Morose

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

---

---

☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

---

Location: Camp Half-blood: Beach
Skills: N/A

---

---

Nancy shook her head. She didn't want to drag Niah down with her. Niah needed to go and live her life, she didn't need to experience the wrath of some asshole gods. The same was true for Mads - Nancy was still holding out hope that Apollo would return with a cure for Mads. Mads giving the middle finger to the god of prophecy probably wasn't a recipe for success. As Mads pulled her into a tight hug and reminded Nancy of her curse, Nancy's mind only became more determined. She couldn't let her friends sacrifice their lives for her. But she also couldn't go to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Both options were impossible - they couldn't go and she couldn't go, but someone had to... And unfortunately, the prophecy hadn't shown Niah or Mads there. Nancy had witnessed things through her own eyes and assumed that the prophecy meant that she would have to go.

"No," Nancy sniffled, even as her body was shaking. "You're both going to go do your quests. You're going to survive and bring glory to New Rome. And we're going to save you, Mads," Nancy said. "I swear it on the River Styx, we're going to win." She paused. Even as she held onto Mads like a lifeline, Nancy could feel the distance space and time would impose on them, one way or another. "I'll find another way for myself. I'll... I won't go back there. They can't make me. But you both have to go on these quests. There isn't a choice to be made there except for you to go."

"Maybe I can appeal to Lady Diana... If it means leaving New Rome for the Hunt now, then so be it." Even as she said that though, Nancy was filled with guilt. She didn't want to abandon her people - or see her friends go into that horrible, monstrous Hotel on her behalf.

---

---

🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

---

Location: Camp Half-blood: Dining Pavilion
Skills: N/A

---

---

Leda groaned slightly, realizing that Kiera had to go that meeting. She really wanted to get going on their quest, but Arthur had to participate in it as well. She couldn't help but be a little impatient and fidgety - it was the pre-quest excitement and nerves. "Fiiiiine," Leda sulked. "I s'pose you're right and you have to go natter away about what poor sap has to hang with the Romans," Leda admitted. She wasn't the head counselor for the Iris Cabin, so Leda didn't share that responsibility. And as they had already gone to the camp store, Leda didn't have any supplies that she needed to grab. She was already to go and she was dreading how long Kiera and Arthur's meeting might take.

"I'll walk over there with ya, and then find something to do. Maybe I'll throw some rocks at the water or something, dunno." Maybe she could read? But she didn't want to get too into a book at the moment - she tended to binge read rather than slowly pace herself, so starting just to stop less than an hour or so later would be irritating. Maybe she could bother her siblings? But she didn't really feel like that either - she talked to them all the time.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

---

---

Runa Baldurdattir & Guin Stark

---

Location: New York City Defenders HQ
Skills: N/A

---

---

"Kinda fatphobic of you," Guin commented, not exactly happy with Pietro saying that Thor looked dead. He seemed alive to her - just not the same Thor that they had known before. But she didn't go further than that with the gentle um, maybe rephrase she had more or less given her husband. Her mind was still swimming slightly with information she had learned about this world - and it stung in particular when Annie wondered what their counterparts were like, with a whimsical manner to it. Everything here seemed horrible. She didn't even know what to make of Lance having a twin sister - and one of them had apparently died and the other been abducted into a cult. Guin knew which one had died though. She knew it as if she had been the one to experience it.

Strange had left the room though. She knew this was information that Annie and the others would want to hear. Guin sighed a bit. "So, our counterparts - at least, our meaning me and Pietro, they're kinda fucked up. Like not great people, nightmare scenario, the works. I think... I think I'm the reason Lance is dead in this world. Or was dead," Guin said. "For your sake, Ann, I hope that your counterpart is better... But ours don't even qualify for a classic become-an-Avenger-and-leave-your-criminal-past-behind redemption arc."

Meanwhile, Runa was focused more on what had once been the Prince of Asgard, the Mighty Thor. Strange had told them that Thor had more or less been exiled from Asgard, likely due to one of Loki's tricks. Runa's heart ached for him. She knew how much he adored his family and his people, even if he did spend much of his time on Midgard. The Bifrost made it so the distance between the two realms was really not that great. "We come from another universe on Yggdrasil's branches. We are not the Klara and Runa that you know, but... We are family all the same," Runa said.

She wanted to reassure this Thor and ensure that he was on their side. She didn't want him thinking of them as strangers or threats or foes - but instead, as family that he needed to help and protect. Clearly the years had not been kind to him, she had never seen the Mighty Prince of Asgard like this before, and she felt an urge to protect him. She saw much of her own sadness and grief that she used to wear like shackles in him.

What If?

---

---

Jade Cornish

---

---

Jade nodded, listening to the plan that Thalia had relayed to them. It wasn't too horrible - perhaps even passable. The main concern she had was these people didn't seem to know what they were doing, and prematurely alerting Magneto to their intentions could be catastrophic. They couldn't sit around and do nothing though. Jade just had to hope that these people could be quiet and do recon properly. The not-so-subtle speedster at least wouldn't be probing Magneto's lines with them, so that gave them a bit of a chance, and the loudmouth ginger also wouldn't be joining them. Maybe this would work. "Lovely," Jade said, her words relatively clipped. "Perhaps this won't be a complete disaster."

Jade went with the small group that was doing recon, heading out of the tunnels. Cassandra, one of the older members, volunteered to go with her. Jade sized her up for a moment. It was better than taking the actual child with her. "Fine, suppose us ex-pats ought to stick together," Jade said, joking ever so slightly at the end - as she knew that Cassandra was also British, just on the basis of Cass' accent alone. "I'd advise against shouting. We can communicate using the devices Jakobsen sent us in with. Shouting might ruin any element of surprise we'd hope to keep."

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

Guin nodded slightly, knowing that Pietro was trying to cheer her up and stay positive - and she appreciated it, she really did - but sometimes everything that had happened would just weigh on her, feeling like all of the trauma and tragedy was going to just bury her alive. She didn't even think about what she would do when all of this was over - she didn't plan to have a future as she was suffocating over her past. She didn't really get to open up about that though, as the silver lady broke up the conversation. Pietro said that he would see her later and he gave her a kiss, before rushing off. "... Bye, babe," Guin said quietly. He was gone now and Guin tried to mentally give herself a little shake, just to get out of this bad headspace, so she could have her head back in the game.

Her group was heading out of the tunnels now and Guin went with them. It was a little easier to shake her depressive mood, mostly as Jade had come back and the British woman's every word made Guin want to gag. It was like watching BBC Sherlock all over again, fully aware of all the horrible queer-baiting and that the show would only get a little worse each year. "So many fucking Brits here," Guin said, shaking her head slightly. "Guess we should get started then. Pip pip cheerio god save the queen and all that nonsense."

The Gifted - Concluded

---

---

---

@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

---

---

Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 10:40 AM

---

---

Veil & Casper & Sunshine

---

---

Location: Various
Skills: Mediumship

---

The Green Lagoon...

Sunshine sniffled slightly, but nodded at Echo's advice. "I guess," she said noncommittally. "Maybe you don't completely suck at giving advice," she then added, a genuine Sunshine sort-of-compliment. She rubbed her eyes dry on the back of her sleeve, having teared up a bit throughout the conversation. She just wanted to live in a world where they didn't have to hurt all of the time - something she thought was possible on Genosha. But it seemed like no matter where they went, mutants would always be hunted - they would always be struggling to survive in a world where they were hated and feared.

Marrow returned with the drinks, but she wasn't the only one to come on over. Legion had popped up as well. Legion slid into a seat next to Echo and grinned at him. "Hey Harry." Legion's shirt was torn up and covered in dirt, looking like he had crawled through a bunch of blackberry bushes on the way over. His jeans were distressed (hard to tell if they had been when he bought them or if he had ripped them up recently) and also had a fine coating of dirt on them.

"Here you go, babes. And yours," Marrow said, sliding a drink to Sunshine and then Echo's drink on over to him. Marrow then took a seat next to her wife, putting an arm around Sunshine and pulling her in closely. Even though they hadn't known each other very long, she could tell when Sunshine was hurting.

"I forgot your name was Harry," Sunshine said, wrinkling her nose. "Flatscan names are so fucking ugly."

Hellfire Manor...

Mongoose started counting her fingers, before triumphantly coming up with her age to tell Moneta. "I'm one thousand!" she cried out. She then help up her fingers, showing what her actual age was (@Blue, you get to decide how many fingers she's holding up). "I'm an old sea witch and I'm going to rule this world!"

Stacy X chuckled a little bit at James asking about paperwork and forms. "Honestly, as long as you aren't a creep and the kid seems to like you, you can just take them and go. I'll jot down your name next to theirs in this," Stacy then paused, holding up a spiral bound notebook with a suspicious stain on the cover, "aaand that's pretty much it. There aren't any Genoshan laws on adoption."

"Is that... blood? Or really weird looking coffee?" Casper couldn't help but ask, before shaking his head slightly. "Wait, no, I know! That's liquid cotton candy. Classic. That stuff is surprisingly good at stains, I had a friend once who used it to dye their hair on the regular, ooo, James, we should dye my hair! That'd be cute right? Maybe pink tips? Or stripes? Can you do stripes in hair? Wait, sorry, focus Casper, we're here to get a baby - or a kid - is there one you were leaning towards?" Casper rambled, in classic Casper fashion.

"Just take a look around, meet-and-greet with the kids, though if I'd had to bet, it looks like Moneta is going to take Mongoose home, so she's spoken for - the rest... sadly, aren't."

Casper then looked at James. There were kids in cribs - the babies. And then some little kids playing with toys and whatnot. It looked like the oldest kid present there was about 12 years old, maybe 13. The older kids probably were just a little too old for this sort of makeshift orphanage set-up - teens tended to be pretty free-range on Genosha, allowed to do as they liked and pleased. "Soooo which ones speak to you, James-y?" Casper asked.

Outside the Green Lagoon...

Magneto raised an eyebrow. He hadn't anticipating for Jack to be a man of so few words. "How have you been taking to Genosha?" Magneto asked. "The recent tragedy I hope has not shaken your faith in this great work." Magneto was privately hoping that Andy would come back shortly. His mind was fixated largely on the idea of reforming the Brotherhood of Mutants here on Genosha. The more he thought about it, the more intoxicating it became. Strength was what they needed to survive - and Magneto would cultivate it however he could.

Max's Room...

Veil pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment, thinking on everything Max had said. For the most part, she was in total agreement with him. "If Sinister is using Jack as a pawn... then a pawn for what?" Veil posed. Max had floated the idea that it was to get close to Sunshine, but that line of thought didn't ring true to her. It didn't seem right. She had no idea why Sinister would want to go after her, especially given that he now was in a position of power on Genosha, unfortunately. "He's on the Quiet Council now as well - he's at his most powerful. Maybe... Maybe he resurrected Jack to get leverage on someone. Jack's mother? She's got ties to powerful mutants."

"You could try talking to Renegade, she actually might know something," Ben voiced, before sighing. "What's the fucking point of me actually saying anything right now? This is EXACTLY what it's like when Casper's done so many stupid drugs that his powers won't work. I'm stuck, in this in-between, and no one can hear me! Gah!" Ben punched the wall behind him for dramatic effect, but of course, his hand just harmlessly passed through.

"I agree on it being risky for Ben though - we were lucky we weren't caught when we went to Bar Sinister and did some investigating," Veil said. She nodded a bit. Pixie seemed like someone they could probably trust, even if her pure black eyes were mildly unnerving at times. Selene rubbing Max the wrong way - that also made sense. Selene seemed pretty dramatic. "As for visiting his grave... I think you'd need to ask Ben that... Is Ben here with us right now?"

"Does it even matter if I'm here?" Ben sulked.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

---

---

---

@BlueSky44@Kirah@Nallore@Natsu

---

---

EARTH 257 - 7:10 AM Nov. 14th, 2021 - the Iron

---

Stolen Ship

Bonnie's stomach had gradually begun to calm down, allowing her to focus on Raynor's admission of what he had done in this world. She noted that he left out concrete details, leaving it up to them to imagine the extent of what he had done there. Because of this, it wasn't surprising to her that no one voiced opposition to continuing to work with him - that everyone seemed fine with it, willing to forgive and forget. But despite being a good Catholic girl, Bonnie didn't necessarily believe in redemption. Or at least, not in Raynor's redemption.

But they needed him. They were in a strange world they couldn't navigate. For now, Bonnie decided to go along with things - to work with the God of Lies. But once they had a way to get home, that was when she'd voice her objections to him continuing to be a part of their team. Besides, they had more pressing concerns - that being that everyone seemed convince that Celestine had been assimilated or something along those lines. Niah (and Niah's leg) seemed terrified. "Flynn, could you destroy the body?" Bonnie asked. Fire ought to do the trick.

Amelia didn't know what to focus on - two incredibly interesting but disturbing things were happening at once. One, Raynor had confessed to having a dark and mysterious past, one that seemed to have involved probably killing a lot of innocent people. She didn't know what Ragnarok really involved or whatever, but it sounded like Norse god stuff, and not really something that the Iron was responsible for. But on the other hand, apparently Celestine was going to be guest starring in Star Trek, as she turned into some sort of creepy cyborg thing? Or would have continued turning into it, if she hadn't been killed by Folly's blade.

"Oh boy, there's a lot to unpack here. Ray-Ray, we obviously can't forgive you for what you did, but the past is the past and I'm sure you're a smashing dad and husband and you've saved the world, so you're all good by me - just maybe try not to relapse and go evil again? We love a redemption arc, but we don't gotta see it again," Amelia rambled. "And the Borg? How the hell did that happen to Celestine? She was, like, totally normal when we got here - or do you think she maybe got infected a while ago? How long does the infection take to spread? Days, hours, minutes?"

"I don't need your approval or forgiveness," Raynor muttered, deeply unhappy with everything going on. At least it seemed like people thought that the Iron had been the ones to kill his parents - that probably made him look a little better in their eyes than the truth would have (not that he had lied, people had just made an assumption).

Of course, Folly wasn't interested in Raynor's brooding - even if she had giggled ever so slightly at him being called Ray-Ray, something he had clearly not enjoyed. "Are you going to tell them all about the Phalanx or should I?" Folly asked Darcy.

Darcy was looking incredibly pale. "The what? I-I've never heard of that," she lied.

Folly rolled her eyes. "Typical flatscan behavior. Ugh. Your friend was being transformed into a part of the Phalanx, an extra-dimensional hive-mind made out of techno-organic machinery. The machine gods that Stark worships, that hunt mutants for sport."

"What?" Raynor asked, lifting his head up, clearly surprised. That wasn't right. There hadn't been any machine gods back when he had been here - the Iron had been advanced for a Midgardian society, but nothing too crazy. Raynor hadn't even heard the word Phalanx before, it wasn't something that even Asgardians knew about. "What do you mean? How.... Just what the hell?"

"Go on, tell them," Folly said to Darcy.

Darcy grumbled. She really didn't want to. She didn't want to talk about this. "I don't officially know any of this, but I saw a file that I was definitely not cleared to have access for once, explaining that the cloning facilities weren't a viable solution to the sterilization problem in the Iron - thanks again for that, Raynor. Buuut Stark was inspired by old myths of gods and humans having kids, so... He made a kid with the Phalanx. A living artificial intelligence - a Generative Uniform Intelligent Network. Buuuut problem was, some of the Phalanx got into all of Stark's AIs, and it seems like it spreads... like through your friend, who had a computer mind...."

"Jesus," Bonnie cursed.

🌠 Once Upon A Time 🌠(Concluded)

---

---

Megan Pendragon

---

Location: Atlantica
Skills: N/A

---

---

Megan nodded at what her brother was saying. It was all well and good, but ultimately didn't do much to put her mind at ease. There was a difference, unfortunately, between knowing something intellectually and knowing that same fact emotionally. She just couldn't help but fixate on trying to find some sort of flaw, some sort of concrete reason for her to have nothing to do with her biological parents - it would've been easiest to just leave them behind, pivot off into some other sort of adventure. But sadly, Megan believed strongly in social justice - and beheading tyrants like Maleficent. Lady Guinevere, then, asked Megan how she was and Megan tensed up ever so slightly. The only bit of familial tie she had really responded well to so far had been excalibur, but that was partially because she was a lesbian who adored a good sword. "I'm fine," Megan answered. "As happy as a well-fed maggot."

Her hand went to her blade as something stirred in the water, eventually turning out to be some sort of magical carriage, guided by sea horses. The escorts they had hired turned out to also be mermaids - Megan wondered if that made Sierra feel happy or annoyed. Arthur then solved the potential issue of there being extra passengers by throwing money at them and Megan had to wonder how King Arthur wasn't recognized - did people not even have decent portraits being passed around in this land? "Why didn't they recognize you?" Megan then asked quietly. She had an idea - but also just wanted to gain more context of this world.

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

---

---

Runa Baldurdattir & Guin Stark

---

Location: New York City alley -> through a portal
Skills: N/A

---

---

Runa relaxed, pleased that the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension believed them - she hadn't been too certain how that would go, what with them having destroyed the greater portion of a city block. "Thank you. Myself and some of my companions are sorcerers in our own right and may be able to help you with the requisite spellcraft," Runa explained. Edus and Klara should both be able to assist, although they'd need to find Edus first. At least with Strange's aid, they had a stable place to operate from now and could begin the necessary spells to bring everyone into one spot. That would at least be one of their primary goals - just gathering everyone into one space, so that way they could all go home.

Runa stepped through the portal that Strange summoned, noticing what looked suspiciously like her Uncle Thor, his belly peaking out from underneath his shirt. Klara, understandably, was quite confused. Runa was speechless for a moment, not really certain what to say. She wasn't the most vocal of people anyways, but she had more or less felt a need to take on something of a leadership role, at least when it came to speaking with wizards. "...Hello, Uncle," Runa greeted, curtseying slightly.

Guin went through the portal as well, also pleasantly surprised that Strange hadn't decided to blow them all up - or question the fact that they had accidentally kidnapped someone. "So, you know that girl on the couch? We sorta accidentally abducted her, since she attacked us, we knocked her out, we couldn't leave her on the street because that was dangerous so... Any chance you have a magic spell or something that could send her on home?" Guin asked Strange, figuring it was best to jump out in front of this one.

Too bad his name isn't Merlin, it'd complete the little Camelot theme Lance and I have, Guin murmured idly to Pietro. She didn't really want to think about all of the horrible, fucked up things she had been shown. She wanted to think about anything else. Namely, she wanted to think about funny references and a way to get home - not that in this world, Pietro was a complete psychopath and a murderer. It was one thing to know that everyone had darkness within them - it was another thing to see exactly how that could all play out.

Ω Heroes of Olympus: The Next Age of Heroes Ω

---

---

☀️ Nancy Parker ☀️

---

Location: Camp Half-blood: Beach
Skills: N/A

---

---

Nancy heard Niah's offer to switch places with her, a sentiment quickly echoed by Mads. Some base instinct of Nancy's cried out for her to accept the deal, to allow anyone else to go to the Lotus Hotel and Casino, but her more dominant nature knew it was wrong. As terrified as she was of that place, as traumatized, as weak as she felt... how could she ask her friends to go there? And if she were to deny fate, why not deny it all together and have none of them make that journey? "No no no no no no no," Nancy replied, her crying still uncontrollable. "You can't go." She wasn't emotionally coherent enough to explain her thoughts to her friends - to tell that that they weren't in the prophecy, that it was her, and that they couldn't do anything.

She couldn't explain to them how she wasn't the only one who was helpless, forced to play the part that the Fates decreed - they were just as trapped and stuck as she was.

Nancy forced herself up into a seated position, hugging her knees to her chest. "It has to be me. You can't switch with me," she sobbed. "But I refuse. The gods be damned. I can't. I can't do this. They can't ask me to do this - they can't ask me to go." She buried her face in her knees, her large curly hair helping to hide her. "You two should go without me. I'm cursed. Like some grody tragic figure of old."

---

---

🌈 Leda Storm 🌈

---

Location: Camp Half-blood: Dining Pavilion
Skills: N/A

---

---

Leda chuckled slightly at Kiera volunteering her leftovers. "Very sweet of you, babes. Does your mum know about me?" she then asked. Kiera had been mentioning her mum on and off, whereas Leda didn't honestly think much about her mortal mother. She wasn't particularly close with her godly mother either, despite all of the time Leda dedicated towards worship of the Greek gods. Iris wasn't the most close of people, always dashing off from one thing to the next, so it wasn't like Leda spent a lot of quality bonding time with her. Brief conversations tended to be the norm between them. "Usually Argus gives us a lift into town, 'tho sometimes the older campers just borrow the van and use it pretty much the entire quest, not very often though."

Leda shrugged slightly. She figured information like that was probably things Chiron was about to give them all, and things might have changed since the last quest Leda had been on - not that it had been too long ago, just a year or two. Chiron then made his announcements and as Leda expected, he pretty much answered Kiera's one question. "Shall we go fetch our quest buddy and get this show on the road?" Leda asked Kiera.

The Gifted - Concluded

---

---

---

@Nallore@BlueSky44@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Kirah

---

---

Genosha: August 3rd, 2021 - 10:30 AM

---

---

Veil & Casper & Sunshine

---

---

Location: Various
Skills: Mediumship

---

The Green Lagoon...

Marrow had gone off to get drinks for everyone from the bar, where Blob was serving up Genosha's finest, leaving Sunshine alone with Echo at the table. Sunshine shrugged when Echo asked if she was old enough to drink. "Does it matter?" she asked him. She hadn't bothered to check if there were any rules against it on Genosha - as far as she knew, the laws were rather limited and lax. Besides, she was an adult. She didn't really care if some long dead humans decided you had to be 21 years old to consume alcohol.

Sunshine rolled her eyes as he went on about how sweet and special she was - and to make a point, she punched him in the arm. "I'm not nice," Sunshine corrected, before sighing and continuing. "I just miss them all. They're supposed to be here with us. But they're gone. And we can't do shit about it." It didn't feel fair to her. Genosha was supposed to be for all mutants, but could that really be true when people like Waverley and Kristina weren't there? When they had died on the land that was supposed to be a paradise, a safe haven for their people?

Hellfire Manor...

"What if it's a garage sale?" Casper asked James. It was very hard to tell if he was joking in that moment. Casper said the strangest things sometimes and this was definitely one of those moments. Did he know that they wouldn't just keep a bunch of babies in the garage? Or was he making a self-aware joke about his somewhat strange behavior? The world may never know - well, a telepath could probably figure it out. Or James.

Purple Mongoose tilted her head, looking at Moneta with slightly squinted eyes, as if she was concentrating really hard on something. "Are you old?" she then asked.

Stacy X glanced up, noticing that two newcomers had come inside - Casper and James. Their reputations preceded them, as heroes of Genosha. But Stacy didn't see them as different than any of the other hotshots on the island, especially the ones who were too busy to deal with the orphaned youth of the 198. "Sure, I've got a spot on my dance card," Stacy replied.

"I have a question to start - who are you and this is a more a comment than a question, but I looove the snake skin! Very chic," Casper chattered. Stacy X looked vaguely familiar to him, giving him the idea that he might have met her during one of his drunken, high nights. "Ben, have I met her before?" Casper asked, before pouting. "Right, Ben went with Max, so rude," he muttered.

"We've met, Casper," Stacy X said with a laugh. "I'm sad you don't remember to mind-blowing experience I gave you. Maybe we'll have to do it again sometime."

Outside the Green Lagoon...

Magneto was waiting for Andy to come back with Zarina; nothing too interesting was going on there. However, he recognized someone leave the Green Lagoon, noticing that it was the son of one of his former friends, for lack of a better term. "Stretch," Magneto called out, before walking up to Jack. "We haven't been properly introduced, I realize, something I intend to rectify. I was once good friends with your mother."

Max's Room...

Unseen by everyone, Ben had perched on Max's bed, listening to the conversation with interest. He was a ghost - he was used to eavesdropping, learning things that others didn't. But even he hadn't been aware of all of this - that Jack had died and been resurrected by Mister Sinister, or rather, cloned. "That part-time devil, part-time drag queen can bring me back?" Ben asked. He didn't like Sinister, but whenever Ben had seen him in his Sinister outfit, he was serving face the entire time.

Sadly, no one could hear Ben's comments.

"We don't know how it works - we're not scientists," Veil admitted. Max was asking questions that she just didn't know how to answer. Some of them seemed to be more of a philosophical nature, something just ineffable. "Jack doesn't want to be involved in any of this, but yeah, we thought this might help with your plans about resurrection. We don't know what the cost is for Sinister's help - or even why he decided to bring Jack back."

"You can't trust Sinister. It's literally a deal with the devil," Ben cautioned. "He's fucked up so many people, you'd just be giving him power over you he'll use to make you do something nasty."

"How far are you in making this happen?" Veil asked Max. "Maybe you don't need Sinister's help or maybe talking to him might... help tell you what you're missing. The X-Men have died and come back all the time, but it's usually in one off ways, never something so reproducible and regimented as to be able to be done for all of our people." She didn't even remember the specifics of how, for example, Jean Grey had come back beyond -Phoenix nonsense-.

What If?

---

---

Jade Cornish

---

---

"Understood, Jakobsen," Jade said, before ending the communication via her communicator. She wasn't one for sappy goodbyes or speeches. She trusted that he understood how she felt about him, but this wasn't about them. This was about everyone still stuck in this hellish city - and those on the outside, looking at the beginnings of WWIII with bated breath. She barely took a moment before leaving the little area she was in and returning to find the others - well, most of them. It looked like the plant girl had gone off somewhere. Jade wasn't worried.

"I made contact with Jakobsen. He's preparing reinforcements for us, waiting on our signal." That was short and to the point - pretty much giving everything pertinent from the conversation. She barely paused for a moment before continuing. "Where are we at with our strategy?" she then asked. She was looking mostly as Edus and Thalia, the two people she had come in with, as the rest seemed to either be children or just inefficient. Jade figured she would die here, but she didn't want to die pointlessly or without reason.

---

---

Guinevere Stark

---

---

Pietro had checked in again with her - it was sweet, but even little things like that wasn't enough sometimes to get her mind to shake off the general feelings of agony and despair. She wished that she could close her eyes and open them again to find that everything had been undone, that she had never joined SHIELD or gone to work with the X-Men, that she was just another rich brat who only needed to worry about what parties to go to or what to wear. Her mutant power had kept her alive, but the real joke was that she hadn't been able to use it to help anyone else. Even if she could switch with someone to infiltrate Magneto's base, the minute she switched back, they would have information about their group as well. The only way to eliminate that concern would be if Guin never switched back... if the person in her body ceased to be... along with her...

Guin shrugged a bit at his check-in. "I'm just tired of it all," she answered him quietly. She couldn't help but wonder if this would be the last time they'd ever see each other - even at the end of the world, Guin couldn't help but be dramatic. But it was drama for good reason. Doing recon was potentially deadly. Not only could she be killed in someone else's body, but her own body would be left vulnerable, easy pickings for any psychopath who happened to come across it. She didn't doubt that he would make it out though - he always did.