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fifty-four: academia siege

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["Good job, everyone, for ing up royally."]

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”Okay, that’s a little dramatic,” Baekhyun said, a little nervously. “You can’t be serious when you say that. I mean, why would they want to kill us?”

”Or kidnap us,” Juyeon corrected.

”Does that make it any better?”

”Oh. Uh, no. I guess not. Like I said, it’s just a theory.”

”That’s a pretty far stretch to go, Juyeon!” Sumi said, hands flexing almost subconsciously. Juyeon wondered if Sumi brought any of her small daggers with her, and realized that judging by her more-nervous-than-usual attitude, she probably didn’t. “I mean, no one except for other PCs know what High Class really is. Why would they want to kidnap or kill us if they don’t know what we are?”

”The rest of the world thinks High Class is a special private wing for ridiculously rich kids,” Juyeon argued. “It’s very reasonable to think that someone might arrange a situation where we’re left vulnerable for, I don’t know, kidnapping or ransom or something, right?”

”That’s a good point,” Jun mutters, “although that doesn’t make any of this better. If they really are here to attack us, what can we do about it? Will our powers be of any use?”

Baekhyun flexed his hand. “I could blind them all. Probably.”

”What do you mean probably?”

”I’ve only ever gone up against someone one-on-one, and in a setting where I know I won’t get too injured. I don’t know if my powers are strong enough to face off against this many people. There’s gotta be at least fifty or more over there.”

”Don’t you even think about it,” Juyeon said a little desperately, grabbing his wrist. The thought of him running at them, alone, had filled her with a sudden blinding, inexplicable dread. “These people have guns. One wrong move, one miscalculation of the limitations of your powers, and you’ll be dead. I don’t think even PC regeneration can stop a barrage of bullets from killing you.”

”Then what do we do?” Sumi snapped. “Juyeon, out of the four hundred or so students in High Class, only about two hundred of them have powers that are actually useful enough for fighting. Only about fifty of those have powers that are strong enough to possibly even win.”

”I don’t know what to do,” Juyeon said, desperately. “I never expected this to happen! This is the last thing I expected High Class to deal with. We should … um …”

”We sh-should go back, shouldn’t w-we?” Daeri whimpered, wringing her hands even more than before until Juyeon thought she might scrub them raw. “We need to w-warn everyone.”

“She’s right,” Jun said. “We don’t have time for petty infighting if there’s real danger right outside our door.”

”We can’t just leave, though,” Juyeon said, “we need someone to stay and keep an eye on these people. If they start doing something, at least we’ll know.”

Kwon Daeri looked like she wanted to shrivel up into a ball. “I-I-I could—”

”I’ll do it,” Jun interrupted. “It makes more sense. I can send messages in an instant by entering Taehyuk’s head, or yours if you’re willing. It’s either that or Kai’s teleportation, and he’s already back by now.” He turned to glare at Daeri. “Don’t act so brave if you’re scared less. Your powers are way more useful back in High Class. Go with the others.”

Daeri blushed all the way to the roots of her hair, mouth opening and closing like a fish, and when Jun turned back and gestured for them to get going, Juyeon saw the way she was looking at him and could have almost laughed, if the situation wasn’t so godawful and inappropriate.

”Okay, you heard Jun,” she said. “Let’s move, and quickly. We need to get there before those creeps decide to take action.”

Everyone nodded, and they returned to the Tropics to make the trek back to East Wing.

”You shouldn’t have stopped me,” Baekhyun quietly said, as they rushed down the hallways, footsteps echoing in the empty silence. “If I fought, I could have taken at least a couple down with me.”

”At what cost?” Juyeon snapped, and without thinking (without even caring that Sumi and Daeri were right there in front of them) she reached out and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers together with his. “Don’t you dare die a stupid death just so you can look a little heroic. I will never forgive you for that, Baekhyun.”

He stared at their joined hands for a while, and when he looked back up at her his eyes were swimming with emotion. It reminded her of that time, so so long ago, in the snow, when his eyes were gleaming and his hands were warm and he told her how much he had missed her over the winter break. Something in her shuddered and sighed and she suddenly wanted to kiss him. She wondered if Baekhyun was thinking of the same thing.

Then that feeling was gone, and Juyeon pushed it aside once she remembered the situation they were in. There was no time for her to deal with her messy feelings towards these boys, her boys. They were in danger. She had to lead them as best as she could. Romance could wait, when they were safe and everything was back to the way it used to be, and Juyeon didn’t have the lives and safety of four hundred psychotic mind mutants in her hands.

She turned away, trying to bully her heart into not pounding quite as hard and fast. She squeezed his hand, once, hoping that could channel as much of her feelings as she could into it, then let go.

They didn’t say anything the entire rest of the way back to High Class. But Juyeon had a feeling Baekhyun understood.

They returned to High Class to find it almost trashed. The walls had new scratches and burns, some of the lockers were practically ripped apart and demolished, and the lights on the ceiling were shattered, wires sparking and fizzing weakly.

”Jesus, what a mess,” Juyeon muttered. She had to pick her way through a mess of bent metal, the remains of a couple of lockers that had been shredded and left in the middle of the hallway like a blockade. “I don’t hear any fighting. Did it die down?”

”Hopefully,” Sumi said. “I am not in the mood to run up to the dorms and grab my sword right away.”

There was a sudden noise at the end of the hallway, and Chanyeol skidded into view, breathing heavily. He had a bruise on his left temple and dried blood crusting around a gash on his cheek, but other than that he seemed fine.

”Oh, thank god you guys are back,” he said. “You know about the riots, right? We’ve been trying to stop them and it’s sort of worked, had to knock out a whole bunch of people, though. But that Taehyuk bastard is saying that something else even worse is happening, and, and, and what the hell is g