[CONTENTID1]

twenty-seven: capture the flag part two [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

["There are some people you just can't save."] [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

"!" Key hissed, the first one to react. He raced down the hills, Juyeon and Onew stumbling close behind. Sure enough; there was a war cry, and a miniature army of blues began storming towards them on the other side of the boundary.

"Shouldn't we lead them away from the lake?" Onew asked anxiously, flexing his fingers. "They might figure out it's in there."

"No point," Key snapped. "We don't know for sure if they already know, and they'll find out soon enough. Normal, go see where's everyone else. What the hell is Kai doing?"

"Got it," Juyeon said, more than happy to leave the battlefield. Just before going back into the smoking inferno of the forest, she turned back. "Whoa."

There was a thin shimmering bubble spreading rapidly over the lake and its immediate surroundings. Juyeon didn't need to see the sticks and rocks being thrown at the bubble and then being flung backwards like it hit an invisible wall to guess what it was: Key could make force fields.

"No wonder Class 44 is unbeatable," Juyeon mumbled to herself as she ran into the woods.

There were many reds still wandering about, confused at the sudden decrease in enemies. Juyeon sent them all running to the real fight, while keeping an eye out for her Exo friends in the thinning smoke. The fire had gone out, which was great … but then what was Chanyeol doing?

Juyeon's mind suddenly raced with possibilities. The blues were all attacking her side. If she could sneak over, find their flag, and win the game, she could prove herself to the PCs and gain more respect. Maybe Pain would stop trying to kill her.

It was a long shot, but hey; Juyeon had to try something. She needed to prove a normal was just as capable as a PC.

Juyeon broke through the trees, waving her hand in front of her face to dissipate the smoke. She had no idea whether she was on the enemy's side or not until she emerged from the forest.

To her surprise, there was a pretty stone path that abruptly started just outside of the wild forest and s its way down rolling hills and grassy plains. The fields were covered with flowers of all sizes and colours; much like the gardens in the main courtyard but more wild, free. Small rivers and ponds pocketed the fields, breaking the green and pinks and yellows with bursts of blue.

It was beautiful―and mostly on fire. The game had definitely went crazy on the blue side. Juyeon watched as all the pretty flowers burnt to a crisp and imagined the look on D.O's face. She was pretty sure Chanyeol would be murdered tonight.

No one seemed to be in sight, at least not until a person appeared out of nowhere in front of her.

Juyeon stumbled backwards in shock. "What the―Kai? What happened to you?"

Kai was a mess. His artfully messy hair was not so artful anymore, sticking out in all directions. His shirt was torn and stained with dark red (which probably came from the ugly long gash right across his chest), and his right eye was bruised and swelling. He laughed in a more frazzled and crazy version of his normally easygoing way and wiped some blood off of the cut on his lip. "This? Ah, it's the game. What can I say?"

"Where's the rest of our team?" Juyeon demanded. "We have so much less players than the blue team. Sehun, Suho and D.O couldn't have possibly knocked them all out."

Kai blinked at her. "What do they have to do with it?"

"Arrgh, it doesn't matter now!" Juyeon stomped her foot at him. "Go help our team! Kibum's holding them all back with his crazy cool force field thing, but I don't know for how much longer. They'll take the flag soon!"

"I'm on it," Kai said, abruptly disappearing just as Juyeon thought better of it and said, "Wait! Just get the blue flag instead!"

Juyeon watched his teleportation smoke disappear, smacking herself on the head. "I am such an idiot," she mumbled, jogging down the path to the direction where most of the fire and smoke seemed to be coming from.

"Oh, for the love of …" Her voice trailed off as she watched Chanyeol, covered in fire, confront the blues. Suho was there, using water from the ponds and rivers to counter the blaze, and the two seemed to be evenly matched―perhaps Suho had the upper hand. Sehun was nowhere to be seen. D.O appeared to have lost interest in the game and was absorbed in the process of regrowing the flowers.

Juyeon scanned the area for a blue flag, but found nothing. Maybe D.O really had buried it underground.

"Chanyeol!" Juyeon yelled, moving as close as she dared to the crazy fight, hoping he could hear her over the roaring fire. "Chanyeol!"

"What?" A voice yelled back, muffled by flames and smoke.

"Where's the flag?"

There was silence. Then, "Uhh, I don't know. Maybe it's in the forest."

It was absolutely the worst possible situation to be in at the time, surrounded by burning flowers and smoke, but Juyeon did it: she put her hands on her hips.

"Don't lie to me, Chanyeol! I know it's not in the forest; we've been searching in there. Where is it?"

Juyeon could hear Suho laughing hysterically. Chanyeol answered back, rather timidly, "Uh, it kind of … um … got lost. In the fire."

Juyeon stared at the smoldering boy in outrage. "YOU BURNED IT?!"

"Not on purpose―ow, Suho! Not fair! I'm talking―"

"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO WIN THEN?!"

"You can't!" Suho yelled back gleefully. "You have no flag to steal. We win!"

"No!" Chanyeol said back. "WE win by default, since it's your flag that was destroyed."

"No―"

"Dammit!" Juyeon snapped, turning and running back to the boundary as fast as she could. She only just caught sight of the lake when a sharp whistle pierced the air, followed up by a roar of triumph by the blue team. Juyeon joined her despondent red team as the blues cheered and slapped each other on the backs, the red flag dripping wet and held high above them.

"Well, this ," Key sighed, blowing his bangs away from his eyes. "What the hell happened, Normal? Why didn't Kai get the flag?"

"That idiot Chanyeol burnt the flag to ashes, we would have lost anyway," Juyeon said bitterly, befor