It was a mess when they arrived. Reporters had swarmed the area and camera flashes were going off non-stop like there was a lightning storm.

'What can you say about the threat?' 'Is the museum secure?' 'What do you think they are after?' 'Will the police be strong enough to defend against the mutants with power?' 

Reporters shot endless questions even though the official had yet to even open his mouth.

'We are not sure who they are and what they want but one thing for sure is that we will not allow any of our national artefacts to be destroyed or stolen!' The government official announced in an orotund voice. 'Any mutant found to be on this premise will be taken in for questioning!' 

'No more questions!' An officer stepped up and spread his arms to prevent the reporters from surging forward and asking more questions.

'What does the government plan to do about the mutants?' 'Will any action be taken against these supernatural beings?' The reporters continued to ask and snap pictures even as the man stepped into his car and drove off. 

'Be careful. You heard the man. I don't think they will listen even if we insist we're good.' Taeyeon instructed. 

'We should probably cover our faces. Just in case there are rebels that recognize us or if, if we have to make another emergency escape.' Soonkyu suggested. 

'Spread out and go in pairs. Don't travel alone and watch each other's back.' Jihyo ordered and the mutants nodded. 

They got out of the vehicles pair by pair and spread themselves out in a circle around the museum. 

'Amber?' Soojung gasped when she saw the familiar face in the crowd.

'Soojung? What are you doing here?' 

'I-I'm with my sis and the others to help keep a lookout. W-what are you doing here? Don't tell me you're....'

'I'm?' Amber tilted her head in question then her eyes widened when she realized what the girl meant. 'Oh no no! It's not that. I'm here for the same reason as you are.' 

Soojung immediately let a breath of relief escape from her lips. 

'Your friend?' Taeyeon asked when she saw the pair's interaction. 

'Yeah, she's here to help out too.'

'Lone wolf eh?'

'Yeah. Don't mind if I do.' Amber nodded her head.

'Go ahead. We could use more manpower.' 

'Taeyeon, I'll sneak inside to take a look and see what they're looking for.' Miyoung said. 

'Take someone with you. Take Joohyun. She would be more help.' 

Miyoung nodded and promptly left. 

'Don't we look too suspicious like that?' Chaeyoung looked at Dahyun who had pulled her scarf all the way up to cover her nose and mouth. 

'At least it's winter so it's not that bad.' The girl shrugged.

'Are we going to be here all day?' 

'Maybe. We'll never know when they decided to strike. They could even strike tomor-' 'Look out!' Someone screamed, cutting Dahyun off. 

They turned just in time to see a car sail through the air and smash into the main exhibition building, shattering the glass panes. 

'Everyone move away!' Jihyo yelled as she looked around to find the culprit. 

It was even worse than before. Everyone was in a state of mass hysteria and was running all over the place, making it hard for Jihyo to visually locate who it was. There were too many faces to scan through and no way for her to get to a higher ground so she opted to use another way of locating the targets, spatial sensing. 

She looked around her surroundings and the people seemed to slow down until she found a figure clad in navy blue, standing calmly despite the chaos, but that wasn't the only hostile target she sensed. There were more, way more than the twenty of them that they could ever hold off.

'Red alert! About fifty rebels surrounding the area, one telekinetic but there could be more!' Jihyo screamed in her mind. 

The mutants instantly perked up and their eyes darted around, tensing up and elements at hand, ready for combat. 

Another car was sent whizzing towards the building but it was smacked to the side by a boulder.

'Jihyo! Yoona! Get these people outta here! There are too many civilians!' Taeyeon yelled from somewhere to the right. 

The two telekinetics began mass mind control, sending brain waves and moving the citizens away from ground zero. 

With the disturbance gone, it was clear who their enemy were. They were surrounded by a larger group, all clad in what they assumed to be their uniform. 

A boy jumped and delivered an axe kick to the ground, causing a crack to form and rapidly made its way towards Tzuyu who was tackled out of the way by Yuri. As the two fell to the floor, the crack widened and a mixture of molten rock and lava erupted from the ground, splashing onto the building and starting fires. 

A beam of light was shot towards Sana in an attempt to temporarily blind her but was neutralized by a cloud of darkness from Soonkyu. 

The rebels must have given up taking turns to attack and swarmed the mutants, engaging in a battle. 

'Miyoung, if you find whatever that scroll is, take it and get out of here!' Yoona told the girl as she ducked a punch. 

It was utter chaos; every element that could be manipulated was being hurled around to either attack or block another element. 

Jeongyeon was ripping strips of metal from the car to bind the hands and legs of the rebel as well as to mask their eyes, preventing them from seeing. She clenched her fist and twisted it towards herself, sending the rebels flying towards each other and gathering them in a pile. 

Nayeon and Jihyo were working together like a well-oiled machine; Jihyo would use the debris as projectiles and hurl them into the portals that Nayeon opened, striking down rebels with accuracy. 

'Are we supposed to fight to the death?' Mina asked as she socked a girl in the face and electrocuted her, sending her flying backwards into another boy. 

'We just need to hold them off till they get out!' Yoona replied, tossing a body over her shoulder. 

'Can they hurry up? They're all getting back up!' Momo jabbed her finger at the rebels that she had previously knocked down that were now struggling to their feet. 

Mina and Sana were taking turns to deliver short bursts of fire balls and ice shards. The pyrokinetic was suddenly knocked to the ground by a swift and unexpected punch to the face. 

'Get up man!' The assailant taunted. 

Mina scowled and lifted her foot, throwing a fiery snapping sidekick which missed. 

'Aw, too slow?' 

Sana tried to take him by surprise with a cyro bomb but even that failed. 

'He's a speed manipulator!' 

'I can see that.' Mina got to her feet and brought her hands together, closing the boy within two walls of flame but before the flames could even singe him, he had raced straight at Mina and jabbed her in the stomach. 

'You piece of .' She began tossing hot blue pinwheels at him but each blast missed and hit another rebel instead. Even Sana, who was trying to slip him up couldn't get a good aim and earned herself a kick to the leg, sending her to the ground in pain. 

'That's it! If you're so tough, get your here and fight rather than running around like a coward!' 

He instantly appeared in front of the enraged pyrokinetic but before the hook punch he threw could reach Mina's jaw, he was completely encased in ice. She gripped his wrist and heat began to spread from the point of contact, melting the ice away. Mina twisted his arm behind his back in a firm grip and man handled him to the ground.

'Let go of me!' He wailed in pain when Mina dug her knee into his back. 

'Not so fast little boy. You won't be running so fast if your legs are broken.' 

'Wait, what?' He shrieked, straining against Mina's grip and his dilated pupils darted around in terror. Mina released a surge of current through his body, knocking him out. 

'Thanks. Are you okay?' Mina extended a helping hand towards Sana who was slightly limping. 

'Probably leave a bruise but I'll be fine.' 

'What do we do now?' The girl asked as she sent a lash of flames to push the rebels back. 

Sana reached out and wiped the blood from the corner of Mina's lip with her thumb before speaking.

'I have an idea but it might hurt.' 

'We don't really have a choice.'

'Flash freezing.' 

'Just do it.' 

'Hold my hand, it'll be slightly better for you.' Sana quickly linked their arms and interlocked fingers. 

'Not gonna doubt you on that.' Mina shot a bolt of lightning at a shape shifter.

The cyrokinetic extended her open hands and tensed her fingers. The air instantly became frigid and one by one, the rebels dropped to their knees as the freezing temperatures seeped into their bones. 

'Well s- it's cold.' Mina chattered.

'Just a little more.' The girl gave a apologetic glance and squeezed Mina's hand.

There were only four visible figures that didn't seem to be affected and continued to advance towards them. 

'T-They're out!' A voice rang clear in their head and Sana's fingers went slack. She pulled Mina along and went to get their members, using fire from Mina's hands to to warm the other mutants.

They retreated to their vehicle which was parked further away and saw Miyoung and Joohyun already there. 

'Let's go! Hurry!' Mina shouted as she slammed the door shut. The vehicle went into wheel spin before shooting off.

Just when they thought they were in the clear, a group of hellhounds jumped out of the tree and almost caught one of the SUVs. 

Jihyo quickly intercepted and manipulated the motion of the sprinting mutts, sending them back into the woods, allowing them to get away. 

'Sana, don't ever do that without warning.' Nayeon grumbled as she turned the meter of the car's heater all the way to the maximum. 

'Sorry.' The girl pressed her lips into a thin line.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

'Since we have this scroll, they would definitely come after us but at least their plans will be halted for now.' Joohyun said as she analysed the scroll. 

'It looks like some kinda ancient language..'  Amber squinted at the pages. 'And wasn't it a book rather than a scroll?'

'The symbols of the ancient alchemist. It's like a encryption so that people who are not well versed with alchemy can't play around with this. I guess the rumours were wrong. This was the only thing in the exhibit that was related to the war. With the help of some books I can decode it, but after I decipher it, I will destroy it.'

'But that's national treasure!'

'I'll make a copy.' The alchemist rolled her eyes. 

'We'll leave that to you then. Update us on the progress; we'll be heading back to the academy.'

'Will do. I'll send the potions over once it's done.' 

'What if they come after us? What do we do? I don't think we can fight them all if they swarm us.' Tzuyu asked from the back seat. 

'We'll put up a resistance but we can't defeat them. The only way is to fight and make cover for yourself then run.' 

'How about Garden Grove? Can they cope?' 

'Oh trust me, they're a hella crazy and feisty bunch. Those guys will regret even stepping on their property.' Jeongyeon laughed. 

'How about the potion? Is there no other way than to directly inject him with it?' Dahyun asked.

'Well, what other way do you propose?' 

'I don't know.. Put it in his food or drink or something.' 

'Oh come on, do you seriously think some action movie strategy would work?' Chaeyoung scoffed.

'You'll never know.' The girl shrugged. 

All of a sudden, the car swerved to the right and flipped over the guard rail, rolling down into the forest below. 

', my head. Oh, my neck. Ow..' The aerobat groaned. 

'The hell just happened?' Nayeon asked as she tugged at the seatbelts. 

'A spirit happened. I saw a dark one lash out at the side from the mirror.' Jeongyeon growled, cutting the seatbelt off with a piece of scrap metal. 

'Spirit? Like the undead? Oh, so they're into necromancy now? What the hell is wrong with these guys?' Mina let out a exasperated sigh and sliced her own seatbelt open with a fire dagger. 

The pyrokinetic freed the rest from their polyester bounds and they crawled out of the metal contraption.

'What a shame.' Nayeon sighed at the dented and scratched up bumper of the car. 

'Where are we?' Tzuyu asked, looking around at the thick vegetation. 

'Forest of nightmares.' Jihyo gasped as she looked around. 

'Forest of what?' Nayeon asked, panicking slightly. 

'We have to get out. Now!' Jihyo said and pushed the members to climb back up the steep grassy slope.

'What? Why?'

'I'll explain later! We have to go before the fog sets in or it'll be too late! Just start climbing!' Jihyo shouted. 

Dahyun was the first one off the ground but before she could gain any more altitude, she dropped back to the ground. 

'What happened?'

'It's here.' 

They looked around at the strange fog that was beginning to form around them. 

'This is where the mortal and spirit world overlap. The Forest of Nightmares, as the name goes, will bring even the strongest man to his knees and cower in fear. It plays with your mind, making you hallucinate visions so real you will think that your deepest fears are coming to life.' Jihyo explained in short breaths. 

'We should stay close to preserve our sanity then.' Sana said and they began to step back, forming a circle. 

The insects began to chirp louder and louder until suddenly, they stopped. They were engulfed by pin drop silence and the only audible thing apart from the ringing silence in their ears was the sounds of their own rapid breathing. 

Without notice, the wind began to pick up, rustling the leaves and howl in a eerie tone around them. Indistinct whispering could be heard and it seemed to be coming from beyond the fog. 

'Whispers of the souls that fell to their fears.' Jihyo instinctively shivered, blood running cold. 

Nayeon's piercing scream could be heard as she was suddenly pulled into the fog. 

'Nayeon!' 

There was another sharp intake of gasp as another member was taken, and another, and another. 

One by one they were harshly yanked away from the group and separated from the circle they had previously formed. 

'Guys!' Chaeyoung yelled into the silence but there was no respond. 

'Tzuyu? Jeongyeon?' Momo shouted, voice taut. 

They were shouting for each other but there was no response, almost as if they were the only beings in the forest. 

The test had already begun without their knowledge. 

A test of their endurance. 

A test of their willpower. 

A fight for survival.