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The pain was unreal. Tears poured down Antoinette’s face as she kept shaking her head, chanting in her head, and out loud, that it wasn’t real. ”This isn’t real, isn’t real. It’s not real; it’s not real.” She kept reminding herself of when he enclosed her in that room. All he had were his illusions; he couldn’t make them real. It didn’t stop them from feeling real, but Antoinette still tried to push Mastermind from her mind by blocking him out with the strength she had left.
She felt the shift as her vision cleared, allowing her other senses to kick back into play. She saw the others locked in their own battles with the food court as a backdrop. Mastermind stood before her, looking sinister from the glow of the various lights. She narrowed her eyes. Pain vibrated through her body, but she knew it wasn’t real. Antoinette used the pain to keep herself focused and marched forward again. Her eyes sparkled with the same shades of sparkle that now surrounded her right hand. She twisted and pulled back to land a punch into Mastermind’s face. His head snapped back, but it didn’t affect him much, and she didn’t burn him as she had hoped. Antoinette didn’t relent and threw another punch. The force of this one made him stumble back. Antoinette advanced again, bent into her knees, tucked her elbows in and swung up to land a hit under Mastermind’s chin. He landed on his ass. Antoinette stared down at him, her eyes still sparkling.
”Foolish is another word for fantastic.” Her voice was its usual airy charm, but her eyes held courage.

---

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Ed was annoyed with Toad. He was frustrated with this fight. There was way too much going on for Ed to be able to keep track of everyone and everything, and he knew that healing a broken bone mid-fight would be basically impossible. Max was putting on a wild display, which included summoning corpses. Now beside Ed, a tombstone bearing his own name had appeared. He really didn't want to think about it. He was going to have to ask Max about his premonition, though.

"Look, I don't get what this is about, but I need you just to take a break or something." Ed said to Toad, and he flicked his arm, and a blast of orange light hit Toad. Despite having just stood up, Toad crumpled to the ground. To be certain, Ed knelt down and checked for a pulse. Reassured that he hadn't just broken a family law Ed stood back up. He had to address the "EDUS" tombstone in the room. Ed made his way back toward the center of the fray.

"Max...about this tombstone...I think you have something to tell me that I'm not going to like hearing. Also, I can't heal that break during the battle. I need to set it before I can." The fight at least seemed to have ended for Mary. Pyro was down, he had definitely picked the wrong person to try to fight. That left OfAll's fight, Max, Neil, and Bethany. Bethany had Black Tom and was stabbing him with his own shadows; talk about 'stop hitting yourself.' Neil had the zombies under his control and pelted his opponent with rocks, which was vaguely hilarious.

He needed to heal the residual damage Toad had done to him. His orange light flickered from his hands, healing only the barest superficial damage. His head was still ringing. He slowed down his breathing and concentrated, the light grew steadier and the aches from the fight went away. His head cleared up.

"OfAll, are you doing okay? If you can get to me I'll heal you again." With her flying around and her own opponent Ed wasn't certain if he could risk diving into the fight again. However, it did seem this fight was intentionally one v one, which made him even more nervous about interfering with another fight. He glanced at Mary to see what she planned on doing now that she had proven not to fuck with the person currently hosting the Pheonix.

---

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Amelia was not thrilled with what Carolina was attempting to do, that much was obvious, and Carolina would feel her starting to fight back. A lot. Once again they seemed for a moment to be at a stalemate, with being unable to move in general or anything like that. Well what happened next was not going to end up being a good thing for Carolina, since Amelia immediately managed to get some control, and just turned her body into mist, which resulted in Carolina seemingly getting kicked out of possessing her body.

Though that wasn't the end for it at all.

As Carolina was essentially getting kicked back to her own body, Amelia while still a floating mist did something else. That being when Carolina went back to her own body, she'd find yet again that she could not move. Why? Because now she'd see that she was essentially a floating mist cloud, unable to really do much of anything. It'd feel like she when she was wandering around on the astral and projecting, but the one big difference being that she could not move at all over it.

"Well this has been fun, but I don't like it when someone tries to control my actions. Oh don't worry, you'll be back to normal in another minute or two, but I'm heading off, the winners of this bout already got declared, so time for myself and them to leave," she said towards her after rematerializing nearby. She didn't give her an explanation for what she meant by that, but the orb things that the group had arrived in were starting to move now, towards the group now, and she glanced over at Peregrine, Annie and Mira who had clearly dealt with the opponents they had been fighting. As now Mastermind and Lorelei didn't seem to be getting up, and Mortis was currently a popsicle.

"What exactly is she going on about?" Mira muttered under her breath, looking at everyone else, but also coughing a second, her voice was starting to sound a bit hoarse. The downside of her powers being that sort of thing. She didn't have much time to decide on what best to do or to potentially see about dealing with Amelia, when one of the orbs shot over to be right next to her. Two others shot over and landed next to Peregrine and Annie too. Now this was getting weird.

Before she could say anything else about it, the orb opened up and some robotic arms shot out, before yanking her off of her feet and into the pod. The two next to Perry and Annie also proceeded to do the exact same thing, before shutting up tight, and taking off somewhere into the air and going straight up into the sky. The pods would seemingly fill with a knockout gas of some sorts, which would cause those yanked into them to pass out.

---

---

Pietro seemed to still not be waking up, but in the back of her head, Guin would hear a very very kind of quiet response. Everything hurts and Exodus is insane ow...

Lance gave Guin the go ahead to put the other end of the needle into Pietro's vein to at least get that sort of thing going, as he had mainly stitched up everything (there were a lot of holes that had been bleeding) and he was using his powers to sort of burn things a little bit with the stitching to sort of ensure that they'd say secure and wouldn't open up super quickly. He still had no idea what was going on or what had just happened, but now the thing that stuck out to him was that it had gotten eerily quiet. Up until not that long ago the pair would have been able to hear a few things with regards to the fight in the food court (namely Mira's screech and a bunch of crashing and things breaking) but now there was just. Nothing.

"We need to be careful moving him, but we need to see about getting him to a place with better medical equipment... Which do you think would be closer or faster to get to, a hospital or back to the mansion where maybe Ed can heal him? This is a bit weird in general with regards to why they attacked us in the first place. But pretty sure Exodus had been looking for an excuse or something to attack Pietro... Wonder if it was just us who got attacked or if anyone else did..." they could get Pietro at least kind of stable this way, but then they needed to move. The speedster needed more help then they could do right now, and if everything had potentially calmed down elsewhere, they might be able to get him moved somewhere.

---

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The fights seemed to be ending, and Mary took a few deep breaths, the fire around her dimming down a bit. Sure the power that she ended up getting stuck with was useful, but she still wasn't sure about it, and at times she sat there trying to just convince the entity to leave. Since she knew the risks of it being around, especially after what happened the last time the Phoenix was on Earth. Those conversations and attempts didn't exactly end well, and the only thing that got it to leave before was when Jean had died. Losing control would end poorly, and she really didn't want to risk that, especially do to the other voice in her head that lately had been oddly quiet.

The other fights seemed to be ending at this point now, as Ed had taken out Toad, she'd dealt with Pyro, and then a few others ended up going down. The one the fell was actually Black Tom Cassidy, as the injuries that Bethany was causing were becoming a bit much for him. He managed to send a blast of energy at Bethany one more time, throwing her backwards, but he eventually collapsed from the injuries and blood loss caused by the spikes that she had been stabbing him with. The plant minions he had created disappeared once he seemingly passed out from his injuries.

Frenzy seemed to be losing really badly to the zombies now, and it didn't take too much longer for her to end up collapsing to the ground. Despite being durable, it seemed like the three undead things were enough after a little while to cause enough damage to take her down.

Now onto Max. It didn't seem like Sabretooth was all for letting Max get around and constantly heal or something. Personally, he did actually want to kill him, but given that he technically only needed to incapacitate, and given the other fights ending. Sabretooth decided to just do that so that he wouldn't have to seemingly deal with the larger group targeting him immediately. How did he plan on doing that exactly? By making it so that he couldn't walk anymore of course! Sabretooth charged back over at Max, and due to his speed, he easily was there, and this time he picked Max up off the ground and instead of just pounding him into the ground or anything, he ended up spinning him around a bit, before throwing him. Max ended up getting sent flying at an odd angle, and there was another crack when he landed, this time it was one of his legs breaking. Sabretooth just walked over to where he was, and slammed his foot on his other leg, with another loud crack sounding off, signaling the other one was now broken too.

Jaclyn really should have probably been paying more attention to the fighting going on near her as opposed to the fire display nearby. As Nekra took this opportunity to attack her once more, and this time she likely wasn't going to really be fighting anymore for the moment anyway. Nekra jumped back up, and considering the fact that Jaclyn wasn't super far away from the ground, it wasn't too difficult for her to get a hold of her. "You really should pay more attention to your opponent," Nekra commented, before she leapt at Jaclyn, and kicking her directly in the head with a lot of force. Jaclyn would go spiraling back down to the ground with a loud crash, and she'd be incredibly dazed and light headed, plus there would be a lot of pain shooting through her entire body. Nothing seemed to be broken, but it would be incredibly painful to move. "Oh look at that, I win it seems. Doesn't seem like you know much about combat." she commented with a shrug.

There was that sort of thinking again, needing to win. It stuck out to Mary and it was definitely more then a bit odd. Of course, before she could go over to aid Jaclyn or Max against Nekra and Sabretooth, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Weird pod things seemed to be moving towards the group now, and they were flying into the area fast. "What the hell is going on now?" she said, before the pods seemed to land by various people. Sabretooth and Nekra both just seemingly walked into the two that landed by them as if nothing strange was going on. Then again, this entire situation was beyond weird to her, but that's when she noticed one of the things had landed near her.

She wasn't the only one who had one land next to her though, as Neil, Ed and Bethany would all have ones currently next to them. Without warning, the pods would opening up, with robotic arms shooting out, and each one of them would end up getting yanked into them, leaving the other two behind with the four Brotherhood members who were all knocked out as all of the pods shot up into the sky. Mary instantly tried to get the pod to open back up, but it seemed to be fairly strong, and some sort of knockout gas filled the pod, and she passed out.

---

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While a part of her mind was still processing the apparent Phoenix situation, OfAll registered some of the other battle details going on on the Grounds.

This was the strangest fight she had ever witnessed.
Unsettling, really.
Variously intense.

And if this was some sort of duel, apparently conceding was not an acceptable response to it - she was shocked to witness the final treatment of Max by Sabretooth. It was painful just to watch, and on a sympathetic level, she felt it -- before feeling herself getting slammed again seconds after Nekra's voice registered in her ear.

OfAll now lay, feeling improperly conscious mentally, yet all too aware physically -- she'd never felt pain like this in her life.
Vaguely now, her mind was still on her teammates -- Max was down, but the others had handled their opposers. There was a sense of completion in the air - the fights were over.

Jaclyn heard some sound she couldn't distinguish and, with effort and careful movements, she tried to find the source.

She was hazily aware of some pods - reaching out? - and grabbing those who were near.
She hadn't seen who all that was, but knew at least a couple of her teammates were among them.

Jaclyn felt a fresh wave of worry, but her next attempt to move resulted in such pain she had to stop.

Feeling now on the verge of fainting, she knew she couldn't do anything -- even if she were at full strength she couldn't fly after whatever those were, which were now vanishing into the sky!

Jaclyn lay her head on her arms, closed her eyes, and tried to get on top of the dizziness.
She was still thinking of Max, laying half broken many yards away.

They both needed serious attention.
Jaclyn wished she could manifest telepathy.

But the battle hadn't lasted long enough for her to do a power-switch.
Even then, telepathy was one of the ones she was leery about.

"Edus? Are you still here?" She called out shakily, shifting her head just enough that her voice wouldn't be muffled by her sleeves.

Nothing.

"M-Max?" She managed to call out a little stronger. "Can you heal yourself?" She was pretty sure she had seen him do a bit of that, but then again, a lot was a blur. Perhaps she was conflating things, or misinterpreted or....lights and colours seemed to dance in front of her eyes and slide through her mind; floaters, and her knocked-about brain's reprocessing of the events.

---

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Carolina was doing her best to try and maintain control over Amelia but she was fighting against her which was something that Carolina wasn't really expecting this much resistance from someone. Amelia ended up ejecting her and she was back into her own body, as Carolina was about to get up again, she realized that she couldn't even move as Amelia spoke to her. Everyone else's other fights were going better than hers really Mira, Annie and Perry managed to win their own fights. Carolina felt completely helpless she couldn't even move at all for some reason, when she realized that she was turned into a cloud of mist.

Amelia made her way over towards her pod and got inside, and the three other pods were moving towards Perry, Annie and Mira seeing that arms had came out of them and grabbed her three friends. The pods quickly closing with them inside and watched them all flying off through the ceiling of the mall again to who knows where. A few seconds later Carolina landed on the ground with a slight thud, she was back to her normal body again and completely alone aside from the ones who had attacked them leaving her completely alone in the food court.

---

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Bethany was smacked again by Black Tom knocking her back a little bit landing on her back with a bit of a thud, she groaned slightly as Bethany got back up to her feet. She saw Black Tom ending up collapsing in front of her luckily she won her fight against him as her little shadow companions started to disappear. "Looks like I won then." Beth said as she could hear the sound of bone being broken and watched as Sabertooth easily managed to take out the new guy Max and Jaclyn being thrown back onto the ground with a loud thud.

Mary, Ed, and Neil seemed to have won their fights as well to which was good, but she noticed the ones that had attacked their group made their way towards the pods and entered them. When Bethany turned she saw one had suddenly appeared right next to her, arms suddenly came out of them and grabbed her dragging her inside of it and sealing behind her. Bethany started to try and break free but it was a lot harder, when gas started to fill the entire pod Bethany was knocked out rather quickly.

---

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Contest? Max thought to himself as Jaclyn called out after him. He hadn't thought about any of this as a contest, but Pyro had mentioned that he was doing this to secure a spot in Paradise. Did they need to win in order to get it? What happened to those that won but had no idea of the prize? None of it was adding up inside of his mind. Bethany seemed to ask about the bodies he brought along, though he didn't see the reason why. Neil was losing badly, he was out of his element, and apparently good ol Charles could afford to have his own son locked up inside of a Mausoleum but not have any bodies nearby for his necromancer mutants? The hypocrisy. Max was about ready to be done with all of this, wondering what would happen if he'd just teleported all but Pyro away to Magentos Island.

He was about to start his spell when Neil continued onwards, barrating him about those he'd summoned. He felt that pit inside his stomach again, the churning feeling as he heard his words reverberating inside his ears. He felt his Magix well up inside of him, flickers threatening to pulse out again, but he didn't. His time with Strange wasn't a waste. He may be one of his most unorthodox students, but he was a student nonetheless. He'd deal with Spellman later. For now…he had a whole other monster to fight. Ed. Max saw the tombstone that rose over by where Ed had once stood, and based on what Ed was asking, he knew who it belonged to. Luckily they pushed past that and straight towards his arm, but it seemed unlike James, Ed had to set the bone before continuing. He didn't realize how much he relied on James and his Omega level healing. He'd be sure to tell him next they met.

Max was going to try once more, a spell to get rid of all their attackers save for the friendly, but before a single word could leave his lips he felt his stomach crawling up his throat. The world washed by in a blur, colors fading to nothing until he was finally let go with another sickening snap before a third followed as Sabertooth stepped onto his leg. He screamed out in pain, his hand moving towards his leg, shakily as the pain overtook him. He laid his back into the dirt, eyes closed as he took in short sharp breaths, prepping for what was to come next. Max tried to prop himself up on his good elbow, using the staff to create splints and bandaging around his limbs to help set the bones. Pain kept flooding through him and he managed it alright, but only conjuring them around him not on him.

Heard back down, taking in a few more breaths before getting himself back up to a manageable position, taking the materials with him in one hand as he let go of the staff. Max reached over towards his other arm, trying his best to set it but all he managed was to cause more pain as he screamed through gritted teeth before falling back onto his back and breathing sharply to ease the pain. One, two, three, he tried once more, finally getting to do a piss poor job of it but enough to help out somewhat. A few more breaths. "Jac- I…Ed?" He saw the orb sprout arms and take him in, and then…black.

---

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Guin almost missed the quiet voice nagging in the back of her head - but as she cleared her thoughts and focused on it, it grew louder and louder against the background noise, until she was able to make it out. It was Pietro. Her heart fluttered with relief. "I can hear him again," Guin told Lance quickly, figuring that the Battle Nurse would need to know that information. Carefully, Guin inserted the other needle into Pietro's vein, allowing the blood transfusion to begin. The fucker's gone now, everything's going to be okay, just stay with me, babe.

Guin was so focused on her dying husband that she hadn't even noticed the lack of sound coming from around them - she just saw Pietro and his legion of wounds, the speedster looking so incredibly broken and pale. "Hospital's out." Human hospitals didn't usually know how to treat the superhuman, much less mutants. And even if they were able to help Pietro, there was a good chance some of the staff would route against his care, seeing him as the terrorist member of the Brotherhood that he had once been. No, Guin wasn't going to give medical staff an opportunity to kill Pietro. That left the mansion then. Beast was probably there at medical, but Guin honestly didn't remember. "I'm going to call my dad, get a medevac, they can help stabilize him and either take him back to the mansion or to an Avengers facility."

Guin pulled out her phone, her hands shaking slightly as she hit the contact for her father - the contact photo was Tony in a pink fluffy bunny costume. As soon as Guin heard a click she started talking quickly, "Dad, I need a med-evac to the Salem Center mall now."

"Slow down Guin, what's going on?"

"There's no time, some asshole crucified Pietro, he's lost a lot of blood, Dad, he's dying. I need a med-evac now!"

"I'm sending it already Guin, don't worry it is on the way right now. It'll be okay."

"I can't lose him, Dad.... I just can't. Not to some pink religious freak!" Tony would be able to hear that Guin was crying softly - from the thought of losing her husband, not from the mild discomfort of the blood transfusion.

"I know Guin, it'll be okay, he'll be fine... Help is on the way there... Can you take a few deep breaths and tell me what happened? Who attacked you and what happened?"

"His name is Exodus, I think - he was with the Juggernaut and some bitch I don't remember the name of. They attacked us for NO REASON. We were just going to fucking GameStop!"

"Okay what the hell?" he responded, Guin then heard the sound of what was likely the medical evac she had requested showing up now. She had to give the Avengers credit - the response times were incredible. Plus, it didn't hurt that they were in New York, and most superheroes had ships capable of traveling to Mars within an hour or two these days.

"I think the evac is here now, I really have no fucking idea what's going on, like Exodus was going on about how Magneto was god and that Pietro was unworthy and shit like that, it was really really fucked up."

"You can tell me about it while we get him help okay?"

---

---

Somehow, Palpatine returned.

Somehow, Neil defeated Frenzy.

His mind cleared ever so slightly, the necromatic energy no longer coursing through his veins, shaping him as his foe fell to the ground still. Pelting her with rocks and menacing her with zombies had done the trick. But truthfully, the entire thing had felt like an out of body experience to Neil - like he had been watching someone else, the words he had said more like a script than anything spontaneous or genuine. He didn't even look like himself - not that he ever would again. The curse was unbreakable, even by the darkest of magics. He held out his hand and murmured, "rest," as the zombies fell to the ground, no longer animated.

The green glow in his eyes cleared, and Neil felt incredibly drained. His head was ringing and his mouth parched. Then, before he could go see if there was anyone around he could help with their fight, a mysterious pod crashed into the ground next to him. It opened up as suddenly as it had arrived, metal arms grabbing Neil and dragging him inside, and then... There was nothingness.

---

---

It seemed the battle was over. The others had seemingly won their respective fights, or at the very least lasted long enough that the villains who attacked got bored. Still, what was going on? How was it that they were all attacked so openly, each matched with one person? "In my line of work, coincidences were not a thing. This reads as a planned attack against you all. Barry, despite being dead and not having actual lungs, was bent over, taking some deep breaths. "That was...intense. I don't know how you aren't tired."

Peregrine, satisfied with her patch-up job, walked over to the two spirits. "Barry, you helped us out a lot. I would really appreciate it if you stuck around with me and Ed. Goddess knows he could use some company. Ed rolled his eyes. "I do not need some fat mall cop working with me. I work better alone anyway."

Barry took some more breaths before speaking. "Ordinarily, I would say no and get back to walking around this mall. But something tells me it's going to be less entertaining after today. If you feel like I can be of some help, I'd love to join. Ed shook his head, but Perry ignored him. Having multiple spirits would only be beneficial. Peregrine took a moment, closed her eyes, and sent her call out to Barry, who accepted it. Once the bond was formed, Peregrine opened her eyes back up. "Great! Now let's go to the others. I still need my corn do-"

Before she could finish, the same orbs that took the villains came crashing down near herself and the others. A metal claw reached out and grabbed her, pulling her inside. Before Peregrine could speak, a gas emanated from within, quickly causing Perry to lose consciousness. Her last thoughts were about delicious corn dogs and how someone would pay for keeping her and them apart.

---

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Mastermind seemed to be unconscious, which brought a small smile to her face. Wait until Guin heard about this one, she thought to herself. Guin. Her eyes shifted to their usual blue and purple, along with the disappearance of the fireworks surrounding her hand. If they had been attacked here, she was sure the others would have been as well. First, there was the present worry. She looked at the others to survey the damage. Carolina seemed unmoving, but the others were fine. Antoinette stepped toward Carolina when she started to register Amelia’s words. The winners?
Just then, the orbs the others arrived in zipped toward her, Perry, and Mira. Antoinette took a tentative step back, frowning when it opened. Antoinette gasped in shock. ”Car-!” She was pulled in by the robot's arms quickly. She hit the walls of her cage while a strange gas was dispelled. Slowly, her strength waned until Antoinette sagged to the ground in unconsciousness.

---

---

Ed couldn't help but wince as Max was slammed into the ground. That was going to be nasty. There was no way Ed could heal all of that, at least not in one try. But the fight seemed to have died down. It was clear who had won their fights and who had lost. Of the X-Men, only Max and OfAll lost. Both of them had been slammed really hard into the ground. Ed was concerned for both of them. And, of course, he didn't have a strand of hair from either of them.

Ed started to make his way toward them, aiming first for Max as Ed had a feeling Max wouldn't be getting up on his own before he could get to him though the strange pod had arrived next to him. The robotic arm grabbed him. Ed didn't even get out a good yell before the pod closed. A few seconds later, the pod was filling with gas. He tried to call magic to protect him but the spell failed as he fell asleep.

---

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---

At this point, several hours had passed since the fighting with the Brotherhood. The members of that group who were still around ended up getting locked up in part so that they might be able to find out what had happened. Everyone was able to get patched up, but most were somewhat slow. At the mall before hand, Carolina would end up getting picked up by the medical evacuation that Guin had called for Pietro. The four of them would eventually get dropped back off at the mansion. Pietro was doing a lot better from his injuries, but due to blood loss was still a bit light headed, so it wasn't recommended that he speed around too much at the moment.

For Jaclyn and Max, eventually they'd be able to get patched up too in the meantime. With Max's bones set correctly, he'd finally be able to take the amount of time needed to ensure he healed them correctly. Though given being only really one handed, it took him a while over all but he'd eventually be able to do that.

Now the group would be in the sitting room, some of them were definitely likely still a bit sore from the whole fight and chaos, though currently there weren't any ideas as to what the hell just happened. They had gotten attacked, and since they "lost" their fights, they ended up stuck while everyone else got grabbed and yanked off somewhere, though the where was near impossible to determine. It was a bit confusing as to what even the conflict had been about at this point.

"So what exactly do we know for a fact aside from Exodus straight up trying to kill me?" Pietro couldn't help but ask the others. He was currently leaned back in a chair, still a little bit dizzy at points, but he was recovering fairly quickly so hopefully soonish he wouldn't have to worry too much about the remaining after effects of blood loss.

"Well I think it's a bit easier to talk about what we don't know then anything," Lance commented, "Though what we do know is a few things. One, that the Brotherhood decided to attack us, for the most part trying to keep it as a one on one fight between people, which was a bit weird... The why is still a bit up in the air, and each one seemed more concerned with winning, well aside from Exodus, rather then actually accomplishing anything, which is weird."

"All I know is that I really want to knock Exodus out, but I also know that I'd likely lose that fight again, so probably not going to try anytime soon... Plus after that I kind of passed out so unsure of anything else that happened while I was out cold."

"Well the main thing was that Juggernaut didn't actually attack me when I chose to not fight back and go help you out instead. Which adds to the whole instance of them more focused on winning. Plus there was the mention of some paradise or something too... But didn't pay much attention to that given everything else going on around us."

Pietro was pretty much really wanting to go charging in after the Brotherhood group, but considering the fact they had no idea where they even were hidden or something, they couldn't really do much. Definitely going to be fun telling Doc Samson all about how a crazy follower of my dad's decided to try and straight up kill me or something at this point. he mentally said to Guin. To him this was definitely going to be fun explaining to the shrink.

There was the sound of footsteps nearby as someone else decided to enter the room, seemingly having just entered the mansion, though she stepped into the room, and just about everyone would recognize her aside from Jaclyn. That being Miranda Fay. Who last anyone checked, was in a long term relationship with Magneto for the most part, so why the hell was she here?

"Um, well, sorry for the intrusion. I was on a bit of a road trip or something, just so happened to be in the area when Charles sent me a message saying that for some reason you all might need my help with something? Though not sure what the situation appears to be or anything like that... He's not exactly easy to get any information from when he doesn't want to..."


The group that had ended up getting yanked off their feet and sent elsewhere after the fighting, they would have no clue where they were. They'd all wake up in what looked to be almost like a medical area, though it seemed more like a very brief recovery sort of thing, as there wasn't much else in the room aside from a few computers and the beds that the group had been on. Though there were a few other doorways that led to other rooms, they all were shut though, and there didn't seem to be any windows in the room at all.

Mary instantly sat upright, and she was incredibly confused as to where they were or what had happened to even get them there. The last thing she remembered was getting yanked into some sort of pod thing after beating Pyro, and Jaclyn and Max had been having a hard time fighting their opponents and she was about to go aid them when all of this happened. She glanced around the room, and noticed that those two weren't among those there.

It took a second for her to notice all of those who were in the room, which included a few who hadn't even been at the mansion during the attack. Which meant that the group that had left the mansion to go explore a nearby mall had ended up getting attacked too. This was not a good thing. They were currently in some weird place, with no idea where they were, or how to get home. Though a better idea of where came to her in the response of the entity in her head.

Remain calm, it appears you are all on a facility that was built on an asteroid of some sort. the voice said in the back of her mind.

An asteroid? Wait, wouldn't that mean that they were in space? You wouldn't by chance no where in space we are, considering the fact that space is very big and we could be anywhere.

You aren't too far from Earth at all.

That would make some sense, considering she had no idea how far those pods could potentially go, but thinking about it, she guessed they wouldn't have gone super far off. She looked over at Mira, Peregrine and Annie, having already known how Ed, Bethany, and Neil had gotten there or what had happened with them. "So you three weren't at the mansion, so what happened with you guys? We got attacked by some of Magneto's goons, figure the same happened to you or something?" she asked them, as she stood up from where she was.

Mira wasn't entirely sure where they were, but she did see the others in the room, as well as Mary asking them a question. The fact that what she said was almost exactly like what happened with them. "That sounds almost identical to what happened with us... We were in the food court before those pods shot through the roof and crashed on the ground, and a few of them exited them and attacked us... Though this leads to the question of where the hell are we?"

"...According to one of the many voices in my head we're on some weird asteroid somewhere near Earth. But very much in space so yeah, that's fun."

"Huh, that's interesting, since in order to have it so that this facility could even really exist you'd have to either somehow find an asteroid with actual gravity and atmosphere, or build machinery and such to create artificial ones. Kind of impressive really. Though that doesn't answer the question of why we got dragged here, and why only some of us, why not any others?"

"No idea, but doesn't seem like anyone is coming into the room to answer our questions at the moment."

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It was as though the battle she'd just been through had been recorded, and as Jaclyn lay recovering, her mind decided to play it over.
Things she didn't fully process in the heat of the battle now had its time....Actually, Jaclyn wasn't sure it was what happened or if she was coming in and out of a dream while she rested.

It was all so bizarre....

What stuck in Jaclyn's mind clearly, however, was how out of her depth she had been.
She'd been trounced.

She thought of the power display of everyone else on the team who'd been at the Mansion.
Even though Max lost like she had, up to that moment he had fought awesomely - in the old sense of the word.

The mall-goers must've put up a similar display of deftness, as of the ones that returned, it seemed at least one of them had only "lost" by no longer participating in battle in favour of helping Pietro. Apparently the mall opponents were less bloodthirsty than the Mansion ones, as declining such a contest hadn't saved Max or Jaclyn from further pain - well, she couldn't have expected anything else from Sabretooth; now she knew Nekra was from the same camp.

So they'd all been the Brotherhood? Jaclyn hadn't registered that.
It was actually something about this that made some sense. But only so far....The Brotherhood usually had some purpose to what they did. A purpose that didn't align with the X-Men's, but one none the less.

So the purpose here was selecting worthy ascenders to paradise?
What did that even mean? And was it just them...?

Jaclyn turned her mind away from that problem - the more pressing one, for her, was her battling capabilities.
Surviving on the streets hadn't prepared her for surviving in combat.

She stared out towards the patio as these thoughts went through her mind: she needed to broaden her ability pool.

She thought of the powers the others had used....Magic would require a conversation with either Ed or Max (or Neil) to understand in order for Jaclyn to practice it herself; she hadn't known any magic users previous to this. Not personally, anyway. She knew of Doctor Strange, but was positive he wasn't a mutant. But Max, Ed and Neil had to be if they were here, right? So she could mimic their abilities.

But of course Ed and Neil were...where ever those giant marbles took them. Jaclyn wasn't so sure about Neil's display of magic, anyway.

Max had been through a lot. Jaclyn wasn't sure it was the time to pump him full of questions, although, sometimes talking about ones skills could be a fair distraction. It was difficult to tell with people how they'd tolerate questions; Max was one who asked many himself though, so he'd probably be up for it.

More healers might've leveled the field a little.

But Jaclyn had actually set her sights on someone else, first.
Nekra had had superspeed. Super everything, but speed was a big one.

If Jaclyn had had that.
And there was a speedster recovering in this very room.

So the fact he lost didn't support the power as being all-useful, but she didn't know the opponent he'd been up against and regardless, Jaclyn wanted to understand that power.
Speed was one of those abilities she understood well enough that she probably could manifest it already, like telepathy, but she had a mental hang-up about it. There were risks she didn't understand, or at least she perceived there were.

She needed to speak to Pietro.
While he was recovering might actually be the best time, at least at this point of his recovery: Not so fresh he shouldn't be bothered, but at a stage when he had to stay still for a bit yet.

But the conversation was on what exactly was going on, and it wasn't the time.
Jaclyn decided she'd keep aware of both his and Max's movements - like if they were about to leave the room - and talk to them as soon as she could. I mean they probably weren't going to get assaulted again right away -although, as X-Men, who could ever have such certainty?-but if they were going to embark on a rescue or reunion mission, Jaclyn shouldn't delay.

She even still had the fairy wings -presently folded flat against her back over her shirt (which she had made a couple couple slits in)- both for maybe some more practice -though her "flight muscles" were already feeling strained- but mainly so she wouldn't lock herself into something else before knowing what she'd be facing within the manifestation window.

A voice brought Jaclyn out of her own problem-solving. A voice that belonged to a new face.
New to her, anyway. A quick glance around the room didn't reveal any other such curious looks. Not knowing who this woman was, Jaclyn wondered what specifically Professor Xavier had brought her in to help them with; information? Training? Both?

Jaclyn's attention was effectively out of her thoughts; she was listening actively.

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"When I infiltrated Phantazia's mind, she seemed convinced that she just needed a win," Guin explained for the others. "I don't know why, because unfortunately her powers are annoying as fuck and kept throwing me off, but their goal doesn't seem to have been to hurt us... Except for Exodus. Because he's a dick." It didn't make sense to her why the Brotherhood decided all of the sudden they needed to have some friendly 1x1 practices - or why the winners had gotten yeeted away in some weird pods. Was Magneto hosting a tournament arc???

I don't think it'll shock him, sadly.

Guin raised an eyebrow as Miranda came into the room - Magneto's long term girlfriend. In the House of M reality warp Wanda had done, Miranda had actually been Magneto's queen. And Pietro's mother. "Sorry, how exactly are you going to be helpful?" Guin asked, ruder than she had intended. "Because unless you know why the Brotherhood decided to jump us today and then take all the winners away in pods like the prelude to some sort of company wide crossover event meant to sell toys, then I'm not sure you can really help us. Also, shouldn't you be hanging around with Magneto? Or did you finally dump him? Or did he dump you? Either way, both of you can probably do better - or maybe worse."

Mare, can you hear me? Use your space chicken powers and respond, please... Guin thought privately, wondering if the Phoenix host could hear her - wherever she had gone.

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Neil jolted awake, finding himself in a space-age looking medical facility of sorts. It was pretty sparse, so no one was undergoing surgery or anything in here - more of a recovery ward of sorts. He sat up quickly, looking around the room and picking out some of his fellow X-Men, but not all of them. Edus was here, but Max wasn't. Neil briefly considered that maybe the centuries old wizard might've cursed him - his memory was a bit fuzzy as to what had happened during the fight, but he had a feeling he hadn't said or done anything that would win over Max the Mad Mage...

"Can you send our coordinates to Westchester?" Neil asked Mary simply. One of the perks of the Phoenix Force was access to a special cosmic sort of telepathy. He wasn't going to panic. Sure, it seemed like maybe Magneto had kidnapped them, but the X-Men had a space worthy vessel. The others could fly up to them as soon as Mary told them where to look, they'd escape, and that would be that. They'd probably have to take a detour to foil whatever nefarious scheme Magneto was up to, but that was pretty standard X-Men business.

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An hour had passed since Max blacked out in the gardens. An hour that Ed had to vanish into thin air along with the large orb like structure that seemed to capture him and Neil. He had a fitful sleep, memories plaguing his mind as nightmares of those he'd lost all leading up to Ed. The others, for the most part, he'd been able to correct. To bring back to this world of the living and give them a second chance like Pyro had. But Ed…he couldn't bring him back. It wasn't allowed, not anymore. That circuit was broken, and it left Max wondering once again why the X-men couldn't get away with it but not them? It didn't seem fair.

When he'd finally awoke, Max jolted upright with a large gasp of air before immediately expelling it all out as he slammed back down onto the recovery bed, screaming as the pain coursed through him and his magic pulsed out in reaction. He took several shallow breaths, trying to calm himself down before finally taking in longer and deeper breaths. He closed his eyes and all he could see was Neil's face asking him why he killed Ed. Max needed to find them. He tried to divine something, anything, on the whereabouts of his missing spellcasters, but having only one good arm and three broken limbs didn't help with the spell. It fizzled before it could even start, and so he set off to do the one thing he could do right now. Heal.

Several hours passed as Max slowly stitched himself together again with his magic. The entire time thinking about James and how easy he always made it look. But he didn't have James anymore, and he couldn't ask for his help on this one. If Ben saw how his first few hours turned out at the mansion…he couldn't. The idea of his old crew helped push him to heal, and when he finally finished up he summoned his staff to help him walk. Max felt fine for the most part now. Exhausted sure, but he didn't want to over exert his newly healed limbs. He slowly made his way towards the sitting room where everyone was discussing the events up until this moment.

"Pyro mentioned Paradise as well. He didn't wish to harm anyone, only wanted to claim his spot in whatever this new place seems to be. If anything he was extremely willing to talk to us about it before he was…well knocked out. If he's come to, he may answer some questions from me, we've got a…weird relationship." he wasn't about to tell the room he brought him back to life. Jaclyn seemed to stay quiet, not mentioning any of her side of the story as they all discussed. Max was about to ask her about it when another ghost from his past appeared. "Didn't expect to see you here. I haven't seen you since what…the fall of Genosha?"

Max made himself comfortable in an open seat before continuing forward, addressing Guin and the others. "I don't know about Exodus, but Sabertooth seemed out for blood. Even when I said I wouldn't fight he snapped three of my limbs. As for what Miranda can do…are you able to extract pasts from Toad? See what it was they were told and by who? It could be a start-" Max cut himself off, a slight edge to his voice. He needed to find those that were taken, even if it meant facing Neil again and having to have a difficult conversation with Ed. "Either way we need a lead to help find those that were taken from us. I can try Pyro while others pull on different threads, see which one gets us started and go from there."

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Perry stirred a bit as she heard the others talk. She opened her eyes and sat up. "Corn Dogs!" Ok Perry, get a grip. She glanced around and noticed a few others with her. But not everyone. She didn't know names fully yet, but she knew there were definitely some of them missing. Were they elsewhere on this....wherever they were?

From the sounds of it, those at the mansion were attacked in a similar formation as them. "So we were all attacked in a coordinated manner and some of us were taken here and some of us were...not? Why were we grabbed and not everyone? Perry took in her environment more. If dank and depressing got married and had a child, the room would be that horrible abomination. She hated hospitals and this room was, granted, not a hospital, but what was it for?

"So should we take a look around? Get our bearings? I don't know if I am too keen on waiting for whoever grabbed us to come back in here and explain why we were grabbed in the first place. Grabbing people in general is a no-no. Plus, I never did get my food at the food court..."

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Carolina sat in a chair while looking out the window for a moment, she was picked up shortly after by the people Guin had called to pick up Pietro and Guin, out of all the people from the mall only her, Lance, Guin and Pietro made it back to the mansion. She was really worried about Annie and Neil she wanted to make sure that the two closest people on the team were alright, they were her best friends after all. Her attention then turned to look at the others as they spoke about where they could possibly find where the rest of the team had been taken. "Well we have the group that attacked use to interrogate and find out where the hell they had taken our friends." Carolina suggested, when she heard a familiar voice.

She hadn't seen Miranda Fay since Guin and Pietro's wedding, and before that when Wanda created the whole House of M reality, apparently Max had met her somewhere called Genosha. "Hi Miranda, if you happen to have had any contact with Magneto or anything like that recently that could be useful if he has had anything to do with the Brotherhood attacking us." Carolina said, they did need to find out where the others were and quickly.

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Bethany slowly opened her eyes letting out a slight groan as she looked up at the ceiling and slowly sat up, the last thing that she remembered was wining her fight against Black Tom, and then the pod thingy coming over and dragging her inside of it. Beth looked around the room, seeing some of the team was with her, but not the rest of them which was really weird as she sat up and stretched slightly. "Well last thing I remember winning the fight with Black Tom, and then being knocked out once the pod grabbed me and thats it." Bethany said as she cracked her neck slightly.

The doors to the medical area seemed to be closed and no one had came in to give them any kind of answers and sitting around doing absolutely nothing wasn't going to do anything either really. "Well lets try and see if we can get out of here, sitting in here ain't going to give us any answers either." Bethany said as she made her way over towards one of the doors to try and open it.

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Antoinette woke to the sound of voices and snuffling in her ear. She opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to let her eyes adjust to the bright lights. Arnold continued to make snuffling sounds in her ear until she grabbed him and held him in her hands. Antoinette turned her head from side to side, seeing others in the room with her. She sat up slowly and looked around. She saw Mira and Perry from being at the mall, but there were also Bethany, Neil, Ed, and Mary. Nothing else about the room made sense.
She listened to the conversation with the others and started to grow worried. Antoinette pulled her legs in to cross them and started to pet Arnold. ”One of the people we were fighting said she was leaving with the winners, and then the pods showed up… Maybe it was some competition?”

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As Ed came to consciousness, he waited a moment before sitting up. Listening to the voices to determine if they were friendly or if he had to be on guard. Quickly it became apparent it was at least some of the group. He sat up. His body felt a little stiff, but he didn't hurt. The group comprised those who had won their fights at the mansion, Mary, Bethany, Neil, and himself. As well as a few from the mall, Mira, Annie, and one of the new people he hadn't talked to yet. From the conversation, he figured the three of them had won their fights too.

"While we were fighting, Pyro mentioned that he was trying to get to Paradise. I have a feeling this," Ed gestures around the room. "Must be connected." Ed slides off the bed he had been on. "Not sure how I feel about a place that we had to fight to get into being called Paradise." Ed had gotten lucky with Toad. He would have lost if it had been someone more powerful.

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Oh probably not, it'll be fun to talk about though.

"...Actually Erik and I parted ways several months ago, right before Genosha's fall. Part of the reason I'm traveling a little bit at the moment, haven't actually seemingly been by myself for a very long time at this point for almost 4 decades, well, off and on for that long really..." Miranda responded to Guin, though she sort of seemed to look at the ground. "I've thought about finding my kids who I gave up because of the life I had, but been sort of delaying doing that since they probably wouldn't want anything to do with me."

"Huh, honestly I always thought you were better off away from my dad anyway... So back to the trying to figure out what the hell is going on..."

"Well we only know this whole paradise thing, but seriously Max you think you can get someone to just bluntly tell you? If they wanted to do that and all, they would have said something more descriptive then just the whole "paradise" thing. Which still makes more sense."

"Let me get this straight, you all were attacked by a group from the Brotherhood. Who constantly mentioned seemingly needing to win in order to go to this paradise?"

"Yeah, basically."

She seemed to get a bit of a strange look on her face for a moment, before a hint of some sort of understanding crossed her expression. "Max, paradise was how they described Genosha. That was practically the exact word for it... Now I don't know why he would have sent them after all of you, especially considering that on Genosha most people seemed content not having the rest of you there but... Erik had a contingency plan in the works before the fall of Genosha, in the event that it failed."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"When Genosha was still in development he had an idea of what to do if Genosha was destroyed or something someplace no one could easily get to to attack it. He started working on it back then, and if Genosha remained successful it would just serve as potentially either an extension of it or as just a base he could go to whenever he wanted. I don't think you need to have anyone going through the minds of others in order to figure out where they went..."

"Long story short you have an idea of where everyone is, that's a good thing. Saves us a bunch of time trying to get them to just tell us. Since as stated before, seriously doubt they'll just openly tell us."

"I don't know exactly where it is to say the least, but the base was going to be constructed on an asteroid, and considering he started building it even before Genosha's fall, well he might have gotten it to fully be up and running by now. At least mostly anyway... Plus he has a lot more followers then just the obvious Brotherhood members who make appearances..."

"That wouldn't explain still why we ended up getting attacked like that, or it could just have been an instance where they just felt like attacking. Who knows or anything like that." Lance couldn't help but still ask. There were a million different things to still consider. But if the group had ended up in space, that still was a decent sized area. Though with the pods that had been there and taken off and all, it probably wouldn't have ended up too far from Earth, at least at the moment really.

Mary was about to do exactly what it was that Neil suggested about trying to get a message out to those back on Earth, when she put a hand to her head as she heard Guin's words to her. It hurt her head a little bit since it was seemingly sounding like it was coming from a very badly tuned radio. It was mostly a bunch of static with the words just barely coming through. "Yeah I can try, give me a minute, this is the worst tuned radio ever there is a lot of static, seems like something is attempting to block all telepathic communications, I'm just barely able to sort of get through it, so whatever the thing is, it is pretty strong..."

I can barely hear you, it is not sounding the best. We're on some weird station looking thing so far, not a hundred percent where in space, but probably not too far from Earth... Just enough to stay out of sight of sensors or something, Mary responded. Though also to Guin, it would be filled seemingly with a lot of static, she'd be able to make out about every other word kind of clearly, but she'd be able to get the idea of what was being said.

"I'm not sure if we should just go opening doors," Mira said towards Bethany as she started trying doors. The first door she immediately came across looked like it might more or less lead into another room as opposed to a hallway based on it's location in the room. She'd be able to open it and step through. The room looked fairly similar to the one that they were in, aside from fewer beds. The other thing was, she'd also find that the room wasn't empty either, as someone else like them was on one of the beds, seemingly having just come to in the room. While several members of the group wouldn't recognize him, Mary, Mira and Annie would, from two different encounters. The first from when Annie ended up joining the team at the OMEN base, and the other from Wanda's alternate reality.

That being one SHIELD agent Frederick Flynn.

He glanced over at the door as it opened up, and he instantly stood up off of the bed he had been on. "Uh who are you and where am I exactly?" he asked Bethany, seemed a bit on edge.

"No idea where, but who are you exactly?" Mira ended up responding, before Mary walked over to the door way to see what was going on now.

"Hang on, your a SHIELD agent last I checked, right? First time we ran into you was when OMEN was basically trying to kill us, second time was during when Wanda Maximoff decided to rewrite reality. Though don't think you really know most of the group currently, most of those you would are currently back at the mansion or something probably..."

"Right, your the OMEN agent who switched sides and ended up sort of helping us out and all and went off with SHIELD. So how did you end up here?" Last she had checked before, at least back during the whole OMEN thing, the guy didn't have powers as far as she knew, and since this seemed to involve Magneto and the Brotherhood, then why was he brought to where they were? Things were not making much sense in her mind.

"No idea honestly, got attacked by some random guy, next thing I know, I woke up here just in time to see you guys open that door." though he was currently trying to remain calm, since his immediate thought was trying to see about getting back to his family at this point. "This place seems weird though, considering the fact that it sounds like no one knows what the hell is going on..."

"I managed to reach the mansion, but it is a massive headache, sounds almost like I'm hearing responses through a really bad radio, so soon we should maybe be able to get the others up here sometime..." Mary decided to add, but in order to be more helpful, she'd need to potentially get a visual view of where they were. She instantly headed towards another door, and this one also seemed to be unlocked and the door opened up. Allowing the others to see a rather long hallway, that seemed a bit empty at the moment. "Let's see if we can figure out what exactly this "paradise" is supposed to be shall we?"

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Carolina leaned forward as she started to listen to Miranda as she started to speak, she didn't seem to have any contact with Magneto recently then which didn't help things really. Though she did listen to her as she brought up Genosha and a possibility what Magneto did have planned when it eventually did fall. "So we take the Blackbird and fly up into orbit and scan around the area, if they are in space then that means that they are probably in orbit somewhere or something like that, or maybe in orbit around the moon itself." Carolina suggested that was the only thing that she could think of.

"And if he used an asteroid or whatever and it's big enough to have people living on it then it might be easy to find if we scan for whatever is near the Earth or whatever." Carolina said, something that big should have probably been picked up by a NASA satellite or something like that to she was really worried about the rest of their friends she wasn't sure what this paradise had in store for all of them.

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Bethany looked at Mira for a moment and shrugged. "It's better than standing around and just chatting away waiting for either someone to find us, or the others to come and rescue us." Bethany pointed out, as soon as she opened the door she came face to face with Flynn who was just getting out of the bed himself. She had only encountered him once when she was captured by OMEN when they were still a thing when the organization tried to kill them all. "We were jumped by Magneto's people back at the mansion, those that were there that was anyway we won our fights against those who attacked us before being whisked away up here." Bethany said with a slight shrug.

Her attention turned to Mary she was glad that she was able to at least make some sort of contact back at the mansion. "If Mary is still able to make contact somewhat then that means we aren't super far away from all of them then." Bethany said as she started to follow Mary out through the other door that she opened to explore further into wherever they were now.