The howling noise of the undead nearing sent a chill down Runa's spine. Her staff had collapsed back down into a bracelet as to be more portable, and she looked at the wall with trepidation. It took her a moment to come to the conclusion the others had - that they could use Betty, Klara's cat, to leap over it with ease. The idea of a cat being used to leapfrog over things was still a little bit much for her brain to take in. She wondered how long it had taken Nadia and Klara to get used to the way things worked in the Nine Realms. Runa personally felt she could have used more time at Hotel Valhalla before being thrust on a quest to save the universe.
Betty turned into a giant cat, and Runa carefully boarded the kitty once Klara had already gotten on. She gripped Klara tightly from behind, very much afraid that she might fall off, and she figured cats followed the same roles as motorcycles when it came to where to hold onto. Her heart pounded furiously as Betty leapt into the air, clearing the wall with ease, and they landed gently on the other side. She took a slight breath, pulling out the compass and looking at it, trying to get a sense as to what progress they were making.
Guin put her hands to her head, using a focusing technique that Xavier had shown her - during one of the rare moments where she actually tried to figure out her telepathy with him. The others weren't that far off from them - just down two floors, and not too laterally displaced either. "Runa, Annie, and Bethany are just two floors down from here," Guin told the group, removing her hands from her head. Please do it now, he's a dick. She really didn't like the raccoon, which was ironic, as she was in many ways very similar to the raccoon.
She then glanced over at Lance. "I know that, that's why I'm fucking fantastic," she told him, her voice oddly upbeat yet not quite sarcastic. A truly horrifying man then came on over, bumping into Lance, and a fight broke out. Guin's heart started pounding quickly - she usually wasn't scared in fights, but this wasn't just a fight. It was a prison fight. She was terrified of prisons and prison fights were one of the most dangerous things that could happen in a prison. She squeaked slightly, very much glad to hide behind Pietro. Make it stop make it stop make it stop!!
Make everything stop how?
I don't know, do something!!! Guin then got a bit of an idea. She was a huge Star Wars fan. And she loved to play video games. So there was a concept she had been exposed to before, and just maybe, she could pull it off and essentially make it so everything could end a little faster. She concentrated, feeling the minds of all of her teammates around her, and she just sort of amped everyone up - making everyone think a little better, work together a little better, just do everything slightly better. She thought of it like Bastila's battle meditation, giving everyone a boost.
Well I think trying not to get pummeled is doing something but that's just me.
Do that too! She saw a rioter getting near them and she bit her lip, before kicking towards them, only to miss. She threw another kick, only to miss again.
Runa Baldurdattir
Location: The Kyln Skills: Infinite Deception of Words
Runa nodded, glad to hear that the rest of their companions weren't as far off as they could have been. With the size of the Kyln, they all could have been separated at far larger distances - perhaps even distances large enough to make Bethany's shadow travel difficult. It was far too large for a prison, especially with the number of prisoners housed. Runa had to wonder how the guards were able to control them all, when they seemed to be so clearly outnumbered. Perhaps it was just the large deterrent of having nowhere to escape to that kept the prisoners in line here. "Near the ships? Excellent. That's efficient," Runa murmured. Something was happening up ahead and Runa raised an eyebrow, moving towards the staircase.
Bethany then shadow traveled them and they were with the others. Runa was relieved to see that Lance seemed alright. She experimentally threw out her hand, attempting to summon Gandr to her. At first, nothing happened. But then, the staff flew through a wall, leaving a Gandr shaped hole, and slammed into her hand firmly. Her staff had what looked like the remains of restraining bolts on it. "Gandr, it is good to see you, friend," she muttered. She then surveyed the rioters and decided she could use her power to end the riot. "All of the rioters, except for my allies, are fast asleep, dreaming of flying sheep," Runa lied.
"What? Oh, nope!" Guin then called out.
Runa then snapped her fingers, feeling her power gathering around her as she went about reshaping reality. And then...
Location: Emma Frost Memorial Hospital - Terrigen Ward Skills: Mediumship
Veil felt her brother hold her hand, as her ears started ringing. It couldn't have been true. Sapphire couldn't be dead. She had to be just around the corner or something, having convinced James and everyone to do this horrible, horrible tone deaf prank. The walls felt like they were closing in around her and Veil just wanted to disappear. And thanks to her mutation, she literally did - she turned invisible, vanishing from everyone's sight. Her chest felt tight and painful, and she couldn't breathe. She hadn't had the time to fall apart before.
And now, she was falling apart all at once. So many of her friends, so many people had laid down their lives. For what? For the Mutant Underground? She used to believe that the Mutant Underground was a force for good, but now she was disillusioned. Sapphire had died - her death could have been prevented if Xavier had just picked up a phone... She used to think the world of him and the X-Men, but now they were hollow symbols of selfishness and cowardice.
"Oh yes, she definitely isn't here," Doctor Nemesis agreed, chuckling ever so slightly. "But perhaps she's being put to use at the Tiki Bar... The Quiet Council is the government of Genosha and I am Doctor Nemesis," he then added, answering the rest of Zari's questions.
"That's fucked up of you to say," Sunshine cut in, referring to the first bit, and shooting a look over at Doctor Nemesis. She would have given him some sort of disease, but he had been there for her friends and she didn't want to end up on the bad side of the Quiet Council. She didn't even want to be held up as a hero of Genosha. She liked just being an ordinary mutant girl on this island, no one special, well, maybe special to her bae, but to no one else.
She turned her attention back to Max and James. It felt like a million years ago that she had first run into the two of them - when they had ended up running into the sewer and going into the arms of the Morlocks. She missed Erg each and every day. It had been hard at first for her to accept Genosha, knowing that the Hellfire Club had built it. But Erg's murderer - Shaw - was gone. And she felt in her heart that Erg would have liked this place. It was a sanctuary for mutants, a place where they could live freely without humans. "Can't you conjure up some deodorant or something?" she asked Max.
Casper looked at James as he walked away, admiring the view before turning his attention to his family. Jack seemed to be fine more or less - he wasn't really sure if Jack had been awake for a while or not, but then again, he wasn't dressed like Princess Leia so Casper figured that Jack must have been up and about. His mom though, he couldn't help but be really excited to see her there. He was a momma's boy at his core. And knowing that his mom seemed to get along with his boyfriend? That was even better.
"Sapphire's dead," Ben said quietly, drawing Casper's attention.
"...What?" Casper said, staring at the ghost.
"You can give them all closure," Ben pointed out.
Casper stared at James a little longer, before he sighed slightly. He took a deep breath, before sitting on the little hospital bed and crossing his legs. He concentrated deeply, his eyes turning blue and blue energy warping around his hands, as he called forward the ghost of Sapphire. Meanwhile, Havok was beginning to stir.
Location: Camelot - the Tower -> the Woods Skills: N/A
Megan nodded, although she was a little bit suspicious of Merlin's competency at this point. She didn't trust anyone really when it came to saving her brother. They all had their own priorities and agendas, and from what she could tell, a few of them were clearly emotionally still in high school, if not middle school. Megan didn't hesitate to step through the portal that Merlin had created, emerging into a wooded area. She hoped that they weren't that far off from where they needed to be - she didn't fancy the idea at all of delaying Jack's rescue even more, it already felt like it had been hours.
She bit her lip slightly, hearing what one of the other girls said - Samantha? Megan couldn't really remember everyone's names. She wanted to get to Jack as quickly as they could, but the element of surprise couldn't just be discredited entirely. "...I think the odds are low that Jack's father would travel these roads, given that he uses magic, so I think we'd be okay to press on." The girl with the vibrant red hair clearly agreed with her - what was her name, Ruby? Rebecca?
Leda kissed her girlfriend back, smiling slightly. She was trying not to get too worried about the entire situation with the gods. There wasn't much they could realistically do about it, especially without a prophecy. Upkeep on the shrines was a small action, unlikely to influence godly relations. "Nah, I'm good," she said, shaking her head. "I'm ready to head out when you are, love," she then added. She glanced over, spotting Zeke over at the Roman table bothering the praetors. "Wonder when that'll erupt into some interesting drama," she muttered.
She stretched her arms out up above her head and let out a yawn. She wasn't really tired, more of just mentally and emotionally waking up for the day. She had eaten a ton and now it was time to get going. She stood up and offered Kiera her hand, figuring that they could hold hands as they walked on over to get some work done. "Later today, wanna go canoeing? We could try to make a jet ski, if we can find some rope and if I can run fast enough," she proposed.
Nancy chuckled slightly at Zeke's eagerness for the War Games. She wasn't sure how cut out for it the Greeks would be, but they had been (admittedly) helpful during the battle. While they had lost New Rome, it could have been much worse if the Greeks hadn't been there to help. She wasn't too sure what to think of their fighting style, though if she had been pressed to describe it, she would have called it disorganized and individualistic. "Mixing it up would be very," Nancy agreed. It might help a little bit with the tensions between the two Camps as well. She knew that the Greeks tended to organize everything by godly parent - which didn't make much sense to her - but they probably felt the same way about the cohort system.
"With the two groups, each group could have one Roman leader and one Greek leader," Nancy suggested. "Doesn't have to be me and Mads, could be any member of leadership from our side, and the Greeks... I dunno, you all could draw straws for two?" she teased Zeke slightly. It'd be an interesting test in cooperation. She wondered if the Neptune kid would end up being leadership for whatever side ended up with the boat - either way, with the naval themed battle, the Neptune kid would be invaluable to whatever side she was on.
"Fun, the United States now gets to create puppet states out of alien races too now," Tony muttered under his breath. "Yay us." His political views had gotten a bit more extreme after his stint in captivity. He didn't care for US Imperialism and this felt dangerously close to that, but he wasn't sure what other choice they'd have. His daughter was on Earth and the love of his life, Pepper, was too - and it seemed like the only way to save them.
"Are you up for this, Princess?" Carol asked, as she was the one with the most space knowhow. "You'd have the chance to end the war - to let the galaxy be at peace."
Anelle nodded. "The war between our peoples... It's gone on so long that even I scarcely know why it began. I believe my people will follow me if they are given a choice... I can do this."
"Great, we have a plan. In the meantime, as this travel will take a while, Flynn, Maria, train the Princess in some self defense. She'll need to prepared."
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 9:40 A.M.
Spider-Man gasped slightly. "They have Star Wars books?!?! Whaaat?" he exclaimed. He seemed very easily excitable, almost childlike. He hadn't removed his mask at all so there was no way for anyone to really tell how old he was, especially since he seemed like a normal height and all. Plus, there was no way the Avengers would just let a kid run around fighting crime, right? They had barely consented to letting the X-Men help with the Galactus issue and the X-Men were largely adults.
Raynor's heart skipped a beat, finding out that they were having a little girl. He would have been happy either way, but he had been secretly hoping for a daughter. He would have been too worried that a son would take after him too much. The women in his life had always been a better influence on him than the men too - although, his uncle/aunt was Loki and he knew that the gender assigned at birth wasn't necessarily what his child's gender would be.
Bonnie made sure that she had a clean pair of gloves on, as she examined Niah's leg. Her eyes widened slightly, but she didn't gasp or make any comments. She had a better bedside manner than that. There were black splotches all over Niah's leg that hadn't been there previously. They weren't confined to the direct area of the amputation either, but rather running all the way up her leg, like some sort of demonic infection. Bonnie bit her lip slightly, weighing through the options. They could amputate more of Niah's leg, but there was no guarantee that would fix the problem.
She already had been having Niah take antibiotics, so clearly Niah somehow was spitting them out when Bonnie wasn't looking, or they needed to try a more aggressive treatment. While Bonnie was a doctor, she specialized more in the dead than the living. She knew when she was looking at something that required a call to a specialist. This didn't seem like an ordinary infection from an amputation. "I need to get a second opinion," she told Niah. She debated lying to her and telling her everything was fine, but Niah would notice the black splotches sooner or later. "Sparky, would you take a look?"
Maybe Sparky would have seen something like this before - Bonnie wasn't the only one present with medical training. She hoped they'd be able to figure it out via the people in this room, but if not, they'd need to escalate and call in Doctor Strange.
Raynor was a little bit curious, glancing over and seeing the remains of Niah's leg. He sucked in air sharply through his teeth, making a slight hissing noise. In all of his years of life, traveling the world(s), he had never seen anything like that before. "How'd you lose your leg again, exactly?" Raynor asked Niah. He couldn't recall if she had explained it already to him - he was so tired and worn out that he might as well have just forgotten if she had.
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 9:40 A.M.
The cat Evelyn had approached - named ZuZu - meowed slightly at her before a long tentacle snaked out of its mouth and poked her on the cheek. The cat that Matt was petting was decidedly normal in each and every way, and was named Radish. The President was also petting a normal cat, this one was named Butterscotch. Mar-Vell rolled her eyes slightly at Goose. "You're such a needy cat," she teased him gently. "Don't worry, we aren't replacing you. Think of these flerkens as your new recruits."
"Ooo, we found some of the alien kitties?" Amelia said, glancing up from the pair of kittens she had been petting. She went on over to where Goose and Mar-Vell were, her eyes widening as Muffin and Fluffy's tentacles were waving around happily. The two flerkens they had found were very fat - they looked so big, as if they had been eating the other cats at the shelter in order to stay so big and fluffy. With their tiny little legs, Amelia doubted they could run very fast at all. "Aww, so cute! How would you two like to stop an alien invasion?" Amelia cooed.
"Wow, they're so much bigger than I would have expected," Captain America commented. The rest of the group was gravitating over towards the two flerkens that Goose had found, leaving Evelyn pretty much as the only one to have noticed her flerken. T'Challa had a few kittens in his hands that he was clearly intent on adopting, while Bucky and Sam were bickering over something in the corner.
"They're going to lay eggs soon," Mar-Vell explained. "I don't know if we can expect to find more flerkens at the shelter here."
"Wait, lay... eggs?" Amelia asked, her eyes widening like saucers. She hadn't realized that flerkens had eggs and not babies. Now, the kitties being very fat made a lot of sense. Muffin and Fluffy were expecting parents. Could they really ask those two to go fight off an alien invasion if they were going to lay eggs and have babies that way any day now? Wasn't that immoral or something? She didn't even understand how parents of humans did hero work, it seemed too dangerous and risky.
"Yes, flerkens reproduce by laying eggs," Mar-Vell said, very matter of factly.
"I do not feel right using these creatures to help us while they are expecting," T'Challa admitted.
Fluffy then started yowling - and laying eggs!
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Runa nodded. She had put the compass away for safe keeping when they had arrived here. "Yes, I still have it," Runa said. But it may not have been needed, especially as Nadia pointed out the building that they most likely had to go to. It was a little bit eerie to imagine that their destination was so close. Runa didn't even know how to process the idea that her... her father was here. It was so strange and hard for her to accept that her father was really a god.
The undead creatures were really terrifying, it made sense to her why Nadia was scared of them. Runa had her staff to defend herself though with, and she spun it, knocking one of the draugr down and killing it. She swung at a second one, and her aim was true, but there just wasn't enough power in her swing - the draugr wasn't taken out for the count.
Location: Emma Frost Memorial Hospital - Terrigen Ward Skills: Mediumship
Veil didn't have a lot of energy, as her body felt incredibly fatigued, but she had enough strength to roll her eyes slightly at her brother's antics. He used to sing that song as kids when he was looking for her. It was sweet, but Veil was also a rather private person. She didn't advertise details of her personal life with the Mutant Underground, even though she treated them like family. Most of them hadn't even known she had a brother. "Je suis ici, Echo," Veil called out softly, pronouncing her brother's mutant name with a soft French accent - like Ey-koh.
She frowned then, hearing monitors popping around the room. She sat up ever so slightly, looking across the room at Zarina, one of the youngest. Veil didn't want to have to scold her and play mother, but people were gaining a serious problem when it came to threatening each other with violence. "Hey, quit it. We're better than that. We don't need to threaten each other." She then looked around the room, noticing two people were missing. Havok and Sapphire. "...Did Havok and Sapphire already wake up? Are they in another room?"
"Fuck! I knew I forgot something!" Nemesis spat. He snatched his eyeball off the ground and spun around for a second, looking around wildly before he saw Zarina. "You! Stop that!" he shouted at her, before rushing down to the very end of the room. He pressed up against the wall and it spun around to reveal Havok, completely frozen solid in a tank. "I mean it, technopath. Don't do anything to this or he'll die, and you'll be the one the Quiet Council'll put on trial for!" He then started pushing buttons at random, clearly initiating a defrosting process.
Casper was feeling at 100% - his mother and his boyfriend had clearly met, James looked amazing as always, and of course, he was being held up by his boyfriend. There was also something that always felt intimate when James would heal him - even more intimate than sex. His mood was dampened slightly when an eyeball popped out and hit him in the head, his brother teased him, and then some Winona Ryder lookalike said they'd been asleep for months. "What the fuck kinda messed up thing is this?" Casper whined. "This feels like the stupid shit Dad's wonder kids would claim so they could pretend they weren't off in Alaska fucking their mistress who just happens to look exactly like their dead girlfriend!"
"That's incredibly specific," Ben commented, leaning up against the wall now.
"Salut, Moneta," Renegrade greeted, waving at her old friend. She had stepped back slightly to give Casper and James some room. While her older two kids had inherited their father's mental instability, Casper had definitely gotten his more promiscuous nature from her. "Ceremony should be real nice, it's ta show our appreciation, y'all saved DC and all the mutants in it," Renegade explained, looking over at Waverley.
"Oooh, let me guess, the X-Men never showed up and Daddy Dearest left us all for dead?" Casper guessed. Waverley had brought up a good point, Polaris was definitely related to this Genosha thing, but James seemed to trust this place so that was good enough for him. Besides, he was pretty sure his father wouldn't have been welcomed here, which automatically gave it a gold star.
Renegade shrugged. "Eh... Oui."
Sunshine waved slightly to Stareyes - she didn't really know her that well, and it wasn't like they had had time to get to know each other while Stareyes was a popsicle (again). Max, however, she had a long history with. She had thought a lot about what this moment would be like. Somedays, she had planned on bringing him a thing of dirt and placing it in his mouth. Others, she had been intending on going by Voltus Glade and seeing about getting him some sort of magic rock thing.
Instead, she walked over to him and wrinkled her nose, as if smelling something horrible. "You'd think all of the ice would've made you smell better, not worse, but I guess you always liked to try to do the impossible," she taunted. She was glad to see that he was alright, but she wasn't going to admit it. She had learned to be a bit more secretive in her time on Genosha. Case in point, she was doing something later that evening that she knew James wouldn't approve of at all - so she just wasn't going to tell him.
"There, Havok should be dethawed shortly... I hope it won't delay the ceremony," Nemesis muttered, popping his eyeball back in.
"... Where is Sapphire?" Veil asked again, feeling more apprehensive. "Where is she?"
"What?" Guin asked Lance, tearing her attention away from the less than helpful console. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just great. Really psyched to die in a space prison." She had almost a bit of a manic look to her, her emotions still swinging wildly from moment to moment. Right now, her fear was expressing itself as annoyance and anger - rather than the crying hysterics it had been earlier in the cell with Mary. She felt wildly out of balance, but she wasn't actively trying to calm down or anything either. All she wanted was to be out of this prison and watch it explode as they flew away in their ship. She was ignoring the tree and the raccoon, as currently she wanted to put both of them through a wood chipper.
She was relieved to see Pietro back again though, pretty much instantly abandoning the console and going to stand next to him. Had she been freaking out the way she had been earlier, she likely would have hidden behind him. Yeah, the raccoon fucking sucks. I want to stuff it at a Build a Bear, she grumbled. "Hey, before he wears himself out already, I can scry for them," Guin said, meaning that she could do a telepathic sweep. She didn't have Cerebro to make it easier, but she figured she could probably pick up the others.
Telepathy to locate the others
Runa Baldurdattir
Location: The Kyln Skills: N/A
Runa nodded, sizing up Drax for a second. He seemed very strange, but also potentially helpful? If she could figure out where Gandr was and how the Nova Corps was preventing her staff from coming to her, that would be a huge help. She could then just warp reality to get them all out of this mess. However, she doubted that Drax - and his green friend - would believe her claim that she could warp reality through words as long as she had a special object. It sounded a bit farfetched the farther you journeyed from Asgard. Still, the woman struck her as the warrior type.
She was relieved to see that Annie was with them as well. Although, she was still concerned at the lack of Lance. He was awfully squishy and had a frustrating habit of not wearing armor. "I don't have access to Gandr, I'm afraid," she informed Annie, not wanting Annie to judge her for not having gotten them all out of this mess already. "Friend of Drax, do you know where personal weaponry is kept on this ship?" she inquired. She didn't feel like mentioning the magic nature of Gandr, for obvious reasons.
Megan's eyes darted over to Rose, as Rose attempted to reassure her. She didn't know Rose at all, so it really didn't comfort her that much - but even then, it was a little bit helpful to know that at least one other person wasn't ambivalent about Jack's fate. She gave Rose a slight nod as a response. She was more focused on what Merlin was doing. It wasn't hard to figure out, just based on the maps, Jack's item, and some magic words - it seemed like the magical version of the Find My Friends app. She took in a deep breath as Merlin announced it was a few day's walk from here, before remembering the world they were in. "If Rumplestiltskin can teleport Jack there, then we should be able to do the same, yes? Your magic can do it, right?"
She had no idea how magic worked, but she was willing to bet Merlin was capable of it. He had transported them between realms after all. And if one person had already managed the feat, couldn't another? Besides, she knew that Merlin was supposedly a powerful sorcerer, she was vaguely aware of King Arthur and Merlin and whatnot from the stories. "I'm going. Obviously." She wasn't going to wait here while her brother was in danger.
Achronum
kittyluna45
Scrawl Banditta
Not a Sayan
KazAlkemi
Neziul
Kirah
Blizz
BlueSky44
