Kris

“Alright, you’re next” Kai said, brushing off the residue smoke from the shoulders of his leather jacket.

I braced myself, patting down my pants to make sure I had everything I need. My two knives are tucked into my pants at the back, another smaller in my sock. I have my phone and an earpiece, and my goggles sit on top of my head.

“I’m ready,” I said, forcing bravery through my nervousness.

Kyungsoo had already gone, so had Yixing, Tao, Chen, Sehun and Baekhyun. Chanyeol, Suho, Luhan and I remained.

“I’m putting you up here on the roof; you should be able to see everything from here. Luhan will be with you shortly too, and I’ll come join you once everyone’s been teleported over.”

Suho stood in front of me and straightened my black jacket.

“Remember to wait for Baekhyun’s signal,” Suho said, “And stick to the plan, remember that Chanyeol and I will probably be too focused on Xiumin to fight well.”

He lowered his voice so his words were between us two leaders.

“Honestly, I don’t know much about this fighting. I’m relying on you to lead this one, Kris.”

I leaned down and looked at him in the eyes.

“Suho, you have done more than we could ever have imagined. You don’t have to do everything, I’ve got this. Battle, battle is my element, my forte.”

Suho nodded. I’m not one for words, or even facial expressions for that matter. I prefer to let my actions speak. I was nervous, but I was excited. Battle, battle is when actions are plenty. I couldn’t think of a better way to express emotion.

Suho knew that. Everyone in the team knew it. I was the one in the group who watched all the action movies instead of the insightful films, the thoughtful ones, the sad and the romantic. No, I always picked the shallow, action-only films. Transporter, erPunch, I loved them.

“Its just stupid fighting all the time with no continuity” the others argued.

I never found it stupid. I found it to be art, real art. I loved watching the body in motion. I studied it more than Yixing studied a novel, or Tao studied his martial arts. I loved watching a person in their prime perform a high kick, or an intense battle between kungfu masters.

Battle is where I will shine.

I look to the Tree. She sits on the couch, swinging her legs underneath her.

“I’ll be fine, I’m sure they’ll be much too preoccupied. Just make sure you all come back.” She says.

Kai held out his hand. He looked friendlier without the black hair, and the blonde beacon now was half-hidden under a black cap. A few beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead from his teleporting.

“I’ll be fine,” he says, talking about the sweat “It’s only from carrying people with me; once we’re all in Japan I won’t need to teleport anyone.”

I took his hand and went to Japan.

It was colder in Japan, colder than I expected. Maybe it was because I was on top of the roof, where the wind bit hard, or maybe Sehun was anticipating a fight, or even the cold was pulsing from the giant ice cube embedded in the lawn.

The ‘roots’ from the evil Tree Of Life had grown, wrapping at least a third of the pool in black tendrils.

I was soon joined by Luhan and Kai. Luhan was the last to arrive, so Kai stayed with us on the edge of the roof. Looking sideways I saw the pain that hit Luhan hard as he saw Xiumin for the first time.

I saw flashbacks of Luhan and Xiumin through a café window sipping hot cups of coffee, Xiumin pushing his round Harry Potter glasses up his nose, Luhan snorting coffee foam into the desk.

I reached over and took Luhan’s hand. He wiped his eyes and squeezed back.

I looked into the garden below us and searched for the other members. It was difficult, we were all wearing black in the shadows of the night, but the moon was almost a full one, and I could see Sehun’s brighter hair under a black beanie near the poolshed, Yixing hiding in the bushes, Kyungsoo down the side of the house with Chen.

The main one I was to look for was Baekhyun. I knew where he should be hidden, under the tall bushes at the back fence. His light made for the most perfect signal to sync our attacks in a surprise hit.

What Baekhyun didn’t see that I did was the slimer creeping over the fence behind him.

What do I do? Do I fly over? Do I attack? Do I yell out? I hesitated. Luckily, I’m not the only one who saw the slimer. Yixing scampered down the fence towards Baekhyun, drawing his single dagger.

He reached the slimer as the attacker was pulling down his sword. I’m no Tao, but I swear I saw this all in slow motion.

Yixing only had one blade, but two targets: To block the attack and to strike the slimer with his blade.

Yixing struck out his weapon into the chest of the slimer, all the way to the hilt. With his bare hand, he reached out to block the dark blade. I saw a green almost fluorescent light pulse from his heart and run down his arm to his hand, the part which connected to the blade.

Ripping his blade sideways, the slimer died in a blob of black goo, showering Yixing and Baekhyun in the mess and letting out an unearthly scream. Yixing grabbed his hand, the one that blocked the slimer blade, but it was unharmed. Baekhyun, startled, let the signal shine, blasting the white light from his hands.

The garden erupted in elements. Straight away, Kyungsoo ran out into the lawn and started working on raising the ice block out of the pool. Chanyeol sprinted towards the pool and flicked his lighter, using his flames to burn through the roots. The other members started to fight.

Suho and Tao burst from the side of the house, Suho brandishing a whip of water gathered from indoor pipes. Yixing, recovered, worked back to back with Baekhyun in the fray.

Slimers swarmed over the fences from all sides, rushing out of the house and from the streets. They came in various forms; with arms as large blades, heavy hammer fists or dexterous claws they came for us, screaming through their slimy mouths. Glistening spider-like creatures crawled over the fence, swarming together.

“Don’t let the spiders form!” I yelled over the fray.

Immediately Suho his heels and whipped out to the spiders, cutting through them with his water to stop them becoming massive beasts.

I flew down with Luhan, dropping him off into the middle of the lawn. I fly a little further, wind hitting my goggles and flapping my collar like bee wings.

I smash into the nearest slimer, taking out the next three behind him. Whipping around in the air, I fling out my heavy boots to sink into the head of another. I fly left and right, never touching the ground but always on the attack. I sink into the battle mode, picking out my next three targets before I finish my current.

I look out for the other’s as I fight, sometimes I’d have to tackle a slimer before it manages to sink blades into Yixing, or I’d grab Chen by the hands and spin him out of harm’s way.

I was yelling left and right, directing the battle.

“Chanyeol! Go help Baekhyun!”

“Suho, on your left!”

“Luhan! Help lift the iceblock!”

I kept a special eye out for Tao. He was one of our youngest physically, and probably the youngest mentally. Whenever he goes into his slow motion trance I worry for his safety. Each time his staff swirls around his body in an arc I hold my breath until it connects with slimer skin. I’ve become Tao’s protector, as well as a protector of the Tree, and I could see that he looks up to me. I’ve even promised to take him on driving lessons next time we have spare time. He was a little surprised I had my licence. I think he thought that since I could fly there would be no need for me to learn to drive.

I worked well with Sehun. At first, before training, we got in each other’s way. Now, I learned that I shouldn’t read the wind, but I should read Sehun instead. I always kept an eye on Sehun. I learned his patterns of his arms. I read his neck movements; his footing predicted his next moves. I rode his wind, it guided me. I never fought it. I used it as propulsion.

Finally, the rumbling of Ice sliding across the lawn could be heard. Luhan collapsed on the earth, exhausted from lifting Xiumin.

Kyungsoo stood over the unconscious Luhan, rippling the dirt around him and throwing chunks of rock in every direction.

“Chanyeol! Suho! You’re up!”

It was part two of the plan.

Suho lifted his arms and I swept down and grabbed him around the chest. I lifted him up into the skies, far up where our breath was so visible it was almost liquid.

Suho wrapped his legs around my waist so his hands were free, swirling them around him and calling the clouds to him. The clouds converged in on us, surrounding us in a misty fog of dark grey. Suho condensed his cloud into a large ball of water, at least the size of a car.

“Done!” Suho called over the rush of the wind.

We flew back down, the swirl of rainwater in our wake. Suho landed atop the ice block to meet Chanyeol.

Chanyeol started heating up the ice, but it was dangerous to bring such hot fire near Xiumin. Instead, he used his fire to heat the ball of rainwater Suho had collected. Suho pummeled the ice with the heated water. I could see the ice softening, the water slowly eating away at Xiumin’s prison. For every drop of water melted, more water joined Suho’s ball.

I’m pretty proud of the plan. I thought of it myself, using my ‘battle strategy skills’ Suho insisted I had. In truth, I probably didn’t actually have my skills in any intense battle plan; I just had the best out of the team. In fact, half of the plan was invented by Kai when he went to check out the area, mapping out the enemy lines.

I made a quick head count, to make sure everyone is still here. Suho stands on top of the frozen pool-sized icecube with Chanyeol, melting the ice. Kai had moved the unconscious Luhan to a safer area, possibly back home in Korea, allowing Kyungsoo to stop protecting the telekinetic member and fight the slimers. I could see Chen, Yixing, Sehun, spread out around Xiumin’s prison, fighting the black masses.

Where’s Tao? Where’s Baekhyun?

The two missing members burst out of the side of the house. Baekhyun started fighting with a new ferocity. Tao looked to the skies and locked eyes with me, then started to speed towards me in his slow-motion world.

I swooped low and picked him up to talk.

“We found the Dark.” He pants.

“The what?” I reply

“The Dark, the thing that’s in the Tree’s tree body. Baekhyun figured that if the roots were here, the actual tree might not be far behind. It was in the living room of the house.”

“It was?”

“It sorta… it shrivelled up into the ground. I don’t know, maybe we killed it with our presence, or it ran away, but it’s not there anymore.”

I felt a strong wind pull me towards the ground. Sehun was calling me.

“Just… keep an eye out for any tree activity. Go help Yixing, he looks hurt.”

I lowered us down to the ground and found Sehun. In response to my arrival, he pointed up to Suho and Chanyeol on Xiumin’s prison.

I quickly flew up to Suho. He looked tired, sweaty and panting.

“We can’t do this all at once. The others are going to be overcome eventually.”

I had no time to consider many options. I looked around at the backyard we were in, mapping out options.

“Suho, go down and start fighting. Chanyeol, I need you to burn down the side of the building, enough space to move this ice cube through between the fence and the house,” The two jumped down and went to their new positions.

I swooped down to Kyungsoo and broke his attention.

“Soo! I need you to move the iceblock. Can you do that?” he nods, then jumps onto the block of ice with aid from pushing himself up with the earth.

The ground rumbles like an earthquake, and we all struggle to hold our footing. Slowly, the icecube starts to creep forward in the mud.

Kai appears before me.

“What happened to the plan?” He asks.

“Modifications. I need you to get Luhan. Take Yixing with you to try to heal Luhan, we need his power. Come back soo-“ Kai disappeared.

We progressed down the lawn, Kyungsoo fighting back the shakes of weak muscles as he shifted the ground under the ice to creep Xiumin forward. The others fought well, keeping the slimers a safe distance from the ice. Eventually, we found our way through the front lawn and onto the road.

From my vantage point up in the skies, I picked a construction vehicle from the roadworks and dove into the driver’s cabin. It was a large dump truck with thick monster wheels, a scratched yellow paint job and mud flecked up its wheels. I turned the key in the engine and drove up onto the asphalt.

When I arrived to the ice block, Luhan was already returning. By now, he had figured out what he had to do. Lifting his arms with a wide stance, he raised the ice into the air. Yixing held onto his head with green-glowing hands, still healing Luhan.

The fierce determination on Luhan’s face as blood ran from his nose showed his commitment. His usually bright eyes screwed and shadowed under a creased brow as he concentrated hard. With a thump, the iceblock landed heavily into the back of the truck.

Tao pulled himself into the passenger seat when everyone had piled in.

I floored the accelerator, bashing through the slimers as the others protected me with blasts of the elements.

Tao and I watched through the rear-vision mirrors as the dark black slimers slowly gave up the chase.

I saw Luhan as he collapsed once again in the back of the truck. The others cheered in celebration; a whoosh of triumphant fire billowed into the sky, while others just sat on the edge of the truck dish and stared out to the horizon where the red force base slowly disappeared.

I pulled down the sunshade as the sun began to rise, shining into my eyes. I looked over at Tao, his excited facial expression beaming from ear to ear.

I pat the driving wheel of the truck beckoningly.

“Hey, Taozi, how about that driving lesson now?”