Last time, on Project HermitVengers!

YOU WERE SAD :)

But now things are okay, calm down-

Also now they have a home base! It's... probably not very legal but it's better than nothing!

And now, Cleo makes a mistake-

[TW for asthma attack and general panic-]

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There were a few ways you could get money as a homeless kid in New York. One was scamming really dumb tourists who seemed to think you were some kind of interactive zoo exhibit.

Cleo was one of the members of the group who didn't hesitate to take advantage of certain people's ignorance. If they could afford to gamble, they could afford to lose it. If not, then they shouldn't have gambled. That was her logic anyway, she knew X didn't agree... but he didn't have to know.

Doc had decided to join them today, both to learn the ways of the zombie and make sure nothing got out of hand. Or at least get Cleo out fast if they did.

He watched as Cleo masterfully used both slight of hand and a bit of her abilities to pull off various little rigged games that worked in her favor. She would occasionally let people win (usually kids or people visibly having a bad day), not wanting to be a complete jerk or make people suspicious.

But... usually her winning didn't go this wrong.

It wasn't long until a guy in a leopard print shirt and sunglasses walked in. Cleo smiled under her disguise. "Welcome, sir- wanna play a game?"

"Sure- don't have anything better to do." The man sat down at the makeshift seat (a crate Doc had found), looking at the cards in front of him. "What's the game and what's the likelihood of me losing all my money?"

".... w h a a a a t- okay, it's fifty-fifty." Cleo chuckled. "Very observant-"

"And you're pretty honest for a scammer. So far." The man grinned. Doc cringed a bit at the smell of alcohol. He didn't seem drunk at least...

Cleo made sure he knew the rules of the game, then the mistake began.

First round, the stranger won.

Second round, Cleo won.

Third, Cleo.

Fourth, the stranger.

Fifth, Cleo.

Doc knew (or at least thought) Cleo let the guy win those two times just to give him some false hope, but at second glance... She seemed to be struggling a little, eyes randomly unfocusing then forcing herself to focus again.

He eyed the stranger a little, getting the feeling he wasn't a drunken tourist.

"Hah- Nice try." Cleo grinned. "I'll take the money now."

The man looked frustrated. "I- No, I don't think I will, young lady."

Xisuma just wanted some apples. He was craving apples. He didn't care what apples. He didn't want to flee for his life today-

"X- WE MESSED UP-" He heard Cleo whisper-shout as she ran over with Doc. The cyborg looked a bit freaked out (uh oh), glancing behind them as if to see if they were being followed. Xisuma remembered the last time something like this happened, and immediately started running to find the others.

His fears were somewhat confirmed when he got the smell of... wine? And an aura... of a very powerful being. He hadn't felt something more powerful than the Ancient One in a long time, so... how did Cleo manage to anger them? ... did he even want to know?

"Hey! Remind me why we're running like something is trying to kill us-" Bdubs whisper-shouted, trying to keep pace with the two sorcerers.

"I don't know! All I got is Cleo conned the wrong guy!" Alex shrugged best he could, glancing to check if anyone was being left behind. Iskall was doing good keeping Mumbo from falling back, eventually just picking up the taller kid and bolting full speed. Doc had to do the same with Bdubs a few times (much to Bdubs' dislike).

"I DON'T NEED HELP THANK YOU-"

"I have longer legs and enhanced reflexes, yes you do-"

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY CALLING ME SHORT RIGHT NOW-"

"CAN YOU SAVE THE BICKERING FOR LATER-" Cleo shouted back at them, dodging some kind of black-ish projectile that was hurled at her. Tango considered if throwing fire around was an option... then remembered city fires were a thing. Nope.

"Should we split up??" Impulse looked around at the crosswalks, maybe if they could confuse him-?

"Good idea! SCATTER!!" Alex screeched, grabbing Xisuma and darting away from the others into a crowd. Cleo did the same in the opposite direction with Joe (who was struggling to keep up with everything), and everyone else just went wherever they could with the people closest to them at the moment.

"Wha- Who-" Mumbo wheezed a bit, struggling to breathe and starting to cough.

"I don't know!" Iskall set him down as they turned a corner. "Maybe- Mumbo?"

The younger teenager was bent over a bit, coughing and wheezing weirdly and trying to find something in his pocket.

"Mumbo!?"

"In- cough- my inhaler-!" God, why an asthma attack now?? He could barely get the two words out...

Iskall remembered the little thing he'd shown the group earlier, and looked around to see if he'd dropped it. A few feet away, it laid on the sidewalk. The Swede glanced from Mumbo to the inhaler, and paused time to rewind it just a few seconds before their friend started to wheeze.

"Wha- Who-"

Iskall put him down faster and ran to where the inhaler had dropped, just as Mumbo started wheezing and trying to find it. "Here-"

Shaking the inhaler then taking in what was needed, Mumbo still needed a second before talking. "O w- th-thanks, Iskall- how did-?"

"Don't worry about it- let's get going before that guy catches us." The Swede chuckled shakily, going to trudge into the crowd with Mumbo following behind.

Cleo and Joe managed to evade the angry customer for a good few minutes before running into Doc, Ren, and Bdubs. "Oh thank god- listen, he's coming this way, he's insane! Why is nobody stopping him??"

Doc looked at the zombie in confusion. "Wait- no, he was chasing us??"

The group weren't paying attention as they ran into a dead end.

"Well now that won't matter- BECAUSE WE'RE STUCK-" Bdubs groaned. Joe looked around for some kind of escape-

"Well, you certainly lasted longer than I thought." The voice came with the sickening smell of alcohol, and the smell of grapes. Wait- had this dude been chucking grapes at them this whole time?

"Thanks? Uh- listen, dude- If you want your money back, that's fine-" Cleo moved to stand in front of her friends a bit.

"Cute. Mortal money means nothing to me. What I can't get back is the bet I just made with my siblings." The man huffed. "So unfortunately, you have to die. Again for you, technically."

The group panickingly shouted questions, protests, anything to give them more time to figure out how to-

A note poofed onto the man's head, and he jumped a bit. "Huh-?? Oh, for-"

He read the note under his breath and huffed, going to glare up at the sun and then around the alleyway, as if people were watching him from there to send the message.

"I don't care if one is related-!"

Another note poofed into existence, making the group exchange confused looks. Were they about to die or not?

"... fine. Just don't tell Father, he's already been getting ideas for how to punish me for having fun." The man shoved the notes into his pocket. "You little twerps are lucky."

"Lucky for what?? WHAT'S HAPPENI-???" Bdubs shouted, being cut off by Joe and Doc going to cover his mouth before the powerful guy who was about to kill them changed his mind.

"I hope we don't meet ever again, for your sakes. Most people I don't like get turned into dolphins, and I think a dolphin with glasses would be very funny!" He... threatened? They weren't really sure- before he turned away... and disappeared into purple mist.

"... what. The hell was that." Doc whispered.

"Does it look like I know??" Cleo muttered, relaxing a little. "Let's go find everyone else- and try to figure that out?"

"I'm sorry- You- You conned Dionysus-" Xisuma looked at Cleo in disbelief.

She threw her hands up in defense. "I didn't know! I just thought he was a drunk weirdo!"

Joe shook his head a bit. Of course this somehow happened. Greek gods. Real. Sure.

Just about everyone else was just glad that it wasn't HYDRA again, and had gone back to what they'd been doing before: bringing little things into their new shelter, messing around, trying to find new places to go to eat that were semi-affordable.

Bdubs and Doc stayed behind with the Voids, Joe, and Cleo though.

"That was..."

"Weird? Yeah." Doc chuckled. "You were about to throw hands with a literal god, man- that takes some guts."

"WELL-" Bdubs stuttered. "I didn't know he was a god! I-"

"That wasn't an insult?" The cyborg raised an eyebrow. "That was pretty cool."

"Oh. Uhm- thanks." Bdubs blinked in surprise before smiling a little. "You watched him get scammed- that's pretty cool too."

The two chuckled a bit before sitting down to talk more. Not about what had just happened, but just stuff in general. Bdubs again apologized for being a jerk earlier, but joked a bit that Doc had gotten him back by nearly stabbing him. Doc looked a little startled that he'd mentioned that so casually (and didn't seem mad), but decided to roll with it a little.

Alex looked over in the middle of Isu scolding Cleo for the fourteenth time, and smiled at the pair. 'Thank gods they're finally done ONLY arguing over everything.'

Then they started bickering (lightheartedly but STILL). He'd jinxed it-

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Scar was not having a good day today. His cat was sick, people at school were meaner than usual, he had a project due next week, his parents were still trying to push for him to move on-

But... he'd be fine. He usually was.

He was on the bus ride home, it'd be over soon. He fiddled with a pretty flower he'd picked in his hand, the particular shade of green reminding him of Cub's eyes... dang it, now he was sad.

"Pfft- aww, look at the little pansy crying over a flower." The plant was yanked out of Scar's hands, and the young boy had to resist the urge to just punch the guy.

"Can you leave me alone?"

The bully just laughed and ripped up the flower in response. Scar moved to peek over the seats to look at the bus driver... and he didn't do anything. As usual. If it didn't disturb their driving or be enough to get them fired, they didn't care.

He slumped back into his seat, staring at the ripped up flower now tossed to the floor. Poor thing...

A piece of paper hit his head and made him jump. 'Oh- Come on, man!'

He picked up the thrown paper, paused, then just shoved it into his bag. Whatever.

But it happened again. And again.

"Do you mind?" He finally spoke up.

"Do yOu MiNd??" The bully mocked, sneering. It was stupid, it really was, but Scar was so sick of it. "Can you even spell 'mind'?"

Really. Making fun of the dyslexia now, okay. He saw how it was gonna be.

"Ha ha. Very creative." He muttered. "Listen, you literally have nothing to gain from being a jerk to me. So just leave me alone and be dumb somewhere else. Please."

Another clump of paper was thrown at his face... and the bus screeched to a halt.

"YOU- Whoa!" Scar was about to snap when he nearly smacked his face against the seat in front of him. Everyone else in the bus started murmuring in confusion, then looking out the front window. Scar went to do the same... but paused. He felt... a tug. One he hadn't felt in a while.

He... He shouldn't... right?

But he didn't have the time to think it through when he seemed to just blink and give in to his frustration. Vines broke through the concrete under the bus, like strengthened and overgrown grass coming to life, grabbing at the wheels and creeping into the open windows. Kids started to scream, scrambling away in panic.

The torn up flower started to expand, little tendrils reaching to find each other and put itself back together again, then finding little cracks in the floor of the bus to search for earth to plant down in.

"What-!?"

The vehicle started to creak as the plants pulled in opposite directions, like they were collectively trying to rip the bus open. Sun leaked through forming cracks, fueling the plants inside to pull and pull until the bus was mostly opened up. As if in a trance, Scar reached up to the sun... it felt warm. Energizing. Good.

As though they could feel his urge to get more, the vines scooped him up, lifting him out of the group of confused and panicking kids.

When he came to, he was practically covered in little vines and flowers, far away from suburbia where there were just fields of grass and flowers.

For a moment he was calm, happy even. Then real life hit him in the face.

"Oh no. OH NO-"

He'd torn a bus in half??? He just- he ran away??? He couldn't go back- not after tearing a bus in half-

Scar scrambled to his feet, ripping off the vines covering him and just starting to run towards the nearest road. He had to find... something. A bus stop- where would he go? What the heck was he supposed to do now???

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Thank you for your patience- 

We have a YouTube channel now! We're keeping the Marvel part a bit quiet for new viewers for the moment, still trying to get a bigger audience.

We'll add a link in the comments here, we'd appreciate it if you'd share it! 

Have an amazin' day, evening, and night everybody! <3

- CinnabonSys (is very excited to get the ball rolling again)