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The trap was baited, and now it is sprung.

Avalon had been very cooperative with making a large cavern, set off from the main area. It was probably the best place for a magical showdown, as far as those things went. The... other her had taken the bait, now it was just a matter of leading her in.

Patience wasn't Topaz' greatest qualities at the moment.

She shook her head, blowing out a breath and tapping her ear piece. "Please tell me they're close." The rest of their assembled fight team was positioned in various hiding places and nooks and crannies, waiting. It might have been overkill, but then again... they had no idea what she could do.

"They're nearly here, just stay calm," came Amanda's voice over the earpiece. Then a snort. "Kevin's enjoying this way too much."

"Calm, she says." Marie-Ange muttered. "Dopplegangers and alternate futures are not a recipe for calm." She flipped through several cards, outright shoving one in another pocket when it kept coming up. She did not even keep regular playing cards in her battle decks, much less something as useless as a five of diamonds. "I am glad someone is enjoying themselves at least."

"I'm perfectly calm. Do I not seem calm?" Someone who was calm definitely didn't need to ask that. Topaz ran a hand through her hair, taking a deep breath, and focused on the entrance again. She could feel Kevin and the other her coming. Okay. They were going to do this. It was going to be fine.

"So, that's when I told him... if you can do a musical about Hamilton, you can do one about the Cure. I mean, it was Twitter but he retweeted it, which is basically a promise. Yes, I know, but he's not on TikTok. He's too old to even know what that is." A Topaz blathered on into her phone, wandering along the path without the slightest look behind her. "Like, a musical that makes you sad because the world sucks. Who wouldn't go see that and immediately protest about everything after? Maybe I should write it. Shut up! I totes could!" The sound from her was something between a giggle and a laugh.

"What the fuck is TikTok?" Topaz said blankly before a shadow of movement behind the... other-other her caught her attention. "Looks like she took it. Good to know I'm still predictable."

A hand reached out from the shadows, ready to grab the apparently oblivious woman on the phone. Red spikes exploded out of the ground behind her, and the third Topaz in the room finally dropped her cloaking spell, a dark look in her wild eyes as her head snapped around.

"What-"

Not-Topaz Topaz snarled, ready to invoke her magical defense, when a phone sailed end over end and smashed directly between her eyes, pitching her backward. Other-Topaz Not-Topaz smiled. "Strike three. Still got it."

"And go. Go go." Marie-Ange's handful of cards disappeared, the slight of hand instinctive by now, and she pulled a spear from the air. "Changling, confirm once you've gotten clear, we are heading in." She didn't wait for an answer from Kevin - too many other voices chattering in her earpiece, too many damaged travelers with emotional ties to all. "Everyone move. You know what our plan is."

At the order, Amanda felt herself instinctively tense to step forward, but held herself back. She was the final weapon and she had to let everyone else soften Not-Topaz up so she had a shot at ending this.

Topaz watched her deranged, older self shake off the cellphone attack, expression dark. Bitter, furious emotions rolled off her in waves. Like Topaz needed any other proof that this woman was completely mad.

"No." Even her voice was twisted. Black energy lit up around her hands, bringing shadows to life and menacing figures out of the ground. "You couldn't stop me before, and you're not stopping me now."

Nothing was ever easy, Topaz thought, tapping her earpiece again.

"She brought friends."

Sombra (Ellie), Facade and Wolverine cut a path open.

A slow-burning anger coiled through Ellie's gut as she watched the shadowy figures slinking through Avalon. She ignored the distant, echo-y screams she knew were just a byproduct of the pocket dimension itself, despite recognizing all of her parents crying out for help, and focused on the rage welling up inside her. Focus. She needed to stay focused.

"This is basically just an elaborate whack-a-mole setup, right Wolverine? So we can... what? I guess you can keep score, Facade. No cheating," she murmured through her comm. Directing a quick look toward the man who hadn't taught her all the especially vicious hand-to-hand combat tricks she knew despite the face being exactly the same, Ellie waggled her eyebrows. "Count of three, we go?"

This wasn't the strangest thing Logan had encountered, but he did have to hand it to the universe for coming up with something new. This child of friends who'd come from an alternate timeline and an alternate future where things were different and yet the same. "Yup, just you, me, and some fun smackin' the things that come at us." He rolled his shoulders as he eyed their surroundings. The voices were easy enough to tune out, but he was starting to get tired of pocket dimensions and their inherent desire to kill him every time he stepped in on. "Sounds fine to me, kid."

Artie nodded and smiled grimly. He was using a speech synthesiser - not his favourite choice but a necessary one in the field. "I stay behind you, I cover your six, I light up the ones coming from in front so you two can see them." He was heavily armed, carrying guns as well as stun sticks and knives. "I'd like to survive this, so -- incoming!" He blinded the two figures moving toward them, wrapping their heads in impenetrable black bands and stepping back to let the experts deal with it.

Pausing for just a moment to crack her neck, Ellie let her shoulders fall into a relaxed position before narrowing her eyes and taking a running leap at the blinded figure closest to her. As she launched herself, she pulled a garrote off her belt, swung it off to her right by one end, and watched as it curled precisely around her target's throat.

The figure grabbed for it, but by that point, Ellie had already landed knees-first against its shoulder blades from behind and caught the still-swinging end of the garrote. She tightened the wire as the figure went down, almost effortlessly cleaving its head from its shoulders as she used her momentum to follow through on a roll before coming to her feet, garrote at the ready.

Artie blinked at Ellie. "What the actual fuck? What idiot told you hand to hand was better than staying a safe distance away?" A garrote. Seriously.

“My dad, asshole,” Ellie answered, already moving on to the next shadow-figure. “My healing factor’s as good as Wolverine’s, so you stick to your job, I’ll do mine.”

Logan wasn't too far behind Ellie and barrelling straight into the blinded figure with claws outstretched. A few quick swipes and the creature was reduced to a heap of scattered parts on the ground. It was a brutal kind of ballet. Running, dashing, clawing, dismembering and all the while working their way forward as Artie provided covering fire. He trusted her at her word about handling herself until proven otherwise. He'd worry about things going sideways when the time came.

Artie pivoted and shot twice at something moving behind them - deterrent only, not a kill shot, yet, and followed close behind the other two.

Ronin (Nate Barton), Blink and Pyro bounce around like ping-pong balls, set monsters on fire, shoot them with arrows, blow them up, and generally cause mayhem.

Teleporting from place to place mid-air wasn't really flying, not even close, but it did keep her up in the air and that meant she had short glimpses of what the demons were doing as she figured out her next move. Caverns were not really her thing. Good news: it was a large cavern. Bad news: still an enclosed space and sort of tight in areas. Not good for teleporters. Dropping out of the air with a sword to skewer a demon, she teleported the body into several pieces as she withdrew her sword. Ugh. Shadow creature blood would be a pain to clean off later.

There wasn't time to grumble though as she turned, fighting another trying to approach from behind. Too many years of this, of being an X-Man and training for these situations, made her difficult to sneak up on. It was a small side benefit at least.

These demons had better not be the fire loving type or John's fire power was just going to give them one hell of a party. He flicked his lighter open and delivered a fireball towards a couple of the demons. Now either they'd burn or thank him for making them feel at home. How in the hell he kept getting himself into X-Men 'save the world' type situations...

"Wish I had a sword," he muttered as he watched Clarice do the whole samurai thing. On the bright side, demons were getting roasted left, right and center. "I'm going to be honest here! You all mind telling me what the fuck we're doing exactly? Because I'll admit, I wasn't really paying attention during the briefing!" What? Unlike these hero types, he wasn't exactly trained to be all kinds of disciplined. Besides, he got a tad distracted by a game of Candy Crush.

Nate fired an arrow with an explosion shot on it, aiming it towards the center of a horde. A few seconds later it exploded, sending them flying in all directions. He saw Pryo's mouth ask a question, but he lacked the capabilities to answer him back and hoped that Blink would get to that. He shot another arrow at a demon that go a little close to Blink from behind.

"Whack a mole!" Blink replied, lowering her voice as she teleported next to John. "We're killing demons. Because demons are bad. And they're trying to kill us," duh. It wasn't complicated. Granted, there was more to it than that overall for the plot, but right now? That was the important bit.

Did she just talk to him like he was a five-year-old? Okay, granted—he had that coming. Next time? Pay attention. The explosion caused by Nate's arrows was the perfect thing for John to utilize. He took advantage of the blast and created massive fireballs, sweeping it across the cavern. He was great at long distance crap, but if it wasn't for Blink who'd teleported next to him, he probably would've made one heck of an easy target for the demons that were lurking around.

"So. You think I could get one of those on eBay?" Definitely still admiring her sword. Priorities. He had them.

Clarice didn't give a shit whether John paid attention in the briefings, so long as he did what he was supposed to do. Admittedly, paying attention helped with that, but whatever works. This was just how she spoke and how her brain worked. Right now, keep it simple, keep it clear, keep it moving. They could have a more thoughtful, involved conversation, later, "Probably," she agreed, sending out several portals to slice and dice for her, "But could you use it without hurting yourself?" The doubt was nearly tangible. With that, she teleported away to give Nate some backup.