Sorry for the wait yet again, I need to get my life figured out.  Hopefully, it was worth the wait!

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It just hit sunset when Noriko arrived in Pyeongtaek.  She took a while to pack and check on Jaejoong before leaving her apartment.  As she got off the train, she spotted Chanyeol and Kai leaning against a pillar. 
“Hello,” she waved, catching their attention.  Kai smirked and hopped over to give her a hug. 
“Noona, it’s been a while,” he cheerfully said.  Chanyeol quickly followed and hugged. 
“Have you two been well?” she asked the duo.  They delightfully nodded.  Chanyeol looked down on the ground and noticed Noriko’s suitcase. 
“I’ll get that for you,” he said, reaching down and picking up the medium sized bag. 
“Shall we go talk somewhere about the situation?” she asked. 
“Our hotel room would probably be the best place,” Kai suggested.  Noriko nodded and started walking off, only to feel Kai grab her wrist.  “Did you forget?” He smirked, biting his lip.  Chanyeol locked his arm with Kai’s as Noriko thought for a moment. 
“Oh yeah,” she chuckled.  Kai snapped his fingers.  Within seconds, they poofed right in the hotel room!  They let go of eachother and Noriko brushed herself off.  “I am still not used to your teleportation.  It’s such a weird sensation.” 
“It takes a while but it’s a ton of fun.  See?” Kai snapped his fingers once again and appeared two feet away.  He did it again, appearing across the room.
“Is it necessary to do that for such a short distance?” Chanyeol rolled his eyes. “Would you like something to drink?” He asked Noriko. 
“Sure.  Tea if you have it.”  Chanyeol walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a tea kettle sitting on the counter.  He the faucet which made a squeaking sound, no water dripping out at all. 
“The water is out?” Chanyeol tried it again but no luck. 
“Really?” Kai checked the waterless sink.  “Hold on, I’ll fix this.”  He poofed out of the room, just to come back with someone else latched to his arm.  This time, it was Suho.
“Suho?” Noriko was puzzled.  “What are you doing here?”  He turned and smiled big when he saw his superior. 
“I was a town over when Kai just came out of nowhere.”
“Hey Suho hyung,” Kai stole his attention.  “The water must be out.  Can we have some to make tea?” 
“Uh, sure, I guess,” Suho shrugged his shoulders.  He raised his hands, forming a circular shape.  Water particles slowly formed in between them creating a water ball he expanded by taking his hands further apart.  He controlled the ball’s movement as he danced around his fingers, making the water ball bend and stretch to different shapes and sizes.  After playing around with it for a bit, he drew a line in the air with his finger for the water to follow.  It flowed right into the tea kettle without a drop out of place. 
“I guess I could’ve helped with the water,” Noriko remarked, glancing down at her sword hilt strapped to her side.  “You didn’t need to drag him here.”
“No, I don’t mind,” Suho kindly responded.  “I heard you’d be coming to town to meet them.  I was actually hoping they would switch places with me so I could talk to you.”
“Talk to me?  Did something happen?”
“No, no,” Suho smiled.  “I just miss working with my squad.” 
“Oh yeah, I guess we barely ever see eachother.  Seonbae is always so busy and my schedule is its own mess.  It’s hard to call you little Siwon when you’re never around him.”
“I just miss everyone calling us the Squirtle squad.  People always overlook water abilities.”
“They just don’t know any better.  If it’s alright with those two,” Noriko pointed to Kai and Chanyeol, “we should do this mission together and show everyone the power of water.” 
Kai and Chanyeol nodded in agreement.   
“So then it all worked out,” Kai teased.  Kai, Noriko and Suho went to sit down in a circle of comfy chairs to chat.  Chanyeol kept his back to them as he grinned and decided to use his own abilities for a simple task.  He waved his hand over a burner on the stove instantly displaying a blazing fire then calming it down with his movements.  He set the tea kettle on top then joined the three. 

“So, we should probably talk about these Shade sightings,” Noriko spoke up. 
“Oh yeah,” Kai teleported over to the bed and snatched a folder off of the night stand.  He headed right back to his seat and handed it over to Noriko.  “Over the past week we have spotted over forty Shades within a 50 km radius around the middle of the city.  Our sensors displayed more than the ones we saw but many of them disappeared before we could respond.  In total, we believe there were about a hundred roaming the area.”
“That’s insane,” Noriko said, flipping through the folder.  There were charts with all of the Shade sightings and sensor graphs. 
“What’s been odd is the difference in power each of them has,” Chanyeol continued.  “We found a number of them that almost seemed like mock Shades.  Some of them were destroyed just by us showing up while others are ridiculous.  After running the figures, I couldn’t find a correlation in which areas the strongest were located.  As you can see, the power levels seemed evenly dispersed with the Shades.”
Chanyeol pointed to multiple areas on the graph to give her information.  Noriko observed it, finding an area that seemed to be an empty nucleus, free of attacks.
“Is there anything odd in this area?” She pointed.
“There’s a military base there but it’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Kai responded.  “Since we couldn’t get clearance I teleported in and checked around.  There was nothing that would trigger Shades.” 
“I still think there must be a connection,” she tapped her finger against the area.  “It seems to be the only place where they aren’t attacking.  Do you know if they have a Shade barrier?”
“I believe so,” Chanyeol spoke.  “A secret unit of the government is aware of Shades so I’d assume someone would have set up a barrier, even without the knowledge of the army.”
“Maybe that’s all that is then.  Either way, it seems odd they are clear of that area but crazy everywhere else.”  Noriko glanced at Suho.  “Suho.”
“Yes?”
“Have you seen a pattern shift in your area?”
Suho shook his head, “Nothing worth acknowledging.”
“I see.  So it’s definitely something going on here.  Well, I guess we’ll just need to figure this out.” 

The tea kettle whistled.  “I’ll get it,” Chanyeol jumped up to his feet.  He took a few tea cups out of the cupboard and filled them then added the tea bags and his special mixture of lemon, honey and sugar.  He put them on a tray and brought them over.  They each took a sip. 
“This is really good, Chanyeol,” Noriko complimented.
“It’s my special recipe,” he sat down.  “How is Yunho hyung doing by the way?”
“He’s been doing well as far as I know.  I had to help him with a Changmin issue recently.”
“Really? What happened?” Chanyeol sat forward.
“He got hungry.”
“Oh,” the three men said in unison.  They easily understood the situation.

“What about Siwon?” Suho questioned.
“Busy as always but very much the same.  He told me to be careful when coming down here.”
“That’s just like him,” Suho took a breath.  He put his hand on Noriko’s shoulder.  “He shouldn’t worry, I’ll be here to protect you.” 
“I’m happy to know that.  Someday you’ll make a good lieutenant or captain.  These two should be happy to have you as their group leader.” 
“We are,” Kai and Chanyeol responded.  Everyone took a turn in taking more sips of tea.

“Since we’re asking, how is Taemin?” Kai added.
“If you really wanted to know you could just teleport up there,” Suho jokingly remarked.
“Not a bad idea.” Kai stood up, snapped his fingers and disappeared.  After a few minutes, he appeared again.  “He was taking a shower.  I think I scared him.”  The crew laughed.

“How’s training going?” Chanyeol asked.
“It’s eh,” Noriko sighed but decided against telling him her situation.  “It’s a very strong crew.”
“Not as strong as us, right?” Kai shot her a cute smirk.
“Of course not,” she joked.  “I hope the company finds the replacements it’s looking for.” 
 
***

“I thought training was never going to end!” Junichiro whined, rolling his shoulders.  The long Friday training ended with a demonstration of each trainee’s skills.  They individually performed basic sword techniques, projectiles and combat abilities in front of their teachers of the day.  Junichiro, Taiki and Michiko all passed with flying colors by Onew’s standards.  Even so, he had worked them to the point of exhaustion before they headed out for a weekend off.
“Jonghyun oppa wouldn’t have been so tough,” Michiko complained.  “I would’ve passed just through my gorgeous looks with him.”
“What looks?” Taiki snidely remarked.
“Psh,” Michiko crossed her arms.  “You clearly don’t know anything.  Men fight over me all the time.”
“I’m sure,” Taiki rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Junichiro.  “So, want to go out for late night pizza?”
“Pizza?!?” Junichiro’s eyes lit up, accompanied by a rumble in his stomach.  “I could never turn down pizza.”
“I could use some too,” Michiko added. 
“I wasn’t inviting you,” Taiki mumbled.
“Yeah, sure, it should be the three of us.  We all trained hard.” Junichiro said.  Taiki shot a mean look to Michiko, in which she stuck her tongue out at him.  The three left the gym and walked to the bus stop nearby the studio.  After only about a ten minute wait, they hopped on and arrived at a Mr. Pizza.  It was fairly busy for a Friday night but they easily got a table near the back.  They grabbed the menus on the table and decided on a large lobster pizza with a pitcher of soda.  As they waited, they chatted.

“I wonder if I’ll get my free Taecyeon oppa with the pizza,” Michiko said.
“Wait, they give those out?” Junichiro replied.
“Didn’t you know? 2PM is advertising for them.  The guys even delivered a few places.  Ugh, I’m so jealous of those customers.  Only I should get pizza delivered from Taecyeon”
“I bet if they delivered my pizza, I would Put. My. Hands. Up,” Junichiro tried to cleverly remark, resulting in both Taiki and Michiko facepalming.  “If the pizza is good I would order from them again and again and aga-“
“Oh just stop with the puns,” Michiko rolled her eyes. 
“I bet the pizza is a 10 out of-“
“Shut up,” Michiko and Taiki said in unison.  Junichiro chuckled to himself.  They fell silent.  Junichiro changed the subject.

“So, how do you guys feel about training so far?”
“It’s easy,” Taiki quickly responded.
“I wish I had more time to sleep,” Michiko replied.
“I heard we start fighting mock Shades next week,” Junichiro said.  “I’m personally excited for that.”
“Well, I guess that’s the whole point of being in the squads,” Michiko added.
Junichiro spoke again.  “Do you guys know why they’re only recruiting three people though?  There’s a ton of talent, it almost seems like a waste.” 
“It’s to replace the three ex-TVXQ members,” Taiki responded.  “They were just a group of traitors.”
“Traitors?!” Michiko’s eyes flared.  “Don’t you dare say anything bad about them!”
“Why not? They were experimenting with demonic powers and went against SM.  They were basically a group of terrorists.”
“Terrorists?!?! Are you serious?!?  They never did any experiments, experiments were done on them!”
“Of course you would say that.  Why? Because you’re naïve.  If SM treated them so poorly how come there are still two members left, let alone running the protection forces?”
“You wanna fight about this?” Michiko hopped to her feet, throwing her fists out in front of her.  Taiki laughed.  “You’re too weak to do anything to me.  Plus, you’re simply just an idiot.  I bet you’re a traitor too, but you’re of no threat.”  He leaned back in his seat. 
“You take that back!” Michiko took a swing, only to be stopped by Junichiro. 
“Guys!  Stop fighting!  We came here for pizza.” 
“Oppa, tell him to stop being rude!” Michiko snapped.
“Taiki, you shouldn’t call her names.  Plus, we can’t say for sure who was at fault.  All I know is I can’t wait to fight some Shades.” 
“Yeah, you’re right Juni,” Taiki flashed him a smile. 
“Hmph, I can see right through that,” Michiko mumbled to herself.  She whipped out her cell phone and played with it to calm herself down. 

A few minutes later, the pizza showed up.  Without many words, they gobbled the meal down.  The radio in the restaurant was currently playing some tunes by 2PM and the place was slowly clearing out.  By the time they finished they massive pizza, there were only a few groups of people sprouted around the restaurant.  Junichiro had the last few bites then sat back, completely filled to the core. 
“Oh man, that was awesome,” he remarked.  “We should get pizza here all the time.” 
“I can bring you here whenever you want,” Taiki flirtatiously said. 
“Oh whatever, I’m tired now,” Michiko groaned.  Suddenly, a familiar face walked in the door of the pizza shop.  “Sanghyunnie!!!”  Michiko cheered.  Thunder grabbed a chair and joined the trio.  “I thought you had a show tonight.”
“I did but we just finished.  I’m really happy you texted me you were here because I missed my little cupcake.”  Thunder blushed, Michiko was flattered.  She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. 
“You’re so adorable,” she giggled.  She nuzzled her nose against his and played with his hair. 

“Aren’t you an annoying couple,” Taiki mumbled. 
“Don’t say anything about my woman,” Thunder replied, hearing the rude comment. 
“Sanghyunnie, can we leave?” Michiko pouted cutely. 
“Of course.  I know somewhere private we can go.”
“Yay!”  Thunder helped Michiko up from her chair.  “I’ll see you later oppa,” Michiko waved to Junichiro.  The two of them skipped out together, holding hands.

“I guess it’s just us now,” Junichiro said.  “So, what were you saying earlier about replacing the three members?  It just seems odd because Exo is in the squads but they were added way later than those three leaving.  It makes more sense if Exo had replaced them.”
“Well, Exo was used to replace some of the Super Junior members that left along with a few managers that were in the squads.  They trained a long time to do so but from what I understand, now they want three recruits that can rival the power of JYJ.  They want the strongest of the strongest basically.”
“Wait, how strong were they?”
“Well, obviously Yunho hyung and Changmin hyung are in charge of everything.  Before that, Changmin was only a captain, but so were Yoochun and Junsu.  Jaejoong used to lead right along with Yunho.  Those three probably far exceed even the top Super Junior captains.”
“That’s crazy.”
“From what I know they had their powers taken away but who knows what demonic powers they came up with.  There are people in the squads I feel are planning something with them.  I would watch out if I were you.”
“Okay,” Junichiro said.  "How did you happen to find out all of this by the way?"
"This isn't my first time trying out for the company.  I've done a lot of research in the mean time."
"I guess that would explain it."
“I think we should head out,” Taiki said, looking around the shop.  “Dinner is on me.”
“Thanks.”

Taiki paid the bill and they left.  They walked out in the night air.  It was a full moon that night; the site was beautiful.  They luckily caught the last bus running at midnight.  
"You up for some video games when we get back there?" Junichiro asked Taiki.
"You think you can beat me at Street Fighter this time?" Taiki laughed.  
"It's worth a shot."  
Junichiro stood out the window of the bus as it drove along.  Something wasn't feeling right in the pit of his stomach.  He made a sour face as he let out a huge cough.

"Are you okay?" Taiki patted his shoulder.
"Yeah," Junichiro brushed him off.  "I just have a strange feeling is all."
"Maybe you just need some sleep."
"Yeah, I'm sure that's it."  
As the bus strolled to a stop and they left, Junichiro glanced up at the sky.  Taking a deep breath, he hid his feeling with a cheerful smile and headed to his dorm.   

"Goodnight."
"Night."

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My plan is for Chapter 10 to have some epicness! Stay tuned for the next adventure!