The small group walked through the storage facility. Sori and Suho kept their eyes on their surroundings, not willing to trust that the building was as empty as they had been told it was. ever since leaving the base for their mission, the pair had a very bad feeling about everything.

“Something smells weird,” Hyuk suddenly said, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

“It does,” Sori nodded, scowling as she tried not to cover her nose, “it………I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?” Suho asked, “What does it smell like?”

“I don’t know,” Sori repeated, “I just……I don’t know what this smell is.”

“I think we should go,” Leo advised, glaring at their surroundings like he expected something to jump out at them from behind the boxes and barrels.

“We can’t though,” Baekhyun pointed out, “we need to get out target. You know that the higher ups aren’t going to accept ‘something felt wrong so we ran’ as a valid reason.”

“He’s right,” Hyuk nodded, “they’ll just send us back.”

“Or another team,” Suho scowled, “one who’ll miss this……weird feeling and the smell. Or one who’ll notice but ignore it. turning back……we can’t do that without just cause.”

“Just keep an eye out,” Sori sighed, hating herself already for not turning back like her gut wanted to do, “if you see anything out of place, we’ll head back.”

The group started walking once more, but the strange feeling in the air just kept growing and growing with each step. Sori was tempted to shift into something big and strong, but…….what if that was exactly what the thing causing the strange feeling wanted? What if changing would put them at risk or provoke a response? No matter how much she wanted to, she had to at least pretend to be calm. Besides, if she showed how uneasy she was, the others would get even more upset.

Suho was of a similar mindset. Well, similar in the sence that he knew he had to keep calm and not go full dragon. And for the exact same reasons, too. This, however, did not stop the scales from along his arms and neck, moisture in the air around him already starting to condense so that if he needed to attack he was ready.

Leo moved slightly closer to Hyuk, ready to move in front of his younger friend should anything try to attack. Hyuk was clearly trying to hide his fear over the current situation and Leo had to say that he was doing a dang fine job of it. But Leo had known Hyuk for pretty much his whole life, he knew when the younger was scared. Leo had promised Hongbin that he would keep Hyuk safe and he planned to do exactly that.

“There!” Baekhyun screamed, hurtling a ball of light at a figure he noticed hiding in the shadows.

“Get out,” Suho instructed, wings ripping their way through his shoulders, “run and don’t look back.”

Sori pulled Leo and Hyuk back just as they started to run, noticing the figures emerging from the shadows just behind them.

“This way,” Sori said, pulling them in a different direction, Suho and Baekhyun close behind them.

“Those things,” Hyuk said, “they…..they don’t look like people.”

“Well,” Suho frowned, “that’s because they aren’t.”

“Just what the hell are they?” Leo questioned, “and how do you know about them?”

“I don’t know that much,” Suho said, “just that--.”

“Not the time,” Suho, Hyuk, and Baekhyun yelled at the dragon and nightmare.

“We’re kind of running for our lives,” Baekhyun hissed, “so save the story time for later, alright?”

“Go this way,” Hyuk said, pulling free of Sori and turning left, “those things….their scent isn’t here.”

“Right,” Sori nodded in agreement after sniffing the air herself, “everyone, falling me and Hyuk.”

Suho moved to run at the back of the group, turning around several times to shoot off water attacks at the things following them. they didn’t seem to be able to fire projectiles back, thankfully. Suho had to be thankful for that small mercy.

“,” Hyuk hissed, “umm, turn……”

“This way,” Sori said, grabbing Hyuk and pulling him in yet another direction, “hurry.”

“Oh please,” Suho whispered, “please let us get out of this.”

--

“What do you mean” Ravi growled, “Sori, Hyuk, Leo, Baekhyun, and Suho are on a mission?”

“Exactly what I said,” Kris glared down at the shifter, “they got orders, so they followed them.”

“Don’t act like you’re the only one who’s worried,” Heesun scoffed, leaning over Chen so that she could smack Ravi’s shoulder.

“We’re all worried,” Yuri nodded, “they’re our friends, too.”

“Weird though, isn’t it?” Luhan frowned, “I mean, sending four new agents out on a mission with only one agent supervising them? that’s not standard practice, is it?”

“It’s not,” Kris admitted, “and that makes me even more worried.”

“They’ll be fine,” Xiumin smiled, hoping to cheer everyone else up, “after all, Suho and Sori are two of the strongest people any of us know. Baekhyun is awesome in his own right, too. And Leo and Hyuk? they’re both gifted. I’m pretty sure that Leo is going to end up amoung the top ten strongest of his kind in a few more years. and Hyuk? He’s already surpassed Chen when he was his age.”

“He’s right about Hyuk,” Chen nodded, “that kid is a natural talent. Picks things up really fast, too. He’ll be fine.”

“They all will,” Lay nodded, “so we just need to be ready for their return to greet them with smiles and a bunch of annoying ‘how did it go’ questions.”

“Right,” N nodded, “they’ll get back, we’ll annoy them to death with questions about the mission, and they we can be all jealous that they got to do something really cool while we were all stuck here at school.”

The group fell silent, all trying to believe the words that the four had spoken.

“So,” Jessica said, trying to change the subject, “how was everyone’s time away?”

“I told my mom,” Tao smiled, easily going along with Jessica’s topic change, “it went really well.”

“She already figured it out,” D.O laughed.

“Really?” Kris laughed, “you really do at keeping secrets.”

“Shut up,” Tao pouted, “she’s really smart.”

“What about you?” Krystal asked D.O, “you arrived on the same bus as Tao so……something must have happened.”

“I told my family,” D.O sighed, “they didn’t take the news too well.”

“He’s living with me and my mom right now,” Tao frowned, patting his friend and fellow vampire’s shoulder in hopes of comforting him, “we’ve got a meeting set up with Minji to talk about what we’re going to do.”

“She’ll take legal responsibility for you,” Hyuna said, recalling how the school’s owner had handled the cases of herself, Hyoyeon, Kris, Yuri, and Sori, “so…… we’ll be siblings.”

“No,” Kris shoved her shoulder playfully, “we’re not siblings. We just share a legal guardian.”

“So siblings,” Hyuna tried not to laugh.

“Don’t you like the idea of being our brother?” Yuri asked, giving Kris Bambi eyes.

“What?” Kris looked up, slightly alarmed to see the fae looking so upset, “no, that’s not it. I’ve always considered you and Hyuna my sisters. I’m just saying that having Minji as our guardian doesn’t make us siblings.”

“I know,” Yuri laughed, all signs of sadness leaving in a second, “I was just playing with you.”

While everyone laughed and talked about their time apart, Ravi kept a close eye on Jihu who was station at the cafeteria doors. The agent seemed…….twitchy. Obviously, the agent cared a great deal for Sori and the others, so naturally he’d be just as worried at them. Ravi was tempted to go over to the werewolf and try to cheer him up a little, it might even get his mind off his own worries.

And then Juhi’s phone went off. The agent rushed to answer the call, but the second he heard what the call was about his face went pale. Ravi watched, back going rail straight, as Jihu rushed out of the room.

“What’s wrong?” Hongbin asked, noticing Ravi’s change in demeanour.

“Something’s wrong,” Ravi said, eyes glued to the door Jihu had used to leave, “something happened to Sori and the others.”

A/N: oh dear. Well, um, that’s the end of this chapter? Ummmm, I think I’m gonna get some upset people in the comments, cursing me for ending things here. but don’t worry, you’ll find out what happened in the next chapter!!