Word Count : 3926

Warnings : Strong language, blood, gore and violence.

The heroes are practically having the after math of a fight with a monster similar to the D.C's Doomsday. They flash back to it several times as well.

This write is the second one I mentioned before in the Hermit Heroes A.U consept. So its fully fledged out and everything. If you need a refresher on all the heroes please look back to that or ask for a cheat copy of all the Hermits and their hero names and such.

Iskall slowly struggled to push himself and Grian up out of the dip in the street cement. The sounds of labored breathing filled Iskall's ears as their monster they were to take out, continued to rampage and attack the other hermit heroes that had arrived with Grian and Iskall. Possibly even killing them. Iskall hoped to god that the monster wouldn't kill any of his friends. "Oh come on, Grian!" He strained out in vain to wake his friend, slowing approaching the top of the divot.

A massive flash of red suddenly overtook the sky. It burned, scorching everything in its wake, including those who even dared to look up. Followed by the sudden sky change, was a massive shock wave that stretched through the buildings, causing their still standing windows to shatter. 

Iskall poked his head up, clutching the unconscious Grian closer to his chest as he tried to see what had just happened even at huge protest from his muscles and mind. Scanning the battlefield, Iskall could see Scar, Tango, Doc and Ren all laying almost motionless on the ground. A little ways from them were Stress, Cleo and False, all looking beaten and disheveled with their hair askew and blood painting their faces. He couldn't even see Xisuma.

Iskall's one human eye then landed over to the only standing Hermit, Mumbo. Mumbo was standing completely straight and appeared to be approaching the monster that had nearly killed them all. His hands were lit and pulsed with red looking electricity, and if Iskall had to bet, the youngest hero's eyes would probably be burning red. 

Iskall watched as Mumbo suddenly raised his hands in the air above the monster's head, red electricity and power dripping off the palms of his hands. Iskall made out only one, single word from Mumbo when he spoke. "Perish." The youngest hermit hero suddenly brought his hands down and shot a huge surge of red electricity through the monster's head and through its body. Iskall saw more red colors burst everywhere before his head finally dropped back down to the cement divot that he was in with Grian and into a deep unconscious. 

Time skip 
Noise was everywhere. And there were a lot of noises in the world, especially loud and annoying ones. But the noise that reawoke Iskall was a quiet cry, or a sob. Finally forcing his eyes open, Iskall took in his surroundings. He was no longer in a cement divot holding Grian, he was laying on a soft comfy bed in the Hermit's secret Headquarters somewhere in the North Pole. With his senses fully back to him, Iskall summoned his strength and sat up from where he was laying. 

Immediately, he was approached by Stress, who was sporting a very nasty looking bruised cheek and several scratches at her forehead. "Iskall, how are you doing?" She asked, her voice sounding hoarse like she had been screaming at the top of her lungs for days on end. Fresh looking bandages were wrapped over her forearms and wrists; she herself must have just reawaken as well, which Iskall mentally noted. 

"I'm fine. How about you? You look as if you've seen better days." The Swede commented lightly, glancing around to see if he could find the noise that had originally woke him up. 

Stress subconsciously rubbed her bandaged wrists. "Observant as ever, Iskall." The ice user stated, also making her own observational note of her teammates wandering eye. She followed Iskall's gaze over to a slouched figure in a corner, and another hermit who was leaning against a wall beside him. Mumbo and Doc. "If you're wondering what happened, I suggest waiting for a little while longer Iskall, that's what we're all being forced to do right now. The kid's pretty shaken up." Stress commented softly, her light brown eyes returning back to Iskall. 

The ex-assassin/bodyguard scrunched his face in mild annoyance at the mention of having to wait. He wanted answers, but if he needed to wait he would. "Ok… fine." Another brief pause floated into the air before Iskall spoke again, this time with another lingering question. "Just tell me that none of us died to that thing. Tell me that that monster we were fighting was put down." The man looked Stress directly in the eye, seeking a truthful answer, his blood boiling with lingering rage.

Stress looked down at her feet, gently massaging her neck to try and find words. "As far as I'm aware, the monster was-" she stopped, glancing over her shoulder and looking at Mumbo. Seeing that he had not turned his head up from his curled up position, she returned her attention back to Iskall, her voice volume going even softer. "-Obliterated. Exploded. Pieces of its limbs are still being found by Xisuma, Grian, Scar and Tango. They went down to help clean up the… scene around 15 minutes ago." 

Iskall felt his blood go from hot to cold in seconds. He felt his entire mind draw several blanks as his robotic eye brought up error message after error message. "Mumbo killed it?" He wanted to speak aloud, he wanted to blurt it out, but one look over to the youngest hermit made the words die in his throat. His thoughts were interrupted by Stress, her hand on his shoulder made his attention redirect to her. He was speechless as he searched her facial expression for any kind of false look. 

Stress gave him an unchanging look, before dropping her hand from his shoulder and looking around at the others who were still there. Cleo, False and Ren were all still unconscious on beds, small i.v bags hooked up to them along with heart monitors. Some of the other heroes that had not been in the huge fight previously were all slowly filtering into their base from across the world or from off planet, maybe even dimensions. They were all filtering into their city to try and help the best they could. But all they'd be helping with would be clean up. 

Iskall swung his legs over the bed's side he was on, rubbing a kink in his neck to try and make it go away. "How-how long were we all out?" 

Stress merely shrugged her shoulders, giving a strained facial expression as if suppressing a wince. She pulled one of her arms defensively across her chest, not making eye contact with Iskall. "Well if I remember correctly, we started our battle around 4:17pm yesterday-" 

Iskall's eye nearly popped out of his head. "We were out for a whole day?! What time is it now?" The man quickly looked around to try and find a clock. 

The ice hero jumped ever so slightly. "It's 10:43am." 

Iskall moved his hand that was on his neck to his head, sitting up straighter. "Oh my god. Great. Fantastic." He grumbled, dragging his hand down across his face. "My sleep schedule is so fucked now." 

Stress merely shook her head. "Language, Iskall." 

Iskall threw a gesture at Stress before carefully standing up on his feet. A mild sting of pain lingered from the previous fight, but it wasn't completely intolerable. Mildly annoying to say the most if he was being honest. The hero looked over himself, seeing that he was no longer wearing his armored hoodie or his side mask. He had his own fair share of bandages wrapped around his arms and some patches and bandaids on his face which he could feel. Grumbling in annoyance at the thought of being wounded, he looked over to Mumbo and Doc, walking over to them. The ex-assassin felt numb to the mind, but he made no comment. "Doc? Mumbo?" 

Doc was leaning against a wall on his feet, he looked absolutely defeated. Dark circles under his eyes proved that he used too much energy trying to take the monster down yesterday. His one real eye trailed over to Iskall; he didn't turn completely to the other hero but he at least acknowledged him. "Iskall." He addressed, his arms crossed over his chest. 

Iskall gave a nod back to his teammate as a response before looking down at his other teammate who was still curled up with his knees to his chest. The youngest hermit still had not raised his head at the mention of Iskall's name, he hadn't even moved. "Mumbo? You awake buddy?" When Mumbo didn't move, Iskall knelt down in front of him, hesitantly placing a hand on the man's shoulder. "Mumbo?" 

The youngest hermit reluctantly met eyes with Iskall. Glassy dark red orbs gazed back at the hero as stray strands of black hair fell down to almost cover Mumbo's right eye. It almost hid the tears that were running down the man's face. "Iskall?" He rasped out. Upon a closer outer-appearance inspection done by Iskall, Mumbo appeared to have the least amount of visible injuries which was surprising given how much of a clumsy spoon he is. Eventually and with a heavy heart, Iskall slowly pulled the much taller, but slimmer and lighter, hermit out of the corner and into a secure bear hug. The motion at first was refused, but eventually the receiving party gave in. 

"Iskall-" Mumbo started, trying to weakly push off of Iskall's shoulders. "I don't-" 

Iskall merely tightened his grip in retaliation, knowing full well that he was far physically stronger than the spoon when compared for pure strength. " 'You don't' my ass, Mumbo. I'm giving you a bear hug whether you like it or not." Iskall snapped back, interrupting his teammate not even mid sentence, which caused the other to go silent and merely accept his fate. The younger hermit rested against the older hermit's chest, slowly giving into the warm embrace. 

After a brief moment of silence, a message was brought up into his message box by his robotic eye. A message from Doc. "The others will be back in ten minutes. He might want to prepare to try and explain what happened back there." Iskall read the message, then gave Doc a darkish look. The sender gave the ex-assassin and now residing bodyguard an unreadable facial expression in return. "Its just a heads up, bro. I don't want the kid to go into an emotional panic attack during this mini, 'interrogation." Doc sent as a defence like reply before silently walking away from the two to give them space. 

Iskall breathed for a moment, shutting his real eye. He felt the younger man finally relax against him. "Too bad that calm won't last for long." Iskall thought heavily. 

The ten minute heads up didn't feel like ten minutes at all. They felt like painfully dragged seconds that vanished all too quickly. Like watching paint dry on a timelapse that was sped up nearly twenty times via edit. Iskall had watched the other Hermits enter into the base; when Grian had entered back in, the other had immediately scanned the room in search for Iskall and Mumbo. Once his head turned fully in Iskall and Mumbo's direction, he quickly took off over to them. 

The winged man slid onto his knees over to them, tearing off his Watcher's mask to view the two with his own eyes. "Iskall! Mumbo!" He said aloud with a relief filled tone. His expression rapidly shifted as if a massive burden had just been lifted off his shoulders. "Are you both alright?" The shortest man of the three asked. 

Iskall had looked at the other hermit, giving him a defeated smile. "I'll live I guess." He glanced down at Mumbo, who had seemingly fallen asleep due to his motionless and lack of reaction when Grian came over in one of the more louder fashions. "Him… I'm not so sure." He answered truthfully. 

Upon that reply, Grian dropped his Watcher's mask to the side of him and wrapped his arms around Mumbo's waist and hugged the man from behind. Grian gently rested his head against the other hermit's back, not wanting to even think about the rest of the story. 

The sudden different touch of course woke Mumbo, who merely let out a few mumbles of incoherent words before they became understandable. "Mgh… hello Grian…" a couple more hushed words came out but they were all but forgotten. 

Iskall looked down at the two other heroes, smiling down at them before movement caught his attention from the upper part of his eyes. He watched as Xisuma, The Admin approached the Architect's followed by TFC and Cubfan. 

Grian seemingly sensed the three were there, since he removed himself away from Mumbo and turned to face the three others. 

"How I'd hate to break this up, but we need a thorough explanation of what happened yesterday." The Admin said meekly, awkwardly shifting his weight back and forth. 

Mumbo; not asleep as he seemed, wrapped his arms around Iskall, clinging onto his clothing. Iskall instantly knew what he was wanting and trying to say without words. "Don't let this happen now. I don't want to." But he knew it was inevitable. 

Time Skip
With a small amount of coaxing, Iskall managed to get the youngest hero to stop clinging onto him and to stand up. With a couple more final instructions, everyone finished filtering into the base and everyone was now lingering within the medical part of the H.Q. 

Once every hermit was comfortable, Xisuma spoke out. "Alright Mumbo, go ahead." The Admin immediately turned the spotlight to the Redstoner, along with all the other eyes. 

Mumbo slightly squirmed where he was, dropping his head ever so slightly. Iskall was to his immediate right, standing next to the operating table he was seated on. Grian was to his immediate left, also standing beside him. Mumbo felt Grian tangle his fingers with his own, gripping onto his hand tightly as if for reassurance. 

Finally, after what felt like suffocating attention, Mumbo spoke up. "I… don't exactly know what happened." He watched as the room's hope levels dropped. "I just… remember seeing certain things happening around me before I… suddenly felt all this power fill me. Like an adrenaline spike but more powerful." Mumbo stared down at his feet as he began to retell what he saw yesterday. 

================================

Mumbo watched as Xisuma, Tango and Doc, quickly backed up by False, sprinted up towards the monster to get the first strikes. The monster stood in front of them, towering over some of the Hermits on the ground, which was frightening since Mumbo stood as the tallest there. 

Grian flapped his wings and took to the skys, lifting Scar and Cleo with him so they could all cast spells down once the four offense attackers made their marks. Iskall and Rendog both separated from each other on ground level, getting ready for the clean up. Mumbo looked up in the sky to where Grian had taken off to, then activated his own self made elytra wings to follow suit and assist Iskall and Ren with the finishing blows. 

All the hermit's actions were clean, crisp and well executed. Mumbo himself had attacked last with multiple target trained laser blasts from his suit gauntlets at the monster. Feather falling to once again rest on the ground, Mumbo heard all his engines and gadgets wind down as the dust lingered for another silent minute. "Was that really it?" The redstoner finally questioned. 

A rumble of the ground instantly disproved the tossed out question. The dust dispersed and the creature they all had struck emerged, looking ever so ticked off as it mockingly brushed dust off its shoulders. 

"The hell? This thing didn't go down? I hit it with everything I had!" Doc addressed out over the group's connected com links. A look over in his direction and he was visibly gripping his trident so tightly that his actual arm was wavering and trembling with his knuckles whitening out. 

Xisuma's voice broke through next. "Don't mind that, let's just hit it again like we did just now! Keep up your speeds and don't get struck, or this could get real ugly." 

Several I's and murmurs of agreement cut through before Xisuma led the second rounded charge attack. This time with different Hermits as the first couple rounds of strikes to try and shake up the fight and confuse the monster. Each hermit did as instructed- 

-again-

-and again-

-and again.

Each time they swung back around to attack head on, the creature took swings and swipes at them, swatting some of Mumbo's friends away like insects and even throwing them down and jostling them around like ragdolls. First Ren, then Tango, followed by Iskall and Scar.

The Admin flew in, his voided sword in hand to attack followed by the Watcher and then finally Mumbo himself. All three of them advanced quickly and with a vengeance on the monster. 

The enemy took a single glance at the three then reached out and plucked Xisuma out of the air, grabbing him from the back of his suit. With a mean hold on the Admin, the beast swiped at Grian using Xisuma's body as a projectile. 

Grian shot to the right, creating a mini like crater in the cement. The monster then immediately used it's free hand and shot Mumbo to the left. 

The redstoner felt his body slam against a building wall before coming to a resting position on his side facing said wall. Upon opening his eyes and shifting over to his other side to view the fight, the world spun and phased between being blurry and being clear. The youngest hero's mind scattered as he viewed the continuing battle field with mild confusion. 

Making out recognizable silhouettes, he could see False, Cleo and Stress all sprint into action once again after their mini recovery time. He saw False's silhouette suddenly get projectiled to his left, out of his clear cone of vision and into the fuzzy imagery of his corner vision where she eventually disappeared all together. It wasn't until the hero saw a red cloud puff into the small area around the creature's arms that something finally went off. Insane sounding alarms ringing in his ears. Slowly but surely, Mumbo got back up on his feet with the help of the building wall to help support his weight for the first 5 seconds, making his way towards the fight once more. His vision returned once again to him but it was almost like he still couldn't see properly. Images of the red cloud continued to flash itself in his mind, as well as the sights of all his friends being taken out and being nearly beaten into the ground like dough. He dare not even think about death right now. 

It was currently Doc who was up close and personal with the beast, actually managing to get the monster to fall to its knees before taking a cold punch to his entire chest and falling back to the ground, unmoving next to some of the other Hermits. 

Alarm bells continued ringing annoyingly in Mumbo's head. The heat of anger and rage settled in, feeling as if it were to tear the skin and explode like a volcano cracking the Earth's crust. Inching closer and closer until finally standing directly in front of the monster; practically towering over it as it sat temporarily crippled from Doc's lightning on its knees. Staring the monster down, Mumbo mindlessly raised his hands above the creature's head. 

One word came to his mind. A word that he never thought he'd say to another being. A word that was simply dripping with hatred and vengeance. "Perish." The youngest Hermit's vision completely blacked out after flashing a messy splatter color of red, black and white. 

================================

"Then all I remember after that is coming back around again, seeing the gory mess and then seeing Xisuma coming over and code editing all the splatter off of me! That's all I remember, I swear!" Mumbo finished, lifting his head again to meet eyes with some of the others for a brief moment. 

"You said you felt rage?" Doc questioned. With a nod as a response, he continued. "Sounds similar to how my powers work. Rage is a pretty strong emotion and it often blinds a person, blocking them out to the actions that they do." 

Mumbo's attention turned to the German. "But I didn't want to kill the thing!" 

The Lightning Thief merely shook his head. "That doesn't matter, kid-" Mumbo winced at the name. "-Somewhere deep in your head, your subconscious saw several endings to the situation you were put in. And killing was one of them. You may not have intended it but your black out rage most certainly did." Doc finished speaking, watching as the youngest hermit slightly shrunk where he was sitting, turning his head down. 

The Admin, clearly wanting to end the tension rising conversation, spoke up before anyone else managed to get in another comment. "Alright, thank you Mumbo. You all are dismissed, except for Cub, TFC, Cleo and Joe. If you four would stay here for a while longer?" 

One by one, each hero left the Medical Wing except for the four that Xisuma had asked to remain. Eventually it was simply those five Hermits within the room, free to discuss anything they wished in complete secrecy. 

"What did you want us to stay back for, X?" Cleo questioned, her head cocking to the right. 

Xisuma took a breath before turning to the other four. He placed a hand to his helmeted head. "I… feel like I'm partly responsible for-for everything that happened yesterday." 

TFC crossed his arms over his chest. "How so?" He questioned, watching Xisuma's eye expressions through the visor. 

"It's Mumbo, I didn't want him to get hurt mentally like that." The Admin confessed, looking down at his feet. 

Cub, who was sitting silently till then, shook his head and spoke. "Admin, you had to have known that something like yesterday was going to happen eventually. You can't really feel sorry when a naive person working in a violent environment falls victim to horrible things." 

Cleo shot the hero Plague, a cold look. "Xisuma, what Cub is trying to say-" She turned her head back to the Admin. "-Is that Mumbo is one of us now. And sometimes what we do is going to take a toll on the mental health of everyone, and there's not much you can do about it." 

Xisuma slumped his shoulders in defeat as the four other Hermits with him all stood up to head out. Joe spoke up, looking at his friend. "It's ok, Xisuma. Mumbo is a strong person. He'll pull through like the rest of us have. Sometimes all someone needs is the encouragement to keep pushing forward." 

The Admin saw the poet give him a smile before the four that had been asked to stay, all left the room, leaving only the Admin inside and alone with his thoughts.