| Chapter 6 |

Kris could hear Chanyeol’s screams from afar but he wasn’t worried. The screams he heard were of excitement and maybe a little bit of crazy.

“Krees,” he heard Chanyeol yell from ahead of him. “Catch up!” Kris groaned internally. If it weren’t for the smoke the idiot was making from his bursts of flames, it wouldn’t be too hard to catch up. Kris dipped low, avoiding the trail of smoke that Chanyeol was emitting.

“Idiot!” Kris called out. “Slow down!” Chanyeol didn’t respond. In frustration, he willed himself to go a little bit faster but the burst in speed he got wasn’t the speed he’d expected to get. “Whoa!” he zoomed forward, his arms and legs flailing, and passed Chanyeol in a matter of seconds.

“Krees, way to go!” Chanyeol cheered on. “But I’m not losing to you!” Chanyeol set his eyes on Kris as a sort of target, and added more juice into his jets of fire. He flew forward with more speed, flying alongside Kris now. Kris was the most awkward flyer Chanyeol ever saw, at least compared to the ones in movies and cartoons. “You need to have more control!”

Kris was flying with his back facing the ground and he was facing the endless sky above.

If I willed myself to go faster, willing myself to go slow should work, he thought in panic. Slower. Slower. He started chanting the word in his mind until he slowed down. He didn’t notice he had closed his eyes. He opened them slowly and was greeted by a grinning Chanyeol above him, flying parallel to him with the same speed.

“Ah!” Kris flailed once again in surprise. “Jesus! You scared the living daylights out of me!” Chanyeol just kept on smiling at him. Kris flipped himself in the air so that he was flying the normal way again, if flying was EVER normal.

“Let go!” Chanyeol shouted at him. “Stop being so nervous and apprehensive! You won’t fly high if your heart and mind is weighing you down!” he said as he tapped his chest and his head. Then he was ahead of Kris again. He plunged into a particularly big cloud until Kris couldn’t see him anymore.

“I wonder what cartoon series he got that quote from.” Kris said to himself as he rolled his eyes but he admitted that Chanyeol was right. He exhaled loudly and followed Chanyeol’s trail of smoke into the cloud. Inside the damp confines of the cloud, Kris tried a couple of spins and twists in the air and for the first time since he left the mountain top they were stuck in he embraced his new power. No matter how strange. No matter how unbelievable. And for the first time he let go of his worries for a bit. Inside the cloud, surrounded by fine droplets of water, it felt like he was surrounded by a million stars. He smiled and located Chanyeol’s trail of smoke and followed it. He dove down until he was out of the cloud. Then he saw Chanyeol, unmoving, hovering in place. He drifted slowly towards him until they were both hovering side by side.

“Hey,” Kris said. “I followed your advice. I did a few tricks up there and I think I'm getting the hang of this.” Chanyeol didn’t reply. Kris looked at his friend and saw that his usual smile wasn’t there. “What’s wrong?”

“What do you think that is?” Chanyeol said, pointing downward. Kris looked down and saw they’d flown lower than he expected. The land was closer now and he could see a rocky terrain beneath them. There was a spot in the landscape colored red.

“It looks like some kind of...fog?” Kris said. He felt an ominous chill run down his spine when he looked at the unusual red formation of gas.

“I don’t like the looks of it.” Chanyeol said quietly. The usual happy tone in his voice gone.

“Neither do I. Let’s stay away from it---” Kris’ voice trailed off. “Hey,” he squinted his eyes. Something unexpected happened. His vision became clear, clearer than it ever was. The landscape below him popped, as if his eyes had become some sort of super camera lens. Around the area where the red fog was, he saw twelve stone pillars that jut out of the ground. They were taller than the other stones and rocks surrounding the area, and they formed a circle. The red clouds were concentrated heavily inside the circle of stone pillars. It looked more ominous when everything was clearer. In the middle of the circle, as he focused his enhanced his vision there, was a sight he didn’t expect to see and a sharp panic gripped him.

“Chen?”

“Someone’s in my head!” Kai clutched at his head and fell to his knees. He shook his head and closed his eyes, hoping this would somehow get the disembodied voice to stop. Lay immediately stepped forward and held Kai’s head in his hands, trying to soothe whatever pain he was feeling.

“Kai, what do you mean?” Baekhyun asked after Kai calmed down a little bit.

Kai spoke weakly. “He’s calling my name. He’s asking for help. Lu…Han?” Lay, Tao and Xiumin looked at each other.

“Did you just say Luhan?” Xiumin asked, kneeling down to face Kai. The other boy nodded. “He’s our friend.” Xiumin spoke gently, smiling. “That must be his power… He must be contacting you!”

Lay let go of Kai then. Kai’s eyes were closed, as if concentrating hard, then he opened them as he let out a breath.

“He needs my help.” He said with resolve. He looked at the others with him and smiled. “Sehun’s with him.” Suho and Baekhyun’s faces lit up. “They need my power to get out of where they are.”

“All you have to do is teleport there and bring them here!” Baekhyun suggested. “Problem solved!” Kai stood up then.

“Did Luhan mention anyone else with him?” Tao asked, looking at Kai with an almost pleading expression. Kai frowned and shook his head.

“If we’re to base it on our own experiences, the others must have been paired off with someone from the other group.” Suho said. “One from our group and one from yours.”

“I agree. Luhan is with Sehun. Kris and Chen must be with two others from your group.” Xiumin said.

“Kyungsoo and…” Suho said.

“Chanyeol.” Baekhyun finished, almost sadly.

“I’ll get them back.” Kai said after a moment of silence. “If I’m going to use these powers, I might as well use it to bring my friends,” he looked at Tao, “and yours, back together.”

Tao smiled and nodded at Kai who returned the smile. Baekhyun clapped a hand onto Kai’s back. “One problem. How do you know where they are? They could be anywhere on Earth!”

Kai’s smile disappeared as the thought sinks in. How will he teleport to them if he doesn’t know where they are? That Luhan guy forgot to tell him where they were.

“When you teleported for the first time a while ago,” Lay said trailing off in the end, as if he suddenly forgot what to say. The others looked at him. “How did you do it?” he finished after a few seconds of blanking out.

Kai explained that he just wanted to really get out of the cage and that he wanted to see Suho and Baekhyun as soon as possible. “I just thought of it and it kind of happened.”

“Then there you go. Just think of your friend,” Lay paused for a while, remembering the name he’s supposed to say. “Sehun, right? Just think of him and your powers will take care of the rest!”

“That’s worth a shot.” Suho said, looking at Kai. “Concentrate.” Kai nodded and closed his eyes. A moment later, he disappeared, leaving behind clouds of black smoke that looked like an after-image of him.

“Did it work?” Sehun said as soon as Luhan opened his eyes. Luhan shook his head quickly, trying to clear his mind, then he looked at Sehun and nodded.

“I managed to send him a mental message.” Luhan sighed. His head throbbed with pain from the effort he had just exerted in sending that message but he kept it to himself, careful not to show Sehun he was in pain.

“There’s no use worrying about it.” Sehun said, taking Luhan’s hand in his and leading him back under the shade of the tree. “Let’s just wait and see.” Luhan followed him until they were no longer under the heat of the sun. Luhan thought about how similar this world was to Earth. He still had doubts they weren’t in Earth. He had a gut feeling, and whenever he had one he always followed it. They sat underneath the tree, their backs leaning on the trunk, in silence for several long moments.

“Sehun-ah,” Luhan said after a while. “In my vision, Chen was with someone. I didn’t recognize him but I’m willing to bet he’s your friend. I’m really…” he paused and bit his lower lip.

Sehun put a calm hand on his shoulder. “Hey,” Luhan turned his head slowly to look at him. “They’re going to be okay. If Chen is as good a friend as you are to me, then I’m sure we have nothing to worry about.” Sehun flashed him a smile that melted away the anxiety he was feeling.

Stupid, Luhan thought. Who’s the older one here?

“He is.” Luhan agreed, shaking away whatever was left of the fear he had away. He let out a loud sigh and stretched his hands in front of him, blocking his view of the grasslands. “I hope Kai gets here quick.” He closed his eyes as he stretched himself further. Then he heard a sort of fuzzy popping sound. He opened his eyes and removed his hands in front of him to see a tall, slender, tan-skinned boy in front of him.

“Kai!” Sehun jumped up and threw his arms around the new arrival. Kai received his friend with open arms and they hugged for a moment until Luhan broke them off with a cough. “Oh, I’m sorry, Luhan! This is Kai!”

“So, you’re Luhan. Smart move, contacting me. Although it did freak me out at first when you did.” He stretched a hand out for a shake. Luhan looked at him, unintentionally eyeing him from head to toe, before taking the hand and shaking it.

“Nice to finally meet you.” Luhan said. “But let’s forget about the introductions for now. We have more pressing matters to attend to.”

“Krees, what’s wrong?” Chanyeol asked, sensing the change in his friend. He noticed his friend's eyes had taken on a different look. Instead of round pupils, he had slits for pupils instead, like that of a cat’s… or a dragon’s.

“It’s Chen!” Kris said, his voice sounding urgent. “We have to get down there!” Without waiting for Chanyeol to agree, he dived down towards the abnormal red spot below them. Chanyeol followed without hesitating.

It only took Kris seconds to travel from where they were to directly above the red cloud formation. The twelve stone pillars erupted from the ground below him and right in the center was Chen and another boy, their backs to each other.

“Chen!” Kris shouted. The two boys below him looked up in surprise. Chen’s face lit up out of relief when he saw his friend but it immediately changed to one of horror when something erupted out of the red clouds behind Kris and s its way towards him.

“Kris, watch out!” he shouted his warning but it was too late. Kris only had time to look behind him when a silver mechanical tentacle wrapped around him. “Kris!”

“What is that?!” his friend watched in horror as the mechanical tentacle continued to wrap around Kris.

“Argh!” Kris struggled, trying hard to squeeze himself out of the grip, but he immediately felt weak, as if his energy was being out of him. He was slowly descending to the ground, his ability to fly being sapped from him. One look at the mechanoid tentacle wrapped around him assured him that it was the reason for his sudden loss of energy. The silver surface of the tentacle had hundreds of tiny circles that slowly pulsed a red color. With every wave of the faint red light, Kris felt a portion of his energy disappear.

Chen could only watch, frozen on the ground, as his friend slowly sank to the ground. Then he heard a sort of whistling sound. He turned to the source of the sound and saw something flash in the sky. Squinting, he saw a ball of flame headed towards them. It collided with the tentacle that held Kris, exploding on contact and severing it. Kris fell with the help of gravity and Chen only managed to catch him in time when he dived forward, arms outstretched.

“Gotcha!” Chen grunted. He helped Kris out of the metal tentacle wrapped around him.

“Is he okay?” his friend approached them. “He’s not dead is he?”

“Relax, Kyungsoo. He’s fine.” Chen finally managed to unwrap Kris and made him sit up. “But where’d that fireball come from?”

“Me.” A deep voice came from behind them. Kyungsoo turned to look at the owner of the familiar voice. “Dyo! Did you miss me?” Chanyeol flashed him his smile.

“Chanyeol!” Kyungsoo got up and ran towards the taller boy. “You big idiot!” He said into Chanyeol’s chest after he hugged him. “You didn’t tell me you could fly!”

Chanyeol hugged his friend and laughed. “I missed you, too.”

“Chanyeol.” Kris said, who finally regained his energy. “Watch out. These things, whatever they are, can away your energy.” Kris’ eyes had reverted back to its normal state.

“Kris, what’s going on?” Chen asked. Kris looked at his friend.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, disregarding Chen's question. Chen shook his head. “Good. I’ll explain later. But first we have to get you two out of here.”

“I don’t think they’re going to let us.” Chanyeol said, pointing at the red fog in front of him. A silver ball came floating out of it. It was as tall as Chanyeol and around five feet wide. It looked big enough to put both Chanyeol and Kris inside of it. The sphere had a red circular “eye” on its body. Chanyeol noticed that a red fog was being emitted from small vents on the sphere and that it was hovering a few meters above the ground.

Kris herded Chen and D.O behind himself and Chanyeol, ready to defend them in case the spheres decide to attack them again. They stay at a standstill for a long moment.

“Dyo,” Chanyeol whispered, afraid that breaking the silence will cause the spheres to attack. “did you activate your powers yet?”

“Powers?” D.O whispered back.

“Yeah, each one of us has one, I think.” he said, his eyes scanning the scarlet fog in front of him. “You find these stone tablets and I think it lights up and you hear this whisper in the air telling you what power you have. I got fire. I think it was because I sort of burst into flames the night before last.”

“You what?” D.O looked at his friend in disbelief, his eyes widening significantly. Chanyeol stayed silent and just nodded. D.O thought about it for a second then revealed that during the same night he had experienced something strange as well. The earth had moved underneath his feet, like he was the epicenter of an earthquake, and that Kai had appeared in front of him and disappeared. “I thought I was dreaming but I woke up here, after I out.”

“Kai appeared in front of me, too.” Chanyeol whispered back. “If the earth started moving, then that must mean you have the powers over earth.”

“And Chen,” Kris voice cut in. “You most probably have the powers over lightning.”

D.O and Chen looked at each other, taking some time to absorb the new information.

“Well,” Chen said. “What are we waiting for? Let’s start looking for those stones, then!”

“That’d be no problem if we weren’t surrounded by energy- aliens.” Chanyeol said. It felt like they've stood there for hours, not knowing if they should move or wait for the spheres to make theirs. Kris looked around, trying to form a plan of escape, when he saw something on the surface of the stone pillars in front of him that caught his attention. The dragon symbol was etched onto the face of the stone. His dragon symbol. Chanyeol’s symbol, a phoenix, was also on another stone pillar. He looked at all the pillars in his line of sight and saw that they all had a symbol each.

“Psst, guys.” Kris whispered to the other three. “The pillars. Look at them.” The others immediately looked at the stone pillars surrounding them. “Chanyeol, our symbols are on the pillars in front of me.” Chanyeol turned his head to look. Just then, they heard a sound come from the red fog in front of Chanyeol. They all turned to look to see three of the same silver tentacles from earlier erupt from the red clouds and head straight for them. Chanyeol lit up both his hands with fire and was prepared to launch a counter-attack when a puff of black smoke appeared between him and the tentacles. The attackers stopped in midair and retracted, back into the clouds.

“More visitors?” D.O asked nervously, peeking behind Chanyeol.

The black smoke slowly faded to reveal three silhouettes.

“Chen?” A voice came from within the smoke. Chen and Kris turned towards it, surprised to hear the familiar voice. “Chen, are you okay?” came the voice again. The smoke finally cleared completely, revealing the new comers to the four boys.

“Luhan!” Chen and Kris exclaim.

“Sehun! Kai!” Chanyeol called out. D.O peeked out from behind the taller boy after hearing the names and he smiled.

“Kai.” Kyungsoo breathed the name out.

| Rescue Operation |

[A/N]

I hope you guys liked this chapter! It's a bit long, yeah? Their paths are all finally coming together!! Please wait patiently for the next update!!

Much love, guys!! UpVote if you think the story deserves it! <3