[Universe: HermitVengers, main timeline]

[Set after the events of Endgame]

The flight to Berlin was... tense, to say the least. The plan was to get to Germany, then head to Czechia and gather info as they go. Besides, a little part of Clint hoped Crepitus could learn a bit about himself before diving into a mission from... yeah. Poor kid.

The crew was composed of Crepitus (of course), Barton, Phasma, the Voids, and Letuma. Hopefully, Cleo would be able to interrogate those long past, perhaps anyone who died in the castle itself.

Phasma hoped he could not only sense any supernatural dangers, but also be a comfort to his boyfriend. He knew that Doc wouldn't rest until he knew that... whatever that demon had said was coming, that it wouldn't hurt anyone and was back where it belonged. And while he loved Doc's determination... in this case, it concerned him a bit.

He looked over to see Crepitus looking through his weapons arsenal: his throwing cards (Phas still didn't know why he chose that of all things, but it looked cool), his trident, a few knives, and a few bombs.

"Traveling light today, I see." Phasma chuckled, standing up and trying to grab the handle way above his head.

Doc snorted. "Yeah, I figured I didn't want to bring too much on public transport."

"When was the last time you even went on a bus or a train?" Cleo asked, putting up her feet on the seats next to her.

"Eh..." Crepitus thought for a moment before shrugging. "Year or so? Maybe... two? Not sure."

He tried to think if he'd been on public transport during the odd trip to Gotham (multiverse nonsense), and it made him think of a certain other cyborg. 'Hopefully he's okay back in his universe... and hopefully he'll never know about this mission.'

The expression on his father figure's face while Lucifer controlled his body still haunted him at random times, and Crepitus didn't wanna find out how he'd react to something like this.

"Doc?" Cleo's voice interrupted his thoughts, pulling him away from his inner monologue.

"Hm?"

Xisuma smiled at him a bit, looking concerned. "You alright?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just was thinking." Doc sighed, grabbing a small rag and a whetstone, sitting down and pulling out his main knife. The other Hermits watched him clean and sharpen it before exchanging a few worried looks.

"We're here! Don't go anywhere without me, or Cap's gonna have my ass for leaving you unsupervised!" Clint barked from the driver's seat.

"Yeah yeah, we're not five!" Phasma rolled his eyes, walking down with Crepitus. "Can't believe he still doesn't trust us alone..."

The group waited for Barton to finish, feeling a chilly wind go through the trees and straight through their clothes. The Hermits collectively shivered, and a few of them had a bad feeling about what was to come...