“Good morning, ladies,” Sehun’s voice comes over the speakers. “Make sure you are buckled in tight, because my co-pilot today is Handsome Tao and he is not happy with being woken up at this hour.”

“You ,” Tao grumbles. “Just shut up and put this thing in the air.”

Sehun laughs. “Roger that. We’ll be at the mountains in forty-five minutes.”

“If all goes well,” Baek mutters at Kyungsoo’s side.

“It’ll be fine!” Chanyeol yells. “We are the best, remember?”

Baek grins. “We are!”

XO team responds with a resounding. “One!”

A corner of Kyungsoo’s lips draws up. Then he props his chin on his chest and lowers his black cap, letting his teammates chatter lull him.
 

The change in altitude wakes Kyungsoo up. They must be reaching the mountains. He stretches his arms up and shrugs the sleep off him, before checking what XO is up to. The chatter has gone down, the others speaking in low voices between them, or simply sitting calmly in silence.

Their newest member though, isn’t that calm. Kai shifts in his seat again and again, no doubt trying to get comfortable, but the rope securing him to the plane’s seat is too tight and doesn’t afford much movement. Soo knows, because he knotted it himself while trying not to get all flustered and red at being so close to the younger man. He might’ve tightened it a bit too much. “Save your energy,” he says.

Kai pulls, grunts, and then stills. There’s a wicked pleasure in having Kai follow his command so fast. The thought shocks Kyungsoo and he looks away. His admiration for the young man who saved his life is getting out of hand. This is no time to be having those kinds of thoughts.

He turns to the side only to see Suho is frowning again, deep lines marring his pale forehead. He hadn’t been on board with treating Kai like a prisoner. But after Kai tried to escape a second and third time, there was no other way. They’d tried showing him their powers again, tried talking to him, and tried to get him to practice. But nothing had changed his mind about XO.

It was mission time and they couldn’t keep waiting for him to get a grip and behave. So, he’d bound Kai in ropes and set Luhan keep an eye on him at all times. Kyungsoo will start training him as soon as they land, by force if need be. He finds it very disappointing that the other hasn’t recognized him, but it’s no surprise. Back then he was no one; just another lowly soldier thrown into battle too early.

Of course Kai wouldn’t remember him.

“You’ll need to release me before landing, sir,” Kai says. “Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to move. Lack of blood to the limbs will do that.”

“Oh, we’re not landing,” Chen says helpfully. He’s sitting beside Kai, legs swinging back and forth like an overexcited kid.

Kai frowns. “What?”

At Kyungsoo’s right, Lay laughs. “We’re jumping off and crashing the plane!”

Kai stares at them with wide eyes before he struggles once again, but it’s futile. However, his body starts to fade in and out.

Kyungsoo sighs. “Luhan….”

But Luhan is already on it. He reaches over Chen and grasps Kai’s thigh. Touch isn’t necessary for his power to work, but when he does, the stop effect lasts longer.

The glare in Kai’s chocolate eyes is deadly. “You are all insane!”

Baek stops chatting with Yeol and turns to his side to get a good look at Kai. “No. We are geniuses!”

Chen crosses his arms and arches a brow. “Excuse me? Why are you taking credit for my and Xiumin’s plan?”

But Baek is not paying attention to Chen, he’s animatedly telling Kai the plan. “We’ll jump off near the peak and let the plane crash kilometers away. The explosion will no doubt draw the mimics and our landing area should be pretty much clear. See? Genius.”

It wasn’t exactly genius, but it was a great plan; one that General Wu would never have approved of if he’d known they planned to crash one of his precious transport planes. Kyungsoo had conveniently left that part out.

“Mimics burrow into the earth,” Kai says. “Do you really think that one little distraction will draw them all away?”

“Of course not,” Chanyeol says over Baek’s shoulder.

“That’s why he said pretty much not completely clear,” Chen says.

Kai opens his mouth, no doubt to retort something back, but it gets cut off when the plane lurches hard.

Suho’s head smacks hard against the back and he curses out loud, then blushes. He’s as foul mouthed as the rest, but it’s rare to hear him like that as he prefers to be way too proper all the time.

Lay reaches over behind Kyungsoo and brushes hi