It was all happening too fast for Hongbin to even realize. One moment they were about to dance and the next they were literally being wrecked by a North Korean soldier who appeared out of nowhere whilst also summoning some sort of beastly savage that was causing chaos. Then the next thing he knew Hyuk was protecting him and then that appeared. And by that he meant the icy blue dragon that came from the sky causing the climate to get a little chilly while it even started to snow some. "Hyuk..." Was all Hongbin could manage to utter when he was in absolute awe of Hongbin's elemental. 

The soldier sounded exasperated as he gestured forwards, commanding the behemoth he was riding on to lunge forwards against Hyuk's dragon as both Hyuk and his dragon stood their ground. Glacies placed his hand in front of him as his blue icy aura shined brighter. 

"Glacies crush him!" He shouted once more as his dragon roared swiping it's claw, colliding with the behemoth and managed to knock it back just a bit. The behemoth was just a little bigger than Hyuk's dragon but the ether readings coming from Hyuk's elemental was off the charts. Everyone started to cheer on Hyuk since they were all still disabled from the anti-magic field which didn't seem to affect elementals. 

"Hyuk! You can do it!" Hongbin felt himself shouting as a smile formed on his face, one that wouldn't disappear as he weakly tried to pump his fists. 

Hyuk instantly smiled as he punched the air. "Alright! Glacies, enough playing around, let's kick his !" Hyuk shouted as the dragon roared along with him as it flapped it's wings and took flight, the cold chill brushing against Hongbin's gentle skin as he watched the dragon majestically take flight in the middle of the ballroom. A magic circle appeared on it's mouth as it shot a stream of white icy blue, a beam of pure glacial energy as it blasted the behemoth and the North Korean soldier at point blank. Whatever screams from either were absolutely stifled due to the piercing cracks and other sounds of ice freezing something up. 

When the dragon stopped channeling his ice breath against the behemoth all that was left was a crystal like sculpture of the behemoth and the NK soldier to which the dragon quickly flew in and smacked down it's claw, shattering the sculpture into tiny bits. 

Silence overtook the room as suddenly everyone was cheering and the anti-magic field dispersed and deactivated. Hongbin felt strength slowly returning to his body as he quickly shot up. He brushed some dust off of his suit and looked at Hyuk, plastering on a huge smile as he ran towards him and hugged him.

"Hyuk! You did it, you're our hero!" Hongbin shouted as Hyuk smiled weakly. Hyuk's Ice Dragon bowed almost as it soon disntegrated into ether like bits that dissipated into the air. 

"I did didn't I?" Hyuk boasted with a handsome smile on his charming features, to which Hongbin blushed but instead.

Hyuk seemed to have had the intention to kiss Hongbin, at least, he did before he started to stagger a bit and soon lost feeling in his legs. "Hyuk?" Hongbin asked as Hyuk's eyes rolled back and he soon collapsed into Hongbin's arms, causing them to fall to the ground. His eyes widened, worried over the younger boy but he realized that he just fainted. 

"Impressive, didn't think someone so young could surmount such emotion to summon an elemental at such an early stage." A deep voice behind him spoke as Hongbin cocked his head and realized it was Marshall Hyoshin. Hongbin blinked as he was in the presence of his idol and tried his best to bow but he was a little stuck with Hyuk collaped all over him as the Marshall laughed. "Don't worry Private, formalities aren't a priority right now. However, if this event has taught anybody anything, it's that the ability to summon elementals seems to be beneficial in terms of fights of this nature... Just know not to abuse their power pup, elementals will eat up your ether in a snap." Hyoshin said in passing as he walked away as Hongbin was a little confused by what he meant. 

The Marshall walked to the center of the room and raised his arms and his voice. "Everyone, I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused but please return to your dorms. Faculty if present please meet me in my office, we have lots to discuss." He said as everyone started to shuffle out. Hongbin sighed as he found himself being surrounded by his suitemates, Leo, N, Ravi, and Ken. 

"Come on dum dum, we gotta get baby Hyukkie to bed. He deserves it after all." Ken exclaimed brightly.

"Yeah, that he does." Hongbin said with a smile. 

----

It was the next day, Hongbin had brought Hyuk back to the dorms later the night before. Hongbin could barely sleep with everything that happened in one night. From a formal ball to an ambush played by North Korea, unsuspecting. It was nervewracking to say the least. All this combined with the whole concept of Elementals and Evoking and all this business. Hyuk was abled to evoke his elemental. It was beautiful, impressive and was absolutely awesome. What the Marshall said however caused Hongbin to feel somewhat uneasy. Something about being wary of Elementals as they would... 'eat up one's ether'... he didn't know what that meant...

"Hyung...?" Hongbin heard a weak voice coming from the other side of the room. It was Hyuk's. He watched the younger boy toss and turn on his bed as he groaned in pain and sighed heavily. 

"How you feeling Hyuk?" Hongbin asked with concern as Hyuk chuckled weakly in response. 

"Fantastic... I feel great... you?" Hyuk asked as his eyes traced back to Hongbin's. He still couldn't get over his newly died black hair. Hyuk said that he wanted to make himself look more manlier and honestly, he did the job. The darker hair color added more maturity and colored most of his boyish charm; not to mention that it brought out more of Hyuk's absolutely masculine features. 

"Good, now that you're okay." Hongbin said bashfully with a smile as Hyuk smiled back as much as he could. 

"I... I summoned a thingie... just like you did huh?" Hyuk asked and Hongbin nodded in response. "Did it talk to you in your head too? When you summoned yours for the first time...?" Hyuk asked as Hongbin nodded again. "The voice... it sounded really familiar for some reason...." 

"Hmm?" Hongbin interjected. He didn't know what Hyuk meant but now that he mentioned it, when he heard Ignis' voice from before, out of all those times before, the voice was warm, familiar... and Hongbin couldn't really put his thumb on why it was so. 

"It's probably nothing..." Hyuk sighed as he pressed his head back on the pillow of his bed. 

Suddenly an alert chimed on Hongbin's holo-phone, causing him to groan in unease as he stretched out his muscular arm to grab the device. He the holographic display as it shot out an image of Ken. 

"Wake up sleepyheads and get dressed in your SWORD uniforms! Marshall's got a job for us and it's important!" Ken shouted as suddenly N appeared behind Ken and pushed him aside so now all Hongbin could see was N. "Hurry up privates, we don't want to keep him waiting!" N nagged as he shut off the call. Hongbin chuckled as Hyuk from across the room looked at Hongbin funnily. 

"What's so funny?" He asked curiously as Hongbin looked off to the side and responded lowly. 

"It's just that... we just never seem to catch a break do we?" 

----

Hongbin and Hyuk got out of bed and quickly slipped into their SWORD gear and made their ways to the Marshall's office. When they did, it seemed that the rest of VIXX was waiting outside the door for the two youngest members. Ravi was shadow boxing as Ken was fiddling around with his holo-phone. N on the other hand was waiting there in front of the door, arms crossed, weight pressed on one side of his body in an almost sassy like manner as he was tapping his feet impatiently. Leo instead was sitting off to himself, silently reading a book until his eyes immediately met with Hongbin as the two entered. 

"There you guys are!" N exclaimed with a sigh as he shook his head. "Hyuk, it's good to see you up and at 'em, sorry for the harshness but when the Marshall calls it's just-" N tried to explain himself when suddenly the door opened and all that could be heard was a deep voice flowing out. 

"VIXX, enter." was all that was said as the six of them quickly became composed and made their way inside of his office. Almost immediately they got into formation and lined up next to one another saluting. 

"VIXX reporting for duty, sir." N saluted, clicked into leader mode. It was funny how naggy he can seem at times but then become an absolutely composed leader. 

"At ease boys." Hyoshin said softly as the six of them eased in their spots. The Marshall was sitting in his desk, hands clasped together and fingers intertwined as he leaned in slowly. "I've called you all here today for various reasons. One, it's clear that last night's ball was a disaster and the ambush was premeditated and while I do not know how the soldier was able to teleport in here in the first place, it's not safe for you six to be here." He briefed as N quickly spoke up. 

"Permission to speak, sir?" N asked as Hyoshin nodded. "Why?" He asked simply as the marshall chuckled. 

"You six are this academy's last hope. Despite the two of you just barely starting your year you have already proven your mettle and match up with the rest of your teammates in terms of skill and combat... and of course the fact that both of you have already awoken your ability to evoke is even more impressive...." He said as he took a short break before continuing. "And that, brings me to my next point." He said as he stood from his chair and pressed on a device that brought up a holographic display of a map of sorts. 

"I'm deploying you six to another academy that's quite far from here. There, there are many Evoker's, and I know a certain someone who can help all of you master your Elementals there. It's clear that if we want to get a head start and recover against this ambush then Elementals are our answer, as this anti-magic field technology that North Korea is developing seems to not affect those who can Evoke." 

Hongbin blinked as the map closed in on an academy located near Seoul, one of the most highest ranked war academy's despite several issues surrounding it. "I'm sending you to SM Academy,"

SM, it stood for Soldier's Museum, a term that is used due to the fact that many impressive and memorable soldiers graduated from that said school. It was more unique in the sense that it had students of all genders along with students who are not even Korean.

As reknowned as it was, Hongbin didn't desire to go to the school due to it's very elitist environment and plus, he desired to attend Oceanside since Park Hyoshin was his idol. Not to mention that he felt a strange inclination towards the various Jellyfishes that inhabit the nearby waters. This isn't including the various controversies surrounding the school, such as rumors of mistreatment of students of different races.

Recently there were two cases surrounding a Chinese student wishing to leave the school due to it's measures and apparently some drama with one of their other students leaving a squad that was once nine, a famous squad that even Hongbin was aware of. 

Hongbin's thoughts were broken when the Marshall continued his briefing, "There, they have the means to cultivate you to master your Elementals to the point where you can control them at will and better yet, not allow yourselves to succumb to your Elemental." There it was again. This ominous warning about Elementals. Hongbin wanted to speak, and suddenly he found the courage to ask so. 

"Permission to speak Marshall?" Hongbin asked as he nodded to his request. "You said this before and you say it again, but... what do you mean by all of this business with not letting our Elemental control us or whatever... It sounds very... scary, to say the least..." 

Hyoshin sighed as he nodded. "As some of you already know, evoking an Elemental is an impressive feat. Sustaining it and keeping it in this realm however will cause your ether to sap at an exponential rate... unless you master your Elemental's untamed ability. In the beginning, your Elemental is untamed and will use bursts of power that you cannot control. You want to control this power as you might cause collaterol damage not only on others but yourself, as demonstrated when the two of you awoke for the first time, both of you passed out afterwards after being sapped of copious amounts of ether in a short given time. We don't want that to happen, especially out in the battlefield, which is why I'm sending you to SM. Understood?" 

"Understood sir." They all said in unison almost. It honestly made sense now and sounded less ominous than Hyoshin made it sound. However, Hongbin couldn't help but to feel as though there was something that the Marshall wasn't telling them. 

"Alright then, here are your objectives. You are to travel to SM Academy and convene with some members from one of SM's recent SWORD operatives. I believe their name is EXO, or EXpert Operatives." Hongbin has definitely heard of EXO, a group of talented boys, twelve of them, at least at first. Unfortunately there was some dispute, the one that Hongbin mentioned earlier and two members left, leaving them with ten only.

"A boastful name from a boastful school no less but that's not the point." The Marshall continued,  "From there they will guide you to another group that were once students just like yourselves but are now a tactical team. They're smaller in number but they're known as tactical geniuses, especially when it comes to Evoking. I'm sure you boys are familiar with SHINee." Them, Hongbin has definitely heard about. The name rung in the room and he could feel excitement radiating, and it wasn't just coming from himself either. SHINee started off small, like any other student agents but are now impressive SWORD agents who fight on the frontlines on the war. 

"I'm sure you boys weren't aware that they are an all Evoker team, just like you six will soon be." A slight jab, afterall, not all of VIXX were Evokers just yet. Still, Hongbin had no idea that all of SHINee consisted of Evokers, that just made the team even cooler than they already were. "They will help train you to control your ether pool and how much your Elementals will use. And to the two who haven't awoken them just yet... well... there are tests provided that will make sure you will summon them, don't you worry." 

"Joy." Hongbin heard Ravi uttering under his breath, causing him to chuckle just a little. Ken seemed a little nervous but he was still composed. 

"Once you have completed your training, you will remain at SM until you receive further instruction, understood? In the meantime, us here at Oceanside will look into our breach in security and discover the reasonf or the ambush... Now, any further questions?" The Marshall asked as silence filled the room. "Good, now get ready boys. It's going to be a long airship ride to SM. I wish you luck and safety... Dismissed!" He said as the six of them saluted and shuffled out of the office. 

"Alright team, meet at the Parking Lot in 1325 hours." N ordered as everyone nodded. When they all went down the elevator, everyone shuffled around and dispersed, probably preparing themselves with what they need for the days they were going to train at SM. Suddenly however, before Hongbin was going to join the rest of them racing back towards their dorm, he felt something grab his wrist and pull him back. 

"Wait." He heard a light pitched voice that could only belong to Leo as Hongbin was now turned, face to face to the taller and older boy. 

"Uh... what's up Leo?" Hongbin asked bashfully as he was blushing from the little space remaining between the two. It didn't help that Leo was filled with immense handsomeness that it hurt, combined with the hot dream he had of him ages ago, he just wasn't healthy for Hongbin's heart or body in general to handle. 

"I.. wanted to apologize for not being to help during the ball... I felt weak and I'm sorry..." Leo said, apologetically as Hongbin frowned despite Leo's blank features. 

"It's not your obligation to help me or save me when I need your help Leo, it's okay, seriously." Hongbin said trying to comfort him as suddenly, the smallest smile tugged at the ends of Leo's mouth, so small and subtle it was barely a half smile, or even a quarter smile. 

"It's not an obligation yes, but it's my want. I want to protect you, I can promise... you that." Leo assured as he placed his finger and thumb on Hongbin's chin, causing Hongbin to stiffen up as Leo started leaning his face in. Hongbin blushed, surprised that Leo would commit such an action in front of every bystander. 

Expecting Leo to kiss him right on the lips, he suddenly felt however Leo pulling Hongbin's face down. He suddenly felt soft lips against his forehead and realized that Leo instead opted for a sweeter, forehead kiss. 

Leo gently peeled himself away from Hongbin and cleared his throat. "I'll... see you back at the dorm." He said softly as he walked past Hongbin who was blushing like a cherry tomato. 

"Wha... but... okay I guess..." Hongbin stuttered in place as he sighed heavily, running his fingers through his locks. "Why the hell is everyone all up on me?" He sighed angrily as he made his way back to the dorm as well to pack things up. After all, it was a long trip to SM, and who knows how long they were going to stay there to master their skills in Evoking. Hongbin only hoped that they could get it done quickly so that he himself, could be put to use more quickly. That's all Hongbin cares about after all. 

A/N: Heeeey guys did you miss me!? :D Sorry I've been gone for awhile, College has been super fun and- wait a minute, I ALREADY SAID THIS LAST TIME! Can I just please apologize for disappearing and such. College has truly been hell and heaven all in equal measure and I just haven't had the muse to write. However, finals are done, quarter is done and it's Christmas ing break. I hate leaving y'all hanging and I know I promised you guys a chapter. I hope you guys enjoy and look forward to the next chapter! Sorry this chapter was just a transition chapter but honestly I'm excited for the future of this fic, especially now that I'm obviously throwing in more KPOP cameos and expanding the universe. Until then, stay frosty and awesometastic~!