Suho

We landed in the parking lot of a large school.

“Look, I have to get running, but call me if you need a lift home. If not, the subway is that way.” Kai gestured to the south.

“There’s the office, most classrooms are around there, the bus station is there, art centre, music, sports, pool, take a note of that one if you need extra water, Suho. I guess if you need fire you could also try the science labs.” Kai listed off a bunch of locations, pointing in rapid motion.

“I’m good,” Chanyeol said, pulling a square gold lighter from his pocket. “I have this. Baekhyun had it engraved for me.”

He turned the lighter over and we could see the engraving on the side of a bird. It matched the tattoo behind his ear.

“Woah… it’s so pretty and shiny.” Chen reached out to touch the smooth surface.

“Yeah well, that’s cute and all but I have to get going. Are you guys all good?”

I nodded and kai left, his trail of smoke disappearing into the asphalt.

We were all dressed like schoolkids. It wasn’t the official uniform, but it would work enough to pretend to be exchange students or new classmates. It was a simple blue-grey blazer, a white shirt and a navy blue tie with yellow striped diagonally across it.

“You guys look stupid.” Said chanyeol. He still wore his snapback and his shirt was untied. I don’t think he even picked up his tie, it was probably still back at the apartment.

He walked over to us and adjusted our uniforms, unloosening our ties so they didn’t rest on our necks so tightly and untucking our shirts from our pants. Lastly, he took away my blazer and roughly rolled up my sleeves.

“There, now you’re much cooler.” Chanyeol said, satisfied with his handiwork.

“We’re not your dress up dolls,” I said, pulling my sleeve back down my arm.

Chen stopped me and pushed the sleeve back up.

“Stop, it looks better that way. Plus, Chanyeol has been in school more recently than us, I dropped out and you finished ages ago. We should listen to him.”

Chanyeol grinned.

“Right,” I continued “So where should we go?”

We decided to walk among the corridors for a while, peering into windows. After about ten minutes, a bell rang and students swarmed us for a few minutes, rushing to get to their next class. We were pushed along the corridor and into lockers, always in the way of one student or the next.

Eventually we were back in peace again.

“Aww man, the classes have changed. Everyone’s in different places, that means the construction guys could be back at any of those classes again.” Chen said

“Hey, shouldn’t you guys be in class?”

A man yelled at us down the corridor.

We looked to Chanyeol for assistance.

“Yes, sorry sir, we’re here from the sister school on a trip. We got lost… can you help us find room….” He looked behind the man to the door labelled C23 “…C24?”

“Room C24, Seriously guys? It’s just around the corner. It’s pretty basic anyways, so difficult to get lost.”

Under the teacher’s stern gaze we had no choice but to enter the classroom. The teacher in the room barely noticed us as we entered, and as we sat down she continued her class.

“What now?” Chen whispered to me from his desk.

“I don’t know… just…. Stick it out for this class…” I replied. Chanyeol was seated further away from us, at the back of the classroom.

We listened to the teacher for a while, giving numerous attempts to escape. We tried asking to go to the toilet, the sickbay, but the teacher basically chained us to our desks and forced South Korean history from the textbook down our throats.

Finally, there was something interesting. A teacher entered the classroom, followed by two construction workers. Chen and I sat up in our seats, finally interested. Chanyeol was a little calmer, his ears pricked up but he didn’t acknowledge the visitors.

“Right, class, just let these men keep going on their business, they’re just doing the routine check.”

The men moved around the room with measuring tape and fancy electrical. They measured the room, testing the roof and random parts of the classroom, but I could tell they were more interested in the students then they were in the room. Their eyes kept glancing sideways and checking ankles, necks, collarbones, searching for our marks. My mark was located under my sock on my ankle, and I saw Chen flip his collar up to hide his scorpion mark on the back of his neck.

I heard a cough behind me and I turned to see a slightly panicked Chanyeol. His mark was obvious, just behind his ear. He tried to hide it with his cap, but it was still visible. If we were going to attack, we should do it while we have the element of surprise.

I saw Chanyeol flick open his lighter under the desk. I searched the room for water, but all I could find was the glass on the teacher’s desk.

When a construction worker passed between my desk and Chen’s I stuck out my foot and tripped him up. I quickly grabbed the glass of water with my mind and yanked it towards me. Chen stood up from his desk and grabbed the other worker, letting electricity flow from his hands into the man.

The class screamed at our attacks, surprised and afraid. Chanyeol stood up in the back row and clicked his lighter into life, fire spreading out across the back wall.

The construction workers started running, black spots forming on their necks and hands.

“Quick, chase them!” I yelled at the others.

We pushed through the screaming students as we made our way to the door. As we reached the corridor, a fire alarm sprung and children started to pour into the hallways.

“We can’t let them attack here! Too many people would get hurt!” Chanyeol yelled over the racket.

“They’ll be going outdoors! To an escape route probably!” Chen yelled in reply

I motioned for us to continue down the hallway, pushing through kids as we fought against the tide to the doorways. We ended up facing the two men in the bus turnaround.

..Except they were no longer men. They had abandoned their human guises and turned fully black-goo form, their arms long blades reaching the asphalt. Student still swarmed dangerously close to them, not noticing the monsters in the confusion of people running.

“Chanyeol! Get the students out of the way! Chen! Can you zap the monsters?”

“Remember how I said I can’t bend the electricity? I’m going to hit someone!”

My eyes alighted on my saviour; a fire hydrant.

“Chanyeol! Can you open that hydrant?”

Chanyeol abandoned his attempts at creating fire walls, letting them fall back down into nothing. A ball of fire hurled at the hydrant and it exploded in a fountain of water.

Clear, wet, my saviour.

I channelled the water into a large ball and then I stretched it out to reach for the monsters. The slimers had reached a bus and were attempting to start the engine.

“Chen! Zap my water!”

Electricity flowed through the water, following the path bypassing the students until it reached the metal case of the bus.

The smell of rubber burning reached my nose. When the electricity had stopped, a puddle of black goo was dripping out of the bus.

The students stared at us in horror. In the space of about five minutes, we had cancelled their class, and attacked their ‘special guests’ who turned into monsters, then burned their classroom and exploded and enchanted a fire hydrant, which then zapped their school bus and left melted monster dropping down the bus isle.

They had the reason to be scared.

“Sorry guys, we’re just…. Saving the world,” Chanyeol said, raising his arms in a peaceful gesture.

Chen pushed me towards the road, and Chanyeol followed.

“We’ll just be on our way… you know… our spidey sense is tingling”

The students kept staring at us as we walked away, and I still felt their gaze burning into the back of my neck as we took the subway home.

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We arrived home to find the crew in a relaxed state, in between intense training (I hope). Yixing was sitting on the ground with a book while the Tree sat in his lap and played candy Crush on Kai’s phone. Baekhyun was waiting patiently for Chanyeol’s return, and Luhan was rubbing the moisture from his shower out of his hair. Sehun looked annoyed at Tao and Kris as they talked loudly over his television program. I assume that Kyungsoo and Kai are still working on Kai’s haircut in the bathroom.

“Hey, how’d it go?” Yixing asked, looking up from his book and pushing his reading glasses down his nose.

“It was…. Weird.” I replied. “The students stared at us, I wasn’t too sure what they thought but it was…. Weird.”

“I kind of expected cheering and celebration,” Chanyeol said “All we got was silence and confusion…”

Kris and Tao walked over to us and Yixing went back to his book. As my job as leader, we began to debrief. I told Kris about our little mission, and in turn he told me about the Tree. There wasn’t much more she taught us about the situation, but Kris learned that as a girl, the Tree was still learning how to use her motor skills, and had difficulty grasping human concepts, such as sleep.

“She had a massive freak out the last time she dozed off,” Kris explained. “She’s used to being always alert, but when she sleeps she has to sacrifice her alert state for rest. We had to assure her she was safe from the Dark before she slept, which was even then for only three hours.”

Apparently, Luhan had been training for the entire time we were gone, working on pushing objects with force, and Tao had taught Baekhyun the basics of hand to hand combat. The others haven’t done much, and Kai and Kyungsoo hadn’t been seen since they left for the bathroom.

After the debriefing, we all sat around the room in various positions, resting. Luhan made me a coffee for my return, practising styles Xiumin had taught him.

Quite abruptly, Kai appeared before Yixing, his black hood pulled down tightly over his head. He grabbed Yixing by the arm and started dragging him towards the door to the bathroom.

“I need you to heal something.” He mumbled, looking down at the ground.

“Heal something? Is someone hurt?” Yixing said, a little too loud for Kai’s liking.

I stood up as the leader, putting myself before Kai and trying to look up into his eyes.

“Kai, are you okay? Did Kyungsoo hurt you or something?”

I tried to lift his hood to check his face for any bruises that mark a domestic battle but Kai forcefully brushed my hand away. It was too late, I saw the damage, and so did Yixing.

“Kai, I can’t heal that, I only heal injuries!” Yixing said.

I now noticed Kyungsoo holding back tears of laughter from the shared bathroom doorway.

Yixing lifted the hood from Kai’s head, and now Kai didn’t stop him. With his hair uncovered, the entire team marvelled at the now light blonde hair atop his head.

“Woah it’s so bright!” Baekhyun said

“Like snow” Luhan whispered.

“Shut up! It was all him! That er! I look stupid!”

“I kind of like it,” said Sehun “Now we both have blonde, we match!”

“I think it looks beautiful, it shows a new side to you” piped the Tree

“Yeah, a more approachable side” said Tao “Definitely keep it.”

“I vote for yes” I said, and was greeted by a large agreement of ‘yes’s’ and ‘me too’.

“Still! That er did it without my consent!”

“Watch you’re language, there are seven year olds present” Baekhyun said, covering the Tree’s ears.

“I’m older than the sun, you dip.” The Tree looked unamused up at Baekhyun, removing his hands from her ears.

Kai pointed a furious finger at Kyungsoo.

“What? I thought he would notice me dying it and stop me! I didn’t know he never gets his hair cut and that he didn’t know that adding dye wasn’t part of the haircut ritual!”

“You know, I always knew there was something up about you,” Sehun said, starting to pace to create theatricality “I thought there was something behind those wide owl eyes, something more than a quiet shy boy. Turns out, you’re a bit like me and Baekhyun. See, Baekhyunnie and I, we’re little s; Pot stirrers, with commendable wit. You, sir, you’re a big , you’re the devil, you’re evilsoo.”

Sehun had now reached Kyungsoo menacingly. We all were worried about what would happen next.

Sehun struck out a hand and took Kyungsoo’s in his own, in a hearty handshake.

“Well done sir, I applaud you. Teach me your ways.”

Kyungsoo looked a little stunned.

Sehun wasn’t finished.

“Still, there’s more to be done. Luhan! Bind him!”

Taken by surprise, Kyungsoo was lifted into the air by Luhan and his arms locked to his sides. Unable to move from the neck down, he was paralysed. Kris soon had him tied up and lying on the floor.

“Kai,” Sehun continued “An eye for an eye, you get your revenge now.”

Kai lightened up at the idea. He disappeared for a moment and then reappeared with an armful of hair torture devices, boxes of dye, scissors, and razors, anything he could find.

“I’m going to dye your hair,” Kai looked at the back of the box of dye “Sunset burnt orange”

Kyungsoo seemed terrified at the idea, his eyes widening in fear.

“But first…”

Kai sat on Kyungsoo’s chest, and leaned over his face. Kyungsoo whimpered as Kai’s weight was on his chest, and looked up into the crazed boy’s eyes.

Kai the electric razor, letting a buzz fill the room.

-----------

A few hours later we set Kyungsoo free. Immediately he ran to the nearest mirror to check his new look.

His hair was an orange-red colour, a much brighter contrast compared to his usual dark brown. The right side of his head had been shaved off beside his ear in a stylish way, short dark brown hair still poking through.

“Wow, Kai, I thought you were supposed to be having revenge, not becoming a full on hairdresser.” I mused

“Yeah, well I’m starting to like this blonde hair, and I couldn’t hurt this little guy,” He pulled Kyungsoo into him in a friendly embrace, looking at their new hairstyles side by side in the mirror.

“Woah, you have talent.” Said Baekhyun. “it looks seriously really cool.”

Kyungsoo ran his hand through his now short cropped side.

“I really like it” he said, barely audible.

The Tree screamed a short and sharp shriek.

“Gosh Tree, you can’t just scream like that and scare everyone, it’s just Candy Crush you’ll get lives later-“

“It’s not that,” The Tree interrupted Yixing. “Look.”

She turned Kai’s phone so we could see the photo she was showing us. It was the photo of the black tendril wrapping around the ice.

“You know what that is?” Kai asked “….And you’ve been going through my photos?”

“Well,” the Tree explained, ignoring Kai's second question “You know how I left my tree body on accident to come here?”

We nodded.

“The dark force… it has taken my form. These tendrils, they’re me, my roots. MINE. We don’t have much time left; it would be working a lot faster now. We should go. Tomorrow. We’re going tomorrow.”