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Donghyuck had always had grand plans of becoming a superhero, saving millions of people and being pampered in fame. Mark always told him that if anything, Donghyuck would be a villain no one believed was a real one. So, naturally, their 00’line gang had to come together and become villains. To prove it to Mark. What, in particular, he was supposed to prove to Mark by doing that was slightly unclear, but Donghyuck had never let anything like that stop him. Not even his best friends bitching about the decision.
“We can’t become villains, Hyuck-ah, be a little serious.”
“No no, we absolutely can, and we will, Renjun-ah.” He was going for convincing, but either way Renjun had no choice, Donghyuck had decided. “It’s not like we’ll do anything too bad, just some pranks.”
“‘ Just some pranks’,” Renjun scoffed. “It’s never ‘just some pranks’ with you. Plus, you literally turn into a pudu — you’re about as threatening as a wet sponge.”
Donghyuck gasped dramatically — how dare he say that! “The audacity!”
“He’s not wrong though,” Jaemin felt the need to add.
Really, at this rate Donghyuck might just have to get new friends. Felix and Jisung would have never protested like this.
“Jeno-ya, at least you’re on my side, right?”
“Well—”
“Nope,” Donghyuck interrupted him, “I’m gonna stop you right there. You always side with these two idiots."
“That’s not true!”
“Jeno-ya, you don’t have to turn into a wolf to be the loyal dog, you already are. Either way, start thinking about your villain names.”
“We never agreed to this.”
“Jaeminnie, you never had a choice.”
—————
“So, have you chosen your names?” Donghyuck asked when they saw each other the next time.
“No.” Renjun answered with an annoyed scoff. “And we won’t either.”
“Renjunnie, honey, sweetie, muffin-top,” Donghyuck began listing, “you don’t have a choice, as I said last time.”
“Like hell we don’t! We’re not gonna become your minions!”
“It sounds kinda fun though.”
Donghyuck instantly twirled around towards the voice, looking at Jeno both surprised and very pleased. “See, Jeno-ya agrees with me.”
Renjun was glaring at him, but Jeno didn’t seem to notice. “Jaemin-ah, please tell me at least you’re still sane.”
“Actually, I agree with Jeno-ya. Doing some pranks sounds pretty fun.”
“Well, Renjun-ah…” Donghyuck crossed his arms for added dramatic effect. “It’s seems you’ve been outnumbered. We’ll meet again — let’s say tomorrow? — and plan this out more.”
—————
“So, since you couldn't do it yourself,” Donghyuck announced the next day as he arrived back in their dorm room, “I have decided your villain names for you. Renjun-ah, you're Scarlet Witch, Jeno-ya, The Wolverine.”
“I thought you said we were gonna be villains, not superheroes,” Renjun snarked — and really, Donghyuck didn’t like his tone.
“And who will you be then, Hyuckie?” Jeno asked.
“I, will of course, be Loki.”
Renjun huffed. “Yeah, like you could pull that off.”
“Then what about me? Which superhero am I?”
“You,” Donghyuck said, scratching his chin and pretending to think, “are Cupid.”
“What? Why don’t I get a cool superhero name like you guys? That’s not fair!”
“Well, that’s simple, really. There’s no ‘love’ avenger!”
Jaemin actually had not the dignity to pout . “Why do I always have to be the love thing?”
Donghyuck opened his mouth to answer, but Renjun cut him off before he could. “And don’t say it’s because he’s basically Cupid. We have heard it before, and it’s not true.”
“Whatever,” Donghyuck answered with a nonchalant shrug that Renjun eyed in suspicion. “You couldn’t decide on names yourself so I did it for you.”
“Okay, fine.” Jaemin leaned up against Jeno and huffed. “It’s not like they will really matter anyway, no one’s going to hear them.”
—————
“What exactly is it that you have planned?” Jeno asked, trailing behind Donghyuck as they were marching toward the university part of the school. They weren’t really supposed to be there — not that they weren’t allowed, but they had nothing there to do as high schoolers — but Donghyuck was on a mission and had a very important task to do.
He picked up his pace as they neared two people, both watching them, but one with badly concealed exasperation.
“Cousin!” he exclaimed when they got within earshot. “Do you know any humans?”
Everyone around him did some form of startling or looked at him with a look of confusion on their faces. Renjun, Jeno and Jaemin only knew what he’d told them about their first prank involving a vampire feeding, but were clueless beyond that. Donghyuck had figured that it was best they didn’t know too much too early on or they might bail out on him.
“Uh,” Jaehyun supplied helpfully after a moment of silence had passed by, “only him.” He pointed at the person beside him, a blond guy with almost sickly pale skin. Donghyuck would have almost guessed he was a vampire if he’d met him under different circumstances.
“Perfect! We borrow you tonight, yeah?”
The guy scratched his neck and asked, “Do I … do I have a say in this?”
“Well, technically, but, you know,” Donghyuck only shrugged in reply.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Chan-ah,” his cousin assured the guy, “Donghyuck-ah is completely harmless.”
“I wouldn’t really say that,” Renjun muttered under his breath, but neither Jaehyun nor Chan seemed to hear him.
“We can meet outside the dorm building at seven?” Donghyuck said, suppressing the urge to glare and roll his eyes at Renjun.
—————
Ten minutes past seven Jaemin asked, “Are we sure he’s actually going to come?”
“Well, Jaehyun-hyung used to share a room with him, so he’ll make sure he comes.”
“He could just refuse, in fact, if I were him I would.” Renjun was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.
“But he should at least let us know if he’s not going to come, though,” Jeno said, the only one Donghyuck thought was reasonable.
Just as Jaemin was about to answer, the automated doors slid open and out came Chan.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“It’s fine,” Jeno smiled his signature eye-smile, “let’s get going?”
Donghyuck led the way to their destination, the others trailing after in various degrees of enthusiasm. He’d told the others a little more about the plan as they were waiting for Chan to come, and neither of them were very enthusiastic about it.
“ We can’t get a human bitten by a vampire, ” Jaemin had protested, “ that has to be illegal, right? ”
It had actually been Renjun who replied by shrugging his shoulders.
—————
If Mark had been there, he would have asked Donghyuck why he knew about the shady parts of town. Fortunately, Mark wasn’t there. Unfortunately Mark 2.0 was there.
“How do you even know about these parts of the city?” Renjun hissed, his eyebrows raised in exasperation. “ Why do you even know about them?”
“That’s not important,” Donghyuck hissed back. “What’s important is finding a vampire and Chan-ssi not finding out what we’re doing until then.”
“I still think this is a bad idea,” Jaemin hissed at the two of them, glancing towards Jeno who was keeping Chan distracted with conversation.
The streets around them were getting darker and shabbier, the shadows in the alleyways they passed growing longer and longer.
“Do you have any ideas for distracting him enough to get him close to a vampire?” Renjun whispered after a while, when Chan had started looking suspiciously at their surroundings.
Donghyuck was about to answer when what sounded like a trash can being kicked over came from the alleyway they just passed. He and Renjun looked at each other and then went to check what it could be. He could hear Jaemin sigh in exasperation somewhere behind, but then came the sound of footsteps following them.
Someone let out a gasp — maybe Jeno, maybe Chan — at the scene that greeted them. There was a trashing woman being held in a viselike grip by someone behind her, a small trickle of blood running down her neck. The vampire — as Donghyuck assumed the person must be — hissed at them and took a few steps back, dragging the woman with them.
Suddenly Chan was stepping forward, letting out a firm, “hey”. Donghyuck wasn’t entirely sure if it was directed at them, the woman or the vampire, but he kept his stare on the vampire at all times.
That seemed to annoy the vampire even more, who let go of the grip they had on the woman’s mouth. She started screaming right away, startling Donghyuck from his frozen state. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be annoyed that the vampire they found already had a human and was thus ruining his plans, or feel horrified at what was actually going on. That vampire had actually bitten her. Bitten her in the neck so that she was bleeding .
“I don’t feel so good,” Jeno whimpered, somewhere off to the side from where Donghyuck was still frozen.
“Be careful.” Chan’s words were directed to Renjun who had stepped forward towards the woman, and that kicked Donghyuck back into action. If their plan was going to fail, then this vampire was not allowed to drink a single drop more of blood from that unwilling woman.
“Get away from here, she’s mine,” the vampire hissed, their voice low and raspy. Strangely, they kept staring at Chan only, as if the others weren’t even there.
In the vampires distracted state Renjun and Donghyuck managed to get the woman out of their grip, and by then a small crowd had gathered at the mouth of the alleyway from the woman’s screams.
“Maybe we should get out of here,” Jaemin said, his voice weak, but he was supporting a slumped over Jeno who looked like he’d rather be anywhere but there.
“We can’t just leave now!” Renjun glared at Jaemin, who huffed but didn’t protest more.
Suddenly there was commotion out on the street, followed by the shout of, “Police! Hands in the air!”
The vampire startled, but they had nowhere to go, and Chan was still blocking their way to the street. But, as police flooded the place, he stepped back behind Jaemin and Jeno, laying a careful hand on each of their shoulders. Renjun handed the woman off to the police, and then he and Donghyuck retreated back to their friends. A few silent moments passed before a police officer approached them.
“I’ll need to get your names and a statement, and then you’ll be free to go.”
“We’re Loki, Cupid, Scarlet Witch and the Wolverine,” Donghyuck explained.
The police officer only looked at him for a few seconds, before blinking and raising an eyebrow. “Kid, your actual names.”
Donghyuck huffed, but complied, as did the others. How were they supposed to spread their agenda if they couldn’t call themselves their names?
After they’d explained what had happened, they began to leave, passing by where the woman was wrapped up in a blanket, drinking something steaming while talking to another police officer.
“Wait,” she called after them. “I wanted to thank you. You were being real heroes, saving me from that.”
Jeno and Jaemin still seemed to shaken up to reply, but Renjun shook his head and gave a little bow. “It was nothing really, you don’t need to thank us.”
When they finally left to go back to the dormitories, Donghyuck was feeling both disappointment and some sort of satisfaction. Sure, they had failed their mission, failed at being villains, but they had been called heroes . Heroes! At least with that Mark would end up having to eat his words of Donghyuck not being a hero.
—————
“Remind me why we’re back here again?” Jaemin hissed, huddled with the others behind a dumpster in an alleyway.
“So you can follow after whoever takes me,” Donghyuck answered, only half-focused on Jaemin as he was spying out at the street.
They were in the general vicinity of where they had found the vampire, but it was earlier in the day, with more people moving around.
“How can you even think that this is a good idea?”
“Well, Jeno-ya, whoever thinks it is okay to take me will have it coming.”
“I still think it’s better to not do it at all,” Renjun huffed. “We don’t know what they’ll do with you, or if we’ll be able to follow without losing track of them, or if we’ll even be able to get inside whatever place they take you to.”
“Relax, it’ll be fine.” Donghyuck waved his hand dismissively. “I trust you guys. And you’ll find a way in somehow, we'll wreck a little havoc and then we'll leave.”
“I really don’t think it’ll be that easy, though.”
“Whatever,” Donghyuck said, turning back to them. “Let’s do this now. Remember to bring my clothes with you!”
And then he turned, leaving no place for his friends to protest more. At least with this prank, mission — whatever you wanted to call it — no outsider would get hurt, so it had been easier to convince them to go along with his plan. Jaemin had even agreed that whoever thought taking Donghyuck in his pudu-form was a good idea would deserve to get their home a little wrecked up.
Wriggling his way out of the clothes wrapped around him was a bit of a struggle, but Jaemin gave him a hand. As soon as he was free, he set out on the street, waiting for a fool to take him.
—————
Wandering around the street as a pudu certainly gave you a different view of things. Everything was so far up, and on these streets people didn’t really seem to care about him, so he had to jump out of the way of being trampled on several occasions. And to his disappointment, he’d been wandering for almost an hour and no one had even attempted to kidnap him yet!
Every now and then he could see Jaemin, Jeno and Renjun somewhere behind him, so he knew they were still following him.
—————
“You put a tracking spell on him, right?” Jaemin asked, frantic, trying in vain to catch a glimpse of Donghyuck again after he’d been forced to jump out of the way into a dark alley. There had been a lot of people around, and neither of them had been able to tell if someone had followed after Donghyuck, and when they’d gone there after him he’d been gone.
Jeno had a tight grip on Renjun’s arm, who didn’t even seem to notice. “Yeah, I just need to activate it.”
Jeno knew something was bound to go wrong. Them losing Donghyuck? Worst possible scenario. How were they supposed to break him out if they didn’t even know where he was being taken?!
Suddenly Renjun started walking, dragging Jeno with him. “This way! Jeno-ya, do you think you can help me with smelling for him?”
“Yeah, I can try.” Jeno nodded, almost frantically.
—————
Donghyuck was cold when he woke up. Strange. He usually slept with at least two blankets to keep warm, maybe sneaking into Jeno’s bed if he was feeling really cold at night. So how come he was cold right now?
He slowly blinked his eyes open, realising he was in his pudu-form. Even stranger. He never went to sleep like that. In fact, he wasn’t even in his own bed! This wasn’t even a room he recognised!
Then suddenly he remembered, how he had jumped out of the way yet again, only this time into a dark alley. And someone had followed him, but after that it was blank. So, someone had actually taken him, huh? He could only hope that his friends had been able to follow him here. Otherwise he was in serious trouble.
And since he had no clothes he couldn’t even change back into human form! Well, he didn’t really want to, at least. He’d just have to wait here. In this dark room. In this dark, lonely room.
His mom always used to say that if he didn’t turn, you would never guess he was a pudu from how much he loved affection and social interaction. And it was true, Donghyuck thrived off of that, but no one on his mom’s side of the family did. So being locked up alone in a cold, dark room really wasn’t for him.
He wallowed in self-pity for even longer before there came the sound of footsteps outside the door. His immediate reaction was relief, before he realised that it might be his captor. The door flew open, and in came a man. He was tall, but that might have just been because Donghyuck was laying on the floor.
The man grunted, seemingly unsatisfied, when he looked at Donghyuck. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re a were or not, I can still sell you for a hefty sum.”
So maybe turning into an almost endangered animal with the intent of getting kidnapped had really not been Donghyuck’s smartest idea.
Suddenly the world tilted and he found himself lifted by the man. There wasn’t really much he could do about it, and he didn’t exactly want to fall and break his legs. He was carried out of the room and down a hallway. The room they entered was brighter and warmer than the one he had been in, sunlight filtering in through a window opposite the door. There was also already two people inside, a young boy and a girl that looked to be a teenager.
The man set down Donghyuck rather forcefully and said, “Take care of it,” before leaving the room, clicking the lock in place.
The boy immediately scooted over to him despite the warnings the girl called after him.
“It’s so small,” he said, reaching out a hand to gently pet Donghyuck’s head. It was kinda nice actually. “Do you think it’s a deer?”
“I guess, maybe, I don’t know,” the girl shrugged. “But you should be careful, it could be shy. It might be drugged still.”
“Don’t say that!” the boy pouted, suddenly clutching Donghyuck against his chest.
“Hey! You can’t just do that!” The girl hurried to pull Donghyuck out of the boy’s grip and sat him down on a blanket in the corner of the room.
“Do you think it’s a were?”
“I don’t know, could be.” She sighed, and leaned slightly towards Donghyuck. “Hey, I’m just gonna wrap you in this blanket, and then if you are a were, you could switch if you want.”
Donghyuck debated the best course of action as she wrapped him up. On one hand, he didn’t exactly want to be naked locked in a room with two strangers. But on the other hand he’d have a lot more control over the situation if he was in his human form. Well…
“I’m not a deer!” Donghyuck exclaimed, only half offended, after he’d turned back. The blanket certainly seemed smaller now, but it was still rather big, and made out of some soft, fuzzy material. All things considered not too bad.
“Sorry.” The boy was looking at the floor sheepishly, so Donghyuck let out a little laugh to lighten up the situation.
“Don’t worry too much. I’m a pudu, by the way.”
“Is that like a deer?” the boy asked, seeming to have forgotten about what he’d just said.
And, Donghyuck couldn’t exactly tell him no without lying. “It’s a kind of deer,” he grumbled.
“Are you feeling fine, though?” the girl asked. “Sometimes he drugs people he takes here.”
Donghyuck shuddered at the thought. This really wasn’t what he’d imagined would happen. “No, I’m alright. I just got knocked out earlier.”
“Oh, that’s good, I guess.”
Silence settled over the room, and Donghyuck couldn’t help but find it awkward. The fact that he had no clothes and was only wrapped up in a blanket might have elevated the feeling.
“I think my friends are probably on their way here.”
“Huh?”
He looked up from the floor when he answered. “I was with my friends when he took me, so they probably followed him. One of them’s a werewolf.”
“That’s good,” the girl nodded, while staring at the window. Donghyuck got the impression she’d been there for a while.
It was in that moment they both heard a strange sound coming from, well, the window. They shot up towards it at the same time, Donghyuck clutching the blanket tight. And of course almost proceeded to drop it when he saw Renjun on the other side of the window, waving at the two of them. Then he made some other kind of gesture with his hand, one Donghyuck had a strong feeling meant “step back”. The girl didn’t seem to gather that, so Donghyuck pulled her back, just in time for the window to burst open, barely missing hitting them in the face.
“Hi,” Renjun said and held out a bundle. “I’ve got your clothes.”
As Donghyuck stepped back to get dressed, Renjun talked to the boy and the girl, asking if they knew if there were more people in the house, and telling them that the police was on the way.
“Are they already here, to get us out?” Donghyuck asked, now fully dressed, joining them at the window.
“Uh, well, about that” Renjun said, trailing off.
“Spit it out.”
“They’re not actually here yet , but Jeno-ya and Jaemin-ah are waiting for them at the street.”
“So there’s not even anyone on look out?” Donghyuck leaned forward to look out the window, trying to find either Jeno or Jaemin, and instead found that Renjun was hovering outside the window.
Well. “So how did you plan on getting us out?”
Renjun looked downwards at Donghyuck’s accusing tone, making it obvious that he had no such plans. “Well, you know.”
“We should maybe hurry, though,” the girl said, “before he notices anything. He might come back at any time.”
“Okay, fine. If I help you can you climb down?”
Donghyuck leaned forward slightly more, looking down at the perfectly smooth wall. “And how did you think we’re supposed to that?”
“Right, uh, just a moment.” And with that he disappeared, quietly plummeting back down to the ground. “Jump and I’ll catch you.” He shot up to them.
“Are you out of your mind?!” the girl angrily shot back, keeping her voice low. “You’ll not be able to catch us! And keep quiet or he’ll hear us!”
Donghyuck glanced wearily back at Renjun, eyeing the distance of the drop. He had managed to catch them all previous times, at least…
“It might work,” he said to the girl. “He’s pretty good at catching us.”
She was about to protest, but then they could hear footsteps in the corridor. It seemed to make up her mind and she hurried to grab the boy, shushing him as she carried him to the window.
“Don’t worry, he’ll catch you.”
He looked rather sceptical, but finally nodded. When he’d landed safely in Renjun’s arms, Donghyuck gestured for the girl to go next.
“But-”
“We need to hurry, just go!”
Donghyuck was watching her fall, being caught by Renjun, when the door opened.
“Hey!”
“Oh no,” Donghyuck muttered to himself, climbing up into the window, getting ready to jump.
Except, he was grabbed, wrenched harshly back into the room.
“Renjun-ah!”
“I’m coming!”
The man kept a tight grip on him, and no matter how much he trashed he couldn’t break free.
“I knew you were a were when I took you, just didn’t take you for a mischievous one.”
“Get off me!” He might not be able to completely flee without Renjun’s help, but he could at least make it a little easier for him.
He managed to twist away from the tight grip, and immediately hurried to the window, where Renjun just appeared.
“Let’s go!” he yelled and launched himself at a somewhat surprised Renjun. Which led them to falling, without Renjun’s normal level of gravity-control. At least, Donghyuck had seen some bushes underneath the window before.
A panicked, “Oh my God!” came right before they crashed into something. Said something groaned underneath their added weight, but otherwise seemed somewhat okay.
“The police just arrived,” Jeno wheesed out, sounding strangled.
Donghyuck hurried to detangle himself from the mess of limbs, and found himself sat on the grass, looking at the now fuming man standing in the window they had fallen from.
He couldn’t help but stick his tongue out at the man.
+Bonus
The school’s new heroes?
[Image text] From right to left: Lee Donghyuck, Huang Renjun, Lee jeno and Na Jaemin.
Earlier this week four high schoolers saved a woman from a vampire attack, and yesterday they struck again. After Lee Donghyuck had been taken by a stranger in his Pudu form, his three friends followed his abductor. Turned out he’d been taken by a man who had been abducting children and teenagers for some time, and together the friends managed to get not only Donghyuck out, but also 5 other children and teenagers. Police was called to the place, and the man was arrested for his actions.
These selfless acts have fittingly deemed the boys heroes by both police and the people they have helped. Have they got more heroic acts in store for us?
The four boys have, fittingly to their actions, named themselves after some of the marvel superheroes. Huang Renjun, with his status as a witch is of course our beloved Scarlet witch. The teams werewolf, Lee Jeno, is the incredibly Wolverine. As Loki is Lee Donghyuck, half sun-spirit and half were-pudu — a cute mix for such a mischievous superhero. Last, but certainly not least, Na Jaemin, by many dubbed the heartthrob of his class with his status as a love fairy, as Cupid.
Isn’t it just the best combo you can think of? We, here at the school paper, certainly think so!
“Look, Mark-hyung! I’m a hero!” Donghyuck exclaimed, shoving his phone with the article under Mark’s nose.
“I thought—”
“Shut up, Renjun-ah.”
“Also, who wrote that?” Jaemin asked, having also opened the article on his phone. “Don’t they know that neither Wolverine nor Cupid are marvel superheroes?”
+Bonus bonus
Dh: hey, maybe i should change the name to haechan
Dh: yk now that im a hero and all
Dh: heachan, the full sun bringing brightness and light into everyone’s life with his heroic acts!
Mark: donghyuck no
Jaemin: i second that
Renjun: third it
Jeno: donghyuck, you know i have to agree to this
Jeno: we’re not actually heroes, and we never were
Dh: you literally cannot stop me from changing my name from loki to haechan
Dh: i made it!
Dh: plus thats all ill do!!
Dh: im also like literally a sun!
Mark: you're only half a DESCENDANT(!!) of samjogo
Mark: that isn’t even the sun in the first place!
Dh: uh yeah they are
Renjun: *were
Dh: dont be like that :(((
Dh changed their name to Haechan .
Haechan: whatever you cant stop me from doing this
Haechan: and you cant say it's a bad thing to change my name in the chat
Renjun: if it’ll please you and stop you from doing other things
Renjun: i guess, fine
Renjun: but i’m not happy about it!!