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"It's Hot Daga's, of course!" the person answered Callie, somewhat unhelpfully. "... You do know Hot Daga, right?" they then asked, sizing her up. She didn't look like the typically barely dressed gay man that the mysterious Hot Daga liked to hang out with.

Casper glanced at Waverley as she said the name of the birthday boy - Hot Daga. The name was definitely familiar. He stroked his chin as he tried to remember who it could have been. He'd partied at most places in the D.C. area, the only issue was that he was generally high as a kite or drunk as a skunk or both during those events. "I think I do - Bennie Ben Ben, do you know?" Casper asked, looking at his dearly departed best friend, hoping he'd have the answer.

Ben shook his head. "Shit, Ben doesn't know," he grumbled. "Um well... I do remember that Hot Daga is bear sized and very hairy - and his name was similar to... something with a Church? I don't know, everyone just called him Hot Daga, I think. Or maybe I'm imagining this and never met him, it's very possible as I was high as heeeeeeell," Casper answered, singing the last part slightly.

The line was moving quickly, and it wasn't long until the group was up at the front. The bouncers let everyone move along in the group, they didn't even need Hot Daga's name, but the bouncers did end up stopping one person - Casper.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Casper," the bouncer growled.

"You have a lot of nerve coming in here after breaking the boss' heart," the other bouncer added.

Casper stared at them with confusion. "Are you sure that was me? I sleep with a lot of people who call themselves bosses," he explained. "And I'm here to support my dear friend Hot Daga on his special day! I'm not the kind of rotten friend to not show up. It's a special occasion!"

"You're such a convincing actor," Ben commented.

The bouncers agreed with Ben's assessment. "Beat it, Casper."

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Veil nodded, glad that the newbies didn't take forever to come up with mutant names. She didn't give any notes on whether or not she felt they were good ones - her own name was a play on her human name after all, so she couldn't judge, and Sapphire named herself after a pretty rock. "Thundering Champion? That's almost as bad as Negasonic Teenage Warhead," Havok teased a bit cruelly. "We're really running out of names, huh?"

Veil shot Havok a look - they didn't have time for this. "We're all going in together as a group," Veil explained to Andy. "Glimpse and Stareyes are going to evacuate people out if things go south - they've got speed and flight on their side," she finished. She didn't blame Thundering Champion for being a bit confused, it was likely the kid's first serious operation. Their plan was painfully simple and probably not the best, but they didn't have the time to improve upon it. Going in cloaked and doing what they could was just about all they had.

Her teeth started chattering from the rapid drop in temperature, as frost formed on the windows of the van. A popsicle car was definitely going to stand out, even hidden away inside of a parking garage. Veil closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to refocus herself. She didn't get a chance to ask for Sapphire to take a deep breath though, as Havok responded to Sapphire's verbal assault with one of his own.

"Lighten up, Frosty," Havok muttered, his own mood souring. The car was parked and he didn't want to stay in a meat locker, so he opened up his door and got on out. Veil stepped out of the car as well. "Guys, we can't afford to be fighting like this. If we don't work together, then this mission is already a failure," she reminded them all. She kept the field of invisibility around them all still. "Now come on, let's move."

Once everyone was ready, Veil started walking down the block to the building. She maintained her field of invisibility around them all, although that couldn't account for the tracks they left in the snow on the sidewalk. They'd just have to hope that no one noticed those. They were incredibly lucky that no one was standing around outside the building to see the door seemingly open by itself, as the group went inside and entered the lobby.

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Sunshine didn't like letting people see her vulnerability. She didn't want them to think that she was weak, unable to handle herself. A day ago, it would have been unthinkable for her to let down her guard with Max, to admit to him that she didn't know what to do next. She had always seen a path forward but now, she felt like she was lost in the woods, fog swirling all around her so she was blind. "Maybe there isn't a reason why he did it." She set down her milkshake, losing her appetite for the first time in her life.

She knew that humans didn't need a reason to hate mutants - the Hellfire Club hadn't needed a reason to kill Erg. Some people were just bad. Maybe it was overly simplistic of her to believe, but she did. She had thought that Max was just bad for a while. She didn't know if the same was true of Jack - if he was just a bad person and he didn't need a reason to do bad things. His father had been a bad person, so maybe he passed it onto Jack - and then, maybe Jack passed it on to her. Maybe she was a bad person too. Maybe that was why she always lost more than she gained.

"Can't you teleport us the rest of the way there?" Sunshine asked him. "Whatever. A bus is fine, I guess. As long as there aren't any Purifiers."

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"She is?" Waverley replied back to Zarina, stressing the is. She'd assumed the girl was an orphan, so hearing her refer to her mom in present tense threw her off. Suddenly bringing the girl into their little group sounded a whole lot more like kidnapping than adopting. But when James asked for a plan and Jack gave his vague answer, she decided to push her concerns to the back of her mind until they were back at home. Perhaps it was because of her immediate objection to putting Jack in charge of his earlier victim's retrieval or perhaps it was her insecurities brought on by Zari's ability to do everything she was used to doing faster, but whatever it might've been, it put her in overdrive. As they moved through the line, she stared down at her phone, typing away at a speed that could rival Negasonic.

"Well, Z and I - Is it alright if I call you Z?- We looked through the cameras, and we didn't see Sunshine or Max. So if they're here, they're gonna be somewhere that the cameras aren't looking. That leaves us with the bathrooms, the dressing rooms, and, erm...the special...entertainment rooms." Her quick, almost cool planning voice dimmed down into an awkward finish as she seemed visibly uncomfortable with the idea of going to any sort of special show room. "We should check out those spots, and if they're not there, then they either left, or were never here. We should probably look into the bathrooms first, since they're more likely to be there than the...alternatives," she suggested as they neared the entrance.

Waverley wasn't all that surprised when she got waved through the front doors - she knew that, due to her oddly contradictory soft-punk aesthetic, she looked older than she actually was - but she was surprised that Zarina was let in too. The girl looked as young as she was, so it seemed what Casper said had turned out to be true. Ironic, Waverley realized, as he was the only one to be stopped. Waverley slowed down a few feet into the building, slowly sidestepping over to Callie, whose sleeve she began to lightly pull.

"Pst, think you could make the bouncers a little more...lenient?" she suggested in a hushed voice. Even though Callie's empathic ability was more subtle than most of their powers, she didn't want anyone to overhear and put two and two together. Most of the patrons were likely intoxicated in one way or another, but she didn't want to underestimate the observational skills of the Glitter Factory's somewhat sketchy clientele.

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Callie looked at the party goer and smiled and nodded towards him. "Of course I know who Hot Daga is." Callie said lying, she didnt even know who the guy was, Casper seemed to know who he was though which was good. Callie continued to follow the others in the line as it moved fairly quickly, when the bouncers let her in she took a step inside. She paused feeling Waverly tugging her sleeve and turned around seeing two bouncers blocking Casper from entering the club itself.

"I got this, just stay with the others." Callie said as she shook her head slightly at Casper wondering who he had actually pissed off this time. Callie quickly stepped in between them and drapped an arm over Casper's shoulder turning to look at the two bouncers sending them some calming feelings. "Hey, Casper is my cousin i'm really sorry that he broke your bosses' heart. You see he was kind of a druggie mess, and has cleaned up his act, i'll babysit him and make sure that he doesnt do anything really stupid I promise he wont get into any kind of trouble." Callie said trying to be as convincing as possible.

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Kristina looked at Veil and then at Glimpse and nodded towards her. "That works for me." Kristina said, though she hoped that no one would really be to heavy if she had to pick someone up. Kris started to shiver ever so slightly as the temperature in the car started to drop, looking over towards Sapphire for a moment wondering what was wrong. Eventually they were in the parking garage, Kristina got out of the car and followed the others down towards the Eisenhower Building.

Kristina ignored Havok's comment towards Andy's new name, she didnt think it was a really bad one though she listened to Veil and nodded towards her. She was still more than willing to help with the mission and didnt want to start up any kind of fighting with this new group at all.

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Speed and flight, that seemed like an excellent combination to get civilians out of the way and quickly. Flight might cause more of a panic but they didn’t have much of an option. Luna looked at Kristina and nodded. ”We should stick together then if things go south, then we can split off and get as many people out as we can.” She didn’t much like either name the new girls had but they would grow on Luna. It was like hearing anything new, it was a bit weird until you got used to it.
As they entered the parking garage, the temperature in the vehicle dropped drastically after Sapphire snapped at Havok. Luna held herself as her breath started to fog around her. She knew it was cold outside but it wasn’t this cold, at least she had a jacket on. Veil didn’t seem to have the time to get Sapphire to relax and Luna wasn’t sure that tough love was going to work but what other options did they have.
Luna looked at Sapphire before she exited the vehicle. ”Redirect the anger. You aren’t as weak as they are trying to make us.” Luna wasn’t sure if her comment would work for Sapphire or anger her but if it snapped her out of her thoughts, then Luna would deal with the aftermath later. She followed Veil and the others, sticking close so that she remained invisible.

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James nodded his understanding of the plan. Get in, sweep the building, get out. Hopefully, this party would give them enough cover to avoid the trap everyone thought this would be. James cast a quick glance over the line. There were a lot of civilians. No matter the truth, mutants involved in any altercation here would be media fuel against them and considering the rest of the hell going on in the world, the MU didn’t need any additional heat coming out of this. As mortifying for the pair as this may be, he really hoped they’d find them here and quickly. He felt oddly out of place, not quite able to pinpoint why but he felt like an awkward teenager again, not quite comfortable in his skin. He was more than ready to grab the two and get the hell out of here. If anything, this just confirmed clubs, gay or not, weren’t really his scene.

The bouner’s didn’t even offer a token resistance as they passed by, more a formality than anything James hazarded a guess, and that would have been his queue to slip into a few of the spots Wav’s mentioned when heard his boyfriend’s name suddenly growled. Casper dated a guy named Hot Daga and now he was about to walk back into his apparently successful ex-boyfriend’s place to look for their missing family members. James wanted to be a little jealous but honestly, someone named Hot Daga, really? The fact that Casper couldn’t even remember who they were talking about definitely didn’t do anything at all to keep that jealousy from flaring up at all, no way, but James would admit that it was at least consistent with Casper’s wild and colorful history. James wasn’t really sure how to handle this (he sincerely doubted the new boyfriend of the guy who broke their boss’s heart could make the situation better) but Callie saved the day and instead he turned to Jack.

“Well, this is going to be a little bit of a problem. Do we have anything to hide Casper’s face at all?” James asked quietly as they waited for Casper to join them. “Regardless of what happens, I doubt intervention from Casper’s past is going to help us much.”

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"That makes more sense." She says to Veil clenching her fists at Havok's comment. Not Veil's.

Of course, someone finally talked to her and it was to be an absolute ass. She glared at the back of Havok's head shivering as the car got freezing. When they got out of the car and started walking she maneuvered and punched him. Not her hardest. But enough to let her displeasure be known, and that she wouldn't just take being insulted. She didn't care who he was. His hair was also standing on end now. He was lucky. Some people died when she punched them.

She hurried to keep up with Veil and the others staying in the cloaking that she gave them. Andy could just imagine Jamie admonishing her for letting her temper flare like that but she didn't care. If he was going to insult her name he should have at least given constructive criticism rather than being outright mean. Andy figured Veil was going to be mad at her, which made making up for crashing at the underground and eating their food a bit harder she supposed.

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It took a few minutes for Sapphire to be pulled out of her thoughts. Her mind had sort of trapped herself in it's own little world with regards to the group partially talking about someone more or less experimenting with turning the President into a mutant. Yeah this wasn't something she ever joked about, having been trapped as a lab rat herself once before, she knew that she wouldn't wish that sort of thing on her worst enemy, not even Jakobsen who was partially responsible for what happened to her. "Sorry..." she muttered, loosening her grip on the wheel of the car after the words that were said about fighting. Thing was, she wasn't meaning to snap at anyone or start fights, not this time.

Glimpse's words bugged her, though they weren't too surprising. Of course everyone would automatically assume that she was angry, given what had just happened, who wouldn't? "I'm not mad or angry, just the conversation brought up some really bad memories, memories that I would prefer to stay buried," was the only thing she said in response to her words. It wasn't anger or anything, in all honesty Sapphire was pretty sure that she had some sort of PTSD from what had happened with OMEN. The newbies in the group wouldn't understand that. Hell only Veil really knew the basics of what had happened, as she had never said much of anything with regards to the incident.

Eventually she got out of the car, and stayed nearby the group as they made their way to the building that they were heading towards. Her hair was still brunette though, in the case that the bubble of invisibility disappeared so that she could easily blend and not stick out like a sore thumb. Though that was entirely true. Since she was still not too sure about using her powers out of fear that she might seriously injure someone. So many things were going through her head, it was hard to keep her thoughts straight at this point.

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"Yes, is. Did I stutter? What did you think? That she was dead? You people are a little weird if you automatically assume that. My dad is, and yes I'm saying is a pilot. Open your ears a little bit or something. It's sort of complicated to say anything else about anything," she said to Waverly with an eye roll. Odd thing was, that this was not the first time that day that she had mentioned something in her life as being complicated or strange. Earlier she had said the same thing about her age, and she still hadn't said anything truthfully about how old she was. "Yeah, that nickname is fine with me..."

Jack was glad that everything seemed to be working out for the most part, since the line seemed to move rather quickly and they easily got to the front of the line, which was nice. Something seemed to be working out in their favor at least for the moment. Though he was still expecting something to go wrong. Since let's be honest, since when were they ever so lucky for something to go the way that they wanted it to go? Almost never. Which meant that they still needed to keep their guard up no matter how easy any of this seemed to be going for them now.

Truthfully, Zari was a little surprised that she managed to get through the doors, since from what everyone else had been saying, they typically carded people at the door or something like that. Though she wasn't too sure what that term even meant, but she thought nothing more of it as she walked through the entrance to clear the way sort of for the others to potentially follow her. However, the others seemed to have stopped for some reason, and when she turned to look and actually pay attention to what was being said, she realized that one of the group (Casper) had been stopped by the guy at the door, well this was going to be fun.

He had to resist the urge to face palm when Casper got stopped at the door. Of course Casper had apparently had things end beyond horribly with the guy who ran the Glitter Factory. Was he all that surprised? No. Actually that was the least surprising thing that had happened in a while. Jack glanced slightly at James when he made his comment about hiding Casper's face, "Sadly no, not that I know of, but if we're lucky the people in the club will mostly be too drunk to cause us problems and recognize Casper flat out... Knowing our luck though Casper might cause some more problems... Depending..." Jack whispered to James. If Callie hadn't done what she seemed to be doing, he had been ready to go off and maybe see about morphing his appearance to match that of the owner and talk his way out of it. Though he was really glad that he hadn't had to do that.

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Max was at a loss for words, unsure as to how best to console her. Surely it was a lot to take in, so much to process, even he hadnt fully wrapped his mind around it. He chewed silently at his food as she spoke, listening, thinking, and wondering how best to approach this. By now everything must've settled down at the Underground, Jack was surely dealt with, and Sunshine would be safe to return. As he thought on it he began to think of Waverly, how sick she must be with worry over what happened to Sunshine. It was clear she harbored only ill thoughts of Max so in her mind he may as well have kidnapped her as well. His eyes were downcast as he simply stared at his food, letting the sauce drip down back into the container. "Alright." He said softly. His eyes moving up to meet hers. "Lets do it. Let's try to teleport back home. I can't be afraid to use this new power, I have to master someday."

Max gathered their food so that they would lose any of it before holding onto Sunshines hand and trying to think of the Underground. The similar black orb enveloped them as the cold kicked in and then they were met with the suns rays. When he opened his eyes they weren't far off from where they started. Just outside the airport itself. "Damn it why am I so useless? Why can't we just GO HOME!" With the final word the void wrapped up in them again, kicking in on instinct and the cold biting even more. His exhaustion hit hard this time as the distance traveled was unexpected and they finally landed within the walls of the Mutant Underground. The dust beneath their feet scattered as he looked around with awe. Handing Sunshine her food he collapsed on the floor, sitting and tired. "Helloooo? Anyone home? Man I need practice..."

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Harry barely stopped inside as the bouncers began to keep Casper at bay. Standing there listening to the idle gossip as to how he had broken their bosses heart and now he wouldnt be allowed in. Harry placed his hand delicately against his face, each finger extended, barely touching him as he dramatically showed his exasperation. Something apparently had to go wrong, and why would it be any surprise that it was Caspers given how he'd been all day. Harry let out a sigh, keeping his pace and moving further into the club as he thought about where to go next. If the others had anything to say about his absence at the scene, well then he would let them know that it simply wouldn't do to have all of them barred from entry, so someone may as well continue the job. If his twinnie was here she could make them invisible and check the areas without so much as an issue, but given how she wasn't, he was forced to seem like a creeper lurking about.

Harry made his way around the club, searching for the changing room that Waverly had spoken of. He looked about cautiously before entering in. There was no one in sight, prompting him to go stall by stall incase they were hiding out. All of them were empty save for the final stall, where a pair of shoes could be seen from under the doorway. Before Harry even had the chance to knock, the door flung open and a hooded man stepped out brandishing a dagger as he swiped wildly at him. Thankfully all those years of dancing (and maybe those spent at Xaviers) allowed him to fluidly avoid any hits as he backed away. All that could be heard through the blood pumping in his ears was the figure growling "Mutant Scum". Instinctively Harry let out a sing songie pitch that peppered the air with flashes of light, each one blasting after the last and blinding the person. As soon as he saw the man struggling to see he turned tail and ran out of thr changing room, a dagger flying past him, narrowly missing as it imbedded itself in the wall. Harry ran back towards the others, eyes wild as he simply said to them "Its a trap"

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The bouncers definitely weren't the sort to be won over by words - fortunately, Spark Plug also had her mutant power on her side. The bouncers eyes glazed over slightly, like she had pulled a Jedi mind trick on them, and they nodded. "Yeah, Casper can go inside," one of them mumbled. "Maybe the boss will want to rekindle things," the other agreed, stepping aside to let Casper through.

Casper bowed his head slightly, clasping his hands together like in prayer. "You won't regret this - at least, not immediately, I swear," he promised. He didn't remember dating Christian Frost. That wasn't really too surprising. Before James, Casper had only ever dated people if he needed a new drug hookup or if he was tired of couch surfing. He hadn't exactly been an indoor cat. In fact, he was pretty certain that he had once accidentally slept with one of Jack's boyfriends - or had it been the other way around?

He pranced slightly into the room, pecking James on the cheek with a kiss. Casper loved the Glitter Factory. Every twenty minutes, glitter came down from the ceiling like confetti. The strobe light was always going, enough to give anyone with even mild epilepsy a seizure. And the boys - no, the men - on the poles had such fine chiseled abs, you could get lost in them for days. He couldn't help but wonder how James would feel about having a threesome one of these days.

"Keep your mind out of the gutter," Ben reminded Casper, but his heart wasn't really in it. While he was a ghost, Ben was still a gay man - and he never admitted it, but he enjoyed the Glitter Factory as much as Casper did.

Sadly, Casper didn't get to enjoy his surroundings very long, as Echo came running from the dressing rooms, screaming like Admiral Ackbar. "What do you mean it's a trap? Like, the prices for the booze here are outrageous and it's a trap? Or that you thought you had fallen in love with a stripper but they're just using you for the money and it's a trap? Or that your long lost lover was back there and you thought you ended things but they've come back for child support and they're suing you and it's a trap? Or..." Casper rambled.

He could hardly see the hooded figure stumble out of the dressing room. He didn't need to see them though. He heard the gunshot go off and a second later, Casper found himself on the ground unexpectedly. He felt his chest, knowing that it was burning or something, and he pulled away his hand, finding blood - glitter fell down from the ceiling and people started to scream as they ran for the emergency exits.

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Havok stumbled, losing his balance after Champion shocked him. His hair was standing up like he had just stuck his finger in a socket - which, he guessed, he basically had. As he tried to regain his balance, Havok ended up crashing into Veil. Veil fell forward from the sudden impact, scraping up her knees as she hit the ground - it was a miracle that her cloak of invisibility around them all held up. "What the hell was that for?" Havok whispered angrily, trying not to ruin the mission. "You could've gotten us all exposed, kid."

"Calm down, Havok," Veil said softly, getting back up to her feet. She brushed her hands on her jeans. Her palms and knees were red, but there was no harm done overall. They were inside the lobby of the building. It was a little after lunch time, so they needed to move quickly and hope any bureaucrats returning would stay out of the way. Veil knew the room they were looking for - room 97 - and she pursed her lips slightly.

Thankfully, they were lucky. She saw a visitor's map next to a bench on the far side of the lobby. She quietly moved across, trying her best not to let her feet click-clack on the tile flooring. The floor reminded her a bit of a chess board with its black and white pattern, and it was hard to believe how ornate all of the decorations were around her. It screamed wealth. Veil picked up the map and to any bystanders, it would have looked like the map just disappeared. "This way, it's in the east wing, room 97," she whispered to the group, before heading down a hallway that led to the east wing.

She just hoped that everyone could hold it together a little while longer. Tensions were high. Sapphire was having some sort of traumatic response. Havok was being an ass as usual.

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Sunshine felt like the wind had been knocked out of her as they finally made it back to the Mutant Underground after two jumps. She collapsed onto the ground next to Max, trying to catch her breath. She hadn't done the hard work of teleportation, but the sudden displacement of her body across time and space was still a bit of a doozy. The last teleporter she knew had been Blink and her method seemed much more gentle, as they just walked through a portal. She had no idea how Max's worked but it didn't surprise her that it seemed to be way more chaotic.

"You're not useless... At least, not totally useless," Sunshine corrected him once she had caught her breath. She stood to her feet and frowned. She felt on edge. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. It was so incredibly quiet here, quieter than it had ever been. No one answered Max's calls and deep down, her gut was telling her that they were alone. She poked her head into the dining room and into the training room, seeing nothing. Maybe everyone was upstairs asleep, but in the middle of the day? It didn't sit right with her.

"No one else is here," she told Max, frowning. "Maybe... Maybe Jack did something to them."

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"Y'know, one of these days we really need to have a sit down with you, because I feel like there's a lot we don't know," Waverley mumbled in response to Zarina's blunt yet incredibly vague explanation of her parents. She glanced backwards as Callie did her thing, allowing Casper to slip past them without any trouble. Waverley let out a relieved sigh once they were all in the Glitter Factory together. "Alright, now that we're all-...Where's Echo?" the girl turned her head to-and-fro, looking for her missing teammate. Then, as if saying his name had summoned him, he stumbled back to them, a panicked look on his face and a word of warning on his lips.

"No, Cas, I think he means an actual, literal trap," Waverley clarified as her eyes darted to the imposing hooded figure that stumbled out the dressing room after Echo. It all happened so fast; she felt the sound waves of the gunshot before she heard them, and as soon as she did, almost on instinct, she amped them up as much as possible, causing the gun to launch from the man's hand to somewhere else in the crowded bar. The girl let out a sigh, looking to the others, hoping that the bullet hadn't landed on one of them. Unfortunately, her hoping proved to be in vain, a truth punctuated by the sight of Casper bleeding on the floor.

"Fuck! Someone grab Casper, we should get out of here now," she asserted, stretching out her arms in preparation for battle. She could feel every single sound that clouded the room; the screams of the partiers running for the doors, their feet shuffling against the floor, the panicked opening and closing of doors. But overwhelming all of them was still the music, which was what Waverley chose to focus on. She grabbed hold of it with her mind, redirecting it towards the hooded figure and pumping it up as much as she could. It seemed to work, the sonic blast landing on the strange man.

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Luna glanced at Sapphire when she spoke, with less hostility than she was expecting since it was Luna Sapphire was talking to but Luna nodded, remaining silent on the subject now and walked with the others. They moved as a fluid unit into the building. At least they were after Andy punched Havok. Luna smirked at Havok’s new hairstyle but remained silent so as not to blow their cover.
Once inside the building, Luna glanced around looking for other exits and how many guards there were. Luna blinked a couple of times, not getting a clear read on how many guards there were, let alone exits or people in the room. She rubbed her hands over her face, still feeling the lack of sleep and overall exhaustion from having M-Pox and all the symptoms cruise through her body at one time or another. Luna simply remained close to the team, following Veil when she redirected them down the hall and to room 97. Hopefully, her powers wouldn’t fail her when she needed them.

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James sighed. Maybe they should just carry something around for Casper in the future, just in case they ran into any more conveniently inconvenient pieces of his boyfriend’s color, and apparently patchy, history. James smiled as he got a kiss on the cheek, following Casper into the club. He was overwhelmed immediately. Strobe lights flashed, music was blaring, and James really didn’t know where to put his eyes. They guys pole dancing were practically Greek statues come to life and James would have to be blind not to be very, very appreciative of that but he also had his boyfriend right here and while Casper wasn’t exactly shy in his admiration for other guys, James would rather talk about all that and get those ducks in a row before he even considered toeing that line. Casper was amazing and fun and James knew he wasn’t as experienced as him in any part of a relationship and he’d be devastated if he lost Casper because he was stupid.

However, as James looked around, he definitely felt like this was a wild goose chase. No one was sick, nothing was on fire, and no one was panicking so the troublesome duo couldn’t be stumbling around in here. He could only imagine Sunshine suddenly popping up in here and releasing all hell on everyone because she was pissed at Max. He was about to say so when Echo ame running out, yelling it’s a trap, and then the gunshot went off. James’ hand immediately when to his ICER, fumbling a bit when he realized he didn’t have one, and watched as Waverly thankfully knocked it out of his hands. “Knock him and out restrain him! If we can get him alive, we can figure out if anyone else knows the MU’s information lines.” James shouted over the commotion, doing a quick headcount in the meantime.

“Oh shit, babes!” James hit his knees as soon as he realized Casper was on the ground, clutching at his chest. He gently took Casper’s hand, giving him a weary, reassuring smile. He placed his other near the wound and he was very distinctly reminded of the time he and Jack both showed up half dead on the MU’s doorstep. “We really gotta stop meeting like this, sweetheart. Give me a second and we’ll have you back on your feet.” James took a breath and let himself fall into the familiar rhythm of Casper’s heartbeat. It should have been a simple thing, nights nestled against each other chests under the covers as they chuckled before they drifted off to sleep made him intimately familiar with the feeling. But something was wrong. The music and the screaming and most of all, the exhaustion clinging to him after the morning wouldn’t let him settle. He tried again and again and again and he felt the room start spinning. He opened his eyes with a gasp, clawing air back into his lungs. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding his breath.

“What the fuck?" His words slurred even as he shouted. He felt weak and worn and overwhelmed. The last time it hadn’t worked, the last time he failed, someone died. He failed again. Casper couldn’t die. It was just a gunshot wound, right? A haze of panic settled over him and he scrambled out of his shirt, not quickly enough, and pressed it to Casper’s wound. His words wouldn’t come out right, slurred and panicked, but still he shouted. “Jack! Jack, I can’t―”

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Callie gave Casper a smile and nodded towards him as she entered the club, she looked around at all of the party goers, seeing some of the male pole dancers she shook her head slightly. Callie was never really into guys at all and never found them attractive in her own opinion, Echo had gone off to investigate the club again. Which Callie didnt think that was a good idea at all after he had gone off to try and find Max and Sunshine. A few seconds later Echo came rushing out saying that it was a trap which she rolled her eyes slightly towards him, Callie had a feeling that this was all some sort of trap.

Then Callie heard a gunshot going off, and then turned her attention over to the floor seeing that Casper had been shot and James tried to patch him up with his power and he couldnt for some reason. Callie quickly went over and knelt down, she had done this once to herself when she was shot by a Purifier. "Move." Callie said to James as she got Casper up into a sitting position and removed his shirt. "Just to give you a warning Casper this will probably hurt like hell." Callie warned Casper, as she set both hands on the entry and exit wounds and closed her eyes for a moment as she used her electricity to cauterize the wound itself. Smelling the burnt flesh Callie took a step back while looking over at James for a moment. "There that should stop him from bleeding out quickly go get him to the car right now." Callie told him.

She stood up as she got out of the way of the stampeding crowd, Callie held out her hand and shot off a bolt of lightening at the attacker, seeing him stumbling backwards. Callie shot out another one this time a bit harder, seeing the damage that she had done to him, hopefully he would either give up and run away or the others would take the attacker on.

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"Sounds like a plan to me then." Kristina said softly towards Luna and continued to follow the others into the building itself, she gave Andy a bit of a look. Sure she knew that Havok was being a bit of an ass, but in the middle of a mission that wasnt a smart move at all their cover could have easily been blown because of that.

But she didnt really say anything at all about it, as she watched Veil picking up a map and went to get a better look at it. "Lead the way." Kristina said to Veil as she walked behind her, while occasionally looking around, hopefully the cloaking thing didnt end up failing.

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"Not like Havok didn't partially deserve that, but there is always a time and place for picking on him, now isn't the time, okay?" she muttered, directing her comment towards Andy. She managed to more or less come out of her little mental world to notice what was going on around her right now, and based on Havok's previous comment it was totally warranted. In all honesty, Sapphire knew that she probably would have done the exact same thing in Andy's shoes, so she wasn't really going to snap at her for that one, this kid seemed alright in the long run, unlike a whole lot of other people she's met in the Underground.

Sapphire followed along after the others, not really too concerned one way or the other with this. At the moment, she was just glad that the previous conversation wasn't brought up and more or less was pushed to the side. Made her life easier, and that way she wouldn't even have to think about it anymore, at least as much as she typically did. Though now they were heading for an area where their job was supposed to mainly be, and they didn't really have any sort of idea what the hell they were doing or who the hell they were going up against. Learning on the fly, that was going to be fun.

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Jack looked towards Echo when he came running out yelling something about a trap and he couldn't help but roll his eyes slightly. Hadn't he literally been saying the entire time that this was likely going to be a trap or something like that? Echo had been the one saying that it probably wasn't, but then again apparently some people didn't realize that going in thinking of the worst possible scenario meant that you were never disappointed with anything. Of course when suddenly there was a loud gunshot and all hell seemed to break loose things definitely started taking a turn for the worst.

"If you paid attention to anything I said then you'd know everything you could possibly want to know about me so I don't know what you are talking about," came Zari's reply to Waverly with a bit of an eyeroll. She literally had told people a lot of things about her, of course it wasn't in the most direct of ways that was for sure, but still! She did say everything that they needed to possibly know! When she first met them she had told them that she was a Valkyrie, and apparently no one seems to have the brains to link that to Asgard or whatever. Not her fault people were stupid. Of course a gunshot had to draw her attention away from her own thoughts.

His attention immediately turned to his brother who seemed to be bleeding out on the floor. He was relieved that James instantly went to see about healing him, but for some reason he wasn't able to, which was more then a bit concerning. Thankfully Callie seemed to get that sorted at least enough to get Casper to be able to move. "We need to get the hell out of here right now. He clearly was waiting for us to show up, we need to get back to the car and floor it out of here," he said instantly, seeing all of the chaos that was going on around him with the crowd. That was going to be hell to deal with too, getting through all of that and back to the car seemed impossible.

Glancing towards where the gunshot came from, Zari instantly felt her blood boil as she recognized the guy from the incident at the university. The guy who had attacked her without warning, and had ripped Mr. Eyeball in half! Instantly, she picked up her flashlight and held it out in front of her. "Glødepinne, hjelp meg i denne kampen!" she said instantly as the entire flashlight seemed to start glowing, as the flashlight turned into the hilt of a sword and suddenly there was a full sized sword blade glowing with a faint light. Twirling it around slightly in her hand with relative ease, she charged right at the man. Unfortunately, her aim and timing was clearly off as she missed with her swing and she felt something burn into her stomach as she realized that he had stabbed her. Not being one to go down very easily, she swung her sword upwards and managed to cut him. When she went to swing at him again, this time he managed to block her sword attack with his own knife blade.

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Thankfully Andy was only slightly chastised. She tried to look appropriately so but had never quite perfected the look, which was probably why she had gotten into so much trouble during her school days when she had bothered to go. She didn't say anything else though. Especially not to Havok. No one else seemed mad at her. Even Sapphire, who seemed particularly...cold... backed her up.

They made their way. Andy staying close behind Veil and the others, not wanting to get left behind or slip out of the invisibility that Veil had around them. She had no idea how that worked, but it was a neat ability. One she would have liked a million times in her life. Instead, she was just quick on her feet and could kill a person if she punched them just wrong...or right depending on your perspective. Both sit in her past.

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Max laid there on the floor, Sunshines words echoing in his mind. You're not useless. It didn't matter that she tried to cover up her statement by amending it. She had paid him a compliment, and for the longest time they hadn't fought for a while. The words she spoke echoed how some at the Hellfire Club viewed him. His powers were useful even if he himself couldn't control them. Max closed his eyes as visions of House of M flooded his mind. How he was able to single handedly rescue The President and how he was able to help fight against the powers of the world and bring it back to what it should be. He wasn't useless, and he needed to help figure out what happened to the missing Mutant Underground. His eyes opened, he took in a deep breath, and sat up off the cold floor.

"Jack may be a lot of things, be able to take down the Underground solo isn't one of them." He thought about the best course of action and then remembered that he managed to grab a spellbook from that awful place. Rummaging through his bag, Max found the leather tome and opened it up flipping through the pages. He hoped to find something that made sense, that could help him perfect the sending spell he had tried before. Until then it was very hit or miss, but perhaps this would open a window on how to better perform it. He finally landed on a spell similar to what he had been doing. "I think I found something of use in here, gonna try and send off a message to them see if someone can tell me where they are." He sat there and followed the instructions as closely as he could but as he went to finish the spell nothing happened.

Max sat there puzzled, staring at the book and pouring over the words and gestures again. Following it in his mind several times over before trying it once more. He felt a sort of tug coming from inside. Faint particles floating about his hand as they do when he uses his powers, and then...a wave of exhaustion as the spell failed once more. The strain from jumping twice in a row and so far was starting to show. His powers refused to work along with the toll. He need rest, and possibly food. He laid back down in frustration as he stared at the ceiling. "I can see it in you too. That last jump...it took a lot out of us. Maybe we can eat and get some strength before I try to contact them again. Just gotta be a bit patient...I'm sorry."

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Harry wanted nothing more than to tell Casper to just SHUT UP. The man's penchant for rambling even at the most dirr of times was proving to be a problem as the more that he spoke the more likely he would distract from the man throwing daggers in a hooded cloak. Before he was able to say anything though, his voice was drowned out by the sound of a gunshot. His eyes going wide as he saw the red stains beginning to form on Caspers chest and then James trying frantically to heal him to no avail. It wasn't until Callie's sparks helped cauterize the wound that Harry was able to snap back into place and follow up on James's orders to detain the man. As much as he hated to say it, he was right. That man was valuable and they needed his intel.

Harry watched as Waverly expertly disarmed the man, turning the soundwaves against him and leaving an opening for the others. "Get him to safety, we can take care of this hooded jerk." Echo grabbed hold of the blasts Waves was creating, tweaking a few to create a barrage of lasers that landed on their target. Echo clipped on his skates and looked up only to see the man still standing and fury beginning to rise inside himself. Echo quickly skated up towards the man, spin kicking him in the balls in hopes that the pain would be enough but the man still stood. In pain and keeled over, but still conscious. He wasnt sure how well equipped the hooded man was and so as a last resort Harry split himself into two in order to confuse the man and give Harry more of a fighting chance. "How did you know we'd be here?"

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Casper was going into shock. He was only vaguely aware of his surroundings, which admittedly wasn't that unusual for him. Sometimes when he was high, he would dissociate from his body, imagining that he ended up in a place he called the Void. It was the boundary between life and death, and whenever he had gone there, he had felt safe and comfortable. His traumas and pain weren't allowed there, it was all just pure bliss. But he hadn't felt a need to go to the Void in a long time, not since he had started dating James. He didn't need to run away from his life to be happy.

Pretty much everyone had fled the Glitter Factory, aside from a few who were too scared to move. The glitter kept on falling down from the ceiling at odd intervals and WAP was screeching over the speakers. The hooded figure had been knife-to-sword with Zarina, but Echo's dick kick had knocked him backwards, creating the distance he desperately needed. "I know everything about you, Harold Simmons," he replied, his voice sounded inhuman, robotic - like he was using a voice modifier like in Star Wars.

"I have a message for Professor X and his precious X-Men. If they do not surrender to Reverend Stryker by midnight, I will detonate a terrigen bomb that will make Washington D.C. inhabitable to mutants for generations," the figure said. "I am the X-Cutioner, mutants. I am your reckoning." He then pressed a button on his belt and suddenly, he was gone. Like he had never been there at all.

They were alone in the Glitter Factory.

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Veil was actively maintaining their cover as they moved into the East Wing. They were extremely lucky to have not run into any security officers or just ordinary workers so far. In fact, it made Veil hesitate for a moment. She had excused everything as just being due to people being off on their lunch break, but her paranoia was starting to get the better of her. Something was very wrong here. She frowned. She didn't say it to the others, but she was beginning to suspect that the Hellfire Club had something to do with this, that they had cleared the building and were currently tampering with the President's vaccines.

"Be careful, I don't think we're the only ones here," she whispered softly to the rest of the group, as they approached room 97 - the offices of the White House Medical Unit. The door was slightly ajar and Veil could hear people inside, talking loudly. The only problem was they weren't medical officials. They weren't supposed to be there. In fact, one of them she had gone to school with - she recognized his voice and it filled her with dread.

Kid Omega.

She heard three more voices, but she couldn't make out what they were saying and she didn't recognize them. Unfortunately, she didn't even get a chance, as a voice whispered in her mind, as well as the mind of everyone else present. "Was wondering when you assholes would show up. Come on in, don't be shy, we won't bite," Kid Omega taunted.

The door swung open all of the way, a young adult with pink spiky hair and hipster glasses smirking at them. A black girl with cornrows in her hair was behind him, shuffling a deck of cards back and forth. Next to her was a rather flamboyant blonde man in a pink jumpsuit, and lastly, a girl with skin resembling a domino was busy at work... with the vaccines.

"Kid Omega. Was wondering where you'd washed up. What, you got tired of bullying students, so you decided to join the fucking Hellfire Club?" Havok accused.

"Havok, don't - he's an omega level mutant," Veil warned him, dropping the invisibility sphere around them. There wasn't much point in it at the moment. Kid Omega knew they were there.

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Sunshine nodded slightly, but she was curious and a little unsettled at everything. "I'm going to go look," she told him, before she made her way up the staircase. She frowned slightly as she looked up and down the hallway. The Mutant Underground wasn't always in great shape, but it looked like an earthquake had hit the place. She turned around and went back down the staircase, her eyes widening slightly as she noticed what looked like a bloodstain on the carpet, although the blood was dried. Had Jack been the one behind all of this?

"Did you all get attacked or something today?" Sunshine asked Max, hoping that he would say yes and explain that the Hellfire Club or the Purifiers or someone had showed up, just so she could write off the possibility of Jack being behind all of this. She was so incredibly confused with her own kidnapping and then her mini island vacation with Max already, she didn't need more weirdness being added to her day.

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James hesitantly backed away when Callie told him too, hovering nervously as Callie expertly cauterized the wound. The stench of burning flesh barely bothered him. All he could think about was getting Casper safe, whole, and home again, tucked away where no mysterious dickhead could put a bullet in his chest. How come he could piece together Echo’s spine and have them walking around barely five minutes later but a bullet in his boyfriend’s chest was too much? Logically, it’s probably because he’d condensed an absurd amount of healing and recovery time into those five minutes and it drained him but logic went out the door at the sight of Casper on the ground. All he felt now was frustration and anger and worry and exhaustion. If his ability was going to fail him when they needed it desperately, maybe he needed to talk to Sapphire about getting some first aid lessons or some sort of kit with at least bandages so when shit like this happened he had options other than sear it shut.

“Gotcha.” James nodded to Callie’s command, taking Casper from her so she could get back into the fray. He cradled him gently, keeping Casper’s head propped up on his shoulder, and matched his breathing again, settling neatly into his heartbeat as they synced up. James wasn’t about to move him with fully open wounds and pushed himself to at least close something. Casper seemed to settle a little more and the wound on his back closed itself. James panted, his lungs desperately clawing for air again, as he came back to himself. Little speckles danced in his vision, his head spun, and everything ached. He was definitely pushing himself too hard. He finally got himself together in time to see their attacker vanish and James just swore. Well, fuck him too. Hopefully, his little gizmo was as reliable as Max’s control and he ended up in a god damn volcano or something.

James stumbled as he pushed himself up, hauling Casper up with him in the process, and then promptly found himself hitting the floor again as a wave of dizziness stole away his vision and turned his legs to jelly. He curled protectively around his boyfriend, shielding him from the brunt of the fall, but his own back didn’t fare that well. The pain knocked the wind out of him and he sat there stunned. “I… I think I need a little help with him.” James admitted, eyes shut as he waited for the room to stop spinning. “Everyone else good? Last call for patching up cause I think getting back to the car’s going to take everything I have left.” A headache bloomed behind his eyes as he shouted over the music, the pain beating in time with it. He really wanted to put a bullet in them just to shut them up.

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Callie looked towards James and gave him a nod as she stood up about to get ready for another round for the fight as Zari and Harry both went toe to toe with the hooded guy and managed to stab Zari after getting kicked by Harry. Then mentioned his name and telling them that he would set off terrigen bombs in DC which was not good at all before he quickly vanished. Callie quickly went over towards Zari seeing that she was bleeding now.

"C'mon lets get you patched up quickly." Callie said offering Zari her arm to lean on if she needed to. "We need to call Veil or Professor X to let them what the guy had just said." Callie told him she hoped that James would be able to patch up Zari as well, she couldnt heal her like he could at all and started to make her way back towards the car.

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Kristina remained quiet as she continued to follow Veil until they were just outside of the room that they needed to get into, when she paused hearing someone's voice in her head. Which really did make her feel uncomfortable as the door opened Kristina eyed the group of mutants that were in the room messing with the vaccines there. Just as Veil lifted up the invisible shield around them Kris looked towards the others, they couldnt let the tampered vaccines get into the veins of the president or his staff either.

Kristina focused on the crate of vaccines and fired off an eye beam at it but the first shot went wide hitting a compact mirror, feeling a searing pain going across her leg as she kneeled down slightly. Looking at where she had inadvertently shot herself in the shin and stared at the group again, and fired off another shot at the vaccine crate only for it to hit the mirror again. Which ended up hitting Sapphire in the shoulder she looked at her. "I'm sorry I didnt mean to." Kris said as she did it the third time this time it managed to hit one of the crates destroying it.

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Waverley stood in a battle stance, her hands outstretched not unlike a conductor, ready to continue bending the soundwaves against the strange man. She was ready for anything they could possibly throw at their little pocket of the Mutant Underground...except, perhaps, teleportation. Which was unfortunate, considering that, after a team attack by Zarina and Echo, that's exactly what he did. She stood there, tilting her head to the side, standing still in her fighting stance, taking a moment to comprehend everything that just happened. After that moment, she slumped back into her normal posture, tense and a little hunched over. She quickly set out to cease any attempted phone calls to the police, something that'd become habit after this long in the Mutant Underground. She kept the metaphorical cloud of signal scrambling up even as she faced back towards the group.

"Spark Plug's right. But we should probably wait to Veil until her and her team gets back. We don't want her phone to go off while they're infiltrating possibly the most secure building in America. It'd be like one of those little videos they play before movies to make sure everyone's phone is off," she said, and though her words were light-hearted, her tone seemed grim. She walked over towards James, squatting down next to him as she gently took Casper from his arms. "It's okay, I got him," she promised as she softly picked him up and began to make her way towards the front exit.