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It seemed that most of them were fans looking around. What, were they expected to just sit here and wait for whoever had taken them to do whatever they intended to do? If what the others were saying was true, they all won their respective fights and, as some gross example of an award, was dragged here. "So we all won our fights and were taken here. I don't know about all of you, but I don't consider this a reward for a job well done. Whatever they have planned here, I am not waiting around to find out. Another reason to get up and look around. We have powers and can fight, as evidenced by our victories, so may as well use them."

Perry got the sense there was some unspoken tension surrounding some of the others. This was not the time and place to hash that out though. Perry got up to follow Bethany when he door opened and out came an incredibly handsome man. Like, it had to be a crime to be this good-looking. Maybe that was why he was locked up? Pull it together Perry!

Mary acknowledged the man as a SHIELD agent. Another person who was attacked. "Great! The more, the merrier. Let's get going!" Perry followed Mary, who opened the door to a hallway. She stuck close to Flynn (for obvious reasons).

---

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Jaclyn was still taking in the conversation rather than contributing to it; she looked to everyone as they spoke.

Guin's comment about a set-up to some crossover meant to sell toys was appreciably amusing in the wake of things, Jaclyn had to smile a little. However Guin obviously wasn't chummy with this new woman, who, it seemed, had been Magneto's love. Now wasn't the time for wondering what went on there. Nor -though Jaclyn felt sympathy at this- about Miranda's kids she gave up.

Lance could've been less short with Max. Apparently Max was the one with some degree of relationship with Pyro, and Jaclyn could concur -even if she hadn't caught many words amidst herself being thrown around- that Pyro had been the most conversational among the Brotherhood. He'd sounded less malicious, too. Who knew? Maybe he would've opened up, especially as he lost now and no stakes remained.

But as it would happen, this Miranda had all their answers.
Jaclyn listened intently.

Then, she spoke up - in response to Lance saying it didn't explain still why they were attacked: "It seemed like some sort of contest," she explained with her natural, calm disposition, "if Magneto had colonized an asteroid intending for it to be backup for Genosha, which was a paradise," at this she gestured towards Miranda, who had confirmed that's how it was referred to, "what happened with Genosha..." It was a couple seconds before she continued, feeling like a couple seconds of silence for the fallen, "Maybe this asteroid, now, is meant as a.." she couldn't find what word she wanted, "well, a preventative measure. Secondarily. If 'paradise' is threatened again, you'd want the best to protect it. That could be what these battles were about. Who could benefit New Paradise -or who wanted it- most." At that she shrugged. "Or -maybe and/or, the space is limited, and this was deemed a fair way to choose."

She had her own opinion on that which didn't need to be shared, and anyway, her attention was taken then by Carolina who came up with their game plan: going into space in the blackbird.

Some uncertainty crossed through Jaclyn's calm. She understood some of them had recently come back from space. She wasn't sure on the details as far as if it was another situation like this where they were taken into space, or if they'd gone of their own accord. Given the readiness in Carolina's suggestion, Jaclyn had the feeling it was the latter; in the least the blackbird had obviously been designed or redesigned for space travel.

So in that case, Jaclyn assumed they'd had some space training before that mission.
She was still on Earth-level training. She had no idea about Max - it was his first day at the Mansion to be sure, but he seemed to have experienced a fair deal. For all she knew, some time in space was among those experiences.

If they weren't, however, Lance, Carolina, Quin and Pietro were formidable, yet, they had been among those not "chosen" - though the "winners" were presumably up there already, who's to say it wouldn't be a breaking-them-out situation?

In any case, Jaclyn was quiet again. For now. Whether she was expected to join them or not would become obvious, and she could voice any cautious thoughts then.

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”We should still exercise caution. The badies that fought and won will be here as well,” she reminded them. Bethany got the door open, and Antoinette peeked around the door to see what was in the next room. She recognized Flynn immediately. It was hard to forget someone who helped free you from hell on earth. Antoinette had at least been relatively lucky in her early capture. She had been there as long as some of the other mutants. She still thought of Flynn and Sapphire fondly.
Antoinette set Arnold on her shoulder before walking into the room. She waved at Flynn, listening to his tale and processing Edus’ words. It didn’t sound comforting. They opened another door into a long hallway, and Antoinette took a deep breath. Everyone was right. They weren’t going to get any answers on where they were or how to get home, just waiting around — time to start hunting.
Antoinette's focus shifted, and her blue eye started to glow. She saw the world a little differently for a moment as she connected to something 'other' inside her. Antoinette was feeling for other people, a direction they might be able to go in. Unfortunately, nothing was concrete beside the obvious need to leave the room.

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Max rolled his eyes as Lance spoke. Pretty, sure, but clearly he was nowhere near as nice as he was back in WandaWorld. He understood not trusting the new guy, sure, but he wasn't just the new guy here. Some of them knew him from another reality, where they'd seen his powers and watched as he implemented them. What's more he'd made it clear he had history with Pyro, and it wasn't all negative. So yes, he really did believe Pyro would be willing to talk to him. After all he was already defeated so his chance to paradise was lost and now his only way to potentially reach it would be to ally himself with the group and face off towards the new frontier.

As Miranda began her lengthy explanation about what she perceived the new events to be, he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt as she so quickly lumped Max in with the rest of the X-men in the room. Sure he'd come here to join them, but the fact that they weren't exactly cared for back on Genosha is exactly why he needed to help change them from within. Everyone back there knew what the X-men stood for, and hardly ever did it feel it was mutants or mutant rights. Charles himself left his own group to die by the hands of the X-cutioner when they needed him most. His thoughts ran their course as Miranda continued to talk with Lance and Pietro. Two thoughts popping up as she mentioned this failsafe to Genosha. The first being Island M, the second…revisiting Genohsa itself.

Carolina's answer was rather simple. Grab the Blackbird, take it to space, and just search the entirety of Earth's orbit and then some. As if the vastness of space even in such a small sector wasn't an immense challenge in and of itself. Unless those scanners could cover full quadrants of the planet's surroundings then he doubted it'd be that easy. He could try a locator spell like back in Wanda's universe, but he hadn't tried to successfully replicate it since he'd left that reality. A part of Max wondered if he could track Neil or Ed's magic. Seeing if Kin could locate Kin, or at the very least feel for those forces as they searched. But most importantly he began to wonder if Island M or Genosha could hold any clues as to Magneto's new location.

Genosha at the very least wasn't an option, not to mention even if it was, having the X-men step foot on it would feel a bit like sacrilege. "Jaclyn has a point. But I feel like searching for an asteroid in space is like looking for hay in a haystack. Scanners or not. Miranda is there any chance Magneto would have had any of these plans written or stored on his private Island? Could always pay it a visit if there's a chance to find something on its exact location. Aside from that…" Max shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he rested his cheek on one hand. "I could try a locator spell. It's iffy and I haven't tried it in this reality, though having something of Ed or Neil would help me immensely I think. Magic has a way to gravitate towards one another. It's how-" he cut himself off as a stray thought ran through his mind. "Can the Blackbird track cosmic forces? Well, cosmic energy? Primordial energy?" He sat forward with each question as if this could be a key to finding their missing allies.

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Guin raised an eyebrow as Max mentioned his special relationship with Pyro. As a bi gal herself, Guin was pretty proud of her gaydar, and it was SCREAMING when she looked at Pyro and Max. "Got it, the two of you are fucking, so you trust him and can get information out of him. I love that for us." She wasn't too sure what to make of Max yet. She wasn't too sure what to make of most of the new people, to be fair - for better or worse, the rest of them had risked their lives together time and time again. It formed a tight bond that could not be defined by words. She didn't have that with Max and Perry and Jaclyn yet... especially given that Max seemed to turn up just about everywhere the Brotherhood was. Guin didn't judge him for that as harshly as she might have, given that she didn't want to be a hypocrite re her relationship with Pietro, but it was enough for her to label him somewhat sus.

Plus, Pietro had reminded her earlier that they had beef - even if Guin had already forgotten again what it had been about. Something from the House of M reality. It didn't matter.

Case in point, here was Miranda - another Brotherhood associate. She gave a sad story about the fall of Genosha, the end of her relationship with Magneto, and attempting to reconnect with her kids. Very depressing, but Guin wasn't particularly shaken. Her mind was more focused on crunching their current problem - of trying to maintain the staticky telepathic connection with Mary. She could barely make out the message from Mary, as every other word seemed to be missing, but Guin was smart and she got the gist - just as Miranda proposed something similar. The kidnapped X-Men were on an asteroid station Magneto was trying to build a new mutant nation on.

Miranda Fay is here, she said basically the same thing - that this is Genosha 2.0. We'll be on our way soon for a pick-up.

Jaclyn - that was her name, right, Jaclyn? - had an interesting thought. "Mare just confirmed - they're on a space station of sorts in Earth's orbit. Telepathic connection is weak, but it's there. I think I can guide us there in the Blackbird as we get closer, hopefully pinpoint them down more exactly." If the asteroid had limited space, maybe Magneto would want only the strongest mutants present. Maybe that was his proposal for how to deal with Genosha's fall - an event that Guin only knew what had been reported in the news.

"Wait, magnet brain's private island? Were you fucking him too?" Guin asked Max, an eyebrow raised. "Anyways, the Blackbird can detect cosmic energy and strong energy fields, nothing more specific than that. But like I said, I think I can use my telepathy to guide us to them, and spirit them away in the ship. If Magneto's just building a mutant nation, and nothing more nefarious is going on, he shouldn't have an issue with us taking our teammates home."

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Neil couldn't help but smile slightly as Peregrine woke up while blurting corn dogs! She was quirky and he liked that. He could already see that she'd maybe fit in well with Carolina, Annie, and himself. For the record, he was happy to see that Annie was there. And Bethany. And their fearless leader, Mary. And as much as he felt weird around him at times, Edus. "If this is a competition... then was that just round one?" Neil asked, jumping off of Annie's suggestion.

Maybe this was just the arena for the next round of fights - that they were going to be in some sort of weird space tournament? He gulped slightly at that idea. If they were doing a space tournament, he didn't want to have to fight Mary. He knew he could technically come back from the dead, but his aunties had warned him he could only do it three times. And he had already used that gift at least once before. If Mary killed him, Neil had a feeling that he would just stay dead.

But then maybe Ed was right - maybe this was supposed to be some sort of paradise... But paradise for what? And why? Neil didn't understand what was going on. He wished that there would be a helpful NPC or someone around for an info drop, like what would happen in a video game. They were going in blind and it was making him sweat. Mary mentioned that something was blocking her telepathy - and given that she was the Phoenix, it must have been something BIG.

Neil got up and followed Bethany as she tried one of the doors, opening it up into a similar room to the one they had been in - and revealed a dark haired man, a SHIELD agent that Mary seemed to be super familiar with. If Mary was cool with him, then he was cool with Neil. "Let's keep going, I don't like the idea of just... waiting for something to happen to us," Neil murmured.

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"I agree." He said in response to Annie's mention of needing to be careful. They had no idea what this place was. At least they had an idea of where they were now, thanks to the Phoneix. Something Ed did not feel comfortable totally relying on. Having that with them was a bonus, but they couldn't trust it.

"That is a concern that has crossed my mind." Ed responded to Neil's voicing something that had been bothering him. He glanced at the new member, the non-X-Men member, of their group. At least it seemed he wasn't a totally unknown element. And that the group seemed to trust him. Well, he worked for SHIELD, so he had that going for him.

"If we are at risk of more fighting. I think I should get some hair samples from those I don't already have hair from." Ed started speaking directly to the SHIELD agent and the young woman who had just joined the X-Men, whom he hadn't really talked to yet. "I'm the group healer. However, I have to either touch you to do it or have a part of you. Hair is the easiest. If you are comfortable giving me a strand of hair, I can heal you in the heat of battle." Ed learned his lesson from the fight that sent them here. He needed to collect that now.

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"...That island hasn't been used as a base in years!" Pietro instantly blurted out when Max mentioned it. He knew exactly what island Max was referring to. The island had more of been a base for the Brotherhood when he was younger, but eventually they moved along, as usual. They basically abandoned the island when it started to become apparent that it was at risk of discovery. Actually it had served as their base for a long time especially when in comparison to some of their other bases.

"The island was abandoned years ago, there likely wouldn't be any sort of back up to those plans there. The idea of the asteroid wasn't fully created until only a few years ago, by then the base had already been deserted," Miranda responded to Max rather calmly. Erik had only ever really had one island that had served as a base, aside from Genosha itself of course, so she knew what it was that he was referring to.

"So we know what sort of thing we're looking for, an asteroid within Earth's orbit. It sounds like Magneto likely would have a way to protect it from scanners and sensors, otherwise it'd be pretty well known... And those pods seemed fairly short ranged, so the asteroid while in Earth's orbit, likely isn't all the way to the outer edge of that orbit because of the pods... So we wouldn't have to go very far... Plus the Blackbird can travel pretty quickly, it wouldn't be too difficult... Probably anyway. And if we get up there, trying to find it might not be too difficult..."

"So, we've got essentially the secondary Genosha and all, except this time it's in space, and then we've got the fact that they basically were attacking us... I actually agree with her," Pietro said, nodding his head towards Jaclyn, "As to maybe the reason why everything is going on. Especially since the Brotherhood guys, with the exception of a few of them, namely Exodus who was straight going for murder or something, were mainly just trying to focus on beating us, so maybe it was also as a way to stop us from potentially going there? I don't know, but I'd think if there was meant to be this weird contest thing and I didn't want to deal with a certain group, I'd try to send some of the stronger members to potentially prevent that group from going. Especially if there was a chance of those sort of fights to get there of happening by accident. And if there were others I'd want there, I'd send the weaker ones to go against them. But that's just me."

Guina this is weird the fact that I'm basically able to get into the heads of the Brotherhood group. It is really weird. But also based on that sort of idea they really didn't want me anywhere near that asteroid considering Exodus straight up was trying to kill me over it... he then added mentally to Guin.

"That is a bit of an idea of how things went, but who fully knows the motivations. The only one who probably knows all of that is Magneto, and he's on that asteroid."

"Be prepared when trying to approach it though, since Erik likely would have created more defense systems for the asteroid. Based on what happened to Genosha, he likely would do whatever it took to ensure that no outsiders could easily reach it or get there to cause issues. That likely would be harder then finding it. Getting there without getting blasted out of the sky or something like that."

"Basically we need to be careful no matter what we end up deciding to do..."


Even though he didn't recognize most of the group there, he was glad to at least see a few members that he had met. Since only three people actually knew him and had at least vaguely met him before, he thought it might be a smart idea to introduce himself to the others, considering the fact that they were all stuck in this situation together. "For the half of you who don't know me, my name is Frederick Flynn, though usually I tend to just go by my last name, that being Flynn. I also tend to set things on fire... But I'm still not exactly the best at it, getting better over time, but well, it's interesting to say the least."

He wasn't entirely sure what it was that the guy who said he was a healer, and something struck him a bit with the way the guy spoke. It actually reminded him a bit of someone else he knew who was from Wales. "Uh, yeah sure, if you want go ahead, I will not hide the fact I understand basically nothing about magic, but sure a hair or whatever," he said, before he handed one to Ed, "If you don't mind me asking, are you from Wales or somewhere around there or something? I just used to work with someone else who was from that sort of area, accent, the way you talk and all kind of stands out a little bit..." he figured that it might seem like a bit of an odd question, but he figured it might at least distract slightly from the fact that they were fully expecting a fight, so he was trying to make some conversation.

"Waiting around for something, yeah doesn't sound like the best idea to me, hence let's get going... It might be quicker to explore by splitting up, however considering the fact that we're in an unknown place... Well that likely would not be the best thing. Here's the thing though... If we were going to get attacked or something, well that's the thing... They had no reason to just let us wake up here. If they wanted us dead they could have just sent us out to go die in space... So why are we here..." this wasn't entirely a straight forward scenario. Exploring made the most sense, but the whole situation of what seemingly was going on was just... Strange.

"I mean if they wanted us dead they could have used those pod things to just shoot us off into the sun or something, and based on what we're seeing right now, I'm not entirely sure that this is meant to be more fighting or anything like that..."

Mary started heading off towards the left out in the hallway, figuring to keep moving around to try and figure out what was going on, and to maybe see if they could find anyone. The hallway seemed to stretch out for a while, however, they'd eventually curve around somewhat down the pathway, and come across a window that allowed for a view outside.

The group would definitely see that they seemed to be on an asteroid as first thought, though it was what appeared to be a full sized station of sorts on its surface. They'd be able to see out into the rest of space, and at least on the part of the station they were currently on, it didn't seem like there was a view of where Earth was. It certainly made it a little easier to figure out more about where they were. But there was the whole fact that the station they were on seemed really big.

"...Huh, well this had to have been getting built for a long time. This whole station with that size, not to mention creating artificial gravity, or finding a place with natural gravity, and a full life support system? This place had to have been built over a long time. Makes you wonder more about this place," Mira commented.

That was when Guin's message eventually reached Mary, though still sounding like it was through a badly tuned radio. She turned towards the others, "It isn't a tournament of fighting or anything. Apparently this was meant to be a second sort of Genosha thing. Why we ended up getting dragged here, I have no idea still..." she responded to everyone else now. Further along the walkway, there was the sound of footsteps and a few voices that seemed to be heading their way.

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Carolina listened to everyone as they continued to talk as she looked at Max for a moment mentioning some private island that Magneto had that was abandoned. By the sounds of it had been abandoned by him a very long time ago even before the whole asteroid thing was planned, she ran a hand through her hair as she sat up. "Alright then seems like we have a way to scan it, with Guin's telepathy to Mary up in space, and the Blackbird can scan for cosmic and high energy signatures we can scan for it quicker that way." Carolina said, she shook her head slightly as Guin made a few more jabs towards Max.

She didn't know how to fly the Blackbird though, as she looked at the others she hadn't been with the team for a while now, since she went to help Neil along with Mira with Neil's zombie problem with his family. They just needed someone to pilot the Blackbird, and someone who had flight combat experience to in case they were going to be getting into a fight.

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"Ed just has a hair fetish to another reason why he likes to collect people's hair." Bethany said teasingly towards Ed when he asked the group for some of their hair. She had given Ed a sample of her hair a long time ago since he had joined the team and it was pretty useful she quietly followed behind Mary down the hallway of sorts when they came to a window. They were certainly in space now and seeing bits of the base sticking out of the asteroid and space itself, it was really massive.

"Lets keep going then." Bethany said as she was about to start moving forward she stopped when she heard footsteps coming along with a few voices as well to. Bethany looked over towards Mary, she wasn't sure about fighting them as she quietly spoke up, she wasn't sure if these people were friendly or not. "So should we fight or no?" Bethany whispered to Mary they could be innocent victims as well to for all she knew.

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Being the listener more than the talker was proving once more beneficial; Jaclyn was learning more about some of her would-be teammates.

• Max had been in another reality. That actually seemed normal for a magician, and potentially explained everything to do with his response to Ed; possibly other things, too.
• Lance seemed something of a contrarian, though it was probably too early to bet on that impression.
• Guin was crass.

At this juncture Jaclyn wasn't sure if that was just Guin, or Guin under stress. Stress had many appearances. As such, Jaclyn could look past how Guin was communicating, but what she was prompted a frown. As Jaclyn was shifting her attention between the speakers and the subjects, however, you couldn't really describe the frown as being at Guin, even though she was the cause.

Jaclyn was also picking up on a certain vibe from Max. Given his arrival earlier, it seemed clear he was here of his own accord. There certainly hadn't been any reception from the others so far that would imply he was invited here. Yet, it seemed he didn't want to be in present company, and not just because of the immediate situation. It was as though he was here by choice but would've preferred if he didn't have to be.

While she felt on the periphery of things, if such a distinction could be made Max seemed an outsider. Sometimes outsiders could see what those intimate with a situation couldn't....

She further thought his question on what the Blackbird could detect was a good one, and it felt like a small confirmation of what she thought she'd seen in Marygold's flames back on the battlefield.

In all cases, with the other answers going around, a clearer -a more settling picture was being painted, at least in terms of what they knew so far and what they were immediately doing about it:

• The others had been taken to Magneto's Asteroid a.k.a. Genosha back-up.
• The battles, a decision-making process on who would be chosen to live there, were also, as Pietro expanded upon -to Jaclyn's concern but which earned him a return nod- a potential "failsafe" to prevent those they absolutely didn't want from being there (which implied these test-battles couldn't simply just be skipped, which was interesting, but bias seemed to rule over "fair" selection).
• The Blackbird, coupled with Guin's telepathy, would bring them to the others-
• -they just had to be careful of defenses and such.

"Sounds like 'careful' is the leading word on this," Jaclyn seconded. "Besides the defenses for outsiders in general, we're likely to be seen as sore losers fighting back against the rules when they see us there." She smoothed some loose strands of hair behind one ear, then the other, which gave her the idea she better take care of any potential hair distraction now, lest any get in front of her view when she's doing something important; she went into her carrier bag for some clips.

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Obviously, their situation wasn't ideal. Granted, they weren't dead. Could have easily gotten them in the sphere things that brought them here.

Perry didn't mind that though looking at Flynn. She shook it off. Focus Perry! Disaster is abound. Perry thought for a second: where were Ed and Barry? Did they follow her here? She knew spirits, once bound, were connected to her, but she hadn't considered how that would be in space. She never thought ONCE she would even be in space. Taking a moment while the others talked amongst themselves, she reached out to see if there were any spirits nearby. If she had to fight, she hoped there would be someone here. Otherwise, this would be over long before it started.

Thankfully, she felt a connection and recognized it. Both Ed and Barry were here. She felt solace in that fact. Able to take on whatever was next!

Which, as it turned out, seemed to be coming. Footsteps approaching them. Could be friend or foe. "Let's not be too hasty. Could be a similar thing like Flynn where they were brought here. Or could be some horrible monster creatures living on this rock. Best to be prepared regardless." Not much of a fighter herself, Perry raised her fists, ready to unleash a world of mild hurt on whoever was coming.

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"I do not." Ed said. At the same time, his voice carried a tone of exasperation. He smiled a little. "Nice to meet you, Frederick Flynn. My name is Edus Penior, but everyone calls me Ed. Yes, I am from Wales. Cardiff, to be exact." The last part held the weight of thousands of deaths at the hands of an alien attack. Most of his family had died in that attack. He took a hair from Flynn and added it to a jar, carefully labeling it with F. Flynn.

"Perry? May I have a hair in case you need healing and I cannot get to you?" She hadn't told him if he could have a hair of her's yet. They continued on.

"Hmm. That is a bit reassuring. But I don't know if I wouldn't put it past Magneto to have there be more fighting. We should be prepared for the possibility. We might not be attacked on sight, at least." Ed checked himself over to see if there were any new marks or something that might indicate that if the others showed up, they'd be discernable from the majority of the place.

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That was an interesting concept - that they had been challenged specifically to keep them out. Magneto had wanted his strongest up on the asteroid, under their assumptions - and his followers hadn't wanted the X-Men there. Had the X-Men and the Brotherhood not been bitter enemies for years, it might've shocked Guin. It didn't cross her mind to perhaps feel ashamed that a mutant nation would not welcome the X-Men with open arms; she didn't consider that maybe their group had failed in their purpose, too distracted being superheroes to be mutantkind's heroes.

Jaclyn's point was once again valid. Guin formed another snap judgment about the new member of the group - she was very thoughtful. Some people in this business got jumpy and impatient and impulsive over the years. It was nice to have someone capable of breaking things down, even if Guin found her thoughts (and everyone else's) a bit slow for her taste. That was one nice built in deterrent to skimming through people's minds. They thought so slow. It drove Guin nuts. It was like listening to a podcast at 0.1x speed - an option that she didn't think should be legal.

"Right. If we need to kick their asses to get our friends back, then fine. We've done it before and we'll do it again. The Brotherhood never wins." Guin was confident in that statement - and in some ways, it was the confidence of a person who had never lost a fight that super truly mattered in her life. Things always tended to work out for her - she had made it this far, after all. The idea that they'd lose to Magneto, that they would die... It scared her, but deep in her soul, she felt it was impossible. Both her and Pietro and the others had been on Death's door multiple times. The Grim Reaper never showed up.

There was then a knock at the door. The door slowly creaked open, and a head of curly strawberry blonde hair poked herself inside. "Hello - I'm sorry if I'm interrupting, but my husband has gone missing. And I need the X-Men's help," Bonnie Chase, PhD, Agent of SHIELD, and host of the goddess Athena said. She was wearing black exercise leggings, sneakers, and a maroon Harvard University sweatshirt - that had baby spittle in the upper right hand corner. In her arms was a tiny baby, swaddled in a soft light grey blanket. "I'm Bonnie Chase, Agent of SHIELD."

"Who?" Guin was mildly annoyed another random person walked into the Mansion, delaying further their rescue attempt of the others.

The baby then started to cry.

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A thought occurred to Neil, one he hadn't considered before. He hadn't even thought to really ask Edus. But now, he didn't know why that thought had occurred to him. Before the curse, his hair had been as white as snow. Had the hair sample Edus collected changed to a coppery brown? Did it go from short and straight to long, curly and tangled?

Neil gulped slightly as Flynn introduced himself as being good at fire, but bad at it basically. On Earth, an out of control fire user was a huge, deadly, and dangerous problem. But on what was presumably a space station, Flynn's thread only multiplied a thousand fold. Neil had read a lot of sci-fi. He knew that fire and space travel didn't mix - they were a big pressurized container, just ready to blow. "I would recommend holding back here - fire damage could mean a TPK in this environment."

The debate about whether to explore or not, and then whether to split up into groups, was pretty quickly abandoned. And the reveal that this was supposed to be a new mutant nation... it made Neil uncomfortable. While he didn't know a lot about Genosha, he had heard a few things online. And in the news. Its creation and then its fall had both been hard to miss. And Neil didn't know if the world was ready to try a mutant nation state again - and if anyone really ought to be part of a mutant nation that had violence as a requirement for entry.

He froze as he heard footsteps coming their way - that couldn't have been a good sign. Neil held his hands up, ready to telekinetically flick the first person who came down that hallway. He cracked a slight smile at what Perry said though, even giggling lightly. Damn, she was funny.

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Max sat back, hit with a bit of shock as Guin stated that he and Pyro had, or were, friends with benefits. Sure the pyromaniac mutant was attractive, but he was happily taken by his ghostly counterpart and father of his child, Ben. He wasn’t, however, going to correct her on that. If it meant getting a chance to gather more intel without the constant run around then he would do it. That is until she then accused him of sleeping with Magneto. Really? If Max had any kind of pull his first relationship, and kiss, more than likely wouldn’t have happened with a guy who was dead for over a decade and was recently brought back through magic and mutant powers working side by side. Every attempt to court literally any guy had always ended in a cataclysmic failure, or a great show of embarrassment. Ben was the only one who actually was able to see him for who he was, perhaps that was because he was always on the outside looking in, or maybe it was the mcdonalds date and seance that helped sway him. Either way, he was the only guy Max had ever managed to get to even look his way. ”Weak telepathic guide aside, we need more than one way to track them in the event that fails. Otherwise we’re dead in the water in the void of space. Also no, I wasn’t fucking Magneto. Long story short I was attempting to save one of my friends and my second mutation kicked in, taking us a bit off shore from that island where we had to take residence for a while until I could get us back home.” Max wasn't so sure how he felt about the notion that Magneto would just happily hand over mutants who he wished to help create a new mutant nation with. Even in Genosha things never seemed to be that simple with those who had darker pasts.

From the sounds of it, everyone had decided that the Asteroid was more than likely going to be heavily guarded. It was always safer to assume that than to go in thinking it would be a cake walk, after all nothing in Max’s life ever was. What bothered him though was how Miranda spoke about the defenses in relation to Genosha. All of the issue’s Max had seen were internal, either time-traveling children from the vault that viewed themselves as the more superior mutant race, or Selene herself, the immortal witch who attempted to reap the souls of powerful mutants in order to ascend to full godhood. In both instances the island won out, but it wasn’t without casualties. Max was certain they’d win again, but he couldn't help but wonder at what cost? He chewed on that thought for a moment before Carolina spoke up and agreed that using multiple methods of location was for the best. Each one involved Mary to some degree, and if all that failed Max could always try and use magic to locate Ed or Neil once they got closer. Jaclyn made the very point that Max had been thinking about earlier. Any attempt to enter the island could be viewed as retaliation from them. The last thing he wanted was a civil war between mutants. He sat back in his chair once more, crossing his ankle over his knee as he tried to hold back his chuckle towards Guin’s statement. Surely the X-men had dealt with the Brotherhood before, but the current group withstanding just got the floor wiped by the ones they were seeking to go up against. So to say it so matter of factly seemed almost comical.

Any bits of laughter he had had instantly vanished as he heard a knock at the door. Falling deathly silent as he worried it was another intruder or another round of fights. What he hadn’t expected was a soccer mom in a Harvard sweater waltzing in with a child asking about her husband. Guin was quick to show her annoyance as the stranger interrupted their meeting, and the baby didn’t seem to appreciate it. Max had had Dorian for a short while now, and as soon as he heard the child cry, he swept up off his seat, hand rotating so his palm was now upwards as his magic swirled and created a small plush doll of an owl. Kids liked animals, right? He hadn’t exactly been concentrating on a specific one, just letting his magic flow as the toy appeared in his hand. ”Here, maybe this can help. Always seems to do the trick with my little Dorain.” He handed the plush to Bonnie and gave her a warm smile before locking eyes with her. ”Is your husband by any chance an X-men or ex X-man? Also does he have a name?” Max wanted to see if the attacks were targeted to known associates of the Xmen or if perhaps it was just targeting mutants in general. If that was the case, they had a much larger rescue mission to worry about now as Magneto would be potentially kidnapping hundreds of mutants across the globe.

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As they walked down the hallway, there wasn’t much to decern where they were. It wasn’t until the group reached a window that they had any idea where they were. An asteroid. How peculiar. Antoinette’s eyes scanned the station, trying to understand better why they were here when Mary announced it was a Genosha 2.0 situation. That didn’t work the first time, so why try again?
”Hmm, what will we do, Arnold?” The little tribble vibrated in Antoinette’s palm. Footsteps and voices could be heard coming toward them. Antoinette set the tribble back on her shoulder and turned to the approaching sound. She rested a hand over her chest and shut her eyes to better focus on her ‘gut feeling.’ Antoinette frowned and opened her eyes.
”I can’t get much of a read on them,” she announced. ”They are too far away. The good news is that it gives us enough time to hurry on in an attempt to avoid them, or we can wait. Maybe they will have the answers we seek.” Whether they were good or bad answers, they would be answers all the same.

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Wonder who this lady is, considering the fact that she's acting like her just stating her name and that she's a SHIELD agent is supposed to explain everything. Pietro couldn't help but comment to Guin, not entirely sure who the person was. And if she needed help why was she dragging a baby along.

Miranda looked over at Bonnie when she walked in, and a sense of slight dread filled her head. Despite no one else in the room seemingly knowing who she was, Miranda actually did. But the reason why she knew who Bonnie was was a bit complicated to say the least. Though that was going to be a bit complicated to explain, and her attention shifted towards the baby that Bonnie was holding, as well as Max making a small stuffed animal to appear, and she walked over. "I think she's a bit too young for that sort of thing... At least to play with it or anything like that at the moment." she commented walking over. "Usually you need to rock them a bit to try and soothe them, stuffed animals work when they are a few months old. Newborns are a bit different on how you try and calm them." Despite not seeing her own children grow up, she actually did know more then a few things about newborns.

Lance was a bit curious as to why Bonnie seemed to think that they'd be able to help her out in finding her husband, though Max was seemingly going off on a bit of a tangent without any sort of evidence to determine otherwise why she was there. It didn't make much sense in general that he lept to that immediate conclusion considering there wasn't any evidence that whoever Bonnie's husband was had any sort of connection to the issues they were dealing with. "There currently isn't much evidence that this has anything to do with what happened with us. Though now I'm wondering... Can you tell us who he is and what happened as far as you know?" Lance asked her. There was a chance that it was connected, but he'd prefer to hear some info as to what happened as far as Bonnie knew about everything.

"Yeah, you actually caught us not too long before we went off to see about finding where half our team ended up disappearing too, know what we're looking for, and idea of where roughly the place is, still have to go off and find it," Pietro ended up saying with a shrug, since they had been needing to go figure out their own problems at the moment.

Miranda didn't say anything else about that matter. She knew exactly how this whole situation was likely connected, but she didn't want to risk openly saying it to anyone out loud right now. In the very small chance that she was wrong about it. Which odds were she wasn't wrong, so she remained quiet having turned her attention towards the baby in general, figuring that the questions would all be answered soon.


"Don't attack, we don't know who they are, but we might be able to figure out a little bit more about this place if they don't attack us first..." she said slowly, thinking a moment about how best to deal with the current situation. There were a few people farther along that were starting to come towards them, and they had to be careful with how they potentially interacted with them.

Flynn wasn't too surprised by the eventual answer that Ed gave him about where he was from, he sort of expected that. Well this was awkward, since he knew the full situation as to what exactly had happened in Cardiff, he'd been there. He had seen the carnage that Thanos had caused trying to get to Oliver, who was a member of his SHIELD team and all. So to say this was a bit of an awkward exchange now with regards to it in general was an understatement. "...Sorry about what happened there," he ended up responding, not exactly wanting to fully continue that conversation, before his attention turned towards Neil, "Wasn't entirely planning on it, I prefer to not use my powers in a fight anyway, not the best with them still anyway..."

The footsteps were getting even closer to where they were. Eventually, a man walked into view, looking over at the group now as he did so. "Well now, didn't know that you all were awake yet. This is an interesting thing," he commented with a slight shrug, looking at the group with a bit of interest.

"...Ok, no offense, but who are you?" Mary asked him, thoroughly confused considering it was not someone that she recognized. He had to be a newer member of the Brotherhood or something like that. Or maybe even a different group entirely, she wasn't entirely sure.

"Apologies, I am Fabian Cortez, a member of the Acolytes, and one of Magneto's followers," he explained simply with a slight wave of his hand, as if that was supposed to just magically explain everything.

"Yeah like that explains anything," Mira responded with a bit of an eye roll, her attention on him now, "I mean if you can actually explain where we are or what the hell is going on that would be fantastic."

"Of course, you are on Asteroid M, it is a bit of a work in progress to ensure there is enough room for everyone. Currently only the strongest mutants are allowed here to ensure it is properly fortified in the event we're attacked. So there isn't a repeat of the whole Genosha incident. Some of the Brotherhood members seemed very hellbent on preventing your team from here, hence they decided to go down and challenge the lot of you for a spot here."

"Well we didn't exactly know about that whole thing or what was going on and were more in self defense."

"Yeah, pretty sure that was the point, to ensure you all didn't know they were coming so they had the element of surprise. Though that didn't seem to help them at all," he answered with a laugh. "No need for introductions for most of you though, I know who just about all of you are, except for maybe one or two or something, kind of hard to not know. Especially considering many who are here who were on Genosha, don't care much for you."

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Carolina leaned back slightly as she listened to everyone as they continued to talk about a gameplan on how to actually get their people back from space. Her attention quickly turned to the door as she heard a knock on it, and she quickly recognized that it was Bonnie, she was the second in command in her older sister's SHIELD team. She had met Bonnie way back when she was seventeen and attending a different school years ago where she met her girlfriend October to. She made her way over towards Bonnie and gave her a quick hug, just as little April suddenly started to cry.

"Hey Bonnie how have you been? It's been awhile since I last saw you." Carolina said to Bonnie as she looked over at the others who didn't seem to know her. "Bonnie worked with my sister Cassandra at SHIELD." She said as she looked over at Bonnie for a moment, she tried to think for a moment before remembering. "It's Flynn who went missing right?" Carolina asked Bonnie it had been awhile since she last saw him to if she remembered right he was in the whole House of M reality as well to.

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"See? Totally having a hair fetish if you asked for another sample." Bethany teased Ed again, as she nodded towards Mary, that was why she wanted to make sure if they were just another victim of being suddenly taken up here against their will like they were after winning their fights. Bethany's attention turned towards the footsteps as a man came around the corner and introduced himself to the group. At least he didn't attack them all which was probably a good thing then, they weren't going to have to get into another fight so soon then as she listened to him.

"So since the people who are here who are most likely from Genosha who clearly hate us, why bring us up here in the first place, why even involve us?" Bethany asked the people here would most likely try to attack them then if they disliked the X-Men she liked the idea of another Genosha mutants did need a home of their own but bringing them all here was probably a very bad idea.

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Perry had forgotten that Ed had asked for some hair to do his powers. That was odd, but then again, they were a bunch of humans with weird abilities on a floating rock so weird had left the station a long time ago. "Oh, for sure dude. One strand okay? And does it matter that it's not my natural color? Girl's got to mix it up time and again. Hell, I don't think I know what my real hair color looks like anymore!" She pulled out one strand and handed it to Ed.

Soon enough though, the voice matched the person as some blowhard jackass who just oozed awful. Perry still had her hands up. "I still want to punch him. Can I punch him? He has a very punchable face." She really wanted to, but recognized she would probably be met with something bad. She listened as Fabian explained why they were here. Seems the others were right. They won their spot here, though they all had no idea that was the 'reward' for winning.

"Well, they don't want us here and we don't want to be here so it seems our wants align. Direct us to the nearest ship or whatever and we'll be on our way fuckface. I mean, Fabian." She was probably setting herself up for something, but she really detested this guy. She scooted closer to Flynn, just in case. Setting Fabian on fire seemed like an all-right thing to do.

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Jaclyn opted for a hairband instead of clips, and pulled her hair back into a low ponytail which she was just tucking down the back of her shirt when a knock at the door revealed a young woman and her small baby. Jaclyn was concerned by the news this woman brought -- and it was interesting to Jaclyn that she was an Agent of SHIELD yet she was coming to them. Yes, SHIELD was an organization that was not synonymous with police at all -they had bigger matters than missing people (even police didn't care much about such, depending who they were)- but surely they would look out for the family of one of their own? That said pretty clearly Bonnie's husband was likely a mutant. Jaclyn hoped it wasn't also conveying SHIELD's view on mutants.

The reactions of her fellows followed, and it was seeming to Jaclyn that her impression of Max was the exact opposite to the vibes towards him she was getting from the others. To her, he was seeming to have a good head on his shoulders, and his question to Bonnie hit on something Jaclyn kind of had in the back of her mind: who else was being subjected to these test battles?

The interesting thing was, this school was full of mutants, not all of them just the students, and yet no other attacks so far. But it was too soon to come to any further determinations.

Jaclyn also found Max's act of conjuring a stuffed animal to try and sooth the baby endearing. Alright, so it wasn't the thing a practically newborn's cries were signaling for, but in Jaclyn's opinion: you were never too young (or too old) for a plush friend. She also appreciated how Max handed the toy to Bonnie rather than try to "give it" or interact with the little one himself. It was a more personal-space-respectful way to go.

And so Max had a "little someone" back at home. When Jaclyn had overheard him mentioning saying goodbye to "family" when he'd first arrived, she had imagined the family he came from, not one he had made for himself.

There was more family knowledge to be gained from this conversation: Carolina had a sister at SHIELD.
Through this connection it seemed, Carolina knew Bonnie...but was she the only one? Jaclyn's attention happened to be on Miranda as she was observing her interaction with the baby, but there was something about the woman....Jaclyn had a feeling she was holding something back.

Unlike Pietro, who Jaclyn thought had kind of said a lot about their present state of matters to someone who had just walked in on them. Though it wasn't like these were details that could be leaked, so.

"How long has he been missing?" Jaclyn asked, setting her attention on Bonnie.

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"Remind me not to heal you next time you're hurt then, Bethany." Ed rolled his eyes at her comment but smiled a bit. "The color doesn't matter. What matters is that it was once part of you." He was not going to get into the details of how his magic worked. The conversation with Runa played in his mind. He wondered how she was doing. He took the strand Perry gave him, put it into another small bottle, carefully labeled it, and returned it to his pocket.

"Okay, but we were stuck in space when the whole Genosha thing happened." Ed says, getting a bit annoyed and honestly confused. How was what happened there their fault? Bethany and Perry both had good points too. Why bother with them if they hated them? If they hadn't, would they have even gotten involved with what was happening here? Possibly not. Unless someone asked them to, if they had only taken people willing to join, it would just be Magneto and all those who wanted to be in space. Ed realized they were stuck in space again. He was really done with being stuck in space.

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Bonnie's eyes danced slightly, flaring grey, as Max conjured up an owl, handing her the tiny soft toy. It was more appropriate than he had realized. Although, assumed that this was a sign that he did understand her nature - that he could see the goddess she had given her soul to within her. She accepted the toy, bouncing the baby slightly as she did her best to soothe her, but Bonnie had business to attend to. She couldn't pull out all the stops to soothe her little owlette. "Thank you," she said to Max. Her eyes turned to Miranda as she walked on over, regarding her somewhat with suspicion. She didn't know her.

Carolina, though, Bonnie welcomed openly. She returned her hug halfway with one arm, keeping the other to have a firm grip on her baby. "I've been better," she told Carolina. "And yes, my husband has a name and yes, I can give you evidence to think about, if you give me a moment to speak," Bonnie said somewhat sharply. She didn't appreciate Lance dismissing her so quickly.

She reached into her pocket and brought out what looked like a smart phone, and tapped it twice. A holographic recording then played. They would see a dark haired man in the parking lot of a Safeway, carrying bags full of what looked like baby supplies, suddenly attacked by squat man with elf-like ears and bulging eyeballs. The fight was pathetic and clearly one sided. The dark haired man burst into flames, blasting the other man away to defend himself. The pampers were incinerated, a casualty of the attack. Not too long afterwards, a metal pod scooped the dark haired man up and rocketed him up into the sky. The recording then ended.

"This happened this morning. My husband is Magneto's son. The man in the recording goes by Peepers and is a known accomplice of Erik Lensherr." The baby was continuing to cry, even with Bonnie's attempts to soothe her. "I came to the X-Men for help because my SHIELD squad has disbanded - and I don't trust that a SHIELD response wouldn't end in mass casualties."

Guin listened to the story and watched the recording, raising an eyebrow. "So this is definitely connected then. Sick. Sure, we're headed up to go get our people back - they're on some whacked out space version of Genosha - and we can get your husband back." She had recognized the man in the recording and Carolina had confirmed it - Frederick Flynn. He had been Pietro's brother in the alternate reality Wanda made. It had always seemed a bit random and odd, but now it made sense. That was Pietro's brother. Magneto really was just being sloppy with his pull out game.

I think someone needs to send your dad a box of condoms and an instructional pamphlet, Guin suggested to Pietro. Because he basically has his own soccer team's worth of kids now. The baby then must've been Pietro's niece. And because she was married to him, her niece. I'm way too young to be an aunt, gross. First Wanda, now this chick? Bleh. Thank god I don't have any siblings. She shuddered at the thought. It was one of the few things Guin felt proud of her mother for - having one accident kid (her) and stopping there.

But Bonnie's story did speak to another worry - the scale of this problem. How many mutants were up on that asteroid? How many people had Magneto sent his minions out to attack - and why had that little gremlin man decided to attack someone who controlled fire? Shouldn't he have tried something easier, like maybe some friendly fire with Toad?

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Neil was surprised as a man with the most punchable face he had ever seen walked up to greet him. He reminded Neil of the annoying child from the Polar Express - the one that went on about do you know what kind of train this is and whatnot. He reminded Neil of a douchey reality TV contestant, someone who just wouldn't take a hint, and the audience hated and the producers adored. He reminded Neil of his Great Aunt Aiglamene's ex-husband, who she had shot and killed on Halloween, and who's ghost continued to haunt the family to this day.

Neil had never met this man before, but he knew one thing - he hated him. He hated Fabian Cortez.

And he learned that he really did love Perry already, as she also found Fabian's face very punchable. "I'll help," he offered, as Perry asked permission to deck Fabian. He didn't care if it meant that Fabian wouldn't help them to a ship to get off of this place, there had to be someone who didn't reek of privilege on this station. Maybe Fabian's mutant power was to draw ire? "Also - who are the acolytes? Is that the Christian version of the Brotherhood?" Neil asked, rather skeptical.

The news that mutantkind didn't like the X-Men because of Genosha... It made Neil sad. Yes, most of the X-Men had been off in space during it - but he, Carolina, and Mira had been on Earth. They had been available. Sure, they were dealing with Neil's family issues, but that honestly hadn't taken more than a week or so to sort out. And they had never once made it to the ill fated mutant homeland. If mutants didn't want the X-Men, then... what was the point? It was one thing to protect a world that hated and feared them, but for their fellow mutants to despise them this much? He didn't know what to do about that.