It was a cold, dark evening. 8 adults couldn’t spend Christmas together and decided to spend the boxing day together, as they weren’t just 8 adults grouped together, and they weren’t just friends either. Over the past few months they grew into a tight family.

Andy rubbed his belly and laughed.

‘If I wasn’t full I’d still be eating, the food was delicious.’

‘Thank you.’ Hyosung answered with a smile.

‘What say we go sit in the living room and I’ll tell you guys a story?’

‘A story? Really?’ Kisuk laughed.

‘Well, it involves all of us.’

‘I’m curious! What role do I play?’ Jinki said smiling widely.

‘It’s a story about us, but, it’s in an actual alternate universe.’

‘I’m intrigued.’ Changsun mumbled.

‘Fine!’ Kisuk said throwing his hands up in defeat. Everyone knew he was just as interested as Jinki and Changsun but nobody said a thing because they all also knew he was too stubborn and too proud to admit it.

‘Gain, if you would be so kind.’

Gain nodded. She clasped her hands together and within minutes the eightsome sat in the livingroom, wearing their pajama’s. Jinki coughed awkwardly and quickly hid his teddy bear behind his back. Kisuk roared out in laughter.

‘I picked out your PJ’s from your closets.’

‘Is everyone ready?’ Andy asked.

Jinki cuddled closer to his teddy bear and nodded. Changsun pushed up his glasses and leaned in closer. Gain was quietly sitting next to Andy. Hyosung excitedly clapped her hands and moving to the left and right impatiently. Kisuk just nodded. Jiyong sat on the other side of Andy and wiggled his toes while wearing a onesie. Soyeon however was deep in thought. She smiled and jumped up.

‘Hey Andy! Hey! So about this alternate universe, did you see it?’

‘I did.’

‘So if we link our minds, we can all see it right?’

‘Brilliant! Anyone who’s against it?’

Nobody spoke up. Soyeon  sat back down and linked their minds together. Everyone sat in silence as Andy started to tell the story and Soyeon made sure they saw the happenings in their mind, transferring Andy’s thoughts to the other minds.


Hyosung and Changsun were in a lab, of some sorts. The door flew open and the two jumped in shock. Jiyong walked up to them and studied the table.

‘Have we found anything?’

‘The DNA matches, I asked Hyosung for a second opinion about the pictures, it seems she also thinks the man was hiding a daughter. It’s not an affair, he was either married before or just impregnated someone.’ Changsun said.

‘Greet, I’ll tell Soyeon to call the lady for an appointment, greet job guys. Case closed.’

Jiyong nodded and left. The duo smiled and high fived before walking after Jiyong. As they left the lab they arrived in a hall. Soyeon sat behind a desk, polishing her nails in boredom.

‘Soyeon, call Miss Kim to make an appointment.’

‘Hnn okay.’ She mumbled, carefully grabbing the phone.

‘I’ll be off to my office.’ Jiyong said and left.

‘Soyeon can you order some food?’ Hyosung asked.

‘I’m already on the phone.’ Soyeon said, holding the phone away from her ear and mouth.

‘I’ll get some food, you round up everyone, I’ll be back in about…’ Changsun mumbled looking at his watch and calculating time. ’27 minutes.’

‘Okay, I’ll go find Jinki and look over everything to see if we haven’t missed anything.’ Hyosung said.

‘Don’t worry we can do that over dinner.’ Changsun said, walking towards the exit and grabbing his jacket. ‘Bye!’

He ran out, holding his jacket slightly over his head as the rain poured down.


Changsun kicked the dining room door open. Everyone turned around to see him walking in and carrying a cloaked figure in his arms while holding onto a few plastic bags.

‘I found this man passed out in front of our door.’ Changsun mumbled.

‘Where am I?’ the man mumbled.

‘Shinhwa private detective office sir.’ Changsun answered, setting him down in a chair.

Changsun glanced at the man and placed the plastic bags on the table. His colleagues, his friends, sat around the table, all curiously watching the man. The man carefully looked from under his hood. He counted the number of people present, and added names to the faces. He sighed and took off his cloak.

‘MR PRESIDENT!’ everyone echoed.

Everyone jumped out of their seats and bowed for their president.

‘Mr president, what are you doing here?’ Changsun asked.

‘SSHHHTTT!’ he shushed, holding a finger in front of his mouth and anxiously looking around. ‘Call me Tae Hyun, Mr. Cha if you must.’

‘Can we help you sir?’ Hyosung asked.

‘Yes, yes! Please!’

‘Okay, calm down sir, let’s take a seat and you can tell me all about it. Please follow me.’

‘That’s okay, I wish to have everyone’s help, you can eat while I tell you my story.’

‘We have more than enough.’ Changsun said.

‘No, that’s okay, thank you. Everyone grab some food and I’ll tell my story.’


As standard procedure Jiyoung started to read Tae Hyun’s mind to look for any hints, evidence or anything suspicious. This was always with an okay from their clients. And as safety net they always had someone else there too just in case Jiyoung overlooked anything. Kisuk sat across of him, quite annoyed. Jiyoung connected their minds so Kisuk too, could read Tae Hyun’s mind.

Tae Hyun looked around the hall as he danced with his wife. He was holding a big party to celebrate him being chosen as president again. His wife laughed as she told him a story. He didn’t listen, lately it seemed like he never did. It had been a couple of weeks, months even since Tae Hyun noticed it. The feeling of someone looking over his shoulder, breathing in his neck, following him every step he made. He slowed down. His head started to pound. He stopped dancing. His wife looked at him questioningly. The lights dimmed, screams echoed. Tae Hyun felt his wife falling in his arms. In panic Tae Hyun ran away.

With big steps Tae Hyun started running. He was already panting and sweating. He was scared. He was afraid something like this would happen. He had his son look up information because he was scared to do so himself. Scared ‘HE’ would know. He saw his destination and ran a little faster. The speed he ran however was too much for his body to handle and he collapsed. Before his eyes closed he felt two arms catching him.


‘There’s not much, so you had a stalker? Do you know who it is or might be?’

‘No. I just.. one day the feeling was so strong. I looked around and saw someone staring at me. The feeling I’m being watched is so strong, everything I do, everywhere I go. My computer, it feels like it’s watching me too. When I leave the house, it follows me, when I’m sleeping, when I’m eating.. it’s there 24/7.’

 ‘So you had a party, starting to feel ill, the lights went off and you ran away? Isn’t that a little suspicious?’

‘My wife’s body went limp! I heard other bodies falling.’ Tae Hyun defensively said and jumped up. He grabbed his head with one hand while the other looked for support. Jiyoung grabbed him and helped him sit back down.

‘Okay, we’ll have you checked by Simon D here, While we send Magic, Lee Joon and Onew out to check out the blue house and take your computer for Soyeon to look through.’

‘WAIT!’ Tae Hyun yelled, grabbing his arm. ‘I came to you guys  instead of the police because I didn’t want to involve media and worry the people, this must stay a secret.’

‘No worry Mr. President, we have ways to enter and leave without anyone seeing us we also have a silence policy, you don’t have to worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this.’

Kisuk scooped the man up in his arms. Jiyoung started walking and Kisuk followed. He held the door open and the three went to Kisuk’s lab.

Jiyoung left Cha Tae Hyun in Kisuk’s care and left. As he entered their dining area he noticed everyone anticipating his return.

‘Lee Joon, Onew and Magic I want the three of you to go to the blue house, look around for any clues and take back his laptop, and computers. Also please be discrete and try not to let anyone see you as this is a top private case.’

‘Any particular rooms? Any particular clues we should be looking at.’ Jinki asked.

‘No just search everything.’

‘He said he was hosting a party, and his guests all collapsed, what should we do about them?’

‘Check if they’re healthy and okay.’

‘Good to go?’ Hyosung asked.

‘Good to go!’ Changsun answered smiling.

The three stood together as Hyosung teleported them away. Within the blink of an eye their surroundings changed. Jinki gasped as tens maybe hundreds of people laid motionless, scattered over the ball room. He had enhanced senses and easily detected a smell of Chloroform.

‘I’ll get all the computers.’ Changsun mumbled and walked off.

‘He’s so antisocial!’ Jinki whined.

‘That’s because you don’t know him!’ Hyosung defended.

‘I’ll walk around, trying to see if I can find any clues.’

‘Ok. I’ll check on the people.’

Changsun walked into the office and noticed a computer. He disconnected the computer tower.

“I should be back at the manor, I should be leading, I’m obviously the strongest. How does Jiyong expect to protect us. All he can use is his head. He lacks brute strength, but noooo, I’m disconnecting computers while he gets to act all high and mighty.”

“You know I can hear you right?”

“OH GET OUT OF MY HEAD WILL YOU?!”

“You know this is a safety net, if anything happens at least we’ll know.”

“Nothing ever happens when I’m around buddy.”

“Well, in case something DOES happen I’ll keep our mind link intact.”

“Yes, sir, whatever you say sir!”

Changsun carried the computer under his arm and went towards the next room. Hyosung sighed and wiped off her forehead. She had checked numeral people and most seemed perfectly fine, expect for the fact they were unconscious. She got up and gave herself a light knock on the head.

“Idiot, I could easily use something magic-ky to check on them all at once. Let’s see how do I do this..”

“Hyosung, I do not approve of you testing on humans.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Do you want to find out? Do you?”

“Geeesh, what tied your in a knot.”

“CHANGSUN! CHANGSUN DID! AND YOU’RE TURNING INTO A SECOND CHANGSUN!”

“Oooh, temper, temper..”

Hyosung could see Jiyong slapping his forehead.

“What do you want me to do boss man? Check on every single person here? It’ll take AGES! Which I don’t have by the way, because as you should know I’m supposed to be home at 5!”

“Try something else!”

“If you say so boss, if you say so.” Hyosung mumbled, slightly grinning.

She laughed and sat down. She snapped her fingers and jumped up. She closed her eyes and held out her arms. A yellowish psionic computer appeared together with a machine that resembled a projector. She started typing and the projector-like machine seemed to ‘scan’ the motionless human beings.


‘So Changsun has my personality and powers, I like this Changsun much better then you. Hey can we switch these two?’ Kisuk laughed.

‘SHUT UP KISUK! ANDY AND SOYEON HAVE TO FOCUS!’

‘You’re the one screaming, geesh..’


Jinki arrived in the office and noticed the computer was gone. He sniffed around and noticed the same weak scent he smelled in the previous 3 rooms he had been in. As he walked nearer to the window the faint smell got slightly stronger.

“Yo GD, you there?”

“Hearing you loud and clearly.”

“I’ve caught a suspicious scent, it’s practically everywhere. I think it’s someone close to Mr. Cha, chairs, beds, even clothes have small lingering scents of this man.”

“He has a son. Maybe it’s one of his guards.”

“But it’s REALLY suspicious, even the windows smell like him, I think he climbed through them.”

“Try to see if one of the guests carries the smell.”

“Right on it sir!”

Jinki closed the window and headed downstairs to the ballroom. As he arrived he saw Hyosung searching around the room. Jinki coughed once and she looked up.

‘Weren’t you going to check on the people?’

‘Already done that.’

‘Oh, okay, that was fast..’

‘Uh-huh. So what are you doing here?’

‘Found a suspicious scent, I’m going to look if one of the guests here carries the scent.’

‘Ok, I’ll go help Changsun with the computers. I bet there are allot and he can’t carry them all.’

‘Suuuuuuuuuurrrreeee.’ Jinki mused.

Hyosung shot him a glare and walked away, her head held up high. Jinki sniggered and got to his knees. He stared at the first person. He stared for a few seconds, making sure they were unconscious.  He sighed and got closer. He took a sniff and processed it within his mind. Faint familiarity. Not him. Jinki crawled to the next person and took a sniff. Same result. A faint familiarity, nothing more. As he passed a couple others he still hadn’t found that one scent. Most were just smells he barely recognized others were smells he smelled in a couple of rooms.  He jumped to his feet as he smelled a strange smell entering the room. He looked around, sniffed around, but couldn’t place the smell.

Hyosung noticed a couple of computers and laptops in a pile. With her magical abilities she easily transported the electronics to their evidence storage. She saw Changsun exiting a room, holding another computer. Hyosung stretched her arm out towards him and transported the computer he held. Changsun looked down and back up, he turned towards Hyosung and laughed.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.’

“CHANGSUN! HYOSUNG! EMERGENCY! DON’T GO TOWARDS THE BALL ROOM, MAGIC TELEPORT YOU GUYS BACK RIGHT THIS INSTANT!”

“BUT WHAT ABOUT JINKI?”

“HIM TOO!” Jiyong yelled angrily.

“BUT HOW CAN I IF I CAN’T GO NEAR THE BALL ROOM?”

“DO IT!” Jiyong barked.

“HEY! DON’T YELL AT HYOSUNG!”

“JINKI’S FADING AWAY YOU IDIOTS, HURRY!”

‘Can you do this?’

‘I’ve never tried it blind..’ Hyosung mumbled.

‘I know you can do it, concentrate.’

Hyosung closed her eyes. She had no way to explain it but she always felt people, sort of like aura’s. She concentrated on finding him. She maneuvered through all the people.

‘It’s very weak.’ Hyosung mumbled.

She bit on her lip and performed her magic within a millisecond. As they opened their eyes they saw Jinki laying across of them. Changsun ran towards him and picked him up. Hyosung looked around for a mere second.

“We’re in the medical room.”

“KISUK’S ON HIS WAY.”

Changsun carried Jinki towards one of the check up tables. He undid some of his buttons and listened to his heartbeat. Hyosung looked around and grabbed a few of Kisuk’s equipment. Syringes, alcohol, stethoscope, a tray with various medical equipments like scissors and scalpels and  Kisuk’s portable blood analyzer. Changsun grabbed an oxygen mask and put it around Jinki’s mouth. He turned the machine on and stepped away as he heard loud footsteps.

The door swung open and Kisuk stormed in.

‘OUT!’ he barked.

Hyosung and Changsun quickly hurried out. They ran up the stairs to watch them from above. Kisuk grabbed a syringe and a couple of vacutainers and quickly started to take blood samples. Jiyong had told him what went through Jinki’s mind just before he passed out. There was something about Jinki smelling something that smelled like Chloroform but had a distinct smell to it. There was this look on Jinki’s face and Kisuk feared for the worst. There was a new hazardous toxic slowly getting more popular. It was especially popular for being safe for humans but being toxic for mutants. The damages it could do were still unclear. There had only been four events where this had been used. It was called trichlorogeneticaeanceps. Or among the few who knew of it existence it was just called Mutant toxic. Since it was fairly new the dangerous were yet to be found out. Previous victims had varied endings. Someone died, while someone else lost his powers. Someone left unscathed while another lost a limb.

Kisuk was standing at his blood analyzer, waiting, impatiently. He sighed and walked to his cabinet. He opened the door and took out a few vials. Meanwhile his friends were watching him from behind the glass. Not soon after Hyosung and Changsun got there their friends joined. All worried for their common friend.

‘What is he doing?’ Gain asked.

‘Beats me.’ Jiyong mumbled.

‘Take a peak in his mind.’ Soyeon joked, jabbing Jiyong in his sides.

‘You know I don’t do that.’

‘I would’ve.’ Soyeon mumbled.

‘Seems to me he knows what he’s doing.’ Changsun said.

Hyosung looked around.

‘Guys.. where is the president?’

‘DAMN.’ Jiyong yelled. ‘Changsun I want you to go find him.’

‘Nu-uh, I’m staying.’

‘NOW!’

‘I’m not the one who lost him, you go.’ Changsun answered, glaring Jiyong up and down.

‘I thought nothing ever happens when you’re around, well look at JinKi now! SO DO AS I SAY.’

‘Ugh. Fine. Not like I care that much about him anyway.’ Changsun mumbled and stormed off.

‘He doesn’t mean it.’ Hyosung spoke softly.

‘We know.’ Jiyong answered, patting her on the head.

Kisuk grabbed some calcium gluconate, atropine and glucagon as those three mixed together somehow seemed to be the antidote for trichlorogeneticaeanceps. With a pipette he measured everything to the last drop and mixed the three liquids. Kisuk almost dropped the pipette as he heard the door slam. He turned to see Jiyong.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Curing Jinki.’ Kisuk softly spoke.

‘The results of his blood test aren’t even in yet.’

‘I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing.’

‘Well, as leader I’d like to know what exactly you’re doing.’

‘Ehm.. how do I clarify this..’ Kisuk mumbled. ‘I might have dealt with this before..’

‘Go on.’

‘Well, there is this new toxic, which is completely safe..’ Jiyong sighed as he heard this. ‘For humans. I think it’s been used four times on mutants. The dangers are quite unclear yet.’

‘How so?’

‘Well let’s say some got away better than others.’

‘Stop being mysterious and tell me EVERYTHING.’

‘They were associates. I was there. One of them died, another lost his powers, the third got away safe and sound and one of them lost an arm. The third had a hydrofluoric acid burn, since he worked with them, and was treated with calcium gluconate, he was also given glucagon because he was unconscious and I can’t remember why but he was given atropine too. Which could denote he had excessive saliva or maybe stomach spasms. But he got away safely. The fourth was given the same treatment, but I guess they were too late and couldn’t safe his arm.’

Kisuk looked at the syringe in his hand. He tapped a few times against the glass with his nail, erasing as much air bubbles as he could. He looked at Jiyong.

‘Any questions?’

‘No, not right now. I’ll leave you to do.. your thing. Let me know when you have results about Jinki’s well being.’

‘I shall.’ Kisuk mumbled, walking towards the blood analyzer after it beeped, signaling the test was ready.