Kai

Hey, where are you? I’m waiting… -__-

Kris’s text broke the silence. Great, back to my ‘duty’.

I was on top of one of my favourite places; Namsam Tower, the best view of Seoul. The N Seoul Tower had often been my favourite place to go, ever since I discovered my abilities. The way the sun gently touched the golden city of Seoul, lighting the buildings in a soft yellow light, it made me happy. I felt powerful. From the peak of Namsam, I could see every street, every alley. Countless times I had sat on the edge of the building, away from tourists and their overly large cameras, and downed a beer, or a coke, finished a packet of chips. Sometimes I would watch couples lock their love together on the fences, or I’d see the sparkles in a child’s eyes as the view struck inspirations.

Of all the things I had witnessed, TV shows being filmed, engagement proposals, first kisses and last goodbyes, my favourite thing to witness happens every day, every night; the sunset. I loved the brightness of it. I loved the orange, the pink, the purples that wash over the skies, melding together until the sky is dominated by the dark black that matched my hair, my clothes and my personality. I never saw any stars above Seoul; there was too much pollution, but for what the sky lacked in bright white sparkles, I found the most beautiful stars among the streets. Lights, turning on and off as people left their jobs and returned home; left their homes and went to their jobs. Bright shining LED lights from street signs and the moving trails of red and white from cars connected each light into one big city of stars, galaxies hidden among the alleys and streets.

Coming, I’m just finishing up my drink

My can of coke had been finished at least twenty minutes ago. I took a last minute to stare up into the endless black of the skies. I knew it was silly, but I imagined myself drawing the essence of the dark from it. My colour was black. I loved the shadows, the secrecy of it, and the mystery. I never saw anything negative about the black, not like the black monsters, the ‘slimers’. When I looked into the darkness, I saw potential. I wanted to become the darkness.

In a second, the only hint that I was ever at Namsam Tower was an empty coke can sitting on the corner of the roof.

I appeared in the middle of my apartment. The team’s apartment, I should say now. Kris was waiting for me with a large hand-drawn map.

“Finally, the sun set in Japan while ago.” He said. “You should go while it’s dark.”

He pointed out a simple map of what he’d drawn. He showed me where the pool Xiumin is frozen in is, and mapped out the houses around it.

“Go quickly now, and come back if you run into any trouble. Remember that if you put yourself in danger, you’re putting everyone in danger. You are vital to this team, just like everyone else. If we lose anyone we’ll die.”

I nodded and disappeared.

I’ve been to Japan once or twice, but never in this neighbourhood. I appeared standing on ice, just above a frozen boy in motion. His round black glasses were askew over his nose, and his hands folded into his body.

He was a living snapshot of the action that had occurred when he was frozen. I imagined him falling into the water, pulling his hands in together as the ice formed around him. The ripples from his splash were still imprinted into the ice.

I quickly teleported into the nearby garden before I looked around the area. I could see black forms moving about in the windows of the house, humanoid and moving with purpose. I checked the neighbouring houses to find that they all were empty, save for a few filled with hundreds of black monsters. In the garage of a house I found a heard large rhino sized beasts, restless and rippling with goo.

How has nobody seen these slimers yet? I wondered. My question was soon answered when I reached the edge of the slimmer territory.

Roadwork signs redirected traffic in a wide circle around the territory. A car of four people approached the signs. I waited from the bushes as a man, a human man walked out of the slimer territory and redirected the car away.

There are humans working with the slimers?  I watched the human as he walked back to the roadwork area. His skin started to ripple and change, and by the time he was back to the roadwork vehicles, he was the familiar black slimy texture.

So they can transform to look like humans. I kept looking at the human-slimers and took photos with my IPhone. I managed to document a few hints that made them look like slimers. They had patches of black slime that appeared and disappeared. When their human skin touched a surface, it rippled like their real black skin.

The last thing I found before I returned home was probably the scariest. I was just about to return home when I heard a rumbling sound from the frozen pool. As I teleported to the sound, a large black tendril thundered out of the ground near the pool, looped over the ice and dove back into the earth on the other side. It tightened itself around the ice until it was caught in a tight hug.

I took a quick snap with my IPhone before returning to the team in South Korea.

Kris was waiting impatiently with Suho and Luhan.

“What did you see?”

I gave a quick recount of my sightings, the biggest impacts being the transformation between human skin and black goo, and the tendril wrapping itself around the ice.

“That means they could be anywhere now, they can turn into humans like that”

“I don’t think they can do it for very long, they seemed to be concentrating pretty hard to maintain their forms.” I responded.

“And what do you think the tendril was?”

“I have no idea, but it was pretty tight around the ice. I don’t think it could break through though.”  

“Did Xiumin hyung look okay?” Luhan asked, his voice laced with worry.

Yixing and Tao walked in with a pile of sticks and weapons.

“Hey Kai want to train with us? I’m teaching Yixing to fight.” Tao said.

Suho and Kris were already deep in conversation. I had already given them my

“Yeah, I guess I have the time now.”

Tao trained us for about an hour. We trained with sticks instead of real blades, fighting against Tao, trying to get a weapon past his parries and blocks. I had the advantage over Yixing; I could use my teleportation to give myself the upper hand, whereas Yixing had only his bare hands when it came to a fight.

Tao used a long stick to block our attacks, and after a quick analysis he chose our weapons for us. Yixing was given a long stick about the size of his forearm. Tao said in real battle he would use a long dagger to keep the enemies out of the way. I was given two smaller sticks that resembled shorter knives. Tao’s reasoning was that with my teleporting I could easily get within range to take a quick, accurate stab.

I had to give it to Tao, for a kid who is still technically in high school like me, he was a good teacher. We made quick progress, and soon we were sparring for at least ten minutes before anyone was knocked back.

Sweat was dripping down our foreheads when Baekhyun entered.

“Kai, Kyungsoo has been scanning the police radios and he wants us to go stop a robbery for a bit of practise with the powers. We’re leaving in five.” 

---------------------

We assembled in front of a large shopping mall. A crowd had grown in the parking lot, a bunch of worried people all waiting for something to happen. A team of police were standing outside, looking worried and talking into their walky-talkies.

“I’ve asked around, apparently there are at least 10 hostages inside and a crew of armed robbers in balaclavas. They don’t know which shop they are stashed in, but they’re all splitting up and taking the money out of each store.” Baekhyun said.

“Kai, do you think you could teleport us all in at the same time?” Luhan asked.

“I can’t, only one person at a time.” I responded.

I teleported Luhan, then Kyungsoo, then Baekhyun inside, storing ourselves in a clothing store.

We crawled around the mall, searching for the robbers. The stores were eerie silent without the regular shoppers around. Eventually, we found the criminals stashed away in a restaurant on the floor below us, we could easily watch them from our position on the bridge above them. The hostages were tied up and piled behind the counter, gagged and terrified.

“We’re still waiting on four more! Were the hell are they? We’re on a tight schedule.” one of the criminals said.

Another criminal with a backpack filled with money ran from around the corner.

“Sorry I took so long. Am I the last one back?” He asked.

“Nope, there are still three more ers being late.” The lead criminal said, an automatic gun strapped behind his back.

“Just make the call, they’ll be back soon.” Another said, his biceps rippling with tattoos. A pistol was tucked into his jeans.

Soon after, the leader’s voice sounded over the PA system.

Ladies and gentlemen! We would love to be on our way pretty soon without any trouble, so when we leave this place, we would very much appreciate if we didn’t have to hurt any of these lovely people. Now, could you all clear out of the parking lot so we have minimal dead hostages? Many thanks, your friendly neighbourhood motherer.

The three last criminals turned up with various bags full of money.

“Okay, let’s move it. Kai, Baekhyun, you get the hostages out of the way. Kyungsoo and I will take out the criminals.” Luhan said.

I pulled out my two knives. Not the training sticks, but real blades, reflecting my face like a mirror.

Kyungsoo jumped down to the lower level, his boots echoing as they landed on the smooth polished floor. Luhan jumped too, but slowed his fall before he landed on the floor to alight on the tiles gracefully. I teleported myself and Baekhyun inside the restaurant behind the counter.

We quickly got to untie the hostages. When the first was untied, a small girl about the same age as the Tree, I teleported her to the parking lot and returned for the next.

As we worked on the ropes, I heard the criminals start to yell as all the objects around them started to levitate. I heard bullets ring as the criminals hit the flying objects. Rocks flew into the restaurant and threw the criminals back.

“Quick, untie them faster” Baekhyun said.

As we untied the hostages, they began to help us and untie the others. Soon they were all gone, disappearing into the safety of the parking lot.

With the hostages gone, we could join the fight. Baekhyun stood up from behind the counter and shone his light. Chanyeol had described this light to me before, the blinding flash as bright as the sun, so I knew to close my eyes. I teleported into the criminals and stole his gun, throwing it away behind me. I heard Kyungsoo’s yell as the criminals turned and started to fire at me, but a wall of dirt smashed through the tiled floor and protected me. Luhan lifted a barstool from near the counter and threw it into the terrorists.

I was everywhere, teleporting out from the rock wall cover to steal guns and to batter the criminals on the head with any heavy objects I could find. It was difficult, teleporting amongst bright lights and floating objects, but I kept my eyes opened and aware.

I could tell the others had taken Sehun’s advice of knowing the people you work with. I could easily find cover from bullets thanks to Kyungsoo, and when I lost a heavy object to use as a weapon there always seemed to be a broken table leg or chunk of barstool thanks to Luhan. The lights from Baekhyun stopped becoming annoying and distracting, and started to spotlight each target, we started to read the patterns of light as messages. When a targeted criminal is blinded, we hit him while he can’t see. When this criminal is aiming for us while we’re distracted a blinding light makes him miss.

Baekhyun slid on the tiles into the centre of the room and stood up in front of the leader criminal. He grabbed the leader by the face and shone bright, concentrated light. The leader screamed and swiped out with a pistol, but Luhan pulled back Baekhyun with invisible hands.

Whipping pebbles from the nearby fountain around his body, Kyungsoo walked from behind his dirt-shield. Firing the rocks like bullets from a machine gun with accurate aim, he knocks the last few squarely on the head, knocking them out.

Finally, there was silence, save for the ringing as the various objects fell to the floor as Luhan stopped his levitation. We’d created chaos, but we hadn’t gotten in each other’s way.

By the time the police had entered the building and found the restaurant in pieces, criminals lying unconscious on the floor and bags of money strewn around the restaurant, we were long gone.