A/N:

Before I start this chapter, I need to give a heads up: there is so much information but I have tried to make it as visual as possible. When we were making it Sorables kept asking me "They'd understand our logic, right?" and at this point I hope you do xD Have fun!

The Rise of the Mages 2.0!

“Hey, Jennie! Guess what?”

And right when I was about to continue my sentence, I saw Jaehyun run towards me, slamming his body against mine until I fell backward onto the floor. I frowned, sitting up to see Jennie look at all of us, confused.

“Shut the up, Dana,” Jaehyun said to me warningly before I rolled my eyes, standing up to dust myself off.

“I was going to say that she can keep Johnny,” I told him, Jaehyun frowning at my words. I didn’t need Johnny! I was an independent woman! “And you can have Yuta too.”

Jennie blinked at me.

“Actually, take Jeffrey too. I don’t mind. I don’t need that .” I motioned to Jaehyun, sticking my tongue out at him. Johnny shook his head, running a hand through his wet hair just as Yuta chuckled to himself. I gathered the Venn Diagrams that were scattered on the ground before walking to Jennie.

“Dana—”

“Here. In case you need it,” I told her, shoving the papers against her chest. She looked flustered and I lowered my voice, whispering into her ear. “Yuta’s the better kisser.”

“What—”

“Seriously, Dana?” Jaehyun asked almost angrily behind me. “After all this?”

“Yes. All I need is Jisung,” I told him, making my way away from the people behind me. Right when I was about to leave, I heard Jennie ask Johnny if he had kissed me but I didn’t stay long enough to find out what happened.

I skipped happily down the hall, giving myself a pat on the back just to see Xiaojun, Jaemin, and Jisung in front of my bedroom. I checked the time and saw that it was time to go see Kyungsoo but my friends and my brother waved me over.

“We have to go see D.O,” Xiaojun clipped. “He has called for us.”

“All of you? And me?” I asked, running my eyes over the people who were in front of me. Why was Kyungsoo calling all the Seasonies? Jaemin and Jisung didn’t look bothered and I guessed that it was because they weren’t overthinkers. Xiaojun was brooding, the male nodding at my question before telling me to lead the way.

We finally made out way to Kyungsoo’s meeting room and I saw that the Director of Operations looked downright stressed out. He kept pacing around the room but he stopped when he saw us come in, Kyungsoo motioning to the seats in front of him.

“Dana… Jaemin, Jisung, Xiaojun. Come in. Come in.” He his lips nervously, sighing. “Give us a moment. Doctor Zhang, Jeffrey and Johnny will be joining us soon.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked him, Kyungsoo sitting down on the chair.

“The Ong sibling’s flight was sabotaged,” he told me. “Their plane went down.”

“What?”

“But they are fine. Kai got them out. He heard the running oil. What’s weird is that we had checked the whole plane before it took off,” Kyungsoo told me. “But it could have been a mechanical problem though it’s hardly unlikely.”

“If it took off from SM, why would someone from SM want to sabotage the flight?” I asked, Kyungsoo shaking his head. “But are they okay now?”

“Yes, Kai got them out,” Kyungsoo said. “We’re hit with a bigger problem—”

“Soo.” Doctor Zhang’s lazy voice sounded and I saw Jaehyun and Johnny behind him. Johnny’s hair was still wet from whatever he was doing with Jaehyun and I saw Kyungsoo chew on his bottom lip nervously. “I heard the news.”

“Yes… It came as a direct order. From Suho,” Kyungsoo told Doctor Zhang and I frowned. What came as a direct order? “Jisung, Jaemin, Xiaojun… How do I put this- Uhm…? You kids are actually—”

“A product of science.” Xiaojun beat him to it and I looked at Xiaojun in surprise. “I know. Lay-ge told me before and people kept telling me I was special.”

“I did,” Doctor Zhang said, shrugging. I saw Jaemin and Jisung frown, both of them trying to understand what was going on. “I told Xiaojun that he and a few others are designer babies. Science is science and it’s something to be understood. He took it very well.”

“Not only are you designer babies, but you also have the Marvel drug in your system. These batches of kids are called Seasonies and I have been trying to round them up for the past year under direct orders. You, Jaemin, were a tough one to find,” Kyungsoo said, and it seemed like there was a heavyweight lifted off from his shoulders.

“Why are you suddenly telling them?” Johnny asked from behind Doctor Zhang and I almost forgot that he was in the room. “After all these years, why suddenly?”

“Because GOT7 has found the syndicate base and brought back more information,” Kyungsoo replied.

“How serious is it?”

“Suho is coming back.”

“What?” Jeffrey and Johnny exclaimed and I frowned. Wasn’t Suho the previous Director of SM?

“Wait… Let me get this straight. So, you saying that I’m a designer baby and that I was mixed with the Marvel drug when I was just a small and egg and that is why I’m here? It isn’t because you wanted Renjun?” Jaemin clarified and I think he was worried about the wrong thing. “So, you actually wanted me? Oh wow!”

“Yes, Jaemin.”

“And so, I’m basically special. Like… really special because I have this drug in my system. Oh, wow!” Jaemin rambled. “So, what can I do? Do I have underlying superpowers? Oh my god, maybe my superpower is dreaming things into reality! I have very very very vivid dreams.”

“Oh, hyung! Me too!” Jisung said excitedly. “Leeteuk Appa told me that I’m very special but I didn’t know I was that kind of special. I thought he meant I was… Another kind of special.”

“Omo, omo, omo. You’re very special, cute boy. You’re very special. So, what do we do? Oh, maybe we have supernatural strength!”

“Like the Hulk?” Jisung squeaked. I saw everyone in the room stare at each other, Kyungsoo grabbing a pen and suddenly flinging it to Jaemin. Jaemin who was deep in conversation with Jisung turned and grabbed it while it was in the air.

Well, he was fast.

“I wonder why you both are taking it so well, but then again I have to remind myself that your brains don’t work like normal people. Jaemin, when I threw the pen to you, what did you see?” Kyungsoo asked, Jaemin tilting his head.

“See? I see a pen flying over to me,” Jaemin replied, frowning. “It’s slow in my mind and when it reaches me, I grab it. I can also stare at things and replay things in my mind like now—I’m replaying it. I’m replaying it. There it goes, the pen—”

“Your cognitive skills are different from normal people; did you know that?”

“Really?” Jaemin frowned. “Can’t everyone do this? I thought it was normal. Hey, Jeffrey! Catch!”

Jaemin threw the pen to Jaehyun who yelped, the pen hitting him on the face.

“Okay, nevermind.”

“No wonder when I first met you, you grabbed the glass of water before it was about to tip,” I said to Jaemin who nodded. “I thought you had fast reflexes; I didn’t know it was because you could slow things down in your mind.”

“I rather superhuman strength,” Jaemin muttered. “That way Jeno will always listen to me.”

“Jisung, what do you see?” Kyungsoo asked Jisung who was also confused. They grew up with different skills, so most of them think that whatever goes on in their brain is normal.

“I see… angles. When I shoot, I see lines and angles to show me if I’ll be able to shoot it.” Jisung said innocently. “Acute angle, obtuse angle, parabola, hyperbola… Three hundred sixty-five degrees angle—”

“Jisung, there is no three hundred sixty-five degrees angle,” I told Jisung but he kept on talking.

“Also, right angle, reflex angle…” Jisung rambled. “Hyung, what else—”

“You forgot straight angle,” Jaemin added and Jisung added it to the list.

“Straight angle.” Jisung blinked and patted himself on the back. “Good job, Jisung Park.”

“Good job, cute boy,” Jaemin complimented.

Kyungsoo heaved a sigh and I looked over at Xiaojun who was deep in thought. I was about to ask him what his skill was when Jaemin beat me to it. “How about Clean-up Crew boy right there? What does he see?”

“I see particles. Everywhere. I see the tiniest bit of hair and every speck of dust,” Xiaojun told him, Kyungsoo nodding. No wonder he was so obsessive with cleaning. I saw Doctor Zhang feign a cough, looking at Kyungsoo who finally asked him what he saw.

“Wait, Doctor Zhang is a Seasonie too?” I asked, Doctor Zhang looking at me straight in the eyes.

“I did it,” he said deadpan. “I am superhuman too.”

“Doctor Zhang wasn’t part of the experiment but he injected himself with the Marvel drug. Which is very illegal, may I add… However, he played a big part in shutting down the experiments because he wrote his thesis on it and how it was unethical,” Kyungsoo said. “But that will be explained later. Tell them what you see.” ‘

“You know what I see, Soo,” Doctor Zhang said, shaking his head. “You know what I see.”

“Okay, never mind,” Kyungsoo concluded. “I conducted this meeting because there will be a meeting in the auditorium later that will be about Seasonies. It will be explained in detail and our former Director who is now in SM’s Managing Director is reaching soon. We have a mission coming and I didn’t want to take you all by surprise.”

Right at that moment, we heard a rumble of sound and Kyungsoo closed his eyes, pressing his hands against his eyes. Whoever Managing Director Suho was, it seemed like he was keeping everyone at the edge of their seat. Even Johnny looked stressed out, the man pointing out that the planes have arrived. A voice on the speakers began to speak.

“Calling all Active Agents. Calling all Active Agents. Please head to the auditorium, now.”

“And he has arrived,” Kyungsoo breathed.

I have never seen him nervous before but there was a first time for everything and sometimes I forgot that Kyungsoo was also human.

“Come, children. It is time to face The Guardian.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[EXO, Strategist, Name: Suho. Codename: Guardian]

We all filed into the auditorium and I saw people sit in teams. NCT 127 was sitting on one side, WayV next to them. Jeno and Renjun were at the side and I settled beside Chenle with Jaemin and Jisung who was shaking his leg.

I saw Suga lead Jimin and V into the room, sitting next to Jennie and her girl gang while Sorn, the only girl strategist, spoke to Kyungsoo about something. Johnny was isolated at the corner of the auditorium and I watched as Kyungsoo went to the front.

“I want all of you to be on your best behavior,” he said to us when the doors of the auditorium opened and I saw a man walk in. He was wearing a pressed suit, one bodyguard following him from behind. I knew that was Suho, Managing Director of SM, because everyone began to tense up. I saw Kyungsoo look at him, Suho stopping in front of Kyungsoo before heaving a sigh.

“Why, Soo, why?” was all Suho said and Kyungsoo frowned at him.

“Why, Hyung? What do you mean why?” Kyungsoo shot back and my eyes widened at how Kyungsoo seemed to have become a small child in front of the presence of Suho. Suho shook his head, turning to us, a hand going to click on a remote to bring a screen down.

He sighed again.

“Why does he sigh so much?” I asked Chenle.

“Every time Suho comes to SM, it’s because of something big,” Chenle told me. “Last time he came because the president was kidnapped and Jackson punched him because he thought he was a forger.”

Wow.

“So… Suho was a strategist too?”

“No, he started as a negotiator because of his family when he was very young,” Chenle replied. “We had a department for that before. SM started off as a foundation. An orphanage run by nuns and then it became a place where people were taught special skills. It began as a private organization and that is why all the SM branches are so isolated from civilians. Only around 20 years ago SM began to get fully funded by the government because it’s illegal to have a school that teaches you how to kill.”

“But the skills of SM agents were too good and refined so we began working under the direct order of the government.” Jisung piped up from beside me. “Super Junior Sunbae’s and Managing Director Suho were the people that were under the transition from SM being a private institute to a government-funded organization.”

“So now that it's fully government-funded, they took out the Department of Negotiators. It was initially a department to negotiate terms between private cases and government cases since SM worked with the government, not under the government,” Chenle added for clarity. “But he switched after two months and studied to became a strategist for EXO. Look, all our instructors are here too.”

And as he said, I saw Mister Chanyeol, Mister Minnie, Miss Victoria, Mister Bacon, and a bunch of other people walk into the auditorium. Chanyeol waved to Suho who gave him a curt nod.

“Now that we’re all here,” Suho began, placing his hands behind his back. “We have gotten information from GOT7 that they have trailed David Lee, a man who claims that his family was taken by YG- a front for the syndicate called D.O.G. Along with that, GOT7 had also found the base of the YG syndicate which is not anywhere near Korea but in Thailand. But first things first—”

Suho pulled up a video onto the screen and we saw that it was a video of two men talking. It was in a warehouse.

The man's eyes darted back and forth as he began to talk to David Lee.

“The man who David Lee is talking to is a man named Eric Nam. He was the head scientist of YG Chemicals and led a majority of their experiments,” Suho summarized. “In this video, he said that he had quit due to YG’s unethical experimenting and now is on the run because the syndicate thinks he’s too valuable to be let out alive.”

“You have to listen to me, David,” Eric Nam said, his voice shaky. “This is what they do. I quit because they had asked me to make another version of the Marvel drug so I did- It’s called the Marvel-U, an upg