“So are you saying that even if we avenge those who wronged us that doesn’t make us the Avengers?”

Yukhei knitted his brows together in an absolutely serious way as if he was trying very hard to see the logic behind the statement.

“You watch too much tv,” Ariadne rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help the smile tinting her expression. Being able to have this ridiculous dispute with her former classmate was way too good to whine about the small nuisance that his childish personality caused. But Ariadne had to admit, it was starting to grow on her, seeing everything in a positive light like he did and it might have been naive but it definitely helped her mood.

“My whole life has been a lie,” Yukhei overdramatically threw himself back on the couch, clutching onto his heart. His act made the girl beside him laugh, unable to concentrate on the telepathic wall she was supposed to keep up as a part of their practice.

“Don’t be too dramatic,” she flicked him on the arm which was getting musclier day by day thanks to his own physical exercises. Ariadne tried hard not to think about it. Especially if she couldn’t keep up the wall shielding her thoughts before the boy. Now that they knew Ultra had superior agents too, protecting themselves against their own powers was just as important as against those deadly weapons.

“But ironically, it’s true,” Johnny pointed out from the other side of the room so suddenly that it startled both of them. The half-Korean guy casually leaned against the wall watching them intently just like he was watching an interesting show on tv.

“When did you even get here?” Ariadne blinked at him dumbfounded while shrugging Yukhei’s arm off her shoulder.

“Around that time when you were fighting about whether Black Widow or Spider-man is cooler,” Johnny answered and his reply automatically peaked up the younger guy’s interest.

“Your vote?”

“Iron man,” Johnny said without hesitance as he teleported to the sofa in front of them with a whoosh sound.

“No but between the two.”

“Let’s admit, Black Widow is ier.”

“I’m disappointed, man. You broke our codex. Always bros before hoes,” Yukhei pouted and looked so hurt even a theatre major would have envied his skills. No wonder he was so good at blending in among people. Everybody ate up his lies and half-truth.

And while the two guys had a staring contest, Ariadne still couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of Johnny appearing so suddenly. It might have been fun and rainbows now but a surprise like this could cost their life in other situations.

“How did we not notice you?”

“Because I’m sneaky and you two were too busy flirting,” Johnny shrugged and his cheeky response earned a pillow thrown at him by the girl. He didn’t even bother blocking it though.

So yeah, this is how life was in the ‘dungeon’, the underground storage facility where Yukhei’s team of hunted superiors currently lived. He insisted on calling it their group but without him, Ariadne wouldn’t have done this. She had been hiding and running ever since Ultra had discovered her powers. She wouldn’t have planned a whole revolution all by herself.

But Yukhei, oh boy, he had that charisma, that vision and he made it so believable that they could actually do it that it was truly inspiring. But he also needed someone to ground him, to remind him of obstacles and sometimes of reality. Because his dream, a world where their kind could live peacefully still seemed so far away.

But so far in this hidden underground building they could be freely without worrying about Ultra. When Ariadne told Yukhei (after that incident) that it would probably be better to not plan these kind of illegal things in the kitchen of her home, the boy did some digging and found out that her mother didn’t leave him without heritage, only his father forgot to mention it. And one of the things he got was an address which he followed but ended up in a dead-end of an alley. He checked the number three times because it didn’t make sense.

“Maybe it’s magic. Like in Harry Potter, you know,” he joked but Ariadne was so sure his mom wouldn’t leave him without a clue.

“Come on, think! There must be something. Maybe she told you about this place or gave something to you to remember or…”

She didn’t even have to finish the sentence, Yukhei suddenly in a breath as realization hit him. He pulled out his necklace from under his shirt.

“She told me not to take it off,” he mumbles taking a close look at the key on the silver chain that had been around his neck for years now without much attention. But with a closer look, now he saw the engraved words: look down.

And down they looked. There was a trap-door which as it turned out led them here, an underground storage nobody really knew about. It was the best place they could hide away when they needed. There were a lot of things to be done: cleaning, making sure electricity worked, the water run and they had to block the trap-door, so the place could only be reached by transporting.

But even if they settled down in the dungeon as Yukhei liked to call it, only the two of them could hardly make a revolution. And that’s when Johnny came. His name was on one of the folders Ariadne managed to snatch that one time and they decided to pay him a visit. As it turned out friendlier approach does indeed do more good than blazing guns. (who would have thought? Shocking, I know.) And with Johnny came this girl, Honey who was basically his not blood-related sister and he was super protective of her. Not that she needed protection. She was pretty fierce and straightforward. She found a great partner in crime in Ariadne.

After that Ten found them. He had some meditation buddha thing and his telepathy was on a whole new level, he didn’t only hear thoughts but could feel emotions too. According to him the four of them together created a great blast and that’s how he ended up basically at the threshold of their bunker after sensing their energy.

Mark was the newest addition to the gang. He was the same age as Yukhei and the purest thing on Earth. He only broke out recently and was visibly panicking at his new powers, so he needed them before Ultra could find him. He fit in well, enjoyed their company but he was still experimenting with his new found skills.

So the six of them were… well, definitely not the Avengers much to Yukhei’s dismay but something like that and with Ultra’s guard dogs breathing down their necks, they knew they couldn’t hide underground playing darts forever. They had to make a move. Which comes to this: the capitalized Discussion. Each of them sat around the table in the room they started calling dining room after numerous ramen dinner there.

“Sooo… does anybody has an idea? A proposition? How to bring Ultra down?” Yukhei took charge of managing the discussion but it was strangely quiet.

It was easy to be brave and throwing threats but actually planning and doing something was entirely else. They all wanted a peaceful life that was taken away from them by the organization hunting their kind and deep down all of them knew that it won’t change until Ultra is taught a lesson. But in this secured place it was easy to forget about the dangers of outside world if it wasn’t for the thrill of going out to buy food. Only Ariadne went home because thanks to her extra carefulness Ultra still couldn't trace her. Yukhei was their best agent after all and he left. But all the others had been living in this underground place, only going out when it was considered safe.

“I think we should get out those superiors whom Ultra experiments on. They shouldn’t be there and that would be quite a big slap to the s,” Ariadne spoke up after everybody else remained silent. Apart from Yukhei nobody saw the horrors of that labour in Ultra HQ but only imagining it made them furious.

“I second that. Nobody deserves to be a lab rat,” Ten agreed without hesitation while Johnny and Honey shared a long, meaningful stare and probably a few thoughts via telepathy.

“We are in,” the girl nodded and then every pair of eyes turned to the last one in row, Mark in his oversized hoodie, wide eyed, looking like he didn’t even know what a newbie like him was doing there.

“Uhm... sure, even though I land in the trash bin on the surface more often than not, count me in,” he replied and Yukhei was proud of the team and the cooperation.

“Cool. Now we go to the tricky part. The how part. As you all know I was an agent in Ultra and I was once in said lab, so I know exactly where we need to go and what kind of protection we will face. Ariadne here is the only one I know of who broke into the HQ and left without a scratch or trace left behind, so her ideas and methods are automatically valid.”

Johnny from the end of the table snorted, coughing something like smitten but nobody cared about him except Ten who hit him on the a back a bit too hard and painful.

“I’m not sure it would work for a second time. I hacked their cameras that time but by now they must be prepared for that,” Ariadne claimed resting her chin on her intertwined hands. “Actually I was thinking that maybe you can get us in.”

Her gaze set on the boy who blinked dumbfounded like he didn't even consider that option. In the meantime, behind them Mark nodded like this solution was way too obvious to even him.

“Since I went MIA and started avoid my dad, I think they made sure to double the security and label me as a threat, so I can’t really get you in,” Yukhei shook his head grimacing. He could have been smarter, acting like he didn't know anything but he acted on impulse and being angry at the world (meaning: Ultra) so he didn’t think so ahead, of the consequences and the disadvantages of disappearing into the shadows.

However, Ariadne didn't seem disheartened.

“No. Listen to me. The last thing Ultra knows is that you were chasing after me and then disappeared. But what if you go back holding me as a hostage? We could be the bait while the others get the ones from the lab,” she said and from it seemed so logical, so smooth but Yukhei knew that it wouldn't be as easy as getting lost in Ariadne's dark, beautiful eyes.

“Sounds good,” Honey chirped in and that made Yukhei snap out of openly staring his ex-classmate.

“Are you sure? You worked so hard to stay in the hidden,” he whispered thinking of how much Ariadne yearned for normal, college student life while trying to protect her mom who still didn't know about anything, about her powers either. She also had to think about her mom whom could get into trouble if Ultra found her. It was way too risky for her sake.

However, she wasn’t going to let him play favourites.

“You all face this danger and you’re also my family. I can’t just sit and wait until they find me. I need to do something and if it’s that, I’m willing to do it.”

After her exclamation the whole room fell silent. Yukhei gaped at her, clearly dumbfounded by her attitude while the others were just waiting for this Ping-Pong talk between them to end to speak up.

“Okay that was super touching but how do you imagine us getting inside without getting caught?” Ten couldn’t miss the opportunity to tease them about it and yet still focus on the task and that made Ariadne roll her eyes. (Nowadays, she did that more and more around these guys.)

It was pretty out in the open that all the others (except Mark because he was too shy being the newbie in the group) teased them about romance budding between them, having heart eyes for each other and stuff like that. It all started when once Johnny saw them casually (and very platonically, mind you) hugging after Yukhei got the perfect kind of book for her birthday. Denying anything on her part was useless because the boy was naturally pretty flirty and he even exaggerated his reactions to fuel the fire of their interest. But at the end of the day it was just a harmless joke, so no matter how annoyed Ariadne got, she was actually happy that they had the opportunity to do this instead of whatever Ultra wanted to do with them.

“We will use the Ariadne's trick but twice. One will be us, the bait waiting to get caught and then you, the real protagonist of the day. They won't even suspect anything suspicious for the second time,” Yukhei said and Ten whistled.

“Nice!”

“So we just teleport right in the lab?” Johnny went into the details very purpose-driven and it was inspiring to see that everybody was invested in reaching this goal, punching Ultra in the gut and helping their kind.

“No, you can't. The lab is protected against our powers, so you will have to either knock the guard out or charm him,” Ariadne told him because this was what she got from the events Yukhei told her once.

“I’m pretty sure I can do the latter either way,” Honey volunteered herself with a pretty, fake innocent smile that only Mark couldn’t decipher.

“What should I do?” he, being the least experienced in missions, chirped in because he was still unsure if they made any use of his newly found, not even evolved powers. Still, he wanted to be a useful part of the group, so he had to ask.

“You will be our eyes because even though we will communicate through telepathy, we still don’t know when Ultra’s men come and from when,” Johnny threw in the idea and everybody nodded convinced. It was a good one for both not throwing him under the bus and giving him an important role, so he wouldn’t feel useless.

“Uuuuh cool but how I’m going to do that?” he asked curious and Johnny gladly provided the answers because he got the hang of it – their plan – pretty quickly.

“We hack their security system so that you can see it, okay? And of course, in Ultra they will only see a frozen screen with nothing happening.”

And Mark who just finished his senior year and wanted to become a comic illustrator stared at them like they were crazy for expecting him to hack anything. He was lowkey internally freaking out until Ariadne noticed his discomfort and told him:

“That’s what I did to get in unnoticed and it took them almost five minutes to realize. I only got caught because of bumping into a man on my way out,” she grimaced still embarrassed by that stupid mistake before teleporting out but it led Yukhei to her, so maybe it wasn’t that bad in the long run. “So don’t worry, I’m going to do the hacking part.”

It’s funny how she could get into a super modern paramilitary organization’s IT system after only completing one semester of The Introduction Of Computer Science at university. They think between being a secret organization will prevent attacks like this and as always they were underestimating the superiors, thinking they were nothing without their abilities. But oh boy, how wrong they were and the group was ready to prove them wrong.

“That sounds like a plan,” Ten declared happily clapping his hands and Yukhei shot a cheerful grin at Ariadne over the table. She couldn’t help but smile back.

They talked over the plan every day, they practised long distance telepathy communication, combat and their roles in the mission. They were getting stronger day by day but it didn't mean much because they still didn’t do anything with it. It was easy to say ‘we will attack Ultra one day’ instead of setting a date because that would have made everyone nervous. However, Ariadne knew they couldn’t wait forever no matter how convenient that was. She came up to Yukhei one day while he was exercising and blurt it out.

“Why don’t we do it tonight?” she asked out of nowhere but the guy didn’t stop with the push-ups.

“Do what?” he acted surprised of the question and kept exercising regardless of that. “Oh you mean that new flavoured ramen for dinn–”

“I mean the attack,” she cut his bull short and at that he visibly sniffed. Sweat drops kept rolling down on his tanned, already muscular chest since he, of course, didn’t wear shirt. It was actually a bit distracting but Ariadne wasn’t going to tell him to get dressed just so they could talk. However, luckily Yukhei himself grabbed his tank top from the floor and pulled it on before answering.

“Actually I wanted to mention that I’m not so sure about our part anymore. I can do it alone without the whole bait thing and you could stay here to help the new kid…”

“He’s called Mark.”

It was an automatic reply because for an unknown reason Yukhei really liked to tease Mark who was the only one younger than him and even Ariadne.

“So we can change that part because you know I love causing trouble and if I was going to see my father, they wouldn’t be surprised…”

It felt life Yukhei was making excuses to not go along with the original plan and Ariadne didn’t like it. She had a wild guess why he was doing this but she didn’t really get the exact reason behind it. She had been doing fine alone before, so she could handle herself and wasn’t afraid of Ultra. She didn’t need Yukhei worrying or trying to protect her.

“We have talked about it.  It’s our best option if we don’t want to make it too obvious. Why are you second-guessing it now?”

“It’s just… during the interrogation they will put you in special handcuffs that block your power and what if I can’t get you out? I can’t let you there,” he admitted with a helpless sigh rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

Ariadne had to admit that the thought of getting handcuffed didn’t particularly turn her on but what had to be done had to be actually done and she wasn’t a whiny little girl screaming for help. Also she knew she had the whole team watching her back, so she had nothing to fear as long as they were there.

“I trust you, Yukhei, I know you will come up with something,” she smiled at the usually confident boy who was about to get side-tracked and uncertain.

“Thanks for your faith in me but come on, it’s dangerous! We can only guess their reaction. What if they kill you on the spot?”

“It’s like a game of chess. A bit of strategy and luck hoping that the opponent will make a mistake and not notice our approaching queen,” Ariadne paused looking at him closely, the worry in his beautiful dark chocolate coloured eyes, swimming with constellations of summer nights. “It will okay, Yukhei.”

“Promise?” he raised a brow. At first the girl thought he was joking because of his mouth quirking up but his eyes were serious.

“Promise,” she nodded and hooked her pinkie finger into his sealing their promise.

Okay, kid, what are the positions?

“He’s called Mark and he’s literally the same age as you,” Ariadne groaned out loud right next to Yukhei sending out the telepathic waves of the question.

“But he’s the new kid anyway, so…”

No movements in the basement. Only two guards by the door. But the first floor is full of people, it will hard to get out if you get caught in there. Mark tells them as he checks on the heatwave live maps of the Ultra building. It took them a week to test the product and find the perfect places to put the censors but by now they work efficiently and it’s exactly what they needed.

I didn’t ask of your pessimism, did I? We will do awesome. Let’s get going, he sent back another telepathic message and Ariadne hit the boy on the back.

No matter how standoffish he acted, she knew it was just to mask his nerves because if anything happened to anybody during the mission, he would blame himself. He would feel like he was the one at fault even if he didn’t all because it was mainly him who came up with the idea of revenge and bringing the gang together. Ariadne wasn’t much better, she was always next to him and she knew she would be there then too. But she didn’t want to think of the odds and worst case scenarios. Instead she followed the order the best she could.

Copied that, Johnny signalled back and with that they were all on the move.

If you would ask anybody who was present at the Ultra headquarters when Yukhei burst in after months of disappearance, they would tell you that no other silence could be like that. First it was shock that he was even alive, then it was disbelief that he came back and then anger. And in the middle of this mess, Yukhei, that tall idiot favoured by Jedikiah of all people, grinned like he had the time of his life.

“Hello-hello everyone! Missed me? I bet you did ‘cause I’d have missed me,” he exclaimed as a greeting and before him Ariadne in light handcuffs tried to mask her eye roll with an angry frown.

“You traitor…” one of the agents accused Yukhei who seemed absolutely unaffected by the blame put on him.

“Ah-ah-ah, which traitor would have brought you the Invisible Girl herself? Think before you act, please,” he snorted all arrogant.

“So... you’re saying you only disappeared after questioning me about our methods because you wanted to collect the girl?” A tall, blonde man who didn’t resemble Yukhei at all walked down the stairs with piercing eyes, measuring the guest up and down. His guards stood by his side watching closely whether they should attack or not.

“Yeah. I had to make her believe I was on her side. I couldn’t have done that while reporting you every two minutes,” Yukhei answered calmly as if there were no guns pointed at his chest.

“It’s been two months, Lucas,” Dr. Price clicked his tongue and the boy winced at the name.

“But I’m here, succeeded unlike any of your other agents,” he retorted and his father couldn’t disagree with the result as his gaze shifted to the girl behind those wide shoulders.

“Very well. Let’s take her to the lab. It’s time for Lucas to get to know the big secret,” the man smiled devilishly and a shiver ran down on Ariadne’s spine. Wait, didn’t Yukhei say they were going to the interrogation room first? That that was the protocol? Why going straight to the labs?

Yukhei was equally stunned and angry. He was sure that his father did this on purpose to rile him up, because he didn’t trusted him yet. Nice family reunion, right?

“The lab? What kind of lab? What are you going to do with her? Aren’t you supposed to talk with her first?” he asked the questions million per a mile but he has always been nosy, so it was nothing new.

"I guess, you will have to see," said the head of the researchers and Yukhei tried to gulp not too noticeable because he knew showing weakness meant losing. His father was a predator searching for weak points and once he smelled blood, he didn't stop until he found his prey. He was the only variable in the equation they calculated the escape plan with that was uncertain and Yukhei could only hope he wasn't wrong about him.

"Lead the way," he raised his chin up high and tugged on Ariadne's handcuffs to make her follow him.

Even though it wasn't according to the plans at all, the girl trusted him and let him lead her - though she acted a bit reluctant since in this scenario she should have been a prisoner. Everybody in the team was ready for unexpected surprises, just not so early in the plan and well, that spiced things up.

We are going down, Ariadne warned the others currently working on getting into the lab.

What? What do you mean? Didn't you say the meeting rooms are upstairs? they heard Ten's frantic voice in their minds and Ariadne didn't blame him. The other half of the team had to hide or disappear way too quickly this way.

It looks like dad has some surprises for us, Yukhei answered bitterly. Wait until he opens the lab's door for us and then we might be able to attack them and deal with all the guards all at once.

I don't like the sound if that 'might', Johnny chirped in but nobody protested and Mark let them know which positions were the best to hide in order to avoid the approaching small army of Ultra employees. At least six agents accompanied them but out of all of them Jedikiah was the most dangerous because he was the one who could order them around. If he wanted, he could have had them dead by now but for some reason he decided to play this game despite his suspicion.

"So what happened to the feisty girl who outsmarted all my agents?" he asked in that arrogant voice of him that made Ariadne want to punch him and hopefully break his nose.

"Not all," Yukhei reminded his father with a click of his tongue but neither the man nor Ariadne cared as she replied.

"She came to get you," Ariadne snarled and imitated a bite. The lead researcher didn't seem intimidated at all, like he had all the winning cards with him. He just laughed.

"Oh believe me, I want to see you try. You're truly the perfect candidate," he said confidently but his long steps faltered as he saw the double-winged white door in the basement...

"Where the hell that stupid guard go?" he snapped and Ariadne mentally congratulated the others on getting the unconscious body out of there.

"What a troublesome labour force," Yukhei let out a tsk sound just because he could mock the man this way and satisfaction filled him as he watched the anger flare in his father's eyes. In the last two months which he spent out of his influence he finally saw everything in another perspective and it made him rethink his decisions. Like how he could ever turn to this stone cold man for love and acceptance?

"You work for me too, don't forget that like you did in the last months," the man retorted.

Wow, now we now that Yukhei at least got one thing from him: the sassiness, Honey spoke up  in order to lighten up the tense atmosphere but considering the growing bad feeling in their guts as the group approached the door it didn't work that well.

"So lady and gentlemen, this is the laboratory," the researcher opened the door and that revealed a sight that was permanently burnt into Yukhei's mind ever since his latest visit. There were huge glass containers and in each of them superiors were kept like they were nothing but animals. They even looked up at them frightened like

"This is Miss Invisible Girl’s new residence," he added and both the mentioned girl and Yukhei stared at the man in disbelief.

"No... no way," Ariadne shook her head but two agents grabbed her by the waist and led her closer to an empty container. Being separated was never the plan and since he wasn't sure what a cell like this could do, Yukhei wanted to prolong the lasting minutes until they could come up with a good plan but there was no time at all, Ariadne was already almost half in that prison cell when out of nowhere one of the guards leading her got a dagger digging deep into his thighs.

Sorry, I didn’t think, they all heard Honey faintly mumble to which Ariadne replied with a soft Thanks.

Her reckless actions got them caught since the agents looked more alert than alert, there was no going back. Only forward, with all of them working together. Ariadne broke out of her homemade handcuffs and hit the other guy on her side. Alongside with her actions, Ten, Johnny and Honey revealed their spots and came out of hiding to attack the agents.

It wasn't much of a fight. Even being outnumbered and without their superhero-like abilities inside of this room, Yukhei's group easily knocked out the Ultra workers one by one – which was a pretty big blow on Ultra’s ego. They did have the element of surprise but it went surprisingly easy even like that...

Until Jedikiah Price was the last one standing.

"Now, you will let them out and let us all go in peace," Yukhei started bargaining already and he motioned towards the superiors kept in captivity. Now they had the upper hand, at least until the backup arrived, so he knew they didn't have much time to get out. "No agents after us. We want a free pass or..."

"Or what? You'll kill me? You know you can't," his father reminded him and for that Yukhei hated him. Because by now he knew enough about the Ultra's experiments to know about the barrier in every superior's mind that stopped them from killing. "In this whole room, I'm the only one who's capable of killing. So you really think you can actually win against me? I'm disappointed in you, son."

"I'm not your son. Never was. Blood can't change that," Yukhei spat at him in disgust.

"Then I don't even need to pretend to be sorry," Jedikiah said, hitting a button on the small device in his hands and the next moment, a horrible headache forced every superior in the room down to the ground groaning and sobbing because of the almost endurable pain of the sudden pressure in their homo superior mind.

"Progress always demands sacrifices. I'm doing all this for the greater good, for a safer future," the man tried to reason, explaining himself but nobody cared. They were too busy dealing with the stabbing pain torturing them.

Yukhei prepared for an attack like this, so he knew what he had to do even if it was hard, way too hard because of this high-pitched voice ringing in their ears. But he had to be strong, so he gathered all of his power and focused them on the outgoing telepathic message.

NOW!

It was chaos. Utter catastrophe with glass shattered into pieces and a bullet biting right into the skin, tearing and bleeding. The moment Mark shut down the electricity in the building from afar, the barrier sealing their abilities disappeared and all that power that the captivated superiors had to hold back blew up the whole place. Their kinetic energy set off in waves and the glass cells they were kept in couldn't hold them back anymore. The agents started shooting their bullets without caring whom they hit.

That's when among fighting friends, Ariadne fell. Her knees turned to jelly like a ragdoll and Yukhei watched it happen. Then he didn't think, he ran to the girl searching for wounds or blood but there was nothing. It didn't make sense. He knew that Ariadne's body only reacted like this when she overused it but this seemed like something different. Something wrong.

"Come on, you can't leave me, okay? Please, come back to me," Yukhei begged as he hugged the unconscious Ariadne close, petting her hair.

"What happened? What's going on?" Ten got closer and was pretty shocked to see the girl so weak in this mess.

"I have no idea. One moment she was fine, punching one of them in the face then she just collapsed,” Yukhei kept rambling not knowing what to do. He just wanted to leave, to go back to their place, put her in bed and sing her lullabies. He wanted her to be fine and roll her eyes at his stupid comment. He wanted to hear her laugh and see the way her eyes smiled then. He just realized he wanted so many things with her. He couldn’t lose her.

"Was she shot? There’s no blood.”

“Exactly.” It didn’t make sense.

“Isn't she the best with telekinetic waves? What if she used a telekinetic shield as a vest? Then the bullet glanced off and only the pressure of the impact had this effect on her," Johnny joined the conversation as around them the whole place looked like a bombed military area. While they weren’t looking Jedikiah took a French leave but at that moment, it wasn’t priority.

"But you could always try true love's kiss!" Honey yelled from across the room while trying to keep in check those who just got out of their cells. For a brief moment it made Yukhei laugh.

After getting out of Ultra safely - while Mark had a little mental breakdown back in the dungeon because nobody remembered to send any telepathic message to the poor guy after the shutdown - they went back to their place to rest a while and show the new members around.

Yukhei refused to move from next to Ariadne's bed until she woke up, so he was the first thing she saw when she eventually opened her eyes. She barely had a minute to collect her thoughts when the boy basically attacked her with a tight hug.

"Gosh, never ever scare me like that again, okay?" he whispered into her ear and she smiled fondly as she inhaled his mint scent.

"Why? Would you miss me?"

"Something like that... I need somebody who hates my jokes," he said with a huge grin plastered on his face and even with Jedikiah on loose and Ultra still going, Ariadne knew that everything was on the right track. They were all okay and that was all that mattered.