| Chapter 7 |

“No time for a friendly get together, guys!” Kris shouted when D.O was about to run out from behind Chanyeol’s back to greet his friends. “We have some business to take care of.”

D.O froze in his tracks and looked at Kai and Sehun helplessly. Luhan, understanding immediately the gravity of the situation, turned around to face the red haze surrounding them.

“Kris,” he shouted without facing his friend. “Bring us up to speed.”

Kris had resumed his position of protecting Chen and D.O while Chanyeol gave way for Kai, Sehun and Luhan into their protective circle. Now, D.O and Chen were protected from all possible sides.

“There are mechanical spheres inside the red fog.” Kris began. “I got caught by one earlier and I felt it draining away my energy. I take it you guys already have your powers activated?”

“We do.” Sehun answered, who was beside Kris in their circle. “I have control over wind. Kai can teleport.”

“And I’m a telekinetic and telepath.” Luhan said.

“You have the power over fire, am I right, Channie?” Kai guessed, his eyes darting from left to right, ready to react to an attack. “And D.O should have the powers over earth.”

“That’s another problem.” Kris said. “Chen and D.O still haven’t activated their powers.”

“What?” Luhan turned his head. The moment he did, a tentacle came rushing out of the fog in front of him. Luhan reacted reflexively. He raised his hands above him and a wall of psychic energy materialized in front of him. The tentacle collided with the wall and the impact sent a wave of pain in Luhan’s head. He groaned internally from the feeling.

“Luhan!” Sehun broke their formation and ran to Luhan’s side and Kai and Chanyeol automatically covered Sehun’s position. The tentacle retracted back into the red clouds. Luhan maintained his psychic wall but he was sweating hard.

“Sehun, we need to do something about that fog.” he said as soon as Sehun arrived beside him. Sehun understood what Luhan wanted him to do and he nodded in agreement. “Everyone,” Luhan announced. “We’re going to clear away this fog!”

Luhan focused again. The psychic wall disappeared and a dome of energy surrounded them instead.

“Luhan! Are you sure you can keep this wall up? I think that last attack sort of hurt you.” Chen said having noticed Luhan flinch after that last attack. As if taking cue from Chen’s words, two tentacles shot out from the fog and began attacking the psychic dome. Luhan stood his ground as the attackers battered away at Luhan's defenses,

“Sehun!” Luhan grunted, eyes closed. “Hurry!”

Sehun nodded and raised his arms. Outside the dome, the fog started to move. Slowly at first. It began to drift towards their right. The two tentacles were joined by three more and they assaulted Luhan’s defenses without cease.

Luhan bit his lip, stiffling a cry. He kept his eyes shut tight, his concentration unwavering even with the constant waves of pain he was feeling with each attack their opponents were sending.

Sehun also concentrated harder and an unnaturally strong gust of wind swept through the stony field, blowing away the red fog until none was left. The spheres also got caught up in the blast of wind and were thrown 15 feet away from them. As soon as Luhan felt the attacks had stopped, that Sehun had done what he needed to do, he released his psychic dome and collapsed on the ground.

“Luhan!” Chen and Kris quickly came to their friend’s aid while Kai, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo went for Sehun.

“Did I do it?” Sehun asked, opening an eye. “How’s Luhan? Is he okay?” He turned to see Luhan being held up by Chen. He pushed Chanyeol and Kai out of his way as he went towards Luhan. “What’s wrong? Is he okay?”

Luhan, eyes still closed, smiled. “Did you do that ridiculous pose again, Sehun?” He managed to say. He opened his eyes slowly and pushed himself up. “I’m good. I’m just not used to these powers, that’s all.” He smiled again, hoping it wasn’t a weak one. Chen and Kris helped him stand up as Sehun watched, his hands ready to catch Luhan if ever he needed them. Kai also watched the scene unfold but decided he couldn’t anymore and turned his attention instead to the spheres in the distance.

Chanyeol and Kyungsoo surveyed the damage that Sehun had inflicted onto their attackers. In the distance they saw the spheres on the ground. If they were right-side up or not, they didn’t know. The spheres looked identical and there was really no way of telling which side was up or down. There were a few that got impaled by the rocks but most were still intact. Kai counted around 15 spheres. 3 were destroyed.

“Sehun sure did the trick.” Chanyeol said.

“I should get my powers, too, so you guys don’t have to keep protecting me.” Kyungsoo said, turning to Chanyeol. “How did this stone thing look like again?”

“You don’t need a stone thing.” Kai said, joining them. “All you need to do is touch your symbol and speak out your power.”

“If that’s the case,” Kyungsoo said. “One of those should be mine, right?” He pointed at the symbols on the surfaces of the stone pillars surrounding them. Kai looked at the symbols one by one, recognizing them all from the circle of symbols on the floor of the metal cage he was trapped in not too long ago. He remembered the last two symbols that had yet to glow.

“The scorpion and the bug-head.” Kai said. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo looked at him with a confused look. “It’s one of those. The scorpion,” he pointed at a stone pillar in front of them. “or the bug-head.” He pointed at one behind them, the one in between Tao’s symbol of time and Xiumin’s symbol of ice. “That’s how I see them as.” He added.

“Well, we better get a move on,” Kris said behind them. “in case those things aren’t completely out of the game yet.” He nodded towards the direction of the unmoving spheres. He took the absence of their red cloud production as a sign that they were out of commission due to the attack Sehun did but he wasn’t keeping his hopes up.

“Agreed.” Kai said. “Dyo, hold on to me.”

“Why?” Kyungsoo asked as he held on to Kai’s arm.

“There’s probably just enough space on top of that pillar for one person so I’ll be gone as soon as I drop you off.”

Kyungsoo gave him a confused look then they were gone, only black smoke in the form of their outline was left behind. An instant later, D.O was on top of the pillar with the scorpion symbol and Kai was back beside Chanyeol.

“DO NOT. DO THAT. EVER. AGAIN!” Kyungsoo shouted as he grabbed hold of the edges of the pillar. He inched his way towards the side of the pillar that held the symbol of the scorpion and peeked. His eyes widened at the long drop down and he gulped. The others were shouting words of encouragement from down below. He exhaled and removed one hand from the edge and slid it down the face of the stone until his hand felt the indentation on the smooth surface. “Earth!” he said, his voice loud and clear. The others looked intently at the symbol, waiting for it to glow.

“Did it work?” Chen asked, not knowing what to expect.

“Did it work!?” Kyungsoo repeated with a shout. He tried to peek at the symbol but Kai appeared above him, tapped his back and brought him back to the ground all in a second. He was sprawled face down on the ground when they reappeared. “I told you not to do that again!” he huffed angrily as he stood up and dusted his clothes. Kai gave him a lopsided smile and he immediately calmed down.

“So that means that’s Chen’s symbol.” Kris said. “Let’s get to it. Hurry.”

Kai worked quickly, bringing D.O and Chen on top of their respective pillars.

“Ready?” Chen shouted from above his pillar, his hand over the scorpion symbol.

“Ready!” Kyungsoo shouted back, his own hand covering the bug-head symbol of his own pillar.

“Just get on with it already!” Kris shouted irritably. Kyungsoo and Chen nodded.

“Earth!” Kyungsoo shouted. His symbol started glowing.

“Thunder!” Chen shouted. But nothing happened. “W-what? Why isn’t it working!?”

“It’s lightning, idiot!” Kris shouted. Chen grinned at his mistake and put his hand back on the symbol and shouted lightning. The symbol glowed in answer. “Kai, get them down.” Kris instructed. Kai nodded and in a second both boys were back on the ground.

“I don’t feel any different.” Chen said, examining his hands, expecting them to discharge electricity any second now, like they did back in Kris’ condo.

“You’re not supposed to. It’s inside of you, inside all of us, somehow. You just will your powers to work and they do.” Luhan explained. “With a bit of imagination.”

“Let me practice on those spheres, then.” Kyungsoo said excitedly. He ran towards the spheres but left a few feet of distance between them, just in case. “So, I just will it and imagine what I want to do…” he said to himself, thinking of ways to use his power for the first time. Then he heard a loud rumble and a loud cracking sound from above. He directed his gaze upwards and saw a flash of light as a bolt of lightning sped down to the ground. He raised his arms up, shielding his face, as the bolt made contact with the spheres and disintegrated most of them. Kyungsoo lowered his arms when it was over and saw that the earth just a few feet in front of him was blackened to a crisp. His eyes grew wide and he noticed his heartbeat had tripled at the sight of the lightning bolt hurtling towards him a second ago.

He turned around and looked at Chen.

“I was supposed to practice on those!” he said, flustered. The others laughed while Chen muttered a sorry, grinning. Kyungsoo knew full well that he had meant to do that.

“You’ll have lots of time to try out your powers later, hyung.” Kai said. “But for now we have to go back. The others are waiting for us.”

D.O made his way back to the group, shoulders slumped, and they linked their hands together to form a circle.

“Can you say when you’re going to do it coz I always feel sick wheneve---“ Kyungsoo tried to say but before he could finish his sentence, Kai had activated his powers and they were gone, leaving only black smoke in their position.

Amidst the destruction of the spheres, a red light blinks on and off ominously.

Suho, Lay, Xiumin, Baekhyun and Tao waited patiently in the white hall for Kai to return. It has been a good while since he disappeared.

“I wonder where he is. It shouldn’t be too hard to find them, right?” Suho said worriedly. “I mean, if he got lost, he could have just come back here and retried.”

“Don’t worry. He will. Maybe he’s found them but they went looking for the others as well.” Baekhyun said, comforting the older boy.

Tao walked around the length of the hall, looking for a way out, when something caught his eye. The twelve holes on the floor started emitting light.

“Hey, guys, over here!” He walked over towards the holes, as did the others, when beams of light shot up from them. The lights were so bright that they reached the high ceiling of the hall. Projected on the ceiling by the lights were the twelve symbols.

“It’s the symbols!” Tao said, pointing up. Then Xiumin heard a noise from behind him. He was at the farther end of the hall and he spun around to see an outline of a gigantic door materializing on the once empty face of the wall.

| Forces of Nature |

[A/N]

Guh I wish you liked the little Kyungsoo moments here. I love making him the one being picked on. XD By Kai, most specially.. LOL Kyungsoo is seriously climbing my bias list. Ugh. =,=

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! Comment comment!!~ Talk to meh!!~