"I've been good."

"You and Lyn having fun?"

"Yeah, we've been meeting lots of different people from lots of different places."

"Any boys?"

"Ummm..."

"Come on, I won't tell your dad."

"Actually..." Rubbing her neck wanting to be honest, Mina answered, "Yeah."

"Really?"

"Just a few or so."

"Handsome?"

"Mom..."

"What? I just want to know if we can expect a visit from a boy soon." 

"... I wouldn't count on it."

"You never know."

"Right... Well, I got to go. I'm meeting up with Lyn in a bit."

"Okay, honey, take care, I love you."

"I love you too. I'll call to check in again soon."

- - - 

Hanging up her cell, Mina felt a tap on her shoulder. Surprised, she spun around and was greeted by a grinning pair of thin lips. Feeling the cell in her hands slip out of her possession, she watched as Chen flipped it open and stared at the screen. 

"Why are there so many buttons? And why is yours so much smaller than Daniel's?"

Grown accustomed to Chen's frank and natural playful personality over the past three days, Mina put her hands on her hips and straightened her posture a bit. "It's bigger than yours."

"I don't have one."

Snatching the outdated phone back, Mina replied, "Exactly!"

A small mischievous smirk painted on his face at Mina's quick reply, Chen proceeded to walk her out of the hotel they were staying at. Though the group had made plans to leave a few days ago, due to Suho's condition and the sudden reappearance of the Red Force, they were delayed. To add to their delayed plans, there had been recent reports of "supernatural occurrences" across the world.

Being the detailed and organized person he was, Daniel made sure to pay attention to all news outlets in the event that  another Legend would surface. After almost two weeks, that diligence seemed to pay off. There had been a few instances of unexplained sudden tornados in locations not prone to the particular phenomena as well as snow fall in a metropolitan city in the middle of summer. The most telling however, was reports of a "vanishing man". There one second, gone the next. Many people had said to have seen him disappear into thin air with one account even having video 'proof'.

While many claimed that the video was faked, upon one viewing, the group knew it was the elusive Kai, nearly halfway around the world. Wanting to head his direction initially the group had come to the consensus that it was more viable to follow the lead of the unusual snow fall, since Kai moved too fast. 

Being escorted by Chen, the two walked toward the cars and came across a now typical happening. Suho being ignored by one of the Legends. This time it was Chanyeol.  

"Chanyeol stop it."

"Stop what?" The phoenix questioned, rolling a thin flame in between his fingers like a coin. 

"That!" Suho yelled back.

"Why?"

Sighing as Chanyeol threw a small flame into the air, Suho muttered in defeat. "Whatever, just do what you want."

Breaking away from Mina and walking over to Chanyeol, Chen landed a soft hand on the phoenix's shoulder and sent a small shock thorough the tall Legend's lanky body. Turning back to Suho, Chen smiled and gave the guardian a thumbs up.

Shaking his head, Suho caught a glimpse of Mina in the corner of his dark brown eyes.    

"How are you feeling today?" she questioned, walking towards him. 

Smiling at the girl he had understood to be the one that saved him, Suho brightly answered. "Ready to go!"

Taking notice of the kind smile she had received from the guardian on multiple occasions, Mina had come to know Suho or Joonmyun as the kind-hearted but easily defied leader of the Legends. While all the other Legends did love and respect their guardian, they were quick to do as they pleased. And from what she understood, of the two, Kris was the one to be more strict and harder to cross. Considering Kris's initial caution and strategizing ways, Mina believed it. 

"So am I! I've never been on a plane before!"

"Finally a chance to use our passports!" Lyn chimed walking up behind the pair. "We even get to head into a real city! Not these ranches and small towns for us anymore!"

"That makes it more dangerous though," Daniel replied, only a few steps behind the girl. "Crowded city streets, lots of traffic. Getting around is going to be difficult."  

"We're going to be looking for Xuimin right?" Tao questioned, jumping down from the second level balcony to the first.

Eyes following him as he landed softly on the ground beside them, only Suho looked distressed by Tao's actions. 

"You shouldn't do that here Tao. We don't want to attract attention."

Smiling and nodding, Daniel patted Suho on the back. It seemed as if he finally had a real ally that shared his cautious nature. "It's definitely going to be hard for us in the city."  

"Did you already order the tickets?" Mina asked.

"We're going private. It's a little risky but I'm calling one of my dad's connections."

"Won't that alarm your dad?" Lyn, asked surprised. 

Scoffing, Daniel shook his head. "If it did, it'd be the first time."

"Oh... Well, I guess we don't need the passports then do we?"

"Not this time. We need to head out now though. The place we're headed is far from here."

"Right! Well then, roll call time?" Mina asked, looking around. Taking a moment, she mentally marked off herself, Lyn and Daniel, then Chanyeol and Chen, who remained engaged in a small showing of ability and then Suho and Tao.  "Looks like we're missing Kris, Kyungsoo, and Lay."

"Yes?"

Hearing Lay's voice come from beside her, Mina jumped with a small yelp. "Y'all have to stop appearing so suddenly!" 

"I've been here the whole time," Lay replied calmly. 

"Yeah, I thought you saw him," Tao added.  

"Can't you sense us?" Kyungsoo asked, also seemly appearing out of nowhere. 

Surprised by D.O.'s entrance, Mina calmed herself before answering, "I... Well, I'm surrounded by you all so often, I'm starting to become unable to tell the signals apart. Only new ones stick out."  

"So we're ready to go Mina?" Chanyeol asked, walking closer with Chen by his side.

"We're still missing Kris," the girl replied. 

"Did I hear you call me Kris?" 

Eyes widening, Mina turned around and saw Kris sitting on top of the SUV behind her. "When did you get there?"

"He's been there," Chen answered. 

Sighing, Mina shook her head. "I give up." 

Allowing her friend a moment of silent defeat, Lyn clapped her hands together decidedly. "Well, looks like we're all here! Daniel has leading team, I have following team. Let's go!" 

- - -

Already five hours in headed to their next destination, the group was split evenly with five in each vehicle. The leading car carried Daniel, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, Tao and Lay and the following team held the rest, consisting of  Lyn, Mina, Chen, Suho and Kris. 

The combination may have seemed a little unusual, but things within the group always seemed to be changing. In addition, over the three day resting period, Lyn had found that her personality matched well with Chen's. Both a bit mischievous but caring of those closest to them, they could carry on long conversations about useless topics. In fact, the way they talked made it seem as if they had been old friends.   

"Did you know Chen can power our cell phones? He did it for me the other day. He only held it for a few seconds. Fully charged." 

"Really?"

"If something needs a little jolt, just ask," Chen replied, smiling from the front passenger's side. 

"He can also cause power outages," Lyn added. "So if we get into trouble in the city, he can knock out all the power for us."

"Jongdae is like a walking electrical current," Suho commented. "He commands a limitless supply of raw power."  

Thinking of the power Chen possessed, Mina realized the amount of devastation he could cause. Especially when paired with water. With that thought she turned to her right where Suho sat.   

"I was wondering."

"Yes?" Suho replied. 

"Your powers... some of them are the opposites of each other. You and Chanyeol, and Kri- Yi Fan and Kyungsoo... Does it affect your relationship?"

"It's never affected my relationship with Chanyeol." Tilting his head, Suho looked over at Kris. "Not sure about Kris though."

Feeling the eyes on him, Kris shook his head. "It's the same for me."

"I didn't think it would affect your relationships."

"But maybe we would have been enemies had we not been brought together," Suho said wondering. 

"12 powerful enemies fighting against each other... That would be really bad," Mina added, now thinking of a grand scale battle between the Legends, " I imagine Chen in particular would wreck you, Suho."

Chuckling, Suho nodded. "But I'd have the upper hand with Chanyeol."

"But wouldn't Tao be the ultimate victor?" Chen questioned. "He could take us all out before we even knew it."

"What about Lay?" Lyn asked. "He can heal himself. Practically invulnerable."

Turning to the girl, Chen shook his head. "Tao's abilities are the most unpredictable... how do you fight a time controller?"  

"Tao still has some trouble controlling his power," Kris said, speaking up. "He needs to really focus in order to use it properly."

Smiling at Kris's sudden involvement, Mina turned to him. "So who would be the ultimate victor?"

Unhesitating, Kris turned his head toward the girl and replied with a clear look in his eyes. "The one that's fighting for the right reason." 

Her smile falling a bit at his thoughtful response, the only reply she could muster was a hesitant 'Ah'. Though things between the two had seemed to be returning to a normal state, Kris was still purposeful with his words and seemed to be constantly waiting for her to answer his still unanswered question. 

Realizing that she was still trapped in his gaze, Mina was grateful when Lyn's voice broke their eye contact. 

"Hey guys," Lyn interrupted, "I just got a message from Daniel. We're making a stop in the next town."

- - -

Walking out of the gas station together with water bottles in hand, the girls proceeded to distance themselves at Mina's urgency. Walking under the dry and hot summer sun, Lyn stopped after a few feet and turned to Mina. 

"So why are you dragging me out here?" Lyn asked. "You having boy problems again?"

"No..."

"Legend problems?"

Sighing, Mina grimaced. "...Kinda?"

"What is it now? I already gave you my approval to date Chanyeol."  

Rolling her eyes at Lyn's reply, Mina frowned. "It's not Chanyeol."  

"Kris then? Haven't we already talked about him? Have you not replied him yet?"

Looking at the dirt around her tennis shoes, Mina mumbled in reply, "Not yet."

"Then that's your answer."

Looking up in confusion, Mina stared at Lyn perplexed. "What's my answer?"

Replying as if the solution to the situation was obvious, Lyn answered. "It's complicated."

"Complicated?"

"If you didn't feel anything you would have told him, but it's obviously not that clean cut. You like him but you're not sure how to explain that to him since you also like the others almost in the same way right?"

Blinking, the girl with the brown hair was speechless. Everything her friend had said was correct.

Seeing her friend look dumbstruck at her keen observation skills, Lyn continued, "Now if you're wondering what to tell him, then just tell him you don't know. I'm sure that would be enough for him. Even if it's a lame answer to us."   

Mulling over the idea, a sharp pain suddenly struck the girl, causing her to fall down in her place.

"Mina!?" Seeing her friend drop her open water bottle and abruptly grab at her head, Lyn was frightened by what was happening. 

Crouching down and placing her throbbing head in her hands, Mina kept her eyes shut tight. And after thoroughly freaking Lyn out, Mina quickly stood back up. "We need to head back."

"What? Mina? Are you okay? What the heck was that?"

Not bothering to answer Lyn, Mina ran back toward the SUVs and ran into Daniel and the gathered Legends. "We need to head back the other way!"

"What?" 

"We need to head back!" Running to the SUV and swinging open the passenger side door, Mina pulled out Daniel's tablet and pulled up the map and excitedly pointed at a small location out of the way. "We need to head here!" 

Looking at the location she pointed to, Daniel shook his head. "That's more than five hours back! We are currently only two hours from the hanger!" 

"Well, it's the way we need to go!"

"What's going on here?" Kyungsoo questioned, standing only a few feet away. 

Turning to the earthshaker Mina repeated the phrase again, "We need to head back!"

"You sense another one of us?" Tao asked excitedly.

"No, but I know we need to head back," Mina replied. 

"Well then let's go!" Chanyeol commented also within earshot of the exchange.

"Are you positive we need to go back?" Suho asked looking Mina directly in the eyes. 

Nodding confidently, she answered with a 'yes'. 

"Let's head out then," Kris commanded firmly to the group.

- - - 

With the support of the Legends behind her, Mina took the reigns leading the team back to where they had been that morning and then took them further by driving two more hours to finally arrive in the location she pointed to. With the constant traveling taking the entire day, the group faced the darkening sky and decided to make camp due to the lack of a resting area. 

Arriving but not finding the Legend she expected to find, Mina began feeling doubtful of her sudden decision. After setting up camp and eating a small dinner, she distracted her uncertain mind by reading the book she had come to call 'The Book of Legends'. With the others turning in for the night, Mina remained sitting by the campfire created by Chanyeol, with only Daniel still visibly keeping her company, as he was busy finalizing new plans due to the spur of the moment change in location.

"You know," Mina said getting up walking over to Daniel, "The more I read though this thing, the more I feel it's like a reference guide."

"A reference guide?" Daniel replied, looking away from his laptop.

"Yeah." Flipping through the pages, the girl stopped at a page she had marked with a blue tab. "This section is all about Chasers."

"It is?" Grabbing the book from Mina, Daniel looked the open pages over. "It's just a bunch of drawings."

"Right! So you know how the first section reads like a story and the rest is dedicated to each one of the Legends and then there are a bunch of pages like these with drawings and scribbling?"

"I've gone through this book countless times, Mina. I know what's in it."

"Well these pages are like a reference guide, and the small scribbling at the bottom are actually words."  

"They're words?" Daniel questioned, squinting his eyes at the curled and foreign lettering hardly visible.

"Yeah. I still can't read them, but Suho's been translating for me. He saw me reading it yesterday and has been helping me decode everything. Kyungsoo's learning how to read it too." Mina explained, sitting back down in her seat. 

"Kyungsoo's been learning? Can't the Legends already read it?"

"I thought they could too but only Suho can."

"Why?"

"They can't read it because it's not their original language," Suho answered, making his way over the the campfire ground and sitting beside Daniel. 

"So it's your original language?" the human boy asked. 

"It's not. However, I was the first one named guardian of the Tree, and so in addition to the powers, I was also given the written word on top of the spoken word."

"Why only you?" Daniel asked.

"I'm not sure why," Suho responded. "I can only assume it's because I was there first."   

"It's because you are trustworthy," Lay spoke, walking over to the small group. "It simply made sense to pass the word on to you."

"Unable to sleep?" Mina questioned, watching the Legend stand beside her. 

"The light of the fire is distracting," the healer replied.

"Sorry about that," the girl apologized, "I guess we should all get some sleep now. It's getting late." 

"It is late. I'll put the fire out." 

"You can put Chanyeol's flame out?" Mina asked the guardian.  

Smiling, Suho nodded and then began moving his hands in a circular motion, generating a spherical orb of liquid. Moving the orb without touching it, the liquid met with the flames but did not affect their brilliant glow. 

"It's still burning," the girl observantly commented. 

"Keep watching," Lay said, hushing the girl. 

Expanding the orb so that it grew in size and covered the entire fire, Suho clenched his opened right palm into a fist, effectively smothering the flames inside the orb of water. 

Amazed, Mina clapped her hands together. "Wow, that was-" Abruptly stopping in the middle of her sentence, she clutched the sides of her head, her eyes fiercely shut tight.

Before any of the young men around her could do anything for her, she dropped her hands and reached out for Lay, pulling him along as she began running into the dark night. 

"Mina?" Suho called out, utterly confused.   

"We have to follow her!" Daniel yelled. 

"What is she doing?"

"I think she has a lead. Follow her! I'll wake the others up!" 

"A lead?" Suho repeated, "You mean?"

"Yeah, Luhan."

- - -

A/N: I really wanted to update on the 15th (my 1 year anniversary with this story) but I got too busy. Still, I just want to thank everyone who has been reading, commenting and up voting this story. It's been a long road for me and I'm very grateful to have you all! I wouldn't have had as much fun sharing this story without you.

I sincerely and humbly thank you. Until next time~ <3