As Minx and Emerson said their vows, a small group had remained sequestered inside, keeping the spell that would close the portals going. It couldn't stop once it had started, not even for a second. Not even for a wedding that had, against all odds for a special event at Xavier's, gone off without a hitch. They had kept the candles burning, continued the chant, not knowing when the spell would pay off but knowing they would recognize it when they saw it.
And as the wedding outside ended and the reception got into full swing, the moment came.
Magic moved in tandem, even when the spellcasters didn't know it, and at the same time the Hellfire Club's long ritual was finally ending. Their hired magicians had worked for weeks to bring the Phoenix into this world, and finally,
finally it was paying off. Sebastian Shaw stood in the summoning circle, a fresh tattoo still sore on his wrist. The Phoenix's symbol. That tattoo had cost Leon Nunez his life, draining him to provide Shaw with a pale imitation of the Phoenix's powers -- and, more importantly, a way to draw it into himself and bind it there. A way to control it. Or at least, that was the theory. Shaw was serenely confident, unbothered by the enormity of what he was doing or by the innocent life it had cost to get him here. This was his moment.
As the spells completed, in perfect synchronicity, reality shifted. Every portal that had ever opened between worlds was opened again. At Xavier's, R&D moved quickly to shut off the device that had been keeping the portals closed until now, but the spell was more powerful than any mechanical device anyway. Portals reopened all over the grounds. Away from the school, the same thing was happening, although the portals had always been most densely concentrated at Xavier's.
Inside the spellcasters kept the ritual going. Soon, those who'd been pulled through the portals into other worlds would start to feel the pull toward the portal that would take them home again. Not just yet. But even without that pull, there were creatures in other worlds that would jump at any chance to go through a portal and wreak havoc, and they had been cut off from Xavier's for a long time.
(Fight rapid-fire! Everyone!)
[Magic users should head to the room where the ritual is being done to help keep it going. Everyone else, head for the Danger Room or start fighting monsters! The tentacle monsters and eye monsters are back, but also please feel free to invent something new and fun to fight, creatures have been traveling between worlds for a while now and anything is possible. This thread is for about the first 30 minutes of the fight, there will be more to come!] 
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