Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Seungmin carries two heavy bags full of various groceries, very clearly struggling. To anyone else on the street, he may as well look insane. Fortunately, this wasn’t exactly a time in which people cared about others’ sanity. 

Still, it doesn’t change the fact he is getting weird stares from passerbies. 

How about you try carrying two massive, obnoxious bags of every possible item because your grocery-mate fell down one stair?

It was an unfortunate event, especially around this time of the week. Usually, they all rotate in getting groceries because it’s no longer as easy as running to the store and coming back, but this time, his grocery-mate is incapacitated. He walks through the streets, trying to spot the stop sign that would mark the beginning of the forest he needs to find. It was the main marker for the path to the base.

It is a complicated path if you don’t know where you’re going, and he’s surprised he didn’t become the second wakening of Jeongin’s incident. The building is hidden beyond the branches, pretty far from any visible path. It was the kind of place most people stayed away from because it was usually the victim of some scary story that would be told to naughty children about “creepy power-holders.”

Well, these so-called “power-holders” were more annoying than creepy to Seungmin right now. 

He finds the latch on the floor (begrudgingly covered under years of dust bunnies; gross but necessary to stay more hidden) and manages to haul the groceries inside. Placing them onto the floor, he steps out of his shoes before dusting his hands off and facing the door. He punches a combination of numbers in, the meaning behind them having been lost after countless times of doing the same action. 

He barely has time to open the door when he’s faced with one Mr. Bang Chan. 

“Seung, Jeongi—” The man pauses when he realizes there’s only one person in front of him. Seungmin blinks at Chan, tilting his head with a confused expression. Chan blinks back, glancing behind Seungmin’s shoulder like he doesn’t know where else to look.

“Where’s Jeongin?” 

Exhibit A of said annoying power-holders: Jeongin leaving him to do this by himself. 

“He hurt his foot. He couldn’t help me this time,” Seungmin deadpans.

Right before Chan speaks, he has this expression on his face that Seungmin cannot read. 

“Jeongin hurt his foot.”

“Yes.”

“And because of that, he couldn’t help you.”

“Yes.”

Chan still has that expression again before his lips press together. Seungmin side-eyes him then turns to grab the bags. Only when he’s about to lift them does Chan speak again.

“Wait, wait, I’ll get one—” Chan scrambles to grab one of the heavy bags, much to Seungmin’s grace. The two manage to drag the bags in, and Chan is looking through the contents when Seungmin finally addresses the elephant in the room. 

“What was that expression about?”

“Hm?”

“When I walked in. You had this expression.” 

Chan pauses before standing up straight. Seungmin raises his eyebrow as the man steps closer to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. For what purpose?

“You said Jeongin couldn’t help you with groceries, yes?”

“Yes?”

“Seungmin.” 

The man looks oddly serious suddenly. Seungmin pauses to actually stare at Chan properly.

“Yes?”  

“What power does Innie have?”

“Hyung, I don’t get how this is relevant to-”

“What power does Jeongin have?” 

Seungmin looks at Chan like he’s crazy. He may as well answer. 

“Telekinesi-? Ah.”

Telekinesis. Jeongin has telekinesis. His foot did not matter in the long run.

“I see,” is all Seungmin says before walking further into the house, leaving Chan with the groceries. The older man just puts two fingers on his temple and lets out a small sigh, kneeling back down again to inspect them.

Exhibit B of said annoying power-holders: Jeongin purposefully leaving him to do this by himself.

Seungmin doesn’t put it past the guy to do something like this, especially because he often had the demeanor of a fox. He just didn’t expect it to be for something like this, right now. And especially because he didn’t think he’d be dumb enough to fall for it. Their powers should’ve been at the forefront of his mind, especially in this world, but his trust ran too deep apparently. 

Back with the grocery bags, Chan is busy putting items from them away. He takes certain items out that he’ll need later, placing them on the nearby dining table. Only when he’s through about one bag does he let out an obvious, loud sigh. Address the elephant in the room, that being the oddly painted part of the wallpaper.

“Felix. Get out of the walls and stop eavesdropping on conversations.”

He’s obviously not entirely serious with his demand, but the man comes out with a groan anyway. It’s like he vaporizes into existence, but Chan knows it’s more like camouflage than anything. 

“Okay, I wasn’t exactly eavesdropping, per se, just preventing an awkward altercation, y’know?”

Felix smiles at Chan like that’s completely reasonable. Chan lets out his third sigh in the last thirty minutes. “What kind of altercation?” 

Felix keeps smiling.

“Fine. What’d you go out for today, Lix?”

He drops it anyway because it’s not that serious, going back to the remaining groceries in the second bag. Felix seems to perk up at the question. 

“Oh, I managed to sneak into another medical school class!” Felix suddenly switches into English. “I swear, their classrooms and lecture halls are so weirdly shaped, it hurts to truly camouflage because I have to bend all weird. It’s worth it for the knowledge, though!”

Chan just smiles faintly as Felix goes on about the things he heard having snuck into this class. It is rather dangerous, but Chan knows Felix can handle himself, and he’s the one who knows his own powers best. He doesn’t get that far with the second grocery bag, but the conversation was better than sifting through countless items anyway. A nice distraction for what the group had to prepare for later. 

This is when he acknowledges the second elephant in the room, this time the oddly masked part of the shadow in the corner. Maybe this was the altercation Felix was talking about.

“Changbin, you know you’re becoming like Felix, right?”

It takes a few seconds, but the man emerges from the shadows, like a creature that had been part of it was separating itself. Even Felix takes a moment to stare in shock. He did not know he was there. He finds it fitting, though, that Chan noticed before him. That man is always alert.

“So beautiful and intelligent, yes?” Changbin poses with the back of one hand against his cheek. Felix giggles while Chan rolls his eyes. 

“Eavesdropping tendencies,” Chan says flatly. Changbin just scratches the back of his head now. 

“Well, what did Felix say? Preventing awkward altercations? That’s what I’m doing, too.”

Chan has to stop his eyes from rolling to the back of his head, lest he find the reason for his friends’ idiocy. 

“Well, anyway. Lix, why don’t you use your beautiful and intelligent knowledge,” Chan side-eyes Changbin before looking back at Felix, “on helping out our resident maknae?”

If Seungmin didn’t already kill him, that is.

“Ah, you’re right, Chan,” Felix turns his head towards the hall. Changbin opens his mouth, as if about to speak, but Chan cuts him off. 

“You. Can you help me with these?” He points towards the remaining groceries. 

“I- yeah, fine.” 

The man looks at the sheer amount of things that probably came from both bags. He also glances at the dining table full of metal objects that were definitely also part of the previous mix.

“Did Seungmin lug everything back all by himself?” Changbin asks incredulously. Felix is already down the hall, heading in the direction of Jeongin’s room. 

“Yep,” Chan inhales. 

And the same direction Seungmin went, probably to enact revenge. 

“He’s definitely killing Innie.”

If Seungmin recalls the schedule of a certain someone correctly, then he should be getting into the bathroom right about now. He fantasizes of about twenty different ways to kill Jeongin before he finally approaches the bathroom door. The door isn’t locked, so he comes to the conclusion that nothing detrimental will happen if he opens it.

He slams it open for no particular reason and is greeted by the loud, scandalized shout of Hyunjin. 

“Seungmin, what the fuck are you doing?!” Hyunjin is scrambling with his shirt. It seems like he had been halfway through undressing before Seungmin gya gay gay homosexual barged into the room. Quite fortunately, Seungmin had gotten a glimpse of Hyunjin’s muscled back before he ended up startling the man. His lucky day, but not what he meant to do.

Hyunjin scoffs, “You know you can knock, right?” 

“You know you can lock the door, right?” 

Hyunjin’s eyebrows furrow, the two staring at each other as Hyunjin places his shirt down. Seungmin fights to not look–out of respect, of course.

“What’re you even here for?”

“Well, y’know how Jeongin and I were supposed to go get the groceries today?”

“Yeah, the important batch right?”

“Yes, the important batch,” Seungmin says the last part with a roll of his eyes. 

“Right. What does that have to do with me again?” Hyunjin questions, about to turn towards the shower.

“Well, somebody didn’t actually come along with me to help with the groceries.”

Hyunjin pauses, pursing his lips, “I suppose if he hurt his foot—”

“Telekinesis, Hyunjin. He has telekinesis. He doesn’t need his foot.” 

He already paid the consequences of forgetting that, himself. 

“Right. I still don’t get how this has anything to do with me.”

Seungmin looks Hyunjin in the eyes, “Oh, nothing, I was just wondering if you’d be so kind to help me with a little—”

“Seungmin, I told you, I’m not electrocuting anyone in this house,” Hyunjin interjects. His hand goes up, as if telling Seungmin to pause.

“That’s not what I was going to…” Seungmin glances to the side, then to Hyunjin again. The older man just raises an eyebrow when their eyes meet again.

 “...Never mind. I’m leaving now.”

Seungmin is closing the door behind him when Hyunjin suddenly calls his name. He raises an eyebrow as he peeks his head in again. Shirt be damned.

“Actually–Min, perfect timing, can you help me with the showerhead?” Hyunjin smiles innocently, “I don’t think the water’s coming through properly,”

Seungmin feels a groan build up in his throat.

Jisung is standing near the counter in the kitchen. He’s reading some paper before he spots Felix coming his way. 

“Ah, hi, Jisung,” Felix blinks before glancing around, “You haven’t happened to see a mad Seungmin come this way, did you?” 

Jisung blinks at the description before letting out a short laugh, “Well, no. But I did see him go towards the bathroom. Why?” 

Now Felix is the one blinking at Jisung. Why…?

“Ah, it’s nothing really. I’m about to go give Innie some water. Sprained foot and stuff.” 

Jisung processes that for a moment before looking back down at his paper. 

“Eh, dunno. I’m thinking you shouldn’t go in there with that.”

Ominous. 

“Well, Mr. Future Calculator, why do you suggest such a thing?” Felix makes up the name on the spot, and judging from Jisung’s reaction, he doesn’t do a very good job. 

“Mr. Future Calculator,” Jisung deadpans. “Anyway, I believe that ‘mad Seungmin’ will be of concern again.” 

Felix blinks, “He wouldn’t do anything. Besides, didn’t you say he was in the kitchen?” 

“Well, I don’t know how he got over there, but if he’s mad at Innie….”

“Seungmin’s a menace, but he wouldn’t do anything with this glass of water. It’s one of our nicer ones.”

Jisung’s eyebrows curve a bit, but he brushes it off, “If you say so? But you do know my powers are usually accurate, and Seung—”

“Good luck with whatever you’re reading, Sung!” 

Jisung doesn’t get to finish his thought before Felix is already off. Like a fleeting, happy fairy. Jisung feels bad about what he’s sure is going to happen next. He looks back down at the paper Felix wished him luck on reading, except… he’s not really reading anything. It’s some old paper of this missing person’s article.

Jeongin was deep asleep–unfortunately for Seungmin, who had to lug the grocery bags all by himself. Felix has made his way to the boy’s door before Seungmin, much to his own surprise. Seungmin had started going before him, too. 

Felix managed to obtain some water for their poor maknae, who was now incapacitated forever (for probably a few days.) He slowly knocks before opening the door anyway, more out of habit, knowing Jeongin was definitely asleep. He then went in and closed it. 

“Innie~ You gotta wake up at some point…” 

He’s tapping lightly on the door now, just to get him up faster. He’s been sleeping all morning, ever since he scammed Seungmin out of his time by convincing him he couldn’t help. 

Jeongin finally stirs a little, which is an accomplishment for Felix, considering that the maknae often slept like a rock through almost anything. He’s gone through alarms, arguments just outside, Chan’s shouting when the guy needs him, and even Changbin’s yelling. The guy was often dead to the world. 

“H- Wh… Hyung?” 

Dead to the world is now no longer dead. 

“Innie-ah! I got you some water. Seungmin came back with the groceries just now, so everyone should be gathering sooner or later… is the foot okay?”

Jeongin still looks like he’s waking up, “Ah, I think it should be fine in a few days, a week worst case scenario-”

“Mm, good to know! I could also look at it if you’d like. I’ve learned more about sprains a bit recently, and—”

Felix is about to continue on his little ramble when Jeongin’s door bursts open once more. Felix jumps slightly at the suddenness of it, and even Jeongin looks surprised when it happens. A brooding Seungmin suddenly appears next to him. 

“Jeongin.”

Jeongin blinks, eyes wide suddenly. Felix is now unsure if he should even be here with these two. He thinks of leaving so that he’s not a witness to some form of murder, but Seungmin moves before he can even consider his options. What Seungmin did next was completely out of his considerations, though. 

The man glances at Felix for about half a second before grabbing the water straight out of the glass in his hands. He then proceeds to throw the water at Jeongin, square in the chest. Right. Felix forgot Seungmin could do that. Silly, foolish him.

Felix cannot decide whether to laugh or to cry, and Seungmin has a similar expression that Felix also can’t decipher. He would say some emotion that looks suspiciously like insanity. Well, Seungmin then proceeds to actually grab the glass out of his hands. More ammo?

Felix closes his eyes for a moment before slowly backing out of the room. God forbid he tries to do anything nice for anyone here. 

“Hyung?!” Jeongin sputters, “What the fuck—” he’s brutally assaulted by another swiftly hurled splash of water. Seungmin manipulates it to aim square at his face this time.

As Felix continues to back away, he hears the sounds of the two arguing in the room. He manages to close the door behind him without either noticing. He’d be surprised if they did notice, honestly, past all of their unnecessary racket. Only once he’s in the hallway does he let out a sigh, praying that the water glass doesn’t get broken. It’s hard getting a nice glass like that these days. 

“Told you something would happen.”

Felix snaps out of his thoughts for a moment as he glances around. Jisung is standing near the door at the end of the hallway. 

“Yeah, I forgot he could just- throw it. Like that.”

Jisung laughs. The two try to hear for any Possible Glass Breaking through the door, but come to the conclusion that the two are bigger shouters than throwers. Jisung is still listening, “for the drama,” when Felix randomly shushes him. 

“Eh?” Jisung starts questioning, before getting rudely interrupted.

“Changbin, I’m supposed to be the eavesdropper here.” 

Jisung doesn’t understand why he has to be shushed for that. For a moment, nothing happens, and it looks like Felix might be going insane (not far from the truth). Jisung gives him a Look. Eventually, though, Changbin does walk out of the shadows. Maybe it’s easier to sense Changbin than he thought.

“Okay, but admit you’d do the same if you were in my shoes,” Changbin flips his hair as if it matters. Felix just rolls his eyes and doesn’t respond. 

He would. 

In that moment, as if the universe is playing jokes on one Lee Felix, the lights in the hallway start to flicker. Changbin eyes the ceiling like it’ll collapse on him, before going over and merging with the shadows once more. Felix listens to the sounds of the youngest two arguing for another few seconds before questioning the shadows quietly.

“Is Hyunjin home?”

No answer. 

“Bin, I know you’re still there. I literally live in these walls.”

Silence stretches for a few more seconds, before his voice suddenly comes out. “Why so ominous? Anyway, yeah, he’s home. Got back right before Seung.” 

“Great. Because the hallway lights are flickering again, and I’m not sure of any other easy way to fix this.”

He doesn’t get a reply then, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing’s stopping him from letting out the biggest, most earsplitting shout in order to let their little electrician know that the meager hall light is just slightly inconveniencing him with its aggravating flickering. 

“Hyunjin! The hallway lights!” 

No response. Felix gives it a few seconds before- 

The door from the other end of the hallway suddenly opens, a vaguely disheveled Hyunjin peeking his head through. His hair is half wet, like he’d just been interrupted from blowdrying it. Running over to the faulty-lit hallway felt like routine for the man at this point. He dreaded waiting to hear the next time someone used the words “hallway” and “Hyunjin” in the same sentence. 

“Fucking hell— y’know we need to fix the lights properly someday, not with temporary electricity from me, right?” 

Felix shrugs, “Well, we don’t have the means to do that yet, and the lights are flickering right now.” 

Felix swears he can see Hyunjin’s eye twitch. Many times. But the man just lets out a dramatic sigh before stepping out of the bathroom and walking over to the light. He hovers his hand over the lightbulb for a moment, and Felix watches as small sparks fly out, the light getting questionably bright before it dies down and the flickering stops. 

“Happy now?” Hyunjin exclaims angrily.

Felix just smiles. Hyunjin said he wouldn't electrocute anyone in the house, but the man looks like he's really considering it right now.

Behind them, the bedroom door opens, and for a moment, Felix thinks Seungmin and Jeongin are done with their warfare. The moment is short-lived, though, because Jeongin limps out, and Seungmin is shouting something behind him. Felix doesn't catch what he says, as he has definitely filtered out the shouting. 

At least Jeongin is standing again? Is all Felix can think.

Hyunjin takes one look at the scene and walks back into the bathroom. His work here is done, and he isn't dealing with this. Jisung, who has been silent this whole time, also looks ready to leave. 

“Oh, so now you can get out of bed?” 

“You threatened to throw the glass at me! One of the nice ones, too!”

“So all I had to do was threaten you to get groceries with me?”

Felix's eye twitches this time, “Sung, are you seeing this bullshit?” He turns back to face him, but finds the man fleeing through the door to the kitchen instead. 

Great. 

When Felix turns back around, he is blessed (not) to witness the glass now flying through the air. He almost shouts something, but Jeongin was fast enough to grab it with his powers before anything catastrophic happened.

“Are you crazy?!” Jeongin ends up gasping out, trying to balance with his injured foot.

“Crazy? I was crazy onc—”

Before the two can start another wave of arguing, Felix grabs the cup straight out of the air. 

“Okay, you guys, stop it! At the expense of the glass? Really?” 

Jeongin glances at Felix, “Well, I'm not the one who decided to throw it.”

“Oh, so we’re pointing fingers now?” 

“It's not pointing fingers if the point I made was true!” 

“Yeah, well, I knew you'd save it with your telekinesis,” Seungmin spits out, before taking a step closer and shouting, “the telekinesis I needed today!”

Jeongin looks about ready to be the one to grab the glass out of Felix's hands this time, and that was the final straw for the blonde.

“You two, shut up for three seconds! If you’re going to wage war on each other in this house, then keep your hands away from any furniture!” 

Seungmin and Jeongin have the audacity to look shocked right before Felix continues.

“Unless you guys want to be the ones to find a new set of cups? Jisung almost cried tears of relief when we found these ones. How would you tell him if you broke this?” 

He wouldn’t mention he was with Jisung on the tears part. 

Seungmin looks ready to kick a rock, and Jeongin just stands there stiffly.

It’s silent for a few seconds before the door to the kitchen opens again. The two jump out of their skins. For a moment, Felix thinks that the vengeful presence of Jisung has come back at the mention of cups and tears, before he turns around to face Bang Chan himself. Chan blinks as he takes in the whole scene.

“Right, so, what’s all the shouting about?” He crosses his arms. 

Jeongin’s mouth opens for a second before it closes again. Seungmin looks like he might say something, but his mouth is shut too. Felix glances to the side, being the only one who answers.

“An awkward altercation?”  

Chan looks like he has a million questions, but decidedly asks none of them.

“I just need you all in the living room, okay?” 

Jeongin gives an awkward thumbs up, limping behind Chan almost immediately as the pair head for the living room. 

“Bless his heart,” Seungmin says, once the maknae is out of earshot. Felix can’t tell if he’s being serious or not. This man gave him whiplash.

“Let's just follow, yes?” Felix suggests, before he loses his mind even more.

When the two get there, everyone is already standing around the living room table. The things Seungmin had brought in by himself were now laid out on it. There’s a certain tension to the group this time, and from that they can tell what this conversation is going to be about. Chan starts speaking almost as soon as everyone is there. 

“Thanks to Seung today, I can finalize parts of the plan that required some of the materials we were looking for some time back. Best course of action, the plan takes place tomorrow night.” 

Changbin sighs, “Will we keep relatively the same roles as we previously discussed? I don’t think Jeongin can do a lot of moving.”

They’ve discussed the plan before, and Chan just nods to the question.

“They should stay relatively the same, just very minor adjustments now that we have the things we were looking for. Jeongin shouldn’t have to move all too much unless he wants to.”

Said Jeongin was looking down at the things on the table while nodding along. This conversation really solidified what they were doing as real, and it seemed to settle on the group. This sort of plan had been in the works ever since they picked up Chan, and found out about the true extent of the government’s work. It was hard to imagine them ever doing something to this extent without the man, even if they were major enemies of the entire government system. 

“I don’t think you understand the extent of what you just did, Seungmin!” Changbin practically shouts at him. 

“Oh, I understand perfectly fine. I think, if anything, you’re the one who doesn’t understand.”

“Me?! You could’ve gotten Jisung killed just now!”

Jisung sighs as the rain continues to pour down around them. He crosses his arms and looks up while the two continue to argue next to him. The alley provides no cover for them from the rain.

“It was a distraction! They were suspicious of him anyway! It’s not like they saw us.” 

“But they saw you had powers, Seung. Even if they didn’t see you, they saw the presence of powers, which means they’ll be wary for the next few days! How will we get supplies when they’re high alert?!”

Jisung taps his foot twice before interjecting, “Guys! Figure out your bullshit later, for fuck’s sake! If you continue this shouting any longer, we’re sure to get caught, and then you’d both be to blame for my death!” 

Changbin and Seungmin’s eyes widen, and that shuts them both up, at least for the time being. They wouldn’t mess with his predictabilities of the future. Jisung just sighs again as he continues walking through the alleyways, heading back home. They’re all soaking wet and in bad moods, he can tell. Only Jisung truly knew the way back through these specific alleyways, so the two opted to follow along wordlessly. It’d be best to just get home by now. 

Jisung is a few steps ahead, the tension thick between Changbin and Seungmin. They’re not exactly paying attention to the path they’re taking, because they’re simply following behind Jisung. Due to this, they don’t quite realize they’re being stopped until they run into Jisung’s arms, outstretched to prevent them from walking further. 

“Yah, what are you—” Seungmin starts, but he doesn’t get to finish because Jisung shushes him with a small glare. Seungmin’s lips press into a line as Jisung glances at Changbin.

“Can you go into these shadows?” He whispers.

It’s a weird request, and the alley Jisung is pointing at is rather dark. He doesn’t let Changbin question it, though.

“I think someone is there.”

The fact he says it quietly certainly doesn’t help. Seungmin freezes slightly, and Changbin cringes a little before stepping forward and merging with the shadows there. Jisung leads Seungmin behind one of the walls, out of sight of anyone that could possibly be in the alley. They wait for Changbin to investigate.

“Worst case scenario, I get some of this rain and chuck it at the person’s face as hard as I can, so we can run,” Seungmin suddenly whispers.

“We are not doing that.” 

“What? You have any other solutions?” 

“Yeah! Us staying quiet until we can come to a conclusion together.” 

The two go silent, listening to the rain pour down around them. Jisung would say Seungmin looked like a wet dog, but he wasn’t sure he was any better. Jisung watches Seungmin play with a raindrop right before they hear a shout come from the alley. It didn’t sound like Changbin. 

“Fuck!” 

Changbin winced at the loud curse. He had appeared out of the shadows when he realized the person Jisung heard in the alley was injured. What he didn’t expect, but definitely should’ve, was that the person was also quite afraid. He was also cursing in English, apparently. 

“H-hey, fuck, get away!—”

The man was clearly shaking. He suddenly pulls out an already bloodied knife, pointing it at Changbin, and probably trying to look threatening. It kind of works, and Changbin flinches. That’s when he realizes he needs to approach this differently. 

“Woah, hey, chill! I’m not going to do anything!” Changbin raises his hands up, hoping his sign of surrender would mean something to the man’s fearful mind. 

The man stumbles backwards slightly, but he is already backed towards the wall. He doesn’t seem to be in good shape at all. He’s wearing a suit, but the fabric is torn in several places. Because of this, Changbin can tell one of his arms is fairly wounded, blood dripping down the length of it, to the ground. The red also manages to seep through the dark color of the suit. On top of all of that, the rain looks to have beat him down even more, blonde locks sticking to his head and covering his face. 

Changbin takes a step closer despite himself, “Sir—” 

The blonde man has his injured arm clutched to his chest, the other one pointing the knife even closer to Changbin. When Changbin takes a step closer, he takes another step away. Doing so, he manages to slip on the wet concrete, body crumbling to the ground. The knife slips out of his hands easily.

“Y-you…”

Changbin blinks. Ah. The injury, the suit, and the alertness…. The only people who typically owned a suit were either rich, or working with the government. 

“Hey.”

That tone causes the man to pause, both of them silent for a moment while the rain continues to beat around them. It kind of looks like he’s sitting in his own blood, and Changbin has to shake the thought away. He kneels down to get to the same level, close enough to hear the guy’s erratic breathing. 

“I’m not going to do anything, okay? See, no uniform.”

He doesn’t respond, clearly struggling to focus on one point. His fist clenches at nothing.

Changbin frowns, looking back, “Seung, this guy needs medical attention!” 

Jisung suddenly peeks around the corner with Seungmin, and the guy winces faintly. 

“Is that a…?”

“Yes. No. That’s not the point. I think he defected—” Changbin glances back at him. 

Jisung is running up to Changbin now, while Seungmin trails slowly behind him. He’s wary.

The guy jumps at the sight of more people, shoulders impossibly tense. That’s not good for his arm. 

“Seung, can you—” Changbin starts, but Seungmin’s lips press together as he frowns.

“Hey, I only do half the work when it comes to medical stuff. I can stop the bleeding a little, but we’ll need Felix if we really wanna help him,” Seungmin states slowly, looking at him warily. That meant they had to bring him home. “You sure you wanna help him, though?” 

Changbin’s expression shifts, and even he looks a little unsure now. He was just some random government guy, after all. There’s a possibility of this going completely wrong, and then he would be to blame. It was just the injury and the fear in his eyes that didn’t add up for Changbin, if this really was some government ploy. 

“W-wait, I have proof— I have information! I’m not with them anymore—” 

Jisung visibly perks up at the sudden interjection. The man shakily reaches into an inner pocket of his suit and pulls out an envelope. It’s also, unfortunately, covered in some blood. His focus never leaves the three in front of him. Seungmin’s eyes narrow at the presence of an inner pocket. He’s about to say something about that, but Jisung beats him to speaking. 

“Just take him, we have the means to stop him, even if he turns out to be a fake. Government people get their powers removed, remember? Seung, stop the bleeding in case this guy isn’t bullshit.” 

“Right,” Seungmin just mutters, putting his focus on the guy’s wound while Changbin tries to find the best way to pick him up. He’s still trembling, but he’s certainly not trying to get away now. 

Changbin manages to get him into a weird sort of piggyback, and the four continue their way back. How convenient that the rain was rather relentless today.

“The envelope isn’t actually made out of paper. It’s waterproof,” he mumbles. 

They managed (with much difficulty, but still managed) to get home, and after dismissing the wary remarks of the rest of the members, Seungmin and Felix get around to treating his injuries. After just a little bit of talking, Felix is able to get a name out of him. They’re having a decently civil conversation now. 

“Right. Government tech I assume?” Felix gets the last stitch through. 

“It’s… just plastic.” 

Seungmin snorts, but stops himself when he’s met with a glare from Felix. The blonde then clears his throat, probably for the finality of it. He goes to apply the gauze around the stitches now that the previous step is done.

“Just a question, uh…” Hyunjin walks into the room, holding up the papers from the envelope. He takes a moment to remember the name. “...Chan. How do we know that these pictures aren’t fake?”  

Chan blinks, “Well, if you take a look at the polaroid photos, you’d notice that the backing isn’t just glued or glossy paper pasted together, but rather, it includes a pod that would have the degraded remains of an alkaline reagent paste, one that a fake polaroid would lack. When taking the picture, the paste would—”

“Right. Right. They’re real,” Seungmin suddenly cuts in.

Felix is the one snorting this time, while Seungmin delivers the glare. Chan almost cracks a smile at the irony, but seemingly holds back. He was definitely not in the place to be finding amusement in this. Hyunjin is looking at the photos again before he speaks.

“These are pretty decent if you were taking them in a rush. Do you still have the camera?”

“I- no. I tried to get rid of it so these photos couldn’t be traced back to my property, but I’m not even sure where it is now. It didn’t stop anything either.”

“That’s unfortunate.” 

Chan is silent as he listens to the rest of the group converse around him. They seem to trust him enough to openly discuss around him, at least. He just focuses on the faint ache of his arm now that it’s no longer an open wound.

“I knew the government was always fuckin’ shady, but I didn’t think it’d be to this level.” 

“We should’ve suspected something, to be honest. No way they’d keep up the same levels of monitoring they’re doing now. It’s always been a power-hungry scheme.

“Well, whatever project it is they’re doing, we can’t just sit here and watch as it goes down. Especially not after finding that information.”

Chan inhales and wonders if he has somehow managed to find (or be found by) the exact group of people he was hoping for when it came to this kind of thing. 

“For around two years now, we’ve been slowly planning and gathering both information and materials to really ensure this plan goes as smoothly as possible. Hopefully, if we can’t get to the bottom of this tomorrow, we can at least get significantly closer.”

The boys all nod to what Changbin is saying. Chan hands one of the gadgets on the table to Jeongin, letting him observe it. It was pretty crucial that they all had some sense of how everything worked. 

“I think as of now, the most we can do is familiarize ourselves with every step of the plan, and ensure we’re aware of our own individual roles. And on top of that, please try to sleep at normal times.”

And with that unofficial end to the meeting, some of them laugh because they know that last part is probably not happening. Chan sticks behind with Jeongin to really confirm how things may have to play out with his foot.

“You’ll have pretty much the same role, but I think you gotta be more cautious because you’re more vulnerable to getting caught this way. Your role shouldn’t compromise you too much, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Jeongin just nods along to the plan. When Chan is pretty much done explaining the big parts, the elder continues to stick behind just to inspect everything himself. That’s when Jeongin’s thoughts drift a little. 

“I can’t believe this is actually playing out, after a couple years too. You’d think the government would be doing more by now.”

Chan’s head perks up as Jeongin speaks, and he laughs quietly.

“Mm, yeah. I’m also surprised,” he rubs the back of his neck.

At the progression of the group’s plan, or the progression of the government’s plan? He wasn’t sure.

“I feel like you’re not saying it on purpose, but that means it’s also been around two years since we found you.”

Chan pauses at the revelation, but he doesn’t react negatively, per se.

“Yeah.”

Jeongin blinks, tapping his fingers on the table, “When we found you…”

Chan’s full attention is definitely on Jeongin now.

“Seungmin was ready to kill you just about every morning, for a week straight.”

Jeongin chuckles at that quietly, then speaks again, “I think when you showed Hyunjin the digital camera, it softened him a little. And maybe also the fact he saw you drop a piece of paper because of your arm.” 

Chan’s eyes narrow at the last part, but he also laughs at that. When both of their laughter die down, Jeongin’s expression gets a little grimmer. 

“I know that you never technically went through the process of getting your powers taken, at least not like other government personnel, because you said you never had powers,” Jeongin pauses, thinking. “But with the way you described everything, it kind of makes me concerned.”

“Hm, why specifically?”

“If their tech can really just… strip someone of their powers, I fear for what other things they have on them.”

“Ah, I get it,” Chan sighs, looking off towards the other rooms. “But the people who have gotten their powers taken to work with the government all do it willingly. Some things won’t work as well on an active group of people who don’t want their powers taken.” 

“I suppose so, but it has been two years since you’ve been face to face with some of their tech.”

“That’s true, but honestly? Despite their fancy tech, the government actually doesn’t like change all that much. I am pretty sure it would take them longer to develop something that’ll be a significant threat to us.” 

Jeongin huffs, “I’ll believe you. You’re still sticking near me for the plan, right? Roles haven’t changed that much?”

Chan shakes his head, “Still with you. I think it’d be too last minute to change people for the roles, anyway.” 

Chan ends up winking, “I still got your back.”

Jeongin snorts, “Right, thank you, my savior. My foot ails me no more.” 

He laughs at that, running a hand through his hair, “Worst case scenario, at least one person makes it out to tell the others about everything.” 

“Don’t joke about that!” Jeongin punches his shoulder. He looks scandalized for a second, but it’s clear he’s holding back a laugh. 

“Hey, I never said who was dying between us. I may throw you to the wolves, especially with that foot that ails you no more.” 

Jeongin looks even more offended, and Chan takes that moment to walk out of the room. Jeongin limps behind him quickly, shouting out things in faux anger that neither of them are truly paying attention to. 

To no one’s surprise, and especially not Changbin’s, nobody ends up sleeping at a decent time. Last minute questions come up, more concerns arise, but ultimately, the group was just filled with a bunch of insomniacs. 

“I’m about ninety-percent sure that the best time to initiate the plan tonight is around nine. That gives us ten hours from now to go through everything one more time, go over our fail-safes in case things don’t go to plan, and just review any last minute questions or concerns.”

Changbin holds up one of their devices and hands one to everyone. It’s a basic communication one, similar to a walkie talkie.

“These are some of the last devices we need to test, and then after that it should be good.” 

Ten hours feels like a long time on paper, but it really happened in a blur. The realization that they’ll all have to squeeze into a small vehicle to get away does come up amidst the last minute questions.

“How many of us have to fit in the backseats again?” 

Ultimately, they decide the small sacrifice for space isn’t that big of a deal in the long run. Hopefully.

The last thing Chan had said to all of them when they were finalizing their planning: if something were to go horribly wrong, at least outside of what they previously prepared for, then the only thing left for them to do was run. No one should try and be a hero. 

They would reconvene at the forest surrounding home, and that was that. 

Starting at eight, some of the group goes to the government site with different intervals of time in between, just to ensure they would rouse the least amount of suspicion. When the clock finally hits nine, they’re all in place to execute the plan. All they could do now was hope.  

Hyunjin peeks from where he is. His position faces the side of the building that rotated guards the most often. That was unfortunately their best bet when it came to slipping past security. 

Hyunjin waits for his signal, letting out a huff. Changbin appears from the shadow next to him, at least forming tangible enough to interact with, without feeling weird about talking to the air. 

“Hey, Jin, don’t worry too much. You got this.”

Hyunjin glances at shadow-Changbin briefly before looking back out at the building. 

“I know. But anything could happen, really. There’s a possibility of success, but also a million possibilities of failure. We don’t even really know what we’re facing.”

Changbin nods when he hears that, “You’re right, Jin. But we just gotta do the best we can. I have no doubts in you. And, hey, if anything does happen, I’m right behind you.”

Hyunjin just smiles and sighs, “You’re right. I think I’m just getting all up in my head now that we’re actually doing this.” 

“I get it. All we gotta do is trust this will go as best as it can.”

Changbin suddenly appears half out of the shadows as actually Changbin, and not some speaking silhouette version of him. He shoots Hyunjin a smile that the man reciprocates almost immediately. This reminds Hyunjin that they’re all pretty covered up to ensure anonymity, except Changbin and Felix. He looks back out towards the building to make sure he gets his cue.

It’s just a couple more minutes before it comes. He takes one step closer to the building, just short of the motion sensors. Concentrating hard enough, he stretches an arm out and manages to shut down some of the power, at least on the outer area. And from the small opening he makes with that confusion, Changbin comes in behind him. He slips through the shadows where the motion sensors are no longer working, and takes two of the guards down silently. No killing yet, but hiding them in the shadows they’re close to. With all of this, Hyunjin sends the electricity that would normally be used on this side of the building, all to the other side. Some of the motion sensors overload there, and this causes more confusion between the government personnel. 

On the other side of the building, Felix manages to slip in now that the motion sensors are no longer of worry. He hides on the wall for a moment as he watches the rest of the outer guards also get taken down and hidden by Changbin. The man had to be fast, and he was doing an excellent job. When the last guard gets taken down, Jisung starts a timer. He’s with the getaway car, somewhere far behind the building. They had thirty minutes to execute the rest of the plan, but if everything went accordingly, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue until they can see what they’re facing inside. At least, according to the outcomes from Jisung’s power. After Jisung sets the timer, he glances to the side. Chan and Jeongin are next to him and the car, and that’s their signal to head towards the building and initiate their part of the plan. 

From the inside, Changbin is still in the shadows, and he’s using the confusion that comes with it to his advantage. While he’s taking down some of the inside personnel, Seungmin also slips inside and assists. He has a small container of water on him, and with that, he can aim it with enough force to do considerable damage. Guards only rotate inside so often, so they’ll have enough time to do the next few steps before they’re pressured by the threat of the building alarm. 

Felix keeps watch a moment before he notices Chan and Jeongin approaching slowly. He nods at them, waiting for them to enter the building. That’s when he can hide them against the wall, at least enough until they can reach the overseeing room behind the stairs on the first floor. As they’re passing the two fighting the guards, Seungmin tosses a couple personnel keycards from the knocked out guards. They’re lower access, but should work on the bottom floor doors. So far, everything is going according to plan, and Chan’s memory of the building hasn’t failed him. Hyunjin soon joins the picture, walking right behind Jeongin and Chan. He’s a little slow because of the focus he’s putting on preventing certain bouts of electricity throughout the building, but still going strong with the plan.

Felix manages to transport the three to the room without too much suspicion. When they open it, Jeongin half expects people to be in there, but is proven wrong quickly. In fact, it looks rather dark. 

“I used to help out in this room when I worked here. When I ran away, though, I broke that machine back there,” Chan points to a blackened part of the wall where a generator-looking machine sits. It appeared combusted. 

“It didn’t actually do much, but it cut off connection to the information needed to run parts of this room. After that, I stole some of the main components that allowed access to most of these computers.” 

Hyunjin blinked in surprise, and Chan just laughed while ushering all of them closer to one of the computers.

“It seems like after I sabotaged everything in here, they chose not to fix it. Looks like a mini storage room now,” Chan gestures towards some of the dust and other cardboard boxes now in the room. 

“Which supports my theory that they’re doing a lot of operations upstairs now. Thankfully, I think we prepared the rest of the guys for that.”

Jeongin looks around at the mostly desolate room, “You said you had something to get this room to work again, right?”

“Yep. Who knew the runnability of an entire room depended on…” Chan reaches back into a pocket on his bag, pulling out a small device, “...this tiny thing.”

Chan inserts it into the side of the computer, and it goes into the device. He looks towards Hyunjin, and the man wipes his sweat, before stretching out another arm. A few sparks fly, but in doing so, the screen of that single computer lights up. Chan immediately goes to type some codes in, and suddenly, three other screens and the cameras flicker on. 

“And this is how we’ll watch from afar. Jeongin, you stick by these computers and I’ll stick by the door. Our communication to all the other members is crucial for this.”

Chan turns on his communication device on his shoulder, and the two follow. Hyunin huffs as he stands in a corner, closing his eyes to reinforce more focus. Jeongin nods to what Chan has said.

“We got this.” 

Seungmin wipes the sweat off his forehead, and also blood off his cheek. It was just a small cut, but he’d get it checked out later. Glancing around for any sign of attacking oncomers, Changbin suddenly appears next to him as a shadowed figure. 

“What? Spent already?” 

Seungmin raises an eyebrow before rolling his eyes. “Not everyone has time to work out every day. Besides, I’m holding up just fine. If anything happened to me, it’d be your fault anyway.”

Changbin snorts, “Ah, well, just look out for the alarm. If Chan was right, that should be soon.”

“It should be. We just beat up half their workforce down here.”

Changbin merges back into the shadows, and right when he does so, the said alarm does go off. This means their time is half spent. Seungmin quickly mutters a message to the communication device, before turning towards the shadow Changbin just went into.

“Fighting, hyung.”

“You too, Min.”

When the alarm goes off, Felix jumps from where he’s hidden from the wall, but quickly sets himself back into place. He needed to sneak up into the second floor while workers were confused and panicked by the alarm. 

Shifting through the halls with his camouflage, he reaches the front of the stairs easily. Going up, he remembers to silence his footsteps. When he finally reaches the second floor itself, he’s surprised by what he sees. It’s everything Chan explained, yet the realness of the room sets him off for a second. There are guards by the front of the staircase, but they look rather panicked by the darkness of the floor.

Thank you, Hyunjin.

He slips past them easily and mentally maps out the floor in the way Chan showed him when they were going over the plan back at home. He turned left down the hall, because he trusted his memory. After examining most of the floor, he hides in the very corner of the ceiling, where pipes meet the wall. 

“The spaces up here are all research-based, and mostly made of glass. It seems they’re all see-through, except a couple of pods in the back. Each room is guarded by at least some personnel, especially the ones in the back. I think that’s what they’re looking for, but…”

Felix glances back towards the entire floor. Some guards were heading down or upstairs, but the ones by the rooms in the back remained right where they were. They seemingly refused to move from their duties. The alarm grates Felix’s ears, but he continues speaking anyway.

“The rooms that are most likely to be the schemes we’re looking for, their guards are armed with guns. I think distraction may be the best way to go. 

He doesn’t get a direct response from anyone for a second, before Seungmin speaks into the device. 

“Hang on, hyung, I’m coming up.”

Seungmin and Changbin hear the message coming through from Felix, and that’s when Seungmin notices more of the guards coming down. He feels a hand on his shoulder suddenly.

“Min, I got this.”

Seungmin raises an eyebrow, face scrunching up like Changbin just said the most unbelievable thing.

“Bin, there’s like fifty of them, and one of you.”

Changbin lets out a laugh that Seungmin is sure would’ve gotten them into trouble if the alarm wasn’t currently blaring. 

“Right, and who has powers here? Besides, I’m pretty sure these are the lower ranking guys. Their tiny knives aren’t substantial enough to beat me.”

Seungmin only hesitates a second before he decides he does trust Changbin for this. 

“Okay, fine. But don’t hesitate to ring anyone up if it gets too much.”

“I’ll be fine.”

To someone else, the statement would come off as possibly dismissive. But Changbin knows to follow Seungmin’s word, and Seungmin knows to trust Changbin with himself. The younger just sighs as he speaks into the device.

“Hang on, hyung, I’m coming up.”

Jeongin clicks between the cameras rapidly before he can come to a page that views both the first and second floor. Chan hears Changbin outside defending what he can. He listens to the conversations going on through the devices, and then glances towards Hyunjin.

“Hyun, I think you can let the electricity go back to the motion sensors outside now that we’re all in.”

Hyunjin peeks an eye open at that. He just nods silently as he puts more focus into the way he was controlling the electricity in the building. Chan sighs quietly and goes up to Hyunjin, taking out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping some sweat. Hyunjin visibility deflates a little at the contact.

From the other side of the room, Jeongin examines the second floor the best he can from the cameras. He reports what he can to the device.

“The pods in the back that Felix mentioned earlier are more heavily guarded, I think one to two guards per side. If you can distract the others away, and take at least one side down, you’d be able to get in.”

Chan also examines the second floor, peeking from behind Jeongin now. Jeongin turns off his device before speaking to Chan personally.

“It seems most of your predictions have gone accordingly. I’m surprised you know so much.”

“I wouldn’t have been a very good worker if I didn’t know so much. I’ve also been thinking about this plan for years.”

Jeongin just hums, switching his view to the staircase, and then Changbin again.

“Well, you’ve gotten everything right with your plan so far. I’m glad you’re here to help us, hyung.”

Seungmin manages to get up the stairs with little issue. Maybe a few more guards, and another few scratches on his arms, but nothing serious. It doesn’t take long for Felix to meet with him, so the two manage to sneak around the halls on the second floor. Felix covers Seungmin to the best of his abilities, and they only face a few lower ranking guards that Seungmin can take out rather easily, especially with the help of Felix. When they’re nearing the more inner rooms, Seungmin notices one of the guards calibrating something off to the side. They did have guns, the others, but this one guard was an opening. Seungmin sends a small nod towards Felix, and the older one seems to get the message. Seungmin just hid around the corner while Felix shifted with the walls, then the pipes, and then the machines. Finally, he meets the guard with a small “boo,” before Seungmin is aiming water at their neck. It hits hard enough to disorient for a moment, but the guard pulls out a gun, and Felix narrowly avoids a bullet to his head. He suddenly makes himself visible and knocks the guard off their feet, and then out of consciousness. Seungmin just shrugs.

From where Chan is, he sees parts of the fight, and winces suddenly when he further examines the scene from the cameras. The guy had a different uniform, and a different badge, which meant…

“Seungmin, that’s a sergeant you just knocked down. If you break the device on the left side of their chest, I’m pretty sure that it activates some sort of emergency escape protocol for the workers nearby. It’s a fail-safe system of theirs, in case something is in danger. I think the guys with the guns are required to stay in their place, but you can at least distract them a little that way.”

Seungmin raises an eyebrow. The gunned guys gotta stay in place? Bitches really give up their lives for the wrong cause.

At the revelation of this, Seungmin wastes no time and smashes the device right on the side of the guard’s chest. Felix’s eyes widen a moment as this sends another small alarm through the building, but this is shorter lived. A loud announcement then rings out throughout the building. 

“I think we better hurry, lest we want our eardrums to die.”

“I think, if we don’t hurry, Changbin and Hyunjin might die.”

Felix huffs a short laugh before turning towards his device. “Bin, I think you need to hide again. All of the guards are going down because of some protocol.”

There’s silence for a few moments before sound comes out from Changbin’s side. 

“Yeah– I got it—” a loud crashing sound. “Don’t worry about me! Take care of what’s upstairs!”

His line then cuts, and Felix has to let out a small sigh before turning towards Seungmin. He gestures towards the back where they need to pay attention to, and then he camouflages into the walls again. 

He’s the distraction right now. Awesome. 

Seungmin sighs as he grabs the keycard off of the sergeant (more like, rips it off his belt.) and runs in the direction Felix went before disappearing into the wall. He may as well use his sweat as a weapon, with the amount of borderline sprinting this is making him do. 

By the time he gets there, Felix is already amidst a fight with the guards on one side of the pods. Seungmin cringes because the commotion will definitely garner attention from the other guards around the area. And they all had guns. 

Seungmin starts to fear this part of the plan. Neither him or Felix are the best fighters in the long run, and they only really had a small advantage with their powers. 

Jisung watches the building from afar, but even from the conversations he’s picking up through the device, he gets a little wary. They only had around ten minutes left to do this, at least before the alarms go off and alert the higher-ups. If this situation gets to them while everyone is in the building, that could be detrimental both for them and their plan. 

Jisung shuffles through every possibility in his head, and the results look a little more grim than before. 

Path A: They run out of time, and the higher-ups are alerted. The building would go on lock-down, and all of them would be doomed, probably to imprisonment.

Path B: They get out before the higher-ups are alerted, and they’re not trapped by the lock-down, but they don’t get to find anything about the government’s plan. This would alert them of their presence, and probably cause the defenses to wrack up even more. It probably means they’ll never get their information.

Jisung skims through the different paths, and he has to skip past some of them.

Path F: They all get found or killed before they can execute anymore of the plan.

That’s not very reassuring.

Path J: Felix is walking down a path-not-path outside when he finds the items he needs to carry, ends up stepping on a hole, and twists his ankle. Seungmin walks straight into a bedframe in the building for some reason and thinks it’s not a big deal until he somehow falls asleep right then and there, only to wake up to a gigantic hematoma covering the entire right side of his calf. And Changbin gets lead poisoning.

Now how the fuck does that any of that even happen in this scenario?

Path U: Jisung is the last remaining survivor and then he gets shipped off to another universe as punishment, where he has to spend his days acting like an omega submissive guy. And apparently Seungmin dies. 

It appears mapping out the possibilities in his head is not helping. Hah, take that, random therapist from seventh-grade.

Jisung runs a hand through his hair roughly, letting out a groan before activating his side of the communication device.

“Guys, we have ten minutes. I think you gotta speed it up, or somehow find another way to get through this. The possibilities aren’t looking too great if we take any longer on this part.” 

He then stops speaking, looking at the building again. From afar, one could call it a spectacle piece of art. 

“Good fucking luck.”

Seungmin manages to get another guard off of them, but there’s still more honed in on him, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he wasn’t cut out for this. 

Felix suddenly comes in, falling from somewhere in the ceiling and kicking one guard down smack in the face. He manages to wrangle a gun from one of them and use it to hit some more in various places to get them down. 

When one guard dodges the gun Felix throws at them, Seungmin throws even more water at them, knocking them down to the floor. They hit their head and crumble to the floor. 

“Ha– Seung, you good?”

“Yeah…”

Lungs hurting. Stomach cramping. He’s doing great.

“...just awesome.”

The thing they need to get into is right there, and they’re being held back by a bunch of no-gooder guards who have been brainwashed into working for a system that doesn’t support anyone. Felix’s eyes suddenly widened, and he pointed the gun right towards Seungmin. Seungmin couldn't help the way he jumped at the gesture.

“Lix—”

“Seungmin, don’t… don’t move.”

Seungmin feels himself freeze, and turns his eyes as much as he can to look behind him. He doesn’t have to fully look, though, because the cold metal of what was undoubtingly a gun pressed against the back of his head. 

Fuck.

It feels like time freezes then, like they don’t have to worry about it running out. It feels like Seungmin’s lungs constrict for a moment, and the realization of possible death does run through his mind.

It doesn’t get much time to fester, fortunately, as the cold metal is knocked away from his head. He uses this unexpected opening to turn around and fight back against the guard, despite the fearful look on Felix’s face. By the time he turns around, though, the guard is already getting thrown to the floor. Seungmin’s mouth opens, then closes when he sees a moving shadow do the work. When the guard is knocked out and no longer of worry, Changbin appears out of the shadows. 

“Bin!” Felix suddenly exclaims, shakily lowering the gun. He’s definitely shaken at the small incident, but more hope appears in his eyes when Changbin shows himself. 

“Ah- Seungmin, Felix, you guys okay?” Changbin asks, hand suddenly on Seungmin’s shoulder like he’s checking for any mishaps. 

“I— yeah. I-I’m fine.” 

Felix just nods, and Changbin nods back, looking like he has many more questions, but decidedly lowers his arm. In doing so, Felix notices the state of the man’s other arm.

“Bin… are you…” He points towards the sight of gauze messily wrapping around the other arm. Red seeped through it.

“Ah, it’s fine. Just… It's nothing to worry about right now. I just got grazed by some dude’s knife, is all. We have other things to think about. You can check it out after, yeah?” 

Seungmin looks ready to say something else in response to that, but Jisung’s voice comes through the device, loudly, startling all of them.

“You guys need to move it a little!” 

Felix cringes, “Right, the building will go on lock down if we take too long. We’ll talk about this later!”

No one gets time to question each other as Felix camouflages once more and heads towards the now-unguarded pods. Changbin glances at Seungmin momentarily before merging with the shadows and following. Seungmin just sighs. 

Wallpaper larpers. 

Seungmin runs behind them despite the cramping in about every limb in his body. 

Felix squints at the pods in front of them. They look like all of the other rooms on this floor, just not made of glass. There’s a big apparent entrance that the guards had been standing in front of moments ago. Changbin suddenly whistles, appearing from the shadows once more. 

“Did you two beat all these guys up?” 

Seungmin blinks, confused, before looking around the area. Knocked out guards and their guns laid everywhere. It was kind of eerie, especially with the alarm still blaring. Maybe Felix was right about killing their eardrums.

“I— Apparently, yes,” Seungmin mutters, realizing just how much they had done. 

“Must’ve been adrenaline,” Felix laughs, stretching his arms out over his head. 

“Runnin’ through your veins?” Changbin questions.

Seungmin squints at the two, eyebrows furrowing. They must be going insane.

Felix just laughs then shakes his head, “Anyway, we gotta hurry and get the most we can out of this. Seungmin, you have the stuff, right?” 

Seungmin nods, and he reaches back to take the things out of the back pocket of his bag. In it he pulls out a round-ish device with an eight-pointed star on it, four of the points shorter. The center of the circular shape is black, and the outer part is a red color. 

“Is that a…” Changbin starts. Felix just shushes him. 

“Yes.”

“Why do we have a—”

“Chan-hyung knows how to make them.”

“Chan-hyung know— he what?” 

“Shh…” Felix just smiles, like this is normal. Well, it’s not the weirdest thing in this world, that’s for sure.

Seungmin just ushers all of them back, away from the entrance. If Chan was right, this should at least weaken the door enough for them to open it. Chan was right about most things in this plan. If he wasn’t so glad that this was a good thing so far, he’d maybe joke about the perfectionism peaking through. 

Seungmin thinks he should be relieved that they’ve pretty much executed this perfectly, but a small sense of dread rises in his chest. He knows after this much planning, the fact they’re actually this close to their goal, should be a big, good thing. It’s the feeling of unknown that’s stabbing him in the throat. Felix speaks up.

“Just– Whatever’s behind this, we only have enough time to investigate. Remember what Channie-hyung said? If this big project thing ends up being as serious as it sounded on paper, don’t try to be a hero.”

Seungmin and Changbin nod at what Felix is saying. And with that, Seungmin presses a button from the top of the device, and throws it at the entrance. He ensures that it doesn’t bounce off and ricochet right back to them. 

All three of them cover their ears as the device suddenly goes off, blowing up the entrance to the pod. The massive door that’s there shakes for a moment, before crumbling off its hinges. Felix’s eyes widen as the smoke clears and he sees what’s behind it. 

“I—”

“Is that…?”

Seungmin is the first to step forward, almost rushing into the pod. The outside is deceiving, and when he steps in, he realizes just how spacious the area really is. Only… it’s not a research area or facility like they had all expected. It was like a house. 

For once, Chan wasn’t right. That caused all three of them to freeze in confusion. 

“Wait, if— What is—”

Seungmin is the one that is most in the new space, and he doesn’t know what to do. 

“Oh.”

The three of them jump at the presence of a new voice. From another room, a younger man suddenly appears. He looks around the same age as all of them. He glances at all of them for a moment, eyes narrowing.

“So you’re the cause of all the ruckus?” He lets out a small laugh of disbelief. “No wonder the alarms haven’t turned off. This is the first time someone’s broken in here.” 

Of all the possibilities they expected to face, this was not a single one of them. Even Jisung couldn’t think this far with his powers. The man runs a hand through his dark hair.

“Why so shocked? You think everything in this building is as sterile as the halls?” 

None of them get time to respond before the man goes towards one of the walls near the entrance.

“Wait, you… you live here?” Changbin says, in disbelief. Seungmin is tenser than all of them, and Felix looks almost mortified.

The man pauses before glancing at all of them again. He tilts his head as he addresses them.

“Sorry, but don’t think what you’re doing is right. Just because you’re on the lower end of society, it doesn’t mean you can dictate everyone else with your ‘heroic’ acts.”

Before any of them can respond, he presses a button that is on the wall he was standing near. It’s silent for a few moments, and they can all hear their heartbeats, when suddenly, a different alarm goes off this time. It’s certainly more obnoxious, and the lights suddenly turn blue. 

Felix lets out a gasp before he hears Jisung coming through the device again.

“You three, what the fuck is going on?! The building is going on lock-down three minutes early; get out of there! Now!”

Seungmin swallows as he glances towards the guy. He only looks indifferent through all of this. 

Jeongin, who has been examining the three through all of this, loses track of them when they enter the pod. He only gets so concerned before the second alarm suddenly goes off. This startles Chan too. 

“What…”

“Hyung, what does that mean? What’s wrong?”

Chan inhales sharply, looking at Jeongin, “It means the building is going on lock-down. But… we had a few more minutes. I don’t—”

Jisung’s voice suddenly cuts through.

“You three, what the fuck is going on?! The building is going on lock-down three minutes early; get out of there! Now!”

Despite the fact it’s not directed towards the three in the room, Chan jumps at the revelation. 

“Fuck, Jeongin, get up, we need to go—” 

Jeongin scrambles slightly at that, glancing at the computer. “Do we need this?”

“Grab it! I’ve got Hyun–” Chan shouts, scrambling over to Hyunjin’s side of the room. 

All it takes is one touch to get Hyunjin’s attention. His eyes shoot open and a few lights flicker when his eyes meet Chan.

“Wha—”

“Hyunjin, we gotta get out of here, now.” 

Hyunjin can only nod, eyes wide and silent. Chan runs over to Jeongin to help him again. Damned foot. Chan turns to the device to let Jisung know to start the car. Hyunjin goes to open the door before them so they can get out easier. When he opens it, though, he’s met with a gun directly in his face. 

Chan’s eyes widen when he realizes the situation. 

“Hyun—” 

Hyunjin shifts to move out of the way, but the gun goes off regardless.

The line Chan was on with Jisung suddenly turns off with a resounding bang.

Jisung freezes in disbelief when he realizes what may have happened on their side. He looks at the building and sees the lights flickering erratically. Fuck.

He takes a few moments, and a few deep breaths before moving back to Felix’s line. He puts a hand over his chest to hopelessly try and calm his breaths. 

“Felix, get out of there. I think they’re sending guards back in.”

“Sung, what’s up with the lights? Is Hyun— I-I don’t know what to do here, it—”

“What?!” Jisung snaps panickedly, “What’s going on over there?”

Jisung can hear Felix’s breathing for a few moments before the man starts speaking, also clearly panicking.

“There's a person here, I-I don't know! It— He– He lives here, or something–”

Jisung pauses for a moment, heart racing. 

“In the building?”

“I— Yes.”

Jisung scrambles through his brain for a moment, then suddenly speaks. His tone is serious, albeit shaky.

“Take him.”

“What? But he–”

“Take him.” 

Felix swallows, looking back at the man. Seungmin and Changbin realize what’s happening, and Seungmin steps forward. 

“Yeah, man, sorry about this—”

He grabs the man by his wrist and bolts towards the stairs. He shouts out a curse, hardly getting any time to fight back in any way. 

“Hey! Fuck– What are you doing?!” 

“Kidnapping, I guess.” 

“You—” 

Changbin and Felix bolt ahead of him, probably to clear the path if needed. By the time Seungmin practically wrestles the man down the stairs, he’s met with a scene that causes his heart to stop. 

Jeongin is aggressively hurling random objects towards the guards surrounding him. This in itself was already odd, as Jeongin hardly carried bigger objects with his telepathy. Behind him, Chan is on the floor, holding Hyunjin as he wraps what was his jacket around the man’s shoulder. Even with the dark color of the fabric, red has never looked more bright. No wonder the lights were going haywire.

One guard catches Jeongin off guard, but they don’t get the chance to take advantage of the situation because Changbin is right behind them, sending them to the ground and across the room. Felix rushes towards Chan and Hyunjin. 

“There’s more of you?”

Seungmin doesn’t get to observe the situation anymore before the guy tries to wrench his wrist out of Seungmin’s grip. Seungmin glares at him.

“You’re making a huge mistake.”

“Oh, am I?”

He doesn’t let go, in fact, he probably grips harder. He can see the building starting to truly lock down now. 

Seungmin sprints towards the door, no regards for the new man. He can only hope the rest of them make it out too.

Jisung can feel his hands shaking when he suddenly spots the first person out. 

Seungmin.

Seungmin, and someone else behind him. Jisung doesn’t give himself time to question as he presses the gas, speeding the car towards the building so he can pick them up. Since everything else remaining from the plan has clearly gone to shit, the least he can do is complete his duties here. 

He stops near where Seungmin is running, and catches a glimpse of the younger man out of breath. 

“Who is–”

“The guy that Felix was talking about!” He shouts, but it’s probably more in panic than anything. The door is swung open when the mysterious man suddenly speaks 

“None of you know what the fuck you’re doing!” 

Seungmin sends a scathing glare his way, and Jisung has to hold back from sending his own. He doesn’t understand it now, but this guy was most definitely a rich snob. If the way he weakly fought back with just his arms meant anything. 

Seungmin struggles to get him into the vehicle, and that’s when Jisung looks up to see the rest of them coming out. 

Something in Jisung’s chest tightens when he sees them all physically. He didn’t realize it then, but ever since they left his view to execute this plan in the building, his throat had been tight. Jeongin is running as fast as his foot would let him, Chan right behind him. The elder is carrying Hyunjin in a piggyback, and that’s when Jisung spots the blood.

Fuck.

They make it to the car quickly, but Jisung frowns. 

“Where’s Felix and Changbin?”

This causes Jeongin to freeze, the man looking back in panic.  Jeongin is trying to manhandle the man inside too, unsure what else to do. Chan is too busy hauling an injured Hyunjin into the backseat next to Seungmin to say anything.

“They were fighting more guards– I don’t know,” Jeongin mutters shakily. 

Jisung opens his mouth to speak again, but gets interrupted,

“Get your hands off of me, you low-lifes!” 

This causes Jeongin to pause, taking a small step back. Chan’s shoulders tense immensely, and he looks like he’s had enough. He turns around heavily, suddenly gripping the man’s wrist himself.

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you’re starting to piss me off.”

He yanks him into the car with him, and the man’s eyes widen at this development as he stumbles into the cramped space. He seems to flounder for a moment in response to the sudden anger.

“Right now, you are in no position to be making any demands, so shut your fucking mouth.”

He shuts up at that almost immediately. A shout is suddenly heard from Seungmin, which causes everyone to look back. They see some more guards coming out of the building, causing Jisung’s chest to constrict.

“Fuck, where are they?” 

Jeongin steps forward, looking ready to try and fight back, but his body gives out under his foot. It seems his standability was running off adrenaline. 

Jisung grips the steering wheel tightly, leg trembling as he runs conflicted between leaving two of his friends, and trying to get the rest to safety. 

He doesn’t have to think long, though, as a figure appears through one of the guard’s shadows, taking down two of them. Felix seemingly appears out of thin air and helps take care of the rest. When they’re all safely down, Changbin materializes properly, and the two sprint the rest of the way to the car.

Jisung feels tears building up in his eyes, but decidedly ignores it. That was something to unpack later. Changbin and Felix both shove themselves into the passenger’s seat, and as everyone else piles into the car, Jisung gives them no time to settle before he’s pressing the pedal with far too much force. He sends them down the path Chan and him had discussed earlier. No one should be able to follow. 

What the fuck were they going to do?