Hermit Multiverse Shenanigans! (Um... Yeah, It's Oneshots-)

Face Your Demons (Part 4)

[Universe: HermitVengers, main timeline]

[Set after the events of Endgame]

[TW: sacrificing a lamb, kicking ass, that kind of thing]

 After... gods know how many bus rides, the heroes finally got to the castle. Which radiated enough bad vibes to make the Voids and Bdubs queasy just looking at it.

"Oh, great. I feel like I'm getting supernatural radiation poisoning or something." Bdubs muttered.

"Is that just... radiation poisoning, or a curse..? What does that count as?" Clint looked over at the Voids, who both shrugged. "Very helpful. Thanks."

"Give me a break, man." Medeis chuckled, helping Alex lead the group. 'This'll be fine... nothing like fighting demons with a really bad headache.'

The moment they stepped inside, Bdubs wanted to turn back. His vision didn't even look normal in here, he could practically see the faded stains glowing with... something.

"That... looks like blood." Clint cautiously stepped forward, readying his bow. "Speak up if you see anything. If it gets too bad, get out."

The group of teenagers nodded, the image of the terrified streamers still fresh in their minds as they kept going forward. Each of them were tense and Crepitus kept checking that his mechanical eye was at highest motion sensitivity, making a soft click as he adjusted it.

As they went further, they started to hear talking. A familiar, annoying, awful voice.

"Here we stand, over the gates to Hel."

"No..." Crepitus groaned quietly. "Of course it's him."

The group snuck to the next exit to see Red Skull himself, standing at the edge of a huge pit, about to lower a lamb in while holding an obsidian spear and a spellbook. Definitely not evil at all. Nothing sus going on here.

"Is he just talking to himself?" Clint stifled a snicker, sneaking around to see if he could get a good shot at Skull.

Crep shrugged. "Maybe he's talking to the lamb."

As the group spread out and prepared to attack, Skull started to chant. In Latin, of course.

"Fovea timoris, dimitte horrores tuos in hunc mundum..."

And then he kept going. And going. And going.

Phasma huffed and rolled his eyes, exchanging looks with the Voids across the room. Of course. Long incantation, Hopefully, they just needed to interrupt it once and-

THUD-

"GOTVERDAMMIT-" Doc blurted out, being tackled by a surprise HYDRA agent. Oh joy. Company.

"There goes that plan." Cleo sighed, darting over to help Doc. Even though the rest of the HYDRA agents' attention was on the heroes, Skull didn't even pause his creepy chant to the endless pit.

"Someone get Skull, he can't finish whatever the hell he's planning!" Venenifer shouted over the building chaos, back-to-back with his brother while fending off the HYDRA agents.

"Where do they even hire all these guys?" Phasma grumbled, ducking under as many enemies as possible, trying to get to Skull. More and more kept dropping in: at this rate they were going to be overwhelmed within minutes if something wasn't done soon.

'Just gotta get to Red Ugly- just knock him out and this gets a bit easier?'

Bdubs dove down from where the fight was, landing on a lower level and he ran towards the pit, hoping to launch himself over it to get to Red Skull.

"Kid! No, not head on!" Hawkeye shouted, internally groaning. 'I knew Cap was rubbing off on these guys-'

As Phasma jumped over the pit, he felt a shiver run up his spine. Like cold, dead hands were creeping out of the endless black, trying to drag him down to whatever hell was down there. 'N O P E.'

He landed beside Skull, and in his rattled daze, he didn't notice the leg coming for his chest until it hit him. Grunting, he tried pushing himself back up, leaning against the wall and preparing his weapon. "You could at least shut up while you hit me!"

Yet Skull glared at him while continuing the chant, shutting the book he was reading it from with one hand. Oh, perfect. He had it memorized.

Throwing a punch aimed at Red Skull's chest, Phas' attack was swiftly countered.

"This feels-" Phasma tried uppercutting, and that was dodged. "-so much creepier with the STUPID chanting!"

With a few more words, Skull finally stopped the Latin and went to punch Phasma in the chest. He dodged, and for a moment he thought he'd managed to stop him, but...

The ground seemed to shudder, then quake as the endless pit started to glow. All the people fighting froze as a wave of terror came over them all, especially as the glow vanished and all light and warmth seemed to drain down the pit. Crepitus went to call out for his friends and his boyfriend, but no words left his mouth. Feeling a chill down his spine, he knew.

It had started. Things were about to get very messy.