[CONTENTID1] Nine [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

You wake up to a pounding on your door. You groan and glance at your alarm clock. 5:13 AM. Who would dare disturb your sleep at such an ungodly hour? You throw the covers over your head and pray that whoever it is, they'll leave you alone. But the knocks only increase in ferocity.

"___-ah!" A shrill voice yells from outside the door, "___, wake up! This is serious!"

You slowly remove the blanket from your face. That's Sooyoung's voice. Isn't she still sulking? Why is she talking to you again so soon?

"___-, please please wake up!"

She is semi-hysterical at this point and it alarms you more than anything she could say. A thousand thoughts of what could have gone wrong flash through your mind as you jump out of bed, blinking the sleep out of your eyes, and wrench the door open. "Sooyoung, what's wrong?"

She glances wildly into your room, the whites of her eyes flashing with fear, "___, hurry and get dressed!"

"Why, what's wrong?" You ask, even as you shove your legs into a pair of jeans.

"There's been an accident… A fire… Come on, they need you!"

Your heart slows to a stop at that, "Wh-what?" But Sooyoung ignores you and grabs you by the arm to bodily drag out of the room. She's too impatient to wait for the elevator, crammed with dozens of shrill, panicking younger girls, and instead yanks you down the staircase, running the whole way.

Your brain isn't fully functioning yet, and a million questions bubble up your throat, but you're too busy panting and trying to keep up with her brisk pace to voice them. Then, she pulls you outside and smoke overwhelms your lungs at once. You cough and blubber against the intensity of the thick, ashy air, wiping the tears from your eyes and covering your nose and mouth with both hands.

"Hurry, hurry," Sooyoung urges you, not giving you any time to recover as she pulls you across the street. The two of you turn the corner of the college dorms, and you stop in your tracks at the sight before you.

It's barely 5 AM and the sun hasn't risen yet, but the scene in front of you is brighter than daytime. Flames miles-high blaze like a corona from every inch of the high school boys' dorm. They envelope every inch of the seventeen story building, surrounding and the crumbling structure. The flames are brighter than the sun, shooting light far up into the atmosphere, and your eyes burn from oversensitivity. The heat overwhelms you at once, stealing your breath and charring your skin. You've never seen a fire this strong before, and you can't help but back away, terrified to be eaten up with the rest of the disintegrating building.

On one side of the building, a group of small water mages who you recognize from your elemental class, gather around a fire truck, controlling the jets that the heavily padded firefighters aim up at the building. The streams of water hit weak areas of the fire, making the flames die down with a hiss of smoke, but this only helps for a second before fiercer flames spring up in their place, surging towards the blackened sky with violent savagery.

None of them can conjure, you realize with a sinking sensation in your stomach. And even if they could, how could that be of any use? This is a seventeen-story building and only a powerful mage like Jin could ever hope to have any effect… Except Jin is hundreds of miles away in Busan.

"Professor Nam!" Sooyoung exclaims, pulling you over to where your helpless elemental professor stands next to the fire truck, uncharacteristically quiet as she gnaws on her fingernails.

She looks up at the sound of her name and her face melts in relief, "Oh, Sooyoung. Thank God you brought ___!"

"Professor, what happened?" You have to yell to be heard over roar of the water jets.

"___-ah! Jungkook's powers flared up in the middle of the night. We need your help!"

You turn back at the fire in confusion. Could Jungkook's powers really have caused all this destruction? You had assumed it to have been the result of a gas leak or an explosion. "Seriously? This was by him? Why aren't the firefighters evacuating the building?"

"They already have," Sooyoung explains, "All of the kids are already out," she points at a crowd of young high school boys huddled in the back as paramedics swarm them.

You frown, "But then if they're all out, why did you call me out here?"

Sooyoung and Professor Nam exchange a nervous glance. Before they can respond, the sound of your name being called out distracts your attention.

"___-ah!" Jimin screams, sprinting towards you with Taehyung and Hoseok on his heels.

You're alarmed at the sight of tears streaming down his face, "Jimin, what's wrong?"

He grabs your hand with both of his, crushing the bones in his strong grip, "Please, ___, please," he babbles incoherently, "Please save him!"

"What are you talking about?" You wince, attempting to console the boy by rubbing his shoulder, but that only makes him cry harder.

"Jungkook's still in there," T