As they were pushed through a portal and at a brick wall, Xisuma's mind had taken the honour to remind him of the London Sanctum, which was most likely about to be destroyed.

"No!" He yelled, but it was too late; the portal had already closed.

Alex grunted as he stood up, taking in his surroundings.

"Oh Gods- Where are we?"

Adjusting his mask, the brunette looked around the alleyway they're now at.

The place was something he'd rather not want to be in, with its filthy and claustrophobic walls. He walks towards the exit, looking into a bustling city street.

"I don't know..."

"How do we get home? We gave our sling rings to Sol Rama. Don't tell me we're stuck in- Actually, we don't even know where we are! Where are we?!"

"I'm pretty sure panicking isn't going to help."

"Well, what am I supposed to do?! The London Sanctum was just attacked by people working for Dormammu, and-," Alex stopped mid-sentence. Both brothers froze in their tracks, a feeling of dread creeping up their spines.

Many well-trained sorcerers developed a sensitivity to magical and spiritual activity. If something big happened, someone who was "magic-sensitive" could feel something: varying from a squeezing feeling in their chest (like Alex) to minor headaches (like Xisuma). While this ability wasn't limited to magic users, it was rare to find it in someone who didn't meddle in magical affairs (unless you're related to a god: directly or distantly). Both Voids were fairly magic-sensitive, so they could feel the moment the London Sanctum fell.

"Dear gods... This is bad."

"Yeah, no crap Sherlock! What do we do- what can we do??" Alex paced back and forth rapidly, running his gloved hand through his stark white hair.

If Xisuma were honest with himself, he would've panicked as well. But, he couldn't afford to do that right now. Both of them had to, unfortunately, work together and be as level-headed as possible for them to come up with a good plan.

Using his gloves, X created platforms under his hands to basically handspring repeatedly to the ladder. Alex had always laughed at his methods, but hey, they worked.

Getting to the top of the four-story building, Alex finally got a good look at where they were, and sighed in relief: judging from the Empire State Building and all the other landmarks, they were in New York. The New York Sanctum was still standing. If they could find it, they could find a way home and warn Mum- er, the Ancient One- that Sol Rama was dead, and that Kaecillius was working with the ruler of the Dark Dimension to destroy the Sanctums and release him upon this realm. Which would be bad, in case you couldn't tell.

"A little- ow- little help would be appreciated." Xisuma grunted, still being very tired and sore from trying to fend off three other sorcerers at the same time. EX turned around and stared at him, purposely waiting about fifteen seconds to tick off his brother, who hissed, "Will you hurry up?"

Snickering, Alex went over to help his twin. "I thought I was a slowpoke though?"

In retaliation, the brunette smacked Alex in the back of the head once he was on his feet. "Kindly shut up."

"Oi!"

*approximately two weeks later, during the fall of SHIELD and HYDRA*

The Creeper sat silently in his cell, giving the floor a death stare. His attention snapped from the concrete floor to his barred door as alarms went off. Many of his captors ran past, paying no attention to the cyborg teen. Walking to his door, he saw an opportunity. It seemed like most of HYDRA was leaving the building, for whatever reason. That meant... could he escape? The human half (well, more two-thirds) of his face scowled while the metal part remained unchanged.

'No, there's no way. Unless... Wait, I'm not the only one here. They made me keep so many people from escaping, so maybe... Would they be willing to help me? They know I'm not really... me, when they say those stupid words. Maybe I can stop some of them from suffering the same way. Oh man, this is risky.'

A part of him said it would never work: the part of him that had lost all faith in other people. Another part of the young assassin said that it was genius.

After a few minutes of waiting, the Creeper saw an opening, when nobody was defending the cold hallways. He banged against the iron bars with his metal arm, which was much stronger than the door. Why didn't we try escaping before? Oh, wait, because they could just say some stupid words and torture him. Right.

A blue-eyed brunette looked away from his floor as he heard a loud BANG of metal against metal. The wolf/dog hybrid flinched when he heard it the second time, not knowing if it was a bad sound or not.

BANG. BANG. CLANK.

The cyborg's heart leapt with relief when the door ripped free from its hinges and slammed onto the floor. Not wasting a second to celebrate, he sprinted to the "Open All" button on the wall near the exit. Why it was there, he didn't know or care. He just knew it was probably going to save him and countless others. His eyes stayed on the button for a moment before-

CLICK.

He'd done it.

Looking up in surprise, a raven-haired Enhanced, called Cyclone, looked up from his usual routine of staring at his floor, trying to remember his old best friend's face again, to see his cell door wide open. He lurched up, preparing to fight whoever was going to send him on a mission this time, only to see one of his fellow inmate's faces look in. Specifically: the Creeper.

"We're getting out of here. All of us. Can you help?" He had a German accent, which surprised the wind-user: nobody had ever heard the Creeper talk before. His voice did sound a bit (oh, who was he kidding: very) gravely, probably from the lack of use. He was also breathing heavily, his human eye wide and the red robotic one staring right into the Cyclone's soul.

Shakily standing up, the wind-user looked back at the open door, this time in disbelief. He swallowed down his nerves and said, "Of course."

The Cyclone just prayed this wasn't some twisted test these jerks had come up with, and that for once he could have some real hope.

A blonde girl cautiously looked outside her cell, not believing her eyes. Did... Did the Creeper just open all the cells? She looked at the cell next to her, where a brunette boy with what seemed to be wolf or dog ears and tail was looking around. He seemed just as shocked as she felt.

"'Ello?"

The boy jumped and stared at the blonde, startled by the sudden greeting. He quickly gave her an awkward wave and a hesitant, equally awkward, grin.

The sound of footsteps made the pair jump again. The Creeper and Cyclone were heading towards them. The werewolf was about to panic, before realizing that the other two looked more expressive than they were when under HYDRA's influence (although, the Creeper was admittedly still fairly stone-faced. Or... metal-faced).

The blonde girl readied her fists, expecting a fight. Cyclone put up his hands in surrender. "We're not here to fight! We're trying to get everyone out."

"Y-You're not serious..." The werewolf had a nice accent: it sounded a mix of British and something else that the other three couldn't name.

"We're serious." Once again, people were shocked at the Creeper's German accent. 'Not to be internally prejudiced, but he doesn't look German. Aren't Germans usually pale as heck? Wasn't this hellhole started by Nazis? Wait, he's probably not just German. I've been in here for way too long-'

Slowly, more and more people, ranging from twelve to eighteen, started walking out of their cells.

A boy who seemed to have a glob of slime stuck on his mousy brown hair walked over. "Wha- How...?"

The young German decided to not question it. After all, everyone here had their genes forcefully messed with. And there was a freaking furry in front of him (and another one in the back), so... slime person? Why not.

"No time to explain everything. Let's get some weapons and get out of here before all those idiots come and try stopping us."

The Creeper started going to all the cells to rally whoever he could. He knew he had to act fast, but some of the inmates were (reasonably) suspicious. After all, some of them should've been heading to college instead of being stuck in a torturously blank concrete prison. Lucky for all of them, the offer of freedom was too good to decline.

"Is that everyone?" The Cyclone looked around as he spoke. It was a bit depressing how many kids this place (that doesn't quite describe it right, there are some much stronger words that would work much better) had managed to drag in. The female blonde nodded.

"I think so. Let's get some weapons and blow this joint, shall we?"

Several people nodded eagerly in agreement.

"Can we blow it up before we leave?!" A fox hybrid asked enthusiastically.

"Maybe wait until everyone's out-"

The thought of this place being blown to smithereens tempted the Creeper to smile, but the part of him that was a cold, murderous assassin that he desperately wanted to get rid of demanded him to remain unreadable. "Come on, let's get out of here."

And around fifty kids followed their temporary leader to freedom.

"Turn left, I think there's a weaponry here."

The werewolf nodded to the girl who'd spoken (who looked almost fish-like, with pink fins where her ears should be) and tried opening the door. "Dang it- Locked."

Carefully moving the werewolf out of the way, the Creeper looked at a rock he'd picked up just in case. He focused on the potential energy inside of it, and the ragged stone started to glow a faint green. A few teens freaked out, and most of the group jumped when the German threw the rock at the door hinge, and the small projectile blew up on impact, breaking the top hinge. The blonde, understanding what he was trying to do, grabbed the door and, with some struggle and help from the fox hybrid, ripped the metal door off. "Not locked anymore."

Laughing for the first time in a while, the werewolf quickly thanked both of them and let everyone else go inside, once again thanking the pink fish girl for giving directions.

*back a few weeks*

"Hey, dweeb!"

Zedaph continued his usual roller skating, pretending he hadn't heard the bully's attempt at taunting him as he headed to school.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, stupid!"

'I know, I'm choosing to ignore you because I want to have a good day.' Zed huffed slightly as he started skating faster. As he did, he caught a small glance of George Hopkin, the stupid buff kid who bothered the blonde on a daily basis, running towards him. 'Well-'

Skating much faster now, the thirteen-year-old gripped the strap of his backpack, apologizing every time he nearly crashed into someone.

"Sorry- Excuse me- Trying to not get beaten into a pulp- Thank you-!"

Hearing loud, painfully familiar cursing from behind him, Zed sharply turned into an alley and hid behind a large dumpster.

"Perfect..." he muttered somewhat sarcastically. Hopkin was a bit of a germaphobe, so he probably wouldn't check in a dirty alleyway with a big, overfilled trash can. And Zed wouldn't usually want to be here either, if he was being honest.

Grian waited for his best friend/adoptive brother to show up so they could walk (well, run) to school together.

"I'm- coming!"

The dirty-blonde turned around to face the entrance of his house, seeing who he was looking for running out.

"About time, slowpoke."

Lowering his voice, the other boy huffed, "We both have super speed, so I'm not slow."

"Then why did it take you so long?"

"... I tripped..."

Grian immediately burst out laughing as Taurtis groaned and brushed himself off. "C'mon, our teacher's gonna yell at us if we're late again."

"As Sam keeps saying: for people with speed powers, we're late a lot."

Chapter one poggers!!!

I want to say that I plan on making this story realistic(ish). Now, before you leave: no, I don't mean "realistic" as in nitty-gritty, super dark, all the angst. That's not what real life is like (and that's not really the general mood of the Hermits). Yeah, it has its downs, but it also has its ups. And times where you're not really sure if it's good or bad so you just roll with the punches and pray-

Anyway, I'm gonna try to make it actually realistic. So, there's gonna be some serious irl topics that might pop up (I'll warn you if they do, and it won't happen all the time) and some... very awkward moments where nobody really understands what the honk is happening.

Another thing: Feel free to pay attention to the little details! If you're observant, I hope you'll end up loving how much detail I'm trying to shove into here- qwq

Er- Oh! Remember to take care of yourself: drink water, eat (semi)healthy food, see some sun, look away from the screen a bit and blink, ect. Have an amazin' day, evening, and night! <3

     - CaptainMarra (says no, Sam will not kill anyone in this universe. No Yandere High stuff here)

Editing Marra: ignore me- just fixing a small detail uwu"