10
Nothing's Over
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Ten
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Sunggyu carried your bag up to the room you would be sharing with Sungjong. Sunggyu pleaded with him to switch with him the entire way there, which prompted a “why do you wanna switch with me, anyway” from Sungjong as he gave him the evil eye.
“I haven’t gotten to spend any time with her in forever, so we can use this opportunity to bond, right?” You smiled at Sungjong and leaned over to hug him as the two of you made your way to the room you’d be staying in. Sunggyu narrowed his eyes at the two of you, making Sungjong cling to you as well as you entered the room.
“Wow. This is nice Hoya. Are you sure we shouldn’t practice toughening up and sleep in tents outside?” Woohyun asked, sticking his head into the room. You glanced around the room. It was probably bigger than your house, and your house was a decent size too.
“We’ll get to that. Hurry up. We have stuff to talk about.” You and Sungjong dragged your things over to the bed and threw it on there, marveling as how springy the mattress was. You two stopped and glanced at each other before laughing and scrambling onto the bed, grabbing each other’s hands as you started to jump up and down on the bed.
“Hey! Hey! Wait for me!” Dongwoo ran into the room and dive onto the bed, nearly crashing into you and Sungjong.
“You idiots! Stop jumping on the bed!” You and Sungjong stopped to see Woohyun at the door with a very scared looking Sunggyu behind him.
“I don’t think you should’ve-”
“What did you just call me?!” You and Sungjong said at the same time. Still holding hands, you and Sungjong jumped off the bed and ran after them as Woohyun laughed and started to run.
You let go of Sungjong’s hand to run after Sunggyu as he and Woohyun split up.
“Up we go!” Dongwoo dived underneath you and shifted into an animal. Surprised, you grabbed onto whatever was in front of you to keep from falling off as you were jerked up from the floor. There was a loud roar of protest as you loosened your grip.
“My bad, I was surprised. Who gets to ride on a lion in their lifetime?” Dongwoo had shifted into a lion and was chasing after Sunggyu, who glanced over his shoulder and nearly cried.
“That’s not fair! Don’t eat me! I didn’t even say it!” He eventually ran into the living room and dived onto the couch where Hoya was waiting, flipping through a notepad.
Dongwoo stopped abruptly in the living room and almost made you fall off again. Hoya looked up and frowned, only to hear Woohyun yelling as he ran into the living room, followed by a bolt of lightning, his hair sticking in all directions. He frowned again and sighed, rubbing at his temples.
Dongwoo shifted back into a person, holding you up on his back before giving Hoya peace sign.
“Good lord. Can we please just get down to business?”
“Where are Sungyeol and Myungsoo?”
“Up here.” They turned to the second floor railing to see Myungsoo grab Sungyeol’s hand before phasing through the floor. Sungyeol jumped down, using various things to slow them down before they both landed on their feet on the floor. Myungsoo had gotten used to learning how to freerun like Sungyeol, he just wasn’t as good.
Myungsoo let go of Sungyeol’s hand before making his way to the couch. “I heard a lion earlier. And a few cracks of thunder. Something happen?” he asked, eyeing Woohyun’s hair.
“I was attacked for no reason. By my own team. I thought we were against friendly fire.”
--
“Let’s start with the youngest and work our way up. Lee Sungjong, Class A. Manipulates electricity.” Hoya wrote across the top of the whiteboard before making a bullet of a list.
“Just talk about how your power works. The pros, the cons, progression, other interesting things,” Hoya said as he turned to look at Sungjong.
“Uh, sure. Well, pros. I don’t have to charge or anything, the electricity comes straight from the energy channels in my body. I just have to build it up and concentrate. If my energy becomes low though, I can pull and redirect lighting in the sky. Cons are that it takes a lot of energy at a time. Uh... it makes thunder too, so it’s not really subtle. One of the progressions is to send bolts of lightning without any noise, and I haven’t gotten there quite yet.” Hoya nodded, making notes on the whiteboard while Sunggyu wrote on the notepad.
“Anything else?”
“I’ve been working on shields too, an electricity field? It can short out electronic devices and temporarily shield you from physical harm unless the enemy can handle electricity too. I’m still working on figuring out how to include a non-electricity user. I almost did it, using her idea on flowing through the energy channels! But I lose my concentration too quickly and end up zapping them by accident.” Woohyun winced slightly, still trying to fix his hair.
“Woohyun should be okay. He should be used to you zapping him by now,” Hoya said, giving Woohyun a grin.
“Uh, no. Not if my hair keeps turning out like this,” he said, pointing at his frazzled hair.
“Is that it, Sungjong? Any special talents?”
“Uh... I’m quick to notice things? Anything out of place really catches my eye easily, like sudden or small movements.” Hoya nodded and drew a box around Sungjong’s facts on the whiteboard.
“Next is Kim Myungsoo. Class B, phasing.”
“Pros, walking through solid objects like doors, chairs, walls, floors. Cons, the thicker it is, the more energy I have to use. And if I’m running, like I always am with this one,” he jerked his thumb over to sungyeol, “then I end up having to use more energy to phase through something as opposed to just walking through it. I can bring whoever I’m touching with me, but again, the more people there are, the more energy I have to use, and the more I have to concentrate or else you’ll be stuck between a door or something.” Everyone winced slightly.
“Also, if I get injured, I can’t just phase the object out of me, or I’ll bleed to death.” Hoya nodded, making more notes on the page.
“They’re going to be using projectile weapons on the survival course, right?” Sunggyu asked, looking up from the notepad.
“Yeah. No poison though, so that’s good for us.”
“What happens if you try to phase through something too thick?”
“Well. I’d probably get stuck inside and die.” You frowned. That didn’t sound like a good fate.
“Anything else? Progression? Talents?”
“Progression is just being able to take more people or keep phasing through things for a longer amount of time. As for talents... I can see pretty well in the dark.” Sunggyu nodded, writing things down.
“Lee Sungyeol, Class B, freerunning.” Hoya draw a box around Myungsoo’s facts before moving on to Sungyeol.
“Freerunning! Pros, the laws of physics don’t really apply to me so I can get into places people normally can’t get to. I can’t float in the air or anything, I still have to use things to get leverage to move somewhere. And I can extend my power to other people too, as long as I’m touching them, but it kinda hinders movement unless the other person knows what they’re doing too.” You tilted your head.
“Myungsoo’s and Sungyeol’s powers really compliment each other. Myungsoo could just concentrate on running while Sungyeol pulls him along, and he can use that momentum that Sungyeol provides to save energy when phasing through things.”
“No wonder they’re inseparable,” Hoya said.
“You guys really need to tell me when you’re pulling more pranks on the school. I feel so empty without causing any trouble,” Dongwoo said, leaning his head back on the couch.
“Sorry. We’ll let you know next time.”
“Anything else Sungyeol?”
“Uh... Freerunning is just a lot of acrobatics and stuff. It can get pretty dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. I also know first aid. I’ve injured myself so many times, I know how to pretty much treat anything.”
“That’s good, that’ll definitely come in handy.”
“And I’m next.” Hoya drew a box around Sungyeol’s facts before writing his name down.
“Lee Howon, Hoya. Class A, seismic quakes. Pros, I can pretty much rip up the ground however I want to. It takes a lot of energy, but I hardly ever get to use my power so there’s plenty of it building up in my head.” Sunggyu reached out and patted Hoya on the shoulder.
“How far does your power go?” you asked. Hoya’s power was pretty straight forward, but there were always things you wanted to know about it.
“A few miles out. We’ve been working on range and trying to get it to work on a smaller scale, but I just keep making ditches out beyond the school. So basically, my power is nothing but destructive. It’s almost like earth bending, but I have to be on the ground for it to work.”
“Specialties?” Sunggyu asked.
“Strategist. I’m good at planning ahead and thinking on the fly.” Next was you. Hoya said your name and wrote Class A next to your name, which made you frown a little bit.
“Lexiconicy is a pretty rare power I guess. Pros are that I can pull pretty much anything and everything from the written word on the page. As long as it’s not living, I don’t want to pull anything living. It’s a con. It takes away from my life if I pull something living, and it dies if I put it back to the page.” Everyone was listening to you intently as you explained your powers.
“I can pull multiple things from the page as long as the word is on there, and I’m touching the page. And it doesn’t have to be paper, it can be engravings on metal and stuff like that. My power progression is pulling multiple things rapidly all at once so that it looks like I’m making things appear from mid air when I’m not.”
“So if you don’t have your page or whatever it is that has your words on it, then you can’t use your power?”
“Pretty much. Although, I don’t know if it would work, but I could try writing something in the dirt and pulling it from there? If it counts. Just as long as the word is written, it should be okay.” Sunggyu stared at you, completely fascinated.
“Anything else?”
“I have a subpower. I was told lexiconicy usually comes with a subpower. I can animate inanimate objects and make them move. I don’t exactly know how to control them, but they seem to obey me pretty well. But it takes a lot of energy, because my energy constantly flows through them to keep them moving.”
“That could definitely be useful,” Hoya said as he jotted it down on the board.
“I’ve heard you have pretty good survival skills, too. Camping, pinpointing directions, what’s safe to eat, plant recognition, and stuff like that,” Sunggyu said. You laughed.
“Yeah. You could throw me into the wild, and I’d do okay.”
“Unless there were bugs. I know you’re scared of bugs,” Woohyun said, grinning at you. You sighed as Sunggyu reached over and shook you back and forth.
“It’s okay. I’ll protect you from the bugs.”
Hoya drew a box around your facts, making it a little bit neater than he did with the others.
“You should do something special with her box. She’s the only girl on our team,” Sungjong said, pointing at your box. Hoya rolled his eyes before drawing a heart at the top.
“Next is Nam Woohyun. Class B, mind reader.”
“I’m sure you all know what I do by now,” Woohyun said as everyone rolled their eyes at him.
“I read thoughts from people. My power’s been progressing pretty nicely, so I don’t have to look at your eyes anymore to read your thoughts. I can concentrate on your brainwaves and tune into them, as long as I’ve read you before. On the downside though, you can force your thoughts on me, even if I don’t want to read them.” Myungsoo and Sungyeol immediately turned to stare down Woohyun.
“Ugh! You guys !” Woohyun said, holding his head. The two laughed before letting up.
“Besides that, I didn’t realize you could manipulate your thoughts so I read them wrong. Waves are subjective, and sometimes they get tangled with another person’s if they’re similar. Everyone on this team has pretty distinct brainwaves though, so we should be okay if we can’t find someone, I can find them.” You nodded. Woohyun’s power was pretty useful, and it seemed more complicated than you thought it would be.
“If I keep working on my power, I might be able to progress to telekinesis, which is moving things with my mind. There’s only a small percentage of mind readers that progress to telekinesis, so crossing my fingers!” Everyone started to complain about how if Woohyun progressed, their lives would be made more miserable.
“Oh come on guys! I’m not that bad once you get used to me,” he said with a grin. You rolled your eyes as Hoya wrote the next name on the board.
“Next is Jang Dongwoo. Class B, shapeshifter.”
“Yo, yo, yo. Pros. I can turn into anything as long as it’s living. It’s easier to turn into things that have fewer complex systems, like sponges and stuff, but what the hell is a sponge going to do on land?” Everyone laughed for a few seconds.
“I can turn into other people too, but it’s really weird, I don’t like doing it. My power training teacher is trying to get me to observe habits of other people so I can act like them after I turn into them. Power of disguise or something, but I just get nervous. Here,” Dongwoo got up and grabbed Hoya before pulling him behind the whiteboard.
“See if you can tell who is who!” Dongwoo shifted into Hoya, making him freak out a little bit.
“Dude, that is so weird.”
“Dude, I know, right?” They emerged from behind the whiteboard, making everyone look between them in confusion.
“This one is Dongwoo,” Sungjong said, pointing to the one on the left. “Hoya never stands with his hands in his pockets. He usually keeps them crossed over his chest. Dongwoo shifted back with a smile on his face.
“Ding! You are correct. I just need to practice more, that’s all. I can’t stay shifted in another form for longer than three hours though, or I’ll get stuck in whatever form it is for the rest of my life.” A time limitation, you thought to yourself. So if Dongwoo were to do an undercover mission or something, he’d have to work fast, and if he worked fast, he might be too careless.
“And last but not least, our almighty leader, Kim Sunggyu. Class A, blowing up,” Hoya said, writing it as big as he could before laughing and erasing it to write it smaller.
“Jeeze, Hoya. I can freeze stuff, too.”
“But I only ever see you blowing stuff up.” Sunggyu sighed before burying his face into his hands.
“So yeah. I blow stuff up and freeze stuff. The technical term is molecule manipulation. I speed them up and slow them down. It’s a pretty hard power to control, especially if I don’t concentrate.”
“We know. Remember when he blew up that water pipe in the school because Woohyun ran up behind him and down his spine?” Dongwoo asked, laughing.
“Or that time he froze an entire class because Woohyun put an ice cube down his shirt during class?” Hoya said, laughing even louder than Dongwoo.
“Hey! Hey! I didn’t even know I had powers until a few years ago, okay? So forgive me if I haven’t been doing this all of my life.” You giggled at Sunggyu and grabbed his hand reassuringly.
“Power training with that SS seems to be paying off though. I haven’t heard anything about you destroying parts of the school,” Dongwoo said, glancing over Sunggyu.
“Yeah. Precision training. It’s like learning to fire a gun. He’s also teaching me how to switch rapidly between freezing and blowing things up. I’ve been failing pretty miserably at that.”
“Yeah. Your SS is Leeteuk right? I think he’s been asking people about you,” Hoya said, looking at you, “to see if he can use you as motivation to help Sunggyu. I wouldn’t be surprised if he came with cardboard cutouts of her to make sure you don’t blow up what your’re not supposed to.”
“Oh god.” Sunggyu buried his face into his hands again.
“You better do well! If I hear anything about you blowing me up, then I’m going to be mad!” You punched him in the arm, making him wince with how hard you hit him.
“Oh yeah. Another thing to put in your box. You’re good at hand to hand combat. Is anyone else here taking the weaponry specialization class? I don’t think anyone in Class A is, we’re too busy with power training.”
“I’m taking sword fighting,” Woohyun said, raising his hand.
“I’m taking hand to hand combat, too,” Myungsoo said.
“I’m in the first aid class. I get to help the nurse fix people up,” Sungyeol said evilly. You shuddered. Thank god, Sungyeol wasn’t there when you had to get your knuckle fixed.
“Alright! Feel free to let us know with your updates on your powers and whatever else you think is relevant for us to know. Let’s move outside to the obstacle course.”
--
The seven of you stood in awe at Hoya’s backyard while Hoya grinned.
“What in the world. You’re really taking this seriously, huh?”
“No. My dad had it made as soon as he heard about The Games. He wants us to be prepared since I’m his only son. He doesn’t want me to die.” There were nervous glances all around.
“Basically, what you’re doing here is climbing up this wall. Walking across the tightrope or hopping across the poles. Taking the zipline, then try to weave through all the poles.” He explained the rest of the course as you looked around at it.
There was something about this course that looked awfully familiar, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it.
“We’ll go through this course two at a time. It’ll be a competition for whoever gets the most food for dinner,” Hoya said, making everyone perk up.
“So. Any volunteers?”
--
You volunteered to go first with Woohyun. He grinned at you before starting to stretch and take deep breaths.
“Woo!” There were cheers for you and some cheers for Woohyun. You popped your knuckles and got ready.
“Don’t go easy on me just because I’m a girl,” you said to Woohyun.
“Oh no. I plan on going all out.” The two of you crouched down, waiting for Hoya to blow the whistle.
“And... ready. Set. Go!” He blew the whistle as the two of you sprinted towards the first obstacle. You ran in between the climbing obstacle and jumped at it, jumping back and forth between them until you were at the top.
Woohyun gave out a cry of disbelief as Hoya laughed hysterically.
“Before Junhyung started walking her to school, she would be late all the time and have to jump the gate to get inside,” Hoya explained as you hopped across the sticks with ease. You jumped at the zipline as soon as you got there and used the momentum to swing over the pool and onto the next platform.
“Come on, Woohyun! You can’t lose to a girl!”
--
It was spectacular to watch everyone go through the courses. Everyone’s training was really apparent as they ran through.
“Looks like there’s a tie for the fastest time.” Hoya held up his notepad, and you could see you and Myungsoo tied.
“Ugh! If I didn’t fall into the pool, I would’ve had the fastest time!” Sungyeol said. Obstacle courses were his thing.
“Settle this with a fist fight?” Myungsoo suggested to you. You nodded with a smile while Sunggyu protested.
“But your hand!”
“Don’t worry. One armed combat. You’ve been learning about it in class, right?” you asked, turning to Myungsoo. Myungsoo nodded before a circle formed around the two of you.
“Choose your hand.” You put your right hand behind your back and took a stance. Myungsoo did the same, putting his left hand behind his back.
“Don’t hold back,” Myungsoo said with a smile. You smirked back at him.
“And, fight!” Myungsoo moved in first, but you could see him coming from a mile away as your twisted your body out of his way and brought your hand down on his elbow. The two of you twisted away from each other before you moved in this time, actively attacking him. You could see the surprise in his eyes as he blocked your attacks.
Taking advantage of his surprise, you grabbed his arm and used it to swing yourself behind him, kicking at the back of his legs. He fell to his knees, but rolled out of the way of your next attack.
“Holy . I do not want to make her mad anymore.” As the fight wore on, you could see Myungsoo getting tired. He managed to land a few blows here and there, but they didn’t compare to how hard Junho hit you.
Myungsoo started to get desperate and made a few careless mistakes. You took the opportunity again, dodging his kick and getting right up next to him. You turned to kick him and drop kicked his shoulder, sending him falling to the ground.
He was breathing hard on the ground until he fell over.
“Oh my god, you hit so hard, it’s not natural,” Myungsoo breathed as Sungyeol ran over to look at him.
“Good god! You’re bruising already.” You kneeled down next to him with an apologetic look on your face.
“I’m sorry! You said not to hold back so...”
“It’s okay. That drop kick, though. Wow.” Myungsoo rubbed at his shoulder.
“She really did drop you with that drop kick,” Woohyun said, ruffling Myungsoo’s hair.
“We should spar more often. I don’t think anyone hits that hard in our class,” Myungsoo said to you with a smile on his face.
“Sure.”
“Just. Go a little bit easier on me until I can take your hits.” You laughed before reaching your hand out and helping him up.
Everyone turned as they heard Hoya’s mother call for dinner.
“Tomorrow, we’ll figure out how everyone’s powers fit together,” Hoya said as everyone started to make their way inside. Sungjong wrapped an arm around your waist as you wrapped your arm around his waist as the two of you walked inside together.
“Sit next to me! We can talk some more, then I can do your hair before we go to sleep, just like we used to do when we were kids!”
“God, Sungjong, you really are a girl,” Woohyun said from behind him. Woohyun dodged the small bolt of electricity that came towards him.
“See? I’m getting good at- AH!”
“Missed one.”
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