(29) LIBERATION OF THE PRODIGY

Kyungsoo cringed as he stepped in another soft patch of grass, his foot sinking deeper and deeper into the marsh the more he walked on. The others seemed unaffected by the mushy terrain and kept moving forward, unable to sense that he was slowly falling behind. It irritated him, really. He’s finally gotten his powers and they were all happy and hugging, for an entire hour. And then now, in the pitch black darkness of the night, were they trudging through dirt patches that Kyungsoo couldn’t tell if they were solid or watery.

His foot sunk into yet another pit of mud and grass, entire shoe and part of his calve sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp. It didn’t occur to him that just at the age of fourteen was he running for dear life through this same swamp, except now, he wasn’t chest hip deep in it, and there wasn’t as much of a rush. Now, it goes up past his knees and lingers around his thighs, and he can feel even more of a workout compared to before. The terrain is also almost entirely different, because the mud now is more dense, and the trees are taller, and the area is dried up for the most part.

“Come on, Kyungsoo. Just because you’re short doesn’t mean you can’t walk through a little dirt and water. Man up!” Kris called from somewhere up above. Kyungsoo couldn’t see very well this late at night, so he just huffed and continued to bitterly walk on.

“Says you! You’re the tallest and you’re using your powers, without walking if I do add.” Chen scoffed, his thighs starting to collect more dried mud that he’d like.

“Here, let me help.” Luhan called from somewhere up front.

Before Kyungsoo and Chen could frantically decline, their bodies were pulled forward by an invisible force. Due to their legs still being stuck in the mud, all that was done was them falling face first into the soggy ground.

Sehun took one look in their direction before continuing to walk on. “Ew.”

Kai was considerate enough to run back to help the two, though the sight of a muddy Chen was pretty amusing. “Looks like you can’t use your power right now, hmm?”

Chen may have been caked from head to toe in mud, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t create enough force to shock the daylights out of the kid. He trudged forward enough to grab his shoulder and Kai looked almost carefree as Chen’s eyes lit up with it’s plasma glow. Kai still stood his ground firmly as the loud cracking sound echoed through the swamp.

The blast was big, but Chen had been more or less angry enough to just have it explode instead of fry the Kai’s brains. He wouldn’t want a dead brother when they literally escaped death not too long ago. Kai had fallen just as Chen and Kyungsoo had a few moments ago, except his entire back flopped into the mud, weeds and other soggy nature getting into his shirt and hair.

“H-How?” Kai sputtered, clutching onto his arm as he waited for Lay to come and heal him. “How did you...”

“It was just a little dirt and water.” Chen chuckled lowly, his eyes were looking in Kris’ direction.

Kris made sure to put some extra distance between the two of them before setting off again. Chen enjoyed the different pace. He grabbed Kyungsoo and pulled him along as he followed after Kris, the scared look in his brother’s eye hilarious. The analogy in his head was like two mice chasing after the frightened lion, the king of the jungle running away with his tail between his legs.

Sehun leaned over Kai’s fallen body, watching as he began to cry a little.

“That’s not fair… Electricity is supposed to be weak against mud…”

It didn’t take Sehun another second to process what that meant. He laughed at how simple minded Kai was and walked onward, still laughing as Kai slowly began to follow the group from behind.

It looked like someone hadn’t outgrown his pokemon phase just yet.

--

They kept walking through the mud bath for another thirty minutes before they spotted a huge wall blocking off their route. Every brick and every crack was painted white, leaving them with the impression that the factions have already begun to build outside the dome. The thought was frightening, yet no one could deny the trademark dreary white color that they used for just about everything in faction A.

Kai stepped up first while placing a finger over his lips to shush the others. He quickly teleported into the area and had appeared just as quickly as he had left in case there were people on the other side. When he returned, he was dumbfounded. There was nobody there. In fact, he probably could’ve kept walking around inside and he still wouldn’t have been caught.

It almost looked like a trap, but with the little time they had left before the police had gone looking for them, he didn’t have much of a choice except to teleport the rest of the boys in so they could all look together. Kris flew up to search from above while everyone else looked on foot. Alone, they couldn’t find anything. And together, the result was the same. There were no doors, no windows, not even a sign as to show where they could search for their next clue.

“Why the hell would they build wall around a giant patch of dirt?” Kris grumbled, There’s nothing in here!”

Sehun shook his head and looked up to see Kris still complaining to everyone about how they were getting nowhere. Letting his eyes flash a bright white, the wind kicked up around Kris and he screamed as he was shaken from side to side in the rough breeze. Sehun laughed at the scene as Kris was tossed around like a ragdoll, his incoherent yelling almost like those back at faction F whenever Sehun would use his powers on them. They didn’t have powers at all, so the experience must’ve been frightening, or so he liked to believe. He rarely liked to get involved with others, and only used his powers to spice up the fun, like when they were traveling through the tunnels to faction A before the screening.

“That’s it!” Sehun shouted, his voice carrying through the air until everyone had gathered from his sudden epiphany. “The tunnels!”

Kai had understood what that meant and stomped his foot on the floor, his shoe print kicking up a bit of dust as he continued to smash his heel into the dirt. To the others, he was kicking up dirt onto their shoes, but to him, he was testing the floor for some kind of metal of somesort. As if to represent the outer layer of the tunnels themselves.

“Hyung! Can you come here for a second?” Kai looked around the group for Kyungsoo and the latter already knew who he was talking to. Giving a short grin in response, Kyungsoo stood confused as to why Kai would need his help.

“Can you punch the ground right here? And Lay, can you heal him after? He might end up hurting himself that’s why.”

Kyungsoo already had kneeled down to the floor and was drawing his fist back when someone grabbed his wrist. Xiumin wrapped his fingers around Kyungsoo’s wrist to stop him. “Wait Kyungsoo. Kai, are you sure this would help us find those, tunnels you speak of? We can’t afford to exhaust ourselves just yet.”

Kai nodded his head eagerly and looked back expectantly at Kyungsoo.

“You said it yourself, didn’t you? The area Tao is being held in was under us, so we’ll just have to break our way in!”

The idea wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Xiumin didn’t want to have Kyungsoo work without any sort of evidence. For all they knew, there could’ve been some kind of large metal plate under the dirt and Kyungsoo would just break the bones in his fist for nothing.

“Lay, are you ready?” Kyungsoo himself spoke this time, glancing over at Lay who nodded his head without looking at him.

Both Lay and Suho were quiet ever since they’ve all met up again to find Tao, neither of them trying to strike up a conversation or say anything at all to one another. He didn’t want to rush him with whatever was bothering him, so he just opted on letting him resolve it on his own. Surely Lay would pay enough attention to him to heal his hand after this.

He grit his teeth together and pulled his arm back yet again, curling his fingers into a tight fist as his eyes began to glow. Kyungsoo didn’t know that using his power would come this easily, and the pit of his stomach was surging with power, as if it wanted him to use the power as well. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled sharply as his fist dropped down to the ground.

The earth shook, and the others had to brace themselves before they toppled over. Their sturdy footing was short lived though, since Kyungsoo’s punch managed to have the ground under them actually cave in, the sound of hitting metal reverberating their ears. Birds scattered from the trees, the ground rumbled violently, and Kyungsoo was left with shattered bones crawling up his right arm.

Lay heals him quickly as the others investigate the newly made hole in the ground. The bottom was easy to see, a short distance down, and Kai nods his head with a small grin at the familiar underground cement colors and light patterns.

“It’s the same as the ones in faction F,” he says. “They must’ve planned to store more prisoners here…”

As they traveled together down the empty path, Kris was already starting to step ahead of everyone else, with Sehun close behind him. Some of the others thought they were too eager to see Tao, while others worried that they were too distracted by having finally infiltrated the government’s secret faction to watch out for any hidden dangers.

Xiumin felt funny ever since they dropped down into the pathway. His skin was tingling and it felt hotter than normal to him. He’d looked around to see if anyone else was feeling a little hot, but the only person sweating was Kyungsoo as his broken hand was mended by Lay. The constant heat slowly intensified and he would’ve died from the uncomfortable temperature. He hasn’t felt that hot since his childhood, when everyone (minus Lay) was sick and suffering during the spring.

Feeling the uneasiness with every step, he eventually broke out into a stride, running up to the front where Sehun and Kris were currently racing each other. Kris managed to pull ahead of him by shoving the latter’s shoulder back before he too was running.

All that was on his mind was to reunite his brothers, so nothing else mattered anymore. Not about his petty behavior before he had gotten his memories back, or even about his ranking in faction A compared to the other factions. That especially didn’t matter anymore now that he was so close to having his family back again.

“Kris, wait!”

He couldn’t stop himself. As he turned around at Xiumin’s frantic voice, Kris was barely able to catch the beam of red that shone from wall to wall. Infrared lasers. The amount of time it took for him to lock up his knees and pray to the heavens that his feet would suddenly be glued to the floor gave him enough time to utter a small curse. Eyes peeled and laser hovering centimeters away from his eyeball, the red beam was hot and Kris felt even worse when Xiumin yanked him back a second too late.

His garbled scream came out harsh against his vocal chords, and Kris held his eye with his hands as he looked up at Xiumin with his other good eye. He couldn’t see anything out of his right eye.

“Oh god, Xiumin- My eye! It’s-”

Xiumin slapped the side of his head a couple times before pulling Kris’ hands away from his face, looking at the boy’s iris to see a fully functional eye. “You’re fine idiot. These are for detecting motion. They’re not laser beams.”

With a huff, Xiumin pulled away and observed the individual beams himself, ignoring how Kris tried to pull himself back together after panicking like that. The beams were skinny, yet they didn’t appear to have any meaning besides staying in place. He actually began to wonder if they were fake when a figure zipped past him, almost becoming one with the wind as he ran by so quickly. A speed like that only seemed suitable to the one and only Sehun and a few seconds after, the rest of the group wa