Ch.7

Suit Up 

Arriving at the airport they were quickly greeted by men and women in suits who said very little but speed ahead after greeting them. They followed quietly as the tension in the air felt so heavy they couldn’t possibly speak out of fear that the words would get stuck in the air around them. 

They had agreed on a game plan on the plane, but that could quickly change once they got more information from those who had already visited the site. A black car drove them from the airport towards the city, but stopped before they reached the city center. 

The silence in the city was the first thing he noticed as he stepped out of the car and it was what bothered him the most. A city like this should be bustling with life at this hour. Instead it was completely silent. 

It looked like a normal city the streetlights were on and a cat could be seen sneaking along the balustrade of an old stone building, but everything was dead silent. 

The others called out to him from on top of the stairs of the neighboring building. He hurried to catch up but had to take one last look down the street before walking in after them. There was no denying it, something nasty was out there in the dark and they would be facing up against it very soon.

Walking into the building he found it to be more than a little impressive. The walls seemed to be out of marble like stone, a huge golden chandelier hung from the roof in the hall and staff was shuffling around not meeting his eyes. 

    "Our boss went down there to see for himself" a woman explained leading them down the hall. "He is badly injured at the moment, but insists on explaining what he saw to give you the best possible idea of what you are up against" she said opening a door at the end of the hall.

He and Seungyoon exchanged a glance. Badly injured maybe, but lucky to be alive all the same. 

A middle-aged man with short hair and a greying beard was resting on a daybed by a big window. He wore a navy blue shirt and shorts which he found to be a somewhat unusual outfit for this setting. His arm was wrapped in bandages and a pair of crutches stood by the window. 

    "Ah, you are here" he said as soon as he saw them and sat up in his seat. 

Seungyoon walked ahead of them, getting a better look at the injuries the man had suffered. 

    "Leave us" the old man commanded to a butler by the door and he left along with the woman who had led them there earlier. 

    "I can fix that for you" Seungyoon said calmly before anyone got around to saying anything else. 

Having watched the man struggle just to sit up he agreed that it was probably best to help him, but he still feared that one day someone might find Seungyoon with his skills too valuable to walk freely on this earth. People of power seeing what he could do were really not a good thing. 

Seungyoon held the mans injured arm gently in his and took of the bandages slowly. Deep dark cuts oozed underneath the bandages and they all watched the man wince at every move he made. 

    "Just a minute" Seungyoon said and then the room slowly started filling up with the blue calming mist.

    "I’ll never get used to seeing that" Seunghoon said breaking the silence. 

Watching the dark ooze evaporate out of the skin into the air with the blue mist he needed a moment to realize what he had just seen. Seungyoon didn’t absorb it this time, it was as if he was banishing it into nothingness. 

He would have to ask him about it later though, because now the old man was jumping to his feet, inspecting his arm in amazement. 

    "Suddenly my heart doesn’t feel as heavy" he said and Mino wondered if there had been some underlying heart condition there too or if it was a metaphor for the overall current situation. 

    "Well, let’s shift our focus to the city shall we?" he said after thanking Seungyoon who had only given him a small acknowledging nod. 

He walked over to a huge table by the wall and picked up a remote. Behind them a big screen appeared with a map on it. He proceeded to explain about the evacuation of the city after a huge gap had turned up under one of the main subway lines in the city center. 

    "When reports of a monster living down there arrived I couldn’t believe it" he said looking a bit embarrassed. "So I went down there to see it with my own eyes. A stupid decision, which I regret very much now as two people sacrificed themselves to save me" He really looked sorry Mino thought and felt for the guy although he also agreed that it had been a stupid decision. 

    "There were huge tentacle like arms flailing out of a huge gap down there" he explained, fear evident in his eyes as he said it. "It seems to have broken into the sewage, the smell is appalling and the arms travel through it. Thats how my men lost their lives, because when we were fleeing more arms burst up from the sewage tunnels" 

Exchanging grim glances with each other he felt what small hope he had of this being a quick fight dissolve into nothingness. Instead he now felt only dread and worry.

Only an hour later and they were changing into their suits. The mood amongst them was as different as it could be compared to the last time they had tried them on. 

A few people lined the hall as they walked out onto the street, one woman even thanked them for attempting to save the city. 

The old man had offered to drive them down there, but as the road they were on led straight down there they figured it would be better to keep everyone at a safe distance. 

They all got into the car provided, except Jinwoo who walked around the block before flying up into the air.  He would be scouting to anything unusual as they made their way down there.

    "It looks like the power is out up ahead" Jinwoo told them over their new communication device in their suits. 

    "Good thing my shields light up well, we can use them to find our way" Seunghoon said sounding confident enough for them all. Mino had slipped the tiny metallic cylinder into a small loop on his wrist and gave it a small shake to see the purple light dance inside it. 

Soon enough the only thing lighting up the road was the lights of the car. It made everything feel a lot eerier and he swallowed hard preparing himself to be attacked at any moment. 

Nothing happened however and soon Seunghoon had pulled up by the subway stairs leading down into the monster occupied station. 

The smell hit them as soon as they stepped out of the car. Jinwoo joined them seconds later, startling them as he landed without making any sound behind them. 

    "Everyone ready?" he asked quietly. "I saw no sign of the creature from above, but that doesn’t tell us much as this area is all hidden from view by the darkness" he said taking the first steps into the subway. 

Soon Seunghoon took the lead, conjuring up his purple shields around them. It didn’t take long before the dark particles could be found in the air around them yet again. 

When they reached the platform a hollow wail could be heard in the distance sending chills up his back. They jumped down onto the train tracks and began walking towards the low wailing sound.

    "It’s down there alright" he mumbled. 

Feeling that the shields from Seunghoon were somewhat insufficient as a light source he decided to give it a try instead. Soon his hands were glowing in a soft light that was a lot stronger than Seunghoon’s shields. 

    "Good thinking" Jinwoo said giving him a pat on the back before walking up ahead. 

He didn’t walk before he stopped and the rest paused behind him. A sewage tunnel opening filled with water splashed and bubbled at Jinwoo’s feet. 

    "They don’t usually do that do they?" Seunghoon said, covering his face from the smell. Bigger bubbles erupted at the surface now and they all gave each other a quick look just as something huge and black burst out from the water. 

Seunghoon threw up his shields right away and they all began firing at it. Only a few seconds passed before it retracted back into the sewage splashing water violently around it as it went. 

    "That should have taught it not to play with fire" he muttered under his breath as he struggled slightly to get his flame back to the soft light it had been moments before. 

There were no more attacks until they reached the opening in the earth that had sprung up between the train tracks. Like last time was there a lower level just a couple of meters down and then a dark void leading down into the depths from there. 

    "This is it then" Seungyoon said leaning slightly out over the edge, peering down into the darkness. 

Afraid he might fall, he grabbed Seungyoon’s hand out of reflex more than anything else. 

Seungyoon mistook it as a sign that he was ready to fight though and gave Jinwoo a silent thumbs up. 

Soon they were all standing one level down. Bracing themselves for what was to come. The plan was to just fire at it with all they got and to hope that he and Seungyoon could pull of the same move as last time. The fact that hope was part of their plan at all made him feel sick to his stomach, but it was their best shot and so they went for it. 

At first when they fired into the cavity only a smelly wind appeared, but soon the air was filled with dark dusty particles. He wondered for a moment if it was blood from getting hurt or just the creatures way of scanning its surroundings. 

It didn’t take long before he had something more tangible to focus on as huge tentacle like tendrils filled the space around them, flailing at the air and grabbing at the edges of the crater. 

Right away was Jinwoo up in the air, attacking the ones that appeared to be grabbing on to the upper level as if to stop it from pulling up from the void completely. He and Seungyoon was right behind Seunghoon who was firing with one arm and shielding them with the other. 

It quickly became evident that Jinwoo’s efforts on the upper level had not been enough and they were soon staring into the red acid leaking eyes of the monster as it emerged from the void. 

Knowing that it was now or never, he looked to Seungyoon who was already focusing with all he got to kill the creature. It seemed to him to be going way too slowly and so with the hand that was free from Seungyoon’s touch he began firing. 

His attacks did manage to harm the creature greatly as the white bluish flames flew up it’s closest limbs towards it’s cruel eyes. It was just as he had begun to regain some hope he saw in his peripheral vision a dark limb from the edge come flying down towards them. 

Jinwoo had seen it too and came at it throwing his glass lance at it with one hand, throwing dark lighting with the other. The tentacle stopped mid air, now going after Jinwoo. He dodged attack after attack, but just as the monster seemed to be retracting had the arm hit goal. 

Jinwoo was hit mid air and flew at lightning speed into the stone wall behind them. Seunghoon stopped fighting instantly and ran over to him, hunching down. 

    "He is still alive, but hurry!" he yelled. He ripped out his metal tube from his suit and put it on the ground which sprung out into a half orb over Jinwoo. Seunghoon then the spot and sprinted right at the monster with all he got. 

For a moment he thought Seunghoon would actually run into the crater, but instead he ran right to the edge where the eye was and put a shield around him that went right into the eye. A hollow yell filled the space around them and for the first time did the ground start shaking like during the previous fight. 

    "Come on already!" Seunghoon yelled fighting with what he got to keep the shield up that was literally pushing into the creature it self.

Seungyoon had never let up focus since he had begun fighting and the air around them was filled with sparkling blue light, but the last time it had all gone white and it had been because of something he had done. 

Panicking the thought back to the fight, he had feared for Seungyoon’s life and hugged him from behind, but now it was Jinwoo whom they were all worried for. Laying unconscious and vulnerable on the ground. 

There had to be something he could do. Thinking hard he saw Seungyoon falter beside him, blue cracks appearing on his face from the strain of the fight. Firing up he pushed his own powers as much as he dared without actually burning Seungyoon in the process. 

Seungyoon looked to him then, his eyes filled with so much blue light there were no pupils left to be seen. 

He knew what this meant, Seungyoon was at his limit. One part of him wanted to fire everything he got at the creature, but letting go of Seungyoon also meant breaking their connection. 

Just then Seunghoon’s orb went out. He had spotted the monsters sneaking advances towards Jinwoo and was running fast to catch it. 

The monster noticing that their main defense was weakened suddenly switched all its attacks towards them. Mino watched as all the arms that had been going aimlessly around them in the air previously suddenly shoot at great speed towards them. 

He would not have it. 

They would not die today. 

It was too late to push Seungyoon out of the way. Instead he threw himself in the direction of where the majority of the attacks were coming from. He only had a split second to get his fires going, but that was enough. 

White light filled the cave a thousand times stronger than the flashes of a camera. A terrible bursting sound erupted from behind him before he saw the last of the arms disappear as the lifeless form of the monster fell back into the depths. 

Realizing what had happened he panicked and looked to Seungyoon who was on his knees on the ground. He was still leaking mist into the air, but he was still there. Still alive. 

Hunching down beside him he pulled Seungyoon into his lap, hugging him tightly to his chest, hoping there would be enough energy left between them to help him recover. 

    "I’m sorry I didn’t understand, I thought you were fine, but you were draining yourself right? You should have said something" he tried to hide the fact that he was sobbing while asking this.

He should have realized when the cracks first had appeared that he was doing something wrong. Why couldn’t Seungyoon draw powers from him this time? The last time he had almost overpowered from it. His mind was raging with hundreds of questions.

    "It’s fine, we can practice later" Seungyoon mumbled into his chest. 

    "The white light last time. It was me, but I thought it was you" said in a low voice filled with disbelief. "I thought it was you and so I was waiting for you to do it again" he whispered, still processing it all.

A low rumble and something that sounded like flowing water brought him back to focus on the current situation.

Getting to their feet, supporting each other they saw that Jinwoo was no longer unconscious. Seunghoon was half carrying him though and there was a thin line of blood running down the side of his face.

The odd rumbling sound could still be heard from far bellow every now and then and none of them wanted to stay behind to find out what was making it. 

Fearing that there might have been created instability in the ground while they were fighting they were anxious to get going but Seungyoon had insisted on helping Jinwoo.

Mino could only pray and hope that this last piece of effort weren’t what would push Seungyoon over the edge into coma again. But it was fine, he had made sure to bring up his powers too before Seungyoon started healing and with in minutes was Jinwoo completely recovered. 

Arriving back at the surface they stared down into the darkness of the subway. When they had reached the platform did they soon realize what the low rumbling had been; the creature creating a chain reaction down in the sewers which led to the entire sewage system flooding over. 

Contaminated water had quickly begun rising around their feet as they rushed to the exit and now that they had safely made to the surface they wondered how to break it to the city leaders that there might be a nasty flood coming. 

    "I know you said not to throw it into the laundry" Seungyoon said swaying a little while looking down onto his sewage covered legs "But I think we have to do something with these suits before we use them again" he continued, wrinkling his nose at the smell. 

Mino couldn’t agree more, the smell was disgusting and it only got worse as the fabric dried. 

    "Get in!" Seunghoon said still grinning over Seungyoon’s comment and they all got into the car, opening the windows completely to let out the stench. 

It felt really anticlimactic returning to the same spot they had left hours before cramped together in a car reeking of dead fish, pee and demon guts. The people still cheered when they told them the mission had been successful, but looked slightly questioning when they explained that the sewers were flooded. 

They finished the final briefing quickly and agreed to meet again in the morning as they were all at the brink of exhaustion. 

A fancy black car drove their smelly selves to a fancy hotel just of the coast at the edge of the city. 

It was the first time in a long while he had felt the fresh breeze of sea air and it was more healing to him than words could tell. He could have stood there on the road in the darkness of the night for hours if the circumstance had been different.

How ironic was it that he found the seaside so calming when he himself wielded flames. He thought, throwing one last glance at the darkness that hid the sea from view.

They had been offered individual rooms, but in the end had they split into two teams and called it a night. 

Walking into the room he was pleased to see that their bags were already there and the balcony doors stood wide open letting in the sea air. 

    "Let’s shower and get rid of this smell" Seungyoon suggested having already begun peeling of his suit. He looked terrible still, but sounded normal. There were still thin lines on his back from the cracks that must have been shattering through his body during the fight, but they were already fading. 

The shower was huge with a waterfall like feature erupting from the roof as soon as they stepped inside. On a different occasion might this have been the perfect spot to get a bit frisky, but right now was warm water and silence all they needed. After rubbing down in soap to fight the smell they both just stood there. Seungyoon started leaning towards him after a while and soon his head was resting on his chest. 

    "Today was intense" Seungyoon mumbled, water running down his hair and into his face. "I’m glad Jinwoo is okay" 

He was glad too, but he wondered how many more encounters like these they could pull of before something went terribly wrong. That had been a close call. Too close.  

They ordered room service and built themselves a sofa out of the duvets and pillows in their bed. They choose the bed instead of the actual sofa because it was directly opposite the balcony and allowed them the perfect view of the dark sea bellow. 

The combination of tons of food and fresh sea air was a killer combo and they were both fast asleep before either had managed to finish their food. 

They woke up to bright sunlight filling their room. Jinwoo was knocking on the door telling them to hurry up because the car would be there in half an hour. Staring at each other and the abandoned food everywhere they laughed. At least they got a good nights rest before it was back to the madness. 

Wishing he had brought more clothing options Mino sighed and put on the grey t-shirt he had thrown into the duffle bag without giving it much thought. His spare pair of jeans had some paint on it which he had failed to notice when he packed them. 

Seungyoon on the other hand looked as smart as ever. Pressed sand colored pants and a light blue linen shirt, perfect for the occasion and the location. He made a mental note to do better next time. 

    "Do you want to borrow a shirt?" Seungyoon asked probably having noticed the unhappy look he had been giving himself in the mirror. 

    "If you don’t mind" he said honestly relived. 

Seungyoon’s spare white shirt was a bit tight over his shoulders, but leaving a few buttons ed fixed that issue. He rolled up his pant so the paint couldn’t be seen and they were good to go. 

    "Just a second" he said as Seungyoon walked over to the door to leave. 

He picked up a slice of pizza from last night and a bottle of water from the mini bar. Who knew when they would get anything to eat next time. 

The same black car from yesterday was waiting for them down on the road which took them back to the old building they had been the night before. They were pleased to see that there were people in the streets now, despite the sewage smell that seemed to grow stronger the further into the city they got. 

Walking into the building there were several reporters on site and the flashes of cameras made him even happier that he had borrowed a shirt. Seungyoon gave him a look as if he knew what he was thinking. 

    "They are going to call us the sewage heroes anyway" he mumbled to him just as they walked in the front door. 

Giving out a displeased snort he knew Seungyoon was probably right. Right now he found himself to be taking a few extra sniffs at his shirt for completely other reasons than the foul smell in the air. Wearing Seungyoon’s shirt was a distraction on so many levels, but how good it smelled was definitely one of them. 

The meeting with the city council went on and on. Scientist and foreign politicians had arrived as well, asking for their help, but luckily for them was it their government that negotiated these things on their behalf because unless would it all be completely overwhelming. 

When the meeting was over were there several requests for interviews, but they declined them all. 

Seunghoon had been in contact with the headquarters back home who asked them to stay put in their current location for now and they weren’t hard to ask.

    "Let’s go get some lunch" Jinwoo sighed as soon as they were off the hook from the nagging politicians. The rest of them weren’t hard to ask and soon they were in a car heading back towards the coast. 

They found a small coffee shop not far from the hotel and told the driver to come get them in an hour. 

Making their orders quickly they were soon seated around a small table in the shade.

    "It’s hot here for it almost being autumn" Seunghoon complained and pulled on his shirt that was sticking to his chest. 

    "The rest of Europe comes here for their holidays so I’m guessing we are in one of the warmer countries" Jinwoo replied, looking at his phone again. 

He found himself feeling anxious every time Jinwoo spent a prolonged time on his phone around them. As if he would announce their next destination at any moment. 

Their coffee arrived and Jinwoo put away his phone, instead of looking at his phone Jinwoo switched his attention to him. 

    "So what really happened down there?" Jinwoo asked lowering his voice more and more with every word he spoke. 

During their briefing had they only explained what had happened to the monster. Not what they as a team had done in detail. 

    "I got hit, the next thing I know Mino is blowing up. I feared you might scorch us all out of existence" Jinwoo said with an honest tone of worry to his voice. 

Both Seungyoon and Seunghoon looked to him to explain, but he didn’t really have a good explanation. 

    "I thought during our first fight that the white light was from Seungyoon for that exact reason. I usually just do harm, but everyone was left unscathed" he began, taking a big sip of his coffee to collect his thoughts before continuing. 

    "I was waiting for him to do it again, but I could see that he was struggling.." He couldn’t really explain it, which worried him because how in the world was he supposed to do it again next time then. 

Seungyoon put a hand on his thigh under the table and gave him a small nod urging him to try to explain anyway. 

    "When I realized it was up to me, I just went for it with all I got really. Usually it's flames or hotter flames. You know the blueish white flames, but this is something else. Both times I managed to do it because I didn’t want us to fail" 

The last part was a lie. He had done it because he had not wanted Seungyoon to die. He had been alone for all his life and he would not let some demonic evil take his happiness away from him now. 

They all seemed to buy into his explanation and didn’t question him any further however. 

    "We need time to practice" Seunghoon said after the food arrived and they had eaten for a while. 

    "Yeah" Seungyoon said while Jinwoo only nodded. No one needed to practice more than him, but he felt that was obvious so he didn’t say anything. 

    "I think we should put that up as a demand before offering anyone else our help" Jinwoo added before taking up his phone again. 

They finished eating, feeling the heat of the midday sun sneak up on them from where they had previously been in the shade. Their driver had returned and they were soon on their way back to the hotel. 

Driving by the sea he made sure to take in the view as much as he could, saving it in the back of his mind for future reference. Would he ever have time to paint again he wondered, feeling a bit sad for the things he feared he might now have to sacrifice to live his current life. 

Authors note: ah did you spot the Harry Potter reference in this chapter? Yeah Mino’s final attack was somewhat inspired by hp3 and the patronus scene when Harry thinks it's his dad but its actually himself. When you look up to and admire someone so much you have blind faith in them.. ah well I’m just weaving all my favorite things into one story here. I hope you don’t mind! 

So how did you like this fight compared to the previous one? I personally love how Seunghoon uses his shields as an offensive, blasting into the creature. There has been so many lovely minyoon moments lately I’ve been itching to write something slightly more canon so that might be coming in my other collection soon.

That’s enough blabbering from me, do let me know what you think of the story in the comments or come find me on twitter like some of you have already. I’m always up for a chat ^-^ Thank you for reading all the way down here, lots of love from me!