were, looking for a map of sorts, and when he found one, he saw, thankfully, that there wasn't one too far away, so he headed off in that direction going as fast as he could. Eventually, he reached the area and tried the door, and of course with his luck, it turned out to be locked. Well considering this was a bit of an emergency, he didn't hesitate to blast the door knob off and went inside, immediately opening up drawers, looking for the items he needed. Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, there wasn't an actual transfusion kit, but there was tubing, some needles, medical tape, latex gloves and alcohol wipes, with given the circumstances would have to work. There wasn't any thread or something to do stitches with though for some reason, but luckily there was a craft store on his way back, so he raced in and grabbed a sewing needle and some thread, not really caring that he technically was robbing the store at this point.

With his arms full of the stuff he had grabbed, he made it back to where the two were, and he looked at Guin as he started assembling the makeshift transfusion setup after tossing on some gloves. "Alright, before actually sticking this in I'm going to see about stitching up some of these injuries. Sure cauterizing them works kind of, but overall it isn't actually the best thing to fully stop the bleeding. Now Guin, we're going to basically be doing a makeshift transfusion, one of the needles going into you, one into him, just applying pressure to the tube to allow the blood to flow. We just need enough to go into him to stabilize him at least a little bit better so we can get him to an actual doctor." The full thing was setup now, and after threading and disinfecting the needle, he started stitching up his injuries. There were a lot of holes that were bleeding, but he was managing to sort of close them up. At least it would be enough to be able to get him to a hospital or something.

---

---

“Get the fuck off of me!!” Frenzy instantly shouted out loud, fighting off the zombie. Or at least attempting to. She managed to knock one of the clowns away from her, and it was clear she was dealing with a lot of injuries in general from the zombie attacks. Here was hoping that Neil didn't accidentally start the zombie apocalypse or something like that right? She was managing to fight off the zombies, for now anyway. At least it was keeping her occupied with them instead of trying to throw Neil around.

Bethany would be able to use Tom's shadow against him. The spikes would shoot up from his shadow and manage to stab into his leg, injuring him and causing a bit of pain. Though in response, Black Tom just let out a bit of a wicked laugh, before going over and trying to hit Bethany with his glorified club (his schillelagh). Nothing like keeping it simple, and he'd hit her pretty hard in general, enough to knock her over and cause a massive headache, nothing too special other wise as the shadow minions and plant minions were keeping each other busy.

Sabretooth definitely didn't seem phased by the black space near him that Max had created. Actually, because of his senses in general, even if he was blinded, he'd likely still be able to catch up to him. And catch up to him he did. Sabretooth seemingly managed to get around the black hole thing and charged at Max, picking him up off of the ground at this point, claws around his throat, they'd start digging into his skin, causing him to bleed. He then proceeded to throw him into the ground with enough force to create a crater where he was, and it was aggravating his broken limb even more, likely causing some more damage to his arm at this point.

Toad was annoyed that Ed didn't seem to be taking his fight or anything like that seriously! Was he really not seen as a threat to him? That was so unfair! Toad thought nothing of it, and decided to do an old fashioned tackle attempt towards Ed, though in almost comical fashion, Toad whiffed it and kind of landed in a bit of a crumple right in front of Ed. "Well this is dumb, just hold still!" Toad complained as he got up off the ground, before attempting to hit Ed with his tongue again, but once more he sort of whiffed the attack and missed.

Nekra smirked, almost finding it a bit amusing that Jaclyn had seemingly flown up into the air. "What? Are you trying to avoid the fight here?" She commented with a bit of a laugh, "Seems like you might be a bit scared." It was almost like she was taunting her, and because of how low in the air she was, it didn't take much of a jump for Nekra to hit her again. This time she mainly caused some bruises more then anything with her punch attempt. At least it didn't send her down into the ground again, so that was something at least for the moment, though Jaclyn definitely would be feeling the pain from her injuries at this point really.

“‘course I will! Hate to see ya like this mate - why’d you sell out to these fucking assholes?” Pyro said to Max after having gotten up off the ground by the tree. Though he still wasn't stopping in his own attacks, as he sent some whips of fire directly at Mary. She wasn't fully expecting him to get up and attack her so quickly at this point. The fire swirled around and managed to send Mary backwards, the fire burning her skin, and now she was definitely mad.

"Whatever happens, remember you attacked us first," she responded, getting up from where she was, though now behind her the fire started swirling, and there would be the appearance of a bird flying behind her, before she sent it flying forwards and mixing it with various plant life and such that went charging with it, directly at Pyro. The combination of fire and plant life slammed directly into Pyro with a loud crack, and this time, he was not going to be getting up any time soon. The fire seemed to have finally done some decent amounts of damage and burned Pyro. The fire swirled around him, before the flying creation came directly back to Mary, staying by her. Though the fire was gone by Pyro, didn't seem like he'd be getting up any time soon, as he got knocked out. Though a small fire bird of sorts seemed to land on Mary's shoulder at this point, and she looked around the rest of the group to see if she could help somewhere now.

---

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The fight continued to ensue all around him. Everyone seemingly making strides in progress against their foes save for Max. Lucky for him, he was used to the chaos that fights could bring, the cacophony of screams and sounds of powers being exerted over one another, surrounding him as he watched each mutant handle their battle on their own. He needed to finish this with Sabertooth, he needed to talk to Pyro and see what it was that they planned to do here. Why they attacked, and what paradise they were thinking of. Had Magneto had a back up to Genosha? Was it only to a select few? Or was something Sinister at play here as a trap is being laid out for mutantkind? All of those thoughts had to wait, swiftly pushed out as one took root and replaced all others. As Neil turned to look at Max with yellow eyes and a dead voice asking him why he'd killed them.

At first Max was confused. He'd never killed any clowns, let alone harmed one. He didn't care for the finality of death, he didn't purposely enact it on anyone he faced, not even Selene. The only person Max had ever attempted to murder was the cthulu motherfucker from the Vault that dared lay claim to the title if Sorcerer Supreme. But one of the zombies shambles off behind the others, donning a familiar uniform. He saw Waverlys mom, gaping hole still in her as she continued to haunt him till this day. He didn't know what cruel joke the universe was playing at him, but he didn't care for it either way. The blacks of his eyes shrunk down until they were the size of a pinhole, all other sounds and people fading away as he kept hearing Neil's voice replay in his head as he transfixed onto Waverlys mom.

Max could hear Strange's voice, echoing the back of his mind, barely audible over the sound of his own heart beating in his ears. Something about maintaining control, not letting his emotions…he could feel the magic and chaos swirling inside of him, in his center as it burned to get out. He tried to hold it in and then…claws gripped at his throat, his body moved but not of it own accord before being slammed into the ground. It was like a shock to his system, everything he'd been holding in was now freed to get out. As the crater formed beneath his body, an explosion of fire wisped and erupted out from him. A radial are blasting across the garden as discolored flames of black, pinks, blues, and whites littered the space. In areas where the fire reached, tombstones began to emerge each bearing the name of someone Max had lost and felt immense guilt for. People he was too weak to save.

One by one the were created, Leighton, Waverly, Her mother, Star Eyes, one for every fallen student of Selene's coven, and finally one popped up right next to Ed bearing his name. Max's eyes were now back to full black, universes once again spinning within them. He peered into Sabertooths eyes as his staff began to eminate with power. A portal opened up between the two, a rift between spaces, as Sabertooth fell through and landed 50 feet away Max, allowing the magic mutant to slowly get himself back up from within the crater.

"Let's get one thing clear Spellman. I don't kill. There is always another way." Where as Neil's voice was strange and distant, Max's was strong and demanding in this instance. "Mutants shouldn't have to fight each other, we shouldn't kill each other, and I refuse to be a part of another person's war or agenda. So come at me if you will dog breath, but I will not lift a finger to harm you for some forsaken paradise. I've seen what those look like already and how quickly they crumble."

Before Max could respond to Pyro, a swirl of fire and plants danced and reshaped into a fiery bird, a Phoenix. Pieces clicked in place as he realized what the presence he'd felt earlier was, a cosmic force known to him not only through his mutant channels, but also because of his mystical ones. He'd seen as much about an entity known as the Phoenix Force, something that had been described as "the embodiment of the very passion of Creation—the spark that gave life to the Universe, the flame that will ultimately consume it." What it was doing with Marygold he had no idea, but the awe of it alone was enough to snap him back to his senses a bit. Even more reason to get on this team, Sorcerers should help to keep the cosmos safe from extraplanar issues that threaten the fabric of reality, or at least he'd heard Strange say as much.

Max looked towards where he'd tossed Sabertooth, then towards Ed in the distance. He didn't know if in his current state he could manage a jump there, let alone walk. So he decided to make due with his own power, multi-colored strands stitching together wounds across his body, and helping to alleviate aches and pains he'd endured from all the beatings Sabertooth had hammered into him. Max had no idea how he'd even manage to knock out Sabertooth, and he refused to kill the mutant, but all he could do now was take a beating and heal back up in between bouts.

---

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---

OfAll -working through a headache at the very least- was trying to observe the battlefield as well as she could from this height -- there had to be something she could see, that she could put together...

While nothing advantageous was jumping out at her, she did notice a couple of her teammates.

It seemed the crack that had rang out before was from Max's arm, given the look of it when he got up. OfAll noticed his face more; the pain in it beyond just physical.

She also noticed Edus; attention on his teammates more than that Toad guy.
Natural as it was -nobody from the Mansion was fighting only for themselves, and there were different roles to play, maybe his was typically that of the healer- it stood out to OfAll somehow.

Then her attention was brought back to Nekra at her taunting words.
"Errghhh!" She was hit again.

Well, flying did seem to offer her some advantage after all, as for the first time, a hit by Nekra hadn't sent OfAll on an unavoidable collision course with a solid surface, but this hardly gave OfAll a figurative lift. She still had no idea what to do.

Now her attention was being taken by the feeling of being banged up and bruised.
And there was so much else going on -- the sounds of combat all around her, powers going off,
the feeling of tension, emotions....

She heard a strange voice, saw Neil staring in Max's, but she wasn't sure what was said.

OfAll was good at focusing under pressure, thinking through stress.
She was not good at doing these things amidst chaos. It was like encountering tree branches fallen over the tracks of her thoughts.
Or having to put out one fire after another without time between to figure out why they were igniting in the first place.

Wait a minute...OfAll was seeing more fire ignite. Flames of eerie yet wonderful colours,
emanating from Max!

Tombstones seemed to rise up in their wake.
What was this about?

Then she heard his voice loud and clear..
..and it brought clarity.

Not about the tombstones, but this fight. This wasn't a large battle, these were matches.
A snippet of earlier conversation filtered back into OfAll's mind: "...securing his spot in paradise..."

OfAll didn't know what was going on, yet conversely realized what was happening.
"I don't recognize this contest, either," she stated in a bold voice, essentially echoing Max's sentiments.

Though just as she was saying this, a new sound rumbled forth almost over her words.
She looked around and saw yet more flames, this time in the shape of a bird and somehow mingling with various plant life.
This time, it was all emanating from Marygold.

"Phoenix..." OfAll spoke nearly inaudibly, processing what she was perceiving....

---

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Carolina was having a really hard time trying to possess Amelia, but at least she wasn't actively attacking her body or anything like that which was a good thing then but she was definitely fighting back against her. When Carolina tried to force more of her control over Amelia's body she was ejected out of her body again. Carolina let out a rather annoyed groan as she closed her eyes and then tried to possess Amelia once more.

Carolina managed to successfully take control of Amelia Vought, her attention turned towards Mastermind who was attacking her friend Annie, which she didn't want her friend to be hurt or killed by him. She tried to turn Mastermind into mist but sadly that didn't happen at all which she let out an annoyed groan as her attention went to Mira. "Yeah it's weird and annoying." Carolina said through Amelia's body, hoping that she would be able to maintain her control.

---

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Bethany was slightly distracted as Max decided to summon a bunch of corpses to the fight, and then she watched as they were brought to life. "Why would you bring in some Walking Dead Universe extras here?" Bethany called out to Max, as Black Tom ended up smacking her in the head with her glorified walking stick pretty much. Which caused her to land on the ground, Bethany could feel her head and ears ringing, she slowly started to get back up to her feet again cracking her neck. What Bethany wasn't expecting to see was a large fire bird mixed in with a bunch of plants had attacked Pyro taking him out of the fight which was a good thing then.

Her trick using Tom's shadows against him seemed to work again as she started to back up again trying to cover as much ground as possible between herself and Black Tom. Luckily her little shadow minions were still holding their own at least for the time being, Bethany held out both of her hands and started to send several more shadowy spikes from Tom's shadow as they stabbed him. "You have two options, option one you surrender, the second option I keep stabbing you with your own shadow which I can keep going all day." She said, hoping to get him to stop the fight.

---

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There was no answer from Pietro's unconscious mind. Guin did her best to keep calm, even though she felt like tearing off her own skin. This wasn't going to be like Muscles - it couldn't be like Muscles. Pietro wasn't going to die. And if he was dying, then they would save him. And if they couldn't save him, then she would resurrect him. Heroes came back from the dead all the time. It was practically a rite of passage at this point. Everything was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine.

Guin forced herself to take another deep breath, as if that would keep her heart from exploding out her chest. Pietro? Please, babe, say something to me... Guin had to resist the urge to scream and shake him, to mentally force him awake. But she knew the best thing they could do for him right now would be to focus on healing him. She stayed by him as Lance left, seconds stretching out into a horrifying eternity of limbo. Guin's heart tore itself into two bits that could never quite be stitched back together. She imagined ripping Exodus' spine out through his throat. She imagined burying Pietro, dressed in black.

She didn't want to focus on it, but she saw that bleak future stretched out in front of her. She'd lose her true love here. And it would shake her. Maybe enough that the Narcotics Anonymous meetings wouldn't help anymore. Maybe enough that she'd lose her moral compass. Maybe she would set the entire world on fire, just to see it burn. Maybe she would bring out a technological doomsday, an apocalypse of sentinels. Maybe she would become something of pure apathy and hate. Maybe...

Guin breathed in again.

Everything was going to be fine.

Lance was back now - Guin nodded as he explained the plan, beginning with quickly stitching up Pietro's wounds. "Okay, let's do this," Guin said, her voice sounding calmer than she felt. Every time she closed her eyes - every time she so much as blinked - she saw Muscles dying in front of her. And when she opened her eyes again, she saw Pietro there, dying. Her hands were somehow steady as she picked up the needle, and extended out her left arm. She had done something like this before - not a blood transfusion, but something else.

She got the needle inside of her - and then, once Lance gave the go ahead - she put the other needle end into Pietro.

---

---

Ordinarily, Neil would've withered at that rebuke from Max. He never would have dared to upset a powerful ancient mage like that. But he wasn't entirely himself right now - he never was entirely himself when he tapped into the dark forces that allowed him to reanimate the dead. Or maybe he was himself. Maybe this was who Neil Spellman really was - some gaunt creature of darkness, almost human but not quite. He didn't say anything to Frenzy, as the zombies continued to try to rip and tear and devour her.

Instead, he answered Max curtly, still gazing in his direction with his haunting yellow eyes. "You killed them," Neil echoed. He hadn't been fazed by Max's display of cosmic power - by the tombstones or the cosmic energy that had manifested in the garden. Ordinarily, Neil would have been. But not now. Not like this. Neil was connected to something else, twisting and altering his perceptions, causing the extraordinary to seem so... mundane. "Why did you kill them, Max?" Neil repeated.

Paradise. That concept caused Neil to laugh ever so softly. Mutants weren't the only ones who had bled and died in the name of paradise. People like him and Max could never really exist in one though - the snakes could not live in the garden. The devil could not be amongst the angels. Those touched by dark magic could not dwell in the light. "I can smell the death on you. You're drowning in it."

He then turned his head back to Frenzy, as she had managed to fight off one of his clown zombies. And then, calmly, with utmost focus, Neil pelted her telekinetically with rocks.

---

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"You attacked a group of mutants at a mall and didn't expect this? Stylish, but dumb." Peregrine managed to miss those attacks, though she wasn't sure if she could last much longer. Thankfully, her small ghost army had her back. Ed and Barry ran up near her. "This is an average day for you? The most action I ever saw were some teenagers spray painting the walls." Detective Ed checked his watch. "We don't have time for this. Let's hit her with all we got." Ed looked over towards Barry, who looked back with an expression that read "are you kidding me?"

Still, to their credit, they launched into an attack, Barry shooting another zap at Mortis, hitting her slightly. It was Ed that took the win, clenching his fist into ice before reaching at Mortis through her chest. Peregrine didn't know what to expect, but she didn't expect what happened next. Instead of damaging the woman, Mortis turned into one giant icy pop. Peregrine looekd at Ed and then at Barry. "Well. Okay then. Not what I expected but a win is a win."

Perry looked for the others to see if she needed to spring into action. Mira (being the boss bitch Perry thought she was) seemed to be handling herself just fine. The other two, Caroline and Annie, also seemed to have matters more or less sorted (though Perry didn't know to what extent).

Perry glanced around the food court and spotted a first aid kit. It was abandoned (not surprising considering they were literally throwing punches and powers at each other) so Perry ran over and grabbed it. She started to patch her wounds up, though she had to admit, she was not trained in this sort of thing. Still, she wrapped it up to the best of her ability. It would hold until she sought actual help.

"Keep an eye on the others in case they need help, but I think they got this. Why were we attacked though? And why does it feel like this was coordinated? I mean we paired off equally. Something smells fishy and it isn't coming from Panda Express."