(9) FALL pt. II

“Come on!” Sehun grunts, curling and uncurling his fingers. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!”

He wonders where Kai went. He wonders how everybody else was doing. He wonders if Chanyeol and Baekhyun were okay, and he wonders if he would be okay. The nerves really get to him when he feels uneasy in his gut, and it makes the hair all over his body stand on edge. His clammy hands turn cold, his heart’s beating way too fast, and he’s getting dizzy at the sight of flashing lights before him.

Kyungsoo, too, was fighting to keep his heart from exploding, taking deep breaths to try and soothe the erratic pumping and the ringing in his ears. It worried him that Kai was suddenly missing, but since those guards didn’t say anything about capturing another boy, he hoped for the best. He glanced over at Sehun and saw how white his skin was, hands held out in front of him as they shook uncontrollably.

“Sehun, are you okay?” Kyungsoo asks, shuffling closer to him. Sehun shakes his head.

“I… I think I’m going to be sick,” he wheezes, lurching forward and bringing an arm up. He pushes Kyungsoo back a bit, and he can feel the irritation in his eyes, but he’s not sure if it’s because of the salty sweat that beads at his eyelashes or not.

His mind races, and the weight of being completely useless takes over. He was the youngest and considered the “most fragile” out of all of the boys, leaving him to be babied by the older boys, especially Suho who watched him like a hawk. It was true that he was the youngest and that he was powerless. It repeats in his head over and over again, crushing him, but he’s not sad about it. Instead, there’s a sudden kick of anger, and when he feels his gut pull back painfully, he screams.

Wind. Strong, angry gushes of wind pour out from around him, hissing in Kyungsoo’s ears and lashing into a giant vortex. And even though there’s bullets shooting at the two from every direction, they still get caught in the cyclone and shoot back towards the perpetrators instead.

Sehun’s fingers reach up in the air before he faces his palms outward, arms at one-eighty degree angles. With a big motion, he moves them in front of him and kneels at the ground, the wind pushing everyone back at such a great force that some of their bodies crack when they come in contact with the metal crates. Kyungsoo has to clench to the back of Sehun’s shirt just to stay within the safety zone in the middle of everything. He could only watch through the screen of raging wind, seeing bodies fly like ragdolls with every flick of Sehun’s wrists.

The more people come, the more Sehun unleashes his power, and although he’s grateful, he’s also scared for a new reason; he’s scared that he won’t be able to control it. It was as if he were trying to hold a boulder up with a thin piece of string, the weight yanking down hard on his body as he struggled to keep the heavy weight up. Luckily, the numbers seem to die down as he runs out of energy, panting and coughing and possibly puking onto the ground. But there’s no time to wait around.

Kyungsoo grabs Sehun’s arm and runs. It’s a lot less panicky, but they don’t want to risk anything. Eventually, they lose track of the soldiers and Sehun drops to the ground.

“You…” Kyungsoo panted. “...You did it. You saved us.”

Sehun lets out a jittery laugh, but he’s still too shaken up to talk. They take the time to calm down, and Kyungsoo rests against one of the cold crates.

“I wonder when the others… Will find us…” He wonders aloud, ridding the sweat on his face with the sleeve of his jacket. Sehun nods.

Just when all seems to go well, Sehun doesn’t notice the loud creaking from above, and there’s no time to react before he’s shoved out of the way and a large metal beam is plummeting down, straight for Kyungsoo. The crash rang through everyone’s ears as dust puffed up into the night air, creating a thick smoke screen around them.

Shaking off the pain etching through his scraped elbows and battered knees, Sehun can only stare at the pile of beams and bars that cover Kyungsoo’s fragile body.

--

“Over there! I think I…”

Kai stops in his tracks, everyone in perfect view of Sehun and Kyungsoo, the two of them somehow managing to smile even during such a time. The fact that they were okay made him relieved, almost bringing a smile to his own face before he feels it all crash down on him. There’s a moment of shock that jolts through his body, and he’s completely frozen. The metal beam crashes against the floor with a deathly boom, and after the longest minute of silence, Kai is screaming so hard that his throat sears with bloody pain. But that doesn’t matter, because by the time he teleports over to the beams, it’s already too late.

The others come running in, grasping the edges of the beam and trying their best to haul it upwards to no avail. Kai’s muttering Kyungsoo’s name over and over again, in tears as the others are too shocked to even speak. The fear fills them up until a few break down as well, wheezing and freaking out. The older ones tried their best to keep calm and get the beams off of Kyungsoo, but there isn’t much a bunch of kids can do in this situation.

Not even Luhan can move the beam with his powers, and after minutes of trying to move the bulky piece of metal, everyone slumps over in defeat. Kai’s knuckles scrape against the floor after numerous attempts to lift the damned thing, but his tears begin to pool at his collar bones as he gives up.

“I- I can’t do it!” He sobs. “I can’t teleport with the beam! I- If I hadn’t left, this wouldn’t have happened- Hyung- Kyung- Kyungsoo is dead because of me!” He cries into the palms of his hands

“C-Can’t you do something?!” Baekhyun shouts at Tao, but the younger is too scared to even move, his jaw slightly ajar as the tears raced down his face.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen… No, this wasn’t supposed to happen!” Tao mutters angrily to himself, his body shaking as he glares at the beams. Baekhyun notices his eyes flashing yellow, but it’s too quick to be anything noteworthy.

Losing hope wasn’t something that he was known for and Luhan managed to stand up again with his legs firmly planted on the ground, his stance low as he tried to force the beams up, only letting out a horrid hack as his lungs gave out. The thinner beam moved, but only a few centimeters at a time, even one of the smaller metal beams proved to be too much for the young boy. He didn’t give up though, willing the topmost beam away as it toppled off the side of the pile and onto the dirt ground below. As the heavy metal clattered off the pile, he too fell and gasped out for air as the exhaustion caught up with him, rendering him and his powers useless at the moment.

Wiping his wet hands on his pants, Kai peers under the metal and searches past his blurry eyes. He searched desperately for a way in, or at least some kind of way to help Kyungsoo break free, feeling the anger build up as Kyungsoo’s wheezes could be heard from under the mess.

“Kyungsoo hyung, don’t worry… I’ll… I’ll get you out somehow, I know I will…” Kai muttered to reassure himself as he tried yanking out one of the metal bars, the smallest of the pipes making him exert his energy to the point where the skin on his palms began to feel as though they were ripping off.

Noticing how that wasn’t going to work, he grabbed another one of the pipes and stuck it under a beam closest to Kyungsoo’s body, using his weight to push the pile upwards as he practically hung from the end of the pole.

“There they are! Quickly dispose of them before they use their magic again.”

The boys all spun around to find more men rushing towards them, enclosing them in a ring of fire power and men in police vests. The officers all took aim and were prepared to shoot upon command, almost hurting the boys if Sehun hadn’t stepped in first, using his rage to summon up whirlwinds to stall time. The dread he had felt was long gone after the rest of the boys had arrived and was replaced with hatred for the men in uniform, his anger fueling his source of power. If he hadn’t paid more attention to his surroundings, then they could have been home free and not in this situation. Sehun forced himself to stay conscious, as there was nothing left to puke out from his system anyways.

Kai took advantage of the wind gusts to try again with his approach on freeing Kyungsoo, jerking against the metal pole until he could feel it slowly easing up, his feet being able to touch the ground as the beams began to rise up.

Rising beams put aside, Kai only watched astonishedly as a hand rose from in between the pile of heavy metal, followed by a head and then a battered body amidst the rubble. It looked as though Kyungsoo had died and was being reincarnated into a new form, body covered in rust and blood as his irises bloomed with a golden, earth-like color. Seeing that they were outnumbered and in a bad situation, Kyungsoo stepped out from the pile of beams with ease, taking another look around before tossing one of the smaller beams into Sehun’s storm. The metal was carried off by the whirlwind until colliding into four of the guards nearest to his side, their screams drowned out as Sehun’s winds whipped around in the air.

Grabbing both Kai and Sehun by their wrists, Kyungsoo managed to lug them over towards where the guards had gone down, scurrying through the entrance with the others in hot pursuit. His ragged breaths slowly became shallow as he tried to get away, ultimately giving out after trying to make his escape, his body dropping into the two boys’ arms as they panicked and struggled to hold him up.

Before they could have been slowed down or caught, Kris swooped in and took Kyungsoo onto his back before flying off, yelling for them to hurry up before they were caught again. He jetted through