"Bubbles! Wait for us!"

"STOP BEING SO SLOW, AND MAYBE I WILL!!"

"Sorry kiddo, I gotta go on a work trip for a week or two. I know Dad's not doing so great, but I know he won't do anything bad to you, mkay?"

"Get out of our house! The Devil himself has cursed you with those... abilities."

Back with the Voids, who are on the rooftops, starting to figure out what's going on.

"Alright, so we find the Sanctum, figure out a way home, and tell Mum that things have gone south. Right?"

X silently nodded in agreement.

Alex sighed, brushing some hair out of his face again. "Seems easy enough."

Looking out at the scenery, Xisuma could almost feel where the other Sanctum was. Actually, ever since the attack on New York, he'd kept hearing from other sorcerers about how active the magic had become here. Usually, like the cities with the other two Sanctums, the majority of the magic was dormant until used. Ever since the attack on New York (where not one, but two stones were repeatedly used), it'd become a lot less dormant. Monsters, demons, and other beings were suddenly drawn to this place like metal to a magnet, and both Voids could tell why now.

"Should we head out now or take a breather?"

"Eh, walking there should be enough of a break. Knowing us, we're also gonna get distracted-"

X snorted and sprinted towards the fire escape.

"... You having some trouble-?"

"Hush, you." Bdubs grunted as he struggled with the keys to the Baklo's household while Pungence, Keralis, Beef, and Etho awkwardly watched. The youngest of the five, Pungence (by about three years), couldn't help but snicker as Bdubs got more and more frustrated.

"¡Cállate! I've- urgh- got this!" He tightened the red bandanna around his head to get the majority of his hair out of his face so he could see better. "C'mon- It's just a stupid door-"

Keralis gently pushed his friend away from the door before anything else could happen, trying to not laugh. "Sweetface... Bubbles.... You were turning it the wrong way."

".... WHAT."

After both brothers had a fit (Bdubs of anger, Pungence of laughter), they five finally walked inside after fifteen minutes of waiting outside and getting weird/confused looks from passersby.

"Bdubs- You've lived here nearly your whole life, how did you forget which way to turn the key?" Beef asked incredulously as he plopped himself into the only armchair.

The living room of Pungence and Bdubs' house had two couches, but everyone always wanted the armchair (for some reason). Problem was, either Beef or Mrs. Baklo was always sitting in it. And nobody even wanted to try arguing with Mrs. Baklo to get her out of her chair. Don't get me wrong, she was a very nice person, but she can, will, and has gotten out the chancla when Bdubs' uncle tried taking "The Chair" away from her. The dude never seems to get the message that she (and pretty much everyone there except for Bdubs' dad) was not afraid of violence.

Bdubs huffed and flipped Beef off with the hand that wasn't opening the fridge.

Pungence, still giggling, sneaked behind Bdubs and snatched the thing his brother had been reaching for, quickly sprinting out of reach. "Yeah Bdubs, how could you forget that?"

"¡¿Por qué no te callas?!" (Translation: "Why don't you shut your trap?!") Cue many, many insults that I don't feel inclined to share as the two ran around the apartment, yelling back and forth while Etho, Keralis, and Beef did what they normally did when this happened: ignore it.

*back... to the future-*

The Creeper darted through the trees, breathless, hardly believing what had just happened.

He was free.

Then he nearly fell on his face from tripping over a tree root. "wHOA-"

'Yep... Nice job, Doc. Five minutes out, and you're already stumbling over everything.'

After a fair bit of profanity, he got back to his feet and continued running, not knowing if he was being followed or not (and also not wanting to find out). Each step drilled in the truth: Doc M was free. He was out of that hellhole. He wasn't going to be used as a puppet anymore. His brain almost couldn't process that level of sudden awe.

Doc didn't know how long he'd been running when he finally collapsed on his knees to the forest floor from exhaustion. 'Huh... guess I do have limits after all.'

He blinked his human eye repeatedly, still getting used to this much natural light. His robotic one was having trouble adjusting too. A few minutes passed. Taking a deep breath, the cyborg finally took in his surroundings, which were oddly breathtaking. The leaves on the ground were varying in shades of red, orange, and brown, and the trees they'd come from let in just the right amount of sunlight to give everything a golden hue.

The right side of his mouth twitched upwards in a (somewhat confused and awkward) lopsided smile. And he cheered as loud as he possibly could. A part of him groaned that he could get himself caught, but the rest of him told that part to shut it.

After a good minute of deserved celebration, he flopped onto his back and stared up at what he could see of the sky, accidentally kicking up some leaves in the process. He'd really done it.

THUD.

Immediately panicking, Doc scrambled to his feet and looked for the source of the noise, resisting the urge to scream- I mean, attack.

.... It was a very large pinecone. He'd been scared to death by a pinecone.

This was gonna be harder than he thought.

After a few hours of the peeps currently in the Baklo household working on homework together and playing a few video games (and Etho scaring everyone with how well he could lie in Among Us), Keralis got a text from his parents asking him to head home. About thirty minutes later, Etho and Beef had to go too. They were nice enough to help clean up some of the mess they made, but Etho made sure that they left plenty for the Baklo brothers. How nice.

"Stupid- idiot- left- his- crap- eVERYWHERE-"

Bdubs threw a soda can at the garbage can, missed, and screamed. Snickering, Pungence walked over and threw the can away and went over to the kitchen. "Er... dinner... Mac n' cheese-"

"No, you want mac n' cheese all the time."

"Because it's amazing."

"Kraft stuff isn't something you should have every day."

"So??"

After a while of bickering, the two finally decided on mac n' cheese, but Bdubs made sure Pungence stayed several feet away from the stove.

"Why can't I make it?"

"Because you're an idiot and will burn the apartment down."

"No I won't!"

"Listen, little bro-"
"Don't call me that!!"

"You're three years younger, you're my little brother." Bdubs snickered smugly.

"You're a jerk!"

Joe blinked the tears out of his eyes as he adjusted his glasses.

Dear god...

"What can I possibly do now?"

Of course, right as he said that, it started to rain. After saying a few things he'd never let his parents hear, he stumbled down the street, still numb from shock (and soon he'd be physically numb from the cold and not just emotionally numb). After a few minutes of directionless wandering, he internally facepalmed and reminded himself that the church was open to the public 24/7.

Opening the door, Joe didn't hesitate to stagger over to a pew bench and collapse on it. Processing what happened... he tried to not burst into tears. He'd just been kicked out... for what? He had healing powers, how was that worthy of depositing him like a sack of garbage? For once, Joe was at a loss for words. He should've seen this coming. His parents were the type of people who gave conditional love: "be this way and you'll get what you want."

It was toxic, and he'd known it for a while. Maybe he should've just walked out earlier...

He accidentally rolled off the pew when he heard the door open.

"Hello?" an old, croaky voice called out, sounding mildly panicked. Joe recognized the voice as the town's preacher, but was hesitant to answer the aged man.

"H-Hello."

"Urgh..."

Cleo, feeling very tired and very confused, pushed some hair and dirt out of her face. Slowly sitting up, the redhead blinked at the ground, trying to figure out where she was and why she was partially buried in a graveyard. Confusion quickly turned into panic when she saw the dozens of ghosts surrounding her. "... WHAT THE F-"

She quickly scrambled out of the shallow hole and started booking it. Little did she know...

Joe bolted out of his old neighborhood as fast as he could, repeatedly coughing bits of water that were still in his lungs. 'Run, run run run RUN-'

Tears streamed down his face as he tried to satisfy his lungs' need for oxygen. 'Well, there goes even more of my faith in humanity-'

Next thing he knew, he was under the bridge that he'd passed over in his family's Kia Soul at least a dozen times. He'd never been under it, and for good reason. It probably wasn't sanitary, but Joe was too tired to care as he threw himself down on the cold concrete and tried calming himself down.

Cleo stumbled under the bridge, shaking. Not from the cold, but from being so overwhelmed. She didn't notice the scrawny brunette kid staring at the zombie, wide-eyed.

It wasn't until she heard him scream his lungs out that she realized with a start she wasn't alone.

So, naturally, she started screaming too.

Wassup mates- Kinda ran out of energy at the end, so sorry for the abrupt ending. Don't have much else to say other than have an amazin' day, evening, and night! <3

- CaptainMarra (is making progress)