Last Time, on Project HermitVengers:

Mumbo packed up shop and decided to get away from his toxic parents (good for him).

Skizz is now alone, without his Dipple Dop.

Speaking of Impulse, he's no longer alone: now bonding with Tango and Zedaph.

Iskall also gets sick of their toxic family and finally initiates the plan that they've had in their head for months.

Ren finds a safe place... well, safer. His senses don't seem to have readjusted to city life quite yet...

And as the werewolf goes to take a break from being inside, two sorcerers stumble upon him. So, picking up where we left off...

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"ALEX-"

Ren stared in both shock and fear as "Alex" stared back, though they seemed to be in more confusion than terror. 'Crap crap crap crap- Maybe I can run?? But they can follow me- C r a p-'

"What are you?!" Alex stepped forward, clearly curious, but Xisuma shot out a hand to stop him.

"Alex- You can't just ask people like that!"

"Then how should I, since you're the social expert here?"

Looking from the twins to around the alley, Ren once again questioned if escape was an option as the two continued to bicker. Before he could stop himself, the werewolf blurted out, "Are you two just gonna argue or what-?"

The brothers looked back at Ren, then at each other.

"Ah- Right. Sorry, mate." Xisuma chuckled apologetically, earning an awkward grin back from Ren. Walking closer, Xisuma offered a hand to the other brunet. "My name's Xisuma."

'Oh, not again- He really doesn't expect him to-' Alex started to think, watching his overly friendly brother with an annoyed expression.

"Um... Ren." The werewolf took the gloved hand, a little shocked by the other's friendliness.

'... You've got to be kidding me.'

Rolling his eyes and accepting the situation, he walked forward before Xisuma could comment on his behaviour like he did the last time they befriended a stranger. "I'm Alex. Can I ask why you're..."

He did a random gesture to both Ren and the area around them.

"I..." Ren chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well..."

"We're back!" Alex called out as the Voids approached, with a stranger in a hoodie following them. Cleo looked up from her game of rock-paper-scissors with Bdubs and raised an eyebrow.

Bdubs, however, asked the question on their minds first. "Who's that?"

The stranger with blue eyes avoided everyone else's gaze, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. Xisuma, noticing Ren's timidness, stepped forward. "This is Ren!"

"We're.... Well, guess he's staying with us too." Alex sighed, giving Xisuma another annoyed look.

Cleo gave a small laugh as she stood up and approached the skittish Ren. "Wow X- Didn't know you liked collecting friends."

She offered a hand mostly hidden by sleeve to the werewolf.

"I'm Cleo."

Getting up too, Bdubs joined Cleo as Ren took her hand. "I'm Bdubs, and the guy with glasses is Joe. Nice to meetcha."

"I can introduce myself-" Joe stood up with a slight laugh, making everyone else laugh a little too. Xisuma gave his brother a slightly smug look as the werewolf started talking with the other three teenagers, and Alex just sighed in response.

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Zed had two pebbles floating around his hand. "This is actually pretty cool!"

Nodding, Impulse watched the Brit play around with the rocks, having them orbit around him at varying lengths away. He'd already thrown one at Tango (by accident, at least so he said) and scared the life out of him, causing a small spark of flame to sputter out. And nearly setting Impulse on fire-

It's already been about three days since they've met, and they were starting to get a little concerned about their collective money running low. Most of it came from Impulse (both the concern and the money), but he'd never explained to the two blonds why he had so much money on him when he'd ran away. Tango joked once when he and Zed went to get food that perhaps Impulse was secretly some rich guy's kid and that he'd run from a boring life of luxury for some reason.

Speaking of things Impulse had never explained... he still hadn't told either of the blonds why he'd ran away. The most they'd gotten was that someone had gotten him really upset and he'd nearly hurt someone with his powers (which did explain why he still didn't use them much), but he hadn't shared any of the other details.

Focusing back on the present, Zedaph looked over at Tango. They'd had to spend a it of their money on sunglasses, because most people don't consider fully red eyes normal. It seemed like life was getting more and more dangerous for anyone who even seemed remotely odd, but the three of them hadn't gotten in too much trouble yet.

.... Yet.

"I still don't know if that's the greatest idea..." Impulse sighed, fidgeting with his hoodie's strings.

Tango shrugged. "We're gonna be running out of options soon."

"Do you think that's the greatest idea though?" The Brit chuckled nervously, playing with the two stones in his hands.

"Yeahhh... mostly."

"That's... Alright then- But if we get arrested, it's your fault." Joking around, Impulse patted his friend on the back before standing up. "C'mon, it's time for lunch, and I saw a sushi place nearby."

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'Okay... FEAST. Maybe I can stay there for a while...'

Anxiously fiddling with their wallet in their hands, Iskall looked around the big city for any sign of where they were.

Maybe they could find the shelter nearby? This maze of a city (of doom) was starting to drive them omega crazy. They knew they shouldn't have gone across that bridge...

Stopping to take a break, Iskall leaned against the wall of a shop, glancing at the gap between it and the next building.

"Seriously dudes, I can't thank you enough." Ren smiled, sitting with the group. He'd only been there a day, but it'd been the best day he'd had for months.

The Voids just seemed to smile in response. Well, Xisuma just smiled. Alex definitely had something to say.

"Well, you should really be thanking Xisuma for picking up every sad stray wacko he sees." Alex joked around with a slight chuckle, earning a light punch in the arm. "Hey! Am I wrong?"

Blinking at the sound of talking, Iskall hesitantly inched towards the entrance to the alley. 'What's going on?'

"He's really not, X." A fourth voice snorted.

A fifth, female voice snickered and chimed in, "Yeah, you do have a habit of picking up strays. You've both got four of us now."

Iskall raised an eyebrow, a bit intrigued. They internally mused, 'Someone who adopts "sad stray wackos", huh? Heh, maybe they'll adopt me.'

Then naturally they accidentally kicked the nearby trash can. Of course.

'OH SH-'

"HAH?!?" The fourth voice spoke again, now sounding alarmed. "Who's there?!"

"NOBODY-?!" Iskall blurted out in a panic.

"CLEARLY IT'S SOMEBODY!!"

Hearing someone get up and start sprinting towards them, Iskall glanced around for somewhere to hide, anywhere-

Blue eyes met their brown ones.

Letting out a startled yelp, Iskall stumbled backwards, only to be caught by the blue-eyed stranger. "Whoa! Careful, dude- Sorry!"

------

Grian sat on the roof of his house, waiting for Taurtis (again). Fidgeting with his facemask in his hands, he couldn't help but smile.

Today hadn't been too bad, but all that the two had on their minds the whole day was this. Jimmy had noticed them being distracted, but given how boring the substitute was today, pretty sure he hadn't thought it too peculiar.

'Where is he?' Grian huffed, considering if he should go look for his best friend or not.

"Here!" A familiar voice called out as Taurtis climbed up to the roof. "I'm here!"

"Finally!" The dirty blond laughed, getting up. "What's your excuse this time?"

Chuckling awkwardly, the other speedster just looked away with a nervous grin. "Fell asleep-? Not important- Let's get going!"

------

"So... HYDRA's back?"

"For now, yeah. And they have the scepter."

"Perfect. So we basically just handed Nazis the thing we nearly died to get in the first place-"

"Barton."

"What?"

"He does have a point... we need to get the scepter back before they use it."

"The question I have is for what?"

"Who knows? We still have no idea how powerful that thing really is."

"All the more reason to find it as soon as possible." The blond sighed as he stood up. Steve Rogers looked around at his team with a bit of a tired smile. "We'll start searching tomorrow."

"Meeting disbanded, everyone get out." Tony half-joked, shooing the rest of the Avengers away and out of the lab. "I've got things to do."

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FINALLY.

HERE, TAKE IT- XD

Hopefully I'll still be able to update on a semi-monthly basis- Hope you all enjoyed, and have an amazin' day, evening, and night! 

- CaptainMarra (is back in school and would rather be writing /hj)