"Local natives says that a man was reported to be seen fully and screaming in six different languages this morning, the witness reported that said man had his pupils completely dilated while running in circles. He was arrested right in time, even thought the official report says that they couldn't figure out his name, neither where he came from."

It was pouring outside. A great way to start a new job, a new career. His grandmother used to say that rain is a just one of a thousand ways to God demonstrate some affection —  God's crying, or just giving his bless to a new path. It was raining the first time Luhan listened to his father whispering hateful words to his mother, and he couldn't understand why she didn't said a thing back. It's difficult to a children realize what is truly going on between his parents, and he was no exception. So the pretty boy decided to stay quiet, just as his mother.

He dedicated some seconds to breathe deeply, letting the air run trought his lungs and puryifing any bad thoughts; it wasn't the proper moment to miss his mother. China was a long way back and Beijing was nothing but a distant dream anymore. Seoul was his new home and chance to start fresh, begin a new life without ghosts to hunt him down. 

The chinese closed the bottons of his dark grey coat and headed to the kitchen, trying to find his morning medication. 

"Oh, ." Wonderful way to kick off his new job, huh? He totally forgot about it. Maybe because living locked and alone in a apartment was starting to make him comfortable in his own skin.

He should have know better.

One, two, three... Breathe. Breathing heavily was the only way out, couldn't be such a nightmare. He could survive without the pills for some minutes. The korean closed the door behind him, trying to let his insecurities home. He wasn't running late, so it was only a matter to get in the pharmacy and let his prescription do miracles. Or such. 

Luhan gave a shy smile to his neighbor, an ex-marine now retired and missing one of his eyes. Beside him was a five year old adorable little girl, his daughter. She waved to him and he waved back cortesy never failing his manners. He rubbed his fingers in an old amulet while counting from one to ten and back. Five years in the psychologist and the er only teached him how to ing count. Great.

Seven minutes later and he was coursing again, now loud and clear. Where was his head when decided to forget an umbrella. Winter was never his favorite season, always bringing bad memories that would stay better burned and deep six feet under. The streets of Seoul were painted in dark because the clouds decided that would be a wonderful day to block the sunlight and give him the worst kind of scenario. Everything was wet, and dark, and loud.

Very loud.

A thunder crossed the skies and Luhan lost himself admiring its power, it had such a magnificence that made him stand for some brief seconds — at the same time his body sent shivers from his neck to the back of his bones. One minute he was there, at some random street, and then he was at a dark alley. The heavy raindrops took control and he feared for his own life.

Dark.

Everything was dark, his vision was blurred and the noises taking over his head didn't serve to make the situation any better. The rain became stronger, but it no longer bothered him - there was many other things to get worried about. Like the constant noise smashing his head from inside out, a strong frequency copying the mechanism of radio waves. Peaks of sounds made him squirm, rubbing his own arms with wet fingers trying to calm down the chills running over his body: from his neck to the backbone. Up and down up and down, he felt trapped in time, repeating the same timeline over and over again; Luhan tried to scream but panicked hard when realized that nothing escaped his lips. 

Nothing but the silence.

He wanted to cry. Cry, loud and hard and forever. It's a sin to a human being feel so helpless, so fragile  — we all are made of fragile tiny pieces, together they make us strong. But it just takes a second of fear to destroy the sandcastles from which we are made. The strange noise was coming from much closer and he didn't know what to do, his brains probably puddled turning him into an easy target. 

One, two, three, four, five, six...

"Help me." A voice came from nowhere, and for a moment he was so sure that he was reading someone's mind involuntarily. 

Said voice was broken and hoarse, like and old mantra on repeat. "Help me, help me, help me." But how can you help someone who is not even there, someone who's only in your mind? He needed a daily dose of medicine for yesterday  — fast and quick, before his head would explode. 

"I ca-can't. I can't help you. You're not real." He stated more to himself than for anyone. 

"Help me."

This voice.

The voice that had been hunting his dreams now was pursuing his imagination. It couldn't be real just because the man to whom that voice belonged was no longer alive. He was dead, just like Luhan's chances to see his best friend smiling again. 

"You are not real." He fought back, sounding angry and offended because from all the jokes his own mind could play, that kind of cruelty was a new level. "You are not real. You are dead. Dead. You're dead."

"Help me. Come to me." 

And then he lost it. His steps made him go deep inside the alley, his tears getting along with the raindrops, making a new song of sorrow. His friend couldn't be alive, he would never see those dimples again and that was only a sick joke his mind was playing. Since Luhan was seven he figured out that he was different, he could read thoughts and it wasn't slightly funny. He could feel all the pain, all the bad thoughts, he realized sooner than expected that everyone had a fake facade. Everyone but him, his best friend. The only who ever had the honor to know his secret and the one who got away five years ago. The one whose voice was guiding him through the rain. 

"Help me, help me. Help me." 

It started as a mantra inside his head, over and over again getting louder each time was repeated. Luhan thought that madness finally got the best of him when he saw some shadows: he could see three of them. Apparently two were fighting against one, but his head was too far left to pain, so he couldn't exactly see what was happening. He could only raise one hand and scream when his best friend's voice screamed at the same time; to his ears, that was a scream of someone fading away. So he left all the pain go right to his hand and explode. 

All things in the alley were thrown into the air, defenseless against the new manifestation of power that he demonstrated. Luhan was on his knees, his head still confused and his vision ing blurred and he couldn't understand a thing. But he could swear that saw Yixing's face again before blacking out.

"Hello, princess."

Prince-... what? Luhan realized that opening his eyes were a difficult task, he tried to move forward fast but then everything became a bit dizzy and a hand was blocking him to seat properly.

"Hey, you really should go easy." In front of him was his old roommate of Investigation Training, Kim Jongdae. Apparently they were inside a car, a SUV if he was right. But what the was  Jongdae, from all people, doing with him inside of a random car right after some events he couldn't even ing explain?

Well, to answer him, Jongdae was faster than his own questions.

"I'm taking you to our new heardquarter. I runned late and for that I'm beyond sorry. But  I couldn't imagine a stupid boogie man would decide to attack right on your neighborhood. And nobody saw your attack coming too." His old roommate face was garnished with a wry smile. 

"Boogie... Man? Are you ing with my face? Stop this goddamn car right ing now or I'll stop it myself." Luhan threatened him, but somehow he didn't sound very convincing.

"You're exhausted, hyung. And were burning up very hard forty minutes ago, lucky for you the fever was merely part of the nightmare arrangement. Try to relax a little while I give you some explanations, right?" The doe-eyed man finally let his dorse touch the soft material of the back seat again, and Jongdae took his silence as permission to go further on explanations.

"I work for a company called HADES, the one you were about to start being a detective... And we pretty much work with the underground too. Don't try to play fool, I know your gift, hyung. We know what you can do, and our people is equal to you... So that's why you have been monitored, because we were trying to see if you fit our purpose." The brown headed man stopped to his own lips, looking kinda nervous and insecure. But Luhan was a mind reader so he could tell what was true and what wasn't, and till now Jongdae hadn't said a single lie. 

"We were supposed to pick you up today, but that thing... That thing that you listened back at alley was a boogie-man, yes. A man who can shift into your worst nightmare and your ing soul off if you fall into his trap. Me and my friend were fast enough to save you, thanks God. You were screaming and crying and ing burning up and I... I was scared. For a moment I thought we had lost you even before we have you, hyung." The fear running his face absolutely couldn't be fake. So it gave Luhan a chance to seat properly and look for his friend's hand, squeezing it lightly while giving him a weak smile.

"So, you saved me?" All he managed to say before continuing. "You were my monitor, I suppose?" 

"Yes, and for that I'm sorry. But that's the only safe way to figure out if we could trust you, so that's why now we are heading to our headquarter of HADES, that's called EXO department. EXO department lives in the underground, while HADES acts on the surface. To the world, EXO pretty much doesn't exists, but you can put two plus two together and know that we rather work in secret. Have you ever saw Fringe? The series? Something like that."

Suddenly the car stopped, and with Jongdae's help he could walk trough another alley. Luhan deduced that they were distant from the city, since the country climate took over his lungs, puryfing it almost immediately. Inside the alley there was a door, and its revelead an elevator. 

He only hoped his life wouldn't turn upside down too much.

A man can dream.
 

"Welcome to our Squad! It's nothing fancy, we're still trying to get more founds from the goverment. They know about our existence but are always refusing to become part of our project." 

Nothing fancy? That men could only be joking. Once he entered the building, he thought it was all a joke. From outside you can only see an old deteriorating facade, the walls were clearly suffering from infiltration and the smell of fungus could easily impregnate your lungs. But once inside, his was caught in pure bliss and fascination. He was led throught a mirrored hall, and after that, a of white and grey and blue made him supress his lips in a thin line, trying to hide his excitement. 

The elevator didn't went up and it was like one of those spy movies: they were underground, but what should be asfixiating turned to be a simply detail when he saw those vasts and clean rooms; only the excruciating cold in the enter hall made him squirm, but once inside the large office the heater made its service with success. 

How they managed to build such a place without goverment sources, it was a mistery to his knowledge. Jongdae explained that despite not being on the books, the Exo Project still managed to have license - a especial one, something that could make them investigate crime scenes and capacity to read official files without having to break into their systems. It was really only a courtesy. 

"Here you won't be meeting with the superiors in first place. I'll give you a tour and explain how we work. It's mostly like any commom investigation department, except that we have cheats. You're not the only weirdo down here, kid." 

"Hey! I'm not a kid, I'm your hyung, you brat." Luhan pointed him a finger, glaring the outrageous guy which functions apparently was to give him a welcome tour.

"Okay, cutie. Anything you want." The er had the indecency to blink an eye suggestively, but before Luhan could retort, he was being dragged by his up arm. He gritted his teeth just to take another deep breathe and keep going.

"Where am I going to work? What am I supposed to do? Do we have—do I have a boss?" 

"Anywhere. I don't know. And yes, of course we have." Jongdae replied with almost a mocking tone, that made Luhan wanted to spin back and made his way home. But his clothes were soaped, his hair were rebellious, his head spinning and his soul aching for answers.  Maybe this moment could give him explanations to all those doubts he collected in the course of his life. 

He was so nervous that couldn't even take a peek in the people around him, much less in what they were doing. His sense of composure and reality only came back seconds later, with a perseverant Jongdae snapping fingers in front of his sight. Once conscious again, he grabbed a chair and took a sit — they were in a private room of medium size, whose lamps were with a pale and beautiful gray light. 

"I wish I could answer all your questions, but unfortunately, I'm not your guy. He'll be here in a few min—... Oh, Joonmyeon hyung!" At the sound of a new name, Luhan opened his eyes a bit more, trying to look behind his shoulders. 

Judging by the other's reaction, Luhan could tell that they were close. If smiles could talk, the one  Jongdae gave to this Joonsomething certainly would tone tales about friendship and admiration. They exchanged a few words and them he was left alone with his new acquaintance. Luhan stood to greet the stranger with a tiny polited smile. 

"Well, you must be Xi Luhan! It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard wonders about you. Jongdae talks foundly about you."

Wonders... About him? He didn't know why, but still choose to keep quiet. Probably everything would be explained soon. 

"Please sit down again and let me do the talk. I am Kim Joonmyun and I'm here to answer all your questions, plus, give you some orientation about what we do here. After that you'll be allowed to chose your path." 

Something about the man made him stande there for a few seconds, scrutinizing his calm and serenity expressions. He was young, damn, probably younger than himself. But something about him was so... Relaxing. And his headache  seemed to feel the same way, because he could sweart to feel a slightly improviment since the Joonmyun arrived the scene.

They both took their seats, Joonmyun behind the small office desk and Luhan in the visitor's sit. Before he could ask something, words were making its way to erase his curiosity.

"As you may know, the world isn't what society thinks. As you saw for yourself earlier, there are many things that we still shouldn't know about the world we live in—neither about the other worlds, but— do not interrupt me now! Yes, there are another worlds, aliens are real. But if a human can read minds, why do you think anything is not possible?! Well, as I was saying... We investigate the surreal, the life beyond the box. Our team is composed for man willing to do their best in protect human race from any kind of harm."

"You,  Luhan, you're a threat to humanity. What people fear even more than wars and such? Miracles. People cannot accept what they can't understand, and yes, they can understand the principles of evil but no one's ready to accept what they can't explain. That's our point of start: we deal with fear. Sometimes will be easy, sometimes will be hard, very hard. I'm not gonna lie to you. Sometimes you'll wish to be home and far away from this madness. But it's worth fighting for. Here you'll learn more about yourself, and expand your habilities. Here you are going to live with others of your own kind, like myself. See? You're not alone in this. We have so many miracles happening in our squad that at the end of the day you'll feel normal for the first time in your life."

"Pe-people... That can do what I do? Mind control? Are you saying that they can help me?" Luhan was at a loss of words. He kind of expected that Joonmyeon would make a speech, but he wasn't expecting to realize that any and every form of fantastic life he already read in books, or tried to guess if they were real or not, were in fact... A thing. A real thing, big ing deal. 

"Not exactly what you can do but close enough. We don't have any copycats here, basically our people have different fields of gifts, but... The point is, they know what you're dealing with, you know? Take myself for an example."

"What can you do?"

"I'm a moodmaker." He said softly, a little smile spreading over his face.

"Mood-what?" Luhan made a strangled noise of total lack of comprehension.

Joonmyeon shifted in his place, but not even for a moment his calm expression faded away. "I can sense and control feelings in a first basis. Like when you came here and were kinda nervous, I could sense it and make you feel more relaxed."

"Woah... This is, this is great, right? This way you'll never feel bad." 

"Actually, it isn't. Do you have any ideas of how many techniques to control my temper I had to learn? Lucky me I never had a bad one. See, if someday I'm stressed you won't really wish to be near me." Seemed like someone had the same struggles Luhan possessed. 

But somehow he couldn't imagine the man standing right in front of him at top of his calm and relaxed glorious having a fit, but everyone got their bad days sometimes. 

"Oh, and by the way, you can call me Suho. I'm your supervisor here."

The conversation with self-named Suho didn't last longer, just enough to Luhan understand that from now on he would be the new face of an investigation team; he would work on field, dealing with the everyday problems they had to treat. He walked throught the halls alone carrying a blank and mostly tired expression, trying to figure out how life would be from now on. It's not always neither everyday that you discover an underworld and his head was floating in so many other doubts. Until now, he only met Jongdae and Joonmyeon. The first one he couldn't tell if had a power or not (he probably did, once estabilished that everyone's there could do something), and the second was a moodmaker. Maybe Suho could help him giving lessons on how to calm the down. 

He was heading to lounge again, now to find out his new co-workers. This division lacked men and women but he supposed it wasn't their entire fault. "Blessed people" were not a book you can find in any shell. The mind's reader straightened up his back and kept moving, until he felt himself being knocked in the ground plus the weight of a thousand man keeping him still; Luhan tried to move, but failed miserably. Once he managed at least to move his hands, the soft sensation right on his fingers made him open his eyes and... Scream. Great. Yeah. So manly.

Not his fault if he was being held captive by a tiger.

A white tiger.

Specifically like those you read on books: a saber tooth tiger.

"Stop frightening him!" A high pitched voice came to his rescue, but the boy with pale skin and nice features wasn't a little interested in helping him— he was talking with the beast. 

"Get him off me!" Anger was boiling his blood, getting worse when he listened the chuckles directioned to them. He gritted his teeth and like a click, the creature was... Floating just above him. He took the opportunity to roll his body dramatically and once it was done, said tiger went down with all his weight. 

"Bruce! Dear Lord, stop hurting my Bruce." The same boy from before pouted, lines of red coloring his face. "You cannot use your powers here! Not to hurt your ing team, you stupid newbie. And Bruce is ours before you, so you better be careful." He growled and Luhan could swear that all the lights in the departmen had went off for seconds; maybe was an illusion. Who could tell. 

"Baekhyun, stop being a with our newbie and shut your ing mouth before I set it on fire." A tall, ridiculously tall — seriously, who allowed people to get this height —man walked carrying a huge small on his face that didn't match his lecture very well.  

"Hello, I'm Park Chanyeol." Giant man said with that lazy smile again.

Chanyeol. Okay, one more name to remember. He could do it.

"H-hmm. Luhan. I'm Luhan, your new co-worker."

"Co-worker? Oh, drop it. Don't be so polite, it's not necessary. We're a bunch of idiots trying to save the world from ghosts and stuff, not FBI or CIA." The smirk in Chanyeol's lips made him easy a little, previous stiff position of before going off for awhile.

"Please tell me we're no Scooby-doo team or such at least."  

"Now that you're saying... I'm the tall good looking guy, and we have a dog. Not this cat, but a real dog. My dog. And we have Baekhyun too, but I don't know if he fits properly."

"You don't fit properly, idiot! You couldn't fir properly even if you tried." Said shortie man smacked the taller's shoulders, but when Luhan noticed, Bruce was gone but now the other had a fluffy, cute white cat with precious and lazy blue eyes. 

"Where's the... That thing?"

"You don't call him a thing, Bruce has feelings! And he is here, see? Can't you read animal's minds too?" Baekhyun raised one of his eyebrowns suspiciously.

"He is an cat-shifter. Bruce can take form of any feline he wants too. And it's good, because felines can see the other world. He's precious to us, or to me, since Chanyeol is a dog person."

With those ears and large puppy eyes, Luhan could really understand the resemblance between both. 

"That's a good stare. You're spacing out, newbie."

"Oh, I'm sorry. And please, I'm Luhan. Not... A newbie. Not in the investigation field." He felt slightly offended everytime someone had the need to grab the "newbie" position in his face. 

"Yes you are, and as new flesh... We should see what you can do." Baekhyun said, and made him remember that yes, he knew about the others. Time to change his priorities.

"H-hm. I do read minds, as you know. I can move things with my thoughts, you know, telekinesis?" And I can also talk without using my mouth.

"See, Chanyeol? He's more useful than you." Baekhyun said but Luhan could see it was only a joke, judging by his tight smile.

"So, what about you guys? Suho told me about you people having some habilites but I really have no idea." Luhan used the lead to promptly ask. 

And as his answer, Chanyeol opened his palm and suddenly a slow red light blossomed from there, like a rising flower - but instead of a flower it was more like fire rising beautifuly in front of his eyes. He blinked once, twice, and then the fire started taking his arm starting from the hand to his shoulder. The chinese exclamation wasn't quiet enough, so Chanyeol made the fire disappear with a proud smile taking over his face.

"I'm a pyrotechnic."

"Yeah, yeah. And a freaking show-off. He can light some fires and I can light things up. I absorve energy from the light and switch it on and off and I please. I'm training to actually work with it, trying to make it... More... You know, violent?" Baekhyun risked, his grimace letting escape that he was still trying to figure out the proportions of his power. "And I'm also part of our network. I have... People. Suho has the money and I've got the information."

"From where I came what you got is a freaking amount of gossip." Chanyeol retorted, stretching his arms and giving space between him and Baekhyun; they were standing together blocking Luhan's vision, so now the later could actually have a good sight of the high-tech room.

"Well, here you'll eventually find all kinds of weirdness. Nothing is impossible, keep your mind open and you'll be fine. I'm not gonna spoil your fun and say everything, it's entertaining to figure out for your own..."

"Oh holy ing this stupid computer burnt out again I'm gonna throw this bloody piece of trash metal from a ing window but we don't have a stupid window this is not even funny anymore, I'm gonna ask someone to-..." So the voice was gone, but Luhan could recognize it as from the man who helped him earlier this day, his previous roommate. His thoughts were confirmed to be truth when Chanyeol spoke out.

"That was Jongdae... You better keep used to this. He's really good with computers but they don't quite reciprocate." He scratched his nape making strange sounds, as if looking for a better way to put his words. But Baekhyun spoke first.

"He controls electricity, so you better be careful when he's moody or hyper, usually we can see sparks everywhere. It's a recent even, if I may tell you. Someone beat the crap out of him in a mission and then he just... Broke? I don't know, but affected him in some weird way and know we have our own thunder session everyday."

Elementals. They were all elementals until now, if it's possible to consider light as one element. Jongdae, Suho, Chanyeol, Baekhyun. How many more he would meet? It's astonishing how life can be so particularly innovative. One day ago Luhan was trying to fight his habilities, facing them as the most offensive plague and less then twenty-four after destiny made him almost believe in fate again. 

Chanyeol and Baekhyun started walking him again, they continued bickering and being provocative with the other the whole path to his new dorm. According to the youngers, they had a system similar to college's dormitory: shared rooms. Two people for each one of the bedrooms - but some of them had sort of a privilegy based on the inability to have a roommate based on their powers. Jongdae (who he learned to be Chen, or even Thunder) was living by his own since none of them were willing to death by electricity. 

Luhan's roommate was out of town working in some case so he wouldn't meet the guy for the day. He silently thanked God for this, wanting to have some space before dealing with a total stranger. Everything was too much and his headache haven't give a break yet. Lucky for him, his two guides seemed to understand, saying their goodbyes before leaving him alone in his new room. 

The roommates system was made by types of powers, apparently. So he could only presume that the other wouldn't be an elemental, maybe he was someone like Joonmyeon. He just hoped it wasn't anyone like Chanyeol and Baekhyun - they were just too inappropriately loud and Luhan enjoyed silence with passion. In moments of silence he could contemplate his own decisions and taking a glimpse at his past. 

He missed Yixing so utterly much that sometimes he wished his power involved resurrection. He friend was dead an nothing could change it, not even his happy memories — and they were still so clear. And the circumstances of his death, what had happened, that would never leave his thoughts. Erase the past wasn't one hability to learn, not to a mind that can recall everything. Not to a soul who was still so attached. Yixing was dead in this world but not in his memoirs. But at times like these, he'd choose to wrap a warm blanket around his own shoulders and sigh deeply, his glitzy eyes noticing every little detail of his room. 

His roommate bed sheets were purple and looked so clean, even better than his own brand new blankets. He could see a silver notebook, earphones, random cd's stacked on the desk. Luhan felt like snooping around, but his own body denied him such a task. Everything was aching: from head to feet. He's bones were aching and his head weighed a ton. The best thing to do was to held himself tightly and hope things would be fine because in a few hours a whole new life would start. Luhan tried to block his mind and rest for a few hours — he could feel in his guts that tomorrow wouldn't be an easy day.  

After all, his life was starting again.

NOTES: 

Ohhh hi everyone! To everyone who read until here, I'm very very thankful. There are a few things I'd like to ask you: first of all, if you enjoyed my first chapter. I had to introduce Exo department so I used Luhan, who I deeply love. This is a little project I have, something like a random au!world that runs into my mind, so I'm sharing it with you guys :)

Second of all, I'd love to hear your opinions about pairings. My ultimate concern is about: Kris, Yixing and Luhan. I ship Yixing with pretty much all of EXO, same goes to Luhan. Pairings won't be my main focus, but I'll pretty much write about them, or friendship. So... To all of you that is reading, I'd love to hear your favorite pairings to those three (the others I have some fixed idea), and about OT3's, brotps. Stuff. ABOUT YIXING BEING DEAD: YOU'LL FIGURE IT OUT

As you could see, the powers here won't be exactly as in mama!verse, okay? Our deary Suho is a moodmaker, but HEHE who knows if he can manipulate water too? I'm gonna have some fun with their powers, just 'cuz I love the world of supernatural and superpowers. AND, FOR LAST: which other group would you like to see here as cameos? I'm leading towards some INFINITE and SHINEE boys, but it's nothing to take the focus. It's just because some people has to appear, right? Thank you very much, and I sincerely hope you like it so it'll give me strentgh to share my little au!world with you. <3333