[SM training grounds]

                                                                                 Lay had told me to follow Suho since he had to stay behind to tend to the three students who were still unconscious on the ground. I could hear the whispers and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t bothered by them. Shivering, I realized that I wasn’t wearing shoes or a coat but decided to keep quiet, following Suho who had draped a coat around Seungwoo. To my surprise, EXO had followed him grimly, and I wondered why their presence was needed. We entered the gym, Suho instructing every one to go inside before turning back to go out the door. I tried to comfort Seungwoo, but he flinched away from me so I took two steps back.

“Go back to your dorms! If I see any of you out of your rooms by the time I go for my rounds, I’ll make sure to report you to Senior Kris when he gets back and those who are caught will spend a month in detention!” Suho’s voice sounded from outside the gym doors before he came in closing the door behind him and walking towards us again. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

As if they were in a game of jeopardy, everyone shot their hand up to get permission to answer the question like their life depended on it. Suho chose Kai who appeared in front of Suho, before taking a deep breath and speaking.

“I was walking down the hall when I heard a noise. I thought it was an Echowomp in the garden but it wasn’t. So, I walked towards the sound and I saw that there indeed was one—”

“Kai. Is this relevant to the story?” Suho asked, tapping his feet on the ground impatiently. I could tell that he was slowly losing his patience, his tone getting more and more annoyed as he seemed to struggle in keeping his temper under control.

“I asked what happened to Seungwoo!” his voice echoed and Kai stepped back, realizing that Suho was not up for games. “Is someone going to tell me or am I going to have to—”

The door opened and walked in a Kris and Lay, their footsteps rapidly increasing as they caught sight of everyone in the middle of the gym. Lay seemed tired, his eyebags beginning to become prominent and Kris looked like he always did. Grumpy and annoyed. Suho nodded at Kris who seemed to put the situation under control just by being there, the tall male stopping in front of Chanyeol.

“Speak.”

“It was Taeyong from NCT,” Chanyeol said, clasping his hands behind his back. “He, Champion, and Mark were just messing around, you know how they are. They have always been playful and so they were curious about—”

“Faster,” Kris seethed.

“—curious about the Gaian so they kind of for being in a place without powers and they took it a little bit too far,” Chanyeol chattered away, the speed of his words increasing and it was almost like he was rapping. “Taeyong wanted to scare him, so he was about to shoot the energy ball to somewhere near Seungwoo’s feet but someone bumped into him and the energy ball projection had shot straight into Seungwoo’s heart. I think Seungwoo absorbed it and suddenly the energy ball shot back from out of his body and knocked out three of them who were closest to him. And now Seungwoo is fine but those three got hurt.”

Everyone was quiet and I watched as Baekhyun peeked a look at Seungwoo who was sitting on the floor, and stepped behind Chanyeol like he was scared of my brother. No one spoke for a while, even Kris looking like he was trying to analyze what Seungwoo’s power was.

“Showing signs of a tank?” Chen suddenly asked and everyone turned to look at him. Chen looked uncomfortable at the sudden attention from his peers and his instructors. “Don’t look at me like that, I was just asking. He literally absorbed it.”

“But if the energy rebounded then it would mean he would be able to deal damage. That makes him a front liner, no?” Xiumin asked Chen. Chen nodded at Xiumin’s rebuttle, agreeing that it made sense.

“Would he be a hybrid then because he can both tank and deal damage?” Baekhyun piped up, curiously. Xiumin and Chen’s eyes widened at Baekhyun’s statement, looking at each other. I thought about it, knowing it was a possibility based on Xiumin’s explanation of a hybrid.

“He might not have a passive,” Suho voiced out. “Though in situations like these, passive skills tend to come up later on when the mage has developed their main skills.”

“What’s a passive again?” I asked Kyungsoo who was beside me and he turned to look at me with his big owl eyes and I almost regretted it. I knew what passive meant and that meant powers like Heechul, and his ability to learn languages. But I never really got proper examples of what passive powers meant for mages who would have to fight in the battleground.

“Like super senses.” Kyungsoo’s explanation was simple and after he spoke, he blinked once and slowly turned back to Seungwoo. I realized that Sehun was by the bleachers, the coat I gave back to him off again, and he hadn’t said a single word.

Kris let out a breath. He then turned to Suho and Lay and they shared a moment, Lay and Suho nodding like they agreed to what Kris was thinking.

“We have to make sure what you saw was correct and there is no way to do that without a trial and error run. Ong Seungwoo,” Kris spoke and my brother lifted his head up. He was just tired but didn’t show signs of resistance. As stubborn as Seungwoo was, the fact that he had powers would have ed with his mind. “Stand up. One more time.”

“I-I can’t…” Seungwoo stuttered, shaking his head. “I don’t know if it’ll even happen again, I don’t think—”

“Chanyeol. Get ready,” Kris spoke over my brother, ignoring Seungwoo’s pleas. “Lay, make sure you know what to do if he gets hurt,” Kris instructed.

The rest of EXO began to move backward as if knowing the strength of Chanyeol’s power. I wanted to be close to Seungwoo, turning back to see that they have moved far away. Pressing my lips together, I took three big steps back and nothing more. We all circled around Seungwoo and Chanyeol who was eagerly rubbing his hands together.

Kris had flown up, and I think it was to get a good view of how much damage my brother could deal back, the man hovering near the ceiling. He raised a hand to give a sign, Chanyeol rolling his shoulders as he began to prepare himself in his position.

“Now!” Kris yelled out and Chanyeol’s hand went to work. With a huff, fire shot out of his hands, the flames burning hot as it hit my brother.

I felt a scream rising just to get caught in my throat when Chanyeol’s fire rose in impact with my brother’s skin before entirely disappearing into his body. Seungwoo trembled, his fists and teeth clenched as he began to groan. My brother’s face was bright red and nerves protruded from his neck and forehead.

Chanyeol did not stop, producing fire from his palms that gradually disappeared into my brother’s body. With Kris’ clap, Chanyeol paused and the gym was plunged once more into silence. I found myself holding my breath and it seemed like nothing was ever going to happen when suddenly Seungwoo’s eyes flashed bright red.

“Arghhhhhhh!” he exclaimed; his head thrown back. Suddenly flames burst out from him, Chanyeol taken aback at the sudden counterattack. The flames rushed out of him swiftly, Seungwoo groaning as he tried to keep his posture standing up. He moved back, walking in a small circle as the fire kept going.

I then realized why everyone had stayed back. Seungwoo’s flames were everywhere and he didn’t know how to control it. My brother had turned to me and I could feel the heat of the flames reaching me. I closed my eyes, hoping that even though I would get burned, it wouldn’t hurt as much when the heat stopped but my brother’s yells continued.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that there was a wall of boulders in front of me and it had shielded me from the flames. Looking to the side, I saw that Kyungsoo had his hands in the air as he produced boulders in thin air, stacking it up. He was doing the same to the other side, the flames threatening to reach Chen, Xiumin, Kai, and Baekhyun but were protected with Kyungsoo’s help.

Seungwoo’s cries stopped suddenly, and I had to walk around Kyungsoo’s wall to see that my brother had collapsed to the ground. I ran over to see him, Kris making his way down to the ground. Lay was already near Seungwoo, checking to see if he was alright.

“He mimics powers,” Suho said. “He absorbs them and releases them. With Taeyong it was energy, with Chanyeol it’s fire. How big was the damage compared to Chanyeol?” he asked Kris.

“The area he dealt back was noticeably smaller,” Kris replied. “I think it can be developed through time, so it’s not a problem. How’s he, Lay?”

Seungwoo was clutching his chest, and Lay leaned down, placing his finger on Seungwoo’s wrist. I leaned down to touch Seungwoo’s back and almost immediately snatched my hand away because he was burning hot.

“His heart is beating too fast,” Lay said, placing a hand on Seungwoo’s head, his hand glowing. “I’ll have to bring him to the infirmary and give him something to calm his heart down or he might go into shock.”

“I don’t think he can handle absorbing a lot of energy just yet,” Suho voiced. “It’ll take time, but we have to tread carefully for this one. This is the first time I’ve seen someone with this kind of power. For now, it’s best we take him back.”

Suho turned to the rest of EXO, telling them that it was time they head back to their dorms and I watched as Lay boosted up my brother and began leading him out the door. Kris had followed, leaving Suho to tend with the rest of the trainees. My stomach was turning with worry and I walked to Suho, asking him if I could keep my brother company in the infirmary.

“I don’t think you should. He needs his rest. But rest assured, he’ll be fine,” Suho said, but his voice was absentminded and he immediately went back to shouting out instructions. I bit my lip, sighing at the fact that I couldn’t be near my brother but trusted Suho to know best.

As I stood and watched everyone leave, I felt a weight on my shoulders, and turning back I saw that Kyungsoo had draped a coat on me. It was big and long and I wondered why his coat was so long when he seemed pretty short. I thanked him anyway, a great deal thankful towards him when he grunted in response.

“Not me.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Harin's room]

                                                                                          I woke up the next day, realizing that I didn’t get much sleep. I had showered and fed Bubbles some grass, getting ready for class and thinking that I should pay Seungwoo a visit when I could. I didn’t know where the infirmary was though, but I thought that maybe I would be able to find it by just walking around. I grabbed the coat Kyungsoo gave to me to return it to him, dragging my feet to class with Bubbles as I suppressed a yawn.

As I neared the classroom, I could already hear them yelling and it was weird for me to admit that the sounds of their voices gave me peace of mind. I walked in, placing the coat on Kyungsoo’s desk, noticing that neither he and Sehun were there yet. Kai appearing next to me, giving me a wave, then appearing next to his table before taking a seat.

“It’s a new dayyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey Bubbles!” Baekhyun’s cheerful voice cut through the air and he flopped down on his seat beside me. Bubbles let out a snort. He greeted my squonk and ignored my presence, but proceeded to sing on the top of his lungs, belting out impossibly high notes that made me look at him in surprise.

“You’re pretty good.” I found myself complimenting him and he looked shocked at my compliment but mildly pleased. He leaned forward before whispering.

“I know right? I know I’m good but somehow