The second one to find his power was Hoseok. He had managed to make Luhan smile until the boy had noticed what Hoseok was doing to him and stopped him from reading and influencing his feelings. But as he was the only one who could fight against any form of mind control, the others were affected easily.

"I guess he was that quick because his power matches his personality," Yixing reasoned shortly afterwards.

He seemed relieved about Hoseok's power and Junmyeon knew why. If the healer sensed other people's state of mental health, he could notice how the cheerful guy influenced everyone's way of thinking. He didn't use it often because it was too draining, but the others found themselves thinking more positively when they were out of his reach, too.

The boys gained hope when Hoseok found his power. They now had proof that Luhan was right and their training wasn't for nothing.

A few days later, a dog materialized out of thin air when Junkook was feeling lonely, greeted him happily and disappeared again. It turned out that his power was "Summoning," as Luhan called it. Junkook was convinced that he could summon things, people and animals, but Namjoon and Luhan forbade him to try summoning people until he could control his power.

Finding out Yoongi's power had been a bit odd. Yixing and Sehun couldn't find him and searched for him everywhere, until the younger guy was so frustrated that he tried to kick a rock on the ground. Before his feet touched it, however, the small rock transformed into a much bigger one, resulting in Sehun hurting his foot. As Yixing was with him and the healer had made great progress with his own power, it was alright after a few minutes, but he was still angry at Yoongi. The usually emotionless seeming guy had been overjoyed to find out his power was shape shifting and Junmyeon was actually a bit worried he might want to stay a rock for the rest of his life. But Sehun assured him that they had started trying to figure out what else he could transform into.

The three guys left were training as hard as they could. Chanyeol and Junmyeon had changed their tactics and were now teaching Jimin how to fight. This was a bit difficult without Tao and Yifan, but they actually remembered quite a few moves and Jimin seemed to enjoy it. There was a silent agreement between Junmyeon and Chanyeol to as much as possible and try to make him angry, but it just didn't want to work.

One day, Junmyeon was getting ready to go to their training place when Chanyeol approached him. He and Jimin had wanted to go ahead and already start without him, so Junmyeon was confused to see him here.

"I'm really, really sorry," Chanyeol claimed while nervously rubbing his neck. "I don't have a clue how to get back."

Junmyeon frowned. "Wasn't Jimin with you? And the place is the same as every day, isn't it?"

"Are you alright, Chanyeol?" The others started approaching them and Yixing laid a hand on the boy's forehead. "Something seems wrong."

Chanyeol seemed like he might start crying every second now. His hands trembled and he kept looking down his own body. "But I'm not Chanyeol."

"Maybe Jimin can manipulate thoughts?" Kyungsoo wondered.

Yoongi stared at Chanyeol. "Or he might be a shape shifter, too."

Luhan chuckled. "Don't worry," he told Chanyeol. "Let's go to your body, we will help you with getting it back."

"What are you talking about?" Baekhyun asked while all of them were following Luhan. "Where is Jimin?"

"That's Jimin." The blind boy motioned towards Chanyeol. "Apparently, he can possess other people's bodies."

"But that won't hurt Chanyeol, right?" Namjoon worried.

When they arrived at their training place, Jimin was lying on the ground lifelessly. Yixing stormed forward and inspected him.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" he asked Luhan worriedly. "Because he seems..."

Chanyeol started sniffing. "Will I have to stay like this?”

"Don't worry." Hoseok touched his arm and he relaxed. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Then he passed out. Luhan slowed his fall with a short movement of his hand. Meanwhile, Jimin (in his own body) began to move.

"I had a really, really weird dream," he claimed, rubbing his eyes. When he looked up and saw all of them standing around him, his jaw dropped.

In this moment, Chanyeol regained consciousness as well.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Junmyeon asked him carefully.

He looked at him with a frown. "Jimin and I started practicing. Why?"

It turned out he didn't have the slightest recollection of what had happened earlier and he was horrified at the thought of someone else being in his body. Jimin apologized several times until they were able to make him realize that it wasn't his fault.

From this day on, their daily schedule was a lot different. He and Chanyeol had agreed that it might be best to make sure he didn't panic in that kind of situation. This was why they were mainly doing stuff like meditation now. Unless an animal happened to stop by. The smaller the animals were, the easier it seemed to possess their bodies. Jimin would need a lot of time until he would be able to take over Chanyeol's body again, but the giant was kind of relieved about that.

Namjoon and Taehyung succeeded on the same day. Namjoon could conjure illusions. He was able to convince Baekhyun that he was in a completely different place, like on a mountain or at a lake. He liked practicing with small things, like little animals. He also loved changing one minor thing about their surroundings and making the others guess what it was. This was the first time that Junmyeon saw this playful side of Namjoon and he admired him for being able to hide that this easily.

Taehyung could do what he himself called "Animation". He was able to give life to drawings. He always complained that he wasn't good at drawing, but as the one with the biggest amount of imagination among them, this power was perfect for him. He had made walking stick figures (who were kind of creepy) and animals. They were still kind of two-dimensional, though, and Luhan and Jongdae went to the village to buy paper and pencils for him.

They had been gone for about ten minutes when there was a commotion outside of the house. Jimin, Chanyeol and Junmyeon, who had concluded that due to their recent achievements, they wouldn't have to practice today, left the house to see what was going on. There were several voices shouting.

Junmyeon gasped when he finally saw what was going on. Junkook and Jongin were standing in front of a huge wolf and the teleporter was clutching his arm with a pained expression. Yoongi, Yixing and Sehun were shouting at them to get away from there, but every time they moved, the wolf started growling heavily while baring its teeth. Its feral eyes were fixed on the two boys and it barked several times.

"Concentrate, Jongin," Junmyeon shouted, trying to stop his voice from trembling. "Take Junkook and teleport out of there!"

Jongin whimpered, his eyes never leaving the creature in front of him. "I can't. I've tried already, I can't!"

"Let go of me!" Yoongi and Sehun were holding tightly onto Yixing, who was struggling but didn't stand a chance against both of them. "He's hurt!"

Junmyeon tried to get his racing thoughts together. What could they do? Wolves. What were wolves scared of?

Fire.

He nudged his friend. "Chanyeol," he whispered quickly. "Aren't wolves scared of fire?"

His eyes widened when he understood Junmyeon's intention. "But I can't! You know I can't do that! I'll hurt them!"

Junmyeon growled with frustration. "And they won't get hurt like this? That wolf could kill them!"

Chanyeol took a few deep breaths and concentrated. His eyes didn't leave the scene in front of him. When the wolf made a few steps forward and Jongin used his healthy arm to push the trembling Junkook behind himself, his expression changed. His eyes showed pure determination, a look that Junmyeon hadn't seen in months.

He opened his palm and barely one second later, it was already filled with flames. Not the dark, full orange glow they usually had but a deadly dangerous, cold, nearly white colour. 

"Step back!" he shouted.

Jongin automatically let himself fall to the ground, pulling Junkook with him. The fireball hit the area where they had been standing seconds ago. Meanwhile, the wolf had stopped growling and retreated by a few steps, its eyes trying to find its prey behind the flames. The two guys retreated, careful to avoid the fire that was blazing away. Chanyeol made a few steps forward and aimed a fireball at the ground in front of its paws. The impact and the sparks that hit its face made the wolf whimper and it turned around on the spot and fled.

Junmyeon breathed out in relief. The danger was gone. Yixing had already started inspecting Jongin's wound and Sehun and Yoongi were quietly talking to the still trembling Junkook.

A warning shout, however, gained his attention. His heartbeat started racing once again when he noticed that the fire hadn't died out like usually, but started taking over the surroundings. The house wasn't far away and it was only a matter of time for it to catch on fire. His friends backed away in fear when they noticed how near the fire had suddenly come.

Junmyeon reacted automatically. He sank to the ground and pressed his hands against it. The river was too far away, but there was water somewhere in the ground. With a deafening grumbling, the earth split open to give way to a fountain of water. Where it came into contact with the fire, loud sizzling could be heard and the water evaporated.

This wasn't enough. He heard Sehun shouting for help, but there was no one else who could defeat the fire. They would only get themselves in danger.

Black dots were already appearing in his vision, but with one last effort the crack widened. The water flooded over the clearing, wherever Junmyeon wanted it to be, and put out the fire. When he was sure that there was no fire left, he let go of his grip on the water and finally let darkness take over.

 

"He saved your asses and you want him to faint again as soon as he wakes up? I’m not going to kill him, just leave." Junmyeon left his eyes closed. Even if he hadn't recognized the voice, the words would have sufficed to know who had spoken.

"They're gone, you can stop pretending now."

Junmyeon opened his eyes. He was lying in his and Sehun's room. Luhan was standing next to his bed, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"How are they?" His voice was stronger than he had expected. He still felt as if a crowd of people had run over him.

Luhan smirked. "I expected that to be your first question. Yixing was able to heal Jongin completely, but he isn’t allowed to train for the next few days. You stopped the fire before it could do any serious damage. Junkook feels guilty towards Jongin and everyone else, Sehun and Yixing had an argument because he would have run to them while that wolf was still there and Yoongi has been a remarkably loud rock for the past few hours."

Hearing that everything was fine, he could relax. Junmyeon snorted. This could well have been a conversation from before everything had happened. Except for Yoongi and Junkook, of course.

"I guess you achieved your goal today. But why did you let Chanyeol and me train Jimin?" In the end, regaining control over their powers hadn’t had anything to do with Jimin.

"I had hoped he would repair those broken wires in your brain while running around in it... But he was way more frightened than expected." He shrugged. "It still turned out well in the end. He's a bit disappointed that he couldn't fulfill his task, but I trust you to cheer him up."

His way of speaking of their new friends was so contradictory to their discussion in the forest that Junmyeon couldn't hold back the questions that had been bothering him for some time now.

"Luhan... I thought about what you told me that day. That we should make them leave. And about other people's opinions. But you're actually the last person in this world to care about what others think of you. Why would that make you so insecure now?"

His friend clenched his jaw. "I'm not insecure. But you know that some of the others are. And I can't teach them not to care nor will I force their thoughts in any direction I want. But actually, now there's even proof for my words. When Jongdae and I went to the village, everyone knew what happened to us. And someone there has brought up rumours about Red Force mutants with powers running around, too. If you believe what they said, those rumours have spread from the desert to the mountains already."

"But won't the Red Force act if they hear about that?"

"They will. But they will also have to find and deal with their members who decided not to search for them after they had fled, because they didn't show any signs of powers. And they will spy on us to get to know these new powers first."

Well, at least they were not in immediate danger. These rumours could be helpful, too. This meant that the Red Force had given up on most of the patrols. They had probably retreated to the city after their breakout. If the villagers could communicate openly, their support would grow immensely.

Luhan was silent for a few moments and cocked his head to the side, intrigued by Junmyeon's thoughts. "Did you think I lied to you?"

"I think you're less troubled by this situation concerning our two groups than you want to make me believe," Junmyeon answered confidently. "I think you worry about something entirely different and you're trying to hide that from me."

Luhan froze. When he regained his composure, he smirked. "Kim Junmyeon, I keep underestimating you."

Junmyeon didn't answer. Compliments from Luhan were rare, but he was too worried to let that distract him. Why would he hide something from him?

"You're aware that now that everyone's powers have appeared or reappeared, the younger guys might be eager to go to the City, right?" It was obvious that Luhan wanted to distract him by changing the topic to leader business, but he let it slide. He had a bad feeling about this, but Luhan would tell him about it when he was ready.

He rolled his eyes. "I know. We should let them fight against those who still have control over their powers, like you and Jongdae, and see whether they're really ready."

Luhan showed him a genuine smile. "It will be difficult to determine a perfect day for leaving. But now that all the players have entered the game, this is where it gets interesting."

Junmyeon didn't share Luhan's excitement in the slightest, but at the end of their conversation he felt as if a heavy burden had been taken from his shoulders.

His legs still seemed a bit wobbly, and he was pretty sure that Luhan's power had steadied him once or twice when he left his room. It felt as if this conversation had corrected a few things that had seemed out of place lately.

Jimin had obviously been waiting for them in front of the room. When he saw Junmyeon, he jumped up and gave him a wide smile.

"I'm so glad you're fine! What you did earlier was amazing! Chanyeol told me how you told him about the fire. It's awesome how composed you can stay in situations like this! Now I understand why they made you their leader."

"You mean you couldn't understand it earlier?" Junmyeon joked. He chuckled at how quickly Jimin panicked.

"That wasn't what I meant..."

"It's alright, I was kidding." Junmyeon tried to calm him down. "Don't worry." He looked around. "Have you seen Chanyeol anywhere?"

He hadn’t, but of course Luhan could tell him where he was. He said goodbye to both of them and returned to the place behind the house. The stench of the burnt grass and ground made his eyes water. It took him a while to find Chanyeol. He was sitting a few meters away, carefully holding small burning branches in his hands while staring at them in awe. He chuckled lightly. The sight remembered him of the time when they had first explored their powers and he felt a certain pride for himself and Chanyeol. They had managed to get over their fears, had finally become stronger than them.

When Chanyeol noticed Junmyeon coming closer, he smiled at him. Junmyeon sat down and they watched the small flames.

"I was so stupid," Chanyeol said. "I was wondering why I couldn't use my power while I was completely terrified of it at the same time."

“Luhan was right again” Junmyeon sighed. “I wonder if he left with Jongdae knowing that something might happen.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widened. He was speechless for a few moments. Then he smiled. “Sometimes I think Luhan cares a lot more than he wants us to see. Especially when it comes to you.”

Junmyeon coughed a little when the last sentence took him by surprise. “He cares about everyone. Actually, he even gets a lot angrier at me than the rest of you.”

Chanyeol seemed to disagree and looked at him for a while, but then bit his lip and looked back to the branches he was holding. Junmyeon decided against inquiring about this reaction. He would have more than enough opportunities to ask him about it. For the moment, he was just content to sit there in silence.