Ch.5

Alight 

The drive out to the epicenter felt like it only took minutes despite being almost an hour long drive. He and Seungyoon had been in the back seat, some time during the drive they had grabbed the others hand, exchanging an anxious but determined look. 

    "So I’ve already been out there, I helped evacuate the scientist and I know my shields work on the surface at least" Seunghoon said as the car pulled up on a field above the site. 

    "I’m thinking that we need to investigate to make sure we don’t injure anyone who could potentially be alive down there" Jinwoo began only to be interrupted by Seunghoon who said:

    "Then we fire loose at it with all we got"

They stepped out of the car and began walking down the hill. A couple of helicopters was circling in the air, but they couldn’t be getting a very good image at that distance. 

    "How do we get down there?" Seungyoon asked. He had expected Seungyoon to stay behind for some reason, seeing as he didn’t actually do anything that could cause damage. 

    "Jinwoo obviously, but we will have to go one by one. I’ll go first, put up the shield and he will bring you down" Seunghoon said Jinwoo nodding in silent agreement. 

He felt like there were huge holes in this plan. What if they needed to retreat fast? What if something happened to Jinwoo. Then they too would be stuck down there. 

    "I’ll wait at the top and get help if something goes wrong" Seungyoon said. "Bring up anyone injured to me, if there isn’t anyone then I’ll come down there and back you up" he continued. 

They were getting close to the edge now. He had expected something to happen by now after what he had seen on the news, but an eerie silence filled the air. An odd smell had begun manifesting it self as they got closer to the edge however. 

    "You smell that?" Jinwoo muttered under his breath. It was nasty on a completely new level, a mix of smoke, chlorine and something rotting was the closest he could get to describing it. 

Stopping only a couple of meters from the crack Jinwoo grabbed Seunghoon who had already brought out his purple protective orb around him. They descended quickly and before he knew it it was his turn. Grabbing Jinwoo’s hand he gave Seungyoon one last look before going down. 

The smell was a lot worse down in the crater and the first thing he noticed was the bodies of what once must have been humans reeking of what looked like black smoke. There was another crack in the ground down in the crater which Seunghoon was peering into. 

    "There is no one to save, so I say we fire" Seunghoon said cooly. 

He had a bad feeling about it, as if they were poking a sleeping bear, but with some luck was it actually sleeping and they could kill it off before it noticed their presence. 

    "At the count of three then" Seunghoon announced grimly. 

He watched Seunghoon gathering his remaining orbs into one big blast, Jinwoo had brought out his glass spear again, fuming with something otherworldly. He took a few steps closer to the edge and focused everything he got into one big ball of fire. 

    "3.. 2… 1!" Seunghoon called. The light of their attacks lit up the crack revealing what looked to be gigantic bloodshot eyes for just a second. A low rumble could be heard from the deep before the ground started shaking violently. 

They fired again, splatters of dark matter bursting upwards indicating that they had indeed hit something down there. 

    "It’s coming!" Jinwoo yelled from above him. He saw black lightning fly past him down into the abyss, causing whatever being it was that was down there to let out a squelching noise and what could only be a voiceless scream. 

He ran over to Seunghoon hoping his shield would give them some kind of protection as Jinwoo kept firing from above. Parts of the ground was breaking off, falling down into the dark void and then suddenly it emerged. 

It was huge, dark and shapeless. Like swirls of dark smoke forced together into limbs and a body. There was no head, only something that looked to be eyes in the middle of it. The eyes were now staring down at them, bloodshot and dripping with what looked to be some kind of acid onto the ground causing a sizzling sound at impact. 

They fired at it again and again, while dodging the acidic liquid that came flying after each attack. He thought the creature was growing smaller, but nothing they did seemed to be enough to actually kill it. 

Then came what he had feared ever since watching the news that morning. The armlike limbs grabbing towards them at lightning speed. Seunghoon’s shield seemed to repel them for now, but it took all he got to keep it up and so he had to stop attacking. 

    "I’m going up to check on Seungyoon!" Jinwoo yelled, barely dodging an arm that flew right past him upwards towards the sky. 

The thought of Seungyoon unprotected up at the surface made his stomach turn in fear. Trembling he brought that fear into focus. He wanted to end this now. 

Stepping out of Seunghoon’s protective orb he began firing actual fire, not just the orbs of lights from before, but flames so hot they were more white and blue than red. 

He watched as the smoke creature caught fire and retracted back into the crack. He kept walking and firing until he again was sending flames into the opening of the earth. 

Black particles had begun filling the air around them, it reminded him of the accident back at his school. It looked like charred paper, only that it slightly stung when they hit his skin. 

    "I have an idea" Seungyoon said, startling him in the middle of another attack. 

    "What are you doing down here" He yelled more than he spoke. 

    "We need to finish this now" Seungyoon said walking up to him. As he spoke had one of the limbs of the creature begun clawing at the edge of the crater. The ground was yet again crumbling beneath them. 

    "Take my hand" Seungyoon said, before hunching down. His hand was hovering right above the clawing shadows below them. The blue light he had become so familiar with over the last few weeks began filling the air around them before going downwards. 

He soon realized why they were holding hands and remembering what he had done by the hospital bed he let his powers light up first his hand and then all of him. 

    "I think it’s working." Seungyoon muttered, strained with effort yet slowly straightening up from the hunched down position. 

They were still holding hands and Seungyoon managed to keep up sending his blue mist into the air around them. 

A wretched screech suddenly filled the air, making them break focus and then the ground began rumbling yet again. 

Jinwoo was behind them all of a sudden and grabbed him by the arm pulling him away from Seungyoon. He was still attacking despite everything going on around him, but as soon as the connection between them broke the blue light dissolved too. 

    "We will have to finish at the surface. It looks like the ground down here is about to colapse completely" Jinwoo said as he attempted to resist getting lifted away from Seungyoon. 

Panicking he watched as the being arose from the depths one more time. It was pulling itself up from the dark void by its long clawed hands. Jinwoo saw it emerge too and literally threw him to the ground on the surface, diving back down there to get Seungyoon as fast as possible. 

Shivering he sat on his knees, holding his breath. Waiting for them to emerge. Black particles filled the air along with a few specs of the blue mist from Seungyoons attack earlier. 

He saw in his peripheral vision that Seunghoon began running away from the edge, but he couldn’t move. Paralyzed by fear and grief he sat, watching the darkness flow up towards him. 

Then he felt a violent tug at his back before he was hoisted into the air by his jacket. 

    "Seungyoon needs you" he heard Jinwoo scream at him over the rumble. 

They must have emerged on the other side of the crack, hidden from view by the particles filling the air he thought, watching the flailing limbs hit the air beneath them. 

On the ground again he found Seungyoon, eyes shining light blue but with his skin cracking up yet again as he seemed to be absorbing the darkness out of the air in front of them. 

His old fear of watching his lover dissolving into nothingness hit him full force and he jolted towards him as soon as he had found his footing. 

He forgot everything about control of his powers then. All he wanted was for them to live. He felt his skin heat up, Seungyoon was reaching forward and so instead of grabbing his hand he hugged him from the back. 

Just as he did it was it as if something exploded between them. The air was alight with white light. 

A loud wailing sound, like wind bursting through an abandoned building on a winter night filled the air and then everything was silent. 

Still hugging Seungyoon tightly from the back he looked up. Momentarily blinded by the white light he blinked several times before regaining his vision. 

    "Is it over?" he mumbled, his entire body trembling as if the ground was still shaking beneath them. 

    "Yeah" Seungyoon replied in a low voice. 

Jinwoo landed beside them then. Confirming what they already knew. It was gone. The white light had scorched the creature out of existence and dissolved every dark particle in the air, leaving everything else untouched. 

    "Even the bodies down there finally stopped smoking" Jinwoo said ending his description of what had just happened. 

Seunghoon came walking towards them now too. He shook his hand in the air and cheered. 

    "We did it! It’s gone! That was some really amazing moves you pulled of there at the end" then he turned to Jinwoo and patted him on the shoulder "You really saved the whole situation getting them out of there"

    "That was some great teamwork all together" Seungyoon said smiling at them all. His eyes were still shining blue, but the cracks on his skin were gone and he thought he looked even better than before the battle had started. 

Finally regaining complete control of his body he walked over to the edge to see for himself. Except from the strong feeling of vertigo of looking into the dark abyss there was nothing much to leave an impression on him. It was indeed completely gone. 

Jinwoo had moved the bodies up to the surface so that rescue people wouldn’t have to risk their lives to go down there and get them. There was still rocks loosening and the low rumblings of unstable earth coming up from beneath them. Only that now there was only rocks and a massive crater left to make noise and not some giant shadow monster. 

    "Thank god that smell is gone too" Jinwoo said watching Seunghoon throw a few rocks into the abyss. They never heard them hit the bottom. "We better get going before those helicopters come down here and start pestering us" Jinwoo continued. 

They all agreed on that and they were soon making their way up the hill side towards the car. 

Feeling more exhausted than ever before in his life he took the back seat next to Seungyoon. He was still faintly glowing and he couldn’t help but to worry so he asked: 

    "How are you feeling?" just as the car started driving down the hill away from the site. 

    "Great" Seungyoon said happily. "How about you?" 

He unbuckled his seatbelt and scooted over to Seungyoon. Resting his head on his shoulder he yawned. 

    "Exhausted" he replied. Soon he was fast asleep.

When he woke up he expected to be back home, instead they were back at the tall glass covered headquarters. Seungyoon was shaking his shoulder lightly, telling him to wake up. 

    "But I wanted to go home" he grumbled while rubbing sleep out of his eyes. 

    "I don’t think we will have to stay long. It’s just a debrief" he continued placing a small peck of a kiss on his cheek before getting out of the car. 

Absentmindedly he touched the spot where Seungyoon’s lips had touched his skin and smiled to himself. However tired he was so had it all been worth it. They were all safe and sound on the other side, the shadow creature had not been as lucky. 

How this debriefing would go he wasn’t so sure of. He himself could only remember parts of what had happen. The fear and adrenaline had made sure to wipe his memory of some parts of it, other times he had lost the overview of the situation because of the different levels they had been fighting on. 

Walking into the tall building he couldn’t help but to admire the attitude of the other three. They were all smiling and talking although both Seunghoon and Jinwoo looked like they had been trough hell. Only Seungyoon looked pristine, his dirty clothes the only real indicator of him having joined the fight. That and his still glowing blue eyes. 

    "When do you think it will go down?" Seunghoon asked pointing to Seungyoon’s face. 

    "I don’t know. It’s the first time it has happened. I probably absorbed so much energy and dark matter it created this as a side effect" he replied pointing at his face. 

    "Suits you though" Seunghoon said giving Seungyoon a nudge on the shoulder. 

The elevator went all the way to the top this time. When they stepped out it revealed one big room with glass windows all around it. At one end was a huge table with big screens set up behind it. 

They all sat down around it and Jinwoo pushed a button on the table causing the biggest screen to light up. A middle aged woman showed up, she was smiling at them and then turned towards Jinwoo asking for his report. 

He summarized it in great detail, the rest adding things when they felt he had left something out. 

    "So when I noticed that the ground was getting too unstable, I pulled them out. I had not expected it to follow that quickly because it had definitely taken some severe hits" Jinwoo paused his explanation as a young man brought them a tray of different drinks. 

Gulping down some water he waited for Jinwoo to take a few sips of his coffee. 

    "Seungyoon attacked it right away, but I noticed right away that it wouldn’t be enough. I went looking for Mino, who I found dangerously close to the edge" 

Jinwoo gave him a quick concerned look. 

    "Then I flew him over. I’m not sure exactly what happened next, because suddenly the whole place was alight in white light. An then it was gone" Jinwoo finished.

    "I got my battery back" Seungyoon mused and smiled at him. "With the help of Mino’s powers I managed to invert what I usually do which is to absorb, instead I somehow released the energy in its purest form"

    "Whatever you did, it worked" Seunghoon said. They all agreed on that. 

The woman nodded. Commented on how that could be looked into later and then turned towards him. 

    "Thank you for helping out today" she said sincerely. "I highly doubt they would have been successful without you. Do you think you’d like to continue working with us?" she asked. 

Parts of him wanted to disregard it all as a bad dream. Something he would never have to experience again, but he knew that by staying with Seungyoon he would always be dragged into things because he could never again see himself wanting to be left waiting on the sideline. 

He gave her his yes, although admitting that he weren’t quite sure what he was saying yes too. 

    "Oh, we will get you your cape" Seunghoon teased, but smiled brightly over at him all the same. Both Jinwoo and Seungyoon laughed a bit at Seunghoon’s comment as well. 

She welcomed him briefly before turning her attention to something on her side that they couldn’t see. 

    "Your success today amazed us all truthfully. We have since last talking become aware of several similar cases around the world. Sadly haven’t their attempts at dealing with it gone as well" 

The screens on her sides lit up then. Showing pictures of varying landscapes, but all close to major cities around the world. 

    "It would appear that these creatures are drawn to human activity" she continued. With several of the screens showing attacks on humans that went just as badly as with the special forces they had found deceased at their arrival before. 

He swallowed hard, seeing civilians and armed forces alike getting murdered like this weren’t something he was used to and he still couldn’t believe that they had managed to kill off something that nasty. 

    "Our media is already reporting on your efforts. Soon enough the world will turn its attention to us" she said, looking intently from one to the other. What they had done wasn’t something others could easily replicate. 

The other three looked calm enough. He however felt sick. There were more of these? And they would have to deal with them? He would rather not.

    "We can’t guarantee that we will be as lucky next time" Jinwoo said seriously. 

    "Yeah it was more chaotic than I would have liked it to be" Seungyoon admitted calmly. 

    "I’m sure if we come up with a better plan it can be done though" Seunghoon added. 

Then they all turned to him. Swallowing hard he felt his heart racing, palms sweating and his fight and flight response triggering hard. He wanted out of there, but refusing to be the coward his instincts wanted him to be he stayed. 

He nodded and looked into his lap. He had been running away from his powers for most of his life, now he felt he needed to make up for that. There would be no more running. 

The debrief ended with the promise of gathering again soon. They would offer their help, but only as a last resort. There were many heroes out there, surely there had to be other options still for them to try. 

He had a grim feeling that wouldn’t be the case, but he was happy to get out of the building all the same. 

Agreeing to meet up later in the evening they got into a car that was waiting for them and were soon on their way home. 

    "We did well today" Seungyoon said as the bridge came into view before them. 

    "Yeah, but will it go well the next time too?" he mumbled. Rubbing his face in exhaustion. 

    "I feel like, if we stick together it will" Seungyoon said putting one hand on his thigh. 

    "We are one hell of a team aren’t we" he replied looking over at Seungyoon only to be partially blinded by the setting sun behind him. 

They watched the city view together in silence. It felt pretty great that all those people were safe thanks to them. 

They had agreed to meet up in Seungyoon’s apartment to eat after freshening up a bit. Saying temporarily good bye still hurt however fast they would be meeting up again.

Getting in the shower under the warm water he really became aware of how sore he was from the battle. Worst of all was the small acid burns he got all over his body. The pain just kept increasing the longer he stood in the shower.

Deciding enough was enough he stepped out and dried himself of before walking into his bedroom. He pulled on some pants and a T-shirt but was starting to feel increasingly dizzy and nauseous. 

Sitting down on his bed, his head spinning violently and his body throbing with overhwelming pain he just managed to type help and sendt it to Seungyoon before passing out.

The next time he woke up he was laying on the floor. His head resting on Seungyoon’s lap, gentle hands his hair. His vision was still blurry and he felt something wet on his face. Reaching out he  quickly found out that it was his own blood.

     “You bumped your nose when you fell” Seungyoon explained, grabbing his hand to stop him from making more of a mess with the blood. “How do you feel?” He asked.

Inspecting his hands and arms he saw that all his wounds were all gone.

     “Better now that you are here” he replied sheepishly. “But really tired, like there is no power left in me” he explained earnestly.

    "You should rest" Seungyoon said as he tried to get up. The room weren’t spinning any more, but his muscles still ached. 

Sitting down on the bed he looked at Seungyoon. 

    "I’m not so sure we will be able to repeat what we did today" he said needing to express his worries to someone.

    "Why do you say that?" Seungyoon asked, tilting his head to the side. Observing him curiously. 

    "Because when I hugged you back then. I really thought you were dead only a few moments before" He hesitated. "My powers are directly linked to my emotions.." 

    "I get what you are saying, but don’t you have other emotions to tap into?" Seungyoon replied after looking to be in deep thought for a while. 

    "Like what?" he asked "You going to start seducing me on the battlefield now?" 

They both laughed at that, but still exchanging a glance saying that they were taking the other seriously. 

    "If I have to" Seungyoon then said and winked at him.

He went back to the bathroom and rinsed of the partially dried blood from his face. He really did look terrible despite having his wounds healed. Walking into his bedroom again he found Seungyoon sitting on his bed. He sat down beside him and let himself fall back onto the bed. 

    "Sleep with me" he said simply. 

Seungyoon only hummed a low amused laugh before dropping down onto his back too. 

    "Sure sure" he replied letting out a small yawn. "A nap never hurt anyone" he continued while pulling the covers over them. Soon they were both fast asleep. 

Neither noticing the phones in their pockets ringing over and over again.  

Authors’s note: A cliffhanger? How unusual of me. So did the battle live up to your expectations? I hope so ❤️ I'm still at a bit of a crossroads deciding how long to make this story. I got a minyoon sherlock'ish plot laying in my drafts I'm itching to write on too xD Doctor Yoon and detective Mino sounds like a fun write too I must say.. And you all know I looooove London (at least if you read my other works) We will see! Feel free to throw your favorite tropes/request at me in the comments! I might just turn them into a drabble for you ^^ 

With that I say thank you so much for reading and commenting! Catch you in the comments, on twitter (@Eiryia) or in the next chapter!