Previously on Institute of the Talented: Vernon and Dino were captured by Wonwoo’s father. Dino’s clone was cut by the throat and thrown outside where a mysterious wind picked him up. Seungkwan & Mingyu are making their way to Wonwoo. Jeonghan is in need of Wonwoo’s medical ability. Megan and Woozi are doing their best to heal Jeonghan. Hoshi is running around looking for Wonwoo.

-----I must apologize for not posting in so long. My laptop no longer supports this website so I haven’t had a chance to post any content. Now that college has started, I have access to the computers in the library but my work must come first. I have some other fics I started writing so this isn’t the end of me. I promise I am going to finish this fic even if I flunk out of college!!! BUT DON'T EXPECT DAILY CONTENT. Maybe weekly just because I won't always be at the library computers.-----

Minghao’s POV

The room around us was engulfed with a cold darkness. Two different hands rest on my shoulders; I hope they belong to Mingyu and that Angel guy, or this would be really awkward. The floor was cold and shattered while the air was thin and dusty. It was clear that we were still in the school. Where? I haven’t a clue.

“Where are we?” I brushed off both boys’ hands and stood up. Upon standing, my head hit a shelf. “OUCH!”

“Be careful,” Mingyu practically picked me up. “We have boyfriends to return to.” He swung me around up against his chest. The warmth from his chest reminded me that of Jun’s.

“Did you guys suddenly become an object or did I miss the big question?” I stayed in his grasp, only slightly curious about their relationship.

“Cute, no. I guess I haven’t asked him directly.” His breath warmed the top of my head as the ominous air surrounded us. In a way, I felt like I was cheating. For one, I enjoyed being held this close. Not to mention the fact that I still haven’t left his tight embrace.

“How about we go and find our boyfriends?” I threw his hand off of me and turned around. Directly in front of me a door awaited. How I knew that? Well, it’s hard to miss when your face slams up right against its iron frame.

A lot of people believe that just because I can make my skin impenetrable, I can’t get hurt. That is completely wrong and frankly, I’m offended by their lies. The only times I can’t be hurt is when my skin is solid but I usually get hurt when I’m not expecting things. For instance, when I stood up and hit my head on a shelf or when I walked into the unsuspecting door. There was no way of me knowing I was going to get hurt so I couldn’t solidify fast enough, thus causing me to get hurt. Besides, if you hurt my feelings I can still feel the pain even though I can’t feel your physical attacks. I’m a person, I have feelings too.

“Well, I am going to go search for Wonwoo. Hope you find Jun.” Mingyu hugged me and he walked the other way, leaving me alone with the strange kid named Angel.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” I asked the tall pale child.

“No.” His face frowned and he pointed to the cross on his chest. “That’s not the path I follow.”

“Alright, then. Thanks for teleporting us out of the principal’s office but I’m gonna go now.” I began backing up into the corridor. “Have fun.. teleporting?”

BEWEEEMMM!

A bright red laser beam shot at Angel, knocking him out instantly. A mechanical, futuristic robot hovered over to him and threw Angel over its shoulder. Before the robot could leave, it looked at me with its single red glowing eye and pointed at me with its free arm.

As much as I’d love to help Angel, I don’t do robots. Especially robots that shoot knock-out lasers and carry you away to unknown places. Especially robots that POINT AT YOU BEFORE GOING ON THEIR MERRY WAY. That’s incredibly rude, by the way. If you’re going to point at me, you might as well put your fists up because we’re going to fight and I’m going to punch you with a solidified hand. If you aren’t a robot, that is.

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

From the same hallway the robot came from, a bright light began lighting up the rest of the areas around. As I stood there and waited for the monster to show itself, a small flow of lava spilled out onto the floor. Slowly, the lava moved closer to me until a massive rock hand landed where Angel was standing not twenty seconds ago. Another hand grabbed onto the corner of the corridor as a creature pulled itself forward.

A lava monster emerged from the hallway and glared directly at me. I suppose the robot was pointing at me for that exact reason. Here I thought Angel saved us from this beast by teleporting us into a closet but NOOOOOO, it found me anyways. The lava monster had no lower body; instead it swam around in a pool of flowing lava. To help it move quicker, its hands would help its upper body move forward by grabbing onto something and pushing itself forward. Bright red rocks moved around in its lava of a body. It’s face was also made up of a group of rocks swimming around but the rocks that made up its face were a bit more obvious; they made eye holes and a large expressive mouth.

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

“JUN!!!!!” I ran away from the indestructible monster.

There was NO way I could defeat the monster if I couldn’t destroy it. Assuming my impenetrable skin didn’t melt off on contact, how would I damage it? Punch it and hope it's super effective? I don’t know if Jun would be of much help either but at least if I were going to die, it’d be with him.

“JUN!!!!!” I ran faster than the lava monster so it didn’t take long before I lost it. After a while of running around in search of my martial artist of a boyfriend, I finally found the handsome man. On the floor around him, pieces of a shattered animal lay at rest. Jun was meditating, such a nerd.

“I sense that you’re in danger.” He opened his eyes and smiled.

“You sense correctly,” Jun stood up and gave me a hug. “But can you guess what the danger is?”

“Let me ask my sensei.” He joked and closed his eyes. Suddenly, a coat of light overlapped his eyelids. “Run, Minghao. Jun can’t save you from this one.” An old man’s voice replaced Juns’. The light faded and his person collapsed into my arms.

“Jun?” I struggled to keep his body upright. “Wake up, you’re heavy!”

“What happened?” He snapped out of it and felt his head. “My head hurts.”

“Must be the lack of oxygen down here. Let’s go be productive.” I lied to him.

For as long as we’ve been dating, I’ve always relied on Jun for protection, despite me being able to defend myself just fine. It’s sort of how our relationship worked. He enjoys being able to protect me and I enjoy being protected. When he’s there, it just feels right. I can’t tell him that the martial artist gods spoke through him to tell me that he can’t save me this time. That would crush him. I am going to have to defend myself this time and hope Jun doesn’t get in the way.

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

“Friend of yours?” Jun looked excited. Too bad he didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. Down the hallway, our good-five-minute-long-friend pulled itself forward.

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

“Sure is. Lovely, isn’t he?” I nudged him jokingly.

“Hey, now. Don’t go cheating on me.” He pulled me into his arms and I remembered why I was dating him in the first place. His hugs were ten times better than Mingyu’s. No offense to Mingyu.

“I would never.” I kissed him gently on the cheeks. “Do me a favor and sit this one out, please?”

“What?” He looked me in the eyes. “You know I can’t do that.”

“When you joked about asking the martial arts god about my friend over there, they actually spoke. They said you can’t save me. So, do me the favor and save yourself.” I pulled him in closer and rested my head on his shoulder.

“Then we die together.”

“Shut up.” I freed myself and laughed. I know he was kidding. “If you insist on helping. Make yourself useful and use me as a sword.” Before he could argue, my body hardened and he grabbed me just before I could fall.

“I hope this works.” Jun held me with ease, despite my body weighing over a ton.

As the lava monster pulled itself closer, Jun’s stance became sturdier, as if he were concentrating. This can go one of two ways: A) I could somehow shatter the rocks inside of the lava coated monster causing it to die. Or B) I could melt from the high intensity of heat radiating from the monster. Since the martial gods interfered, I’m guessing it will be option B. When the lava monster was at the right distance, Jun raised me high in the sky and struck me down like a lightning bolt.

Jun’s POV

“Minghao? Can you hear me?” I attempted to pull him out from the lava monster’s body. The more effort I put into pulling, the more effort the monster put into him deeper into his body. “Let him go you stupid fire rock!”

The lava monster didn’t take well to being called a ‘stupid fire rock’. It’s face stopped swimming around its body and glared directly at me. If I didn’t know any better, his rock eyebrows frowned. Shortly after, its body heat began rising incredibly fast. Before I knew it, my skin was beginning to peel from the intensity of the heat.

“I will not let him go!” Sweat began running down my face as I held on to my boyfriend’s life. The longer I held onto him, the hotter it got. The monster’s face swam around while its eye holes focused on me, watching my reaction. “I can handle your heat!” I lied as I wiped off some sweat with one hand. My palms were singed from Minghao’s impenetrable, overheating body, but I would not let go.

Jun…

“Huh, you can talk?”

Let go of him… Save yourself…

“Do me a favor and NOT talk.”

You can’t save him if you die here…

“Who am I talking too? If this is the lava monster, you sound really supportive.”

It’s the Martial Artist Gods you nitwit…!

“You haven’t talked to me before. Why start now?”

Watch out…!

“Huh?” I refocused my attention onto the lava monster. Small lava tentacles began engulfing Minghao, reaching out at me. One of them lashed to the side of me but I jumped out of the way just in time, never letting go of Minghao. “Gotta do better than that you stupid rock… I mean lava monster, your majesty.” I gulped and hoped I made it feel better about releasing my boyfriend.

If you want to save your boyfriend, lead him to Wonwoo… there will be a rockslide… You must do two things… lure the lava monster underneath the rockslide before it occurs.. obviously… and the second thing you must do is prevent something from taking too much fall damage…

“What do I have to prevent from falling?” I waited for an answer but nothing came. “Hello? Thanks for the specification.”

I looked back at Minghao’s impenetrable body half-way stuck in the lava monster. Was he in pain right now? Was the heat seeping through? Would he hate me if I let him go? If I was going to save him, I was going to need to follow instructions. That meant letting him go.

“I’m.. sorry, Minghao.” I released him and his body was into the lava monster. Strangely enough, the lava monster just sat there and waited. Suddenly, a piece of paper, coated in a pink aura, floated down and into the lava monster. Before it was consumed, I managed to read what it said.

Jun Hui

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

Suddenly, the lava monster seemed to wake up from its two-minute slumber. It's rock hand attempted to grab me but I did the splits and avoided death. It’s body began to slowly swim toward me. Somehow, I became its new target. Something tells me it was because of that piece of paper. I bet that’s how the monsters knew who to fight. The question is, who is controlling the papers?

I ran a far away distance to quickly meditate and locate Wonwoo’s location. By the looks of it, he wasn’t on the school’s campus. Before I stretched my locating radius, I peeked to see if it was safe to continue meditating.

I closed my eyes and a map appeared in front of me. It was a layout of the school. The amount of auras running around made my eyes hurt. I need to focus more on people I know. As I focused, auras of random people became less visible. In the gym, four familiar auras were not moving. By the looks of it, it seemed the be Vernon’s, Dino’s, Melissa’s and that Angel guy’s auras. Up in a random classroom, the intelligence unit was being attacked by something I couldn't seem to read. I think DK was being dragged, but that’s none of my business, I’m sure he will be fine with Joshua following him and all. Jeonghan, Megan and Woozi seemed to be tightly gathered, maybe attempting to heal someone? Minghao was moving closer, which meant so was the beast after me. A really weird looking spirit was walking through a giant piece of Earth.. The auras seemed to be mixed with Seungkwan, Mingyu and something ugly. Further in that direction, Wonwoo was standing near someone in a giant opening. I suppose I had better follow that weird aura containing Mingyu, Seungkwan and that ugly thing.

Before I stopped meditating, I noticed an aura moving extremely quickly. It seemed to travel the entire map of the school in a blink of an eye. After studying the pattern of the speed aura, I calculated the time it would be directly in front of me, stopped meditating, and extended my hand out. As calculated, someone ran into my grasp and I held on tight. Instead of stopping the speedster, he took me with him, but not far. With the extra weight of me hanging from his ankle, he tripped and we flew a few feet.

“What the heck, Jun?” Hoshi’s eyes were spinning as he attempted to comb his hair back into place.

“So you are the aura flashing throughout the school.”

“I don’t know what that means but, yes, I am fast. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to deliver this idiot to Wonwoo.” Hoshi stood up and directed his hand to the person lying next to him. At first, I didn’t recognize him but as the kid sat up, he became much clearer.

“Why do you have Dino with you? Is that even Dino? I didn’t detect him.” I crossed my arms and glanced to Hoshi.

“Of course not, it's obviously one of his clones. Are you saying his clones are soulless?” Hoshi almost burst into laughter.

“That’s really mean to say, Jun. I’m over here dying and you are already selling my soul.” The Dino clone finally spoke.

“What are you talking about?” Then I suddenly remembered seeing Dino’s aura not moving in the gym. “Okay, but you aren’t dead. You still have an Aura. Well, not you. But the real you.”

“That’s reassuring?” Dino sounded confused.

“Wait, did you say you were looking for Wonwoo? I am too! Why are you looking for Wonwoo?” I asked in confusion.

“Wonwoo has to heal Dino’s sliced throat before my stitch-job wears off and he also has to help the medical team heal Jeonghan. Everybody needs healing, surprisingly.” Hoshi jumped around and ate a protein bar.

How did I not even notice the cut on Dino’s neck? It’s like incredibly obvious. Well, I wouldn't say ‘incredibly obvious’, the stitch work seems to be done correctly.

“No need for Dino to come with us, I’ll heal him and he can follow Joshua to his body.” I said and walked over to the badly injured Dino. “Go find Joshua once I’m done, okay?”

“What do you mean ‘us’? Why do you need Wonwoo?” Hoshi asked in a hurry while I placed my hand on Dino’s throat and began healing it.

“You’ll see in a second, it wasn’t that far away when I last checked.” I finished healing Dino and stood up.

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

“What was that?” The anxious Hoshi asked.

“The hot-head who swallowed my boyfriend.”

From the end of the hallway, a wave of heat smacked us. The lava monster seemed to be extremely angry. Probably because it had to slide an extra mile and a half to catch up to me. Dino understood the situation and began to slowly back up. Hopefully he would find Joshua, who was following DK, who was being dragged to, hopefully, the gym. Man, that sentence was confusing. Hoshi, on the other hand, decided it would be best to fight the lava monster. He raised his arms and began circling them at hurricane speed. I must admit, I didn’t think anything would work on the monster, but by the looks of it, the lava monster was being pushed back. Sadly, that was the opposite of what I wanted it to do.

“Wait,” I jumped in front of the high speed winds and he stopped. “I need him to follow me.”

“What? You like death? Because that’s all I’m hearing.” Hoshi picked at his ear.

“I have a plan, trust me.”

“Alright..”

I hopped onto Hoshi’s back and led him to where the strange aura was. At first, he was hesitant about punching the wall at a high speed, but he did it anyways. Every few feet, he would stop and eat a protein bar. It probably would have gone quicker if I stepped off of his back, but I was tired and I enjoyed the ride. Instead of acting completely useless, I began meditating while on board the Hoshi-train. Not too far away was a clearer aura of a spirit that took the form of a half-spider, half-woman. In front of the spirit, was Wonwoo and an unfamiliar aura. My guess is his father.

“Onward, my trusty steed. To Wonwoo!” I smacked Hoshi’s booty and he stopped punching the walls.

“Don’t call me a your trusty steed and don’t smack my booty.” He was serious for a second and then laughed it off.

Bllgh Blllgggh Blllllgggghh

“Onward, my trusty steed. Away from the lava monster containing my boyfriend!” I laughed and smacked his booty again, causing him to speed up.

QUESTIONS:

What do you think Jun has to capture from the future rockslide?

Is Minghao going to be okay while roasting inside of a lava monster or is this the end of Junhao?

What do you think is happening on the intelligence unit side? Is DK okay?