"... 'ello?"

The crying boy jumped with a start, keeping his head low as he stared up at Xisuma.

"What- Oh." Alex had backtracked a bit to see who his brother had been talking to.

The boy seemed pretty small, even for someone sitting down. He couldn't have been taller than five feet, from what the Voids could guess, and he wore a red bandanna that held back his hair from his face.

"Are you alright?" The brunette brother slowly walked into the alley, approaching the stranger slowly.

Alex tried stopping him, muttering, "We don't know them- Wait!"

Ignoring him, X kept going and sat in front of the boy, who just stared at him wide-eyed before blurting out:

"Your eyes are purple."

Xisuma didn't expect that. "They are. Is that not normal?"

The boy shook his head slowly, still shivering a bit with tears still streaking down his face. "Mine a-aren't really that normal either, I guess."

Upon closer inspection, Xisuma could see that the boy's eyes were two colours: one brown, and one green. "Your eyes are quite pretty. What's your name?"

Alex watched the boy hesitate, and he wondered why Xisuma would seriously think any stranger would actually-

"Bdubs. You?"

... Well, never mind.

"Xisuma. And the derp staring at us creepily is Alex."

"Hey!" EX protested. "I'm not the one who just gave our names to a stranger! No offense-"

Bdubs tiredly shrugged, not having enough energy to be mad for once. "None taken."

A gust of wind blew between the buildings they stood next to, making all three of them even colder than before.

Noticing the smaller brunette's lack of warm clothing, Alex felt a pang of compassion and sighed, walking over and slipping off his "borrowed" hoodie, taking his staff out of the pocket.

"What're you-?" Bdubs blinked as the snowy-haired kid threw him the jacket.

"Just take it, I'm already warm enough."

Bdubs stared at him. "I- Alright."

He slipped it on, glancing at Alex.

Alex sat next to his twin, seeming to smile at the stranger.

"... Thanks... Alex."

"Anytime, Bdubs."

The three sat in silence as the sun continued to set. None of them really knew why they stayed, but they did, even after it was properly night and even colder than before. The Voids had huddled together, and Bdubs was using the borrowed hoodie to its fullest.

"You want us to come over? You look like you're about to shiver into another dimension." Alex suppressed a chuckle at his own humor. Feeling a light smack against his arm, he automatically gave Xisuma a look.

Bdubs stubbornly shook his head. "No, I-I'm fine."

He was indeed not fine, especially not in the winter temperatures of New York at night. And he'd thought it was bad that one year when the heater didn't work in his apartment...

Noticing the smaller teen shaking his head, Xisuma raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Hesitating, Bdubs grumbled, "Not really, honestly."

He fidgeted with the strings of the jacket, trying to stop the thoughts of home. Why did he think this was a good idea? He didn't even know what his parents had really done, did he?

"You don't seem like it. If you're still cold, just say so." Alex gestured for Bdubs to come over and join in the "huddle for warmth" club. Being pulled out of his thoughts, the smaller teen only took a few seconds before walking over.

"Alright, scooch over, Xisuma-"

"I am, I am!"

The two brothers awkwardly moved (well, more like shoved each other) apart to make room for Bdubs, who shot the two Voids an equally awkward look of appreciation. "So..."

"So."

"So."

"So?"

"So."

"Soooooo...."

They all stared at each other before bursting into the kind of laughter only people who are emotionally and mentally exhausted can excuse. It wasn't really that funny, but... who cared, it was cold and dark.

Bdubs rolled his neck a few times as they calmed down. "I... I have a really dumb sense of humor, I'm sorry-"

"Nah, it's fine, we laughed too." Alex chuckled.

Another gust of wind blew between the buildings, and Alex almost seemed to glare at it. Which made Xisuma raise an eyebrow.

"Got something against wind that I wasn't aware of?"

"No-"

"Then why do you look so mad?"

"bEcAuSe iT's cOLd, yOu dErP-"

Bdubs snorted and went to take off the jacket. "Then have this back, st- er, Alex-"

'You can't call strangers stupid, Bdubs- that's rude.'

His dad's voice rang in his head, and he internally shook himself.

"No, it's fine, I'll take Xisuma's."

"Hey-! No, you're not!"

"Yes I am! Give."

Laughing again, Bdubs' thoughts of his family were temporarily forgotten once more as Alex reached over him to try grabbing his brother's hoodie.

"GIVE-"

"nO-"

EX fell into Bdubs' lap as Xisuma scooched away. "aCk- oh hey, you're actually kinda warm-"

"Thanks?" The small boy raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

"I'm just gonna stay here now- For survival purposes."

The other Void rolled his eyes and moved back. "Please let him so he doesn't try stealing my stuff."

"Technically, these aren't ours."

Xisuma gave Alex's face a light pat. "Shush. Off button."

"Hissssss."

"Pfft- Did you just hiss at him??"

For a few minutes, the three teenagers didn't feel like strangers anymore as they laughed together. At some point, Xisuma's head was on Bdubs' shoulder, and Bdubs started to doze off.

Alex hummed a little, watching Bdubs (who's his friend now? He's not sure, he didn't make friends with many people his age) slowly drift off to unconsciousness. "... Hey Xisuma?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember how... remember how Mum helped us learn Galactic?"

Xisuma didn't answer for a moment, letting the memories run through his head.

.... They'd never have those kinds of moments again, would they?

"Yeah. I remember."

The two were silent, occasionally glancing at each other, before Alex softly broke the silence.

"Are you, are you coming to the tree?"

Oh. The song from Hunger Games.

"ᔑ∷ᒷ ||𝙹⚍, ᔑ∷ᒷ ||𝙹⚍ ᓵ𝙹ᒲ╎リ⊣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ℸ ̣ ∷ᒷᒷ?" Xisuma softly responded.

"∴⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ᓭℸ ̣ ∷⚍リ⊣ ⚍!¡ ᔑ ᒲᔑリ, ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ᓭᔑ|| ∴⍑𝙹 ᒲ⚍∷↸ᒷ∷ᒷ↸ ℸ ̣ ⍑∷ᒷᒷ."

It took the other Void a moment to mentally translate. "Where they strung up a man, they say who murdered three. Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be..."

"ᓭℸ ̣ ∷ᔑリ⊣ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ᓭ ↸╎↸ ⍑ᔑ!¡!¡ᒷリ ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ, リ𝙹 ᓭℸ ̣ ∷ᔑリ⊣ᒷ∷ ∴𝙹⚍ꖎ↸ ╎ℸ ̣ ʖᒷ..."

Bdubs blinked a little, struggling to keep his eyes open, but curiosity played the spite card against his exhaustion. He couldn't figure out what any of it meant, not even the parts that were clearly English,

"If we met at midnight in the hanging tree."

As Alex sighed, he couldn't help but smile, watching his derpy brother and new friend close their eyes and try falling asleep.

---

'Just thirty more minutes... Go through fifteen minutes twice, and then you don't have to be here.'

Zed sighed and resisted the urge to hit his head against the desk. He heard someone laugh behind him and winced, knowing exactly what- or rather, who- they were laughing at.

He cringed and sunk into his seat, glancing at the victim of the snickers and feeling a pang of empathy for them.

The person being laughed at was a dirty-blonde kid with a black beanie- pretty sure he'd come out as a part of the LGBTQ+ community about a month ago, also joining the school's GSA. Zed had also seen him bounce around the area's foster system, but they tended to be in the same orphanage as him when they weren't in a foster home.

"Class!" the teacher barked, making everyone else's attention snap back to what he'd been saying.

The blonde kid's eyes met Zed's for a second, and he flashed the poor guy what Zed hoped was a small understanding smile.

Zed stepped outside the classroom, praying that nobody would follow him. Especially not-

"Hey, weird eyes!"

Shoot.

'Just walk faster, just walk faster, maybe he won't bother-'

He just barely managed to process the shove before he hit the ground. As he tried standing up, Zedaph muttered, "Can we not do this today..?"

Baxter Synder. Of course.

Going to school, it was Hopkin that harassed him. Heading back, it was Synder.

Zed couldn't catch a break, could he?

Laughing, Baxter just kicked the smaller blonde in response. Zed scrambled to his feet, frustration growing in his chest. "Not- urgh- today please."

"Give me a reason to leave you alone, and I'll consider it." He sneered.

A few kids looked like they wanted to intervene, but didn't want the same fate as Zed was sure to get, so they all continued along.

His body already aching, Zed quickly chuckled insincerely. "I don't know, figured you'd be bored of me by now."

"What can I say, you're too entertaining to leave alone!" At the last word, the bully kicked at Zed's knee, making the poor kid stumble to the ground again.

Something in Zedaph finally started to snap, little by little.

"C'mon freak, fight back!"

Another kick.

"Quit being such a little wimp!"

Kick.

"You weak, little weird-eyed idiot!"

Zed slowly forced himself to sit up, holding back tears and a glare. "Do you... urgh... ever stop talking?"

Before Baxter could respond, Zed's senses suddenly... sharpened. He could almost see two... somethings in front of him. He wanted them to move.

But how? Why?

.... Well, why not?

The tectonic plates of rock deep below the school and the rest of the area started to shift, and the ground began to rumble violently.

"Enough. I'm done hiding."

The blonde didn't even know he was speaking out loud as he slowly stood up, unaffected by the quaking of the ground.

Now, it was Synder knocked off his feet, staring up at Zed in bewilderment and terror.

"No. More."

Zed stared at the cracked streets and buildings.

'Did... Did I do that..?'

He had.

He'd nearly killed someone.

What...?

---

Impulse and Skizz stood in the crowd of other middle schoolers waiting for the bus, the pair ignoring the chatter and the yelling teachers trying to get everyone in line.

"Still can't believe we're actually heading to the Big Apple! How are you not freaking out, Dipple Dop?!"

Shrugging, Impulse adjusted the strap of his backpack. "Dunno, I think it's because I didn't have any coffee all day."

His friend snorted. "Yeah, you're kinda addicted to that stuff. Although... I can't remember the last time I saw you having coffee before school. Maybe like, a month ago?"

"Well- I-"

Skizz raised an eyebrow at Impulse's suddenly panicked behavior.

Wait, let's go back a bit. You're probably wondering what's going on.

The school had announced a month in advance that all 7th and 8th graders would be able to go on a field trip to New York City to learn about the Battle of New York. Apparently there was a particular museum they were planning on visiting, but Skizz had joked about running off to see Stark- sorry, now it's Avengers Tower- up close.

Back to the Imp & Skizz duo.

"You've been acting really weird lately, man. You feeling okay?" Skizz raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, starting to get a bit worried.

The brown-eyed brunette paused. 'I could tell him...'

Impulse mentally shook himself. No, he couldn't. "I'm alright, just... nerves I guess."

Unconvinced, his friend nodded. "Okay..."

"The bus is coming everyone! Line up!"

Skizz squirmed in his seat, glancing over at his b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ best friend occasionally. 'C'mon Dipple Dop, what aren't you telling me?'

It'd been like this ever since Impulse had gotten weirdly sick some time back, uncontrollably vomiting and sounding like he was going through some of the worst growing pains in his life. Every time Skizz touched him, he'd gotten a small static shock, which didn't seem... too odd at the time.

Feeling something small hit his face, Skizz flinched and just barely caught a glance of one of the students sitting in front of them turning around, snickering. "Really-?"

"They were aiming for me, weren't they?" Impulse sighed, pulling his knees to his chest and shifting in his seat. "I hate this school."

"Same here, buddeh..." Skizz glanced out the window again after getting the bits of sandwich that had been thrown at him (ew) off of his jeans, not quite sure how well this trip would actually go.

---

Opening the door to their apartment, Iskall locked the door behind them and rushed to their room, adjusting the patch over their injured eye. They sighed and dropped their backpack on the bed before something caught their attention. "Huh?"

A tiny brown gift box, closed shut with Scotch tape, sat on their nightstand. A small sticky note was stuck to it, and written on it in neat, familiar handwriting:

"Iskall,

I'm sorry for being out so much, but I hope this makes up for it <3

Love, Mom"

Iskall couldn't help but smile as they picked it up, rereading it a few times before they gently slid it into their hoodie pocket. They figured they could open it later.

"Iskall, you home!?"

They heard their dad call out from the living room, and sighed. "Yeah! You need something?"

"No, but Daniel's coming over in a minute!"

The Swedish teenager held back a groan. Their dad always was more snappy than usual with his friends around... "Okay!"

They walked from their room to the kitchen, taking the long way around to avoid the living room, and opened a few of the cupboards. "Food... food, food, food..."

---

Impulse looked out the window with wide-eyes. "... So this is the Big Apple."

"Not bad." Skizz chuckled, equally impressed.

The bus drove over the George Washington Bridge, giving the students a view of the city ahead. The chatter from the rest of their classmates had picked up again, and the teachers were trying to keep everyone quiet: something about how the bus driver needed to focus.

"Okay- If the bus driver can't focus on driving when people are talking, why be a bus driver for middle schoolers???"

"Great question, buddeh."

Impulse followed behind Skizz as the class stepped out of the bus, admiring the entirety of the city around them. "Whoa."

"I better not find you getting beaten up in an alley today, or those guys are gonna get it." Skizz chuckled, partially joking.

The two followed the rest of their class to the entrance of the museum, the whole class gawked at the statue of the Avengers at the top.

"Iron Man!"

"No, Captain America's the best! He's the leader, so obviously-!"

"Nah man, the Hulk's where it's at."

"Screw that, have you seen Black Widow???"

Skizz huffed as the buzz of conversation went on. "Does everyone just forget that Hawkeye exists?"

"... I honestly like Thor the best, but yeah- You have a point." Impulse muttered, chuckling.

"Why Thor though? Wasn't it his brother that tried taking over the world?"

"Yeah, but pretty sure it wasn't his fault- Evil twin's gonna do what an evil twin's gonna do." He shrugged before looking around the interior of the building. "Whoa..."

The size of the room made all of the kids feel very small, which wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling for Skizz.

"Nobody wander off, stay in your pairs, you all know the deal by now."

Impulse grabbed his best friend's hand and dragged him off to see what this place had in store, excitement rising in him.

He didn't often show it, but Impulse had always loved superheroes. When the Avengers showed up, he remembered jumping up and down with Skizz, absolutely freaking out because it was like comic books coming to life. It wasn't until much later that it really processed that horrible things had happened that day, but in the moment? It seemed like his daydreams were real. Actual superheroes saved the freaking world.

"Hey, do you remember what Rogers' shield is made of?"

"Vibra-something?"

"Whatever it is, it's really cool- And how does he know where to throw it? I mean, does he just kinda guess or is there an actual way to do it or-?"

Skizz shrugged, chuckling at his friend's inner nerd coming out. "He's probably practiced a lot."

The good mood was interrupted when Impulse noticed two bigger kids dragging one of his smaller classmates outside, near where the bus was parked. 'Oh come on, not again....'

A part of him really wanted to ignore it. The rest of him screamed to help the poor guy who was probably gonna get the crap kicked out of him for some bullies' laughs.

"Dipple Dop- Impulse, no-"

"But-"

Skizz gave him an almost desperate look, grabbing one of his shoulders firmly. "Impulse, just this once, don't pick a fight."

Hesitating, the other brunette slowly sighed. "Okay. I'm not gonna fight you on this."

As Skizz moved his hand, Impulse darted out the door to go help.

"Impulse-! God dammit."

"Leave him- huff- alone!"

'Real intimidating, Impulse, you wheezing moron-'

"Oh, so the punching bag returns." One of them sneered.

'.... Maybe I should've listened to Skizz.'

Skizz hesitated longer than he'd like to admit before going to see if Impulse was okay. Maybe he was fine?

Oh, who was he kidding.

He quickly retraced Impulse's path, his pace getting faster as his concern grew. Why didn't he go after him? The little guy's probably got a broken nose by now!

"WHAT THE-?!"

Freezing, Skizz barely stopped before turning the corner to exit the building, and where the yelp had come from. 'That's not Impulse's voice... Am I in the wrong place-?'

"ENOUGH! HIT ME ONE MORE TIME, AND I'M GONNA LOSE IT!"

That was Impulse's voice. But, Skizz had never heard him like that before. Not only did he sound pissed, but...

A boom of thunder startled him out of his shock. His eyes jolted up to the sky, where some of the regular clouds were starting to look darker than he'd remembered.

"We're- We're sorry!"

"... Too late."

CRACK.

A blinding bolt of light seemed to crash down from the heavens, striking the school bus (which luckily wasn't that close) and causing it to-

BOOM.

... explode. Oh god.

Skizz's ears rang painfully from the combined booming blasts of sound, the sheer force of them making him stumble back. "What the hell-?!"

At the sound of his closest friend's voice, Impulse froze. What was he doing?

Then the smell of smoke and ozone completely snapped him out of his anger.

No.

He knew he was dangerous.

He knew he'd mess up.

He knew he'd hurt someone.

So he turned tail and ran.

"IMPULSE, WAIT-"

The rest was a blur as he stumbled across the streets, slipping on his hood and trying to control his breathing.

'What am I doing- What am I doing, what am I thinking, this is a bad idea, turn around, oh lord-'

He had to find one of the bridges out of the city with sidewalks. Did they have sidewalks? God, he should've paid attention to that on the bus...

Skizz. He'd left Skizz. He was leaving Skizz.

What was he getting himself into?

---

Tango swallowed down his anxiety as he remembered who was coming over. 'You've got this, Tango. It's just your family. They love you, and you love them, right? It's not like they're dissing you without knowing it constantly or anything...'

The blonde sat on his bed and tried to block out his siblings' yelling from downstairs.

"Tango! Get ready!"

The Tek family had a yearly family dinner- guess when- every year before the winter holidays began. On paper, that might seem like a cool idea. In practice? Well... let's say disagreements sprung up quite often.

Uncomfortably shifting in the wooden chair at the dining table, Tango tried to focus on eating his food instead of the start of a political shout fest. 'Isn't there an unspoken rule to not talk about politics at the table?'

As someone to his left raised their voice, Tango felt his hand heat up. Not enough for it to be that, but enough to make him panic a little.

'N o p e.'

Seeing Tango getting up to leave, one of his older family members yelled something about it being rude to get up before everyone else. Internally screaming, he sat back down, ignoring the feeling spreading all over his arms.

'Please stop screaming...'

Maybe fifteen minutes later, and it had only gotten worse. At least his parents weren't joining in: they looked about as uncomfortable as he felt.

Hearing a slur being thrown from his grandfather, the blonde sunk in his chair, repressing his growing frustration and the temptation to get up and leave.

Glancing at his younger siblings, who looked like they wanted out just as much as he did, the blonde forced himself to keep his cool.

It's just another family dinner, it was going to be okay. And it kinda was.

Until his great-uncle threw a cup.

At the sound of the glass shattering, every person at the table jumped.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Tango's mother had finally snapped.

As the yelling got louder and louder, Tango's ears started to ring painfully, the warm feeling becoming burning hot and spreading all over his body, overwhelming the poor kid. 'Just shut up... Shut up, shut up-'

Now his dad was standing up, defending his furious wife and scolding the rest of the family for coming to their house just to yell at each other. His grandmother shot back with a response and-

'That's it.'

"SHUT- UP!!"

Bursts of flame spiraled from the boy's mouth as he screamed above the sea of voices. The entire family scrambled back to avoid getting burned, and each of their jaws dropped as the fire cleared and Tango- their sweet, polite, silly Tango- was glaring at them all, finally fed up.

"WILL. YOU. STOP. ARGUING?!"

Tango's eyes were now a deep red. Not just his iris: the entirety of both his eyes.

Most of the Tek family were frozen in horror, staring at the thirteen-year-old's burning fists. His siblings and younger cousins hid behind their parents, both terrified and in awe.

"F-FREAK!"

That one word from Tango's grandfather finally and truly shoved him over the edge.

Giving the old man a look of disgust, rage took over.

He honestly doesn't remember what he did or said, but when he came back to his senses, he was a few houses away, staring at the partially burned house, still smoldering... his house.

Oh.

Oh.

He didn't even check to see what had happened to his family. He whipped around and darted away, pulling the hood of his jacket over his head. Instead of anger, Tango now felt pure terror.

What had he done?

He'd held back his temper for so long, why now?

"Dammit, Tango..."

---

Disclaimer: I am not promoting arson against your crappy family.

......

You know who you are >:I

Continuing on!

---

The lives of Alex, Bdubs, and Xisuma had never been the same since they decided to stay together. The twins quickly bonded with the small, sassy brunette, and the three had hardly left each others' sides since.

So how are they faring three days later?

"Alex- We can't spend all our money on donuts."

"But why not?!"

"Because we need it for food."

"Donuts are food!" Bdubs pouted, grabbing Xisuma's arm and practically dragging him towards the bakery. "C'mon, we can even get coffee!"

"Bdubs, we're running low on money, we have to-"

Alex grabbed his other arm and intervened. "-use it to the fullest and have fun!"

"No! My gods- Alexander!"

"XiSuMa-"

"aLeX."

The smallest of the trio huffed and dragged them both along. "Oh, will you quit it-?!"

As they walked along, something caught Alex's eye: two people, around their age, stepped off a bus. One had their face covered by a hoodie, and the other wore fogged-up glasses. Both were muttering to each other anxiously as they slipped into an alley.

'That's... not suspicious at all.'

Whoo-hoo! I hope y'all enjoyed this month's chapter! I know I enjoyed writing it, even when I struggled- qwq

Anyways, got nothing else to say other than have an amazin' day, evening, and night! GOODBYE~!

- CaptainMarra (is not promoting arson, I swear-)