March 24, 2264
Incheon, South Korea
The (II) Science Insititute of South Korea
6:17 PM
 

The girl raised her head slowly, confirming Hoya's guess. He slumped against the bars, feeling a little drained after getting so excited for a result that was a little disappointing. Nothing against Sanghee, it's just, he would have been much happier if it was someone he was more familiar with or who could help him plan an escape.

He shook his head to clear his mind of those thoughts-he should check to she if the girl was alright. "Sanghee! Remember me? I'm Hoya-are you alright?"

The girl continued to glance around her room, apparently not hearing him-either that or ignoring him. He narrowed his eyes trying to guess why she wasn't responding to him, "Sanghee, we don't have time for your stupid petty fear of Infinites right now-Sanghee, answer me! Please!" His voice was raised slightly as he called out to her.

She suddenly blinked before turning around and seeing him. A gasp escaped from her lips and she stumbled up from the bed before pressing herself up against the bars, her eyes wide with fright and yet, relief that she had seen him. "H-Howo-I mean, Hoya, was it? What's going on?! Where are we?! What happened to the others?!" Her eyes raked over his form, and she frowned slightly at seeing the skinned areas on his arms from where he had fell repeatidly while dodging the tiger. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

He stared at her, confused, wondering why she hadn't answered him sooner, "Why didn't you-" He shoook his head. That didn't metter now. "I'm not sure where we are, but I think its the Science Institute-the same one Tablo use to work in. The others..." Hoya trailed off, unsure if he should be honest with her and say he thought they were dead. But one look at her large panicked eyes and scared expression made him change his mind. "The others were left behind-they're safe. The Hunters, the guys who came into the library before, only took the Infinites," He stopped, blinking. If that was true, then why did they take Sanghee? Could she possibly...? Nah, there was no way! "They took the Infinites and, well, you for some reason. I don't know what they're doing or planning right now, but they put me through a test," he gestured toward his raw arms, "And they might do the same for you, so watch out."

She opened to reply, when the sound of people approaching reached Hoya's ears. "Get back," He quickly hissed, "Stay in the shadows!" He backed away while gesturing for her to do the same, before flattening himself against the wall and glaring as the familar lab coats came into view.

One man was staring at his clipboard, while a guard and several other scientists, probably his assistants, trailed behind him. He marched down the corridor before stopping by Hoya's and Sanghee's cells. Holding his breath, Hoya prayed to anyone who was listening, that they would leave the girl alone-she shouldn't have to put up with their crap.

Luckily for the girl and for Hoya's sense of duty to protect others, the man his heel to face Hoya's containment room, before looking up from his board and giving the boy an eery smile. "Lee Howon. Age according to years since birth: 19. Birthday: March 26, 2244. Parents: None. Siblings: None. Any known relatives: None. Place of birth: The Institute of Science Study, the South Korean Bran-"

Hoya's eyes widened as the man listed off some facts he had been well aware of for the majority of his life. But his birthplace? "That's complete bull!" Hoya snapped, shoving himself away from the wall and stoming over to the bars that blocked him from reaching the smug man. "I was not born at the Institute!"

"Hmm, funny, according to your birth certificate, you were." The man flipped a page over the edge of his clip board, humming slightly. "Yup! Says right here!" He held it up for the boy to see, but Hoya was too furious to even look at it. "It's obviously a fake," He snarled. "I was born in Busan-"

The man ignored him, and continued to read the listened information off the paper, "...Your parents donated you to the facility when you were an embryo in exchange for $5 000 and their silence about human experiments, oh!

"And it says here that you were implanted with a Power when you were just 6 weeks old."

Hoya couldn't take it anymore-he shot whatever he could of his Power at the man-his fury knew no bounds-how dare that man claim he was born in this cold metallic place, and had been messed with before he was even born?! His Power had developed naturally! His parents were dead-they didn't sell him-and he had lived on the streets until he was 8, in then which Dongwoo's family took him in. At 13, Hoya had met Tablo when he was running from the police, 4 years after the Powers had been banned, and Tablo let him hid at his place while he distracted and confused the police with his own Power. There was no way in hell he was an artificial Infinite.

A blinding white light hit everyone's eyes as the force feild around Hoya's cell reacted to his Power. Lightening laced through the air, striking him, and the pain became unbearable, forcing him to stop trying to use his Power. He fell to his knees, burn marks dotting and slashing up his still smoking arms, and his eyes full of anger and hate as they stared at the scientists. One of the assistants backed away, revealing a shocked looking Sanghee standing in her cell across from his.

He blinked, before cursing himself mentally for his own lack of control and for most likely backing up whatever fear the girl had of Infinites. Plus, she had probably heard all that crap about his past, including the fake stuff-there was no way she was going to be able to treat him normal for a long time.

The man scowled, annoyed at how the boy's temper had flared so uselessly, yet amazed at how strong his Power was, or at least appeared to be, from all the backlash he got from his cell. "Well then, if you have that much Power to waste, let's run you through some tests, shall we?" He raised his hand and waved the guard over, who in turn, lifted his gun and shot Hoya with a tranquilizer.

The world began to spin and he slumped over, the last thing he saw and heard was Sanghee's panicked and horrified face as she lunged at the bars of her cell, screaming his name.

-v-v-v-


March 24, 2264
Gyeongsangbuk, South Korea
6:20 PM


Mei strolled back to the black sudan, feeling another wave of nausea hit her, but biting it back. Good thing Ji Ae had listened to her when she had threatened to throw up if they didn't pull over soon. She had stumbled off into the bushies, up chucking any remainder of the soup she had made for herself and her Aunt earlier that morning.

"Please. Let. Me. Drive." Mei managed to get out, trying to be as polite as possible. The other girl blushed, embarrassed that her driving skills had actually made someone sick to their stomach.

"Oh come on I wasn't that bad..." Her voice trailed off at the look she was getting from her companion. Huffing, she scooted out of the driver's seat making her way around the front of the car to switch sides with Mei.

The Chinese girl buckled herself in, before glancing over at the other girl for a second.

"Thank you."

Ji Ae stared at her, not completely sure that she had actually just heard those words leave the usually hostile girl's mouth.

"Umm...what for?"

"For letting me drive. I like not having to regurgitate my food."

They glared at each other for a minute. Ji Ae opened to reply, but Mei flashed her hand out and hit the radio button and quickly turned up the volume, drowning out anything the other girl had to say. She felt too gross and tired to argue with her.

They pulled off the side of the road, much smoother then when Ji Ae had done it, and started to make their way to the Institute again.

 
-v-v-v-

March 24, 2264
Incheon, South Korea
The (II) Science Insititute of South Korea
7:03 PM

"You know, the whole getting-knocked-unconscious thing is getting old fast."

Hoya made a noise of agreement as him and Dongwoo made their way through the artificial jungle they had been place in. The scientists had told them they were curious to see how long the two could last in a humid dense atmosphere with real trees, but no food or water. Apparently their last S4S16 that they had experimented on had managed to survive only an hour and a half before dropping from dehydration.

Within the past five minutes, Dongwoo and Hoya had tried to speak with 3 different robotic animals. Hey-they couldn't tell that they weren't real from a distance, so Dongwoo would often go up to them and just stare at them before giving his best friend a distressed look and shaking his head.

"It's weird. You would have thought they would have put a real bird or something in here," the animal communicator mumbled, feeling a bit down that nothing seemed to be turning out right. Hoya and himself had been planning on finding some animal, convincing it to attack the guards who would come in eventually for their 'unconscious' bodies, and then they could bolt. But so far no luck.

Maybe we could..."Hoya was cute off mid sentence as his eye lids slowly dropped and he dropped to the ground like a stone.

Running back to his friend's side, Dongwoo kneeled and picked him up, his eyes wide as he tried to not panic. "Hoya?! Hoya! Hoya, listen to me! Wake up! Howon!" He brushed his hand against his friend's forehead and nearly pulled it back as if he had been burned. He nearly had though-Hoya's body temperature was naturally high as fire was a Power he held, and he needed a high temperature to maintain a good healthy Power supply.

With the added warmth of his strange fever, Dongwoo couldn't seem to be able to touch his skin without harming himself. As he wrapped one arm around the sickly boy's lower back and the other pulling his arm over his head, Dongwoo continued to trek through the jungle, not wanting to let the scientists win so easily.

"Come on, man, you were just agreeing with me about how much you hated to faint. And now you're doing it? Wimp." The man chuckled bitterly, feeling more anger surge through him at the scientists who had placed them in the artificial room. He hated how they treated them more like toys or interesting specimen that they had discovered and how they acted like all the torture and pain they were putting the Infinites through was really going to help the world heal from the effect of the Powers.

Stumbling a few steps, Dongwoo's shoulder clipped a tree, causing him to trip over a root and fall over. Hoya landed with a thump beside him, and he sighed, turning his head to face his friend.

He knew something was wrong with Hoya the minute he had woken up in the Jungle next to him. Heck, he knew something had gone wrong at some point while he was in his cell, Sungjong's and Woohyun's beside him. He could have swore he had heard yelling down the hallway, but with both his friends out like lights still, he couldn't ask them if they had heard it too or if he was simply imaging things. 

At one point, he had almost asked Hoya what was wrong, but when he saw the rage in Hoya's dark eyes, he knew now was not the time. When his best friend wanted to talk about it, he would let him know.

Dongwoo could feel his eyelids slowly dropping as he fought to keep awake. He needed to protect Hoya while he was helpless from the guards and the scientists. Hoya would do the same for him without giving it a second though. He tried hard not to doze off, but with the strangely comforting smell of the jungle's real dirt under him, and the warm thick air pressure down on his body, he felt like he was in a sauna, and that he could just sleep forever... 

The ground vibrated slightly under him, and Dongwoo forced his eyes open to look in front of him drowsily. There was one male scientist with 3 guards, all holding guns, standing before him.

"Hmmm...this is rather disappointing," the man said, though the boy was finding it hard to listen to him. The earth seemed to be calling to him, asking him to rest and go to sleep, to speak with him, to help him....

"It appears as if neither you or Mr. Lee Howon are anything special if you can't even last an hour and a half in this jungle. But then again, I did shoot a dart infected with a new disease at Mr. Howon. I was expecting him to be able to fight it off. That's too bad. Oh well, at least we figured out the disease works well, and now we can militerize it for future use on opposing countries. I'm a little sad about Mr.Howon though and what a waste of a good Infinite he was. But I'm sure if we look hard enough we'll find another Elemental Infinite." He turned away from the two laying on the ground. "You may kill Mr. Howon, but leave Mr. Dongwoo please."

He started to walk away.

Everything he said began to sluggishly register in Dongwoo's mind.

They were going to kill Howon...they were going to kill Hoya.

The earth...it was calling out to him...

He forced his head around to look at Hoya's fevered and pale face again.

They were going to kill him.

And Dongwoo couldn't do anything about it.

The earth was calling to him...

He saw them raise their guns.

He heard the click of the ammo sliding into their barrels.

He saw them point the tips at Howon's limp form.

Hoya...move...

They were going to kill him.

The earth it was calling...

He felt an intense feeling of frustration at his helplessness, fear for his best friend's life, and fury at the cold hearted scientist. He didn't know where to direct it though, as he realised he could barely move from where he lay on the ground.

So he directed it in the one place he could. He finally answered the earth, with that answering call, a whole lot of emotions as well.

Suddenly he felt as light as air, and he could breath again.

The first guard was beginning to pull his trigger.

Dongwoo's eyes widened and his face contorted.

He half lunged for the man as he yelled, "No!" Raising his hand out to stop him.

Before anyone knew what was happening, something blurred out of the ground, hitting the guard at a breath taking speed, and slamming him against a nearby tree. The other guards tried to stumble back, to shoot at what was holding their fellow co-worker down, but another one shot up from the ground in a spray of loamy earth, moving so fast that it bent their guns as it travelled straight past them. Instead, it smacked into the half turned scientist, who was trying to see what the ruckus was about, and causing him to hit the ground with a bone-breaking thud, and rolling for about another 20 feet. He didn't get up again.

The other guards yelled while running away through the trees, but it was only seconds after they disappeared from sight that there could be sounds of cracking limbs and the yells become screams of pain.

Dongwoo stopped moving, frozen in the same position as he had been in when he had called out to the originial guard. He looked around slowly, unsure of if he was going to be the next one hunted, but as he peered closer at the thing pinning the bleeding-and-most-likely-dead guard to the tree, he gasped before stumbling back.

It was a giant tree root, still damp from the moist soil it had just been in minutes ago.
 

A_A_A_A_A_A

A/N

Hmmmm...I wonder what that means...Does...Dongwoo have a new Power?! XD

It's 11:30 PM where I live, so I still have managed to update this before the day was over and before my deadline! So hah! But I'm starting my last year of high school tomorrow, so I think Imma gonna go sleep. I'll edit this chapter for mistakes and for comment replies tomorrow after I'm done with school and stuff~

 
-WhosThere13

P.S. To Wynthe: I told you I'd be stealing your idea about that Power XD You know, the one you had originally suggested for Myungsoo? Hehehe~