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Chapter Text

A city?

A city that wasn’t his home city?

Well, he couldn’t tell solely by the alleyway he was currently in. 

To be fair, he used to run around his hometown all the time with his older brother and his friends. He was pretty sure he would know if there was an alley like this somewhere.

He must be somewhere different, but that wasn’t his main concern.

His head was pounding and his body hurt. He couldn’t breathe without his chest twinging in pain, let alone stand up and walk around the unfamiliar place. 

But Wooyoung knew he had to get up at some point. He didn’t have his phone on him and the clothes – well, if he could even consider them normal clothes…what was up with the metal wrist brace things – he was wearing were unfamiliar. Something had to have happened to him, right?

Everything in his brain was blurry and he couldn’t remember how he got here. It was almost like his memories were filled with the kind of fog you’d feel after being under anesthesia for surgery. He barely remembers leaning against the brick wall behind him and sliding down to the dirty ground. 

He’d sat there for a while as his mind began to clear, but he still couldn’t remember what happened or where he was.

And why wasn’t he at school?!

His mom was going to kill him if she found out he was ditching class again. 

He didn’t do it often, but he did it enough that the principal called his parents to let them know how much of a “troubled” student he was.

Which wasn’t true…for the most part. Wooyoung wanted to get into college and do well in classes so he could get a good job; and from what he’s heard about university from his older brother, it would be something he actually enjoyed. 

Wait-

Was he visiting his brother in the city the university was in? 

That made the most sense, but why would he do that on a school day and why was he stuck in an alleyway with no memory of how he got there?

Wooyoung let out a groan of frustration at his brain.

If he was visiting his brother, maybe he drank something…no that couldn’t be it. Wooyoung swore to himself that he wouldn’t drink before he was the legal age.

His brother wouldn’t have let him drink anyway.

Finally deciding to take action about his situation, Wooyoung did his best to move slowly as he stood up shakily, trying not to jostle his body too much. 

Whatever had happened must’ve been wild.

He leaned heavily against the wall as he willed his legs to keep him upright. 

Once he felt a little more stable, he lifted a hand away from the wall where it was supporting him and brushed his hair out of his face. 

Since when was his hair that long? The school certainly wouldn’t have allowed his hair to be such a length.

Letting out a huff, Wooyoung pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight, immediately hunching and using his arms to clutch at his…abs?

“Since when did I have abs?!” Wooyoung hissed in shock, gently lifting up his shirt to examine his abdomen. It was bruised, sure, but he had abs!

He lifted his shirt a tiny bit more to check the rest of his torso and froze in shock when he saw a couple of words written in black along his ribs.

Sin prosa, sin pausa

“What…” he trailed off as he tried to understand what the words meant while also panicking internally at the fact that he had a tattoo. Did his mom know? If she did, he wouldn’t be alive.

Although he hated to admit it and hated the idea, his mom might be the best person to contact. She would most likely end him because of the situation – hair, skipping school, tattoo, possibly being drunk – but she had forced him and his brothers to memorize her number in case of emergencies. 

Realistically she was the only option.

The only problem was that he just had to find a phone somewhere. He could easily hobble out to the street hopefully to run into someone who would most likely have a phone. 

Then again, with the way Wooyoung assumed he looked currently, people probably wouldn’t be as willing to lend a stranger their phone.

Couldn’t hurt to try.

Probably.

Wooyoung uncurled himself and slowly but surely made his way to the mouth of the alley. 

Thankfully, it was still daytime and he didn’t feel nervous about anyone who would attempt to mug him. Not that he was scared of things like that.

He wasn’t sure why, but the thought of someone attacking him in an alleyway struck him with a lot more fear than he would usually feel. Maybe it was because of the whole situation in general, but something deep down told him that he’d had bad experiences with other people in alleys before.

Leaning on the brick wall at the mouth of the alley, Wooyoung looked around to try and gauge where he was.

Nothing was familiar.

Wooyoung’s heart stuttered in his chest as the apparent reality of his situation set in.

He didn’t know where he was or have any memory of how he got there and he was slightly injured. 

“Shit,” he whispered to himself with a shaky breath. It concerned him that the feelings of fear and anxiety hadn’t hit until just then. 

It wasn’t like the streets were oversaturated with people, but the fact that Wooyoung didn’t know where to start made his breath come a little faster than before due to his rising anxiety. 

He hesitated to take a step out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. His teenage brain wasn’t sure what the next step would be.

Wooyoung gulped, unsure of what to do.

Maybe it would be better if he went to the police station, but at the same time, his mom might get even more angry at him for doing that.

“Wooyoung?”

Wooyoung jumped and turned towards the scratchy voice that called his name. 

Standing behind him in the alleyway – how did the guy get there – was a man who Wooyoung guessed was a couple of inches shorter than him, when he wasn’t hunched over trying to protect his injured abdomen.

The man wore dark clothing and had a mask on his face. He hopefully was a hero or something. 

“Wooyoung, is that you?”

“Who are you?” Wooyoung asked defensively. Since when has he been so bold and confident in his words like that?

The guy took one hesitant step closer and lifted his hands in front of him softly to show that he meant no harm. From what little Wooyoung could see of the guy’s face, he noticed that the man’s eyebrows were furrowed and it almost seemed like he was disappointed or concerned.

“Most people know me as Shade, a superhero part of the Stray Kids team, but you know me as someone else. I just can’t tell you who I am here, but you need to come with me,” the guy, Shade, explained.

Wooyoung’s body relaxed more and more as Shade spoke. For some reason, the hero’s voice was familiar and Wooyoung just knew that he could trust the guy even though he’d never met the hero before. 

“Why should I trust you?”

Shade shrugged. “You don’t know how you got here, right? Or why you’re all beat up?”

Wooyoung shook his head in response. How did the hero know all of that?

“Well, if you want to find out, I guess you’ll have to just trust me.”

He wasn’t sure why he trusted this stranger, even if he was a hero, but he looked at Shade’s hand that was now stretched out to him in invitation and grabbed it without hesitation.

“I trust you.”

Chapter Text

“You really want me to climb the fire escape onto the roof?” He asked, exasperated. Wooyoung looked at the shorter man in front of him, a man who claimed to be a hero named “Shade”, and was starting to doubt his earlier statement about trusting the man. 

Yeah, he didn’t remember anything about what happened to him in order to get him in the current state of confusion he was in and Shade said he knew how to help him, but did Wooyoung actually trust the guy?

Sure, he said he did, but he was also just nervous and scared – as much as he hated to admit. Saying he trusted the guy felt like the right thing at the time, but now he wasn’t so sure. The shorter had claimed to be a superhero who was a part of the Straight Children , or something like that, Wooyoung couldn’t remember off the top of his head, but he knew it was weird sounding. He’d never heard of them before, but, to be fair, he didn’t know where he was either; so he couldn’t really judge them too much.

Wooyoung hadn’t seen many heroes in person in his lifetime, but he knew not all of them wore bright colors and stuff like they did in movies and comics. Yet, here was one example of a more stealthy hero, Wooyoung assumed, and it was a little unnerving to see. The simple black mask that Shade wore over the lower half of his face made Wooyoung all the more untrusting of the man.

Shade had them walk a couple of blocks, but kept off to the side as much as they could – almost like they were sneaking around. After about a half hour of walking slowly due to Wooyoung’s apparent injuries and major headaches, they finally made it to an alleyway that Shade explained as going in the right direction.

Then they ended up at the bottom of the fire escape ladder.

“Yeah, we need to get on the roof to get to the place we need to go,” Shade explained, foot on the first rung of the ladder as he patiently waited for Wooyoung to make his decision to follow. “You wanna know what happened to you, right?”

Wooyoung nodded shyly.

Shade stepped away from the ladder and then motioned towards it with his hands as though he were a flight attendant. “Then you need to go up the ladder and onto the roof.”

“Fine,” Wooyoung said begrudgingly after a moment of thought as he made his way to the ladder and started making his way up, cautious of his injuries.

He heard Shade let out a small groan beneath him and a mutter under his breath. “It’s like he’s a freaking teenager again, what the hell?”

That statement added more to Wooyoung’s confusion, but he elected to ignore it for the time being until Shade would finally let him ask questions.

Once they’d made it to the rooftop, Wooyoung sat down for a moment, catching his breath, and surveyed the roof. 

There wasn’t anything there! Nothing but the roof access stairs he would’ve much rather taken than the ladder.

What was Shade going on about?

Wooyoung sighed for what felt like the fiftieth time within the last hour. “Can you tell me what’s going on now?”

Shade shot Wooyoung a glance and his eyes narrowed, setting Wooyoung a little more on edge.

“Have you always been this impatient?”

“What?” Wooyoung asked, standing up and facing Shade fully. “Excuse you! I’m the epitome of patience. Sorry if my not knowing what’s going on is upsetting you, but you told me you knew what happened to me! I sincerely apologize if my confusion and fear are fueling your annoyance with me,” he finished sarcastically. He shot a glare at the other and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Damn. His arms were more defined too! First the abs…now the arms?

Wild.

Wooyoung’s outburst seemed to get to Shade a little as the other faced the roof access stairs without even acknowledging what the other had said.

Wooyoung couldn’t see what the alleged hero was doing, but as he waited for some sort of response, he heard a couple of beeps and a short chime. 

He watched as Shade stepped back from the door and heard a low whirring sound come from the roof access stairs. Continuing to glance back and forth between where the sound was coming from and Shade himself, Wooyoung pursed his lips in anticipation.

After a few short moments, the door slid open, not swing…slid. It was almost like an elevator.

A red light inside caught Wooyoung’s attention.

Interesting.

“This is the elevator to our base of operations” Oh, it was an elevator. “If you’d follow me, I can start answering your…pressing questions once we’re inside,” Shade spoke up, once again gesturing for Wooyoung to move.

The other followed without much question and was slightly in awe at the thought of it not being stairs, but an elevator. 

Shade stepped in next to Wooyoung and moved to press a button that would probably signal the elevator to take them down to a lower level.

“The red light makes it feel more like a Hellevator,  if you ask me,” Wooyoung commented, making Shade freeze for a moment. It was a small stutter in movement, but Wooyoung caught it immediately.

“What did you call it?”

“Hellevator? What about it?”

Shade pressed the button and stood up straight next to Wooyoung. Letting out a small chuckle, he just shrugged in response. “Oh, no reason. You just haven’t changed much, honestly.”

That caught Wooyoung’s attention.

“What do you mean? I’ve never met you before–” he tried to think back to any time when he might’ve met Shade before. Maybe he was actually one of Wooyoung’s older brother’s friends who ended up becoming a superhero– “Did we go to middle school together or something?”

Apparently, that’s what got a genuine-sounding laugh from the grumpy little man that was Shade. “No, no, Wooyoung. We’ve been friends for a couple of years, but not from school or university or anything.”

Wooyoung arched a brow in confusion. “Are you mixing me up with my brother? I’m not in university yet.”

“That’s what you think, but the reason you can’t remember anything about how you got here is because your memory was wiped back to the point you think you’re at right now. At least, that’s what we’re assuming,” Shade explained, only adding to the other’s confusion and concern.

Wooyoung’s voice caught in his throat as his brain tried to process what the hero had just told him. 

That couldn’t be true…could it? He supposed it was the closest thing to an explanation he’d get for the memory loss, but it was hard to believe. Why would his memory get wiped in the first place?

“I know that’s not something you’d like to believe, but from what we can tell, that’s what happened.” The elevator let out a soft ding as it came to a stop and the doors opened.

If Wooyoung didn’t think his mind could be overwhelmed, boy oh boy was he wrong.

As the two of them stepped out of the elevator doors, they entered a big room with areas designated for specific purposes. It wasn’t quite like a studio apartment as Wooyoung noted it was much bigger than that, but it did appear to have a kitchen of some sort and a small living area.

That was a tad bit odd to him. What kind of heroes needed a living room in their secret base?

However, this living room had multiple massive screens on the wall that were displaying what looked like different footage from around the city. Wooyoung didn’t recognize any of the locations, but he assumed that’s what it was. 

Standing in front of those screens was another man who looked to be a little closer to Wooyoung’s height, but he wasn’t sure with how far apart they still stood.

“Wooyoung,” Shade called gently next to the other. Wooyoung turned his attention to the superhero that he’d been with for the past hour and watched almost in shock as the shorter man took off his mask and ran his hands through his hair. Some small inkling of recognition flashed in Wooyoung’s mind, but he couldn’t quite place where he’d seen the man before. “Wooyoung, my name is Changbin. Seo Changbin.” Another small flicker of memory. “We’ve been friends for several years. We’re both heroes, just not on the same team, but we’ve worked together before. What’s the last thing you remember?”

With brows furrowed in concentration and a small pain forming behind his eyes, Wooyoung thought back to the last thing he could possibly remember and why he couldn’t think of where exactly he knew Sha- Changbin from. It was almost as though it was on the tip of his tongue, but probably more like his brain.

He just couldn’t quite place it.

Letting out a frustrated groan, he turned to Changbin and frowned. “I…I don’t even know. I don’t know what I remember last. I feel like I can remember you, but I can’t at the same time,” he tried to explain.

Changbin gave him a somber look and placed a hand on Wooyoung’s shoulder. “We’ll help you figure it out.” He stopped and turned back toward the man who was standing in front of the screens. “Chan, we should debrief him on what happened. He’s taking everything remarkably well, so far.”

For some reason, Wooyoung felt a little offended at the surprised tone Changbin had. “Of course I am. I’m doing just peachy,” he mumbled.

Apparently, his goal to be unheard failed because Changbin shot him a look that said “Sure you are, buddy.”

The other man, Chan, made his way over to them, and Wooyoung could tell as he got closer that the guy was shorter than him. Chan shot Wooyoung a smile, but Wooyoung could see the tiredness in his eyes.

“I’m glad you’re alive, Wooyoung. We weren’t sure what happened to all of you. So we’ve been searching non-stop. If Yuna still had her powers, then we’d be able to find-”

“Woah, woah!” Wooyoung cut off with a hand raised to do the same and the other pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to fight off the pain that began gathering there. “I can tell a lot happened, or something, but I don’t know any of what you’re talking about. It’s giving me a headache.”

Changbin snorted and Chan let out an awkward chuckle. “Sorry, you’re probably right. Mingi’s reaction was worse. I should’ve known that would happen,” he apologized.

Wooyoung’s head shot up at the mention of the name ‘Mingi’, worsening his headache in the process. “What did you say?”

“What?”

“The name,” he clarified, “What name was that?”

He watched as Changbin’s eyes widened, coming to some sort of realization. “Oh shit! Do you remember Mingi?”

Wooyoung hissed as his head began to pound even more than before. The name was sending searing paint through his brain. He’d never known a Mingi before, but for some reason, the name was shocking his brain. “I- I don’t know!”

Emotions rolled through his body as he continued thinking about the name. Feelings of playfulness and joy mixed with some sort of worry for this person he couldn’t remember….then panic.

He took a deep breath and grabbed Changbin by the shoulders as Chan looked on with a look of surprise on his face. “Do you know where he is?”

With a single nod from the other, Wooyoung’s grip tightened as he made eye contact with the short man.

“Take me to him!”

Breathing was becoming hard.

Like really hard.

Something was wrong with him – with his body – but he didn’t know what was going on or how he got to where he was.

There was no reason he should’ve been alone either. His parents never really let him wander alone. He usually had someone with him if he was going out.

Did this count as going out? Were his parents going to ground him for being somewhere he shouldn’t be?

He hoped not.

Would he get in trouble if he was dying? Because he felt like he was dying. He couldn’t breathe.

Gasping in as much air as he could proved futile and it was really scaring him. 

He was propped up on his hands and knees, watching through blurred vision caused by tears as his fingertips slowly became more and more translucent…almost like he was turning to ashes.

Maybe he was just dreaming and it was because he’d watched a similar movie recently.

A burning pain rushed through his lungs and he tried to breathe in again.

Nope, it was real.

It hurt too much to not be.

He was dying…and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Chapter Text

Mingi had winced as he sat up and looked around the area illuminated by the barely rising sun. His body burned and buzzed with some sort of underlying sensation that made his skin crawl.

Waking up to a burning sensation running throughout your entire body wasn’t Mingi’s idea of a good time. 

Sure, he’d probably been up to something wild with his friends before, but not because he really wanted to. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was an easily peer-pressured guy. His so-called “friends” must’ve gotten him to take something that made him pass out and not remember how he ended up in-

“Where the hell am I?”

The field around him was unfamiliar – not that he’d been familiar with many fields to begin with. The area around him looked burnt, but maybe those plants were supposed to look like that. He didn’t know. After looking athe rest of the field a little ways away though, he figures something must’ve happened around him and the plants weren’t supposed to be crispy.

What did he get into with his friends?

Did he catch on fire?!

A sudden rush of panic swept through Mingi as he realized. He quickly – and painfully – did a quick once-over of himself and found that he was, in fact, not burnt to a crisp. 

He remembered throughout his life he’d had strange things happen with fire, but never waking up in a field surrounded by burnt crops type of strange. Usually it was just him accidentally lighting something on fire without getting burned somehow.

What had he and his friends been up to?

Before he could even attempt to push himself to his feet, Mingi heard a shout in the distance. He looked around, trying to find where the call was coming from, but couldn’t see anyone in any direction. 

He had been hoping that was the sound of his friends coming to get him, but deep down he knew that they’d never actually bust him out of a dangerous situation – even more deep down he felt that he was missing a lot more than just his high school friends.

“Phoenix!”

Mingi whipped his head around just in time to see something – or more like someone – drop from the sky, landing with a thud just outside of the ring of burnt crops. He looked up to see where the person had come from and saw another human fly, circling around. 

Turning his attention to the person in front of him, Mingi assumed these were both people with powers. Whether they were superheroes or bad guys was still up in the air, “ just like the flying person,” Mingi chuckled to himself.

“Phoenix!” Mingi’s attention snapped back to the man in front of him. He looked to be a young adult but appeared much shorter than Mingi.

He wondered how the shorter man was able to avoid injuries from that drop. It appeared fairly high from Mingi’s point of view. 

“Phoenix, are you alright?” It felt like the man was addressing Mingi, but that couldn’t be right. Why would the guy be calling him Phoenix? They must have him mixed up with someone else.

Or maybe they were confusing him so they could mug him or something while he was in this vulnerable, confused state. His friends would do something like that. Mingi’s been mugged as a prank before. He wouldn’t put it past them.

“Hey, Phoenix, I need some sort of response to know you’re okay,” the shorter man demanded. “You seem kind of out of it.”

“Really?” Mingi replied, voice gravely from disuse. “What gave it away? The fact that I have no idea where I am? Or because I don’t know why you’re calling me Phoenix?”

The man didn’t respond right away, his face morphing into a look of shock and concern.

Mingi watched as he lifted up a hand to his ear and said something under his breath.

Was it backup?

Backup for what?

Were they here to get Mingi and torture him or something?

The burning sensation that had been coursing through his body had begun to worsen as his thoughts ran rampant with possible outcomes.

It seemed too elaborate for his friends to come up with, but he still wouldn’t put it past them. But what if it wasn’t them? What if he was actually in trouble with whatever group this man was a part of?

With his breaths coming shorter and faster, Mingi’s whole body tensed with the fire that burned through him.

He watched the man freeze after a quick glance at Mingi. The man’s eyes widened and he slowly lowered his hand from his ear.

“Phoenix– Mingi, listen to me-”

“How do you know my name?!”

Orange danced at the edges of Mingi’s vision. The burning sensation was becoming overwhelming and it scared him. What was happening to him?

The man slowly took steps in order to get closer to Mingi. “Just calm down. You need to calm-”

“ Stop!”  

Mingi shoved his hands forward in fear and screamed when he saw flames shoot toward the man.

All he saw was orange and red.

He just killed a man…how did he just-

Tears, cool against his skin, slid down his cheeks as overwhelming emotion filled him.

His hands shook as he lowered them, the fire stopping. He stared at them in horror at what he’d just done.

“...Mingi, please.”

Mingi’s head snapped up at the sound of the same man in front of him. His burning, tear-filled eyes, met pure obsidian.

The man had turned his body into black stone.

“We’re here to help you.”

Obsidian.

Letting out an involuntary sigh of relief, Mingi slumped to his knees, arms hanging limply in front of him. The tears were still falling.

He watched in shock as the man slowly lost his obsidian features and carefully moved toward him, kneeling down in front of Mingi.

“You need our help. That’s what we’re here for. We’re friends…remember?” The man clarified with a small smile on his lips.

A small stabbing pain rammed through Mingi’s head. He felt as though he was supposed to be remembering who this man was, but nothing clear was coming to his mind. Some little bits and pieces formed some inkling of a memory in Mingi’s brain, but it was too fuzzy for him to connect.

He shook his head.

He was tired.

“Try and stay awake, buddy,” the obsidian man instructed, reaching forward and placing a hand on Mingi’s shoulder to help keep him upright while his other reached for his own ear. This time Mingi could hear what was being said through the earpiece. “Get Lee Know ready. This is definitely going to be his area of expertise.”

Man…hopefully this Lee Know guy knew what was wrong with him and fire and stuff, but…for now–

“Woah, woah, woah, Mingi–”

He slumped forward and let himself succumb to sleep.

He deserved it.

Wooyoung had evidently been fooled by the size of the hero base when he’d first entered.

As Changbin led him through the base, followed closely behind by Chan – who Wooyoung had learned was their leader named Obsidian – he couldn’t help but notice all of the different areas and rooms full of technology like he’d never seen before or a full training room that he felt a little jealous of, for some reason.

He was hot on Changbin’s heels as they made their way, all but running, through the hallways until they reached the last door. 

Wooyoung’s heart pounded in his chest. Whether it was from the rush, anxiety, or something else, he didn’t know. He couldn’t exactly think of why he wanted to see this Mingi guy. The name just felt…familiar, but he could’ve sworn he’d never met someone named Mingi before.

“I’m not sure if he’s awake yet,” Changbin started, hand gripping the door handle, “But even if he is, try not to overwhelm him.”

Giving the shorter man a mock salute, Wooyoung took a deep breath as he eagerly waited for the door to open completely to see who, or what, was inside.

Taking in the sight before him as Changbin gently grabbed his arm to guide him in, Wooyoung felt a sense of grief and relief simultaneously, but couldn’t pinpoint why.

Lying on the bed furthest from the door was a sleeping young man with angular features breathing softly as a different man, one he assumed was a part of Stray Kids, sitting next to the bed with a hand resting on the other’s forehead.

Something about the situation struck Wooyoung as familiar and the more he thought about it, the more his head throbbed. 

Quick flashes of a similar bed with the same person lying in it in a similar room ran through his mind. 

Did he know Mingi?

They’d been saying he didn’t remember everything; maybe he was supposedly friends with Mingi too.

“You okay?” 

Blinking away tears he hadn’t realized were forming, Wooyoung turned to Chan, who had walked in behind them and placed a hand on Wooyoung’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I think I’m good. He just…” he trailed off, not knowing how to explain the mess going on in his brain.

Chan smiled at him and patted his shoulder, squeezing past both Wooyoung and Changbin to make his way toward the man sitting in the chair.

“Minho, how is he?”

The man – Minho – gave a lethargic shrug and shook his head. “He’s stabilized, but his memories are so far repressed that I can’t do anything about them. He’ll have to remember everything on his own…or at least wait until I’m less tired,” Minho explained quickly.

Changbin leaned closer to Wooyoung, catching his attention, and began explaining that Minho’s powers – or Lee Know, as he was known to the public – allowed him to access the memories of anybody. It was perfect for interrogating and gathering necessary information for missions.

Wooyoung’s eyes widened at the thought of potentially being able to get his memories back. 

“Would you be able to get my memories back?” Wooyoung interrupted whatever conversation Minho and Chan were having, the former shooting him a glare and then rolling his eyes.

The memory hero stood and stretched lazily. For some odd reason, the way he moved reminded Wooyoung of a cat.

As Minho stepped up to Wooyoung, he touched Wooyoung’s shoulder and sighed. “I’m too tired. Talk to me about it later.”

Wooyoung’s mouth opened, but no sound came out as the abruptness of the statement caught him off guard. Before he could even turn to the hero, the door clicked closed behind him.

“Sorry about him,” Chan started, catching Wooyoung's attention again. “He’s been working with Mingi’s memories nonstop with little to no success. He isn’t used to the strain he’s putting on himself.”

Wooyoung shook his head, acknowledging he understood. He stared back at Mingi lying in the bed and slowly moved forward, taking the now-empty seat next to the unconscious man.

“When did you find him?” He asked as he analyzed the relaxed expression on Mingi’s face.

Chan huffed as he pulled up a chair next to him and sat down. “Early this morning, believe it or not. We saw…” Chan trailed off, shaking his head in exasperation. “There was just a lot that happened in the past twenty-four hours.”

Wooyoung let out a ‘tch’ and lowered his head in thought; leg bouncing with anxiety.

If this superhero team was so focused on finding all of these people without their memories, were those people actually that important? He hadn’t really entertained the idea that there was something more to himself and the entire situation in general, but there had to be something bigger going on than just himself and this random guy losing their memories.

Maybe they knew each other or something.

Wooyoung reached forward and placed the back of his hand against Mingi’s cheek.

“Woah! Why’s he hot?”

Changbin snorted from where he was standing behind the other two.

Wooyoung turned and shot him a glare, making the other hold up his hands in surrender. “I mean, does he have a fever? Is he sick?”

Still turned to look at Chan and Changbin for answers, Wooyoung missed the movement that came from the bed.

A big hand wrapped around his wrist, making Wooyoung yelp in surprise. He whipped his head to the man lying on the bed and saw that Mingi’s were glowing a faint orange. 

After a couple of blinks, the orange faded and Wooyoung saw surprise in Mingi’s brown eyes.

“Wooyoung?”

“Huh?!”

He’d heard of crush injuries before, but his brain couldn’t really put together how terrible they could be for someone to experience. 

Thinking was hard, but he could put together the fact that he was currently stuck under a pile of…something. It was most likely rubble from, like, a building, or something, but he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten in that situation. 

Yeah, he probably had a concussion if that was the case, but-

What was he even doing? Was he with anyone?

Peeling his heavy eyes open, he found himself staring up into the night sky, but unable to move. 

At least his head hadn’t been crushed…probably. 

Maybe he was already dead and just sitting there waiting for the Grim Reaper to show up and take his soul.

He wanted to get a good look around to see if anyone else was around, but being stuck on his back the way he was didn’t allow for a great field of view. Should he even try and lift all of the rubble off of him?

He doubted that would work.

If a building was literally on top of him, he definitely wouldn’t be able to move it. At least not on his own. He couldn’t even move his arms enough to place them in a good enough spot to push the rubble. Why did he think he could do it anyway? If his arms were pinned as bad as the rest of him, that meant everything was way too heavy for him.

After trying to wiggle his way out of the debris on top of him, letting out a strained groan, he huffed and closed his eyes again for a moment. Maybe some sleep would be good. Someone might find him in that time.

Yeah, some sleep would be good.

“Hey, you should stay awake.”

His eyes flew open at the sound of a voice coming closer.

“H-hello?”

“Hi, I can’t really- ugh- I can’t really help you out from under there yet, my leg is busted, but maybe I can call someone. the …cops, or something.”

He let out a shaky breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding. “Y-yeah, that would be good. Do you…” he trailed off and attempted to wiggle again to no avail. “Do you know how we got here?”

Unable to see what the voice was doing, he craned his neck as much as he could and saw a man leaning against a support beam that was still standing somehow. Everything looked weird upside down.

“No idea. I’m just as confused as you are.”