(35) SUB-POWERS

Xiumin woke up hearing something scuffling around on the hardwood flooring, his body jerking upwards instinctively as he tried to catch his balance. He had slept as peacefully as a person could while sitting up against the front door; It was his little resting place in order to make sure no one went in or out of the house, for safety measures. Expecting his back and bottom to be knotting with pain, he’d actually jumped up to his feet and was able to stretch his arms out, feeling nothing, which was strange.

The boy hadn’t been in the living room when he’d woken up, and rubbed his sleepy eyes to see he was moved all the way into one of the rooms overnight. He’d been sleeping atop the fluffy mattress all through the night.

That meant the front door was unmanned and it left his brothers unprotected.

Opening the door to his room, he tip toed out into the living room to count the amount of boys asleep on the floor. There were only eight boys sound asleep. Making his way to the bathroom, he got himself cleaned up and ready to go look for the missing three, sneaking outside into the cool autumn air.

What he had found had not only let him relax in relief, but also piqued his interest in what his brothers were doing. Kris had used his powers to lift himself up in the air while holding onto Lay, the boy casually hanging from Kris’ legs as his eyes shone a deep mint green. Suho was not too far away, casually sitting on top of a large rock. He had a little floating pool of water levitating about a foot off the ground, while he had dropped tiny pebbles into the water, observing it so carefully that he was unaware of Xiumin’s presence, as were the rest of the boys.

“What are you all doing out here?” He asked, keeping his voice down in case the boys inside could hear them.

Kris, Suho and Lay all snapped their heads over to where the sound was coming from, their concentration being broken as they tensed and relaxed their bodies. They’d thought Xiumin was some sort of intruder, and it would’ve been really bad if they had chosen to attack without assessing the situation first.

Suho motioned for him to sit and Xiumin did, plopping down on the large rock with him as Kris and Lay continued to do whatever they were doing. “Practicing using our powers. Didn’t think we’d need to use them so soon, huh?”

Xiumin chuckled before watching Kris and Lay continue their session. “What are they doing?”

The more Kris and Lay stayed hovering in the air, the more Xiumin was being concerned about how Kris didn’t look like he was breaking a sweat while Lay looked as though he would be the one to pass out first. Lay was being carried up by Kris and even if he had to hold himself up, it shouldn’t have been taking that much of a toll on his energy.

“They’re doing some endurance training, or more like Lay is.” Suho laughed while watching Lay try crawling up Kris’ legs to get a better grip. “Lay heals Kris while Kris holds the two of them up like that.”

Humming a bit at the briefing, Xiumin looked back at Suho to see why he had been doing what he was doing earlier.

“I’m training too.”

Suho demonstrated by taking a deep breath and squinting his eyes a bit, bringing forth another floating puddle of water from the ground. He reached down and grabbed two small rocks, letting one fall into the water while keeping the other still in his palm. The first rock sailed down quickly in and through the water and Xiumin didn’t understand was Suho was doing before he had dropped the second rock. This time, the rock hadn’t sunken even a millimeter, and it just rested at the top of the water puddle as it bobbed in the little ripples.

Giving a little grin, Suho let out a sigh before the his hold on the water was released, and the liquid sank back into the ground below. “Water density. Cool, right?”

There was still some water clumping in the mud and Xiumin experimentally leaned down to stick his finger into the mixture while using his own powers, watching as the frost creeped down from his fingertip and froze over the area around them.

“Can you unfreeze things yet?” Suho asked, remembering their childhood and the mini disaster with Chanyeol’s chocolate ice cream.

Shrugging his shoulders, Xiumin hadn’t tried since he’d accidentally almost gotten caught back in faction A when he worked in the task force. He’d gone through the day with a patch of ice frozen around his torso, constantly wearing his thick blazer uniform even when staying in his room out of sight from other people. Once he’d taken a long, hot bath, the ice had melted away as ice should, but he’d felt really sticky after and had to take a cold shower to rid himself of the gross feeling.

Xiumin crouched on the floor and tapped the icy dirt a couple times, unsure if he could still do this. He’d pressed his palm against the ice and sort of brushed his hand against it, unable to feel the coldness prickling needles against his hand like what most people would feel. Trying his best, he’d willed the knot in his stomach to do something. His eyes burned brightly with its sky blue hue while his lips pinched together as he tried to concentrate. It’d been about two minutes before he pulled his hand away, not pleased with how the ice seemed to turn even thicker than when he’d first started.

“Guess not.” He chuckled, a bit upset that no progress had been made.

Suho gave him a smile in hopes that it would cheer him up, even if it was just a little bit, using his own powers to bring up another floating puddle of water. He looked at Xiumin before nudging the boy’s shoulder.

“Try touching it.” Suho said while pushing the water glob closer to Xiumin.

He’d looked at his brother with a funny look before obeying the latter’s wish, slightly letting his hand brush against the water. Little ice flakes spread out from where his fingers touched, slowly growing more and more until Suho hadn’t been able to hold up the water any longer, letting it drop down to the ground while it shattered into tiny little pieces. The crashing noise had almost caused Kris to drop Lay, but he’d managed to keep him from falling while seeing sparkling clear shards glistening in the morning sun light. The sight was pretty and he almost thought they’d come across another trove of precious gemstones.

One by one, the other boys had all come outside to see why there was missing boys inside the house, each and every one that walked out being amazed by Kris and Lay’s willpower. Suho and Xiumin had gotten tired a long time ago and were just talking quietly amongst themselves.

Kai and Sehun were especially excited to see the older boys using their powers to much and ran off to the side to practice too. They worked with hand to hand combat first, and soon enough both boys were bored and began to throw their powers into the mix. Kai would piss off Sehun while he teleported around to constantly poke and prod the boy, while Sehun would let out angry huffs of air to literally blow Kai away. After a while, Suho figured he should step in to stop them before Sehun had blown down the entire forest, but came across the two of them sleeping in the grass, all tired out from their playing just like children.

They’d continued to do that for another couple hours while the other boys spent their time more wisely. Baekhyun and Chen had a contest to see whose powers could glow the brightest while Kyungsoo and Chanyeol awkwardly stood on the side watching. Kyungsoo didn’t feel like breaking any bones today and Chanyeol, well. He didn’t even want to get near a fire after what he’s been through.

Even Tao had come out and did some light stretches with the boys. He’d sat on the side and laughed at Kai and Sehun whenever they’d almost knock one another out. Tao would pass out right beside the two so that all three of them fell asleep on the ground together.

Luhan had been the last one to wake up, and he had come running out with his blanket hugging his frantic body, eyes searching for any trace of his brothers who weren’t inside. He needed more reassurance than seeing an empty living room staring right back at him when he woke up.

“You look like you died and came back to life.” Baekhyun scoffed, keeping his eyes locked on Chen as the two exchanged blinding attacks.

Chen laughed. “Well, he is our little fairy angel, aren’t you princess Lu?”

By now Luhan was already wide awake and using his powers to hang both Baekhyun, Chen and Chanyeol up in the air. He was pretty much pushing his limits, but the others clapped in amazement at his sudden improvement to be able to lift three grown boys at once.

“W-Why am I being lifted?” Chanyeol yelped, pulling down his shirt as his body began to flip upside down.

Luhan puffed out his cheeks before wandering to take a seat next to Sehun. The latter held on a normal face even as the others , so he was a perfect sitting partner.

“Because you laughed.”

“And Sehun didn’t?” Baekhyun screeched. “He was the one laughing the hardest!”

He could feel Sehun stiffen next to him and Luhan turned to yank him up to the sky when Suho clapped his hands, the sound booming through the air abnormally loud.

“Alright, alright, let’s calm down.”

Xiumin pumped his fist and gave a wide grin. “Yeah! We gots some things to say!”

Everyone more or less settled down seeing how excited Xiumin was. Kris laughed and flew down with Lay wheezing at the break they were finally having. He hasn’t seen a smile like that on Xiumin since they were kids.

“Okay, so I’m already sure that you all know that we have powers?”

Starting from the very beginning seemed like the correct move for this situation, especially since Suho wasn’t exactly sure if some remembered the entire story from beginning to end. A few boys turned to look at Kyungsoo. The boy held up a fist at Baekhyun in particular before everyone realized he too, remembered everything.

Nodding his head, Suho continued to speak. “But did you know that we, having powers and all, have another ability along with our main powers?”

He could tell some of the boys were starting to get lost, and was immensely grateful for Xiumin jumping in before one of the others could interrupt his speech.

“It’s like, the main ones, which is the powers we grew up with. And our secondary powers!”

The group really had a bad habit of staring when they were confused. And instead of asking questions one by one, they waited until the first person wanted to speak before overpowering them with their own yells and bantering.

“So, you’re saying that I have more than one power?” Chanyeol squeaked out, the dark circles under his eyes growing deeper with every shortened breath he took.

“This is so cool.” Chen grinned, already flexing his fingers to try and see what they were talking about.

Nobody was really sure, but since Chanyeol said something about having more than one power, the rest of the boys were convinced and ready for whatever was coming for them.

“But, how do you know this?” Kris asked, still unconvinced by everyone else's’ lack of proof.

Xiumin reminded Kris about earlier that morning when they were training and how he and Suho were busy playing around with their powers. Kris claimed to be too busy practicing that he hadn’t seen Xiumin come across his epiphany, and Xiumin huffed before repeating himself again.

Most people would probably get dangerous injuries when touching ice that was below subzero temperatures, but Xiumin was special. Since his power was ice, that also meant that he could not only bring out the power of ice and frost at any whim, but it meant he couldn’t be touched by it.

“That… Would make sense.”

Tao gave Kris a look before glancing back over to Xiumin, who seemed fairly happy to be able to convince Kris that what he was saying is true.

“Uh, that means, what makes sense exactly?” Baekhyun said in a very snarky tone.

He was just upset that he hadn’t been understanding anything that the other boys were saying. Looking up at Kris, the latter shrugged before telling them how Xiumin was found. It was pretty ironic, the location.

“I woke up on top of a snowy mountain.” Xiumin grinned cheekily.

“And he walked down to faction A all by himself.” Kris added in. “What a weird kid.”

A few others understood, while a bunch of others didn’t. Some shared their own experiences to try and help one another remember, and that helped make the picture a bit clearer. Like how Kyungsoo was found in a giant crater made hole while Chanyeol woke up with everything around him on fire.

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