♦ ♦ ♦ Chapter Ten ♦ ♦ ♦

"Holy . That's amazing."

Baekhyun whispered in awe as Chanyeol, though wincing and already breaking out in beads of sweat, nursed a small flickering tongue of flame on his palm. Baekhyun stared at the light orange flame, blowing on it gently to make it dance and flicker. Chanyeol chuckled before he finally extinguished the fire at will. His boyfriend pouted up at him, which quickly turned into a worried frown as he saw Chanyeol's face.

"You're sweating so much, Chanyeol, are you okay? Maybe you shouldn't use that too much." Baekhyun pulled his sleeve over his hand and started gently dabbing Chanyeol's sweat away.

"I guess so, yeah. It's...really consuming."

Baekhyun nodded, leaning in to plant a kiss on Chanyeol's cheek before he patted his own lap. Chanyeol obliged, resting his head on Baekhyun's lap and easily falling into sleep. Baekhyun played with Chanyeol's hair, running his fingers through his hair and caressing his cheek. He looked at Chanyeol's arm, the sleeve of his shirt folded up to reveal the skin. There was a gauze on it, and underneath it was where Dongwan had opened Chanyeol up, removing the tracking device that all timedroppers had. Just below the wound was where Hyesung infused a stone into Chanyeol. It wasn't only Chanyeol; everyone of EXO was getting it done.

According to Jun Jin and Minwoo, the stones possessed some kind of magical abilities that responded to a person's personality. Eric had found the stones when he had timedropped into a wrong period in the future. Thinking that it could help them in their rebellion against the HQ, he brought home a lot and researched on it, which resulted into their current knowledge of the stone.

Baekhyun looked up as Chen came out of the room next to the laboratory. He now had a gauze over his arm, and he looked pale and ready to pass out. Xiumin, who was standing near the door, quickly came to Jongdae and guided him to an available seat next to a resting Sehun and Luhan. Everyone got tired after the infusion, and Andy said that it was a side-effect of the stone, but after a good night's rest, everything would be okay.

"Okay, last one. Come on."

Baekhyun whipped his head to the door to the operating room and saw that Hyesung and Dongwan were looking at him. He meekly pointed at his face, a confused look marring his features.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Come on, we haven't got all day."

"But...I'm not--

"Part of EXO? Nonsense. You already are, we can feel it. Besides, we need all the help we can get if we want to win this thing. Come on." Dongwan beckoned him over, and Baekhyun didn't know what to do.

"Come on, we'll assess whether you're capable of being infused with the stone. If not, we won't push through." Hyesung added, and Baekhyun sighed in defeat. He carefully removed Chanyeol's head on his lap, and walked towards Dongwan and Hyesung.

In the end, he came out of the room with a gauze on his arm, and his body feeling like it was on fire, the heat emanating from the stone.

Baekhyun woke up to an earthquake.

Snapping up into a sitting position, he quickly turned to his side and found Chanyeol sleeping peacefully. He grabbed him by the shoulder and started shaking him awake when the earthquake stopped. Chanyeol chose that time to wake up, and he stared groggily at Baekhyun.

"What is it, Baek?"

"There was an earthqua--

"Sorry, that was D.O."

Baekhyun yanked his gaze away from Chanyeol to see Luhan peeking into their room, a sheepish grin on his face. His face was lightly smeared with dirt, and Baekhyun wondered what just happened for him to get this dirty at such an early hour.

"That was D.O.?" Baekhyun repeated, and Luhan nodded, jerking his head towards the direction where he came from.

"We're practicing. Guys, get your up. Minwoo-sunbae's starting to teach us the basics."

"The basics?" Chanyeol propped himself up by his elbows as he looked at Luhan questioningly.

"Yeah. The basics in using our powers."

They stood in one line outside their hideout, side by side, as Minwoo watched them expectantly. D.O., Luhan and Kai were the only ones smeared with dirt, and Baekhyun still didn't know why. Minwoo cleared his throat, and they all focused on him.

"So, the previous day, we removed your tracking devices and infused you with the stones. It's only natural that when HQ checks your whereabouts again, they'll see that your tracking devices are no longer in use, and this place would be the last that it's been to. Obviously, we need to move." Minwoo started, and Suho raised his hand. Baekhyun chuckled inwardly at how everything seemed similar to a school setting.

"Where are we going to go, sunbae? We don't know anybody else."

"We'll set up a new HQ. We've been planning for it for months, anyway. So, just for today, I'll be teaching you the basics in controlling your powers. One day is enough, really. You need to listen, so nothing like D.O.'s incident is going to happen again." Minwoo's lips were twitching into a smile as he gestured to a rather large crater in the ground not too far from where they were.

"I'm sorry, Minwoo-sunbae, I didn't mean to do that." D.O. grinned sheepishly, and Kai laughed.

"I know. For those of you who don't know what happened, Kai over here had playfully surprised D.O., which in turn, shocked him and caused him to jump. He must have activated his powers accidentally, because, well, that crater happened when he landed."

"Kai and I had to help him out of the hole, that's why we got dirty." Luhan added helpfully, and Baekhyun snorted.

"...maybe you need to lose weight, D.O." He chimed in, and Xiumin laughed beside him, totally amused.

"Haha, very funny, Baekhyun." D.O. retaliated, but he smiled before they all focused again on Minwoo.

"Alright, so the basics. Are you guys ready?"

"Yes, sunbae!"

"To use your powers, you just basically have to focus on the stone in you. Know that you are one with it. Focus. Alright, first off, let me see your powers. I have no idea what those are since the stone reacts to the person it's infused to. Let's start with Kris."

By this time, the other members of Shinhwa came out, standing behind Minwoo as Kris stepped forward. He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. For a while, nothing happened. He closed and opened his fists by his side as he kept on taking deep breaths. Then, s let out a soft, collective gasp as their leader started hovering off the floor, inch by inch. Minwoo smiled, clapping his hands.

"Good job, Kris." Kris looked up when he heard his name, and he suddenly dropped to the ground. He lost his balance, and he fell on his backside. Minwoo scratched his cheek with a finger, looking at Kris with sympathy. "Well, we'll work on that. For now, let's go over everyone."

And the 'activity' continued.

Chanyeol clenched his hands into fists and held them out to the side. He took a deep breath, and abruptly opened his hands, palms facing upwards into the sky. As his hands opened up, tongues of flames sprung up from his palm, engulfing his hands up to his wrists. Thankfully, he was only wearing a t-shirt so nothing burned.

Up next was Sehun. He didn't have a hard time using his powers for the first time. He only stepped forward, stayed still for a while, and then suddenly, strong gusts of wind were surrounding him like a mini-tornado. He waved his hand to the side, and the direction of the wind obeyed him. Chen let out a low whistle at how cool he looked.

D.O. came next. He bit his lip out of nervousness, and balled his hands into fists by his side. He held in his breath before stomping his foot with so much force. The ground broke, and he lost his balance as the ground he was standing on suddenly became uneven. Kai had a laughing fit, and D.O. threatened him with an uppercut to shut him up.

Lay's power was a little hard to distinguish at first. Nothing extraordinary happened around them. If Suho hadn't noticed how their wounds were suddenly healing, they would have taken longer to identify. Lay smiled as he discovered his power, but he quickly asked his sunbaes if he could sit down for a while. Dongwan, who had the same ability, concluded that Lay had accidentally used his power in a large range, tiring him out too much.

Luhan came up next. Just like everybody, he took deep breaths and focused. Soon enough, Chen started pointing at Sehun's cap, which was now floating around. Luhan gaped at it, and when he thought for it to twirl in the air, it did. Well, telekinesis is nice, too.

Kai followed. He stepped forward, only to disappear all of a sudden and reappear behind D.O., shocking him again and resulting in another crater that they both fell into. Luhan had to help them out again.

Suho stepped up next. He pressed his palms together and held it up to his lips as he took deep breaths. Slowly, he pulled his hands away, and little blobs of water formed out of nothing. He started chasing Chanyeol around for no reason.

Chen stepped forward, and as he did, the ground under his foot suddenly sparked. Quirking an eyebrow, he held up his hand and willed his power to activate. They were small, but Chen was sure that little bolts of lightning sparked out of his fingers.

Xiumin took a deep, slow breath and focused. Baekhyun patted him on the back good naturedly, and he grinned back. He inhaled deeply, and held his breath, closing his eyes as he focused. Then, he heard Chanyeol's laughter and Suho's complains of, "hey, why is my water frozen?! Xiumin, did you do this?!".

Baekhyun came next, and he clasped his hands in front of him. Chanyeol watched him closely, smiling at him approvingly. Feeling pumped up, he took a deep breath before he unclasped his hands. His palms were glowing. Chen joked on how he could be their flashlight during black outs.

Lastly came Tao. He stepped up the centre and focused hard on doing something, but not too big. He didn't want to be exhausted like Lay. He stood for a while, with nothing happening. He was growing afraid that maybe the stone didn't work, but then Luhan started clapping like a retarded seal behind him, pointing at the crater that D.O. had created. The ground seemed like it was rebuilding itself, but upon closer inspection, they noticed how everything seemed to go backwards. Time, it seemed, was something that Tao could control.

Minwoo applauded their good control, and called for a break. "Rest for an hour, then we'll practice again. There's more to your powers than the ones you just witnessed."

Despite their predicament, EXO was excited.

"Onew-oppa, what are you going to do about Baekhyun-oppa and the others?"

"I'm only following orders, Ae-In."

"...they're nice people...EXO, I mean."

"I know, Ae-In, I know."

^{A/N: Long time no update. Trolololol. Been busy thinking about life in general. Yeaaaaah. Anyway, yes! Powerssss. I've been excited to write magical so here it is! It's fuuun :))}