Location: Mount Rushmore, South Dakota Skills: Daggers, Audiokinesis
Nancy's eyes widened, seeing Niah start to fall. With the system they had rigged up, they hadn't really put much thought into what would happen if Niah fell and the other two were still clinging to the mountain. She hoped that Niah would be able to stop her own fall, especially since one of the harpies was currently trying to take Nancy's pack from her. "Eat my shorts, you oversized chicken nugget!" Nancy shouted, carefully clinging to the side of the mountain with one hand. With her other hand, she took her imperial gold dagger and stabbed at the harpy, managing to get it to break away from her.
She then whistled, using her powers of audiokinesis to manipulate the sound and the pitch. She had been aiming to just blast the harpies backwards, but instead when the sound waves of her whistle connected with them, it did more than just that. It pushed three harpies away from the side of the mountain, ripping apart the winged beasts like they were made out of confetti. The remains of the harpies sprinkled away to the ground. "Niah, you good?" Nancy called out.
Location: Fields of Mars Skills: Strategy, Audiokinesis, Singing
The Greeks had the giant taken care of, hopefully - Nancy noticed the big lumbering bane of Neptune head towards New Rome and she prayed to the gods that everything would go according to plan. The brief distraction though cost her, as she was hit in the head with some tools. Her head was throbbing and she glared at the monsters responsible for it. To make matters worse, legionnaires - soldiers following her orders - were burned alive by the dragons. She narrowed her eyes, before deciding that Backstreet Boys weren't going to cut it. No, she needed something similar to Joan Jett, but new. Something fresh.
"🎶That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood She's got the hottest trike in town That girl, she holds her head up so high I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah
Rebel girl, rebel girl Rebel girl you are the queen of my world Rebel girl, rebel girl I think I wanna take you home I wanna try on your clothes, uh🎶"
As she sang, her voice pushed out dangerous, explosive sound waves that collided with one of the dragons. The sound ripped the dragon to pieces, killing the mighty creature as easily as someone would swat a fly. Nancy didn't admit it to herself, but her voice was beginning to feel the strain from overuse. She should have done some more vocal warmups before all of this. But instead she just kept on pushing herself, using her anger and rage as fuel for her destructive powers. For so long she had been expected to sing for other people's entertainment. Now, she sang as a weapon, as a sword, as a bomb.
"🎶When she talks, I hear the revolution In her hips, there's revolution When she walks, the revolution's coming In her kiss, I taste the revolution🎶"
Just as in the original performance, Nancy's melodious song turned into more of a scream at the close of the verse. The abrupt change in the quality and length of the sound waves she pushed out had an impact though - rather than killing the second dragon, the waves simply pushed into it and then faded away. In the second half of the verse, her voice had actually cracked when she went into the scream, causing the sound waves to harmlessly collide with the dragon again. Still, she wasn't going to stop. She wouldn't stop until all of these monsters were dead, until they paid in blood for each and every legionnaire that they had killed. And whenever they rose from the Pit and reformed, she'd burn them alive - slowly, listening to their screams...
She had her father's rage.
🌈 Leda Storm 🌈
Location: New Rome Skills: Rainbow Manipulation, Superspeed, Sword-Fighting, Agility
"Arghhh!!!" The basilisk's acid had hit Leda in the legs and it burned, like someone had set her legs on fire while simultaneously chilling them to the bone with ice. "Fucking bloody cocksuckers!" she cursed, her sword Ultraviolet glowing red from anger as Leda moved so fast that her image blurred, looking like a rainbow streak. She weaved in and out of the basilisks, slicing them open with Ultraviolet with deadly accuracy and precision. She didn't kill as many as she would have liked, but these things were dangerous - they weren't as easy to hack away at as, say, cyclopses.
When she skidded to a halt, five of the original ten basilisks were gone. She then took a breath, before remembering that Kiera had asked her to do something important in order to help her and the rock god. She threw her hands out, like she was shoving the air, and bursts of rainbow beams shot out of them. The beams hit the giant in the eyes, blinding him with every dazzling color of the rainbow, like it was a commercial for Skittles. "There ya go, luv!"
Emma Frost - succumbed to M-Pox. Time of Death: 10:59 AM, Feb 17, 2021
Vulcan - cured
Legion - cured
Morgan - succumbed to M-Pox. Time of Death: 1:40 PM, Feb 17, 2021
Toad - succumbed to M-Pox. Time of Death: 11:34 AM, Feb 17, 2021
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
So far, only three individuals have "cured" themselves from M-Pox. The first was S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Cassandra Reed. The second was Gabriel Summers A.K.A. Vulcan. The last was the son of Charles Xavier, David Haller A.K.A. Legion.
Veil
Location: Morlock Tunnels Skills: Invisible Energy Manipulation, Leadership
Veil couldn't help but be surprised at how surprisingly well connected Kristina was. Did Kristina's sister know that she was a mutant? Was her sister one as well? S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tended to be neutral towards mutants at best in Veil's experience. So many of them had been part of O.M.E.N. before it disbanded and it wasn't easy for them to unlearn so much hatred and prejudice. She bit her lip slightly, thinking through the pros and cons of having Kristina try. "If you trust her, then sure - just don't incriminate yourself or anyone else," Veil instructed. Her heart ached as Glimpse said goodbye and just like that, the speedster was gone. All that was left of her really were the echoes of her words taunting the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Unbeknownst to Veil, only half of them had gone after Glimpse. The other half were still hot on the heels of the Mutant Underground. While Veil had them all cloaked, it didn't stop the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from firing bullets. They were using silencers so Veil didn't hear them in time to throw up a force field. One bullet hit Havok in the shoulder. Another grazed Sapphire's cheek. Veil was missed entirely. One grazed Andy's neck. And the last shot hit Kristina in the chest, fatally wounding her. They needed to get her medical attention ASAP or she'd bleed to death. They had seconds, maybe minutes, at best.
Veil threw up a force field, protecting them from any further attacks. Havok caught Kristina before she fell to the ground, her blood soaking through her shirt rapidly. "Sapphire, do something!" Havok shouted. They didn't have a teleporter on hand - but they had a doctor. They didn't have James there to heal her. More bullets were coming at them, bouncing off of Veil's force field - but each impact drained her powers a little more. She wouldn't be able to keep this up forever.
"Kid, take my phone from my pocket and call the number saved as Spark Plug. Tell her to have Warlock get here ASAP and bring Caduceus," Veil instructed Andy. She didn't dare turn her concentration from the shield just to make a phone call. She also wasn't about to use anyone's real name in front of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Her invisibility and force fields didn't prevent sound from traveling after all.
Sunshine
Location: Mutant Underground: Entranceway Skills:
Sunshine frowned, not really understanding what Spark Plug was saying. She didn't even really know what terrigen was. Sure, she knew about M-Pox and all, but she didn't know that she had pulled terrigen crystals out of Max earlier that day. "What do you mean, a bomb?" Sunshine asked. She couldn't help but be a little irritated that this hadn't really been brought up sooner - or maybe it had been and she had just been a little bit distracted. An idea then occurred to her, since from context clues it seemed that the X-Men weren't answering their calls. She didn't like her idea. She didn't like it at all. But bombs were bad... bad enough to maybe do something crazy.
There was another group of mutants who might not like a bomb being blown up - assuming that they weren't the ones behind it. She let out a little growl of frustration, feeling like she was about to puke or something, but she had to mention the idea. "If they're not the ones behind it... Maybe we can ask Max's old friends to help. They probably don't want this terri-whatever bomb to go off either," she suggested. "Also, the PowerPuff Girl should see if she can find the thing, since it sounds like tech and I'm guessing that's her deal with the little robot things that follow her around."
Princess Anelle's eyes widened, hearing how casually Maria suggested killing fifty skrulls. "While they are loyal to the Empress, they do not deserve such a cruel death!" Anelle exclaimed. They deserved to die honorably or ideally, to not be killed at all. It wasn't their fault that the Empress was on the throne. They were sworn to serve the crown. And without a home planet, how could she ask them to abandon their hope for the promised land, however ill-fated Anelle feared it would be?
"By invading, she means invading Earth," the Wasp specified. She wouldn't have been surprised if the skrulls were invading countless worlds, setting up a nice little empire for themselves. If she were the leader of an evil race of shapeshifters, it's what she would do. It was practical, really. Why put all your eggs in one basket?
Anelle nodded, as they reached the elevator. She didn't press the button to call for it, likely a habit of being royal - pushing buttons and opening doors was beneath her. The Wasp ended up pressing it and the elevator came down quickly. "My people... Our home was destroyed by the World-Eater. The Empress believes that the Skrull Empire will be rebuilt on your world. She claims it's prophecy."
Jersey City Boardwalk - New Jersey: 10:50 P.M
Raynor glanced over at Kwassi in confusion - he had absolutely no one idea who exactly this man was supposed to be. He didn't remember ever seeing him before, but if he had to make a guess, he was likely another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. The guy looked like he had a giant stick up his ass. "So this is my replacement, then?" he asked, staring at Kwassi. He didn't look very impressive to him. Raynor was pretty sure that he was the more muscular of the two - and that was all that mattered, right?
It also was strange to him to hear that the President was onboard - but after a moment, it made sense to him. Jakobsen had been personally victimized by Raynor's sort-of-cousin and he used to head an organization dedicated to killing anything that wasn't 100% human. Of course he'd be messed up in an alien invasion. His first day on the job he probably was asking to see all the files on Area 51, whispering to himself that the truth was out there.
"Oh, hey, welcome back!" Amelia called out cheerfully to Kwassi. She wasn't going to voice it aloud, but she was a little more relaxed seeing another person who looked like her there. It was the same sort of feeling she'd get when she spotted another girl in the academy at Operations after being placed in a squad of just guys for a while - a sort of kinship and security. "But yeah, just like the boss lady said, you just say who you are so Thor Jr. can do his polygraph mumbo jumbo, and then Niah can touch ya - well not you, something you're holding and ideally have had for a while, it's not sexual or anything like that so don't worry about it - and she'll get an idea if you are who you say you are. And if they both clear you, then you're not a squid! But I guess we don't really know if they are who they say they are, so it's all about trust... Huh, this is way more intense than the trust fall not Maria tried to do earlier with ya, Sparks."
Raynor shot Sparky a bit of an irritated look, clearly asking how anyone was able to stay around Amelia without drinking excessively. He also wasn't happy with how long this was taking. It was pretty dark and only some of their ships had been cloaked - people were pointing and staring, taking pictures, it was going to be a mess. They might as well have lit up a sign saying HEY SKRULLS, WE'RE IN NEW JERSEY! "You're telling the truth, Mar-Vell, but I need to hear you say that you aren't a skrull," Raynor said, keeping his hands ready to attack.
But Mar-Vell nodded. "I'm not a skrull. I'm actually Kree," she explained.
"She's telling the truth," Raynor affirmed. "I get why you want to hurt the skrulls, but why turn your back on your own people?" he asked her. "The Kree are emotionless assholes who obey their glorified super robot without question."
"I did it for love," Mar-Vell answered simply, not offering any elaboration.
Amelia squealed ever so slightly. Just because she wasn't interested in romance for herself didn't mean she didn't find people being in love absolutely adorable. She really wanted to know more about this special someone of Mar-Vell's. She knew nothing about the Kree, well nothing beyond what Raynor had said. Did they actually take orders from a computer? Was it like the computer wife in Spongebob? Were the Kree living out Iron Man's ultimate fantasy?
Quinjet - New Jersey: 10:50 P.M
"He's not a cat," Bonnie answered Evelyn somewhat unhelpfully, as she was searching the cargo area for a pair of bolt cutters. She had found a small hammer and a wrench so far, which could work in a pinch but she didn't want to hurt Goose in the process. She was crouched down sorting through a tool box she had found when the President came in, told them to give him a minute, and then returned with the missing pair of bolt cutters.
Goose rushed out of the cage and Bonnie couldn't help but smile, scratching him behind the ears as he ran up to her. She knew that it was one of his favorite spots. He didn't stay long though, before rushing up to the other two. Bonnie then stood back up to her full height, seeing that Matt had also come in and joined them. "They... They what?!" Bonnie exclaimed, her eyes going wide. "Why did no one tell me this as soon as you arrived?!" she then added, narrowing her eyes as she went from surprised to angry.
"Goose, behave yourself, no eating the President," Bonnie said sternly, before dashing out of the cargo area, back into the main area of the quinjet, and then off the ramp. "Niah Bautista, report to medical this instant!" Bonnie snapped, her voice raised as she surveyed the scene. "Oh, welcome back, Sparky, Raynor," she then added, before resuming Angry-Mom-Mode and pointing a finger at Niah.
Cleared by Niah(?) Cass Matt Amelia Sparky
Cleared by Raynor(?) Amelia Cass Niah Matt Oliver Sparky Mar-Vell
Cleared by Goose Bonnie Jakobsen Evelyn
Suspicious Kwassi - Niah could not confirm his status Raynor - untested All Other NPCs - untested
Runa couldn't help but notice how loud Klara was. Everyone tended to be louder than Runa of course, but Nadia wasn't nearly as bubbly and outgoing. It made her smile ever so slightly. She would have assumed that after being dead for so long, Klara would've been numb to the world, her emotions worn away like a river carving away at rocky shores over thousands of years. It was really admirable. If she was so lucky to still be... well, not alive, but not completely dead, she didn't think she would have been so full of life. She wondered what Klara's secret was.
She looked with interest as the tools they had gone to such lengths to retrieve were just sloppily tossed onto the table, and Runa flinched a little bit from the loud noise. She winced each time the dwarf threw something carelessly out of a drawer, feeling a little bit bad for the small inventions. Some of them were doubtlessly breaking and they didn't deserve that. The poor things hadn't done anything wrong and they were just tossed aside... Maybe she did need a therapist if she was starting to relate to spare inventions...
Runa tilted her head at the compass when Nadia gave it to her. It didn't look special. She had a suspicion that they had been conned, but she kept her mouth shut - at least on that note. "Thank you, this is very kind," she told the dwarf. "Erm... Shall we go, then?"
Megan raised an eyebrow. She had known her brother to lie from time to time and hide the truth. He wasn't naturally deceitful, but they had played a few games together where the outcome might have gone differently if everyone had been a little more honest. "I believe you," Megan said stoically. To someone who wasn't familiar with them, it might have sounded a little passive aggressive - but to Megan, it was more just continuing along in her mission of teasing and annoying her brother to death. He also was a detective by trade, meaning that he more than likely was good at keeping secrets from everyone.
She stood a little ways back as Hansel rapped on the door of the pub. The door opened a few minutes later, allowing them to go inside. She snorted very slightly in amusement as their ex-prisoner immediately went to get a drink upon entering. It reminded her of some classmates in med school who had always gone straight to the bottle of vodka after a challenging exam in one of their units. Megan stayed quiet otherwise though, her eyes sweeping around the room as she waited to hear what they had missed - and ideally, find out what the next step was going to be.
Location: the Millenium Falcon Skills: Telepathy, Electronics and Computers
Guin raised her hand behind her, giving Bethany the middle finger. They were stuck on this tiny tin can with basically nothing to do, and she hadn't said a word about the edibles that had been brought on, no matter how tempting they were. Besides, she figured people would rather Pietro be sitting still and kissing her than running around the tiny ship at top speeds. "Are you inviting me to go have sex with my husband, instead of just kissing him, Mare?" Guin teased. Yuuup, but it's not like they can report us to HR or anything, Guin then whispered back to Pietro.
She wasn't making out with him anymore, as she actually didn't want to make people too uncomfortable - mainly to avoid any further drama. She had enough of that with pressuring Mary to get some therapy. As Pietro asked her if she wanted an emergency to happen, she couldn't help but chuckle. No problems would be ideal - or at least, no problems that we can't fix, she added. Not a second after she had made that mental comment the power went out. The lights weren't what was concerning her - no, Guin was stressed about the life support. This is bad. Very bad. No power means no life support, which means we'll run out of air and the temps will drop so we're either suffocating or freezing to death, take your pick.
The universe seemed to be messing with her, as then everything turned back on, only she could hear a lot of alarms and sensors going off in the cockpit. Lance's description confused her, but not to too much of an extent. Stark Industries had some stealth tech - maybe the explosion was just cloaked from them so they couldn't see it. "Hey, babe? Just breathe, okay, we're gonna be fine," Guin told Pietro, kissing him on the cheek before getting out of his lap.
"Yeah no, fine, kind of made peace with the idea of us being blown up or something..."
She didn't really believe him at all when he said that. "We're not going to die in space. I'm not wearing red, you're not wearing red, so we're good," she told him with a smile, referencing one of his favorite things - Star Trek. She also did an added little trick - with her telepathy and their telepathic bond, she sent him a soothing, calming sensation to ease his anxiety and fear.
"Yay for not being red shirts."
Guin gave him another smile, before heading into the cockpit and quickly accessing the monitor for the life support system. She let out a sigh of relief, seeing that it was fully functional. In fact as far as she could tell from running some quick diagnostics, nothing was wrong with their ship - aside from their sensors going haywire. She closed her eyes for a brief second and did a quick telepathic sweep. There was no one nearby - no one alive at least. "Systems are fully operational and there's no sign of life," Guin reported. "Try jettisoning something at the area the sensors think is freaking out, and we can see if it deviates from its course," she suggested. Basically - throw something at it and see if it crashes into something invisible.
Runa Baldurdattir
Location: the Millenium Falcon Skills: Asgardian Magic
"Oh, I was simply consulting the runes," Runa explained to Bethany, holding up raidō to show her. Of all the runes that Runa had, it was the most well worn, as it had been frequently handled for hundreds of years. "Its name is raidō. It can tell you a story of what is to be of your journey, or with enough talent and luck, you can use it to find a horse or a ship when you are in need," she explained. It was the rune of traveling, of journeys, and a bit boringly, of transportation. Runa used it whenever she could, as she felt connected to its message. Her life was hard, but there were spots of beauty to it - just as not every journey is easy, but the good can still outweigh the bad.
She tilted her head slightly, considering Lance's question as to who occupied this region of the galaxy. She was about to answer when suddenly everything was plunged into darkness. She frowned deeply. Raidō hadn't shown her this. She reached into her bag of runes and searched until she found the one that she wanted - algiz. Her eyes glowed a soft yellow as she held the rune, visualizing a dome of magical protection encapsulating the craft. She felt the magic come into existence and she let out a soft exhale, the yellow glow vanishing from her eyes.
Runa rose to her feet, listening to the varying reports everyone was giving. It reminded her of a story her grandmother, the All-Mother, had told her. It was just a myth though, a legend. Such a thing was impossible. She kept her mouth shut, not wanting to trouble the Midgardians. There was no way that a reality could just disintegrate and crash into another. "I've put up a protection spell," she said, adding nothing more.
Location: Fields of Mars Skills: Audiokinesis, Singing
Nancy huffed slightly, hating the rules about needing a god to help with killing something, but there was no point in arguing with the laws of the universe. Luring Neptune's evil twin to New Rome went against every instinct she had as a praetor. There was no other way though. If they didn't have Terminus' help to kill this giant, then everyone there would die. And she didn't exactly see any Olympians lining up to help the cause. They were on their own. "You heard your praetor, we need to lure him to New Rome!" Nancy repeated, pausing for a moment as a small purple dragon landed on her shoulder, like a parrot.
She raised an eyebrow. "You can stay there as long as you don't shit," she told the dragon. Joanie, as she affectionately dubbed the dragon after Joan Jett, wasn't the only dragon on the field though. A dragon came from behind their lines and Nancy heard Marco before she spotted him - he was singing a song, one that she dimly remembered hearing in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. She wasn't really sure what time period it was from, but it wasn't from the 80's. Still, it had been the elevator music for... she really didn't know how long. She couldn't help but know all the words. Music was her thing after all.
"🎶Am I original? Am I the only one? Am I sexual? Am I everything you need? You better rock you body now🎶"
She wasn't a huge fan of that third lyric and it showed on her face, even as she hit her lines. The sound waves billowed out but they didn't do anything about the cyclopses, just brushing by them harmlessly. Nancy took another breath. She could sing more than just hits from the 80s. She was Nancy fucking Parker, the most bitchin' praetor Camp Jupiter had ever seen. The show was going to go on.
"🎶Everybody Rock your body Everybody Rock your body right Backstreet's back alright🎶"
One of the cyclops' heads burst, as her song resonated with the cells that made up his body. Nancy couldn't help but grin, feeling herself falling into a rhythm, getting her groove on. Each song was different and she hadn't really sung this one much before, but now she was starting to understand it. It wasn't about sex - at least, not to her. It was a promise, a dare, a challenge. A show of strength and confidence. Nancy understood that.
"🎶Now throw your hands up in the air And wave 'em around like you just don't care If you wanna party let me hear you yell 'Cause we've got it goin' on again🎶"
This time, six cyclopses exploded like pimples that had been squeezed until they burst. Nancy let out a slight little laugh, tapping her foot now in time to the music. She was getting into the song now, feeling the way that the words vibrated in her throat. It was pure energy and power that she was pushing out of her lungs, weaponizing her voice and using it to protect everyone who stood by her side.
"🎶Am I original? Am I the only one? Am I sexual? Am I everything you need? You better rock you body now🎶"
No cyclopses exploded this time, but one of them started to bleed from its eyes and ears as Nancy's music pushed and pushes, testing the limits of its constitution.
🌈 Leda Storm 🌈
Location: Fields of Mars -> New Rome Skills: Rainbow Manipulation, Superspeed
Leda was a little bit amused. She had New Rome pegged all wrong. She thought this place was going to be a reality TV show with drama and infighting, but instead it was something way better - "Oi, I didn't know this was the inspiration for High School Musical!" she teased. The Apollo girl was scary with her voice, exploding monsters. And then another person was currently singing from on top of a dragon. She wondered if they split their time equally between learning how to march and fight as an army, and rehearsing for the latest musical number. Unfortunately with a giant trying to kill her girlfriend, now wasn't really the time to find out.
"'Course, guess I'm your Uber, huh? Better rate me five stars or I'm throwing you at a cyclops," Leda teased, before scooping Kiera up and taking off at a run. She was a blur of rainbow light as she sped from the Fields of Mars to New Rome proper. There was some sort of living statue person standing near the boundary, but Leda was more interested in the giant that was definitely chasing them and coming nearer. "Alright, what's the next part of the plan, luv?" Leda asked, setting Kiera down.
Emma Frost - succumbed to M-Pox. Time of Death: 10:59 AM, Feb 17, 2021
Vulcan - cured
Legion - cured
Morgan - succumbed to M-Pox. Time of Death: 1:40 PM, Feb 17, 2021
Toad - succumbed to M-Pox. Time of Death: 11:34 AM, Feb 17, 2021
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
So far, only three individuals have "cured" themselves from M-Pox. The first was S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Cassandra Reed. The second was Gabriel Summers A.K.A. Vulcan. The last was the son of Charles Xavier, David Haller A.K.A. Legion.
Veil
Location: Morlock Tunnels Skills: Invisible Energy Manipulation, Leadership
Veil didn't want to have this conversation now. She wanted to get everyone home safely before thinking about the damage and what their options were. She needed time to clear her head and approach this rationally, that way no one would make any rash choices. The Morlock tunnels weren't a guarantee that they were going to get out of this safely - S.H.I.E.L.D. could still easily catch them all and thrown them in the Raft. "Right now, I don't think we have much of a choice," Veil told Glimpse honestly. "You're easily identified. You killed someone in front of S.H.I.E.L.D. Your best chance - and our best chance - is to go separate ways," she admitted.
She sighed, not liking at all what she had just said, but there was no good way to convey this information. Glimpse was going to be made into a terrorist and put up there with Magneto. She was going to be hunted down. She had killed someone, yes, but it hadn't been just anywhere - it had been blocks from the White House. It wouldn't be hard for people to spin it as an act of aggression against the President. If they caught Glimpse, they wouldn't just lock her up... They'd make an example of her. They'd execute her as a terrorist. "I'm sorry, Luna," Veil said softly. "But you need to run... Start a new life. Go underground. Get as far from the United States as you can."
Veil felt her phone buzz in her pocket and she took it out. Her face fell when she read the message. Nothing was going their way lately it seemed. The M-Pox cures had been a small victory. She rubbed her face, trying to avoid the urge to hyperventilate and cry. The X-Men were busy fighting Magneto, she was surprised that they had managed to get into contact with one of them to begin with. They were on their own with this. And if they failed, all of the deaths would be on her conscience.
Copy that. Keep trying them. Q mentioned they were fighting M. Veil texted back, using shorthand as Quicksilver and Magneto were too long to type out. They had less than ten hours to get the X-Men to either surrender to a maniac or to find this bomb. They had time. Veil breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. They had time. Ten hours. Ten hours to save Washington D.C.
"Veil, what is it?" Havok asked her, suspicious. He didn't seem particularly happy about Glimpse being told to run.
"One crisis at a time, Havok," Veil said, leading the way forward through the tunnels.
Case in point, S.H.I.E.L.D. had definitely heard all of the yelling and fighting, and currently were going down the ladder as fast as they could to catch up with all of them! Even though Veil had them all invisible, it wouldn't be hard for an agent to shoot them all in such an enclosed space.
Sunshine honestly didn't really care about the ghost she had seen on the trip with Max. Weird things happened with Max all of the time. No, if there was something she was upset about when it came to a soul of the dead, it was what had happened to Magik. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she glanced at Casper, wondering if he had even tried to conjure her up. But at the same time, she didn't want Casper messing around with Magik. He'd probably find some way to screw it all up and kill her twice or something. "If we're going to ask her to do something, how about she brings Magik back to life?" Sunshine challenged. "I don't care about the ghost in the spooky island. For all I know it was Max's conscience come to life and trying to kill him."
Ben nodded encouragingly, assuming that James was going to pull Casper aside so they could talk through some sort of plan to save everyone with. "Atta boy," Ben praised, smiling.
Casper, meanwhile, read the situation completely differently. Arm around the waist? Check. Invited up to the room? Check. Something else that he forgot but would certainly remember to add to his checklist of things that come before sexy time? Check. Casper grinned and gave James a slightly sloppy kiss on the cheek. "Of course, whatever the doctor orders," he replied cheekily. He had thought that James would've been too tired for sexy time but Casper wasn't going to protest. He was always up for sexy time.
Casper rolled his eyes at his brother though. "Hey, I'm not the one that had a breakdown and kidnapped someone," he pointed out, before sticking his tongue out at Jack. They had always been a pair, just like him and James or him and Ben. He couldn't really remember a time in his life without his little brother being there. And as his big brother, it was Casper's job to annoy him and remind him who was older at all costs.
Of course, Sunshine took Jack's comment about family psychosis a little differently. "Do you think I'm crazy then? Or will be crazy?" she asked Jack pointedly. "After all, I get what, half my blood from you?" She'd never taken a science class or anything like that, so she didn't understand how genetics and inheritance worked at all. She didn't even really know what an X-gene was, despite being a mutant. Meanwhile, upstairs at the end of the new hallway Max had created, Doctor Strange was looking at Max with an expression that was somehow a perfect mixture of annoyance, impatience, pride, exasperation, and amusement. "Of all my students, you are the most unconventional, Mr. Grey. Now, please tell me what is so important that I needed to take a short break in the midst of exorcising Chthon out of Wanda Maximoff?" Doctor Strange asked bluntly. "And do be quick about it, unless you are eager to live in another false reality, albeit one with more hellfire and brimstone than tea parties and cucumber sandwiches."
"Sure, as long as the Scarlet Witch promises not to warp reality if she loses," Hope told Maria. She wasn't a huge fan of having a reformed criminal on the team, but it would have been hypocritical for her to protest given her boyfriend, Scott Lang. It was (sadly?) pretty common for Avengers to have come from a less than stellar background these days. Not everyone was up to Hope's standards, so she had to settle. "Huh, didn't peg you for a Man-Child," she then told Flynn.
Princess Anelle nodded. "The fleet is comprised of nearly sixty ships, each crewed by anywhere from five to one hundred," she said, her voice had a tone of authority to it. "This ship is for high security prisoners, so if I were to guess... I would estimate fifty are stationed here," she finished, referring to how many skrulls to expect. She then frowned. "Loyal to the Empress, no doubt... This Zelda, if she is a goddess as you say, I would like to meet with her and make a plea on behalf of my son."
Jersey City Boardwalk - New Jersey: 10:40 P.M
"Wait, so I tell you he might be a skrull, and you want me to calm down?" Raynor asked Cass, incredulous. Finding out that there was another impostor among them should have been a reason to not be calm - a reason to take up arms and win the battle before it had even begun. Sparky was pregnant and he wasn't going to let any harm come to her or her unborn child. The other people here he had begrudgingly begun to care about as well, even if his concern for Sparky was infinite by comparison.
He huffed, hearing Oliver's statements and seeing that they were truthful. "Kid's cleared - an idiot, but cleared." He didn't understand how someone could just "mess up" like that and accidentally lie. He expected better from the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Were they letting just anyone into the academy these days? He half expected to find out that Oliver had done something recklessly stupid to endanger Sparky's life while he was gone and Raynor's eyes twitched slightly at the thought.
"Err, thanks?" Amelia said awkwardly to Niah, trying to think of when she had been screaming - and then it came to her. She loved jumping out of planes and she tended to scream while doing that, but they were screams of joy, not pain or fear or anything. She more thought of the screams as happy shouts, although she supposed to other people it was probably pretty hard to distinguish them.
She was taken by surprise though with the hostility and anger Sparky was expressing. The hurt and sadness was plain in Amelia's face - she didn't hide her emotions. She had thought that they were friends and she had tried to do the right thing. She didn't understand why Sparky was lashing out at her. However, she then plastered a big smile on her face again, trying to cheer herself back up.
"Sparks is good, obviously," Raynor said with an eye roll.
"I'm Mar-Vell," Dr. Larson introduced herself. "I was sent on behalf of Fury to help these two out," she explained, motioning towards Niah and Oliver, "and I'd like to help save this planet from being occupied by the Skrulls or the Kree."
Quinjet - New Jersey: 10:40 P.M
Flabbergasted. That was the best way to describe Bonnie's reaction to Kwassi's rant. She had already been getting the feeling that he was misogynistic, but now she was wondering if he wasn't a little bit bipolar as well. She didn't have a professional background in psychology, so she knew she really ought not assume that, but the idea persisted nonetheless. His mood had changed so rapidly and the way he spoke to the President was unlike anything she had seen from him earlier - granted, she hardly knew him. She didn't have an inclination as to what was normal behavior for Kwassi.
"I'd like to apologize on his behalf, Mr. President," Bonnie said first, before considering her words carefully. She didn't like to gossip. She wasn't one to talk about someone behind their back. "Truthfully, I haven't known him much longer than either of you, so I couldn't say." She then heard a crash, followed by loud yowling, like there was a cat somewhere. Bonnie frowned, her thoughts rapidly coming together to provide a hypothesis. This ship had belonged to the skrull Avengers...
"If you'll excuse me," Bonnie then said, getting up and heading towards the source of the sound. She passed a bunch of awake Avengers who were discussing with each other the current situation in the holding area, moving into the cargo bay. It was there that she saw a cage that had been knocked onto its side, containing the one and only...
"Goose?" Bonnie called out, going over to the cage. It had a combination lock on it. "Hold on, let me find some bolt cutters, okay? How did you end up here?"
Cleared by Niah(?) Cass Matt Amelia
Cleared by Raynor(?) Amelia Cass Niah Matt Oliver Sparky
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